- On this edition of our place, our time studies of the artist as boss as personified by the Virginia Operas, Peter Mark of the artist as performer, played in Blues tempo by Sapphire, and the artist as engineer as Dale Eldrid.

Erects, an important new sculpture in Virginia Beach.

- This program is made possible in part by grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, and from the Art Commission of the City of Newport News.

- Hello, I'm Vianne Webb.

Welcome to the first show, the second season of our play, our time again this year we at Channel 15 are going to walk with you through the special neighborhoods of Hampton Roads.

This is the Center Theater.

For the last 14 years, the home of the Virginia Opera, the Center Theater was built as a haven for sailors and soldiers during World War ii.

It's still a haven of entertainment.

If you come here during opera rehearsals and productions, you'll see troop movements and strategy sessions that will certainly remind you of a military campaign.

And there's even a general in charge.

It's Peter Mark, the general director of the Virginia Opera.

Tim Wharton prepared this profile.

- Every artist works on the passion and the technique, and you need them both.

But really the only reason to have technique is to be free to express a variety of things.

And that is the area in which I think I could help people because with a musical background and knowing the orchestra and the musical line, we can get past, oh, well this is an eighth note and that's a 16th note we can get to.

Well, I think the reason that that's an eighth note is that, or that that's 16th note is it gives you a little bit more urgency - At the Virginia Opera.

From urgent 16th notes to phone solicitations, mail campaigns, and balancing a multimillion dollar budget.

Peter Mark keeps it all in harmony.

- Peter has demonstrated that he has given more than his all, he has given more to this community, to the Virginia Opera than any, any head of an opera company that I've ever heard of.

It's, it's - Mrs. Edith Harrison was the founding president of Virginia Opera.

It's - Beyond, - And had her dream realized when she hired Mark, - He created the Virginia Opera.

So there's more of a feeling that like, like with a child, like with a family, this is a very unique type of organization.

It's, it has a very strong feeling of, of closeness and family and, and all the, the good things.

It's, it's not just another organization.

It's not just another meeting you go to.

It's the opera.

It's Peter.

It has that excitement that rad de vie.

It's, it's different.

- In April, mark and his wife, the renowned Scottish composer, Thea Musgrave, visited Jerusalem as ambassadors of the Virginia Israel Commission in Crown Hall.

Mark led the Jerusalem Symphony in music from Musgrave's, Merry Queen of Scots.

- Peter doesn't do anything different with his stick.

Well, some things are a little bit different.

Every conductor has idiosyncrasies, but what Peter has is heart.

I mean he, when Peter gives the downbeat, his entire soul is given to opera.

There's nothing in the world that will be the change, anything.

But what he hears and what he sees in front of him, he's totally committed to the excellence that he can get out of it.

And that's the difference.

That's the difference between great men and people who are also rans.

I mean, he's just totally, totally into it.

- I have an ideal view of a lot of things, and I think every artist does too.

You know, we are all disciplined and I played violin and viola, and you spend years developing a technique and a discipline and you're used to being motivated 'cause you see a goal that's passed what you have already achieved.

And that's been my approach musically with the opera, but also business-wise in the office.

I think that when you ask people to give their best and you keep growing, it's, that's a truly creative environment.

- You were once thrown out of Peter Mark's office.

Everyone, many people have told me, tell me the story, what happened.

- I don't know where that story got started.

It wasn't quite that bad.

But I was sitting in his office one day and we were talking about a marketing brochure, and the wording in the brochure was the opera world.

And Peter wanted it to say the world of opera.

And I kind of dug in my heels and he dug in his, and the next thing I knew I was outside of his office.

- What happened?

Later, - Later I went in and I said, Peter, I said, I just don't know whether we can work together under these circumstances.

And he said, oh, I know, I know.

He said, I've just got so many things on my mind.

He said, but wasn't it exciting?

And it was.

- Whenever I've given opera parties here for singers and staff, I frequently serve a chocolate dessert that Peter loves a chocolate chest pie.

And he's been known to, to come in early, find the five or six pies I've made, and hide three of them so that people, other people will get lesser amounts and he could come eat later.

And once he had hidden one successfully, and I brought, found it later, I thought, oh good, I have a whole pie left.

Well, the next night after the party late maybe 10 o'clock I guess it was, there was a banging at the door.

I opened the door and there was Peter standing at the door with this funny look on his face.

And I saw his car out there with Thea in the car.

I said, why doesn't Thea come in?

And Thea was sitting in the car staring sort of straight ahead saying, Peter, for God's sake, Peter, for God's sake.

