So…like…um…Boo!
A strange Halloween, this one. Forget about zombies or maniacs in our midst. Today’s terrors come in strange, real forms: flu bugs, Viking quarterbacks, Glenn Beck. I’m sure you’ll find solace in your usual Halloween traditions, be it tipping outhouses or dressing up like Britney Spears. But here are some valuable alternatives if you’re just not in the mood for apple bobbing or binging on candy corn.
Just b
ecause the art is fine doesn’t mean it shies away from shivers and screams. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra stages one of its more interesting concerts this year, bringing together Bela Bartok, glass sculptor Dale Chihuly and a legendary mass murderer. Bartok’s one-act opera Bluebeard’s Castle gets some help from a series of glass sculptures by Chihuly, each one signifying the hidden horrors behind each of seven mysterious doors. You want to talk secrets—Don Draper’s got nothing on this Bluebeard fella. The concert opens with a little Mozart—a sweet cider palette cleanser before the juicy main course.
There’s a touch of the exotic in Danceworks latest offering, Simone Ferro and Friends II. Ferro again returns to her native Brazil for inspiration, finding material in folk and street dances. But she’ll also present an hour’s worth of dance that brings in collaborators from the far corners of the arts world—Ferro creates dances to “respond” to 1950s era photographs (soon to be seen at the Milwaukee Art Museum); she’ll also mix it up with violinist-composer Bernard Zinck and with visual artist Mary Madsen. And she’ll get lots of help from the fine ranks of the Danceworks Performance Company.
A
nd don’t let trick or treating keep you from one of the big music events of the year. Richard Thompson and Loudon Wainwright aren’t exactly kissin’ cousins when it comes to their musical output. Thompson is a scholar of folk song, of sorts, and one of the best guitarists around. Wainwright writes modern, self-deprecating folk songs that are funny, lacerating and insightful. We’re not sure how they’ll play off each other, but it’s definitely a duo that’s not to be missed.
Now I would like to see Wainwright get together with the always trenchant Barbara Ehrenreich, whose latest book takes on the dreaded American smiley face, as manifest in everything from breast cancer treatment to “life coaching.” Bright-Sided is a positively un-American attack on the positive thinking that made this the country we are today. Her Alverno reading (sponsored by Boswell Books) includes an autographed copy of the book. And a hug.
And finally, for those of you who think Halloween is all about casting off the strictures of civilized society, Mardi-Gras-style, there’s no better soundtrack than the one from the Warsaw Village Band. In the tradition of 17 Hippies, this Polish collective turns old-fashioned folk music into stuff that’s raucous and modern and a whole lot of fun. Alverno’s Pittman Theater should be rockin’.
