88th Oscars: Too White, But Thankfully, Saved by Chris Rock
• March 30, 2016

When it comes to the 88th Annual Academy Awards, I say: Thanks.

No, really.

Thanks.

Oh, I know, it was really, really long.

Even Oscars host Chris Rock, who made it appear less long, said so: “Man, this is really long.” Or something like that.

And sure, the ABC folks on the red carpet talked too much and mentioned the word, “exclusive,” way too much, and somehow we still managed to find out who or what they were wearing.

No.

Thanks, really.

Thanks, Chris Rock.

There was a lot of speculation about what the edgy — still edgy — comedian and actor was going to say as host of the show about the controversies and contretemps surrounding the diversity issue at the Oscars.  Which is to say that this year, as for last year, there were no persons of color nominated for an Oscar in the acting categories and top echelon categories. The result was that a number of  notables in the industry — film maker Michael Moore, actress Jada Pinkett, wife of Will Smith, who was ignored by the academy for his portrayal of a Nigerian doctor who exposed a concussion problem in the National Football League in “Concussion,” as well as outspoken director Spike Lee, boycotted the proceedings.  The controversy exposed a diversity problem not only in the nominations but in the membership of the supporting organization which has voting membership of largely older white persons.

Rock, on balance, was probably the best choice to deal with this issue while still managing not to ignore that he was host of the biggest television entertainment event of the year.  “Are the Oscars racist?” he asked rhetorically. “Hell, yes,” he replied, “but in a sorority sort of way.”

“I was asked to boycott,” he said. “And I thought about it.  And I noticed  that it was only unemployed people who were asking me to boycott … but I thought about quitting, but I thought … they’re not going to cancel the Oscars because I quit.”

Probably not. And it’s a good thing Rock didn’t quit. He called the evening “The White People’s Choice Awards,” which was funny.  He had skits including black girl scouts selling cookies to the audience, interviewing black people at a Dolby Theater about movies like “The Danish Girl” and “Room” and so on.

The audience laughed, and it’s then that you remember one of Rock’s gifts, he has a way of telling tough truths — “Black people were too busy being lynched in the sixties to worry about who wins the Best Short Subject Award” — and making people like it. He made a memorable appearance at the Kennedy Center for its first Mark Twain awards in which he had a pungent answer to the question of what Twain might say to honoree Richard Pryor if they had met.

But here’s what did happen:  after a while, even without trying, that you noticed just how white-heavy both the audience and the nominees were — about 20 individuals seemed to troop up for certain films and they were: all white. There’s a telling shot in the Washington Post of Rock cajoling the audience in front of him — made up almost entirely of:  well, you know.

Rock’s guidance of the show gave the show a certain edge, a little unpredictability, as opposed to finding out that Leonardo Di Caprio won the Best Actor Award for “The Revenant,” an award everyone wanted him to win badly.  DiCaprio, who usually shows up for these things with his mother, was gracious, a young man of manners and good sense who also managed to call attention to the danger of global warming. Watching DiCaprio give great performances is not unusual — seeing him live often is, there’s something unknowable about him, perhaps the hallmark of a really good actor. So, thanks to you, too, Leo.

And how about that kid actor, Jacob Tremblay, who played Brie Larson’s son in the tense “Room”? Larson won the Best Actress Award, but Tremblay won over everybody with his kid demeanor, eyes popping out when the Star Wars robots walked on stage. Thanks, Jacob, for being a good boy. How about a big thanks to Louis C.K., the comedian and presenter for best documentary short? He said that the award would be something special for winners, who “will never be rich as long as they live. They’re going home in a Honda Civic.”

Thanks to actress Charlize Theron for reminding us what sleek Hollywood glamour is all about, tall, thin and stunning in a knockout red gown that was deeply cut without doing damage. And thanks to Lady Gaga for her singing of “Til It Happens to You,” a clear-as-a-knife-cut ballad about sexual attacks, proving again what a remarkable singer she perhaps has always been. Sad for Sylvester Stallone not to win Best Supporting Actor Award for playing Rocky one last time — or maybe not.  And thanks for all the scenes from “Mad Max” and all the tech and design awards it got.  Now, I don’t have to see it — but good for George Miller for reviving the movie and reveling in the modern toys he had to play with.

