Today's Birthdays

Francesco Durante (1684-1755)
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Serge Diaghliev (1872-1929)
Clemens Krauss (1893-1954)
John Mitchinson (1932-2021)
Herb Alpert (1935)
Nelly Miricioiu (1952)
Robert Gambill (1955)
Jake Heggie (1961)

and

René Descartes (1596-1650)
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852)
Octavio Paz (1914-1998)
Cesar Chavez (1927-1993)
Marge Piercy (1936)

Today's Birthdays

Tommaso Traetta (1727-1779)
Ted Heath (1900-1969)
Sandor Szokolay (1931-2013)
John Eaton (1935-2015)
Gordon Mumma (1935)
Eric Clapton (1945)
Maggie Cole (1952)
Margaret Fingerhut (1955)
Sabine Meyer (1959)

and

Francisco Jose de Goya (1746-1828)
Anna Sewell (1820-1878)
Paul Verlaine (1844-1896)
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Sean O'Casey (1880-1964)

Pouliot excels with Mendelssohn - Edusei makes a splash with Zemlinsky's "Die Seeungfrau" in Oregon Symphony concert

Canadian virtuso Blake Pouliot

The Oregon Symphony’s most recent concert series introduced talented newcomers and turned the spotlight on a composer who is not as well-known as he should be. The newcomers, I heard on Saturday, March 25 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, were violinist Blake Pouliot and conductor Kevin John Edusei, both of whom made the most of their debuts with a scintillating Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. The orchestra’s first-ever performance of Alexander Zemlinsky’s “Die Seeungfrau” (“The Mermaid”) provided another highlight of the program, which included a sterling rendition of Brahms’ “Academic Festival Overture.”

Although his bobbing shock of hair accented many phrases, it didn’t detract at all from the Pouliot’s stellar playing of the Mendelssohn. The young Canadian violinist has technical virtuosity to spare. His exceptionally fleet fingers raced through the piece at breakneck speed, which was quite astounding to witness. Perhaps he could have just eased up a tad at times to create a little more contrast. Nevertheless, he played each note with immaculate, breathtaking accuracy, including some brilliant pizzicatos during a blitzing cadenza in the third movement.

The audience lapped up Pouliot’s performance, and the hall resounded with cheering. Pouliot responded with his own rendition of the Gaelic song, “The Last Rose of Summer.” It was tender and full of heart, with gently placed grace note, and that was a wonderful way to close out the first half of the concert.

Zemlinsky’s fantasy for orchestra, “Die Seejungfrau” filled the second half with a cinematic style that reminded me of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, except that it is the other way around, because Zemlinsky was 26 years older that Korngold and wrote “Die Seejungfrau” in 1902 when Korngold was only five years old. And if you consider that Zemlinsky had probably never seen a film, then his accomplishment was all the more remarkable.

Well, here’s another tidbit. According to Alex Ross in his book, “The Rest Is Noise,” Zemlinksy in “Die Seejungfrau” and his pupil Arnold Schoenberg (in his symphonic poem “Pelleas and Melisande”) were the first to write glissandos for trombone in orchestral scores.

Zemlinsky’s piece was inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale of the same name. In it, a mermaid rescues a prince and falls in love with him. After bargaining with a sea-witch, the mermaid trades her voice for a pair of legs, but her quest fails. The prince marries someone else. The mermaid returns to the ocean and begins to dissolve into seafoam, but then things change and she is transfigured into a heavenly spirit.

Although Zemlinsky revised his original score, removing some plot points, a lot of it seemed to parallel the story fairly well. There were stormy passages for the shipwreck and the rescue scene. Concertmaster Sarah Kwak delivered several brief solos, which suggested the mermaid. In the second movement the brass and woodwinds created some oddly humoresque phrases that had a hint of darkness, which could easily be associated with the sea-witch. Later in that movement a graceful duet between Kwak and principal clarinetist James Shields, and that seemed to evoke the love interest between the mermaid and the prince. In the third movement, Kwak’s solos were in the lower register and the mood of the piece darkened and began to sink, but the harps changed all that, and the the impression of ascending as the spirit of the Mermaid rises into the spheres.

Edusei adroitly led the orchestra to make an excellent impression with “Die Seejungfrau” and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. He also turned in a buoyant Brahms. The German-born maestro maintains a busy schedule in Europe and the U. S. where he is the principal guest conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. It would be great to see him and Pouliot at the Schnitz in the near future.

Today's Birthdays

Henri Lutz (1864-1928)
Rosina Lhévinne (1880-1976)
Sir William Walton (1902-1983)
E Power Biggs (1906-1977)
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012)
Guher Pekinel (1953)
Suher Pekinel (1953)

and

Ronald Stuart Thomas (1913-2000)
Eugene McCarthy (1916-2005)
Judith Guest (1936)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1871, Royal Albert Hall is formally opened in London by Queen Victoria.

Review of Fear No Music's Legacies II concert published on OAW

 

My review of Fear No Music's latest concert is now posted on Oregon ArtsWatch here.

Today's Birthdays

Joseph Weigl (1766-1846)
Willem Mengelberg (1871-1951)
Paul Whiteman (1890-1967)
Rudolf Serkin (1903-1991)
Jacob Avshalomov (1919-2013)
Robert Ashley (1930-2014)
Martin Neary (1940)
Samuel Ramey (1942)
Richard Stilgoe (1942)

and

Raphael (1483-1520)
Nelson Algren (1909-1981)
Mario Vargas Llosa (1936)
Russell Banks (1940)
Iris Chang (1968-2004)
Lauren Weisberger (1977)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1842, the Vienna Philharmonic plays its first concert (as the "Vienna Court Orchestra") in the Redoutensaale under the director of composer Otto Nicolai, the director of the Vienna Court Opera. The program included Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, his concert aria "Ah, Perfido," and the "Leonore" No. 3 and "Consercration of the House" Overtures, along with other vocal selections by Mozart and Cherubini.

