Budapest
Submitted by Bridget McDonough on Wed, 11/26/2008 - 12:52pm.
This is the second of my three-part blog regarding my trip to Vienna,
Budapest and Ekatarinburg
Russia.
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Opera
Vienna, Budapest and Yekatrinburg, Russia
Submitted by Bridget McDonough on Wed, 10/29/2008 - 12:47pm.
This is the first of three blogs that will focus on my recent trip to Vienna, Budapest and Yekatrinburg, Russia.
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Perpetual Evolution
Submitted by Guest Blogger on Mon, 10/13/2008 - 2:26pm.
Today's guest blog is written by Stefan Lano who will conduct the Chicago Sinfonietta during the upcoming performances of the opera Margaret Garner at the Auditorium Theater beginning November 1st.
As we prepare for the production of Margaret Garner at the Auditorium Theater, I am pleased to share some thoughts with you about this important opera.
Although, the commissioning venues of Michigan Opera Theater, the Cincinnati Opera and The Opera Company of Philadelphia were most generous in alotting ample time and funding for workshops prior to the world premiere here in Detroit, both hindsight and the experience gained through repeated performances will inevitably color subsequent re- visitations to this score. That this is now the case, became evident at our first rehearsals and run-throughs of the
opera this past week. The goals and priorities set by production teams of most any opera, play or film are pretty
much the same: 1. tell the story clearly and with dramatic efficiency; 2. entertain the public while, hopefully, simultaneously edifying them; 3. try to achieve a sense of closure at evening's end such that the public feels that they have been 'taken somewhere.'
An example of point number 3, would be the ambience in the public when the reprise of the Aria is reached in Bach's Goldberg Variations; or the sense of tragic inevitability at the end of Verdi's Otello as opposed to the comic inevitabiltiy at the end of his Falstaff. Point number 2 is a bit more subtle. In some opera, such as Mozart's Magic Flute, the moral of a given scene is presented as an aside in the form of the ensembles where the characters address the public more directly rather than each other. In an opera such as Margaret Garner, the message of Toni Morrison is, as one would expect from a literary national treasure, inherent in her story. Thus do we arrive at the conundrum articulated by Madeleine in the final scene of Richard Strauss' Capriccio: do the words or the music take precedence?
Rather than argue for one or the other, I have always found that if the notion of effective theater is well-served, then both words and music are better clarified. In the case of this run of Margaret Garner, this notion dictates our modus operandi perhaps moreso than the first time around. The care taken in the preparation of any first performance is, more often than not, devoted to 'getting it right', especially when composer and librettist may be present. There is, however, more to theater than merely getting it right. One can get the words and the notes right while missing their element of dramatic marriage. From the resonance of the opening productions of Margaret Garner, it seems that most would agree that we 'got it right.'
It bespeaks the vision of David Di Chiera in his mounting a reprise of Margaret Garner relatively soon after the premier. His decision is now the more felicitous as we approach an historic Presidential election in which an African-American could well become our next President. That our country evolve as to embrace change.
In the spirit of opera being an art form in perpetual evolution, Kenny Leon and I intend to greatly expand upon that which we presented some years ago and are especially thrilled that we will do so in the architectural landmark of the Roosevelt Theatre about which one can only echo George Ballanchine's comment: 'Why don't they build them like this any more...?" Amen.
All best wishes to you,
Stefan Lano
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Margaret Garner - New American Opera!
Submitted by Angela Golden on Tue, 07/15/2008 - 10:22am.
Today's guest blogger is Brett Batterson, Executive Director of the Auditorium Theatre. This is the first in a series of postings about their November 2008 production of the opera, Margaret Garner.
"NEW AMERICAN OPERA BY TONI MORRISON AND RICHARD DANIELPOUR STARRING DENYCE GRAVES MAKES CHICAGO DEBUT!"
"AUDITORIUM THEATRE CONTINUES TO FIND NEW, EXCITING WORKS THAT RESONATE WITH CHICAGO!"
The headlines to this, the first entry in a series of blog posts about the Auditorium Theatre’s upcoming production of Margaret Garner that ChicagoClassicalMusic.org is graciously hosting, could go on forever. There is just too much to be excited about with the Chicago premiere of this great American work this November: the story, the music, the performers, the collaborators, the educational programs... like I said, the list goes on and on.
How, you might ask, did this come to be? Why is the Auditorium the location for Margaret Garner’s Chicago debut? The answer actually goes back to when Toni Morrison and Richard Danielpour were writing the opera for Denyce Graves. They were also looking for an opera company to commission and produce it.
How, you might ask, did this come to be?
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Golijov's Impact
Submitted by Kevin Giglinto on Fri, 02/08/2008 - 11:06am.
This week, the CSO is performing Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar for the first time. It was such a mind-blowing experience that it motivated me to begin blogging about “Classical” music in Chicago here at CCM.
