You can also hear This Week in Texas Music History on Sunday at precisely 6:04 p.m. on KERA radio. But subscribe to the podcast so you won’t miss an episode. And our thanks to KUT public radio in Austin for helping us bring this segment to you. And if you’re a music lover, be sure to check out Track by Track, the bi-weekly podcast from Paul Slavens, host of KXT’s The Paul Slavens Show, heard Sunday night’s at 8.

• Click the player to listen to the podcast:

• Expanded online version:

Al Stricklin was born in Antioch, Texas, on Jan. 29, 1908. Stricklin always considered himself a jazz pianist and played in a variety of jazz bands during the 1920s. In 1930, he was working at Fort Worth’s KFJZ radio when a young fiddler named Bob Wills stopped by and asked to perform on the air. Although Stricklin was skeptical, he allowed Wills to play. The audience loved the music, and Bob Wills soon had one of the most popular Western Swing bands in North Texas. Stricklin ended up playing piano with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys from 1935 to 1941, appearing on many of the group’s most popular recordings.

In 1973, Al Stricklin reunited with his former band mates to record the Grmmy-award winning album Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys: For the Last Time, which helped reinvigorate Western Swing and make it popular worldwide.

Next time on This Week in Texas Music History, we’ll pay tribute to Texas music royalty.

Afternoon Delight is a daily diversion for when you’re just back from lunch, but not quite ready to get back to work. Check back tomorrow at 1 p.m. for another one.

G. Love and Special Sauce play House of Blues tonight. Going to the show? This video should put you in the mood.

I just found out Friday morning that Donald E. “Don” Elder is ill and unable to attend the event, but it willl go on as scheduled.  A big “get well soon, Mr. Elder” from all of us here at Art&Seek.

The composers represented include Mozart, Wagner (who once said some disrespectful things about Mozart) and Debussy (who once said some disrespectful things about Wagner). Whatever the feelings of each for his predecessor, on the Meyerson Symphony Center stage Thursday night, all was harmony.

The unusual thing was the inclusion of not just one, but two works by Wagner. True, Wagner was primarily an opera composer, but there’s a lot that can be extracted from his works for concert presentation, and we haven’t been exposed to a lot of that in Dallas.

What Van Zweden and the DSO played was Siegfried Idyll and the “Good Friday Spell” from Parsifal. In each the conductor’s interpretation was subtle, expressive and occasionally dramatic (Siegfried Idyll is a mellow work throughout) and the orchestra’s playing, both among principals and the whole, was exceptional.

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor brought onstage the young French pianist David Fray, whose slightly eccentric demeanor was belied by an elegant performance that seemed a bit understated at times but had its share of drama. Van Zweden and his orchestra seemed stylistically in sync with Fray.

Rounding out the evening was a highly atmospheric performance of Debussy’s La Mer, another impressive display of skill within sections and polish overall.

The program will be repeated tonight, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

LONG ROAD TO THE DMA: Richardson High School senior Kathy Tran is one of a handful of young local artists whose work will be included for a second time in the Dallas Museum of Art’s ”Young Masters” exhibition beginning Sunday.  But her road to life as an artist has been a rocky one. She tells dallasnews.com about how moving out of her strict parents’ house at 13 was the catalyst for her future success.

QUOTABLE: “It’s important that every single person that performs on that stage understands what they’re a part of because in terms of Ireland Riverdance is not just a show. It’s a cultural ambassador and with that comes a responsibility. And it’s important that we perform Riverdance every single night like it’s our last night or our first night.”

- Padraic Moyles, in an interview with theaterjones.com. He performs in “Riverdance: The Farewell Tour” beginning Tuesday at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Leila Hatami and Peyman Moadi star in A Separation. Photo: Sony Pictures Classics

This week, Art&Seek’s Stephen Becker and Dallas Morning News movie critic Chris Vognar discuss A Separation, the outstanding Iranian film nominated for best foreign film and original screenplay at this year’s Academy Awards. And we’ll turn our attention for a moment to television to talk about Luck, HBO’s new horse-racing drama starring Dustin Hoffman. Be sure to subscribe to The Big Screen podcast on iTunes. Stream this week’s podcast below or download it.

Dustin Hoffman in HBO's Luck

What will be a small forest with a water feature at the entrance.

Strolling across the entrance plaza with architect Thom Mayne (in blue, left) and looking up at the external escalator (right). The media were separated into two hard-hat teams and taken through the exhibition halls while construction continued.

Mayne in the lobby entrance (above), where the ticket counter will be and where the ‘nature outdoors’ will seemingly flow right through the glass walls into the building.

