Jason Daunter clearly recalls the first time he saw "Wicked," the magical, and soul-touching musical by composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz and author Winnie Holzman. It was in 2005 during the first of a record-setting four visits one of the show's touring companies has paid to the Mile High City. But ask him how many productions he's witnessed since first falling under the spell of what is sometimes called "the untold story of the witches of Oz," and he has to make an educated guess that has lots of zeros. The St. Louis native, who originally studied directing for the stage, first joined the "Wicked" family on Broadway more than four years ago before taking on the job of national tour p

The Sacramento Opera will present the famous, heart-wrenching opera La Traviata at the Sacramento Community Center Theater Friday. The popular opera was written in the mid-1800s by Giuseppe Verdi, who based his tale off the widely successful novel, La Dame Aux Camélias, by Alexandre Dumas. Though Dumas's book is written as a tragedy, adaptations of the novel, such as with La Traviata and recent films "Camille" and "Pretty Women," have been retold as a love story. La Traviata is a romantic play set in the 19th century following the relationship of well-born gentlemen Alfredo Germont, played by Tenor Alexander Boyer, who is in love with a beautiful courtesan named Violetta Valéry, played

Just a few steps into Taiko Dan's dojo stands a Goliath-like wooden drum looming overhead. The drum is 780 pounds and rests on a 860-pound stand, standing nine feet tall altogether, according to the dojo's owner and founder, Tiffany Tamaribuchi. Despite its intimidating proportions, the drum is beautiful, with a glossy finish and a large black and white skin stretched over it. Dojo is another word for a school of training in Japanese; in this case, the Sacramento Taiko Dan performing ensemble uses its dojo to teach the ancient art of Japanese Taiko drumming. Behind the large drum inside the dojo are smaller drums stacked on wooden shelves, and the dojo's walls are lined with even more dru