2012 Winter Courses Start This Week

Very brief reminder - The first music class at Gleacher Center starts Tuesday, January 10th!

Schubert

The great pianist Alfred Brendel called Schubert “the most immediately moving of composers.” Poised between the rationality of the classical era and the fantastical imaginativeness of the ensuing generation, Schubert was uniquely equipped to combine intense subjectivity and raw emotional power with an exhilarating mastery of form and detail. We will examine his intimate masterpieces as well as his monumental song cycles, assorted lieder and chamber works, and the large-scale grandeur of the late symphonies. This course will explore these and related works and topics with listening, analysis, and historical commentary. 
1/10/2012 - 2/28/2012
Tuesday 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM 
Register Here 

Cultural Moscow and St. Petersburg in the Age of Realism

 Russia in the mid-19th-century was a turbulent place where political upheaval created a synergy between art and politics. As Russia grew larger and more industrialized, revolutionary movements such as the Decemberists, the Petrashevists, and the Freedom Group challenged czarist rule. We will study the writings of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and consider how discussions of social issues were often disguised to avoid censorship. Composers such as Mussorgsky invented a new and completely Russian idiom, while figures such as Tchaikovsky and Rubenstein reconciled the burgeoning Russian artistic identity with Western practices.
1/12/2012 - 3/1/2012
Thursday 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Register Here

J.S. Bach - One Day Seminar

This daylong seminar explores the hallmark of Bach’s achievement: the unique marriage of consummate craftsmanship and intense spirituality. We will examine the depth and complexity of a wide variety of his works, including preludes and fugues for the keyboard, concerti, and masses. We will discuss his phenomenal virtuosity, the sometimes surprising duties of a Kapellmeister, and his often contentious relationship with his contemporaries among the nobility and clergy. Finally, we will consider the impact of his tremendous legacy on subsequent composers.
3/10/2012
Saturday 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Register Here 

Russian Art in the Silver Age | Carnegie Hall

via carnegiehall.org

1-day Seminar Oct 1: Intro to Opera

Opera is paradoxically the most grandiose and most human of genres. We will analyze opera’s Italianate origins in the Baroque masterpieces of Monteverdi and Handel, the pathos of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, the mix of fantasy and profundity in _The Magic Flute_6, and Beethoven’s socially conscious Fidelio, followed by bel canto masterpieces and works of Verdi and Puccini from the Italian repertory. We will savor recordings by opera’s great singers such as Callas, Bjoerling, Sills, Domingo, Hapmson, and Borodina, as well as view opera productions on DVD.

Register online here.

The Associated Press: A new language for Western opera: Chinese

A new language for Western opera: Chinese

By CHI-CHI ZHANG, Associated Press – 4 days ago 

BEIJING (AP) — On his first attempt, Nicholas Brownlee manages to spit out the sound "shee." His teacher patiently shakes her head.

"It's not 'shee,' it's 'xi,'" she says, pronouncing something close to "shee" but not quite the same. It means "west" in Chinese, and the sound doesn't exist in English.

Brownlee scribbles down some notes as the class moves onto "ri," which sounds like "err" and proves equally challenging. The room fills with renditions of "arr" and "ehh."

"Is anyone doing it correctly?" the 22-year-old American shouts in frustration.

A trained opera singer, he is one of 20 young foreign vocalists in Beijing this summer to learn how to sing opera in a new language: Mandarin. It's a daunting task that culminated Thursday night with a performance at the National Center for Performing Arts, the country's premier opera house.

China may be better known for its traditional Peking Opera, but a new generation of composers favors Western-style operas in Chinese.

So the government, in a bid at cultural diplomacy, organized the monthlong training program — dubbed "I Sing Beijing" — with help from the Colorado-based Asian Performing Arts Council and other overseas groups.

"You could say it's an experiment of sorts," said Tian Haojiang, head of the program and the Metropolitan Opera's most renowned singer from China. "We hope it will inspire Western singers and bring Chinese modern opera onto the world stage."

The participants were selected from 200 applicants from around the world. None spoke Chinese when they started.

Brownlee trained for and performed the lead in "Poet Li Bai," which had its international premiere in the U.S. in 2007 with Tian in the same role.

"I'd be lying to say I wasn't intimidated," said Brownlee, winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Gulf Coast Regional Competition.

Tian, a bass singer who moved to the U.S. nearly 30 years ago to pursue Western opera, coached Brownlee.

At first glance, the husky former athlete from Mobile, Ala., with persimmon-tinted sideburns and freckles, bears little resemblance to the famous Tang Dynasty author revered as one of China's best poets. But as he begins to sing "Come to the Starry Night," Brownlee's passion comes through.

In high school, he chose sports over opera. But after watching "La Traviata" in college, he began honing his skills as a bass-baritone.

Brownlee quickly learned to absorb new languages as an opera singer, but Chinese has presented a new set of challenges.

