An Afternoon of Porgy and Bess

Today, I took in An Afternoon of Porgy and Bess. The program, which played to a capacity crowd, featured selections from the Heyward/Gershwin opera by soprano D’Jaris Whipper-Lewis and tenor/baritone Richard Blakeney. Robert Rosen provided a excellent overview of the history surrounding the work with his A Short History of George Gershwin in Charleston.

Both Whipper-Lewis and Blakeney, accompanied by Chamber Music Charleston thrilled with their beautiful renditions of Summertime, Oh, I Plenty O’ Nuttin, and It Ain’t Necessarily So. I found Whipper-Lewis’s Strawberry Woman especially beautiful.

If you can, do catch this gorgeous program of history and music time next around. It’s a lovely way to spend an hour.

Seeking A Landscape

Next, I headed to the Gibbs to see the exhibitLandscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art.

Dan’s post about race and art got me thinking about my own skittishness on the subject of slavery and plantation life. My maternal grandparents were sharecroppers in Marlboro County, SC, and my mother would tell my siblings and me how she picked and chopped cotton for $2.00 a day, how she hated it, and what she did to avoid it.

She also told us about how my grandfather picked 1000 lbs of cotton in one day, and how proud he was of that. I thought about how difficult that must have been and how determined he was to excel at something. For my grandparents, “smart” implied more industriousness than intelligence, and my grandfather was known as especially smart.

As I toured the exhibit which, had art ranging from the pastoral to the provocative, I thought a lot about my mother, grandparents and other sharecroppers and slaves who worked those fields with the hope of a better life.

I thought the exhibit well done and thoughtful. Some of the works, a photo of the charred remains of a lynched man and a photo of a slave woman stripped to the waist were a bit jarring, but it’s all part of a journey that our country is still traveling.

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I went to the meet up … by myself … at Marion Square and the Children’s Festival. Maybe next time I should tell people where to meet. But it was a beautiful day: quite warm, of course, but with a nice breeze every now and again, and I then bumped into Geoff shooting video …

There’s an energy about this year that I love. Music spilled out and crossed over; there was vibrant color every where you looked. It was that glorious slice-of-life chaos that I find personally very satisfying. Moms, dads, kids, dogs, couples, lone adventurers going about the business of enjoying a festival on a pleasant day. Or being tired and cranky and just needing a cup of coffee. Oh. Wait. That was me…

Seriously, it was great fun. I watched the crowd being drawn like magic to the main tent once the Irish fiddlers began to play. I talked with Piccolo Spoleto staff members Elease Amos-Goodwin and Francina Smalls-Joyner, whose memories of the past and ideas about the future of the now 30-year-old festival are a treasure. I realize that I am waxing poetic, but there is a depth to this place and a richness to the fabric of it that is powerful and seductive. I think it’s the difference between just residing somewhere and inhabiting it. So many people inhabit this place until there’s a mingling that makes it hard to separate one from the other.

I found Harriet and Vera, eventually, before I had to head out to the press luncheon (yes, yes, I know, la ti da!) And actually, it was. Very. Festival general manager Nigel Redden, cast members of “La Cenerentola,” Festival Music Director for Opera & Orchestra Emmanuel Villaume and “Amistad” Director Sam Helfrich, whom I immediately dissed by mistaking him for someone else. Oh, dear. Not that he wasn’t gracious about it … Hostess Judith Moore, the brains behind Charleston Cookie Company, was charming. The house was gorgeous and the garden made us all wish we had our own shady little hideaways. Frankly I’d like mine complete with an incredibly polite staff and a fabulous chef serving silver cups of sweet potato fries.

Tonight, who knows? There is so much this year, I feel like I’m a case of Stendhal Syndrome just waiting to happen.

Today’s noon opening of Spoleto Festival USA 2008 at Broad and Meeting was the usual great mix of Italian ices, paddle fans, St. Michael’s bell ringers watching from the steeple, speeches, horn fanfares and smiling (if sweaty) faces. The bell ringers and the presence of Mayor Riley’s mother’s blooming oleanders across the railing of City Hall’s balcony are only a couple of the Opening Ceremonies traditions.

