Listen to the entire program:
More Songs about Buildings and FoodBesides the Charleston cuisine, Jennifer Foster and Marc Overton consider the costs, and the consequences, of the auditorium-renovation parade, starting with the $6 million Memminger makeover, the $18 milliion Dock Street Theatre do-over, and now the proposed $142 million campaign to gut-and-glitzify Gaillard Auditorium.
Joe Riley: No Guts, No Gaillard, No GloryThe Mayor of Charleston, Joseph P. Riley, stops by the Spoleto Today studios to make his case for what he calls the new “Gaillard Center,” and what it represents for the city’s future, and considers the current financial straits of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
The Sparkle in the Dock Street ShineOne of the bright spots of the current Spoleto season has been the steady attendance at the Chamber Music Series at the Dock Street Theatre, drawing crowds curious to see the plumped-up surroundings, sample the acoustics, and to hear new Spoleto Director of Chamber Music Geoff Nuttall in action. None of the above disappoints in this performance of the sparkling Flute Quartet in D by Mozart, featuring flutist Tara Helen O’Connor.
Pirates of the…..Carolinas?We pay a visit to the Powder Magazine, the 18th-century garrison on Cumberland Street in what was then “Charles Towne” to take in a little of the popular Piccolo Spoleto presentation of The Trial Of The Gentleman Pirate Stede Bonnet, and to converse with its creator, actor Rodney Lee Rogers.
Bach for CelloAn entirely different solo act from Piccolo Spoleto: Cellist Natalia Khoma, in recital Tuesday afternoon at a Piccolo Spoleto Early Music Spotlight series concert at First Scots Presbyterian Church in Charleston, plays the Prelude from Bach’s Solo Cello Suite No. 3 in G.
Heather Buck: The Breakout Star of ProserpinaMarc Overton talks to soprano Heather Buck, who has dazzled audiences in Charleston in her tour-de-force performance in the title role in German composer Wolfgang Rihm’s opera Proserpina, receiving its American premiere at the Spoleto Festival USA.
Bloch (after Bach & Buck)From a Piccolo concert called “Jewish Music Among Old Friends,” violinist Yuriy Bekker, the Charleston Symphony concertmaster, joins Converse College cellist Kenneth Law and pianist Stephen Buck in the Andante quieto from one of Ernest Bloch’s Two Nocturnes for Piano Trio.
Spoleto Daybook: Cheerfully Uncentered Eclecticism
Marc Overton recommends a performance by a company that’s “part theatre, part carnival sideshow, and part dance", something that blurs the line between dreams and reality.”
Marc Overton recommends a performance by a company that’s “part theatre, part carnival sideshow, and part dance", something that blurs the line between dreams and reality.”
The Churches of Charleston II: The Cathedral Church of St. Luke & St. PaulAfter a musical introduction from the Westminster Choir performance space of choice (the catchy Serbian wedding dance Fatice Kolo), our audio/video tour series of some of the Churches of Charleston continues with tour guide Scott Cullom Howell, the church’s Archivist. Followed by a performance of the first of the beautiful Litanies of the Blessed Virgin by French Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Joe Miller conducts the Westminster Choir and Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra.
Overtones: Whence the Charleston name “Memminger”More lowcountry lore as only Marc Overton can tell it.
