Classical Music

Belmont Camerata Musicale, 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13 at Belmont Mansion The Belmont Camerata Musicale begins with chamber music by Francis Poulenc that is witty, graceful, and Gallic, and aptly paired with a piano quartet by Mozart. On the playbill are Poulenc’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, his Sonata for Piano Four Hands, and Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G minor.

“An Evening of Berg and St. Saëns,” 8 p.m. Sept. 17 at Blair/Turner Recital Hall The Blair School of Music celebrates the renaming of the school’s Blair Recital Hall as the Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall. The celebration features half a dozen of the Blair faculty playing Alban Berg’s Chamber Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Winds, along with Saint-Saëns’ brilliantly playful “Carnival of the Animals.” Berg was Arnold Schoenberg’s most famous emulator in using “tone-rows” rather than conventional scales. Much of such music is as unsettling as fingernails across a chalkboard. But Berg shows that a genuine musical imagination can make lovely, lyrical, deeply moving music using these innovative means. Elegant, witty, and audacious, Saint Saëns’ “Carnival” is a delight for children of all ages, and at the same time full of sardonic irony that innocents will not hear.

Nashville Opera, Madame Butterfly, 8 p.m. Sept. 18 at TPAC Nashville Opera has four productions on the calendar for this next season, but only one before the New Year—Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, sung in Italian with English supertitles. In this quintessential tragic romance, a lovely Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San, falls in love with an American seaman, Lt. Pinkerton, who abandons her. The music is ravishing, always verging on melodrama but never tipping over. The production will likely show why Nashville Opera gets my vote, over the last several seasons, as our city’s classical MVP.

Nashville Symphony with guest pianist Tzimon Barto, 8 p.m. Sept. 24-25 at TPAC Nashville Symphony this fall is showcasing several rising young stars in the classical firmament—stars who will play demanding music, some of it fairly recent. First up is young pianist Tzimon Barto, who’ll play the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 on a card also including the Berlioz Corsair Overture and the Brahms Symphony No. 2. Prokofiev may be best known for his “symphonic fairy tale” Peter and the Wolf, but this piano concerto, dating from 1921, is one of his finest works, composed while he was living outside the Soviet Union. It shows intervalic leaps and sassy harmonic progressions that seem a lot less daring now than when first performed.

Blair String Quartet, 8 p.m. Oct. 15 at Turner Recital Hall With new cellist Felix Wang sitting in the chair vacated by Grace Mihi Bahng, the Blair String Quartet will perform works by Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert. The playbill won’t raise any eyebrows, but aficionados of the BSQ, arguably the finest ensemble in our city for at least the last four years, will be interested to hear the group with its latest addition.

Nashville Symphony’s “Horizon Series,” 8 p.m. Oct. 17 at War Memorial Auditorium The Symphony will play a program of Schubert, Mozart, and Beethoven under the direction of Ignat Solzhenitzyn, son of celebrated Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitzyn.

Nashville Symphony with guest violinist Hilary Hahn, 8 p.m. Oct. 22-23 at TPAC Nineteen-year-old violin prodigy Hilary Hahn will perform Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 in a program that includes selected works by Howard Hanson and Mozart’s Symphony No. 29. Hahn, who has been playing since she was 4, recorded for her debut CD in 1997 the works of J.S. Bach for solo violin. Her chutzpah validates itself. Not quite yet an Itzhak Perlman, she already has prodigious skill and versatility.

Belmont Camerata Musicale, “Halloween Ghosts,” 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25 at Belmont Mansion The Belmont Camerata Musicale anticipates Halloween with an evening showcasing a string quartet (“Halloween”) by the mold-smashing Yankee Charles Ives (d. 1954); a trio for clarinet, viola, and piano (“Ghosts”) by Austin Peay professor Jeffrey Woods; and the “Ghost” trio by Beethoven. The evening should be musically brilliant and delightfully spooky.

Nashville Symphony with guest pianist Jon Nakamatsu, 8 p.m. Nov. 19-20 at TPAC Winner in 1997 of the 10th Van Cliburn Piano Competition, Nakamatsu joins the Symphony to play the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in a program that will also include the Adagio from Mahler’s Symphony No. 10. The Rach 3, as pianists call it, is fiendishly demanding and quintessentially passionate in the most intensely Romantic way. Many people will remember the Rach 3 as the phosphorescent centerpiece of the movie Shine; it’s one of the most tumultuously bravura pieces in the piano repertory. Is Nakamatsu up to it? I’ll bet he is. Kudos to the Symphony for inviting him to come and give it a go.