Today's Birthdays

Vincent d'Indy (1851-1931)
Patty Smith Hill (1868-1946)
Ferde Grofé (1892-1972)
Anne Ziegler (1910-2003)
Sarah Vaughn (1924-1990)
Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007)
Paul Ruders (1949)
Maria Ewing (1950)
Bernard Labadie (1963)

and

Henri Murger (1822-1861)
Heinrich Mann (1871-1950)
Edward Steichen (1879-1973)
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969)
Budd Schulberg (1914-2009)
Louis Simpson (1923-2012)
Julia Alvarez (1950)
John O'Farrell (1962)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this date in 1808, Franz Joseph Haydn makes his last public appearance at a performance of his oratorio "The Creation" in Vienna in honor of the composer's approaching 76th birthday. Beethoven and Salieri attend the performance and greet Haydn.

Bach Cantata Choir presents Bach's St. John Passion

From the Press Release:

Bach Cantata Choir Presents Palm Sunday Concert

Featuring J. S. Bach's St John Passion

Sunday, April 2, 3pm (with Pre-Concert lecture at 2pm)

The Bach Cantata Choir of Portland will present a concert on Palm Sunday, April 2 at 3pm at Rose City Park Presbyterian Church, 1907 NE 45th Ave in Portland, Oregon. The concert will feature J. S. Bach's great masterpiece St John Passion, a 2-hour work originally written for a Good Friday service in 1724. Tickets are $30 and are available through the choir's website at www.bachcantatachoir.org. The concert will be under the direction of conductor Ralph Nelson. Masks are recommended but not required at this concert. The concert, which tells the story of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Christ as related in the Gospel of St. John, features the 45-voice Bach Cantata Choir, a 15-piece orchestra, and vocal soloists. A pre-concert lecture, entitled “Troubling Voices in Bach's Sublime St. John Passion” will be given at 2pm by noted Bach scholar Michael Marissen.

The featured soloists are: Arwen Myers, soprano; Laura Beckel Thoreson, alto; Les Green, tenor; and Jacob Herbert, bass. In the St John Passion, there are also a number of soloists who play “roles” in the Passion – these being: Les Green as the Evangelist; Kevin Walsh as Jesus; Kyle-Ross Hall as Pilate; Paul Butler as Peter; Cameron Herbert as a maid; and Brian Haskins as a servant to the High Priest. The chorus also plays various roles in the Passion as well – most notably Roman soldiers or an angry mob. Bach, however, also gives the chorus 11 beautiful and inspirational German chorales which serve as both commentary and reflection on the action that has occurred.

The Bach Cantata Choir is delighted to welcome to Portland one of the world’s most acclaimed Bach scholars – Dr. Michael Marissen, Professor Emeritus at Swarthmore College. Dr. Marissen will give a pre-concert lecture at 2pm concerning the often-perceived antisemitic themes that are found in the St. John Passion.

The St. John Passion was originally written by J. S. Bach for Good Friday services at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig in 1724. Bach revised the work and performed it a number of times between 1724 and 1750. It remains one of greatest and most powerful masterpieces in all choral music.

For tickets or more information – please go to the choir’s website at www.bachcantatachoir.org

Bach Cantata Choir, Portland, Oregon

The mission of the Bach Cantata Choir is to sing the entire set of sacred cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach over 30 years. Rehearsals are on Sunday afternoons 1:30pm-3:30pm. The choir. Made up of 45 singing members and 15 orchestral members, performs four cantata concerts per year – one or two cantatas per concert – as well as an annual Holiday Baroque Concert. Cantatas are chosen to closely match the liturgical time of the year for which Bach wrote them. Concerts are scheduled for Sunday afternoons at 2pm. Singers come from many different choirs in the Portland area. The common denominator is a love for Bach and prior experience singing Bach in German with another choir. The Bach Cantata Choir has received a prestigious invitation as one of five American Choirs to be invited to sing in the June, 2024 Leipzig Bach Festival in Bach’s hometown – Leipzig, Germany.

Michael Marissen

Michael Marissen is Daniel Underhill Professor Emeritus of Music at Swarthmore College, where he taught from 1989 to 2014. He has also been a visiting professor on the graduate faculties at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania. His publications include The Social and Religious Designs of J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos (Princeton, 1995), Lutheranism, anti-Judaism, and Bach’s St. John Passion (Oxford, 1998), An Introduction to Bach Studies (co-author Daniel R. Melamed; Oxford, 1998), Bach’s Oratorios (Oxford, 2008), Tainted Glory in Handel’s Messiah (Yale, 2014), Bach & God (Oxford, 2016), Bach against Modernity (Oxford, 2023), and essays in Harvard Theological Review, The Huffington Post, Lutheran Quarterly, and The New York Times. Current projects include producing, with Daniel R. Melamed, annotated translations of all the librettos from Bach’s vocal works.

Ralph Nelson, artistic director

Named Young Audiences’ “Artist of the Year” in 2011, composer/conductor Ralph Nelson is in demand as an Artist-in-Residence throughout the Portland area. A graduate of Amherst College and subsequently a composition and conducting student of Nadia Boulanger in France, Nelson has served in many capacities since moving to Portland over 40 years ago. For 22 years, he was a member of the administrative staff of the Oregon Symphony. Nelson was also the Executive Director of the Portland Symphonic Choir from 2002-2004. In 2001, Nelson conducted the Oregon Symphony and children’s chorus in a live broadcast concert at the Waterfront in “Portland, A Musical” – his acclaimed musical about Portland. Nelson studied conducting with Dr. Bruce Browne at Portland State University and with Helmuth Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival. Nelson is a former board member of the Oregon Division of the American Choral Directors Association. In 2018, Nelson led the Bach Cantata Choir on its first European tour. The choir sang in locations important in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach – Erfurt, Weimar, Leipzig, and Dresden.

