DanceMetros

Cracking the Nutcrackers

Russian expat George Balanchine choreographed The Nutcracker for New York City Ballet in 1954. Balanchine danced several roles in the ballet at the Maryinsky Theater created by Lev Ivanov’s 1892. He streamlined the story with a mix of neoclassic balletics and pantomime dance for American audiences. The Balanchine artistic trust only permits certain companies permission to dance Balanchine’s Nutcracker and there are plenty of other interpretations that re-imagining the story, some sticking closer to the ballet’s Russian origins.

When The Moscow Ballet’s ‘Great Russian Nutcracker’ swung into Philly for two nights at the Annenberg Center in Philly just nights after the Pennsylvania Ballet’s Balanchine production opened, I thought it would be interesting to compare the choreographic templates, lineage and impact on contemporary audiences.

PB principal Alexander Peters leads the Candy Canes

PB Principals Ian Hussey & Amy Aldridge as Sugar Plum & her Cavalier

PB Corp de Ballet in Snowflake scene

MoscowBallet Arabian Variation Sergey Chumakov & Elena Pretrachenko

MB’s Harlequin scene

Pennsylvania Ballet’s production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker

Academy of Music, Dec. 9-31

Pennsylvania Ballet Artistic Director Angel Corella continues to sharpen the company’s production of George Balanchine’s Nutcracker and since the Balanchine trust keeps tight reins on the few companies that are licensed to perform Mr. B’s, PAB’s attention to the smallest details make all of the difference, dusting off ACT I of ballet, which is can drag on if not fueled with enough performance energy.

Child dancers Claire Smith and Rowan Duffy as siblings Marie and Fritz, Both young dancers have natural stage presence and are strong dancer-actors, a key element in focusing the opening scenes. And this energy extends to all of the children at the Holiday party, which can often look like seasonal pageantry.

Corella is making sure that both the children and adult dancers are defining characters in their pedestrian and gestural movement.

PAB’s new dance master Charles Askgard portrays Herr Drosselmeir, and is a study of detailed pantomime dance. Even Balanchine’s lumbering mouse battle moves swiftly along.

The Act I solos commence when Drosselmeir animates the Harlequin dolls in their cute pointe patterns, but Balanchine saves the fireworks for the toy soldier solo, a precision dance, with precision flatfooted jumps and limb moving in sharp opposite angles- In this performance danced by Peter Weil with haunted eyes executing the drill steps.

After the faux mouse battle, Marie and the Nutcracker Prince are transported to the snowy forest where Snowflakes perform vintage Balanchine choreography full of geometric configurations and requiring tight esprit de corps. At this performance the corps’ ensemble had the pulse but veered off with some blurry unison pacing and scrambled transitions.

Amy Aldridge as the Sugar Plum Fairy among the little angel gliding over the floor to open Act two and Aldridge who has danced this role many times and this performance can be counted as among her most radiant performances.

In the Act II divertissment Lillian DiPiazza smolders as Coffee in the Arabian Dance and Jermel Johnson slices through the air with saber leg splits for Tea. Alexander Peters and his battalion of Candy Canes getting through those hoops with jaunty flair. Making the most of their flash tarantella in the Spanish Dance are newcomers Sterling Baca and Nayara Lopes.

But it was Dayesi Torriente dancing the lead in Marzapan Shepardess that stood out. This is a deceptively simple looking mid-tempo choreography, is actually very tricky and easily scuttled. Balanchine’s counterpoint patterning can loose technical clarity and merely look pretty. In this performance Torriente commanded with thrilling artistry and her Shepardesses- Adrianna deSvastich, Jacqueline Callahan, Yuka Iseda and Ana Calderan, were completely in sync.

The corp de ballet looked sharper than in the Snowflake scene, with precision and attack in Dewdrop Flowers dance. Principal Mayara Pineiro set the highest mark with her fiery lead solo. Pineiro can just hang on point arabesque and her transition steps flawless entrances and exits to diamond centered turns, airy jetes and luminous pointe work.

The finale pas de deux is all Balanchine fireworks and tests the mettle of even the most technically proficient dancers. Aldridge not missing a moment to thrill with her solid technical prowess from every angle. Aldridge and principal dancer Ian Hussey as her Cavalier with palpable chemistry throughout highlighted by their consistent fluency Balanchine’s difficult lift sequences. Hussey’s solos highlighted with centered turns and solid tours en l’air.

It can’t be understated how vibrant conductor Beatrice Jona Affron’s tempos, detailing and orchestral thrust of Tchaikovsky score are key. In Act I, among the outstanding soloists are Luigi Mazzocchi’s violin solo just engulfing the Academy and harpist Mindy Cutcher floating gorgeously crystal strings first as the first snowflake piques on the floor.

Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker

Annenberg Center, Philadelphia

Dec. 12-13

The Moscow Ballet version of the Nutcracker is a more classic Russian version, without doubt and is a choreographic update by the directors after Imperial Ballet period versions by Russian choreographic masters Vaganova, Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.

