Alvin Ailey Dance
Setting the Stage: The Moving Story of African American Dance
Wednesday, February 24, 7:00 p.m.
Gem Theatre
1601 East 18^th Street, Kansas City, MO
Free admission. For more information visit www.kcfaa.org

In celebration of Black History Month, the Alvin Ailey Dance company is performing Setting the Stage, which it says is "a journey through African-American dance, beginning with the Middle Passage, through today." The presentation will feature both local and national dancers performing original choreographic works, and a narrated slide presentation of dance images.

Setting the Stage was created in 1997 by the Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey's Executive Director, Tyrone Aiken, who was inspired by Classic Black, a photo documentary originally presented at the Lincoln Center in New York City, to commemorate African-Americans in classical dance prior to 1970.



Kansas City Ballet
Lambarena
Thursday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, February 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, February 27 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, February 28 at 2:00 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-931-2232 or online at www.kcballet.org

The Kansas City Ballet's February program features Val Caniparoli's intriguing mixture of Johann Sebastian Bach and traditional African rhythms. This fusion has "made it an international sensation," according to one reviewer, who called it "a bold and heady cocktail of classical ballet and West African dance forms." The musical score pays homage to Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer, a fine classical musician who devoted much of his life to working for the people of Africa.

Also on the program is a dance by Robert Hill to contemporary composer Lowell Lieberman's Piano Concerto No. 2.  The music attracted Hill because of its "abrupt meter, tempo and thematic changes." The dance contains no particular story line, but is a stage expression of the music's twists and turns.

This reviewer, however, is most eagerly awaiting the return to the Ballet stage of longtime principal dancer Christopher Barksdale, who retired last season only to be hired for a return engagement for the title role of The Moor's Pavane, a stage retelling of Shakespeare's Otello, with music by Baroque English composer Henry Purcell. Jose Limon's excellent choreography has become a modern classic. The ballet tells "the legend of the hapless Moor, his wrongfully suspected wife, and the Moor's treacherous friend and his wife."  The idea behind the ballet is that Shakespeare's tragedy could happen to any of us. The four characters portray the tragedy of Everyman, according to the choreographer, "and the ballet is, therefore, timeless in its implications."




Carlsen Center Performing Arts Series
The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess
Friday, February 26 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, February 27 at 8:00 p.m.
Yardley Hall, Carlsen Center
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 913-469-4445 or online at www.jccc.edu/TheSeries

This year marks the 75^th anniversary of the premiere of George and Ira Gershwin's remarkable American classic, Porgy and Bess.  Originally written as an opera, but producing during their lifetimes only in much truncated version as a Broadway show, Porgy and Bess has in the last thirty years returned to its original operatic incarnation and is now recognized as probably the greatest work for the American opera stage.

Interestingly, the opera enjoys wide performances in opera houses in Europe and around the world, while here in its home country the piece is still only rarely performed.

A traveling production of Porgy and Bess inspired by the 75^th anniversary is making its way across the country this year, and it is in town this weekend for a two-night stand at Yardley Hall in the Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College. Since no local opera company is likely to do it any time soon (so far as this write knows), this represents a rare opportunity for you to see the creation as its authors originally intended. 



Harriman Jewell Series
Russian National Orchestra
Friday, February 26, at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 815-415-5025 or online at www.harrimanjewell.org

The Harriman Jewell Series brings the celebrated Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra to the Folly Theater this weekend under the baton of the justly renowned American conductor Patrick Summers.  Summers is the principal conductor of the Houston Grand Opera, but also excels in orchestral music, and in this concert he will lead the orchestra in works of Glinka, Dvorak and Tchaikovsky.

The early 19^th century composer Mikhail Glinka is generally viewed as the founder of Russian classical music, and the work for which he is most famed in his homeland, and in the West as well, is his folk opera Ruslan and Ludmilla. The orchestra will perform the familiar overture from the work.  Atonin Dvorak is represented on the program with his Symphony No. 8, a marvelous work not quite so well known as his Ninth Symphony ("From the New World"), but equally magisterial in its own way.

