Thursday 15
VISITING VIRTUOSOS. A visiting European duo unpacks Baroque elegance in Tucson tonight.
In one concert only, violinist John Holloway and organist Aloysia Assenbaum will perform the works of Dario Castello, Marco Uccellini and others in a program presented by the Arizona Early Music Society.
Holloway and Assenbaum, who are married, both began performing as children; Holloway first played in public at age 8, Assenbaum at 10. Their concert specialty is 17th-century music.
Holloway's achievements include founding the Baroque ensemble L'École d'Orphée, which made the first complete recording on period instruments of the instrumental chamber music of Handel. His playing "demands a rethinking of performance styles in our time," according to The New York Times.
Assenbaum, an organist, conductor, editor and teacher, studied church music in Heidelberg and Stuttgart, Germany. She was awarded the Equal Rights Prize in 1995 in Zurich, Switzerland, for her series, Portraits of Women Composers.
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. at St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church, 4440 N. Campbell Ave. A bonus performance for Early Music Society season subscribers, the concert is open to the public. Tickets, available at the door, are $15 adults, $12 seniors and $5 students. For more information, call 296-4023.
STAYING POWER. Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace know a thing or two about real love.
Pen pals everywhere would have to be impressed with this pair; Gardner and Makepeace kept up a love affair for more than 50 years, with just the power of the written word to sustain them.
Hear what playwright A.R. Gurney's lovebirds have to say about laughter, tears, children, and what they truly mean to each other by attending Love Letters.
The play, presented by Desert Players Theatre, opens at 8 tonight at Cabaret Theatre at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. Additional performances are scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $10 general admission; $9 students, seniors and military. Reservations are recommended. For more information, call 733-1076.
FETISH FEST. OK, so you did the dozen roses and a bottle of wine thing yesterday and it just didn't do the trick ...
Maybe baby had something a little different in mind. Club Metro's got something a whole lot different--Fetish, a Valentine's celebration of sexual fantasy.
Fascinations will be giving stuff away at the event in which partiers are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite sexual fantasy, whatever that means. D.J.s McSpadden, Alex Ruiz and Implicit will be spinning the latest house, club and trance beats.
Festivities begin at 9 tonight. Tickets are $12 at the door, $10 if you're dressed to impress. Or you can splurge for the $20 VIP pass, which includes drinks and fetish foods. For more information, call 327-9284.
Friday 16
GET THE BLUES. When he played in the 1998 Chicago Blues Festival, Joe Louis Walker found himself in an unenviable position--he was scheduled to perform between opener Jimmy Dawkins and headliner Otis Rush.
Walker shook off the jitters and licked it up. Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot reported in the next day's editions that not only was Walker up to the task, but he delivered the evening's "most memorable set."
Blending blues with soul, à la Robert Cray, Walker plays tonight at Nimbus Brewery. The California bluesman will perform old favorites, as well as tunes from his newest album, Silvertone Blues.
The show starts at 9:30 at Nimbus, 3850 E. 44th St. Tickets are $12 at the door. For more information, call 745-9175.
UNROLL YOUR OWN. Learn how to create beautiful translucent sheets of paper from a variety of plant materials.
Paper artist Catherine Nash will share a 1,400-year-old Japanese handbeating technique and experiment with contemporary paper art techniques such as laminating, paper pulp painting and embedding in workshops this weekend.
Emphasis will be on what can be achieved in a home studio and how to improvise using your own ingenuity and awareness of plants.
A lecture at the Tucson Audubon Society, 300 E. University Blvd., is scheduled for 7:30 tonight, followed by workshops from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The fee is $75 for the lecture and one of the workshops, or $125 for the lecture and both workshops. Call 907-9471 to register.
POPS IN LOVE. From the opening segment, Broadway in Love, to the finishing touch, Hollywood in Love, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra's latest program is all about romance.
Popular conductor Robert Bernhardt returns to lead a tribute to romance in a pops concert aptly titled Music of Love.
The program looks at ways in which Broadway, Hollywood and classical composers have approached the subject.
First, the audience will hear from George Gershwin--Someone to Watch Over Me--and Richard Rodgers--People Will Say We're in Love. From there, the Hollywood segment takes a peek at music from Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov are featured in the classics section.
Bernhardt, conductor of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera since the 1993-94 season, is joined by soprano Erin Booth and baritone Jack Neubeck.
Booth, who made her TSO debut at age 13, is a student at Seattle Pacific University. She recently sang backup on Linda Ronstadt's new Christmas album.
Neubeck is a 20-year veteran of Broadway, having appeared in the original productions of Evita and La Cage aux Folles.
Concerts tonight and Saturday begin at 7:30, and a Sunday matinee begins 2 p.m. at the Tucson Convention Center Music Hall. Tickets are $13 to $32. Call the TSO box office at 882-8585, or visit the box office at 2175 N. Sixth Ave. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets are also available through Ticketmaster, 321-1000, or at outlets at Robinsons-May and Wherehouse Music.
POWER PLAY. Live Theatre Workshop's director of The Lighter Side of Chekov, Dressing the Part and Of Mice and Men turns his attention to a classic tale of power, politics and betrayal.
Live Theatre Workshop presents a riveting interpretation of Julius Caesar, directed by Bruce Bieszski.
Starring Bob Spruance, James Gooden and Jeremy Thompson, the play centers on themes as timely today as they were for Shakespeare's patrons.
The show opens today at 5317 E. Speedway Blvd. and runs through March 11. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets cost $12, with $1 discounts for seniors, students and military. For more information, call 327-4242.
