Last day for modern photo show at National Gallery of Art

Dorothea Lange, General Strike, San Francisco, 1934, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

For children of the 1960s who grew up amidst Watergate and President Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994), it is hard to leave the full wall of photographs taken in 1976 by Richard Avedon (1923-2004) which are part of the exhibition closing today at the National Gallery of Art.

With a few exceptions, all the major era players hanging on the Watergate Wall are dead.

President Nixon's secretary, famous for "erasing" several minutes of critical audio tape, Rose Mary Woods (1917-2005) is there in a tight-fitting frock who looks like she's been stuffed in a can, and beside her is the rumored-to-be-and-later-confirmed, "Deep Throat," Mark Felt, the FBI deputy director, the major tipster for the story.

Richard Avedon, Ralph Nader, consumer advocate, Washington, D.C. June 8, 1976  Promised Gift of Lisa and John Pritzker, in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of Photography at the National Gallery of Art

Richard Avedon, Edward Kennedy, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., July 29, 1976  Promised Gift of Lisa and John Pritzker, in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of Photography at the National Gallery of Art

 Diane Arbus, Child with toy hand grenade, New York City, 1962, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Deborah Luster, One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana, 1998-2002,  National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.  Ms. Luster was driven to this project by her mother's unsolved murder.

Did the photographer choose the clothes?  Why else would the elegant Lady Bird Johnson wear a plain and definitely  unfirst ladylike, striped blouse which could have been purchased at the Walmart? 

 Richard Avedon, Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady of the United States, McLean, Virginia, August 24, 1976  Promised Gift of Lisa and John Pritzker, in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of Photography at the National Gallery of Art

I asked National Gallery curator Sarah Greenough how the photographer was able to gain approval from so many important subjects for his assembly, and she replied: "He was Richard Avedon." 

Richard Avedon, Cesar Chavez, organizer, United Farm Workers, Keene, California, June 27, 1976  Promised Gift of Lisa and John Pritzker, in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of Photography at the National Gallery of Art

The huge majority of subjects do not smile.  It was not a smiling time, save for one U.S. Congresswoman on the wall from New York, and that would be Bella Abzug (1920-1998).

Richard Avedon, Bella Abzug, U.S. Congresswoman, New York City, June 19, 1976  Promised Gift of Lisa and John Pritzker, in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of Photography at the National Gallery of Art

Of course, Watergate does not encompass the whole show which has about 200 pictures and illustrates the history of photography from the 1840s to present day.

Simon Norfolk, one of four photographs (1934-2004) of The Lewis Glacier, Mt. Kenya,  National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.  The series shows the effects of climate change, and this photograph of one of Norfolk's pictures pollutes the image with reflections on the glass.

What better place for Watergate portraits than  Washington, D.C.? 

Plan to sit for a spell in front of them (if there is room on the bench) and play "Watergate." Be amused by a bygone era and the characters you can identify whose names are listed on a card. 

The exhibition is the third of three National Gallery shows to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its photo collection which now includes nearly 15,000 works by more than 600 artists.  

A catalog with 325 reproductions, essays, and a history of photography, The Altering Eye:  Photographs from the National Gallery of Art, is available in the shops. Ms. Greenough and the Gallery's Sarah Kennel, Diane Waggoner, Andrea Nelson, and Philip Brookman are the authors.

What: Celebrating Photography at the National Gallery of Art: Recent Gifts
 
When: Closing March 13, 2016.
 
Where: West Building, National Gallery of Art, between Third and Seventh streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall.
 
Admission is always free at the National Gallery of Art.
 
Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-842-6941
patricialesli@gmail.com

Two 'Fantasias' plus live orchestra = enchantment at George Mason U

Disney Fantasia: Live in Concert featuring Czech National Symphony Orchestra, licensed by Disney Concert Library, copyright Disney

I was quite disillusioned when I was a child and my parents took me to Fantasia. 

Why?

Because there were no words. Why ever would anyone make a cartoon without words? I was furious with the producers. Imagine, a cartoon without words.  The nerve.  

