Category: Culture

Sarasota Scene: Theater, Music, & Talk

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It was a week that showcased some of the best in culture and learning Sarasota has to offer. The play was powerful and timely, the orchestra’s performance moving, and the lecture, food for the mind.

WOMAN POWER & SCIENCE

Silent Sky at Asolo Repertory Theatre

Silent Sky cast, Henrietta at right (Your Observer)

Silent Sky by playwright Lauren Gunderson is a woman-centered work about astronomer Henrietta Leavitt.  A Harvard graduate, Henrietta, was hired as a computer in the Harvard Observatory in 1900 working under the direction of Professor Edward Pickering.  She and Annie Cannon and Williamina Fleming, her colleagues, studied and mapped star plates, but were not allowed to work on the actual telescope.  Scientist Peter Shaw made rounds to check up on them.

Henrietta had a bold spirit and a creative mind and saw stars and patterns that eluded others.  This is a marvelous play about women:  the three female scientists and Margaret, Henrietta’s composer sister, and the challenges and conflicts they faced as women.  Highly recommended!  The play runs through March 5.

ASTOUNDING MUSICIANSHIP

Sarasota Orchestra, A Romantic Affair

Pianist Tsujii (Sarasota Orchestra)

The Sarasota Orchestra is in another transition year after the untimely death of the newly hired music director, Branwell Tovey, last July.  That means this season brings another string of guest conductors, selected to deliver the programs that Tovey had developed.  This most recent concert was simply superb!  

Conductor Peter Oundjian, in his second appearance, was warm in his opening remarks and sprightly on the podium.  We heard a spellbinding performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor with Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii and a rousing rendition of Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in C Minor.  This orchestra was at its very best!

EUROPEAN POLITICS

Macron’s Europe – or Is it Putin’s? (Global Issues series, Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning)

Author Walker (Facebook)

Martin Walker had a long career as a journalist for The Guardian and UPI and then a second career working with various think tanks.  His talk about the challenges faced by France and the European Union in dealing with Russia was informative and insightful.  The Chief Penguin and I found it worthwhile but could have done without his opening humor.  

There was a large crowd in attendance, probably partly due to Walker’s third career as the author of the Chief Bruno mysteries set in France.  It’s also worth noting that he has been a SILL speaker for thirty years.

CURRENT READING

The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel by Kati Marton

More about this accessible biography in a future blog post

Note: Header photo is of the bell tower at New College of Florida ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Potpourri: From Majesty to Travesty

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MAJESTY AND MIGHT

Funeral of Prince Philip

Despite the restrictions of the pandemic, yesterday’s funeral for Prince Philip at Windsor Castle in St. George’s Chapel was replete with majesty and the military.  Outside, some 800 members of various branches of the military paraded, saluted, and honored the steadfast Duke of Edinburgh.  Queen Elizabeth entered the chapel alone ahead of the royal procession.  Swathed in black and masked, she was diminutive in sadness.  

The royal procession into the chapel was small.  In a break from tradition, Princess Anne was the only woman, joining her three brothers, nephews William and Harry, and her son Peter.  The dean of the chapel and the archbishop of Canterbury read scripture and led prayers, a choir of four lent their robust voices to lovely music, while bagpipes and bugles sounded the final notes.  It was a beautifully simple service and a fitting tribute to a man who served and loved country, queen and consort for 73 years.

ENTERTAINMENT AND ENLIGHTENMENT

Camelot (streaming from Asolo Rep)

Britney Coleman as Guenevere (broadwayworld.com)

Recently, I was dismayed to learn that all the performances of the outdoor production of Camelot were sold out.  Intrigued by the idea of a concert version of this famous musical, I bought streaming access for $25.  The Chief Penguin and I were completely captivated.  

In true Asolo style, not only were the acting and singing marvelous and fun, but the staging was so creative.  Performing literally on the building’s steps and landing, the small cast carried off creative choreography backed by clever changing backdrops.  It was as good as it would have been had we been there in person.  Maybe even better, since we saw everything close up!

Colson Whitehead in Conversation

(ew.com)

Thanks to my friend Sue, several of us were able to view a presentation by author Colson Whitehead, part of a series by Guildford College.  In a soliloquy with nary a breath taken, Whitehead unspooled the thread of his literary career:  innovative approaches to fiction, multiple genres, and back-to-back Pulitzers Prizes for his two latest novels. The novels are The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys. It was an engaging program as he detailed where he gets his ideas and how he prepared to write The Nickel Boys.  

