Ao 07 18 2014 full

Page 1

All

OTSEGO.life

THURSDAY-FRIDAY, JULY 17-18, 2014

HAPPENIN’ OTSEGO With Grace Brown’s letters displayed nearby and “An American Tragedy� opening Sunday, July 20, at the Glimmerglass Festival, Fenimore Art Museum docents Nancy Pfau and Len Pudelka debate the case.

BEST BETS

Dunn’s Boat Service tour guide Kip Bruyn, whose family has owned a camp on Big Moose Lake since 1900, pauses his Chris Craft in South Bay, where the murder happened.

Author Jim Greiner, Herkimer County historian and president of the Friends of Historic Herkimer County (just back Sunday, July 13, from cheering on his son-in-law at the Utica Boilermaker), opened Chester Gillette’s cell to an inquiring reporter.

The Mettawee River Theater Company returns to the Franklin Stage to perform an outdoor puppet show of “The Dancing Fox.�

Franklin Stage Presents Puppets Under The Stars

M

ettawee River Theatre Company returns to the Franklin Stage to perform “The Dancing Fox: Wisdom Tales of the Middle East.� Free, donations welcome. 8 p.m. Friday, July 18, Franklin Central School playing field, Institute Street, Franklin. Info, (607) 829-3700. GOLF FOR GOOD: Golfers Against Violence tournament benefits OFO’s Violence Intervention Program. Registration includes lunch and cart rental. 11 a.m. Friday, July 18, Colonial Ridge Golf Course, 195 Bateman Road, Laurens. Info, registration, www.ofoinc.org.

AllOTSEGO.com

LIVES! Jim Kevlin/

‘AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY’ By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN

‘A

n American Tragedy� lives around here, and not just in Tobias Picker’s 2005 opera, which is being reprised

Some see a recent gang rape at Hobart/William Smith College as demonstrating “American Tragedy� dynamics live.

this season at Glimmerglass Festival, beginning at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, July 20. “It hasn’t changed,� Nancy Pfau of Sharon Springs declared emphatically to fellow docent Len Pudelka of Oneonta the other day a few steps away from an exhibit of Grace Brown’s original letters to Chester Gillette in The Fenimore Art Museum. “Women are still being preyed upon. She was being preyed upon.� The impetus for Pfau’s declaration was the front page article in the Sunday, July 13, New York Times, “Reporting Rape, and Wishing She Hadn’t,� recounting how a freshman at Hobart/William Smith College charged she was repeatedly raped by football players. The college processed and dismissed the case within 12 days, and the team went on to an undefeated season. A few days before, the headline had stood out starkly in the newsstands at a Fast Track convenience store in Old Forge, drawing comments from sightseers just

ART OF ABILITY: 10th annual Voice! juried exhibit showcases artists from across New York with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 5-7 p.m. Friday, July 18, Martin-Mullin Art Gallery, Fine Arts Building, SUNY Oneonta. Info, www.arcotsego.org. FAB FOUR: The FabCats perform all the Beatles hits. $25 gold, $15 silver. 7 p.m. Friday, July 18, Foothills Performing Arts Center, 24 Market St., Oneonta. Info, tickets, (607) 431-2080. LANDMARK LECTURE: Bruce Van Buren shares the history of the Fairchild Mansion, home of first IBM chairman. 1-3 p.m. Sunday, July 20, Swart-Wilcox House, Wilcox Ave., Oneonta. Info, www. swartwilcoxhouse. wordpress.com

Chester Gillette and Grace Brown

back on land from the Dunn’s Boat Service tour of Big Moose Lake’s South Bay, where Gillette on July 11, 1906, is believed to have struck the pregnant Brown in the head with tennis racquet. Brown, a farm girl from South Otselic who had been courted by Gillette while working on the production line in his uncle’s skirt factory in Cortland, fell from the canoe. Her body was discovered the Please See OPERA, B3

ALUMNI REUNITE: Cooperstown High School Jazz Band concert reunites past players with former and present directors at an outdoor reunion concert. Free. 6 p.m. Sunday, July 20, Lakefront Park, Cooperstown. Info, mike@newyorkplayers.com.

‘Madame Butterfly’s’ Muted Staging Beautifully Effective By ROBERT MOYNIHAN

‘M

adame Butterfly� is the first Puccini opera I witnessed, in 1950 – a wan production on tour from San Francisco. How things have

OPERA REVIEW

improved. (A large and ragged doll in soiled wrappings represented

the child Trouble.) Everyone, though, should see this beautifully staged 2014 Glimmerproduction. This is the most problematic of Puccini’s

HIGH TEA: Tea With Dolls invites young girls to bring their favorite doll and enjoy a formal tea. $6.50 adults, $3.50 kids under 12. 3 p.m. Sunday, July 20, Christ Church, 69 Fair St., Cooperstown. Info, (607) 547-9555.

brilliant major works – and his few generally unproduced operas mysteriously remain so. The spirited “La Rondine,� with its light plot and fresh score, would be ideal for a summer season. Puccini’s early “Le Villi� is almost never heard. Please See BUTTERFLY, B2

Allotsego.com

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL • HOMETOWN ONEONTA • www. FOR DAILY NEWS UPDATES, VISIT OUR New www.

AllOTSEGO.com EVERY DAY


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.