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Leonard Bernstein's On the Town at Barrington Stage Company, June 12 – July 13, 2013
June 17th, 2013
On the Town Barrington Stage, June 12 – July 13, 2013 Music by Leonard Bernstein Book and Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green Based on an idea by Jerome Robbins Music Direction by Darren R. Cohen Choreography by Joshua Bergasse Directed by John Rando Featuring Tony Yazbeck, Clyde Alves, Jay Armstrong Johnston, Elizabeth Stanley, Deanna Doyle, Alysha Umphress, Nancy Opel and Michael Rupert The “overture” to the Barrington Stage Company’s production of On the Town, the Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical, wasn’t written by the composer. The honors belong to John Stafford Smith, who with later lyrics by Francis Scott Key, wrote “The Star Spangled Banner.” It’s an unexpected way to begin this hilarious and horny show about three sailors o[...]
A Singer's Notes 70: The Fantasticks at the Mac-Haydn Theatre
June 4th, 2013
It was excellent to go to the venerable Mac-Haydn Theatre last night. One comes upon it like a secret location, hidden in the landscape. It is a company full of real people; pretension is not allowed. It has a round stage, and has seen a succession of musicals performed on it for forty-five years. I went there to see one of my favorite shows, Harvey Schmidt's and Tom Jones' The Fantasticks. The production itself was also a straight and honest thing, without exaggeration. Blessedly, we heard unamplified singing—real singers having to really sing. No one in the audience, young or old, seemed to have any difficulty hearing. The singing had i[...]
Matt Haimovitz and Christopher O'Riley Open the Summer Season at Tannery Pond with All-Russian Cello Sonatas
June 4th, 2013
Tannery Pond Concerts May 25, 2013 at 6.00 PM Igor Stravinsky - Suite Italienne Sergei Prokofiev - Sonata in C major, Op. 119 Sergei Rachmaninov - Sonata in G minor, Op. 19 Matt Haimovitz - cello Christopher O'Riley - piano The barn at Tannery Pond is particularly well suited to cello music — a kind of cello-within-a-cello, the musical equivalent to the old literary framing device, maybe. The instrument's range and woody timbre are particularly appealing, even restful, resting on the ear's most sensitive range of pitches, so it is no wonder cellists seek out such acoustics, or do things like making arrangements for 6, 8, or 10 cellos. In fact listening in the Tannery barn gives o[...]
The Berkshire Beethoven Piano Project
May 14th, 2013
There is a new musical enterprise making its debut on Sunday June 2 (at 5 pm in the Kellogg Music Center, Bard College at Simon's Rock). We call it "The Berkshire Beethoven Piano Project" in the optimistic belief that our program of four Beethoven piano sonatas, performed by four Berkshire pianists, will be the first in a series of such events. (With 32 sonatas to choose from, that means we might be able to do this seven more times!) Each of us has chosen a work that has special personal significance; I am thrilled to have the chance to play no. 28, Op. 101, in A major for the first time[...]
Simon Wainrib’s Legacy: his Bach Project
May 12th, 2013
It seems utterly puzzling that most of the greatest music of Johann Sebastian Bach barely makes it way to the concert hall. This conundrum was at the core of Simon Wainrib’s musical and entrepreneurial passion. His passing on March 10, 2013 gave me an opportunity to reminisce about fulfilling one’s musical dreams, and my own long involvement with the Berkshire Bach Society. I remember attending the first of a series of lectures on Bach’s cantatas that Simon presented at the Albert Schweitzer Center in the year preceding his launching the Berkshire Bach Society. I was in my late thirties at that time, and had spent most of my adult life studying these[...]
Help Tenores de Aterúe get to Sardinia, a Kickstarter Campaign. Give Generously!
April 27th, 2013
Hello Everyone, Tenores de Aterúe have just launched a Kickstarter fundraising campaign to help us realize our goals for our first trip to Sardinia! We are planning a trip there this Spring, and we've raised about half of what we need to cover our expenses. We're relying on your support to help us cross the finish line! Please visit our Kickstarter page, where you can see our video and read all the information detailing what we've got planned, and why your support is crucial. Thanks so much & please spread the word! With your help we can continue to promote Sardinia's amazing traditional culture and bring more wonderful music to you [...]