My local book group will be discussing The Nickel Boys next week.  It’s a chilling piece of historical fiction based on a brutal reform school in the Florida Panhandle, Dozier School for Boys.  It abused and tortured many boys and yet existed for more than a hundred years.  

CULINARY CORNER

Dry Dock Waterfront Grill

Continuing my al fresco dining, a friend and I had lunch the other day at Dry Dock on Longboat Key.  This popular restaurant has a lovely location on Sarasota Bay with spacious patio seating.  The menu has choices of seafood, salads, and sandwiches. along with pasta with a variety of sauces.  We enjoyed our rather conventional choices:  a BLT and the chicken and mozzarella sandwich on focaccia.  The accompanying cole slaw was also very good.  If you plan to go, do make a reservation, unless you don’t mind waiting to be seated!

Monotones II, Sarasota Ballet

Culture: High, Low & In-between

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We are mostly at home these days with just the regular outings to the supermarket, cheese shop, and this week Costco.  After many months of this, plus lots of reading and TV viewing, we are now beginning to sign up for and watch cultural offerings online.  A few weeks ago, it was two interviews in The New Yorker Festival. This week, the ballet.

ONLINE CULTURE

Sarasota Ballet:  Digital Program 1

Rather than in-person performances, the Sarasota Ballet is recording and offering short programs for online streaming.  These feature only a few dancers at a time and were made with all of the CDC guidelines in place.  The “ticket,” i.e. online link, for this show was $35 and arrived via e-mail.  My technologically adept Chief Penguin was able to hook up my iPad to throw the image up on our large TV screen.  

This year the ballet is celebrating its 30th anniversary.  They are known for presenting the works of noted British choreographer, Sir Frederick Ashton, and have performed at the Kennedy Center in D.C, and the Joyce Theater in New York.  Just an hour long, this program concentrates on Ashton’s wide variety of styles.  There were seven short pieces ranging from an ethereal threesome, all in white, in Erik Satie’s Monotones II, to scenes from Meditation from Thais (music by Offenbach),  The Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky), and the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet.  It ended with a lively series of ballroom dances in Façade (composer William Walton).  

We had 5 days in which to view the program and ended up enjoying it with our pre-dinner wine and munchies.  The video quality was excellent and overall it was an enjoyable experience, one I’m sure we’ll repeat!

DRAMA ON THE SCREEN

VILLAGE GOSSIP
The Trouble with Maggie Cole (PBS)
Jill, Maggie, Peter (radiotimes.com)

Set in the fictional village of Thurlbury and filmed in Devon and Cornwall, Thurlbury looks picturesque and idyllic.  But, when Maggie gives a radio interview and unloads all she knows about the trials and tribulations of her neighbors, it goes viral.  And suddenly, she’s persona non grata.  

Self-important and nosy, Maggie runs the small gift shop at the historic keep and dubs herself a local historian.  Her long-suffering and ever supportive husband Peter is the headmaster at the local school.  Her son Jamie is in real estate and his wife Becka is forthright and, in the most amusing way, takes no guff from her mother-in-law.  Maggie’s best friend Jill invites a noted mystery author to her class at school.

When the townspeople’s secrets end up in the local paper, Maggie sets out on a mission to apologize to everyone she has offended.  The Trouble with Maggie Cole is a 6-part series that is alternately funny, wacky, and serious.  It is a British series, and something about it seemed to me so very British in its approach.  You might not love Maggie, but it is intriguing to watch how secrets revealed lead to both positive and negative outcomes.  

FORBIDDEN LOVE 

Secreto Bien Guardado (Netflix)

One viewer called this a fairy tale; I might say it’s a bonbon.  The times are serious, but the story is romantic.  Seventeen-year-old Amalia, vacationing with her parents and sisters in Argentina in 1940, meets Martin, a young German lawyer.  Both are immediately attracted to each other.  She is Jewish and he’s a Nazi and complications follow.  Over eight episodes (all less than 30 minutes) and several years, we follow the obstacles they face and their respective fates.  I found this an absorbing diversion for my treadmill watching.

