Anyway, the blog caught my attention and I contacted Larry to find out if there were any other interesting details. For this particular performance Larry was performing Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. As I expected, there’s a pretty cool backstory involving the instrument.

When they first asked Larry to perform, they told him they would be getting a French C Tenor Tuba for the performance. Tuba’s are usually B-flat instruments, and anyone who has played a brass instrument can sympathize with having to perform on an instrument in a different key. It more or less involves learning a new way to play the instrument (such as different fingering for notes). I can imagine that performing a solo on an instrument that you’re unfamiliar with can be nerve-racking, but I guess that’s why they’re the professionals!

It turns out that Gary Offenloch (Utah Symphony’s Principal Tuba) has a French C Tenor Tuba that he displays proudly on his mantel. According to Larry, this tuba is Gary’s pride and joy, and he treasures this instrument more than anything he own. Gary obtained it years ago in Boston, which happened to be the place that Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition premiered

Well, it turns out that this tuba was the instrument used for the premier of Mussorgsky’s piece that Larry was performing! In fact, the instrument was built specifically for the piece. Larry talked Gary into taking the instrument off the mantel so he could use it in the CSO performance, and they worked on getting it moving again (which I’m sure involved lots of valve oil).

When Gerard McBurney (the Beyond the Store Creative Director) learned that Larry had found the original tuba, they changed the show to incorporate the instrument into it (the first half, I assume). Even though it was an old horn in an unfamiliar key, everything turned out well. The conductor loved the sound of the original instrument so much that he took pictures and is carrying them to show everyone what horn the piece should be played with.

I hope that we’re able to bring this production to Utah sometime so that you’re able to see it yourself.

Here are some of the pictures that were taken while Larry was in Chicago:

Larry playing the horn for a special donor lunch.

Larry with former Utah Symphony tubist Gene Pokorny.

Charles Dutois with Larry Zalkind.

At one of the performances playing Bydlo.

Britten’s Violin Concerto is a spectacle of lyricism and color. In the three movements, listen  for:

I. Vocal lyricism, sparkling orchestration
II. A diabolic scherzo; think Shostakovich
III. Variations on a repeated bass line; processional tranfiguring

Enjoy the performance!

Learn more about this weekend’s concert >>

It was an interesting end.  Last Wednesday, was the opening night of Trilogy at Juilliard.  It was a short evening of rarely performed one-act operas by Modest Mussorgsky, Ernst Krenek, and Benjamin Fleischmann.  Honestly, I had never seen anything composed by the latter two composers.  In his notes, James Conlon (this project was his brainchild), who conducted the evenining wrote about the importance of re-investigating short works that had either short or no history performance.  All in all, the three one-act operas performed back to back without intermission lasted a little over ninety minutes.  I don’t think any of these works (the Krenek piece was literally a little over twenty minutes in length) could stand on its own but combined created a lovely evening.  Beyond this, it gave the Juilliard orchestra an opportunity to shine under one of current day’s finest conductors, James Conlon, and a most interesting experience to the school’s singers.  The standout being a Chinese bass-baritone named Sheng Yang.  I happened to be there on opening night and it was a veritable “who’s who” evening within the industry.  I have a hunch this production will be seen elesewhere.

The next morning, I took the subway to Penn Station and boarded a train to Philadelphia.  I arrived a full 25 minutes before my first appointment due to delays.  Here’s the neat thing.  Philadelphia is one of those cities where it’s possible to get just about anywhere downtown within minutes.  The train station (unlike the airport) is adjacent to downtown so I hopped a cab to my hotel, threw my bags in the room and traveled to my appointment a pied and arrived just in time.  My appointment, was to hear three hours of auditions at the Academy of Vocal Arts (see last post).  What an interesting place.  I hadn’t been before so was surprised that one this country’s most honored opera training programs takes place in an old brownstone house in the middle of the city.  No high tech, modern University structure, but a remodeled house(!).  It’s even complete with one the world’s smallest theater stages.  The whole space for the theater (including stage, orchestra area and seating) is smaller than a high school gym.  Fantastic!  Here young artists are carefully handled over three to four years and allowed to have wonderful operatic performance experiences without feeling the need to make themselves heard in a large hall.  Very healthy.  The result was that all of the singers had healthy techniques, above average language skills and were — on the whole — good communicators of text and drama.  We actually have one of them coming to perform in March.  Her name is Nina Yoshida Nelsen and she’ll be performing the role of Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro.

That evening, I saw Italian Girl in Algiers and there is a high likelihood that you will see that same production here in Salt Lake City soon!  One of the stars was Daniel Belcher as Taddeo whom you have seen recently as Dandini in Cinderella and in the title role of The Barber of Seville.  Yes…he’s already contracted for this as well!