And thanks for “Spotlight” for getting the spotlight as Best Picture.  One of the things about Oscar night is that it makes you want to see the movies you didn’t see — like “Spotlight” and “Brooklyn” and its Irish star in the appropriately green dress.

Oscars? Good show, and thanks again.

Future of Nicaragua Foundation: Medical Successes
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In 2002, Julia Sevilla — daughter of Nicaraguan ambassador to the U.S. for 36 years, Guillermo Sevilla Sacasa — founded the Future of Nicaragua Foundation to provide the best possible medical care throughout Nicaragua. Guests gathered at the Embassy of Nicaragua Jan. 29 to celebrate the success of programs that include the provision of surgical care for children with facial deformities, dental care and delivery of wheelchairs. Ambassador Francisco Campbell spoke of the foundation’s impact. Guests enjoyed an elegant buffet, music by violinist Cal Morris and the eloquent remarks of the Reverend Bishop Mario Dorsonville, who quoted Pope Francis: “The future is about solidarity.” [gallery ids="102239,129402,129390,129412,129384,129397,129407" nav="thumbs"]

Apartheid Onstage: Kurt Weill’s ‘Lost in the Stars’
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People who go to Washington National Opera to see Kurt Weill’s last work, “Lost in the Stars” — Feb. 12 through Feb. 20 at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater — are in for some surprises.

If you’re a traditional opera fan, be forewarned: “Lost in the Stars” is hardly your standard soprano-comes-to-tragic-end story.
If you know Kurt Weill’s music only through his collaborations with the iconoclastic Bertolt Brecht, well, don’t expect to come to the cabaret.

And if you remember director Tazewell Thompson only from his directing at Arena Stage back in the day, you, too, have another thing coming.

“Lost in the Stars” had not been done much until recent years. Thompson has probably directed it more than anybody; he is familiar with it on a deeply rooted and intimate level.

Very much a hands-on director, Thompson talked with The Georgetowner on the first day of rehearsal. “I directed ‘Lost in the Stars’ in Cape Town, South Africa, and Francesca [Zambello, WNO artistic director] saw it and wanted to do it,” he explained. Eventually, he directed it at the Glimmerglass Festival, where Zambello is artistic and general director, and the production was a great success.

“And here we are again,” he said.

Here they were. Cast members — all of them — were milling about. Zambello arrived to greet everyone. People were staring at monitors and at the set, an overarching one meant to represent the housing prevalent in South African townships during the bitter days of apartheid.

Then came the words that have the potency of magic in almost every theatrical endeavor, be it opera or theater: “Places, please.”

“‘Lost in the Stars’ straddles both worlds,” said Thompson. “It has beautiful, beautiful music, the music is stunning. It includes what I call ‘Broadway legit,’ blues, jazz, elements of gospel and African tom-tom music. So, yes, it’s not typical opera, certainly. And there is spoken dialogue and it’s entirely in English.” He continued: “But, then, I straddle both worlds, too. I had all these years at Arena, which was a gift and a blessing, being able to work with Zelda Fichandler, and Doug Wager and Molly [Smith, Arena artistic director], and I still do.”

“Lost in the Stars” was the gifted Weill’s last work, and once again he departed from his previous work — not only in style and music, but also in the passionate subject: life in apartheid South Africa and a father’s struggle to regain his son. “It’s big, but it’s also intimate, and the Eisenhower is perfect for that,” said Thompson.

The great and rising bass-baritone Eric Owens stars as Stephen Kumalo, a minister who travels from his small village to Johannesburg to find and reach out to his trouble son, who has killed the son of a white neighbor.

The opera is based on “Cry the Beloved Country” by famed novelist Alan Paton. Like the playwright Athol Fugard after him, Paton wrote often about his country’s troubled race relations, with a white minority ruling a black majority.

