Dan's Papers - June 27, 2008 - Take Five 2008 with Jan Silver

This week before Independence Day brings top-draw performers, a slew of distinguished authors, foreign film classics and many entertaining benefits. Opera of the Hamptons opens its summer season with Cavalleria Rusticana featuring an international cast and NYPD's popular 9/11 "singing policeman," tenor Daniel Rodriguez, on Saturday in Southold. Four-time Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves takes the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center stage on Saturday evening. Well-known Manhattan, Los Angeles and London actors enact Mysteries of the Mind on Saturday in Sagaponack, and this is the last weekend to enjoy Charles Busch's spoof Shanghai Moon at Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor.

Major new art exhibits just opened at East Hampton's Guild Hall ("Inspired by the Light: Landscapes by East End Masters") and Southampton's Parrish Art Museum ("Sand: Memory, Meaning and Metaphor"); special talks related to both exhibits are scheduled this weekend. Others speaking this week - prolific author James Brady, popular cookbook writer Katie Lee Joel, and more. Guild Hall begins its "Films from the Janus Collection" series next Tuesday. For classical music lovers, the Perlman Music Program and Pianofest have informal concerts, and there are notable benefits this weekend.

Opera of the Hamptons presents Pietro Mascagni's famous one-act opera Cavalleria Rusticana followed not by Pagliacci but by the lighter Italian songs of Tosti, Verdi and Puccini on Saturday, 7 p.m., at Duck Walk Vineyards North in Southold. The lead singers are tenor Daniel Rodriguez, soprano Christina Fontanelli, baritone Gustavo Altualli and mezzo soprano Ann Plagianos. Tickets are $45 in advance, $55 at the door; reserve at (631) 728-8804 or online at operaofthehamptons.org.

Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center brings in stellar jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves and her combo on Saturday, 8 p.m. She is the only artist to win three consecutive Grammy Awards (2001-03) and a fourth in 2006 for the film track Good Night and Good Luck. Tickets are $50-100 at the Main St. box office (631-288-1500) or online at www.whbpac.org.

Classical music performed by gifted young musicians is gratis on Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m., at informal works-in-progress programs on the Perlman Music Program's Shelter Island campus (call 631-749-0740 to confirm schedule). On Monday, 5 p.m. at the Southampton Cultural Center, emerging concert pianists play at Pianofest in the Avram Theater, Stony Brook Southampton campus. Tickets are $12 at the door and there is no charge for students; a reception follows the program.

Recommended music at local clubs and restaurants: Montauk - live band Sat. at Surf Lodge; comedy Wed. at Gurney's Inn; Amagansett - live music weekends at Surf Shack, at the Stephen Talkhouse on Fri. it's Steve Forbert followed by country Amy Birdsong Band then rock band Hot Lava, on Sat., singer/songwriter Dar Williams then alt. rock with Little Head Thinks, next Wed. Sublime tribute band Badfish, next Thurs. singer/songwriter Beth Orton followed by Nancy Atlas; East Hampton - Mambo Loco on Sat. at Fiddler's Cove, Mamalee Rose & friends at Turtle Crossing on Thurs.; reggae Sun. 6 to 9 p.m. at East Hampton Point; Sagaponack - wine & jazz Thurs. at Wölffer Estate; Bridgehampton - light jazz with Vanessa Trouble on Sun. & and Jody Carlson on Tues. at Pierre's, singer Monica Hughes at One Ocean on Thurs.; Sag Harbor - live music Thurs. at Bay Burger; Water Mill - singer/guitarist Steve Fredericks on Thurs. at Muse; Southampton - live music weekends at 75 Main and Regulars Music Café (on North Sea Rd.), Sunnyland Jazz Band at Le Chef on Thurs., Hampton Bays - live music Fri. at Buckley's; Westhampton Beach - live music Fri. at Annona, live music Thurs. to Sat. at The Patio, live music weekends at Westhampton Steakhouse (Swingset Quartet on Thurs.), live music weekends at Artful Dodger, live music Thurs. to Sun. at Starr Boggs; East Quogue - at Dockers Waterside on Fri., Dave Tyler, and Sun., Paul Mahos; Riverhead - live music weekends at Tweed's and Eastenders Coffee House.