Looking up the atrium (left) to where the external escalator begins.The atrium splits open the entire building from top to bottom. And on the top floor (right), the giant Alamosauras battling the T-Rex will stand right about — there — in the three-story-tall T. Boone Pickens Life: Then and Now Hall. And no, we’re not making up that name.

This is oil-and-gas country, so naturally much of the ‘nature and science’ is actually devoted to industry. So the Tom Hunt Energy Hall (below) has, oh my, such a big drill bit.  And yes, it rotates. When the exhibition is complete, it’ll look as though it’s boring right through the building.

Naturally, there wasn’t much in the way of completed displays but this three-thousand pound amethyst geode was pretty spectacular. Anyone can come up and spin the metal wheel, causing the geode to open and close. Suggestion to mothers and grade-school teachers: Nine-year-old boys will exhaust themselves taking turns, doing that all day.

Afternoon Delight is a daily diversion for when you’re just back from lunch, but not quite ready to get back to work. Check back tomorrow at 1 p.m. for another one.

There’s The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged) and then there’s this – Romeo and Juliet told in just 30 seconds.

Among the artists making their debut at FWO are former SMU teacher Candace Evans, who’s directing Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers, University of North Texas grad Emily Pulley, who’s a soprano in Three Decembers,  and native Texan Jan Cornelius, a soprano in The Marriage of Figaro.

The full release:

Fort Worth Opera Welcomes Six Principal Artists in their Company Debuts for the 2012 Festival

and

Congratulates General Director Darren K. Woods on his Contract Extension by the Board of Directors

FWOpera welcomes sopranos Andrea Carroll, Jan Cornelius, and Emily Pulley, mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta, and baritones Jonathan Beyer and Matthew Worth as they make their House Debuts during the 2012 season

FORT WORTH, Texas – Now in its 66^th season and staging its sixth festival this May/June 2012, Fort Worth Opera (FWOpera) proudly offers audiences four compelling operas – Puccini’s passionate blockbuster Tosca, Mozart’s effervescent romantic comedy The Marriage of Figaro, and two regional premieres: Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata (based on the ancient Greek comedy) and a new production of Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers (based on Terrence McNally’s play, Some Christmas Letters).  This will be the first time audiences can experience Adamo’s and Heggie’s works programmed together, and the casting—a mixture of returning favorites and new exciting voices on the cusp of major careers—is typical of Fort Worth Opera under the eleven-year tenure of General Director Darren K. Woods, whose contract was just extended for the third time.

Festival fans this season will hear six talented singers making their company debuts in leading roles. In Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, audiences will be introduced to four young artists: soprano Andrea Carroll (“a bright soprano” The New York Times) as Figaro’s fiancée Susanna, baritone Jonathan Beyer (“a robust, handsome voice, and promising years ahead” The Washington Post) as Count Almaviva, soprano Jan Cornelius (“a wonderfully attractive soprano with a solid core” Opera News) as the Countess, and mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta (“vocally outstanding” Opera News) as Cherubino.  Bass-baritone Donovan Singletary returns to FWOpera to take on the title role for the first time, and director Eric Einhorn makes his house debut with this period production.

In the highly anticipated regional premiere of Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers (based on Terrence McNally’s play Some Christmas Letters), audiences will hear soprano Emily Pulley (“faultless and exquisite” The New York Times) and baritone Matthew Worth (“fully powered and persuasively expressive” The New York Times) for the first time on the company’s stage, joined by returning soprano Janice Hall.  The chamber opera chronicles the dysfunctional family relationships between Broadway diva Madeline (Hall) and her adult children Bea (Pulley) and Charlie (Worth) over a period of three decades.  Three Decembers will receive a new production conceived by director Candace Evans, set designer Bob Lavallee, and costume designer Rondi Hillstrom Davis, all of whom are making their house debuts.

The 2012 Festival continues with a second regional premiere: Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata, which gives audiences an opportunity to hear some of their favorite FWOpera alumni, all making role debuts.  In a striking satire of humanity’s endless legacy of war (between nations and between the sexes), soprano Ava Pine appears in the title role opposite tenor Scott Scully singing the role of her lover, the Athenian soldier Nico.  Mezzo-soprano Meaghan Deiter sings the role of the Athenian female leader Kleonike, and mezzo-soprano Alissa Anderson sings her Spartan counterpart, Lampito, with bass-baritone Seth Mease Carico singing the role of Lampito’s husband, the Spartan general Leonidas.  Soprano Ashley Kerr and baritone Michael Mayes round out the cast as the Athenian couple Myrrhine and Kinesias.

