Rose Palmisano

REVIEW: Under departing principal conductor Christoph von Dohnányi, the famed Philharmonia delivers sturdy readings of standards. The Orange County Register, May 9, 2008.

“Peaceful Conflict,” a 2007 mixed media on wood sculpture by Dennis Ruble. 

The Huntington Beach Art Center is gearing up for perhaps its most entertaining event of the year. Artini Time III starts Friday, May 9 with a free “Meet the Artists” party from 7-9 p.m. Food and wine will be served, plus the artists’ collective Finishing School will deliver a special performance.

Friday’s gathering will be an opportunity to view and silent bid on various artworks at affordable prices. The art center will also feature “Going Once, Going Twice, Gone,” an exhibit and sale of small works by auction artists, as well as a chance to purchase works by unknown artists, with their names to be revealed after sales.

Silent bidding will continue all week, and the whole shebang will culminate Friday, May 16 with an Auction Party. Admission is $50 ($45 for members), and will include food and drink. The event goes from 7-9:30 p.m., and the live auction will start at 8 p.m.

The annual benefit auction helps the H.B. Art Center, plus it’s an opportunity to buy some emerging and well-known artists’ work at excellent prices.

So make your way down to H.B. this Friday and next…. you’ll be glad you did.

I eavesdropped on Jason Alexander last night at the opening of “Flora, the Red Menace.” Alexander runs the Reprise Theatre Company, and “Flora” is the kind of show — offbeat, seldom seen, provocative — that Alexander wants to feature. He was excited by the star-studded cast, especially O.C. native Eden Espinosa, who plays Flora. “Isn’t she great?” he said to his intermission companion, actress Sharon Lawrence, who’s a frequent player on Southern California stages herself.

Espinosa isn’t a perfect fit for the role, but she has her memorable moments. Read my review.

The Philharmonia Orchestra (of London), under conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi, will perform Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, tonight in Segerstrom Concert Hall. 

Great minds have attempted to decipher the work’s meaning for years. No one quite agrees. Here’s a sample of what some of them said:

“It will be generally admitted that Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is the most sublime noise that ever penetrated into the ear of man. ” — E.M. Forster

“For the grandeur and simplicity of its melodic materials, the nobility of its formal proportions, and the forthrightness of its expression, it has been esteemed throughout the Western world for over a century now as a sort of Parthenon among symphonies. Yet what it means nobody really knows. It has been as much argued about as ‘Hamlet,’ and it remains to this day as movingly obscure a work. ” — Virgil Thomson

“Thus Fate knocks at the door. ” — Beethoven, on the first four notes.

“The Fifth Symphony is simply music, and it is a pity that Schindler’s legend of fate knocking at the door was ever promulgated. These people who find ‘meaning,’ scenes, dramas in music! ” — Olin Downes

“One has neither the obligation nor the temptation, as in the case of some of the other Symphonies, to attach any definite meaning to the music or construct any picture of it. It is enough that it touches one’s deepest and most sombre feelings, and hurries one along unresistingly on its tremendous current. ” — George Grove

“The Symphony in C minor … appears to us to emanate directly and solely from the genius of Beethoven. It is his own intimate thought which is there developed; and his secret sorrows, his pent-up rage, his dreams so full of melancholy oppression, his nocturnal visions and his bursts of enthusiasm furnish its entire subject. ” — Hector Berlioz

“Or it was meant to be Pathological, perhaps — the first movement is Chronic Dyspepsia, sub-acute inflammation of the coats of the stomach — the gnawing of the gastric juice — accelerated pulse — throbbing head — nausea — megrims — vapors and desperation. The liver begins to act in the Andante; the patient is congratulated by his friends on his looking so much better, and walks the streets convinced that `Radway’s Ready Relief’ is what he has sought so long. In the Finale he is regenerated and restored — is once more an ornament to Society and makes his home happy. ” — George Templeton Strong

Think you’ve got what it takes to be “one singular sensation”? The Ahmanson Theatre is holding a contest to promote its upcoming production of “A Chorus Line.” Details here:

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A film still from “Interrupted Passage” (2008) by Julio Cesar Morales. 

