Opera succeeds when theater, singing, and orchestra move together. Winter Opera St. Louis brought those forces into satisfying alignment with Charles Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette,” closing its season with a production that carried Shakespeare’s familiar tragedy with immediacy and emotional force.
Gounod’s 1867 opera, with a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, keeps its focus firmly on the young lovers rather than the feud that surrounds them. That emphasis places unusual weight on the title roles, and Winter Opera delivered with a compelling pair.
Tenor Taylor Comstock sang Roméo with youthful ardor and a clear, lyrical tenor that expanded in power as the music climbed into the upper register. Opposite him, soprano Megan Barrera offered a Juliette of brightness, agility, and growing emotional depth.
Her “Je veux vivre” waltz sparkled with buoyant phrasing and easy coloratura, and she navigated the role’s demanding succession of arias and duets with clarity of tone and precise French diction.
Taylor-Comstock-Nathan-Whitson-Megan-Barrera. Photo by Dan Donovan.
Together they projected the impulsive youth at the heart of the story, allowing Gounod’s long love duets to unfold with warmth and urgency.
Director John Stephens guided the drama with clarity and focus. The turning point arrived in the duel between Mercutio and Tybalt, staged with sharp dramatic energy as Roméo’s intervention sealed the opera’s tragic course.
The final scene, shaped with intimate restraint, carried the emotional weight of the evening.
The supporting cast added vivid character and vocal strength. Baritone Kenneth Stavert filled Mercutio with swagger, wit, and striking physical vitality, relishing the playful brilliance of the Queen Mab scene.
Marc Schapman’s Tybalt burned with fierce intensity, while Jacob Lassetter brought warmth and authority to Capulet. Raphaella Medina charmed as Stéphano, and Emily Moore animated the role of Gertrude with lively presence. The ensemble throughout sang and acted with admirable cohesion.
In the pit, conductor Edward Benyas shaped the score with sensitivity to its lyrical sweep, balancing orchestra and voices so that Gounod’s melodic lines could bloom freely.
The chorus, prepared by Scott Schoonover, sang with clarity and strength, particularly in the somber lament that follows the duel.
Taylor Comstock and Marc Schapman as Romeo and Tybalt. Dan Donovan photo.
Scott Loebl’s flexible scenic design and Jen Blum-Tatara’s richly colored costumes reinforced the divided world of the rival houses while allowing the drama to move fluidly from celebration to tragedy.
The result proved deeply affecting and a fitting close to Winter Opera’s season. Performances at this level make a persuasive case for opera at an intimate scale, where music, voices, and story meet the audience directly.
Winter Opera’s “Roméo et Juliette” was performed on Feb. 27 and March 1 at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center.
Megan Barrera as Juliette and Emily Moore as Gertrude. Photo by Dan Donovan.
CB Adams is an award-winning fiction writer and photographer based in the Greater St. Louis area. A former music/arts editor and feature writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, his non-fiction has been published in local, regional and national publications. His literary short stories have been published in more than a dozen literary journals and his fine art photography has been exhibited in more than 40 galley shows nationwide. Adams is the recipient of the Missouri Arts Council’s highest writing awards: the Writers’ Biennial and Missouri Writing!. The Riverfront Times named him, “St. Louis’ Most Under-Appreciated Writer” in 1996.
Winter Opera St. Louis’ “Un Ballo in Maschera” succeeds through design. Dianna Higbee approaches Verdi’s tragedy as an architectural problem — how to assemble inevitability — and solves it with patience, proportion, and a clear understanding of where the drama must turn.
The result is an evening of quiet authority, its pressure accumulating through the deliberate arrival and consequence of Verdi’s great confessional arias, and supported by three solid, intelligent performances at its core.
This is Verdi at the height of his dramatic powers, writing in liberated form, where arias reorganize the action and reshape the moral terrain. Higbee honors that maturity by spacing those moments as structural pillars, allowing each confession to alter the dramatic balance. Tragedy unfolds by design, threshold by threshold, until the final masked ball arrives as the natural release of long preparation.
Beneath that design, the orchestra, under Andy Anderson’s direction, sustains the evening with clarity and proportion. Anderson shapes Verdi’s score with rhythmic lift and supple balance, allowing the architecture of the arias to emerge with natural ease rather than orchestral insistence.
Photo by Dan Donovan.
Owing to the postponed performance and inclement weather, the harp part was realized at the piano and a bass was absent from the ensemble, adjustments that passed almost unnoticed in playing of such refinement.
Textures remained transparent, transitions breathed freely, and climaxes rose from accumulated pressure rather than display. The result gave Higbee’s pacing its continuous pulse while leaving the psychological weight squarely with the singers.
At the foundation of that design stands Isaac Hurtado’s Riccardo, the lighthearted governor whose charm quietly initiates the ruin to come. Hurtado sings “La rivedrò nell’estasi” with easy lyric brightness, establishing authority and allure without courting display.
