Hilary Hahn plays challenging program plus two encores

Hilary Hahn wowed her Celebrity Series audience on Friday night with what I can only describe as a knuckle-buster of a program (I leave the nuanced language to the professional nuancers) which, to this listener's ears, was delivered in a warmer - dare I say, more mature - fashion than her previous Celebrity Series recital (which was excellent as well). And by this I don't mean to convey some ham-fisted "our little girl has grown up" assessment, I just feel there has been a lot of real development taking place over the last two years (the wildly enthusiastic audience seemed to concur). Of course, if you were present you will correctly trust your own judgement, and if you weren't present, well, there will be a Globe review.

Here are the two encores she played:

1. Paganini, Cantabile

2. Dinicu/Heifetz, Hora Staccato

Boston Globe: 'Rose' sits well with Dukakis

Olympia Dukakis as Rose

Catherine Foster of The Boston Globe grabbed a few minutes with actress Olympia Dukakis to talk about the Martin Sherman play, Rose, that she will be performing next week at the Calderwood Pavilion. Dukakis will be doing her concert version of Rose, which is a bit shorter than the original play and during which she sits for the duration. She spoke to the challenge of reaching an audience while alone on stage and sitting for the entire play:

"As far as being stationary, Dukakis says, 'I've grown to love doing it that
way, sitting there, taking in the audience. [Rose] really reaches for the
audiences, for their understanding and compassion.'"

Read all of 'Rose' Sits well with Dukakis.

Dance Across the Blogosphere

Dance Across the City has gotten a few bloggers going:

Back in December, dance writer Leigh Witchell wrote of Dance Across the City that Boston is "a city that does festival like this proud; I remember First Night   from the years after college with great fondness."

Mishak said in his Live Journal entry that waking up at 7am on Saturday morning is "so wrong it's just funny." But "it was a great fun day, I started with Country Line Dancing and it's totally fun!"

Mishak came to DATC with Annabelle and Nepenthe. Nepenthe took Classical Chinese Dance which included, she says, "a folk dance from southern China that really resonated with me. It was very lyrical and expressive. I could really learn more about this dance form."

For Unicornvamp3z, DATC was "SOOOOO BRILLIANT."

Talesinsdaughtr woke up late on Saturday, but "briefly considered trying to run down there any way, but remembering
the description of the lines from last year's participants, I decided
just to get some more sleep. Maybe next year :/"

I'll keep my eyes peeled for anything else of note. A word to talesinsdaughtr: the key to DATC is just showing up. There is something for everyone to do and we would have gotten you moving. Absolutely next year!

Olympia Dukakis talks with Broadwayworld.com

Jan Nargi of Broadwayworld.com interviewed Olympia Dukakis last week about Martin Sherman's one woman play, Rose, which the Celebrity Series is presenting at the Calderwood Pavilion January 16-21. Here's a bit of their chat:

"BWW: Let’s start by talking about this wonderful character, Rose, that you’ll be playing in Boston in a couple of weeks. You have said that she really resonates for you – that you identify with her in that, for both of you, 'there’s a joy in not belonging.' Can you talk about that a bit?

OD: Growing up I was always feeling like an outsider, being Greek in communities that were not very ethnic. I felt like an outsider in the Greek community, too, because women were expected to behave and socialize in a certain way, and I didn’t. Also being an actor I felt like an outsider, because not many Greek American women were actors then. But once you realize that you are an outsider, there can be a freedom in that. You can find your own way."

Read the complete interview.

Dance Across the City, a Photographic Reprise

Adam Gopnik, in the January 8 issue of The New Yorker, wrote of the press box at Giants Stadium (the pride of East Rutherford, New Jersey) that it was "That vital place where the fulcrum of the First Amendment, free food, is celebrated by reporters for hours on end every Sunday morning..."

We were on to something similar with Dance Across the City (DATC) this past weekend. Our First Amendment fulcrum was free dance - specifically, free dance performances and classes over two days (January 5 & 6). DATC toes the constitutional line as far as "the right of the people peaceably to assemble," (if we're lucky, everything we do draws a peacable, sold-out house) but not surprisingly, there was also a lot of Free Speech going on as well - the 5 to 8 year olds being the least inhibited "speakers." Next year, come watch that group in ballet class - it's a sight not to be missed.

You have "heard" from my camera in recent DATC postings, but it's time to get a load of what professional (though generously volunteered) equipment and talent can produce:

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, "Sinner Man" from Revelations

Boston Arts Academy dancers stretch out backstage at The Strand

Renee Jaworski and Otis Cook of Pilobolus in performance at the Strand

Dance Across the City Day ballet class

Members of OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center on The Citi Shubert stage


Karah Abiog of Complexions dance company leads a modern dance class

Two legitimate holidays

"Only two legitimate holidays remain. By 'legitimate' holidays, I mean this: holidays with a specific, naturally evolved meaning, the celebration of which we find refreshing and correct, and in the celebration of which we, as a People, are united. Those holidays are the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards."

-excerpt from Writing in Restaurants by David Mamet

Stravinsky: James Brown, Andy Warhol and Jimmy Durante

After reading a quote on the Monotonous Forest blog that Igor Stravinsky had counted James Brown among his favorite composers, I became curious how many - if any - interviews with the composer could be found online (and, of course, could I confirm the James Brown line). While I had no luck confirming the quote, I did find a fascinating little nugget of an interview with Stravinsky published in The New York Review of Books from March 1971. Here's a snippet:

"NYR: Does the state of the arts really depress you?

I.S.: Oh no. We live in a very exhilarating time, a little short of a Golden Age, perhaps, but, well, consider, in the visual arts, the recent Warhol retrospective at the Tate; in the dramatic arts, Broadway category, the revival of the Betty Boop period; in literature, the new genre of reality recalled on tape (bestselling fall title: "Manson's Love Life As Told By His 'Family' "); and in music, the increasing involvement of everybody except the composer. And these developments have in turn produced a great critic, Jimmy Durante, who described it all very accurately when he observed that 'Everybody is getting into the act.'" Read more of the interview.