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MUSIC SHORTS
News Briefs
February 6, 2001
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By Janos Gereben
SF Girls Chorus gets new director
Susan McMane is the new artistic director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus,
and the conductor of the chorus' featured ensembles, Chorissima and
Virtuose. McMane, coming from the St. Louis Women's Chorale, is replacing
Magen Solomon, interim director since September when Sharon J. Paul returned
to Eugene to become director of choral activities at the University of Oregon.
McMane conducted the St. Louis ensemble in several CDs featuring sacred
music for women's voices.
Berkeley uncensors opera
Berkeley Opera's 2001 season is called "Opera Uncensored." The idea is to offer the Marriage of Figaro based on an "actual production at the Paris Opéra shortly after the Revolution, supervised by Beaumarchais himself . . . [restoring] much of Beaumarchais's original dialog to the story, putting back the satire and subversion that delighted and scandalized a continent." OK, but how do you do a Left-Coast Carmen? Leave it to David Scott Marley and you'll get the unrevised Paris version of "this story of the passion between a gypsy who lives and loves by her own rules and a soldier hiding from a violent past [that] shocked Paris with its frank sexual psychology and its refusal to pass judgment on its characters — in an era when gypsies were despised and condemned throughout Europe." (I'm shocked that anybody in Berkeley would not use the correct Roma terminology!) Anyhow, check out www.berkeleyopera.com/berkop/01.html
The great conductor roundup
With music directors coming and going and some reported ill (Bernard Haitink and Claudio Abbado of late), it may behoove the dedicated music-lover to figure out who's on first. Here's what we think we know: James Levine is committed to the Munich Philharmonic. The Bavarian Radio Orchestra's Lorin Maazel is to be succeeded by Mariss Jansons (who is also with Pittsburgh and Oslo). Maazel is going to the New York Philharmonic, to replace Kurt Masur in 2002. In Cleveland, Christoph von Dohnanyi is succeeded by Franz Welser-Most. In Philadelphia, Christoph Eschenbach is in, to become Wolfgang Sawallisch's successor. From Boston, Seiji Ozawa is on his way to take over as music director of the Vienna State Opera next year, while Haitink remains principal guest conductor of the BSO only in name. In Berlin, at the Philharmonic, Simon Rattle (who left Birmingham) is succeeding Abbado in September. At the Berlin Radio Orchestra, Kent Nagano takes over from Vladimir Ashkenazy (who remains at the Czech Philharmonic). At the Royal Opera House–Covent Garden, Haitink will be succeeded by Antonio Pappano. Seattle's Gerard Schwarz is taking on an additional job in Liverpool. Let's see if we can get up to a hundred.
Prazak Quartet
The one chamber-music event in February you don't want to miss is the Prazak Quartet from Prague, playing Haydn, Berg, and Dvorák in Hertz Hall, at 3 p.m., Sunday, February 25. Originally introduced to the Bay Area by Ruth Felt's San Francisco Performances, and turning in winning performances at Ottawa's Strings of the Future festival two years ago, violinists Vvaclav Remes and Vlastimil Holek, violist and quartet cofounder (with Josef Prazak) Josef Kluson, and Michal Kanka make up this remarkable ensemble.
New on www.onlineclassics.com
Check out the website for full-length performances in (free) streaming media: Verdi's Macbeth from the Deutsche Oper-Berlin, featuring a cast with Renato Bruson and Mara Zampieri. The Verdi Requiem is still on the site, from last week. Also, the second part of the Tchaikovsky cycle from the Alte Oper, Frankfurt, with Symphony No. 4 this week, and the Violin Concerto with Kyoko Takezawa (who is terrific, but even more remarkable when playing Bartók).
Potent programming in Oakland
Michael Morgan's next Oakland East Bay Symphony concert (8 p.m., Friday, February 23, Paramount Theater) features Leor Maltinski as the soloist in the Nielsen Violin Concerto, with the OEBS and the Oakland Youth Orchestra playing together in the premiere of Michael Fiday's Automotive Passacaglia, Liszt's Les Preludes, and Richard Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel. For information, see www.oebs.org.
(Janos Gereben is arts editor of the Post Newspaper Group. Contact him at janos451@earthlink.net ). ©2001 Janos Gereben, all rights reserved |