CRIMES ON THE WATER 

High Seas (Alta Mar) (Netflix)
Carolina, Eva, Nicholas, captain (silverpetticoatreview.com)

There’s a profusion of Spanish series now on Netflix, some of them Netflix originals.  High Seas is a stylish production set on a cruise ship headed from Spain to Brazil in the late 1940’s.  Fernando, part owner of the ship and his fiancée, Carolina, and her sister Eva, a budding author, are all sailing.  Carolina’s wedding is to take place during the voyage. She is focused on that, but Eva is more interested in solving the mysteries.  

Also on board are their Uncle Petra; Luisa, a stowaway; Fernando’s sister Natalia and her husband; and Clara, a beautiful lounge singer.  Captain Aguirre is on his last voyage and deeply mourning the death of his wife. First Officer Nicholas is handsome and more like a son than staff to the captain.  The ship is luxurious, but there are troubled waters ahead with murders, disappearances, and storms to be navigated.  

Like a soap opera at times, but with plenty of puzzles, it is never dull!  There are three seasons and I have just completed Season 1.

Note: Header image is of Sarasota Ballet dancers in Monotones II from ft.com

Tidy Tidbits: Diversions

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TO GO OR NOT TO GO?

This was the week that was and that was the question.  To go, or not to go.  So, this week we went.  We went to see a play and the theater was about two-thirds full.  Then we debated going to our regular orchestra concert with friends and decided to just do it.  It was a wonderful concert (more about that later), and we were pleased that there were empty seats on either side of us and empty ones in front.  Overall, the hall was only about a third full, and in the lobby, folks were standing farther apart than usual and there just weren’t as many people.  The rest room was somewhat empty, but I noted that every woman took longer to wash her hands, practicing thorough scrubbing and at least two rounds of “Happy Birthday.”

CULTURE COMMENTS

(source: Sarastomagazine.com)

The play, Into the Breeches!, takes place in 1942 and involves a group of local women putting on Shakespeare’s Henry plays while their men are off at war.  The women play the men’s roles in this comedy, and there is one hilarious scene where they practice their manly walks with appropriate appendages.  Overall, I found it enjoyable, but not my favorite. There are some more serious moments around the issues of race and sexual orientation which give it punch.   Sadly, for our local audience, the remainder of the performances have been cancelled.

The Sarasota Orchestra is hosting eight guest conductors this season as part of its recruitment process for a new music director.  Friends and I went to a morning interview and concert preview with Keith Lockhart, conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, and then to the concert that evening.  Titled “Beethoven and Bartok,” it included Beethoven’s lovely fourth piano concerto along with Bartok’s last work, Concerto for Orchestra, considered by many to be his best one.  Despite the small audience, the orchestra’s playing was bright and energetic and Lockhart a fluid conductor whose remarks to the audience before the Bartok added to the richness of the experience.  Alas, that was the only performance; the Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances have all been cancelled.

COCOONING

With COVID-19 looming large, our area, like so many, is closing down.  Museums, schools, theaters, and libraries are all shutting their doors and cancelling events for the next several weeks at least.  We cancelled a trip to Pennsylvania and are monitoring the situation regarding both domestic and international travel in the months ahead.  So, what to do?

I think many of us will be reading more, watching more on our home screens, and walking.  Here, we have dog walkers, those who saunter, those who power walk, and a few runners.  If I am out on the boulevard, I have a very good chance of encountering one or more of my neighbors for chit-chat.  That’s a good thing and most welcome. 

CURRENT READING

These are both books in progress. I will finish the mystery this weekend.  Both relate to Ireland.

The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan

This is a crime novel set in Galway, Ireland and is the first by this author.  A young man dies by his own hand, or so it seems.  Detective Cormac Reilly is assigned to a 20-year old cold case that is connected to the current possible murder. He was the rookie detective on the old case and met the young man who just died, Jack, when he was five years old. The characters are intriguing and I’m curious to know how Jack’s girlfriend, Aisling, and his long-lost sister, Maude, are interconnected with the events of twenty years ago.  McTiernan’s website states that this book has been optioned for TV and that she has written two other novels with this detective.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

I have just begun this nonfiction work which was on several 10 best lists last year.  It’s about The Troubles and one reviewer said it read like a novel.  So far, it’s dense with detail, but I will get back to it once I complete the mystery above.

Note: Keefe photo from newyorker.com Cover photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)