The New Oldcastle Theatre, Bennington, Vermont: Around the World in Eighty Days
April 26th, 2013
It was splendid to enter the new Oldcastle Theatre. It was splendid to enter the new home of the Oldcastle Theatre Company in Bennington a few days ago. It is better in terms of sight lines, technical capability, and resonance, than their former space at the Bennington Arts Center. Here is a classic example of how a community of committed patrons can make something happen. The show was a dramatization of Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days written by Mark Brown, and it was well-acted. Richard Howe's versatility is well-known to me, but he really out-did himself in this one. With barely enough time to switch hats, he inhabited the stage a[...]
A Singer's Notes 69: Anna Polonsky and Orion Weiss at Union College and 75 Years of Tanglewood
April 13th, 2013
There was an elegant sense of play in the piano recital given by Anna Polonsky and Orion Weiss in the Union College Concert Series on March 24th. Any time there are two people sitting on one piano bench, there has to be some sweet give and take, a beautiful sight to see with this pair. Even in the "Lebensstürme," one of Franz Schubert's great unknown works, the give and take between Polonsky and Weiss was an integral part of it all. I was happy to see that both pianists shared one keyboard for the main event, Stravinsky's four-hand version of The Rite of Spring. Something about this arrangement gets me even more than hea[...]
A Singer's Notes 68: Macbeth at Hubbard Hall
March 30th, 2013
I wish I could like this production more. Clearly well-intentioned and sincerely played, it still did not touch the center of the fearsome verse. Betsy Holt as Lady Macbeth was eloquent, but did not convince me she would kill a baby. The charismatic Gino Costabile as Macbeth fell into shouting too often and not only in the last moments of the play. The witches just were not scary, with the exception of Myka Plunkett whose steady intensity showed the real way into the play. Should not Macbeth be as perplexed by the language coming out of his mouth as we are? Can anyone tell what the "pity bestriding the blast" lines [...]
A Singer's Notes 67: The Acting Company's As You Like It in Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
March 23rd, 2013
The Acting Company's As You Like It in Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Wednesday, March 13th, was quite the gentlest performance of the play I have seen. The wrestling scene was mercifully brief, the songs sweet and soft, the relationships clear as a bell without exaggeration. For me, the center of this approach was the excellent Orlando, played by Joseph Midyett. He was neither bewildered nor positive. His participation in the feigning, which is the middle of the play, had a knowingness to it which never quite went over the edge, even though there was that one kiss which came across, to me, as utterly spontaneous—a young man kissing the boy Gan[...]
Philippe Jaroussky Sings Handel and Porpora Arias with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, plus Locatelli’s L’Arte del Violino in Sydney
March 17th, 2013
City Recital Hall, Sydney: 13 March 2013 Philippe Jaroussky and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra travel to Melbourne 18 March and play again in Sydney 20, 22, 23 and 25 March. A recording will be broadcast on ABC Classic FM on 23 March, 1 PM AEST. Handel - Deborah HWV51: Overture Handel - Oreste HWVA11: Agitato da fiere tempeste Handel - Arianna in Creta HWV32: O patria...Sol ristoro di mortali Handel - Water Music suite in D major HWV349 Porpora - Semiramide riconosciuta: Si pietoso il tuo labbro Porpora - Arianna e Teseo: Mira in Cielo Porpora - Orfeo: Dall’amor più sventurato Porpora - Polifemo: Alto Giove Locatelli - Violin Concerto opus 3 no. 1 L’Arte del Violino Shaun Lee-Chen - violin Handel - Al[...]
Bach Before Forty: Peter Sykes playing the organ of St. Stephen’s Church, Pittsfield
March 16th, 2013
Bach Before Forty: Peter Sykes playing the organ of St. Stephen’s Church, Pittsfield Sunday, February 17, 2013 presented by the Berkshire Bach Society Toccata in C Major, BWV 566 Allein Gott in die Höh sei Ehr’, BWV 717, 711, 715 Pastorale in F major, BWV 590 Prelude and Fugue in g minor, BWV 535 Prelude and Fugue in d minor (“Fiddle”), BWV 539 Partita on O Gott, du frommer Gott, BWV 767 Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV 730, 731 Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor, BWV 582 A musician who undertakes an entire program of Bach’s music needs perspective, especially if the program is to be varied. Bach wrote an amazing quantity of music in an amazing variety of styles and genres[...]
A Singer's Notes 66: Corneille's The Liar at Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, Massachusetts
March 16th, 2013
Pierre Corneille, The Liar at Shakespeare and Company Adapted by David Ives Directed by Kevin Coleman Plays are made of words. Lies are made of words. How about a play full of lies? Maybe it's a better play—if the lying seems deliberately false, the play itself becomes reality. Or maybe it's a question of delightful excess—a kind of phantasmagoria of falsity, a whirlwind that sweeps us up. We try to follow it—doing this was especially fun in "The Liar" ay Shakespeare and Co.—we lose the thread; we regain the thread. But what was it true in it? There is a kind of whirling motion in the play that makes our minds circle and balk. After a[...]