Saturday 17
NEW FOR THE MILLENNIUM. Two by Two, performed on Broadway in the 1970s starring Danny Kaye and Madeline Kahn, is the ambitious first effort of Tucson Music Theatre.
David Craig, known for his work with UA and Pima College music students and his musical direction at Invisible Theatre, will handle the musical side of Two by Two. Jeanne Pollard is producer/director for the play, based on a book by Peter Stone.
Tucson Music Theatre, formed to present the best in professional music theater to the city's multiethnic population, has assembled a cast of eight professional performers to portray Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives. Two by Two strikes out to reveal what really happened on the Ark during those 40 days and 40 nights of the Flood.
The play opens at 7 p.m. tonight at the Jewish Community Center. A matinee is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $20 for reserved seats, $15 for general admission. For more information, call 885-1320.
DON'T BRING YOUR CAT. Now here's a different way to meet other singles.
Paws Along the Rillito: A Dog Walk for Singles aims to bring together dog lovers as they meet and mingle (canine significant others in tow) along the banks of the Rillito.
This is true.
A press release quote from the event's sponsor: "Arizona Greyhound Rescue hopes that this event, held the weekend after Valentine's Day, will allow those whose love life has gone to the dogs a chance to find some puppy love."
As if that isn't enticing enough, the event program features personal ads with numbers corresponding to walkers. By reading the ads, and observing fellow dog-loving singles, it will be possible to learn a bit about other participants. The idea, organizers say, is to spark good conversation, possibly even fire up a romance.
Let's say you go to this thing. You read the ads, but all you see are, well, dogs. No big deal. You haven't wasted your Saturday. Really--read on.
It's at Children's Memorial Park, where booths will be set up by vendors of animal-related goods and services. You can have your pooch micro-chipped or have Fido's paw read by a pet psychic.
The fund-raiser is for a good cause: Arizona Greyhound Rescue, a non-profit group that finds homes for ex-racers. Registration is a mere $25. To register, call 886-7411. For more information about Arizona Greyhound Rescue, check out www.azgreyhoundrescue.org.
GO SMELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN. Colossal Cave Mountain Park will be on fire today as cooks take the gloves off for the Anything Goes Chili Cook-off.
The guy to beat is two-time champ Lee Bucklin, a firefighter with the Rincon Fire District. The guy to impress is none other than Congressman Jim Kolbe, who, along with Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall and County Supervisor Ray Carroll, will judge the competition.
Cook-off winners receive hand-crafted "Come and Get It" triangle dinner bells.
Live music, roping demonstrations, stagecoach rides and gold-nugget sluicing make the event perfect for an all-day family outing.
Judging begins at noon, and eating starts immediately afterward at Colossal Cave Mountain Park's La Posta Quemada Ranch. Admission is $3 for adults, $1.50 for children 12 and under. For more information, call 647-7121.
Sunday 18
STRANGE OLE OPRY. Start with some country rock dancing, then have a bite to eat while enjoying a few operatic arias, and finish the evening with love songs of the Southwest.
To top it off, the Fiesta de los Vaqueros rodeo queen and her court will present raffle prizes.
Hidden Valley Inn pulls out all the stops tonight for the Ole Grand Opry, sponsored by the Opera Guild of Arizona.
Raven, a country rock group that has entertained audiences at the Phoenix Convention Center and Tucson Electric Park, gets things started at 5:30 p.m.
At 7, dinner starts, with operatic arias by Lissa Staples, who is well known for her theatrical and concert appearances.
By 8:30, the spotlight shifts to the Ronstadt Cousins--Mike, Bill and John--a third-generation trio of Tucson's most noted musical family.
The event is an annual benefit by the Opera Guild of Southern Arizona. The gala is $50 per person. Half the cost is tax-deductible. Hidden Valley Inn is located at 4825 N. Sabino Canyon Road. For more information, call 297-1492.
Monday 19
MARBLED THOUGHTS. Artist John Maggiotto arrived in Tucson just in time for the Gem and Mineral Show.
While he does work with marble, he's not selling hunks of the stuff.
A 1988 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, Maggiotto has been printing images on marble since 1993. He works with hand-applied emulsion and imagery taken from a television screen.
"Putting it on stone was my way of forcing the viewer to hold on to it," Maggiotto said.
Get a look at his work in an exhibition called Black & White & Marble at Industry Gallery, 439 N. Sixth Ave. The show runs through February 25. For more information, call 792-2620.
Tuesday 20
START AN OLD TRADITION. Two thousand years ago, Indians in the Southwest used gourd scrapers, mineral paints and yucca brushes to create beautiful and functional pottery pieces.
Show up at Tucson's Old Pueblo Archaeology Center tonight to start learning how they did it. Potter and artisan John Guerin offers the introductory Southwestern Indian Pottery workshop that runs Tuesdays through March 27.
Guerin will teach the initial steps in forming, shaping and smoothing, and completing pots like they were made by the Anasazi, Hohokam, Mongollon and Pueblo Indians.
The workshops from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays at 1000 E. Fort Lowell Road also include a field trip from 2 to 6 p.m. February 24. The $69 fee includes all materials except the clay, which participants will dig themselves. To register, call 798-1201.
Wednesday 21
TWO HOURS OF HISTORY. The Rodeo Parade Museum is a great place to soak up some of the Southwest.
Check out more than 125 pieces of equipment that include wagons, buggies, coaches and stagecoaches. There's also a Western town complete with assayer shop, telegraph office and blacksmith shop.
During the rodeo, the museum is open 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today through February 25. The museum is located at 4825 S. Sixth Ave., at the corner of Sixth and Irvington. For more information, call 529-6010.
