Midgette Discovers Baltimore's Burgeoning Opera Scene

link to Anne Midgette's post about burgeoning (reburgeoning?) opera scene

Shoestring productions? I just saw a wobbly fabric set on Washington National Opera's stage for Barber of Seville -- you know the kind that looks like the masonry wavers at the slightest touch? I made no remark about it before because I figured it was a budget issue and we were still getting the best of singing and music.

People are still overlooking a fine conservatory company in Baltimore, the Peabody Opera (and its chamber opera subsidiary), but someone has commented on this in Midgette's post.

And I just read Joe Banno's review through a link in Midgette's post which I mention for the record after my last post and won't comment further except to say that it's not good to criticize physical aspects of a production too much in these times, and even in the best times a set design like that has charms. Outside of the set, we (or at least I) still mainly want to hear the singers and the orchestra and see how the singers give life to their characters through their acting.

Cinderella Director's Musings

John Bowen responds to the critics on the Opera Vivente blog.

Bowen invites comments. I'm unable to post comments on any Blogspot blogs now, thanks to my out-dated set-up, but I'll just say here: I'm going to Saturday's show and I'll enjoy it and that's all. (And maybe I said enough in my Dandini post yesterday.)

For reference, here is the review on Ionarts with links to reviews from the Sun and the Post (the latter of which I have not read yet).

Gian Carlo Menotti in Anne Arundel County

You just can't go to everything, but I'll post about this event which I heard about on WBJC this morning. The performing arts department at Anne Arundel Community College will stage Menotti's short operas, "The Telephone" and "The Medium" together in early October. Dates of the production run look like they'll conflict with other tickets I have. Here's the link:

performing arts schedule at AACC

Menotti, who passed away just a couple of years ago, was born in Italy in 1911. He spent much of his life in the USA and wrote most of his operas, including these two, in English. He taught at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and shared a house for many years with composer Samuel Barber. Many people probably know his Christmas opera, "Amahl and the Night Visitors", which Opera Vivente staged in Baltimore in a recent season. Amahl is on AACC's schedule, too.

Some time, I'd like to see Menotti's opera for children, "Help, Help, the Globolinks!", but I can't be fussy. I've only seen Amahl but none of his other operas so far.

Dandini the Dandy

I've read two reviews on line and they're not exactly glowing, but I still look forward to seeing Opera Vivente's closing night performance of Rossini's "Cinderella" this Saturday night. (There's one other performance this Thursday night, October 1.)

Dandini is the valet of the Prince in this version of the Cinderella story. The review on Clef Notes suggests that here the role is being played to the queeny hilt in a way that has become tiresome or overdone. Nevertheless, I'm interested in seeing how baritone Brian Pettey carries out the role. He has always been an excellent actor whenever I've seen him on stage. I'm struck by a certain quality of no nonsense in his work, so it will be especially interesting to see how he performs with the extra touches here.

Somewhere I've read that it has become practice -- I don't know when it started -- to portray Dandini as gay. Maybe it's not done so flamingly but still with suggestions such as subtle flirtations or glances directed at his prince. Also it's suggested that Dandini is part of a larger gay community in the background of the story and that he serves as a sort of informant or confidant who moves in different circles. (I wish I could remember where I read this. It might have been an Opera News article within the past year.)

The period costumes I've seen in production photos in the reviews look spectacular.

while I'm here early on a Monday morning... Brahms on Sunday

A certain virtuoso musician made some interesting comments [positive ones] about Brahms at yesterday's Monument Piano Trio recital. Last night, I decided to listen to more of the composer at home. I didn't have the 2nd Symphony, but I found Carlos Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic in the 4th and listened. You should have been here! Well, any way, I must listen to more Brahms.

I have recordings of the 1st and the 4th, and I know I've heard the 3rd -- "Brahms' 3rd Racket!", as Basil Fawlty once assured his unappreciative wife. Is it possible that yesterday's transcription of the 2nd for piano trio was my first experience with that symphony?

What Happened to Nimble Tread?

Nimble Tread in my blog roll is written by a Canadian in London. I just noticed that the headline of the last post has disappeared, and when I clicked on the blog title I received an xml file download of texts of posts. Well, the latest entry explains that the writer has been on a long hiatus for a tonsilectomy, but something is still wrong with the blog. I hope everything, including surgery recovery and whatever's wrong with the blog, turns out well.

[Oh, never mind the bit about the blog being nobbled. After I entered this post and viewed my own updated blog, Nimble Tread displayed properly.]

Opera New Jersey; Opera Vivente; Monument Piano Trio

Another great Sunday afternoon in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood ~~

The Peabody Institute publishes a fall and spring "Arts Alive" guide which must be the most comprehensive hardcopy listing for local performance arts available. I picked up a copy from one of the stands while I was in Mount Vernon today (I picked up several copies for friends, too), and on the back is an advertisement for operatic events at the Lyric Opera House this season. Renee Fleming is returning for another December recital, but fully staged opera is on the way, too: Opera New Jersey's production of Bizet's "Carmen" for one performance next February -- with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, who sang the title role for Washington National Opera last season (one I missed).