And yet, and yet...I was captivated by the visuals and sounds of the Sorcerer's Apprentice, remaining etched in my mind for decades, the message, the music, Mickey scrambling, and I can bring it to life there again if I think about it.

Oh! To hear the music played by a real orchestra with the film whirring on screen would be utter delight and that's exactly what happened at the George Mason Center for the Arts when Disney presented the film and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra played the music.

For the performance, Disney fused the two Fantasias of 1940 and 1999 into one really big show and brought the animation back with classical music for a momentous ride through magical forests and clouds and sky, floating as we were amidst pastel colors with dreamy-like persons flying through the air, skimming tree tops, and dashing from volcanoes.

Much of it could be quite scary for children, I thought in my adulthood, but few were there at George Mason, perhaps because the show began at 8 p.m. Scenes with great big red monsters and mammoth-sized snakes streaked the screen, enough to produce shrieks, but none were heard from the sold-out audience which applauded often and emitted only bits of adult laughter now and then after a comical scene.

The orchestra played portions of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Stravinsky's 1999 Firebird Suite, Camille San Saen's Carnival of the Animals complete with Donald and Daisy Duck and Noah's ark, and, of course, my favorite, Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice, and other works.

(Omitted from the program, sadly, ("Programs and artists subject to change without notice") was another all time favorite, Debussy's "Clair de lune.")

The Czech Orchestra only began in 1993, and brought 68 musicians to play on its U.S. tour. Conducting was Ted Sperling, the principal conductor for the Westchester Philharmonic, who also is a stage director, performs at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and sings, plays the piano, violin, and viola and orchestrates for Broadway, that's all.

He presented a broad smile whenever he turned to face the audience which did not fail to respond enthusiastically to his baton.

Never have I been disappointed in any production at George Mason and that includes the one-act show by adjunct professor, Kaiulani Lee, as Rachel Carson in A Sense of Wonder. I wonder why she's not on stage 365 days a year, twice a day, delivering the powerful message, especially during these dangerous times of climate change. (Wake up, World! I think the rest of it has, but the U.S.? To listen to most of the Republican presidential candidates, no.)

George Mason's Center for the Arts has many fantastic upcoming performances in its playbook. To see all of them, click here. Below are a few:

March 13, 7 p.m. Pianist Jeffrey Siegel plays Beethoven's final Piano Sonata and other works. Tickets from $24.

March 20, 4 p.m. For St. Paddy's Day and direct from Ireland, Celtic Music, dancing, and storytelling. Tickets from $29.

April 16, 8 p.m. Moscow Festival Ballet performs Giselle. Tickets from $34.

April 17, 4 p.m. Moscow Festival Ballet performs Swan Lake. Tickets from $34.

April 23, 8 p.m., and April 24, 2 p.m. Virginia Opera presents the Flying Dutchman. Tickets from $48.

April 30, 8 p.m. Fairfax Symphony Orchestra plays Beethoven's Eroica with pianist Awadagin Pratt. Tickets from $34.

May 21, 8 p.m. Fairfax Symphony Orchestra with pianist Andrew Tyson play Beethoven and Brahms. Tickets from $34.
 
Directions are here.
 
Parking: Free in Lot K
 
For more information: 888-945-2468 or
(703) 993-8888
patricialesli@gmail.com

Free noon harp and organ concert March 2, St. John's, Lafayette Square

Michael Lodico and Rebecca Smith/St. John's Episcopal Church

The Washington, D.C. premiere of Peter Mathews' Fantaisie for Harp and Organ will be presented in a noontime concert Wednesday at St. John's Episcopal Church by the Lafayette Square Duo with organist Michael Lodico and harpist Rebecca Smith.

The performance is part of the church's First Wednesday Concerts series and shall include this Wednesday a set of Irish jigs (for an early start on St. Paddy's Day) and "colorful" hymns.
 
The musicians are dedicating Fantaisie to Ms. Smith's mentor, Jeanne Chalifoux Goddin, and Mr. Lodico's daughter, Florence Asha Lodico. 

Ms. Smith and Mr. Lodico first teamed up in 2010 when they performed with the choir at St. John’s where Mr. Lodico is interim director of music ministry and organist. The duo have played at many area venues and at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston.

