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DECEMBER 6
OPERA AT THE AVON
Performances from world-renowned opera companies and festivals.
OTELLO
By Giuseppe Verdi
Performed at Salzburg Festival 2008
Conducted by Riccardo Muti
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6 - 11:00 AM
& SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7 - 11:00 AM
Carte Blanche – Free / Members - $16 / Students & Seniors - $18 / Nonmembers - $20 |
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ABOUTOTELLO: Verdi’s last tragic opera Otello, like Shakespeare’s play, is a shattering psychological drama. The new production for the Salzburg Festival is directed by Stephen Langridge, who in 2006 attracted attention with his production of Offenbach’s Bluebeard in Bregenz. Riccardo Muti, one of the best Verdi conductors of our time, is returning to Salzburg. Alongside to the Spanish baritone Carlos Álvarez as Jago, two rising international singers of the younger generation can be heard as Otello and Desdemona: the Latvian spinto tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko and the Russian soprano Marina Poplavskaya.
Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes, plus one intermission
Sung in Italian with English subtitles |
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DECEMBER 10
DOCUMENTARY NIGHT PRESENTS
THE ROAD TAKEN...
THE MERRITT PARKWAY
Post-film Q&A panel discussion with
Lisa Seidenberg (Director of The Road Taken)
Renee Kahn (Director of the Historic Preservation Program)
& Christopher Wigren (Deputy Director of the CT Trust for Historic Preservation, and co-author of the National Register nomination for the Merritt Parkway)
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10 - 7:30 PM
Carte Blanche – Free / Members - $6 / Students & Seniors - $7 / Nonmembers - $10 |
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ABOUT THE FILM:The Avon Theatre will present a special screening of The Road Taken…The Merritt Parkway, a new documentary by Connecticut independent filmmaker, Lisa Seidenberg. Mixing historical detail, personal anecdotes and rarely seen footage from Connecticut’s past, the film takes an alternately poetic and informative look at the Parkway as a work of art - the unique bridges, the landscaping, and those infuriating twists and turns that gives the road its character. Called the “Queen of Parkways”, the Merritt celebrates its 70th Anniversary this year. The film’s inclusive and surprising cast of characters ranges from architectural historians to humorist Alan Abel, as well as former DOT Commissioner Emil Frankel, and a relative of Stamford Congressman Schuyler Merritt, for whom the parkway is named. The Lakeside Diner makes an appearance, too. The filmmaker, whose previous work includes the feature, Pledge of Allegiance Blues, shown at the Sundance Film Festival, will be present at the screening. The audience is invited to stay for an informal discussion/Q&A about current preservation issues with Renee Kahn, Director of the Historic Preservation Program, and a founder of the Stamford Loft Artists Association and Christopher Wigren, Deputy Director of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, and co-author of the National Register nomination for the Merritt Parkway.
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DECEMBER 13 & 14
BALLET AT THE AVON
THE NUTCRACKER
By Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Adapted by Mihail Shemiakin
Featuring The Mariinsky Ballet
DECEMBER 13 & 14 - 10:00 AM
Carte Blanche – Free / Members - $10
Student & Senior Nonmembers - $13 / Adult Nonmembers - $15 |
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ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE: The premier of one of the world’s most famous ballets, The Nutcracker, took place at the Mariinsky Theater of Russia in 1892. Mikhail Shemiakin, Russian émigré and world-renowned avant-garde artist and sculptor, reinterpreted the historical ballet to suit a more colorful audience. Known as the sophisticated and witty Nutcracker, Mikhail Shemiakin’s version is a more unconventional production different from the traditional versions popular at Christmas. This unique interpretation was filmed in the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, home of the Kirov Ballet Academy and the Nutcracker’s original stage. The 2007 production showcases the eye-catching costumes and startling staging designed by Mikhail Shemiakin. An exhibition of Shemiakin’s costume and design sketches used in the staging of the ballet was presented in the private collections of the Russian Museum in St.Petersburg.