Here's Tim Smith's article on these developments at the Lyric published earlier this month in the Baltimore Sun. Note the other event, something called the Opera Show.

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I also stopped at Opera Vivente's performance location at Emmanuel Episcopal and took away a small stack of those lovely season brochures for my lucky friends. Perhaps, they'll be lured into coming to a Vivente performance. I was invited to take a peek at the set, but we couldn't find proper lights (and the OV board member who invited me unfortunately scraped her leg on something in the dark while looking for them). I could see some details of a house interior with fireplace, just a tantalizing glimpse of OV's stage magic. Behind me was the new seating section along the back wall, the "Royal Box", on a slightly raised platform to give seat occupants a view over the heads of the rest of the audience.

Vivente was performing this afternoon, but I shall see this production of "Cinderella" next weekend. Today I was on my way to another performance by Baltimore's chamber music powerhouse, the Monument Piano Trio, at An die Musik. Now I'm winding down from hearing Brahms' Symphony No. 2 in a transcription by the Trio's pianist, Michael Sheppard. I expect that they're winding down from playing it, and there might be a review elsewhere on the web soon. (I'm also excited about some other composers and projects coming up in the Trio's recitals this season.)

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I spent some time winding my way around the book fair in Mount Vernon. Unfortunately, the interior of my house looks like a book fair, and I must get it organized during some ongoing projects, so I wasn't really interested in acquiring more books today. (One of my favorite stores, Daedalus Books, had a booth there, but as recent posts attest, I've been spending money at Daedalus already.)

And the Walters Art Museum is unpacking crates for "Heroes: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece", a big exhibit opening in October.

The Maryland Conservatory of Music

Baltimore can boast having the country's oldest conservatory, the Peabody, and there is yet another conservatory in Harford County north of the city. I only just heard about the Maryland Conservatory of Music on WBJC 91.5 FM this week. Appropriately, the school's URL is musicismagic.com.

Local music lovers might recognize some of the faculty members. There's soprano Bonnie McNaughton, who we've heard sing in various American Opera Theater productions. I also heard McNaughton's otherworldly trilling in the role of La Fee, or the Fairy Godmother, in Massenet's "Cendrillon" (Cinderella). That was my introduction to Peabody Opera in November 2004. There's also harpist Jacqueline Pollauf, who plays for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and who established the harp and saxophone Duo Apres. And I remember still soprano Annie Gill's performance of Antonida's aria from Glinka's "A Life for the Tsar" in a Peabody recital of Russian opera arias two or three years ago.

Friday evening ramble

another new irregular feature on F. pushkini

opera and chamber music upcoming ... my chopped liver blunder ... my own private Ingmar Bergman and James Bond festival

Firstly, Opera Vivente opens its season TONIGHT with Rossini's "Cinderella" in English. My ticket is for next Saturday, and there are two other performances before then.

Secondly, the phenomenal Monument Piano Trio opens its own season at An die Musik this Sunday afternoon. I can't believe I let a whole season go by without hearing this group, but I'll correct that on Sunday. I have my ticket already, and I wonder if there are still any available. The Trio tends to draw a full house at Musik. (And I checked the program again and was wrong about something: The Brahms symphony transcription is on the program, but the Beethoven one actually is part of the program at season's end in May. Instead of that, they play one of Beethoven's "real" piano trios on Sunday.)

The Trio also performs at other locations, as listed on the concert schedule on monumentpianotrio.com.

I believe that I committed a blunder a few posts ago when I was writing about a young baritone. It probably doesn't look so good to extol his good looks right after referring to the rest of the cast which performed with him and making them look like chopped liver. I might edit the post soon, and I'm sorry if anyone read it already and saw this mistake of mine. [Well, I read the post in question over again on Saturday morning, and it doesn't seem so bad now. I'll be more careful in future, though.]

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Here I really ramble, if you'd rather not read further.

I'm not listening to much opera at home right now. I seem to want to revisit old movies or catch up with famous ones that I've never seen, and I'm having a sort of private Bergman and Bond festival -- yes, that's Ingmar Bergman and James Bond. A few weeks ago, hunting for a copy of Bergman's "Smiles of a Summer Night", I ended up buying a box of four of his films, including Smiles, at Borders. Smiles was the inspiration for Woody Allen's "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy". Smiles is the superior film, but both are worth watching and both are graced by beautiful photography. I can now say that I've finally seen "The Seventh Seal". Way back in college, "The Hour of the Wolf" was my introduction to Bergman. I was so disturbed by it that I couldn't go back to my room that evening until after I stopped and spent some time with friends in another dormitory. Oddly enough, I found "The Seventh Seal", with its famous portrayal of the Grim Reaper, to be a much brighter movie to watch. (Out of the rest of the box, I've seen "The Virgin Spring" and will watch "Wild Strawberries" soon.)

