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IN Music News THIS WEEK: One Mezzo, Many Causes
April 30, 2002
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By Janos Gereben
One Mezzo, Many Causes
Frederica von Stade has championed a zillion causes for the benefit of music and youth, and "there she goes again," starting something on her own, unasked. Out of the blue, she called the Tassajara Symphony to ask if she could participate in a benefit concert for the orchestra's educational programs in San Ramon Valley schools.
SFCV's Little Bird overheard the conversation backstage at an Opera Pacific Dead Man Walking performance when Flicka told Sara Jobin, the Tassajara music director (and San Francisco Opera prompter, rehearsal conductor, and cover conductor), "you sure do a lot of fine concerts for the kids, free. Anything I can do?" The surprise answer: YESSSS!
And so, at 7:30, on Sunday, May 5, in Walnut Creek's Hoffman Theater, Jobin conduct, Flicka sings An Evening with Frederica von Stade, including opera arias and duets (with soprano Rachel Luxon), songs by Copland, excerpts from Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne, and a world premiere by Chris Brubeck (son of Dave). Tickets are $35 and all the money goes into the educational programs. For information, see www.geocities.com/tassajarasymph/.
Coming and Goings in Music Santa Rosa Symphony music director Jeffrey Kahane has extended his contract with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for three more years, having headed the group since 1996. Santa Rosa is the destination for Marin Symphony music director Alasdair Neale in June for the finals of the Klein String Competition. Neale is revisiting two of his former musical homes, conducting the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra this Saturday at the SF Conservatory of Music, and then leading three San Francisco Symphony concerts in the Summer in the City series in July. He'll be off to Sun Valley in the summer, heading the music festival there. Thomas W. ("Tod") Morris succeeds Ernest Fleischmann as artistic director of the Ojai Music Festival after the end of the 2003 season. Morris served as executive director of the Cleveland Symphony for the past 15 years and worked in the same position before with the Boston Symphony. Carla Wilson (Mrs. Ross Bauer), principal bassoon of the Marin, Berkeley and Fremont orchestras, has been appointed principal of the Santa Rosa Symphony as well.
The Merc Can Get It for You Wholesale Notably absent from the list of angels at Saturday's vitally important benefit concert for the temporarily defunct San Jose Symphony in the Center for the Performing Arts was one of its major supporters in the past, the San Jose Mercury-News. The area's dominant newspaper hasn't even offered free ads for the benefit, extending instead the largesse of a reduced advertising rate. The paper's music critic, Lesley Valdes is leaving next month, probably not to be replaced. Classical music coverage in the Bay Area's newspapers is going from insufficient to nonexistent. We cannot report specifics yet, but just around the corner is a serious staff reduction at one of the area's larger newspapers, very possibly eliminating the music critic's position.
Will Dunaway Do Away with Callas? Looks like Faye Dunaway will not only produce and star in the film version of Terence McNally's Master Class, but she is directing it AND will rewrite the script. Next: a Dunaway remake of that other one-woman effort, Yentl?
Opera for Bachelor Farmers
A Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor will premiere his opera, Mr. and Mrs. Olson, May 24-26, with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in Ordway Center. Soprano Maria Jette, a regular on Keillor's radio show (and a busy singer on the oratorio circuit), is featured in the story of a married couple searching for revived romance. Norman Olson is a tax man, and his wife, Karen, teaches 10th-grade English in the 10th grade. "It's May," Keillor described the plot. He is thinking about the lawn. She is thinking about divorce."
Puccini Biopic Paramount Pictures and Seven Arts Pictures are getting ready to produce a movie about the life of Puccini, with Plácido Domingo in the title role. (Puccini was a tenor?) William Friedkin will direct; he has Rules of Engagement, The Exorcist and The French Connection to his credit, among other hits. Screenwriters include Mrs. Marta Ornelas Domingo and Luciano Vincenzoni. The story, according to reports, is set at the time of Puccini's career between Madama Butterfly and The Girl of the Golden West, when the composer supposedly had an affair with a servant girl, possibly leading to her suicide. As a matter of record, Puccini's wife Elvira was sued for falsely accusing the girl of having an adulterous relationship with her husband. Hollywood is ready.
Big Works on the Proms Schedule The 2002 BBC Proms will feature Bach's St. Matthew Passion, conducted by Trevor Pinnock; Simon Rattle leading Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand; The Coronation of King George II, the state occasion recreated by the King's Consort; and a concert showcasing the Gustav MahlerJugendorchester, conducted by Claudio Abbado and with pianist Martha Argerich. The Kirov Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev, will perform several concerts, including Shostakovich's Symphony No. 4. For details, see www.bbc.co.uk/proms/.
A Corps de Ballet for the Guinness World Records North Korean celebrations of Great Leader Kim Il Sung's 90th birthday this summer include a ballet spectacular with 100,000 dancers. The birthday falls on the eighth anniversary of the Great Leader's death at age 82.
(Janos Gereben, a regular contributor to www.sfcv.org, is arts editor of the Post Newspaper Group. His e-mail address is janos451@earthlink.net.) ©2002 Janos Gereben, all rights reserved |