This is “high season” in Palm Beach County for countless opportunities
to enjoy theatre of all genres,
dance, music and art exhibitions. To try
to take them all in would leave little time for anything else. While I love the theatre in general, I share
Stephen Sondheim’s general aversion to the opera, probably because, for me,
it’s too much of a hybrid, theatre, music, sometimes dance and high drama all
rolled into one, and while I appreciate a fine voice, my sensibilities draw me
to the Great American Songbook.
It’s not as if I’ve never been exposed to opera, although
my parents never went to one or listened to them on their “Victrola.” In college, when I minored in music, I was
able to get a ticket once in a while to the nosebleed section of the Metropolitan
Opera House where there were students’ desks, and I would endeavor to follow
the score. I was impressed by the
pageantry, but the music left me rather indifferent. So I grew away from opera which I’m sure is
my loss.
Ann on the other hand loves the opera so we’ve gone our
separate ways, she subscribing to the Palm Beach Opera season (after having
enjoyed the Metropolitan Opera in NYC while we lived there or nearby) with a
friend. One of the features of the PB
Opera is a “lunch-and-learn” a couple of weeks before each performance and recently
one of her friends was unable to go and offered the ticket to me. Normally I’d decline, but the program focused
on Candide by Leonard Bernstein, one
of my musical “heroes” who could write for all different musical genres.
Remarkably, and luckily for us all, Nina Bernstein
Simmons, the youngest daughter of the great Leonard Bernstein, was the main
speaker, lovingly guiding the audience through the humor and genius of her
father’s operetta. Candide is to be performed at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach
February 23-25. Parts of the program are
brief performances, accompanied by piano, by the Benenson Young Artists, all
opera students ready to graduate to the main stage.
Derrek Stark, tenor played Candide,and Chelsea Bonagura, soprano, played Cunegonde,
Francesca Aguado, mezzo-soprano, played the Old Lady,
and Joshua Conyers, baritone, played Dr. Pangloss.
Their voices soared, and in particular, the best known
piece, Glitter and Be Gay, sung by
Chelsea Bonagura. None other than the great Barbara Cook who one normally associates with the Great American Songbook can be heard singing this on You Tube.
David Stern, the conductor for the Palm Beach Opera and
the son of Isaac Stern joined Nina Bernstein to reminiscence about his father’s
friendship with Bernstein. It was moving
to see their two adult children sharing those memories.
Before that, again I was lucky enough to be the recipient
of a subscription ticket from another one of Ann’s friends, this time to the
Miami City Ballet. Ah, the ballet. From The
Chorus Line’s song, At the Ballet:
“Everything was beautiful at the ballet, / Raise your arms and someone's always
there. /Yes, everything was beautiful at the ballet, /At the ballet, /At the
ballet!!!” With a few exceptions, that’s
as close as I’ve been to a ballet as well.
But a couple of weeks ago I did a grand jeté to the Miami
City Ballet centennial celebration of Jerome Robbins. Like Bernstein, Robbins is a cross over artist,
probably best known for his work on West
Side Story, which he directed and choreographed, with Leonard Bernstein the
composer and Stephen Sondheim the lyricist.
Here are all the musical artists I most admire.
And, the second part of the program was dedicated to the West Side Story Suite, including, a “Prologue,”
“Something’s Coming,” “Dance at the Gym,” “Cool, America,” “Rumble,” concluding
with the “Somewhere Ballet.”
Ironically, it was a company premiere in the first part
of the program which stole the show, The
Cage. When it first premiered in NYC in 1986 the New York Times remarked: “Once seen, ''The Cage'' tends not to be
forgotten. Jerome Robbins's depiction of life in a covey of female insects is
gruesome. These are females who consider males of the species their prey, and
two males are killed with brutal dispatch during the ballet, with Stravinsky's
String Concerto in D somberly accompanying the murders. “ Indeed, not to be forgotten. It was spectacularly fascinating.
From opera and ballet early this month on to our annual
attendance at The Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show. Opening night is the “social event of the
season” – complimentary hors d oeuvres and champagne while you stroll about and
look at the most eclectic and expensive art and jewelry you’ve ever seen for
sale. A couple of years ago I remember
seeing Wilber Ross there. You need his
kind of resources to buy the art exhibited.