So mixed up with Bergman in my current home movie viewing are the old James Bond movies! When I was at the Daedalus Books discount store in Columbia this week, I noticed the recently arrived Bond DVD's. (Most of the Woody Allen DVD's that were there recently have been bought.) Most of the actors who played 007 are represented in the selection, but I've focused on Sean Connery, the first movie Bond. Of course, there's much to enjoy in the James Bond movies, but an unexpected pleasure is the vintage 1960's opening title sequences. Not just for the James Bond movies, but for many movies of that time -- there's a distinct style in the design of this part of the film. Is it the neon colors and artwork unaided by computers? I'm not trying to say that it's better than the design in today's films but just different. I'd say that part of the attraction is nostalgia, but I saw most of these old movies for the first time on a black and white TV set.

Daedalus also had copies of Bergman's "The Hour of the Wolf", but I'll revisit that one some other time, preferably with company.

link: quality journalism vs. non-institutional blogs

Jens F. Laurson continues to post on Ionarts but became WETA's number one blogger some time ago. The WETA blog is in my links, and this latest post by Laurson is still visible as I type. I wanted to get a link to the post here before it's missed. When Laurson posted his thoughts on professional critics and latter-day bloggers about a week ago, I almost let my nose get bent out of shape over it. On closer reading, however, it's actually quite fair, and Laurson's opening examination of the getting of knowledge is an essay in itself. One point of contention, a small one: I wonder if there are a few professional critics who might be just as vulnerable to "freebies" as non-institutional bloggers. I'm not pointing a finger at any that I know and read regularly -- I'm just pointing out that being swayed by freebies is not necessarily a peculiarity of us bloggers (or amateur critics). And, incidentally, I don't get any freebies for doing this, and I'm not looking for any.

Much has been written about the decline in critical writing already, and I could bloviate more about what I've read (it's not all the fault of the critics), but I'll stop here. There's the link to Laurson's post above, and maybe you could let me know what you think or discuss it amongst yourselves or meet me to discuss over lunch or dinner...

baltimoreopera.com -- a new web site for opera in Baltimore

Just found: BaltimoreOpera.com. It's a web site devoted to all things opera in and near Baltimore. There's a calendar of upcoming performances and links to company web sites. (Don't forget Peabody Opera!) There's even a list of your favorite opera and music blogs (thanks for including F. pushkini) with a link for suggesting other blogs.

Note: There's no information about the people or organization which set up this new site, but there's a contact e-mail address. [It's possible that my browser isn't showing me everything on the site.]

ADDENDUM: I've heard from a contact in Baltimorean operatic circles (who sometimes comments on this blog). The new baltimoreopera.com site is the creation of a member of one of the opera company boards in town. Thanks for the information!

Donald Culross Peattie: A Combined Volume of His Books on Trees

I told you I like to browse book stores. I was just in the Columbia branch of Daedalus Books early this evening (they close at 7pm most days). If you're an admirer of botanist Donald Culross Peattie's writing or any great nature writing that resonates like a meeting of science and poetry (and if you live in this area), you might want to stop at Daedalus soon. On a table devoted to books about trees, I came across an inconspicuous stack of a handsome little hardcover book from the Houghton Mifflin publisher. It's a 2007 collection of essays from Peattie's two great volumes on North American trees, which first appeared around the late 1940's and early 1950's. I bought the large paperback editions of those books a few years ago, and that was my introduction to Peattie's wonderful prose and to Paul Landacre's woodcut-style illustrations. I still thought the present volume, "A Natural History of North American Trees", was worth getting even though it doesn't contain all of the essays in the original two volumes. (There was to be a third volume, but it didn't come to fruition.) The new book apparently has some new information in it, plus it's simply a fine tribute to the author.

One of the reasons I was disappointed to find Pearson's Falls in North Carolina closed on my recent summer visit to Asheville was the missed opportunity to buy Peattie's treatment of slightly different subject matter. According to Peter Loewer's "Gardens of North Carolina", Peattie wrote a book exclusively on the plant life around Pearson's Falls which was available at the gift shop. I imagine the elusive book to be one of the finest guides for a specific site one could hope to have. (Loewer's own guide book is a fine one to have, too, if you're visiting North Carolina and want to see gardens both cultivated and natural.)

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a quote from Donald Culross Peattie's essay on the Sycamore:

"By the beautiful bright smooth bark, the Sycamore is known as far off as the color can be descried; it shines through the tops of the forest even in the depth of summer when the leafy crowns are heaviest. In winter against a stormy sky it looks wonderfully living, amidst all the appearances of lifelessness in other deciduous trees. Yet seen as a snag in the Mississippi, with the bleaching timbers of some wreck piled on it, the white bark looks deader than any other dead tree can look, with the gleam to it of picked bones. In the woods, the trunk looks patterned with sunshine...."

Monday morning ramble

a new irregular feature on F. pushkini

Mackerras on Janacek; a long lost favorite movie; shopping on Amazon

Reading (and listening to) Gramophone magazine, the September issue: I'm not subscribing to Gramophone at this time, but I keep an eye out for what's in the latest issue. I can look at it at our local library whenever I want, but sometimes I'm spurred to buy a copy by who's on the attached CD in the monthly interview (which is not available with the library's copy). This month the featured composer is Janacek and the magazine's representative is interviewing none other than Janacek exponent, Sir Charles Mackerras. They cover all aspects of Janacek's music, but in discussion of his operas in particular, they make some interesting comments about translating opera into English. Briefly, the libretto of one of the operas actually can improve with translation, the original Czech version being considered weak even by Czechs.