Desire enters the drama gently here, almost casually, and that very ease becomes dangerous. Hurtado’s Riccardo remains humane throughout, a leader whose discipline delays catastrophe without preventing it.
Photo by DanDonovan.
Liz Baldwin’s Amelia forms the opera’s moral center, and her performance anchors the evening with a rare balance of power and vulnerability. In “Morro, ma prima in grazia,” Baldwin shapes the line as an interior reckoning, the voice carrying fear, longing, and resolve in equal measure. This becomes the threshold where tragedy turns irreversible. After her confession, the emotional landscape shifts, and the opera’s remaining possibilities quietly contract.
The final structural pillar arrives with Joseph Gansert’s Renato. His transformation from loyal secretary to assassin unfolds with grim clarity, and in “Eri tu” Gansert delivers the evening’s defining rupture.
The aria rises as psychological collapse rather than bravura, the baritone’s force shaped by anguish rather than fury. Here the architecture locks into place. After this moment, the opera contains no alternatives, only ritual.
Verdi’s tragedy rests on the slow destruction of three people who love one another, and Higbee allows that triangle to emerge with uncommon coherence. Riccardo’s charm, Amelia’s conscience, and Renato’s wounded loyalty form a geometry that builds its own ruin, confession by confession, until fate requires only a public stage.
Photo by Dan Donovan
Around that core, the production finds its colors with intelligence. Ola Rafalo’s Ulrica delivers prophecy with impassive authority, her restraint giving fate the calm weight of certainty — a discipline owed as much to Higbee’s direction as to the mezzo’s control.
At the opposite pole, Leann Schuering’s Oscar, one of opera’s classic “pants” roles, emerges as sprightly, puckish, almost Chaplinesque, her physical wit and bright tone preserving humanity inside gathering darkness.
The visual world reinforces that architecture with quiet intelligence. Drawing on the Boston setting and the approaching 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, Higbee frames the drama in a clear chromatic language, Americans in blue set against the red of their British adversaries, the evening moving steadily toward a Fourth of July finale shadowed by catastrophe.
Jen Blum-Tatara’s costumes clarify status and psychology while lending the masked ball its necessary ceremony, sharpening the sense of ritual that governs the final act.
Photo by Dan Donovan.
Dennis Milam Bensie’s wigs, exuberant and faintly surreal, introduce flashes of visual fantasy — a hint of Oz in their theatrical whimsy, a touch of “Barry Lyndon” in their powdered hauteur, and the occasional echo of Lynch’s “Dune” in their ceremonial strangeness — reminding us that disguise here belongs as much to dream and ritual as to history.
This “Ballo” makes its case through proportion rather than display. Higbee’s design vindicates Verdi’s mature craftsmanship, allowing voices, confession, and consequence to assemble a tragedy that unfolds with discipline and grace. The memory it leaves is not of a single high note, but of a long arc patiently carried, voice by voice, into ruin.
Winter Opera St. Louis presented “Un Ballo in Maschera” at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center. The production originally ran Jan. 23–26, 2026.
CB Adams is an award-winning fiction writer and photographer based in the Greater St. Louis area. A former music/arts editor and feature writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, his non-fiction has been published in local, regional and national publications. His literary short stories have been published in more than a dozen literary journals and his fine art photography has been exhibited in more than 40 galley shows nationwide. Adams is the recipient of the Missouri Arts Council’s highest writing awards: the Writers’ Biennial and Missouri Writing!. The Riverfront Times named him, “St. Louis’ Most Under-Appreciated Writer” in 1996.
The Bach Society of Saint Louis’ Christmas Candlelight Concert begins where it should: in sound. Before tradition, before ritual, before the familiar glow of candles, there is the resonance of Powell Hall answering the first choral surge. The room settles, the ear sharpens and the evening declares its priorities. This is a concert shaped by listening and care.
At the center stands John Rutter’s “Magnificat,” performed here with buoyancy, clarity and an instinctive sense of proportion. Rutter’s gift for celebration can be mistaken for easy charm, yet this music asks for discipline to keep its radiance airborne. Under A. Dennis Sparger’s steady direction, the Bach Society Chorus and Orchestra delivered exactly that: rhythmic lift without haste, color without excess and an architectural arc that allowed the work’s alternating exuberance and inwardness to register fully.
The score’s brilliance, especially in its percussion and brass writing, came across with vivid impact, while strings and winds shaped the quieter pages with warmth and transparency. Sparger paced the work so contrasts felt earned rather than imposed, allowing the music to breathe while sustaining forward motion. The result trusted Rutter’s craftsmanship and resisted the temptation to oversell it.
Soprano Emily Birsan sings John Rutter’s “Magnificat.” Photo by Katie Pinkston.
