North Carolina Symphony Season Roudup: 2011-12
The North Carolina Symphony gave fourteen classical concerts on its 2011-12 Raleigh series. I covered five of them for the Raleigh News & Observer. Here are my reviews, as published, in reverse chronological order, starting with the May 11 season finale:
Symphony & Chorale End Season With Spectacle (published May 14, 2012)
Two 20th century choral works, spectacularly performed, made a rousing season finale for the N.C. Symphony’s Raleigh classical series.
An unconventional sacred piece and a theatrical secular work provided a showcase for the considerable talents of the orchestra, chorus and soloists.
The big draw was Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana.” This hour-long cantata’s opening section, “O Fortuna,” is in constant use in films, TV and commercials underscoring the mystical or awe-inspiring.
Although its resounding choral outbursts and heart-pounding drumbeats speak to fortune and misfortune in life, other sections concern more everyday activities. The texts, from a 13th century collection found in a monastery, celebrate and satirize lust, love, drinking and gambling.
Orff’s deceptively simple melodies and spirited rhythms pose great challenges. The chorus must spit out words at a furious pace, make hairpin turns in dynamics, and shift quickly in sudden syncopations. The N.C. Master Chorale conquered all these obstacles in one of its most impressive performances in memory. Director Alfred E. Sturgis honed his singers into a precise, rich-voiced ensemble.
They followed conductor Grant Llewellyn’s every gesture in an exciting, vibrant reading, emphasizing the orchestra’s brilliant percussion section in Orff’s demands for bells and wood blocks, gong and timpani. In the grandest moments, with all the brass section ablaze, the hall’s rafters seemed to shake.
Orff saves his most daunting tests for the vocal soloists. Metropolitan Opera regular Barry Banks had only one solo but he was instantly the audience favorite, applying his firmly focused tenor to the impossibly high lines of the Roasted Swan section.
Baritone Jason McKinney displayed superb acting skills as drunken abbot and dreamy lover, his singing consistently warm and subtle, needing just a little more edge in the loudest passages. Soprano Heather Buck floated through the sensuous filigree assigned her, successfully nailing the cruelly exposed high notes.
The program opened with Francis Poulenc’s “Gloria,” a 25-minute piece that approaches the familiar Latin mass text with quirky astringency and jaunty playfulness, seemingly irreverent but ultimately moving. Llewellyn led the orchestra in an intense yet lyrical performance, the women’s chorus suitably ethereal; the men’s satisfyingly bold. Heather Buck’s solos had lovely tone but too much flutter and lacked a firm center.
Unusual Program Balanced, Refreshing (published March 17, 2012)
Creative concert programming can make the difference between the routine and the refreshing. Friday night’s N. C. Symphony offering proved the latter in its unusual ordering and balance of compositions.
Music director Grant Llewellyn paired two well-known orchestral pieces by Beethoven and Richard Strauss with more rarely programmed vocal works from each.
The concert began atypically with a full symphony, Beethoven’s No. 8. Llewellyn joked afterwards that it made a rather nice overture (a typical concert opener), but there was truth in the jest.
This half-hour work moves apace in its sunny, genial way, like a bracing spring walk with rarely a storm cloud. Llewellyn gave it tightly controlled precision and invigorating thrust, mindful of the sudden twists in rhythm and dynamics that Beethoven salts in with a wink. The brass and percussion were more prominent than ideal, but the horn section was heavenly.
Llewellyn opened the second half with Strauss’ popular tone poem, “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks,” a riot of rich colors and surprising outbursts representing the wily adventures of a folktale rogue. Again, Llewellyn conducted with crispness and command, successfully negotiating treacherous shifts and turns while urging the players to shine individually and collectively. There can be more palpable humor in the piece than Llewellyn allowed, but the presentation was thrilling.
Contrasting these upbeat works were two with darker, more contemplative aspects.
Following the Beethoven symphony, soprano Barbara Shirvis sang his concert aria, “Ah! Perfido,” a 15-minute operatic-style scene in which a woman alternately curses and entreats her faithless lover. Shirvis made believable distinctions of the varying emotions, her voice clear and strong, especially appealing in the lower register and in the quieter sections. Some high, intense notes had a breathy lack of center, but overall her performance impressed.
Ending the program, after the Strauss tone poem, was that composer’s gorgeous, melancholic “Four Last Songs” (more atypical programming order). Shirvis interpreted these autumnal musings about the end of life with delicacy and great feeling.
Her voice is not quite the size needed to ride Strauss’ thick, creamy orchestrations, even under Llewellyn’s astute restraint, but the two artists made the wafting, wistful melodies a most satisfying finale.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/03/17/1940084/unusual-symphony-program-balanced.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy
Tango Program Offers Unexpected Moments (published January 29, 2012)
With the tango's popularity as social dance and TV entertainment, it's logical that the N.C. Symphony would organize an evening of tango and Argentinian music. Although more pops-style than usual, the program Friday in Meymandi Concert Hall under conductor Grant Llewellyn showcased the orchestra splendidly, offering the unusual and the unexpected.
The surprises started right away, with the stage set with music stands but no chairs. Composer Osvaldo Golijov asks the strings to stand during his 1996 "Last Round," a short piece in memory of the great tango composer-performer, Astor Piazzolla, who died in 1992.
The standing added solemnity to the first movement's foreboding rumble and the second's emotional keening, the strings producing a gorgeous, lush tone. The players' mirror-image arrangement mimicked the structure of the bandoneón, the accordion-like instrument associated with the tango.
Things brightened with Piazzolla's "Concerto for Bandoneón," featuring soloist Coco Trivisonno. His self-effacing style belied his mastery of this difficult instrument that has buttons on each side instead of a keyboard. The sharp chords and spiky melodies of the solos were beautifully intertwined with piano, harp and plucked strings, often dramatically underlined with timpani.
Russian native and Australian resident Elena Kats-Chernin wrote her 2009 "Re-collecting ASTORoids" in homage to Piazzolla, its five movements ostensibly reflecting his style. Unfortunately, the piece is bland and facile, with monotonous repetition and crude percussion. Even the musicians seemed uninspired as they worked their way through it.
In dramatic contrast, the final selections, four dances from Alberto Ginastera's 1941 ballet, "Estancia," demonstrated what a skilled composer can do. These colorful episodes blazed with images of Argentinian ranch life, energized with an array of percussion that took seven players to execute.
Before the Ginastera, Trivisonno and the strings played Piazzolla's lovely "Adiós Nonino" while Daniel Arredondo and Karen Jaffe danced a slow tango down front. Their movements seemed too tentative and correct to be considered a performance, although their encore ending the evening, to Piazzolla's "Milanga del Angel," showed a bit more flair.
The evening never quite caught fire, but the musicians provided enough hot spots to demonstrate again why live orchestral music can be so satisfying and engaging.
Symphony, Pianist Lortie Dazzle (published November 13, 2011)
Conductor Grant Llewellyn jokingly urged the audience at Friday's N.C. Symphony concert not to think of the programmed works about the dead as depressing - at least not until they heard them. But Llewellyn needn't have worried, with brilliant pianist Louis Lortie ready to astound and the ever-responsive orchestra waiting to dazzle.
The concert's main works were connected through the Gregorian melody, "Dies Irae," characterizing the Day of Judgment for the dead. It has fascinated composers for centuries, Liszt and Rachmaninoff making especially creative use of its hypnotic phrases.
Liszt packs his 15-minute "Totentanz" with an astonishing range of variations on the tune, some reverent, some mocking, some classically counterpointed, some modernistically percussive. All challenge the performer, but for the virtuoso Lortie, the piece became a jaw-dropping demonstration of agility and precision. He doesn't indulge in a grand manner, but his body language and facial expressions add immensely to his interpretation. He and Llewellyn had total rapport in this gripping roller coaster ride.
Although not connected to the evening's theme, Liszt's short "Fantasy on Motive's From Beethoven's 'The Ruins of Athens' " made a delightful contrast, especially the jaunty mutations of the familiar "Turkish March." Lortie's witty playfulness won another well-deserved ovation.
The "Dies Irae" is more subtly interwoven into the Rachmaninoff works that bookended the concert. The tone poem, "The Isle of the Dead," was inspired by an Arnold Böchklin painting of a volcanic island with a grotto of tombs being approached by a boat with a coffin.
