Columnists

These are terrible times for newspapers. Readership is dropping and advertising has disappeared. The fact is that you can get better pictures and more current news on the net and on TV, so how does a newspaper compete?
Newspapers are trying different things but mostly they're just cutting back. My view is that a newspaper has to give you something you can't get elsewhere and that's not just obituaries. It must offer more detail on local stories and entertaining and engaging commentary. So how does the Ledger-Enquirer do?
First, the national news they print is right off the AP wire and you can see it 12 hours before it's in print on Yahoo. They've cut back the local reporting too and so that doesn't get a good grade either. But they have some first class writers and that puts them in a class above papers like the Atlanta Constitution.
Sonya Sorich, who writes about the singles and bar scene, couples a wicked sense of humor with entertaining commentary but one wonders about her reporting skills. She got the front page on Sunday with a story about the local Rosie the Riveters but somehow missed that there's an oral history project going on with the dozen or so local members which may lead to a drama.
One decision which is a mystery to me is why the paper moved Tim Chitwood to city hall and replaced him with the Lewis Grizzard wantabe Chris Johnson. Tim, at his best, was the equal of Grizzard and Johnson has the humor of tire changer at Walmart.
The editorial page hasn't been the same since they moved Billy Winn out, but that's a place that one can attract readers. And repel them. The Ledger's editorials are generally against wife beating and in favor of having good hot dogs at the game. The complainers who rail against the Ledger's "liberalism" haven't got a clue what liberalism is like. They should get a copy of The New Republic. There was a time when people gathered around the water fountain to talk about the paper's opinion. No more. Still, Richard Hyatt is an experienced reporter and writer.
People do talk about Kaffie Sledge but that's just because she likes to shove a stick into their eye and the Ledger encourages it. Kaffie is a sweet woman but the picture they use on her column makes her look like something satanic.
Duty Nix is probably the best pure writer/reporter on the paper. There's nothing like experience and he has it in spades. Whatever happens in Georgia he can write about from a historical perspective and make it useful.
So the Ledger has some great assets. They just have to find a way to use them. And there's always the obits.

Nadir Khashimov

There's been some buzz around town about an 18 year old CSU violinist named Nadir Khashimov from Uzbekistan. One person with some knowledge of music told me that he was "better than Kreisler". The only thing one can make of such a comment is that it's hyperbole. No 18 year old could be as good as a seasoned master. Still, the comment piqued my interest and I made it a point to see him play last night.

It was a jaw dropping performance.

The last piece he played, solo, was Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35. I'm not familiar with this piece and it may well be that it's because most violinists don't want to tackle it. It's a beautiful piece but it obviously requires a great deal of technical skill.

I've seen a lot of violin solos. I was one of the few who saw Midori's performance with the Atlanta Symphony on the first night of Freaknick. But I've never seen anything like this. His hands were everywhere and the most common reaction in the audience was to put their hand over their mouth to keep from drooling like an idiot.

Columbus is lucky to have a University with such fine facilities which attracts so much talent. If you see this young man on the bill, don't miss it!

The Cripple of Inishmaan

Those of you educated in theater may write me off after this confession, but truth be told, I don't care for trying to wade through actor's accents in theater-especially Irish accents. I once saw Conor McPherson's "The Weir" in London with presumably real Irishmen, and didn't understand a word of it. I can even do without Shakespeare's old English.

Columbus State University's production of "The Cripple of Inishman" is largely understandable but it's a beautifully constructed and written play and it seems a shame to waste any of it. And I couldn't deconstruct some of it including at least one very important piece. Of course, the purpose of the University is to prepare the students and so I understand the need for them to develop an Irish brogue. Ironically, Kori Jackson's accent was probably both the best and the least understandable although when she slowed down toward the end it was easier to keep up.

Putting aside the accents, director Lawrence McDonald has given us a very well cast and tightly directed production of a very Irish play. The joy of the play is its multitude of well drawn characters, each of whom has a sympathetic identity that we can identify with.

