Music News
Rohde Premiere at “Call & Response”
The Cypress String Quartet is presenting the ninth season of “Call & Response” — the pairing of a classical piece with a new composition inspired by and/or related to the golden oldie. Cypress’ March 15 concert at the Yerba Buena Center Forum will premiere Kurt Rohde’s Gravities and the works that inspired it: Haydn’s Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2; and Bartók’s Quartet No. 6.
Says Rohde of Gravities:
I was drawn the most to the Bartók for a pretty selfish reason — I play viola, and the pivotal viola solo at the beginning of the quartet is one of my favorite moments in the literature. Trying to decipher which elements from the Bartók I would choose to incorporate into my piece was by far the most challenging part of composing the work. The opening Mesto section in each of the movements in the Bartók serve partly as an introduction but are also treated like a recitative.
Additionally, the Mesto is a unifying strand, which all the movements have in common, linking them together with a common, recognizable phrase. Gradually, it became apparent that I was less concerned about specific quotes from the Bartók quartet (although they are in there), and more concerned by the pull of the influence of Bartók on my work. My thoughts then shifted from Bartók’s pull on me to other things that pull my creativity in different directions. These are the gravities of the title of my work.
Kurt Rohde
ODC’s Music-in-Motion
A good dance company uses and, in turn, promotes a variety of music — with emphasis on new and unusual works — instead of sticking with dear old Tchaikovsky. ODC/Dance is a good company, and an exceptional champion of both new and established values in dance and music.
As this small-but-mighty troupe opens its 37th annual spring season, ODC/Dance Downtown Founder and Artistic Director Brenda Way and Coartistic Director KT Nelson dazzle with their music selections, especially with their five premieres, three of which are commissioned — by the San Francisco Girls Chorus, the Equal Justice Society, and the Feintech Family Foundation.
Thirty singers of the Girls Chorus will participate in the performances on March 14 and 29 of Way’s Life Is a House at the Yerba Buena Center. This series of miniatures within different rooms of a house is danced to a suite of music that includes Reel à bouche, arranged by Malcolm Daglish; Stephen Hatfield’s Chant for a Long Day; Marta Keen’s Homeward Bound, arranged by Jay Althouse; Erik Bergman’s Dreams III, and Balm in Gilead, arranged by Jackson Berkey.
Way’s Unintended Consequences: a Meditation, which deals with “the current state of political affairs and our inadvertent complicity in them,” is set to music by Laurie Anderson. The piece was developed as part of a residency at the White Oak Plantation. Balancing the musical act is another Way premiere, Origins of Flight, set to works by Heinrich Biber, Arcangelo Corelli, and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer.
Back to the here-and-now, the music of Bryan Eno and David Byrne will be heard when the KT Nelson premiere Hunting and Gathering is danced, to a combination of electronic, ambient, and world music with percussion. Nelson’s other premiere — choreographed for Private Freeman, Quilet Rarang, and Corey Brady — is A Walk in the Woods, with Oswaldo Golijov’s klezmer-inspired music.
From the ODC’s 2007 repertory come Way’s Book of Hours (2007) with music by Meredith Monk, A Pleasant Looking Woman in Sensible Clothes (2007) with video artist Hiraki Sawa, and Nelson’s Scramble (2007) to Bach, along with the 1999 Walk Before Talk to music by Michael Nyman.
Jeremy Smith and Yayoi Kambara
Photo by RJ Muna
S.F. Opera Films Hit the Silver Screen
It turned out to be a difficult birth when it came to final negotiations just before the first screenings were to take place nationwide. But San Francisco Opera’s high-definition film programs did see the dark of theater last weekend. See some early responses, below.
SFO General Manager David Gockley (who, in his push for the project, lost a top aide, see next item) even managed to add San Francisco to the list of cities showing the films — a notable omission until the last-minute inclusion of the Castro Theater. The problem of finding a theater here had to do with the exclusive contracts between theater chains and the Metropolitan Opera, whose simulcasts have had a remarkably successful distribution in spite of premium prices.
Opera Loses Top Aide
Shane Gasbarra, San Francisco Opera’s director of artistic and music administration, is leaving the company for reasons not disclosed by the administration. Officially, Gasbarra’s departure is scheduled for May 31, but according to sources, he is no longer working for the Opera.
The news is unexpected because Gasbarra has been a top official under General Director David Gockley both at the Houston Grand Opera and then in San Francisco for the past two years. Gasbarra managed artistic planning for the company, including repertoire choice, commissions, and principal artists. He oversaw all areas of artistic and musical operations, including orchestra, chorus, and dancer administration.
