MuseFlashes

Compiled by BONNIE WELLS

Published on February 01, 2008

The music of passion next week at UMass

Next week Mezzo-soprano Janna Baty and her UMass music department colleague, pianist Nikki Stoia, will set a mood for Valentine's Day in a concert devoted to, well, devotion. Passionate relationships take center stage Feb. 8 at 8 p.m. in Bezanson Recital Hall at the Fine Arts Center.

Romantic-era composer Robert Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben follows a couple from the moment of first love, through betrothal, marriage, the birth of a child and ultimately the tragic death of the husband. "The beautiful eight songs in the cycle exist at the exact intersection between self-control and passion," said Baty in a news release.

The evening's program also features a performance of Arianna a Naxos by Franz Joseph Haydn, in which Arianna sings heatedly of her lover Theseus and her despair at his betrayal. The work, termed a concert scena, is a kind of mini-opera for voice and keyboard. Scholars believe that Haydn planned to enlarge it for voice and orchestra but never got around to it.

Works by Oliver Messaien and Fernando Obradors round out the program, taking, by turns, a profound and light-hearted look at what makes the world go around.

Tickets to the concert are $10; $5 for students, seniors and children;$3 for UMass students. They are available at the Fine Arts Center Box Office at 545-2511, or at the door at Bezanson, starting at 7:30 p.m.

Viewing viewers viewing art at Hampshire College

A new exhibition in the Liebling Center Gallery at Hampshire College is at least a triple entendre. Visitors to "Pictures at an Exhibition," with photographs by Stan Sherer and text by Marjorie Senechal, will view photographs of viewers viewing art and the art they view in museum's throughout the world. The images depict Sherer's interpretation of the museum experience, capturing candid moments of visitors and staff in interior and exterior settings over the past 10 years. Senechal's words, based on a performance of Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," act as an accompanying voice as one views the photographs.

First published in 2004 as a limited edition book, this is the first time that "Pictures" will be shown in a gallery setting. The exhibition will also include a smaller group of color photographs taken in St. Petersburg, Russia, which provide a historical, geographical and architectural setting for the score of Mussorgsky's composition. Works from the series, Iris prints made on Nepalese handmade rice paper will be exhibited at the Caelum Gallery in New York City concurrent with the Hampshire show.

Sherer has worked as a photographic artist, photojournalist and fine art printer for 40 years. He has published four books and five catalogs of his work, and his photographs are in numerous collections, including the Smith College Museum of Art, The Royal Photographic Society of London and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York.

Marjorie Senechal is professor emerita in mathematics and the history of science and technology at Smith College, and the founding director of the college's Louise B. and Edmund J. Kahn Liberal Arts Institute, which supports collaborative interdisciplinary projects. Her books include "Northampton's Century of Silk," "Shaping Space: A Polyhedral Approach" and "Long Life to Your Children! A Portrait of High Albania," with Scherer.

"Pictures at an Exhibition" is on view Feb. 1-29. Hours at the gallery are Sunday through Thursday, 1-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 1-6 p.m. Sherer and Senechal will be on hand for a reception and gallery talk Feb. 13 at 5 p.m.

Old chums invited to 'Come to the cabaret'

Decadence and the rising Third Reich in Weimar Berlin come to life onstage this weekend as Amherst College presents the musical theater classic "Cabaret" Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 and 2 at 8 p.m. with a matinee Saturday at 2 p.m. in Bucklety Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center at the college.

With music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb and book by Joe Masteroff, "Cabaret" is loosely based on "The Berlin Stories" by Christopher Isherwood. In the show, a young American writer in the Berlin of the Weimar Republic falls under the spell of the charismatic club performer Sally Bowles. The original Broadway show in 1967 and the revival in 1998 garnered a combined total of 12 Tony Awards, and the 1972 film version took eight Academy Awards.

The Amherst show is directed by A. Scott Parry with music direction by Mark Lane Swanson, choreography by Christopher Kane and the Amherst College Orchestra in the pit.

Tickets are $8 for thegeneral public; free to Amherst College students. Tickets are reserved seating, and can be reserved only by e-mailing amherstcabaret@gmail.com.

A theatrical look at U.S.-China relations

"Sleeping With Strangers," a multi-media work of theater by Asian-American performance artist Dan Kwong and traditional Chinese opera artist Peng Jinquan, takes aim at the foibles of the governments, cultures and individuals of both the U. S. and China, as they explore relationships between East and West.

