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Don John continues at Spoleto through June 7
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Loyalties to family and the yearnings of the heart are far too heavily weighted against Louise's family. Nor does the oppressiveness of home disappear when Act 2 transports us to an outdoor scene in Montmartre, for the drab apartment scenery only folds partially away, and Father sits silently in dim light like a mourner throughout the scene. What lightens everything are the bright colors that the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra and conductor Emmanuel Villaume sprinkle into this sepia-toned Paris with their adoration of the score.
Stefania Dovhan, making her US operatic debut, is the other thread of excellence in this production from beginning to end, the intoxication of her powerfully fruity soprano enhanced by her impish vitality and blushing ardor. As Julien, tenor Sergey Kunaev matches Dovhan's vocal beauty -- particularly in the joyous, post-coital duet that opens Act 3 -- but he wasn't always as seductively creamy in tone on opening night.
The glorious musical flowering of Act 3, where Louise is crowned Muse of Montmartre after her love duet with Julien, serves as rich compensation for the dreary tedium that precedes. Transition from love nest to Gay Paree is the tech and scenic highlight of the evening, climaxed by Louise's surreal entrance to her coronation. More lagniappe? Brace yourselves for the Spirit of Paris, alias the Noctambulist, resplendently sung by tenor David Cagelosi with a bright satin costume to match his bravura. (Through June 6)
Dance
• Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre -- For their fifth go-round at Spoleto since 1979, Ailey American Dance brought two programs to entice the faithful, one of them a retrospective celebrating the company's 50th anniversary that included choreographies by the founder from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. Both programs were comprised entirely of backward glances to 1988 and beyond, so anyone wishing to see what Ailey and current artistic director Judith Jamison have been up to in the 90s or the new millennium picked the wrong weekend to peep in on the troupe.
Disappointment was almost impossible to find amid the audience buzz at intermissions or after the perennial finale, Ailey's Revelations suite from 1960. Ailey fans are obviously content to journey backward to a world of bee-boppers, parasols, and Sunday meetin's, leaving behind a dance landscape influenced by hip-hop, MTV, and Shaq O'Neill. When the Aileys weave their spell, it's easy to see why. Of all the world-class troupes that have paraded through Spoleto in the past two decades, the Ailey American Dance Theatre alone comes equipped with the technical prowess that enables them to ascend the same lofty pedestal occupied by our own NC Dance Theatre. Yet their vocabularies and styles are utterly different.
The tastiest morsels over the Memorial Day weekend were those in Blues Suite -- especially the "Backwater Blues" pas de deux danced by Renee Robinson and Glenn Allen Sims. In the retrospective program, I found special pleasure in the "Scherzo" excerpt from Streams, danced by Amos J. Machanic, Jr., and Abdur-Rahim Jackson; the "Of Love" section of Hidden Rites, danced by Khilea Douglas and Willy Laury; and the "Fix Me, Jesus" pas de deux from Revelations, danced by Gwynenn Taylor Jones and Machanic.
• Hiroaki Umeda -- Wedged between the two Ailey programs, this edgy Japanese performer stepped in and provided me with my hip-hop fix for the weekend. More unsettling than receiving hip-hop via a Far Eastern channel were the S20 soundtracks Umeda assaulted us with, synchronized to rather elemental video and lighting effects. Lights were potted up at a glacial pace in "while going to a condition" as Umeda transitioned from motionlessness to dance with equal sluggishness. Then a progressively more elaborate series of simple strobe-like effects on the projection screen, each keyed to its own percussion signature. During this progression, Umeda's choreography also built in stages, beginning with foot and leg movements, proceeding to arm movements, and finally layering on head action.
Most of the percussion was benign -- or even cute -- but when parallel fluorescent bars spanned the Emmett Robinson stage, there was a sudden jolt of sound that vibrated the hall and the audience, a sensation akin to electric shock. I must say that, as the experience wore on, I found it fascinating that my dread of the sound bursts grew at first as their onset became predictable, then receded and vanished as my senses became numbed by the repetition in 4/4 time. Umeda and S20 were able to re-establish the impact of the sonic jolt at the end of the piece, so that the arc of it might be conceived as simulating an evolution from Big Bang to A-Bomb.
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WHISKEY TASTING: VIRGINIA HIGHLANDS WHISKY @ Elizabeth Parlour Room
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NEW WINDOW GALLERY-Pat Rhea-ACRYLIC PAINTINGS-April 05-30 2024 VALDESE, NC 28690 @ New Window Gallery/Play It Again Records
- Through April 30, 12 p.m.
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An Evening With Phil Rosenthal Of "Somebody Feed Phil" @ Knight Theater
- Fri., April 19, 7 p.m.
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Kountry Wayne: The King Of Hearts Tour @ Ovens Auditorium
- Fri., April 19, 7:30 p.m.
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Trap & Paint + Karaoke @ Zodiac Bar & Grill
- Fridays, 8-10 p.m. Continues through June 28
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