Among Gasbarra’s main tasks — and most important accomplishments — was dealing with the American Guild of Musical Artists and the American Federation of Musicians. Reversing past patterns, agreements with orchestra musicians and chorus members were concluded quickly under Gasbarra’s leadership, and to general satisfaction.
As Gockley expanded the Opera’s broadcasting and telecasting activities, he thanked Gasbarra publicly for his role in the difficult negotiations that led to the new uses of technology. There were problems in the final negotiations with AGMA about the Opera’s film programs, but an agreement on Thursday enabled the company to go ahead with the full schedule.
Carrie Murphy
Expected to fill in for Gasbarra is his assistant, Carrie Murphy. Production Director Drew Landmesser and CFO Michael Simpson remain in their current positions.
S.F. Opera Films: Early Returns
Greg Fitzmaurice writes from North Carolina that the Raleigh-Durham area had two movie complexes showing the San Francisco Opera high-definition film of La Rondine on Saturday. At the 4 p.m. first screening, there were only five people in the audience, including Fitzmaurice:
It was actually very good and all the singers were in excellent voice, and I’d certainly go see another SFO operacast. Unlike the Met, they made no attempt to simulate a real opera-going experience. You never see the auditorium, but you are allowed a brief glimpse into the orchestra pit at one point. I think this is a mistake on SFO’s part and attribute a lot of the Met’s success to the simulation.
I’ve never seen La Rondine before so I have no points of comparison but I did enjoy it, and thought the staging and the direction enhanced the opera. There were a few things I didn’t like however:
- The camera favored close-ups too much and in fact they were way too close. We frequently had shots that cut off the tops of the heads of the singers. At one point while he was singing, I thought we were even going to lose the ability to see the eyes of the lead tenor, Mischa Didyk.
- The voices were slightly out-of-sync with the video. You got used to this, but still it was annoying.
- The sound could have been better. I don’t know whether it was because of an inferior recording or because of the theater’s audio equipment, but, the sound seemed to be a little dead and I missed hearing the overtones from the singers’ voices.
Still it was very much worth the $12 ticket and I would recommend that anyone interested in Puccini who hasn’t seen this opera before go see it. And I sincerely hope that the low audience turnout won’t result in this series being discontinued. I’m very much interested in seeing more of these presentations.
From Texas comes another report:
A couple of friends and I went to see La Rondine today. There were two theaters in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area showing it. The theater we went to was in a suburb between Dallas and Fort Worth. There were only four of us in the theater.
I enjoyed the performance very much. Both Angela Gheorghiu and Mischa Didyk were excellent. The sound in our theater was quite good and was in sync with the cinemacast. I thought the costuming and the set design were fantastic, set in the 1920s. I had never had the opportunity to see La Rondine before.
Then there is our own intrepid connoisseur of contemporary music, Jeff Dunn, slumming with Puccini, taking in the first screening of La Rondine in Livermore and “loving the Angela Gheorghiu close-ups, I was swooning the whole time.” He encountered no voice-sync problems, although found the sound “a little low and flat,” and rejoiced at the $7 ticket price: “What a bargain!” Dunn counted about 35 in the audience, a significant improvement over the venues mentioned above.
Angela Gheorghiu
Where to See Met Simulcasts for Free
The Metropolitan Opera’s high-definition simulcasts initially cost $18 per ticket, and now they are up to $22 plus a “convenience fee.” There is one place in the country, however, where the screenings are free.
Sara Breibart, of the Charleston (S.C.) County Library, negotiated free showings at the library, and now Saturdays are standing-room only there. “In addition to the 200 seats in the auditorium, we had to drag in more — until we feared we were in violation of the fire code,” according to Briebart. “We finally resorted to closing the doors until intermission when a few people left — leaving seats for the people who were waiting.”
The next two simulcasts should be well worth the price: This Saturday, at 10:30 a.m. PDT, it’s Britten’s Peter Grimes, conducted by Donald Runnicles. On March 22, it’s Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, conducted by James Levine.
If you want to get an advance look at the San Francisco Opera’s incoming music director, watch Nicola Luisotti conduct Puccini’s La Bohème in the Met simulcasts on April 5.
Nicola Luisotti
Our Intelligent Symphonic Export
From the Sunday Asbury Park Press (N.J.), one of many East Coast newspapers heralding the current San Francisco Symphony tour:
Classical music lovers and ex-marching band geeks are equally blessed this week as a handful of events present an array of listening events, both fine and fun.
At the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Michael Tilson Thomas will lead the San Francisco Symphony in a performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, the “Eroica.”
