In the Menotti opera, The Old Maid and the Thief, the character of Bob has a wonderful aria that begins, “When the air sings of summer, I must wander again.”  For me, it’s autumn.  Every year immediately following the close of our fall opera it’s time to hit the “audition road.” This is the time where we hold auditions for the artists that you will eventually see and hear in the Capitol Theatre and also for the young up and coming artists that we will invite to be a part of our Ensemble Program for Singers and Pianists.  Despite the amount of time required on planes and in hotel rooms away from beautiful Salt Lake City, it is an exciting one; a point of departure for future opera seasons and beginning new relationships between Utah Opera and unknown artists.

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

It’s funny how the marketing department often works a year ahead of itself to get ready for the upcoming season. The first opera of our 08/09 season has just finished, and we’re already getting the brochures ready for our 09/10 season.

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.

Making a run to the local soup kitchen for lunch today netted my co-workers and I more than we expected. While in line, Carmen, our milliner, noticed Governor Huntsman at a table. We continued through the lunch line thinking that it was kinda’ cool to see an elected official out and about in one of our local haunts. I had brought in a stack of postcard advertisements for this weekend’s Vivace event, to leave on the counter. As it was directly behind the Governor, I couldn’t help but give in to the impulse.

“Governor Hunstman?  My name is Jen Jenkins.  I work for Utah Symphony and Opera…have you heard of Vivace?”

Turns out Governor Huntsman is on the board, knows our previous CEO Anne Ewers (she is in Philidelphia now, he saw her a few weeks ago), and actually opened our costume shop after it was newly remodeled a few years ago. Talk about cool! He let me ramble on for a few minutes about our group of 20s, 30s, 40s, single/married/partnered peeps who love to discuss classic music and opera events at after parties. I couldn’t help but invite him to an event, as I think Vivace is as classy as it gets.

If you are interested in participating in a group that gets their funk on to the classics, and keeps it real, come hang with us. You never know where the ride might take you. And thanks for your sponsorship, Governor. It warms the heart to know that art invested in and championed by locals is a statewide affair.

If you’re looking for a Utah Symphony concert featuring music by one of your favorite composers, utahsymphony.org has the perfect page for you! I’ve just added a page that lists our 2008-2009 season concerts by composers. I hope to expand this section of the website in the future to include biographies and more information about the composers in the future - if people find it helpful.

You can visit this new page on the site here: www.utahsymphony.org/tickets_composers.php

I just came across this tidbit of Utah Symphony history from the The New Mexican website.

November 3, 1958: Salt Lake City — Conductor Maurice Abravanel is offering free tickets to all candidates beaten in Tuesday’s Utah elections. The tickets are to Wednesday night’s concert of the Utah Symphony Orchestra. “This is the best way, I feel, to bring solace to the losers,” says the maestro. “Music has the power to soothe even the deepest emotional wounds.”

Pretty funny stuff! My question is - who’s going to bring solace to the people who voted for the losers the day after the election?

We made the news again today, but not because of our music. Yesterday, the police caught and arrested a “suspect” from a burglary last week in Utah Opera’s production studios. We caught a guy stealing laptops and other things on the surveillance cameras (they’re all over our buildings), but didn’t catch him before he left the building.

Well, when he came back again yesterday he didn’t get too far before he was stopped.I saw him walk past my office the first time he came last week. When I saw him stroll by again on Monday morning, I couldn’t believe he actually came back. It takes a lot of guts (or a lack of something) to try and break into offices with people watching you do it.

You can read more about it in the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune:

Curtain closes on accused theater burglar (Salt Lake Tribune)

Man arrested in Utah Symphony burglar (Deseret News)

Now you know what the office chatter around the watercooler right now is. I’ll have to see if I can get ahold of the tapes and add them to the blog…

Update 10/31/08: There was another burglar today. Security at the building has been increased significantly and we’re all dealing with the new realities.