"Singers are already sensitive to pitch, which is a big advantage in learning Mandarin," said Katherine Chu, a coach for the program. "But certain words, like 'zi' and 'zhi,' aren't singer-friendly. These words can tighten the jaw so we have to teach them how to carry the tones."

The proper placement of words is also important.

"When opera singers read "wo bu zhi dao," which means "I don't know," they instinctively want to separate "dao" from the rest of the sentence, because they are used to singing that way in Italian," Chu said. "But in Chinese, it just doesn't make sense."

The students were paired with vocal and acting coaches to learn how to portray roles in some of the most well-known stories to Chinese audiences. The coaches included Peter McClintock, stage director for the Metropolitan Opera for more than 22 years.

Mezzo-soprano Maria McDaniel took on the role of Mai Shu from the modern opera "Chinese Orphan," singing a heartbreaking scene in which she learns she has to give up her child.

"It's a story that a lot of Chinese know, so I want to be able to move audiences with my performance, even though it's not my native language," the Atlanta native said.

As China's economy grows, so does investment in the arts. Local leaders are eager to build performing arts centers as a symbol that their city has arrived. The country boasts about 50 today, with more than 100 expected to be built in the next decade.

Beijing's National Center for the Performing Arts hosts about a dozen operas a year, including classics such as "Tosca" and "Die Fledermaus."

For the Americans, the growing market in China contrasts with the shaky one at home.

"Funding for the arts is being cut in the U.S., and China is seen as a greener pasture for a lot of us," McDaniel said. "I definitely can see myself singing again in China one day."

Beijing recently announced plans to promote the global tour of a Chinese trio of tenors, including Dai Yuqiang, one of China's most famous tenors and a favorite of the late Luciano Pavarotti.

"Cultural influence is a form of soft power," said Kang Wei, chairman of the Beijing Performing Arts Group, which is co-sponsoring the tour. "Although it is not political it can still create a lasting effect."

Follow Chi-Chi Zhang at http://twitter.com/thunderchi

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

via google.com

And we thought the Czech "ř" in Dvořák was tough on the Western tongue.

Stephen Sondheim Trashes Diane Paulus "Upgrade" of 'Porgy and Bess'

Chad Batka for The New York TimesFrom left, the director Diane Paulus with the actors Phillip Boykin and Audra McDonald at a rehearsal for “Porgy and Bess” at the American Repertory Theater.

via artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com

Via a tweet from Alex Ross of a NYT Artsbeat post about an Arts & Leisure article by Patrick Healy after which Stephen Soundheim unleashed one of the most convincing dissings of Regietheater I’ve ever seen. Well, he isn’t actually taking on the concept of Regietheater directly. But the director of this production, Diane Paulus, is definitely in that category. She’s directed several recent productions of opera seria for the Chicago Opera theater. Nor am I opposed to directorial creativity — I just ask that significant changes add something of comparable value to what’s being destroyed. Paulus is a director whose work I haven’t really enjoyed so far. 

Since everyone else is pasting Soundheim’s whole letter, so will I:

The article by Mr. Healy about the coming revival of “Porgy and Bess” is dismaying on many levels. To begin with, the title of the show is now “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.” I assume that’s in case anyone was worried it was the Rodgers and Hart “Porgy and Bess” that was coming to town. But what happened to DuBose Heyward? Most of the lyrics (and all of the good ones) are his alone (“Summertime,” “My Man’s Gone Now”) or co-written with Ira Gershwin (“Bess, You Is My Woman Now”). If this billing is at the insistence of the Gershwin estate, they should be ashamed of themselves. If it’s the producers’ idea, it’s just dumb. More dismaying is the disdain that Diane Paulus, Audra McDonald and Suzan-Lori Parks feel toward the opera itself.

Ms. Paulus says that in the opera you don’t get to know the characters as people. Putting it kindly, that’s willful ignorance. These characters are as vivid as any ever created for the musical theater, as has been proved over and over in productions that may have cut some dialogue and musical passages but didn’t rewrite and distort them.

What Ms. Paulus wants, and has ordered, are back stories for the characters. For example she (or, rather, Ms. Parks) is supplying Porgy with dialogue that will explain how he became crippled. She fails to recognize that Porgy, Bess, Crown, Sportin’ Life and the rest are archetypes and intended to be larger than life and that filling in “realistic” details is likely to reduce them to line drawings. It makes you speculate about what would happen if she ever got her hands on “Tosca” and ‘Don Giovanni.” How would we get to know them? Ms. Paulus would probably want to add an aria or two to explain how Tosca got to be a star, and she would certainly want some additional material about Don Giovanni’s unhappy childhood to explain what made him such an unconscionable lecher.

Which brings me back to my opening point. In the interest of truth in advertising, let it not be called “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess,” nor even “The Gershwin-Heyward Porgy and Bess.” Advertise it honestly as “Diane Paulus’s Porgy and Bess.” And the hell with the real one.

