arts & eats part 3

So this post is not only a little out of order it takes in several performances and yet another meal (it is arts & eats after all...LOL)

Last Saturday night we traveled up to Largo to the Cultural Center to see Al Stewart in concert with Dave Nachmanoff and Mike Lindauer.  We were treated to several numbers by Dave to start off the concert - including two that I really favored "That Guy" and "Midnight Sea" and one Phil loved "Thing of Beauty". Mike Lindauer - on bass - joined Dave for part of the intro set.

Then the lead act Al Stewart (of Year of the Cat and Time Passages albums which were huge sellers) started off an extended set that included favorites of mine "Broadway Hotel" and "On the Border" as well as "Palace of Versailles"... after intermission several additional favorites including an audience shout out for "Doesn't Come Naturally" and the big finale of "YOTC" - still after hundreds of listenings I am still grabbed by the mystery and lyricism evoked by this song and it's fabulous guitar riffs.

🎵🎵🎵 "She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running like a watercolor in the rain...."🎵🎵🎵

Dave and Mike start the evening-

then Al joins them -

a fun evening made more fun by the fact that because Phil & Mike are friends we got to visit with the performers backstage before the concert (which is where I took this photo LOL)

and just because we are doing our arts & eats posts about last week I will also mention again that we went to a house concert that featured Brother Sun - which got kind of short shrift in the post about our friends visiting from Denmark because it was a week ago and we have bee extremely busy - but these guys were terrific- it is three artists who are solo but work together under the name Brother Sun- so another shout out to them! Many many good songs sung that evening but my favorite was the one entitled "So Far to Come" but the whole new CD called Weights & Wings is worth a listen to...

so to finish off the last week - we also had two more good meals - LOL- of course - and this is an "arts & eats" post so I will include them-

Louie's Modern with Mike before he left town and then Kasa Sushi just the two of us to have a quiet dinner and get home early...LOL -  including a couple of good wines

 Phil's lobster risotto-

my burrata salad-

 
the last 1985 Lynch Bages-

Mike's short ribs-

then on to Kasa Sushi - our new favorite place for sushi- we tried the excellent soft shell crab appetizer and then went to sashimi - I love that they will make the uni and the ikura with no rice and use cucmber bowls to hold those items-

the rainbow roll in front and "fire in the house" in back (previous fave) and in the middle a special for the night - with king crab and spicy shrimp and avocado--- all yummy!

the eel - again served on cucumber rather than rice (by request)  - then a spicy tuna roll and black dragon roll...

so it was a busy two weeks for us- exactly 14 days ago we headed to Chicago and had a busy long weekend there- we came back south and saw Neil on Monday and had the house concert Tuesday (which is also my class day) and then Poul & Lene arrived Wednesday along with my cousin Cathy... she left Thursday and Poul & Lene stayed until Saturday morning then Saturday night Al Stewart, Sunday the ballet and Bern's and then Monday Louie's back to my Tuesday class and then a relaxing evening at Kasa Sushi... this is all in addition to the other stuff- LOL - I had meetings and physical therapy (SI joint problems being rehabbed) and Phil had his appointments with his trainer twice a week and then there were the business side things to handle- LOL so even though we aren't getting paid to work we still are somehow working ...LOL - retirement rocks! Stay tuned... tonight off to the theater....

arts & eats part 2

so still working back from last night to earlier activities -

On Sunday afternoon Barb and I went to the ballet- and here is the blurb on what we saw performed:
The Sarasota Ballet presented Ashton, Graziano & Tuckett. Sir Frederick Ashton’s Valses nobles et sentimentales, a series of waltzes created in 1947 and lost until its revival in 1986, returned to the Sarasota stage. Valses celebrates Ravel’s ravishing, swooning score with its rich costumes and romantic choreography. Resident Choreographer Ricardo Graziano brought his 2014 Before Night Falls back by popular demand. The long-awaited return of Will Tuckett’s Changing Light, which received its world premiere with The Sarasota Ballet in 2013, closed the program. Inspired by Sarasota’s majestic sunsets, Changing Light brought audiences to their feet with its uplifting beauty and vitality.

