Tacoma’s Pantages Theater was filled last Saturday night with joyous sounds from both stage and audience – appropriate enough, since the program for the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra’s season finale included Beethoven’s 9^th symphony with its beloved “Ode to Joy” final movement. But while the evening featured some very fine playing from the orchestra, masterful control from director Harvey Felder and delightful singing from all four soloists, the Tacoma Symphony Chorus was unfortunately hampered by something you don’t really want to hear in this colossal masterpiece – bad audio amplification.

The basic problem all classical music groups encounter in the Pantages is lousy acoustics. The architecturally splendid hall was in fact built for vaudeville and film, not orchestras, and anyone trying to make a lovely instrumental sound in there is hit by a wall of deadness, cutting off reverberation and making the most golden tones sound harsh. The fact that the orchestra sounded so good playing this dramatically bursting music shows just how well they played. Read more »

Tacoma has quite a history of small, independent theater in odd venues, and “Anchor Baby” is one of them. Mounted by Dukesbay Productions, who’ve been responsible for the “Java Tacoma” live local sit-com and other creative shows, Richard Tucker’s “Anchor Baby” opened Friday night at First Congregational Church and tells a culture-clash tale of what happens when brash, clueless Americans plonk themselves into the peaceful society of the fictional island of Mehlot. It’s a mostly fun piece of theater but the acting has some holes and the script is about as about as subtle as a lead hammer.

Dukesbay is a group of community theater folks with an emphasis on cast diversity. For this show they also have a star-studded production line-up which sets a professional tone from the moment you walk into the church’s musty alleyway door: Set designer Scott Campbell (formerly Lakewood Playhouse and Tacoma Little Theatre) has made a gorgeous tropical-apartment set out of an uninspiring church basement room, along with painter Maggie Knott (also formerly Lakewood). Composer Allan Loucks adds a quasi-steel-band touch to the scene change music.

The acting is less professional. Read more »

The University of Washington, Tacoma now has an original Picasso drawing hanging in its library, courtesy of Tacoma peace activist Fr. Bill “Bix” Bichsel. In a ceremony last Monday that honored Fr. Bichsel’s life and commitment to peace and justice, Picasso’s 1953 line drawing “La Visage de la Paix (The Face of Peace)” was offered by the Jesuit priest on behalf of the reconciliation group he led to Japan in 2009. But how that group got hold of the artwork, valued at $60,000, is a result of a peace connection stretching back to the artist himself.

“We’d gone to Japan in 2009 to express our sorrow for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” explained Fr. Bichsel, who’d organized the group of 18 mostly-Puget Sound travelers on what they called ‘The Journey of Repentance.’ “When we first got there we were met by the Japanese Peace Committee. There was a lot of gift exchanging, as is common in Japan. We just brought over simple things like dream-catchers and scarves. But they gave us this tremendous piece of art. We didn’t realize just what it was at first.”

What it was, in fact, was a Picasso original. Read more »

The Tacoma Symphony Orchestra and chorus and prominent local soloists join forces Saturday night for the season finale, a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9, the “Choral.” One of the most beloved and influential pieces in all Western classical music, the symphony includes the famous fourth movement “Ode to Joy.” A contemporary piece written about the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks and a Strauss waltz complete the program, held at Tacoma’s Pantages Theater.

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was the composer’s last, written in 1824 when he was already deaf. After a stunning premiere it went on to take its place as not only one of classical music’s most beloved pieces but as one of its seminal works: It was the first time a chorus had been used in a symphonic work (singing Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” in the final movement) and the beginning of the large 19^th-century symphony style. Adopted as the European anthem, it was played to celebrate the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and has been used as a musical symbol of peace throughout the world. Read more »

Donate today to certain local arts groups and non-profits and the Seattle Foundation will match a share of it as part of GiveBIG day, a one-day online giving challenge set up by the non-profit resource support group. Tacoma arts organizations involved in the day include the Museum of Glass, Tacoma Art Museum, Broadway Center and Tacoma Musical Playhouse, as well as Centerstage Theatre in Federal Way and other non-profit community groups such as the YMCA.

Donations can be made until midnight tonight to qualify for the GiveBIG match.

Last year’s GiveBIG day raised almost $50,000 …

Read more »

Seattle Opera joins the Metropolitan Opera, the Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera and other major companies in offering a free screen opera simulcast for the first time this weekend. Saturday night will see an expected combined audience of over 10,000 at Key Arena to watch a free live HD simulcast of Puccini’s masterpiece “Madame Butterfly,” broadcast from McCaw Hall and starring soprano Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio-San, her signature role, in her debut with the company. Italian tenor Stefano Secco plays Pinkerton, the U.S. Naval officer officer who loves then abandons the Japanese geisha.

The event is part of The Next Fifty, the 50^th anniversary celebrations of the 1962 World’s Fair opera performance that led to the formation of Seattle Opera. Read more »

A film about an outlaw hobo starring Hollywood actor Michael Pitt is filming in Tacoma through Thursday.

“You Can’t Win” features Pitt, one of the stars of HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” and Hannah Marks of this year’s “The Amazing Spider-Man.”

The film is an adaptation of a 1926 autobiography by hobo and burglar Jack Black. Filming with Pitt is taking place in and around Old City Hall now through May 3.

Black’s autobiography covers his life on the road in the western United States

…

Read more »

Sumi-e artist Darlene Dihel shows traditional, abstract, calligraphy and mixed-media work this month in “Simply Sumi-e” at The Art Space Gallery at Backbone, a chiropractic business in Gig Harbor.

The artist reception with hors d’oeuvres and wine will be from 4-7 p.m. May 5; the show is on view 9 a.m.-1 p.m. and 2-6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 2-6 p.m. Tuesday through May 30.

Free. 7108 Pioneer Way, Suite A, Gig Harbor. 253-858-2474, backbonerestored.com