BREAKING NEWS: Opera & Ballet

Covent Garden’s Otello: Superb singing defies Warner’s uneven production

Thu, 12 Dec 2019 17:28:55 +0000

I have seen productions of Verdi’s Otello which have been revolutionary, even subversive. I have now seen one which is the complete antithesis of that.

Perseverance

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 15:28:07 +0000

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUI2cYJQRhU

“My middle name really is perseverance. I’ve always believed that I had talent, even when I felt like a very inferior sort of person, which I spent a lot of time living my life feeling that I wasn’t worthy. But even then I knew that I had something special, and maybe that’s what it takes.”

Born on this day in 1803 composer Hector Berlioz.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=fel3w_sYdps

On this day in 1960 the Cy Coleman musical Wildcat opened at the Alvin Theatre, to run 171 performances.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaYjVHEB5bs

Fairytales and Lullabyes

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 14:32:51 +0000

Yesterday’s lunchtime concert in the RBA was the last for the year in the vocal series and featured members of the Ensemble Studio. Rachael Kerr was scheduled to do about half the accompanying but illness prevented her from playing so some hasty reprogramming meant that what we got differed somewhat from the printed programme but it was still a very well put together effort.

The show started with Joel Allison and Alex Soloway doing Schubert’s Nacht und Träume. This starts on a long crescendo note rather high for a bass-baritone. It’s rather like starting a cycling demonstration by crossing Niagara Falls on a unicycle. Anyway, Joel didn’t plunge to his death in the foaming waters and it all went rather well. It was followed by a very dramatic Liedesend from Simona Genga with equally dramatic playing from Alex.

Jamie Groote teamed up with Alex for Jake Heggie’s Daybreak from his chamber opera Three Decembers which is a sort of riff on dysfunctional families at Christmas. Typical Heggie; tuneful but not overly schmaltzy and very well sung.

Matthew Cairns made his first appearance with the Witch’s aria from Hansel and Gretel in the version that is going to be used by the COC in their abridged children’s version (February 13th and 15th). It was dramatic, loud and in just the right funny/scary spot. There were several small children in the house but none of them got eaten. Matthew was back later with Liz Upchurch for a very fine version of Strauss’ Zueignung. I’m really not sure why tenors don’t do the Strauss songs for high voice more often.

Vartan Gabrielian and Alex chipped in with five short songs by Rachmaninoff. He sounds very good in Russian. His dark timbre suits Rachmaninoff. There was more Strauss from Lauren Margison and Liz. This time it was Beim Schlafengehen from the Four Last Songs and was quite dramatic and rather beautiful.

The close out was an awfully cute Evening Prayer from Hansel and Gretel from Jamie and Lauren with Liz at the piano. Awww. Until next year then…

Photo credits: Dan Truong (except the kittens)

Strictly Come Dancing 2019 Christmas Special | Interviews

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 13:29:24 +0000

Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas, Bruno Tonioli – (C) BBC – Photographer: Guy Levy Debbie McGee Dancing the quickstep with Kevin Clifton to Jingle Bells What made you...

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Electric Messiah again

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 13:26:13 +0000

It’s the fifth year that Soundstreams has put on Electric Messiah which I guess means it’s pretty much becoming a holiday tradition. This iteration may just be the best yet. This version seemed quite stripped down compared to some years and all the better for it. It’s centred around rearranged (and shortened) excerpts from the Handel work supplemented with some personal touches for the cast. This time the “band” was Wesley Shen on harpsichord, Joel Visentin on keyboards and electric organ, Joel Schwartz on assorted acoustic and electric guitars and Adam Scime directing from the (laptop) keyboard which controlled lots of effective electronics. SlowPitchSound was there on turntables with Lybido dancing.

The set up this year was simple. The band was on stage with the turntables at the opposite end of the space. The audience was in three rows either side of the performance space in front of the stage. Everybody was in white. Again, simple.

The piece opened as before with a four part arrangement of Comfort Ye introducing each singer in turn; Lindsay McIntyre (soprano), Chloe Charles (alto), Jonathan MacArthur (tenor) and Andrew Adridge (bass). Various aria and chorus excerpts followed with interludes by SlowPitchSound including a riff early on on Hallelujah. The “unconventional” bits were well spaced throughout the performance which left it with more of a “Handel feel” than last year. There were no exotic languages. The mash up by Chloe Charles of He Was Despised and her own God is a Toad, accompanying herself, worked really well.

The final “set” worked especially well and made a fine conclusion. An arrangement of Since By Man Came Death was followed by Wesley Chen leaving the stage to accompany I Know That My Redeemer Liveth on shō (a Japanese instrument that looks like a sort of nostril periscope) before the close out on Hallelujah.

The standard of performance from every body involved was high. The quartet of voices had some contrast with Chloe and Andrew distinctly darker in timbre than Lindsay and Jonathan. The pacing was very tight and the interpolations didn’t feel gimmicky or ill placed. It all just worked and the show flew by. It’s only about 75 minutes long but it left me wanting more. Messiah rarely does that.

There are two more shows tonight and tomorrow at 8pm at Drake Underground.

Photos by Dahlia Katz.

Solomon’s Knot: Charpentier - A Christmas Oratorio

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 09:04:31 +0000

When Marc-Antoine Charpentier returned from Rome to Paris in 1669 or 1670, he found a musical culture in his native city that was beginning to reject the Italian style, which he had spent several years studying with the Jesuit composer Giacomo Carissimi, in favour of a new national style of music.

Mariusz Kwiecien cancellations continue

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 17:05:00 +0000

Mariusz Kwiecien in Pearl Fishers and Don Giovanni

Barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien continues to cancel performances, including a third cancellation with the Dallas Opera. The company announced that he has withdrawn as Rodrigo in their upcoming production of Verdi’s Don Carlo. He will be replaced by fellow barihunk Lucas Meachem. Kwiecien withdrew from the title role in their production of Mozart's Don Giovanni in April 2018 and Bizet's Pearl Fishers in January. Kwiecien is scheduled to sing Rodrigo at Covent Garden this summer.

Meachem will join an all-star cast in Dallas that includes Jamie Barton, Leah Crocetto, Robert Watson, Morris Robinson, Andrea Silvestrelli and David Leigh. Performances run from March 20-28 and tickets are available online. Tickets are available online.

Kwiecien's notable recent cancellations also include withdrawing from the The Met's Pearl Fishers and as the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro, Dr. Malatesta in Donizetti's Don Pasquale at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden and the Count in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Bavarian State Opera.

Repeated attempts to get a get a comment from his US and European agents have gone unanswered. We wish him a speedy and healthy recovery to the opera stage.

John Ringling’s Circus Nutcracker Brings Holiday Wonder to Sarasota

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 16:23:28 +0000

The Sarasota Ballet celebrates the beauty of the holidays this year in a uniquely Sarasota fashion, with the return of John Ringling’s Circus Nutcracker this December 20-21 at the Van Wezel...

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US Prix de Ballet is Reimagining the Ballet Competition

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 14:17:07 +0000

The US Prix de Ballet is taking an unconventional approach to the ballet competition—by putting the competitors' health first. After a successful first year in 2018, the Prix is returning to San Diego, CA this February with an even more comprehensive lineup of wellness workshops and master classes, in addition, of course, to the high-level competition.

Though the talent is top-notch, the environment is friendly, says HARID Conservatory faculty member Victoria Schneider, who serves on US Prix de Ballet's elite panel of judges. "The wellbeing of the dancer is the main focus," says Schneider, who awarded three scholarships to HARID at last year's competition.

US Prix de Ballet was born after its founders traveled to the Japan Grand Prix International Ballet Competition in 2016. "The company ran every aspect of the competition with professionalism, dignity, honor and precision," says founder Neisha Hernandez. "We knew we wanted this level of experience for America."

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While other ballet competitions have master class offerings, Schneider points out that they usually run concurrently to the competition itself. "Because at US Prix de Ballet the classes are held on a separate day, I get to watch and teach the competitors," she says. It's a rare opportunity in the competition world for judges to see the dancer more completely, and to recognize talent and potential even when it isn't flashing on stage, she says. Other judges/master teachers include Tulsa Ballet assistant artistic director Daniela Buson, Boston Ballet School faculty member Rie Ichikawa and director of Radford University's ballet program Inessa Plekhanova.

