recording: "Venezia 1625"

Consider recorder player Maurice Steger and ensemble's new CD on Harmonia Mundi. Many of the composers who were on local group Harmonious Blacksmith's program last week are here, and the recording echoes the philosophy of fluidity in instrumentation and other factors in performing early music. (Recorders take violin parts here, too.) Not only the theorbo, but its slightly larger cousin, the chitarrone, are among the instruments. There's also a creature called the dulcian, a precursor to the bassoon, quite ear-catching when you first hear it.

bits of news from Baltimore's Mount Vernon area

A quick post. Sorry: No links provided for now.

In the bad news department, word is out that the Engineers' Club suddenly pulled the plug on Harmonious Blacksmith's concert series there, and that is why HB was back at An die Musik's upstairs recital room last Wednesday evening. The Club, or the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion, is one of the architectural and interior decorating crown jewels of Baltimore and an ideal setting for some musical events. Baltimore Concert Opera is currently in residence there and we hope will continue to be.

I read Tim Smith's review of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's latest program of Barber, Gershwin and Stravinsky. Apparently, no circus acts on stage, and the operatic or semi-operatic nature of the program appealed. I looked the lobby over this afternoon before buying a ticket and was put off by the circus trappings there any way. It was actually depressing to see that in light of the latest news of BSO financial woes. April's calendar of BSO programs looks promising, though, and I hope to be back at the Meyerhoff soon, as discussed in previous post.

Having abandoned my BSO plans today, I headed for Plan B at An die Musik: ChromaDuo, under the auspices of the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society. Loved the first half of this very modern program which still was generally in a tonal or lyrical sound world. Unfortunately, walking all over the Mount Vernon neighborhood prior to the concert left me exhausted, and I slipped out at intermission.

Further in the good news department: Opera Vivente has an intriguing Magic Flute coming up in May. One of OV's hallmarks is performing in English. The company is taking this a step further and giving Mozart's fantasy opera a Charm City setting with at least some of the lyrics to be sung in "Bawlmerese". Hey, if somebody can sing "Carmen" in Xhosa, Opera Vivente can sing "The Magic Flute" in a Baltimore accent. I'm also hoping to sit on the sidelines for some of the events in the company's new Opera Vivente Academy. (This is just a quick note, and I hope to post more later.)

A second walk through the Walters Art Museum's current Japanese cloisonne exhibit this afternoon was just as breathtaking as the first walk. I also found the Walters' own permanent holdings of this art form over in its Hackermann House space.

The chef at City Cafe has concocted a heavenly pineapple-banana-pecan cake. They're calling it "the Cake that won't last", and the price is only two dollars a slice right now -- much lower than other dessert prices at the Cafe.

links: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in more difficulty; BSO April concerts

Anne Midgette writes in the Post on the BSO's worsening financial situation.

When I was at An die Musik the other night, I saw the huge poster listing the BSO's concerts coming up in April. Here's a link to the BSO's April calendar. The Beethoven 7th Symphony concert especially appeals to me: Note that the program includes Sibelius and Rautavaara. Sure, "Finlandia" by Sibelius is a warhorse, but I've never heard it in live performance, and I remember stunning renditions of other warhorses like the Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 and "Scheherezade" at the Meyerhoff. The Rautavaara piece, "Incantations", is a new work which I look forward to hearing.

I avoided the circus acts on the March calendar, but we realize these things are being done to attract more ticket buyers. Still, they could be putting off some established ticket buyers. A good performance proves that there are enough thrills in the music without the visual fluff. (The program of Bartok, Poulenc, etc., looked like one of the most interesting of the season.)

See you at the Meyerhoff (or Strathmore?) soon. Remember to turn off cellphones, alarm watches, Blackberries, gaydar and any other personal electronic devices that might be out there!

Harmonious Blacksmith

First of all, after almost giving up on going to weeknight ("school night") concerts, I'm so happy that I braved the evening rush hour traffic into Baltimore yesterday, found parking and still had the energy to go to a concert. I had a tough choice last night: A viola and piano recital at the Peabody Conservatory beckoned, but I decided to hear Harmonious Blacksmith at An die Musik after missing that group for so long. (Ah, but during that time I have heard the group accompany Opera Vivente in Baroque opera.)