At the heart of the performance was soprano Emily Birsan, whose singing gave the “Magnificat” its center of gravity. Her voice is luminous and richly focused, marked by fine control and a natural inwardness that draws the hall closer rather than pushing sound outward. In reflective passages, her phrasing and breath transformed large-scale celebration into something intimate and human-scaled.
Even in moments of radiance, there was restraint and poise, a sense that clarity mattered more than display. It was singing of interpretive authority, grounded in trust and simplicity.
The remainder of the program functioned as a thoughtful frame rather than a diversion. Seasonal carols and arrangements extended the sound world established by the “Magnificat,” offering familiarity refreshed through color and rhythmic lift.
A Mozart excerpt, the “Laudamus Te” from the Mass in C minor, provided a moment of classical contrast and further showcased Birsan’s musical intelligence, reinforcing her versatility without disrupting the evening’s flow.
The Bach Society of St. Louis’ annual Christmas Concert. Photo by Katie Pinkston.
The concert closed with Craig Courtney’s “A Musicological Journey Through the 12 Days of Christmas,” a piece that wears its learning lightly. Each verse refracts the familiar tune through a different stylistic lens, creating a playful tour of musical history that rewards both ear and intellect. The Bach Society dispatched it with precision and obvious delight, capturing its wit and rhythmic verve. As a finale, it proved supremely engaging, leaving the audience buoyed rather than merely amused.
Candlelight, procession and communal song emerged organically from the musical argument rather than sitting beside it. Back in Powell Hall, the fit felt restored. This concert endures not because it repeats itself, but because it listens, to the music, to the room and to the moment.
The Bach Society of Saint Louis’ Christmas Candlelight Concert was performed at Powell Hall on December 23.
CB Adams is an award-winning fiction writer and photographer based in the Greater St. Louis area. A former music/arts editor and feature writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, his non-fiction has been published in local, regional and national publications. His literary short stories have been published in more than a dozen literary journals and his fine art photography has been exhibited in more than 40 galley shows nationwide. Adams is the recipient of the Missouri Arts Council’s highest writing awards: the Writers’ Biennial and Missouri Writing!. The Riverfront Times named him, “St. Louis’ Most Under-Appreciated Writer” in 1996.
There is a particular clarity that comes from watching dancers at the moment their stage identities begin to take shape. Dance St. Louis opened its 60th anniversary season with that sense of emergence fully present, offering an evening with the ABT Studio Company that placed the focus not on promise alone but on preparedness, discipline and artistic intent. This may be the “junior” company of American Ballet Theatre, yet nothing about the performance suggested a diminutive form. These were young dancers stepping forward with conviction.
ABT Studio Company functions as the bridge between advanced training and the demands of a professional career. Its dancers, typically between 17 and 21, rehearse and tour as a unified ensemble, moving through a repertory that spans classical, neoclassical and contemporary work. The result is a rare opportunity for audiences to see dancers becoming themselves in real time — the mind, ear and body aligning in ways that cannot be rehearsed into existence.
Sascha Radetsky, former ABT soloist and the Studio Company’s artistic director, shaped the evening with an eye toward what this roster could carry. His own background, which blends Bolshoi training, long service with ABT and Dutch National Ballet, and the pop-cultural recognizability of “Center Stage” and “Flesh and Bone,” gives him a wide-angle understanding of what young artists require and what audiences intuitively absorb.
The program he assembled reflected that breadth: classical cornerstones that test line and placement, contemporary pieces that ask for nuance and stamina, and neoclassical works built for speed, musicality and ensemble cohesion. With the company currently weighted toward men, the selections were matched to the dancers’ strengths while still nudging them toward new edges.
Radetsky also situated the company within a longer tradition of generational transmission. Dance history is threaded with these handovers — Balanchine shaping dancers like Farrell and Villella, Martha Graham passing her technique through artists such as Terese Capucilli — moments when one generation prepares the next. By programming classical foundations, neoclassical challenges and contemporary commissions, Radetsky placed these dancers not simply as inheritors but as active participants in that lineage.
The evening opened with “La Bayadère (Pas d’Action),” after Marius Petipa, danced by Delfina Nelson-Todd, Audrey Tovar-Dunster, Matteo Curley Bynoe and Younjae ParkThe dancers approached the choreography with respect for its precision: Nelson-Todd shaped her épaulement with quiet assurance, and Tovar-Dunster’s port de bras carried rhythmic confidence.
Curley Bynoe brought crisp batterie and clean landings, while Park partnered with an unforced steadiness that allowed the phrases to expand. Their collective unison — sharp, clear, centered — set an early tone of readiness.
“Cornbread,” by Twyla Tharp and danced by Kayla Mak and Elijah Geolina, supplied one of the evening’s most engaging and warmly alive moments. Mak, shaped by Juilliard training and Princess Grace recognition, moved with a grounded musicality that met Tharp’s rhythmic intricacies head-on. Geolina, whose background includes competitive ballroom and television appearances, brought buoyant elevation and unerring rhythmic instinct. The Carolina Chocolate Drops score amplified the work’s earthy humor and drive. Together they created a performance that felt fully inhabited.
