Our 2001 Arts Odyssey [ BY THE EDITORS ]

Photography by Blaine Stiger

Classical Music:
Jonathan Eaton

Since his arrival in Pittsburgh just two years ago as artistic director of the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Jonathan Eaton has brought considerable vitality to the company. Eaton's goal has been to take a company that specialized in English-language versions of standard repertoire and to re-position it on the cutting edge with new productions every season.

Born in South Africa and raised in England, Eaton immediately launched an ambitious Kurt Weill centennial festival in Pittsburgh, hot on the heels of his acclaimed Spoleto Festival production of Weill's seldom-heard "Die BŸrgschaft," issued on compact disc by EMI. Veteran Metropolitan Opera maestro Julius Rudel conducted on the CD and for Opera Theater's Pittsburgh production.

Opera Theater gave Pittsburghers a chance to see both Kurt Weill's one-act "Der Jasager" and the 15th-century Japanese Noh play on which Bertold Brecht based the libretto. Leveraging his twin-bill performances of these works in New York, Eaton brought the renowned Japanese Noh company Nohgazu-za to share the evening with Opera Theater in one of the year's top-rated performances.

In conjunction with the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Project, Eaton staged Poulenc's "Le Voix Humaine" at the Andy Warhol Museum on a twin bill with the original one-woman play by Jean Cocteau on which the opera was based. He also heads the opera program at Carnegie Mellon University.

This past season, Eaton ventured back to the birth of opera itself. The first true opera, Claudio Monteverdi's "Orfeo," was composed in 1607. Like his contemporaries, Monteverdi expressed his passions in many elaborate part-songs. Eaton wove together some of Monteverdi's most intense vocal works into Madrigals of Love and War, capturing the spirit of the age in an imaginative stage presentation.

Last December, Eaton co-produced two of Gian Carlo Menotti's works conceived for broadcast. First, a production of "The Old Maid and the Thief," a made-for-radio opera presented against a backdrop of period electronics in WQED-TV's Studio A, and the classic holiday television opera, "Amahl and the Night Visitors," staged in Heinz Chapel.

A risky venture was last spring's world-premiere production of "Limbus: A Mechanical Opera" by iconoclastic composer/designer Jay Bolotin, and inspired by the true story of a freak accident. In commissioning Bolotin, whose background includes writing pop/rock hits, Eaton proved his desire to push beyond the conservatory mold and to redefine the art form for today's young audiences.

Apart from opera, Eaton directed the American premiere of "The Colonel Bird" by Bulgarian playwright Hristo Boytchev at the Pittsburgh Playhouse of Point Park College. What can this drama, described as a cross between "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and a Balkan war drama, have to do with music? Eaton gave his soldiers original songs and whistling tunes to perform.

The enthusiastic and articulate Eaton has been eagerly forging alliances with other performing organizations in Pittsburgh while maintaining his connections with Spoleto USA, one of America's premier opera festivals, and in New York. Under his leadership, Opera Theater is a place where Eaton's resources connect, with Pittsburgh's contributing and receiving talent as required.

-- Stephen Baum

NEXT

For the sixth year now, here in this space, we salute people whose stellar achievements fuel the arts on Planet Pittsburgh. Our annual Pittsburgh magazine Harry Schwalb Excellence in the Arts awards, named for our art editor emeritus, Harry Schwalb, recognize their lofty standards, artistic quality and hard work.

Our nine winners continue to reflect the founding principles of the award: They're active and resident in the Pittsburgh area, have built a body of work here known for excellence, and they're likely to continue here producing high-quality work.

The awardees cut a wide swath in classical music, curator, dance, jazz, theater and visual arts. Some have direct hands-on involvement in the creative process; others organize, coach, inspire. Whatever their role, they receive a "Harry," a glass sculpture designed by local artist Kathleen Mulcahy.

Our resident and contributing arts editors always have some stellar talents to consider, and may choose one or more "others to watch." So join us on our odyssey and applaud their contributions. You may even hear a few bars of "On the Beautiful Blue Danube."

Curator:
Sarah Nichols

You've come a long way, baby rattle. From France to Pittsburgh and back to France once again.

The last leg of Sarah Nichols's journey as the principal organizer of "Aluminum by Design" required that she personally deliver a very special baby rattle to its lender. Who happened to be a princess imperiale, a member of the Bonaparte family. The family heirloom had been commissioned by Napoleon III in 1856 for his only child, the prince imperial.

When the exhibition was set to open last October, Nichols still had her fingers crossed that she could borrow this treasure created of gold, diamonds, emeralds, coral -- and aluminum. As she noted at the time, if the answer was yes -- which it was -- "We'll have to hand-carry it back." Mission accomplished.

When she talks about aluminum, Nichols is literally in her element -- which happens to be the most common metal (as bauxite) in the earth's crust. Isolating it had been an expensive proposition -- as its use in a baby rattle fit for an emperor's son attests. Which leads to the Pittsburgh connection: It was here in the late 19th century that Charles Martin Hall worked the magic that took aluminum from imperial baby rattles to Coke cans (also in the show), birthing the aluminum industry in the process -- "From Jewelry to Jets," as the right side of the colon in the Nichols' exhibition describes.