I suppose I could read about the Gramophone's featured composers in my books, but the opportunity to hear them discussed by their current great interpreters can't be missed. I'll bequeath my growing collection of these CD's to some lucky person or institution in my will.

Again from this magazine's current issue: The film music feature reveals that a series of CD's of John Barry's film scores has become available. This includes his score for one of my favorite movies, "The Wrong Box", a very quirky black comedy from 1966. Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke, along with a glowing cast, really make this movie, but Peter Sellers' appearances as a down and out doctor in an office crammed with cats would be worth seeing even if I didn't like the rest of the movie. I rented it several times over the years then found it to be out of print when I began my own DVD collection. Amazon.com has it on video tape, and on latest investigation yesterday, if you search for this title on Amazon, you also get a link to another video distributor. I'm still considering that source. It looks like they make or find DVD's of hard-to-find movies with copies of varying quality from whatever sources are available.

Amazon is a last resort for me. I only go to it after I can't find something I want in the local shops -- I'm still very much a browser of book and music shops, and I prefer to deal with flesh and blood sales staff. Unfortunately, some changes at one of my local sources might have me going to Amazon more often now. And yesterday while I was looking around on the site, I found the Amazon communities and joined two or three to see what they're like. At least I won't have to listen to other customers barging around while yacking loudly on their cell phones when I'm shopping on Amazon.

AOT Challenge: Name the Opera and Win Tickets

I think I can guess, but I'm sharing the information here to help circulate the project. American Opera Theater, based in Baltimore (and/or Georgetown University still?), was recently in Sardinia to perform its Carmen-based show.* Director Tim Nelson posted photos of a site on the Sardinian coast taken during an excursion, and he asks if we can guess the opera they plan to film there. If you get it right, Nelson offers a free pair of tickets to the AOT performance of your choice...

Here's a link to the photos on Nelson's Yugen blog. Scroll down to the pictures of ruins and a Cyclops' cave on the coast. (I assume that we are expected to post guesses in comments on Yugen.)

And here's a link to AOT's current season.

Personally, whether I could guess the opera or not, I will be excited to see the final filmed performance in this interesting location.


*Oh, dear me: Carmen-based life forms.

Blogging About Our Heroes

Watching "Julie and Julia" at the cinema last night had me thinking about my own blog and why I'm writing it. I've had bouts of doubt about it and deleted quite a few blogs within the last several years. I think this one is staying around, and if I ever slow down in posting, it still serves as a portal to many good things through all the links collected here. I know my blog is not the best critical writing around [not even close and was never meant to be a substitute for real critical writing], but I like to think of it more as open fan mail. I hope it's serving to increase awareness of the arts and artistic people, though in some ways I could be stuffing the ballot box. I've heard from a few artists, performers and arts lovers who appreciate the blog. I'm sure there are some out there who don't like it, but I haven't heard from them [well, maybe in an indirect way I have].

Remember in the movie (and real life) how Julie always wanted to meet Julia and was shattered to find out that Julia hated her. I wonder if part of Julia's reaction stemmed from a difference between their generations and the worlds they grew up in and Julia's befuddlement about this thing called the internet. It's not enough for me to go to an opera, enjoy it, come home and store it in my memories -- I have to write about the experience somewhere. I have a tendency to blab about it to friends or co-workers who really aren't interested, so I use this as an outlet and, again, hope that it helps in some way. And I can't contain my admiration for my own heroes and heroines. And I try to watch what I say and keep in mind that performers have their bad days (as did Julia Childs).

"The Right Stuff", which I watched on DVD recently, was another movie that had me thinking about our heroes. I see a parallel between the men who strove to break the sound barrier and literally reach for the stars, sometimes losing their lives on the way, and aspiring performers who face the challenges of opera or music in general -- maybe not risking their lives but definitely setting goals and achieving great feats on the stage. Well, I hope that's not over the top. Do I have to explain more? I'm on my way to work -- work that pays for my opera tickets; work that is made more endurable and even gracious by my experiences in the opera house and concert hall in the evenings. [I may have typed something here that seems thoughtless in current conditions, but it still applies regardless of the economy.]

F. pushkini hits the waves

Not a big surprise any more but still amusing: My recent post about "surfing the CD collection" one evening was pulled into a Twitter stream called surfingmadness.

link: on opera and the economy again; Opera News article

Barry Singer's article, Opera in the Age of Anxiety, in the September 2009 issue.

An Outstanding Cast for Washington's Barber of Seville

Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" ("The Barber of Seville"), Washington National Opera, September 12 2009; opening night for this production and for WNO's 2009-2010 season

The young American tenor Lawrence Brownlee sounded like a legend in the making in the role of Count Almaviva last night. I was impressed already in the first act, but the second act brought a challenging stretch of solo singing for the tenor role. Brownlee seemed to have endless reserves of beautiful tone here and received applause in the middle of the act as well as the first standing ovation in the curtain call. He was also just right for comic opera with his acting and manner (not sure why I was thinking of Charlie Chaplin while watching Brownlee), but I'd definitely like to see him in a serious role suitable for his bel canto voice.