Rounding out the four Festival offerings, FWOpera opens the 2012 season with Puccini’s Tosca, and welcomes back soprano Carter Scott and baritone Michael Chioldi in the title role and as Baron Scarpia, respectively.  When they appeared together in the company’s 2005 acclaimed production of this tale of love and lechery, “the intensity they projected was almost frightening,” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram).  Tenor Roger Honeywell returns to Fort Worth as the passionate painter Cavaradossi.

This season’s casting of local favorites as well as new singers is a staple at FWOpera, whose audiences have had the privilege of hearing many young singers on the brink of major careers (like the ones mentioned above) performing in the Festival before their debuts in other houses.  Woods has also instituted several other successful endeavors, ranging from the Fort Worth Opera Studio (a year-round training program for emerging young artists) to switching the company over to its current month-long festival format, to the recently announced Frontiers new works showcase.  During Woods’ time, the company also has produced two world premieres (Thomas Pasatieri’s Frau Margot, 2007, and Jorge Martín’s Before Night Falls, 2010), which were both released on CD as well.

Announcing the two-year extension of Woods’ contract, FWOpera board president Kris Lindsay commented on his accomplishments, stating, “Darren’s artistic and financial leadership have created an incredible era of growth and innovation at FWO, and have taken us from a small, provincial opera company to a well-respected and critically acclaimed opera festival.”  The extension to June 2018 will bring Woods’ tenure as General Director to 17 years.  This is the third consecutive time that the board has voted to extend his contract.

ABOUT THE SINGERS MAKING THEIR HOUSE DEBUTS DURING THE 2012 FESTlVAL:

Baritone Jonathan Beyer (Count Almaviva, The Marriage of Figaro) has performed with Pittsburgh Opera, Dallas Opera, Oper Frankfurt, Austin Lyric Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Hong Kong Opera, and Teatro di Verdi, among others.  The Chicago native has also appeared with the orchestras of Chicago, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, Lorin Maazel’s Châvteauville Foundation, the Netherlands Radio Orchestra, and the Festival at Aix-en-Provence.  A national finalist in the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Competition, Mr. Beyer has won numerous competitions, among them the Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Classical Artist, the George London Foundation Competition, and the Opera Guild of Fort Worth’s McCammon Competition.  He has degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

A fourth-year student at Manhattan School of Music, soprano Andrea Carroll’s (Susanna, The Marriage of Figaro) honors include being a 2011 Sarah Tucker Study Grant nominee from the Richard Tucker Foundation, a second prize winner in the Gerda Lissner Foundation competition, and a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Encouragement Award Winner. This past summer, she was the youngest member of Glimmerglass Festival’s Young Artist Program, where she sang Rose Segal and covered Elaine O’Neill in John Musto’s Later the Same Evening.  A Bethesda, Maryland native, she has trained and performed roles with the American Center for Puccini Studies, the Arcadia Opera, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Seagle Music Colony, and Dicapo Opera’s resident artist program.

A native Texan, soprano Jan Cornelius’s (Countess, The Marriage of Figaro) engagements this season have included performances with the Santa Barbara Opera and the Des Moines Metro Opera, and recent seasons have included debuts with the Virginia Opera and Atlanta Opera.  She recently earned first prize in the Giulio Gari International Vocal Competition and the Gerda Lissner Vocal Competition.  Among her other awards are second prize from the Licia Albanese–Puccini Foundation, the Fritz & Lavinia Jensen Foundation, and the Loren L. Zachary Society.  A graduate of the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, Ms. Cornelius attended Louisiana State University and received her master’s degree at the University of Houston Moores School of Music.

This season, Canadian mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta’s (Cherubino, The Marriage of Figaro) joined the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and made her debuts at the New York Festival of Song and in The Nightingale and other short fables (Stravinsky) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  She travels to Tuscany this July to join Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s young artists’ program at the Solti Te Kanawa Accademia di Bel Canto, and will then record a series of concerts with the Bavarian Radio.  She created the title role of Dean Burry’s opera Pandora’s Locker and the role of King’s Mistress in R. Murray Schafer’s highly anticipated work, The Children’s Crusade. She received Encouragement Awards from both the George London Competition and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, as well as the top prize of the New Discoveries Auditions.

Soprano Emily Pulley’s (Bea, Three Decembers) radiant voice and electrifying acting have won her both national and international acclaim.  A frequent presence at the Metropolitan Opera, Ms. Pulley’s roles there include Marguerite in Faust, Nedda in I Pagliacci, Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, Musetta in La Bohème, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, and Thérèse in Les Mamelles de Tirésias, among others.  She made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Mimì in La Bohème.  A Texan, she graduated summa cum laude from West Texas A&M and earned her M.A. in Music from the University of North Texas.  Ms. Pulley sang the role of Bea at Central City Opera last season.

