There's another fond return, the Compagnie Philippe Genty of France. And this show, in its Village Voice Obie-winning production from New York, is about a Southern black woman's sacrifice for her daughter. It's being staged in the historic Dock Street Theatre, one of the country's most painstakingly restored performance spaces. Brent Ellis sings Gianni Schicchi to Susan Bullock's Giorgetta under the leadership of festival music director Steven Sloane. But time and urban development have been no kinder to the Deepest South than to other parts of the country.
Trailer parks are nearby.
Gian Carlo Menotti looked pretty good to the surviving culturati of Charleston in 1977 when he arrived, beaming with Italian charm and speaking that delightfully baffling language of his, to open the U.S. counterpart of his European festival. Menotti's no slouch. He had discovered that native Charlestonians still cling to their city's Colonial reputation as a New World arts capital. He'd found plenty of quaint performance venues within walking distance of each other in the historic district. A ready tourist-industry infrastructure.