And Peter said, I want pie, you know, and then he pushed open the door, came in and fell on the floor and began crawling around the four groveling saying, pie, chocolate pie give, you have one left.

Give me a pie.

So I fell on the floor next to him and I said, Peter, what?

Thea by then had gotten outta the car and come to the door and said, I'm so embarrassed I tried to stop him.

Please forgive this intrusion.

I told him, you needed to go to bed early tonight.

I said, that's all right.

You can have some place.

I know you have one left.

Of course, he knew I had one left.

He had hidden it the night before.

So you are likely to get a, an unusual visit like this from Peter if there's a chocolate chest pie in the house.

- I had early experiences at the Metropolitan Opera as a kid, and I heard the world's greatest voices on that stage and in rehearsal.

And they were the warmest people.

But you, you part of an environment which opera is a lot of complex elements and they're all working together for the moment of delivery, which is the performance.

And people are cooperating together and they're giving their best.

But what they're saying is, life is important.

The issues that we're talking about are worth singing about.

They're worth focusing on.

And this is what I want you to understand.

It's like a, it's almost a love poem from the creator, which who created the work to the audience.

They wouldn't go through this trouble to write all of these parts if they didn't wanna communicate something to you.

And we, the performers train ourselves to maximize that communication.

And for me, opera is an idealized world.

I would love to be able to go around sort of hugging people on the street or whatever and you, you get to do it in opera.

You just absolutely get to do it.

You get to appreciate the best of people and you get to sing.

Your heart sings.

- Musicians of the Virginia Symphony continue to walk a picket line in their month old strike of the orchestra.

The musicians and orchestra management have not been able to agree on a new contract covering the musician's wages and benefits apparently few issues dividing the two sides remain.

However, the future of the 67-year-old symphony, a jewel in the arts crown of Hampton Roads is in jeopardy.

The management which was operating with a budget deficit before the strike began says it may have to fold the orchestra and declare bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, the musicians who have accepted the management's wage package say they want to go back to work under a two year agreement.

The management insists it needs a three year pact and says it will have to lower the pay scale.

It is offered unless the musicians return to work soon.

Two more concerts by the orchestra scheduled this weekend in Virginia Beach and Hampton have been postponed because of the labor disagreement for our place, our time.

I'm Tim Morton.

- Last year, three young musicians who live in Fredericksburg, Virginia had been singing and playing together and they decided to take their musical show on the road.

The name they chose to perform under was Sapphire.

We want you to meet Sapphire on our program today because what's unusual about them is that the three musicians comprising Sapphire come from varied ethnic backgrounds, and yet they've mastered an art form in song which heretofore has belonged to the leading black musicians.

Kim Simon filed this report on Sapphire - Meet Ann Robson, also known as Beal House, Annie, Jewish and Ohioan.

43 years of age a systems analyst, Lene Lewis or Cherokee Earl, all Oaky also 43, a real estate agent and boss mama Gay Ade Bola, a Southern Baptist from Virginia Age 42, a high school teacher.

Together they are sapphire uppity, blues women and unusual trio whose down home brand of Torchy jazzy music both searches and soothes the soul as all good blues should.

Sapphire has been playing together since 1984, appearing in colleges, clubs, concerts, and blues festivals.

They've opened for the likes of Cocoa Taylor, BB King, the fabulous Thunderbirds and Ray Charles.

We caught them here at the Red Coral Cafe where they appeared for two nights before a following of diverse and loyal blues and sapphire lovers.

- These are three ladies from Fredericksburg.

They play the blues.

They're hard.

That's why they're called Sapphire.

When we first came out here, I saw the three women walking around the air and they don't look like they belong and they make great music together.

They may play the blues and they know what it's all about.

- Wraps in Aade.

Ola and Lewis are old enough to know what they want and free enough to express themselves with a sense of confidence that comes only with age.

- It's like, you know, we say what's on our mind.

And an uppity woman is a woman who speaks.

Her mind is kind of sassy.

She's kind of outta place really.

It - Doesn't stay - In the, she doesn't take any stuff.

Yeah, food.

She didn't that - Harmonic and sound and spirit.

There are personal blend of blues reflects three women who have found a sense of place together playing and performing, not a common practice for women of their age.

My - Therapist talked to me about that the other day.

He truly did.

He said it is a real phenomena in that most teenagers, a lot of teenagers getting in a band, doing music, maybe some of the other things that peripheral kind of things.

And here you are 43 years old and you're into the first band that's kind of doing it all the time.

And he says, that's very interesting.

And I said, you're right.

You getting energy from the music.

- Yeah, you can be exhausted and music is just such a catharsis.