Named for a harpsichord piece by Handel, Harmonious Blacksmith was founded by harpsichordist Joseph Gascho and recorder player Justin Godoy in 2006. Gascho and Godoy perform in generally all the group's concerts, but the ensemble varies and they are joined by different instrumentalists and sometimes a vocalist. Last night, William Simms on theorbo and two types of early guitar was the guest musician. They played a program of "Music from the Mediterranean" which included composers Dario Castello, Santiago de Murcia, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Antonio Pandolfi Mealli, Giovanni Battista Fontana, Vivaldi in a transcription by Bach, Domenico Scarlatti and Benedetto Marcello (whose lively Ciaconna closed the program).

HB "looks back to the age-old practices of improvising dance music and ornamenting songs" and focuses "on the connection between composition and improvisation in Renaissance and Baroque music." (Quoted from the program.) In at least one piece last night, Godoy's recorder took the part of what was originally written for violin -- and his virtuosic playing on two different types of recorder was getting smiles and amazed looks from audience members. The inclusion of Bach's solo harpsichord transcription of a Vivaldi concerto (a Concerto in G minor on the program) reminds us that it doesn't pay to be a purist all the time when trying to be authentic in reviving music of the past. In talks to the audience, the performers made a case for building on the foundation provided by the composer, which was often the composer's intent. I've come across this sentiment expressed elsewhere, too, and in previous concerts Gascho has demonstrated how boring things are when you play without any ornamentation.

Whatever magic Harmonious Blacksmith is forging with the music, as with other early music ensembles in the area such as the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble, I've come away feeling that if I listened to nothing but Renaissance and Baroque music, I would be very happy. As far as I'm concerned, so-called early music is modern music.

Harmonious Blacksmith will return to An die Musik on June 9 (another school night!) with a program of French Baroque. They will be joined by soprano Linda Tsatsanis, Josh Lee on viola da gamba and John Lenti on theorbo. (If you've never seen or heard a theorbo, you need to come to this concert!)

news flash: What's at Daedalus Books in Columbia

The Daedalus Books Warehouse Outlet in Columbia has acquired some more stock that may be of interest to classical music lovers. I was there this afternoon, and they look like they suddenly have everything that conductor Robert Spano and his Atlanta forces have done on the Telarc label -- from Berlioz's Requiem to Jennifer Higdon's "Cityscape". Among other Telarc albums in stock, I spotted some copies of the fine "Russian Nights" album by Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

Besides the 2009 Gramophone Classical Music Guide (not a surprise), they also have a couple stacks of the 2010 edition (a surprise), ever so lightly damaged copies, probably bruised by bumbling browsers like me when they were at full price in other stores. I'm a loyal Penguin Guide buyer, but I helped myself to one of the ten-dollar copies of the Gramophone Guide to give it a try.

Of course, I raided the movie section and came away with some treasures both vintage and not so vintage.

hodgepodge

Previous post on recent essays in Opera News has been updated with links where available.

Chandos has recorded James MacMillan's opera, "The Sacrifice". The story is derived from the Mabinogion, the national epic of Wales (and source of some King Arthur stories), but it is set in modern times. This is on my list of new operas that I need to investigate. (Review seen in April issue of Gramophone.)

Composer Bernard Hermann has been the subject of much online discussion recently. Watching Hitchcock's 1956 remake of "The Man Who Knew Too Much" last night makes me want to see his original 1934 version, but Hermann gets some generous visibility as he conducts the London Symphony Orchestra and the Covent Garden Chorus in the second film's Royal Albert Hall scene.

[non]-links: recent essays in Opera News

UPDATE: (Saturday, March 20) I provided links below where I can get to them online. Here's the catch: ARCHIVED issues are not available to non-subscribers, so the Polly Frost and Philip Kennicott essays that I linked probably will not be visible later.

NOTE: Thanks to Polly Frost, one of the essay authors, for posting a comment with link to her essay. The last time I checked, the Coda essays were not visible to non-subscribers online, and I wrongly assumed that was policy for all Coda essays...On my way to work, so I might check for links to the other essays listed here later.


I try to link to articles of special interest in Opera News, but apparently the Coda essay on the last page of the hardcopy issue can be viewed only by subscribers online. The last few have touched on burning issues that have come up in other places recently, so I'm listing them here with a short description:

Scott Barnes in the January issue writes about English diction in "Say What?" -- American, British and Theatah English; how opera didn't follow along at first when other performing arts worked on this problem.

