MARK AUERBACH
Springfield Symphony: February Wow Factor
The upcoming Springfield Symphony Orchestra concert on February 27 is being marketed as a Black History Month Celebration, but it’s really a programming coup by Maestro Kevin Rhodes, who has developed an evening of classical, jazz, Broadway and more that should appeal to the classical music lovers, the pops audience, and those who have never ventured into Symphony Hall for a Springfield Symphony Orchestra concert before.
With Rhodes on the podium, The Springfield Symphony Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, plus guest soloists, perform music from The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, with its score equally at home in the opera house, on the Broadway stage, and in clubs–featuring standards like “Summertime”, “Bess, You Is My Woman”, “It Ain’t Necessarily So”, and “I Got Plenty of Nuthin”. This is a “wow” on any bill of fare.
Avery Brooks guest stars with the Springfield Symphony
Avery Brooks, best known for his recurring role as “Hawk” in the Boston-based TV series Spenser For Hire and its spin-off, A Man Called Hawk, narrates Joseph Schwantner’s New Morning for the World, composed in 1982, and premiered the following year on Martin Luther King’s birthday at the Kennedy Center. It features some of Dr. King’s most famous words. Back in April, 1985, The Springfield Symphony Orchestra performed Anthony Davis’ opera X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X., and Brooks played the lead.
Duke Ellington and Alvin Ailey were commissioned to create a new work for American Ballet Theatre, and The River premiered in 1970, and later joined the repertory of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The Springfield Symphony performs excerpts from Ellington’s score, which was featured in the famous ballet movie The Turning Point, with Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Rounding out the program is Aaron Copland’s Fanfare For The Common Man.
This program, showcasing American music, is probably the most innovative of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s current season, and with over 100 musicians onstage, ought to be, in Hollywood terms, a blockbuster.
For details: 413-733-2291 or www.springfieldsymphony.org.
Kristin Wold stages Jane Austen at CRT
Of Note
Darko Tresnjak, Hartford Stage Artistic Director currently prepping Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet for the stage, will stage Verdi’s Macbeth, which opens the Los Angeles Opera 2016-17 season in September. Placido Domingo sings the title role, James Conlon conducts, and for opera lovers, it’s a pretty stunning production. For details: http://www.laopera.org/season/16-17-season/macbeth/
Larry Kramer has rescheduled his Mark Twain House reading and booksigning to April 16 at 7 p.m. in the Lincoln Financial Services Auditorium at The Mark Twain House & Museum. Kramer is the playwright (The Normal Heart), author, and activist. He co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) and ACT-UP. For details: 860-247-0998 or www.marktwainhouse.org.
William Baczek Fine Arts in Northampton is celebrating its 20th Anniversary with a group exhibition of past, present and future artists through March 12. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, photographs and sculpture from a diverse group of artists, including Scott Prior, Mallory Lake, Robert Sweeney, Larry Preston, and Nanette Vonnegut will all be exhibiting new work For details: 413-587-9880 or http://www.wbfinearts.com/
Wilson Quartet
Keep in Mind…
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen’s powerful novel, gets a stage adaptation by Joseph Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan at The Connecticut Repertory Theatre on February 25 through March 6 at the Harriet S. Jorgenson Theatre on the UConn campus in Storrs. Kristin Wold, a UConn faculty member, member of Shakespeare and Company, and former member of Springfield’s StageWest, directs. For details: 860-486 2113 or www.crt.uconn.edu
Creole Carnival brings Haitian songstress Emeline Michel Rio’s innovative samba masters Casuarina, and Jamaica’s one-stringed guitar virtuoso, Brushy One-String to the UMass Fine Arts Center Concert Hall on February 27. Emeline Michel combines traditional Haitian rhythms and acoustic jazz with social, political and inspirational messages. As a performer, she has graced some of the most respected stages in Europe, and North and South America, and her ten albums have catapulted her to international acclaim. For details: 413-545-2511, 800-999-UMASS or www.fineartscenter.com
The Matt Wilson Quartet performs at UMass Bezanson Hall on February 25, as part of the Magic Triangle Jazz Series. The Quartet includes: Jeff Lederer, reeds, Kirk Knuffke, cornet and Chris Lightcap, bass. The New York Times calls the group, “One of the best working bands in New York City.” For details: 413-545-2511, 800-999-UMASS or www.fineartscenter.com
Richard Marx plays Pittsfield’s Colonial Theatre
Richard Marx, Grammy Award-winning pop/rock singer, songwriter and musician, plays The Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, on February 19, under the auspices of The Berkshire Theatre Group. This event is part of the 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival. For details: 413-997-4444. or www.berkshiretheatregroup.org.
Mark Twain’s Mysterious 44, a new opera from Hartford Opera Theater, gets its world premiere at the The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, on February 26-27. This production is an ultra-modern take on a fiendishly old tale! The Mysterious Stranger is the final novel attempted by the Mark Twain. He worked on it periodically from 1897 through 1908. The body of work is a serious social commentary by Twain addressing his ideas of the Moral Sense and the “damned human race”. Twain wrote multiple versions of the story; each is unfinished and involves a supernatural character called “No. 44” For details: 860- 247-0998 or www,MarkTwainHouse.org
Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.
