John Dorsey

In yesterday's Dining Out guide, the chef at La Tesso Tana was misidentified. Ed Rogers is the restaurant's chef.The Sun regrets the errors.Sunday brunch. The very words suggest the leisurely enjoyment of comforting foods in good company. Never mind that some buffet brunches involve more standing in line and more choices than are strictly relaxing. Never mind that we often overindulge when faced with those myriad of choices and regret it afterward. We still love our brunches.And speaking of choices.

One of the remarkable things about Baltimore's changing restaurant scene is that it's going in so many different directions. Just when you think every new place is part of a chain (from Applebee's to Morton's), along comes a funky little place like Port O Bella or a major white-tablecloth restaurant like M. Gettier's Orchard Inn.Does the opening of so many brew-pubs this past year mean that Baltimoreans only want pub grub when they eat out and are no longer willing to experiment? Then how do you account for the fact that we have our first Senegalese eating place ever (Teranga)

What makes a special-occasion dinner special? Glorious food, pampering service, a luxurious atmosphere -- a lot to ask of any restaurant.We can all use a little help finding just the right place for an important event. An overcooked steak or a snippy server can ruin a celebration. Add to that the fact that superstar establishments usually charge acordingly. Choose the wrong place, and you've wasted a good bit of money. So for this spring's Dining Out guide, we sent our critics to the area's best restaurants to see what it would be like to celebrate and anniversay there or entertain a valued client.

Dawn Upshaw will sing with BSODawn Upshaw has become one of the great stars of the vocal world, a soprano who possesses remarkable beauty of sound and still more remarkable intelligence and musicality. She and BSO music director David Zinman are longtime partners: two of their records together have won Grammys, and their disc of Henryk Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 is one of the biggest-sellers (more than 500,000 copies sold and still going) in the history of classical music. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8:15 p.m., Upshaw will make another of her always much-anticipated visits to Meyerhoff Hall to collaborate with Zinman and the BSO. She will sing three concert arias by Mozart and the world premiere of Robert Beaser's song cycle, "The Heavenly Feast."

Dundalk group taps to 'Stepping Out'Dundalk Community Theatre will present the Baltimore premiere of Richard Harris' tap dance musical, "Stepping Out" for two weekends beginning Friday. An ensemble piece about a dance class made up of an assortment of adult students, "Stepping Out" made its debut on Broadway under the direction of Tommy Tune; in 1991 it was made into a movie with Liza Minnelli and Shelley Winters.John Desmone directs the Dundalk production at Dundalk Community College, 7200 Sollers Point Road.

Revenge, lust and great music in 'Rigoletto'Verdi's "Rigoletto" is one of the high-water marks of the operatic genre: tuneful, full of sentiment and structured so that it drives to its tragic conclusion with the force of a river rushing to a precipice. This classic tale of lust and revenge opens the Baltimore Opera Company's current season at the Lyric Opera House with performances Oct. 15 (8:15 p.m.), Oct. 19 (7:30 p.m.), Oct. 21 (8:15 p.m.) Oct. 22 (8:15 p.m.) and Oct. 23 (3 p.m.). The cast for the Oct. 15, Oct. 19, Oct. 21 and Oct. 23 performances will feature Mark Rucker as Rigoletto, Jane Thorngren as Gilda and Stuart Neill as the Duke.

Playwrights Festival presents sixth play by Towson lawyerIn the 13-year history of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival, no playwright has had more scripts produced than Robert R. Bowie Jr., a Towson lawyer whose sixth festival production, "Between the Lines," opens Friday at Fell's Point Corner Theatre, 251 S. Ann St.Bowie's new play focuses on a husband and wife, beginning in the present, flashing back to their days at a progressive Baltimore high school...

Dorsey on KeownJohn Dorsey's Nov. 9 article concerning Ian Keown of Gourmet magazine ("On the outside, looking lost") was quite a come-uppance. Yes sir, he really told him off good!He stood up for our art and culture here in Baltimore by setting the record straight! What's more, he used his position with the paper to publicly embarrass both the author and that "out of town" publication.Too bad public flogging is no longer legal, because the amphitheater at Harborplace would have been such a great place to set up the pillory.

Recital features Baltimore baritoneAugust is typically a dead time for classical music in this burg. But music lovers -- especially those partial to vocal music -- need not despair. Eric Greene, a talented young baritone who studied with Jean Carter until his graduation in 1992 from the Baltimore School for the Arts, will give a recital Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Morgan Christian Center at Morgan State University (Cold Spring Lane and Hillen Avenue). Greene is now in his third year at the Juilliard School in New York and has already won important national prizes, including a bronze medal in the Rosa Ponselle Young Artists Competition.

