DC REVIEW: Delectable Appetizers in Les Indes Galantes (Opera Lafayette) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - June 2, 2017July 5, 2017 The Opera Lafayette Orchestra. Ryan Brown leads with his violin (standing, center). Sketch by Basil Considine. The Twin Cities opera scene is blessed with several opera companies whose specialties range from the popular canon to new repertoire to site-specific and unusual spectacle. If your tastes run to Baroque operas, however, your odds of
FEATURE: Trump’s Proposed NEA Cuts and the Legacy of Piss Christ Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre Visual Arts by Basil Considine - March 19, 2017July 11, 2017 Nikolay Petrovich Lomtev's Girolamo Savonarola preaching in Florence. Father Savonarola's incendiary critique of luxury led to the infamous Bonfires of the Vanities, the largest of which on Feb. 7, 1492 including the burning of several paintings by Renaissance masters. Among other achievements, Savonarola successfully advocated for laws banning sodomy and declared that
REVIEW: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Washington, DC: UrbanArias) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - October 19, 2016July 11, 2017 On Saturday in Washington, DC, UrbanArias opened The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. It was a splendid production of an opera that is unfortunately unlikely to play in the Twin Cities any time soon. Note: This review has been updated to correct the name of the conductor. One of
FEATURE: The Smithsonian’s New African American History Museum Arts Lifestyle Visual Arts by Basil Considine - October 17, 2016July 11, 2017 The hottest property in Washington, DC took more than a century to go from dream to reality. After much protestation, arguments over its relevance, and arguments over its funding (something of a Washington, DC pastime), the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture is a blockbuster hit