Southampton - The Parrish Art Museum is presenting Patricia Albers, author of "Joan Mitchell, Lady Painter: A Life," who will talk about the career of second generation Abstract Expressionist painter Mitchell on Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 6 p.m.. Both talks are free for Parrish members, $10 for nonmembers.

Verdi's "Nabucco" to also screen at Parrish. (Courtesy Photo: PAM)

In her new book "Joan Mitchell, Lady Painter," Albers reconstructs Mitchell's large and reckless life - her debutante years growing up in the Midwest; the evolution of her extraordinary work; her marriage to Barney Rosset Jr., owner and publisher of Grove Press; her affairs; and her exhibitions. The story covers the times, the people, and the worlds of Chicago, Lake Forest, New York, Long Island's East End, and the expatriate circles of Paris, from the 1920s through the 1990s. In the New York Sunday Times Book Review, Jed Perl wrote "Patricia Albers has written a book about Mitchell that I cannot imagine will ever be improved upon, so graceful and incisive is her account of the artist's hellbent life and lyric art." Albers will sign copies of her book after the talk.

A live telecast of Verdi's opera "Nabucco" from the Teatro Antico in Taormina, Italy, will be screened Tuesday, August 9, 3:30 p.m., at the Parrish Art Museum. Also called the Greek Theatre, the Teatro Antico is home to the Taormina Arte festival each summer. Since its construction in 7th century BC, views of the Ionian Sea and Mt. Etna have provided a dramatic backdrop for productions on the arena stage.

An opera in four acts, Nabucco was Verdi's third opera and the one that permanently established his reputation as a composer. First performed at La Scala in 1842, the Biblically-based story follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered, and exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian king Nabucco (in English, Nebuchadnezzar). The historical events are used as background for a romantic and political plot.

This production stars Juan Pons in the title role. One of the world's most famous baritones, Pons has been a frequent performer at the world's most important opera houses, including La Scala of Milan, the Metropolitan Opera House of New York, the Vienna Staatsoper, Covent Garden in London, the Opéra of Paris, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and the Arena of Verona.

Tickets are $18 for Parrish members, $22 for nonmembers. The running time is approximately 160 minutes.

"NEDS," an intense and tragic portrayal of the loss of hope, will screen Monday, August 8, at 5:30 p.m., at the Parrish Art Museum. The film is the fifth of six comprising From Britain with Love, a program of independent films curated by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and presented by UK Film Council and Emerging Pictures. Tickets are $5 for Parrish members, $7 for nonmembers.

Directed by the acclaimed actor/director Peter Mullan ("My Name Is Joe," "The Magdalene Sisters") "NEDS, Non-Educated Delinquents," takes place in the gritty, savage, and often violent world of 1970s Glasgow. On the brink of adolescence, young John McGill is a bright and sensitive boy, eager to learn and full of promise. But the cards are stacked against him. Most of the adults in his life fail him in one way or another. His father is a drunken, violent bully and his teachers, punishing John for the "sins" of his older brother, Benny, are down on him from the start. With no one willing to give him the chance he desperately needs, John takes to the savage life of the streets with a vengeance. "NEDS" is not only a story of lost hope, it is story of survival by any means necessary. The film played the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.

According to Tim Robey of the Telegraph, "Just when you thought British cinema was in danger of stalling in its default mode, classy crowd-pleasing, with award-worthy millinery, along comes 'NEDS' to give it a rude and vital kick up the rear. This is Peter Mullan's first film as a writer-director since 'The Magdalene Sisters' (2002), and he has lost none of his power to rattle, rage and occasionally confound."

The Museum's programs are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State's 62 counties, and the property taxpayers from the Southampton School District and the Tuckahoe Common School District.