Rachmaninoff skillfully evokes the motion of the oarsman and the sepulchral aura of the landscape. Llewellyn led a tightly controlled transversal of the piece, including the build-up to the climatic release of the earthly world, followed by hints of the "Dies Irae" as the boat recedes from shore.
Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1 was a failure at its premiere, partly because of its rather choppy and repetitive nature. But the composer's constant threading of snippets of the "Dies Irae" throughout gives the work a satisfying unity.
The orchestra reveled in the wide variety of effects, at one point requiring six percussionists. Llewellyn emphasized a range of dynamics and lyrical outpourings, although some doses of headlong passion would have added some welcome sweep.
Symphony Soars As It Remembers A Tragic Day (published September 10, 2011)
Music often expresses what mere words cannot, especially in times of great sadness. To memorialize the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the N.C. Symphony programmed 18th and 21st century vocal works whose reverence and dignity made gratifying appropriate gestures.
Mozart's Requiem is the composition of choice for many such occasions because of the emotional range contained in its compact form. That Mozart was writing it on his deathbed and felt he was composing his own funeral music adds to this Requiem's particular power. Its ultimate serenity brings a comfort that goes well beyond its specific religious context.
Conductor Grant Llewellyn demonstrated his deep connection throughout Thursday's performance, supplying an electricity to the rhythms and dynamics that kept the work moving but never rushed it. He had confident control of every wafting, ethereal phrase and every sudden, dramatic outburst.
Llewellyn also had intensely focused communication with the N.C. Master Chorale, well prepared by its director, Alfred E. Sturgis. The 170-voice choir gave one of its finest performances in memory, impressive in its precision and fullness. Soprano Dominique Labelle, mezzo Krista River, tenor Richard Clement and bass Christópheren Nomura contributed solid solo and quartet singing, especially affecting in the operatic Benedictus. The orchestra, with a special nod to the trombones, played gloriously.
The choir and orchestra opened the evening with Mozart's short but achingly beautiful "Ave verum corpus," giving a foretaste of the coming Requiem. In between was J. Mark Scearce's "This Thread," a 20-minute piece for orchestra, violin and mezzo. Premiered in 2004 and performed a number of times since, the work incorporates Toni Morrison's poem, "The Dead of September 11." Orchestral fragments, some harsh and disturbing, others wistful and yearning, surround the soloists, reflecting the nature of memory. Scearce skillfully employs a wide range of effects, especially from the percussion, although the repetitions of several themes could have used more variety.
Krista River's mezzo had a lovely richness and dramatic sensitivity, but it was soft-edged, making few words distinguishable, even with a microphone. Brian Reagin's eerie, sorrowful violin commentaries mirrored the text's emotions admirably.
There will be many speeches and testimonies in the next few days, but none are likely to have more effect than this evening's fine tribute.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/10/1474791/nc-symphony-soars-as-it-remembers.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy
N.C. Opera's "Trovatore" Raises the Bar
Raleigh, NC – April 27, 2012:
Raleigh-based North Carolina Opera finished its 2011-2012 season with a semi-staged concert performance of Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” in Meymandi Concert Hall, one of the company’s strongest showings yet in its fledgling two seasons.
Born of two previous Raleigh-based companies, Opera Company of North Carolina and Capital Opera, North Carolina Opera has worked to find its proper balance in offering fully staged grand opera, modern works in smaller venues and semi-staged concert operas. It’s two grand opera stagings, “Tosca” and “Carmen,” were decidedly uneven in presentation and casting, while it’s two modern offerings, Britten’s “Turn of the Screw” and Glass’ “Les Enfants Terribles,” were creatively staged and astutely cast.
Whether the company could successfully mount grand opera in concert came into question with last season’s “Faust,” again with uneven casting and very questionable staging-in-concert. Happily, this “Trovatore” allows hope that the company has figured out how to offer concert opera with appropriate casting and staging. A few quibbles aside, this was a most satisfying evening.
Chief among the pleasures was the orchestra under conductor Timothy Myers. The forty-eight pieces sounded twice that size in the great acoustics of the concert hall. The rousing climaxes, catchy melodies and springy rhythms of Verdi’s glorious score came across with brilliant clarity and richness. Only when Myers was being particularly indulgent of a soloist, especially the evening’s Leonora, did the vigor and tension drop.
Leah Crocetto’s Leonora was certainly one to be indulged, with her confident control of pianissimi, long-breathed lines, hall-filling high notes and warm tone. And she had the goods to insert several interpolated notes and to execute the rarely programmed cabaletta following the “Miserere.” Although her characterization was rather blank, she was thrilling in her assured vocalism. All the more reason to lament her tendency to luxuriate in too many phrases and take too leisurely a tempo at signal moments needing more thrust. Nevertheless, it was evident at evening’s end why she was allowed the final bow, despite the tradition of allowing the title character that honor.
That is not to say that Noah Stewart’s Manrico was anything to be labeled secondary. His firm, open tenor held sway over the orchestra when called for, pumping out clarion notes and fiery declamation. He also demonstrated a pleasing mezza voce, especially in the third act’s “Ah, si, ben mio” and the final scene’s “Ai nostri monti” duet. His characterization was intense and restless, underscored by his youthful demeanor. There often was the sense that he was pushing his voice to sound bigger than its natural disposition and sometimes there were notes not fully on pitch (especially in his two off-stage moments), causing some concern that he might be damaging a beautiful, natural instrument.
Liam Bonner’s Di Luna was youthful and good-looking as well, his booming baritone impressive, especially the higher up the scale he went, although the quieter and more legato passages allowed a woolier, less focused sound to crept in. His “Il balen” was suitable applauded and he gave all his scenes an exciting energy. Robynne Redmon’s Azucena seemed too blandly acted and sung to begin with (although better than the overacting that comes from some in the role), but she grew in intensity and vocal display as the evening progressed, her scene’s with Di Luna and Manrico in the fourth act immensely satisfying. Richard Ollarsaba made a fine, precisely sung Ferrando, Stephanie Foley Davis a sympathetic Ines and John Cashwell a devoted Ruiz.
The staging in front of the onstage orchestra was kept mercifully simple by director David Paul, using a few benches and camp chairs. Although there was a certain amount of repetitive exchanging of places, for the most part the staging was just enough to indicate the action properly. A few projections (stained glass for the church, flames for Azucena’s memory of the stake) added scenic interest, greatly abetted by Ross Kolman’s dramatic lighting and floor patterns.
The men’s chorus sang generally well but chorus master Nathan Leaf had the women’s chorus in transcendent form for the off-stage nun’s chorus that floats so beautifully at the end of act two. The men’s chorus, in black shirts and trousers, sat on platforms flanking the orchestra. The women’s chorus also wore black when on stage, enhanced with simple nun’s headgear for the convent scene (although having some in pants drew unnecessary attention). The principals were in lovely period costumes that enriched the production, save for Di Luna’s fourth act outer garment that looked too much like a fancy bathrobe.
With the singers out front and out of view of the conductor, there were several false starts and tempo disagreements. That problem, along with the inevitable fish-nor-fowl elements of semi-staging, might argue for future unstaged, true concert performances where singers and conductor could concentrate on making the most of the music without other distractions. Still, this semi-staging was a vast improvement over the company’s concert “Faust” last season, a production that tried too hard to be like a full performance (along with distracting and competing projections). With a few tweaks, staging such as this “Trovatore” should work well for a number of operas that might be too taxing for full production by this company.
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Here are my reviews of North Carolina Opera's earlier productions in its 2011-12 season, both of which were previously published in the Raleigh News & Observer:
N.C. Opera's "Enfants Terribles" Gripping, Creative
Raleigh, NC January 21, 2012:
N. C. Opera’s gripping, imaginative production of “Les Enfants Terribles,” by Philip Glass, again proves that its finest presentations are contemporary works. Like Britten’s “Turn of the Screw” last season, “Enfants” displays the highest levels of creativity and musicality, immensely satisfying in ways the company’s more traditional opera stagings rarely achieve.
It’s the disturbing tale of Paul and his sister Lise, whose close bonds create their own special world. But when Paul suddenly falls for Agathe, Lise pushes her towards Gérard, Lise’s would-be suitor, changing all their lives forever.
