From Romantic art to An Historic music, from Beauty to Beast, from a Bach-laden Vespers service to karaoke protest songs, to whatever voters ask Orchestra New England to play, this is a diversely labelled week of arts in New Haven.
Monday, March 2
Read Across
Today is Read Across America Day, not to mention the birthday of Dr. Seuss. The main (Ives) New Haven Free Public Library is celebrating with “books, games, and wacky fun,” 4 p.m. 133 Elm St. (203) 946‑8129.
Tuesday, March 3
Dance Stance
A 7 p.m. screening of Archive, a documentation (coordinated by choreographer/activist Arkadi Zaides) of human rights violations in Palestine, is followed by a panel discussion at the Off Broadway Theater, 41 Broadway (down the path behind Toad’s Place, off York Street). (203) 432‑5062. The event, augmented by Zaides’ art installation Capture Practice, is co-sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, the Council on Middle East Studies, Macmillan Center for International Studies, the Department of Theater Studies, Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, and the Office of the University Chaplain.
Wednesday, March 4
Art Chamber
Lunchtime chamber music concerts are a Yale Center for British Art tradition. But with the YCBA closed for renovations, you now have to cross the street over to the Yale University Art Gallery to get your baroque art/music fix. 12:30 p.m. 1111 Chapel St. (203) 432‑0600.
An Historic Adam
Accordion virtuoso Adam Matlock’s project An Historic plays culturally eclectic art-songs at Cafe Nine (250 State St.) 9 p.m. with Jacket Thor and Entrance to Trains. $5.
(Cobalt Rhythm) & (Stella) Blues
The Cobalt Rhythm Kings, fronted by New Haven Register reporter Mark Zaretsky, leads a blues jam at Stella Blues, 204 Crown St. (203) 752‑9764.
Thursday, March 5
Fine Romance
For the opening of its new exhibit The Critique of Reason: Romantic Art 1760 – 1860, the Yale Art Gallery is presenting a lecture, “Song Without Words: The Romantic Experience,” by Harvard art professor Joseph Leo Koerner, 5:30 p.m. at the museum’s lecture hall. 1111 Chapel St. (203) 432‑0600.
Be Their… oh, never mind.
The national tour of Beauty and the Beast returns to the Shubert (247 College St.). Performances are tonight and Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 & 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. $15 – $110. (203) 562‑5666.
Friday, March 6
Vespers Song at Twilight
The 5:30 p.m. Vespers service at Christ Church Episcopal (84 Broadway) features Yale Schola Cantorum singing Johan Sebastian Bach’s 22nd and 23rd cantatas, as well as a “Magnificat” by Johann Rudolf Ahle.
Pasolini, Passione, Panels
There’s a Legacy of Pier Paolo Pasolini conference this weekend at Yale’s Whiney Humanities Center. The three-day event includes screenings of the great Italian filmmaker’s Salo tonight at 5 p.m. and Passione (along with the short Pasolini’s Last Words) Saturday at 7:30 p.m., plus lots of lectures and panel discussions. Details here.
Saturday, March 7
Can you do that ONE?
Orchestra New England takes requests. The ensemble held a vote for what it should play at its “ONE on Demand!” concert tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Battell Chapel (400 College St., 203 – 777-4690). The ballot, here, lists hundreds of pieces the orchestra could play, from Mozart to Ives to John “Star Wars” Wiliams. $35 reserved, $20 general admission, $5 student rush.
Vocal Reach
In conjunction with its Vertical Reach exhibit, Artspace is holding “Another Protest Song: Karaoke With a Message” 8 p.m. at Cafe Nine (250 State; 203 – 789-8281). The project dates back to the U.S. presidential election of 2008, when artists Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere used a karaoke format to sing protest songs in public parks in New York City. You seldom hear a club karaoke show described in artspeak like this: “In the situation of protest karaoke, while the song choice might communicate history in the present, it also speaks of a history attached (or even dis-attached but newly considered) to a political situation rather than one consumed primarily as a popular cultural product.” A broader cultural question: When’s the last time Cafe Nine eschewed live music on a Saturday night?
Sunday, March 8
Our State School’s Good
Today’s the final performance of Our Country’s Good at Southern Connecticut State University’s Kendall Drama Lab in the Lyman Center for the Performing Arts (on the SCSU campus at 501 Crescent St.). Timberlake Wertenbaker’s 1988 play about convicts in an Australian penal colony in the late 18th century staging a a production of a restoration comedy to distract them from their confinement. The show’s U.S. premiere was at Hartford Stage in 1991, a production which went to Broadway. Our Country’s Good is now a staple of college and community theaters, partly due to its large cast and many great roles. (It has 22 characters, which can be played by a cast of anywhere from 10 to 22 actors). The Crescent Players production, directed by Elm Shakespeare Company founder James Andreassi and acted by SCSU students, ends its run with performances March 5 – 7 at 8 p.m. and a matinee today at 2 p.m.