The orchestra is nearing its centenary and Tilson Thomas, or MTT as he is known among his fans, has honed the group’s reputation as one of the country’s leading ensembles. Both the Shostakovich and the Beethoven are monumental, era-defining works.
With such a fine, intelligent conductor at the helm, the evening should prove to be memorable.
Brewer to Sing for Berkeley Opera’s Supper
Soprano Christine Brewer will stop in her orbits between the great opera houses of the world to help out the Berkeley Opera. The special favorite of Bay Area audiences (who treasure her Isolde at the War Memorial), will sing at the April 13 afternoon fund-raising benefit concert to be held in Berkeley’s Town and Gown Club, just south of the UC campus, a 200-seat hall. Take it from someone who once heard Brewer sing in a living room: You don’t want to miss her Liebestodt in close quarters. Tickets, $65, are available from Berkeley Opera Gala.
Christine Brewer
Barrueco, Galbraith at the Conservatory
Guitarist Manuel Barrueco is giving a master class at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music at 7:30 p.m. on March 14, coaching students at an event open to the public. Tickets are $15-$20. Classical-guitar enthusiasts note: Another (free) master class at the Conservatory is scheduled for March 31 at 7:30 p.m., with Paul Galbraith.
Manuel Barrueco
Lortie at Herbst
Wagner, Liszt, and Louis Lortie will converge at Herbst Theatre on March 18, when San Francisco Performances presents the Canadian pianist in a fascinating program of Liszt works, including transcriptions from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Tannhäuser. Lortie will also speak about the two composers’ intertwined lives.
Louis Lortie
Classical Net Back on the Air
The redesigned Classical Net is in operation again, with thousands of CD, DVD, and book reviews, and over 5,500 links to composer data, resources, biographies, articles, recommendations, and CD buying guides. Established in 1995 by Dave Lampson, the Web site was the first of its kind, and it is now further enhanced with downloadable music samples and streaming audio content. The Composer Index is of special interest.
Heggie Premiere in Houston
Jake Heggie’s opera Last Acts had its premiere at the Houston Grand Opera on Friday to mixed reviews. To be retitled as Three Decembers, the work will be presented by San Francisco Opera at Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, Dec. 11-14.
While heaping praises on Frederica von Stade in the central role of the work, The Houston Chronicle review faulted Heggie’s music “simplistic — a basic Broadway musical dressed up with mild dissonance and a boring repetition of keys. The style at times turns sickly sweet.”
A more favorable take on the simplicity of the music comes from a friend in Houston: “In the 12 years or so of attending premieres or new operas at Houston Grand Opera,” writes Val Suan, “this is probably the first time that I am humming a tune from an opera and it is still going on in my mind.” He goes on to call the work “a beautiful, emotional, funny, poignant, and illuminating piece of operatic theater.”
The Chronicle review, by Charles Ward, is merciless about the plot: “Jake Heggie is no Jerry Springer, thank heavens, but like the TV host’s smackdown of a show, the San Francisco composer’s new opera ruts around in domestic dysfunction.”
Suan tells more of the plot:
The opera takes place in 1986, 1996, and 2006, with the first dramatic event of each part taken place in December. Scene I (1986) begins with Madeline’s (the character sung by von Stade) children — Beatrice (soprano Kristin Clayton), and Charlie (baritone Keith Phares) — reading their famous mother’s Christmas letter. Scene II (1996) reflects on the death of Charlie’s partner Burt who died of AIDS.
Scene I treated us with emotional pairings from the two siblings as they reflect on their mom and their late dad’s experiences. Flicka does a cabaret-style number on her husband’s philandering, with the message that life is one big party. A great scene is Charlie and Bea hugging by the railing of the Golden Gate Bridge, to a memorable, emotionally charged tune.
Scene II unravels with a highly charged row between the three characters before they were supposed to attend the Tony Awards Show. Scene III brings the story to the present, taking place in a Broadway theater with a eulogy from Charlie with Bea at his side, on their mother’s death.
The singers are accompanied by an orchestra of nine, plus two pianos on stage, played by Heggie and conductor Patrick Summers.
Frederica von Stade in Houston Last Acts
Janos Gereben (janosg@gmail.com) is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice.
©2008 By Janos Gereben, all rights reserved.
The Opera screenings are a wonderful way to make this art form more accessible to the general public. La Rondine, specifically, was probably a good choice for a screening because it did have sufficient eye candy — beautiful decorative set designs and the two stars.
Posted by Marina on March 11, 2008 at 2:05 pm