Utah Opera closes season with charming The Marriage of Figaro

The Marriage of Figaro

It doesn’t take much to have a good production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. The opera is so charming that as long as you have some good voices, you’re pretty much guaranteed a pleasant experience. Having a great production, however, takes an amazing amount of work. Not only do the voices need to be … Read more

The Marriage of Figaro opera facts

Utah Opera's The Marriage of Figaro

One of the most frequently performed comic operas, The Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) tells the timeless tale of love and fidelity—recounted in a single “day of madness” in the palace of Count Almaviva, near Seville—while continuing the plot of The Barber of Seville. The four-act opera was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, … Read more

Utah Film Center regroups, sets fund-raising campaign after fire disaster

Just months before it will open its 15th anniversary season and during a time when annual attendance for its screenings has increased by at least 50 percent in the last five years, the Utah Film Center (UFC) is facing its biggest challenges after a four-alarm fire in late March destroyed its offices in downtown Salt … Read more

‘Survival of the least fit’: Utah Film Center to screen Dogtown Redemption documentary

Many of the scenes in the documentary film Dogtown Redemption, representing the nickname for a western section of Oakland, California in the East Bay area, likely are familiar in many cities across the country, including Salt Lake City. Initially, Amir Soltani and Chihiro Wimbush, co-directors of the film, set out more than seven years ago … Read more

Odysseo, it really is an amazing show!

You’ve probably driven by the big white tent at South Towne Mall and seen the billboards advertising Odyesso long before it opened to the public in Utah last week. And the question on everyone’s mind is: is it worth the hype? Attending Odysseo on opening night with approximately 2,000 other spectators, I was pleasantly surprised … Read more

In Sea, Utah composer Henry Wolking’s latest album, features Salt Lake City Jazz Orchestra

One of Utah’s most prolific, diverse composers with the wisest sense of musical egalitarianism returns on his latest recording release featuring 12 masterly executed tracks of cosmopolitan music performed by the Salt Lake City Jazz Orchestra (SLCJO). Henry Wolking also conducts the dozen works on In Sea, his debut album on Big Round Records, which … Read more

Ballet West’s The Nijinsky Revolution

Afternoon of a Faun, courtesy Ballet West

Baslav Nijinsky, a legendary male dancer for the Ballets Russes, choreographed a body of work that shocked, intrigued and inspired audiences in the early 20th century. This spring, Ballet West brings three of his pieces to life with modern day takes on his revolutionary work in The Nijinsky Revolution. “In putting together this program, I … Read more

Outstanding Alice Walker, Chernobyl documentaries on tap for Utah Film Center

Two exceptional documentaries of magnificent story-telling by women directors – one about Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker and the other about a small group of elderly women who have lived for 30 years within the forbidden zone surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster – will be screened in free, public presentations later this month … Read more

Ballet West Family Series presents Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast

Fairy tales told through the dance medium are perhaps some of the most expressive. This spring, Ballet West II dancers and students from the Ballet West Academy came together for a world-premiere production of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. The ballet featured entirely new costumes and sets designed by Ballet West to … Read more

Torrey House’s Alibi Creek is superb, spellbinding

Early in her novel Alibi Creek, Bev Magennis, succinctly sets the place of her story: Tucked in a fold of the Mariposa Mountains, Brand had been overrun by unfamiliar faces, the locals showing their disapproval by shunning greetings, refusing to indulge in small talk, and forgetting names. Walker, however, saw this small, steady influx of … Read more