December-January Highlights

		SMART MUSEUM OF ART    “Reflections of Beauty:       Late Nineteenth-Century Japanese Prints       in the Smart Museum Collection”
				Sunday, Dec. 21 through Sunday, March 23, 2003 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Smart Museum, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave. 702-0200. Free. A widespread societal transformation, engendered by Japan’s new openness to the outside world during the 19th century, greatly impacted the print culture known as Ukiyo-e that flourished in the theater and courtesan quarters of Edo, or modern Tokyo. The three artists featured in this exhibition reacted differently to these changes, from initial fascination to eventual nostalgia. The lavishly printed bijinga, or “beautiful women” prints, and related theatrical woodblocks in the exhibition not only capture the ideal of fleeting beauty so highly esteemed by male audiences at the time, but also more broadly reflect longing for a vanishing traditional culture due to the rapid, often disorienting tempo of Japan’s modernization.
		Toyohara Chikanobu, “Beauty of the Bunyu Era” (1861-1863), from the series “Jidai kagami (Mirror of the ages)”
		HANDEL’S MESSIAH
				8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7 Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave. 702-9075. $20 chancel, $15 nave, $8 students. Randi Von Ellefson will conduct the University Chorus and Rockefeller Bach Soloists in Handel’s Messiah. Sharon Quattrin, soprano; Roger King, alto; Gary Rebholz, tenor; and Robert Laner, baritone, join the ensemble for this year’s production of a holiday tradition at the University.
		Rockefeller Chapel
		DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC    Jazz X-tet
				8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5 Fulton Recital Hall, 1010 E. 59th St. 702-8069. Free. The Jazz X-tet and director Mwata Bowden will present a concert of foot-tapping compositions from a wide range of modern swing composers, including Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Bob Mintzer, Benny Golson and Thad Jones.
		Jazz X-tet
		COURT THEATRE    James Joyce’s The Dead
				Through Sunday, Dec. 22 Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. 753-4472. $30-$40. Senior and student discounts are available. Court Theatre presents one of the most lauded new musicals, James Joyce’s The Dead, in its Chicago premiere. Adapted from the final piece in James Joyce’s short story collection Dubliners, the tale is set on a snowy Christmas Eve in turn-of-the-century Dublin. Friends and family gather to eat, drink, tell stories and sing songs at the Morkan family’s annual holiday party. During the festivities a familiar song re-ignites Gretta Conroy’s memory of a long-lost love. Gabriel, Gretta’s husband and the play’s narrator, must grapple with his wife’s sudden revelation of deeply buried passion and remembrance of unfulfilled possibilities. Filled with Irish folk melodies and dancing, James Joyce’s The Dead will be a highlight of the holiday season.