“Beyond Silence,” choreographed by Brady Farrar and danced by YeonSeo Choi and Maximilian Catazaro, offered a shift inward. Choi’s long, patient phrasing and Catazaro’s measured partnering gave the duet a contemplative stillness. Their suspended lines and cleanly delivered shapes created a center of quiet in a varied program.
In “Variations for Three,” by Tiler Peck, Geonhee Park, Younjae Park and Xavier Xué handled the brisk tempo and bright neoclassical coloration with an easy assurance. Geonhee articulated with precision, Younjae found lift in his jumps and Xué provided the stabilizing presence needed to keep the trio’s exchanges aligned. The result was a compact, clearly drawn demonstration of musical and technical rapport.
Xavier Xué returned to the stage for “Saudade,” by Katie Currier — one of the evening’s standout works. Commissioned by ABT Studio Company, the piece asks for a kind of emotional translucence rather than overt display, and Xué delivered. His phrasing moved with quiet elasticity, and the upper-body expressiveness — a soft back ripple, suspended arms, a held inhale before release — gave the work its atmospheric charge. It landed with a lingering gravity.
“Grand Pas Classique,” after Victor Gsovsky, brought Sooha Park and Daniel Guzmán together in a test of clarity, balance and poise. Park’s technique was finely calibrated, with balances that arrived without strain and unfolded with calm intention. Guzmán met the variation’s demands with strong elevation and steady landings. In partnering, he provided the clean frame that allowed Park’s line to extend without interruption. Their performance gave the work its intended sheen.
The evening closed with Jerome Robbins’ “Interplay,” shaped as a four-part suite — Free Play, Horseplay, Byplay and Team Play — performed by the full ensemble in various configurations: Maximilian Catazaro, YeonSeo Choi, Ptolemy Gidney, Paloma Livellara, Delfina Nelson-Todd, Geonhee Park, Younjae Park and Audrey Tovar-Dunster among them.
Robbins draws dancers into a buoyant mix of classical line and Broadway-inflected rhythm, and the company leaned into the blend. Free Play moved with bright rhythmic exchanges and quick-snap timing; Horseplay gave Geonhee Park room to show easy lift; Byplay found relaxed rapport among Choi, Catazaro and the company; and Team Play brought the full ensemble forward in a playful, confident finish.
The repertory itself carried notable stakes. In the pre-performance Q&A, Radetsky mentioned that Tharp had long resisted releasing “Cornbread” to dancers this young, believing the piece too demanding. Her eventual agreement, and the way the dancers met the challenge, spoke to the company’s current level.
Throughout the evening, small traces of effort surfaced — a pirouette that adjusted before settling, a landing that softened into place, an arabesque that breathed once before arriving, an ensemble line that wavered before finding its symmetry, a partnering exchange approached with a hint of caution. These were not shortcomings but moments where the dancers’ reach became visible, the line between training and profession momentarily illuminated.
Presenting the Studio Company also reaffirmed the legacy of Dance St. Louis itself — a cultural institution now in its sixth decade. Since its founding in 1966, it has brought more than 30,000 artists, 500 companies and over 150 world premieres to local audiences. As one of only four nonprofit organizations in the United States devoted solely to presenting dance, it stands as a rare survivor and a vital part of the city’s artistic landscape. Evenings like this underscore its role not simply as a presenter of great works but as a home where dance lives, evolves and continues to matter.
Dance St. Louis presented ABT Studio Company November 14-15 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.
CB Adams is an award-winning fiction writer and photographer based in the Greater St. Louis area. A former music/arts editor and feature writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, his non-fiction has been published in local, regional and national publications. His literary short stories have been published in more than a dozen literary journals and his fine art photography has been exhibited in more than 40 galley shows nationwide. Adams is the recipient of the Missouri Arts Council’s highest writing awards: the Writers’ Biennial and Missouri Writing!. The Riverfront Times named him, “St. Louis’ Most Under-Appreciated Writer” in 1996.
Union Avenue Opera’s inaugural One-Act Festival is intimate in scale and ambitious in reach, a chamber-sized gesture that embraces the big questions shaping our moment — race, gender, justice, identity.
By pairing “dwb (driving while black)” and “As One,” the company affirmed opera’s ability to thrive in spectacle and in distillation, to fill a grand hall and also to transform a close space into a forum for empathy.
Marsha Thompson in “dwb (driving while black)
“dwb (driving while black)” — Urgency in Compression
“dwb (driving while black),” composed by Susan Kander with words by Roberta Gumbel, follows a Black mother from the moment of birth through the long arc of raising a son. The opera charts a continuum of love, vigilance and reluctant instruction in how to survive, compressing years into a concentrated meditation.