Recently profiled in Opera News, baritone Matthew Worth (Charlie, Three Decembers) is enjoying successes on both the operatic and concert stages, in all styles from the Renaissance to new repertoire.  He comes to Fort Worth following earlier season debuts with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Minnesota Opera.  He first sang the role of Charlie with Chicago Opera Theater last season, and he has also sung with Santa Fe Opera, Virginia Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, New Orleans Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Boston Lyric Opera, among others.  Orchestra appearances include the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Atlanta and Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestras.  A native of New Mexico, he recently joined the Metropolitan Opera roster and made his Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in Brahms’ Requiem.

ABOUT THE DIRECTORS MAKING THEIR HOUSE DEBUTS DURING THE 2012 FESTlVAL:

Lauded by Opera News for his “keen eye for detail and character insight for which the result was a seamless, gripping flow,” director Eric Einhorn (The Marriage of Figaro) has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera directing staff since 2005.  He has worked with such houses as the Metropolitan Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Glimmergass, Michigan Opera Theatre, Bard Music Festival, and Florida Grand Opera.  Upcoming engagements include his debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. His recent direction of Dialogues des Carmélites for Austin Lyric Opera was awarded “Best Opera” at the Austin Critics Table Awards in addition to garnering him a nomination for “Best Director.”  He has recently joined the adjunct music faculty of Ramapo College of New Jersey.

Director Candace Evans (Three Decembers) has been praised by Opera News for her “flawless sense of timing.”  With a career of directing and choreographing over eighty operas, musicals, plays, and ballets, she is known for her collaborative spirit. Her staging of The Merry Widow for Dallas Opera was named third among the Top Ten Dallas Classical Music Events.  Her Carmen for Madison Opera was similarly acclaimed in the Top Ten.  She taught in Southern Methodist University’s theatre/music departments from 1994 to 2000.  She has lectured nationally, including workshops for the National Opera Association, Taos Opera Institute, and Fort Worth Opera.  She holds an MFA in Classical Theatre, was trained as an opera singer, danced with the Wisconsin Ballet Company, and has toured the world as a stage actor.

SINGERS, CONDUCTORS, AND DIRECTORS RETURNING FOR THE 2012 FESTIVAL:

Janice Hall, soprano – Madeline, role debut, Three Decembers; Before Night Falls, 2010, Angels in America, 2008; Dialogues of the Carmelites, 2006; Turn of the Screw, 2003

Ashley Kerr, soprano – Myrrhine, role debut, Lysistrata; Don Giovanni, 2010; Carmen, 2009; Dead Man Walking, 2009

Ava Pine, soprano – title role, role debut, Lysistrata; Julius Caesar, 2011; The Elixir of Love, 2010; Angels in America, 2008

Carter Scott, soprano – title role, Tosca; Turandot, 2008; Tosca, 2005

Alissa Anderson, mezzo-soprano – Lampito, role debut, Lysistrata; Cinderella, 2009; Lucia di Lammermoor, 2008; Angels in America 2008

Meaghan Deiter, mezzo-soprano – Kleonike, role debut, Lysistrata; The Mikado, 2011; Julius Caesar, 2011

Roger Honeywell, tenor – Cavaradossi, Tosca; Carmen, 2009

Scott Scully, tenor – Nico, role debut, Lysistrata; Angels in America, 2008; Of Mice and Men, 2008; Dialogues of the Carmelites, 2006

Michael Chioldi, baritone – Scarpia, Tosca; Falstaff, 2007, Tosca, 2005

Michael Mayes, baritone – Kinesias, role debut, Lysistrata; Dead Man Walking, 2009; Carmen 2009

Seth Mease Carico, bass-baritone – Leonidas, role debut, Lysistrata; Before Night Falls, 2010; Carmen, 2009; Dead Man Walking, 2009

Donovan Singletary, bass-baritone – title role, role debut, The Marriage of Figaro; Julius Caesar, 2011

FWO Music Director Joe Illick, conductor – Tosca and Lysistrata; The Mikado, 2011; Il Trovatore, 2011; Don Giovanni, 2011; Before Night Falls, 2010; Carmen, 2009; Dead Man Walking, 2009; Turandot, 2008, among others

Christopher Larkin, conductor – Three Decembers; Falstaff, 2007; Dialogues of the Carmelites, 2006; Little Women, 2005

Stewart Robertson, conductor – The Marriage of Figaro; The Elixir of Love, 2010

David Gately, director – Three Decembers; Julius Caesar, 2011; Before Night Falls, 2010; Cinderella, 2009; Angels in America; 2008; Lucia di Lammermoor; 2008

