JULY
19 SATURDAY
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“We have no funding,” says Colette Cooper of the nonprofit Wilmette Arts Guild–not to mention no employees, no gallery, and no office. In spite of its membership roster of 273, the 15-year-old volunteer-run organization still lacks a storefront where the arts can be “practiced, taught, and exhibited” and is constantly looking for ways to make money to keep going. Its biggest fund-raiser is an annual Festival of Fine Arts, where shoppers and browsers will find work by well-known locals like Curt Frankenstein and art gypsies making the national circuit alike. It runs from 10 to 5 today and 11 to 5 Sunday, July 20, at the Community Recreation Center, 3000 Glenview in Wilmette. Admission is free, and there’s a painting table for kids. Call 847-256-2080 for more information.
In 1830 Hector Berlioz composed his Symphonie fantastique after becoming infatuated with an Irish actress named Henrietta Smithson, whom he saw playing Ophelia in an 1827 production of Hamlet. He sent her flowers, wrote her letters, and rented an apartment near her’s but got no response. “I am about to begin my symphony in which the development of my passion will be depicted,” he wrote to a friend. The bombastic, emotional five-movement piece about obsessive love is the first entry in the Ravinia Festival’s One Score, One Chicago initiative. Like the book project that inspired it, the program will feature a new work each season and is designed to spur discussion and bring culture to the sweating masses. (Smithson, by the way, eventually gave in to Berlioz’s obsession and married her stalker in 1833.) Tonight at 7:30, classical music expert Sylvie Desouches will discuss Symphonie fantastique at Barnes & Noble, 1441 W. Webster in Chicago (773-871-3610). It’s one of a long series of free lectures at area libraries and stores; for a complete list of events go to www.ravinia.org or www.chipublib.org. Also, on July 25 the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will perform the symphony and on August 17 the Ravinia Festival Orchestra will present a version tailored to families and children. And August 28 through 31 puppeteer Basil Twist will illustrate pianist Christopher O’Riley’s solo rendition of the work by manipulating cloth, glitter, feathers, mirrors, and more–all in a 1,000-gallon tank of water. All performances are on the Ravinia grounds at Lake Cook and Green Bay roads in Highland Park.
24 THURSDAY