The show will be presented by the Asian Arts and Culture Program of the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts Feb. 8 at 8 p.m. at Bowker Auditorium in Stockbridge Hall.

The work is structured as a series of vignettes, using a wide array of theatrical techniques, including monologue, Chinese opera, Western-style theater, multimedia, poetry, puppets and slapstick comedy. For example, the conflict between socialism and capitalism is personified through the use of puppet characters of Karl Marx and Bill Gates.

Reserved tickets are $20, $15; Youth 17 and under $12; five-college students $10, $7. They can be reserved at the Fine Arts Center box office at 545-251 or online at www.fineartscenter.com. For more information, call the Asian Arts and Culture Program at (413) 577-2486.

Dinosaurs pay visit to Mullins Center

For 200 million years, dinosaurs ruled the earth and now they return in a live theatrical production, "Walking with Dinosaurs - The Live Experience," based on the award-winning BBC Television Series.

After playing for 10 sold-out weeks in five cities in Australia, "Walking with Dinosaurs" now comes to North America for a two-year arena tour and will perform seven shows at the Mullins Center, beginning on March 27 through 30.

About 800,000 Americans have already seen the production since it opened in July 2007.

Tickets are priced from $29.50 to $69.50. They can be purchased by calling 733-2500, on-line at www.ticketmaster.com or in person at the Mullins Center Box Office. For groups of 10 or more, call Scott Sasenbury at 545-3373.

"Walking with Dinosaurs" is brought to North America by Immersion Edutainment, headed by Bruce Mactaggart.

"The BBC series was a brilliant blend of special effects, escapism, excitement and information. Our show has that - and it's live," Mactaggart said.

"In this show, 15 roaring, snarling "live" dinosaurs mesmerize the audience - and are as awe-inspiring as when they first walked on earth."

Mactaggart said, "This is a show that could only fit in arenas - as the creatures are so absolutely immense in size. It is the closest you'll ever get to experiencing what it was like when they walked and ruled the earth."

For more information, visit www.dinosaurlive.com.

Fiber Art Center plans a road trip

The Fiber Art Center in Amherst is planning a road trip to the The Museum of Arts & Design in New York City, and everyone's invited. The occasion is the exhibit "Pricked: Extreme Embroidery," on view at the museum at 40 W. 53rd St. through April 27. The show features the work of 48 artists, both men and women, from 17 countries, including Romania, Egypt, Wales, Mexico and the U.S. And it's not your grandmother's embroidery.

According to the museum's Web site, "The works in Pricked' convey powerful and personal content that ranges from subjective dreams and diaries to controversial politics in today's world," showing the contemporary evolution of an ancient art.

For example, the North Carolina artist Nava Lubelski, explores the contradictory activities of spoiling and mending by stitching over spills, stains and rips found on tableclothes, napkins and canvas. In "Fast Machine," Benji Whalen embroiders tatoos onto a wall-mounted, stuffed arm. More information and a list of contributing artists is available at the Web site www.madmuseum.org.

The Fiber Art Center has hired a bus for Saturday, March 1, which will leave the Hampshire Mall parking lot at 8 a.m., arriving at the museum at 11. Participants are invited to view the exhibit at their leisure, and will be provided with a list of other sites of interest, such as Kate's Paperie, the Center for Book Arts and N.Y. Central Art Supply, to check out until the 6:30 p.m. departure time. The bus will return to the Hampshire Mall parking lot at 9:30 p.m.

The cost for the trip is $80 for Fiber Art Center members; $87 for non-members, which includes museum admission. For more information or to register, call the center at 256-1818.

Acupuncture Works hosts open house

Oriental medicine practitioner Linda Robinson-Hidas hosts a Chinese New Year's celebration and open house for kids and families Feb. 7, from 4 to 6 p.m. at The Acupuncture Works, 479 West St. in Amherst. Visitors can explore interactive learning stations about various facets of Chinese medicine, including the concepts of yin and yang and the five elements, on which acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine are based. There will be Chinese herbs to touch, smell and taste; a station to practice writing Chinese characters; one to try Chinese puzzles; and to give and receive "pretend" acupuncture treatments. A timeline of the history of Chinese medicine will also be on display.

For more information, call Robinson-Hidas at 253-2900.