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Mixed Bag
Submitted by Brian Dickie on Tue, 12/18/2007 - 3:25pm.
John Adams was in the office for 90 minutes this morning - primarily to see (above) the set and costume designs for A Flowering Tree, but also to look at all the other things we are putting together around the performances of the very beautiful new opera next May. It was a happy session all round and John was clearly very pleased with everything. Thats a good start! Below you see him with three of our key staff, Colleen Flanigan, Marla Krupman, and Kara Kane, respectively directors of marketing, development and education. Between them they manage to provide huge additional animation to our whole enterprise of opera production. John is an enthusiastic contributor to and supporter of all their efforts.
This afternoon we had our annual staff Christmas party complete with Secret Santa gift exchanges. I will not publish to photos of this exciting event here......! Regrettably as a result of this event I had to miss a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Chicago Classical Music website. That was bad of me but my staff come first. I had hoped to slip away at 4 but one thing led to another including the excellent round of carol singing where our excellent pianist director of finance Dave Wise displayed his exceptional talent at the keyboard. But please look at the splendidly relaunched CCM site. It is doing very well and making a valuable contribution to musical life in this city.
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A Few Bytes From The Big Apple
Submitted by Jim Palermo on Tue, 11/20/2007 - 1:05pm.
I recently spent a few days in New York combining business with pleasure. On the business side I attended a meeting at the League of American Orchestras (formerly known as the American Symphony Orchestra League) with colleagues from across the country to discuss issues related to our field. I also spent the better part of three days meeting with artist managers to get caught up on artist happenings and discuss upcoming projects for the Grant Park Music Festival. These meetings are important because direct face to face contact always makes doing business so much easier the next time one finds himself haggling about fees over the phone or email.
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Busy weekend coming up
Submitted by Brian Dickie on Fri, 11/02/2007 - 12:27pm.
Somebody wrote to me this morning "have a lovely relaxing weekend". Well no chance but that is not say I will not be having fun.
We are at the opening of Julius Caesar this evening at Lyric. Begins at 6.30 and will be done by 11pm. Then a party so a late night no doubt. You can all be there as well by tuning in to WFMT. I believe that there is streaming too so you only need an Internet connection.
Tomorrow there will be one of Opera America's periodic singers workshops in which I am participating. This is at de Paul University in Lincoln Park, Chicago, not too far from home and a very agreeable campus with an excellent music school.
On Sunday I am at the Regional finals of the Met auditions - not as a jury member (can't do that in one's own region) but as a spectator and intermission interviewee during the live broadcast on WFMT again! Tune in to the event between 2 and 5pm - I, and others, will be on air sometime after 4pm I assume. This is US Central time and the clocks will have changed so we are back in sync with the rest of the world - well Europe anyway. 6 hours behind the UK and 7 behind western Europe.
Monday is the beginning of another week of travel - more later.
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RESULT!!!
Submitted by Brian Dickie on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 1:42pm.
(Originally posted October, 27, 2007)
We have a result for Neue Stimmen 2007:
1. Marina Rebeka (see above with Francisco Araiza and Liz Mohn)
2. Fernando Javier Rado
3. Diego Torre
4-6 Anita Watson, Yali Wang, Christiane Karg
7-8 Genare Gashi, Sung-Kon Kim
And on a happy personal note, Reri Grist joined us in the intermission so we had in the room two stunning sopranos who were on the roster at Glyndebourne during my first year there in 1962 - Reri as Zerbinetta and Despina, and Edith as Cherubino. So Francisco Araiza took this picture of us above!
We have a party now, and I am out of here early.........more from Dusseldorf airport tomorrow, or otherwise when I am back in Chicago. Good night everyone and congratulations to ALL the Neue Stimmen competitors for making the week such a pleasure for us.
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Semi Final Result
Submitted by Brian Dickie on Sat, 10/27/2007 - 10:06am.
(Originally posted October 26, 2007)
So we whittled it down to eight:
Krenare Gashi, Soprano, Kosovo-Albanian Age 22
Christiane Karg, Soprano, Germany 27
Sung-Kon Kim, Baritone, Korea, 32
Fernando Javier Rado, Bass, Argentina, 21
Marina Rebeka, Soprano, Latvia, 27
Diego Torre, Tenor, Mexico, 27
Yali Wang, Soprano, China, 26
Anita Watson, Soprano, Australia, 27
The audience prize went to a splendid young singer who did not make the cut. This was:
Julia Novikova, Soprano, Russia, 24 - she knocked the audience dead with her performance of Lakme's Bell Song. She is an audience winner and will do really well I have no doubt. This is a nice consolation prize.
I will make no further comment until its all over. We had a great evening and we will have a super program tomorrow when each of the finalists will sing two pieces.
Tomorrow is another day - now time for sleep.
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