<P><BR><B>Spoleto Festival Enters 25th Year</B> <P>By BRUCE SMITH in Backstage.com<P><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>In a quarter century, the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. has become as much a part of Charleston as pastel buildings, carriages drifting down oak-shaded streets and a skyline of church spires.<P>The curtain rises next Friday on the arts festival's 25th season.<P>"Through the difficulties and the challenges, the fund-raising, personalities and all that, I was determined to make sure this day came," said Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr.<P>For 17 days, the city will be the stage for more than 130 performances and events ranging from ballet to jazz, opera to theater, art exhibits to classical concerts. Highlights include the Spoleto debut of The Royal Shakespeare Company performing Goldoni's "A Servant to Two Masters," as well as the festival debut of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><A HREF="http://www.backstage.com/backstage/features/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=871451" TARGET=_blank><B>More...</B></A>

From the New York Times:<P> <P><font size=1>William Struhs<BR>for Spoleto Festival USA <BR>The Brenda Angiel Aerial<BR>Dance Company from<BR>Argentina. </font> <P><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>This year's offerings are being presented on nearly a dozen Charleston stages, most within walking distance of each other. The variety is as rich as ever. While "Manon Lescaut" was a dazzling visual feast, for example, the other opera, Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas," was spare and minimalist. The director, Chen Shi-Zheng, left the sloping stage bare except for a few archetypal objects like a stone and a leafless branch. Singers moved across it as if entranced.<P>Both the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago were well received, but dance audiences reserved some of their loudest applause for the Brenda Angiel Aerial Dance Company from Argentina. Members of this troupe perform while attached to elastic ropes hanging from the ceiling. They perform some routines entirely in the air, others by bouncing and twirling from air to floor.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/05/arts/05SPOL.html" TARGET=_blank><B>MORE...</B></A><P>