—Marcel Smith

An Ideal Husband, presented by Tennessee Repertory Theatre, Sept. 8-26 at TPAC’s Polk Theater An ideal way to kick off the fall theater season is to welcome Tennessee Repertory Theatre’s first production under new artistic leadership. The play is Oscar Wilde’s 1895 comedy, in which the playwright spins a wickedly funny and timely tale of a rising politician with a secret in his past. The scandal only brings out the worst in everyone, emphasizing the hypocrisy of holding public officials to higher standards than the public itself lives by. For information, call 244-4878.

Smoke on the Mountain, presented by Cumberland County Playhouse, Sept. 9-Oct. 31 at the Ryman Auditorium The Ryman’s roots go beyond being the Mother Church of Country Music. The structure began life as a real church, so it’s only fitting that its fall-season musical is that heartwarming, hand-clapping gospel treat Smoke on the Mountain. Join the singing Sanders family as they trek around the countryside spreading harmony and hilarity wherever they go. What makes this umpteenth production of the musical especially noteworthy is that it comes to Nashville, cast and director intact, from the Cumberland County Playhouse, a class theater act if ever there was one. For information, call 889-3060.

Arcadia, presented by ACT I, Sept. 24-Oct. 9 at Darkhorse Theater; presented by Vanderbilt University Theater, Sept. 30-Oct. 9 in Neely Auditorium Moviegoers couldn’t get enough of Tom Stoppard’s Shakespeare in Love earlier this year. Now Nashville theater groups can’t get enough of his hit play Arcadia, which trips back and forth in time between the present day and the 19th century, covering events that transpire in an English country house during both eras. It’s a tricky premise, but Stoppard pulls it off with dialogue like this: “It’s the best possible time to be alive, when almost everything you thought you knew is wrong.” For information on the ACT I production, call 726-2281; for information on the Vandy show, call 322-2404.

The Sound of Music, Oct. 5-10 at TPAC Those hills are alive again, and no one can resist them—not even the Blair Witch. The touring version of the Broadway revival starring Richard Chamberlain comes to town as part of TPAC’s Broadway Series. I took my nieces to see the musical on a trip to Manhattan this past spring, and I have to say the sets are gorgeous, the kids are cute, and Chamberlain is darn good. If the lead is no Julie Andrews, well, who is? The show still works, and if you’re breathing, you’ll get a lump in your throat as you climb every mountain with the intrepid Von Trapp family.

A Wrinkle in Time, presented by Nashville Children’s Theatre, Oct. 11-22, with Weekend Family Series shows Oct. 17 and Oct. 23 The time-space continuum is also on the mind of Nashville Children’s Theatre as the venerable theater presents the stage version of Madeleine L’Engle’s novel. The plot concerns the adventures of a young girl named Meg, who must rescue her father, an astrophysicist and time researcher who has slipped through a tesseract—or wrinkle in time. Accompanied by her younger brother and a friend, Meg joins forces with Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which to free her father from the clutches of an evil, all-knowing presence called It on the planet Camazotz. Much more than a science-fiction tale, Wrinkle delves deftly into such themes as the dangers of unthinking conformity, scientific irresponsibility, and the saving power of love. For information, call 254-9103.

The Camellia Ball, presented by Mockingbird Public Theater, Oct. 15-30 at Darkhorse Theater Return with Mockingbird Public Theater to that mythical (yet oddly familiar) town of Persepolis, Ga., scene of the stage troupe’s 1998-99 season hit The Widow’s Best Friend. This season, playwright Randy Hall focuses on the sleepy little Southern town’s social event of the year in The Camellia Ball. Join the town’s baby-boomer country club set for the pre- and post-ball festivities and a look at social climbing and shaky marriages, Southern-style. For information, call 463-0071.

Hair, presented by ACT I, Nov. 5-21 at Darkhorse Theater The age of Aquarius meets the millennium in the ACT I presentation of Hair. Bell-bottoms and love beads will abound, but no word as of yet if the group plans to recreate the 1968 musical’s groundbreaking nude scenes. For information, call 726-2281.

The Music Man, presented by Circle Players, Nov. 19-Dec. 12 at TPAC’s Johnson Theater Seventy-six trombones—and thousands of stagings from Broadway to Bombay—can’t be wrong: The Music Man is a surefire crowd-pleaser, and you can bet the band, the place will be packed for Circle Players’ production. That’s great, because it’s mainstream shows like this that help fund Circle’s riskier efforts like Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and The Last Night of Ballyhoo, both set for the second half of the 1999-2000 season. For information, call 254-0113.