Daniel Pelzig, director – Tosca; Turandot 2008

SCHEDULE OF 2012 FESTIVAL PERFORMANCES

TOSCA
Music by Giacomo Puccini and libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
May 12, 7:30 pm; May 20, 2:00 pm; May 25, 7:30 pm; June 2, 7:30 pm; Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth
In Italian with projected English and Spanish translations
Tosca: Carter Scott; Cavaradossi: Roger Honeywell; Scarpia: Michael Chioldi
FWOpera Music Director Joe Illick, conductor; Daniel Pelzig, director

THREE DECEMBERS—REGIONAL PREMIERE
Music by Jake Heggie and libretto by Gene Scheer, based on the play Some Christmas Letters by Terrence McNally
May 13, 2:00 pm; May 18, 7:30 pm; May 20, 7:30 pm; May 26 at 2:00 pm; May 31, 7:30 pm; June 2, 2:00 pm; Scott Theatre, Fort Worth Community Arts Center
In English
Madeline (mother): Janice Hall; Bea: Emily Pulley; Charlie: Matthew Worth
Regional premiere (world premiere: Houston, 2008, under original title Last Acts)
Christopher Larkin, conductor; Candace Evans, director

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte
May 19, 7:30 pm; May 27 at 2:00 pm; June 1, 7:30 p.m.; Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth
In Italian with projected English and Spanish translations
Figaro: Donovan Singletary; Susanna: Andrea Carroll; Count Almaviva: Jonathan Beyer; Countess Almaviva: Jan Cornelius; Cherubino: Wallis Giunta
Stewart Robertson, conductor; Eric Einhorn, director

LYSISTRATA—REGIONAL PREMIERE
Music and libretto by Mark Adamo
May 26, 7:30 p.m.; June 3, 2:00 pm; Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth
In English with projected English translations
Regional premiere (world premiere: Houston, 2005)
Lysia (title role): Ava Pine; Nico: Scott Scully; Kleonike: Meaghan Deiter; Lampito: Alissa Anderson; Leonidas: Seth Mease Carico; Myrrhine: Ashley Kerr; Kinesias: Michael Mayes
FWOpera Music Director Joe Illick, conductor; David Gately, director

Plot summaries and other details of the 2012 Festival can be found at www.fwopera.org.

TICKETS: Tickets for the 2012 Festival can be purchased online, by phone, or in person at the Fort Worth Opera Box Office inside the Fort Worth Community Arts Center at 1300 Gendy St., Fort Worth, Texas, 76107. Season subscriptions start at $70 while single tickets start at $15. For more information, please visit www.fwopera.org or call 817.731.0726 or toll-free at 1.877.396.7372. To purchase tickets online, go to www.fwopera.org.

SXSW FILM: The complete lineup for the film portion of SXSW has been released. Predictably, the revamped 21 Jump Street will premiere there, as will documentaries about everyone from Jeffrey Dahmer to Ginger Baker. But I’m already lining up for America’s Parking Lot, which follows two die-hard Cowboys fans in the last year of Texas Stadium.

FORT WORTH’S NEW STUDIO: Downtown Fort Worth is getting a cool new addition – a recording studio. The space is the brainchild of Will Hunt, a producer who’s worked with everyone from Evanescence to Burning Hotels. Hunt tells fwweekly.com the decision was pretty simple – he and his wife have lived in the city since 2004, and this just another way of putting down deeper roots. The space should be open this summer.

Congratulations to Matt Harvey from Addison, the winner of the Flickr Photo of the Week contest! Matt last won in June for another striking black-and-white photo.  He follows last week’s winner, Guy Reynolds from Dallas.

If you would like to participate in the Flickr Photo of the Week contest, all you need to do is upload your photo to our Flickr group page. It’s fine to submit a photo you took earlier than the current week, but we are hoping that the contest will inspire you to go out and shoot something fantastic this week to share with Art&Seek users. If the picture you take involves a facet of the arts, even better. The contest week will run from Monday to Sunday, and the Art&Seek staff will pick a winner on Monday afternoon. We’ll notify the winner through FlickrMail (so be sure to check those inboxes) and ask you to fill out a short survey to tell us a little more about yourself and the photo you took. We’ll post the winners’ photo on Wednesday.

Now here’s more from Matt :

Title of photo: The Abandoned

Equipment used: Canon 60D w/Sigma lens

Tell us more about your photo: I was visiting family in Tyler over the holidays and got up early on a cold, overcast morning and went for a drive to see what had changed since I lived there as well as take some photos. I spotted this abandoned warehouse in a rundown area of town near downtown and stopped to take a few photos.