Both the Graziano and the Tuckett ballets got standing ovations- they were absolutely magnificent.  I couldn't even say which I liked most- because they were both terrific and the dancers amazing!

All the photos I have are from the ballet's website or promo materials - and sadly there is no way to convey the beautiful movement we saw in the performances in still photos-  but here are a few to give you a sense of the beautiful sets and costumes at least-

the above from the finale of the Tuckett ballet - Changing Colors...

the music for the Graziano ballet Before Night Falls was very dramatic and haunting - worth finding it to listen...

The ballet was sold out for all the regular performances and they added two more which also sold out!

here are some reviews- or excerpts from them-

"they have reached an entirely different level and they have outdone themselves! In fact, this weekend’s performance of the powerful line up of choreographers Ashton, Graziano, and Tuckett was transcendent...“Changing Light” by Will Tuckett was commissioned by Artistic Director Iain Webb for the Sarasota Ballet and was inspired by what Tuckett called “one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen, the Sarasota sunset.” This place-based piece is an ideal way to highlight the specificity of the talents of this tremendous company who all live and work in Sarasota."

another review- from the local paper- (heavily edited due to length)

"Valses," the nearly-lost Ashton ballet from 1947 which director Iain Webb and his wife, assistant director Margaret Barbieri, painstakingly reconstructed from an archival film five years ago...Set in a roseate post-war ballroom, with costumes of tulle and velvet and three transparent screens to dance around and behind and danced to an elegant Maurice Ravel score, it's always been a "pretty" ballet to watch, full of deceptively difficult classical vocabulary that's meant to look as easy as skipping down a lane.

The program was originally to have included a new work by dancer and resident choreographer Graziano, but his ongoing injury derailed that possibility. No matter. I'd been looking forward to a reprise of "Before Night Falls" since the first (and only other) time the company performed it three years ago. A series of duets by four couples (another three that come together for ensembles at the beginning and end) set to a hypnotic score by Icelandic composer Olafur Arnalds, its focus is on partnering and relationship, though not literally so.  In barely there, dusky blue leotards, the couples seldom separate, each dancer reliant upon another as if for breath itself. Having recently seen Graziano's acclaimed "In a State of Weightlessness," I could recognize the birth of his signature style in this earlier work, which asks a lot of both the men (lots of lifting) and the women (you'd better be very flexible). But as impressive as the athletic moves and melting transitions, is Graziano's musical interpretation, which packs an emotional punch into every step. The final pose, with Wood reaching for the glowing globular helixes that descended from above while impossibly "kneeling" on Gonzalez' chest, had an almost religious feel. And the thunderous applause that followed had a genuineness and spontaneity.

The reprise of Tuckett's "Changing Light," an abstract work the British choreographer created for the company in 2013, was elating in a different way. Full of exuberance, joy and streaks of color in the simple orange (principals) and blue (secondaries) ombre costuming representing the Bay area sunset that inspired the piece, it is set to an expansive score by Tuckett's friend and colleague, Jeremy Holland-Smith that reminds me of Aaron Copland's best.  There's no story here - it's pure dance at its finest. ...there's also something kind of wonderful about seeing such a cluster of energy contained without a collision.

In a program largely devoid of backdrops, sets or elaborate costuming, the tone set by the lightning is of magnified importance. So special kudos go to the often-unheralded Aaron Muhl, who subtly provided just the right ambience for all three ballets, ensuring this evening of visual delights came off at its best.

Really - to my mind perhaps the best two performances I have seen since the Graziano choreographed In a State of Weightlessness.... which was simply breathtaking! - so a wonderful way to start off the day which ended late into the evening with the trip from arts & eats part 1.... but there was more to the weekend - which I will detail in a third post to ensure we get it all in LOL... stay tuned!