Bob Cassilly played a profound role in reshaping the look and feel of St. Louis. The sculptor turned curator and creator of City Museum, Turtle Park, and many other beloved local installations remains one of St. Louis’ most esteemed residents more than a decade after his tragic death in 2011.

But before Cassilly became a visionary for a new urban landscape, he played just as significant a role in preserving one of the world’s most beloved masterpieces, Michaelangelo’s sculpture Pietà. While the media covered the incident at the time, it’s become a forgotten chapter in Cassilly’s remarkable life.

Named with the Italian word for “pity,” the Pietà depicts Mary cradling the body of Jesus in the aftermath of the crucifixion. Erected by Michaelangelo in 1498 and 1499, it was installed at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City in the 1600s and has spent most of its days there ever since, becoming one of the world’s most venerated works of art.

On May 21, 1972, Cassilly and his new bride were visiting St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City as part of their honeymoon, an old-fashioned grand tour of Europe, he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. As they approached Pieta, Cassilly saw a man with a long beard climb onto the sculpture. The man reportedly screamed about Jesus Christ and started desecrating the statue, smashing at Mary’s face and removing her hand with an implement that proved to be a geologist’s hammer, a fearsome tool with a long chisel head. 

The man, Laszlo Toth, was a mentally ill Hungarian-born geologist who recently moved to Rome from Australia. According to reports by the Associated Press, Toth believed himself to be Jesus Christ and said that Mary was not his real mother.
click to enlarge Bystanders drag Laszlo Toth (right) away from the Pieta in St. Peters after he smashed it with a hammer. This photo was released by the Vatican the following day.

Cassilly was the first person to rush Toth and start to restrain him. He climbed the statue and grabbed at Toth’s beard. Cassilly punched Toth and brought his destruction to an end. “I leaped up and grabbed the guy by the beard,” Cassilly later told People Magazine. “We both fell into the crowd of screaming Italians. It was somewhat of a scene.” The young man from St. Louis’ courage inspired others to take down the hammer-wielding vandal.

Cassilly, Toth, and the others involved in the incident walked away with a few bruises, but the statue had suffered significant damage, both to Mary’s face and her left hand. Preservationists worked for years to restore Pietà to its original glory. The statue now sits in St. Peter’s Basilica behind bulletproof glass.

Toth was not charged with a crime but instead committed to a psychiatric hospital for two years. The Guardian reported that Toth later moved back to eastern Australia and lived in obscurity until his death in 2012.

Cassilly returned to St. Louis and opened a restaurant in Lafayette Park called Park Place, which he sold in 1978. Slowly but surely, he started earning commissions as a sculptor and began putting his own playful, historically-minded touches on the city’s landscape. 

While Cassilly’s role in saving Pietà is surprisingly little known, it serves as an interesting and, in some ways, unsurprising footnote to his life’s work, which was seemingly forward looking and backward looking at the same time.

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Thursday 05/16

Skin Show In what has become a celebrated tradition for local lovers of boobs, butts and bawdy behavior (the four Bs!), the 13th Annual Show-Me Burlesque festival is bringing glitz, glam and a whole lot of ass to Cherokee Street this week. Though founder Lola van Ella no longer lives in St. Louis, she has made an indelible impression on the number of shaking ta-tas the city sees in any given year — and that’s a beautiful thing, in our book. This year’s three-day celebration will take place from Thursday, May 16 to Saturday, May 18 at the Golden Record (2720 Cherokee Street) and the nearby Casa Loma Ballroom (3354 Iowa Street). As is the case with these affairs, the festival promises “spectacular productions and fabulous burlesque, vaudeville, circus, and variety entertainment from every gender and from around the world,” according to promotional materials. The performers include the aforementioned van Ella, as well as Jeez Loueez, Auralie Wilde, Sailem and many more whose talents (among other things) will be on full display. The festivities kick off with an opening night bash at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Tickets range from $25 to $140 and can be purchased here at showmeburlesque.com/tickets.

Smooth Operation Those interested in the shinier things in life will find much to enjoy at the Saint Louis Art Museum’s (1 Fine Arts Drive) Shimmering Silks: Traditional Japanese Textiles, 18th-19th Centuries exhibit. Curated by Philip Hu, SLAM’s curator of Asian art, the exhibit features more than a dozen works that came to the museum as gifts or purchases over the last century, and celebrates traditional silk textiles from the 1700s through the 1800s. During that time period, SLAM says, “the main centers of traditional silk textiles in Japan were the old imperial capitals of Nara and Kyoto, supplying a clientele that included the imperial family, members of the hereditary nobility, feudal lords and ladies, high-ranking Buddhist clergy and the uppermost echelons of civil society.” The most lavish silks were used for imperial and Buddhist ceremonies, performances of Kabuki and Noh theater, formal wear and wedding costumes — so we’re talking about some high-quality stuff here. The exhibit will be on view during SLAM’s normal business hours through October 20, and admission is free. Details at slam.org.

