|
IN Music News
Symphony Arrivals and Departures
Astrid Varnay
Broadcast News
Ragazzi's Free SingFest
School of 100 Pianos
Expansionist Operatic Populism
A Lyric Trovatore
From Bay to Bayreuth and Back
Meachem: Baffling Portrait of Young Singer
|
Cypress Mixes It Up ... Again
By Janos Gereben
The Kronos Quartet is our world-famous, industrial-strength innovator; the Del Sol Quartet is the little outfit that could ... and does; and the Cypress Quartet is right up there with them, adventurous, bold, and impressive. In just 10 years, the Cypress has commissioned and premiered some 25 new works, gaining fame and audience loyalty in the process.
This year, in residence at San Jose State University, the Cypress continues its intriguing programming, teaming up with opera and jazz artists, among others, for a free "Music and Conversation" series. Violinists Cecily Ward and Tom Stone, violist Ethan Filner, and cellist Jennifer Kloetzel have invited such artists as soprano Erie Mills, tenor Joseph Frank, Greek guitarist Antigoni Goni, Israeli cellist Amit Peled, the Stone Zimmerman Duo, Brazil's Luciana Souza, and others to participate in the series.
From Sept. 21 through May 10, "Music and Conversation" events will take place in the SJSU Music Building Concert Hall, beginning at 12:30 p.m. The artists will follow performances with an audience discussion. The Cypress season also includes a multimedia collaboration with author Jacob Needleman and filmmaker Michael Schwarz, in a series titled "Inspired by America," a commingling of live music, film, and the spoken word.
Says violist Filner of the Cypress programming philosophy, "We champion three categories of repertoire — first, the classics, that is, the music that drew all of us to the profession in the first place; second, undiscovered/forgotten gems, 'hidden treasures' of beautiful, valuable music that are virtually lost through the ages due to a variety of reasons; and third, the 'Beethovens of today,' based on our belief that there are great composers alive and working among us today, with talents to rival those of the greatest masters in musical history."
This season's "Call and Response" composer is Dan Asia, whose String Quartet No. 2 received its world premiere from the Cypress. The quartet will also offer repeat performances of recent "Call and Response" commissions, such as George Tsontakis's Quartet No. 5 and Elena Ruehr's Quartet No. 4. (The "Call and Response" programs pair a classical work — the "call" — with a new, commissioned work — the "response" — in a single program.)
A new Cypress CD to be released this fall includes Jeffery Cotton's
String Quartet No. 1, along with works by Debussy and Josef Suk. The
quartet has just received a Copland grant to help along an ongoing project
to record all six of Benjamin Lees' quartets, two of which were
commissioned by the Cypress.
The Cypress Quartet
Symphony Arrivals and Departures Saxophonist Kenny G holds the world record for circular breathing, having once held a single note for 45 minutes. Impressive as that may be, consider more than six decades of marshaling breath control the way flutist Paul Renzi has. Renzi is breathing easy now, having retired last season after 51 years with the San Francisco Symphony alone, most of it as the orchestra's principal flutist. In the new season, beginning this week, Renzi will be succeeded by Timothy Day, acting second flute since 2004 and a veteran of orchestras in Baltimore, Boston, and Minnesota. Acting Principal Flute Robin McKee and Acting Associate Principal Flute Linda Lukas return to their respective positions as associate principal and second flute. Daniel Carlson joins the Symphony as associate principal second violin, and Mark J. Inouye, who had been on leave and performing with the Houston Symphony, returns to the position of second trumpet. New full-time violinists include Elbert Tsai and Raushan Akhmedyarova. Benjamin Shwartz, Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, will hold the additional role of S.F.S. resident conductor.