Brownlee was surrounded by an excellent, characterful cast: Baritone Simone Alberghini as Figaro, delightful in the famous patter song but also throughout the show as he served as a sort of anchor for the story; mezzo-soprano Cynthia Hanna as the maid, Berta, for Don Bartolo's household; bass-baritone Eric Owens as Don Basilio; baritone Oleksandr Pushniak as Fiorello. Mezzo-soprano Silvia Tro Santafe is WNO's splendid Rosina, another lovely bel canto voice here. She matched Brownlee very well, but I also enjoyed her and Alberghini as Figaro in an extended duet in the first act. Donato DiStefano, a classic basso buffo, almost stole the show as Don Bartolo, Rosina's ward and would-be suitor.

Some comic touches added to the already comic proceedings were trying my patience towards the end of the first act. Was Rosina moving around a little too much in "Una voce poco fa" as she busied herself setting up practical jokes for Bartolo? In spite of the fabulous singing, I was considering leaving at intermission -- but then the stage action suddenly broke into that magical mass scene done in slow motion. Besides the principal characters, the chorus of soldiers in colorful uniforms and black shakos involved in this scene had a stunning effect. All those people acting in slow motion while singing in pace with the music? I'd like to see that again. It snapped me awake, and I couldn't wait to see what followed after intermission and was so glad to hear that glorious stretch of tenor singing.

Anne Midgette's review in the Washington Post

Charles Downey's review of Monday night's performance on Ionarts

Tim Smith's post on Clef Notes with link to his official review in the Baltimore Sun.

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Saturday night's performance in the Kennedy Center Opera House was presented in a free simulcast at the stadium of the Washington Nationals baseball team. Here's a link to a post on the Nationals' blog with pictures and discussion of the festivities. The pictures also capture some nice shots of the production.

"Adio Espana" -- Baltimore Consort's New Album

Listening to it now: The Baltimore Consort's latest CD from the Dorian label. Musicians include Mark Cudek, Director of the Peabody Institute's Early Music Department, lutenist Ronn McFarlane, Mary Anne Ballard, Larry Lipkis and Mindy Rosenfeld on an assortment of viols, guitars, winds (including those buzzing crumhorns), percussion. Jose Lemos is the singer here with his clear and focused countertenor voice -- very expressive in some of the sadder numbers on the album, and we get to hear him in what might be more familiar to some as an old Spanish carol, "Riu, riu, chu..." (sp?). (The popular folk group, the Kingston Trio, can be heard in fine form performing this carol in remastered recordings.)

The album is a collection of "Romances, Villancicos, & Improvisations from Spain circa 1500". There are some Sephardic numbers here, music by the Sephardim, the Jews of old Spain, and Mark Cudek's notes for the album dwell on the confluence of Christian, Jewish and Islamic cultures in Spain at the time. Cudek has led at least one concert by the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble highlighting this aspect of Spanish history.

Some of us wish we could hear the Baltimore Consort more often in Baltimore, but at least the group is promoting Charm City as a center for early music farther afield. I have heard them in concert more than once in the city in the past and hope they'll return before too long. Until then, "Adio Espana" is the latest of quite a few of the Consort's albums which I can enjoy at home.

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I spotted the album discussed above at Borders in Columbia last night and had to purchase it. I must add that the Borders staff has been very good about pointing out sales in progress (signs are not always conspicuous in the clutter of signs), and last night the cashier even had a coupon waiting at the front which I wasn't expecting. Along with the Consort's disc, I found Rene Pape's collection of bass arias, "Gods, Kings and Demons" (DG, 2008), which wasn't available around here when it was first released.

David Krohn: Baritone, Prince of Rome -- and "a complete animal on stage"

Searching for more singers on the web, hoping to find web sites to add to my singers' page -- I'll still add a name to that list, even if the singer doesn't have his or her own web site. (Sometimes, if people write about such a singer enough on the web, then he has a virtual web site, if that phrase can make sense, but it's rather spread out.)

I heard and saw David Krohn's Tarquinius Sextus (Prince of Rome) in Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia" performed by Peabody Opera. This was at Baltimore's Theatre Project in February 2007. He was in good company -- there are some other singers who I mean to look up -- but rather stood out because of the pivotal role of Tarquinius in this opera and because of his spectacular baritone. (Tarquinius is the perpetrator of the act described in the title.) Krohn also stands out for his looks and attracted attention on the Barihunks blog. The young baritone has gone on to more performances of the Tarquinius role and most recently gave it at the Aspen Festival last July, according to Barihunks. If you go to the link I posted here, read down the comments to one of the anonymous ones, apparently posted by someone who worked with Krohn at Aspen: "a complete animal on stage" and a "fearless baritone"!

I wish I could remember more about the acting aspect of David Krohn's Tarquinius in Baltimore back in 2007, but, yes, he did have a presence on stage. F. pushkini wishes him more successes, and I hope to have another chance to hear him.