At the Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker, you pick up right away that the story is much different, with Uncle Drosselmeyer, in a wonderfully danseur lead character part performed by Maksim Bernadskyl. Uncle is Christmas Eve magician who conjures the young girl Masha’s Nutcracker dream escorts us through the whole ballet.

Drosselmeyer Anastasiya Terada is hypnotic in her mechanical moves in a multi-colored ribbon tutu ‘Kissy Doll’ and Konstantin Vinovoy’s Harlequin (the prototype for Balanchine’s Soldier) equally spellbinding. Not transcribed by Balanchine are the Moor Dolls.

Where Balanchine leans heavily on just pantomime and gestural acting to carry Act I, here there is much more dancing including a waltz for the adults, and an officer saber dance.

The Nutcracker Doll & Prince is danced by Mykhailo Syniavskyl throughout (Balanchine turned it into a mostly pantomime role for a young male dancer).

The mice battle is a much more interesting scene, than Balanchine’s limp and comedic version. Here Sergyl Merzlyakov is not a fat cartoon rat, but a scary Rat King in red and black dyed tights stylishly sinister headpiece. The fight choreography has Merzlyakov slicing through the air or in thrilling sword dances with Nutcracker Prince.

Elena Petrichenko and Sergey Chumakov were flash dancing ‘Moor Dolls’ in the first act, but they emerge as virtuoso dance – acrobats to open Act 2 as the Dove of Peace, each with a majestic wing and they cleave together in a series of lifts that keep moving to various symbolic and sculpted positions. Later, the couple appears in an even more dramatic tableau in the Arabian Dance (a lengthier transcription of the Arabian music from Tchaikovsky’s score.)

Balanchine made this a solo dance and one of the highlights of his version for a smoldering solo for a principal ballerina. This has an equally entrancing quality and these two make the most of it.

Balanchine was skimpy on his version of The Spanish Dance even though he has four couples animated in a stylized tarantella, with fancier footwork for the leads pair. Moscow Ballet’s duet for Boris Yastrub and Olga Aru is more interesting in its variation; this couple has wonderful presence and flair in this dance, though their technique flagged.

Moscow Ballet’s ‘Chinese Variation’ (Tea) is much more developed than Balanchine’s flash dance version with glittering repeated phrases. MB’s is much more a character dance, however un-pc with ‘Orientalism.’ Juliya Verian and (stealing the show again) Sergyl Merziyakov’s playful patterns transition steps to technically dazzling double tempo grand pirouette and razor sharp aerial splits.

The reverse is true in The Snowflake ensemble dance at the end of Act I, Moscow’s Snowflakes are exemplar of Russian ballet decorousness, whereas in Balanchine’s turns the heat way up for the Snowflake scene to cap off Act I.

Moscow Ballet’s ‘Russian Variation’ is an expanded Czardas dance with Anton Romashkevych and Anna Bogatyr in traditional Ukrainian dress exuberant in high stepping patterns. Romashkevych in robust barrel rolls and Cossack plies, around Bogatyr, who is twirling like a top. Balanchine turned this into the Candy Canes hoop dance, which is just as effective as a scene, but doesn’t have this folkloric flavor.

Mykhilo Syniavskyi and Veronika Hordina have great chemistry and refinement in the central pas deux that define their characters and unfolds in dramatic finales for both acts.

So Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker has a lot to offer in contrast to Balanchine’s distillation of Russian aesthetics. Even with techniques among this large cast erratic, particularly in the corp de ballet scenes, it should be noted that dance schools and companies in Russia have gone through drastic reduction of state sponsorship over the last 20 years and that is a classic Russian story for another cold winter’s dance night.

WorldofMusic

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Donald Runnicles, conductor
Johannes Moser, cello
Oct 16
It is hard to take your eyes off of Donald Runnicles when he conducts, he has a warm persona, his white hair curling out and arms lurching forward like he is hugging the orchestra.

He also brings an air of musical occasion and palpable connection with the musicians. His tempos are sharp and the orchestra cohesive, the famed Philly strings at their most dimensional.

In October, Runnicles was in Philly for two weeks of performances of Beethoven, Elgar, Brahms, Strauss and Mozart on the playlist.

Runnicles opened his mini-fest with Beethoven’s 8th Symphony eliciting the chamber music luster he brings to large symphonic works. A distinct translucence he sustains that illustrates the Beethoven’s inner drive, as well as the composition’s looming symphonic architecture.

Runnicles qualities of orchestral balance were so present in the sterling performance of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto with soloist Johannes Moser. Moser has a relaxed theatricality, but is altogether at one with the many technical demands of this piece. It was composed in 1918 at the end of WWI and Elgar was also recovering from ill health. There is an atmosphere of loss and sorrow, and its stirring eloquence unsentimental.

The sobering atmospherics give way to Elgar’s musical whimsy, maybe even the composer’s expression of joy having survived. Every implication of this piece, musically and philosophically, is fully bloomed in this performance. Elgar quicksilver cello lines, the strums, the whispering phrases and other effects, are not ornamentation. Johannes has stated as many have that he believes Elgar was writing a war requiem.

