@Blue Hill Library

Tuesday, October 7, 2014-- In this issue:

•  Events this week... 
•  Candidate Forum Next Tuesday
•  Play Reading: The Cherry Orchard
•  Art Adventures: Bonsai Tips and Techniques
•  Opera Preview: The Marriage of Figaro
•  Save the Date: Celebrity Spelling Bee Fundraiser

• Award-winning poet Paul Nemser will read from his two recently published books of poetry at the Blue Hill Public Library THIS THURSDAY! October 9 at 7:00 PM. More info here. 

• The Bagaduce Lending Library and Friends of Blue Hill Library will present a preview of Guiseppe Verde's opera MacBeth at 1:00 PM THIS FRIDAY! October 10, one day before the Met's live simulcast of the opera at the Grand in Ellsworth. More info here.

• The Library is bringing the perennial favorite Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers back to Blue Hill to do a free performance of The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow
   THIS SATURDAY! October 11 at 2:00 PM in the Bay School's Emlen Hall. More info here. 

Candidates for Hancock County District Attorney and new State House District 133 (Blue Hill, Brooklin Brooksville, Castine, Sedgwick and Surry) will meet the public in a Q&A forum at the  Library, Tuesday, October 14, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.  Joining the forum are District Attorney candidates, Bill Entwisle and Matt Foster, who will speak beginning at 6:30; and District 133 House candidates, Ralph Chapman and Susan Walsh, who will speak beginning at 7:30. The forum will be moderated by Nat Barrows, publisher and editor of the Penobscot Bay Press.
 
Citizens are urged to attend and learn how the candidates will deal with the important issues facing Hancock County and the State of Maine.  

There will be an opportunity for the audience to submit their own questions to be presented by the moderator.    This event is sponsored by the Library, the Hancock County Branch of the American Association of University Women, the Ellsworth American, and the League of Women Voters Downeast. For more information call the Library at 374-5515.

The public is invited to participate in the Library Play Reading Group on Wednesday, October 15 from 6:30 to 9:00 PM at the Library, and every 3rd Wednesday of the month until next summer. This month the group will read The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov.

The play is about an aristocratic Russian family at the turn of the 20th century, after Russia abolished serfdom and the middle class was on the rise. The family does not take needed action to save their estate which contains a beautiful cherry orchard but is instead forced to sell it to pay the mortgage. It is auctioned off and sold to the son of a former serf. The family moves out to the sound of the cherry orchard being cut down.

The group welcomes inexperienced and experienced readers alike. The only criteria are the love of plays and the joy of reading them aloud among like-minded theater fans. For further information, contact the Library at 374-5515 or Michael Donahue at 374-5248 (or Donahue.mg@gmail.com).

The Library's monthly series of free Art Adventures for adults and interested teens continues on Thursday, October 16 at 7:00 PM with Bonsai Tips and Techniques with Bonsai master Michael Levin from Bonsai West in Littleton, Massachusetts.
 

Michael Levin at work

In 1984, Michael Levin founded Bonsai West, which houses one of the largest collections of masterpiece bonsai, many over 100 years old. In this talk Michael will demonstrate how to make and care for bonsai, including pruning, potting and wiring techniques. He will share his philosophies of the stewardship and the awesome responsibility of tending trees that have been passed down for several generations.

Michael will also tell stories about his relationship with some of the first generation Japanese-American artists from California, who trained him, and who, after being held in internment camps during World War II, went on to become the founding fathers of American bonsai.

The event is free and everyone is welcome.  For more information, call the Library at 374-5515.

The Bagaduce Music Lending Library and Friends of the Blue Hill Public Library will present a preview of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro" at 1:00 PM on Friday, October 17, at the Blue Hill Public Library. A live performance of the opera will be simulcast at the Grand in Ellsworth the following day, Saturday, October 18, from the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Ildar Abdrazakov sings Figaro in a new staging by Richard Eyre. Photo: Anne Deniau/Metropolitan Opera

In the Met's description of the opera it says, "Met Music Director James Levine conducts a spirited new production of Mozart's masterpiece, directed by Richard Eyre, who sets the action of this classic domestic comedy in an 18th-century manor house in Seville during the 1930s. Dashing bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov leads the cast in the title role of the clever servant, opposite Marlis Petersen as his bride, Susanna, Peter Mattei as the philandering Count they work for, Amanda Majeski as the long-suffering Countess, and Isabel Leonard as the libidinous pageboy Cherubino."

Local opera enthusiasts Linda Lesko and David Porter will summarize the plot, introduce the music and offer some ideas of special ways to enjoy the Saturday simulcast. All are welcome, no previous opera knowledge is needed, and admission is free. For more information, call the library at 374-5515.

It's Back!  The 2nd Annual Celebrity Spelling Bee Fundraiser is coming up.  If you didn't go last year, you probably heard about it.  Lots of laughs in the pursuit of spelling excellence and lots of money raised to support our operating budget.  More details next week!

Don't hesitate to call us for more information at 207-374-5515.