WordTheatre, a nonprofit group of Manhattan, Los Angeles and London theater artists dedicated to keeping the oral storytelling tradition alive, will perform Cedering Fox's new dramatic monologues, Mysteries of the Mind, on Saturday as a benefit for NARSAD (National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression). Actors scheduled to participate (in alphabetical order) are Rae Dawn Chong, Gary Dourdain, Kathryn Erbe, John Heard, Michael Landes, Wendy Makkena, Linus Roache, Kim Raver, Harris Yulin and narrator Blair Bess. The evening takes place in the sculpture garden at Twin Oaks Farm, Sagaponack, and also includes cocktails, dinner, a musical performance by the talented jazz singer Deborah Lippmann, and a silent auction. Tickets are a $250 donation to NARSAD; call (516) 829-0091 or go online to events@narsad.org.

This is the closing weekend for playwright/actor Charles Busch's spoof of 1930s Asian mystery film genre. Shanghai Moon is onstage at Sag Harbor's Bay Street Theatre. The talented Broadway cast includes Busch, Julie Halston and Thom Sesma. Tickets ($50-65) are sold at the box office (631-725-9500) or online at baystreet.org.

James Brady speaks about his new book Why Marines Fight tonight, 6 p.m., in the Authors Roundtable Dinner series at Alison Restaurant, now at the Maidstone Arms, East Hampton. The evening includes a three-course dinner ($39 plus drinks, tax, tip); please call (631) 324-5440 to reserve seats.

Dan Rattiner reads from his well-received memoir In the Hamptons today at 11 a.m. at Starbucks, Bridgehampton, on Sat. at the Memory Motel, Montauk (11 a.m.), and Sun. at the Pollock-Krasner House, Springs (5 p.m.). Dan's Papers writer Janet Berg, who penned a charming dog's view of the South Fork, Glitz of the Hamptons, will be at Duck Walk Vineyard, Water Mill, on Sat. from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Katie Lee Joel speaks about her new cookbook The Comfort Table at BookHampton, Amagansett, Sat. at 5 p.m. Memoirist Kelly McMasters reads from Welcome to Shirley on Sat., 7 p.m., at BookHampton, Sag Harbor.

There are two choice talks on Sat. at 6 p.m. Hofstra Univ. professor Stan Pugliese discusses Carlo Levi's seminal Fear of Freedom (Western culture's flight from moral and spiritual autonomy) at Canio's Books, Sag Harbor, and Parrish Art Museum's chief curator Alician Longwell talks briefly about the new exhibit with poet Maz Blagg reading from his lyrical Book of Sand (reception follows; call 631-283-2118 to reserve seats). There are two wonderful talks on Sunday: Peconic Land Trust president John v. Halsey speaks about "Conserving the Landscapes of Long Island," 3:30 p.m. at Guild Hall, East Hampton, and Dr. Leslie Lobel of Israel's Ben-Gurion University talks about the threat from bioterrorism at Jewish Center of the Hamptons, East Hampton, at 4 p.m. The Bridgehampton library's "Fridays at Five" series opens next Thurs. with international political journalist Patrick Symmes speaking (Bridgehampton Community House. $15).

Southampton's Rogers Memorial Library screens The Kite Runner, based on the best-selling book on Afghanistan, at 3 p.m. next Mon. (no charge but call 283-0774 to reserve a seat). Guild Hall, East Hampton, begins its summer world cinema series with Ingmar Bergman's lovely Smiles of a Summer Night (Sweden, 1955) next Tues., 7:30 p.m., ($3 members, $5 nonmembers).

"The Golden Age of Hollywood: The Roaring 20s" is East End Hospice's theme for its Starr Boggs' catered dinner dance, casino & auction hosted by John Roland at Sandacres in Quogue starting at 7 p.m. on Sat. ($200 for guests 35 and over, $125 for under 35s; call 631-288-7080).

The local chapter of the American Cancer Society holds a "Denim & Diamonds" dinner dance honoring the late Roy Scheider and others on Sat., 7 p.m., at Water Mill's Diamond Ranch. Tickets start at $500; call 1-800-ACS-2345.