Moser’s is also at one with the full orchestra his head swings around to finish a fiery acceleration with the strings, or he leaned back to shoot a glance of appreciation with the interlocks with the lower strings. Philadelphia Orchestra seems to conjure a certain triumphal sound with Elgar; they made it a repeated showstopper last season.

Runnicles closer in the first concert was Brahms’ Theme of Joseph Haydn, Op. 56a which was a fine prelude to his imprint on the Brahms’ masterpiece Double Concerto performed the following week, with the orchestra’s concertmaster David Kim and principal cellist Hai-Ye Ni the soloists delivering a masterful performance.

Oct. 24

Runnicles, conductor
Hai-Ye Ni, cello
David Kim, violin

Kim versatile in almost every style, but with Brahms his command more muscled and his artistry more vivid. Ni has a warm, inviting tone that is all about technique and character of the music and she too, is in top form and together this is sterling Brahms. If any work takes the heavy romanticism associated with Brahms’ symphonic works, it is this concerto.

The opening basso string lines she plays with lusty sonority and edge. As lead players in the same orchestra, Kim and Ni bring so much to the technical artistry to this piece. A work not often played because of its demands, it was a triple virtuoso zone, because the orchestral side of this was just as impressive.

Also on the program Mozart’s Symphony no. 29, so fascinating for its structural innovations from an 18-year-old Mozart. Even though the 1st movement is one of Wolfgang’s most recognizable the whole work is rarely performed these days and the duality of the music’s sardonic esprit and solemn meditation as present as it is in Don Giovanni.

Runnicles’ again, masterfully contours the textures as a chamber piece and the orchestra delivers a performance that is joyously Mozartian. The maestro’s closer was a lusty showpiece performance of Richard Strauss’ Don Juan.

World of Music

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Donald Runnicles, conductor
Johannes Moser, cello
Oct 16
It is hard to take your eyes off of Donald Runnicles when he conducts, he has a warmth podium persona, his white hair curling out and arms lurching forward like he is hugging the orchestra.

He also brings an air of musical occasion and palpable connection with the musicians. His tempos are sharp and the orchestra cohesive, the famed Philly strings at their most dimensional.

In October, Runnicles was in Philly for two weeks of performances of Beethoven, Elgar, Brahms, Strauss and Mozart on the playlist.

Runnicles opened his mini-fest with Beethoven’s 8th Symphony eliciting the chamber music luster he brings to large symphonic works. A distinct translucence he sustains that illustrates the Beethoven’s inner drive, as well as the composition’s looming symphonic architecture.

Runnicles qualities of orchestral balance were so present in the sterling performance of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto with soloist Johannes Moser. Moser has a relaxed theatricality, but is altogether at one with the many technical demands of this piece. It was composed in 1918 at the end of WWI and Elgar was also recovering from ill health. There is an atmosphere of loss and sorrow, and its stirring eloquence unsentimental.

The sobering atmospherics give way to Elgar’s musical whimsy, maybe even the composer’s expression of joy having survived. Every implication of this piece, musically and philosophically, is fully bloomed in this performance. Elgar quicksilver cello lines, the strums, the whispering phrases and other effects, are not ornamentation. Johannes has stated as many have that he believes Elgar was writing a war requiem.

Moser’s is also at one with the full orchestra his head swings around to finish a fiery acceleration with the strings, or he leaned back to shoot a glance of appreciation with the interlocks with the lower strings. Philadelphia Orchestra seems to conjure a certain triumphal sound with Elgar; they made it a repeated showstopper last season.

Runnicles closer in the first concert was Brahms’ Theme of Joseph Haydn, Op. 56a which was a fine prelude to his imprint on the Brahms’ masterpiece Double Concerto performed the following week, with the orchestra’s concertmaster David Kim and principal cellist Hai-Ye Ni the soloists delivering a masterful performance.

Oct. 24

Runnicles, conductor
Hai-Ye Ni, cello
David Kim, violin

Kim versatile in almost every style, but with Brahms his command more muscled and his artistry more vivid. Ni has a warm, inviting tone that is all about technique and character of the music and she too, is in top form and together this is sterling Brahms. If any work takes the heavy romanticism associated with Brahms’ symphonic works, it is this concerto.

The opening basso string lines she plays with lusty sonority and edge. As lead players in the same orchestra, Kim and Ni bring so much to the technical artistry to this piece. A work not often played because of its demands, it was a triple virtuoso zone, because the orchestral side of this was just as impressive.

Also on the program Mozart’s Symphony no. 29, so fascinating for its structural innovations from an 18-year-old Mozart. Even though the 1st movement is one of Wolfgang’s most recognizable the whole work is rarely performed these days and the duality of the music’s sardonic esprit and solemn meditation as present as it is in Don Giovanni.

