EMAV Review: 'Bravo Bernstein' a fitting tribute to the master ★★★★½

★★★★½ - Delicious

A most appreciative audience attended Opera Las Vegas’ delicious 4.5 Star celebration entitled “Bravo Bernstein”, at Myron’s Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center last Sunday afternoon. Revenue generated from the Concert and Champagne Reception with the Artists supports outreach programs like Opera on Wheels (a Mozartian version of "The Three Little Pigs" in all four library theatres in May -- with free admission), Opera With Class (scenes and arias in English in 10-12 Clark County Schools, and main stage productions like Rossini’s "La Cenerentola" (Cinderella, to be presented in UNLV's Judy Bayley Theatre on 8th and 10th of June).

Leonard Bernstein is one of the most iconic and successful composers of the 20th Century, and this was just one of countless events included in the two-year centennial celebration, “Leonard Bernstein at 100,” that started at The John F. Kennedy Center on September 22, 2017 – and officially launched the celebrations which continue worldwide through the end of August 2019!

An American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist, "Lennie" (as he was known to his friends) was among the first conductors born and educated in the US to receive worldwide acclaim!

Leonard Bernstein’s range of accomplishments was uniquely broad; in the new millennium, his legacy resonates more than ever. “Leonard Bernstein at 100” celebrates the career of this monumental artist by focusing on four pillars of Bernstein’s legacy: his work as a Composer; Conductor; Educator; and Activist/Humanitarian.

In addition to the Opera Las Vegas program this past weekend, festive performances and events will take place in other U.S. cities that Bernstein held dear to his heart — New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D. C., Los Angeles, San Francisco — and in additional cities such as Austin, Atlanta, Houston, Tucson, and many others.

Kudos to OLV for sharing their talents and for bringing much of “Lennie’s” music to Las Vegas audiences! Jim Sohre, OLV General Director, produced and emceed the program, guiding the patrons and talented operatic ensemble through beloved hits from West Side Story and On the Town, as well as pieces from Trouble in Tahiti, A Quiet Place and the epic concert Mass -- commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to inaugurate The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. in 1971.

The accomplished singers who performed individually, in duets and all together in several choral numbers were: Marcie Ley (Soprano), Athena Mertes (Soprano), Ashley Stone (mezzo-soprano), William McCullough (Tenor) and Aldo Perrelli (Tenor), accompanied by pianist Spencer Baker.

Bernstein was a man of the globe, and so there will be major events in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Rome, Budapest, and Warsaw, as well as in Japan, China, India, Brazil, Australia, South Africa and Israel — and the list goes on.

Several documentary films are in the making, covering a broad range of topics in Bernstein’s life. His musicals will receive revivals throughout the world, including a worldwide tour of the acclaimed BB Promotion’s West Side Story; productions of Wonderful Town in Germany and Austria; and performances of Mass in London, Paris, Los Angeles, Glasgow, and Austin. Bernstein’s opera A Quiet Place will be presented in Vienna and Budapest, among other cities.

Exhibitions are planned in multiple cities. The Grammy Museum is preparing a major Leonard Bernstein exhibition — including artifacts from his composing studio (on loan from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music) —which will travel over two years to cities across the United States. Host organizations include The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in New York City, The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Additionally, the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia will be mounting an exhibition “Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music”.

The Leonard Bernstein Collection in the Music Division of the Library of Congress contains close to 400,000 letters, manuscripts, photographs, and more. Currently, about 1,400 items from the collection are available online, but the Library is in the process of digitizing thousands of additional items from the collection — including, for the first time, musical sketches — which will be added to the site and made widely available for researchers and scholars.

The Leonard Bernstein Memory Project is a growing collection of Bernstein-related memories from around the world. Fans and friends of Bernstein are invited to contribute their reminiscences on the newly renovated Centennial website.

A pioneering educator, Bernstein early on saw the potential of television as a means of communicating the joy of music to young people. Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic brought orchestral music directly into the living rooms of families across America and around the world. Several generations were inspired and motivated by the Young People’s Concerts — 53 programs that still set the standard for music education that engages, delights, and entertains.