Cripple Billy, played by Eddie Zaboroskie, sees an opportunity to escape a world where he is considered bad luck and the most interesting activity of the day is watching cows. It doesn't quite work out but when he returns the secrets of the community come out. Cripple Billy is a challenging part because he must stoically endure slights and insults that shock those of us that haven't lived a life with them and Eddie Zaboroskie never over reacts. His final scene with Kori Jackson's Helen is excruciating in its pathos.

Caroline Thrasher and Kimberly Belflower as Billy's two protective aunts are just right in their anguish over Billy's departure. Both students have turned in very different and excellent performances in other CSU productions and I'm always glad to see them cast. Director McDonald casting is one of the strong points of this production.

Cripple has been one of CSU's most popular productions selling out nearly every show. It's combination of humor, mystery, characters, and pathos make it a riveting evening and CSU has done the community a favor by bringing it to the stage.

Restaurants

For most of its adult life, Columbus has been a restaurant backwater. Some people may remember Spano's and the Black Angus but successful white table cloth restaurants have been few and far between. There's a line in David Rose's "The Big Eddy Club" that will give you an idea of what eating out was like in Columbus. Describing the jury's outings, Rose wrote "Each night they had been taken to eat at the best restaurants the city had to offer, among them, the Ledger reported, the Rankin Deli, Ryan's Steak House, and Prichett's Fish Camp". Prichett's, for late arrivals, was a catfish restaurant with individual rooms for each table. This is a photo of one of the locations. The best Columbus had to offer.

People around Columbus said that it was a "Club town", referring to the two golf clubs and one dinner club. The River Club came later. Since they were all private, it didn't very well explain where the majority of people were eating.

Then the north Columbus Park Crossing shopping arrived with some dozen national chain restaurants and everything changed. From their opening, places like Cheddars, TGIF Fridays, and Bones had a wait at all hours of the day and we were left with the question, where were these people eating before?

This recession has put a dent in both the clubs and the chains and it remains to be seen whether it will come back in the same way. There's rumors that the Green Island Country Club has lost so many members and dinner business that they will have to do something drastic. Valentine's Day, which is normally a sell out, was marked by half the tables filled at both Green Island and the River Club. The Country Club really doesn't try very much to capture this business-it's more of a golf and tennis club.

Columbus is changing fast-who knows what the restaurant business will look like in ten years.

The three Phantoms

The Columbus Symphony performed with three tenors, all of whom had performed in the title role of Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, last night. Surprisingly, there's been hundreds of men who have done that and my expectations were a little low. But as soon as Cris Groenendall softly sang the opening notes of "Begin the Beguine" I knew we weren't in Columbus any more.

All three tenors were made for Broadway although in different ways. Cris Groenendall has a high, sweet tenor which is clear and must have been perfect for Phantom. Although I didn't know it before the show, I'd actually seen him as Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd maybe 30 years ago so he's a pretty seasoned star to have lasted this long.

Ted Keegan reminded me the most of a classic Broadway tenor and Kevin Gray's voice was much darker than the other two. In the first half of the show, Chris and Ted sang two solos and Keven sang one. In the second half, there was a duet with Chris and Ted and Kevin got another solo. The choices they made of these pieces was often questionable. One would have thought that they would choose pieces that particularly showed off their voices but some of the pieces such as Kevin's "Impossible Dream" from Man of LaMancha really didn't work well.

Still, all three were so theatrical that I found myself wishing for nothing so much as context-to see the pieces performed in the context of the musical. Toward the end, each tenor chose a piece that had a major part in launching their careers and this was where the performances soared. Ted Keegan's piece was "On the street where you live" from My Fair Lady and he was obviously perfect for the part. Keven Gray then offered "The American Dream" from the last part of Miss Saigon and it was a knock out performance.

The contrasts between the classic Broadway tenors and the more theatrical Kevin Gray was one of the unexpected treats from this show. Gray, who is the newest member, can be imagined as the stage manager in Chess far more than in a part like Phantom or My Fair Lady.

The Columbus Symphony was far short of full staff and one noticed it particularly in the strings. The horns were quite strong though and one really didn't miss the fullness too much. Some of the music required more flexibility of the players than one usually sees. One bass player had to switch back and forth between a bass and an electric bass guitar, but Janie Bullock was even more challenged. Within a single piece she would switch between the piano and an organ or synthesizer. What's more, some of the pieces had the orchestra going silent just as she came in. Her timing was perfect and the Steinway really sounded good.