Runnicles’ again, masterfully contours the textures as a chamber piece and the orchestra delivers a performance that is joyously Mozartian. The maestro’s closer was a lusty showpiece performance of Richard Struass’ Don Juan.

BooksBooksBooks

Ludwig unplugged
Beethoven | The Man Revealed
By John Suchet

Beethoven The Man Revealed is John Suchet’s unconventional biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, that does indeed reveal the flawed, tragic man behind the iconic artist. Suchet acknowledges that much of this is well-trod material, from sources long out of print and has never been organized and told in a single modern volume. Suchet, a BBC classical radio host and Beethoven scholar, explains in his afterward to the book that his is not a bio for musicologists, but for the interested lay reader. Indeed, the composer‘s messy life is as dark, enigmatic and majestic as some of this music.

Beethoven was a tortured artist, egotistical, sometimes maniacal genius in very distilled terms. Almost all of Beethoven’s triumphs were accompanied by calamity or near disaster. Few people realize that he started to have trouble with his hearing while still in his 20s, was plagued with several health problems in his life and that he was a lonely man unlucky in love. The author gives a fascinating, if incomplete account, vis-à-vis the musical universe Beethoven created. Suchet deftly condenses the musicological aspects and makes it vital to the narrative of the composer’s life. Not a small feat.

Suchet’s is confident in reconstructing dialogues between Beethoven and some of his family members and musical contemporaries that fill in narrative gaps, sometimes with his own fertile imagination. Some of which, however authentic, can be read with caution, even skepticism.

In contrast, Suchet’s authority is in little doubt as he recounts, for instance, the raucous premiere of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Beethoven, by then was almost completely deaf, conducting the musicians and singers some of whom almost stormed out of the performance because of the unprecedented musical demands of the work. There even had to be a shadow conductor behind Beethoven, as insurance that it would come off, since Beethoven couldn’t reliably hear the musicians.

Beethoven volatile personality is front and center throughout the book, puncturing more romantic perceptions. Ludwig often acted out with vengeance when crossed. Beethoven was head of his blood family at a young age. He hated his father, a minor composer and musician, who became raging alcoholic to the extreme embarrassment of his son. His often toxic relations with his brothers continued through his life. After his brother Carl died, he tried cruelly took legal action to separate his wife Johanna from their son Karl. Beethoven used his clout to lay legal claim to his nephew as his own. Even though he cared for him financially, his tyrannical ways drove his nephew away..

Beethoven’s problems though, rarely interfered with his composing and as his fame grew through Europe, he was becoming a more and more isolated and eccentric celebrity. He became an object of ridicule for his unkempt appearance and erratic public behavior in Vienna. Adding to the tumult the fact that the city was repeated in the path of the Napoleonic wars and under repeated siege. Still Beethoven was visited by royals and connected patrons; as well as his musical contemporaries from Schubert to Haydn to Rossini. It is an amazing tale of a singularly brilliant career. Touching, incisive and in the end chapters, even symphonic, Suchet’s biography of Beethoven is engrossing and disquieting portrait of an elusive, brilliant and troubled artist.

JazzPhilly

Photo: Peter Lueders

Jon Batiste stops in Philly for Social Music</

Crossing musical borders in jazz and classical, blues, rap and R & B is composer-pianist Jon Batiste, the New Orleans, Julliard trained virtuoso who brings cross-cultural audiences together in the streets and in the concert hall.

Jon Batiste is under thirty and part of the new vanguard in jazz, but he sounds like he has been performing and creating music for much longer. He returns to the Kimmel Center this week for one night only with Jon Batiste and Stay Human that will cap off a month of jazz programming in April, which Philly designates as jazz appreciation month. After Philly, the group will perform at International Jazz Day in Newport, RI April 30 and at the New Orleans Jazz Fest May 3.

The bandleader spoke by phone from New York this week about the concerts “I love touring. The music has to go where you are inspired to go. It’s one of those things you can’t replace, the live experience,” he observes. It is the essence of what composer-pianist Jon Batiste calls ‘Social Music’ the title of the band’s 2013 recording.

Batiste is not only a gifted pianist; he is a singer with sublime jazz-blues phrasing for someone so young. He grew up as part of a famed musical family in a suburb of New Orleans, starting out with percussion instruments, At 11 his mother suggested he try piano. He studied at Julliard School in New York and has since won prestigious awards, and has performed in more than 40 countries. He is also artistic director-at-large for the National Jazz Museum of Harlem.

He recalls “loving” playing hear a few years ago as vocalist Cassandra Wilson’s pianist for her appearance in Philly on her Silver Pony tour. For his current concert, Batiste will be joined onstage by regular band members who are part of the new vanguard in jazz- alto saxophonist Eddie Barbash (alto saxophone), Ibanda Ruhumbika (tuba), Joe Saylor (percussion, Barry Stevenson (bass, banjo) and Jameson Ross (vocals). Ross also creates what the bandleader calls “atmospheric imagery.”