'Barefoot in the Park' will play at Western Maryland CollegeBeginning Friday, Theatre on the Hill will present "Barefoot in the Park," Neil Simon's 1963 comedy about newlyweds living in a New York walk-up. Brian Jacobs and Bonnie Webster portray the uptight bridegroom and his free-spirited bride. Direction is by Josh Selzer.Performance dates are Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and on July 22, 23, 24 and Aug. 1, 4, 5, 8, 11 and 12. Curtain time is 7 p.m. on Sundays and 8 p.m. on all other days. Tickets are $11. Theatre on the Hill performs in Alumni Hall at Western Maryland College, 2 College Hill, Westminster.

Before there were blogs or podcasts or online chats, Baltimore journalist John Dorsey, who died Friday at age 69, made his mark the old-fashioned way -- by sheer dint of the written word. During four decades as a feature writer and critic for The Sunday Sun and The Sun, his writing had an impact not because it was instantaneous but because it was enduring. And, yet, he brought something new to the paper -- a fresh eye on art, a different way of looking at Baltimore's emerging restaurant scene and its changing urban landscape.

Readers turned to his essays on Baltimore's restaurants with their morning coffee in the 1970s - often before reading the main news. A decade later, his learned criticism forged interest in Baltimore's artistic community and drew audiences to little-known studios and galleries. Newspaper patrons recognized that the familiar byline, John Dorsey, and what he had to say could irritate, chide or praise. They also knew his prose was readable, clear and full of precise opinions. Mr. Dorsey died yesterday of Lou Gehrig's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, from which he had suffered for nearly four years.

Look again in Baltimore John Dorsey Photographs by James DuSel The Johns Hopkins University Press / 189 pages A few years ago the photographer James DuSel asked John Dorsey, Baltimore's premier art and architecture critic, if he would consider doing a book with him. Dorsey recalls saying "yes" without a second's hesitation. The result is this book, a long meditation by Dorsey on DuSel's evocative photographs and on art, architecture and life - in a volume handsomely published by the Johns Hopkins press.

A gargoyle, an antique chair leg, an ornate iron grid -- these are elements in Scott Ponemone's watercolors. Like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope, they tumble and turn, sometimes appearing only once, sometimes repeating themselves, always forming a splendidly colorful whole. Ponemone draws upon the monuments, buildings or homes of Baltimore for inspiration. Weaving together meticulously rendered architectural and decorative details, he creates handsome paintings layered with history and meaning.

SENIORS RULED the school Friday at the 50 Plus Expo sponsored by the Howard County Department of Citizen Services' Office on Aging at Wilde Lake High School. With more than 120 exhibitors lining the halls, the fair was a one-stop shop for information on issues of interest to the mature generation, such as housing, finances and health care. Beverly and John Dorsey of Ellicott City arrived bright and early after taking a shuttle from The Mall in Columbia. The shuttle service was new this year, helping to relieve parking problems for the crowd, estimated at about 4,000.

ONE OF Howard County's oldest structures, an 18th-century manor house known as Dorsey Hall, will be restored as part of a $3.5 million office center scheduled to open early next year. Howard County Executive James N. Robey joined developers Richard Talkin and Donald Reuwer on Tuesday to break ground for the project, called the Dorsey Hall Manor Executive Offices. The development, at 5100 Dorsey Hall Drive in Columbia, will include the construction of 32,000 square feet of office space in four two-story buildings.

One of the remarkable things about Baltimore's changing restaurant scene is that it's going in so many different directions. Just when you think every new place is part of a chain (from Applebee's to Morton's), along comes a funky little place like Port O Bella or a major white-tablecloth restaurant like M. Gettier's Orchard Inn.Does the opening of so many brew-pubs this past year mean that Baltimoreans only want pub grub when they eat out and are no longer willing to experiment? Then how do you account for the fact that we have our first Senegalese eating place ever (Teranga)

In yesterday's Dining Out guide, the chef at La Tesso Tana was misidentified. Ed Rogers is the restaurant's chef.The Sun regrets the errors.Sunday brunch. The very words suggest the leisurely enjoyment of comforting foods in good company. Never mind that some buffet brunches involve more standing in line and more choices than are strictly relaxing. Never mind that we often overindulge when faced with those myriad of choices and regret it afterward. We still love our brunches.And speaking of choices.

What makes a special-occasion dinner special? Glorious food, pampering service, a luxurious atmosphere -- a lot to ask of any restaurant.We can all use a little help finding just the right place for an important event. An overcooked steak or a snippy server can ruin a celebration. Add to that the fact that superstar establishments usually charge acordingly. Choose the wrong place, and you've wasted a good bit of money. So for this spring's Dining Out guide, we sent our critics to the area's best restaurants to see what it would be like to celebrate and anniversay there or entertain a valued client.

Dorsey on KeownJohn Dorsey's Nov. 9 article concerning Ian Keown of Gourmet magazine ("On the outside, looking lost") was quite a come-uppance. Yes sir, he really told him off good!He stood up for our art and culture here in Baltimore by setting the record straight! What's more, he used his position with the paper to publicly embarrass both the author and that "out of town" publication.Too bad public flogging is no longer legal, because the amphitheater at Harborplace would have been such a great place to set up the pillory.