News Roundup May 5, 2022

Opera San Antonio has emerged from the pandemic faze to stage a grand-opera production of Rigoletto, one of the masterpieces of the entire operatic repertoire. It’s a bold and expensive undertaking and we would like to urge readers to support it by attending one of the performances: tonight, Thursday, May 5 or Saturday, May 7. Thanks to the efforts of …

Aladdin’s Story Told Through Dance

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor As with all folktales, the origin of the story of Aladdin and his magical lamp cannot be precisely determined. But this character and his vicissitudes became a part of the famous story collection, One Thousand and One Nights, after the Frenchman, Antoine Galland, heard the tale from a Syrian storyteller named Hanna Diyad. The story appeared …

Verdi’s Masterpiece,Rigoletto, to Light Up the Tobin

BY JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor What better way to inaugurate spring and a return to normal life than by staging one of greatest operatic masterpieces in history – Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto. And that’s exactly what Opera San Antonio has chosen to do. The beloved opera will be staged with a 52-member orchestra in the pit, a 21-member chorus and prominent, nationally …

Ekphrastic Poetry – Part 6

The poems we are publishing today were not part of the Ekphrastic Poetry Contest. They are a new addition to the ekphrastic poetry project 2022. They were written by three San Antonio poet laureates and the project coordinator Jim LaVilla-Havelin. Enjoy! Carretta WheelBy Octavio Quintanilla (Inspired by Carretta Wheel from a Tejano Freighter, at the Witte Museum I see our …

Ekphrastic Poetry Contest Winners – Part 5, 2022

The poems we are publishing today were inspired by Carretta Wheel from a Tejano Freighter at the Witte Museum. ADULT WINNERS Abuelo’s First JobBy Diane Gonzales Bertrand Along that dusty Mexico trail,we ate the burro to stay alive.Papa and Rogelio pushed the carrettaas Sergio and Rosalinda crossedthe leather harness between thempulling like two skinny ponies.Catching rain in empty horns,we shared …

News Roundup, April 21, 2022

Music, poetry and visual arts dominate the arts calendar this weekend and in the coming week The San Antonio Chamber Music Society will be presenting its final concert of the season featuring The Parker String Quartet. The Grammy-Award-winning ensemble, that has been praised for its “luminous sound,” and “dynamic interpretations,” will play music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Leoš JanaÄŤek, GyĹ‘rgy …

Serbian Artist, Maya Sokovic’s Fragments of Landscapes at MBAW Gallery

BY JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor Serbian-born artist Maya Sokovic has known Musical Bridges Around the World founder, Anya Grokhovski, for several years because her husband, Zlatan Redzic, often performs for MBAW concerts. But when Sokovic had a solo exhibit at the Brick at Blue Star in 2020, Grokhovski was surprised to discover her talent. “Why didn’t you tell me that you …

Ekphrastic Poetry Contest Winners – Part 4

EKPHRASTIC POETRY CONTEST WINNERS – Part 4 The poems published today were inspired by “Landscape of four Seasons” by Unkoku Togan, at the San Antonio Museum of Art. ADULT WINNERS Haiku for Landscape of Four SeasonsBy Veronica Morrison We are waiting outthe unrelenting greynessof a somber year. After Unkoku Togan’s “Landscape of Four Seasons”By Mark Heinlein High above the village …