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Additionally from Barihunks: John Dooley, a fearless baritone himself who we have seen at Opera Vivente and will see again at OV later this season, was the subject of another post. They captured a picture of Dooley in Ashmodeus costume in OV's 2008 "Tobias and the Angel", by Jonathan Dove. The costume design is great in itself, whether you care for a certain sensational element or not, but Dooley's portrayal of the hissing, husband-killing demon of lust was a piece of theatrical work I'll never forget (and I know I've blogged about it before).

surfing the cd collection: Uzbek pop to Yiddish song

The progression that developed as I chose music to hear yesterday evening:

Yulduz Usmanova, the pop or folk singer from Uzbekistan, on her "Alma Alma" album (Blue Flame Records, 1993)....the rest of the Kronos Quartet's new "Floodplain" album. I'd like to hear a recording of the real Ethiopian singer and his 10-string lyre, inspiration for one of the tracks I heard last night. Then something in the final track, representing Serbia, reminded me of something else done by Kronos. I searched among CD's and came up with Azeri composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh's "Mugam Sayagi" on the Kronos Quartet's "Night Prayers" disc from 1994. Hadn't heard this for ages, but I remember playing "Mugam Sayagi" repeatedly after buying the album....The Kronos recorded this work again for a later collection of Ali-Zadeh's chamber works....This started me thinking about the exciting rendition of "Misirlou" on the same ensemble's "Caravan", but instead of putting that one on, I searched for the Klezmer Conservatory Band's "Dancing in the Aisles" just to hear Judy Bressler sing it in Yiddish....Where does this fascinating Misirlou rhythm come from? I read that it's an old popular tune from the Arabic world which was adopted by various cultures around the Mediterranean. I have it sung or played by Jewish and Armenian musicians on various CD's now (and isn't there a rock version of Misirlou?)....A few more tracks of "Dancing in the Aisles" -- "Freylekh Fantastique" in this collection is a winning mixture of famous classical melodies....Ended the evening with operatic tenor Jan Peerce tugging at the heart strings and even stopping the heart in "Mom-e-le" with the RCA Victor Orchestra in Peerce's 1960 album of "Hebrew Melodies".

playlist: floodplain music; classical guitar in Africa, China, Latin America; steampunk infernal machines

The Kronos Quartet has released another album with a geographic focus and featuring collaborations with musicians and singers in various genres. "Floodplain" explores traditional and contemporary music in a swath on the globe extending from Ethiopia to India, taking in Serbia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Kazakhstan and other lands on the way. (Nonesuch, 2009)

Ana Vidovic's recital at An die Musik last Saturday night moved me to explore my guitar music collection yesterday. It was just right for a day when I could turn off the air conditioner and open every window and not impose on the neighbors with my stereo:

~~ "The Magic Box", another John Williams and Friends outing, this time exploring music from Africa and Madagascar. It sounds like a good one to play for a party. (Sony Classical, 2001)
~~ Xuefei Yang's "40 Degrees North" collection includes some familiar Spanish composers and Chinese composers. A revelation is Stephen Goss's "The Chinese Garden", which includes a traditional Chinese tune that will be familiar to many opera lovers. (EMI, 2008)
~~ Ana Vidovic's teacher at the Peabody Institute, Manuel Barrueco, in his "Cantos y Danzas" album of Latin American composers with contributions from soprano Barbara Hendricks and flutist Emmanuel Pahud. (EMI, 1998) (Pahud has performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra more than once, and it would be great to hear him in Baltimore again.)

Something I must hear again soon: another Barrueco album, "Concerto Barroco" with conductor Victor Pablo Perez and the Sinfonia de Galicia. The first work on this album is Roberto Sierra's "Folias". It's more like a rhapsody or tone poem rather than the usual set of variations based on the old Iberian ground, La Folia, which beguiled many a baroque composer and, later, Rachmaninov. (Koch, 2005)

Finally, one I have not heard yet: An album by Darcy James Argue's Secret Society attracted an intriguing review on Monotonous Forest.

the tangled web: how your posts can turn up on other sites

Hopefully, this translates into more exposure on the internet for artists and groups discussed on this and other blogs. Every now and then, I search on my blog's title to see where it's turning up. It's a good idea to check, and it's not just a vain thing. (If you haven't tried this yet and want to, add another search term such as your name if your blog title doesn't turn up much in the first search. Also, try both a general web search and Google's blog search.) I've known for a while that some of my gardening posts of all things are getting pulled into various blogs and sites on that subject. Last night, I discovered that I don't have to mess with Twitter -- somebody else is doing it for me. My latest calendar of events is in the stream on a Twitter feed called EventBaltimore, although I note that things roll down very quickly as new items are posted. For some reason, a Portuguese blogger was interested in my post about the Max Lorenz documentary DVD with link to the review on Clef Notes. He posted a link to my post in his separate Twitter stream.