I was standing to the side near the wrought iron gate of Washington Park, so I could not make out the speeches (except for the prayer, which really isn’t a speech) other than those by the mayors — Mayor Joe Riley of Charleston and Mayor Massimo Bruninin of Spoleto, Italy, both of whom have voices that carry.

Bass Herbert Perry, a member of the cast of “La Amistad,” sang a stirring “Star Spangled Banner.”

SpoletoToday was right a couple of posts ago about confetti replacing balloons this year. After Riley made his “let the dancers dance, the singers sing, the children play …” proclamation of the opening of festivities, the all-white confetti shot out of a gun very near me and scared me half to death.

I got my wish for Chinese acrobats from the cast of “Monkey: Journey to the West.” Whoa. The contortionist was … spectacular. I have no adjectives for those who are able to bend over backward and put their face between their ankles … except amazing, talented, wow. The acrobat who did one-handed handstands on her hip girdle, which faced skyward, was also pretty … spectacular, amazing, stunning, mind bending.

Best of all … maybe … was that the brass band (sorry, I did not get a program, or a paddle fan) broke into “Saints” at the close of the events and paraded through the crowd, N’awlins-style.

Want to see a video? Of course you do. That’s why Geoff was there …

Due to popular demand, Spoleto Festival USA announced today that they will add a performance of “Monkey: Journey to the West.” The new performance will be June 1 at noon.

The festival reminds us: Called ‘Simply a piece of musical theater of the most spectacular kind,’ by The Times of London, Monkey is the remarkable brainchild of an international team of three innovative artists: Chinese director Chen Shi-Zheng, whose Peony Pavilion achieved great success at the 2004 Spoleto Festival USA and the British artists behind the award-winning animated band Gorillaz, Damon Albarn (composer) and Jamie Hewlett (visual concept and animation.)

A huge success at its premiere at the Manchester International Festival earlier this year and subsequent performances at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, this ‘circus opera’ makes its American premiere at Spoleto Festival USA.

Tickets for “Monkey: Journey to the West” and all 2008 Spoleto Festival USA performances are available online at www.spoletousa.org and by phone at )843) 579-3100.

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Spoleto Day 1, Podcast Number 2. I’m sure we’ll get the numbers tallied up correctly (or even more skewed) before the next seventeen days are out.

Harriet pops up for the first time, as we discuss what’s on the menu today and the forthcoming weekend …

Hear today’s podcast direct by following this link, or why not subscribe permanently here throughout the duration of the festival and get it fed to your MP3 player automatically.

For more information on podcasts and how they work, visit our dedicated podcast page here.

One moment I found particularly interesting during today’s artist talk at the Simons Center:

C of C composition professor Trevor Weston asked composer Amistad composer Anthony Davis and director Sam Helfrich whether they were trying to teach people something via their opera. My ears perked up because this issue — the pomo sensibility that says that art that tries to be about something is morally flawed — has been much on my mind this week.

Davis replied that while being didactic is bad, there’s nothing wrong with trying to convey ideas or emotions. He went on to tell a story about watching avant garde composter John Cage recoil in horror as he listened to one of Davis’ arias. Cage’s comment? “You’re trying to make me feel something!”

Said Davis:”I think we have to get past that sort of modernist, post-World War II feeling” that art that attempts to convey an emotion or an idea is somehow manipulative.

Here’s how Helfrich put it: “You don’t want to tell the audience what to think. You want to create a piece that’s so engaging you make the audience want to ask questions.”

Amen, brother.

So here’s something curious: How did Monkey: Journey to the West go from ‘opera’ at its festival premiere in England to ‘musical theater’ here in its American premiere?

Answer, delivered by Paula Edwards from festival producer Nunally Kersh: Spoleto USA figured it could sell more tickets to family audiences if it assigned Monkey a less intimidating category. So it’s opera… only funner?

Geoff was also down at the last dress rehearsal last night to watch the action.

Tomorrow’s Friday 5 Top 5 is about tips for enjoying the festivals… Those will be available Friday morning, but my extended tips are available right now over at my Friday 5 blog.