Peoria, IL -- The Peoria Symphony Orchestra's tribute to Peoria native Betty Friedan, on Nov. 20 at the Peoria Civic Center Theater, was wonderful, with some annoying issues.
The orchestra played three pieces by its composer-in-residence Stephanie Ann Boyd, including one written to honor Friedan. They were all quite interesting musically, melodic with dissonance, like the women's movement itself.
And the orchestra was terrific, as was violin soloist Sirena Huang. She smoothly handled a mini-incident, when a string on her 400-year-old violin came loose. She quickly switched violins with the first chair violinist, and the piece continued. Then that section was replayed.
Nevertheless the program had issues. Two big screens were not used as effectively as they could have been. No videos were broadcast showing the concert live with the conductor and players, as the Heartland Festival Orchestra does at its concerts.
The operatic soloist for two of the pieces, Michelle DeYoung sang beautifully but the audience would have benefited from supertitles of her lyrics on the screens.
Then there's the Civic Center itself -- after 18 months of COVID shutdown nothing has improved. The carpet is still dirty, a disgrace. It needs to be replaced.
Worse yet, some idiot has dreamed up the security system from hell. A woman cannot bring in a purse, as everything is supposed to be in plastic baggies. Ridiculous. Keys and phones must go through an air terminal type screening process, which I suspect is a fake because it didn't catch mine, in my purse, hidden beneath my coat.
We met an older woman outside the theater entrance who had been sent back to her car,, in the cold and dark, to stash her modestly sized purse. I will bet she'll never return to the place. She warned us what was in store, so I hid my purse beneath my coat.
Five Points Washington doesn't do any of this. It should stop immediately if the Civic Center wants people to return.
-- Elaine Hopkins
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