You jump in there and all of a sudden God is this wonderful gift from God or wherever and it jumps on you and, and, and all of a sudden you feel good.

Even if you're tired, you feel good.

- Yeah.

The the music doesn't, doesn't make it harder to live your life.

It makes it much, much easier without the music.

I would probably have quit my job long before gotten divorced or shot my husband.

- Now what I want you to think about is when you first gave it up, - They sing about love being lost in it and being fresh out of it.

They play the lates and the greats.

Billie Holiday, Fatz Waller, Betsy Smith and Tina Turner.

But it is their own work, Frank and outrageous, cutting quick to the core of their contemporary lives that satisfies their calling as blues musicians.

Amen.

- Middle age blues.

How can I say I miss you since you got your new jacuzzi.

You don't do me like you used to do school teacher blues, they deal with current subjects, but the form is old blues form and the inspiration might come from anywhere.

I don't necessarily have to be having a hard time.

My my most serious songs are written when I'm having a hard time, however, and it's a release, again, a release.

Get real high.

- Do all three contribute to their repertoire of original works?

I dig.

Vela is touted as the resident songwriter.

Horrendous source of inspiration comes from what she calls hooks, pieces of verbiage that catch and stay with you.

- They're like one liners that would be great to write a song around.

A hook that I've been saving for about three years is that it ain't good unless you break a sweat.

Now I know that that's got a really good song in it somewhere.

It just, I just have to sit down and do it.

- Only one of the three Lene Lewis Reeds music.

But that doesn't stop these uppity women from playing a variety of instruments.

- I think that that the blues have been dominated by men, instrumentally, generally speaking vocally.

Women have been quite dominant and still are.

Coco Taylor is, you know, Denise, Liz, the Blues, Denise Lasal, and of course historically Bessie Smith and Ma - Rainey Bill Holiday.

For me, I'm not a great musician.

I call Anne and Elene great musicians, but I refuse to not play because so many women do not play.

And while I want to get better at my instruments, I'm gonna play 'em just to be a role model for other women who might think they can just sing.

- Versed in playing several instruments.

Louis prefers her companion base, Sadie, her tear jerker torchy vocals add a touch of country bluegrass, the white man's blues of Hank Williams and Patsy Klein grabs in Croons a jazzy, mellow, soothing sound while switch hitting between her keyboard Roland and her guitar of some 30 years.

Althea, I take Bola, brings Millie, her rhythm guitar and her angels, A series of harmonica or blues harps vocally, she grinds out a raspy husky sound rooted in the style of old Nina Simone and new Millie Jackson.

- And people to this day, they always call us blues singers.

They will always, I mean even people who know us well, they say, oh, there's gay.

She sings with Sapphire.

- Yeah.

- And I say, oh yes, I play.

I am a musician.

I play and sing sapphire - Vocally, instrumentally musically raps.

And Lewis and Aade bola are the fiery blue spirit of sapphire.

And as their I can make it overtone is carried throughout their music.

These three middle-aged women celebrate life playing their blues.

- Well, I was looking around and checking out my very best friends seems that they'd all taken up with young, young men.

Seems that when you reach around middle age, you don't want a final chapter, you wanna write another page?

I need a young man to drive away my middle age.

Well, it seems like men my age are all married, born a child.

You gotta find a young man if you want a feel, desire.

Now some of my friends is worried by what people may say.

I say age ain't nothing but a number.

The good Lord made it that way.

I need a young man to drive away my, he can get it up.

Lord, that can get on down.

He'll help you do the dishes.

Thank you out on the town you don't let to navigate because he ain't worried about seniority.

You can tell him where to put it.

Keeping you happy as his priority.

I need a young man.

I need a young, young man.

I need a young, young man to drive away.

Will I forget about my arthritis, my backache.

That young man makes me boogie at the horizontal disco.

I'm cleaning out my closet.

I'm no longer sentimental.

Forget about experience.

I'd rather have potential.

I need a young man to drive away.

Well, I don't.

No reason.

I don't need no cocaine.

All I need is a young man to drive me insane.

I'm throwing away my dust mop, got a brand new vacuum cleaner.

I'm no longer taken for granted.

My young man sucks it up, sweetheart.

I need a young man to drive away from middle.

I say, old woman, don't yell.

Old woman, don't tell old woman, don't.

She as hell a need, a young, young man, a man to drive away.

Easy.

Now I say ain't nothing but a number.

You know that age ain't nothing but a number Y'all.

I say ain't nothing but a number.

You know that age ain't nothing but a number and like a rare wine.

You don't get older, you just get better.