Today's Birthdays

Josef Slavík (1806-1833)
Wilhelm Backhaus (1884-1969)
André Cluytens (1905-1967)
Harry Rabinowitz (1916-2016)
Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)
Kyung Wha Chung (1948)

and

Edward Bellamy (1850-1898)
A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Joseph Campbell (1904–1987)
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983)
Gregory Corso (1930-2001)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Adolph Hasse (1699-1783)
Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957)
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Haydn Wood (1882-1959)
Magda Olivero (1910-2014)
Julia Perry (1924-1979)
Cecil Taylor (1929-2018)
Sir Elton John (1947)

and

Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964)
Gloria Steinem (1934)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1949, Shostakovich (accompanied by KGB "handlers") arrives in New York for his first visit to America, for the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace, held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. His anti-Western statements and criticism of Igor Stravinsky embarrassed his American sponsors, including Aaron Copland, and later provided political fodder for the notorious Red-hunter, Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Expanded profile of Julian Perkins - new PBO AD - in Classical Voice North America

CVNA has published my expanded profile of Julian Perkins, the new Artistic Director of Portland Baroque Orchestra. It contains a lot of helpful links. You can access it here.

Today's Birthdays

John Antes (1740-1811)
Maria Malibran (1808-1836)
Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)
Byron Janis
Christiane Eda-Pierre (1932)
Benjamin Luxon (1937)

and

Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990)
Dwight Macdonald (1906-1982)
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021)
Dario Fo (1926-2016)
Ian Hamilton (1938-2001)
Martin Walser (1927)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1721, J.S. Bach dedicates his six "Brandenburg" Concertos to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg, whose orchestra apparently never performed them.

Portland Opera’s “Thumbprint” elevates the human spirit with the story of Muktar Mai

Alok Kumar, Omar Najmi, Indira Mahajan, Neil Balfour, Sitara Razaqi Lones, Priya Judge, Samina Aslam, and Leela Subramaniam | Photo by Christine Dong/Portland Opera.

Portland Opera’s opening night of “Thumbprint” is still reverberating between my earlobes. The production that I experienced on March 18 at the Newmark Theatre presented the rarest of operas because a terrible event does not end up in a full-blown tragedy; instead, it leads to a life-enhancing outcome that continues to lift people’s lives today.

Based on the true-life story of Mukhtar Mai, a peasant from rural Pakistan, “Thumbprint,” written by Kamala Sankaram with a libretto by Susan Yankowitz, tells how Mai stood up for herself after being gang-raped by a wealthy and powerful clan. Although her culture demanded that she submit to shame and commit suicide, Mai found the inner strength and courage to fight back against those who abused her. She took them to court and astoundingly won, which reversed a centuries old tradition. Mai, who received world-wide attention from the press, then received settlement money from the government and started a school to teach girls how to read and write instead of using their thumbprint to sign documents.

The opera opened with expressions of joy and hopefulness of Mai and her family before she was violated by members of the Mustai clan. The men of the Mustai repeated words (“Honor”) and phrases about tradition in an attempt to wear Mai down and assert their superiority. They laughed derisively when Mai went to the police, but were absolutely stunned when she won, and as they sank into the background Mai, encouraged and embolden by her victory, soared higher and higher with renewed purpose.

This powerful opera, directed with insightful clarity by Omer Ben Seadia, hit a trifecta of thrilling performances from the singers, dancers, and orchestral musicians. And that was complemented by evocative scenery and lighting to mesmerize the audience for 90 minutes straight.

Sankaram created a unique blend of Hindustani and European music that suggested Pakistani culture in a way that was easy for outsiders like me to grasp. Sankaram shifted between intoxicating rhythmic patterns – some of which involved the musicians in syncopated clapping and chants. Sankaram made excellent use of the double bass to express the lowest points in the story. Among many stirring passages one of the most poignant was when the flute accompanied Mai and her father on the ill-fated journey to meet the rival clan.

Leela Subramaniam as Annu, Indira Mahajan as Mother, and Samina Aslam as Mukhtar Ma | Photo by Christine Dong/Portland Opera.

As Mukhtar Mai, soprano Samina Aslam conveyed a heavy load of emotion, overcoming a wasteland of shame with an inspiring sense of self-worth and determination. Soprano Indira Mahajan in the role of the Mother, fiercely ignited Mukhtar with a palpable sense of urgency. Leela Subramaniam’s brilliant soprano soared with hope and innocence as Mukhtar’s sister Annu. The softness of Neil Balfour’s bass-baritone wonderfully suited the gentle Father.

 

Alok Kumar as Faiz | Photo by Christine Dong/Portland Opera.

Tenor Alok Kumar gave a standout performance as Faiz, the leader of the Mastoi clan. His declamatory voice was filled with no-nonsense conviction that was grounded in a belief that tradition must not be changed. Lyric tenor Omar Najmi pleaded convincingly as a remorseful Shakur. Sitara Razaqui Lones and Priya Judge deftly heightened the drama with emotive dancing that never seemed intrusive thanks to the sensitive choreography of Subashini Ganesan-Forbes.

Conductor Maria Badstue, in her American debut, impressively guided the chamber orchestra, while giving precise cues to the singers. This was easy to notice because the ensemble was on the stage rather than in the very small orchestra pit of the theater.