Mr. Lodico is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and a 2004 recipient of a Fulbright grant for graduate study in the Netherlands on historic instruments.

Ms. Smith is a former principal harpist for the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and teaches at St. Mary's College and Anne Arundel Community College. She graduated from Dickinson College and received a M.M. from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Ms. Smith studied at the Salzedo Summer Harp Colony and at Tanglewood Institute. In 2008 she recorded Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols with the Washington National Cathedral Girls Choir.

 St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

St. John's is known to many Washington residents as the yellow church at Lafayette Square and is often called the “Church of the Presidents” since beginning with James Madison who was president from 1809 to 1817, every president has been a member of St. John's or has attended services at the church. A plaque at the rear of the church designates the pew where President Abraham Lincoln often sat when he stopped by St. John's during the Civil War.

This year the church celebrates its bicentennial, and its history and stained-glass windows are described in books and booklets available at St. John's.

First Wednesday concerts begin at 12:10 p.m. and last about 35 minutes. Food trucks are located two blocks away at Farragut Square.

Who: Rebecca Smith and Michael Lodico in concert

What: First Wednesday Concerts

When: 12:10 p.m., March 2, 2016

Where: St. John’s, Lafayette Square, 1525 H Street, NW, at the corner of 16th, Washington, D.C. 20005

How much: No charge

Duration: About 35 minutes

Wheelchair accessible

Metro stations: McPherson Square (White House exit), Farragut North, or Farragut West

For more information: Contact Michael Lodico at 202-270-6265.

Future dates and artists of the First Wednesday Concerts are:

April 6: Soloists from St. John's Choir will sing.

May 4: The U.S. Air Force Strings Chamber Orchestra with harpsichordist Brandon Straub will play Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5.

June 1: Concert organist Roderick Demmings, Jr., will play works by Bach, Wammes, and Widor.

patricialesli@gmail.com

A hot night with 'Carmen' at the Olney

Ensemble member Karla Choko and Camilo (Caesar Samayoa) in Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical directed by Moisés Kaufman. Photo: Stan Barouh

Perfectly timed, exquisite dancing under the direction of Broadway's Sergio Trujillo stars in Olney Theatre Center's newest presentation, Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical, another in Olney's big, flashy shows, this one, a world premier co-production with Tectonic Theater Project.

And it's just in time for Black History Month and heating us up on chilly nights (and days). 

The ensemble of Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical, directed by Moisés Kaufman, choreography by Sergio Truijillo. Photo: Stan Barouh

Triangular love and sex are the nuclei of the story while, on the periphery, actors become 1958 revolutionaries in Cuba's war between the U.S.-backed Batista government and the upstart Fidel Castro. (And the winner was...)

This Carmen production coincides nicely with the opening of U.S. gates to Cuba (thank you, President Obama) and is only one of many place settings around the globe where the play has been performed over the years, in London, Spain, Chicago, to name a few.  ("All the world's a stage...")


At the Olney the plot takes a backseat to fast action and dancing.

José (Brandon Andrus) and Carmen (Christina Sajous) in Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical directed by Moisés Kaufman. Photo: Stan Barouh

Brandon Andrus is José, an army guy and participant in two simultaneous love affairs, natch, while he works for Batista. His occupation and dueling romances may explain his perfunctory passion after he links up with Carmen. (Houston:  We have a mismatch on the runway.)

At the beginning, José is an urbane, reserved military man who, over the course of the production, shrinks into a blithering mess.  That's what love can do.

Meanwhile, there is Christina Sajous, Carmen, the monopolizing siren who consumes center stage a tad too much. A Whitney Houston look-alike, she dances non-stop while attracting men and more men who are lucky enough to be linked with her in brief romance (under six months) before she moves on to the next big thing.  

She is also the nation, "Cuba," testing her freedom,  strength, confidence, and independence.

Caesar Samayoa is Camilo, a champion boxer, who comes along to woo Carmen just when she's ready to ditch José. So long, José, and welcome, Camilo!  

Next!  (So many men and so little time.)