Afternoon Delight is a daily diversion for when you’re just back from lunch, but not quite ready to get back to work. Check back tomorrow at 1 p.m. for another one.

Craig Finn hits Club Dada tonight. In this video, the Hold Steady frontman talks about making his new solo album.

UPDATE: As luck would have it, Finn just played a quick set in our KXT studio. You can catch it on 91.7 FM at about 4:30 today.

ASSESSING ‘THE BACCHAE’: On Saturday night, the Nasher Sculpture Center threw a swank opening party for “Elliott Hundley: The Bacchae.” The sculptures and collages in the show are the definition of mixed-media, with everything from photographs to pine cones in play. As I gave it a spin, I was reminded of the DMA’s recent Mark Bradford show, and after reading Ben Lima’s Front Row review, turns out I wasn’t the only one.

DINNNER WITH CADD: CADD (Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas) is known for some of its inventive events – everything from bus tours to gallery walks. Over the weekend, it held a mystery dinner, for which guests were told at the last minute where they’d be dining. Part of the surprise was also who they’d be dining with. Lucia Simek was one of those diners, and she writes about the experience for glasstire.com.

Known for a wide vocal range and ability to improvise, Martin Sexton offers a fun blend of Country, Rock, and Blues to his new EP entitled Fall Like Rain. Want to win a chance to seem him live at the Kessler on Feb. 9? Make sure you are a subscriber to the Art & Seek newsletter by clicking here.

Sign up for the Martin Sexton tickets here:

UPDATE: Thanks to all who entered, we have our winners.

Sponsored by our very own KXT 91.7, Bob Schneider will be playing at the Kessler Theater on Feb. 11. His new album, which is appropriately titled A Perfect Day, is a perfect blend of soulful melodic bliss. To win a pair of tickets to see this intimate solo acoustic set, start off by subscribing to the Art & Seek newsletter here.

Sign up for the Bob Schneider tickets here:

UPDATE: Thanks to all who entered, we have our winners.

Also, don’t forget to check out our other two Big Deals: Go here to enter to win tickets to see Dr. Dog at the Granada on March 11. Go here for family passes to see the classic, Charlotte’s Web, at Casa Mañana.

This week, the Big Deal is giving away two Family 4-packs of tickets to see the childrens’ classic, Charlotte’s Web, at Casa Mañana for Friday, February 10th. We know you want to see your favorite barnyard friends together on stage to tell the triumphant story of how a clever spider convinces the town that Wilbur the pig is very special. A great story about friendship that your whole family will love.

You have to be an Art & Seek subscriber to win. Do that here.

Also, don’t forget to check out our other Big Deals for the week: Go here to enter to win tickets to see Dr. Dog on March 11 at the Granada. And go here to win tickets to see Martin Sexton  on Feb. 9 or Bob Schneider on Feb. 11 at the Kessler.

UPDATE: Thanks to all who entered, we have our winners.

Get ready to groove to the psychadelic liveliness of the Philadelphia-based indie band, Dr. Dog, as they celebrate the release of their new album, Be the Void.  Two lucky winners of the Big Deal will win a pair of tickets to see their show on March 11th at the Granada Theater!

You must be an Art&Seek e-newsletter subscriber to win.  Go here to take care of that, if you haven’t already.

Also, be sure to check out our other Big Deals for the week: Click here for chances to win tickets to the Kessler Theater to see Martin Sexton on Feb. 9 or Bob Schneider on Feb. 11. And click here to enter for tickets to see the classic family show Charlotte’s Web, presented by Casa Manana.

UPDATE: Thanks to all who entered, we have our winners.

The Dallas Theater Center is currently presenting one of its biggest shows ever, a world-premiere musical adaptation of Giant, co-produced with New York’s Public Theater. KERA’s Jerome Weeks has this review.

• Front Row review

• TheaterJones review

• Critical Rant and Rave review

• Star-Telegram review

• Dallas Morning News review (pay wall)

• Art& Seek interview with composer-lyricist Michael John LaChiusa and bookwriter Sybille Pearson

• KERA radio review:

• Expanded online review:

In her original 1952 novel, Giant, Edna Ferber tried to evoke the sheer scale of West Texas. That visual vastness is also a cinematic highlight of the 1956 George Stevens film with Rock Hudson, James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor. Now, at the Dallas Theater Center, the empty, dusty West Texas landscape has never looked so gorgeous, thanks to Ken Posner’s cloud-dappled lighting and Allen Moyer’s sets. At times, the stage images evoke Thomas Hart Benton, other times it’s Edward Hopper.

And the show sounds terrific, too. Frankly, I went to Giant wondering why this show with its Texan and Mexican-American characters – why this, of all the Theater Center offerings — doesn’t have a single local actor in it.

