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Arts & Entertainment
Songs Of An Era
Duo offers free classical recital in Ann Arbor.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
Ann Arbor
T
he concert "Voices of the
Holocaust" is not devoted to
songs of the Holocaust.
Soprano Caroline Helton and pianist
Kathryn Goodson instead will perform
music composed by people directly affect-
ed by the atrocities of World War II and
known for unrelated works.
The Ann Arbor duo will appear 4 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 17, at the Kerrytown Concert
House in a free recital.
"The subject matter is not the Holocaust
except in one piece, The Diary of Anne
Frank by Oskar Morawetz," says Helton,
who teaches voice as part of the University
of Michigan faculty
"Morawetz escaped Czechoslovakia as a
young man when the Nazis came in, and
he moved to Canada. He had not started
his career at the time of the war, but the
other composers were active in Europe
before the time of the Nazis."
Helton, 46, who converted to Judaism
and leads the Erev Rosh Hashanah services
at Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor,
developed the program because of her
interest in the composers, the time period
and Jewish subjects. After presenting it as a
university recital and on Chicago radio, the
two decided to offer it for tour.
"The program opens with very early
pieces by Kurt Weill:' says Helton, who
provides detailed program notes with
translations and historical information
so that listeners can follow the mostly
German and French lyrics.
"In Germany, this cantor's son was a
very well-known opera composer. In the
United States, he was a very popular musi-
cal theater composer?'
The next set features works by Robert
Kahn, a successful conductor, composer,
pianist and teacher at the Royal Academy
of Music in Berlin. His music was popu-
larly heard in the late 1800s.
"Erich Korngold was Austrian and
immigrated to the United States, where
he was hired by Warner Bros. to corn-
pose movie music:' Helton says about
another featured composer known for
being an opera prodigy in Vienna.
The last half of the recital opens with
Zionist poems set to music by Darius
Milhaud. After the Anne Frank piece,
the concert closes with another Kurt Weill
song that addresses disillusionment.
Helton, who will appear in two other
Jewish-themed concerts set for January, one
at the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and
the other at the University of Michigan Art
Museum, is planning a program highlight-
ing music by Jewish Italian composers.
Goodson, who also teaches at the
university, soon will be performing
KinderConcerts for the Ann Arbor
Symphony Orchestra.
The women, who take part in a variety
Pianist Kathryn Goodson and soprano
Caroline Helton
of programs, can be heard together on an
upcoming CD of the "Voices" concert. It
will be released by the Block M label and
available on iTunes.
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"Voices of the Holocaust" will be
performed 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan.17,
at the Kerrytown Concert House,
415 N. Fourth Ave., in Ann Arbor. No
charge. (734) 769-2999.
Jews
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
power. Carnegie's stepdaughter, played
by Mila Kunis, 26, is drawn to Eli.
jaw New Flicks
fait Opening Friday, Jan.15, is The Lovely
et Bones, based on the bestselling novel
11 7 of the same name by Alice Sebold.
Saorise Ronan plays Susie Salmon,
W
4 a young girl who is raped and mur-
dered. As her spirit sees events on
Earth, the audience glimpses Susie's
heaven. Directed by Peter Jackson
(Lord of the Rings), the film's co-stars
include Rachel Weisz, 39, and Mark
Walhberg as Susie's parents.
Also opening on
the 15th is The Book
of Eli, directed by
twin brothers and
Detroit natives Allen
and Albert Hughes.
Denzel Washington
stars as Eli, a survi-
Mila Kunis
vor of a war that has
virtually destroyed
America. Thirty years after the war,
Eli wanders the bleak landscape,
fending off brutal thieves. He pos-
sesses a secret that could lead to
mankind's redemption.
Only Carnegie (Gary Oldman), the
despot of a town populated by thieves
and gunmen, knows Eli's potential
38
January 14 •-=, 201(")
New On
The Tube
Archer is an ani-
mated comedy series
on the FX cable sta-
tion that premieres
10 p.m. Thursday,
Jan.14. Comedian H.
H. Jon
Jon Benjamin, 45,
Benjamin
stars as the voice
of Sterling Archer, a suave spymas-
ter. Veteran actress Jessica Walter,
68, co-stars as the voice of Mallory,
Archer's domineering mother and spy
agency boss.
Awards Season Begins
NBC presents The Golden Globe
Awards, for excellence in film and TV,
8-11 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17.
Here are the
Jewish nominees in
the acting catego-
ries:
nominated for best actor in a musical
or comedy film. He competes with
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of
Summer), Daniel Day-Lewis (Nine)
and Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock
Holmes). The latter two actors have
some Jewish ties. Day-Lewis' mother
is Jewish, but he was baptized an
Anglican. Downey, whose paternal
grandfather was Jewish, has referred
to himself as "Jewish" or "half-
Jewish" since he married Jewish film
producer Susan Levin in a Jewish
ceremony in 2005.
Julianna Margulies (The Good
Wife) and Kyra Sedgwick (The
Closer) vie for the Globe for best
actress in a TV drama. Margulies'
husband, Keith Lieberthal, is the son
of Professor Kenneth Lieberthal,
who teaches at the University of
Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Lea Michele (Glee) is nominated
for best actress in a comedy or
musical TV series;
David Duchovny
Michael Stuhlbarg,
Michael
Stuhlbarg
who played a trou-
bled Jewish college
professor in the Joel
and Ethan Coen film
A Serious Man, is
Lea Michele
(Californication)
is nominated for
best actor in a TV
comedy or musical
series; and Jeremy
Piven (Entourage)
is nominated for
best supporting actor in a comedy or
musical series.
Getting
Hitched
On Dec. 28, the
New York Times
politics blog
had a charming
account of the
engagement
Golodryga and
of
Peter R.
Orszag
Orszag, 41, the
White House budget director, to ABC
News business and financial news
correspondent Bianna Golodryga, 31.
Orszag, a very organized worka-
holic, told the Times the source of his
attraction: "She's a Russian Jew who
gets up even earlier than I do." He
told the Times he got clearance [to
propose] from his two young children
by his first marriage.
Cameron Hamill, Orszag's first
wife and another brainy beauty, pre-
viously worked for the Department of
the Treasury. She is the daughter of
a Jewish lawyer mother and a physi-
cian father who isn't Jewish.
Orszag's first wife's father is the
brother of actor Mark Hamill,
58, best known for playing Luke
Skywalker in Star Wars.
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