Bernstein’s lifelong method of using the arts as a springboard for acquiring all kinds of knowledge lives on in the educational reform model Artful Learning. The model, developed by Bernstein’s son Alexander, is being used in scores of schools around the United States. Not only do Artful Learning students acquire knowledge; they retain that knowledge by learning how to think creatively.

Three of the music festivals with which Leonard Bernstein was closely associated — the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Pacific Music Festival — will pay special attention to his contributions during the Centennial period.

Opera Las Vegas is a nonprofit professional opera company serving Nevada through full-scale productions and a variety of innovative outreach programs in local schools and community venues. Established in 1999, OLV has been producing major, high-quality opera performances since 2005. Its mission is to enrich the culture of Nevada by producing high caliber opera theatre both on and off stage, through a mix of innovative educational experiences and performance events for audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

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EMAV Review: "Whipping Man" is a surprising shared history of American identity and Civil

★★★★☆ - Delicious

“Why is this night different from all other nights?” For three Jews -- one a former Confederate soldier, two his former slaves -- gathered around a makeshift Seder table in Richmond, VA, at the close of the Civil War, age-old questions of justice and freedom find new and surprising answers. The compelling events of this delicious 4-Star drama engage the audience throughout by raising issues of race, history, religion and family as former slaves and slave masters struggle to acclimate to the new emancipated social order.

The play begins on Thursday, April 13, 1865, just five days after the American Civil War has ended – and only a few days before Passover. A wounded young Confederate soldier (Caleb DeLeon) has returned from combat to find his family home in ruins. Ravaged by the war it is now an empty shell of what was once a fine estate -- scorched and demolished by fire, all its riches ransacked by looters. His family has fled to safer territory, but Simon, an elder and faithful former slave of the family’s, is staying with the house until the DeLeon family returns.

Simon immediately notices the bullet wound festering on Caleb’s leg and insists that amputation will be necessary, much to Caleb’s fear and disapproval. He refuses to be taken to a hospital, and insists Simon be the one to perform the amputation. Against his better judgment and full of doubt, Simon agrees.

As Simon begins to ply Caleb with whiskey and make preparation for the improvised surgery, a hooded figure presents itself in the broken doorway. John, another former slave of the DeLeon family and childhood companion of Caleb’s, has taken to looting the abandoned houses around town and is surprised to find Caleb home. The three must navigate their new relationships while settling with demons from the past, culminating in a Passover Seder where former master and slaves must decide where honesty and loyalty will lie.

“In researching the end of the war and the very eventful month of April 1865, I came across a reference to the fact that Passover began that year on April 10, the day immediately following Lee‘s surrender at Appomattox. This meant that as Jews across the nation were celebrating this sacred ritual commemorating their ancestors’ freedom from bondage in Egypt, a new kind of exodus was occurring all around them. The result, I hope, is an inexorable link between the African- American and Jewish imperatives of reminding successive generations about their people‘s past. There has always been a conversation between Black and Jewish histories in the United States. It is a conversation based, I believe, on a similar history. In The Whipping Man, that similar history becomes a shared one.” [Matthew Lopez, playwright]

Ms. Joel R. Scoville (director) has assembled a gifted ensemble and adeptly explores themes of liberation and deliverance. Powerfully leading the cast is Derek Charles Livingston in the role of Simon, desperate to preserve this war-torn home and its ethnically diverse “family” while reveling in his new-found emancipation from slavery. David Kurtz gives a solid performance as Caleb, the young veteran soldier, moving from shell-shocked amputee to grieving lover. Xavier Donte Brown, in the role of John, struts his “liberation” convincingly and defiantly until realizing that he remains trapped by his own “choices” in this abandoned town and disheveled dwelling.

Director Sackville’s production team establishes and maintains a most convincing environment throughout the evening for exploring the plight of these newly-freed African-American slaves and the pangs of creating a new identity in the aftermath of war, injustice and violence: set design by Chris Davies; lighting by Raphael Daniels-Devost; costumes by Kim Glover and Candice Wynants; and sound by Sandy Stein.

“Dramaturg is the theatre’s most misunderstood field in terms of what they do and how they do it”, according to TDF’s Theatre Dictionary. There are a million things that dramaturgs do to get to that magical, alchemical moment that occurs when artists are huddled in the rehearsal room or theatre talking about what is and isn’t working in a production. Dramaturgs work with various aspects of the production of a work, including crafting educational materials, creating marketing copy, facilitating conversations amongst the artistic team, and running a post-show discussion. If you need it done for a production, a dramaturg can probably do it!

