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SPOLETO USACharleston, South Carolina and the Arts, a perfect combinationBy Charles Leocha
This 18th-century city -- home to the first theater, the first ballet company, and the oldest musical organization in America -- was chosen in 1977 to be the site of the American counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of Two Worlds) in Spoleto, Italy. The founder of that festival, Maestro Menotti, searched for an American city that would offer the charm of Spoleto as well as its wealth of theaters, churches, and other performance places. Charleston was perfect. It is large and sophisticated enough to provide a knowledgeable audience and appropriate theaters, yet small enough to be dominated by the non-stop arts festival. For 17 days Charleston offers something for every art lover from formal opera, symphony orchestra, chamber music and ballet, to theater, jazz, samba, folk and modern dance. In addition, Piccolo Spoleto, the city-organized companion festival, extends the more formal offerings of the festival to include a thousand additional artists performing and exhibiting in the city’s churches, parks, playgrounds, streets and storefronts. Tightly woven between old Charleston’s cobblestone roadways, classic churches and elegant mansions of the Old South, the festival creates a magical combination of music, theater, painting and dance — classical to contemporary, traditional to modern. Lilting lute, haunting recorder, crisp guitar and soft soprano medieval music by the Baltimore Consort enlivens a small classical auditorium at the College of Charleston. At this, the first municipal college in America, performers play on a wooden stage set midst white columns, lit naturally through small-pane windows. The world’s top prize-winning violin, viola, cello, and piano virtuosos, such as The St. Lawrence String Quartet, Anne-Marie McDermott and Stephen Prutsman, play elegant chamber music in the afternoons and evenings in Charleston’s tiny Dock Street Theater. Reconstructed according to the original 1736 blueprints on the site of the first theater in America, the building evokes images of Southern belles sweeping down staircases which proves the perfect compliment to the music.
Who would expect world-class ballet in an unimposing building resembling an old Woolworth’s? The Charleston Ballet Theater only seats about 150 people in a simple, low-ceiling space with stark black staging, but their "Bolero" transformed the place. As the familiar music intensified, more dancers appeared in pairs. Eventually ten ballerinas, in bright red, and six male dancers, wearing black and white, were spinning together across the dance floor which then seemed to compare with Moscow’s Bolshoi or Naples’ San Carlo. This year the Spoleto Festival’s presentations and the Piccolo Spoleto activities will fill these same evocative venues as well as other century-old churches, theaters, courtyards and gardens in Charleston’s historic center. Musicians, dancers and actors from America’s most respected theater, opera and dance companies, will blend with the world’s best performers from South Africa, Britain, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Canada, Brazil, Cuba, the Caribbean and more. Spoleto Festival has become one of the international art world’s favorite sites of new productions and premiers. This year, the festival includes Il Trittico, three one-act opera productions by Puccini. Spoleto will also present the U.S. premier of another opera, "Die Bürgschaft," set in a mythical land of Urb combines black humor with social commentary. This year’s festival will also include a production of "Mamba’s Daughter," set in Charleston portraying a woman’s sacrifice for her daughter. And Ricky Jay brings his one-man slight of hand production to the festival. Dance performances will include the Ballet Flamenco de Antonio Canales preforming Torero, his homage to the bullfight, the Miami City Ballet dancing to the music of Gershwin and Benny Goodman, and the Brazilian Quasar Companhia de Danca. Singers will perform Southern music ranging from Gullah to gospel music and folk to the blues. These ethnic presentations will be combined with more traditional chamber music, orchestra and song performed at the Dock Street Theater and in other theaters and churches throughout the city. During the entire festival period, the "international high culture" of Spoleto Festival USA’s celebrated premiers and grand productions will be intertwined with the down-home artistic flavor of hundreds of events showcasing skilled musicians and gifted artists primarily from America’s Southeast region. From the waterfront to the narrow back streets, this "fringe festival" has overtaken its more formal predecessor in terms of numbers of performances and artists involved. Piccolo Spoleto includes all types of music from Jazz Cruises in Charleston Harbor to a five-hour Johann Sebastian Bach marathon, from sacred music by Tibetan monks to tunes from "Porgy and Bess," and from Dixieland bands to a reggae block dance. Dance will include the Charleston Ballet Company and 24 different dance companies from across the country performing ballet, jazz and modern dance. Film buffs will have the chance to enjoy classic films presented daily, paintings and etchings will be judged for "Best of Festival," and 10 evenings of poetry readings are scheduled in the Dock Street Theater courtyard. As if the restrained elegance of Charleston is not enough, the Spoleto Festivals culminate on the lush terraced lawns and around the landscaped gardens of the Middleton Place Plantation on the Ashley River, 14 miles outside of old Charleston. In this quintessential Southern setting, a massive orchestral finale, complete with the South’s largest fireworks display, ushers out the festivities with selections by American composers including Gershwin’s "Catfish Row" from Porgey and Bess, Charles Ive’s "Decoration Day," and Aaron Copland’s "Lincoln Portrait" and "Fanfare for the Common Man," CHARELESTON, SC -- If you goBy air, the best connections to Charleston, SC are with US Airways, Continental, Delta and United. For general Charleston Information call the Convention and Visitors Bureau at (800) 868-8118 M-F 8-5. Recommended Accommodations (ask for
special Spoleto rates): More affordable (downtown, within
walking distance of most Spoleto events) RestaurantsCharleston is a gourmet diner’s
delight. The old downtown area is filled with excellent and affordable
restaurants. Here are a few of my favorites: Charles Leocha, author of more than 30 travel books, was brought up in Italy, travels extensively and visits his mom frequently in Charleston and always during Spoleto. For more information, call (843) 722-2764 or visit http://www.spoletousa.org To purchase tickets call (843) 723-0402 Photos courtesy of the Spoleto Festival |
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No other city in America, perhaps
the world, turns itself over to the arts as Charleston does in late May and
early June. From May 28nd through June 13th, Charleston, South Carolina,
celebrates its renowned Spoleto Festival USA and becomes the performing arts
capital of the country. 
There is no better way to wile away
an afternoon than to listen to the harmony of string quartets or choral groups.
The centuries-old First (Scots) Presbyterian Church provides a glorious setting
with a wide choir loft perched on more than a dozen Doric columns encircling
the audience. Cream colors and whites set off the natural hardwood floors and
pews, and light filtering through stained-glass windows enhances the formal
atmosphere.