The Amazing Daniil Trifonov with The Russian National Orchestra
February 18th, 2013
The Russian National Orchestra Davies Hall, San Francisco February 12, 2013 Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor Daniil Trifonov, piano Smetana - Overture to The Bartered Bride Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Opus 23 Dvořák - Symphony No. 6 in D-major, Opus 60 It's simply a mystery that they can be so good, this new generation of pianists: Fray, Matsuev, Kempf, Lang, Wang—how many more—and now Daniil Trifonov, more stunning in Tchaikovsky than you could imagine! But last Tuesday, the Russian National Orchestra, on tour to Davies Hall with Trifonov in tow, contributed a mystery of its own. First things first. One of the joys with a visiting orchestra is to experience new sonorities—to be swept richly downward, perhaps[...]
A Singer's Notes 65: Hubbard Hall Opera Theater's La Traviata at Proctor's, Schenectady
February 18th, 2013
Please forgive me if I think of Verdi's La Traviata and Otello as religious dramas—a father must (or thinks he must) give a child over unwillingly to death—Abraham and Isaac all over again. It is not insignificant that Otello is old enough to be Desdemona's father. Nor is it insignificant that there is a constant use of the word sacrifice in La Traviata, and no use of the word in Otello. Reading Garry Wills' recent book Why Priests? has instructed me of the indelibility of the sacraments for old style Catholics. Once a priest, you are always a priest. Once married as a devout Catholic, you are always married. Thus Des[...]
A Singer's Notes 64: The Sound of Bach
February 7th, 2013
It was excellent to read Kenneth Cooper's words recently on how he loved the sound of Bach with great players playing great instruments in a large hall. So do I, and this is what we got and have gotten for years now on New Year's Day in the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in the annual performances by the Berkshire Bach Ensemble. We seem to have arrived at a place between the modern instrument folks (usually using old instruments altered to achieve a stronger sound) and the early music crowd (which tries to emulate the sounds of the 18th century orchestra). Each has its own political correctness, and each works.[...]
A Singer's Notes 63: Shakespeare Loud and Chekhov Soft
February 3rd, 2013
As one might expect from disciples of Kristin Linklater, the Conservatory actors at Shakespeare and Company gave us a vigorous and clear performance of Shakespeare's King John, a problematic work. Awash in Marlovian heroics, it comes close to farce with its constant switchbacks. I got a sense from these young actors that they had connected with the kind of voice it must have taken to get through a play like this at The Globe. It was a strong kind of speech, sometimes close to shouting, out of fashion these days, the influence of film being heavy in our theaters. It fit well with the ranting nature of the text and[...]
Who to Direct the BSO? And Reviews of Recent Concerts: Alan Gilbert Conducts Dutilleux, Stravinsky, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Daniele Gatti conducts Verdi’s Requiem and Paul Lewis in Recital at Jordan Hall Plays Schubert’s Last Three Sonatas
February 2nd, 2013
January 10, 2013: Henri Dutilleux - Métaboles for Orchestra Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto Julian Rachlin - violin Igor Stravinsky - Symphony in Three Movements Maurice Ravel - La Valse Alan Gilbert - conductor Boston Symphony Orchestra January 12, Jordan Hall: Schubert - Piano Sonatas, C Minor D. 958, A Major D. 959, and B flat Major D. 960 Paul Lewis - piano Thursday, January 17: Verdi - Requiem Daniele Gatti - conductor Fiorenza Cedolins - soprano Ekaterina Gubanova - mezzo-soprano Fabio Sartori - tenor Carlo Colombara - bass Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, conductor Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra is up and running and sounding very good after its holiday time off. New York Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert opened the winter season with a concert series beginning [...]
Renée Fleming Joins the San Francisco Symphony in Music of Debussy, Holloway and Canteloube
February 2nd, 2013
The San Francisco Symphony Davies Hall, San Francisco Sunday, January 13, 2013 Michael Tilson-Thomas, conductor Renée Fleming, soprano Debussy Jeux (1912) Debussy/Holloway C'est l'extase (2012) Canteloube Chants d'Auvergne (1923;1927) Three selections Debussy La Mer, (1905) Here we are, a hundred years later, and so much of Claude Debussy's music still beguiles with its freshness! As Michael Tilson Thomas led the San Francisco Symphony through an accomplished performance of Jeux last Sunday, I was reminded how much the daily bread of sound in our own lives comes from Debussy's late style. We tend to assume experimental music of the time went in only two directions — towards liberated rhythm and tonality with Stravinsky, or into the humanity-shy mathematical dissonances of Schoenberg. The rest, we might s[...]