Glass is widely known for his driving rhythms and mesmerizing repetitions, often quite challenging in his early, symbolic operas. For this 1996 work, the music is much more melodic and immediate, employing French dialog for the vocal lines directly from the 1950 Jean Cocteau film.
Glass adds some unique elements to “Enfants.” The orchestration is for three pianos, giving the music a lush but crisply percussive sound world. It’s also written for both singers and dancers.
Robert Weiss, artistic director of Carolina Ballet, astutely matches a dancer to each singer, creating doppelgängers that elucidate the characters’ psychological states. Sometimes moving in tandem, sometimes in mirror images, sometimes on their own, the performers are beautifully set off by Jeff A. R. Jones’ ever-changing scenic designs, enhanced by Roz Fulton’s haunting projections and Ross Kolman’s moodily atmospheric lighting. Conductor Wilson Southerland, playing along with Spencer Blank and Tad Hardin, gives the score great energy and lyricism.
Timothy McDevitt uses his well-rounded baritone to give Paul appropriate aloofness and introspection, equaled by Gabor Kapin’s intensely focused dance version. Soprano Jessica Cates finds the right insouciance for Lise, greatly enlarged by Lara O’Brien’s manic spins and joyful leaps. Mezzo Nicole Rodin and dancer Lindsay Purrington each characterize Agathe with warmth and innocence. As Gérard, tenor Philippe Pierce has few singing lines but keeps the piece moving with the character’s poetic English narration, while Yevgeny Shlapko dances him with quiet strength.
“Enfants” is so startlingly fresh and engagingly theatrical that minor staging and musical quibbles are easily swept aside. The production is recommended to first-timers and aficionados alike as something neither will likely have ever experienced.
N.C. Opera's "Carmen" Delights & Disappoints
Raleigh, NC October 16, 2011
N.C. Opera faces a down economy while attempting one of the most expensive art forms. With many regional companies reducing seasons or folding, N.C. Opera deserves credit just for mounting such a huge undertaking as Bizet’s “Carmen.”
There are delights in the production, but also disappointments. Those who have never seen the famous tale of the freedom-loving gypsy and her dangerously jealous lover will find a number of pleasures, whereas those steeped in the opera may wonder at some of the cuts and staging choices.
Within the production’s conventional concept, Leann Sandel-Pantaleo’s Carmen is appropriately independent and defiant, her firm mezzo capable of fiery outbursts and soft insinuations. William Joyner confidently vocalizes Don José, playing up the besotted awkwardness of his obsession. Andrea Edith Moore’s Micaëla, in love with Don José, garners the biggest ovation for her emotional act three aria vowing to confront Carmen. Toreador Escamillo challenges young David Williams, his light baritone often lost in the orchestration and impish characterization contradicting the bullfighter’s swaggering image. As Carmen’s cohorts, Jennifer Seiger’s Mercédès and Rachel Copeland’s Frasquita contribute vocal energy, notably in the act two quintet, humorously abetted by DeMar Neal’s Dancaïro and Wade Henderson’s Remendado. Nathan Leaf’s chorus adds thrilling weight and bite throughout.
N.C. Opera uses the opéra comique version of “Carmen” with spoken dialogue instead of orchestrated recitative. That helps reduce a long evening, but to hold the production to just three hours, cuts have been made. Some are negligible (a prelude; sections of choruses) but others are major, including the joyous act three smugglers’ ensemble and all of the festive opening of act four, diminishing the opera’s scope. Conductor Timothy Myers takes a breezy, light-handed approach appropriate to the comique version, although even then the 43-piece orchestra sometimes sounds underpowered.
The rented sets are drab, Michele Hite’s costuming minimal and Jeff Davis’ lighting uneven. Director Candace Evans’s traditional notions don’t distract except when placing major action too far upstage for maximum vocal impact.
N.C. Opera’s “Carmen” doesn’t show the company at its best but it still proves that live opera trumps experiencing it in any medium.
N.C. Opera's "Faust" Boasts Met Regulars, Cutting Edge Projections
Raleigh, NC - April 24, 2011:
Opera is the most expensive art form to produce and it has a reputation as entertainment only for the elite. Eric Mitchko, general director of N. C. Opera, was confronted by both challenges when planning the company's production of Gounod's popular "Faust," playing April 28 and 30 in Raleigh's Meymandi Concert Hall.
Although the company presented Puccini's "Tosca" last October in Memorial Auditorium with full sets and orchestra, the company's budget limitations and desire for new audiences led to some unusual staging elements and ideas for "Faust."
This production was originally scheduled as a standard concert version (orchestra on stage, singers down front), a money-saving format the company has employed there previously for two Mozart operas. But Mitchko felt this tale of a man who sells his soul to the devil for renewed youth needed something extra to better characterize the battle of good and evil and to appeal to a non-traditional audience.
Director James Marvel came up with the idea of projecting moving images on a giant screen above the stage, a variation on the operatic settings he and installation artist S. Katy Tucker have created for productions around the country. Their concept is influenced by German Expressionism, a nod to the brooding context of the Goethe play on which Gounod's opera is based. The images, both still and video, won't attempt to set the scene but rather evoke the changing moods and situations.
Speaking by phone from her Brooklyn studio, Tucker explained her approach. "I used my art book collection and James had a massive list of things for me to look at and watch before starting," she said, "including F. W. Murnau's silent film of 'Faust,' which James suggested as a central reference point." But Tucker, who interned at the Metropolitan Opera and has created projections for the Washington Opera's production of Wagner's "Ring," says music is the driving force for her inspiration. "I like the emotional side of a story and the music in 'Faust' is extremely easy to relate to. But some of it is rather flowery and light, so I'm juxtaposing some dark imagery to reflect the idea of selling one's soul, something that's as dramatic as it gets!"
In addition to the images, Marvel has added an intriguing variation for the supertitles, the text translations usually projected above the stage. "I've written them myself, "Marvel said by phone from New York City, "trying to synthesize the poetic essence of each page of the score with one title. So if the concept is 'day is dawning,' I haven't translated every subsequent line about birds singing and breezes blowing. The words will appear as part of the projected image, the first time that's ever been done to my knowledge."
While Mitchko hopes the contemporary production concept will attract non-regular operagoers, he's banking on his stellar line-up of performers to satisfy traditionalists. Tenor Dimitri Pittas (Faust) and baritone Liam Bonner (Valentin) have both been seen recently in Metropolitan Opera HD telecasts in movie theaters and on TV around the world. Soprano Mary Dunleavy (Marguerite) has sung the leads in "La Traviata" and "Rigoletto" frequently at the Met, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn (Méphistophélès) is a regular at Lyric Opera of Chicago. N. C. Opera artistic director Timothy Myers is conducting.
If this "Faust" straddles the line between traditional and contemporary, the final presentation of this season, Britten's "Turn of the Screw," is definitely in the latter category. Based on the Henry James novella, the 1954 opera is a gripping ghost story and psychological thriller. This intimate chamber opera, playing May 12 and 13 in Durham's Carolina Theatre, fulfills one of the company's mission of utilizing the wealth of vocal and creative talent in the Triangle. The cast includes soprano Andrea Edith Moore, faculty member at UNC, Raleigh native, tenor Benjamin Robinson, and young Asher Philips, member of the Raleigh Boychoir. Jerome Davis of Burning Coal Theatre directs and rising star Keitaro Harada conducts.
"I think the template set for this season will work well in the future," says Mitchko. The company has just announced its 2011-2012 offerings: a fully staged "Carmen," a concert version of "Il Trovatore" and a chamber staging of Philip Glass' "The Fall of the House of Usher."
[a shorter version of this story appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer on April 24, 2011]
N. C. Symphony's John Adams "Portrait" A Season Highlight
Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh - March 25, 2011: The North Carolina Symphony gave one of its most creative and informative concerts Friday night, a "Composer Portrait" of John Adams.
Music director Grant Llewellyn was particularly keen to helm this concert, but had to remain in Wales during his wife's unexpected surgery. The search for a substitute familiar with Adams' complex, multilayered works ended happily with Benjamin Wallfisch, whose supreme confidence Friday belied his last minute arrival.
