Weekend in Venice

Venetian Baroque: Cappella Romana and Portland Baroque Orchestra
Saturday, Portland Art Museum
This special collaborative program from period masters Cappella Romana and Portland Baroque Orchestra explores the musical connections between two commercial, cultural, and religious hubs of the 16th to 18th centuries, Venice and St. Petersburg. Guest conductor Mark Bailey, who's previously appeared at sell-out concerts with Cappella Romana, directs a program of music by Baldassare Galuppi, who conducted choruses in both cities, as well as instrumental works by Vivaldi and a cappella Slavonic works by Ukrainian Dmitry Bortniansky.

Venice: The Golden Age Of Art & Music
Thru May 11, Portland Art Museum
The initial exhibition by the Portland Art Museum’s first-ever European curator, Dawson Carr, Venice: The Golden Age Of Art & Music explores a period when composers like Gabrieli and Monteverdi mingled with painters such as Tintoretto and Bassano. Related programming includes a concert by Cappella Romana and the Portland Baroque Orchestra.  

Classical

Postcard from Morocco
Mar 23–29, Portland Opera at Keller Auditorium
Pulitzer and Grammy-winner Dominick Argento's most popular opera mixes musical genres, from Wagner to ragtime, as it dives into an existential study of relationships, motivation, and trust. Seven passengers, named only for the prop they carry, meet in a train station in an exotic land and have to figure each other out, as well as what each other's luggage holds. You won't have to struggle with translation (it's in English), but don't expect that to necessary add much clarity to the absurdist plot.

Zakir Hussain
Friday, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
This Indian tabla master has played with major names all over the musical spectrum, showing up on albums with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, sitar great Ravi Shankar, and on Pharoah Sanders' supremely goofy 1999 world fusion punchline Save Our Children (probably the only record on which you can hear Sander's tenor sax, tabla, and foreign-language rapping all in one song). Questionable collaborative choices aside, though, he's still an undisputed master of his instrument, and a technically astounding live performer. 

THEATER

Closing  The Caretaker
Thru Mar 23, Imago Theatre
Former Artists Repertory Theatre artistic director Allen Nause stars in Imago Theatre’s production of this Harold Pinter classic, a quasi-absurdist, vaguely menacing comedy about an entitled, shifty bum who is taken in by an oddly docile man. We’ve heard there might be clowns. 

Closing  A Small Fire
Thru Mar 23, Portland Center Stage
Adam Bock’s play tells the tale of a woman who loses her senses one by one, leading to thought-provoking questions about who we are when we have nothing else. "While the ideas are thought provoking (and the ending has a certain climax), the script, the acting, and the production hit them like one of Emily’s hammers knocking a nail, creating a show that felt on opening night more manufactured than real..." Read our full review.

The Curious Chronicles of Daniel Candlewick
Sunday, Action/Adventure Theater
St. Johns' Castiron Carousel Marionette Troupe fabricates fantastical marionettes to put on puppet shows for adults. Set in 1933, The Curious Chronicles of Daniel Candlewick tells the tale of a young farmboy charged with helping his mother keep the family farm afloat. When he enlists in an apprenticeship with mysterious recluse Dr. Hadrian, rumored to be the cause of the strange mechanical hybrid creatures roaming the countryside, strange things start to happen...   

MUSIC 

Portland’s Gay Men’s Chorus: “Continental Divide”
Sat–Sun, Reed College’s Kaul Auditorium
The Portland Gay Men’s Chorus joins forces in song with the City of Brotherly Love—the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus (the other, PGMC)—to present their first concert of the Spring 2014 season,Continental Divide. With 250 voices filling the Kaul Auditorium with song, revel in the power of music as PGMC showcases their new work. 

VISUAL ART

Red Bull's Canvas Cooler Project
Thursday, Portland Arm Museum
Twenty Portland-based artists are challenged to transform a blank, canvas-wrapped Red Bull Cooler into a customized work of art. Attending guests and a panel of judges will vote on each piece.  Two artists will be selected to sell their work at SCOPE Art Fair in Miami during Art Basel. Hosted bar for those who RSVP, and music from DJ Zimmie, Natasha Kmeto (DJ Set / Dropping Gems), and Rap Class.  

Polly Apfelbaum: Color Stations Portland
Thru Apr 27, Lumber Room
Just in time for Spring, Apfelbaum’s installations are like bright flowers of dyed velvet blossoming across the floor—the perfect work to fill Lumber Room’s bright, airy, organic space. Known for pushing the boundaries between sculpture, painting, and installation, Apfelbaum’s work has been exhibited internationally, and she’s been recognized by a laundry list of awards, including the Rome and the Guggenheim.

Chris Johanson: Self(ish) Expression(ism) 
Thru Mar 29, Portland Museum of Modern Art
PMOMA presents an exhibition of drawings by painter, street artist, and musician Chris Johanson. Often associated with the Mission School movement of San Francisco, where he got his start, Johanson now calls Portland his second home. His works have showed internationally and been included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial, the 2005 Istanbul Biennial, and the 2006 Berlin Biennial.