The next day I moved on to Pittsburgh…more on that later…

Christopher

“Music makes better people.”  Plato

Britten was a prolific composer. From his childhood onward he could sit down and produce pages of score. He could meet deadlines. While he may not have found great acclaim in the musical realm of his time, his ability to produce works with efficiency befriended him with producers. This ability also lent itself well to the developing technology of the time. It was not long after each of his works premiered that they were recorded. This made his music readily available to the younger generation. Another saving grace was his break from traditional music. From many different influences he was able to create a distinct sound in his music. While this sound did not produce an immediate resonance with audiences it would come to be known at the “Britten sound.”

One aspect that should not be overlooked it that Britten was the foremost composer of English opera. He brought recognition and respect to that musical genre that had not been approached for years. While his operas made him famous his orchestral works also carried the mark of genius.

But it was in the context of war that Britten wrote his violin concerto. Britten started the concerto just before he left England for America as a conscientious objector. The violin concerto is one of only a few concertos Britten wrote. He also wrote it in a time when violin concertos were very popular. What sets this concerto apart is again that distinctive Britten sound. Britten was able to fuse his influences into seamless and unique masterpieces. At times it seems you are listening to a Spanish march. Other times Stravinskyesque phrases can be heard. The violin concerto combines virtuosic brilliance with nostalgic lyricism. Indeed the contrast is somewhat unexpected but not wholly out of place. Like so many other composers who produced in times of conflict this concerto reflects turbulent times in a way uniquely Britten.

Britten’s violin concerto will be performed by concertmaster Ralph Matson at Utah Symphony’s November 21 and 22 performance entitled Shostakovich’s Response.

Shostakovich’s Response
November 21 & 22, 2008 @ 8 PM
Abravanel Hall
Keith Lockhart, conductor
Ralph Matson, violin

Learn more and buy tickets online at utahsymphony.org >>

It was 1937, the height of Stalin’s Great Terror. Dmitri Shostakovitch at 31 had already found  some success as a composer and concert pianist. His musical association with politics started at the very beginning of his career. At age 12 he had written a requiem for two leaders of the Kadet party. At age 20 he had written his first symphony. The trouble started with his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Stalin didn’t like it. It was denounced for formalism which is more or less not conforming to what the Soviet government deemed uplifting music, in theory, because it was too concerned with features of structure. In reality Stalin just didn’t like it. Shostakovich’s dilemma was that if he wrote the music that reflected his feelings he would be condemned by the government but if he wrote “safe” music he was denounced for formalism.

The solution? Shostakovitch wrote his Fifth symphony and subtitled it “A Soviet Artist’s Reply to Just Criticism.” With his brilliant intellect he found an answer in his creation of musical double talk. He wrote a symphony that impassioned the people while at the same time appearing to sing the praise of the government. Perhaps the government officials had caught on, but how could they publicly punish something that so blatantly went against what they were proclaiming to practice especially when the people so connected with the piece? The result was (ironically) rehabilitation, which basically meant that the charges against him were cleared because there was no evidence found against him.

The sentiment that sings through the music and so enraptured the audience is a depiction of what life was really like under a communist regime. It didn’t paint any pretty pictures but clearly stated things how they were. Somewhere in the midst of the piece is the triumph of the human spirit, a spirit that has been blown and bent but not broken, in the end stronger if it does not succumb to the oppressive gloom that surrounds it. Shostakovitch said of this symphony. “The idea behind my symphony is the making of a man. I saw him, with all his experience, at the centre of the work”

It was a heroic feat. Once again music had triumphed and persevered over circumstance.

Israel Nestyev a critic from Moscow and contemporary of Shostakovitch said of him. “Not a single other artist - no painter, dramatist, or film-maker - could think of using their art as a means of expressing protest against Stalin’s Terror. Only instrumental music was able to express the terrible truth of that time.”

So in the midst of this great terror came one of the 20th century’s greatest composers. In the end the Fifth symphony was a great response, a response to the people and a response to the government. It was a message that music lives. The Russian musicologist Inna Barsova quotes from Liubov’ Vasilievna Shaporiny’s diary for 21st November 1937 concerning the premiere of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony: “The audience was beside itself and gave a frenzied ovation - a deliberate protest against the persecution to which poor Mitya has been subjected. Everyone repeated one and the same phrase: ‘He answered and he answered well.’”

Shostakovich’s Response
November 21 & 22, 2008 at 8 PM
Abravanel Hall
Keith Lockhart, conductor

Learn more or buy tickets on utahsymphony.org >>

 “At our first rehearsal,” he recalls, “they could not get through the first movement of the `Eroica.’ On that same program I also had Richard Strauss’ `Don Juan,’ because Strauss himself had told me it was not important that every note be played correctly. Later the concertmaster, Leonard Posner, came to me and said, `The entire section asks you to take “Don Juan” off the program. They simply cannot play it.’ So I explained that the only way to grow was not simply to play the pieces they knew but to learn the pieces they played. Well, at the concert itself they did justice to everything.”

