Off The Water - February 18-24, 2016

FREE

For a Cause

Night at the Museum

Music fest to raise awareness........ p.8

Week of February 18-24, 2016

Sports the focus at Heritage........... p.3

Off The Water | The place to be entertained.

Volume 8, Number 7

Celebrating 200 years ‘Barber of Seville’ coming to Mendel Center www.offthewater.com

Page 2 • Week of February 18-24, 2016

Off The Water, Michiana

SPOTLIGHT

Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville’ opera coming to Mendel Center Mainstage New English performing version celebrates 200th anniversary of acclaimed opera

B

ENTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — One of the best loved and most recognized operas is coming to The Mendel Center Mainstage when the Comic Opera Guild presents Rosinni’s “Barber of Seville” in a new English performing version with live orchestra at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 19. This production will mark the 200th anniversary of the opera’s first performance in Rome.

Opening night on Feb. 20, 1816, did not go well, but within a short time it became obvious that a masterpiece had been born. The Barber of Seville is an example of a show in which every number is good — something that rarely occurs in musical theater, but happens when the story is exceptional. The opera is based on the play of the same name by Beaumarchais, which was so popular that a number of composers used it. Only Rossini’s version, however, became world-famous.

The spirited, elegant, and tuneful score poured forth from the 24-year-old composer in a span of only three weeks. Within a few years, it had been performed all over the world and became the first opera performed in Italian in America. Today it is almost always performed in the original language and people adore it, even though they may not understand much of what is being sung.

The Comic Opera Guild has commissioned a new English performing version so the audience can be involved in what is going on without having to look at a screen above the stage. The Guild’s shows are always in English, in new versions that preserve the quality of the vocal line and seek to improve the story and the humor as well.

Festival, UK, among others. Music direction is by Nada Radakovich, a professional singer in Germany and the United States for 25 years and now a teacher and opera producer in Flint.

Tickets for The Comic Opera Guild’s presentation of The Barber of Seville at The Mendel Center Mainstage start at $30 and are available at www.TheMendelCenter. com, and through The Mendel Center Box Office at (269) 927-1221, weekdays 2 to 6 p.m. Special rates are available for groups of 10 or more. For information about group rates, pre-show party options, and other special arrangements contact the Box Office.

the Count, when Basilio inopportunely arrives. Figaro steps into the confusion by convincing Basilio that he has yellow jaundice and must go home to bed. This might have worked, but Bartolo overhears the Count telling Rosina who he really is, and throws him out.

Bartolo realizes he had better marry Rosina quickly; he enlists Basilio to bring a notary to perform the marriage. Giving up on subtlety, Figaro now urges the Count to elope and the two gain entry to Rosina’s bedroom by ladder in the midst of a raging thunderstorm. The happy couple are about to run off when it becomes apparent that someone has removed the ladder.

Stuck in place, Figaro, the Count, and Rosina hear someone coming up the stairs and assume it is Bartolo.

When Basilio enters with the notary, Figaro seizes on the THE STORY moment and demands the marriage be performed. Basilio The Barber of Seville is Figaro, a gregarious fellow is given what he really wants, a bribe, and the rite is perwho considers himself the jack-of-all-trades in town. He formed just as Bartolo arrives, once again accompanied can not only cut your hair but advise you of the latest by the police. fashions, cure your indigestion, and improve your love life. It is in the latter category that he is employed by the THE COMPANY Count Almaviva, who has fallen in love with a young The Comic Opera Guild has performed the greatest beauty, Rosina, but is unsure how to woo her away from comic operas and operettas for 42 years. It is the only her guardian, the stern Doctor Bartolo, who also wants company in Michigan to tour full shows, complete with her for his wife. casts, chorus, scenery, and orchestra. The Guild has perFigaro’s first idea is that the Count should disguise formed in over 30 communities, from Adrian to Calumet. himself as a drunken soldier, who will demand that he be Its 87 productions of operas and operettas have contribbilleted in Bartolo’s house. He claims that Bartolo will uted 14 new translations/ performing versions to the repnever suspect an ulterior motive of a drunk. The Count, ertory. As a result, COG English versions have been perhowever, proceeds to overact, and winds up in a ruckus formed by other companies throughout the United States. with Bartolo that ultimately brings the neighborhood and The Barber of Seville will be performed by a cast of the police to the scene in the brilliant finale to Act 1. professional vocalists, accompanied by chorus and Undaunted, Figaro’s next idea is for the Count to orchestra. Stage direction is by Mitchell Gillett, who, in impersonate a music teacher in order to give a “lesson” addition to performing as a lead tenor, has previously to Rosina. They delay the arrival of the real teacher, directed for Comic Opera Guild, The University of Basilio, in order for the ruse to work. All is going well for Michigan Gilbert & Sullivan Society, and the Buxton

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Week of February 18-24, 2016 • Page 3

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Heritage Museum hosts Night at the Museum

S

T. JOSEPH, Mich. — For three hours on the evening of February 26, the Heritage Museum and Cultural Center’s sports exhibit will literally spring to life during Night at the Museum: Get in the Game!