There is also a species of commercial web spam site whose bots apparently look for set combinations of words and pull in a copy of the surrounding post or an excerpt with link to the original. I don't know if that's good exposure or not. Sometimes it means that a discussion of a particular singer or other artist is sandwiched between posts on the unlikeliest subjects, all intended to draw people to click on other links to unrelated commercial interests. It's a tangled webby jungle out there.

Ana Vidovic Returns to An die Musik

At the little music shop on Baltimore's Charles Street last night, classical guitarist Ana Vidovic drew a full house in AdM's recital room again. If you know the room, they had two extra rows of chairs on one side of the stage besides the rows that show up at the back for a full house. (Usual capacity is about 90 people.)

The program had familiar but welcome works by Argentinian Astor Piazzolla (well, he's becoming more familiar), Torroba, Albeniz and Barrios (Agustin Barrios Mangore) and Tarrega (one of the encores). I'm always ready to hear Isaac Albeniz's "Asturias" and Francisco Tarrega's "Recuerdos de la Alhambra", and I've become a fan of Piazzolla's kind of tango music.

Some less familiar composers and pieces distinguished this program, noted here for future reference:

Serenata del Mar - Rex Willis
Cavatina - Stanley Myers (a sentimental work remembered from Vidovic's AdM recital last September)
Serenata Espanola - Joaquin Malats
Altiplanos - Pierre Bensusan

There was another encore, "for fun", performed with guitarist Ed Tatro (sp?). It was a familiar pop piece that most of us recognized; however, my friends and I couldn't name it. (Comments are welcome and encouraged.)

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The word was that Lura Johnson's piano recital the night before also drew a packed house.

Among upcoming events at An die Musik, I'm looking forward to the Monument Piano Trio's first recital of the season at the end of this month. Transcriptions of symphonies are on the program. They'll play pianist Michael Sheppard's adaptation of Brahms' Symphony No. 2. According to other sources -- I need to check again -- the rest of the program is Beethoven's own arrangement of one of his symphonies for piano trio.

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On a personal note, a very nice surprise last night: I ran into a friend from DC who I had advised on Vidovic's recital, and he had brought another friend with him. We took advantage of discount vouchers supplied by An die Musik for some of the neighborhood restaurants and had dinner at Sascha's Cafe before the recital.

Watching Albert Finney (and all the other movie people)

What was the last movie I saw in an actual movie theater where you pay for a ticket and sit with the general public? I can't remember right now. (Ah, "Valkyrie"!) I've seen a few more in recent newspaper reviews that interest me, but between operas and concerts, rather than head for the cinema (or plays, for that matter), I stay at home and watch movies on DVD. I've had a few "movie parties" in my home. Squeezed thirteen people into the living room one evening to watch Chaudet's video treatment of Stravinsky's "Le Rossignol" (and Ollie, my cat, worked the crowd, as one guest put it). I don't think I'd try that with a longer feature, but this morning, now that the new windows are done, I'm expecting a designer to come over and help fix up the living room. Hope to have some better seating soon for such movie nights (with casual party and conversation as part of the proceedings).

Last night, I watched Albert Finney's very first feature film, "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning". I find myself noting the year a movie was released and what I was doing or where I was that year, if the movie isn't older than me, and tracking the life of a star or favorite actor. This film was made in 1960, the year I was born. Finney looks like he was in his twenties then. The American trailer in the extra features compares him to Marlon Brando, and in some ways "Saturday Night..." reminded me of "On the Waterfront", though without the criminal element. I began life in England and spent much of my early childhood there, and I can identify with the bungalow-and-row-house environment featured in the movie (although my experience was in color, not black and white). We lived in a less industrial suburb of London and spent some time in Bedfordshire villages rather than the kind of factory city which Finney's angry young man inhabits.

Finney is so young here, but there are glimpses of the older Finney, who in turn still seemed young. Maybe that's an odd observation on my part, but compare, say, Dennis Hopper. He shows up in "Giant" next to James Dean and Rock Hudson, and I was going nuts trying to figure out where I'd seen this actor before until I realized it was a much younger Hopper, and I still had to double check the cast listing. Tracking another actor's development, consider seeing Alec Guinness in his very first feature, almost unrecognizable in the 1946 "Great Expectations", and then think of what we've seen him in much later. Some might not want to count "Star Wars", although that movie was greatly helped by the presence of Guinness, who reportedly despised the banal script and persuaded director Lucas to reduce his role in the sequels. From more DVD extra features: Lucas had asked Guinness to play the old Jedi knight just the way he played Marcus Aurelius in "The Fall of the Roman Empire", and the similarity is obvious even before reading this fact. Would that we could watch the earlier epic movie now without even thinking, "Oh, it's Obi-wan!" (I saw SW at least six times in the year of its release, as I was preparing for college, and I hated the embellishments made for the DVD release. For one thing, Jabba the Hutt was a much more sinister menace by remaining unseen and only spoken of in this first of the series.)

Well, I must log off now and get ready for the living room's make-over, and I hope to have some of you over before too long. On the schedule for the rest of this Labor Day weekend: I have my ticket for Ana Vidovic's guitar recital at An die Musik this evening (a sell-out in past recitals). Maybe I'll make it to one of the museum exhibits in DC tomorrow...or I could check the cinema schedules.

