“Opera as theater” has been a major buzz phrase for the last several decades. It refers to the idea of doing away with all the exaggerated gestures and stereotypical posing that had made opera an object of ridicule. Theatre Latte Da’s La Boheme embodies that ideal. Even with reduced forces, like a minimal chorus, the production beautifully communicates the tragedy of Puccini’s young bohemians….
10.26.07: James Sewell Ballet at The O’Shaughnessy
This fall marks the start of James Sewell Ballet’s fifteenth season in the Twin Cities. (The company was established three years before that in New York City.) In honor of the anniversary, JSB put on an ambitious concert, more rigorous and less sentimental than any I’ve seen previously, and more clearly marking the origins and current direction of Sewell’s talent.
The evening…
10.25.07: Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation at the Weisman Art Museum
Changing Hands fills four rooms—about half of the Weisman’s gallery space. The show, the second in a series organized by the Museum of Arts & Design in New York, features about 150 words by 130 artists. It’s a dense and highly diverse snapshot of contemporary Native American art.
All of the artists are from west of the Mississippi, including Alaska and Hawaii. Most…
10.24.07: Van Halen at Target Center
After twenty-two years, there’s no better time for Van Halen’s original lead singer, David Lee Roth, to tour with the band again. Every aspect of our current pop culture has been influenced by the decade that, until two years ago, we all wanted to forget: skinny pants and leggings fill…
10.19.07: The Clean House at Mixed Blood Theatre
Sometime in the first five seconds of Mixed Blood’s The Clean House, it hits you: Oh, the house Matilde the maid has been hired to clean is metaphorical. No one’s house is that white, unless it’s in their head, in which case it suggests that we are in the presence of a monumental control freak—someone who eats routine for breakfast, demands order for lunch, and…
10.18.07: Annie Lennox at the State Theatre
When the announcement came some weeks ago that Annie Lennox was playing the State, I took pause. This was a show I would not miss. I had the distinct pleasure of seeing her open for Sting a few years ago at Target Center. Even Sting acted as if the billing should have been reversed. The truth was, we had paid for good seats that…
10.18.07: Arena Dances’ “Ugly” at the Walker
“Ugly,” choreographed by Arena Dances leader Mathew Janczewski, with a new score by electronic-music star Morton Subotnik, is an ambitious piece. One hour long, with no intermission, “Ugly” screams big work, and not just because it’s a Walker commission. “Ugly” has a big theme—our obsession with set standards of beauty—which…
10.17.08: Jimmy Pardo at Acme Comedy Co.
Jimmy Pardo is an animal—a small, five-foot-three-inch male who grew up in Chicago and migrated to Los Angeles. He has a podcast, and a digitally recorded CD entitled Pompous Clown, but really, he’s an old-school entertainer, a classic standup who would have fit nicely on Johnny’s Tonight Show. His hair is cut Joey Bishop–short and he always wears a suit on stage….
10.16.07: Flim Flam Man script reading at the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio
I swear I’m not a snob, but with the exception of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I always like the book more than the movie. Knowing this is a good thing—because when they announce that a famous book is becoming a movie, it forces me to read something I’ve always meant to read. I procrastinate though, so I’m usually rushing out and buying…
10.14.07: Pat Metheny Trio at Orchestra Hall
The first thing you notice about guitarist Pat Metheny is the hair. Long and frizzy, it shoots out from his head in every conceivable direction, as if he didn’t just stick his finger in a light socket but somehow grabbed a live power cable and held onto it for about thirty years. This would explain why Metheny doesn’t appear to have cut his hair…
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