Soprano Marsha Thompson brought to the role a warm, agile soprano with strength and flexibility. She carries emotional nuance through her upper and middle registers and meets its dramatic demands with secure technique — qualities evident in her performances elsewhere in roles such as Violetta, Aïda and Tosca.
Her familiarity with the part, including past performances with Fort Worth Opera, lent her assurance and depth. She moved from tenderness to unease with natural poise, always anchoring the story in a mother’s love.
Director Ivan Griffin staged the work with economy, allowing the smallest gestures to resonate. The motif of shoes — baby shoes, boyhood sneakers, grown-up lace-ups — provided a visual shorthand eloquent in its simplicity.
In a festival devoted to brevity, this staging showed how objects can tell stories and how music can give them voice.
“As One” — Duality and Discovery
“As One,” by Laura Kaminsky with Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed, is the most performed contemporary opera in North America, and Union Avenue’s staging marked its first appearance in St. Louis. The milestone carried weight, and the company embraced it fully.
The opera follows Hannah, a transgender woman, through two voices — lyric baritone Evan Bravos as “Hannah Before” and lyric mezzo-soprano Emma Dickens, a St. Louis artist, as “Hannah After.”
Bravos, with his impressive range, has performed the role with Opera Santa Barbara and other companies, and his experience gave him a confident presence that anchored the evening.
Emma Dickens and Evan Bravos.
Dickens sang with warmth, flexibility and a rich middle voice, her local presence giving the work an added resonance. Together they created a dialogue of memory and emergence that edged, with beauty and persuasion, toward unity.
The production of “As One” also included a visual narrative of still photographs and video to illustrate Hannah’s journey. These images complemented the action thoughtfully, and yet the magnetism of Bravos and Dickens drew attention primarily to their interplay. I
n a larger space, projected more expansively, the visuals could carry greater weight; in the gallery setting, the storytelling was carried most powerfully by the singers themselves.
Director Joan Lipkin, in her opera debut, emphasized resilience and humor, qualities underscored by Scott Schoonover’s musical direction. Kaminsky’s score is rhythmic and lyrical, and Reed’s lived experience infused the libretto with authenticity. Together the creative team shaped a work of immediacy and poignancy.
Scott Schoonover, Nikki Glenn, Stephen Luehrman, Marie Brown, and Manuela Topalbegovic.
The Music and the Musicians
Both operas gained strength from committed playing and Schoonover’s clear leadership. In “dwb,” the pairing of cello and percussion created a spare frame that heightened the impact of Thompson’s performance.
In “As One,” Kaminsky’s writing unfolded with beauty and urgency, performed with conviction by Bravos and Dickens and balanced with clarity by the ensemble. The result was music-making that embraced intimacy and carried emotional sweep.
Union Avenue’s One-Act Festival ran Oct. 10–12 in the gallery of Union Avenue Christian Church.
Marsha Erwin, Marsha Thompson, and Sebastian Buhts.
CB Adams is an award-winning fiction writer and photographer based in the Greater St. Louis area. A former music/arts editor and feature writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, his non-fiction has been published in local, regional and national publications. His literary short stories have been published in more than a dozen literary journals and his fine art photography has been exhibited in more than 40 galley shows nationwide. Adams is the recipient of the Missouri Arts Council’s highest writing awards: the Writers’ Biennial and Missouri Writing!. The Riverfront Times named him, “St. Louis’ Most Under-Appreciated Writer” in 1996.
Dateline: Sept. 1 By Lynn Venhaus, Alex McPherson, C.B. Adams and Carl “The Intern” Middleman
Are we ready to cross into the spooky season? And no, I don’t mean the pumpkin-spice aisle at the grocery store. (And besides, aren’t you stockpiling Halloween candy like sensible adults?). In the pop culture universe, we’re buzzing about film festivals, new television season, live theatre coming our way, and outdoor fall activities.
Here’s Round 3 of our new endeavor — our curated weekly round-up guaranteed fresh every Monday on our website and in your inbox. (Or in case of holidays, Tuesday. We hope you not only enjoy but spread the word – we’d like to reach as many fellow Popsters as we can.
This newsletter features links to our recent online works, in other publications, and heads’ up tips on what’s ahead, is meant to serve as a guide for you navigating an extensive ‘what to watch, go, see, do” that the universe is beckoning us to check out.
Now Showing: Our timely film reviews so you can decide what’s worth your time and money.
Caught Stealing: Austin Butler’s star charisma enlivens a scruffy, grungy, brutal chase through late 90s New York. Mayhem ensues in a bloody treasure hunt.
Hamilton: To celebrate its 10th anniversary on Broadway, the filmed version of the musical, which premiered on Disney + during the pandemic on July 1, 2020, will be available in local theatres, and will feature a cast reunion special feature.