He described the playlist as “a mixture of material from Social Music, older stuff, then there is the unexpected the newest stuff that we’ve written and what happens with the interaction, the human exchange, with the audience in our shows, which could be anything,” he assures.

The Stay Human band members are close friends offstage, and says that the music “is definitely part of how we relate to each other as people. The musicians share the same philosophy that social music is the next phase in where we are going. My conception of music changes over time, it is beautiful to follow that path with brothers.”

He says young audiences are moving away from staid music categories as jazz and classical. “it’s normal for people to think of music and musicians in terms of genres and categories, because that‘s how we purchase our music. Music based on the genre system I think is changing now with streaming and things like that, putting all these different styles of music together in one place, so people are genre hopping whether they realize it or not, just by the nature of digital mediums now,” Batiste observes.

The Kimmel Center has been increasing their jazz programming and has hosted regular free concerts of jazz featuring salsa, Afro-Caribbean, big-bands, just to mention a few. Their current ‘jazz in residency’ series of programs features Philly-based trumpeter Josh Lawrence, saxophonist Bobby Zankel and percussionist Pablo Batista a that will culminate in performances of the completed work.

Jon Batiste and Stay Human on tour | Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center, April 25 |for a complete listing of jazz events go to http://www.kimmelcenter.org

Operaworld

The Academy of Vocal Arts Giargiari Bel Canto Competition  Oct. 4 in the Perelman Theater was particularly impressive because of the number of singers just starting their residency and performing with such skill and seasoned stage presence right away.

(photo: Paul Sirochman)

One of the best things about the competition is the camaraderie and the attitude among the singers that though it is an important award, it’s still just one performance, not a make or break proposition.

The pressure to success is on though with the panel of judges (and presumed scouts) this year were Jonathan Friend, artistic administrator at The Metropolitan Opera, Eve Queler, artistic director of Opera Orchestra New York and Charles Mackay, director of Santa Fe Opera.

The singers could not have had better accompaniment than to have Danielle Orlando, master vocal coach at the piano. There should be a whole separate article.

my disclaimer for this competition is – In my book they were all winners, even if there were off moments, at this caliber, it is really just being picky.

Here are a few notes on each performer in order of their appearance~ all are in their 1st year as AVA resident artists unless noted otherwise.

Michael Adams, baritone, stepped lustily into Come paride vezzoso  from Donizetti’s with rich tones and fine pacing, he hammed it up a bit to put over a showy character, but the radio broadcast confirmed this was indeed, a fine technical performance.

Galeano Salas, tenor, put too much pressure on himself with Che gelida Manina from Puccini’s La boheme. He seemed tentative and it was heard in his voice, and the control in the upper notes fell apart. He pulled in together in the back half, with attack and fine phrasing. His vocal crash did unfortunately, sound even worse over the radio.  (Remember that rule about one performance).

Julia Dawson, mezzo-soprano, had no trouble with the timbres of Meyerbee’s Nobles Seigneurs, Salut! (Les Huguenots) aria floating those waltzy French scales breezily showing her technical prowess and lustrous theatrical presence.

Jorge Espino, baritone, takes on the Ah! per sempre from Bellini’s I puritani in dramatically heavy baritone and very silky passagio, and an effective   reading, though his phrase finish articulation could improve.

Anush Avetisyan, soprano, melodramatically tackled Le come voi piccina io fossi from Puccini’s Le villi. Avetisyan has a powerful voice, but she performs with a studied manner that distracts from her artistry. Still, vocally, she was damn near flawless.

Alasdair Kent, tenor, played to humor, slinging those roulades and trills in Principe plu non sei…Si itrovaria to gluro from La Cenerentola. Kent dispatches Rossini with winning character flair. In fact, he could be the next Rossini tenor around town (the last was Juan Diego Flores, who trained at Curtis).

Andre Courville impressed with a mercury smooth bass-baritone singing Vi ravviso.. Tu non sai from Bellini’s La Sonnambula, his dramatic pacing brought the scene immediately to life.

Sydney Mancasola (3rd yr.), soprano sings C’en est donc fait…Salut a la France from Donizetti’s La fille du regiment and as elegant she is in her opera gown here , you have no trouble believing she is playing this rough and tumble and valiant Daughter of the Regiment. She sings this with such soul and as she has shown time and again, technical clarity.

Jared Bybee, baritone, sings Avant do quitter cos lieu from Gounod’s Faust with an ironic nobility and fine line technical skill.

Jessie Nguenang, singing Sombre foret from Rossini’s Guillaume Tell displays a shimmering lower soprano, technical clarity compelling interpretation.

Mackenzie Whitney, tenor, seemed timid, almost distracted at first, but none of that was reading in his voice, (confirmed during the WRTI broadcast) in an otherwise full- throated performance.

Chloe Moore, soprano (4th yr.) has both regal and earthy presence, not to mention vocal clarity with Berlioz’s Entre l’amour from Benvenito Cellini.  Moore only has to watch some too sharp spikes riding those topnotes.