The Orange County Museum of Art has announced the artists for its 10th California Biennial, scheduled for Oct. 26-Marcy 15, 2009.

Works by more than 50 artists will be on view during the 2008 biennial, and for the first time, off-site projects will take place in collaborating venues from Tijuana to Northern California.

The guest curator is Lauri Firstenberg, founder and director/curator of LAX ART in Los Angeles.

The artists will be: Micheal Arcega, Edgar Arceneaux, the Backroom, Kelly Barrie (offsite), Justin Beal, Walead Beshty (offsite), Andrea Bowers, Jedediah Caesar, Sarah Cain, Bruce Conner, Einar and Jamex de la Torre, Felipe Dulzaides, Sam Durant, ESL (Esthetics as a Second Language, offsite), Morgan Fisher, Piero Golia (offsite), Gronk, Karl Haendel (offsite), Mark Hagen, Skylar Haskard, Patrick Hebert, High Desert Test Sites (offsite), Evan Holloway, Margaret Honda (offsite), Salomon Huerta, Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, Jordan Kantor, Mary Kelly, Tony Labat, D’nell Larson (offsite), Elad Lassry, William Leavitt, Matt Lucero (offsite), Shana Lutker (offsite), Daniel Joseph Martinez, Rodney McMillian, Julio Cesar Morales, My Barbarian (offsite), Eamon Ore-Giron (offsite), Raymond Pettibon, Yvonne Rainer, Marcos Ramirez, Marco Rios, Amanda Ross Ho, Aaron Sandnes (offsite), Anna Sew Hoy, Jim Skuldt (offsite), Kara Tanaka, Joel Tauber (offsite), Ruben Ortiz Torres, Erika Vogt, Mary Weatherford, Lauren Woods and Brenna Youngblood (offsite).

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AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian

Andrea Bocelli, who a friend has dubbed “the blind singer for deaf people,” has come clean. Even he thinks some of the stuff he performs is, well, sub-par. From the Times in London, quote: 

Now Bocelli has admitted that at times he sold his talent short. He said: “I regret being forced by circumstances to do things that were very profitable, but occupied a lot of time I could have dedicated to more artistically satisfying work.” Speaking to Radio Times, Bocelli added: “Every TV appearance based on commercial foundations robs me of time I’d prefer to devote to studying. In this business you have to do what the world requires.”

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa recently criticised crossover singers as “the new fakes for the new generation — they sing with a microphone”. Bocelli said: “I agree with her. It’s a pity to sing with a microphone, if you can do without it, although it’s excusable in an arena. It’s much easier without one, because you sing the way nature teaches you.” However Caruso also used “amplification”, Bocelli noted.

RTWTH 

No, it’s not me. I know that’s hard to believe, but really.

I have to admit I love this ad campaign. (There’s another one where he’s riding in some sort of rocket sled, in a tux, smoking a cigar and laughing.) At any rate, I wonder about his musical tastes. What would The World’s Most Interesting Man’s record collection look like (and you know it’d be vinyl)? I’m certain he’d have a complete set of Jean Martinon. Surely, he’d be into Aksel Schoitz. For Mahler, it’d be Giulini, of course. His favorite opera? Do you need to ask? “Falstaff“! Anyway, what else would he have in his collection to slap on the old gramophone after he had poured himself a ever-so-subtle, but lustrous cabernet? (Your cue, reader.)

Stay thirsty, my friends.

Remember Garth Drabinsky, the man behind “Ragtime”? A decade ago, the ambitious Canadian impresario seemed poised to change the musical theater world.

Drabinsky’s decline has been spectacular. Here’s the latest on his wrongdoings, as reported in the Toronto Star.

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I just heard that Lauren Gunderson, a 26-year-old Atlanta native whose play, “Emilie,” was read Friday at South Coast Repertory’s Pacific Playwrights Festival, was offered a second commission by SCR. Gunderson told me that SCR literary manager Megan Monaghan made the offer Saturday.

That’s a pretty big deal for someone so young and relatively unknown — a seal of approval from one of the country’s most respected producers of new plays.

My profile of Gunderson and her experience at this year’s PPF will appear tomorrow on ocregister.com. I’ll post the link here as soon as I’m able.