Word: spoleto
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...world's largest naval base, may have launched a thousand ships, but it has never christened much, in the way of the arts. The city (pop. 330,000) lacks the colonial quaintness of nearby Williamsburg, the antebellum allure of Savannah or Charleston's successful new Spoleto Festival. But in 1975, Norfolk acquired some culture: the Virginia Opera Association. The founders were a group of wealthy, energetic women who took over the old 1,800-seat Center Theater, a concrete WPA-era pile blessed only with good acoustics. They pushed ticket sales hard and put on La Boheme. What...
...Spoleto U.S.A. is devoted to all the arts. Simon Gray's new play Molly was the attraction at the restored Dock Street Theater (see following story). Noon at the Dock Street was the hour for a daily series of chamber music programs under the co-directorship of Pianists Peter Serkin and Charles Wadsworth. The first recital consisted of works by Pergolesi, Schubert and Dvorak, and the capacity audience of 463 rose to its feet, applauding...
...that evening during The Queen of Spades (in English) at the Gaillard auditorium. Backstage facilities are cramped, and the pit holds only 65 musicians. Fortunately, they were 65 of the best young instrumentalists Keene could recruit from around the U.S. Said Keene proudly: "It's the finest orchestra Spoleto has ever had." Leading the players adroitly through the lushly colored Tchaikovsky score, Guide Ajmone-Marsan, the Italian-born conductor, made a brilliant U.S. operatic debut...
Molly is quite unlike any play that Britain's Simon Gray has written. Seeing the work in a late dress-rehearsal phase of its world première at Spoleto, one cannot properly evaluate the drama's full potential, but cannot fail to mark a signal change of direction...
...Dock Street Theater opened in 1736 and is said to be the oldest professional theater in the U.S. The present playhouse represents a 1937 restoration that resembles a religious meetinghouse fashioned with seasoned, dark-hued wood and seats that resemble church pews. For Simon Gray and Charleston's Spoleto Festival, the old house represents fresh beginnings and new horizons...