The straight-forward set design by dots, a New York-based design collective, was versatile enough to suggest all of the locations in the story with the bare minimum of props. The plain exterior of a building made of clay had platforms on its left and right sides with stairways leading to an upper area that represented the home of the Matsoi. Huge constructs of see-through curtains served almost like veils – metaphorically expressing the unwritten customs of that part of the world, and when the curtain-veils were lifted at the end of the opera, you could feel a sense of relief.

Joe Beumer’s lighting terifically enhanced the scenery and the traditional costumes designed by Kara Harmon.

Even though this opera addresses with the subject of rape in one part of the world, it speaks to a problem that is happens all too often everywhere, and that is a very sad state for humanity.

On a final, positive note, one extraordinary feature of this production was its diversity. All of the performers, the conductor, and the choreographer were of South Asian descent. That might be a first for the world of opera and definitely puts a feather in the cap of Portland Opera, whose Artistic Director, Priti Gandhi, has Indian heritage.

Neil Balfour as Father, Omar Najmi as Shakur, principal dancer Sitara Razaqi Lones, principal dancer Priya Judge, and Leela Subramaniam as Annu | Photo by Christine Dong/Portland Opera.

Postscript:

After the performance, I asked Sankaram, who plays sitar, why she had not added that instrument to the orchestration. She replied that sitars cannot change keys. So, she would have needed ten sitars for "Thumbprint."

Today's Birthdays

Léon Minkus (1826-1917)
Eugène Gigout (1844-1925)
Franz Schreker (1878-1934)
Josef Locke (1917-1999)
Norman Bailey (1933)
Boris Tishchenko (1939-2010)
Michael Nyman (1944)
David Grisman (1945)

and

Roger Martin du Gard (1881-1958)
Louis Adamic (1898-1951)
Erich Fromm (1900-1980)
Kim Stanley Robinson (1952)
Gary Joseph Whitehead (1965)

Oregon Symphony Announces Leadership Succession Plan President and CEO Scott Showalter to become Executive Advisor

From the Press Release:

PORTLAND, Ore. March 22, 2023 – The Oregon Symphony Board of Directors today announced a leadership succession plan, following the end of President and CEO Scott Showalter’s contract on June 30. Showalter will remain at the helm until a successor is identified and begins their term later this year. At that point, Showalter will assume the new role of Executive Advisor to the President and the Board. 

“Scott has established an incredible legacy by growing the Symphony’s regional impact and its national reputation. His leadership has been a boon to the State of Oregon,” says Board Chair Dan Drinkward.

Since assuming his role in 2014, Showalter has expanded the orchestral season and breadth of its education and digital programs. The Oregon Symphony now serves hundreds of thousands of people in person and tens of millions more via syndicated programs each year. During his tenure, the Symphony also has broadened its repertoire to include music from hip hop to video games, premiered classical works that address issues from homelessness to racism, completed a global search for its new Music Director, led a community celebration of its 125th anniversary, grown wages for musicians and staff, and earned multiple Grammy nominations.

Drinkward notes that additional changes to administrative and financial structures have allowed the Symphony to serve its mission better. Under Showalter’s leadership, revenues have grown by 65%. Except for fiscal year 2020 during the onset of the pandemic, the Symphony has balanced its budget each year, and it has incurred no debt. 

Showalter reflects that the Symphony’s successes have been a team effort. “Working with our board, musicians, staff, and donors has been the highlight of my career, and I am proud of all that we have accomplished together. Although I will move on later this year, I am committed to ensuring our continued success through this transition.” 

The incoming President will be able to build on Showalter’s accomplishments as they put their own stamp on the institution, Drinkward says. In Showalter’s role as Executive Advisor, he will assist the new President and the Board on institutional priorities like fundraising and strategic planning and help to transition relationships with key stakeholders. “We are the beneficiaries of Scott’s goodwill, since he has agreed to remain in his current role for now and serve as an advisor beyond his current contract,” says Drinkward. “Rarely does a nonprofit benefit to such a degree from the expertise and connections of a departing CEO.”

The Board of Directors has partnered with Aspen Leadership Group, which specializes in non-profit executive searches and succession planning, and expects to name a new President and CEO later this summer. 

Today's Birthdays

Carl Rosa (1842-1889)
Hamisch MacCunn (1868-1916)
Joseph Samson (1888-1957)
Martha Mödl (1912-2001)
Fanny Waterman (1920-2020)
Arthur Grumiaux (1921-1986)
Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021)
Joseph Schwantner (1943)
George Benson (1943)
Alan Opie (1945)
Rivka Golani (1946)
Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948
Edmund Barham (1950-2008)

and

Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641)
Louis L'Amour (1908-1988)
Edith Grossman (1936)
James Patterson (1940)
Billy Collins (1941)
James McManus (1951)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1687, Italian-born French composer Jean Baptiste Lully, age 54, in Paris, following an inadvertent self-inflicted injury to his foot (by a staff with which he would beat time for his musicians) which developed gangrene.

Norman Huynh - former Oregon Symphony Associate Conductor to lead New York Philharmonic

Congratulations are in order for Norman Huynh, who now leads the Bozeman Symphony as its music director. He has been tapped to conduct the New York Philharmonic in its Vertigo (with the film) concert. Here's the link:

Vertigo in Concert | Jan 26–26, 2024 | NY Phil

Scroll down the page and you'll find this:

Today's Birthdays

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Modeste Moussorgsky (1839-1881)
Eddie James "Son" House (1902-1988)
Nikos Skalkottas (1904-1949)
Paul Tortelier (1914-1990)
Nigel Rogers (1935)
Owain Arwel Hughes (1942)
Elena Firsova (1950)
Ann MacKay (1956)

and

Phyllis McGinley (1905-1978)
Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998)
Ved Mehta (1934)

From the New Music Box:

On March 21, 1771, the Massachusetts Gazette published an announcement for a musical program including "select pieces on the forte piano and guitar." It is the earliest known reference to the piano in America.