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But US Prix de Ballet is also going beyond the typical master class experience, with a series of wellness workshops intended to support and train dancers' bodies and minds. Psychologist and former gymnast Sara Hickman will give a workshop designed to help dancers be their best when it matters most by managing the competitive environment of dance and reducing negative self-talk, among other strategies. "We want the emotions that they have dancing to be joy, love, and gratitude, and to normalize the idea that training their minds is part of their success," she says. "You have to address the whole person, and the US Prix de Ballet has a wholistic model that supports the dancers in competition."

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Lisa Howell, physiotherapist and author of The Ballet Blog, will also be on deck to help dancers understand their anatomy, and how best to master it for optimal performance. "We will be looking at articulation of the feet, improving pointe range, optimizing turnout range and control, as well as the wonders of fascial mobilizers for safely increasing flexibility," she says. Each of her workshops will teach participants a strategic warm-up sequence to do before class or performance to maximize their physical potential.

Howell emphasizes that the US Prix de Ballet is a true learning experience that will benefit dancers regardless of how their competition performance goes. "Many other competitions have no focus on dancers' wellness," she says. "It really highlights the values of the US Prix de Ballet organizers, and their commitment to helping young dancers grow as humans as well as dancers."

Dancers may enroll through Jan 21.

Calling the shots

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 13:25:07 +0000

Der Freischütz, with its pre-Wagnerian tunefulness and fascinating orchestration, keeps arousing interest. Weber’s singspiel has had at least three stagings in New York in the last few years: by Utopia Opera, the Bronx Opera and now Heartbeat Opera.

I missed the first two, but friends of mine were delighted with the inventive presentations. Heartbeat Opera is fielding two casts through next Sunday at Baruch Performing Arts Center east of Madison Square, and I heard them on Friday and Saturday nights.

Der Freischütz has been called the first German folk-culture opera. Naïve peasants with quaint pieties had turned up in comic operas before 1821, but their love stories and soul-risking adventures were not the fare of serious German opera. In the wake of Freischütz’s triumphant success came the folkloric operas of Marschner, Hoffmann, Spohr, Lortzing, von Flotow, Schumann and, ultimately, Wagner.

Freischütz is also an early example of stage-gothic, the macabre effects of the dawning romantic era, set to evocative music in the air of the deep, Germanic forests. (This was the era of the Brothers Grimm, remember, the original source of the libretto—though with a far harsher ending.) Audiences reveled in the tales of superstitious peasants set, comfortingly, long ago, in the era of the Thirty Years’ War, but they also liked the frisson of theatrical terror. It filled a shadowy place left vacant by the fading of traditional religion. Soon, someone foretold, there would be movies. With soundtracks.

At Heartbeat, the opera is sung in the original German with an English version of the dialogue. The rich, atmospheric orchestration has been cleverly reduced to seven persons on traditional instruments who double on eccentric or electronic ones (singing saws, woodblocks, marimba, rattles, electric bass, accordion), which enhance or imply the supernatural and satanic themes. Much of the singing is awfully good and the staging is often inventive and performed with skill and focus.

Offense might be provided to the senses of some attendees in the smoke and dry ice that accompany the Wolf’s Glen—in this version Wolf’s Canyon. In the tall Baruch Theater with the seats arranged around a catwalk as if representing forest pathways, you never know where the action is going to take place next—keep your eyes peeled! But some of us do like it when the tenor and soprano are howling their last duettino right in my ear.

Heartbeat has set the piece in a contemporary era, in a rural locale where gun culture reigns supreme and bullying is natural. The dialogue (why didn’t Lachner or somebody make recits out of it?) is embarrassing in every version of this opera, and hillbilly accents do not help.

Neither does Kaspar, when possessed by the demon Samiel (a dancing female in this version, though her few lines are sung by a taped basso), really need to slip meth into Max’s shot of whiskey. It may or may not be useful to learn that Kaspar’s a vet who has learned black magic in the army. Is Samiel an Iraqi djinn? Can we blame the Magic Bullets on PTSD? But these changes are simple and acceptable—they have no effect on the music or the plot line.

But the show goes on to change the Hermit, Weber’s benign deus ex machina, into a guerrillero armed with an automatic rifle who threatens to gun down the entire chorus. (They shriek a lot.) He is renamed “Max’s Shadow,” and whether he is real or summoned from the subconscious is unclear from the director’s note. Two performances were not enough to explain to me what he was supposed to be doing in Der Freischütz.

Several of those attending asked me, going out, if I knew what on earth the ending signified, and all I could do was explain how the opera is supposed to end (piety triumphs; the devil takes his spoil and departs) and join them to deplore Heartbeat’s funky alterations. Think it through, guys. If you want this to be an anti-gun opera, you’ll have to write a few more scenes and maybe get Weber to set your diatribe to music.

Weber’s Max is a heldentenor in bud, and Heartbeat somehow fielded two of them, both capable of unstrained high notes and burly anguish over the (admittedly reduced) orchestration. Ian Koziara on Friday had the slightly more plush lyric instrument, but it was no hardship to have Casey Candebat replace him on Saturday.

The pure Agathe, Max’s true love and the prize of the shooting contest, is a role for an aspirant dramatic soprano—she was sung by the young Nilsson (her debut) and the young Sutherland. She must spin out long passages of accompanied arioso to enlist our sympathies for the arrival of the anticipated Max. Her arias, slow and portentous melodies, often defeat a singer’s attempts to bring her hopes to life. But in a small theater, with every expression visible, she has more opportunity to maintain rapport.

Summer Hassan has a sizable soprano of considerable quality and a fine, Germanic vibrato. She sang ardently in the Friday cast, but has problems sustaining pitch when intensity is called for. I was more impressed with Katherine Whyte, whose thinner voice held truer to the melodic line.

Agathe and Max’s fraught affair in the eaves of the threatening forest would probably bore any audience if left to itself, and it is a mark of Weber’s genius that he understood that. He set Agathe’s gloom off with a merry sidekick, Aennchen, said to have been modeled on the character of Weber’s own bride. Jana McIntyre on Friday and Nicole Haslett on Saturday both took the part with pretty, Rothenberger-ish voices that did not lack weight and held their own in trio with the lovers. Their acting, too, was up to Aennchen’s joking “ghost story” aria.

The villainous Kaspar (or are we meant to sympathize with a “damaged” soldier?) was taken on Friday by Derrell Acon, a perfectly acceptable light bass and a sinister presence. On Saturday, though, we had Daniel Klein, whose edgy, angry acting turned the whole drama up a notch or two. He seemed genuinely on the edge of mania—which was true of most of the characters. But with Klein, you felt it.

azumi OE, a Butoh-trained dancer and choreographer, played the demon Samiel with abrupt and alarming physical transformations from several traditions. That Samiel was up to no good was clear from all of them.

The music-making was highly enjoyable, but my hat is especially off—waving in the air—for Daniel Schlosberg, who made the extraordinary reduction of the score to seven instrumentalists (whom he led from piano and accordion), forfeiting none of the beauty, the ominous glamour or the melodramatic thrust of Weber’s original. It was a pleasure to be reminded of the music’s many charms, and to hear them again a second night.

I am unconvinced by the two lengthy essays in the program that attempt to explain the alterations Louisa Proske and Chloe Treat have made in the conclusion of this thumpy old libretto, turning it into something that goes clunk in the night. But the excellent bunkhouse set and the lights and haze and spookiness of the Wolf’s Glen—oops, sorry, Canyon—were appropriate and atmospheric. The sets, lighting, sound, electronic music and props designers are all to be congratulated, though I have no idea how to apportion the praise.

Photos: Russ Rowland (header, women’s chorus), Andrew Boyle (men in smoke, Samiel)

True West

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 13:00:41 +0000

On this day in 1910 Puccini’s La fanciulla del West had its world premiere at the Met.

Strictly Come Dancing 2019 | Final Songs & Dances

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 13:00:10 +0000

EMMA AND ANTON Judges Pick – Charleston (Thoroughly Modern Millie from Musicals Week) Showdance – Let Yourself Go (Irving Berlin) Favourite Dance – TBA KARIM AND AMY Judges Pick – Quickstep (Mr....