Astrid Varnay One of the great Wagnerian sopranos of the last century, Astrid Varnay, died on Monday at age 88. Born in Sweden of Hungarian parents, Varnay moved to New York at an early age. She made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1941, in the role of Sieglinde, substituting (without a rehearsal) for the indisposed Lotte Lehmann. Varnay went on to a stellar international career, singing in Bayreuth, Covent Garden, and many of Europe's top opera houses. Besides Wagnerian roles, Varnay was noted for her many performances of Elektra, Salome, and — later in life — Klytemnestra and Herodias.
Broadcast News KDFC-FM will once again broadcast live the San Francisco Symphony's season-opening gala Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the music of Glinka and Dvorák, with Christian Tetzlaff as soloist in the Stravinsky Violin Concerto, to open the Symphony's 95th season.
San Francisco Opera's Sept. 10 Opera in the Park concert, beginning at 1:30 p.m., will be broadcast at 8 p.m. the same day on KDFC-FM, 102.1. Donald Runnicles conducts, and the singers expected to participate
include Paolo Gavanelli, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Mary Dunleavy, Tichina
Vaughn, Anna Christy, Christine Goerke, Jennifer Welch-Babidge, Wolfgang
Brendel, Christine Brewer, Giuseppe Gipali, Brian Leerhuber, and Vale
Rideout.
Ragazzi's Free SingFest The Peninsula's Ragazzi Boys Chorus, with sponsorship by Target Stores, invites boys between the age of seven and 11 to attend a "SingFest" on Sept. 16, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., in Redwood City's First United Methodist Church. The event combines entertainment, workshops, and an informal and stress-free opportunity to audition for membership in the 140-member group, whose age range is from seven to 18.
I Ragazzi di San Mateo
School of 100 Pianos The San Francisco Conservatory of Music is now operating at 50 Oak St. in the Civic Center, although the fence is still up on the street, and construction is ongoing. Inside, there are many changes vis à vis the old campus on 19th Avenue, including a doubling of the school's "piano fleet," from 50 to 100. Among new faculty members: singers Catherine Cook and Cesar Ulloa, pianist Yoshi Nagai, and historian Luciano Chessa.
One of many new piano studios at the S.F. Conservatory
Expansionist Operatic Populism Hyperkinetic opera evangelist David Gockley is now expanding free video-audio simulcasts beyond San Francisco. The San Francisco Opera general director announced over the weekend that the already scheduled Oct. 6 Rigoletto, to be simulcast in the Civic Center, will also be shown in Stanford University's Frost Amphitheater at 8 p.m., Oct. 6, as the opera is performed in the War Memorial. Paolo Gavanelli sings the title role, Mary Dunleavy is Gilda, and the conductor is Stephen Lord.
Mary Dunleavy sings Gilda in the S.F.O. Rigoletto Photo by Elisa Haber
A Lyric Trovatore San Francisco Lyric Opera's next production is Verdi's Il Trovatore, Sept. 15-24, in the Legion of Honor's Florence Gould Theater. The role of Leonore will be sung by Duana Demus, a young soprano who made a big impression in recent months as Tosca, Amelia (of Un Ballo), and Malcolm X's mother. Tenor Ben Bongers is Manrico and baritone Roberto Gomez the Count di Luna.