Today's Birthdays

Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957)
Lauritz Melchoir (1890-1973)
Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997)
Dame Vera Lynn (1917-2020)
Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918-1970)
Marian McPartland (1918-2013)
Henry Mollicone (1946)

and

Ovid (43 BC - AD 17)
Ned Buntline (1823-1886)
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
Peter Schjeldahl (1942)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1928, the New York Symphony and the New York Philharmonic Society united to form the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York - now known as simply "The New York Philharmonic."

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Gasparini (1661-1727)
Max Reger (1873-1916)
Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994)
Nancy Evans (1915-2000)
Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950)
Robert Muczynski (1929-2010)
Ornette Coleman (1930-2015)
Myung-Wha Chung (1944)
Carolyn Watkinson (1949)
Mathew Rosenblum (1954)

and

Tobias Smollett (1721-1771)
Nikolay Gogol (1809-1852)
Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890)
Philip Roth (1933)

Women strive against repression in Seattle Opera’s “A Thousand Splendid Suns”

Maureen McKay as Laila (left) and Karin Mushegain as Mariam (right) in A Thousand Splendid Suns at Seattle Opera. Photo credit: Sunny Martini.

Seattle Opera’s world premiere of “A Thousand Splendid Suns” plunged me into a world that was fascinating, sad, exotic, tragic, hopeful, and illuminating. The production I experienced at McCaw Hall on March 3 was outstanding and unsettling and deserving to be seen and heard in more opera houses.

Based on the best-selling, award-winning novel of the same name by Khaled Hosseini, the opera tells the story of two women and their resilient quest to find love and meaning in life despite the oppressive male-dominated culture of their homeland, Afghanistan. With evocative music by Sheila Silver and superb libretto by Stephen Kitsakos, “A Thousand Splendid Suns” was enhanced by an exceptional cast led by mezzo-soprano Karin Mushegain and soprano Maureen McKay. The production also benefitted from the stage direction of Roya Sadat, who is Afghanistan’s first woman film and television producer during the post-Taliban era and winner of more than 20 international awards.

Deftly creating a unique blend of Hindustani and Western music, Silver used a full orchestra augmented by South Asian instruments, such as the tabla, daf, dholak, and Tibetan bowls (played by Deep Singh) and the bansuri (played by Steve Gorn). The sound-world drew was inspired by ragas – with their drone-underlayment and myriad of microtonal shifts. The trombones were especially effective to conveying the wiggly tones of the call to prayer from a minaret. Conductor Viswa Subbaraman guided the orchestra with lots of dynamic contrast that matched the text and action extremely well.

Kitsakos condensed the plot of Hosseini’s novel to fit into two acts with five scenes each. Altogether, the opera covers a 30-year period from 1970 when the Soviets occupied Afghanistan to 2001 with the 9/11 attacks.

Foreground, from left: Andrew Potter as Mullah, John Moore as Rasheed, Karin Mushegain as Mariam, and Martin Bakari as Jalil. Background, from left: Ibidunni Ojikutu as Wife #2, Sarah Coit as Wife #3, and Sarah Mattox as Wife #1 in A Thousand Splendid Suns at Seattle Opera. Photo credit: Antone Patterson.

Mushegain made a totally convincing, Mariam, the “illegitimate” woman who was forced into marriage and then abused by her husband. Her voice expressed a big range of emotion – from anger to pleading prayerfulness. McKay excelled in the role of Laila, who lost her parents because their home was bombed. Laila then became the second wife and also suffered abuse. The stunning duet with the two women discovering that they are allies rather than rivals, was a highlight of the opera.

Baritone Jon Moore embodied the harshness and rigidity of the women’s husband Rasheed with such conviction that the audience erupted in cheers when Mariam slayed him with a shovel. Tenor Rafael Moras embraced the role of Laila’s lover Tariq with terrific vitality and energy. Tariq’s love-duet with Laila was another high point of the opera. Bass-baritone Ashraf Sewailam exuded warmth and understanding as Laila’s father, Hakim. Mezzo Sarah Coit in the role of Laila’s mother countered her husband’s bookishness with a back-to-reality directness.

The very tall bass, Andrew Potter, made an imposing Mullah. Tenor Martin Bakari was superb as the duplicitous Jalil. Soprano Tess Altiveros made the fear and frustration of Nana palpable. Sopranos Sarah Mattox and Ibidunni Ojikutu joined Coit as Jalil’s three wives who coerced Mariam into marriage. Grace Elaine Franck-Smith portrayed Rasheed’s son Zalmai with panache.

An ingenious set by Misha Kachman rotated to display the mostly drab interior and exterior of Afghan homes. Just a few people were needed to quickly change the scene, which helped to keep the story moving forward, although sometimes it seems to revolve a bit too much. Lighting by Jen Schriever accented the singers, the buildings, and the mountains in the background, but the illumination of Miriam at the end of the opera, giving her a Virgin-Mary-like glow that defied the militia men and the rifle pointed at her, was one of the most striking and memorable images I have ever seen.

Guided by cultural advice of Humaira Ghilzai, production consultant Aziz Deildaar, and costume-historical consultant Rika Sadat, the production offered an authenticity that revealed a glimpse into the complexity of Afghani life. During the Q and A after the show, attendees found out more about differences in customs and language in Afghanistan. Hopefully, other opera companies that choose to present A Thousand Splendid Suns will have access to cultural advisors like Ghilzai, Deildaar, and Sadat.