Here is the image of the woman who stole the purse. If you recognize her, please contact Mike Lund at (801) 869-9052.

Update 11/03/08: Here’s a video of the guy breaking into one of the offices. As you can imagine, the entire company is being extremely careful and keeping a close eye on everything after this. I don’t know why it’s so fast - it plays slower on my computer.

Here are some fun photos from last weekend’s Halloween concert. This year, the Utah Symphony accompanied Utah Opera’s apprentice artists to present Hansel & Gretel in the Witch’s Cottage.

If your family missed this concert, try to make it to Here Comes Santa Claus in December or Cowboy Jamboree next March.

Jimmy Martin, USUO’s grant writer.

Ticket Office staff

Mark Chambers from the ticket office.

The Mac Pac - finalists in the group category of the costume contest.

The orchestra - Bob Stevens is wearing the pumpkin hat.

Winners of the kid’s costume contest.

David Cho

Winners of the adult costume contest.

Winners of the Group costume contest.

Brant Bayless (as Richard Simmons)

On a completely unrelated note, the marketing staff is starring in High School Musical 3.

If you’re a fan of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, then you’ll want to be sure to reserve your seats for this weekend’s performance of Anton Bruckner’s 4th Symphony. Bruckner was so heavily influenced by the genius of Beethoven’s 9th that he modeled his own symphonies on the same basic scale and shape.

The 4th “Romantic” Symphony starts quietly and transforms into a most glorious cathedral of sound. Granted, as a brass player I am biased and some might argue that I live for just this kind of music.  Not true!  This is, however, a great opportunity to hear what is arguably one of the finest brass sections in the nation.

The evening begins with Benjamin Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem. Britten was invited to compose the work as a commission for the 2,600th anniversary of the ruling dynasty of Japan. As a dedicated pacifist, Britten used the opportunity to register his feelings about war – the result being that his work was never performed in Japan. Composed in 1940, the Requiem is a masterful work that takes you on a journey from the brutal inevitability of death to the hope of eternal rest.

The middle work of the evening is the beautiful and contemplative Adagietto movement from Mahler’s 5th Symphony. This has to be one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever composed – and it doesn’t have any horns!

Please join my colleagues and me on this journey from music for the cathedral to a glorious cathedral of music.

Bruckners 4th - A Big Brass Show
October 31 & November 1 at 8 PM
Abravanel Hall
Learn more on utahsymphony.org >>

Dan Nailen at Salt Lake Magazine wrote up a blog about Vivace’s Madame Butterfly after party that included a video from last weekend’s costume showcase. You can watch the video here: Madame Butterfly costume showcase.

In case you haven’t been following the blog, Jen Jenkins and Melonie Mortensen (two of Utah Opera’s up-and-coming designers) put together some costumes that were shown off last Saturday night at the Madame Butterfly cast party. I was way impressed with what they were able to pull off - I can hardly match my clothes, much less design costumes for an opera.During the showcase they displayed pictures from the creative process on the wall. If you missed it then, Jen forwarded me a link to a place you can look at them online: Jen’s Pagliacci Showcase.

I just came across an article from the San Diego Union Tribune that mentioned Tad Calcara is being inducted into the Oceanside High School Hall of Fame. Tad is an accomplished clarinet player who we’re lucky to have as the Principal Clarinet for the Utah Symphony. This is what the article says about him:

Calcara is a classical and jazz musician. He is the principal clarinet for the Utah Symphony and has performed with the New World Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Calcara also is an enthusiast of early American jazz. His New Deal Swing Band performs the original repertoires of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson and Artie Shaw.

Calcara has recorded for RCA Red Seal, Reference Recordings, Toshiba EMI and Summit Brass Classical.

He began studying piano at age 5, and with the help of his father started playing clarinet at Jefferson Junior High School. Calcara’s grandfather, former bandleader Carl Calcara, introduced him to jazz at an early age, and he went on to perform jazz at Oceanside High.

If you see Tad, congratulate him on the accomplishment!