Then there is Ms. Paulus’s condescension toward the audience. She says, “I’m sorry, but to ask an audience these days to invest three hours in a show requires your heroine be an understandable and fully rounded character.” I don’t know what she’s sorry about, but I’m glad she can speak for all of us restless theatergoers. If she doesn’t understand Bess and feels she has to “excavate” the show, she clearly thinks it’s a ruin, so why is she doing it? I’m sorry, but could the problem be her lack of understanding, not Heyward’s?

She is joined heartily in this sentiment by Ms. McDonald, who says that Bess is “often more of a plot device than a full-blooded character.” Often? Meaning sometimes she’s full-blooded and other times not? She’s always full-blooded when she’s acted full-bloodedly, as she was by, among others, Clamma Dale and Leontyne Price. Ms. McDonald goes on to say, “The opera has the makings of a great love story … that I think we’re bringing to life.” Wow, who’d have thought there was a love story hiding in “Porgy and Bess” that just needed a group of visionaries to bring it out?

Among the ways in which Ms. Parks defends the excavation work is this: “I wanted to flesh out the two main characters so that they are not cardboard cutout characters” and goes on to say, “I think that’s what George Gershwin wanted, and if he had lived longer he would have gone back to the story of ‘Porgy and Bess’ and made changes, including the ending.

I can hear the outraged cries now about stifling creativity and discouraging directors who want to reinterpret plays and musicals in order to bring “fresh perspectives,” as they are wont to say, but there is a difference between reinterpretation and wholesale rewriting. Nor am I judging this production in advance, only the attitude of its creators toward the piece and the audience. Perhaps it will be wonderful. Certainly I can think of no better Porgy than Norm Lewis nor a better Bess than Audra McDonald, whose voice is one of the glories of the American theater. Perhaps Ms. Paulus and company will have earned their arrogance.

It’s reassuring that Ms. Parks has a direct pipeline to Gershwin and is just carrying out his work for him, and that she thinks he would have taken one of the most moving moments in musical theater history — Porgy’s demand, “Bring my goat!” — and thrown it out. Ms. Parks (or Ms. Paulus) has taken away Porgy’s goat cart in favor of a cane. So now he can demand, “Bring my cane!” Perhaps someone will bring him a straw hat too, so he can buck-and-wing his way to New York.

Or perhaps in order to have her happy ending, she’ll have Bess turn around when she gets as far as Philadelphia and return to Catfish Row in time for the finale, thus saving Porgy the trouble of his heroic journey to New York. It will kill “I’m on My Way,” but who cares?

Ms. McDonald immediately dismisses any possible criticism by labeling anyone who might have objections to what Ms. Paulus and her colleagues are doing as “Gershwin purists” — clearly a group, all of whom think alike, and we all know what a “purist” is, don’t we? An inflexible, academic reactionary fuddy-duddy who lacks the imagination to see beyond the author’s intentions, who doesn’t recognize all “the holes and issues” that Ms. Paulus and Ms. McDonald and Suzan-Lori Parks do. Never fear, though. They confidently claim that they know how to fix this dreadfully flawed work.

It so happens that Paulus did direct Don Giovanni at Chicago Opera Theater and I saw it. Here’s a photo gallery. Unfortunately you cannot see the IKEA KLIPPAN sofas, in fuchsia, in the lobby of this night club. Or the sweet catsuit worn by Krisztina Szabó’s Donna Elvira. It was the sort of “contemporary trashy” approach on which Paulus has leaned heavily when dealing with early music at COT.  Now that I have made fun of the setting, I should admit that Paulus didn’t “upgrade” Mozart’s work to the same extent she reportedly has upgraded Gershwin. Oh, there was that clever little twist where all the other characters were arrested for the Don’s death and sang their little moral epilogue in handcuffs.

Google Honors Granados

Enrique Granados was the subject of a “Google Doodle” (their name for those special logos) on July 27, his 114th birthday. I only noticed it today while perusing the Google Doodle Archives, because it was only displayed on Google’s Spain site. 

Bill Eddins on NY City Opera's Elimination of Music Directorship

Conductor Bill Eddins weighs in on the latest shoe to drop in the New York City Opera's draconian austerity program: the announcement that they are eliminating the position of music director.

But this? Perhaps it’s because it cuts so close to the quick. Fellow conductor and all that. No. That’s not it. It’s because if there is one person you desperately want on board of a major opera company it’s a competent Music Director. Why? Because everyone else – and I mean the singers, the stage director, the impresarios, the backstage director, whomever – are all completely nuts. Anyone who has ever spent time in the opera world will (or should) readily admit that it’s a loony bin. All the crazies seem to gravitate towards opera, probably because of the sheer spectacle of it all. Outsized spectacle attract outsized egos. All those stories you’ve heard about opera stars or crazy goings-on backstage? They are ALL true.

Read more about the New York City Opera saga here.