Chicago Music and Theater

SARASOTA SPARKLES WITH SUNSHINE AND LIVELY ARTS SCENE

By Joseph Cunniff

 

There are numerous reasons why people love Sarasota: The weather, the beaches, the shimmering gulf waters.  But other places in Florida also have such things. Sarasota adds a rewarding cultural life and an uncrowded vibe that is all its own. For theater lovers, the Asolo Repertory Theater is justly famed. Their musicals, comedies, thrillers, classics and world premieres are often sold out.
 

I enjoyed “The Mirror Cracked” by Agatha Cristie,in a new adaptation by Rachel Wagstaff directed by Michael Donald Edwards.  The fun whodunnithad a large and exemplary cast led by Suzanne Grodner as the perceptive Miss Jane Marple and Billy Lyons as the semi-competent chief inspector. 
 

And Florida Studio Theater, celebrating their 52nd season, is actually a village of five small theaters nestled in the heart of downtown Sarasota. I was highly impressed by their one-man show “Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground” by RihardHellesen, directed by Nancy Rominger.
Robert Zukerman was totally winning as the general and president, telling engrossing stories about his eventful life. Outstanding.
 

Music too is a major attraction tothis town, and the Sarasota Concerts Association brings some of the world’s greatest to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hallon Sarasota Bay. London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra brought the audience to its feet when I was there.
 

VasilyPetrenko, the young Russian-born conductor who todaylives in London, was on the podium, and began with a tastefully understated “Beatrice and Benedict” overture by Berlioz, appropriate to its inspiration from Shakespeare’s light comedy “Much Ado About Nothing.”
 

Then the young pianist Boris Giltburgjoined the orchestra for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with a slow movement so thoughtful and unhurried that it felt like hearing the music for the first time.
Finally the Sibelius Symphony No. 2, beautifully paced, conjured the magnificence of a Nordic seascape as it built to an exhilarating conclusion.
 

The Sarasota Concerts Association also has linedup for this season such heavyweights as the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Danish String Quartet, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.They are amajor jewel in Sarasota’s cultural crown. 
 

The Sarasota Art Museum, part of the Ringling College of Art and Design, is dedicated to contemporary art, and located in what was the historic Sarasota High School Building. They feature rotating exhibitions, and I much enjoyed their show “Art Deco: The Golden Age of Decoration.’
 

It was in the 1920s that this bold new artistic style roared into life: Art Deco is said to celebrate “modernity, luxury, and the desires of the turbulent early twentieth century.” I especially liked the special simplification and style of the Art Deco posters for beverage advertisement and travel.
 

A name that you often see in Sarasota is that of John Ringling, the circus  magnate whose magnificent art museum, circus museum, and mansion sit on tree-filled, 66-acre gardenson the bay.The Art Museum, featuring more than 4,500years of art from Europe, Asia, and America, is especially strong in the Renaissance and Baroque paintings that Mr. Ringlingbrought here from Europe. The museum offers tours at noon, 1, 2 and 3.

John Ringling loved Venice, and he had his winter home here designed like a colorful Venetian Gothic Palace. It is called “Ca’ D’ Zan,” Venetian dialect for “House of John,” and you can tour it. I saw dolphins flip from its  stunning bayfront terrace. I especially liked seeing Ringling’s favorite bar, which he had sent down from New York and installed in the mansion.
 

I like to stay at a hotel just one mile from both the Ringling and theAsolo Theater, which is right next to the Ringling. TheHampton Inn at 975 University Parkway is also very convenient to the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport, and there are many good restaurants a short Uber ride away.  (941-355-8140).