From 6 to 9 p.m., food, games, and costumed reenactors will bring sports history to life at this fun family event!

Based on the popular “Night at the Museum” movies, this event will let attendees interact with historic sports heroes from Southwest Michigan throughout the exhibit hall. On the main level, visitors can sample authentic ballpark foods, participate in a Wii sports tournament and enjoy many other activities and crafts! A photo booth will let you create your own trading cards as a souvenir of the evening. Those who come dressed as their favorite historic athletes will be eligible for the costume contest.

Night at the Museum: Get in the Game! will offer a chance to brush up on your local sports history before the

Museum hosts a national Smithsonian exhibit on sports in April.

According to the Museum’s Frederick S. Upton Fellow Claire Herhold, “We’re so lucky to have such incredible local sports history! This event will be a really dynamic, exciting way to explore it.”

Admission to this event is $15 for adults in advance; $20 at the door.

Museum members receive a $5 discount off adult admissions. Children ages 6-18 are $3 and admission is free for ages 5 and under. Tickets may be purchased by calling the Heritage Museum at (269) 983-1191.

The Heritage Museum & Cultural Center is located at 601 Main Street in St. Joseph, Michigan. Our current exhibits are Work and Play: Sports in Southwest Michigan, Lighting the Way: Fresnel Lenses from St. Joseph’s Lighthouses, and The Big Three: Boat and Shipbuilding in Benton Harbor and St. Joseph. Please call 983-1191 or visit www.theheritagemcc.org for more information.

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Page 4 • Week of February 18-24, 2016

N E

W S

Off The Water, Michiana

WEEKEND AWAY

C

Submitted photos

LEFT: St. Louis’s Gateway Arch has a tram ride to take visitors to the top for a spectacular view of the city. RIGHT: The Fox Theatre, built in 1929 and restored in the 1980s, used the same plans as the Fox Theatre in Detroit.

Michigan to Missouri Local museum hosting trip to St. Louis

B

ERRIEN SPRINGS, Mich. — The History Center at Courthouse Square in Berrien Springs is offering a three-day, two-night tour of historic sites in the St. Louis, Missouri, area on June 17-19. The tour features a live performance of “A Prairie Home Companion” with Garrison Keillor at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis. The tour departs from the History Center in Berrien Springs.

History Center curator Bob Myers will lead the “Gateway to the West Tour.” The itinerary includes tours of The Cahokia Mounds State Park, the Gateway Arch, a skyline dinner cruise on the Mississippi River, the Missouri Historical Museum, the Lewis & Clark State Historic Site, and the Old County Courthouse.

The tour fee is $549 (per person, double occupancy) for History Center members, or $599 for nonmembers. Participants can join the History Center ($20 individual or $30 family) and take immediate advantage of the member’s rate for the tour.

The tour fee includes Royal Excursion motorcoach transportation; all lodging; all breakfasts and dinners; guide services; and all admission fees, taxes and gratuities. Lodging will be at the Comfort Inn in nearby Collinsville, Illinois.

The Cahokia Mounds is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of only 23 in the United States. The prehistoric city flourished from about 600 to 1100 A.D. and had a population of about 20,000 people. Considered one of the most significant Native American sites in the Western Hemisphere, it includes 51 mounds, a section of reconstructed palisade, and a wooden astronomical observatory dubbed “Woodhenge.” The largest mound, Monks Mound, stands 100 feet tall.

The famous Gateway Arch is an internationallyrecognized symbol of St. Louis. Built in 1963-1965, the Arch stands 630 feet high and is the tallest manmade monument in the Americas. Visitors can take a 40-passenger tram to the top of the Arch for a spectacular view of the St. Louis region.

The tour takes in a live performance of “A Prairie Home Companion” at the Fox Theatre in downtown St. Louis. Host Garrison Keillor is retiring this September after hosting the popular National Public Radio program for 42 years. His stories of life in his fictional hometown of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota (“where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all of the children are above average”) have helped make the program among the most popular in

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The June 18 program will broadcast from the Fox Theatre, a 4,500 seat facility built in 1929 at the peak of the great palace theatre era and restored to its original grandeur in the 1980s. The Fox features thousands of square feet of ornate plasterwork, faux marble columns, art glass and a one-ton chandelier.