San Francisco Opera's Fall Season: Reviews of I Capuletti ed i Montecchi and The Adler Fellows Gala Concert
February 2nd, 2013
I sadly missed most of San Francisco Opera's very rich fall season, but I did catch two very interesting nights: I Capuletti ed i Montecchi on October 16, and the Adler Fellows Gala Concert on November 30. For me, a trip to Capuletti is both a chance to hear wonderful singing and one more attempt to embrace this, for me elusive, opera. San Francisco's co-production with the Bayerische Staatsoper, conducted suavely by Riccardo Frizza, boasted some fine singing and a staging that blended provocative choices with a measure of flat-out Eurotrash silliness. Nonetheless, I remain unseduced by the piece as a whole and have probably seen my last performance of it. The[...]
Six Degrees, Six Degrees: Sydney Architecture in 2012
December 18th, 2012
“Only a fool would stand in the way of progress, if this is progress.” -Captain Kirk to Dr. McCoy in “The Ultimate Computer,” Stardate 4729.4 “Cet air frais me donne du bien!” -Overheard in the Parc de Belleville, Paris, February 2012 The other day I installed new brake rotors on my mountain bike [1]. They are beautiful; every scrap of stainless steel not required to withstand structural stress and the build up of heat has been removed. A laciness which could be mistaken for decoration is no more or no less than the result of form following function. As a chain is a chain and a tire inexorably a tire, so the rotors would cease to be[...]
Christmas Music As It Was Meant to Be: Noël! Noël! with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra
December 15th, 2012
“Noël! Noël!” City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney: 12 December 2012 repeats in Sydney on 15 December 5 and 7 pm, Cremorne on 16 December, Newtown on 17 December, and Parramatta on 18 December The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra Australian Brandenburg Choir Paul Dyer - conductor, harpsichord, artistic director Christina Leonard - saxophone Matthew Manchester - cornetto Ben Dollman - violin Victoria - Kyrie (from Missa Trahe me post te) Traditional (arr. Aaron Kenny) - Let all mortal flesh keep silence Giovanni Gabrieli - Motet Angelus Domini Biber - Praeludium from the “Annunciation Sonata” Traditional (arr. Aaron Kenny) - Neapolitan Lullaby Ninna Nanna Traditional (arr. Aaron Kenny) - Italian song (based on La Carpinese) Maria, O di senteli gridà Biber - Aria from the “Annunciation Sonata” Victoria - Alma redempt[...]
2012 Retrospective: Reflections on the 2012 Glimmerglass Opera Festival
December 10th, 2012
At first, music and baseball might seem to have little in common. But don’t tell that to sports diehards and opera buffs in upper New York State. At least not in July and August, when a multitudinous group of fans from across the US converge at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. This year’s annual induction ceremonies were held July 20–23. Meanwhile, just a few miles down the road, devotees of vocal aspirants flocked to the Glimmerglass Opera to hear and see them “play ball.” At Glimmerglass, baseball bats may yield to violin bows, as Yankee pinstripes are benched in favor of seersucker suits. But the smells and sensations of grassy-kn[...]
Jonas Alber conducts the Staatsorchester Braunschweig in Franck's D Minor Symphony—a Podcast.
December 10th, 2012
Some months ago an email discussion arose among our writers and friends about César Franck’s D Minor Symphony. Steven Kruger, who heard the Chicago Symphony play the work under Riccardo Muti on a West Coast tour in February and reviewed the concert here, was surprised to learn from Alex Ross’s review of their New York series in October (The New Yorker, Oct. 22, 2012) that the old warhorse, once performed at Carnegie Hall seven or eight times in a season, had become a rarity, played there only four times since 1988. Kruger observed: “I think senior conductors serve a function in recycling music that was popular forty-five years ago—in the same way[...]