“That production in Cape Town resonated,” Thompson said. “People were hearing and seeing their own history in the form of opera, although I would say this is a hybrid.”

Last year, Owens starred in the title role of “The Flying Dutchman” for WNO and in “Macbeth” at Glimmerglass. He will be a major part of WNO’s Ring Cycle this spring.

“This is so familiar to me, doing ‘Lost in the Stars.’” Thompson said. “But it’s fresh every time. Because if it resonated for South African audiences, it surely resonates now, as we have seen all across the country in terms of the Black Lives Matter movement, the campus protests and so on.”

Thompson is comfortable moving back and forth between opera and plays: “I like to think I bring an operatic sensibility to theater and the discipline and experience of dealing with actors that adds to the richness of opera.”

Thompson recently directed the spectacularly powerful and ambitious WNO production of “Appomattox.” Several years ago, he directed “Mary T. & Lizzy K.,” a sharply observed play he wrote about Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley, her friend and seamstress.

Weill was famous, of course for working with the keenly political playwright Bertolt Brecht in Berlin on “Three Penny Opera” and “Happy End,” among other plays, during and after the boisterous Weimar Republic, a period which saw the rise of Hitler. But “Lost in the Stars” has a different tone, partly due to the libretto by lyrical American playwright Maxwell Anderson. “There was a man who understood the place of poetry in the American imagination. We can’t afford to lose that,” said Thompson.

Weill, who was married twice to cabaret legend Lotte Lenya, died at the age of 50. Of Weill, Anderson said that “Kurt managed to make thousands of beautiful things during the short and troubled time he had.”

“Lost in the Stars” contains more than a few of those thousands of beautiful things.

Washington Performing Arts Presents Sir James (or Jimmy)
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This week being the week of St. Patrick’s Day, it’s not hard to think of Sir James Galway in his Irish persona, because he most definitely is Irish, East Belfast-born and -raised. And he most definitely sounds Irish during the course of a brief phone interview, which manages to feel like a fine little slice of the life he leads.

Galway — Sir James, being a knight and all — has the natural lilt, the distinct vowels and a heartiness behind it, that identifies him as the Gaelic sort. To see him, and especially hear him, in person, well, there’s the afternoon concert at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall, Sunday at 4 p.m., part of the Washington Performing Arts season. (He will perform with his wife and fellow flutist Lady Jeanne Galway and pianist Phillip Moll.)

Since he is, after all, by most standards and reputation, the “world’s pre-eminent flutist,” you may also want to dial him up on YouTube. He is the man with the beard, now a little white and wizened; he is the “man with the golden flute”; he is the man who has made the flute and everything you can play on it hugely popular.

Like Jean-Pierre Rampal, only more so, Sir James has spread the gospel of the flute around the world. In his time, which is both then and now, he embodies the flute soloist as a superstar of music, both live and in concert, and captured on the millions of records that have been sold.

“Everyone in our family played something. Me, it was the flute, and I took to it not so much easily as naturally,” he told us in a previous interview. He has the gift of both gab and genius: he was for many years a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, but then quit to take on a solo career — a risky proposition in some ways, but it made him who he is today.

“I saw — listening to jazz and pop and how some people played all that — what you might be able to do with the flute in that large arena,” he said. “And it’s not just about accessibility and popularity, it’s about teaching as well, because that’s a big and important part of what Jeanne and I do, when we do master classes or have people bring flutes to the concerts.”

Galway’s mainstreaming took the form of a quantum leap. You can see him on YouTube being interviewed, or playing with other kinds of stars (in one instance, playing the flute in Aspen with John Denver singing “Annie’s Song,” and in another, playing “Danny Boy” with full orchestra) and how perfect and natural that is. An album called “James Galway and the Chieftains in Ireland” from 1987 might be particularly worth listening to on this day.

“No question, it was like a large number of doors of possibility opened up,” he said.