So why do we go? It’s a moving
feast of people and art. See and be
seen. Just plain fun and it appeals to
my diverse interests, from rare books, to paintings, to sculpture, to pop
art. Ann likes to look over the jewelry as
well, but we’re both astonished by the prices, having looked at some gold ear
rings, my thinking, maybe $5k, turning out to be $15K. Look but don’t touch!
Some of the paintings that caught our eyes, and this is
just a mere sampling, was the most expensive one, (a half a million dollars):
Louis Marie De Schryver,” Marchand de fleurs, la Rue du
Havre, Paris,” 1893
Then a more contemporary artist:
Marc Chagall, “Le vase bleu aux duex corbeilles de
fruits,” circa 1961 - 1964
And one of my favorites:
Norman Rockwell, “Mars Candy Christmas Card,” 1960
Talk about strange, but captivating, an iconoclastic UV
print on birch wood:
Sarah Bahbah, “Sex and Takeout”
Finally, one that for a mere $29,500 I would even
consider buying, if I had that kind of $ for art. This one appeals to me because of my love for
the sea and the color. The artist is
considered a “hyperrealist:”
Marc Esteve, “Breaker”.
In the rare book department, see the signed first edition
of The Theatre Guild Presents Porgy and
Bess. New York: Gershwin Publishing Corporation, [1935]. Breathtaking, signed by Ira and George
Gershwin as well as by Du Bose Heyward who wrote the libretto as well as some
of the lyrics along with Ira Gershwin.
This is as close as I’ll get to such a piece of history.
But who needs art like that when, in our own home, we now
possess three professionally prepared giclées, by one of our favorite artists, our
neighbor and dear friend, Nina Motta.
Her gift to us of “Jessica at the Piano” now hangs above
my piano and not a day goes by that I fail to see her and even sometimes greet
her. The full story is the subject of a
separate blog entry.
Recently we acquired giclées of two of her other
paintings that we have long admired.
These hang in our hallway so we see them many, many times a day as well.
The first is a prize winning painting, one of our
favorites,
"Making Plans"
Nina told us the story about this. She was sitting at a café around the corner
from the Vatican. A young woman stepped
through the doorway of a salon across the street from where Nina was sitting.
“It was impossible to miss her, the dress, hair, posture, cell phone. I grabbed
my camera and put on the telephoto lens because I knew immediately it was going
to be my next painting, taking about 25 shots.”
The other is called "Portobelo, Panama" which
she painted from a picture she took in the harbor of that town.
Nina’s art shares that hallway with unique pieces created
by one of my dearest friends, who passed away nearly ten years ago now, Howard
Goldstein. My story about Howard and our friendship can be read here
Howard specialized in carving wildlife figures from balsa
wood, and painting them to life-like perfection. I was touched when he gave us
two of his works, the only ones he said he had ever parted with from his
personal collection.
The first is a Koala bear
The other is a Manatee, just like the ones which occasionally go by our dock.
That same hallway has an original work of art which we
acquired in Nantucket when we first visited the island by our own boat, an
acrylic on board:
John Austin’s “ Forty Four Foot Boat”
Another painting acquired in Nantucket that same year is
by a better known artist, Kerry Hallam. He
is a British impressionist who later specialized in nudes and sailboats and the
French Rivera coast. A prolific artist
(some 12,000 paintings) but we love this one, unique in many respects as he
didn’t do many of the Nantucket mainland.
“Unitarian Church, Nantucket” 1986
Finally, I’ll call this art. We needed to replace our front door, which
was a nice solid wood mahogany but as it opened in rather than out, was not
hurricane code compliant. Therefore, we
needed to put up shutters across the front door every hurricane season which
took its toll on me as well as the stucco around the door.
As we decided to shop for a replacement door, why not find
one that is aesthetically beautiful as well as functional? After spending hours at a store which
specializes in such doors, we found one made
of hurricane impact glass which encapsulates all clear bevels and an antique
polished black Caming design, perfect for the Mediterranean feeling of our
home. A Canadian artisan designed and
manufactured the glass, a work of art in our opinion.
Now that it’s been installed, we wonder why we didn’t do
that long ago. It’s hard to do it
justice in these photographs, particularly from the front.
So, it’s been an “artsy” few weeks for us. All that is missing from this entry are my
theatre write ups but they are easily found from the index.