An Awesome Trek Through the Cosmos with the Pinchgut Opera’s ‘Castor et Pollux’ by Rameau
December 10th, 2012
Castor et Pollux, Tragédie Mise en Musique par Jean-Philippe Rameau libretto by Pierre-Joseph Bernard, 1754 version City Recital Hall, 6 December 2012 continues in Sydney until Monday 10 December. Sunday’s Performance will be broadcast on ABC Classic FM on Sunday 16 December. The Pinchgut Opera The Orchestra of the Antipodes and Cantillation chorus Antony Walker - Conductor and Music Director Kate Gaul - Director Andy McDonell - Set design Jasmine Christie - Costume design Luiz Pampolha - Lighting design Ash Bee - Choreography Erin Helyard - Musical preparation and harpsichord Jeffrey Thompson - Castor Hadleigh Adams - Pollux Celeste Lazarenko - Téläire Margaret Plummer - Phébé Paul Goodwin-Groen - Jupiter Anna Fraser - Cléone, Follower of Hébé, A Spirit Pascal Herington - Mercure and The Athlete Mark Donnelly - High Priest S[...]
A Singer's Notes 62: Chestnuts (Kaufman and Hart's You Can't Take it with You)
December 9th, 2012
We were informed upon entering Hubbard Hall on Saturday evening, that a "chestnut" was on the menu. I like chestnuts. Chestnuts are successes, and they are successes because they work. Moss Hart and George Kaufman's particular chestnut You Can't Take it With You is the theme song and battle cry of the 47%. One of the characters, Donald, a kind of serving man, reminds us a couple of times, that he is "on relief," and the government gets really upset when he works. The government, in fact, is a constant presence in the play, belittled and shrunken and left virtually powerless by the formulations of Grandpa. Everything Grandpa says makes[...]
Drawn to Excellence: Renaissance to Romantic Drawings from a Private Collection, at the Smith College Museum of Art, September 28, 2012 - January 6, 2013
December 7th, 2012
Drawn to Excellence: Renaissance to Romantic Drawings from a Private Collection. September 28, 2012 - January 6, 2013 Smith College Museum of Art [Click on images to enlarge.] If you wander around Sotheby's and Christie's during old master week with open ears, or if you converse a bit at a conference like the delightful and enlightening symposium held for the inauguration of the present exhibition, you are likely to hear some words about the disappearance of good drawings from the market, the ongoing retirement of dealers, the paucity of new ones to take their place, the scarcity of collectors, the resistance of museum directors and boards to these elitist and esoteric artworks, and, ultimately, the demise of th[...]
The Sydney Symphony Becomes Opera Impresario with a Memorable Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky in Concert
December 4th, 2012
The Queen of Spades (Пиковая дама) Music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky after Pushkin Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House: 1 December 2012 repeated 3 December 2012, Monday’s performance to be broadcast on ABC Classic FM on 9 December at 7pm AEST. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra Vladimir Ashkenazy - conductor Stuart Skelton - Hermann Dina Kuznetsova - Liza José Carbó - Tomski Andrei Bondarenko - Yeletski Irina Tchistyakova - Countess Deborah Humble - Polina, Milosvor Angus Wood - Chekalinski Gennadi Dubinsky - Surin Victoria Lambourn - Governess Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Brett Wymark - music director Sydney Children’s Choir Lyn Williams - director Tchaikovsky wrote Queen of Spades, in 1890, and one other opera, Iolanta, in 1891, near the end of his life after having promised never to write another opera be[...]
...and just what is Fame? Long live Victor Borge! Lang Lang joins MTT and the SF Symphony in Cowell, Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff
November 29th, 2012
The San Francisco Symphony Davies Hall, San Francisco Friday, November 2, 2012 Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor Lang Lang, piano Cowell - Music 1957 (1957) Prokofiev - Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Opus 26 (1921) Rachmaninoff—Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Opus 27 (1907) Long live the spirit of Victor Borge! "What?" you say. This odd notion popped into my head recently, as I witnessed for the first time pianist Lang Lang perform live. In town at the beginning of November to play the Prokofiev Third Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony, he was such a stunning and (to me) unexpectedly enjoyable success, that I found myself pondering the very nature of musical stardom, almost as much as the m[...]
“Helter-Shelter," An Exploration into the Organization of Temporary Communities. Photographs by Maxwell MacKenzie, AIA Headquarters Gallery
November 27th, 2012
Moving is part of our cultural heritage. We are restless; we are adventurous; we move to find better opportunities or just to explore. We have pushed the boundaries of this country west and north and south. We abandoned farms in droves and moved into urban areas at the same time exiting cities to build rings of suburbs. We have forsaken homes altogether to live on the open road, inventing recreational vehicles and trailer parks. Recently, thousands of Americans with bad mortgages have been forced to give up their homes, clinging to their RVs like life rafts in a storm. In good times and bad, it seems, we are on the[...]