The History Center’s tour also includes a tour of the new 14,000 square foot Lewis and Clark State Historic Site in Hartford, Illinois. The facility is on the site of Camp River Dubois, where the legendary expedition spent the winter of 1803-1804 before embarking on its legendary journey to the Pacific Ocean. The museum includes six exhibit galleries and a full-scale replica of the 55-foot keelboat used by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

To receive a full description and itinerary, or to make tour reservations, call the History Center at Courthouse Square at (269) 471-1202 or email bcha@berrienhistory.org. A $100 per person deposit is required, with the balance due by May 15. The History Center accepts personal checks, Visa, Mastercard and Discover.

Off The Water, Michiana

Week of February 18-24, 2016 • Page 5

Go ahead, try something different C

ORYDON, Ind. — If you know what COLUMNIST you like, you should drink it. Don’t let others tell you what to like and don’t let the wine snobs shame you for drinking wines ­— especially sweet or fruity wines — that you like.

What seems like simple wine advice is really much of the theory behind Tim Hanni’s approach to wine.

Hanni is a bit of a maverHoward Hewitt ick in the wine world. His Grape Sense theory is a bit too involved for this space but his research shows people have from 500 to 11,000 taste buds. The receptors on your taste buds determine what you will enjoy. No major wine publications, a humble wine columnist, nor a fancy restaurant’s sommelier can change that.

Hanni has no bigger fan than Indiana’s Jim Pfeiffer, owner and winemaker of Turtle Run Winery in southern s Indiana. Pfeiffer has been a Hanni devotee for a long while and has been applying his theories and, to some extent his marketing, to the winemaking process. His latest approach is a non-vintage Traminette combining wine from the 2013, 2014, and 2015 vintage into one bottle.

“What fascinates me about the grape is its age-ability,” Pfeiffer said. “I’ve not seen a grape ever in my life that you can put it in the bottle, age it ten years then crack open a bottle and go ‘holy cow this is so good.’ It just develops and you don’t see it turning south ever.”

Without going into the entire winemaking process he combines Indiana’s signature wine vintages in tanks, inhibit the yeast and monitor the sulfur to keep the wine from ‘going south’ or going back into fermentation. x The idea started when he tasted back through his Traminette vintages to 2000 and found the wines surprisingly good. So his newest dry Traminette concoction -

is 50 percent 2015 Traminette with 25 percent each of 2014 and 2013. The end result is a white wine with the richness of an aged wine and the fresh fruit appeal of the latest vintage.

Nearly half of Indiana’s 77 wineries produce a Traminette, most are on the sweeter side. But Pfeiffer has made dry versions for a number of years. “The first thing about Traminette it’s a love-hate reaction with customers. They love it or loathe it. One of things we’ve really latched on to is how humans range in different taste bud count and how those taste bud counts correlates to likes and dislikes.

Pfeiffer explains sweet wine drinkers like lower alcohol. So he produces a sweeter Traminette which he can’t keep in stock. As you move down to people with fewer taste buds, those folks like a little bit of sweetness and love good balance. Those wine drinkers like Pfeiffer’s annual production of his standard Traminette. The sweet and lower sugar Traminettes are the most common at Indiana wineries.

But for the folks with fewer taste buds who prefer drier wines, Pfeiffer has experimented and made dry Traminette commercially viable for several years. His soon-to-be released non-vintage Traminette delivers on the promise with just 12 percent alcohol. It’s a dry white with the familiar Traminette nose and palate but it offers a richer mouthfeel and more complexity than other versions. On the nose there is a whiff of the familiar flowers but no bouquet shoved up your nose like most Traminette.

The wine is quite dry and a bit more tart than other Traminettes. But any fan of dry white wines will find it an interesting change from most Hoosier wineries take on the state’s signature wine.

It takes a mad scientist, Picasso, or a maverick to break the mold. Pfeiffer would agree the fun in winemaking is trying something different.

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Page 6 • Week of February 18-24, 2016

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Bargain Buys 668 QUALITY FURNITURE

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Off The Water, Michiana

i

Feb. 22

The final performance of The Mendel Center Hanson Theatre Living Room Series will be by rising stars in the indie music scene when The Accidentals take the stage Friday, Feb. 12, 2016, at 7 p.m. Tickets for The Accidentals are $15, $10 for Mendel Center Mainstage Series members, seniors, and students.