For audience members not fully aware of Adams' style, the program cleverly prefaced Adams' works with pieces by composers who influenced him. This had the added benefit of showing how Adams' so-called "minimalist" elements were actually present in much earlier composers' works.
In the little-known "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage," Beethoven set two Goethe poems depicting the eerie quiet of a windless ocean followed by suddenly boisterous gales that can set a ship asail. The N. C. Master Chorale, augmented with the East Carolina University Chamber Singers, produced ethereal mystery and joyful outcry for this short piece, echoed later on a grander scale in Adams' "Harmonium." This thirty-five minute work sets one poem by John Donne and two by Emily Dickinson, but concentrates less on expressing individual lines and more on characterizing each poem's mood. The first movement depicts the nature of love as constantly restless; the second offers death as a slow-moving procession; the third paints erotic ecstasy as wildly exuberant. Adams demands close attention to all his slightly changing details in what otherwise might seem static or repetitive passages.
Wallfisch impressed with precise control of dynamics and pace, the orchestra reconfirmed its fearless command of contemporary fare, and the chorus demonstrated director Alfred E. Sturgis' rigorous attention to difficult the rhythmic shifts. Although the singers' loudest passages needed weightier texture, the softest sections had an appropriately otherworldly tone.
Guest pianist Christopher Taylor applied his prodigious talents to Britten's "Young Apollo," a fanfare-like work pitting the piano against a solo string quartet and the orchestra's string section. Taylor's intense playing of the repeated runs and rising chords buoyed the piece along vigorously. In contrast, but with similar elements, Adams' "Eros Piano" had a relaxed, almost improvisatory feel, conjuring Debussy and Gershwin, with Taylor emphasizing the lush, moonlit mood.
The great innovator Charles Ives was represented by "The Unanswered Question," which layers droning strings, soulful solo trumpet and chattering flutes, representing the quest for the meaning of existance. Adams takes similar layering techniques to an exhilarating extreme in " A Short Ride in a Fast Machine." Ablaze with seven percussionists, the orchestra filled the hall with the work's brilliant colors, rewarded by the evening's loudest applause.
It was gratifying to find the hall well-filled and the audience so responsive. If all the orchestra's programs were similarly planned and executed, it would be hard to imagine anything but sellouts.
[a version of this review appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer on March 27, 2011]
N. C. Symphony Celebrates Tenth Anniversary of Meymandi Concert Hall
Raleigh, NC - February 21, 2001 was a watershed moment in the history of the North Carolina Symphony, marking the opening concert in its new home, the acoustically splendid Meymandi Concert Hall. On Friday, February 11, 2011, the orchestra jubilantly celebrated a decade in the venue with two pieces from that first-night program, along with the last work it played in Memorial Auditorium before the move.
Grant Llewellyn's honing of the orchestra over the past seven seasons made the hall seem even more brilliant and alive than in 2001. His exciting reading of Shostakovich's "Festive Overture" rattled the rafters with clarion brass fanfares and percussion-filled climaxes, and vividly spotlighted the delicacy of quietly plucked string sections.
A lingering memory of that first Meymandi concert was the piano's clarity and presence in Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2. This time, noted recording artist Peter Donohoe's clean, precise playing allowed the hall to radiate the piano's tone even more gloriously. Llewellyn luxuriated in the concerto's languid opening passages and ethereal mid-section, drawing lush waves of sound from the orchestra. Donohoe matched him in meditative mode for these (especially in a melancholy duet with cellist Bonnie Thron), but also impressed with resounding chords and fleet fingering in the grandly dramatic moments. The finale could have used more fever and less control, but the performance was engagingly satisfying.
When last played by the orchestra, Shostakovich's darkly disturbing Symphony No. 10 lost some of its impact in the unfriendly acoustics of Memorial Auditorium, which muddled the textures and dulled the sheen. Here, every instrumental solo beamed its way into the hall, the layers of the composer's orchestration could be easily distinguished, and the strings had a polished shine.
Shostakovich began working on the piece soon after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, a musical portrait of the Soviet leader's harsh oppression. The work is not an easy listen but Llewellyn rightly refused to soften its chilling starkness. The fierce outbursts had gripping edge but the lengthy sections reflecting misery and yearning often lost propulsion under Llewellyn's stretched-out tempos. The first movement alone was 27 minutes, longer by four to five minutes than most recorded versions.
Nevertheless, an appreciative audience applauded long and determinedly for each soloist and sub-section as Llewellyn pointed them out at concert's end, their excellence enhanced by the venue's now firmly established qualities.
[a version of this review appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer on February 13, 2011]
Andrea Quinn Proves Her Mettle Once Again
Raleigh, NC - Andrea Quinn returned as guest conductor of the N. C. Symphony Friday, January 14, in Meymandi Concert Hall, the site of her last visit here in 2004 as a finalist for the orchestra's music director. Although Grant Llewellyn ultimately landed that position, Quinn's performances, then as now, prove why she was such a worthy contender.
Quinn wields her baton with exuberant confidence, precise in her cues and intense in her body language, vividly responding to each work's rhythms and emotions. Even when leaping straight up from the podium to emphasize a climax, such gestures seem organic, rather than showy, exuding warmth and sincerity that communicate directly to the audience. She demonstrated impressive range with this concert, equally comfortable with delicate intimacy and full-out bombast.
It was something of a surprise, with sonically overwhelming works by Wagner and Elgar also on the program, that the hit of the evening was Haydn's compact, reverent Symphony No. 49 ("La Passione"). Based on a musical form used in church services, this work's sober weightiness could have been boring in the wrong hands. But Quinn infused every bar with an engaging intensity, the rhythms tightly sprung, the pace driving but never rushed. Her finely graded dynamic changes and minute focusing of melodic lines clearly pleased the audience, rewarding her with the evening's strongest response.
Elgar's Symphony No. 1 is a gargantuan fifty minutes of stirring passion and uplifting inspiration, but it's also riddled with daunting sudden shifts, overlapping lines, and disparate short passages. Quinn boldly took control from the opening measures of the extended first movement, emphasizing the several themes that would serve as material in varying forms for the other three movements. She seemed to relish the largest outbursts, encouraging the percussion and brass to unbridled heights. Despite the work's often relentless repetition and restlessness, Quinn made a solid case for its continued appeal.
The program opened with the overture to Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman," full of hall-filling drama and lush melody. Quinn kept the piece taut, almost too rigidly so, in a somewhat lumpy performance that could have used more of the masterful interpretive skills she deployed so well in the rest of the concert.
[a version of this article appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer on January 16, 2011]
"Amadeus" in the Concert Hall Combines Great Theater and Fine Playing
Like most performing arts groups these days, the N. C. Symphony is trying out innovative ways to counter sagging ticket sales. It hit pay dirt Friday night with its own version of Peter Shaffer's play, "Amadeus." A co-production with Chapel Hill-based PlayMakers Repertory Company, the program was one of the most inventive and successful in many a season.
On December 3rd, Raleigh's Meymandi Concert Hall was packed, the audience an abnormally broad mixture, including a number of teenagers. A factor was the appearance of popular "Ugly Betty" actor Michael Urie as Mozart; many also were fans of the 1984 film. They sat quietly rapt for the whole of this longer than usual program, proof of the venture's quality and appeal (two additional performances took place on December 4th and 5th).
PlayMakers director Joseph Haj pared the play down to its essentials using only seven actors. This effective streamlining kept the plot focused and lively, especially with Haj's adroit use of the space in front of and behind the orchestra, aided by Bill Black's vivid period costumes and Michael Baumgarten's dramatic lighting.
Four actors had been in Haj's 2008 PlayMakers' staging, including Ray Dooley as Salieri. Although arresting then, here Dooley rose to a different level, with riveting intensity, astonishing range and extraordinary control - a career-capping performance. Urie supplied wonderful contrast as Mozart: brash, conceited, child-like and scatological. Janie Brookshire's long-suffering Constanze, Haj's dim-but-kindly Emperor Joseph II and Jeffrey Blair Cornell, Jeffrey Meanza and Matthew Garner as a range of well-drawn characters, added to the high standards on display.
