Art Notes: Upper Valley performing arts venues busy doing their thing
by Alex Hanson, Valley News
This space has already taken note of Lebanon Opera House’s 100th birthday, in part because it’s kind of a rolling celebration.
The dedication of the building took place on Oct. 29, 1924, so it seems fitting that the opera house’s fall season is perhaps its richest ever.
Other Upper Valley venues will be busy doing their thing, including the Hopkins Center for the Arts, which will present performances elsewhere while the center’s renovation and expansion continues, and the two professional theater companies in White River Junction, Northern Stage and Shaker Bridge Theatre.
But the opera house, fresh from a $4.2 million renovation, is asserting its place in the performing arts community with a big slate of big artists, starting next week.
On Tuesday, singer-songwriter Angel Olson makes her opera house debut, followed the next night by Neko Case, an alt-country and Americana vocal powerhouse. Next Friday’s Blues Traveler show is already sold out, and on Saturday, Sept. 28, the opera house is holding a $100-a-head, roaring 20s, jazz-age-themed 100th birthday gala with the Grace Wallace Trio.
“It’s a lot, but we’re really excited about it,” opera house Executive Director Joe Clifford said.
The party continues on Oct. 5, with a pair of free performances in Colburn Park. At 11 a.m., Mr. Aaron plays his brand of children’s folk-pop, and at 1 p.m., the Jacob Jolliff Band plays bluegrass. This event will include all kinds of activities for families — face painting, lawn games and a big birthday cake for the opera house.
“It really is about inviting everyone to the celebration,” Clifford said.
That night also features the U.S. premiere of a new show from Machine de Cirque, a Quebec City-based circus troupe, in the opera house.
As the season rolls along, it features artists who might ordinarily have found a home on the stage of the Hopkins Center’s giant Spaulding Auditorium: “This American Life” host Ira Glass on Oct. 12, Pink Martini on Oct. 20, and the Joshua Redman Group, which pairs the legendary jazz saxophonists ensemble with a vocalist, Gabrielle Cavassa, for the first time, on Nov. 7.
“I do think the timing’s fortuitous” for the opera house to be celebrating 100 years while the Hopkins Center is being renovated, Clifford said. When the Hop reopens next fall, “then they get that season to shine.”
More local arts featured in the full article.