Opera | DoNArTNeWs

Carla Lombardi, Gavaciolli, high fire stoneware, Shinoglaze, @ Decameron, Da Vinci Art Alliance @ Smile Gallery on 22nd Street. Decameron is presented in conjunction with the world premier of Karen Saillant‘s new opera of the same name presented by the International Opera Theater and inspired by Il Decamerone by Giovanni Boccaccio. The stories of the ten people who escaped the Black Plague to a country estate is operatic in scope with so much source material from the tens of tens of stories told while the world collapsed around them that the tales of love, lust, morality and sin still ring true and wise in the modern age. The artists reached deep to connect the dots of our common deep past with our futuristic present through drawing, painting, sculpture, collage and photography.

Ona Kalstein, Lisbetta Weeps, 4th day, 5th tale, ink & colored pencil on vellum.

Rosalind Bloom, Danse Macabre – The Black Death, watercolor, acrylic, collage.

Ted Warchal, Tale 5 – 2, Gastanza Sails to Tunis, assemblage, Decameron, Da Vinci Art Alliance @ Smile Gallery.

Ted Warchal @ Decameron, Da Vinci Art Alliance @ Smile Gallery. Tale 6-1o – The Relic of Archangel Gabriel reminds us of a time when zealots professed to own bits of Saints which could be viewed at a price, Warchal’s magical assemblage holds a golden feather and a bone.

Rachel Citrino @ Decameron, Da Vinci Art Alliance @ Smile Gallery. Citrino created a 100 block grid of images relating to Italy and the hundred tales of the Decameron, printed on canvas, the digital collage pops with hits of color amidst the stark black and white memories of a distant world.

Rosalind Bloom, The Embrace..., oil & mixed media collage and DoN Brewer, Heliotrope, digital photograph, digital print. Roz’s painting refers to the boils caused by the Black Plague called Caviciolli like some pasta, but when you got a boil you’re dead in 3 days. DoN‘s Heliotrope does not refer to the color but the magic stone offering the power of invisibility.

Alden Cole‘s painting depicts the rise of humanism and the lesson of living in the moment filled with love.

Sadly, this is the last Da Vinci Art Alliance show at Smile Gallery, Ken Tutjamnong‘s restaurant has become so popular that he needs the room for diners he has been turning away and he can show his own outstanding artwork as he does in the dining room at street level. Admittedly the art drew people to the restaurant and the gallery offered DVAA space outside the club’s gallery to do theme show’s like Decameron.

Photos by DoN.

An awards exhibition by members of Da Vinci Art Alliance, in collaboration with International Opera Theater, of art inspired by Shakespeares tragedy and IOTs interpretation, a new opera Romeo e Giulietta, directed by Karen Saillant, with music by Emily Wong, libretto by Tommaso Sabbatini, costumes/sets by Mi-Kyoung Lee, world premiered in Teatro degli Avvaloranti, Citta’ della Pieve, Italy, in August 2008.

Da Vinci Art Alliance members interpret the Shakespearean play with paintings, collage, objet trouve and prints. Above is Lilliana Didovic’s mixed media piece incorporating red fabric the singers use to evoke emotion; Karen Saillant gave a wonderful lecture at the alliance explaining how she selected singers based on their ability to interact expressively with the fabric. Here a sweet love notion , like a candy heart box drenched in red.

Awards Judges: Karen Saillant and Mi-Kyoung Lee, International Opera Theater. Lee designed the costumes and is a UArts alum -Holla!

First prize winner, Rachel Citrino‘s, expressive mixed media installation is wildly bold, intefrating new technology with a special red color.

June Blumberg, “Romeo and Juliet in Love“, Pitt Pen.

3rd place winner, Francine Strauss, expanded the blue – a visual metaphor the opera employs to convey a change in mood – by repurposing her own old prints into a new collage.

Ted Warchal, 2nd prize – Dr. Deb Miller explained the metaphor of the coffin/cigar box conveniently branded Romeo Y Julietta.

A special surprise during the awards was an acapella performance of songs from the Italian opera by Elias Hendricks – Romeo – which had everyone in tears, a great artist in blossom. Artistic director Karen Saillant of the International Opera Theater is searching for an appropriate Philadelphia venue after the successful production world premiered in Teatro degli Avvaloranti, Citta’ della Pieve, Italy, in August 2008.