Bravo Boheme!
The pundits are right to say that the ideal choice for a first experience of the occasionally daunting art of opera is La Boheme. If opera-going has not been part of your Louisville arts diet, this is the time to change. La Boheme is an opera whose freshness and melodic verve delight at every level of appreciation, and even the most jaded aficionado welcomes the chance to see and hear it. Some of us remember when it was fashionable to sneer at Puccini as a tunesmith whose saccharine plots manipulated the emotions. Wisdom now has it that he was one of the supreme theatrical technicians, who happened also to have a superb
melodic gift.
Rudolf Bing, the famously Waspish general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, used to say that selling opera was as easy as ABC: Aida, Boheme and Carmen. Puccini’s melodic masterpiece was probably the 20th century’s operatic bestseller, as Faust was in the 19th century. It is therefore a good choice to get the cash registers ringing at a time when marketing the product has become the greatest challenge for arts administrators worldwide. All good reasons to welcome the news that La Boheme opens the Kentucky Opera season at the Whitney Oct. 13 and 15. The number to call for tickets is 584-7777, or log onto kyopera.org to buy online.
Baroque but Fixed
The Louisville Bach Society’s name has always seemed to me a turnoff. As much as one admires the achievement and stamina of Johann Sebastian — a catalog of 1,127 major works and time between to sire 17 children — an undiluted diet of the old master is a dull prospect. So it is a good thing that other composers are featured in the work of this stalwart group, which always seems to buck the tr/files/storyimages/of declining audiences by producing interesting fare. An example of their creative program planning is on view at St. Boniface Catholic Church, 531 E. Liberty, on Sunday, Oct. 8, at 3 p.m., when the composers will range from Handel through Bach to Brahms. Julianne Baird is a distinguished and much-recorded soprano and an expert on baroque music, so her return is cause for cheer, as is the promise of the sort of double-choruses — Bach and Brahms — that set the pulse racing. The number to call is 585-BACH.
Hopped Up Art
I have known Liz Watkins’ work for years, so news of a coming show offers another great incentive to relish what many consider the single most enjoyable event in Louisville’s monthly arts calendar — the First Friday Galley Hop. Watkins and her fri/files/storyimages/Jennifer Deamer have paired up to present a show entitled ". . . where best friends part," which reflects their different approaches to their art. Watkins will show her large-format figure drawings in pastel, including her signature nudes as well as new portraits of friends. Deamer’s work will include collages of photo transparencies, drawings and Plexiglas that, she says, challenge viewers to reconsider how they look at reality. The Gallery Hop (featured on page 52) is Oct. 6 and the opening of the show is 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Zephyr Gallery, 610 E. Market St. If you have not done the Gallery Hop you really need to. It is one of those places/events that have a truly European feel with artists, public, buyers and gawkers milling about, glass in hand, enjoying the scene, doing nothing in particular and doing it very well. Great fun.
Final Thought
Waiters t/files/storyimages/to use baby-talk when addressing the elderly and infirm in the mistaken belief that physical and mental infirmity go together. The Public Radio Partnership apparently takes the same view of opera fans, as its Saturday afternoon broadcasts are accompanied by commentary couched in the cutsie-pooh tones of a nursery teacher addressing her slower charges. It is jarring to hear tales of murder, rapine, lust and betrayal related in tones that make Mr. Rogers sound like Mr. T. As Dorothy Parker, under the pseudonym of Constant Reader, wrote in her review of Winnie the Pooh: "Tonstant weader fwew up!" Tonstant listener ditto.