Tickets are available 24/7 at w w w. T h e M e n d e l C e n t e r. c o m , through The Mendel Center Box Office at (269) 927-1221 week-

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Feb. 26

Get The Led Out, the “American Led Zeppelin”, will be performing at the Lerner Theatre (410 S. Main St.) in Elkhart, Ind., at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, February 26, 2016 as part of its nationwide tour. Tickets are available

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Week of February 18-24, 2016 • Page 7

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

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Page 8 • Week of February 18-24, 2016

Off The Water, Michiana

New music festival about making positive difference Singing for Syria set for Saturday in South Bend

P

atrick Quigley is known locally for a number of bands, including Analecta and Dad Jokes, and for booking music in the South Bend area, particularly at The Well.

He and I have spoken in the past about his efforts in create live shows in the area and his focus on giving teenagers and other youths a place to display their music and connect with other musicians. Our conversations have often revolved around community, both specific to the local region and in the concept of connecting with one’s neighbors.

That subject was again important as we discussed the upcoming Singing For Syria Festival taking place in South Bend this weekend.

“We were having a lot of conversations about Christian reaction, public reaction to current events,” Quigley said, describing talks with Megan Chandler, who helped create the festival and attends church with Patrick in River Park. “We were talking about what that should be and shouldn’t be.”

Quigley described the many people, often lost among the louder voices in the news and social media, who wanted to help those affected by conflicts in Syria and other countries. I pointed to my own past detachment from political participation due to those frustrations. Patrick shared similar experiences, telling me about witnessing energy lost in arguments that lacked progress outside of making an enemy of “the other side.”

“At some point, I lost heart for it,” he said. “I was seeing a lot of back and forth without a lot of real progress.”

His solution came in the form of a more local, community approach.

“I focus less politically now and focus more on where I think I can have a bigger impact,” he said, indicating the value in efforts that are based in the local community on a day-to-day scale.

That new direction, in part, led to the idea of the Singing For Syria Festival.

In his conversations with Megan, they discussed, that while there were many strong opinions being shared, those who cared often were unsure what to do. In a scenario common when acknowledging large problems in the world, those who wanted to do something had no direction.

The idea came to create a way for everyone to take their small resources and “amplify that through our sense of com-

COLUMNIST

Justin Flagel munity.”

“We want to give a place for people to actually do something about it, ” Quigley said. “We want to give an opportunity to the community to make a larger impact” The Singing For Syria Festival will be an all-day event starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 20. The event is free, with donations requested throughout that will go to the UNICEF Syrian Refugee Fund. It was important for festival organizers that the event allow visitors to experience the music without charge.

“If you still want to be there, if you don’t have any money and you still want to be there to show your support and to enjoy the music, we won’t turn you away,” Quigley said.

Contributors to the cause will find some benefits in doing so, with Oaken Bucket and Bruno’s offering lunch and dinner discounts for those who donate.

There are also after-parties at South Bend Brew Werks and Kelly’s Pub. The establishments will be contributing a percentage of their sales that day to the fundraiser.

The day will begin with family-friendly music activities, including entertainers and activities designed for children. Among the attractions will be singalongs, karaoke, and a rock-androll themed photo booth that will allow children to don costumes and washable marker tattoos for their pictures. Local art, crafts, baked goods, and other features will be available for those who “aren’t complete music nerds, but still want to come out and support the cause.”

Live music begins after midday lunch break. Musicians in high school and college will be featured in a “Young Band Showcase,” giving them a chance

to “represent the next generation of musicians in the area.”

Megan Chandler will host a karaoke contest that will raise additional money for the fund, as well as award a cash prize to the winner. At 7 p.m., three stages will support a variety of local music in rotating sets, with jazz and singer-songwriter music in The Well coffeeshop, punk rock in The Well Basement venue, and a hip-hop showcase in the warehouse space next to the venue.

The event is a collaboration

between various South Bend promoters and musicians. They spread out the work to encompass a variety of styles of musicians, creating a showcase of the greater South Bend music scene. He points to the generosity of Megan Chandler, Jenni Miller, Bill Finn, Doug Harsch, and many others for helping to organize the event and bring in the music.

“Having a chance to work with other bands in the area,” Patrick said. “It’s been really great.”

You can find information on the

Singing For Syria Festival by searching for the event on Facebook or by clicking the flier at AnywhereTheNeedleDrops.com.

Justin Flagel is the founder of the web magazine and podcast Anywhere the Needle Drops, where he and others showcase their interest in music, pop culture, creativity and life. Follow their work at anywheretheneedledrops.com. Feedback can be directed to contact@anywheretheneedledrops.com.