So, in this case, Joshua Meltzer deserves special recognition for his work as dramaturg on this production. “Helping with the Hebrew dialogue; molding the American Jewish experience and behavior in the deep South during this time period; keeping the actors on track about the differences between “Jews in the North and Jews in the South”; background information & trappings for director, performers and production team members to more accurately reflect historical details.”

Playwright Matthew Lopez’s first work, "The Whipping Man," has been sweeping regional and professional theaters since its debut in 2006. “It is a play of rich and brutal situational context, but it is a play about the inner man – dignity, decency, hate, longing, brutality, honesty, goodness, love, devotion." [Pacific Conservatory Theatre’s Artistic Director, Mark Booher]

#LVLT #Stalter #Review #Theatre

EMAV 10 Bites: Ralph Stalter, Jr. - EMAV, Valley Theatre Awards Coordinator

In every neighborhood, there is someone who makes the Arts a part of their life, and our community. You'd be surprised to discover how many different people use the arts to improve the quality of life in or hometown. EAT MORE ART! VEGAS will feature them regularly in our series "10 Bites."

What performing art do you do?

I cut my teeth as an actor in the theatre over fifty years ago and have been expanding my knowledge and experience as a performing arts administrator, consultant and “Cultural Provocateur” ever since.

Why do you do it?

I started singing in my church choir around the age of 10, and found that I loved making music, singing harmonies, playing with counter-melodies -- and developed a sense of musicality, aural awareness and performance well before high school.

In high school, I had an incredible choral instructor/theatre director who cast me in the role of Prince Chulalongkorn in THE KING AND I. That was my baptism by fire! My next challenge was dancing the sword dance in BRIGADOON – then performing in every high school musical and play.

Once organic chemistry and calculus dashed my pursuit of an early medical career in college, I took a hard left into the theatre. I dove into acting, directing and producing at every opportunity. After graduation, determined to get into a professional training program, I auditioned for Temple, Yale and Boston University!

Boston University's School of Theatre put me in the hands of three of America's most gifted and respected professional theatre directors:

• Zelda Fichandler: Co-founder and producing director of Arena Stage, one of the first nonprofit professional theatres in the U.S., which received the TONY Award in 1976 (the first to be given to a company outside of NYC).

• Word Baker: the director who set THE FANTASTICKS spinning into theatre history as the world's longest-running musical!

• Alan Schneider: responsible for introducing American audiences to playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Edward Albee, Michael Weller, Harold Pinter and Bertolt Brecht.

Alan was the one who urged me to attend the prestigious Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF) Apprentice Program after grad school. I was cast in the opening production that 1975 season: RING ROUND THE MOON, directed by Nikos Psacharopoulos, starring Frank Langella, Blythe Danner, Mildred Dunnock, Louis Beachner, Joseph Maher, with sets by Tony Straiges and costumes by Carrie F. Robbins.

After that summer, I never had a doubt about pursuing my career in the theatre – though I always expected to be on the stage side of the curtain!

Right about that time, The Historic Palace Theatre in Manchester, NH, was going through structural and aesthetic renovations: new orchestra seating was installed and it was re-opened as a restored 880-seat nonprofit, professional performing arts center. Among its many programs, The Palace hosted the Phoenix Stage Ensemble, NH Shakespeare Company, and Merrimack Valley Music Theatre – and I was a member of those resident acting companies for two seasons. During my tenure, I came to know many of the Board members, who had always been committed to achieving their mission through preserving the historic facility, responding creatively to the cultural and entertainment needs of the community and governing in a fiscally responsible and strategic manner.

I was approached by several Board members to consider stepping into the Executive Director role when it became vacant. What a novel idea (I thought) -- a regular paycheck with health insurance and vacation benefits, and I still get to work with the resident companies and other performing arts professionals! I naively accepted the challenge of “caregiving” the arts and an historic theatre facility.

That initial on-the-job training was certainly perplexing at times but I loved it. I learned to manage and motivate employees and volunteers not drawn to their jobs by year-end bonuses, and how to engage people, build consensus and raise money. After a few stressful years I had an “Aha!” moment. My skills could actually be put to better use on the administrative side of the curtain.

