ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Calendar of Events

by Steven Libowitz

FRIDAY, MARCH 10

Flower Power – The 2020 Santa Barbara International Orchid Show had already been completely installed – not only at its most beautiful but also at the point of greatest expenditure – when it had to cancel just as the COVID pandemic closed things down. After two more years of cautious closures, the show is finally coming back live to the Earl Warren Showgrounds, with the 75th annual event sporting the appropriate title of “Orchids – The Adventure Returns.’’ Once again, visitors will have the chance to marvel at the highly sculptured displays in the Exhibit Pavilion, browse the Art Show featuring paintings and photographs of the plants and more, delight in the beauty and aroma of the expansive floral arrangements, learn about care and feeding of the precious plants from the potting demonstrations and other workshops, and even buy an orchid, or several, to take home in the Vendor Hall. The Santa Barbara International Orchid Show is one of the oldest, largest, and most prestigious of its kind in the United States, reflecting the rich agricultural and orchid-growing history of Santa Barbara County. Visitors from near and far come together to gape at the grand orchid displays featuring the exotic flowers installed by local, national, and international artisans and orchid enthusiasts.

WHEN: 9 am – 5 pm Friday, March 10 to Sunday, March 12

WHERE: Earl Warren Showgrounds, 3400 N. Calle Real COST: $20 per day, or $30 for a three-day pass

INFO: (805) 687-0766/www.earlwarren.com or https://sborchidshow.com

SATURDAY, MARCH 11

Raitt on! – The mid-career success of the great Bonnie Raitt has been one of the more gratifying ascensions in pop music history, as the daughter of Broadway star John Raitt, a remarkably talented and dedicated blues singer and guitarist, took nearly 20 years and a series of critically acclaimed roots-influenced albums to finally rise above her niche audience. That was in 1990, when her aptly titled Nick of Time, became a major hit, topping the Billboard album chart, and taking home the Grammy Award for Album of the Year as well as claiming the Best Fe-

THURSDAY,

Lights up on the Woods – Two years ago, Lights Up! Theatre Company took on Something Rotten!, the 10-time Tony-nominated musical spoof of Shakespeare that also paid tribute to dozens of Broadway musicals. This weekend, the teen theater conservatory ventures three more decades into Broadway history to present Stephen Sondheim’s beloved musical saga Into the Woods, the multiple Tony Award-winning work that is considered one of Sondheim’s great masterpieces as it incorporates and interweaves a bunch of favorite fairy tales. Ostensibly a simple tale of a baker and his wife’s quest to have a child, the musical finds both great emotional depths and clever wordplay as their journey takes them deep into the woods, where they encounter various forms of mischief, magic, and mystery. That’s where their path and lives intersect with Red Riding Hood, The Wolf, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, a pair of lovelorn princes and, of course, a witch who connives and conjures spells to get in their way. What makes the musical even more enduring is that it goes beyond the expected tales to explore the idea of what happens when you actually achieve your “happily ever after.” Which is not a bad thing at all for teens raised in the Internet billionaires/unicorn era to consider.

WHEN: 7 tonight & tomorrow, 1 & 7 pm Saturday

WHERE: Marjorie Luke Theatre, Santa Barbara Junior High, 721 East Cota St.

COST: $25 to $35

INFO: (805) 963-0761/https://luketheatre.org/event or www.lightsupsb.com/tickets

SATURDAY, MARCH 11

Cellos Suites in Fragments – Alisa Weilerstein has a sterling pedigree as her father Donald is a veteran violinist who held down the first violinist of the renowned Cleveland Quartet for 20 years, and a 2006 Music Academy Distinguished Alumni Award winner more than half a century after he was a violin fellow at Miraflores. Alisa’s mother, pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, is the director of the Professional Piano Trio Training Program, coordinator of Piano Chamber Music at the New England Conservatory, and a soloist and chamber musician who plays around the world. But cellist Alisa is even more accomplished, a highly sought-after soloist known for consummate artistry, emotional investment, and interpretive depth who was recognized with a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship back in 2011. Fragments, her latest endeavor, is a groundbreaking, multi-year project for solo cello that weaves together the 36 movements of Bach’s solo cello suites with 27 newly commissioned works. The resulting collection is divided into six “fragments,” each an hour long and blending five to six composers, as individual movements from a single Bach suite are thoughtfully integrated with selected new works to create a new emotional arc. Enhanced by special lighting and scenic architecture, the music is performed without pause and without a program, making for a wholly original and immersive audience experience. As one of the organizations commissioning the work, UCSB Arts & Lectures has been awarded the U.S. premiere of the first piece in the project, which takes place tonight in the cozy confines of Campbell Hall.

