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Tosca
Germantown Performing Arts Center, 1801 Exeter Road
Friday – Saturday, January 27 – 28, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday of this weekend marks the 269th anniversary of the coinage of the word serendipity by Horace Walpole in a letter to a friend also named Horace. Such a lovely word, serendipity. And such an iffy name, Horace. I know not one Horace, but at least these two Horaces had each other — a serendipitous friendship, if you will, and if you won’t, consider me your enemy. I might not be the enemy of your worst nightmare like Baron Scarpia, but I will be your enemy, rest assured.
Who is Baron Scarpia? you ask. By George! Do you not know that he is the enemy of Floria Tosca, the titular character in Giacomo Puccini’s opera?
Set in Rome in the early nineteenth century, Tosca tells the story of singer Floria Tosca, who has dedicated her life to music for the glory of God, at the urging of the pope himself. “But a voice like hers can drive a listener from appreciation to obsession,” Opera Memphis writes. (The intrigue, am I right?) So when our old pal Baron Scarpia holds the life of the man she loves in his hands, Tosca must choose between love and honor. (The horror!)
With additional musical accompaniment from the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, the Memphis Children’s Chorale, and Stax Music Academy students, Opera Memphis will perform Tosca for one weekend and one weekend only, so you’ll want to get your hands on tickets ($35-$95) to this gripping show ASAP.
One hour prior to each performance, Opera Memphis will lead a pre-show talk for ticket buyers. The artistic team will provide insights into Tosca’s themes, music, and production.
Photography by Jason Leung on Unsplash
Lunar New Year Celebration
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, 1934 Poplar
Saturday, January 28, 10 a.m.
If serendipity is a lovely word, zemblanity is a word derived from the depths of hell. I mean, it was coined by William Boyd in the late twentieth century, and I’m not implying that he is from the depths of hell. I have no idea who he is, or where he’s from. It’s just that I hate the word zemblanity — the way it sounds, the way it looks on the page, just yuck! And its meaning? “Making unhappy, unlucky, and expected discoveries occurring by design.” In other words, the opposite of serendipity. Yuck! Why, oh why, coin this word? To compete with our pal Horace? To disrupt the serenity I have in the word serendipity? What is the reason for this madness? We’ll probably never know, so we must search for peace elsewhere. Luckily — or should I say serendipitously — for us, it happens to be the Year of the Rabbit, which harkens to a year of peace and tranquility, the very thing we need to counteract the existence of the word zemblanity.
To celebrate the Year of the Rabbit as welcomed by this Lunar New Year, the Brooks and Chinese Community Center are hosting an afternoon filled with performances, art-making, food, and more.
The lineup of performances includes a lion dance by TNTT Sacred Heart at 10:30 a.m., a dance by the Memphis Chinese Culture Performance Group at 11:30 a.m., and a tinikling performed by Rhodes College’s A.S.I.A. Club at 12:30 p.m. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., guests can make Year of the Rabbit origami bookmarks and make-your-own red envelopes. Plus, food by Dim Sum Memphis will be provided for free while supplies last. Oh, and the admission to the whole dang event is free.
Shen Yun
Cannon Center For The Performing Arts, 255 N. Main St.
Saturday-Sunday, January 28-29, 2 p.m.
As you most likely know, China is just one of the many countries and cultural groups that celebrates the Lunar New Year. So why not witness more of China’s five millennia of culture through dance? After all, Shen Yun, the New York-based dance group, is coming to Memphis, bringing its mission to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture by illuminating .
As the group says, “The traditional Chinese culture Shen Yun presents cannot be seen anywhere else in the world — not even in China. There, the ruling communist regime has viewed China’s rich spiritual and artistic heritage as a threat to its ideology and for decades tried to erase it. … The company’s repertoire includes important works shedding light on the plight of people like them in communist China today. After a decade of performing around the world to sold-out audiences everywhere, Shen Yun has brought a great civilization back from the brink of extinction.”
If that doesn’t sell you on the show, I don’t know what will. Tickets ($80-$180) for the show can be purchased here.
Photography by Clark Young on Unsplash
Robert Burns Night
Celtic Crossing, 903 Cooper
Saturday, January 28, 7 p.m.
The Wikipedia page for “Serendipity” lists penicillin as being invented, not out of necessity as the quote “Necessity is the mother of invention” would suggest, but out of a moment of serendipity. To be clear, I don’t know how much I buy this seeing that penicillin seems like a bit of necessity to me, but who can say? At least, Wikipedia is quick to point out the man behind the serendipitous invention: Sir Alexander Fleming, who just so happened to be born in Ayrshire, the very place where Robert Burns was born over a century before.
Robert Burns’ birthday, as it turns out, is on January 25th, and so Celtic Crossing will be hosting a night in honor of his 264th birthday. The evening will include a three-course meal, a whisky toast to the man himself, bagpiper performances, and recitations of Burns’ poems, like “Address to a Haggis,” “Tam O’ Shanter,” and “Red Red Rose.”
Tickets ($80) can be purchased online. Traditional Scottish attire is encouraged.
John F. Francis (American, 1808-86). Strawberries and Cakes, 1860, oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation.
Opening Presentation: “American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection”
The Dixon Gallery & Gardens, 4339 Park
Sunday, January 29, 2 p.m.
Another serendipitous invention: the Velcro hook-and-loop fastener. But you know what sticks together better than hooks and loops? Diane DeMell Jacobsen and her devotion to art. In her lifetime, she has amassed hundreds of priceless works of art, and now a majority of the works in her collection will be on view alongside one another for the first time in this traveling exhibition that has made its way to the Dixon.
“American Made” features work spanning 250 years of American history, from the Colonial Era through the twentieth century. In addition to names you might recognize like Benjamin West or John Singer Sargent, this exhibition also highlights the lesser-known works of women and artists of color that Jacobsen has collected.
For the exhibit’s opening on Sunday, Jacobsen, in a rare presentation, will share her long interest and engagement in American art. The exhibition will remain on display through April 16th.
