Christina Waters

If you adore the literary ingenuity of Charles Dickens, whose work marks the apogee of the English language, then you’ll be intrigued by the newest exploration of Dickens’ masterpiece, Bleak House, by celebrated scholar and UCSC professor John Jordan.

Better yet, come hear Jordan talk about Dickens, nineteenth-century English narrative fiction and his new book, Supposing Bleak House — Thursday, February 2, 7pm @ Bookshop Santa Cruz.

[Photo credit: Carolyn Lagattuta/UC Santa Cruz]

So many artworks, so little time. Make plans to visit the Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery this month.

In the main gallery, prolific alumna Katerina Lanfranco unveils a gallery-sized installation, Natural Selection.
In the adjoining gallery, a group show Clear Cuts features work by Beatrice Coron, Kota Azawa, Matt Farrar, Felicia Gilman, Lauren Scanlon, Jill Sylvia, and Kara Walker.

Across the portico, in the Porter Faculty Gallery, enjoy an exhibition of Laser Cut Relief Prints by Richard Wohlfeiler. All of these shows are free and open to the public.

For details visit the Sesnon website.

A sweeping show of coastal landscapes will fill the Davenport Gallery, starting this Saturday, January 14 (reception from 4-7pm).

The exhibition will offer works by top area painters including Andrew Purchin, Frank Galuszka (Cliff, o/c, r.), Ray Ginghofer and others, including a rarely-seen artist who moonlights as a wine writer. Take advantage of the spectacular weather—and the spectacular coast. Davenport Gallery is next door to the Roadhouse, on Highway One.

Davenport Gallery - 450 Highway One - open Wed - Sun, 11am - 5pm

The soaring quartets, orchestra and choral passages of Beethoven’s mighty Mass in C Major join Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, in an evening of definitive musical bravura— with maestra Nicole Paiement at the helm—for two concerts, Friday November 18 and Sunday November 20.

Concerts begin at 7:30pm at the UCSC Music Recital Hall—an acoustical gem worthy of soloists—tenor Brian Staufenbiel, soprano Patrice Maginnis, baritone Daniel Cilli and mezzo soprano Elana Cowen.

Don’t miss this chance to be enfolded in the sort of life-altering harmonies, fugues and canons that made life, before the Beatles, sweet indeed. UCSC Ticket Office - 831.459-2159; or online.

This is the deal of the week. The month!

Proving how easily a 250-year-old opera can provide musical epiphany, George Frideric Handel came to San Francisco last week with his delectable pastiche of arias, recitatives, and impossible vocalese —the opera Xerxes.

It was probably one of Benjamin Franklin’s favorite operas, this Italian tale of mistaken genders, identities and lovers, written by a German composer and widely performed in London. What San Francisco Opera audiences feasted on at last Saturday’s matinee performance was the aural luminescence of seven of the world’s finest Baroque singers vying with each other for complete dominance of the gorgeous music, the witty set design and some of the longest, most complex passages ever written for the human voice.

It was a banquet of trills, glissandoes and accelerated arpeggios. More…

Santa Cruz author Thad Nodine’s book is a complete page-turner. Read my complete review here.

And whatever you do, and wherever you go on this two weekend art crawl, don’t miss the painstakingly crafted, multi-colored etchings made by prolific artist Stephanie Martin.

Martin specializes in nature prints, beautifully drawn and expertly printed from copper plates, in the manner of Rembrandt and Goya. Here is a detail from her print of the Orange-Crowned Warbler.
Open Studio 2011 runs Oct 1-2, 8-9 and 15-16 from 11am - 5pm. Details here.

If you haven’t yet caught her act, this is your chance. I’m talking about mega-babe Carie McAlpine, and her ultra-cool sidemen, who are about to tear down the house at Zelda’s this weekend. Dripping sensuality McAlpine’s smoky alto can wail and moan while covering blues and rock classics with complete (and sassy) confidence.

The entire package is hot, especially this remarkable vocalist who whips the word “sultry” into full-blown proportions. Before Carie and the Soulshakers rearrange every molecule in Capitola, get on down there and check out her act.

This Saturday, 9pm-midnight, Zelda’s - 203 Esplanade, Capitola.Carie & the Soulshakers. Yeah baby.

Come celebrate 25 years of awarding scholarships to top UCSC art students, thanks to the bequest of William Hyde and Susan Benteen Irwin.

This year’s crop of exhibiting artists includes Raphael Cornford, Richard Desanto, Ellia Sarah Duhart, Luis Flores, Olivia Healy-Mirkovich, Sakura Kelley, Joseph Lai, Bela Messex, Kelsey Spencer, Kirsten Spooner, Leslie Thompson, Chelsea Ware, and Luke Wilson (all shown here in typical art student attitude, photographed by Sakura Kelley.)

The Reception is this Wednesday, May 25 5-7pm, with an awards ceremony @ 6pm.

Come enjoy artwork that authentically deserves the term “cutting edge.”

For details, contact the Gallery, at Porter College on the UCSC campus. The Irwin Show runs through June 11, 2011.

You might not need an excuse to visit Carmel on a sunny day in May, but here’s one anyway. A new show at Winfield Gallery will showcase a new suite of large-scale neo-mannerist paintings by Santa Cruz-based virtuoso Frank Galuszka. Inspired by the themes of exaggerated perspectives, attenuated limbs and congianti effects, these paintings are the harvest of several years of Galuszka’s research in Italy as well as studio experimentation.

Winfield Gallery - Dolores, between Ocean & 7th, in Carmel.  831.624.3369.

Myth & the Coast: II Mannerist paintings, Frank Galuszka,

May 1-30, 2011.