Offerings from Pittsburgh's cultural arts and entertainment events:
Renaissance and Baroque Society
The less familiar Italian style of "English" composer George Frideric Handel was the basis for a superb concert Saturday night at the Renaissance and Baroque Society.
The music was a reminder that Handel, who was German by birth and training and lived most of his life in England, had a fabulous ear for matching music to words in any language.
Soprano Ellen Hargis, who sang three pieces Handel wrote in Italy between his 22nd and 25th birthday, is one of the outstanding artists of our day. In the cantata "Armida abbandonata" she conveyed her character's external grace and internal seething passions with a precision and control that recalled the singular excellence of the late Judith Raskin.
Like Raskin, Hargis can sing intricate musical passagework with the best of instrumentalists, such as her Seattle Baroque colleagues on Saturday night. The inspired advocacy of harpsichord Byron Schenkman won fervent applause for rarely heard solo pieces by Domenico Zipoli and Georg Muffat.
-- Mark Kanny
Banff Mountain Film Festival
People who love the outdoors willingly gave up a beautiful evening last Wednesday to fill the Byham Theater, Downtown, for the Banff Mountain Film Festival .
The evening of outdoor films was sponsored here by Venture Outdoors, the Downtown outside advocates. It examined such topics as whitewater kayaking in China, Africa and Russia; a solo trek across Australia; a wacky 12-year-old's fascination with mountain bike dangers; and ice and rock climbing in Mallorca and Colorado.
There it was, outdoor fun without breaking a sweat. The blue-jean-and-runing-shoe-clad audience enjoyed every step, spin, splash and splat, cheering and clapping and sometimes sighing with emotion.
The Byham took on the nature of its former Fulton days, being filled with the smell of popcorn and filmgoers taking refreshments into the hall. Wow, now that will make you come in for a show.
-- Bob Karlovits
The Rep
Friedrich Durrenmatt's now-classic revenge tragedy "The Visit" receives a thoroughly post-modern, though uneven production from The Rep, Point Park University's Professional Theatre Company.
The play concerns a financially bereft town that anticipates salvation by a once-vilified, now wildly rich, former resident. Bent on revenge, their potential benefactress, Claire Zachanassain, offers prosperity in exchange for the execution of her former lover and betrayer. In act one, director John Shepard emphasizes the dark comedy of Duerrenmatt's tale before shifting into the more pessimistic shadings of its second act.
Utilizing an ensemble cast of 33 and Stephanie Mayer's stark, steeply slanted distressed metal setting and Jennifer Ford's sharp, florescent fixture-accented lighting design, the production provides a grim look at how easily loyalty and community capitulates to greed. Robin Walsh's vengeful Zachanassain is more coarse than devious but handles the role's ironic aspects well. Randy Kovitz is satisfyingly hapless as her victim, Anton Schill. As Teacher and Frau Mayor, Mary Rawson and Susan McGregor-Laine neatly illustrate the ease with which we willingly shed our principles. "The Visit" continues through Sunday at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, 222 Craft Ave., Oakland at 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets: $18 to $22.
Details: (412) 621-4445.
-- Alice T. Carter
City Theatre
Career moves rather than dance moves were the topic of discussion Sunday at City Theatre.
The post-matinee special talk was titled "Elbow, Wrist, Hand: a Fosse Talk." But participants Lenora Nemetz and Billy Porter dedicated the hour-long conversation to discussing their own work past and present rather than those of legendary choreographer Bob Fosse. The discussion, led by City Theatre artistic associate Kellee Van Aken, followed Sunday's matinee performance of Porter's one-man show "Ghetto Superstar: The Man That I Am" that runs through May 1 at City Theatre on the South Side.
"It's all about giving and connecting with a higher power," says Nemetz. "When you've got the gift, you have to use it." They reminisced about earlier days when Porter was a student of Nemetz's at the Pittsburgh High School for the Performing Arts. Now each is in the process of developing solo-performer shows based on their lives and love of performing. "It's been very challenging because it's so emotional and personal," says Porter. "There's a lot rapped up in facing your demons."
-- Alice T. Carter
Silver Eye Center for Photography
Friday evening it seemed like the whole city showed up for the opening of the exhibition "Pittsburgh NOW" at Silver Eye Center for Photography.
Just ask any of the nearly 400 who attended this lively event, all of whom packed the tiny South Side gallery from wall to wall. But making one's way through the crowd to see all 63 photographs on display by nine local photojournalists was worth it. Featuring numerous images that are typically Pittsburgh, the exhibition pays tribute to the past while giving Pittsburgh's image a much needed makeover
Silver Eye's executive director, Linda Benedict-Jones, didn't mind the huge turnout. "A record breaker for sure," she beamed as she and exhibition co- curator Henry Simonds made their way through the crowd to say hello to the exhibiting photographers, nearly all of whom were in attendance.
A picture perfect evening for a picture perfect show, the opening reception proved perhaps more than anything that Pittsburgh's current photographic community is a thriving one.
-- Kurt Shaw
Slaughter and Skid Row
A rambunctious crowd of mostly 30-something overgrown teenagers on Saturday night fervently embraced two of the quintessential '80s hair bands: Slaughter and Skid Row. The Pepsi-Cola Roadhouse in Burgettstown felt like a miniature Ozzfest.
Johnny Bolinger -- the Skid Row lead singer who replaced Sebastian Bach -- looked a bit like Bret Michaels of Poison with his combination of rugged street clothes and a cowboy hat. The band showed a powerful on-stage energy, which the insatiable crowd mirrored. Slaughter gave an equally passionate performance, with lead singer Mark Slaughter dashing into the audience and dancing on the tables.
-- Kellie Gormly