The best voice of the night belongs to Briana Carlson-Goodman who, as Micaela, José's girlfriend, is left for dust after he is smitten by Carmen. Ms. Carlson-Goodman's small role leaves us longing for more of her distinctive and melodious sounds.

The fight choreography is some of the best I have seen.  Applause to the choreographer, Ben Cunis, and fight captain, Mr. Samayoa.

One especially memorable scene (it's hard to phrase this adequately but, please bear with me or, better, go and see the show yourself and see what I mean) is reversed when two lovers fight under the spotlight (lighting by David Lander) center stage in front of us but behind the audience on stage which becomes the backdrop.  

The stage audience sits stationary in folding chairs and leaning in under dim light with their backs to center stage while they watch a boxing match in shadowy slow motion in front of them. Get it?  (You will when you see the scene. Who could forget the artistry?)

(It reminded me of a scene right out of George Bellows' painting, Club Night (sometimes on the walls at the National Gallery of Art and sometimes not, like now).)

In Carmen, Clint Ramos presents fun and flirty 1950s costuming, when women dressed as women, and men, as men. Hatted male dancers in wife-beater shirts were highly appealing.  

The sets (by Narelle Sissons) are marvelous.  Take one bar with huge columns; make it a hideout, an arena to watch a boxing match, and other places, with clever transitions which occur so naturally they go unnoticed by the audience with its eyes focused on high-powered Olympic dancing. 

I would not think this play would be recommended for children, although there's nothing wrong with the language, but the story...hmmmm. 

On stage before the show began, Jason Loewith, the Olney artistic director, smiled and said: "It may be cold out there, but it's very hot in here." Amen, bro'!  

Directing Carmen is Loewith's buddy, Moisés Kaufman, the founder of the Teutonic Theater Project whose Laramie Project and 33 Variations are two of his best known works. In his Broadway directing debut in 2004, Kaufman received a Tony nomination for I Am My Own Wife.

Kaufman and Eduardo Machado wrote the book for Carmen, and Arturo O’Farrill composed and adapted the music based on the French composer Georges Bizet's 1875 opera, Carmen. Kaufman, Loewith and  Christopher Youstra (who leads the 11-piece brassy orchestra on stage) wrote the lyrics.

  
Carmen in one form or another may be almost 200 years old. The original may stem from an 1824 poem, The Gypsies, by Alexander Pushkin, followed by a novella of 1846 which was used by Bizet to create his opera. (The Olney got a eight-year jump on Carmen's bicentennial celebration.)


Additional Carmen cast members are George Akram, Sumayya Ali, Michelle Alves, Moses Bernal, Nick Duckart, Calvin McCullough, Skizzo Arnedillo, Ronald Bruce, Tiffany Byrd, Karla Choko, Nurney, Alejandra Matos, José Ozuna, and Kara-Tameika Watkins.

Other members of the creative team are Robert Kaplowitz, sound, Marcos Santana, additional choreography, Andrea Grady, Alejandro Aviles, Josiane M. Lemieux, and Dennis A. Blackledge.

Contrary to impressions, it's not a trip to reach the Olney from Northern Virginia. From the Beltway, take 270, exit at Wootton Parkway, drive Norbeck, left on Georgia Avenue, right on Old Baltimore and right on Olney Sandy Spring Road which puts you two lights and about a quarter mile from the Olney, and you've bypassed Maryland's toll fees.  Under 45 minutes.  Take your GPS.

 What: Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical 
 
When: Now through March 6, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m., and a Wednesday matinee at 2 p.m. on March 2.
 
Audio described performance for the blind and vision impaired:  Tonight at 8 p.m., provided by the Metropolitan Washington Ear.  Sign interpretation is available upon request.

Post-show discussion: AfterWords, Saturday, March 5 after the 2 p.m. performance


Where: Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD 20832

How much: Tickets start at $38, with discounts for military, groups, seniors, and students.

Duration: About 100 minutes without intermission.

Refreshments: Available for purchase and may be taken to seats.

Parking: Abundant, free, and on-site

For more information: 301-924-3400
 
patricialesli@gmail.com