WHEN: 7 pm

WHERE: Campbell Hall, UCSB Campus

COST: $30 to $40

INFO: (805) 893-3535 or https://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu male Rock and Pop categories. The album was not remotely a sellout, but rather a smoothing out of rougher edges over a terrific collection of songs that sounded like a road-weary autobiography. Her subsequent albums have plied the same territory, refining her appealing combination of grit and pop polish. Last month, a solid 33 years since her breakthrough, Raitt shocked the pop world again by claiming three more Grammys, including the most coveted of all, in Song of the Year for the title track of her 18th studio album, Just Like That. At 73, Raitt shows no signs of scaling back. Tonight at the Chumash’s Samala Showroom will probably be one of the most intimate rooms she’s played in the area in decades. WHEN: 8 pm

WHERE: Chumash Casino Resort, 3400 E. Highway 246, Santa Ynez COST: Call the box office for availability

INFO: (800) CHUMASH (248-6274) or www.chumashcasino.com

Nature in 16 Strings – The Santa Barbara Music Club continues to create exciting and ambitious programs for its 2022-23 season of free biweekly, classical chamber music concerts well into its second half-century. Today’s event features the acclaimed Emergence String Quartet performing 10 short and intriguing works by regional composers, all with the theme of exploring our natural environment as various pieces reflect the Sespe wilderness, the shoreline, flying creatures, and trees and bees, among others. The Emergence is a Los Angeles-based foursome that includes British first violinist Kerenza Peacock – who has solos with the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic, and led the Pavão String Quartet – along with second violinist Maya Magub, violist Karen Long, and cellist Virginia Kron. In a virtual travelog of South Coast nature spots, the quartet will play David Campbell’s “21st Century Entanglements” (2020), Pauline Frechette’s “The Sacred Mountains of Ojai” (2017), Greg Haggard’s “Sespe Suite” (2022), Leslie Hogan’s “String Quartet No. 4 (2022), Ashley Hoyer’s “Emergence” (2021), Raul Kottler’s “Fragment of a Nebula” (2020), Karen Goulding’s “A Hive for the Honeybee” (2022), Jim McCarthy’s “For All That’s Left” (2022), Laura Mihalka’s “Gibraltar Road” (2020), and Peacock’s “The Whispering Tree” (2022).

WHEN: 3 pm

WHERE: First Congregational Church, 2101 State St.

COST: free

INFO: https://sbmusicclub.org/

Exploring Eva via Ballet – More than 70 years after her death, Argentine politician, activist, actress, and philanthropist María Eva Duarte de Perón remains a fascinating figure in South American culture. Back in 1978, the Tony Award-winning Evita explored Perón’s life and legacy via a rock opera-inspired Broadway musical. After 52 years, Ballet Hispánico has focused its first-ever evening-length work on Eva Perón, creating an empowering portrait of one of the most spellbinding women in South American history via movement and music. Doña Perón employs live music to look at the divergent legacies that made Eva Perón a popular icon, considering whether she was a voice for the people, a deceitful actress, or something in between. Ballet Hispánico’s acclaimed choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa explores these diverging legacies and more, a Latina choreographer reclaiming the narrative of the iconic Latina figure. Now the largest Latinx cultural organization in the United States, Ballet Hispánico and Ochoa have received raves for the production, with The New York Times noting, “In Lopez Ochoa’s high-varnish, athletic style of contemporary ballet, gorgeously danced … you see not just a riveting story but a company having reached a new horizon.”

WHEN: 8 pm

WHERE: Granada Theatre, 1214 State St.

COST: $41 to $71

INFO: (805) 899-2222/www.granadasb.org or (805) 893-3535/www. ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu

SUNDAY, MARCH 12

Viva Violetta – One of today’s most extraordinary artists, soprano and Music Academy of the West alumna Nadine Sierra, who attended the summer festival as a vocal fellow in 2007, stars in a touchstone soprano role as the consumptive heroine Violetta in La Traviata. Sierra scales the mountains to portray the self-sacrificing courtesan — one of opera’s ultimate heroines — in Michael Mayer’s vibrant Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi’s beloved tragedy. Tenor Stephen Costello is her self-centered lover Alfredo, alongside baritone Luca Salsi as his disapproving father. Italian maestro Daniele Callegari wields the baton on the podium for the encore presentation of the Met Live in HD production at Hahn Hall, the same stage Sierra sang on live as a fellow.

WHEN: 2 pm

WHERE: Hahn Hall, Music Academy campus, 1070 Fairway Road

COST: $28 ($10 students, Community Access; free for youth ages 7-17)

INFO: (805) 969-8787 or www.musicacademy.org

SUNDAY, MARCH 12

Cinema Classics on the Keys –Just a week before the Santa Barbara Symphony pays tribute to composer John Williams in its upcoming pair of concerts at the Granada, veteran pianist Bryan Tari returns to the Lobero not only to reprise his arrangement of Star Wars themes, but also offer his take on memorable movie music. Tari will perform his arrangements of songs and themes from some of the greatest films of all time, including a medley of Godfather themes arranged for piano Lyric soprano Jessica McKenzie joins Tari for today’s show, singing soundtrack songs in what promises to be a delightful family event for those looking to escape into a world of magical cinema rhapsody.

WHEN: 3 pm

WHERE: Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St.

COST: $14 to $36

INFO: (805) 963-0761 or www.lobero.com