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A Baroque Odyssey: 40 Years of Les Arts Florissants

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 10:39:52 +0000

In 1979, the Franco-American harpsichordist and conductor, William Christie, founded an early music ensemble, naming it Les Arts Florissants, after a short opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

Schubert: Winterreise

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 07:29:21 +0000

Le Club Musical de Québec

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, piano

Miracle on Ninth Avenue

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 21:37:00 +0000

Gian Carlo Menotti’s holiday classic, Amahl and the Night Visitors, was the first recorded opera I ever heard. Each Christmas Eve, while decorating the tree, our family sang along with the (still unmatched) original cast version. We knew the recording by heart, right down to the nicks in the LP. Ever since, no matter what the setting or the quality of a performance, I cannot get through it without tearing up.

Here's What Every Ballet Student Should Look for in Their Training Program

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 15:55:40 +0000

When you're looking for a ballet program to take you to the next level, there are a lot of factors to consider. While it's tempting to look for the biggest name that will accept you, the savvy dancer knows that successful training has more to do with the attention and opportunities you'll get.

We put together a few of the most important things for dancers to look for in a summer or year-round training program, with the help of the experts at Colorado Ballet Academy:

A clear path to job opportunities.

Like most programs, the summer intensive at Colorado Ballet Academy is the threshold to becoming part of the year-round school. (In fact, Academy director Erica Fischbach says that some past summer intensive dancers have been hired directly into the studio company.) But what makes CBA stand out are the clear stepping stones toward a company contract that include benefits like pointe shoes and an hourly wage, rather than a bill.

According to Fischbach, Colorado Ballet artistic director Gil Boggs chooses two to three trainees every year who receive large scholarships and a shoe allowance. Trainees understudy company roles in addition to their pre-professional training schedule and often end up performing in company productions. "It is a true trainee opportunity," says Fischbach, "because you are not paying to be here, and you get experience with the company."

Approximately six pre-professional students are accepted into Colorado Ballet's Studio Company each year, which is a paid position, says Fischbach. The Studio Company gets to dance with the main company extensively during the season as well as take on soloist and principal roles in their own performance series throughout the region.

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Training that nurtures the whole dancer.

If you're moving away from home to train, look for schools that have opportunities to prepare your mind as well as your body. At CBA, pre-professional students have a weekly life skills class that includes talks on wellness and nutrition, injury prevention with Colorado Ballet company physical therapists, and a wide range of other offerings.

"We have a series called theatrical careers where someone from every department in Colorado Ballet comes to talk about their job and what led them there," says Fischbach. "As a dancer I had no idea how many people were working to make my career possible, so it's my goal to open our students' eyes to the people working around them and the opportunities in those careers."

Other sessions teach students how to write compelling bios, resumes and cover letters, or give costume-making tutorials, so students have the skills to handle a costume disaster on their own if they need to. The program also provides students with access to sessions with a mental health professional, and the company's onsite physical therapists and massage therapists at reduced costs.

Stage time.

At CBA, the amount of performance opportunities mimics company life in order to fully prepare students for a career in dance. They have two big shows: A "Fall Feature" and an end-of-school-year production at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House where the professional company performs. But it's more than a run-of-the-mill recital: Fischbach and Academy faculty adapt a full-length classical ballet. "It gives the students the opportunity to work on classical technique and artistry and to be a part of of a multidimensional production," says Fischbach. "They aren't just performing excerpts; they are contributing to the larger story."

The pre-professional levels also have a "Saturday Soiree" performance every five weeks in Colorado Ballet's black box theater. "Sometimes the choreographers are company members, ballet mistresses or local choreographers from outside of the ballet, so they get a nice range of experiences," says Fischbach. The series also includes a final performance of a student choreographic workshop where pre-pro students cast and choreograph new works on each other.

An appealing location.

Look for a place that will inspire you in and out of the studio. Every year, Fischbach takes the pre-professional dancers on a hike to kick off the school year. "I want them to start off knowing what is out there and how lucky we are to be in this beautiful place," she says. Denver is known for its breathtaking mountains and natural spaces, but also boasts a dynamic food scene, professional sports teams, and one of the most famous music venues in the world—Red Rocks Amphitheater. Summer intensive students get to take it all in during weekend trips.

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Unique experiences.

The summer intensive chaperones at Colorado Ballet Academy aren't your average RAs. The academy employs Colorado Ballet company dancers to come up with weekend activities, get students to and from the studios on the light rail, and deliver lunch catered by local restaurants. The result is that CBA summer students spend time with professional dancers to cultivate mentors, ask questions about the trials and excitements of a pro dance career, and get advice.

Star power.

The Academy's summer intensive is directed by American Ballet Theatre luminaries Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner. "Their personalities are so generous and inclusive," says Fischbach. "They are directly involved with every single dancer. They know everyone's name and training history, and at the end of each day, they see all the students off to their dorms with high-fives."

Students also benefit from learning repertoire directly from the dancers who performed it—and from the individualized attention that the faculty members provide. "They have a gift for inspiring every dancer to unlock artistry they didn't know they had," says Fischbach. "Every student feels like they are an important part of the intensive. They leave with an immense sense of accomplishment and confidence."

Veiled threat

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 13:00:19 +0000

On this day in 1905 Richard Strauss’s Salome premiered in Dresden.

The Common Good

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 00:27:00 +0000

Conservatives Need To Support Labor As Much As They Support Capital Formation is a piece by Jon Schweppe. In it he argues for policies which he thinks will benefit the common good. He thinks that the government should encourage the well being of workers and that such a stance should be supported by conservatives since the well being of workers is in the national interest. He thinks that taxes on workers should be the same as on capital and that shoddy policies on trade, immigration, and our corrupt education system should also be addressed.

Great! It’s hard to argue with this stance. But how exactly are these changes to be enacted? We live in a country of 330 million people, 51 states and the District of Columbia, numerous overseas possessions, 100 senators and 430 representatives who can’t even pass a budget, innumerable lobbyists, a national debt that’s bigger than the Andromeda Galaxy – a country in which half its population wants to impeach its president while the other half wants to re-elect him. A country that can’t distinguish singular from plural, or who’s a boy and who’s a girl, or how many pronouns there are much less which to use, and Mr Schweppe, who doesn’t have to work for a living – he’s at a think tank – believes rational change is just around the corner, or no more than a block away. Forget about rational changes, just avoiding irrational ones would be a major accomplishment.

Which brings me to being kind to medical students. People who write on this subject – most of them also don’t really work for a living – have advocated for a kinder and gentler approach to medical students and postgraduate trainees. They cite the bad old days when doctors in training were subjected to abuse equal or worse than that imposed by Torquemada and associates.

Well, there’s no older product of those bad old days than me. When I did something stupid, alas a not infrequent occurrence during my student days, I was often told I was a moron or the equivalent and was even struck on one occasion. Interestingly, I now look back on those who were hardest on me as the best teachers charged with the responsibility of preventing me from error during my years as a trainee. I cannot think of an instance when I was forcibly told I had done something wrong that was undeserved.

Medicine is a serious occupation in which the opportunities for mischief exist in far greater profusion than those which carry benefit. I vividly recall every mistake I made in more than half a century in the profession. Fortunately these errors were few and never deadly. My father died at age 50 because of a medical error which makes me even more sensitive to the consequences of medical mishap.

My training in medicine lasted a decade, after that I was responsible for the education of physicians at all levels of study. I never raised my voice, used bad language, or was disrespectful of a student’s dignity. I did, however, let them no without ambiguity when they had done something wrong and always made sure that they did not lapse into error again, at least to the extent possible.

Here’s a rather bland discussion of the subject by Art Caplan, a medical ethicist. My own opinion, being out of the game now, is that teachers of medicine should be as tough as possible on trainees who err. The only limitation I’d set is would you care if the corrective encounter found its way to YouTube.

Human beings routinely make mistakes. Medical error likely take second place only to military blunders. The current multi-trillion dollar medical monster that confronts every patient who falls into its maw has little in the way of patient protection built into its government and computer driven machinery. About all that’s left are doctors who care about the well being of their patients. Such care requires that physicians never let up their vigilance. The operative assumption is that somebody will screw up. This means constant attention to every detail and the conviction that your instructions will not be followed as spoken or written. It takes a lot of tough training to get ready for this task

Accordingly, when your going through the medical equivalent of Marine Corps boot camp, don’t expect your drill sergeant to be like your mother.