“This view has new opportunities for discovery, to marvel at Miranda’s attention to detail and his nimble storytelling. The recurring themes and repetitive nature of the score add texture to the rhythms and harmonies, and the cast’s enunciation and verbal dexterity is remarkable.” – Lynn
New to Streaming:
“The Thursday Murder Club” — charming -2-hour comedy-mystery with an all-star British cast on Netflix, including Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, Jonathan Pryce, David Tennant, Naomi Ackie and Think “Knives Out” meets “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”
Here’s Lynn’s review on KTRS Aug. 29: (My segment starts at 34:30 and ends at 49:30)
The mystery may be by the book, but the team in the retirement home solving cases is a delight to watch — Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie (you know her from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel movies and Bridget Jones).
The great Jonathan Pryce plays Helen Mirren’s husband who has dementia and Naomi Ackie plays a local police officer who is investigating a real murder.
I had fun watching them all play together on the playground (in this case, a grand old senior living center).
PopLifeSTL Presents Podcast: ChasAdams joined Lynn this week as Carl the Intern Middleman is on an epic hero’s journey on the Mother Road with his family, and we had a swell time talking with promoter Greg Hagglund of Steve Litman Productions about a Napoleon Dynamite Bash at the District in Chesterfield on Sept. 3.The Napoleon Dynamite Bash is a teaser in preparation for showing the movie on Oct. 9 at The Factory, with cast members Jon Heder (title character), Jon Gries (Uncle Rico) and Efren Ramirez (Pedro) in attendance for a Q&A.
We also enjoyed talking with Eric Dundon from the St. Louis SymphonyOrchestra and talk about an epic journey! Their upcoming events this month — unveiling Powell Hall’s additions, the free community concert in Forest Park Sept. 17, and release of their new album with composer in residence Kevin Puts. They have many things going on!
Our Playlist: We recommend — Chas: My playlist has been a continuous shuffle of my 200+ song playlist called The Road — tunes with traveling, driving and getting away as the theme or vibe.
Alex: The soundtrack/score for “Inglourious Basterds.”
Lynn: After certifiable musical genius Jon Batiste rocked the Muny Thursday, exuding goodness and light, I’ve been listening to different cuts from several albums. I love the vast scope of his music, but I’ll share his Grammy-nominated song “Butterfly” from his 2024 “World Music” album, live from “Late Show with Stephen Colbert”: https://youtu.be/CR115pxSjWM?si=czO2tsGn51myAWjg
Good Eats and Fun Treats: Fans of “Napoleon Dynamite” can try “Tot Dogs” at Steve’s Hot Dogs in The District at Chesterfield, plus take their photo with a llama on site, enter a look-a-like contest, play trivia and win tickets to the upcoming movie event, and more to celebrate the 2004 cult classic film on Wednesday, Sept. 3, from 5 to 7 p.m. The Napoleon Dynamite Bash is a teaser in preparation for showing the movie on Oct. 9 at The Factory, with cast members Jon Heder (title character), Jon Gries (Uncle Rico) and Efren Ramirez (Pedro) in attendance for a Q&A.
Rear Window with Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly.
The Vault: Special anniversaries this week –
Sept. 1, 1984: Tina Turner’s single “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” shot to no. 1, his first as a solo artist. Turner, who attended Sumner High School in St. Louis, launched her music career here, singing with Ike Turner’s band.
Sept. 2, 1954: Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller Rear Window was released in American theaters. Often imitated. A luminous Grace Kelly takes your breath away.
Sept. 3, 1972: Everybody, sing along! “It was the 3rd of September, that day I’ll always remember.” That’s the first line of The Temptations’ iconic cover “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” which won a Grammy and went to no. 1 on the Billboard Top 100.
Sept. 4, 2002: Kelly Clarkson was crowned winner of the first “American Idol” singing competition show.
Sept. 5, 1976: Jim Henson’s “The Muppet Show” premiered on TV and Mia Farrow was the first guest star.
Sept. 6, 1997: The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, was watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people globally. She had died a week earlier, at age 36, in a car accident in Paris on Aug. 31. Sept. 7, 2008: Jonathan Larson’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning musical “Rent” closed after 12 years on Broadway, and 5,123 performances.
The company of ‘The Cottage.’ Photo by Jon Gitchoff.
On Our Radar: What we’re excited about this week.
Chas: I’m looking forward to this week’s return of the Two Reps – The Black Rep and St. Louis Repertory Theatre!
On my radar is the upcoming “Art Work: On the Creative Life” by Sally Mann, one of my top five photographers. Not only is she a stellar artist, but she can also write beautifully. I’ve pre-ordered a hardcover on its Sept. 9 release.
Alex: “Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass” at the Webster Film Series next weekend (Sept. 5-7).
Carl the Intern: Finishing the last 302 miles of the Route 66 trip from Santa Monica to Chicago.