Friday 05/17

Forget All Your Cares Outside of sporting events, there can be a dearth of large-scale gatherings in downtown St. Louis these days— let’s face it, many of the city’s biggest celebrations take place where the tallest buildings aren’t. But this week breaks that trend, as the City Social Block Party returns for its third year, throwing one of the biggest, best block parties in town in the heart of the city on Washington Avenue. The event will feature live music, food, drinks and games. It’s like the neighborhood party you might have on your street — except the damn whole town is invited. Wash Ave eateries such as Hot Pizza Cold Beer, Levels, Sugarfire and many others will be hosting pop-ups on the sidewalk, keeping everyone fed, while 4 Hands Brewery will be among the great vendors serving drinks. Tons of phenomenal music acts will take the stage at Washington and 14th Street, including Marquise Knox, DJ Mahf, Joanna Serenko and more. Best of all, the whole affair is completely free to attend. The good times start at 5 p.m. For more information, visit shorturl.at/vEKSU.

A Matter of Taste Get ready to celebrate everything that is great about the Maplewood and Richmond Heights food scenes this weekend at the 16th Annual Taste of Maplewood Street Festival. Held on Friday, May 17 from 6 to 10 p.m. and Saturday, May 18 from noon to 8 p.m., this big block party aims to bring neighbors together while also supplying a small sample of all the area has to offer. In addition to downing tasty bites from local restaurants, guests can stop by the tents at this free festival and do a little shopping. There will also be two stages set up with plenty of entertainment options — enjoy performances from Mattie Schell, the Chris Shepherd Band, Raised on Radio and more, or catch the St. Louis Irish Arts song and dance exhibition on Saturday afternoon. Visit midcountychamber.org for more information, including the entertainment schedule, details on where to park and a list of vendors scheduled to be on site.

Saturday 05/18

Outside(r) Art Bougie types may hold out for Clayton’s Saint Louis Art Fair, where artists have to apply and it’s hard to find a painting for less than $800. But if your tastes run to quirky, not fancy, you will find yourself happily at home at the Bevo BAZAAR-O, the wonderfully named yard sale/craft fair in Bevo Mill. Unlike some of the more uptight affairs in this town, there’s no screening of these vendors — they just pay $10 per parking spot at 5000 Gravois Avenue, set up a display of their crap and get to selling. Sure, that lack of overall quality control means you’re assuredly going to find some real junk — but also, who knows what kind of treasures lurk in south city? The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 18. Attendance is free. Details at shorturl.at/jBT67.

Sunday 05/19

One Last Hurrah Lo-Fi Cherokee said its goodbyes last month, as the low-key festival featuring a series of single-day music video shoots spent one last Saturday capturing a dozen local musical acts in and around Cherokee Street businesses. But because this is a music video festival, not a music festival, the fun isn’t really over until the videos premiere — and that makes this Sunday, May 19, the true end of the festival that videographer Bill Streeter started 14 years ago. Sob! Swing by Off Broadway (3509 Lemp Avenue) for the Lo-Fi Cherokee Final Premiere Party to see the results of Streeter’s day-long sprint and celebrate the community that’s sprung up around it. Oh, and you can catch some pretty good music videos, too. Doors open at 7 p.m. with the screening at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10. Details at lofistl.com.