A Southern Christmas Sampler, presented by Mockingbird Public Theater, Dec. 8-9 and 15-17 at Belmont Mansion, and Dec. 21-22 at TPAC’s Polk Theater Mockingbird Public Theater presents its lovingly stitched Christmas production throughout the month of December. Filled with holiday music, both traditional and original, along with stories and poems by Southern writers, this annual treat sells out weeks in advance every year. We’re not kidding when we say book now if you want to catch this festive stage experience. For information on the Belmont shows, call 463-0071; for tickets to the TPAC shows, call 255-9600.

A Christmas Carol, Dec. 3-12 at Darkhorse Theater Patrick Stewart packed away his Star Trek Capt. Picard character and wowed Broadway a few years back with his one-man staging of A Christmas Carol. Now Nashville actor Mark Cabus goes solo with Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and all those ghosts in his own version of the Dickens classic. For information, call 726-2281.

—Angela Wibking

Lisa Giobbi Movement Theatre, Sept. 17 at Langford Auditorium Balletic aerial dance performed on trapezes high above the stage. Imagine a sensational pas de deux where the amorous couple’s feet never touch the ground—but isn’t that what love is all about? This is the only dance presentation offered by Vanderbilt’s Great Performance series this year, so get your tickets ASAP by calling 322-2471.

Tennessee Dance Theatre, Sept. 25 at Travellers Rest Historic House Museum An outdoor performance of tried-and-true favorites on the lawn, so bring your best picnic blanket; tours of the home are included in the price of the ticket. The troupe has gone into hiding for the entire fall season, so if you want to see them, this is their only public appearance in Nashville until late December. Call 832-8169 for more information.

Tennessee Dance Theatre, Oct. 1 at Columbia State Community College Excerpts, as yet unannounced, from the troupe’s Southern regional repertory. Call 248-3262 for time and other information.

“Dracula,” Nashville Ballet, Oct. 8-9 at TPAC’s Polk Theater Put on your “must-see” list this premiere production of Nashville Ballet artistic director Paul Vasterling’s new piece “Dracula,” a subject that ought to play to the choreographer’s brand of imaginative fantasy. Vasterling comes from Anne Rice’s city of New Orleans, so he grew up steeped in gothic atmospherics. Also on the program will be “Reunions,” a neoclassical ballet by David Allan, and “Appearances,” a jazz ballet by Lynne Taylor-Corbett. The latter choreographer is noteworthy for her work on the film Footloose, but she’s even better than that. Call 255-ARTS for tickets.

The Nutcracker, presented by Nashville Ballet, Dec. 11-19 at TPAC’s Jackson Hall For this season, Paul Vasterling has revamped the holiday classic along more traditional lines. The changes make more dramatic sense than the old plot, in which the Nutcracker toy soldier drops out of sight halfway through the production. This year, he turns into the Nutcracker Prince and guides our heroine Clara into the fantasy kingdom of candy during the second act. Fortunately, nobody has tinkered with the exquisite decor in the snowflake scene. For tickets, call 255-ARTS.

“Nutty Nutcracker,” presented by Nashville Ballet, Dec. 19 at TPAC’s Jackson Hall For the holiday season, Vasterling has devised another take on The Nutcracker, this one complete with slapstick comedy thrills. Nashville Ballet’s lavish production of the standard Nutcracker will be presented as usual in Jackson Hall (see above), but the company will cap its run with one showing of this farce. Tickets at 255-ARTS.

Tennessee Dance Theatre, December date to be announced, Fisk Memorial Chapel In conjunction with the Fisk University Choir, TDT presents Charles Weidman’s classic modern dance piece, “Christmas Oratorio.” Free and open to the public, this is TDT’s annual Christmas gift to the city. Call 248-3262 for date and time.

—Maureen Needham

“Anton Weiss: New Works in Metal,” through Sept. 25 at Bennett Galleries Arguably Nashville’s premier abstract artist, Anton Weiss has been a fixture on the city’s visual arts scene for nearly four decades. His latest non-objective (a term he prefers to “abstract”) paintings combine liquid acrylic paint in rich earthy browns and reds with aluminum, brass, and other metals. Meet and talk with Weiss, who once studied with the eminent abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann, at the opening reception 6-9 p.m. Sept. 10. For information, call 383-1000.

Sarratt Gallery’s Outdoor Installation Series While the renovation of Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Student Center and its Sarratt Gallery continues, indoor art exhibitions are on hold until early December. Outdoors, though, six artists are creating installations around the proposed site of Vandy’s new Studio Arts Building, off Kirkland Place between 25th and 24th Avenues. The first stage of the Outdoor Installation Series, Sept. 11-Oct. 10, consists of Mary Lucking-Reiley’s mulch trails tracing a baroque pattern among an existing web of concrete paths and Adrienne Outlaw’s installation of monofilament radiating out from the Sarratt Center to the farthest points on campus. Stage two of the series is a sculptural installation by Alvaro Garcia, Oct. 15-Nov. 10, that integrates discarded natural and industrial components. Stage three is an installation involving the words of Mark Twain as stenciled around campus by artists Jeff Hand, Erika Wollam-Nichols, and Lain York. For information, call 322-2471.

