Spring is Here... I Hear (43 degrees and windy)
A little spring poem from legendary playwright, Robert Patrick…
You tell me the crocus
Is blooming on time.
My personal focus
Is on Cupid's crime.
You claim the forsythia
Exults on its stalk.
Yeah, yeah, I'll be with ya
As soon's I can walk.
You swear that the tulip
Is wagging in glee.
Look, I don't give you lip.
Why persecutest thou me?
My heart rolls its onus
Up Hell's greasy ramp.
So Spring is upon us?
Swell. Issue a stamp.
Robert, of course, was part of the fine collection of playwrights who began the Off-Off Broadway movement at the historic Café Cino in Greenwich Village. He’s offered up these wonderful photos from Café Cino to share with dry2olives readers.
When it comes to musically defining the spirit of New York City, few composers can match the contributions of George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. Gershwin’s tricky syncopations captured the erratic energy of a 1920’s city that was establishing itself as the artistic capitol of the country. Bernstein gave a symphonic maturity to everyday events like sailors gleefully exploring Manhattan or teenagers feeling the passion of first love.
This coming Sunday at Town Hall, New Yorkers will have the opportunity to hear over 60 musicians perform some of the greatest works of these two masters, as The One World Symphony performs Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue and An American in Paris, along with a vocal suite and a symphonic arrangement of selections from West Side Story.
Now in its fifth full season, The One World Symphony is an uncommonly youthful ensemble of accomplished musicians, with most members between the ages of 22 and 32, including Artistic Director and Conductor Sung Jin Hong. I asked Hong what we could expect from Sunday afternoon’s program and he offered up the following tantalizing preview…
He’s referred to nowadays as “The King of Ragtime”, composer of classic American works such as “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer”, but if Scott Joplin had his way, he’d be most remembered for his rarely performed opera, Treemonisha.
Published in 1911, Treemonisha is the first known grand opera composed by a black American, but it was never fully produced until 1972, fifty-five years after Joplin’s death. Though perhaps not the masterpiece the composer/librettist thought it to be, Treemonisha is nevertheless a fascinating artifact of our musical heritage. The Collegiate Chorale’s March 9th concert performance at Alice Tully Hall joyously revealed a work that combined European operetta style with vaudeville, minstrelsy and the emerging ragged rhythms of 20th Century America…
*********************************************
Our last engagement of Margaret Cross in I’ve Got To Be There, a cabaret conceived and directed by yours truly, was very well received and we’re now booked for every Monday night in March at 7PM.
For all the info, visit www.MargaretCross.net
You tell me the crocus
Is blooming on time.
My personal focus
Is on Cupid's crime.
You claim the forsythia
Exults on its stalk.
Yeah, yeah, I'll be with ya
As soon's I can walk.
You swear that the tulip
Is wagging in glee.
Look, I don't give you lip.
Why persecutest thou me?
My heart rolls its onus
Up Hell's greasy ramp.
So Spring is upon us?
Swell. Issue a stamp.
Robert, of course, was part of the fine collection of playwrights who began the Off-Off Broadway movement at the historic Café Cino in Greenwich Village. He’s offered up these wonderful photos from Café Cino to share with dry2olives readers.
When it comes to musically defining the spirit of New York City, few composers can match the contributions of George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. Gershwin’s tricky syncopations captured the erratic energy of a 1920’s city that was establishing itself as the artistic capitol of the country. Bernstein gave a symphonic maturity to everyday events like sailors gleefully exploring Manhattan or teenagers feeling the passion of first love.
This coming Sunday at Town Hall, New Yorkers will have the opportunity to hear over 60 musicians perform some of the greatest works of these two masters, as The One World Symphony performs Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue and An American in Paris, along with a vocal suite and a symphonic arrangement of selections from West Side Story.
Now in its fifth full season, The One World Symphony is an uncommonly youthful ensemble of accomplished musicians, with most members between the ages of 22 and 32, including Artistic Director and Conductor Sung Jin Hong. I asked Hong what we could expect from Sunday afternoon’s program and he offered up the following tantalizing preview…
He’s referred to nowadays as “The King of Ragtime”, composer of classic American works such as “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer”, but if Scott Joplin had his way, he’d be most remembered for his rarely performed opera, Treemonisha.
Published in 1911, Treemonisha is the first known grand opera composed by a black American, but it was never fully produced until 1972, fifty-five years after Joplin’s death. Though perhaps not the masterpiece the composer/librettist thought it to be, Treemonisha is nevertheless a fascinating artifact of our musical heritage. The Collegiate Chorale’s March 9th concert performance at Alice Tully Hall joyously revealed a work that combined European operetta style with vaudeville, minstrelsy and the emerging ragged rhythms of 20th Century America…
*********************************************
Our last engagement of Margaret Cross in I’ve Got To Be There, a cabaret conceived and directed by yours truly, was very well received and we’re now booked for every Monday night in March at 7PM.
For all the info, visit www.MargaretCross.net