I knew there was more to theatre management, so I enrolled in the graduate Arts Administration Program at Columbia University. My classmates worked in diverse international arts organizations: opera and dance companies, auction houses, advocacy organizations, government ministries, community arts organizations, galleries and museums; in fundraising and development, marketing, education, programming, and executive or operational roles.

I was fortunate to land a marketing internship with 42nd Street Development Corporation on "Theatre Row": a collection of (then) newly renovated historic theatres in Times Square, New York, including The Acorn Theatre, The Beckett Theatre, The Clurman Theatre, The Kirk Theatre, The Lion Theatre, and The Studio Theatre. Andre Bishop, artistic director of the Lincoln Center Theater and one of the founders of Playwrights Horizons marveled at the developments. ''This story is so small time,'' he said, ''Modest theaters, modest budgets, modest aspirations, but big time in terms of human richness. Urban renewal was the last thing on our minds.''

I still get a huge thrill in sharing that “human richness” of live, performing arts programming with audiences. That “joy” is a driving force in my nature. In addition, my deepest and closest friendships are those I’ve made through the Arts.

Why do I do it? Caregiving, joy and friendship are three pretty good reasons, wouldn’t you say?

What’s your favorite production/performance so far?

SAVAGES, a play written by Christopher Hampton, presented by Williamstown Theatre Festival, summer 1975. Hampton was inspired to write this play by a newspaper article titled "Genocide" by Norman Lewis in the Sunday Times (February, 1969) which dealt with the systematic extermination of Brazil's Indians ranging from the 16th century to the present day.

What jobs have you done other than being an artist?

• Lifeguard; autopsy technician (the one that takes the organs out of the body cavity for the pathologist); retail jewelry sales; individual, group and subscription ticket sales; customer support specialist; technology implementation and training consultant.

• Project Coordinator for the interior renovation of 2 landmark theatres on the National Register of Historic Places, which increased seating capacity, earned income and audience comfort.

• Collective bargaining team member with the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) during sessions with Actors’ Equity Association.

What memorable responses have you had to your work?

Actually, this year’s 4th Annual Las Vegas Valley Theatre Awards (July 25th) was truly a highlight for me! Having only relocated to Las Vegas seven years ago, it was heartening to have so many wonderfully talented performers, producers, Board members, volunteers and new-found friends join in making this celebration of the performing arts such a resounding success. As Paul Atreides wrote: "The event is all about 'local' talent, but still... I found myself thinking, “If only Sandy Kastel and Paige O’Hara (two of our Presenters) could’ve been hornswoggled into doing a number. They’re locals!”

What would you be doing if you weren't performing?

Exactly what I’m doing now in “semi-retirement”: actively engaging and working to strengthen, unify and connect the arts and culture sector to foster collaboration, enhance organizational stability, and further build the power of the organizations within their respective communities… Caregiving the Arts!

Name something you love about Las Vegas, and why.

It’s still growing! Along with the sheer number and variety of talented, accessible and friendly artists, producers and staff members – and residents who support the diverse local community arts organizations as donors, audience members and volunteers.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

''It is Sam Beckett more than anyone else who has taught me that in spite of anything or whatever, one goes on. Not distracted or disturbed by success or failure, by surface or show, analysis or abstraction, the criticism or praise of others - or even one's own self-criticism.'' [Alan Schneider, 1917-1984] Or, as my father loved to say: "Illegitimi non carborundum," which may look like Latin, but it doesn't translate exactly to "Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down."

What superpower would you have and why?

Animal Communication/Telepathy because I am fascinated by Nature and natural wonders and personally limited as a human being to what I will be able to see and experience throughout my life span. It would be wondrous to be able to expand my knowledge exponentially by being able to “learn” from the animals who inherit all parts of the globe.

Any future projects?

Always open to brain-sailing with others about “unexplored territories” and collaborative performing arts programming!

Are you a local artist of any discipline? Do you work with a company as a designer, stagehand or administrative staff? We'd love to get your 10 Bites to share. Fill out a form here, and you might be featured in a post!

CHECK OUT OUR 10 BITES FEATURE GALLERY HERE

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