Music director Grant Llewellyn led his players in astutely-paced performances of Mozart excerpts (and one by Salieri), sampling serenades, concertos, symphonies and a number of vocal works. These were deftly integrated into the story, with fine contributions from soprano Jodi Burns and baritone Jason McKinney in arias and choral solos, as well as the orchestra's 16-voice chamber choir, directed by Susan Klebanow.
The performance lasted two hour and forty minutes, the second act bogging down somewhat with lengthy excerpts that slowed the dramatic flow. Although this was meant to be a concert as well as theater experience, programming the complete first movement of Piano Concerto No. 23 (played with sparkling warmth by Bruce Murray) only a few minutes into the second act, and lining up three solemn choral selections in a row for the last 20 minutes, took some tension out the drama. Similarly, playing the full five-minute "Masonic Funeral Music" (K. 477/479a) as a coda, after the dramatic suicide of Salieri that ended the play, made for anti-climax. There also were some audio difficulties with the actors' head mikes, the sound fuzzier the closer one sat to the stage (and, therefore, closer to the huge amplifiying speakers).
Despite these blemishes, this concert was a striking example of fresh programming. The public's strong response should embolden the organization to continue such thinking for survival in new times.
[a version of this review appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer on December 5, 2010]
Rare Outing for Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 7 from N.C. Symphony
One N. C. Symphony programming concept this season is a series of four "Composer Portraits," each devoted to a single composer. The first, heard Friday night, October 22, in Raleigh's Meymandi Concert Hall, offered rare and alternative works by Tchaikovsky, played with considerable panache by the orchestra and insightful illumination from the soloist.
For perspective, the program began with the familiar "Romeo and Juliet" Fantasy-Overture. Tchaikovsky's first great success, the youthful 1869 work highlights the composer's signature extremes of passion and drama. Conductor William Henry Curry emphasized dreaminess over raw emotion in the love-theme sections and built rousing climaxes in the family conflict passages.
Tchaikovsky's 1876 "Variations on a Rococo Theme" was the closest he came to writing a cello concerto. The 20-minute, single-movement work was a nod to his reverence for Mozart, mimicking the Classical period's formal elegance and emotional control. Tchaikovsky made it purposely un-showy, but the work was rearranged and "improved" by its original dedicatee to give the cello more prominence, that version becoming the one most often performed.
Here the orchestra's principal cellist, Bonnie Thron, played Tchaikovsky's original. She was appropriately restrained and refined within the context, yet colored each section with subtle melancholy or mirth accordingly. The piece uncompromisingly tests the instrument's technical capabilities but Thron met the challenges with expert confidence. Curry supplied meticulous, buoyant support.
The rarity was Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 7, a posthumous work constructed in 1957 by Russian composer Semyon Bogatyryov from material Tchaikovsky abandoned in 1892. The piece satisfies the urge for another Tchaikovsky symphony, most successfully in the lovely second movement and in the swirling third, less so in the outer movements' bombast and awkward transitions. In its best moments, the piece recalls the mature genius of "The Nutcracker."
Curry led a rhythmically precise, assuredly controlled reading, coaxing lush tone from the strings, burnished timbre from the woodwinds, and resounding weight from the brass, Brian Blanchard's horn solos especially plangent. The engaging performance lacked only a certain abandonment, a giving in to Tchaikovsky's heart-on-sleeve intensity.
Although supplied with a microphone, Curry did not use it to explain the background of the cello piece and the symphony, only briefly mentioning his affinity for Tchaikovsky and introducing Thron. Most concerts don't require comments from the podium, but this seemed a lost opportunity for such a focused program with such unfamiliar fare.
[a version of this article appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer on October 24, 2010]
North Carolina Opera Has Mixed Success With "Tosca"
Opera is the most difficult of art forms. The demands are so high that productions rarely succeed in every department, success being measured by having more parts go well than not.
The production of Puccini's gritty melodrama "Tosca" by the newly formed North Carolina Opera on October 15 (repeated on the 17th) had several successful elements. The large orchestra was satisfyingly rich and full, producing huge walls of sound for dramatic moments and delicate underpinnings in the romantic sections. Nathan Leaf's chorus acted and sang with admirable precision, especially in the impressive act one "Te Deum."
David Gano's sets (borrowed from the New Orleans Opera) did all that is required for church chapel, palatial apartment and castle parapet, made especially dimensional in Tlàloc López-Watermann's astute lighting. The lavish costumes from Malabar, Ltd. set the period firmly in 1800.
But opera is primarily about the singers and here the results were mixed.
The role of Tosca contains treacherously exposed high notes, extremely physical action and a wide gamut of emotions. Cynthia Lawrence, an experienced Tosca, boldly confronting the challenges with her assured, strongly vocalized performance. She had all the notes, though the top several were steely and effortful. She played the imperious diva and the hopeful romantic convincingly, but her act two battle with Scarpia became awkward and repetitive.
Grant Youngblood projected proper menace as police chief Scarpia with an admirable command of vocal colors. His voice carried well except at the top, which lacked ideal power. Steven Harrison gave painter Cavaradossi the right cavalier feistiness and possesses a beautiful tone that expanded satisfyingly on the money notes. But his voice was smaller that the other leads, often getting lost except in quieter passages.
The biggest disappointment was conductor Timothy Myers, whose many fine opera performance here previously have been some of the most successful elements of those productions. Here he took an overly majestic approach, his leisurely tempos draining tension and thrust from the drama. He found dozens of lovely individual moments and could whip up huge climaxes but the majority of the music was too languidly presented. Also disappointing was James Marvel's overactive direction, employing too much movement for movement's sake. He also went overboard with the role of the Sacristan, making him a vaudeville clown, although Donald Hartmann did what he was asked with panache. Marvel, too, had some fine individual ideas (the flirting between Tosca and Mario was particularly engaging; the menacing of an alterboy by Scarpia suitably chilling), but overall he seemed too determined to fill every moment with some sort of action, rather than let some moments work through the music alone.
Still, Friday night's audience gave strong approval, many who were attending their first Tosca or first opera. The company has proved it can mount a major production, now on to improving the balance of successful elements.
[a version of this article was published in the Raleigh News & Observer on October 17, 2010]
Composer J. Mark Scearce Commissioned for Two Ballets in Raleigh
Vampires are everywhere these days, from "Twilight" books and movies to TV's "True Blood," so it might seem a no-brainer for Carolina Ballet to program a new "Dracula." But the piece's origins and the challenges it faced on the way to its premiere on October 14th in Raleigh make its choice a little less predictable.
The idea came to Carolina Ballet's artistic director Robert Weiss after the company's "Picasso" program last October, which did not do as well as expected. Determined to find a better fit for this season's October slot, Weiss thought about the last performance of "Picasso" on Halloween night at which some audience members surprisingly came dressed as witches and goblins. "I thought, why not go with a seasonal theme," Weiss remembers, "and take advantage of the built-in interest."
"Dracula" was an obvious possibility, but there were already more than a dozen extant ballet versions. Weiss had seen the most popular ones but didn't think any of them really worked. He decided to re-read the Bram Stoker novel and concluded it could be the basis for a successful staging. He immediately thought of Lynne Taylor-Corbett, the Broadway, Hollywood and ballet choreographer who has created a dozen popular works for the company. Initially, Taylor-Corbett was not sure she could contribute anything new, but Weiss convinced her to read the book, sweetening the proposal by offering a commissioned score from J. Mark Scearce, the Raleigh-based composer of four previous Carolina Ballet premieres.
Taylor-Corbett finally agreed after deciding she could focus on the women in the story. "In most versions, the female characters are underrepresented, they're really just objects," Taylor-Corbett recalls. "I was interested in exploring them with a fresh look. Lucy is the more traditional female and is susceptible to Dracula, but Mina is forward thinking, more modern. She resists Dracula, and in my version, tricks him into the sunlight to destroy him."
Taylor-Corbett also makes Dracula himself young and sexy. " Drinking blood to him is like wooing," she says, "it's like he's saying 'you're going to love this.' I don't depict him as evil really, he's just a force of nature."
