Margaret Evans | Lowcountry Weekly

Three Legendary Operas in April

Posted by Margaret Evans | Mar 29, 2011 | Music | 0

April is a busy month for The University of South Carolina Beaufort’s new music series The Met: Live in HD at the Center for the Arts on the Historic Beaufort campus. Three legendary operas will be presented beginning Saturday, April 9 at 1 PM with “Le Comte Ory”. Rossini’s vocally dazzling comedy stars bel canto sensation Juan Diego Flórez in the title role of this Met premiere production. He vies with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, in the trouser role of Isolier, for the love of the lonely Countess Adèle, sung by soprano Diana Damrau. Bartlett Sher, director of the Met’s hit productions of The Barber of Seville and The Tales of Hoffmann, describes the world of the opera as, “a place where love is dangerous. People get hurt. That can be very funny and very painful. Rossini captures both—with the most beautiful love music Rossini ever wrote.”

Choked With Sorrow

Posted by Margaret Evans | Mar 29, 2011 | Local Color | 0

A Beaufortonian living in Japan reflects on the country she’s grown to love as its people cope with overwhelming tragedy. On September 11, 2001, I was driving to my job at a local newspaper in South Carolina. On the radio, I heard that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. I thought it was just a horrible accident, and when I arrived at work went into the Editor’s office and told him the news. Within thirty minutes, my life, and those of all Americans, was changed forever.

St. Helena Tour of Homes

Posted by Margaret Evans | Mar 29, 2011 | Local Color | 0

You’d never know it from the unassuming façade, but the Baptist Church of Beaufort is no ordinary place of worship. The ceiling of the sanctuary is a stunning work of art featuring molded plaster leaves and rosettes handcrafted by skilled slave artisans more than 165 years ago. “People are just amazed when they see the inside of the sanctuary,” said Judy Copeland, docent coordinator for the church. “It’s really quite lovely.”

A Dash of Red

Posted by Margaret Evans | Mar 29, 2011 | Art | 0

The Art League Gallery of Hilton Head, now located in the Walter Greer Gallery of the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, is presenting a unique exhibition by a group of 11 female artists, known as “Les Bonnes Artistes.” The show opens with a reception at the gallery on April 5 at 5:00-7:00 p.m., and continues through April 30. Les Bonnes Artistes is a diverse group of painters who joined together to share their talents and their professionalism. Though some paint in oils, others prefer watercolors or pastel. For some printmaking is their primary means of expression, while collage inspires others, yet these varied media come together for an interesting show.

The United States of Crazy

Posted by Margaret Evans | Mar 29, 2011 | Rants & Raves | 0

Normally, I title my column after it’s written. It’s the last thing I do – my final flourish. Every now and then, however, the process reverses itself. This is one of those times. As deadline approached, the title you see before you invaded my mind so suddenly – and with such ferocity – I had no choice but to commit to it (actually, it felt more like submitting), and see where it might take me. Even now, I’m not sure where that will be. But come along, if you’d like. It’ll be a lark!

If Children Ran the Real Estate Industry

Posted by Margaret Evans | Mar 15, 2011 | Rants & Raves | 0

A Play In One Act (based on a true story) Dramatis Personae Mother: A frenetic, distracted editor/columnist for a small local newsweekly. Obsessed with politics, culture, religion, and other esoteric abstractions. 40-something, but fancies herself much younger. Daughter: A bright, energetic 4th grader with a great smile. Nine going on 35. Scene Mother sits at her desk in the breakfast nook, enthralled by something she’s reading on her computer screen. As usual. Daughter is on the couch, watching a poorly-written sitcom with a ubiquitous laugh track on the Disney Channel. As usual. It’s almost 5:30 pm.

Pull up a seat in “The Dining Room”

Posted by Margaret Evans | Mar 15, 2011 | Theater/Dance | 0

Six gifted local actors – Carrie Freeman, Joellen Hirschey, Benji Morgan, Tracy Smith, Rob Spencer, and Mike Young – play 57 different characters in a mosaic of vignettes in A.R. Gurney’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated classic, “The Dining Room.” The play, produced by Misspent Youth Productions and directed by Gail Westerfield, opens March 24 in the Black Box Theater at ARTworks. The play was a long-running Broadway hit and turned Gurney, who also wrote the popular “Love Letters,” into a major American playwright.

Auditions for “To Kill A Mockingbird”

Posted by Margaret Evans | Mar 15, 2011 | Theater/Dance | 0

Beaufort Theatre Company will hold auditions for To Kill a Mockingbird” on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 22 and 23 at 7 PM at 801 Carteret Street on the historic USCB campus. Based on the Pulitzer prize winning novel by Harper Lee, the play tells a story based on events that took place in the South of the 1930’s. Scout and her brother, Jem, are being raised by their widowed father, Atticus, and by a strong-minded housekeeper, Calpurnia. A lawyer, Atticus is appointed to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman.

John Morris Russell to Conduct Hilton Head Orchestra

Posted by Margaret Evans | Mar 15, 2011 | Music | 0

John Morris Russell, one of North America’s most celebrated orchestral conductors, has agreed to take up the baton as “Principal Guest Conductor” for the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra (HHSO) for the 2011-2012 season, which gets underway in October. “We are thrilled for this once in a lifetime opportunity to have a major international talent like Maestro Russell come to our community,” said Edward Parrish, chairman of the orchestra board. “When we learned of his interest in leading our orchestra we realized it would mark a major step forward for the presentation of great music in our community.”

Prize-Winning Artists Set for USCB Festival Series

Posted by Margaret Evans | Mar 15, 2011 | Music | 0

Once again, Edward Arron has arranged a varied program with works by both Clara and Robert Schumann as well as Beethoven, Ives and Copland for the March 27 concert. He is also introducing voice to the evening’s instruments with the debut of baritone Randall Scarlata. The concert will include Beethoven folk songs and a medley of American songs from the last century. The final piece of the evening will be the intimate and other-worldly d minor piano trio by Robert Schumann.

Author: Margaret Evans

Three Legendary Operas in April

Choked With Sorrow

St. Helena Tour of Homes

A Dash of Red

The United States of Crazy

If Children Ran the Real Estate Industry

Pull up a seat in “The Dining Room”

Auditions for “To Kill A Mockingbird”

John Morris Russell to Conduct Hilton Head Orchestra

Prize-Winning Artists Set for USCB Festival Series

What’s Happening

Celebrate with Catering by Debbi Covington

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