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THE HERALD,
Sharon, Pa.,
Thursday, November 11, 1999
http://www.sharon-herald.com
Contributed photo
Packing the forum
The cast of Youngstown State University’s “A Funny Thing Happened on
the Way to the Forum” includes, from left, Robert Joki of Hubbard and
Michael Sheets and James Sullivan of Youngstown. The musical comedy of
a Roman slave who schemes to be free will be staged at 8 p.m. Friday, Sat-
urday, Nov. 19 and 20, and 3 p.m. Sunday and Nov. 21. Reservations:
(330) 742-3105.
The Pittsburgh Opera opens at 8
p.m. Saturday at the Benedum Cen-
ter for the Performing Arts with its
production of “Il Trovatore,” a ro-
mantic, Italian opera by Giuseppe
Verdi.
The opera premiered in Rome in
1853. The setting of the opera is in
Aragon and Biscay in the 15th centu-
ry. Count di Luna, a young noble-
man of Aragon, is portrayed by
Roberto Serville, a native of Genoa,
Italy, who is making his Pittsburgh
Opera debut.
The gypsy, Manrico, is portrayed
by tenor Dario Volonte, making his
American debut. He and the count
are on opposite sides in a civil war
and are also in love with the same
woman, Leonora, portrayed by Illi-
nois-born soprano Sondra Rad-
vanovsky.
Neither man knows that they are
brothers. They are members of a
family which the gypsy Azucena has
vowed to destroy to avenge the
death of her mother. Azucena is por-
trayed by Marianne Cornetti, who is
one of America’s foremost young
dramatic mezzo-sopranos. She is a
native of Cabot, Pa., and an alumna
of the Pittsburgh Opera Center at
Duquesne University.
Mexican bass Rosendo Flores will
portray Ferrando, a captain in the
count’s army. “I have a passion for
Verdi’s operas and they are my fa-
vorite to sing,” Flores said. “Verdi’s
operas are very romantic and show
characters well.”
Flores said he is a little homesick,
but added that modern technology
eases that a bit. “I enjoy singing
opera but it is a lonely life. I miss my
family, but being able to communi-
cate over the Internet helps.”
He has appeared in “Carmen” at
the Belles Artes, “Simon Boccane-
gra” and “Samson et Dalila” with
Washington Opera, and in “Rigolet-
to” with Pittsburgh Opera.
Three other performances of this
opera are scheduled for 7 p.m. Tues-
day, 8 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Nov
21. Tickets are available by calling
(412) 456-6666, or by visiting the
Benedum Center box office.
“Il Trovatore” will be sung in Ital-
ian with English translations project-
ed above the stage.
1999-2000 opera season
opens with ‘Il Trovatore’
PITTSBURGH
Carnegie special
events
Special events and lectures
planned for the Carnegie Interna-
tional at the Carnegie Museum of
Art, Pittsburgh:
ä Artist Kerry James Marshall
presents a slide lecture about his
work, 1 p.m. Saturday in Carnegie
Lecture Hall. The talk is free with
museum admission.
ä Painter Alex Katz discusses
“the impossibility of a realistic art”
at 1 p.m. Dec. 4 in Carnegie Lec-
ture Hall. The talk is free with
museum admission.
ä A reception for college stu-
dents and faculty will be held
from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday.
ä Art historian Kenneth Neal
discusses the creation of the
Carnegie International from 10:30
a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 9. The event
includes lunch and a docent-led
tour of the exhibition. Registra-
tion: (412) 622-3288.
Flores
The Associated Press
“You say “modern art,” I say “con-
temporary art,” someone else might
say “post-modern art.”
Patrons can’t tell the genres apart
without a scorecard when it comes
to what words describe the latest in
art.
The Carnegie International started
in 1896 in Pittsburgh as a showcase
of the best in modern art from
around the world, but the term
“modern art” has lost meaning as the
show steamed forward. The Interna-
tional is officially now described as a
collection of “contemporary art.”
“As to ‘modern,’ it is used loosely
— too loosely for the most part — to
mean the art of the modern era,”
said Kenneth Baker, art critic for the
San Francisco Chronicle.
It would be more accurate to end
the period of “modern art” at the
time at which differences between
objects of art and real things became
unrecognizable, Baker said. That
could be when artist Marcel
Duchamp signed factory-made ob-
jects with his name and declared
them to be his readymade art in the
early 20th century, the critic said.
The term “modern art” was
coined to reflect rapid changes in art
that coincided with advances in tech-
nology and science and dramatic
lifestyle changes in the late 19th and
20th centuries, said Bruce Allen, the
art dean at Centenary College in
Shreveport, La.
World War II marks the begin-
ning of “post-modern art,” Allen said.
He added that the definition of art
has become broader over time.
“Art of our time — contemporary,
modern, whatever you want to call it
— is most distinguished from the
past in its diversity,” Allen said. “The
history of western art has been a re-
lentless progression toward individu-
ality and personal expression in all
art forms — painting, sculpture,
dance, literature, music, theater, any-
thing that can be called art. To deny
this is to stick your head in the
sand.”
Contemporary definitions offered
over what really is modern art
Artists
Artists of the world unite at
Carnegie International
from page A-9
in.
The culture clash of Ms. Neshat’s
video takes a political turn in the
works of Chris Ofili. Ofili is the
Briton of Nigerian descent whose
work “The Holy Virgin Mary” an-
gered New York Mayor Rudolph
Guiliani.
Guess what. The elephant dung of
“The Holy Virgin Mary” is included
on six Ofili works at the Carnegie.
The works give some context that
should help many understand the
work in Brooklyn.
Ofili’s works have a mosaic look
made by tiny dots of paint and faces
— many of them famous, such as
Bill Cosby, Tupac Shakur and
Patrick Ewing — cut out from maga-
zines and given enormous afros. The
figures are African and the colors
and patterns, kitschy reminiscent of
‘60s psychedelic and ‘70s blaxploita-
tion films.
Balls of elephant dung hold up
each canvas, and are otherwise em-
ployed, such as the pendant of a
woman’s necklace. In another paint-
ing with echoes of Jackson Pollock’s
drip works, the dung has names
such as Don King, Calvin Broadus
— Snoop Doggy Dogg’s real name
— and LL Cool J written in beads.
Race relations is a subject of Kara
Walker’s works, which are silhou-
ettes cut out of black and white pa-
per and pasted to the walls of the
Hall of Sculpture.
Walker, of Providence, R.I., em-
ploys stereotypes of blacks and ante-
bellum dress for all her figures.
Some are whimsical, such as the boy
who lays eggs into the waiting frying
pan of a little girl while he bends
over a bent-over chicken.
Others are not so easy to deal
with. A woman cries at a chopping
block near ground that is littered by
human heads. A black woman has
just given birth to twins — she has-
n’t even passed the placenta, yet —
while a white girl stands over one of
the babies, seemingly about to step
on it, just out of curiosity.
The show features 41 artists from
22 countries and includes participato-
ry works — such as Ernesto Neto’s
gauze sculpture in which you walk
around — many videos, Ann Hamil-
ton’s crying wall and even some old
fashioned paintings and sculpture,
from the likes of Alex Katz and
Nahum Tevet.
To see the whole show you have
to wander over to the Carnegie Mu-
seum of Natural History and the
Carnegie Library, and keep an eye
on your watch so you can make the
video screenings. It demands as
much of you as you might of it.
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