OREGON PERFORMING ARTS

Theater, dance, classical music and more in Portland and throughout Oregon

Christmas in English-speaking countries doesn't feel complete without Handel's "Messiah." But in Germany, it's Johann Sebastian Bach's "Christmas Oratorio" that audiences crave, year after year.

In Portland, we've heard selections of the "Christmas Oratorio" each season, thanks to Stefan Minde, but rarely all six cantatas at once. This year, audiences will not only enjoy the complete "Christmas Oratorio," but they'll hear it on period instruments.

Continue reading "Complete "Christmas Oratorio" on period instruments" »

Hansel and Gretel's adventure, a pack of landlubber pirates, and a bum economy make a strange mix for a holiday show, but that's OK. It is, after all, the "Holly Jolly Hullabaloo!," Kim Bogus' take on the ever-so-playful British Christmas pantomime tradition.

This year's episode with an entirely new book by Bogus and songs by Greg Paul is the fourth incarnation of the "Holly Jolly Hullabaloo!" but unlike earlier versions it no longer appears under the auspices of Integrity Productions, now defunct. This season Bogus' panto is the initial presentation of her new group, Jane, a theater company."

Continue reading "Theater review: 'Holly Jolly Hullabaloo!' is strange holiday fun" »

In The Portland Ballet's child-friendly story ballet "La Boutique Fantasque," dolls come to life in an enchanted toyshop on the French Riviera, the score -- orchestrated by Ottorino Resphighi after Gioachino Rossini -- glitters and bounces, and the dancing is a fast-paced series of divertissements, from tarantellas to mazurkas to prancing poodles, with lovely pointe work and a clever nod to "Giselle." Continue reading "Dance review: 'La Boutique Fantasque' doesn't know its audience" »

Stephen Beaudoin writes with worrisome news about how the economy is affecting a small arts group in Portland:

Well, local classical ensemble singers are starting to feel the crunch of the economic downturn. Just this season, I began as a member of Portland Vocal Consort, Ryan Heller's promising chamber choir in its second season. I signed a contract for three concerts, with two performances of each show (one in Portland, one in Longview, WA). We sang the season-opening shows this past October to quarter to third-full houses: not a good sign.

Continue reading "Concerts threatened" »

The Oregon Symphony has hired two new musicians, principal bassoon Carin Miller and third trumpet Micah Wilkinson. Auditions were held in September and October.

Miller has been principal bassoon with the Jacksonville Symphony in Florida since 2005. She has a master's degree from Rice University's well-regarded Shepherd School of Music and a bachelor's degree from Juilliard. She replaces acting principal Evan Kuhlmann, who, in turn, replaced Mark Eubanks beginning in 2007.

Wilkinson has been third trump in the Tucson Symphony since 2007 and has a bachelor's degree in trumpet performance from St. Olaf College.

They settle in to Storm Large's cozy living room, around a coffee table set with snacks. Storm has made samosas. Marc Acito has brought chicken salad and crackers. Out come the sheaves of paper, and they take turns reading and getting feedback. Christine McKinley reads an excerpt from a new book project, a humorous blend of physics primer and self-help advice. "I would lose the pink crash helmet -- it immediately puts you in girl territory," Acito remarks, and the ensuing lively discussion covers whether and how to target a particular demographic, what might make a catchy title, what other books might offer context or serve as useful models.

Writing is lonely work. Editing doesn't have to be. Some writers find that the best way to improve their work is to hash it out in the company of friends, in an atmosphere of fun and trust.

So it is for the Big Brain Trust.

Read the whole story here.

Mary Oslund's taut, conceptual trio of dances, which opened Friday and closes Sunday night at Imago Theatre, traverse heady terrain: pollution and consumption in the dry-wit films of Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang ("Thirst"); minimalist experiments with space in the duet "Prrr;" and the polarizing forces of idealism and disillusionment in "Bete Perdue" ("Lost Beast").

That these themes aren't overtly evident in the movement in no way diminishes the expressive power of these dances. Oslund's dances reward the eye with their surging patterns and ticktock to slow to arrested pacing, the way she has her dancers gather and disperse and realign from detached solos to intimate partnering to big ensemble flight paths, falling in and out of unison, emptying and filling a stage constantly in flux.

Continue reading "Mary Oslund's latest trio of dances a powerful display" »

When a theater company advertises an original production with that lofty term "world premiere," what appears onstage is usually a work-in-progress. But "Holidazed," the new play by Marc Acito and C.S. Whitcomb debuting at Artists Repertory Theatre, is that rarest of pleasures: a fresh creation as well formed and finely tuned as an old favorite.

No doubt, a favorite is what it's destined to be. It has all the requisite ingredients: humor, a family-oriented story, a questioning of the trappings that obscure the season's true meaning, and the triumph of peace and goodwill.

Continue reading ""Holidazed": A fine world premiere at Artists Rep" »

In his tenure as music director of the Oregon Symphony, Carlos Kalmar has introduced Portland audiences to a wealth of talent they'd likely know nothing of otherwise -- soloists and conductors who fly under the mainstream radar -- even as orchestras everywhere face increasing pressure to fill seats by featuring marquee names. Saturday night's concert at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall was an example of how gratifying that strategy can be, and what a shame it would be to have the appeal of stardom win out over the thrill of discovery.

The night's big piece was the violin concerto of Johannes Brahms, with soloist Jennifer Koh, who last appeared at the Schnitzer for the Oregon Symphony's belated premiere of Karol Szymanowski's violin concerto two years ago. Koh's hardly an unknown, and if there's any justice she'll be a star soon enough, but her name lacks the ticket-selling power of, say, Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg, who played the same concerto with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra seven years ago.

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Novelist, short story writer, doctor and spiritualist, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was best-known for his creation of Sherlock Holmes, the brilliant Victorian detective with a penchant for cocaine and a delight in disguises. When Doyle tried to kill Holmes off in a story, the public complained so clamorously that the author revived him.

"Sherlock Holmes: The Speckled Band" was originally a short story from 1892 that Doyle adapted for the stage a few years later. A skilled playwright he was not, and this certainly doesn't count as great theater, but there is magic in the character of Holmes, whom some critics say Doyle eventually disliked because he was too perfect.

Continue reading "Not great theater, but 'Sherlock Holmes' production still magical" »