Unfortunately, “A Thousand Splendid Suns” has become extremely relevant because the Taliban are again in command of Afghanistan and have crushed women’s rights. In the Seattle Opera’s printed program, Hosseini writes that he hopes that circumstances there will improve and rights will be returned to women so that “’A Thousand Splendid Suns’ will become one day a relic of an erstwhile era.” Amen to that.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Christoph Vogel (1756-1788)
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Paul Le Flem (1881-1984)
Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973)
Willem van Hoogstraten (1884-1964)
John Kirkpatrick (1905-1991)
Nobuko Imai (1943)
James Conlon (1950)
Jan-Hendrik Rootering (1950)
Courtney Pine (1964)

and

Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898)
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
Manly Hall (1901-1990)
George Plimpton (1927-2003
Christa Wolf (1929-2011)
John Updike (1932-2009)

Today's Birthdays

Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729)
Manuel García II (1805-1906)
Joseph Rheinberger (1839-1901)
Giuseppe Borgatti (1871-1950)
Brian Boydell (1917-2000)
Nat "King" Cole (1917-1965)
John LaMontaine (1920-2013)
Stephen Dodgson (1924-2013)
Betty Allen (1927-2009)
Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993)
John Lill (1944)
Michael Finnissy (1946)
Patrick Burgan (1960)

and

Edmund Kean (1787-1833)
Frank B. Gilbreth (1911-2001)
Penelope Lively (1933)

Today's Birthdays

Enrico Tamberlik (1820-1889)
Henny Youngman (1906-1998)
Christa Ludwig (1928-2021)
Sir Roger Norrington (1934)
Teresa Berganza (1935)
David Del Tredici (1937)
Claus Peter Flor (1953)

and

James Madison (1751-1836)
Maxim Gorky (1868-1936)
César Vallejo (1892-1938)
Sid Fleischman (1920-2010)
Alice Hoffman (1952)

Reviews of recent Oregon Symphony and Portland Youth Philharmonic concerts

 

Oregon ArtsWatch has just published a triple decker of my reviews. Click here to read them.

Today's Birthdays

Charles Dibdin (1745-1814)
Eduard Strauss (1835-1916)
Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935)
Colin McPhee (1900-1964)
Lightnin' Hopkins (1912-1982)
Ben Johnston (1926-2019)
Nicolas Flagello (1928-1994)
Jean Rudolphe Kars (1947)
Isabel Buchanan (1954)
)
and

Richard Ellmann (1918-1987)
Ben Okri (1959)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1985, Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, age 22, makes his operatic debut at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples, singing the lead tenor role in Domenico Morelli's comic opera "L'Amico Francesco."

Preview of Portland Opera's Thumbprint published

 My preview of Thumbprint has been published in Oregonlive here. It will appear in print in Friday's A & E section.

Today's Birthdays

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727-1756)
Pierre-Louis Couperin (1755-1789)
Johann Strauss Sr. (1804-1849)
Lawrance Collingwood (1887-1982)
Witold Rudziński (1913-2004)
Quincy Jones (1933)
Phillip Joll (1954)

and

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Sylvia Beach (1887-1962)
Max Shulman (1919-1988)
Diane Arbus (1923-1971)

Article about PBO's new artistic director, Julian Perkins, posted in Oregonian online

 

My preview of Julian Perkins, the new music director of the Portland Baroque Orchestra has been published in Oregonlive here. It will appear in the print edition on Friday.

Today's Birthdays

Hugo Wolf (1860-1903)
Alec Rowley (1892-1958)
Irène Joachim (1913-2001)
Jane Rhodes (1929-2011)
Alberto Ponce (1935-2019)
Lionel Friend (1945)
Julia Migenes (1949)
Wolfgang Rihm (1952)
Anthony Powers (1953)
Moses Hogan (1957-2003)
Terence Blanchard (1962)

and

Janet Flanner (1892-1978)
George Seferis (1900-1971)

Today's Birthdays

Thomas Arne (1710-1778)
Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)
Hans Knappertsbusch (1888-1965)
Ralph Shapey (1921-2002)
Norbert Brainin (1923-2005)
Philip Jones (1928-2000)
Helga Pilarczyk (1935-2011)
Liza Minnelli (1946)
James Taylor (1948)

and

George Berkeley (1685-1753)
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916)
Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950)
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)
Edward Albee (1928-2016)
Virginia Hamilton (1934-2002)
Naomi Shihab Nye (1952)
Carl Hiaasen (1953)
David Eggers (1970)

Today's Birthdays

Carl Ruggles (1876-1971)
Henry Cowell (1897-1965)
Xavier Montsalvage (1912-2002)
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
Sarah Walker (1943)
Tristan Murail (1947)
Bobby McFerrin (1950)
Katia Labèque (1950)

and

Torquato Tasso (1544-1495)
Ezra Jack Keats (1916-1983)
Douglas Adams (1952-2001)

Today's Birthdays

Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749-1838)
Dudley Buck (1839-1909)
Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908)
Arthur Honnegger (1892-1955)
Dame Eva Turner (1892-1990)
Bix Biederbecke (1903-1931)
Sir Charles Groves (1915-1992)
William Blezard (1921-2003)
Andrew Parrott (1947)
Stephen Oliver (1950-1992)

and

Henry Watson Fowler (1858-1933)
Zelda Fitzgerald (1900-1948)
Heywood Hale Broun (1918-2001)
David Rabe (1940)

Today's Birthdays

Josef Mysliveczek (1737-1781)
Archie Camden (1888-1979)
Dame Isobel Baillie (1895-1983)
Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
Thomas Schippers (1930-1977)
Ornette Coleman (1930-2015)
David Matthews (1943)
Kalevi Aho (1949)
Howard Shelley (1950)
Anna Clyne (1980)

and

Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512)
Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962)
Mickey Spillane (1918-2006)
David Pogue (1963)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1831, Italian violin virtuoso Nicolo Paganini makes his Parisian debut a the Opéra. Composers in the audience include Meyerbeer, Cherubini, Halvéy. and Franz Liszt (who transcribes Pagnini's showpiece "La Campanella" for piano). Also in attendance are the many famous novelists and poets, including George Sand, Victor Hugo, Alfred de Mussset and Heinrich Heine.