A young - Public art brings art out of private museums and into reach of audiences.

Large artworks are beginning to grace with regularity.

The parks and public buildings throughout Hampton Roads.

And now the city of Virginia Beach has found a new way to bring commissioned art pieces into the hands of citizens and visitors.

- Public art is becoming increasingly important in Hampton Roads.

Here at the Virginia Beach Pavilion stands an example of this city's commitment to bring art to its citizens.

The sculpture called Light Garden is the first work commissioned through an innovative program called Percent for the Arts.

- The percent for the Arts program is a program that was adopted by the city of Virginia Beach in June, 1986.

It's a program focused on commissioning, purchasing, and installing contemporary artworks.

- The first commissioned work is by Kansas City artists Dale eld.

The internationally acclaimed ELD has created other light diffractive sculptures in the United States and in Europe.

This sculpture is a series of 31 light diffractive units that were frack light, much like prisms.

As the sun passes over them at night, neon tubes mounted on the back of the columns will activate to fill the space with the blue glow.

- What's happening here is this takes white light out there, 93 million miles away from the sun.

It travels now to the specific surface.

Now when it reaches the surface, it's the surface is like an LP record.

It's a groove.

Small grooves condensed, tremendously condensed.

On this simple little graph of it's aluminum that goes on down.

It's called defraction grading.

The white light strikes it, it leaves at a different speed.

The speed is how we see color.

- Realizing the artist's vision is a complex speed of construction.

Ridge's job is more than that of artist.

He is also an engineer, architect, foreman, and crane operator.

The physical rendering of the sculpture begins with the designs.

Elder's engineer Robbie Lord, draws each of the specifications by hand as engineers, El and Lord have different approaches that compliment one another.

- Dale and I have worked together for about six years.

We started working together in 1982 on the project in Helsinki.

And the, the one thing that's intrigued me is that, that we both come to engineering from entirely different points of view.

He thinks about about volumes.

He thinks abstractly about the physicalness.

He thinks depth and length and width in, in a very physical way.

And I think through all of that in mathematical terms and when we're working together on a project, we approach the space from those two entirely different directions.

- Less than one week before the dedication, the crew of artists and engineers and loaded trucks arrive at the pavilion.

25 yards of concrete have already been poured as a foundation for the sculpture.

They begin by individually assembling each of the 31 diffraction panels.

Each panel must be framed with stainless steel to protect it and hold it securely.

After assembly, the panels are ready to be attached to the white columns that hold them in the air.

It is here that they encounter a major setback.

An inverted template means that holes in the support structure are drilled in a mirror image of what they should be.

Precious hours are lost trying to find a magnetic drill needed to drill new holes.

- You just finally get into a point where, where you work from six o'clock till 12 o'clock at night and you just keep going and going and going.

There's a certain amount of exhaustion to this and that that part of it is, is still nuts and bolts.

- The work continues despite the setbacks, but the crew knows the sculpture cannot be completed before the rapidly approaching Sunday dedication.

But by Saturday, they seem content that all the problems have been solved and now it's just a matter of completing the work.

- And somebody will say to me, well, you're not gonna be on time.

Time in relationship to what the, the piece will be here for a very long time.

It didn't have a due date.

It has only a due date to be correct.

- At the Sunday dedication, the audience expresses enthusiasm for the partially completed sculpture.

The crew continues to work.

- It's not static at all.

It it moves.

Just sitting here during the ceremony went from the brilliant oranges and the blues and it's wonderful.

My response is one of great enthusiasm - And building excitement.

It is indeed going to be a magnificent asset.

Light garden is now complete.

The crane and drills are gone.

But El Edward's vision remains perhaps more acutely than ever before.

This empty space is now filled with light and with beauty.

It is no longer simply a feet of engineering, but a transformation of space into art.

- One of the reasons the percent for arts is so appropriate for Virginia Beach now is Virginia Beach is in a growing cycle.

The city's 25 years old coming of age, so to speak, becoming a lot more sophisticated.

And there's an understanding that culture and the arts are important in the growth of a community.

- The percent for the arts program continues in Virginia Beach.

A large scale sculpture for the Central Library is being built in New Orleans and will be installed next May.

It's part of this city's commitment to bring important public art to the people of Virginia Beach.

- Next week on our place, our time, we want to tell you a story, the story of the famous Witch of Pungo.

And then we'd like you to take a look at the work of two fashion designers working not in Paris or New York, but right here in Hampton Roads.

And then we'll visit a very special family reunion on a plantation in North Carolina.

I'm Vianne Webb.

We hope you'll join us again for our place, our time.