"Yes, Minister"; "Yes, Prime Minister"

I now have both collections of the British TV series, filmed mainly during the 1980's. They continue to be relevant today, proving that names and faces may change, but some things never do. It scares me sometimes: The episodes are high comedy, but they make biting commentary on government bureaucracy and affairs domestic and foreign.

The principal actors stayed with both shows until the end: Paul Eddington at the helm, Derek Fowlds as his assistant and Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey. Hawthorne plays Humphrey as a polished rascal, the bureaucrat's bureaucrat, and when the tables are turned against him, he gives an excellent (and funny) portrayal of grace under pressure.

Individual episodes bear repeated viewing. The wit and nuances are thick in the air, and I can't watch if I'm too tired at the end of the day -- I'm afraid of missing something.

For Erich Kunzel

The WBJC station just announced that conductor Erich Kunzel has passed away at the age of 74. I had not heard about his diagnosis of cancer some time ago, and he was still conducting while under treatment. This might not have been known to the general public, when Kunzel conducted at the July 4th fireworks display on the National Mall in Washington, DC, this summer.

Many of Kunzel's CD's reminded me of the kinds of vinyl LP albums I bought as a teenager when I was first exploring classical music -- collections of famous overtures and other orchestral showpieces. The 2007 "Russian Nights" album with the Cincinnatti Pops Orchestra was the latest one I bought just to relive the early excitement of learning about great music, and there are a few items on this disc that would not have been typical entries in recordings back then.

It was a shock to hear the news this evening. Thanks, Maestro Kunzel, for reminding us of how we were drawn to the great music in the first place, and maybe these albums are attracting a new generation.

ON MY CALENDAR ~~ September, October

So much for my hiatus, but Ollie did get a good brushing yesterday, and he's glowing today. Here's what's on my calendar, and I might edit it more later.


~CONCERTS AND OPERA~

Guitarist Ana Vidovic at An die Musik in Baltimore, September 5.

Rossini's Barber in Italian at Washington National Opera, Sept. 12 to 20.

Rossini's Cinderella in English at Opera Vivente, Baltimore. Performance dates: Sept. 25, 27 and Oct. 1, 3.

Monument Piano Trio at An die Musik in Baltimore, September 27.

Menotti's short operas, "The Telephone" and "The Medium" at Anne Arundel Community College, Oct. 2 to 11.

Opera Potpourri at Peabody Institute, Friedberg Hall, Oct. 19 (a Monday night). Rare works in French by Rameau, Gluck and Donizetti. Free admission.

(Baltimore Concert Opera and Baltimore Opera Theatre also begin their seasons in September.) [Later: I was sure BOT's site showed a September date, but it seems to have slipped to November.]



~AT THE MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES~

The Tsars and the East exhibition at the Sackler Gallery in DC runs from May 9 to September 13. (Seen once and would like to visit again.)

Current and upcoming exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art. Spanish Imperialist "Art of Power" exhibition, June 28 to November 1.

Ceramics of Paquime and Mata Ortiz at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, DC, August 15 to October 17. (an ancient pottery style revived)

Exhibitions at the Strathmore Mansion. Maryland Pastel Society's "Shades of Pastel" opening September 26.


These are events I don't want to miss or would rather not miss. Other calendars of events are in my links, but here are a few favorites in the music category that I watch:

An die Musik .... Baltimore Symphony Orchestra .... Candlelight Concerts .... Peabody Institute .... BaltimoreOpera.com

monstrous economy

Someone could write an opera about the current times in which the economy is featured like the monster that ravages Crete in Mozart's "Idomeneo, re di Creta" -- Idomeneo, king of Crete. ("Obama, re di America", "Bush, re di America" anyone?) I recall that that monster actually stood for a pestilence that really did mess up the population of Crete in antiquity, and the current monster seems to be going from door to door knocking down one business or restaurant after another like a plague. Just reading that Brass Elephant in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood has closed gives me pause, even though it's only one of many to do so. It's a surprise, because it's one of those places that's considered a local institution. On the other hand, maybe it shouldn't be a surprise, because this was one of the more expensive dining establishments in the city. I only ate there once many years ago as a guest of a roommate and his parents. When I mentioned it to my dining-out group, someone pointed out that most of us in the group wouldn't be able to afford it. Still, it's going to be a shock to walk along Charles Street and see this place of all places shut down.

There's a fairly new restaurant plaza on McGaw Road here in Columbia. A funny little place to me -- just a shopping strip center devoted to restaurants, but you can stop there in your car and sample from the greater menu between visits to the nearby shopping centers. I happened to be there last night to have dinner at the Thai place (sorry, it's a name that I can't quite remember), which is sandwiched between two other places that have shut down and still stand empty and a new Indian restaurant which I hope does well.

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Thanks for the comment posted. I've driven by and read about the Victoria Gastropub -- the name I usually see applied to it -- but "Gastropub" sounded so unappetizing. "Gastronomie Pub" is much more appealing, and I'll have to try it on your recommendation.