Michael Janairo

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Author: Michael Janairo

  • Shalom Auslander talks Anne Frank, writing and ‘Hope: A Tragedy’

    Hope: A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander
    By Elizabeth Floyd Mair

    I knew from reading the jacket copy that Shalom Auslander’s debut novel, “Hope: A Tragedy,” would touch on all sorts of taboos. Indeed, it contains many a joke on topics that are usually way off-limits, including Anne Frank, the Holocaust, and Jesus’ last words on the cross. But I had no idea just how intelligent and beautifully written it was also going to be.

    “Hope: A Tragedy” takes the point of view of its main character, Solomon Kugel, who is fearful of just about everything but especially afraid of the arsonist who has been burning down farmhouses in Stockton, N.Y. — the town where Kugel and his family have recently bought a farmhouse. The arsonist becomes the least of his worries.

    Kugel’s got an old woman living in his attic who turns out to be Anne Frank. She is penniless, unable to touch a cent in royalties from the 32 million copies her book has sold, and has relied for years on the guilty consciences of a succession of German or Jewish homeowners.

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  • New York City Ballet’s 2012 SPAC season

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    The New York City ballet’s summer season at SPAC runs from July 10 through July 21. For more information, visit http://www.spac.org

    Ballet premieres

    • 8 p.m. July 12; 2 p.m. July 14; 2 p.m. July 19: SPAC premiere of Peter Martins’ “The Waltz Project.” Martins is NYCB’s ballet master-in-chief. The ballet is set to music by 13 composers, including John Cage, Milton Babbitt, Robert Moran and Philip Glass.
    • 8 p.m. July 14: World premiere of a Justin Peck ballet set to Philip Glass’ Four Movements for Two Pianos. Peck has been a dancer since 2007 with NYCB and a choreographer since 2009. This is his first ballet for a major company. SPAC premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s most recent work for NYCB, “Les Carillons.” It premiered Jan. 28 in New York. His 18th ballet for the company, “Les Carillons” features 20 dancers and George Bizet’s L’Arlesienne Suites Nos. 1 and 2. SPAC premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s newest ballet for NYCB set to music by contemporary composer Nico Muhly. It will premiere in May in New York. A NYCB dancer for 16 years, Millepied recently retired from dancing to focus on choreography. This is his fourth ballet for the company.
    • 8 p.m. July 20; 8 p.m. July 21: SPAC premiere of Wheeldon’s “DGV: Danse a Grande Vitesse,” which he created for the Royal Ballet in 2006. It features 26 dancers and a score by Michael Nyman.

    Other highlights

    • 8 p.m. July 11; 8 p.m. July 13; 8 p.m. July 17: Alexei Ratmansky’s masterwork “Russian Seasons” returns for the first time since its 2006 SPAC debut.
    • 8 p.m. July 14: Ballet gala-fundraiser features a lawn party, fireworks and three premieres, including the world premiere of a Justin Peck ballet.
    • 8 p.m. July 18; 8 p.m. July 19; 2 p.m. July 21: Peter Martins’ ballet “Romeo and Juliet” returns for the first time since 2007.
    • 8 p.m. Aug. 18: “Tchaikovsky Spectacular” closes the season with City Ballet dancers performing and works by the great Russian composer, including the 1812 Overture, and colonial re-enactors, live cannons fire and fireworks.

    Complete season

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  • SPAC announces 2012 NYCB and Philly Orchestra seasons

    By Tom Keyser

    The Saratoga Performing Arts Center has announced a 2012 classical season filled with firsts.

    Music fans will welcome Yannick Nezet-Seguin, music-director-designate of the Philadelphia Orchestra, who will make his SPAC debut. He will conduct the orchestra for three performances, including one that features superstar pianist Lang Lang.

    Other firsts and plenty of highlights mark the summer season when the New York City Ballet (July 10-21) and the Philadelphia Orchestra (Aug. 1-18) settle into Saratoga Springs for their annual residencies — from the world premiere of a Justin Peck ballet (the first world premiere by City Ballet at SPAC in 27 years) and the return of Peter Martins’ ballet “Romeo and Juliet” to the performance by Lang Lang and other classical stars, such as Joshua Bell and Yo-Yo Ma.

    See the complete City Ballet season and the complete Philadelphia Orchestra season.

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  • The Onion, misunderstood

    literallyunbelievable:

    How exactly did you get elected?

  • Is it me or are the 1970s coming back stronger than ever?