Roberto Gomez, Ben Bongers, and Duana Demus in rehearsal
From Bay to Bayreuth and Back The Bayreuth Festival has been the mecca for Wagnerites since 1876, the small Northern Bavarian town (pop. 74,000) serving as a magnet for music lovers the world over (with a waiting list for tickets that can run as long as 10 years). Among Bay Area visitors to the Festspielhaus just a few days ago was Martinez Wagnerian Terri Stuart, who sent the following thoughts about the slowly receding upheaval in European experimentation with opera (something popping up in the War Memorial recently), from the city partially responsible for starting the trend. Comments about Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung are of particular interest here, in advance of the coming of Francesca Zambello's American-themed Ring from the Washington Opera. "Apparently, even Bayreuth insiders are sick and tired of 'regie theater' [director's opera, usually with plenty of weirdness and shock] and the navel-gazing directors who create productions about themselves and little else," Stuart writes. "More and more, the regisseur [stage director of a dictatorial bent] is regarded as being no longer among the artistic avant-garde and needs to go. As far as I am concerned they were never in the true vanguard, and their ego-derived productions are beyond tiresome. "In Der Ring des Nibelungen — Die Szene als Modell," a magnificent exhibit of Bayreuth productions from 1876 to 2000, I heard an interesting comment about the so-called "Rosalie" Ring [Alfred Kirchner's 1994 production, with sets and costumes by the artist Rosalie]: that it freed itself from convention [and was] enabled to use interesting materials, costumes, and lighting effects with abandon. Taking that to the extreme is [director Christoph] Schlingensief, whose productions remind one of the Seinfeld Show proclamation of being about nothing. "Then there is Anna Viebrock, whose sets are virtually identical. Singers appear dwarfed by large objects, people being trapped in closed spaces from which there is no escape. It's a cookie-cutter approach to stage, ballet, and opera. Her sets for Luisa Miller were nearly identical to those of Tristan, with the exception of jarring, glaring flourescent lights, which represented light and darkness — hideous brown plastic wall paneling telescopes in Act II to peeling vinyl wallpaper, which telescopes in Act III into a basement undergoing renovation. [With] three layered sets, sort of like a compost heap, Tristan and Isolde were reduced to a demented Avon lady and a sports announcer. "In the same exhibit, there were some original oil sketches for the original Ring production, 130 years ago. Yes, they were lovely and very 19th century in character. But even Wagner didn't want to refer to any specific place or time. Unfortunately, the set builders and costume designers couldn't free their minds to create 'neutral' designs, and therefore they went to museums and used historic classical representations for the production. So in the end, those who tout 'what Wagner wanted' don't realize that he didn't really get what he asked for. "Wagner didn't set out to write an opera about incest when he wrote The Flying Dutchman — he was writing about the classic lost soul yearning for a home, i.e., himself. So why does some idiot set the opera in Senta's mind and cast Daland and the Dutchman as one character, who is an incestuous pedophile? Let us hope that between allegations of 'static museum productions' and outrageous excesses, great music will be served with imagination and restraint, for the benefit of the composers and audiences."
Meachem: Baffling Portrait of Young Singer Former Merolino and Adler Fellow Lucas Meachem had dramatic encounters last week with both luck and misfortune. The young baritone, whose larger-than-life physical presence is well remembered by San Francisco audiences, landed a choice assignment with Chicago's Lyric Opera. When English baritone Simon Keenlyside withdrew from the new Robert Carson production of Iphigénie en Tauride at the Lyric, Meachem got the nod to take over the important role of Oreste. This is at least the second time that a featured singer's bad back gives Meachem a "star is born" opportunity. At the end of 2004, Russell Braun was fighting a back injury, and the Adler Fellow substituted for him in the title role of Eugene Onegin. Reviewed last year in Classical Voice as one who "tore up the stage as Figaro," Meachem was also chided here that "he doesn't have to flaunt what he has," suggesting that some judicious restraint in his performances "may make a big difference in his career." Warning (from here and elsewhere) unheeded, caution thrown to the wind, Meachem has chosen to badmouth, publicly, well-known figures in the world of opera. In an interview published on the University of Michigan's Living Music Web site, Meachem opined that some "well-respected famous singers" he heard in San Francisco "aren't that talented," singling out fellow baritone Thomas Hampson: "I don't think he's that talented a guy, but he's doing great for himself." Getting even deeper into unnecessary hot water (going public with a private opinion usually expressed — if at all — as personal gossip), Meachem tore into a famous soprano who has returned to San Francisco to coach Merola and Adler program participants: "Carol Vaness sucks — she's awful. But you make a name for yourself, and you can really live off that." Meachem's own Web page ("Male, 28, single, natural-born hamster lover") says his favorite music is "80s rock, rap, non-sucky opera."
(Janos Gereben is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice. His e-mail address is janosg@gmail.com.)
|
