Madeline Diamond « Weis Center for the Performing Arts Blog

Thursday, October 13th, 2016

Proserpina: A Deeper Look

Tonight, Friday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m., the Weis Center presents Annie Randall’s and Paul Botelho’s Proserpina: Two One-Act Operas. I wanted to delve deeper into the story of Proserpina herself and how the themes in the opera can be interpreted in a modern context. The myth of Proserpina was traditionally used to explain why the seasons change. Proserpina, also known as Persephone in Greek mythology, is an ancient Roman goddess who is known for being kidnapped by Hades, the god of the underworld, after she eats forbidden pomegranate seeds. Her mother, Ceres in Roman mythology and Demeter in Greek […]

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Monday, October 10th, 2016

Proserpina: Opera Like You’ve Never Seen It Before

On Friday, October 14th, audiences will be able to enjoy a unique performance of opera like they’ve never seen it before, through Annie J. Randall and Paul J. Botelho’s new work, Proserpina: Two One-Act Operas. This project began when Randall, a professor of music at Bucknell, began restoring Goethe’s original composition of Proserpina through a process called transcription in order to make the work usable for today’s musicians. This will be the piece’s North American debut and its first performance since 1778 since it was thought to be lost until recently when Randall recovered the piece from the Darmstadt University […]

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Tags: annie randall, opera, paul botelho, proserpina, proserpina: two one act operas, the weis center for performing arts, weis center
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Friday, September 30th, 2016

“Aritmia” Captures Crowd

Merima Ključo and Miroslav Tadić filled the Weis Center Atrium Lobby with a blend of traditional Balkan and classical music on Wednesday night. Ključo is from Bosnia and Tadić is native to Yugoslavia, so they were each able to bring their own personal background to the performance. Their duo performance, entitled Aritmia, allowed the instrumentalists to showcase their far reaching talents, performing a variety of songs from different cultures. Perhaps the most interesting element of the performance was the duo’s use of improvisation while playing traditional pieces. Both Ključo and Tadić interjected at various points in the concert to give the audience more information about […]

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Tags: aritmia, Merima Ključo, Miroslav Tadić, performing arts, the balkans, weis center, world music
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Monday, September 26th, 2016

Americana & Bluegrass Concert Kicks Off Coal Collections Series

What better way to kickoff Bucknell’s Coal Collections: Local, National and International Stories series than a night of Americana and bluegrass music? The year-long series, sponsored by the Weis Center and the Place Studies program of the Bucknell Center for Sustainability and the Environment will feature musical performances, film screenings, lectures and art exhibits throughout the academic year in order to share the rich history of Pennsylvania’s coal region with the community. On Thursday, September 22nd, the Coal Town Rounders and Van Wagner played to an enthusiastic crowd at the Weis Center for the opening event of the Coal Collections […]

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Tags: Bluegrass, coal, coal collections, coal town rounders, van wagner, weis center, Weis Center for Performing Arts
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Tuesday, September 13th, 2016

Rajab Suleiman and Kithara Bring The Sounds of Zanzibar to Lewisburg

Rajab Suleiman and Kithara rocked the Weis Center lobby on Friday night, playing to a captivated audience of all ages. Students, faculty, staff and community members filled every seat in the house, although the music brought much of the crowd to its feet, since the band encouraged dancing throughout the performance. Professor of history and international relations Dr. Cymone Fourshey, who introduced the band, taught the audience how to say, “welcome to Lewisburg” in Swahili. The group played taarab music, a style native to Zanzibar. Known for its rhythm and melody, this style of music features a variety of stringed instruments, […]

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Tags: music, performing arts, rajab suleiman, rajab suleiman and kithara, taarab, weis center, world music, zanzibar
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Friday, September 2nd, 2016

Art at The Weis Center Presents The Color of Sound

If you’ve stopped by the Weis Center recently, you’ve probably noticed something’s different. The Performing Arts Center’s lobby is boasting a new collection of art, thanks to its partnership with the Samek Art Museum. “The interplay between music and visual art goes back to the pre-histories of both forms and spans cultures and continents,” Samek Director Richard Rinehart’s curatorial statement reads. “Language often becomes involved in the dance between the two art forms as they borrow terms from one another. For instance, the visual arts appropriated the musical terms composition, tone, and harmony to describe painting, while music lifted from […]

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Tags: Art at The Weis Center, The Color of Sound, The Samek Art Museum, The Weis Center, The Weis Center for the Performing Arts
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