Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Double Feature: A ballet in two acts

On Thursday, January 31 my sister Lois generously offered me the wonderful opportunity to attend Susan Stroman's silent movie-inspired Double Feature.

Though somewhat of a lout when it comes to haute couture, I had the time of my life.








The performance consisted of two separate acts. The first act, titled The Blue Necklace, is a about a distressed mother who gives up her baby but always longs for her. In the end they are reunited in a Cinderella like scene in the midst of grand choreography in a society ball.

The second part, Makin' Whoopee, is a comedy (a David Belasco play and then a Buster Keaton film) Seven Chances about a man who needs to marry to collect his inheritance. By the end of the show the stage is riddled with ballerinas in bridal gowns (including a couple of male dancers stomping around, equally after the star's 7 million inheritance) great dancing, yet genuinely funny.




























In all it was tremendous fun. And my sister survived dragging a lout to Lincoln Center.

Concert for One Korea

On Saturday evening February 2, I had the great joy of hearing probably my favorite classical performer, Ms. Elizabeth Woo.

The occasion was a symphony performance to benefit Korean Unification at Merkin Hall of the Kaufman theatre.

Elizabeth played two masterful pieces supported by the Ureuk Symphony under the leadership of conductor Christopher Lee, Tchaikovsky's Pezzo Capriccioso, and Rimsky-Korsakov's Fantasy on Russian Theme for Violin and Orchestra.

Other soloists for the evening included Soprano Kyong-Jin Lim, and cellist Jacques Lee Wood.

Special gratitude to Elizabeth and all the Happy Tao family together with Sabonim, Khan Bada.