The financially troubled Newberry Consort, seeking new sponsorship for its concert series after announcing last winter that the Newberry Library would not fund the series beyond the upcoming season, has announced its artistic plans for 1996-97.
The esteemed early music group under Mary Springfels’ direction will open its 14th season Sept. 25-28 with a program of French Renaissance theater music featuring core members Drew Minter, countertenor; David Douglass, violin; and Springfels, viola da gamba. The group will record the program for Harmonia Mundi as part of a three-CD recording project made possible by a $30,000 grant.
Nov. 6-9 will bring a program of instrumental and vocal works by the Italian Baroque composer Alessandro Stradella, based on newly acquired manuscripts. Soprano Christine Brandes and lutenist Paul O’Dette are among the participants. Cantatas and chamber music of Georg Philip Telemann make up the third program March 12-15.
The Newberry Consort will conclude its subscription season April 9-12 with a program of rarely heard works from Central and Eastern Europe during the 15th Century. Concerts will be given at the Newberry Library, Lake Forest College and Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park.
The ensemble will join with His Majestie’s Clerkes and the Chicago Baroque Ensemble for a special non-subscription concert (including Bach’s “Magnificat”) directed by Anne Heider May 4 at Mandel Hall, University of Chicago. For ticket information, call 312-255-3700.
– The Ravinia Festival will present 18 concerts by some of the world’s most promising young musicians during the seventh season of Rising Stars, Oct. 18 to May 16 in Bennett-Gordon Hall of the John D. Harza Building. Concerts are arranged in three series of six concerts each.
The Piano Series will comprise Terrence Wilson, Valery Kuleshov, Stephen Prustman, Helen Huang, Nikolai Lugansky and students from the piano studio of Alexander Toradze.
Appearing on the Violin Series will be Vadim Gluzman, Angela and Jennifer Chun, Scott St. John, Viviane Hagner, Jaako Kuusisto and Pip Clarke. The Chamber Music Series will present flutist Demarre McGill, the Sebastian Quartet, Musicians from Marlboro, Trio Bartholdy, Skampa String Quartet and Borromeo Quartet.
For dates and ticket information, phone 312-RAVINIA.
– Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 1996-97 Preview Lecture Series will begin Sept. 19 with a discussion of Verdi’s “Don Carlo” by program editor Roger Pines. The rest of the schedule is as follows:
Andy Karzas on Puccini’s “Il Trittico,” Sept. 26; Gian Carlo Menotti on his opera, “The Consul,” Oct. 17; Luciano Berio on his opera “Un Re in Ascolto,” Nov. 4; Thomas Brown on Strauss’ “Salome,” Nov. 20; director August Everding on Mozart’s “Die Zauberflote,” Dec. 4; Alfred Glasser on Puccini’s “Turandot,” Jan. 23, 1997; and Richard Green on Bellini’s “Norma,” Jan. 30. All lectures will be given at First Chicago Center, 20 S. Dearborn St.
For further information, call 312-332-2244, ext. 225.
– John von Rhein
THEATER
The opening of “Love Letters” at the Royal George Theatre has been changed to accommodate the film schedule of one of its stars, Robert Wagner. The two-character A.R. Gurney drama will now play Sept. 14-29. Wagner stars with his wife, Jill St. John.
The current offering, “Forever Tango: The Eternal Dance,” will fill in the gap and extend its run, adding five performances Sept. 9-13. Then, after “Love Letters’ departs, “Tango” will return for another 14-week engagement Oct. 1-Jan. 5 at the Royal George, 1641 N. Halsted St.
For ticket information, call 312-988-9000.
– Sid Smith
ART
Laszlo Sulyok, former curatorial assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Art, has become executive director of N.A.M.E. Gallery. He holds a degree in history and political science from Loyola University, Chicago, and has completed arts administration graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. N.A.M.E. Gallery, founded in 1973, is one of the oldest non-profit artists’ organizations in the city.
– The first major monograph in English on contemporary Czech painter and printmaker Jiri Anderle has been published by Slovart Publishing, Ltd., and the National Gallery in Prague. The 320-page book that covers more than 40 years of drawings, prints, paintings and objects is available from the Anne and Jacques Baruch Collection, Ltd., in Chicago for $107.88 including tax and shipping. Call 312-944-3377.
– The 12th annual American Craft Exposition and Sale will hold its preview party from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion, Lincoln Street and the Lakefront in Evanston. Admission is $50 (a 5 p.m. “collectors’ hour” admission is $75). Regular hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. General admission is $8. More than 135 artisans will offer works for sale; proceeds benefit the Evanston and Glenbrook hospitals. 847-570-5099.
– Amada Cruz, curator of exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, will give a free talk on temporary mural projects by Gary Simmons and Judy Ledgerwood at noon Friday and Saturday at the museum, 220 E. Chicago Ave.
– “Maryan’s Truth: Paintings 1957-1975,” the exhibition of works by an artist once much collected in Chicago, has been extended through Tuesday at the Spertus Museum, 618 S. Michigan Ave. Admission is $4, $2 children, students and seniors.
– Alan G. Artner
ARCHITECTURE
Architect Robert Venturi, as well known for his writings as his buildings (“Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture,” “Learning from Las Vegas), is out with another book–a collection of essays, lectures and other observations on the built environment.
One piece in the book contains the Philadelphia postmodernist’s commentaries on various cities, including Chicago, about which he has this to say: “An exquisite and beloved museum of architecture that includes Sullivan and Richardson and the Chicago School and Wright and Mies and Tigerman: is it to be America’s Florence?”
Perhaps that wouldn’t be so bad. Of Florence, Venturi writes: “Human scale and ultimate refinement as you walk within it–while dodging the cars and the Vespas.”
The book, titled “Iconography and Electronics Upon a Generic Architecture: A View From the Drafting Room” and published by M.I.T. Press, retails for $40.
– When Donald Trump announced plans last week to construct the world’s tallest building in lower Manhattan as part of a complex to house the New York Stock Exchange, he said: “Generally, whatever I propose gets built; that’s been my history.”
The Donald was right to use the word “generally.”
In 1984, after the flamboyant real estate developer proposed a 150-story skyscraper off the southern tip of Manhattan, Tribune architecture critic Paul Gapp branded the scheme “Guinness Book of World Records architecture,” calling it “one of the silliest things anyone could inflict on New York or any other city.”
Trump fired back with a $500 million suit against Gapp and the Tribune Company, alleging that the criticism had virtually undone his plan to erect the world’s tallest building. A federal judge dismissed the case in 1985.
The current Trump plan calls for a 140-story, 1,792-foot skyscraper, more than 300 feet taller than the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Earlier this year, that complex seized the world’s tallest title from Sears Tower by a scant 33 feet.
– Danish architect Henning Larsen speaks at the Chicago Cultural Center on Sept. 4 at 6 p.m. His talk is in conjunction with the Danish design exhibition at the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
Tickets are $5 for museum members, $10 for non-members. The talk is at the second floor theater of the Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St. Call 312-251-0175.
– Blair Kamin