Armando Pina, baritone, chose Leoncavallo’s Il Paggliaci, not the famous tragic aria, but this was perhaps overly coy, but he shows incredible presence and has silky baritone-tenor passagio, but he should watch the vibrato.

Shelley Jackson, soprano (2nd yr.) sang Je dis que rien ne m’epouvante from Carmen so completely, so enticingly, that you just make a mental note that when she does it at the Met you will be there.

Patrick Guietti, bass (3rd yr.), also gave a fully realized performance of Simon Boccanegra, triumphantly it turns out, and it seemed like he would definitely put his vocal stamp on this role. One thinks of Domingo and other greats that his name will be added through this part. His voice never bottoms out or hits evaporation- his is an oceanic basso.

Marina Costa-Jackson, soprano (2nd yr.), vocally luminous in her reading of In quelle trine morbide from Puccini’s Manon Lescat. (the qualities onstage were equally radiant on the radio as that audience registered)

Diego Silva, tenor (3rd yr.), sang Donizetti’s Angelo casto e bel from Il duca d Alba, which such lyrical power and subtle characterization that the soul in this song just soared.

~Diego Silva won the 1st prize judges award. Sydney Mancasola and Shelley Jackson tied for second place. Patrick Guietti took the audience award.  

~Audience winners based on the WRTI Broadcast- Sydney Mancasola (1st place) Marina Costa-Jackson (2nd); Mackenzie Whitney (3rd)

Critic’s role

Critical condition

My friend Inna Heasley asked me to write an essay about the role of criticism in the arts & I thought I would repost here because as a statement of my philosophy in arts reporting as we go into the next Philadelphia season. For what it’s worth, this is my approach as an arts journalist.

As an arts journalist I try to be mindful of the real role critics and criticism should play in the world of arts. I think of the essential primer found in Oscar Wilde’s classic The Picture of Dorian Gray where one of the characters instructs that “diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself.”

This truism is unfortunately ignored by audiences who follow lofty opinions, not to mention the dictates of the commerce of art. It is perhaps colder comfort for the playwright, choreographer, conductor, composer or artist who is at the financial mercy of professional critics, fairly or unfairly, not to mention hostile audiences.

Wilde also proclaimed that, in the scheme of things ‘All art is useless,’ so, by association, critics should be considered even more expendable. The irony here is that Wilde, of course, lived for art and actually went to jail just as much for his artistic criticism of Victorian hypocrisies, as he did for consorting with male prostitutes.

My other favorite line about critics in from Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead, Revisited. When the young Oxford student tells his father that he wants to be an artist, his father responds with this thinly veiled missile from Waugh: “I won’t have undraped models all over the house…or critics with their horrible jargon.”

Whenever I read those breathless blurbs on posters of movies, plays and operas I always think of that phrase – horrible jargon – and try to itemize, without dwelling, when I have been guilty of said jargon myself.

Unfortunately, horrible jargon and the fallout buzz can steer the course of art and careers.

The list of important plays, operas, ballets and symphonies that were trashed, misunderstood and closed down because of bad reviews is astounding. A few examples of the prevailing critics being pathetically wrong:   

• Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, the site of a theater riot, with dissenting critics actually doubling their venom by thrashing Igor Stravinsky‘s score.
• Georges Bizet’s Carmen was rejected by critics because it was the first hybrid opera to incorporate comic and tragic aesthetic.
• West Side Story limped along in tryout towns, drawing venomous coverage from theater writers. 

Well, Nijinsky went mad and Bizet had a heart attack before they knew that they had changed their respective arts forever. The “fab four” of West Side – Lenny, Jerome, Arthur and Stephen – collectively made the critics eat their words as the show became a cultural phenomenon and each of the creators went on to dominate two generations of American musical theater.

In his book Look, I Made the Hat Sondheim adroitly defines the difference between critics and reviewers~ “Reviewers are reporters, their function is to describe and evaluate, on first encounter, a specific event,” they are “victims of deadlines…They are of necessity drive-by shooters.”  Sondheim writes, in contrast, critics have the luxury of time, which “affords them distance, they can take in the whole range of the art and the artist.” Sondheim also notes deftly that “over time even the better reviews become desensitized, and atrophy sets in.”

Ouch! But think of what he could have said and how many examples could he have given, starting with the first very negative critical response he received for his masterpiece musical Company.

Of course, the other side of the spectrum is a writer who is completely drunk on his own laudatory opinions. Pauline Kael’s review of the artsy potboiler Last Tango in Paris springs lustily to mind. Clammy film, clammier review. Kael may have had an artistic epiphany that it would change film forever, but even its legendary star, Marlon Brando, claimed he had no clue as to what it was about. The fallout was that even though Tango was an international hit, it aided in creating a backlash against films with less arcane, but more relevant, sexual content.

I bring up Kael and the movies to make a key point in criticism as it is practiced now:  movie reviewing has all but ruined the reviewing of live performance. People expect tag line assessments – the typical Meryl Streep IS Margaret Thatcher hyperbole that is so common. Or worse, the thumbs up/down condemnations of Caligula in the Coliseum.