Visa fees for artists coming to the U.S. to go way, way, way, way Up!

From Musical America:

“We must flood, flood, flood the USCIS comments portal, as well as our local congressmen, with our objections by March 13,” explains arts lawyer Brian Goldstein in a video interview. The USCIS plans to hike O and P visa fees for foreign artists to $1,615 from $460, as well as limit the number of people included in each petition to 25—potentially adding burdensome additional costs to visiting orchestras.

USCIS stands for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The proposed increase from $460 to $1,615 represents a 400% increase.

Today's Birthdays

Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613)
Carl Philip Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Avril Coleridge-Taylor (1903-1998)
Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000)
Dick Hyman (1927)
Christian Wolff (1934)
Robert Tear (1939-2011)
Barthold Kuijken (1949)
Simon Halsey (1958)

and

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935)
Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)
Leslie Fiedler (1917-2003)
Neil Postman (1931-2003)
John McPhee (1933)
Leslie A. Fiedler (1948)
Jeffrey Eugenides (1960)

Today's Birthdays

John Wilbye (1574-1638)
Tomaso Antonio Vitali (1663-1745)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Heino Eller (1887-1970)
Christopher Seaman (1942)
Uri Segal (1944)
Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997)
Nicholas Kraemer (1945)
Clive Gillinson (1946)
Okko Kamu (1946)
Montserrat Figueras (1948-2011)
Michael Chance (1955)

and

William York Tindall (1903-1981)
William Boyd (1952)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1897, Johannes Brahms attends his last concerts and hears his Symphony No. 4 conducted by Hans Richter.

Preview of Oregon Symphony's (In)tolerance concert posted

My preview of this weekend's Oregon Symphony concert with Gabriela Montero has been posted in Oregonlive here. It will appear in the print edition on Friday.

Today's Birthdays

Oscar Straus (1870-1954)
Julius Rudel (1921-2014)
Sarah Caldwell (1924-2006)
Wes Montgomery (1923-1968)
Ronald Stevenson (1928-2015)
Lorin Maazel (1930-2014)
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (1944)
Stephen Schwartz (1948)
Marielle Labèque (1952)
Mark Gresham (1956)
Yannick Nézet-Séguin (1975)

and

Michelangelo (1475-1564)
Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Ring Lardner (1885-1933)
Gabriel García Márquez (1928-2014)
Willie Mays (1931)
Dick Fosbury (1947)

Today's Birthdays

Alphonse Hasselmans (1845-1912)
Arthur Foote (1853-1937)
Pauline Donalda (1882-1970)
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
Anthony Hedges (1931-2019)
Barry Tuckwell (1931-2020)
Sheila Nelson (1936-2020)
Richard Hickox (1948)

and

Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594)
Frank Norris (1870-1902)
Leslie Marmon Silko (1948)

From The Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1750 that the first Shakespearean play was presented in America. Richard III was performed by the actors of Walter Murray and William Kean’s troupe from Philadelphia. Theater was still new in the colonies. And though it was popular in Philadelphia, that city still preferred to pride itself on its scientific and literary achievements, so Murray and Kean set out for New York City.

Through the 1700s, New York’s primary form of entertainment was drinking. By the time Murray and Kean arrived in February of 1750, there were 10,000 city residents and over 150 taverns. Murray and Kean set up shop in a two-story wooden structure on Nassau Street, slightly east of Broadway.

Today's Birthdays

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Carlos Surinach (1915-1997)
Cecil Aronowitz (1916-1978)
Samuel Adler (1928)
Bernard Haitink (1929-2021)
Aribert Reimann (1936)
Ralph Kirshbaum (1946)
Leanna Primiani (1968)

and

Khaled Hosseini (1965)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1801,the U.S. Marine Band performed for Thomas Jefferson's inaugural. Jefferson, an avid music lover and amateur violinist, gave the Marine Band the title "The President's Own." Since that time, the band has played for every presidential inaugural.

Today's Birthdays

Eugen d'Albert (1864-1932)
Henry Wood (1869-1944)
Federico Moreno Torroba (1891-1982)
Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)
Frank Wigglesworth (1918-1996)
Doc Watson (1923-2012)
Martin Lovett (1927-2020)
Florence Quivar (1944)
Roberta Alexander (1949)
Katia Labèque (1950)

and

James Merrill (1926-1995)
Ira Glass (1959)

From the Writer's Almanac:

Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata was published on this date in 1802. Its real name is the slightly less evocative “Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Opus 27, No. 2,” and its Italian subtitle is translated as “almost a fantasy.” In 1832, five years after Beethoven’s death, a German critic compared the sonata to the effect of moonlight shining on Lake Lucerne, and the interpretation became so popular that, by the end of the century, the piece was universally known as the “Moonlight Sonata.” Beethoven himself had attributed the emotion of the piece to sitting at the bedside of a friend who had suffered an untimely death.

It was on this day in 1875 that the opera Carmen appeared on stage for the first time at the Opéra-Comique in France. When it premiered, the audience was shocked by the characters of Carmen, a gypsy girl, and her lover, Don José. The opera ran for 37 performances even though it came out late in the season, and it came back the next season, too.

Nietzsche heard Carmen 20 different times, and thought of it as a musical masterpiece. Tchaikovsky first heard Carmen in 1880. Bizet died of a heart attack just three months after the opera's debut.