Tenores de Aterúe, Friday, November 30th at 8 pm, St John’s Church, 35 Park Street, Williamstown
November 26th, 2012
Tenores de Aterúe Friday, November 30th at 8PM St John’s Church, 35 Park Street, Williamstown Tenores De Aterúe formed in 2008 and have become somewhat of a sensation. Their YouTube videos have gone viral in Sardinia, as they are the first non-natives ever to attempt the unusual cantu a tenore quartet vocal technique, which involves harmonic throat singing in parts! The effect is something otherworldly, often sounding more like instruments than human voice! Sardinian song will be showcased, complemented with some choice Corsican and Italian gems. Proceeds from the concert (which also includes music from Corsica and Italy) will go toward funding their first study tour in Sardinia planned for May 2013. "Really good, dear friends. You've faced [...]
Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Sydney Symphony’s Tchaikovsky Mini Festival Opens with Manfred and Rachmaninoff’s Fourth Piano Concerto, Scott Davie, Piano
November 23rd, 2012
Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House: 21 November 2012 The SSO plays this program again on Saturday 24 November 8pm Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, opus 40 Scott Davie - piano Tchaikovsky - Manfred Symphony, opus 58 The Sydney Symphony Orchestra Vladimir Ashkenazy - conductor Rachmaninoff’s 4th Piano Concerto didn’t deserve to be cut. It seems to have received, in any version, the homeric epithet “Rachmaninoff’s least popular” since it wasn’t popular at the première (1927) and wasn’t much more loved after the revisions (1928 and 1941), but this is perhaps as much due to the immense and perennial popularity of the 2nd and 3rd as any intrinsic quality of the 4th, and the unpopular labe[...]
Un Vaisseau fantôme inoubliable à Montréal...mais comment tuer Senta?
November 21st, 2012
Le Vaisseau fantôme Richard Wagner, musique et livret Le Hollandais - Thomas Gazheli Erik - Endrik Wottrich Senta - Maida Hundeling Daland - Reinhard Hagen Le Timonier - Kurt Lehmann Mary - Emilia Boteva Chef d'orchestre - Keri-Lynn Wilson Metteur en scène - Christopher Alden (reprise par Marilyn Gronsdal) Décors/costumes - Allen Moyer Éclairages - Anne Militello Chœur de l’Opéra de Montréal Orchestre Métropolitain English summary below. Le but principal de cet article et de louer jusqu’aux cieux une représentation tout à fait remarquable—inoubliable, dirais-je—du premier oeuvre canonique de Wagner, mais c’est bien une mise en scène contemporaine—une mise en scène laquelle rend justice aussi bien à la problématique sociale de 1840 qu’a celle de nos jours—surtout à propos de la rôle des femmes dans la famille, le mariage, les moe[...]
Tough Love: The Music of Elliott Carter
November 15th, 2012
Elliott Carter, who died on November 5 a little over a month before his 104th birthday, wrote music that is tough to love: it can be thorny, knotty, dense, complex, brainy, abstract, atonal, harsh, jagged, and sometimes genuinely off-putting. It has no intention of seducing listeners, of attracting love through flattery, cajolery, putting on a song and dance, of singing “let me entertain you.” It is also prismatically colorful, rich in varied gestures, dazzling, continuously stimulating, full of the liveliest contrasts, always connected to human utterances, capable of suggesting a complete personality in micro-seconds. Its complexity is layered, and every layer speaks in a different voice, each voice constantly modulating its[...]
A Singer's Notes 61: Pride@Prejudice: A Romantic Deconstruction at the Capital Repertory Theatre
November 13th, 2012
Pride @ Prejudice: A Romantic Deconstruction by Daniel Elihu Kramer Capital Repertory Theatre If ever you doubted Shaw's quip that we Americans are separated from the English by a common language, Capital Rep's romantic deconstruction of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice will convince you. As usual in these combats, the English come out on top. They speak paragraphs; we blurt out half-sentences. They have a kind of linguistic patience equipping them to wait forever for the end of most any sentence. To us, when we read the novel it seems like we spend most of our time waiting. This also applies to the substance of the book. Situations are deftly elongated, and like[...]
