Music/Theater

MOTHER IN MOURNING: Violet Venable (Carolyn Vasko), New Orleans grande dame, fights fiercely to defend her version of her son’s life and violent death, in “Suddenly, Last Summer,” the longer of two one-act plays that make up Tennessee Williams’ “Garden District,” playing through Saturday, December 11 at Theatre Intime on the Princeton University campus.

“Garden District” Features Two One-Acts by Tennessee Williams, Flawed but Fascinating Dramas, Revealing Hidden Human Passions

—Donald Gilpin

Two grande dames preside over the two one-acts comprising Tennessee Williams’ passionate, intensely psychological Garden District, first seen Off-Broadway in 1958. These two classic Williams characters, modeled in part on the playwright’s mother, are narcissistic, domineering, ferociously loving, and fiercely controlling matriarchs. Long-since-faded southern belles, women of wealth and power, they struggle frantically to preserve their veneer of purity, gentility, beauty, and civility amidst the dark passions and human strivings of daily life. They wage desperate battle to sustain their power through the ravages of time and circumstance.

Westminster Opera Program Shows Off Its Best Students in Winter Opera Gala

Nancy Plum

Westminster Choir College is understandably renowned for its choirs, but not everyone is interested in a choral career. The opera program at the college has produced a number of fine singers in recent years, many of whom are forging careers in the national and international arena. Representatives of current voice students presented a “Winter Opera Gala” this past weekend at the Princeton Regional Schools Performing Arts Center, showing off some very talented singers who study with Westminster faculty.