Fresno Art Museum presents Renzi collection

May 25

Love and affection aren't feelings you normally associate with an important museum retrospective.

The art world is usually too crisp and cool for that -- too worried about intellectual vigor and historical profundity. No matter how intimate the connection between artist and audience during his or her lifetime, when we're surveying the scope of that artist's work, we expect our brains will be engaged, not so much our hearts. Read more →

Louise Mandrell makes herself at home in Fresno

May 11

"I'm the natural Calamity," Louise Mandrell says with a laugh.

She's sitting with me in the lobby of Roger Rocka's Dinner Theater on the little metal bench in front of the box-office window. It's a Monday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, and the sunny country music star -- I scrawl "down-home radiant" in my notebook within minutes of meeting her for the first time in person -- is talking about "Calamity Jane," the musical in which she's set to star in for Good Company Players. (It opens July 19.) Read more →

Union, Fresno opera continue to clash

May 04

Musicians are on strike against the Fresno Grand Opera.

But Friday's opening-night performance of "Show Boat" will go on -- with a replacement orchestra made up of local nonunion players. Read more →

Twists, turns brings Jacqueline Antaramian home to Fresno

April 20

It's one of those hazy memories in which the time and particulars have faded but the setting and emotional impact remain.

Jacqueline Antaramian was taking an afternoon nap on the couch in her parents' Fresno home. She figures she was in college at the time. On the record player was an opera singer -- perhaps Maria Callas, perhaps not. What Antaramian remembers is the intensity of the voice. She was half asleep, and the moment took on a heightened impact. The singer on the record seemed to embody the perfect synthesis of superlative singing and acting. Read more →

Fashion-show fundraiser unfolds at Fresno museum

April 13

It was just a lowly New Year's Eve party hat. But the sparkly thing gave Rhomie Thompson -- who was wearing it a few months ago while celebrating the holiday in style at the Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas -- a sudden inspiration.

Wouldn't the hat be a great item to work into the outfit he was planning to design for this year's Trashique? Read more →

Opera strike had been brewing

March 29

You don't expect to mix picket lines with Puccini.

Things were supposed to be different Tuesday night for Renée Fleming's return engagement with the Fresno Grand Opera: A program chock-full of eagerly anticipated pieces, including the centerpiece Ravel song cycle from Fleming's latest album. The world-class conducting of Sebastian Lang-Lessing. And a full orchestra of 60 musicians. Read more →

Cuts leave museum facing challenges

January 17

In the annals of the arts in Fresno, it’s hard to imagine a more rotten couple of weeks.

We lost the Fresno Metropolitan Museum on Jan. 5, of course, and the community still reels. Read more →

'Locker' brings you into war's addiction

August 16

This and that from the culture beat:

Defying the conventional wisdom that small/serious films in Fresno wither in the hot summer months for one or (at the most) two weeks before flitting off to greener pastures, “The Hurt Locker” is holding strong at Regal Manchester. Read more →

His Broadway tour debut spells out lots of fun

June 07

A is for “accommodate.”

That’s the word I imagine having to spell as I look into my bathroom mirror. I practice saying the letters slowly and clearly: a-c-c-o-m-m-o-d-a-t-e. Yes! The audience murmurs its approval. I am a double-letter king. Bring ’em on, baby. Read more →

Civil War's realism portrayed in two ways

October 20

This column was originally published in The Fresno Bee and at fresnobee.com on Sunday, September 26, 2004.

Guts oozing across the dusty floor of a mobile hospital. Maggots spilling out of a dazed soldier's stomach. The disorienting blur of a battlefield thick with dust and debris. The noise, the vomit, the whimpers, the eyes glazed with fear. As South battles North, the sickening sound of crusty bayonets slicing through wool before piercing flesh. Read more →

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