“First-rate performances by the principals, Irina Golub as Masha, Leonid Sarafanov as the Prince and fabulous Anton Adasinsky as Drosselmeyer. Golub has childlike charm and sparkling dancing. The most delightful surprise is the eloquently expansive performance of Ekaterina Kondaurova as the Queen of Snows.” - Ballettalk.com
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DECEMBER 20
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The Avon Presents
FREE Holiday Classics
Miracle on 34th Street
Saturday, December 20 at 10:00am
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SYNOPSIS: Kris Kringle--unbeknownst to cynical, market-minded adults, the real Santa Claus--is hired to play himself at Macy's Department Store, New York City. His gentle, joyous spirit and magical powers soon transform those around him, including a little girl and her world-weary mother. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Original Story, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor--Edmund Gwenn.
"Miracle on 34th Street is a great family film that will have kids and adults cackling with glee as Kringle does his best to fight the system. "
- Brian Webster, Apollo Guide
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Saturday, December 27 at 10:00am |
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SYNOPSIS: The third in the series of National Lampoon's 'Vacation' films, this sequel concerns the Griswold family's holiday get-together. This time they're trying to have a picture book, old-fashioned Christmastime--even though all the in-laws are dropping by, including Clark's (Chevy Chase) redneck cousin, Eddie (Randy Quaid). Looks like it's going to be a real holly-jolly holiday--if they can make it through.
"With enough sight gags to please slapstick fans and enough good-natured Christmas cheer to qualify as a good holiday film, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation should keep most viewers occupied and provide 97 minutes of goofy entertainment. "
- TV Guide's Movie Guide
"The ultimate family holiday film, playing on both the heart strings and the horror to capture a genuine Christmas spirit."
- Ryan Cracknell, Movie Views |
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JANUARY 7
Favorite film selections from the metro area's best film critics.
LOLA MONTÉS
LOLA MONTÈS
Brand new, restored 35mm print!
Hosted by Ann Lewinson – Fairfield Weekly film critic
Wednesday, January 7 – 7:00 PM
Carte Blanche Members - FREE / Members - $6 / Students/Seniors - $7 / Nonmembers - $10 |
ABOUT THE HOST: Ann Lewinson is a film critic for the Fairfield Weekly and New Haven Advocate. She has written about movies, the performing arts and environmental issues for many publications including Andante, Biography, The Independent, Stagebill and the Sundance Daily Insider. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Agni, Eclipse, Glass Tesseract, Karamu, Out of Line, Pangolin Papers and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center's Special Projects Writers' Series. A teacher in the English department of Kingsborough Community College, she was a managing editor of HBO.com and a sound editor on several films including Troma's Class of Nuke 'Em High Part II: Subhumanoid Meltdown. |
ABOUT THE FILM: In a garishly colored circus, the suckers line up at a buck a kiss with that celebrated adventuress Lola (French sex symbol Martine Carol), as ringmaster Peter Ustinov starts his spiel and the flashbacks begin. Ophüls’ first movie in color and widescreen was the biggest-budgeted French film to date, with his always-mobile camera gliding, tilting, and craning amid dazzling sets and costumes, as the oscillation between the tawdriness of the circus and the romanticism of flashbacks underscores the difference between reality and memory, each flashback with its own color scheme: for Lola’s youth, black-blue-grey; for her affair with 19th century “rock star” Franz Liszt, red and gold; and for her amour with the King of Bavaria (The Red Shoes’ Anton Walbrook), white, blue, silver and gold. Ophüls’ final work, and arguably the masterpiece of a career that encompassed films in five different languages, Lola was a flop on first release and subjected to a brutal butchering by its producers — they even hacked up the original negative. After their eventual bankruptcy, legendary New Wave producer Pierre Braunberger acquired the rights and issued a limited restoration to great acclaim in 1969. But, in the intervening 40 years, restoration technology has progressed dramatically, and many more materials — including the innovative original sound mix —have since turned up. In 2006, Braunberger’s daughter Laurence and the Cinémathèque Française, with the support of the Thomson Foundation,the Franco-American Cultural Fund, and Ophüls’ son Marcel, embarked on a state of the art restoration. Scratches, tears and missing frames were fixed and the full stereophonic magnetic track restored, with the vibrant hues as conceived by production designer Jean d’Eaubonne (Casque d’or, Madame de...) and cinematographer Christian Matras replacing the washed-out existing prints and videos. The at-long-last restored Lola was a sensation at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. – Film Forum
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