Casa Duse hosts musical performances in Park Slope
During the weekend of May 8 to 10, the Casa Duse on Prospect Park West in Park Slope and host Robert Krakovski offered three special musical events.
On the evening of Friday, May 8, the program was “From Bach to Rachmaninoff,” billed as an evening of music and conversation with classical pianist Daniel Beliavsky; on Saturday, May 9, the program was “Steinway, Sinatra and More…A Centennial Tribute to Frank Sinatra & the Great American Songbook”; and on Sunday, May 10, the Casa Duse produced “A Latin/Jazz Cabaret on Mother’s Day with Horacio Martinez and Friends.”
We attended the Saturday performance, the tribute to Frank Sinatra. The Casa Duse is now an intimate supper club/cabaret hosted by the affable Robert Krakovski. This elegant limestone townhouse was the former home of artist, actor and master teacher Martin C. Waldron, the godson of the celebrated Italian actress Eleonora Duse (1858-1924) Krakovski is the Waldron’s godson and dedicates himself to keeping this building alive and serving as a source of inspiration to artists and musicians as Waldron would have wished.
The famed soprano Joan Sutherland, who lived at Casa Duse with husband conductor Richard Bonynge, and diva Zinka Milanov have special areas of the house devoted to their legendary output, along with Pavarotti and many others who visited Casa Duse. Autographed photographs adorn the walls with contemporaries and immortals such as tenor Enrico Caruso, Verdi, Toscanini, Gielgud, John Barrymore and Chaplin. I spotted one of debonair film star Louis Calhern–one of my favorites!