Strictly Come Dancing 2019 | Semi Final Results

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 20:00:21 +0000

Niall Horan, Katya Jones, Gorka Marquez – (C) BBC – Photographer: Guy Levy Chris Ramsey is the latest celebrity to depart the dance floor in Strictly Come Dancing 2019 This weekend four...

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Orlando

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 18:58:30 +0000

The broadcast begins at 2:00 PM.

Here’s an excellent background piece by Ben Miller.

Photos: Michael Pöhn

The Confession Stone

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 18:29:19 +0000

I wanted to listen to Robert Fleming’s song cycle The Confession Stone today but I didn’t appear to have a recording in my strangely eclectic collection of physical and digital recordings. There’s nothing either on any of the umpty ump labels distributed by Naxos USA (lucky me has pretty much unlimited access tot heir digital catalogue) so off I went to YouTube. And I found a lovely recording by the talented duo of Wallis Giunta and Steven Philcox. Enjoy.

Sie kämmt ihr goldenes Haar

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 16:34:20 +0000

On this day in 1949 the Jule Styne musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre, making a star of Carol Channing and running 740 performances.

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet | TWENTY YEARS OF MAGIC FROM RWB’S NUTCRACKER

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 15:01:59 +0000

Former RWB Dancer Saeka Shirai (2015-2019), and Students; Photo by David Cooper Since 1999, families have flocked to see the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s reimagined story of Nutcracker, which returns once...

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Detlev Glanert: Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch (UK premiere)

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 14:55:05 +0000

It is perhaps not surprising that the Hamburg-born composer Detlev Glanert should count Hans Werner Henze as one of the formative influences on his work - he did, after all, study with him between 1984 to 1988.

Death in Venice at Deutsche Oper Berlin

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 08:22:57 +0000

This death in Venice is not the end, but the beginning.

Strictly Come Dancing 2019 | Semi Final

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 20:19:00 +0000

The Strictly Semi-final songs and dances were released earlier this week. Each couple, as per tradition, will perform two dances. *LIVE SHOW* Oti Mabuse, Kelvin Fletcher – (C) BBC –...

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Give me libertine

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 18:25:03 +0000

Italian baritone Davide Luciano was originally scheduled to sing the title role in the December performances of Don Giovanni at Lyric Opera of Chicago, but recently cancelled due to injury. Lyric was very lucky to be able to get American bass-baritone Ryan McKinny, so brilliant in the recent Dead Man Walking, to sing The Don. McKinny had recently made his role debut as Don Giovanni at Houston Grand Opera, so he was a natural choice to take over the role.

Yesterday’s matinee performance showed that all aspects of Robert Falls’ superb production are still intact, perhaps even better than when I first attended on November 17. Every one of the principal singers sang with more confidence, particularly Amanda Majeski’s Donna Elvira.

I was impressed with her before, but yesterday her performance had gained significant emotional depth and attention to detail. I continue to be impressed with how Lyric managed to assemble such a uniformly superb cast of singing actors to populate the glorious designs of set, costumes, and lighting.

Ryan McKinny proved a completely different Don than his predecessor Lucas Meachem. First of all, while well-muscled, he is a physically much slighter, smaller, younger Don Giovanni. This meant that McKinny approached the role in an entirely different but just as valid way than the physically imposing Meachem. McKinny’s Don is subtler, slyer, smoother, with a sharp wit and sense of dark humor that gives added dimension to the role.

His rich bass-baritone is possibly a size smaller than ideal in the gigantic opera house, but he sang with burnished golden tone throughout. He is a superb physical actor and moves with snake-like grace as he seduces every woman in sight.

His seduction technique is of necessity quieter, smarter, using his brain power to ascertain the weaknesses of his targets, then moving in to fill their emotional voids with passionate flattery, using his noble status ruthlessly. He is not a brutishly imposing Don, but rather a dangerously tense and coiled one, always ready to pounce at any sign of female frailty.

It is a tribute to this lavish production that it perfectly suits two such different Dons. And it was a great pleasure to hear this wonderful cast singing and acting with such brilliance and panache. I can’t wait to hear more from Rachel Willis-Sorensen, Majeski, Ben Bliss, Ying Fang, Brandon Cedel, Matthew Rose and Mika Kares. I think McKinny’s Don is still a bit of a work-in-progress, but he was just as riveting to watch here as he was as Joseph deRocher just a month before.

Photo: Simon Pauly

What’s in a Decade?

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 17:23:11 +0000

What a Way To End the Decade is the headline of a Fox Business report on the November jobs report. I suspect it’s not a good idea to get financial updates from an organization that doesn’t know when a decade ends, though such confusion is common. A consecutive sequence of 10 starting with 1 ends with 10. As there is no year zero in either the abandoned Julian calendar or the current Gregorian one, the first decade AD ended in the year 10. Thus, all decades end in a zero, as do all centuries, and millennia. The current decade will end December 31, 2020.

This is the reason Stanley Kubrick who knew when the old milenia would end called his movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Rather than 2000: etc. I know this is not earth shattering news, but you’d likely be better off getting information from someone who could read a calendar.

Happy end of the 9th year of the decade.

Staatskapelle Berlin/Schiff - Bach, 6 December 2019

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 16:58:39 +0000

Pierre Boulez Saal

Orchestral Suite no.2 in B minor, BWV 1067

Piano Concerto no.3 in D major, BWV 1054

Orchestral Suite no.3 in D major, BWV 1068

Piano Concerto no.1 in D minor, BWV 1052

Claudia Stein (flute)

Staatskapelle Berlin

András Schiff (piano, conductor)

Celebrating its 450^thanniversary next year, the Staatskapelle Berlin traces its proud history long before Bach: be that its ‘own’, Carl Philipp Emanuel, his father, Johann Sebastian—‘Gentlemen, old Bach is here!’—or indeed any family member whom we know as a composer. It is a sad state of affairs to report that, on the similar brink of another anniversary, the 70^th of the great Bach year of 1950, in whose wake Theodor Adorno wrote his coruscating denunciation of authenticist ideology, we still live so much in its baleful shadow that a concert from this ancient orchestra in which it performs only relatively ‘alte Musik’ should remain so remarkable a thing. Whatever reservations I may have felt, then, concerning András Schiff’s direction of this wonderful orchestra—a few, alongside many positive observations—I remain grateful indeed for the experience, for the reminder that it is still just about possible to hear Bach played by a modern orchestra without compelling its players to sound like an end-of-pier band, or indeed simply to hear Bach from a modern orchestra at all. To see Daniel Barenboim in the Pierre Boulez Saal audience, moreover, was encouraging; dare we hope for some more Bach from him, whether as pianist, conductor, or both?

For the B minor Orchestral Suite, with Claudia Stein as the excellent flute soloist, Schiff, conducting rather than direction from the keyboard, called on a very small string orchestra (4.4.3.2.1) plus harpsichord (Schaghajegh Nosrati). The opening to the Overture, like its counterpart in the D major Suite later on, sounded clipped and inhibited. The main body of the movement came as a significant relief: not only a sensible tempo, so rare nowadays in this music, but with no attempt to inflict weird, egotistical mannerisms upon it. Rhythms were nicely sprung. Crucially, that sense of line strangely lacking earlier on was present throughout. It was initially not clear to me that Schiff’s hand-waving had much bearing on the excellent playing, other than setting the parameters within which it would operate, but entries were well pointed, so perhaps it did after all. The Rondeau and Sarabande proved graceful, without some effete, allegedly French idea of ‘grace’ becoming an end in itself. Once again, the lack of breakneck, attention-seeking tempo was greatly appreciated, also enabling the first Bourrée to come as a vigorous contrast that yet did not neglect its fundamental musical worth. The second, played only by soloists and with darker tone, offered a more relaxed foil. The martial qualities of Polonaise rhythm were communicated, yet again without ‘style’ being taken for idea. Stein’s playing in particular highlighted rhythm in revealing, generative fashion. A further solo foil, this time from flute and continuo, proved idiomatically and emotionally refreshing in the Double. A courtly Menuett led to a Badinerie that was swift without taking speed to fashionable excess, Stein’s agile musicianship matched by a highly responsive orchestra.