He seems born to the flute. One observer said that Galway lives the flute, his last breath will be on the flute. Then again, it may be in mid-sentence, also, because he’s a talker.

“What we try to do with our program here, on tour, which we love, is to get the full depth and breath and range of what you can do with the flute,” he said.

To that end, there will be Phillipe Gaubert’s “Sonata No. 3 for Flute and Piano,” Franz Doppler’s lively “Rigoletto Fantasy for Two Flutes” (playing with Lady Galway, nee Jeanne Cinnante), Francois-Joseph Gossec’s “Tambourin,” Marin Marais’s “Le Basque,” the great violinist Fritz Kreisler’s “Schon Rosmarin” and Francois Borne’s “Carmen Fantasy,” among others.

Galway and his wife live in Switzerland by Lake Lucerne, but tour extensively. It’s a long way from the teeming streets of Belfast where he was born just before World War II.

And he’s a knight.

“Right,” he says. “It’s quite an honor, sure. It changes your life. It kicks you right out the working class, that’s for sure.

“Yeah, I know, what to call me. Sir James I guess is fine. But people like to call me Sir Jimmy, because to most people and myself, I was always a Jimmy.”

He is that, but more than that: a worldwide whirlwind carried by the echo of the flute — a golden flute for sure.

Chamber Dance Project Celebrates at Bash in Bloom
• March 29, 2016

Ambassador of Colombia Juan Carlo Pinzón and his wife, Pilar Pinzón, hosted Bash in Bloom at their residence on March 12. The fresh flowers from Colombia enhanced a buffet by chef Spike Mendelsohn and desserts by Baked & Wired. Jacqui Michel chaired the evening, which included a performance by Chamber Dance Project dancers and musicians and by Brass Connection, guest band for the June 2016 season at the Lansburgh Theatre, which will feature world premieres by three choreographers. Founder and Artistic Director Diane Coburn Bruning moved the troupe from New York to Washington in 2014. [gallery ids="117764,117775,117770,117750,117757" nav="thumbs"]

Blue Jeans Ball Raises Funds for Capital Area Food Bank
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Supporters of the Capital Area Food Bank donned denim on March 13 to attend the 13th annual Blue Jeans Ball at the Marriott Marquis. Chefs Ruth Gresser, Sherry Yard and Jeff Buben led tastings from 40 area restaurants to raise funds to help the metropolitan area’s largest hunger-relief organization provide good, healthy food to the needy. Scott Thurman of WJLA–ABC 7 and News Channel 8 was the master of ceremonies. Live entertainment was by DJ John Jazz and Miss H.E.R. [gallery ids="117106,117094,117099,117087" nav="thumbs"]

‘Hamlet’ – Silent, But Not Mimed
• March 24, 2016

The plays of William Shakespeare have long inspired other artists, from composers to filmmakers. “Romeo and Juliet,” for example, the classic tale of doomed young lovers, has been transformed into an opera by Gounod and several ballets and films (not to mention “West Side Story”).

But what about “Hamlet,” often considered Shakespeare’s most confounding play, where words matter, where the hero’s intellect and psyche is a critical part of the play? There are, of course, film versions of the play itself, including the Oscar-winning Laurence Olivier version, and there is the 1868 opera by Ambroise Thomas (which resurfaced recently, after years of semi-obscurity, with productions including a Cold War version at Washington National Opera in 2010).

But what about dance? How do you make a psychological and word-driven play like “Hamlet” come to life as a ballet?

Washington audiences will get the answer when “Hamlet,” choreographed by Stephen Mills, artistic director of Ballet Austin, gets a company premiere by the Washington Ballet, featuring music by contemporary music icon Philip Glass. The ballet will be performed March 23 through April 3 at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater.

For Mills, “Hamlet” is a milestone work that echoes with meaning for him in different ways. In 1959, the folks at Ballet Austin went looking for a new artistic director. They found him in Mills, already a critical member of the company. His first work in his first year at Ballet Austin? “Hamlet,” of course.