Polly Frost in March writes on The Performance I Can't Forget and recalls the first American production of Christie's revival of Lully's "Atys" at the Brooklyn Academy of Arts in 1989. Frost makes a case for authenticity in reviving obscure Baroque opera, describes the fringe reputation of early music specialists back then and expands into a general commentary on French art.

In the April issue, just arrived in the mail with Lawrence Brownlee's picture on the front, Philip Kennicott writes about enjoying opera in the digital age -- IN SPITE of the digital age -- in his essay titled Keeping Time.

I'm not overlooking the February issue, in which the Coda feature by F. Paul Driscoll was devoted to the late Elisabeth Soderstrom. (Perhaps this essay is what pushed me during snowbound February to listen to the classic set of Janacek's "Kat'a Kabanova" with Soderstrom in the title role and Mackerras on the podium.)

link: movie music

Because I like tracking who wrote which film scores and remarking on the scores that I like, here is Tim Smith's post with readers' comments about movie music current and vintage.

As if I need to write another blog...

...and as if you need to read another one. Here there will be memories from my military brathood. I won't be upset if you don't want to read that one. It's more personal, but I'm wondering if it might be useful for certain kinds of research when the search engines start picking it up.

movie suggestion: Steven Spielberg's "Duel" (1971)

I can't remember whether I caught this movie in its initial release as the ABC Movie of the Week or as a repeat a couple of years afterwards, but I still remember turning on the TV one night when I was 11 or 12 years old and finding this one in progress. I must have caught it early enough to see most of it, and the phone booth scene and the outcome at the end stuck in my mind, albeit in black and white thanks to our economical TV purchase. Now I have the DVD of the movie in color and a little more familiarity with the director who later made beach goers have second thoughts about going into the water. The decrepit, rusty tanker truck that menaces Dennis Weaver's salesman on some highway out west in "Duel" is a predatory animal itself. In long shots winding around highway curves with the characterful cab selected by the young director from among several available trucks, it looks like some kind of reptile hunting for food. The full frame aspect from the movie's TV origins is forgotten once the action begins and the demon truck is looming in Weaver's rearview and in your face. Well, this has made me have second thoughts about a long road trip I was planning.

~~~~~~~
"Duel" provided a nice foil to a very different but interesting movie, "The History Boys" (2006). I won't try to analyze that one here, but it was more than I expected after seeing previews on other DVD's.

no drama ~~ my evil opera plan

Today is my last chance to attend the Tennessee Williams play being performed practically next door to me. I likely won't be there after all. There was opera the last two weekends and opera coming up next weekend. Some weekends I just want open for personal maintenance or some random gallyvanting. Well, Nature was putting in another unforgettable performance yesterday any way as I walked or almost waded to the Lakefront in Columbia with my umbrella.

I've decided after much deliberation not to renew my full season subscription for Washington National Opera. Even though they had to shorten the season to five fully staged operas, the package sent to subscribers makes the two extra recitals by Florez and Terfel part of the subscription. I plan to pick two or three WNO performances of most interest to me later, then I'll leave time open to explore more opera elsewhere and maybe some drama. Besides exploring more options in Baltimore, I'd like to get up to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, too. (There was the new opera of "The Grapes of Wrath" in Pittsburgh last season and Barber's "Antony and Cleopatra" in Philadelphia this spring, for example.)

My blog roll is in flux again. I'm trying not to crowd out blogs about local events...still working on that. Thanks to the magic of the alphabet, the Baltimore Opera Blog on BaltimoreOpera.com (the BOB?) is at the top of the list.

link: another Conrad Susa opera

We just heard Susa's "Transformations" performed by the Peabody Conservatory's chamber opera group at Baltimore's Theater Project. Iron Tongue of Midnight notes another conservatory performance of another Susa opera coming up in San Francisco.

further impressions, or eight out of nine high C's

A few years ago a noted Bel Canto tenor was singing Donizetti at Washington National Opera. The opera was the one with the tricky aria that has nine high C's close together (Elixir or Daughter?lly for younger singers still getting established, and my posts are intended mostly to celebrate another fine performance experience.

By the way, I don't recall any problems with the English diction, and I was able to follow the story by what I heard in the singing.

Impressions of "Impressions of Pelleas"

