Pandemic or not, San Antonio will have a 2020-21 opera season thanks to Opera San Antonio and its new partnersin the recently created Texas Opera Alliance. The latter brings together five Texas companies: OSA, the Houston Grand Opera (HGO), the Austin Opera, the Dallas Opera and the Fort Worth Opera (FWO). Three of those, San Antonio, Houston and Austin, joined …
BY JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor — Have you ever heard of Vinkensport? The name implies that it is a sport but it’s like no sport you have ever heard of. It’s “played” only in the Flemish lands of Belgium and the competitors are birds – male finch birds to be precise – who are brought to the competition in small cages …
The McNay Art Museum can always be counted on to present thoughtfully curated and handsomely installed exhibits and the new one, ROBERT INDIANA: A Legacy of Love is no exception. Conceived and organized by McNay’s curators – led by Head of Curatorial Affairs Rene Barilleaux – the show opened Oct. 15 in the Stieren Center for Exhibitions. What’s especially interesting …
By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor — The famed 19th century naturalist/philosopher, Henry David Thoreau filled his voluminous journals with his observations of nature and his thoughts on how nature benefits and teaches human beings. In one entry, he wrote: “Must be out-of-doors to get experience of wholesome reality as a ballast to thought and sentiment. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless …
By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor — For 25 years, Mexico’s beloved Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan had visited San Antonio in the fall to perform for their fans and tutor mariachi students during a week-long event known as the Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza.  But this year everything is different. Though many performing arts events have been cancelled due to COVID-19, the annual mariachi …
The annual Artpace event known as Chalk it Up will take place this year again but in a modified format to fit our new pandemic-shaped reality. There will be no massive gathering of eager chalk artists downtown, creating murals along Houston Street and Main Avenue. Instead, both teams and individual artists will be spread around the city, all working in …
By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor — When Barbara Minarro received an invitation from Artpace to participate in this year’s Chalk It Up event, she eagerly accepted. “I love it! I had such a great time the first time I took part in it,” said the fabric artist who has had ties to Artpace for a number of years as an intern …
When The Phantom of the Alamo premiered at the Magik Theater in 1996, it was a regular live stage show that live audiences enjoyed in the theater. The 2020 version, however, is a virtual theater experience. The Magik’s founder and longtime former director, Richard Rosen, decided to revive his original musical for streaming with a group of his former collaborators, …
We don’t get many opportunities to see Shakespearean plays these days but the Classic Theater of San Antonio has something truly special for us: a new production of Macbethto be performed outdoors in park settings. It opens tomorrow, Oct.2, at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, where it will run Friday-Sunday through Oct. 11, and then continue for six more shows …
By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor — The highly respected literary critic, Harold Bloom, wrote in his analysis of Shakespeare’s Macbeth that the relationship between Macbeth and his Lady Macbeth is “the best marriage in Shakespeare.” Though that may surprise a lot of theatergoers who seldom think of those two as a loving couple, actor John Stillwaggon who portrays Macbeth in the …