Then I heard the cast sing.

[excerpt]

Katie Thompson (left) plays a downhome Texas woman whom cattleman Jordan Benedict had long been expected to marry, to unite their family’s two ranching properties. But he jilts her to marry Leslie, the Easterner he brings home to Reata, his huge ranch. Thompson, who was in the earlier,  Signature Theatre version of Giant in Arlington, Virgina, is only one of the show’s powerhouse singers; they justify their casting.

Purely as a production, Giant is the most polished, most sophisticated musical the Theater Center has ever staged. Director Michael Greif has a gift for imbuing his shows with confidence. This thing just moves and feels right. (With his three Tony nominations for such Broadway shows as Rent and Grey Gardens, Greif’s come a long way since his last Theater Center job: directing Christopher Durang’s Laughing Wild, in the Basement of the Kalita Humphreys in 1988.)

But unfortunately, what kills many new musicals isn’t the singing, the directing or even the music. It’s the book. Book problems — where characters don’t make sense, we lose interest in the storyline, the jokes or material grows stale — all of these are why classic shows like South Pacific or Wonderful Town or even Porgy and Bess get re-written when they’re revived.

It’s also a fact: Very few successful musicals have been made from epic novels. They’re mostly derived from short stories (Cabaret), previous dramas (My Fair Lady) or memoirs (The King and I).  Les Miserables, Edna Ferber’s Showboat and Lost in the Stars may be the only notable ones inspired by novels, and we can argue about which ones of those qualify as great musicals. But 25 years after the original show opened on Broadway, the Les Miz tour just broke box-office records at the Winspear Opera House.

With a novel, you simply have to rip out so much story, and you still end up with too much. Giant follows Leslie and Jordan’s marriage from the late ‘20s to the mid-‘50s. We watch his cattle empire turn into an oil empire. Children are born, characters die. World War II comes and goes, the treatment of women and Mexican-Americans changes. Post-war prosperity comes, conservative oil money pours into politics.

That’s a lot of background and social history. Not surprisingly, some plot lines and characters just seem to blip on, then off. A potential, adulterous relationship, for instance, between Leslie and Jett Rink, a ranch hand, gets all heated up — and then vanishes.  (Several audience members have told me they thought the appealing, young Latino ranch hand, Angel, played by Miguel Cervantes, pops out of nowhere for one musical number, and then goes off to war. They didn’t catch that he’s also the impoverished, possibly sickly infant at the very beginning whom Leslie intercedes to help.)

One appeal of big, melodramatic sagas like Les Miz is the feeling of “sweep,” conveying an overwhelming historic moment, something that’s bigger than any single character but something that the characters, in part, come to embody. In Les Miz, it’s the people’s need for justice and the hollowness of the ancien regime. What is it in Giant?  The loss of traditional uses of the land? The coarsening of Texas values? The rise of the oil depletion allowance? There doesn’t seem to be any one moment or movement at the heart of the musical. Ferber’s Showboat, by the way, suffers from much this same weakness, a lack of focus.

But perhaps that’s not so important as the fact that in Giant, we view all this history through Leslie’s  eyes. She’s very much like the schoolmarm who comes to town in an old Western, bringing all her book-larnin’  and proper breeding. Leslie disapproves of  much of what she sees:  the shooing away of women from men’s talk and men’s business, the brutal neglect of immigrant workers. Certainly, we may agree with her but it doesn’t help that performer Kate Baldwin doesn’t really warm her up. She starts off girlish and enraptured — Baldwin has to age a quarter-century, after all — but soon, Leslie feels (and stays) a little chilly or removed. She may become “Texas’ greatest hostess,” but she feels something of an outsider to the end.

Snake in the grass: Kate Baldwin as Leslie, P. J. Griffith as Jett Rink in Giant

In short, Giant wants to embrace Texas – and to hold it at a distance. There’s a dramatic tension here but also an emotional stalemate. Jordan loves Texas and loves Leslie — deeply. Leslie loves Jordan, but Texas, she’s deeply conflicted about — for good reasons. That’s how the couple starts, and even as everything else changes around them, that’s pretty much where they’re stuck. (The accommodations reached at the end — doing good with oil money — are not emotionally persuasive.)

Aaron Lazar as Jordan “Bick” Benedict does a fine job as a Texas patriarch, who could easily come across as a stick. In fact, in the film version, Rock Hudson plays Bick’s more domineering and racist qualities almost shyly, nervously — as in gosh, Miss Leslie, you just don’t understand, that’s the way Mexicans like to be treated. It suggests he instinctively realizes these traditions are something to be ashamed of. Lazar is much more forthright, laying down the law, risking being unsympathetic.