Moving to the relative major, a slightly augmented string section (6.6.4.3.2) accompanied Schiff in the D major Concerto, BWV 1054, directed—without harpsichord—from the piano. The first movement’s opening was bright and clear. Just when I was longing for greater variegation of piano tone, Schiff offered some, though I could not help but wish we had heard a little more in that respect. Such is his way, however, as his refusal to use the sustaining pedal; we should all be wary of claims that there is only one way. Light piano ornamentation proved stylish and did not obscure the fundamentals. An eminently musical account of the slow movement permitted depth to come from the notes, as opposed to being some thing applied to them. Command of the long line was here crucial—and unfailing. Some may well have found Schiff’s tempo for the final movement too slow; it is, after all, marked ‘Presto’. For me, his relatively unhurried approach had much to be said for it, permitting the music to speak, with no fashionable sense of harrying it.

The larger string band was retained for the second half, joined of course by two oboes, three trumpets, kettledrums, and harpsichord for the D major Orchestral Suite, not least in the main body of the first movement. It was taken fast, but far from unreasonably so: music and players could take it. What cultivated string-playing we heard, trumpets in particular enhancing the sense of the festal. If my ears took a minute or so to adjust to a more ‘period’ sound for the kettledrums, I soon ditched my prejudice in the light of such intelligent, rhetorically and harmonically expressive playing from Stephan Möller. Apparent determination to wrest the ‘Air’ from ‘on the G string fame’ left it in a curious state: skated over, with most uncharacteristic vibrato-lite playing. Nosrati’s continuo playing, however, proved a delight. Following a pair of Gavottes that were lively and vigorous, if somewhat short-breathed, the Bourrée and Gigue sounded a little too much as if translated from the keyboard, fine orchestral playing notwithstanding.

The D minor Concerto, BWV 1052, opened in forthright fashion, Schiff’s tempo choice spot on. (Not that there is a ‘correct’ answer here, but rather that it should work within the context of the performance—which it did.) There was energy enough, but also space. I may have wished it to breathe more at times; again, however, it would be folly to insist upon one’s own aesthetic being applied to everything, for on its own terms, this worked well. A greater problem for me was a lack—at least on certain occasions—of piano legato and a certain heavy-handedness which may have led some to doubt the role of a Steinway in this music. The slow movement, similarly to the Suite’s Air, seemed haunted by a fear of ‘romanticising’; what we heard instead sounded oddly unengaged, Schiff’s piano tone often unforgiving. The finale, however, came off much better: tempo, clarity, and dynamism all just right. Most important of all, it possessed a sense of grandeur such as Bach demands and yet all too rarely receives. Old Bach, it felt, was truly here: not in Potsdam, still less in Leipzig, but in Berlin.

Hong Kong Ballet | Cast Announced for FANCL Proudly Presents The Nutcracker

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 16:11:30 +0000

The Nutcracker promotional image | Dancers (from left): Yang Ruiqi, Lauma Berga (till 2018/19 Season) | Creative: Design Army | Photography: Dean Alexander | Courtesy of Hong Kong...

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Tosca

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 14:00:21 +0000

The opening night of La Scala features a new production of Tosca featuring Anna Netrebko, Francesco Meli and Luca Salsi.

If God Be For Us, Who Can Be Against Us?

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 13:27:49 +0000

Or, The First Messiah Performance of the Season

Whilst looking for entertainment I happened upon this performance of dear Mr. Handel's Messiah, and I was perfectly charmed. The information given by the individual who posted this to YouTube is infuriatingly useless, but a commenter noted that the ensemble is Collegium 1704 in Prague, and the conductor is Vaclav Lucs. A quick screen shot at the end revealed the soloists' names. I found the tempi spritely and quite appropriate, quite a contrast to many of the stodgy performances I've witnessed and been a part of. I was impressed with the coloratura ability of each section in those difficult choruses we all know. It was of course obvious that these people are not native English speakers, but after a while I didn't care. At least there was consistency in their mispronunciations!

Let me say this. I have been a choral singer all of my life, and I have always loved Messiah. The score I used in my freshman year of college to perform Messiah is still one of my most treasured possessions. I miss with all my heart the days when I was capable of singing this music. There has never been a time when I was cynical about Messiah. (OK, maybe sometimes about the Hallelujah chorus, but that's understandable.) I used to sing "Comfort Ye/Ev'ry Valley" at every opportunity. Every few years the second Sunday of Advent, when that text is appropriate, falls on my birthday, and that delights me especially. (For the record, that happens this year, but I'm certainly not attempting to sing it this year.)

There are different schools of thought about performance practice. Some people are accustomed to symphonic presentations of this great work, while others will only accept "authentic early music practice", whatever that is. It is my opinion that both positions are valid, and I enjoy them both. I don't need to feel "earlier than thou" to enjoy a Baroque masterpiece, but I do appreciate some nuances that suggest the performers are not reading exactly as printed in the G. Schirmer edition. On the other hand, I still find it surprising to have the alto soloist sing "For he is like a refiner's fire". I want the tenor to sing all four of "Thy rebuke/Behold and see/He was not cut off/But thou didst not leave", but that's probably because I used to enjoy doing them as a set.

If you can read the screen shot above, you can get the soloists' names. I liked them all. Yes, dear readers, I liked all the soloists. All of them had the appropriate tone, agility, and artistry for their roles. Because of the quick tempi, none of that tension-causing artificial darkness we so often hear was present. It's simply not possible to sing this music this well with that kind of tension. At the same time, they didn't have that bland, white sound we sometimes hear from "early music" artists, with the possible exception of a few sustained tones sung straight, with no vibrato.

But. Maybe it's a sign that I'm aging, but I was more focused on the choruses than the arias. I loved them. For that I credit Mr. Lucs, the conductor. Overall I quite approve of this performance, if that matters, and I recommend giving it a listen when you get a chance.

The Egyptian

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 13:00:50 +0000

Happy birthday to bass Zachary James.

Strictly Come Dancing 2019 | First Photos of Christmas Special Pairings

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 00:01:00 +0000

The Strictly Come Dancing 2019 Christmas Special will be broadcast on Christmas Day, BBC One at 4.40pm. Debbie McGee, Kevin Clifton – (C) BBC – Photographer: Guy Levy(C) BBC –...

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Four Colorado Ballet Dancers Leap to Higher Ranks

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 21:53:51 +0000

Last week, Colorado Ballet interrupted Nutcracker rehearsals for an exciting announcement: Four dancers were being promoted. Though all made the jump from the company's corps de ballet, Nicolas Pelletier ascended directly to the rank of soloist, while Sean Omandam, Emily Speed and Melissa Zoebisch were promoted to demi-soloist. This news comes hot on the heels of last August's promotion of Francisco Estevez to principal.

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Read on below to get to know the four dancers who were promoted. Congratulations to all!

Nicolas Pelletier

Quebec City-born Nicolas Pelletier trained at the San Francisco Ballet School and Canada's National Ballet School before joining Alberta Ballet in 2011, where he danced many principal roles including the male leads in Ben Stevenson's Dracula and Jean Grand-Maître's Romeo and Juliet. Pelletier joined Colorado Ballet in 2017. This season, he'll take on a slew of Nutcracker roles including the Mouse King, Arabian and Marzipan.

Sean Omandam

Sean Omandam is from Fresno, California. He studied at the Harid Conservatory before joining Colorado Ballet's Studio Company in 2004. He was promoted to the company's corps de ballet the following year. In 2014, we featured Omandam in our October/November issue for his behind-the-scenes role creating hilarious promotional videos for the company.

Emily Speed

Emily Speed grew up in Argyle, Texas, and graduated from Marina Almayeva School of Ballet. She danced with Alabama Ballet, Boulder Ballet and Ballet Tucson before joining Colorado Ballet in 2014. In addition to her work in Denver, Speed has spent a number of recent summers performing at the Vail Dance Festival.

Melissa Zoebisch

Growing up in Mexico, Melissa Zoebisch graduated from the Chamber Ballet of Jalisco and spent a year at the Kirov Academy of Ballet. Zoebisch danced for the National Dance Company in Mexico before joining Colorado Ballet in 2014, where her repertoire includes Lilac Fairy, Sugarplum Fairy and the Wicked Witch in Septime Webre's The Wizard of Oz.