The jargon used for movies is lacking in the extreme when you are reporting what occurs live on a performance stage – with living, breathing actors, musicians, and dancers who are collaborating in real time with a technical crew after working daily with a creative team. The production budgets alone make them completely different enterprises.

Choreographer Twyla Tharp punctures reviews by branding them ‘abstracts.’ Indeed, dance and instrumental music present the most challenges for a writer to translate into lay terms and, if done well, can have the most benefits, since by nature, these art forms are languages in themselves.

My preference is to be stealth as much as possible and write a review heavy on concrete technical analysis then have fun with the rest. But for various reasons that is not always possible. To make a critical point and move on, not to dwell on moments the audience should discover themselves.

The actor Richard Burton made the salient point in an interview with Dick Cavett in 1980s, that  praise-lavishing critics can ruin an otherwise magical moment and ruin it for everybody including the performer. 

It is best to read reviews that hit all of the major bases, without being formulaic, petty or cheap. It is a balancing act of rhetorical devises. Editors consistently prefer more casual, chatty observations.

The great dance scholar and critic Gary Parks’ credo was“Report what you see on stage and the rest will fall into place.”  This is, for me, a guiding principle.  Reviewing is in fact an intense reporter’s assignment and at its best it calls on many journalistic skills that can illuminate.

Actual reportage can be especially valuable in dance and music, more abstract forms which, unlike movies and plays, generally have much less exposure than other more mainstream entertainments.

Then there are coded reviews, which in the past occurred most frequently in dance, a point by point description of a performance carrying the unstated message that the critic disapproves of the performance, but is too polite to spell it out. I think it is healthier to state your view cleanly –  pro, con or mixed – just so you back it up. And always without piling on. Make a substantiated critical point and move on to the next journalistic point.

Authoritative criticism and certainly the more valuable craft of actual reporting can be a useful tool in navigating the arts and where you want your money and time to go. Especially helpful in hard economic times. But it is my view that no one should follow a critic’s opinion, you should follow your viewer instincts and allow the experience of arts in all of their potential forms.

World of Music

Astor Piazzolla: Complete Recordings with Gidon Kremer

Never the last tango in Buenos Aries

Violinist Gidon Kremer has released an 8-CD set of tango music composer Astor Piazzolla’s complete recordings (Nonesuch). Most of the titles recorded in the 90s in the years after the legendary composer’s death. The musical range and musicianship of this collection is remarkable and credit to Nonesuch for the recording quality, packaging and definitive recordings, beautifully recorded, befitting the composer and the musicians.

People think of tango, the dance, as pretty much one thing, until they experience the genuine article and realize that it is an ever evolving genre. The same with the music and this collection is a penetrating musical journey of discovery of tango music in its many evocations. In fact, the music of tango tells lover stories, without pause, but Piazzolla’s presents a panoramic landscape and musical language. The musical range and musicianship of this collection is remarkable and one is lured to compulsive listening. Intoxicating would be an apt description, but inadequate.

Even the familiar cabaret tango on Tango Ballet, for instance, has such breadth, the opening numbers Kremer’s violin seems possessed and the vibrancy conjures those couples in lethally lurching across the dance floor. But by the time the Concerto Del Angel starts with the bandoneon noir, sultry piano and the sweated violin, this blooms into an intense chamber orchestral. The disc that is titled Homage to Piazzolla contains some of the composer’s most famous music including his masterpiece Oblivion.

Perhaps the most stunning disc in this collection is the “Astor Quartet/Live at the CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio” Kremer, and his ensemble – Per Arne Glorvigen, bandoneon; Vadim Sakharov, piano and Alois Posch, double bass – in a live set recorded in Toronto in 1997 and broadcast on CBC Radio. Kremer opens with the Tango Etude and the 14 tracks are a soundtrack tour of Buenos Aires, the birthplace of tango – with such narratives as the “carnavale” atmosphere of Concert d’aujourd’hui, followed by the supple waltz-tango Vardarito to Sakharov’s basso key intro for Jeannie y Paul unspools as a steamy orchestral ballade – just a mention a few tracks.

Maria de Buenos Aires, a “tango operita” has the ingredients of a classic opera, but as Kremer notes is essentially a “new genre.” Maria, sung with tragic intimacy by Julia Zenko, tells of a haunted love, and a cast of mythical local characters. The libretto, by Horatio Ferrer, who also singspeaks the darkly role of El Duende, which contrasts his choral segments sung by the fiery choir, Coral Lirico.

El Tango also from 1997 is the gold standard featuring Kremer, Glorvingen, Posch and sublime guitar accompaniment by Odair and Sergio Assad. The title tune is also the name of a poem by Jorge Luis Borges and is sung-whispered by the great basso nova star Getano Veloso. Vocalist Milva’s two songs Preludio para el ano 3001 and Che Tango Che are salon songs sung with indelible operatic passion by Milva.