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For Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the past few years were tough. The pandemic upended the viewing habits of many of its biggest fans, who stopped attending live theater as COVID-19 ravaged the nation — and even when life returned to normal for most Americans, they didn’t come back.That’s what makes Anh Le, the opera company’s director of marketing and PR, downright stoked as she looks at the ticket sales for the festival season that kicks off later this month. “We are trending way ahead of the last two years,” she says. “Ticket sales are actually pacing very close to 2018. It’s the closest to pre-COVID numbers we’ve been since the pandemic.” What accounts for the bump? Digging into the data, Le explains that the devoted opera-goers who dropped out during the pandemic and weren’t ready for outdoor opera in 2021 or masks/vaccine cards in 2022 still haven’t returned. Where Opera Theatre of St. Louis has managed to succeed, however, is by bringing in new fans — in many cases, younger fans — and getting them hooked.”We are seeing extremely high interest from new audiences, people who have not been to the opera before, at percentages that are either equivalent to or higher than pre-COVID,” she says. “More of our audience every year is new to us.” That fact is not without its challenges; it often takes more outreach to bring in new fans, and the cratering of the base adds to the pressure of finding them. But it’s also resulted in audiences where a greater percentage of attendees are younger. You no longer have to attend only on Young Friends Night to notice young couples enjoying a show, or groups of girlfriends sharing a picnic before heading into a performance. Says Le, “Between 2018 and our first season back in the theater, our rate of young audiences jumped from like 25 percent to like 35 percent, but the actual body count was very, very similar. It’s just that now they’re a much larger percentage of the audience because of the people who aren’t coming back.”Part of what seems to be bumping the numbers in 2024 is the show selection. This year includes two major fan favorites — The Barber of Seville and La Boheme, the former one of the most beloved comedies of all time, with an instantly recognizable score, the latter the Puccini classic that directly inspired Rent. What’s not to love?But Le wants you to know there’s more on the bill. The season is rounded out by two operas that may be less well-known, but that she swears will knock your socks off. The first is Julius Caesar, which couldn’t be more different from Shakespeare’s assassination-focused history play. This one has a score by Handel and puts the focus squarely on Cleopatra in what Le describes as “an incredibly sexy, steamy story.” “It’s really her story of how she rises to power and how she uses all of the tools and all of the feminine wiles at her disposal to ensure that that happens,” Le notes. “So it is both political drama and very sexy love story.”The second is Galileo Galilei, with music by Philip Glass, which premiered in 2002 and has only been performed by two smaller opera companies since. “It is a really rare opportunity for those that small but very loud group of people who really really love Philip Glass,” Le notes. click to enlarge COURTESY OF OPERA THEATRE OF ST. LOUIS Costume renderings for Galileo Galilei, which makes its Opera Theatre of St. Louis debut this summer.
But you won’t have to be a Glass-head (is that a thing?) to appreciate the charms of this show. It’s not just that it’s a brisk 90 minutes, with no intermission (although opera’s trailing spouses will certainly approve). It’s also the fashion. Newcomers to shows at Opera Theatre of St. Louis often find their mouths agape at the beauty of its sets and costumes, and Le says Galileo Galilei is a more than worthy heir to that tradition. “I am not lying when I tell you I’ve seen I’ve been here for almost 10 years, and I’ve seen a lot of costume renderings come through our doors, but these ones made my jaw hit the floor,” Le says. “They are stunning. They are incredibly lavish and elaborate, true Renaissance period costumes designed by an Italian designer named Marco Piemontese. “Even if you don’t know anything about contemporary music, or Galileo or science, come see these costumes, because they are going to be kickass. They’re going to be so insane.” And if you are a newcomer to Opera Theatre of St. Louis, it’s also worth mentioning that the evening on offer is one of the most lovely experiences you can have in a St. Louis summer. Fans know to get there early, and order a picnic basket from Ces & Judy’s Catering ahead of time, to partake in a well-executed meal in the beautiful garden near the Loretto-Hilton Theatre on the campus of Webster University. (BYOB drinks are welcome; there’s also a bar.) Then stay after the show to close out the night with drinks under the stars. It’s elegant without being stuffy — and one of the many reasons that once younger people try Opera Theatre of St. Louis, they often come back every year.Incidentally, they’re increasingly around other St. Louis arts fans when they do. Before the pandemic, Opera Theatre of St. Louis regularly saw 20 percent of its audience consist of opera superfans, who fly to Santa Fe or Des Moines along with St. Louis to see the best new productions each year. The pandemic reduced their numbers, too, and now out-of-towners only make up about 10 percent of the company’s audiences, Le says.Again, it makes the job of marketing these shows harder — superfans had been a predictable category — but in some ways, it’s woven Opera Theatre of St. Louis’ fates even more tightly to its namesake city. “We’re really at the early starting point of trying to think about our season’s programming as, ‘How does this serve St. Louis? Why would a St. Louis resident be interested in seeing this work? And are we making it accessible for people who live here?'” Le says. “So we still want to bring all the national attention, we still want the national critics to come, we still want the out-of-town guests to come. But really, we haven’t done our job if we’re not serving our community.”Opera Theatre of St. Louis kicks off its 2024 festival season with The Barber of Seville on May 25. Tickets, picnic orders and more at opera-stl.org.
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