Glanert: Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch - UK premiere

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 21:27:17 +0000

The culmination of the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Total Immersion: Detlev Glanert on Saturday 7 December will be the UK première of the German composer’s Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch conducted by Semyon Bychkov.

Strictly stars break world record on It Takes Two

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 19:00:35 +0000

Strictly’s Graziano di Prima breaks World Record in It Takes Two Pro Challenge Tonight it will be revealed live on It Takes Two that Graziano di Prima has won It Takes Two’s annual pro challenge....

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Kampe/BPO/Thielemann - Wagner and Strauss, 5 December 2019

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 15:32:23 +0000

Philharmonie

Wagner: Lohengrin: Prelude to Act I

Strauss: Sonatina for sixteen wind instruments in F major, WoO 135, ‘Aus der Werkstatt eines Invaliden’

Strauss: Drei Hymnen, op.71

Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier: Suite, op.59

Anja Kampe (soprano)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Christian Thielemann (conductor).

First came an unscheduled tribute to Mariss Jansons: the first-act Prelude to Lohengrin. In Jansons’s honour, the Berlin Philharmonic offered a glowing, performance of such translucency that even Wagner, at the height of his Young Hegelianism, might have accepted ‘transcendent’ as description in this case. Certainly that pulsating shimmer from the Berlin violins more than hinted at a Grail rendered immanent. Only toward the close did a little excessive moulding from Christian Thielemann suggest the presence of ego. Otherwise, all was much, I fancied, as Jansons might have dreamed of.

A rare opportunity to hear Strauss’s late Sonatina ‘Aus der Werkstatt eines Invaliden’ followed: so rare, indeed, that this was the first Berlin Philharmonic performance. For much of the opening and closing movements, alas, I could not help but wish that the excellent players—just think of those wind soloists—had played without a conductor, Thielemann seemingly insistent on making a meal of, even becoming bogged down in, phrases and paragraphs that need to sparkle as a knowingly late tribute to Mozart: Sekt rather than champagne, yet the very best Sekt. That said, he and they from the outset conjured to perfection a post-Capriccio harmonic soundworld. Moreover, the first movement’s climax and retreat therefrom proved wholly convincing. The central ‘Romanze und Menuett’ worked better overall, enabling one to take joy in sheer beauty of sound—how to choose between the likes of Emmanuel Pahud, Albrecht Mayer, Andreas Ottensamer, Stefan Dohr, Daniele Damiano, et al.?—without losing sight of wood for trees. If it sounded as conducted chamber music, that is arguably the point. If direction was not always clear during the finale, it became less effortful as time went on. There was, in any case, no doubting the outstanding quality of the playing.

Nor was there in the rest of the concert, concerning which I had no reservations whatsoever. These were outstanding performances in every respect, Thielemann, Anja Kampe, and this magnificent orchestra truly in their Straussian element. Why the three op.71 Hölderlin settings are so rarely performed, I have no idea. This was the first time I had heard them in concert, knowing them entirely from a radiant recording by this orchestra (which gave the 1921 premiere), Karita Mattila, and Claudio Abbado. They are hymns as much to Strauss’s absolute mastery of craft as to love and Heimat. It is difficult to imagine this performance, as rich in orchestral detail as it was revealing of form and line, being bettered any time soon. The opening ‘Hymn an der Liebe’ proved equally memorable for Kampe’s vividly communicative verbal presence and for the detail and direction of orchestral interludes, that after the third stanza sounding as a condensed passage from the Alpine Symphony or Die Frau ohne Schatten. Riding the crest of Strauss’s orchestral waves held no fear for Kampe and surely would not have done with less variegated ‘accompaniment’, yet Thielemann’s understanding of and consideration for the voice proved just as crucial. And yes, the pay-off was ultimately hymnal. ‘Rückkehr in die Heimat’, spun like a magic tapestry, and the similarly phantasmagorical delights of ‘Die Liebe’ followed, the latter resulting in a musico-verbal transformation that would surely have satisfied Hugo von Hofmannsthal himself. Strauss may deny transcendence, yet, with his ability to transfigurate, he scarcely needs to.

And so we moved to the familiar if still, in provenance, slightly mysterious 1944 Rosenkavalier suite. In a dashing, frankly coital Prelude, Thielemann appeared to be making up for lost time. Hand on heart, I have never heard this music better played, be it in Vienna, Dresden, or anywhere else. Here, Thielemann could play the orchestra as his instrument, as Strauss’s too, in the very best way. Shaping and detail emerged as one. Lightly (rightly) worn dignity and nobility lay at its heart: deeply moving. Ochs’s torment proved vivid in materialist fashion, as grotesque as anything in Ein Heldenleben, orchestra ‘speaking’ in absence of word and gesture. His waltz and others were played with evident love; in return, they effortlessly charmed us. A theatrical Luftpause before the Trio music could readily be forgiven. Likewise the very, very slow tempo of a section built with such mastery as to banish any slight lingering doubt. At the last hurrah, just as before curtain rise, orchestra, conductor, and composer sounded as one. Wonderful!

Check Out Misty Copeland’s Gorgeous Campaign for Stuart Weitzman

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 14:46:14 +0000

It is perhaps the understatement of the century to say that Misty Copeland—American Ballet Theatre principal, trailblazing role model, and straight-up ballet icon—knows how to work a pair of pointe shoes. But a new campaign for Stuart Weitzman, in which Copeland trades her ballet "boots" for some boots of the more traditional kind, proves (yet again) that she's a dance goddess in any kind of footwear.

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Titled "Step Inside," the shoe brand's holiday campaign includes short videos of Copeland set to a snappy remix of "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy." Because there's nothing this artist can't do, she actually choreographed each of the dance-driven spots herself.

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There's also an interview in which Copeland talks about how central The Nutcracker is to her holiday experience:

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Copeland is always in high demand, but she's been especially busy these past couple of months. In addition to this campaign, she performed alongside Taylor Swift at the American Music Awards, and she's the latest in a line of A-list celebrities to host an online MasterClass. That's all on top of her Nutcracker duties at ABT, where she's scheduled to dance the role of Clara, the Princess beginning next weekend.

Salome, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, 4 December 2019

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 13:04:47 +0000

Images: Monika Rittershaus
Oscar Wilde (Christian Natter), Salome (Aušrine Stundytė)

Herod – Vincent Wolfsteiner

Herodias – Marina Prudenskaya

Salome – Aušrine Stundytė

Jochanaan – Thomas J. Mayer

Narraboth – Peter Sonn

Herodias’s Page – Annika Schlicht

Jews – Ziad Nehme, Michael Smallwood, Matthew Peña, Andrés Moreno Garcia, David Oštrek

Nazarenes – Adam Kutny, Ulf Dirk Mädler

Soldiers – Arttu Kataja, Erik Rosenius

A Cappadocian – David Oštrek

A Slave – Ireene Ollino

Oscar Wilde – Christian Natter

Guards – Ernesto Amico, Allen Boxer, Nikos Fragkou, Jonathan Heck, Maximilian Reisinger, Tom-Veit Weber

Hans Neuenfels (director)

Philipp Lossau (assistant director)

Reinhard von der Thannen (designs)

Kathrin Hauer (assistant stage designer)

Sommer Ulrickson (choreography)

Stefan Bolliger (lighting)

Henry Arnold (dramaturgy)

Staatskapelle Berlin

Thomas Guggeis (conductor)

Manipulation lies at the heart of Richard Strauss’s art. One might argue that it lies at the heart of all art; there would be a strong case to be made for that. However, there is something particular about Straussian manipulation. In some ways not dissimilar to that of Puccini—both composers are expert at pressing particular emotional buttons and having many listeners enjoy such manipulation in full knowledge that they are being manipulation—it differs in the extraordinary level of technical sophistication and, often if not always, in the nested levels of knowing reflexion-in-contrivance. Artifice is good, then: perhaps, after Nietzsche, more in opposition to ‘bad’ than to ‘evil’. For Strauss, as Salome makes abundantly clear, is no more a Christian, perhaps even less willing to admit of metaphysical transcendence, than Nietzsche, of whom he had been an avid and discerning reader.

