Kennedy Center

Baltimoreans have long acknowledged the city's good fortune in having pianist Leon Fleisher in residence at the Peabody Conservatory. Though not a native, he has made the city his home for 48 years and has enhanced Baltimore's cultural scene and reputation through teaching, conducting and, most notably, performing over these many years, even as he struggled to overcome a debilitating affliction of his right hand. But his talent has reached far beyond the borders of his adopted city - and his receipt of a Kennedy Center Honors award last weekend confirmed that.

THE SONGS OF IRELAND MUSIC The Irish singing group Celtic Woman performs at the Hippodrome Theatre tomorrow and Saturday. Delivering solos and ensemble numbers, the women present classic Irish songs and standards such as "Danny Boy," contemporary pieces including Enya's "Orinoco Flow," other classical songs such as "Ave Maria," and original songs. ....................... Performances are at 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday at the Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, 12 N. Eutaw St. Tickets $40-$65.

The Kennedy Center in Washington has announced a millennium series titled "Kennedy Center 2000: The Legacy and Promise of the Performing Arts." The theater offerings begin in September 1999 with "Shockheaded Peter," a work by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch based on an 1844 book of tales warning children of the consequences of naughty behavior.In October, the Center presents the American premiere of the Barabas Company of Dublin's production of Lennox Robinson's 1916 comedy about a small-town Irish family, "The Whiteheaded Boy."

ROGER L. STEVENS, who died Monday at 87, was a remarkable man who excelled pretty much at whatever he tried. The lasting contributions of this real estate tycoon, though, were to culture.He spearheaded the construction of Washington's Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a complex that gave the nation's capital the polish it had lacked. Mr. Stevens also played a crucial role in the creation of the National Endowment for the Arts. And his 200 theatrical productions on Broadway and in London introduced audiences to writers ranging from Tennessee Williams to Tom Stoppard.

"How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" "Practice, practice practice," goes the old saw.In "2 Pianos, 4 Hands," however, practice lands Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt not on the concert stage, but on the theater stage. The off-Broadway hit opens a monthlong run at the Eisenhower Theater at Washington's Kennedy Center tonight.The two co-stars wrote this comedy about their own experiences as piano students, beginning in boyhood. And, in the course of the play, they demonstrate their progress with selections by composers ranging from Beethoven to Hoagy Carmichael and Elton John.

In yesterday's announcement of the Kennedy Center's dance schedule, a contact number was omitted. For tickets and information about Kennedy Center events, call 202-467-4600.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 7/14/98

Acclaimed South African playwright Athol Fugard's latest play, "The Captain's Tiger," opens at Washington's Kennedy Center on Saturday. Starring and co-directed by the playwright, the new play is a coming-of-age story about a young writer ("The Tiger") working on his first novel aboard a tramp steamer headed for various seedy Asian ports.Tony Todd plays the Swahili crew member he befriends, and Felicity Jones plays the writer's mother as a young woman. Co-direction, sets and costumes are by Susan Hilferty.

Lisa Loomer's play about infertility, "Expecting Isabel," which is making its world premiere at Washington's Arena Stage, is one of three plays that have received 1998 grants from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays.The other grants went to Charlotte Gibson's "Lost Creek Township," a play about an all-black Indiana town in 1880, to be produced by Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick, N.J., in April, and Nilo Cruz's "Two Sisters and a Piano," a play loosely based on the life of Cuban artist Maria Elena Cruz Varela, to be produced by the McCarter Theatre Company in Princeton, N.J., in February.

The exclusive, pre-Broadway engagement of "Annie Get Your Gun" is currently in previews at Washington's Kennedy Center, with an official opening scheduled for Jan. 7. Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters stars as Annie Oakley in this classic Irving Berlin musical, whose score includes such chestnuts as "There's No Business Like Show Business," "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" and "They Say It's Wonderful."The production features a new book by Peter Stone ("1776" and "Titanic"), based on the original by Herbert and Dorothy Fields.

Washington Ballet faces an enormous transition this year as founder Mary Day, grande dame of dance in the D.C. area, steps down as its artistic director. But from the look of things on stage, which remain stylish and sophisticated, you'd scarcely know anything but dance was on the troupe's mind.Its final program of the season, next week at the Kennedy Center, features a new work by Polish guest choreographer Krzysztof Pastor. As yet untitled, it is set to cello music of Bach, George Crumb and Zoltan Kodaly.