Although it was a pop night which wouldn't satisfy many Symphony interests, it was a satisfying night for what it was and I'm glad George Del Gobbo was willing to present it.

This week-end

Columbus State University's theater department opens a new production this week-end and it actually will play on Friday and Saturday of next week-end. I've heard that the cast has been very sick and will be touch and go for Friday but they do have understudies. If you have a choice, you might want to go next week-end since they won't be on top of their game even if they get well.
The Symphony is also presenting a Valentine Day program on Saturday so get off the duff and see something!

Restaurants close to the show

Since we have to eat so early in order to make 7:30 performances, many of us want to eat as near the venue as we can. The choices downtown are limited and I can only recommend four and one of those is private. The Chattahoochee River Club is outside of walking distance but close enough so that you can time your arrival. The club opens on performance days at 5:30 so that you can have a leisurely meal and it often does take a couple of hours to get through a full meal there.
The newly opened Market is primarily a seafood place and within a half block of both the Springer and the River Center. The meals that I've had there have been unambitious and one hopes that they will find a more aggressive offering in the future. Order fish and okra.
Both of the other two restaurants are operated by the same group that operates the Marriott. The Canon Brew Pub has struggled to find an identity since it first opened but under the Pezold management it has begun to offer some more interesting dishes. It's also a micro brewery and the beers are quite good. Try the wheat. Business has always seemed quite good there even when the food was pedestrian but one can now encounter a wait even during the week.
Hollihans in the hotel is hugely successful. The River Center crowd fills it up every time there's a show and there's always a wait. You'll have more luck at the Canon.
I'll do a more extensive review of Columbus restaurants and clubs at a later date.

Aida

In one week-end, Columbus was host to arguably the greatest play in the English language and the greatest opera ever written, Aida. One of the reasons Verdi took the commission to write was that he could see how it could be a great spectacle-Aida combines a wonderful story with beautiful music, wondrous sets, and great spectacle.

Imagine my surprise then, when I read in Ledger that the artistic director of the Teatro Lirico d'Europa, Giorgio Lalov, turned up his nose at the idea of spectacle on the stage since "..people will not talk about the animals on stage. They will be talking about the singers."

Lalov was talking about one of the most famous scenes in all of opera, the Victory March in second act which has traditionally been one of the greatest spectacles in opera. The libretto instructions say, "The Egyptian troops, preceded by trumpets, file before sacred vases and statues of the gods-troops of dancing girls who carry the treasures of the defeated-and lastly Radames, under a canopy borne by twelve officers". And then the Ethiopian prisoners. Some companies have added all manner of exotic African animals including elephants.

I certainly didn't expect elephants but I didn't expect the spectacle to be eliminated either. Then I read the program notes which said that such effects were "...cheap tricks and claptrap.."

In fact, there was no victory march at all, just a few ballet dancers and only one Ethiopian prisoner. I can certainly understand holding the costs down but to claim that cheap is the way it's supposed to be is asking too much.

The good news about the "march" was that the trumpeter, (who was supposed to be in the march) was clear and up to the difficult piece. But that's all the good news about this scene. Lalov also promised that when the curtain was opened the audience would applaud the sets but that didn't happen for good reason. They were prosaic and just amateurishly moved around for each scene so there was no spectacle there either.

Aida is not a very demanding role and Olga Chernisheva as Aida was quite good, but was unable to stop the show on her solos. The other strong voice in the cast belonged to Petar Danailov as Amonasro. The remaining cast members were less ready for grand opera but with a strong Aida it wasn't terribly noticeable.

One of the noticeable shortcomings was the blocking. The Egyptian soldier running off to try to catch Aida in Act 3 actually provoked laughter in the crowd. At another point, a knife was left on stage for two scenes-one of which was of prisoner Radames saying he wanted to die while a knife was at his feet.

I suppose I should have taken lower expectations into the theater given the cost of spectacle, but I really didn't think that a $36 ticket wouldn't be enough to at least support a march and a few prisoners. Had the company not gone out of their way to claim that this was as good as it gets, the evening would have been easier to take.