Lynn: The fall theatrical season kicks off with the farce “The Cottage” at The Rep and the musical “Raisin” at the Black Rep, and I’m excited to see both productions.
“The Paper” starts Thursday on Peacock, and it may become my new favorite show. It’s the new spin-off of “The Office,” and it’s the same documentary crew now at a struggling small-town newspaper in Ohio – the Toledo Truth-Teller. Domhnall Gleeson, plays the new editor-in-chief. After 50 years in news, I may either laugh or cry, or both.Chas:
Where Can You Find Us?
Chas: St. Louis Arts Scene, PopLifeSTL.com, STL Stage Snaps on YouTube and IG, and the socials.
Alex: https://bsky.app/profile/gdogmcp.bsky.social and https://letterboxd.com/gdogmcp/
Carl the Intern: Find me@_CarlTheIntern on IG, X & Threads and on the Big 550 KTRS M-F 5a-10a.
Lynn: KTRS, “The Frank and Jill Show,” every Friday at 11:08 a.m., PopLifeSTL.com, Webster-Kirkwood Times, Alliance of Women Film Journalists (awfj.org), plus Belleville News-Democrat for news and features, St. Louis Magazine for dining contributions, and all the socials.
Lynn (Zipfel) Venhaus has had a continuous byline in St. Louis metro region publications since 1978. She writes features and news for Belleville News-Democrat and contributes to St. Louis magazine and other publications.
She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, currently reviews films for Webster-Kirkwood Times and KTRS Radio, covers entertainment for PopLifeSTL.com and co-hosts podcast PopLifeSTL.com…Presents.
She is a member of Critics Choice Association, where she serves on the women’s and marketing committees; Alliance of Women Film Journalists; and on the board of the St. Louis Film Critics Association. She is a founding and board member of the St. Louis Theater Circle.
She is retired from teaching journalism/media as an adjunct college instructor.
By CB Adams It is a rare pleasure to encounter “Salome,” Richard Strauss’s 1905 masterpiece (after Oscar Wilde’s scandalous play), on a St. Louis stage. Union Avenue Opera’s production reminds us that even in a modest house, this one-act psychodrama retains its power to disturb.
The evening offered superlative singing across the board, a moody if sometimes murky staging and Strauss’s extraordinary score rendered with clarity and bite by a chamber-sized orchestra that, under Scott Schoonover, sounded far larger than its 23 players.
The vocal achievement was formidable. St. Louis’s own Kelly Slawson brought fearlessness and stamina to the punishing title role, her dramatic soprano slicing cleanly through Strauss’s post-Wagnerian textures. The part notoriously demands everything from flights of coloratura to plunges into the contralto register along with sheer brute endurance.
Slawson met those challenges with assurance, shaping a Salome who was as predatory as she was magnetic. She infused the role with a heavy-metal intensity — thrilling, unsettling and never bland.
Opposite her, baritone Daniel Scofield supplied a commanding Jochanaan, his resonant timbre and prophetic fire holding the line against Salome’s obsessive advances.
Daniel Scofield, Kelly Slawson. Photo byDan Donovan.
Will Upham’s Herod was appropriately febrile, a portrait of jittery decadence, while Joanna Ehlers’s Herodias offered caustic bite and a Wildean cynicism delivered with relish.
Brian Skoog (Narraboth) brought pathos to his brief trajectory, Emily Geller (the Page) added androgynous ambiguity and the quintet of Jews (Zachary Devin, Thomas M. Taylor IV, David Morgans, James Stevens, Fitzgerald St Louis) bickered with crisp ensemble precision. It was a cast without weak voices.
For all its musical strengths, the staging stumbled at two moments of dramatic consequence. The first misstep came early in the opera with Narraboth’s suicide. Poorly blocked, the scene left the audience’s eye on Salome rather than the lovesick captain.
His awkward, almost perfunctory thrust of the sword could have been missed entirely, thereby diluting Herod’s subsequent questions about the bloodied corpse. What should resonate as the opera’s first shocking rupture barely registered.
Will Upham and Joanna Ehlers. Photo by Dan Donovan.
The Dance of the Seven Veils, the opera’s centerpiece, likewise faltered. Slawson committed herself wholly, but the choreography lurched from abrupt pivots to ground- wriggling, from a parody of Norma Desmond to burlesque flourishes, all without discernible logic. A needless ascent and descent of the steps only deepened the sense of randomness.
At one point she barked toward the chorus; at another, the sequence spun into manic incoherence. The result brought to mind Brad Pitt’s turn in “12 Monkeys” — all nervous tics, sudden lunges and wide-eyed mania, as though every acting exercise had been flung on stage at once.
In a film, that kind of method-to-madness can be riveting; in this opera, it scattered the focus of a moment that should be singularly hypnotic. As a seduction meant to clinch the opera’s fatal bargain, the dance distracted rather than compelled — a pity, given the strength of the surrounding production.