Originality and Humanity: Anthony Marwood, Violin, Aleksandar Madžar, Piano, Play Beethoven, Debussy and Schubert
November 8th, 2012
City Recital Hall, Sydney: 5 November 2012 Madžar and Marwood play again in Sydney 10 November, 2pm, in Melbourne 13 November, 7pm, Perth 15 November, 7.30pm and back in Melbourne 17 November, 8pm. Aleksandar Madžar will present masterclasses at Theme and Variations Showroom in Willoughby on Friday 9 November, 6–8pm, and the Australian National Academy of Music on Monday 12 November, 3–5pm. Following this tour, Anthony Marwood and Aleksandar Madžar will play at the 2012 Huntington Estate Music Festival, Mudgee. Gordon Kerry - Martian Snow Beethoven - Violin Sonata no. 9 in A major, ‘Kreutzer’, opus 47 Debussy - Violin Sonata in G minor Schubert - Fantasie in C major, D934 Anthony Marwood - violin Aleksandar Madžar - piano Huntley Dent has written on these pages “two[...]
Elliott Carter — 1908-2012
November 6th, 2012
Voyages by Hart Crane III Infinite consanguinity it bears— This tendered theme of you that light Retrieves from sea plains where the sky Resigns a breast that every wave enthrones; While ribboned water lanes I wind Are laved and scattered with no stroke Wide from your side, whereto this hour The sea lifts, also, reliquary hands. And so, admitted through black swollen gates That must arrest all distance otherwise,— Past whirling pillars and lithe pediments, Light wrestling there incessantly with light, Star kissing star through wave on wave unto Your body rocking! and where death, if shed, Presumes no carnage, but this single change,— Upon the steep floor flung from dawn to dawn The silken skilled transmemberment of song; Permit me voyage, love, into your hands ... * Elliott Carter, Voyage, Tony Arnold, sopra[...]
Petrenko conducts the San Francisco Symphony in Respighi, Bartók, and Pärt, with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Piano, in his SFS Debut
November 6th, 2012
The San Francisco Symphony Davies Hall, San Francisco Saturday, October 8, 2012 Vasily Petrenko, conducting. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano Pärt - Fratres for Strings and Percussion (1977/1991) Bartók - Piano Concerto No. 3 (1945) Respighi - Fountains of Rome (1916) Pines of Rome (1924) Just call me Caesar! Several weeks out and here I am, pulse quickened, still in thrall to legions from the Pines of Rome passing in review beneath my feet! The kaleidoscopic power of Respighi's music hasn't faded in my ears. Most patrons think of their car-keys within moments of a concert's end. I'm still growling-out my version of "Catacombs" in the shower and banging kettledrum fists on the tiles three weeks later... But I was fortunate to sit a few rows above the trombones during the second half of the Vasily Petrenko's recen[...]
Cage in the Can: A John Cage Centenary Festival at the Sydney Opera House with Bang on A Can All-Stars
November 6th, 2012
John Cage: Centenary Celebration The Studio, Sydney Opera House: 2 and 3 November 2012 Friday 2 November 7PM ‘John Cage and his American Descendants’ John Cage - Indeterminacy/Variations II Florent Ghys - An Open Cage David Lang - sunray Michael Gordon - For Madeline Julie Wolfe - Big, Beautiful, Dark and Scary Saturday 3 November 1.30 PM ‘Lecture on Nothing’ Lyle Chan with guest panel discussion 3 PM ‘The Music of John Cage and Brian Eno’ John Cage - Improvisations Robert Black - bass, David Cossin - percussion John Cage - Sonatas & Interludes (excerpts) Vicky Chow - prepared piano Brian Eno/Robert Wyatt/Rhett Davies arr. Michael Gordon - Music for Airports (1/1) Brian Eno arr. David Lang - Music for Airports (1/2) Brian Eno arr. Julia Wolfe - Music for Airports (2/1) Bria[...]
Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel: Celebrating Five Hundred Years of the Greatest Vision of Hope
November 3rd, 2012
Sprawled across the east wing that stretches from the papal residence to the Vatican Museums is an inscription commemorating one of Pope Julius II’s most important contributions to the complex now known as the Apostolic Palace: IULIUS II PONT MAX LIGURUM VI PATRIA SAONENSIS SIXTI IIII NEPOS VIAM HANC STRUXIT PONT COMMODITATI. The text is ambiguous in that “VI” may signify the ablative case of the word vis meaning power or strength, or it may stand for the Roman numeral “6.” If the former, it indicates that Julius was the sixth pope from Liguria, the others being Innocent IV (1243-1254), Hadrian V (1276), Nicholas V (1447–1455), Sixtus IV (1471–1484), and Innocent VIII[...]