No Russian orchestra could possibly get by without playing the music of Tchaikovsky, of course, and for this evening's performance Summers and the orchestra have chosen the Symphony No. 4, one of the composer's leading works in that form.




Lied Center at KU
The Aluminum Show
February, February 26 at 7:30 p.m.
1600 Stewart Drive, Lawrence, KS
For tickets call 85-864-2787 or online at www.lied.ku.edu

Certainly the most unusual dance performance this weekend, and probably of the entire season, is The Aluminum Show, featured at the Lied Center on Friday evening.  This performance concept, created by Artistic Director Ilan Azriel after he mastered innovative techniques to manipulate different kinds of metal, features a cast of athletic dancers "fusing industrial materials and movement to make a luminous and reflective extravaganza."

The performance combines "physical theatre, puppetry and special effects to bring various forms of metal sheets, tubing and balloons to life, in original and visually arresting ways."

You can experience the Aluminum Show at the Lied Center this weekend, and catch the group in Kansas City again next year, as it is one of the featured performances on next season's Harriman Jewell Series. 



UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance Signature Series
Vinson Cole, tenor and George Darden, piano
Saturday, February 27 at 7:00 p.m.
White Recital Hall, University of Missouri-Kansas City campus
4949 Cherry Street, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.umkc.edu/conservatory

Kansas City native Vinson Cole is one of the leading operatic tenors of the past thirty years, having performed light Italian, German and French works in all of the major opera houses across the world including the Metropolitan Opera, Opera National de Paris Bastille, Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Theatre Royale de la Monnaie, Brussels, Berlin State Opera, Munich State Opera, San Francisco Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Opera Australia, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and many more.

Currently, Kansas City is lucky to have Cole as the Kauffman Artist in Residence at the UMKC Conservatory of Music.  Not only is he lending his musical expertise to the students, but he also treats us to an occasional performance, one of which is this weekend on the Conservatory's Signature Series of concerts. On the program are songs of Nin, Duparc, Strauss and Bellini, as well as some favorite spirituals.

George Darden will accompany Cole on the piano.



Lawrence Chamber Orchestra
Baroque by Candlelight
Saturday, February 27 at 7:00 p.m.
Trinity Episcopal Church
1011 Vermont Street, Lawrence, KS
For tickets call 785- 691-7824 or online at www.lawrencechamberorchestra.org

The Lawrence Chamber Orchestra has become known for its candlelight concerts. This one will feature compositions of Bach, Handel, Corelli, and Telemann.  The Bach piece is the Orchestral Suite in B Minor featuring a difficult solo flute part. For this number the Lawrence Chamber Orchestra will be joined by flutist Annie Gnojek.

By Don Dagenais

City Classics Music and Dance Columnist; Classical Contributor

A lifelong classical music fan, Don Dagenais is a frequent preview speaker for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and has taught classical music and opera courses at several Kansas City venues. He has served on the boards of directors of a number of performing arts organizations including the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Lyric Opera Guild, UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, Opera Volunteers International, the Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City, Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony, Octarium, and the Friends of the Symphony.  He has been the past president of most of these organizations and is current the president of the Friends of the Symphony. 

Dagenais co-authored a history of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, published on the occasion of its 50th anniversary (2007) and has written books on the histories of both the Lyric Opera Guild and Opera Volunteers International, as well as an introductory book for opera novices (Your Passport to the Opera).  He has received several local and national awards for outstanding volunteer work for the arts, including a lifetime achievement award from The Coterie Theatre in 2000, the Kansas City Musical Club's annual award in 2001, a Partners in Excellence Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2002, a Bravo Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2004 and a community service award from the Daughter of the American Revolution in 2008 honoring him for his community service to the arts.

In addition to his music interests, Don is president of the board of directors for the Metropolitan Ensemble Theater and has served on the boards of The Coterie Theatre and the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, serving as president of each organization.  He publishes newsletters for seven arts organizations.  When not involved in the performing arts, Don is a senior real estate attorney with Lathrop & Gage LLP in Kansas City, Missouri, where he has practiced law since 1976 after graduating from the Cornell Law School.