Kelly Slawson as Salome. Photo by Dan Donovan.
Schoonover drew exceptional results from the orchestra. Strauss scored “Salome” for more than a hundred musicians, but Union Avenue performed it using Francis Griffin’s reduced orchestration for 23 players. In Schoonover’s hands, the ensemble produced a luminous, incisive sound that never swamped the singers while still carrying the music’s unsettling erotic charge.
Union Avenue’s “Salome” deserves praise as a rare and rewarding opportunity (despite its missteps) to encounter Strauss’s modernist milestone. Vocally and musically, it was a triumph; dramatically, it remained absorbing despite missteps. For audiences willing to face opera at its most decadent and disturbing, this production more than justified the journey.
Union Avenue Opera’s production of “Salome” was performed Aug. 15, 16, 22 and 23 at the Union Avenue Christian Church
The cast of “Salome.” Photo by Dan Donovan.Daniel Scofield. Photo by Dan Donovan.
CB Adams is an award-winning fiction writer and photographer based in the Greater St. Louis area. A former music/arts editor and feature writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, his non-fiction has been published in local, regional and national publications. His literary short stories have been published in more than a dozen literary journals and his fine art photography has been exhibited in more than 40 galley shows nationwide. Adams is the recipient of the Missouri Arts Council’s highest writing awards: the Writers’ Biennial and Missouri Writing!. The Riverfront Times named him, “St. Louis’ Most Under-Appreciated Writer” in 1996.
Tesseract Theatre Company’s “Steel Magnolias,” written by Robert Harling, injects fresh energy into the beloved Southern story of humor, friendship, and resilience. Set in 1980s Louisiana, this all-POC cast delivers a dynamic portrayal of the play, delightfully focusing on Chinquapin Parish while also subtly acknowledging the broader cultural diversity of the South today.
Director Kathryn Bentley captures this complexity, infusing the play with vitality and relevance, while honoring its themes of love, family, and the unbreakable bonds of friendship. Come for the steel, but definitely stay for the magnolias—where the play’s true strength lies in its heartfelt portrayal of friendship.
Director Kathryn Bentley’s focus on ensemble chemistry is evident throughout the production. She ensures that each performer’s strengths are highlighted, with an emphasis on the emotional resonance of the play’s central relationships. Her work allows the transitions from humor to pathos to feel seamless, capturing both the joy and sorrow that characterize this story of enduring friendship.
Margery Handy as M’Lynn.
The cast’s performances further enrich this production, providing a nuanced portrayal of the play’s central relationships. Margery A. Handy’s performance as M’Lynn is compelling, grounded in quiet intensity and vulnerability. Handy moves effortlessly from concern to grief, offering a deeply human portrayal that resonates with authenticity.
Lynett Vallejo brings an infectious energy to the stage, her portrayal of Shelby filled with optimism and warmth. Vallejo navigates the lighter moments with ease, while ensuring the emotional complexity of her character’s choices is felt.
Victoria Pines and Tammy O’Donnell offer sharp comedic performances as Clairee and Ouiser, respectively. Pines blends dry humor and warmth with impeccable timing, while O’Donnell’s larger-than-life presence brings bold humor to her character. Their interactions provide a much-needed balance of levity against the emotional core of the play.
Joana Dominguez’s Truvy anchors the beauty shop with a welcoming charm, her natural generosity infusing the character with warmth and sincerity. As Annelle, Lily Self-Miller offers a grounded portrayal of transformation, though her pacing and diction at times falter, which slightly detracts from her delivery.
Brittanie Gunn’s scenic design impeccably captures the essence of the 1980s beauty shop, transforming the stage into a vibrant, authentic space. From the retro furnishings to the meticulously arranged details, Gunn creates a setting that feels both lived-in and iconic.
The beauty shop’s intimate, inviting atmosphere is established with careful attention to the smallest elements, offering a convincing backdrop for the characters’ personal stories to unfold. It’s a space that feels like home, adding a layer of warmth and realism to the production.
The result is a production that feels both timeless and newly relevant, showing that the bonds of friendship and family are universal, regardless of time, place, or circumstance.
Tesseract Theatre’s production of “Steel Magnolias” runs July 24-Aug. 10 at The Marcelle performing arts center. Visit https://tesseracttheatreco.org for more information.
CB Adams is an award-winning fiction writer and photographer based in the Greater St. Louis area. A former music/arts editor and feature writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, his non-fiction has been published in local, regional and national publications. His literary short stories have been published in more than a dozen literary journals and his fine art photography has been exhibited in more than 40 galley shows nationwide. Adams is the recipient of the Missouri Arts Council’s highest writing awards: the Writers’ Biennial and Missouri Writing!. The Riverfront Times named him, “St. Louis’ Most Under-Appreciated Writer” in 1996.
