The Hub

Commissioned by Opera Parallèle as part of their Hands-On-Opera program, a series of operas for youth, “Harriet’s Spirit,” is performed appropriately at the Bayview Opera House, which operates as the hub of the San Francisco African American Arts and Culture District.  The production energizes and provides a beacon of hope for the communities that its story represents.

I’m looking forward to seeing the next iteration of The Plot as Eno continues to develop and refine this work.

The Williams College Museum of Art, through the end of January, is presenting “Barbara Takenaga” a stunning overview of 60 works of varying scale, that represent two decades of her oeuvre. The selection was made in collaboration with independent curator Debra Bricker Balken.

When in Frisco a landmark for hearty breakfast is Sears Fine Food steps from Union Square. There are lines from morning through dinner. Mostly the ham and egger, which was founded in 1938, is famous for Swedish pancakes.

San Francisco is for lovers as our correspondents Traveling Sandy Katz and her husband Gerry rediscovered. After an absence of decades they were thrilled to be back at the City by the Bay. If you visit now some fifty years after The Summer of Love be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.

When visiting the Frank Stella retropective at the Whitney in 2015 the critic had his car towed. The event was so costly and inconvenient that Martin Mugar is thinking twice of driving to Manhattan to view the upcoming Rauschenberg exhibition. Many of his concerns and misgivings are informed by the critical comments of the critic Jed Perl. Here Mugar refects on Perls of wsdom. They enforce his own ideas of how Rauschenberg is emeblematic of the decline and fall of art in our time. As Mugar states "If you like your postmodern condition you can keep your postmodern condition and Rauschenberg's your guy."

Artistic Director of Hubbard Hall Opera Theater, Alix Jones, talks to us about how small-scale opera started at Hubbard Hall, why is succeeded, and where it might go next.

Last week I saw two masterpieces of 20th century theater by Lillian Hellman, the great playwright and left wing political activist. (I‘m a fan on both counts.) The two shows were extremely different in production values but demonstrated the power of performance.

Goodman's excellent new production of The Little Foxes, directed with style by Henry Wishcamper, stars a galaxy of Chicago's finest actors and surely resonates with some of the current discussions about racism, sexism, domestic abuse and income inequality. If you have a drink with friends after the show, those topics probably will be part of your post-play discussion.

Scotland is boldly centre stage with The James Plays, an epic trilogy of history plays for Scotland from writer Rona Munro, which marks the first co-production between the National Theatre of Great Britain, the National Theatre of Scotland and the Edinburgh International Festival. This rich and turbulent period of history is played by a superb cast which includes Blythe Duff, Sofie Gråbøl, Gordon Kennedy, Mark Rowley and the three kings James McArdle, Andrew Rothney and Jamie Sives.

You can be an avid concertgoer and never once hear a string quartet or a symphony by such as Arnold Bax, Walter Piston, Roger Sessions, Vincent Persichetti, Vittorio Rieti, Peter Mennin or Ernst Toch; the piano sonatas of Dussek, Clementi or Griffes; the piano concertos of Hummel, Field, Tippett, Malipiero, Palmgren, Busoni or Lutoslawski.

HHOT takes a concert featuring music from powerful and familiar arias by Verdi and Leoncavallo, to popular songs by Tosti, Donaudy to Bennngton and Saratoga.

After decades of conflict Colombia is emerging toward a bright future. It is a beautiful country with spectacular landscapes, ranging from Andean peaks to rolling hills and sandy beaches. Bogota, its capital, is a sophisticated, multi-ethnic city with distinct colonial architecture, world-class museums and one of a kind attractions.

In early February the Hubbard Hall Opera Theater will take another of their succinct piano reductions of a classic opera on tour to the Dorset Playhouse and the University of Albany. What better way to spend a cold winter night or a cozy afternoon before the Superbowl?

Although its mid-century Freudianism is dated, "Lizzie Borden" still packs a wallop as a work of music-drama. The recent Boston Lyric Opera production was a preview for a performance at Tanglewood this summer.

In this think piece the artist Martin Mugar connects some disparate dots. He reflects on "one of my favorite novels , "Voyage au But de la Nuit" by Celine." The tragedy of the Marathon Bombings. The Red Sox. And "I recall a visit years ago to a Boston gallery.The work on display was some overly tense and fastidiously wrought sculpture by Christopher Wilmarth." He concludes with the Robert Lowell poem "For the Union Dead" from 1960.

Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre is located at 25 E. Main St. in Cambridge, NY. HHOT’s performances of Barber of Seville— Aug. 16, 17, and 22 at 8 pm and Aug. 24 and 25 at 2 pm — will be fully costumed and staged, sung in Italian (with supertitles), and accompanied by a 19-piece orchestra conducted by Hubbard Hall favorite, Maria Sensi Sellner (Don Pasquale, La Traviata).

It is difficult to find authentic international cuisine in the Berkshires. Owner Fahri Kakakaya has recruited a fellow Turk, Ahmet Alcay, as chef and relaunched the large space on Main Street in North Adams as Medi-Terra, American Mediterranean Bistro. There are Italian items on the menu but we opted to try the superb and unique Turkish Cuisine. We strongly recommend this for a winning combination of tasty, exotic flavors, affordable prices and a comfortable, uncrowded ambiance. Try it for salad and sandwiches at lunch or come back for a leisurely dinner with beer and wine.

L’Abbraccio, (The Hug) the name of the exhibition, refers to a cabinet designed by Gaetano Pesce in 2009 of two people locked in an embrace. In addition to its “namesake” cabinet, the exhibition will feature some of Pesce’s rarely seen drawings, maquettes, lighting and furniture from the 1970s. On view at Fred Torres Collaborations from March 21-May 25, 2013.

Designed by architect Renzo Piano, the project will create new resources for innovative teaching, research, and scholarship, and provide greater access to the collections—among the nation’s largest and most renowned—held by the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler museums $5 million gift from the German Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum will support one of three new study centers

A year ago the Pit Bulls rated the hole in the wall rib joint Mad Jack's the best in the Berkshires for barbecue. Since then, there has been a move from a small space on Frenn Street to a major venue next to the upscale Spice Dragon on North Street. The change to a larger venue with increased overhead has resulted in a loss of focus on the quality of food and service. This review was the result of several disappointing visits.

The BSO's performance of George Gershwin's classic American "folk opera" was sumptuously played and well sung, but it tried to make Gershwin a late Romantic like Strauss or Puccini. The production is musically rich, bringing out the complexities of the score with a clarity that only underscores how great the work is. It is the first time the orchestra has performed “Porgy,” which opened in Boston in 1935 as a try-out for its New York premiere, in Symphony Hall.

Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981 at the Museum of Contemporary Art was curated by long-time MOCA Chief Curator Paul Schimmel. It was intended to be a prequel to Schimmel’s 1992 exhibition Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s. But Schimmel knew many of the artists included in Under the Big Black Sun from an exhibition he did back in 1977 for the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, called American Narrative/Story Art: 1967-1977.

WBCN was the pioneering Boston radio station which brought rock to the FM dial in 1968, and reflected the social ferment of the times. It went off the air in 2009, but now an honored documentary film maker, Bill Lichtenstein, who once worked at BCN is doing a documentary about the station’s early days, and crowdsourcing content and funding for the project.

In the exercise of power, influence and ego art critics often like to make or break individuals and movements. The combative stances perpetuate the notion of artists as warriors. High art is depicted as a clash of the titans. The great artists are simply the last ones standing.