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April 16, 2008
Support a worthy cause -- the Greater Bridgeport Symphony
If you can make it to only one event on the first weekend in May, make sure you make it the Greater Bridgeport Symphony event on Saturday, May 3.
The GBS has cooked up a truly special fundraiser -- Dancing with the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Stars, which will take place in the ballroom of the Holiday Inn in Downtown Bridgeport.
Tickets are only $125 for the black tie event, and include a cocktail hour with hot & cold hors d’oeuvres, beginning at 6:30.
Then, there's a full course dinner, dancing -- and get this -- a spectacular show by the ballroom fraternity’s show dance superstars Dmitri & Svetlana Ostashkin, the
Latin dance champions of Eastern Europe. Call 576-0263.
For those of you who have been under a rock the last few weeks, the event on May 3 comes on the heels of what could be argued as the finest concert that has taken place in Connecticut since the Civil War. Maybe of all time.
OK, I know the followers of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra will take issue with what I have to say. Well, too bad for them, and everyone else who missed the GBS's performance of Carmina Burana on April 12, backed up by the 103-member Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut.
Carmina is a soul-stirring, sometimes rousing piece that depicts the very raw materials that make up the human spirit -- lust and love -- combined with the capricious forces that shape or fragile lives on this planet. It wanders from medieval plainchant to folk song to romantic opera, all with stunning effect. It belongs in everyone's music collection, along with Kind of Blue.
But playing it your hi-fi is one thing, seeing and hearing it is quite another matter.
The choir was anchored by three stunning soloists -- soprano Deborah Selig from Washington, D.C., and, from New York, countertenor Jeffry Mandelbaum and baritone Robert Gardner. They came through with jaw-dropping performances.
The choir was conducted by Carole Ann Maxwell of Fairfield University, and the whole production was under the baton of Gustav Meier. The production received a moving 10-minute standing ovation from the packed Klein -- perhaps the longest in the history of the auditorium.
This was a fitting end to the 2007-8 GBS season. Tickets for the 2008-9 season will go on sale in September. I don't know how they're going to top their Carmina, except maybe with my favorite -- Gorecki's heart-wrenching "Symphony of Three Sorrowful Songs."
So, show your support for the arts -- support the GBS. Here are some pictures from the Green Room after Carmina:
Soprano Deborah Selig, with her friend, tenor Greg Zavracky from Boston. She made it look easy, which I'm sure it wasn't.
Here are Ron Kinner and Theresa McGee, both of Hartford, flanking baritone Robert Gardner, who has a flair for the dramatic.
Here's Samuel Rabinowitz and Linda Monssen, both from NYC, with countertenor Jeffry Mandelbaum on the right. His voice was really out of this world.
Posted by john on April 16, 2008 8:41 PM
