It was a week that showcased some of the best in culture and learning Sarasota has to offer. The play was powerful and timely, the orchestra’s performance moving, and the lecture, food for the mind.
WOMAN POWER & SCIENCE
Silent Sky at Asolo Repertory Theatre
Silent Sky by playwright Lauren Gunderson is a woman-centered work about astronomer Henrietta Leavitt. A Harvard graduate, Henrietta, was hired as a computer in the Harvard Observatory in 1900 working under the direction of Professor Edward Pickering. She and Annie Cannon and Williamina Fleming, her colleagues, studied and mapped star plates, but were not allowed to work on the actual telescope. Scientist Peter Shaw made rounds to check up on them.
Henrietta had a bold spirit and a creative mind and saw stars and patterns that eluded others. This is a marvelous play about women: the three female scientists and Margaret, Henrietta’s composer sister, and the challenges and conflicts they faced as women. Highly recommended! The play runs through March 5.
ASTOUNDING MUSICIANSHIP
Sarasota Orchestra, A Romantic Affair
The Sarasota Orchestra is in another transition year after the untimely death of the newly hired music director, Branwell Tovey, last July. That means this season brings another string of guest conductors, selected to deliver the programs that Tovey had developed. This most recent concert was simply superb!
Conductor Peter Oundjian, in his second appearance, was warm in his opening remarks and sprightly on the podium. We heard a spellbinding performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor with Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii and a rousing rendition of Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in C Minor. This orchestra was at its very best!
EUROPEAN POLITICS
Macron’s Europe – or Is it Putin’s? (Global Issues series, Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning)
Martin Walker had a long career as a journalist for The Guardian and UPI and then a second career working with various think tanks. His talk about the challenges faced by France and the European Union in dealing with Russia was informative and insightful. The Chief Penguin and I found it worthwhile but could have done without his opening humor.
There was a large crowd in attendance, probably partly due to Walker’s third career as the author of the Chief Bruno mysteries set in France. It’s also worth noting that he has been a SILL speaker for thirty years.
CURRENT READING
The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel by Kati Marton
More about this accessible biography in a future blog post
Note: Header photo is of the bell tower at New College of Florida ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
