Spoleto gets sparked and the sunset gets serenaded
Maura's Three for the Week in Charleston, 5/20 - 5/26
Heads up, art lovers. By this weekend, Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto will both be in full, dynamic, dizzying swing. For the coming weeks, whether or not a happening is officially part of these two anchor arts festivals, the Charleston cultural world is vibrantly, giddily, provocatively game for artistic expression. So, ready, set, Spoleto. Embrace its blessed gamut of probing, crucial questions and unfettered joy.
Take the leap with Spoleto’s world premieres, sultry Cistern Yard evenings, and a new festival hub
Various locations and times through Charleston, May 22 through June 9
The poster is revealed for all its charged yellow splendor, created by visual artist Sarah Chaar. A new hub at The Charleston Place, Spoleto Piazza, is up and serving limoncello cocktails. The stages are pretty much set— and so am I. For Culture South, I’ll be chiming in along the way with reviews, interviews and more to size up how Spoleto continues to elevate the conversation in this arts-giddy city.
The coming opening weekend will let loose a world-premiere opera in Ruinous Gods, which promises poignancy and fantasy as it mines displacement among child refugees. It will mount a bold and glorious go at Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite by way of L.A. Dance Project’s acclaimed choreographer Benjamin Millepied. It will debut The Song of Rome, a work by returning artists Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson that revisits Virgil’s Aeneid, likely doing so with transfixing, contemporary twists.
This weekend the festival will also dream up transcendent evenings under the live oaks at the College of Charleston’s Cistern Yard by way of musical phenoms like Old Crow Medicine Show and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. It will conjure memorable afternoons in the Dock Street Theatre, ushering in the next era of chamber music concerts to be led by Paul Wiancko, the series’ recently anointed Charles E. and Andrea L. Volpe Director.
To delve into this world-renowned, annual event that calls Charleston home, visit spoletousa.org.
Seat yourself at Piccolo’s Sunset Serenade before an action-packed program
Various locations throughout Charleston, May 24 - June 9
For almost as long as Spoleto, the companion festival Piccolo Spoleto, which is produced by the City of Charleston, fans out over the city with concerts spanning venues from parks to sanctuaries; live theatrical performances; a juried art exhibition; family-friendly events; and so much more in the way of affordable, accessible fare. It all starts with the beloved Sunset Serenade, the annual tradition of Charleston Symphony performing a concert on the steps of the U.S. Custom House, all to a crowd who has brought their own chairs, nibbles and love of inspired musical forays.
For more information, visit piccolospoleto.com.
Immerse yourself in thoroughly modern McCallum at The George
The George Gallery, 54 Broad St. in downtown Charleston; exhibition opens with reception on Wed., May 22, 6 - 8 p.m.
This week, The George Gallery’s Corrie McCallum: Other Worlds is here to remind the arts world that Charleston has been home to forward-thinking artists for decades. The solo exhibition features work from the estate of Corrie McCallum, a Sumter native who embraced abstract expressionism in Charleston landscapes as well as those set in locales around the world. Of note: McCallum was also married to seminal abstract expressionist William Halsey, and together they forged a power couple championing artistic innovation (and kept a circle including heavy hitters such as South Carolinian Jasper Johns and his partner Robert Rauschenberg).
For information, visit georgegalleryart.com.
Bonus: Parse particulars on the great Maria Callas with a doc and a talk
Septima Clark Memorial Auditorium, 25 St. Philip St., Room 118, in downtown Charleston, Tues., May 21, 5:30 p.m.
Later this month for Piccolo Spoleto, Charleston Opera Theater rolls out its production of “Master Class,” Terrence McNally’s acclaimed, vocals-infused play about opera mega-star Maria Callas. This week, the company warms up with a screening of “Maria by Callas,” the 2017 documentary sizing up her life and art, followed by a conversation with John de los Santos, director of the Piccolo production, and its lead, Saundra DeAthos, which moderated by yours truly.
For more information on Charleston Opera Theater, visit charlestonoperatheater.org.