The 75-minute piece is not linear, but a series of short scenes. "The aspect I embraced was the solving of the mystery," Taylor-Corbett says. "The characters don't know Dracula exists in the beginning and you watch them try to figure out what is happening." Although the ballet asks for strong character portrayal from the dancers, Taylor-Corbett wanted to avoid long scenes in which plot must be mimed, so she decided on a narrator in the person of Dr. Seward, who is called in to examine Lucy's mysterious illness. Playing the role is Broadway actor Alan Campbell, known locally for heading up the Hot Summer Nights series with his wife, Raleigh-born actress Lauren Kennedy.
The production employs a number of traditional theatrical effects, but a new element is the moving projections. Taylor-Corbett brought in Adam Larsen, a UNC School of the Arts graduate and now a New York-based projection artist, to create the designs.
Scearce's music for "Dracula" will add atmospheric elements, specifically through the cimbalom, the Hungarian hammered dulcimer. "When you hear it, it immediately takes you to that part of the world and the nineteenth century," Scearce says. The score for strings, winds, harp, percussion and cimbalom will be performed live, conducted by Al Sturgis.
Scearce had to use a different compositional approach for Taylor-Corbett's schedule and choreographic methods. She had to be in China during the period crucial to shaping the score, so they communicated by email and Skype. Scearce sent her various cds for inspiration, including movie soundtracks as well as his own music. "She latched onto my bass concerto," says Scearce, "and said 'I have to have this.' Lynne heard the theme as a kind of calling by Dracula to the women, so music from the first movement became a unifying device."
It was late May of this year when Taylor-Corbett finalized the work's structure, giving Scearce only a short window to ready his score for the July 1 start of rehearsals. "I wrote it in ten days," Scearce says. "I think it's the fastest I've ever written anything." Additional pressure came from needing to give the music copyist a month to get the parts ready.
Scearce also wrote the music for the evening's companion piece, "The Masque of the Red Death," a half-hour work based on Poe's short story, choreographed by Weiss. "I'd been wanting to do a ballet to 'Masque' since 1985," says Weiss, "but never got around to it. Back then I saw it as a metaphor for AIDS but now I see it more universally about mortality and the fear of death. It's also about couples in love who must face the fact that life will not always be so pretty." Scearce composed the score in five days after Weiss came to him with a detailed set of requirements.
Scearce says the two choreographers are each brilliant in their own ways. "Ricky is a philosopher poet. He can give me an emotional hook in a single phrase. He told me he wanted the ending to also be the beginning, so we open on a funeral with spooky male voices singing a requiem from the pit. Lynne is like an expressionist painter, with spontaneity and improvisatory elements. She starts with fragments of visual ideas, then shapes and conforms the music to them, working right up to the last minute."
Weiss wants to catch the fancy of the under-twenty crowd, hoping the program will introduce them to ballet in new way. "We just had a meeting," he relates, "in which the staff said they wished there was another word for what we do besides 'ballet" so it could be marketed without the stereotype some people assign it."
Perhaps bloodletting and sex will do the trick, along with the company's call for audiences to wear costumes at the final performances on Halloween weekend.
[a version of this article was published in the Raleigh News & Observer on Oct. 10, 2010]
N. C. Symphony Season Opener Poetic, But Lacking Vitality
There was great beauty, poetry and refinement in the North Carolina Symphony's first Raleigh classical concert of the season Friday, September 24th. The orchestra had a gorgeous sheen, the soloists demonstrated confident artistry and the conductor offered intriguing insights. But a bit more verve and excitement would not have gone amiss.
The program was linked thematically by introspection, a major component of all three works. Grant Llewellyn took an elevating approach to Schubert's Symphony No. 8 ("Unfinished"), emphasizing the noble majesty of the first movement (subtly enhanced by wistful solos from new principal clarinetist, Andrew Lowy) and the delicate serenity of the second. He made clear contrasts of the dark clouds that pass through both movements but kept them at bay with glowing warmth throughout. Llewellyn took the quiet hush of the second movement at a daringly relaxed pace but convinced with its wafting lyricism.
The first movement of Mahler's Symphony No. 10, the most finished part of this uncompleted work, contains all the composer's typical angst and melancholy, juxtaposed in violent contrasts of mood. The piece can be a gripping rollercoaster ride but Llewellyn chose to round off its edges, giving it similar treatment to the Schubert. The result provided some ethereal moments of mystery and yearning but it also allowed the tension and pulse to wither, the lengthy work falling into various bits and pieces rather than maintaining a single architecture.
Beethoven's "Triple Concerto" has a certain pensive elegance. Cellist Zuill Bailey, violinist Giora Schmidt and pianist Navah Perlman, who frequently perform as a chamber music trio, brought that experience to their meditative, controlled playing, Llewellyn supplying polished, precise accompaniment. Bailey displayed expressive individuality, while Schmidt impressed with his easy virtuosity. Perlman downplayed any showiness with straightforward efficiency.
Despite the inherent character of the piece, the performance seemed too dainty and passionless, communicating little joy and vitality until the sprightly dance rhythms of the last movement forced everyone to let go a bit. Strangely, the soloists' encore of a Mendelssohn trio movement had more heart and immediacy than what had gone before.
Music can evoke marvelous spirituality and grace, but without underlying energy, it can be uninvolving and even dull. Next time, more heart and less head, please.
[a version of this review appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer on Sept. 27, 2010]
Assessing the American Dance Festival's Most Theatrical Season
Durham, NC - August 8, 2010
On July 24, the American Dance Festival dropped the final curtain of its 2010 season on a mesmerizing scene at the Durham Performing Arts Center. Fourteen creatures with elongated heads and ashen skin made a ritualistic ascent of a towering staircase at the back of the stage, trailing their long red robes like reptilian monks as darkness slowly descended.
Shen Wei's "Folding," a signature piece from this popular choreographer's stunning body of works, was a fitting end for a season with the theme "What is Dance Theater?" Over the course of six and a half weeks, a dozen companies offered works that focused on the dramatic and theatrical side of modern dance instead of what is often called "pure dance, " providing some of the most varied and opinion-dividing performances seen during the festival's 33 years in Durham.
The concept of "dance theater" has been around for quite a while. "It's something that has always been talked about by the artists themselves and in dance journals," says festival director Charles Reinhart, "but I'd never seen it dealt with as an issue up front."
In planning the 2010 season, Reinhart and festival co-director Jodee Nimerichter realized that several projects they were considering had highly theatrical elements. One was a collaboration between choreographer Martha Clarke and playwright Alfred Uhry about the sexually suppressed lives of the Shakers, incorporating hymn singing and spoken text. The other was the Fellini-esque, circus-like "Oyster," a 1999 international hit from the Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak Dance Company that the festival had been trying to schedule for years. So Reinhart and Nimerichter decided the 2010 season should be about works that imaginatively melded dance and theater. Other companies added to the mix were either inherently theatrical (Brenda Angiel's dancers on ropes; Rosie Herrera's dreamscapes of bathtubs and birthday cakes) or included works that had highly theatrical elements (the comic strip shadow play from Pilobolus; Paul Taylor's play-without-words, "Sunset").
With so many companies this year emphasizing sets, costumes, texts, singing and acting, audience reactions were especially diverse. "It was so interesting walking out of the theater each night," says Nimerichter, "having one person tell you they loved it and another questioning why it was presented at all."
Responses often differed depending on age and experience. For example, Brenda Angiel Aerial Dance Company's "8cho" disappointed some long-time attendees who felt the company's previous visits had been edgier and more varied. They cited the narrower range of this year's tango-inspired choreography and the non-dance numbers performed by a live band and a vocalist interspersed among the dance sequences. But the program became a surprise hit, packing the remaining two performances after opening night. "There was a lot of word of mouth," says Nimerichter. "I also think it had to do with being able to tap into people who attend other types of programs at DPAC. It resonated in a way that other modern dance programs might not have." Reinhart agrees that the Angiel program was more approachable than some, especially because of the music.
The Clarke and Uhry Shaker piece, "Angel Reapers" sharply divided opinion as well. The limited, natural movements and repetitive stamping and clapping provoked some audience members to say, "that wasn't dance." Yet it was picked as a favorite by many long-time festival fans. Rachel McLaughlin, 56, a university administrative assistant who lives in Raleigh and has been going regularly to the festival since the early 1980's, says, "Martha Clarke just amazed me with the lighting, the setting, and the use of the dancers' hands and feet to create the feelings of the story being told. I was so intrigued by the presentation, I immediately went home and Googled information about the Shakers."
