Where's Rasputin (Foley?): A Once Great Nation Auctions A Celebrity-Signed Guitar To Fund Its Struggling National Culture

October 25, 2006

Dear Garth:

As part of the celebrations being held during National Arts and Humanities Month this October, Americans for the Arts is auctioning a Gibson/Epiphone Dove acoustic guitar signed by an eclectic group of more than 20 celebrity arts supporters, ranging from the Dixie Chicks and Renee Fleming to Wayne Newton and Leonard Nimoy.

This is Americans for the Arts’ first ever online auction and all proceeds will benefit our advocacy efforts on behalf of the arts and arts education. The auction, which is being presented through eBay’s charitable program Giving Works, will conclude this Thursday, October 26 at 9:00 a.m. ET. To place a bid, please visit Americans for the Arts' eBay auction page.

The following celebrities have graciously signed the donated Gibson/Epiphone Dove acoustic guitar:

Alan Alda, actor, author
Alec Baldwin, actor
John Corbett, actor, musician
Kurt Cobain, legendary performer
Jamie Lee Curtis, actress, author
The Dixie Chicks, platinum-selling musicians
Pierre Dulaine, dancer, subject of the films Mad Hot Ballroom and Take the Lead
Melissa Etheridge, musician
Renee Fleming, opera star
The Indigo Girls, musicians
Brian Stokes Mitchell, Broadway star
Wayne Newton, legendary performer
Leonard Nimoy, actor
Peter, Paul, and Mary, musicians
Lisa Marie Presley, musician
Harry Shearer, actor
Pete Yorn, musician
Dan Zanes, musician

Winner of the auction will also receive a brand new Epiphone hard shell case as well as the black Sharpie used to sign the instrument by all of the celebrities.
Thank you for your continued support of the arts and happy bidding!...

www.AmericansForTheArts.org

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Wednesday, October 25, 2006

"Dressing up isn’t just for kids — according to a survey by the National Retail Federation, one third of adults in the U.S. dressed up for Halloween last year. Several operatic characters will disguise themselves onstage this month, too. At Atlanta Opera, Metropolitan Opera, and Pittsburgh Opera, audiences will be moved by the tears of a clown as he applies makeup in performances of Pagliacci. We will also see Mozart’s men disguise themselves in pursuit of (what else?) women: Don Giovanni will swap clothes with his servant at Houston Grand Opera and Opera Ontario, and two straight-laced suitors will dress up as “exotic” Albanians in performances of Così fan tutte at Canadian Opera Company and New York City Opera.

There’s never a shortage of ghosts on the street on October 31; they’ll also inhabit several stages this month, as well. Don’t miss Die Tote Stadt at New York City Opera, Boris Godunov at Opera Pacific, and Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera Queensland. If you’re more frightened by characters of the flesh-and-blood variety, you’ll thrill to portrayals the power-mad wife of Macbeth at Arizona Opera, the unswervable Salome at Lyric Opera of Chicago, the indomitable (well, almost) Queen of the Night at the Metropolitan Opera, and the bigamous Bluebeard [sic] at Washington National Opera."

Opera America

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WNO to Present Simulcast of Puccini's Madama Butterfly on the National Mall


WNO and National Museum of Women in the Arts Present "The Year of the Woman in Opera," Beginning October 29, 2006














The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music's 2005 production of Dominick Argento's The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe. Photo by Mark Lyons.

Photo credit: (c) Mark Lyons via Opera America. All rights reserved. With thanks.