Yiddish tales come to life on stage

Saul Reichlin performs at Millennium Place on Feb. 8, with his presentation of Sholom Aleichem: Now You’re Talking. The performance has been in production in the U.K. and South Africa for the last 18 months.

Alecheim is the Yiddish storyteller best known for his creation of the character Tevye the milkman, from the musical Fiddler on the Roof. In this program, Tevye is revived as a hewer of wood from the forest. The play’s tales are set against the backdrop of the life of a village during the Russian Pale of Settlement in 1900, as inhabitants struggle to make ends meet.

Reichlin, who specializes in character sketches, performed the show as part of the Edinburgh Festival 2001. He has performed in A Yom Kippur Scandal and Dreyfus in Kasrilevke, with characters like Menachem Mendel, who hopelessly attempts matchmaking, and Chlaven the shoemaker, on a drunken Purim night.

His previous work includes a presentation called the Gentle Art of Making Enemies, a lecture about art in Oxford, Cambridge and London. Reichlin has worked with students at City University in London, as well as the University of Surrey.

Tickets for the show are $20 for adults, $10 for students. For information call the Millennium Place box office at 604-935-8418.

Strings and song

Solo concert harpist Rita Costanzi brings her musical sound to Millennium Place on Feb. 9.

Costanzi, no stranger to international audiences, is both a composer and artist. She was featured as a female detective in the 1996 theatre production titled Harp & Solo: A Monologue for a Harpist, written by director Kico Gonzalez-Risso. The 20-minute short explores the mysteries of life and death, one of the presentations at the show.

Howe Sound Performing Arts presents Stephane Lemelin

Canadian concert pianist Stephane Lemelin plays selections from Bach, Beethoven, and the music of Ravel on Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. at the Eagle Eye Theatre in Squamish.

Lemelin’s broad repertoire extends to art, song, literature and Romantic Concerto of the 20th century. He has collaborated with the St. Lawrence and Muir String Quartets, Borism Berman, Donna Brown, and Jacques Israelievitch.

Lemelin’s work has been broadcast on CBC and NPR U.S.A., and he performs annually at Vancouver Chamber Music Festivals and the Lanaudiere International Festival. Lemelin acts as associate music professor at the University of Alberta.

Tickets are $20, available at Billie’s Bouquet, Mostly Books, and Highland Video. For information call Patricia de Melo at 604-898-1228.

HSPAA has also announced a piano master class with Lemelin, from 1 p.m to 3 p.m on Feb. 9. Students, selected via audition, will receive a 15-minute advisory session with Lemelin which include an emphasis on interpretation and tone production. Tickets are $7. For information call Joanne Schwarz at 604-898-5503.