Salome and Wilde

Manipulation lies at the heart of Salome too; it lies also at the heart of Hans Neuenfels’s production, which, having seen when new last year, I was keen to see again. What I think came across still more strongly than last time—this may just have been me—was the central character’s awakening to that manipulation and, concomitantly, to her ability to manipulate. Such was a signal achievement for Aušrine Stundytė, showing herself every inch a singing actress, throwing everything into a performance that, rightly, was not always pretty, not always to be kept within bounds, very much a force of nature: trying, testing, both winning and losing. Working with Neuenfels’s staging—for which we should also understand Reinhard von der Thannen’s striking designs, Sommer Ulrickson’s choreography, and Henry Arnold’s thoughtful and provocative dramaturgy—we saw and heard from Stundytė a Salome led to self-discovery and ultimately to tragedy not only by Strauss but verbally and visibly by Oscar Wilde himself.

The latter’s advent, first foretold in neon lights (‘Wilde is coming’) and then portrayed, offered intriguing counterpoint to Jochanaan’s foretelling of another leader (and, if you like, divine manipulator)—and was once more acted and danced in a mesmerising fashion perhaps more readily associated with Salome herself by Christian Natter. And is not the Christ of whom this John the Baptist speaks his and his alone, a product of the imagination and repressed desires of a religious fanatic, incarcerated within—visible, throughout—phallic cistern. Was not Christianity always thus: recall Nietzsche’s ‘there was only one Christian and he died on the Cross’. Other religions are, true enough to the opera, treated no more favourably. Their claims, voiced exclusively by men, seem no more plausible and, perhaps more to the point, no more relevant to the story unfolding and to human flourishing beyond that particular story, than a horoscope. Strauss’s failure to conjure up music of more than empty ‘gravity’ for references to Christ tell their own story. Who manipulates whom, and to what end?

Salome looks elsewhere, to those who might actually know her: first, yes, to Jochanaan, but ultimately, more productively, to Wilde—and thus to art, to a game that is aesthetic as much as it is sado-masochistic. The two can hardly be distinguished, and why would one try? Weimar-expressionist cabaret beckons from Wildean decadence; Wilde learns from Strauss and Salome too, ultimately adopting a leather harness in her/his/their service. Such blurring of pronouns may be read in various ways—and probably should. In art, perhaps, the mightier the plagiarism, the mightier the achievement. When Jochanaan and the eunuch Wilde seem partially liberated by adopting the corset and bustle that had once constricted the now queerer, pant-suited Princess Salome, who manipulates whom? And yet, gender as play, as game, remains a deadly one. Salome dies; Salome is killed. Patriarchy—an imperialist, orientalist patriarchy at that—wins to fight another day, to slay another woman, another queer voice and body too. Does it not always? And yet, her smashing of one—only one, yet nevertheless one—of the Jochanaan busts, an aesthetic representations with which Wilde has incited her, remains: as powerful a moment onstage as that of her murder at the command of a tyrant-abuser.

Wilde and Jochanaan (Thomas J. Mayer)

Herod’s upholding of patriarchal norms, decadent, hypocritical subversion of them notwithstanding, was expertly conveyed in a wheedling, beyond-Mime performance from Vincent Wolfsteiner. Marina Prudenskaya’s Herodias, haughty, contemptuous, impressively controlled in her channelling of sex and gender alike, proved the perfect foil—or, better, manipulator. Thomas J. Mayer likewise offered, in post-Wagnerian marriage of word, tone, and gesture, a Jochanaan for this production, no hint—costume aside—of the ready-to-wear. Peter Sonn proved a worthy successor to Nikolai Schukoff as Narraboth. At times heart-breakingly beautiful of tone, his longing was as aesthetically exquisite as it was therefore doomed. All smaller roles were very well taken indeed, yet also formed part of a greater whole. If I single out Adam Kutny’s First Nazarene and Annika Schlicht’s Page as having made the greatest impression, that is doubtless little more than a highly merited personal reaction.

Conducting the outstanding Staatskapelle Berlin, then as now, was Thomas Guggeis. Then he made headlines by standing in at short notice for Christoph von Dohnányi. Now the field was his own and it sounded as much. From this bubbling, post-Wagnerian cauldron, anything might spill, unless someone could tame it; the battle was vividly, meaningfully rare, rather than effortlessly aestheticised after, say, Karajan. This was not a tone-poem with words; or was it? Unleashing the fabled darkness of this orchestra’s tone to ends in keeping with and in relationship to the vision on stage, yet in no sense constricted by them, Guggeis showed, as in his recent Katya Kabanova here, a keen ear for harmony, line, and orchestral musicodramatic eloquence. Crucially, he commanded the authority to have them speak in the theatre, in the dramatic here-and-now. This is not Elektra; it is not so single-minded, so monomaniacal. There are sideways glances; aesthetic contemplation shading into sexual frustration, if rarely fulfilment; hints at alternative futures; and so on. Such were rendered dramatically—often vividly— immanent, without throwing us from Strauss and Wilde’s central trail. Or so it seemed, for in the absence of any greater metaphysical authority, how could we know? Aesthetically the answer seemed clear, yet how could it not? Who, then, had manipulated whom?

The mauve decadent

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 13:00:05 +0000

Born on this day in 1900 actress Agnes Moorehead.

Winterreise is Coming with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Joyce DiDonato (Part Two)

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 05:27:45 +0000

Winterreise is Coming with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Joyce DiDonato (Part One)

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 05:24:09 +0000

O Mio Babbino Caro

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 03:26:13 +0000

Puccini’s only comic opera, Gianni Schicchi, moves like a torrent. In its skill and vitality it’s up to the best of Rossini and is evocative of Verdi’s Falstaff. But no matter the pace, the master from Lucca could, and seemingly was compelled, to write a great tune for his leading lady. And unlike Tosca’s Vissi d’arte which halts the action, ‘O mio babbino caro’ is the opera’s fulcrum. Despite its beauty it is integral to the plot.

Schicchi’s daughter, Lauretta, begs him to perpetrate the swindle which will provide the money which will allow her to marry Rinuccio – necessarily a tenor. The melody is so beautiful that even Mephisto the spirit of no couldn’t resist. So Schicchi changes his mind, he had previously said to to the fraud, and the opera continues.

Below are 9 interpretations of the aria. It’s basically a simple plea from a daughter to her father. And it should be simply rendered. Of course, it easily succumbs to diavaitis and is often subjected to lengthened phrases and held notes. I’ll start with two versions which are likely closest to what Puccini had in mind. First Elisabeth Schwarzkopf – she’s best known for her Mozart and Strauss roles as well as her lieder singing. She only made occasional excursions to the Italian repertory. She also often had a rather unsteady vocal emission; but on this recording it’s not noticeable. Schwarzkopf O mio babbino caro

Maria Callas’s performance is from 1965 when her voice was well into its decline. But this aria doesn not make great technical demands, rather it requires interpretative and emotive skill which Callas had in abundance. Of all the versions presented in this piece, hers may be the best. Callas O mio babbino caro

Renata Tebaldi’s career was coterminous with that of Callas, though she lasted a bit longer. Her recording of this piece is full steam ahead and is the fastest of the lot. To my ears it lacks nuance. Tebaldi O mio babbino caro

Montserrat Caballé was famous for her beautiful piamissimi and her wide range of roles, though it wasn’t wide enough for Lauretta – 0r perhaps it was too wide. If Tebald’s reading was a sprint, Caballé’s is a marathon. Caballé O mio babbino caro

Another slow motion interpretation is that of the New Zealand soprano Kiri Te Kanawa. Her voice is beautiful, but there’s a little too much indulgence here. Te Kanawa O mio babbino caro

Kathleen Battle had a high soprano voice that was perfect for many of the opera of Mozart, Rossini, and Donizetti. Her opera career came to an abrupt end when she was fired by the Met’s general manager Joseph Volpe for “unprofessional actions”; her career continued as a recital artist. As far a I know she never sang Lauretta onstage. This recording is from a recital. Battle O mio babbino caro

The Romanian singer Angela Gheorghiu is the personification of the tempestuous diva. She’s a Puccini specialist, though I don’t think she’s sung Lauretta onstage; it’s not that big a role. She has a rich and lustrous voice that is well fitted to the irresistible plea to Daddy. Gheorghiu O mio babbino caro

Anna Netrebko’s performance of this aria if from 2006 when she was still a lyric soprano. The big Verdi roles were still in her future – very well done, though on the slow side. Netrebko O mio babbino caro

Finally Renée Fleming – from a 2010 recital. This is another slow down, though the beauty of her voice seems to justify the rope-a-dope pace. Fleming O mio babbino caro

Nine is enough, though any soprano worth her ego wants to sing Puccini’s great melody. If you study hard enough you can learn to be proficient at almost anything related to music except how to write a great tune. A melodic gift like Puccini’s requires its bearer to be touched by God.