It was on this day in 1931 that "The Star-Spangled Banner" became the official national anthem of the United States.

The lyrics come from a poem written by Francis Scott Key more than a century before, "Defence of Fort McHenry." He'd spent a night toward the end of the War of 1812 hearing the British navy bombard Baltimore, Maryland. The bombardment lasted 25 hours — and in the dawn's early light, Francis Scott Key emerged to see the U.S. flag still waving over Fort McHenry. He jotted the poem "Defence of Fort McHenry" on the back of an envelope. Then he went to his hotel and made another copy, which was printed in the Baltimore American a week later.

The tune for the Star-Spangled Banner comes from an old British drinking song called "To Anacreon in Heaven," which was very popular at men's social clubs in London during the 1700s. Francis Scott Key himself did the pairing of the tune to his poem. It was a big hit.

For the next century, a few different anthems were used at official U.S. ceremonies, including "My Country Tis of Thee" and "Hail Columbia." The U.S. Navy adopted "The Star-Spangled Banner" for its officialdom in 1889, and the presidency did in 1916. But it wasn't until this day in 1931 — just 80 years ago — that Congress passed a resolution and Hoover signed into law the decree that "The Star-Spangled Banner" was the official national anthem of the United States of America.

Today's Birthdays

Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836)
Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884)
Tom Burke (1890-1969)
Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
Marc Blitzstein (1905-1965)
John Gardner (1917-2011)
Robert Simpson (1921-1997)
Bernard Rands (1934)
Simon Estes (1938)
Robert Lloyd (1940)
Lou Reed (1942)

and

Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) (1904-1991)
Mikhail S Gorbachev (1931)
Tom Wolfe (1931-2018)
John Irving (1942)

and from the Composers Datebook:

Starting on this day in 1967 and continuing over the next two weeks, Russian cellist Mstsilav Rostropovich performed 26 works for cello and orchestra at 8 concerts with the London Symphony at Carnegie Hall in New York City -- including some world premieres!

Vancouver Symphony delivers excellent concert that spanned symphonic and religious-operatic nuggets

Fans of symphonic and operatic music got the best of both worlds in last weekend’s Vancouver Symphony concert. Music director Salvador Brotons led the orchestra in an emotionally rewarding program that paired Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Giacomo Puccini’s rarely heard “Messa di Gloria” and the even more rarely Intermezzo to Pietro Mascagni’s opera “Amica.” In spite of the inclement weather, which must have affected rehearsals, the concert that I attended at Skyview Concert Hall on Saturday (February 25) was exceptional.

The orchestra’s newly minted artist-in-residence, Orli Shaham, delivered a scintillating performance of Schumann’s Piano Concerto. With her hands flying deftly over the keyboard, Shaham delivered impeccable passages that had plenty of dynamic contrast. The fast sections sparkled energetically and the quiet, dreamy portions of the piece floated effortlessly. Her fortes were just as riveting as her pianissimos. Her brilliant interpretation elicited applause upon closing out the first movement. She gave the second stylish and elegant phrasing without being fussy. The third movement sprang forward with a carefree joie de vivre, and Shaham created a sense of dancing into the finale, causing the audience to erupt with applause and a standing ovation.

Before the piano concerto, Brotons and the orchestra generated big, sweeping waves of passion and drama with the Intermezzo to Mascagni’s “Amica.” Each dark and brooding passage would gather steam and explode (with a huge blow from the timpani) like a volcano and be followed by lighter music that would gradually sink into another stormy sequence. It made me wonder what the rest of the opera was like.

Mascagni and Puccini were roommates while they were students at the Milan Conservatory – an interesting historical tidbit. Yet Puccini, who came from a family of church musicians, had already written his “Messa a quattro voci,” commonly known as the “Messa di Gloria,” for orchestra, chorus, and two soloists. It was performed spectacularly in the second half of the concert with the Portland Symphonic Choir, tenor Katherine Goforth, and baritone Anton Belov.

Conducting impressively from memory, Brotons elicited a totally committed sound from all forces. The choir carried the load of almost continuous singing for 45 minutes with verve, which was spot on for the operatic style of Puccini's piece. Despite singing with masks, the choir's diction was excellent – you could understand the words of the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei clearly – except for the Et resurrexit section of the Credo. That was a remarkable achievement considering that no sheet with the text was provided to the audience – nor were the words projected on the two large screens on either side of the stage.

The choir, superbly prepared by Alissa Deeter, beautifully conveyed passages that were warm and soothing, but also transitioned to more robust and declamatory sections with verve. They dug into the operatic style of the piece with gusto – all the while maintaining a balanced sound that made the piece exciting.

Katherine Goforth proclaimed her lines with a heroic style that was absolutely convincing. Anton Belov marvelously mined the lower part of his voice to bring out – also heroically – his solos. Their positions in front of the stage on separate platforms on either side of the orchestra worked extremely well – even for their duet with orchestra and chorus.

How in the world Brotons committed the music to memory is quite astounding. The score has constant shifts in meter, lots of dynamic twists and turns, and a myriad of crucial cues for instrumentalists and singers. He nailed all of it, and that certainly enhanced the performance.

Brotons’ ability to work with singers and instrumentalists makes a strong case for the VSO to branch out into concert performances of operas. Just wondering!

Today's Birthdays

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Dimitri Mitropoulos (1896-1960)
Glenn Miller (1904-1944)
Leo Brouwer (1939)
Moray Welsh (1947)
Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson (1954-2006)
Galina Gorchakova (1962)
Thomas Adès (1971)

and

Oskar Kokoschka (1866-1980)
Ralph Ellison (1913-1994)
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)
Richard Wilbur (1921-2017)