"I knew nothing about aluminum before I started this project," Nichols admits. She traces the exhibit's genesis to 1985, when the Museum of Art accessioned an aluminum and oak picture frame (1897) made by Margaret and Frances Macdonald. The idea germinated several years and got moving in 1996, when objects started to be collected seriously for a show. "It was very obvious as soon as we started that this was an incredibly rich project," Nichols says. "We had no idea of the wealth, the richness of subjects."

It seemed like a mission impossible. In making it possible -- "I never worked on a project that big," she exclaims -- she amassed some 300 objects, including the facade of a Vienna newspaper office. The main show also spawned two complementary aluminum-related shows and super show catalogue.

How did the public react? Well, they really liked the mid-century Colorama ware -- the rainbow-hued tumblers from which many locals may have enjoyed their Reymer's Blennd. Nichols heard lines such as "My grandmother had that. They were surprised to see [familiar pieces] in a museum," she recalls. "They were amazed that aluminum produced so many different products... that it went back to the 1850s."

Like the "Light!" exhibit, "Aluminum" received its share of good press both locally and nationally, both in its local run and in its travels to the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the MusŽe des Beaux-Arts de MontrŽal (where it is now), The Wolfsonian-Florida International University and the Cranbrook Arts Museum in Michigan. The exhibit, sans baby rattle, concludes at the Design Museum in London on Jan. 3, 2003.

Like the rattle, Nichols has come a long way -- starting from her Manchester, England, hometown. She's been curator of decorative arts since 1992 and chief curator at the Museum of Art since 1996. She also served as assistant curator of decorative arts at the Museum of Art from 1982 to 1986. During her tenure, the Shadyside resident has overseen a number of important shows, including "Formed by Fire; Made in America: Ten Centuries of American Arts," "Silver in America, 1840-1940: A Century of Splendor" and "Pittsburgh Collects Clay."

The aluminum show also widened her curatorial horizons: "I never worked with professional designers," she says, acknowledging the polish the local Bally Design provided with a snazzy presentation.

But Sarah Nichols isn't letting any grass grow under her feet. Or glass.

A wall of her office has dozens of color photocopies of pieces from local glass collectors Post-Gazette chairman William Block and his wife, Maxine. These pieces will gel into a new exhibition, "Selections From the William and Maxine Block Collection of Contemporary Glass," which runs May 5 through Aug. 5

-- Mike May

Curator:
Louise Lippincott

Louise Lippincott's voice was scratchy. She had just returned to her office at the Carnegie Museum of Art after giving one of who-knows-how-many lectures about "Light!" With the show winding down, she only had a few more talks to get through before its last day on July 29 -- preceded by a Lights Out! Party -- and her throat could heal.

"Light: The Industrial Age 1750-1900, Art & Science, Technology & Society" has consumed her life for the past four years -- as anything with a title such as that would seem likely to do. "[Light]," as she notes with a bit of irony, "is something I never take for granted anymore."

The light went on for Lippincott, curator of fine arts at the Museum of Art since 1991, when she was studying a new museum acquisition, Adolph von Menzel's "Departure After the Party." She decided that this circa 1860 Berlin street scene must have been drawn by gaslight. "Who else did?" she wondered.

Through some mutual friends in the museum world, she connected with Andreas Bluhm, head of exhibitions and presentations at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and co-curator of "Light!" He had been researching the dynamics of color. "If you have to talk about color, you have to talk about light," notes Lippincott.

A collaboration was born, and Lippincott and BlŸhm were off and running, exploring new territory, learning about the revolution in light technology as well as how people have thought about light. "No one's ever done the subject before, so you couldn't just read a book," she explains. "We tried a lot of new things haven't been done before. There was a heavy representation of science and technology. We also were mixing paintings, prints, videos and films -- it was almost like a Carnegie International."

"Light!" included an illuminating range from Van Goghs to one of the earliest kerosene lamps made in America, a 1855 piece once owned by Mary Schenley. "We set the bar very high," Lippincott emphasizes, noting the "top-quality, rare and impossible things to get" that were included.

The show even had a special lighting designer: Hal Hilbish of Maguire Hilbish Associates of Sewickley, plus overall designer Paul Rosenblatt of Damianos & Anthony. Technology figured in behind the scenes in other ways as well: Lippincott's and BlŸhm's communication relied heavily on the Internet. "Most of the show we did by e-mail," she says. She recalls that when "Light!" opened in Amsterdam, the director of the Rijksmuseum noted, "This will change the way art museums do exhibitions in the future."

"Light!" attracted attention from such publications as Science, The Lancet, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, and "CBS Sunday Morning." Locally, "Light!" became the centerpiece of a major tourism campaign, "Pittsburgh Shines!"

While at the Museum of Art, Lippincott, a Highland Park resident, had been project manager for the major 1997-98 photography exhibition "Pittsburgh Revealed" and was curator for the 1998 Normandie panels installation, and the exhibition "The Beal Collection of American Art." Before coming to Pittsburgh, she was associate curator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum. She's also written and published extensively on British and European art of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Reflecting on "Light!" she concludes, "We'll see light differently now." Remembering her observations of people in the galleries and their positive reactions, she adds, "They had an experience that will affect their daily lives. That's what I want to get across."

-- Mike May