Bits And Pieces 09.13.12
Montauk Music’s Back
Music for Montauk will return for its 21st season with a concert at the Montauk Library on Saturday at 7 p.m. Orion Weiss and Anna Polonsky, who are pianists, will present a program of works by Schubert, Ravel, Schumann, and others.
Mr. Weiss has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and several other major orchestras and has received several awards for his work. Locally, he has performed at Pianofest and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival.
Ms. Polonsky has worked with the Guarneri, Shanghai, and Orion String Quartets and performed at festivals such as Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Seattle, and Bard. Her concerts have taken place at sites such as Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Stern, Weill, and Zankel Halls, and she has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.
The concert is free to the public. Reservations are required by e-mail at [email protected], or by phone at 668-4607.
‘Carmen’ at Guild Hall
The Long Island Opera will perform Bizet’s “Carmen” at Guild Hall on Saturday at 8 p.m., marking a return of the company after a decade-long absence. The production is fully staged and costumed and led by Fabio Bezuti, with Kara Cornell, a mezzo-soprano who is from Smithtown, in the title role.
Ms. Cornell has performed with the Union Avenue Opera in St. Louis, the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, the St. Petersburg Opera in Florida, the Center City Opera in Philadelphia, and many others. “Not only am I looking forward to finally getting to perform back on my own turf, but ‘Carmen’ is one of my favorites,” she said in a release.
Among a full cast, David Guzman, a tenor, will play Don Jose, and Eric McKeever, a baritone, will be Escamillo. Long Island Opera’s singers are from around the country and the globe and have performed with national and international opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Houston Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, and the New York City Opera, as well as at festivals throughout the United States.
The opera company’s 2012-13 season will also include performances of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” on Oct. 6 and Puccini’s “La Boheme,” featuring the Children’s Orchestra Society, on April 7 of next year at Molloy College’s Madison Theatre in Rockville Centre.
Tickets for “Carmen” cost $75 for limited V.I.P. reserved seating and a pre-show wine reception, $35 for orchestra, $25 for balcony, and $10 to $15 for students. Tickets can be purchased at LongIslandOpera.org.
Naked Stage Returns
Guild Hall and the Naked Stage will present a new series of free play readings beginning Tuesday with “God of Carnage” by Yasmina Reza. The play opened in London in 2008 with Ralph Fiennes and recently was performed on Broadway.
The readings will continue through next spring. The plays to be performed until the end of the year include “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” by Rajiv Joseph, “Porter’s Will” by Monica Bauer, “The Prince of Denmark: A New Musical” by Chris Dieman, “The Best Play Ever . . . Seriously!” By Mike Anderson, and “Eurydice” by Sarah Ruhl.
The full schedule with dates is on the Guild Hall Web site. The plays are read on Tuesdays beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Parrish PechaKucha
Next Thursday evening at 6, the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton will present a “PechaKucha,” or lightning round of quick, illustrated talks by artists and other creative professionals who live or work on the East End. Most will talk about themselves and what they do.
Although the roster was still being finalized, according to Andrea Grover, the museum’s curator of programs, confirmed presenters are Hiroyuki Hamada, who is a sculptor with a studio in East Hampton, Sabina Streeter, a Sag Harbor-based painter, Toni Ross, a ceramicist and the Toni behind Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton, the playwright Joe Pintauro, Theo Coulombe, a Brooklyn photographer and frequent Sag Harbor visitor, and Silas Marder of the Bridgehampton gallery.
The pecha kucha form originated in Japan and consists of 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds. This gives each presenter about 6 minutes and 40 seconds to get his or her message across and only a minute or two before the next person’s slides begin. Music with D.J. Lama will follow the talks. Refreshments will be served. Admission is $10, $5 for Parrish members.
Hammond Headlines
John Hammond will play at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor on Sept. 28 to kick off the Sag Harbor American Music Festival at 8 p.m. Mr. Hammond is a Blues Hall of Fame inductee and has performed with Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, and Howlin’ Wolf in a career spanning four decades. He is also known in this area for his regular performances at the Stephen Talkhouse in the 1980s and 1990s.
Tickets cost $20 and can be purchased online at SagHarborMusic.org. A full list of festival concerts and venues is in development and will be available soon on that Web site.