O mio babbino e caro,
mi piace, è bello, bello.
Vo’andare in Porta Rossa
a comperar l’anello!

Sì, sì, ci voglio andare!
e se l’amassi indarno,
andrei sul Ponte Vecchio,
ma per buttarmi in Arno!

Mi struggo e mi tormento!
O Dio, vorrei morir!
Babbo, pietà, pietà!
Babbo, pietà, pietà!

Oh my dear papa,
I love him, he is handsome, handsome.
I want to go to Porta Rossa
To buy the ring!

Yes, yes, I want to go there!
And if my love were in vain,
I would go to the Ponte Vecchio
And throw myself in the Arno!

I am anguished and tormented!
Oh God, I’d like to die!
Papa, have pity, have pity!
Papa, have pity, have pity!

Baton passed

Thu, 05 Dec 2019 22:22:32 +0000

Eun Sun Kim has been appointed the Caroline H. Hume Music Director of San Francisco Opera, effective August 1, 2021.

The Queen of Spades

Thu, 05 Dec 2019 21:28:05 +0000

A second broadcast of the Met’s winter sleeper hit!

The Joffrey Ballet's "Nutcracker" Has a New Role for Dancers With Disabilities

Thu, 05 Dec 2019 18:47:30 +0000

Marie and Franz have a new guest at their Christmas Eve party this year. Emma Lookatch and Larke Johnson, both dancers in the Adaptive Dance Program at Joffrey Academy of Dance: Official School of The Joffrey Ballet, are alternating in the new role of Worker Girl. It is a permanent part created specifically for students with disabilities in Christopher Wheeldon's version of The Nutcracker at The Joffrey Ballet.

Wheeldon's production, which premiered in 2016, is set in Chicago in 1892 right before the first World's Fair. The part of Worker Girl is included in Act I, during the party scene. The character is part of the community of immigrant families living near the fairgrounds.

Lookatch and Johnson perform the part alongside Joffrey Ballet company members and 100 other students from the Joffrey Academy and other local studios that make up the children's cast. "It is lots of fun!" says Lookatch, who has cerebral palsy. "I like watching the other people dance."

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This new addition actually brings back a beloved Joffrey tradition. Robert Joffrey's version of The Nutcracker also used to include a role for a student with a disability. According to the Chicago Tribune, former artistic director Gerald Arpino added an accessible role for a Party Boy in 1997 when 8-year-old Stephen Hiatt-Leonard, who had cerebral palsy, auditioned for the children's cast.

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For Lookatch, 14, this opportunity is a dream come true. Inspired by watching her younger sister Samara dance, Lookatch began taking a special needs ballet class at age 7. She hasn't looked back since.

"My biggest dream is that I go on 'America's Got Talent' and do a ballet performance," she says.

The Joffrey Academy's Adaptive Dance Program serves students with cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, down syndrome and other varying movement abilities. Lookatch and Johnson have been taking private ballet classes with Tricia Strong through the program for the past three years.

"To say that Trish is wonderful is an understatement," says Bryan Lookatch, Emma's dad, noting that it was Strong who catalyzed the creation of this role. "This experience has really helped build Emma's confidence. It's something she never thought possible a few years back, so it really keeps her motivated."

Grigolo gone

Thu, 05 Dec 2019 15:56:43 +0000

Star tenor Vittorio Grigolo has been dismissed from the Met.

#TBT: Ekaterina Maximova as the Sugar Plum Fairy (1957)

Thu, 05 Dec 2019 15:49:08 +0000

For many a bunhead, "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" is not just a holiday tradition, but a rite of passage. The variation, with its tinkling celesta, bourrées and petit battus, is one that all ballet dancers are familiar with, and getting the opportunity to perform it often represents moving into new realms in your training or career. Such was the case for Soviet ballerina Ekaterina Maximova. In this 1957 clip, the 18-year-old aspirant performed the Sugar Plum variation at a ballet competition, where she represented the Bolshoi Ballet Academy.

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Adorned in taffeta and a shimmering bodice, Maximova is as effervescent as any ruler of a candy kingdom could hope to be. Her light footwork sparkles, while her upper body is lush and expressive. Even when the camera cuts off her lower body at 1:15, her charming épaulement captivates on its own. And she never misses an accent, despite the brisk tempo. The year after this competition, Maximova joined the Bolshoi, quickly becoming one of the company's leading performers and a darling of the ballet world. Happy #ThrowbackThursday!

Body and soul

Thu, 05 Dec 2019 15:00:48 +0000

As this has been an Orpheus autumn and the mythical bard just won’t let go, Trove Thursday offers another operatic portrait, Haydn’s L’Anima del filosofo ossia Orfeo ed Euridice with Joan Sutherland, Nicolai Gedda and Spiro Malas (who passed away in June) plus two special Sutherland-Haydn rarities.

Some may be familiar with this opera and cast from performances they gave in Edinburgh or Vienna but today’s “pirate” is an unusual NYC Carnegie Hall concert of one of the few works Sutherland and Bonynge never recorded for Decca. My guess is that everyone involved believed Gedda was essential and as he was than an EMI artist no recording was planned.

In the mid-1990s Decca finally capitulated to another diva’s wish to record this work when Cecilia Bartoli claimed it and copied Sutherland’s scheme of performing both Euridice and Genio (who gets the dazzling showpiece aria).

The early BBC Haydn selections are fascinating particularly the solo concert aria, a work I’d never run across before. Listening to her effortless “Se ti perdo,” it’s difficult to imagine that Sutherland wasn’t already a star in 1956.

I must also include another Sutherland morsel from earlier in the 18th century. When I was a kid, one of my favorite records was “A Festival of Baroque Opera,” a 2-LP set by Sutherland and Bonynge of highlights from Bononcini’s La Griselda and Graun’s Montezuma. For a concert from around the time those excerpts were recorded, Sutherland performed Eupaforice’s deliriously florid aria from the 1755 Graun opera. It’s a crazy delight with an entirely inauthentic yet amazing cadenza.

Orpheus fever continues: tomorrow in just one theater in both New York and Los Angeles, Céline Sciamma’s hypnotic gay romance Portrait of a Lady on Fire opens for a one-week run. In it, her use of the Orpheus story proves quietly devastating.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUF1tjxV2P0

I don’t know yet about how Orpheus’s bride might (or might not) figure in, but Karim Aïnouz’s latest film A vida invisível de Eurídice Gusmão plays next week at both Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art.

If neither of these is available, there are always the film masterpieces Marcel Camus’s Orfeu Negro

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF8Ae09bWJk

and Jean Cocteau’s Orphée (his two other Orpheus films I’m less crazy about).

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ciOWebRF3Y

Haydn: L’anima del Filosofo ossia Orfeo ed Euridice
American Opera Society
Carnegie Hall
February 7, 1968
In-house recording

Euridice & Genio — Joan Sutherland
Orfeo — Nicolai Gedda
Creonte — Spiro Malas

Conductor – Richard Bonynge

Haydn: Pieto di me, Benigni Dei
BBC
17 December 1956
Broadcast

Joan Sutherland
April Cantelo
Raymond Nilsson

Goldsborough Orchestra
Conductor – Charles Mackerras

Haydn: Se ti perdo
BBC
17 December 1956
Broadcast

Joan Sutherland

Graun: Montezuma – “Non han calma”
Atlanta
20 October 1966
In-house recording

Joan Sutherland
Atlanta Symphony
Conductor – Richard Bonynge

Anima del filosofo and the Haydn and Graun selections can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a square with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 files will appear in your download directory.

Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice/Orphée et Eurydice posted in September can be found here.

In addition, nearly 300 other podcast tracks are always available from iTunes for free, or via any RSS reader.

The archive listing all “Trove Thursday” offerings in alphabetical order by composer was recently updated to include all material as of mid-November 2019.