    Here’s my evidence:

    • On Tuesday, Van Halen releases a new album. (Its first album VH1 came out in 1977)
    • On Friday, Peter Frampton comes to the Palace Theatre in Albany to play Frampton Comes Alive (from 1976) plus other songs.
    • Also on Friday, Star Wars Episode I (the “first” Star Wars, as confused young people who weren’t alive in the 1977 when the real first Star Wars came out, even though it was called “Episode IV”) returns to the silver screen in 3-D.

    Now all we need is some new Donna Summer songs in the boom box, and the Pittsburgh Pirates in contention for the World Series.

  • What’s your take on EMPAC?

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    The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at RPI in Troy begins its Spring 2012 season Thursday night with a screening of Alfred Hithcock’s classic film “Vertigo.”

    Some highlights of the coming season include Annie Dorsen: “Hello Hi There” on Feb. 18, in which chatbots hold a conversation; a solo saxophone performance by John Zorn on April 3; and a dance performance by Wally Cardona and Jennifer Lacey called “Tool is Loot” on April 20, 21.

    The building opened in fall 2008 and was hailed by the New York Times as a “technological pleasure dome for the mind and senses… dedicated to the marriage of art and science as it has never been done before.” Sometimes, though, it seems not enough people are familiar with EMPAC or they are turned off by what it presents to the public. Of course, public events are only part of what happens at EMPAC, which also commissions new work in video, dance, music, theater, internet art, DVD productions, interactive installations and multimedia art; holds residencies for artists and scholars, who get to use the venues facilities; conducts workshops to give people hands on experience in various types of new technologies; as well as rents out the venue for other events.

    For an upcoming column, I’m wondering what other people think of EMPAC. So you can take the poll below and add any comments you may have.

    [poll id=”93″]

  • Ice Racing championship event at Glens Falls Civic Center canceled

    From the Civic Center:

    The Championship Ice Racing event scheduled for Saturday, January 28 at the Glens Falls Civic Center has been cancelled due to a scheduling conflict.

    All ticket holders who purchased their tickets via credit card through GlensFallsCC.com will be automatically refunded the ticket price.  All other refunds are only available at the original place of purchase.

  • Big picture: Which Broadway shows would you like to see come to the Capital Region?

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    Times Union Studio shot of Entertainment Editor Michael Janairo for his upcoming Unwind “Big Picture” Arts Column, shot on Wednesday, June 16, 2010, in Albany, NY. (Luanne M. Ferris/Times Union)

    On Tuesday night, “Shrek: The Musical” opens at Proctors.

    It’s the third production in the venue’s five-musical Broadway season. (“La Cage Aux Folles” started the season, followed by “The Addams Family”; later will be “Jersey Boys” and “Memphis”). Now that the season is around the halfway point, I thought I’d try my powers of prognostication about what may be in store for Proctors’ 2012-13 Broadway season.

    Although nothing has been announced at Proctors, some current Broadway shows have already announced 2012-13 tours, even the biggest one of them all — “The Book of Mormon” — which last year won nine Tony awards, including best musical. The show, which satirizes organized religion and Broadway shows, comes from the same brains behind the TV show “South Park,” Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and Robert Lopez, who co-wrote “Avenue Q.” So the questions are: will Proctors be able to snag this hot ticket, and will the venue be able to sell enough tickets to fill its 2,646 seats for a run of a week or longer?

    Of course, the matter of selling tickets is the big question for every show at every venue, but the kinds of shows Proctors brings in says something about the audience. Are Capital Region theatergoers eager and open enough for a musical about naive Mormon missionaries in Uganda, a production that Stone has called an “atheist’s love letter to religion”?

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  • Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company celebrates 21 years at The Egg

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    By Tresca Weinstein, Special to the Times Union

    Melissa George and Laura Teeter, dancers with the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, have been living parallel lives for quite some time now. Both women graduated from the Boston Conservatory in spring 2004, joined Sinopoli’s company that summer, and have been with her ever since.

    “I didn’t anticipate being here this long, but the longer I stayed, the more confident I became, and the more I felt my artistry growing,” Teeter said recently. “I was pretty lucky to land the perfect job for me right out of college.”

    In their time with Sinopoli, Teeter and George have seen the company’s public profile grow as well, along with its reputation and base of support. This year, the troupe celebrates its 21st anniversary as the resident company of The Egg. Its annual “home” performance is slated for 8 p.m. Friday.

    What accounts for the longevity of the company and its dancers’ long runs? (A third dancer, Claire Jacob-Zysman, has been with the troupe for six years, while Marie Klaiber, Andre Robles and Sara Senecal are newer additions.) George sums it up in two words: “Ellen’s passion.”

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