Spoletoblog

Opening observations

Quickie observations and stuff overheard at today's opening...

• Turnout for the opening ceremony was nice -- all the chairs were full, and the crowd stretched about half a block up Broad. The quest for shade helped string things out: People moved folding chairs onto the south sidewalk to stay out of the sun.
• The healthiest shade was south of the event at Exchange and East Bay, where it was downright cool. Unfortunately, the sound design was such that that this comfort came at a tradeoff. You really couldn't hear what the speakers were saying.
• Maestro David Stahl, music director for the CSO, led the orchestra's brass ensemble before the speeches began and dedicated the performance to P&C Spoleto critic Bob Jones, who died in November at age 72. A nice touch of class
• They're expecting record box office this year.
• Joe Riley gets the quote: Spoleto causes the city "to become, for 17 days, the center of the world's art stage." Which sounds good to us, since that makes this, for 17 days, the blog at the center of the world's arts stage. Hello.
• Last year's festival had ticket-buyers from every state but South Dakota, "and we've been working on South Dakota." So basically, if you know someone from South Dakota and you can convince them to buy a ticket and come on down, we'll promise to make an inordinately big deal about it. We're serious. We've got a bounty on South Dakota Spoleto fans. First one gets... well, actually, we don't have any Spoletoblog schwag yet, but just prove that you're here from South Dakota and we'll think of something...

Opening ceremony gallery

Some photos from today's opening ceremony are now up over at the cleverly named photo album "Opening ceremony."

If you've got photos you'd like to see on this blog, e-mail them to us here.

(11:45 p.m. update: For those of you who are out of town, here's a 45-second taste of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Brass Ensemble, recorded just before noon this morning. Warm temps, shade, nice little breeze, and music...Download cso_brass_5_27.mp3 dc... about 700kb)

New photo album

'Spoleto People'
We'll collect photographs of people associated with Spoleto this year at the album page "Spoleto People." A good way to put faces with names, and the album will grow over time.

Go here to see it, and click this to send digital photos or suggestions.