“It meant a lot to me and I wanted to begin with something new, and something significant,” Mills said in a telephone interview. “I would probably guess ‘Hamlet’ wouldn’t be everybody’s first choice for a ballet, a dance piece. In part, it’s about language and words, but, I think, it also lends itself to a ballet. It’s a silent ‘Hamlet,’ but not a mimed ‘Hamlet.’ Dance has its own language, of movement, of gesture, where you use every part of your body to illustrated emotions, to show feeling and, most importantly, in this case, to tell a story.”

Mills has created other Shakespeare dances, including “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Taming of the Shrew,” which were part of the Kennedy Center’s Ballet Across America series, in collaboration with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet. One of his signature works is “Light/The Holocaust & Humanity Project” from 2005.

“I think, and thought then, that the story of Hamlet and all of its incidents — the urge for revenge, the father-son relationship, the killings and plots — they’re part of a highly dramatic story that can be done in a ballet, in dance,” he said.

“If the story, the play, is in sharp, clean focus, you can make something very special about it. You don’t need elaborate costumes, and castles. It’s a universal, timeless story, very resonant in our time.” Mills has seen the Olivier film, which he found inspiring. “There’s so much movement in it, choreographed, stylish. And it’s all in black and white. Visually, it was stunning. It was very minimalist.

“I think in musical terms. My ballets don’t always have music in them, but most of the time, they do. And I think the music of Philip Glass is perfect for this,” Mills said.

“Philip’s music is often pigeonholed, I think — that’s somehow it’s atonal or difficult — but his work can also be very accessible, very powerful and moving, which I think when you’re dealing with ‘Hamlet’ is critical.

“‘Hamlet’ is about big themes, big feelings,” Mills continued. “Narrow it down and it’s about relationships and relatives, revenge and politics, which are very contemporary themes. So what’s important in terms of the ingredients are the situation, the score and the look. They’re all design elements that are very important.”

The focus in this “Hamlet” is squarely on his family: his father’s ghost, the adulterous mother Gertrude and the new and murderous King Claudius, along with Ophelia, her brother and her father.

Artistic Director Septime Webre called the production “sleek and dramatic, from the choreography to the sparse and contemporary scenic design,” by Jeffrey A. Main. “This is like no Shakespeare work you’ve ever seen. Mills strips down the complex play by focusing on the lead characters, all the while interjecting several take-your-breath-away moments.”

“It’s a real pleasure to have ‘Hamlet’ at Washington Ballet,” Mills said. “Septime and I are old friends, we’ve known each other for over two decades. We were both in the same company in Texas — I think we both wore the same Peter Pan costumes.”

Latino Student Fund’s 16th Annual Gala
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Under the honorary patronage of Ambassador of Panama Emanuel González-Revilla, the annual benefit gala of the Latino Student Fund was held at the Organization of American States on March 9, with Leon Harris of WJLA–ABC 7 as master of ceremonies. Marina Levinas Huberman and Teri Galvez co-chaired the evening, which showcased Latino culture and included student testimonials. The auction proceeds are earmarked to make a positive impact on the lives and education of Latino youth. Dick Jung and Ashley and Doug Kollme received awards for their assistance in sponsoring the advancement of Latino students. [gallery ids="117102,117115,117121,117111" nav="thumbs"]

Ike Behar’s ‘The Italian Event’
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In keeping with The Georgetowner̕s Italian theme, we were at Ike Behar’s men’s clothing store for “The Italian Eventˮ to celebrate the work of Quarona, Valsesia manufacturer and designer Loro Piana. Behar was showcasing Zenit, a limited collection of fine fabrics. Ike Behar is located at 2900 M Street in Georgetown.

Reception for ‘50 Great American Places’
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On March 16, hostess Esther Coopersmith presided over a reception celebrating the publication of “50 Great American Places: Essential Historic Sites Across the U.S.,” written by Georgetowner Brent Glass, director emeritus of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. [gallery ids="117080,117084" nav="thumbs"]