WASHINGTON - -Cate Blanchett and Liv Ullmann conducted an impromptu lesson over the weekend in the duties, delights, and hierarchies of star power - with the help of the Australian Embassy. Blanchett is starring in, and Ullmann is directing, the production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" running through Nov. 21 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. This staging by the Sydney Theatre Company comes to Washington through the efforts of Dennis Richardson, Australia's ambassador to the U.S., before heading off to the Big Apple.

Two Baltimore County high schools are among five nationwide to receive awards for arts education, school officials announced Thursday. The Carver Center for Arts and Technology, in Towson, and Patapsco High and Center for the Arts, in Dundalk, were named "national schools of distinction in arts education" by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. This is the first time multiple schools from one district have been honored the same year, said Darrell M. Ayers, the center's vice president of education.

Shafts of light stream through narrow windows to form angular patterns on gray walls and ceilings. Men in black uniforms of roughly mid-20th- century vintage stand ominously in the background. It's all very film noir-ish on the stage of the Kennedy Center Opera House, an interesting look for a work that dates from 1724. If you go Tamerlano will be performed at 7 p.m. tomorrow, 7:30 p.m. Friday and four more times through May 22 at the Kennedy Center, Virginia and New Hampshire avenues, Northwest, Washington.

Thirty hours, spread over a minimum of eight days. Six-hundred and fifty dollars. And, a gluteus maximus in tip-top physical condition. All three will be required of theatergoers who plan to take full advantage of the groundbreaking festival of August Wilson's plays being launched this week at the Kennedy Center. The festival will be the first time that all 10 plays in Wilson's century cycle will be performed in the same place and can be seen within a month's time - crucial for a comprehensive understanding of the playwright's contribution to American letters.

Baltimoreans have long acknowledged the city's good fortune in having pianist Leon Fleisher in residence at the Peabody Conservatory. Though not a native, he has made the city his home for 48 years and has enhanced Baltimore's cultural scene and reputation through teaching, conducting and, most notably, performing over these many years, even as he struggled to overcome a debilitating affliction of his right hand. But his talent has reached far beyond the borders of his adopted city - and his receipt of a Kennedy Center Honors award last weekend confirmed that.

It has been a year since Yuri Temirkanov conducted in this region. The Russian conductor's appearance Tuesday night at the Kennedy Center, the start of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra's 20-cities- in-29-days U.S. tour, drove home how much we have been missing. All of Temirkanov's familiar traits that local audiences got to savor during his seven seasons as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra were very much on display. The alternately sweeping, fluttering, slicing arm gestures that fly in the face of how-to-conduct textbooks; the combination of control and spontaneity; the sense of music being not so much made as being lived - it was great encountering all of that magic again.

Macbeth, poisoned by "vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself," remains one of Shakespeare's most arresting characters. Given the size of the bloody Scottish king's ego, and his fears, he's a natural for operatic treatment. Same for his ethically challenged wife. Giuseppe Verdi provided that treatment, resulting in one of his earliest (and often undervalued) masterworks. Washington National Opera's new production of Macbeth at the Kennedy Center - presented in conjunction with the citywide Shakespeare in Washington festival - underlines the theatrical flair and sweeping melodic power of Verdi's faithful homage to the Bard.

Great theater teaches us something about ourselves, maybe more than we really want to know. Great opera does exactly the same, sometimes with even more force, if only because the music touches another, deeper part of us, while the words are burrowing into our brains. If you go Jenufa will be performed at 2 p.m. tomorrow and four more times through May 24 at the Kennedy Center, off New Hampshire and Virginia avenues Northwest, Washington. Tickets are $48-$250. Call 202-295-2400 or go to dc-opera.

Just about the only character who comes off well in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Coriolanus is the title character's mother, Volumnia. And in the production at the Kennedy Center - part of the Shakespeare in Washington festival - she comes off better than well. She's a titan. Negotiating for peace on the Washington stage, Janet Suzman's staunch, determined Volumnia is the type of shrewd, relentless diplomat who could broker treaties on any level - from the family dinner table to the Middle East.

THE SONGS OF IRELAND MUSIC The Irish singing group Celtic Woman performs at the Hippodrome Theatre tomorrow and Saturday. Delivering solos and ensemble numbers, the women present classic Irish songs and standards such as "Danny Boy," contemporary pieces including Enya's "Orinoco Flow," other classical songs such as "Ave Maria," and original songs. ....................... Performances are at 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday at the Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, 12 N. Eutaw St. Tickets $40-$65.