I'm trying to write a post about Opera Vivente's presentation of "Impressions of Pelleas", seen last night in its closing performance, but I'm being defeated by trying to cover all the elements. It was, to say the least, a beautiful production. The "world of white" set was very hummable, harmonized with evocative lighting (and great shadow effects, I thought). The work is Marius Constant's one-hour-and-forty-minute adaptation of Debussy's three-plus hour "Pelleas et Melisande" with the cast compressed to just the principal characters and the orchestral part arranged for two pianos.

I've heard tenor Kenneth Gayle (Pelleas) once before as Vivente's Tobias in "Tobias and the Angel", but I already like the special color of his voice -- rather contradicting a claim that today's young singers are cultivating a "homogenous" sound, as I've read in other quarters. Veteran singer and regular performer with the Washington National Opera bass David B. Morris was a venerable and touching blind Arkel. Baritone Nathan Wentworth as Golaud and mezzo-soprano Dina Martire as Genevieve also gave strong performances. (Wentworth drew some vocal approval from what seemed to be a small fan club in the audience during the applause.) The very young Samuel Bishop turned in an authoritative (!) performance as Golaud's son, Yniold. I leave soprano Lias Eden as Melisande for last: She also sang well, but the story called for her to maintain a strained and sad expression for much of the time on top of having the most costume changes among the characters, all very well managed by her. If this had been the complete opera, either the singer in this role or some of us in the audience would have needed some therapy by the end.

Reading in Matthew Boyden's "The Rough Guide to Opera", I see that Stravinsky, who could be acerbic when he didn't like another composer's work, admired Debussy's original opera very much. A short quote from the same entry in this book might be a good way to close, as this has been an unusual part of the operatic repertoire to grasp: "To begin to appreciate it, you need to jettison as many preconceptions as possible, for immediacy of experience is everything here."

movie suggestion: "The Man with the Golden Arm" (1955)

Director Otto Preminger, stars Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak, but also Darren McGavin superb as a drug dealer with fashion sense. It was McGavin's name that drew me to this film initially -- so interesting to see this earlier performance after knowing him as reporter Kolchak in the old Nightstalker TV series and the dad in "A Christmas Story". I loved seeing McGavin, but I couldn't help noticing Sinatra's huge talent, too. His withdrawal scenes and desperation to get a fix are frightening -- like a man turning into a wolf in another film genre. At the story's start, he returns from prison or some institution convinced that he has gotten over a heroin addiction. Things go downhill from there.

Elmer Bernstein's driving jazz-influenced score seems to push us along with the hero's struggle. Maltin's Movie Guide says that this score put Bernstein "on the map".

Watching a Masterclass

I must put in a word about this fascinating behind-the-scenes look at singing. Opera Vivente in Baltimore hosted a masterclass by accompanist Mark Markham last Saturday afternoon. Although some remarks were made to guide the accompanists who were participating along with the singers, the class turned out to be mainly geared towards the singers.

The three young singers who were selected to perform for Markham included a soprano, a tenor and another woman who described herself as still wavering between mezzo-soprano and soprano. We heard them perform Ariadne's aria from "Ariadne auf Naxos" by Richard Strauss, "Here I stand" from Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress" and "Porgi, Amor" from Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro". (Thank heaven for the Index of Incipits in the Grove Book of Operas for helping me pin down the spelling and source of that last one.) Markham dwelled a lot on diction, especially in the case of producing vowels, in the three different languages we heard here, and he also had a chance to remark on singing with illness as the tenor was just getting over strep throat. (I detected some trouble when he sang the complete aria first but none as he sang excerpts under Markham's coaching.)

Strictly regarding accompanying on the piano, one thing I'm noting from this event, based on Markham's remarks to the pianists, is how much louder an accompanist can afford to play when he or she is supporting a singer with a strong enough voice. When the first pianist turned up the volume for Ariadne's aria after being assured that she need not worry about drowning out this soprano, the soprano's singing sounded so much more vital against the stronger instrumental part.

The Brothers Bakaleinikoff

I recently posted about the Russian emigre Hollywood score composer and conductor, Mischa Bakaleinikoff, after spotting him in the credits for Hitchcock's "Notorious". Last night, Mischa's brother, Constantin, showed up as music director, "C. Bakaleinikoff", as I watched "Born to Kill", another outing for me in the film noir genre.

"Born to Kill" is weird. Perhaps I'm not a fully fledged film noir aficionado, or I'm thinking too much and it's supposed to be weird. Some things surprised me for a movie of this vintage, but I won't give away the surprises. When I first bought the DVD, I was attracted mainly to the name of a supporting actor, Walter Slezak, because I wanted to see what Slezak was doing when he wasn't in Hitchcock's "Lifeboat".