Jim's Jottings

Warning! This column may NOT appear every week.

Opera: At last, it is time to start the new Met in HD series at the Regal Hollywood Cinema. First up is Norma by Bellini featuring Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role, supported by Joyce DiDonato and Joseph Calleja and directed by Sir David McVicar. It will play in a live simulcast on Saturday, October 7 at 12:55 PM, running 3 hours and 30 minutes. In checking with the theater’s management, they tell me there will NOT be the usual Wednesday encores.

You see things; and you say “why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “why not?” [G. B. Shaw, playwright]

So, the fall term really is under way and with it, a new season of theater, opera, art, and more. Some of you went to see Topdog/Underdog at WVU. I’m afraid for African-American issues I much prefer the work of August Wilson. Next up there will be the Stephen Sondheim musical Assassins. It has been a long time since I saw this show, but having now seen most of Sondheim’s work, I can tell you that this show is fascinating, so don’t miss it. It is built on ballad style, the music is very good, and the cast much smaller than a normal musical. The ten real or attempted presidential assassins are the main characters, each of which tells you their story with really surprising resonances. It’s going to be staged at the Met Theater so I asked Lee Blair, its director, if he would be putting mics on the actors and the answer was…YES. So, we’ll go and I would urge you to give it a go.

Pittsburgh Public Theater is producing Equus by Peter Shafer at the moment. It’s a powerful show, but one I have seen enough. We are going to go to The Humans in November—last year’s Pulitzer Prize winner for drama.

OK, kids and grown-ups…see you at the movies!

Just Jim