If you’d like to read the entire article, it’s available on archive.deseretnews.com. There are a lot more fun stories in the article.

Bernstein’s eclectic, audacious approach (Chicago Tribune - October 12, 2008)

A little later we heard that Baltimore Opera has decided it doesn’t have the financial resources to finish the current season.  Two weeks ago Michigan Opera Theatre decided not to go through with one of this season’s productions.  Both Los Angeles and Washington are looking at not presenting Wagner’s Ring Cycle as planned.

I’ve heard from several singers and agents about companies around the world shortening their seasons, canceling productions, canceling contracts, etc.  Almost to a one, the endowments of performing arts companies have lost –like your and my retirement accounts — anywhere from 25 to 40% of their endowments.

Times are tough and, more importantly, lives are being changed as artists with families are learning that a significant portion of their income for the year is gone despite signed contracts.  In my discussions with colleagues around the country, it is clear that the situation is going to get worse before it begins to get better.

Ironically, the attendance of Madame Butterfly was the highest in recent memory.  To me this suggests two things: that the Utah economy is not quite as volatile as the rest of the country and; that in difficult times, the arts are needed more than ever.  To the former, the talking heads we watch on the television tell us that while our local economy is not as mercurial that we haven’t seen the worst yet.  It’s quite possible that the current economic challenges will require some sort of change to our company and what we can offer you.  To the latter, we must all take advantage of the trove of artistic experiences we have in Utah.  We are positively rich in artistic opportunities and, as the challenge before us grows, we can and must connect with the people around us through experiences that allow us to collectively rise above the mundane realities that affect us making us all stronger to deal with the challenges we face together.  In doing this, we add richness and power to our own lives while ensuring that such experiences will continue to be available to us and the children of the future.

Christopher

“Music makes better people.”  Plato

Currently, Dr. Susanne Sheston and I are in New York holding auditions specifically for main stage productions (e.g. the operas that occur in October, January, March and May in the Capitol Theatre).  We’re using a new venue call the Liederkranz Club on the Upper East Side (just off 5th Avenue, equidistant between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim) which is a strange, yet surprisingly productive location for the auditions.  We had a long history of auditioning (as did many other companies) at Riverside Church near Columbia University but they made a policy change which resulted in the quadrupling of their rental rates.  From what I can tell, few — if any — companies now hold auditions there.  It’s turned out well and we’ve had some weather that allows a lovely walk through Central Park each morning.

So…one of the questions that comes up often at the post-performance Q&A sessions is, “how do you find such great singers?”  The answer is fairly easy, five hours a day for four days of hearing one singer every seven minutes.  We used to do to six and seven hour sessions (not including a 45-minute lunch) but found we can be more selective in our initial screening process and save rental costs and still be as effective.  Still…this is a lot of time in a basement or ballroom sitting in an uncomfortable chair.  However, when a truly impressive singer comes in and begins singing it is amazing how soon one forgets about the numbness of one’s posterior!  To her credit, I gave over the management of the scheduling singers to Susanne a few years ago and she has done a marvelous job.  It seems like every year we hear a more consistently high level of artists in our auditions.

I can’t tell here which operas we’re auditioning for (our Marketing Department doesn’t like to be scooped), but can share that we’ve heard a good number of wonderful young tenors as well as some singers particularly suited to Verdi/Wagner/Strauss that have been very exciting.

When we’re not chained to our chairs for these hours, we schedule meetings with stage directors that will be coming to Salt Lake City to discuss direction of the operas and also meet stage directors that I am considering introducing to you.  If there are performances where we can see artists we are considering (difficult to find now with the demise of New York City Opera), that is where we spend our evenings.  To that end, I’ll be attending a performance at Juilliard on Wednesday where I will see a director’s work and, of course, some of the best young singers who are about to leave the safety of the conservatory and see if they can make it in a very challenging career.

On Friday, I leave for Philadelphia to hear the artists in the Academy of Vocal Arts (another high-level conservatory), see Opera Company of Philadelphia’s Italian Girl of Algiers (am considering bringing their physical production for our future) and then on to Pittsburgh Opera Saturday to hear their young artists before seeing the next installment of The Grapes of Wrath.  I’ll finally come home, ten days after leaving, on Sunday the 17th and will look forward to my own bed.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Christopher

Today we had the photoshoot for the brochure. Mark Maziarz was the photographer, and it was a great morning with the marketing department and costume shop (along with Debbie from R&R, our ad agency) coming together with him to get some fantastic shots. I’m already excited for next year.

While it isn’t time to reveal our 09/10 season quite yet (our Subscribers are always the first to know - and they’ll find out next February), you might be able to guess what the Operas could be from some of these photos. Anyway, I won’t say anything else about them other than that’s me in the second picture.