Tracing Astor goes to the Piazzolla compositional DNA in such visceral pieces as Chilquilin de Bachin with violins circling like free dance moves and the sotto voce narration of Ferrer. Both Piazzolla and Kremer are masters of the musical fait-accompli and this recording is a prime exemplar of that. On “Violoncelles, vibres!” is a cinematic musical drama of string dialogues with Kremer’s chamber ensemble Kremerata Baltica and cellists Marta Sudraba and Sol Gabetta.

One of the most unexpected disc is Eight Seasons a musical expansion of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Kremer’s interpretation not back off tour de force playing, then Piazzolla providing the extra season in Buenos Aires movements. A riveting movement comes after Vivaldi’s breathtaking “Summer” Presto and Piazzolla’s “Autumn” builds tango-baroque variants, the contrasting atmospheres are completely synergized. Kremer speaks of these two ‘genius’ composers in a time traveling musical dialogue, and the results are not abstract at all, more like undiscovered country.

World of Music

Let Freedom Sing

LyricFest designs concerts with scope and historical significance so well that it often results in uniquely vital programming. Earlier this year, their single performance of a deep field survey of music from Spanish, Latin and South American composers, brought academic and aesthetic depth to unique repertoire, not to mention making it sumptuously entertaining. The same qualities were present for Journey Toward Freedom-A History of the Civil Rights Movement, through music and word, an eloquent musical narrative of the black civil-rights movement in America.

The main focus framed the inspiring and tragic events of the Martin Luther King, Jr. era through the violent resistance against freedom fighters of Montgomery and Selma, to the galvanizing March on Washington, to the peaks of success to the depths of despair in Dallas and Memphis.

The concert also marked the return of mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves to Philadelphia, since her performance in Opera Philadelphia’s Margaret Garner and a concert at the Mann Center several years ago. Graves could have easily been spotlighted in a star turn, but it was evident that her commitment to this music and concept, that she was among one of the chorus of many. Graves opened the concert, with a subdued, even nervous reading from Maya Angelou’s manifesto I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and followed with the song O Freedom the first of several spirituals she sang. Later, Graves was seemed more focused on Edwin Hawkins gospel classic Oh Happy Day but it was Duke Ellington’s Come Sunday that framed Graves vocal quality best.

Graves alternated solos with soprano Lisa Daltirus, a technically accomplished and stratospheric soprano who crafted such spiritual songs as O What a Beautiful City and He’s got the whole world in his hands impressively knew how to modulate her huge voice to the church’s bouncy acoustics.

The Singing City Chamber Choir and their Children’s Choir, providing resounding quality and choral esprit support throughout the performance. The Rev. Charles Rice narrated the historical texts between numbers, and invoked the words of Dr. King, reflecting some of the most tragic events of the civil-rights era. He recited the beginning of King’s Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial, then the soaring final lines were alternated by members of the choir, representing many different ages, races and nationalities alternating the lines in a stirring group recitation.

Also moving hearts, the clarion bass-baritone Kevin Deas, giving Billie Holiday’s God Bless the Child in a quiet gospelly rendition. After historical text about King’s assassination, Deas gave such quiet power to O Precious Lord made most famous by gospel great Mahalia Jackson.

Dave Brubeck’s 1969 composition Lord, Lord, What Will Tomorrow Bring, a song of unity, with lead vocals by Deas and Thomas Lloyd, was a moving musical dialogue between African-American sacred music and Jewish cantorial and the combined choruses in stirring vocal crescendos. Laura Ward, Lyric Fest’s pianist is in the moment with stellar accompaniment for every singer.

World of Music

Many of us were stunned to hear that the fine pianist-conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch had died this weekend. A beautiful tribute and remembrance by the Philadelphia Orchestra at Sunday’s concert in Verizon Hall. I reviewed the program for American Record Guide‘s spring issue. Here is the section about Maestro Sawallisch. I was lucky enough to see him conduct about a dozen times before he retired and his concerts were always joyful, instructive and had a sense of musical occasion.

~But sad news eclipsed all of the excitement about the Rite of Spring 100th observance when Nézet-Séguin walked onstage and handed a mic to concertmaster David Kim who informed the audience that Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor of this orchestra from 1993-2003 had died at his home in Germany at aged 89.

Mr. Kim spoke for many in the orchestra who played under Sawallisch in remembering his stellar leadership. He remembrance of a telling moment with the conductor when the orchestra was on tour in Ames, Iowa. Before they went onstage Kim commented to the maestro that maybe the orchestra should focus on a big upcoming date in Chicago and Kim recalled that Sawallisch “gave me a withering look and said ‘We give 100 percent, everything, every time when we go onstage.”

Nézet-Séguin then switched up the program and cued Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, in his predecessor’s honor. Indeed, a fine elegy, and not lost on this audience, those Wagnerian strings in such pristine control. At the conclusion, there was a moment of silence that was indeed utterly silent, and then Nezet Seguin turned and exited his hands clenched together.