The piece that seemed to get a universally positive response was "Sepia" by Russian choreographer Tatiana Baganova, one of three works on the annual program titled "Past/Forward," in which the festival's dance students participate. Baganova's alternate universe, with robotic couples participating in odd ceremonies involving sand pouring over them, was a mesmerizing, riveting experience. Robert Upchurch, 63, a financial advisor who lives in Cary and has seen virtually all the festival's performances since 2000, says, "'Sepia' was perhaps the most imaginative piece yet from Baganova, illustrating how clever dancemakers can make a lot from a little."
Unfortunately, providing such innovative and stimulating work for the public has become more challenging in the current economy. Reinhart and Nimerichter work diligently each year to cover costs, balancing an ever-changing mix of ticket sales, dance student fees, grants, and private donations.
Tickets rarely account for more than a sixth of the festival's budget. Sales were down this year by about three percent (approximately 29,000 tickets were sold), but how that will play out in this season's 3.4 million dollar budget remains to be seen, as the final tally will not be known for a month or more (the fiscal year ends September 30th). Last year at this time, it seemed the festival would end well into the red because a big donor reduced its promised million dollars by one-half after the season started. But with some quickly accomplished economies and some unanticipated donations, the festival broke even in the final accounting.
Luckily, there was a ten percent up-tick in ADF students, totaling 395 this year, their fees providing revenue to help balance the drop in ticket sales. Donations for the scholarship fund also were up about ten percent. "The appeals from the stage came from those who had been students here and now are members of the professional companies," says Nimerichter. "Audiences responded warmly to that."
Reinhart and Nimerichter count this year a success artistically and look forward to planning the 2011 season, which they hope to expand with more performances. Much of that will depend on securing funding from arts grants organizations, a task made more difficult in recent years because grantors have been shifting away from funding performers and more towards audience engagement projects. While the festival has taken advantage of these grants, such as for this year's Audience Memory Project, a research and demonstration program to improve audience's perceptions of dance, it still needs funding to bring the companies and choreographers here, especially those from other countries.
Still, Reinhart and Nimerichter gratefully acknowledge the local subscribers, donors and those who attend the annual fund-raising gala. They are optimistic that there are always new talents out there for the festival to foster, such as Shen Wei (his company was formed at the festival a decade ago) who will continue to make the American Dance Festival the center of the modern dance world.
[a version of this story originally appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer August 8, 2010]
Opera Companies Merge to Fight Economy and Consolidate Audiences
Raleigh NC - May 30, 2010
Saturday's concert in the N. C. Museum of Art's amphitheatre will have a familiar ring to returning opera fans. As in last year's event, conductor Timothy Myers leads a full symphony orchestra, accompanying three well-established singers in arias and musical theatre selections. What's different this year is the presenting organization.
The concert is the first official event for the new North Carolina Opera, the result of a merger between two previous companies in Raleigh (Opera Company of North Carolina and Capital Opera Raleigh). The company has ambitious plans for its 2010-11 season, hoping to beat the odds in the checkered history of grand opera in the Triangle, where previous efforts have usually ended in shutdowns or radical reinventions.
A turning point was reached last year when it was clear that the two existing Raleigh companies could not continue as they were in such chilly economic times. Funding sources asked company representatives to justify two opera presenters in the same area. Despite the companies' attempts to explain their differing missions - OCNC's large scale productions featuring national-level performers and COR's more affordable stagings with local and emerging singers - donors weren't comfortable with competing requests to support essentially the same product.
Last summer, the two companies began exploring the possibility of merger and, six months later, agreed to combine forces. The immediate result was a major commitment of funding from three corporations beginning July 1. OCNC board member Francis Acquaviva, a forty-year veteran of non-profit work, has overseen the transition as interim general director of North Carolina Opera, including the interview process for his permanent replacement, to be named later this month.
Timothy Myers, now the company's artistic director, has crafted a season of five presentations. Exact dates and locations are still being finalized, but productions include Puccini's "Tosca," Donizetti's "Don Pasquale," Gounod's "Faust," Britten's "Turn of the Screw" and a concert of Brahms' "Liebeslieder Waltzes" for vocal quartet. The operas will be fully staged except "Faust," which will be a semi-staged concert. Emerging artists will perform the Britten and the Brahms pieces, while the others will have national and international participants.
The company's programming will go well beyond stage productions. OCNC's "A Taste of Opera" dinner talks and "Opera About Town" performances in parks and libraries will continue, as well as COR's highly successful educational performances in the schools, all three programs utilizing area artists. COR co-founder Ellen Williams, who was part of the transition team, says, "I'm thrilled to see our local singers given opportunities in a variety of venues and repertoire. The community will benefit from the energy of the emerging artist as well as the expertise of the established artist." Francis Acquaviva envisions even more possibilities. "I like to see us get involved with area colleges and voice teachers. I'm also interested in starting an annual conference with master classes and lectures."
In the meantime, the focus is on Saturday's concert. This year's soloists are soprano Sandra Lopez, bass Todd Robinson and baritone Nelson Martinez, who'll perform arias by Mozart, Bellini, Donizetti and Puccini, as well selections from the zarzuela, the Spanish version of operetta.
Timothy Myers says the concert gives a hint of things to come. "I like to think of it as laying the groundwork - brainwashing even. In future seasons, people can say, 'I remember that tune.' " He also thinks that North Carolina Opera can become a hot ticket. "I want there to be a buzz. I want have to turn people away."
[a version of this story appeared in the Raleigh New & Observer June 6, 2010]
American Dance Festival's "Past/Forward" revives John Cage "Water Music"
Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham, NC - July 20, 2010
The American Dance Festival's "Past/Forward" program, now in its fourth year, has become one of the festival's most anticipated events. This showcase for ADF students offers reconstructions of notable works, combined with premieres by cutting edge choreographers, making for exhilarating evenings of old and new. This year's program was a must see, its heady mix of mystery, tranquility and vibrancy giving as much pleasure as anything on this summer's slate.
Russian Tatiana Baganova's works, seen a handful of times at ADF over the past decade, are always vividly memorable and the premiere of "Sepia" was no exception. The title color dominated the shadowy world she envisioned, a desert-like realm inhabited by creatures that may be insects or aliens or members of an ancient cult.
The opening was riveting. On one side, there was a large paper chrysalis out of which three female creatures slowly emerged, punching through with their hands and heads. Once freed, they gathered the paper shreds into large balls and carried them around like beetles. On the other side, three males performed a ceremonial cleansing by opening hourglass-like containers above them, showering streams of sand over themselves as they preened and flexed.
Throughout the half-hour piece, the creatures went through ritualistic couplings, sometimes a mating dance, sometimes a contest of domination. Sand also figured in other segments, sometimes sadistically, sometimes sensuously. Avet Terteryan's coldly eerie music added a mesmerizing quality. The piece ended with the creatures staring out at the audience, a mirror to our own ingrained conflicts. The breathless quiet at the premiere performance signaled the power of this enthralling new work.
The first reconstruction was "Inlets 2," modern dance icon Merce Cunningham's 1983 work staged by former Cunningham company member Jean Freebury. This piece is pure movement, the seven dancers offering spurts of poses and short routines, working individually, although sometimes moving in tandem, but never connecting or acknowledging each other. Many of the movements are formal, even balletic, but paced in a meditative manner. It was supplemented by John Cage's score for water-filled conch shells of all sizes, played by four musicians. The gentle burbles and splashes (picked up by microphones) added soothing ambience to the dance.
The program ended with the energetic sweep of Ryan Ghysels' reconstruction of "West Side Story Suite," Jerome Robbins' 1995 gathering of the famous musical's dance numbers. Such memorable moments as "The Dance at the Gym," "America" and "The Rumble" came to life as 31 ADF students danced (and sang!) with appropriately youthful verve and charm.
[a version of this review was originally published in the Raleigh News & Observer, July 22, 2010]
Impressive Moby and Intriguing Butterfly in Dallas
I've recently returned from the Music Critics Association of North America meeting in Dallas, which included tickets to Jake Heggie's new "Moby-Dick" (May 8) and Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" (May 9) by the Dallas Opera in the new Winspear Opera House.