Dancers Go 'A-Fugeing': The Sydney Dance Company With the Australian Chamber Orchestra (Amplified!) in ‘Project Rameau‘
November 1st, 2012
Project Rameau Sydney Theatre, Wash Bay: 29 October 2012 until 3 November Sydney Dance Company Rafael Bonachela - artistic director and choreographer Australian Chamber Orchestra Richard Tognetti - artistic director and first violin Music - Jean-Philippe Rameau, Antonio Vivaldi, J. S. Bach, arranged by Graham Sadler, Vi King Lim, Jennifer Powell Lighting and set designs - Benjamin Cisterne Costumes design - Rafael Bonachela and Fiona Holley Dance director - Amy Hollingsworth If the fugue is the highest form of counterpoint it’s because it is truly an art. No one would deny that fugues do not write themselves, yet they are based on simple, sincere imitation, the first, most obvious ingredient one hears, yet the freedom of the voices is the fugue’s sin[...]
A Singer's Notes 60: True Love
October 29th, 2012
Alexina and Jason have done it again. The Hubbard Hall Opera Theater Resident Artists La Bohème played to a sizeable crowd in the Dorset Playhouse last night, and the audience departed well-pleased. Each opera that I have seen Jason Dolmetsch stage has had the benefit of his excellent ear. Just one example: in Act 3 of La Bohème, where Mimi usually listens off, or nearly off, to the dire pronouncements, Vedrana Kalas walked haltingly across the space way upstage, a few steps at a time, as if what she was overhearing made it difficult for her to continue. Her progress touched the heart. In this abbreviated production (75 minutes with no intermission), Act 3 was [...]
Herr Stadler's One and Only Basset Clarinet Resurrected: Craig Hill Plays Mozart’s Concerto, also Mozart's Violin Concerto with Madeleine Easton and Mendelssohn’s Hebrides on Period Instruments of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra
October 27th, 2012
City Recital Hall, Sydney: 24 October 2012 travels to Melbourne 27 and 28 October, then to Sydney 31 October and 2 and 3 November to be broadcast on ABC Classic FM at 1 PM Tuesday 30 October (Australian Eastern Standard Time) Mozart - Divertimento K. 136 Mozart - Clarinet Concerto in A, K. 622 Craig Hill - basset clarinet Mozart - Violin concerto No. 3 in G, K. 216 Madeleine Easton - violin Mendelssohn - Die Hebriden, opus 26 (“die Fingalshöhle”) The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra Paul Dyer - artistic director and conductor It wouldn't necessarily be very difficult for historic performance practice to degenerate into the "flavor of the month" endlessly seeking novelty, ironically enough, in newest old bizarre instrument never befo[...]
Burr & McCallum, Architects
October 24th, 2012
A few years ago I went to a lecture of which the most compelling theme was the link between 20th century architectural practice and toy design. I can’t remember the specific architects who were mentioned back then, but I can think of two practitioners from the Northeast who, I believe, at least partially fit into that thesis—Ann McCallum and Andrus Burr of Burr & McCallum in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The toy is sometimes the object and the by-product of obsession, invention, tinkering, and learning. In the right person’s hands, the toy can express elevated aesthetic thought and highly selective insight, instances where rigorous work and play are so closely linked that they can b[...]
UCSB Arts & Lectures Presents Another Dazzlingly Diverse Season
October 24th, 2012
Santa Barbara, California is not the sleepy town that many outsiders assume. On the contrary, it offers a more diversified and sophisticated array of cultural events than most communities of its size. Thanks to UCSB Arts & Lectures, the University of California’s outstanding presenting organization, both the scholarly and residential population benefit greatly each year from a broad spectrum of hot-topic academic lectures as well as dance, music, and theatre performances, ranging from innovative, cutting-edge companies and ensembles to high-profile, beloved traditional institutions. A typical weekend in Santa Barbara, as exemplified by the last few days in April of this year, toward the end of the 2011-2012 season, could delight the m[...]
A Singer's Notes 59: Kristin Linklater performs Shakespeare Sonnets at Shakespeare & Company
October 22nd, 2012
Completeness is its own kind of extravagance. It enables risk. The completeness I speak of is given to us when an artist finds a union between imagination and voice which is set as a seal, neither one or the other in combat for supremacy. A word, a note becomes as much a physical fact as an imagined one. The muscle leads the mind and surprises it with a knowledge of deep things. To achieve this requires much work. To become a babe again, to let out a cry of pure delight is the task of a lifetime. Being finished vocally is one thing (conservatories often stop here), achieving a unity[...]