“Again Begin Again: New Works by Anna Jaap,” Sept. 18-Oct. 9 at Zeitgeist Gallery For any artist, each day is a discovery—and a chance to start anew. Hence the title of Anna Jaap’s show at Zeitgeist. The show features 25 new works and 50 smaller studies of sea scenes, landscapes, luscious desserts, and other still lifes, all in Jaap’s very accessible but deeply personal style. The opening reception is 6-8 p.m. Sept. 18. For information, call 256-4805.

“The Outdoor Sculpture Invitational,” opening Sept. 15; “Rusty Wolfe: The Whole Picture,” Sept. 20-Oct. 23; both at Finer Things Gallery Look out, Cheekwood, there’s a new outdoor sculpture trail in town. The Outdoor Sculpture Invitational, opening Sept. 15 for a one-year run at Finer Things Gallery, brings 35 new contemporary sculptures to the gallery’s 1.4-acre lot near the fairgrounds. Stroll around, enjoy the opening 5-9 p.m. Sept. 25, and while you’re at it, view Rusty Wolfe’s show inside the gallery. Co-owner of Finer Things, Wolfe is perhaps best known for his swirling lacquer paintings, but he’s also a skilled furniture designer, and this 10-year retrospective of his art covers all the bases.

“A Sense of Place: Major Works by Diane Burko 1981-99,” Sept. 25-Nov. 27 at the Parthenon Dramatic interpretations of the world’s great landscapes are the essence of Burko’s show at The Parthenon. The show amounts to an overview of the respected Philadelphia artist’s career, and Burko herself will be in town to talk about her work at the opening reception 7-9 p.m. Sept. 25. For information, call 862-8431.

“Temporary Contemporary—Paintings of Carol Mode,” Oct. 1-31, Cheekwood Cheekwood is in an abstract mode with its Temporary Contemporary exhibit for October. Mode and her ethereal explorations of color and geometric forms have been an important part of the city’s art scene for the past two decades, and these works show why. While you’re in the Mode mood, be sure to wander through the recently reopened museum to check out the reinterpreted collections of 19th- and 20th-century paintings as well as recent acquisitions never before displayed. For information, call 356-8000.

“Grand Opening: The Art of Michael Manly,” Oct. 9-Nov. 6 at Outside the Lines Hillsboro Village is bustling these days with shopping, fancy food, gourmet java—and art. Zeitgeist moved in first, and now the Village welcomes its second art space, Outside the Lines. The gallery, which specializes in folk and outsider art, opens its doors Sept. 14, but its first official show is an October exhibit of works by Michael Manly. For information, call 292-8393.

“Plus Four,” Oct. 23-Nov. 13 at Cumberland Gallery One is fun, but four is more, especially when it comes to art. Four artists with area ties share the spotlight in this show. Robert Durham’s quirky narrative paintings mingle with Carrie McGee’s minimalist abstracts, while John Folsom’s three-dimensional photographic pieces mix with Ann Wells’ nature-inspired ceramic wall sculptures. Eye them all, and meet the artists at the opening reception 6-8 p.m. Oct. 23. For more information, call 297-0296.

“Light and Dark: The Fantastic World of Werner Wildner,” Oct. 28-Dec. 17 at Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery Bizarre creatures from the imaginings of a reclusive Nashville artist see the light of day at Vandy’s Fine Arts Gallery. The show brings together for the first time an extensive collection of the jesters, jugglers, owls, hunchbacks, and hybrid species painted and sketched by Wildner over the years. The artist enjoyed great success in the 1960s before personal problems sidetracked his career, but his works, which recall the aesthetics of Hieronymus Bosch, are still sought after today. Gallery officials hope Wildner himself will play a personal role in the show. For information, call 322-0605.

“Presidents of the 20th Century: Contemporary and Historic Cartoon Art,” Nov. 19-Jan. 8 at Ruby Green Contemporary Arts Foundation Sandy Campbell is a political cartoonist at The Tennessean, so when his daughter Chris Campbell, co-founder of Ruby Green, wanted a curator for her gallery’s show of cartoon art, Dad got the call. The show includes both historic and contemporary takes on the occupants of the Oval Office. For information, call 244-7179.

—Angela Wibking