I would count "Moby Dick" a success and certainly a major step forward for Heggie as a composer. He he's made the piece feel unified, with many wonderful moments in the orchestration. The music holds interest and moves along with few uninteresting parts. The sections depicting the sea, both calm and in storm, owe something to Britten but have their own style and engaging form. The opera is paced well, except in several sections for secondary characters where the point had been made but the music carries on too long in the same vein.
I heard influences of John Adams (in a good way) in the repetitive motifs and motor rhythms. The vocal lines are often quite melodic (there's one aria that is definitely "Puccinian"), but they also can be somewhat wandering and odd. The second act is something of a letdown, not building on the tension set up in the first act. The second act is more lyrical and introspective, and when Ahab's confrontation with Moby finally arrives, the music and the staging do not live up to expectations for such a climatic moment. But overall, this is Heggie's best work to date.
The physical production by Tony nominee Robert Brill (whose "Faust" design will be seen soon at the Met) contributes a great deal to the enjoyment, cleverly employing masts, sails, and ropes in ever changing patterns. Animated projections against scrims and backdrops are magical, depicting schematics of the ship, ocean waves or the starry night. There's one transformation in which men are arrayed on the curved white backdrop as if on the ship's sails, when, suddenly, projections put them all into whale boats moving around (and eventually being torn asunder) in a truly breathtaking effect. The use of colors and shadows are especially dramatic. Leonard Foglia's direction was tight and confident.
Ben Heppner looked the part (complete with peg leg) and sang strongly without cracks or rough patches, but the voice was not particularly large or soaring. Additionally, he could only manage to move very methodically with the peg leg, making some scenes less effective when he couldn't storm off or move menacingly when called for. The best voices (and actors) were tenor Stephen Costello as a sympathetic Greenhorn (only identified as Ishmael in the last line of the opera), baritone Morgan Smith as the practical Starbuck, and bass baritone Jonathan Lemalu as the odd islander Queequeg. Lemalu and Costello's sweet duet of friendship, dreaming of returning to Queequeg's home, was quite moving and one of the opera's best moments.
The opera will be seen in coming seasons at San Diego, San Francisco, Calgary and Adelaide. Anyone interested in contemporary opera should plan to see it.
The "Madame Butterfly" was a Francesco Zambello production, first introduced to Dallas a decade ago, but it looked fresh in the new house. Anyone requiring a traditional setting and staging would likely have been put off by this version. But it falls squarely into the same category as the Minghella Met staging and the Lamos version at New York City Opera, with much use of abstraction, a wide range of colors and minimal furnishings. If those two productions appealed, then I suggest this one would also.
The most unusual aspect is the setting of the beginnings of Act I and Act II in Sharpless' consulate office. No, that's not what the libretto says, but Zambello has thought it all through so that it basically works. I was convinced of the concept and delighted in all the little details: secretaries at old-fashioned typewriters and file drawers, the waiting area for the local populace arriving for various business. It seemed logical that Goro was showing Pinkerton a model of his Japanese house and that Pinkerton was waiting there to have the wedding ceremony quickly dispatched. Having Butterfly and her family come to the consulate to transact the wedding made her seem even more under the control of men and foreigners. I especially liked how the walls of the consulate disappeared, revealing the Bonze in his saffron robes on a huge statue of Buddha.
The Act I love duet and the Act II preparation for Pinkerton's return were staged as if at Butterfly's house but only suggested with shade-like hangings and lots of colors and shadows in the lighting. There were no trees, but Suzuki, Trouble and Butterfly brought in baskets of petals to scatter about (just as in the Met and NYCO productions) while more fell from the sky. I found it a lovely effect, as the three whirled around in them.
Act III followed Act II without a break, the pre-dawn music used to mime the courtship of Pinkerton and Kate, adding a bit of back-story. The gangplank being lowered, with Pinkerton and Kate coming off the ship, was also innovative. The finale reminded me of the Met version with a large red silk coming down to represent blood, making a barrier between Pinkerton and Butterfly.
As Butterfly, Adina Nitescu leaned towards a Callas sound, with no attempts to lighten it into a "juvenile" voice. I liked her strong tone, especially in the most dramatic moments, and also how she sometimes almost spoke some of the lines. She did have a little trouble holding onto long high notes, coming off several just shy of their full value, but she seems in full control of color and inflection.
Nitescu seemed to be shaping the characterization very purposefully as a woman who knew her fate was already sealed, taking only temporary joy in a marriage she knew could not last, despite hoping it might. Her minimal gestures and focused demeanor indicated she had already given into fate. I found it a convincing alternative to the usual fragile characterization.
Brandon Jovanovich's Pinkerton was cad-ish but not totally unsympathetic, expressing believable remorse in Act III. His big, hall-filling voice was not particularly Italianate but certainly was "American," capable of all the climatic passages. Maria Zifchak's Suzuki, already well established from the Met production, was extremely moving and often quite amusing, especially her all-out attack on Goro in Act II. James Weston's singing of Sharpless was not quite powerful enough but the basic sound was pleasant. He was directed to be less sympathetic towards Butterfly but still had a rounded character.
Garnett Bruce's restaging of the original Zambello direction was very detailed and pointed, impressive in that all the singers seemed to know exactly what they were doing at every moment. The staging held the audience's attention throughout, with many striking moments.
The biggest disappointment was Graeme Jenkins' conducting. He had a lot of intriguing ideas for many little moments and could whip up big climaxes where needed. But he seemed to want a smooth flow and narrow dynamic range most of the time, making many passages ineffective and bland. Worse, he got slower and slower as the night went on, letting a lot of steam out of the last act. He didn't seem to have a feeling for the overall architecture of the work. Despite the conducting minuses, I enjoyed the production very much and would gladly see it again (but with another leader in the pit).
The Winspear Opera House was very impressive and in my two different orchestra seats, the sound was clear and warm. The 2010-11 Dallas season has some unusual fare, including a particularly intriguing sounding Boris.
N.C Symphony Season Finale Hosts Delightful Duo
April 30, 2010 - Meymandi Concert Hall, Progress Engergy Center, Raleigh NC
The N. C. Symphony's opera excerpts program Friday night could easily have been a serious, formal affair. But conductor Grant Llewellyn and vocalists Phyllis Pancella and Stephen Powell were determined to provide the opposite, turning this season's final classical series concert into a convivial, fun-filled evening that likely made a number of converts to opera by concert's end.
That's because the two soloists proved opera need not be stodgy or old-fashioned, giving each aria and duet well-defined character and detailed staging, conveying appropriate mood and telling action. Llewellyn offered attentive, vibrant collaboration, balancing the orchestra well under their singing. All three engaged the audience through warm and humorous introductions to the selections.
Stephen Powell filled the hall with his free, open baritone, taking stage with impressive swagger in the toreador aria from "Carmen" and causing the audience to hold it's breath with his hushed, heartfelt floating of the hymn to the evening star from "Tannhäuser." Mezzo Phyllis Pancella demonstrated her stage savvy right away, employing sinuous gestures and seductive glances in Carmen's "Habanera," later confirming her vocal range in the exuberant young male composer's aria from Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" (donning Powell's tux jacket for added effect).
Together, the singers proved a synergic pairing, confidently playing off each other with subtle, telling involvement. They made the seemingly simple "La ci darem la mano" from "Don Giovanni" a little one-act of coyness and enticement, while investing the three big excepts from "Sweeney Todd" with such comic timing and knockabout physicality, one would assume they'd been playing the whole show for years (and maybe they should).
On his own, Llewellyn fired up the orchestra for vigorous readings of the sensuous "Bacchanale" from "Samson et Dalila" and the glorious Prelude to Act III from "Lohengrin." Llewellyn also offered rarities in the form of the mesmerizing witches' dance from Puccini's "Le Villi" and the atmospheric twilight of Delius' prelude to "Irmelin."
A lengthy duet from "Samson et Dalila" didn't sustain enough interest out of context and programming Powell's emotional "Rigoletto" aria as the last vocal selection after Pancella's delightfully upbeat finale from Rossini's "La Cenerentola" made for anti-climax. But the encore, "Tonight" from "West Side Story," with its tender final high notes perfectly suspended, sent the audience into further frenzied huzzahs for all participants.
[originally published in the News & Observer, May 2, 2010]
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