Speaking of history and traditions, the musical shows their hold on Bick by having his sister Luz (Dee Hoty) come back as a ghost.  I generally don’t find such scenes convincing; there ought to be another, more compelling way to convey how much Bick loves his family heritage. It’s to Lazar’s credit that he plays the scene as credibly as he does. Ironically, it’s Bick’s moments with Uncle Bawley (the excellent John Dossett) that conjure up that history as something real and affecting — even as Bawley is arguing with Bick to leave the past behind.

When Giant does go for big melodrama, it piles it on badly. Jett Rink is the ranch hand who strikes it rich with oil. He’s like an unwanted stepchild, a naïve, resentful country boy, and P. J. Griffith, who plays Jett, is a riveting performer. But his Jett starts as a sly, grinning lounge lizard — in his first encounter with Leslie, he’s almost literally, the snake in the Garden of Eden. By the end, bookwriter Sybille Pearson has made Jett into a vulgar, bullying villain like something, well, out of a melodrama. He’s a bigot, even a proto-fascist. He’s the Ugly Texan re-born (see The Chase, Major King Kong in Dr. Strangelove, the right-wingers in Executive Action, General Midwinter in Billion Dollar Brain). He carries all the sins of Texas, the sins of the oil industry, even the sins of Dick Cheney, the Bush administration and the Iraq War, which we’re clearly meant to hear echoes of. It’s too much, too simplistic, too imbalanced.

I realize most theatergoers won’t care, but this problem actually originates with Ferber’s novel. It’s not so much that she demonized the oil industry, which she did to a degree, nor that such treatment wasn’t deserved. But Ferber romanticized the cattle industry in the bargain. In her novel and in Stevens’ film, ranching is more ‘natural,’ more historic, more classically noble and heroic, not so pedestrian, grubby, greedy and profit-oriented as pumping petroleum. Tell that to the cattle and to the low-paid ranch hands. And to the ranchers themselves whose profit margins were often so slim, they’d sacrifice whole herds to break even.

As a composer-lyricist, Michael John LaChiusa is often compared to Stephen Sondheim. He’s incredibly smart with interweaving songs into dramatic action and he’s so gifted he can shift in and out of various musical styles. His music often provides some of the show’s ’sweep’ with its lushness. He can give us a rousing brass anthem, a lovely Mexican ballad and a terrific jump blues [excerpt from Jump].

But we hear that wordless anthem once as a transition — it reminded me of Elmer Bernstein’s theme from The Magnificent Seven but with less boyish gusto and a more somber cast.  Too bad it never reappears. And that jump blues comes late in Act 2 (left) when we’re truly hungry for a lively dance number, something to change the pace after two hours.  Clearly, LaChiusa and Pearson are more comfortable with irony and ambivalence, with setting out polar views of Texas: Anglo vs. Latino, past vs. future, male vs. female, cattle vs. oil. It’s typical that when one character, Pinky (William Youmans), tries to sing a jingoistic version of Alamo history, Pearson and LaChiusa offset him with Leslie and Jordan’s idealistic son Jordy (Matt Doyle) poking holes in the story with some unpleasant facts.

Irony and ambivalence have been the heart of many of Stephen Sondheim’s shows as well. But his musicals usually deepen and fascinate as they go on. Giant mostly seesaws in the same emotional place. Yes, Giant is operatic — meaning it’s rich and expansive. But ‘operatic’ is also code for long. And it’s not the three hours’ running time that makes Giant feel long. Despite the many characters, incidents and musical numbers, it’s how unresolved it feels — for so long. 

Batman,  Superman, Elastigirl…. Ever wish your kids could meet some REAL superheroes? Well, here’s your chance!  This Saturday the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum will host a special event marking the accomplishments of the pioneers of Black Aviation.  The celebration includes a special presentation by Donald E. “Don” Elder, an original member of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen.  For those of you who want to broaden your daughter’s horizon past princesses and fairies there will also be a special tribute to women pilots. The museum will mark these “Super girls”  contributions over the last 100 years, starting with Louise Quimby, the first female pilot in the U.S., who earned her wings in 1911.

UPDATE: I just found out Friday morning that Don Elder is ill and unable to attend the event, but the program is still scheduled to go on.

For more family-friendly events, check out our listings.

Therese Powell is an Art&Seek calendar coordinator and KERA-TV producer.  She spends most of her free time seeking out adventures for her 6-year-old daughter, Rose.

Afternoon Delight is a daily diversion for when you’re just back from lunch, but not quite ready to get back to work. Check back tomorrow at 1 p.m. for another one.

A skatepark in Brazil becomes the backdrop for one high-tech light show.