A hybrid hardware/seed depot, nature lover’s bookstore and odds-and-ends informational clearinghouse, the Berkeley-based Ecology Center (San Pablo Avenue) beckons locals to come and learn about theirresidentialcurbside recycling program, farmers’ markets, and educational and policy-related activities.
Their latest initiative, the Climate Change Action Project, an environmental education program for community members, businesses, government and nonprofits, sets up action-orientedsupport groups to motivate people towards greater resource conservation and environmental stewardship.
DONNA STERNBERG & DANCERS in collaboration with EZTV premiere a dance/multimedia event where dance, video and science collide, intertwine and coalesce. Quantum Entanglement explores how we are connected in both human and scientific ways, from the emotional interaction between people to the movement of subatomic particles. The performers including dancers, a musician and actor weave in and out of plexiglass cubes, passageways and a small lounge, interacting with projections on two video screens. In the unorthodox space of Royal T, a charming cafe/shop/art gallery, audience members move from place to place as the performing area shifts. Live music as well as selections ranging from the classical composer Albonini to Tinariwen, a band of exiled Touareg freedom fighters from Mali to the Gotan Project aurally entwine with the movement to create a sensory feast.
Royal T
8910 Washington Blvd.
Culver City , CA 90232
Admission: $20 general, $15 students/seniors/DRC
Tickets and information: www.dsdancers.com or 310-260-1198
Editor’s Note – apologies to those out of the area for posting something local to Southern California…but this seemed a very unique, interesting, interdisciplinary approach to dance. We encourage people to use this forum to comment and dialogue with the producers and dancers. And, of course, if you are near Culver City, please feel free to attend and send in a review of the performance to Synchronized Chaos’ upcoming issue!
Santa Clara Review is published in February and May by Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California. We accept submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, essays, drama/screenplays, art work, and photography year round.
To ensure proper and thorough consideration of each piece, please limit your submissions according to the following guidelines: For poetry, please submit no more than five poems, not to exceed ten pages in length. For fiction and nonfiction, please limit your submission to 5,000 words or less. Most pieces we publish are between 2,000-4,000 words.
San Francisco Opera’s Il Trittico showcases several world-class vocal talents, who in the one-act format transition seamlessly among completely different roles. Paolo Gavanelli becomes Il Tabarro’s distraught, betrayed husband and then Gianni Schicchi’s hilarious, shrewd title-character lawyer. Patricia Racette transforms herself into Il Tabarro’s restless wife, Suora Angelica’s grieving nun, and Schicchi’s innocently romantic daughter. However, the minor characters and subtle staging innovations bring this triptych up from a decent show to a spectacular performance.
Each of Puccini’s one-acts follows a basic, coherent plotline, but with enough background action and distinctive supporting characters to add color to the pieces and remain engaging after audiences guess the ending. Il Tabarro’s Frugola, another discontented boatman’s wife who avoids adultery, deposits her frustrations and other odds and ends into a memorable purseful of junk. The food scraps she saves for her beloved cat, the stories behind each object she collects, and her dream of a country cottage remained with me longer than Giorgetta’s forbidden affair. And the working stevedores’ rough clothing and the half-lighting and simple sets befitting a wooden barge highlights the contrast between both wives’ dreams and the reality of their lives.
Suora Angelica’s convent, updated into a children’s hospital, sings with joyful Ave Marias and the chatter of cheerful sisters. We see the ladies playing with wheelchair-bound children, breaking small regulations, sharing innocent desires, and remarking upon water from a fountain turned golden with afternoon sunlight. They make the best of a clinical environment, perfectly staged with glaring indoor lighting, cold straight-backed chairs, and medicines in full view of patients and caregivers.
Such a life-affirming sensibility further adds to the tragedy of Angelica’s suicide and the emotional impact of her miracle vision. The vision, a child waiting to welcome her to heaven, might have seemed contrived in the hands of a less competent opera company. Yet the hospital, with its old-style frosted-glass door, provides the perfect way for the boy to appear ethereal yet believable.
Gianni Schicchi’s supporting characters include a corpse hidden in plain sight, a host of feuding, greedy relatives, notaries, doctors, and two guileless young lovers. Revered soprano Racette herself plays Schicchi’s daughter, one of the pair of lovers – demonstrating San Francisco Opera’s awareness of the importance of quality vocals for the entire cast and not merely relying on the strength of a scene’s main characters. Audience members chuckle at her famous “O mio babbino caro” – as Racette comes across as having a youthful crush on Rinuccio, which fits in with the piece’s charm. Schicchi and the various relatives’ over-the-top facial expressions and lyrical shows of emotion remind us this is a comedy, and the final pillow-fight in the black and white art-deco stage bedroom conveys a refined-sitcom sensibility.
For all three pieces, the orchestral music complements the action without overpowering the vocals or plot. Dramatic at tense moments and atmospheric when needed to set the pace and mood for action between arias, it provides the continuity Puccini intended when he designed these three acts to be presented together. Although the plots bear no relation to one another, a background motif of celebrating common, quirky, crazy humanity and life’s daily moments runs through the entire performance – helped along by the entire cast, crew, and orchestra of San Francisco’s Il Trittico.
Il Trittico currently shows at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. One production remains, a Saturday evening performance this October 3rd. You may visit the SF Opera website at www.sfopera.org for more information.
Patsy Ledbetter plays classical music in a large California orchestra, along with writing poetry and raising a family. She welcomes comments on her work and may be reached at patsyled@sbcglobal.net
The fundamental nature of my aesthetic rests in the use of simple, quiet compositions that visually communicate emotion within the precepts of narrative realism: renderings of ordinary objects, subtle glimpses of everyday life. These images are collectively reflected on stillness, solitude, and mystery- yet with an element of comfort and familiarity.
My creative approach is driven by the desire to balance traditional principles of painting, contemporary design, and personal identity. This series of restaurant paintings draw inspiration from two artistic genres: 17th Century Dutch Still Life paintings and 20th century American Realism, as exemplified in the works of Willem Kalf, John Register, and Ralph Goings.
In my effort to combine traditional and contemporary design practices, I strive to create works of art that retain a timeless quality while incorporating contemporary subject matter. In doing so, it is my resolve to provide viewers with visual explanations of emotion that will hopefully make for a lasting impression.
Wayne Jiang may be reached at riverwave@sbcglobal.net and welcomes comments on his work and inquiries from interested buyers and galleries.
