Boston Pops Orchestra. Keith Lockhart, conductor. December 19, 2018.

Symphony Hall, Boston.  (Balcony, Seat 1BC-D24, $59.50).

Program – Holiday Pops.

Artists

Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton, conductor.

David McFerrin, baritone and narrator.

Boston Symphony Hall hosts a series of Holiday Pops concerts during the Christmas season, from December 6 – 24, and my babysitting duties this week allowed me to catch one of the 4 pm performances, together with Emmie and Joe.

Selfie with Joe and Emmie.

Not quite Beethoven’s Ninth.  It’s not called “Holiday Pops” for nothing.

The entire program, with intermission and two encores, lasted two hours, so it was a substantial concert, at least as far as length of programming is concerned.

The numbers were a mixture of holiday favorites (most rearranged) and more classical compositions, dominated by the former.

I was surprised at how unabashedly Christian the program was, there seemed to be no apologies to sing Silent Night with the line “Christ the Savior is born.”  I guess the regulars know what to expect, and am surprised there was no adverse reactions from the audience.

The Chorus, the Orchestra, McFerrin and Lockhart.

One song in the program was “Twelve Days of Christmas” with a twist.  Whenever a numbered gift was mentioned, the orchestra would play spliced in melodies reflecting those twists. What I remember: 3 French horns were raised for 3 French hens; Beethoven’s fifth played for the fifth day; themes from both Le Cygnet and Swan Lake were used for the 7 swans; Lockhart did a few dance steps when they came to 9 ladies dancing; Tom Brady’s athletic shirt was raised for the twelfth day.

Cartoons and animations accompanied some selections, which Emmie really enjoyed watching.

Joe has gone to this event several times over the years, and tells me the major anchor pieces are the same: Twelve Days of Christmas and the Peace begins with Me encore.

The Chorus did this without pay.  Given how many times they run this program, I assume there is a net profit to be made.

I was hoping to attend a BSO concert during my week here, but none was to be found this time of the year.  It was still nice to be at Emmie’s first full-length concert, and she did very well.

Emmie and I ubered to Symphony Hall, and caught a ride with Joe to return to Somerville.

This is my 610^th entry in this blog, and 85^th for this year.

Monmouth Civic Chorus. Ryan James Brandau, conductor. December 16, 2018.

Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ.  (Orchestra, Seat M2).

Program – Joy to the World

Artists

Nola Richardson, soprano

Matawan-Aberdeen Middle School Dolce, Nadine Greenspan, Director

This is the third year of our tradition of attending this MCC Christmas concert with the Homs.  While this year’s program has some overlap with prior years’ programs, there is enough new material to make the evening interesting.

The biggest gripe is still with how poorly the chorus’s sound carried into our seating area.  I checked our seats for prior seasons, they were all in this same general area.  I wonder if other seating areas have similar issues.

In contrast, the soprano’s voice came across very well.  What she sang included a few selections from Handel’s Messiah, and her singing certainly was on the level of what I heard at NJ Symphony this past Friday.

Brandau acknowledging soprano Richardson at end of first half of program.  Note the harpsichord towards the right of the photograph.

The appearance of this young girl’s chorus Dolce added to the atmosphere.  They did quite well with their first song (on stage) but not so well with the second one (in front of the stage.)  It is my own experience working with teenagers that it is very difficult to get them to project their voices while singing.  And the poor acoustics didn’t help.

This year the orchestra seemed to take a more prominent role than in the past.

Attendance again was quite good, quite a few small children, and one baby (he/she did cry at some point.)  A good time was had by all …

I have a 8:30 pm flight up to Boston this evening, so we rushed out of the theater at the end of the program.  Turns out flights are delayed because of weather in the area, so we had time to eat something at Cheesequake service plaza before Anne dropped me off.

I am now booked on the 7:35 pm flight which will leave at 9:29 pm.  The original 8:30 pm flight is now scheduled for 11:10 pm departure.

New Jersey Symphony – Patrick Dupre Quigley, conductor. December 14, 2018.

Richardson Auditorium, Princeton, NJ.  (Seat M5, $40).

Program

Messiah (1741) by Handel (1685-1759).

Artists

Margot Rood, soprano; Reginald Mobley, countertenor; Steven Soph, tenor; Charles Wesley Evans, baritone.

Montclair State University Singers, Heather J. Buchanan, director.

Yes, this was the second time this season I went to a Messiah performance.  And I enjoyed it as much as the one a couple of days ago, even though the two performances differed in several aspects.

The first one was the size of the hall.  David Geffen Hall has a capacity of about 2750, while Richardson Auditorium is much small at 900 (both numbers from Wikipedia, I had thought Richardson sat about 1200.)  Row M is 13 rows from the stage, and the entire orchestra section has all of 15 rows.  So it was a much more intimate performance, perhaps closer to the way Handel intended it (I haven’t done the research.)

That would also mean the singers (both soloists and chorus members) didn’t have to strain their voices so much, and consequently I didn’t get the sense they were tired after the intermission.

There must be more than enough competent singers at Montclair State, with a student population of about 25,000.  But it is not Westminster Choir College where every student is a music major, many of whom in voice- and choral-related disciplines.  Westminster, being better known, probably gets recruited by well-known revenues more than Montclair – indeed they sang with the Philadelphia Orchestra before singing with the New York Phil.  One gets the feeling the Montclair folks sing with more urgency and freshness, even though they may not sound as smooth or dynamic as Westminster.  If one can get past that, one can sense – and enjoy – the urgency that is exhibited by the Montclair singers.

Having said that, there were some instances that I take issue with how the chorus went about its singer.  One example was the heavy emphasis on some notes in “For we like sheep;” it felt like they went with mf-mp couplets.

Also, many chorus numbers had the four soloists sing parts as quartets.  I noticed at least three places, such as “Since by man came death …”  I don’t know the reasons that went into that decision, but suppose it both gave the soloists more “air time” as well as let the chorus skip over some of the more difficult passages.  Perhaps this has happened before, but this was the first time I noticed it.

With his first voice appearance, he tenor Steven Soph certainly set a high standard for the other three to follow.  He had great control of his phrasing, seemed able to hold his breath for a long time, and sang with a very pleasant voice to boot.  While the other soloists didn’t quite measure up, they came close.  Margot Rood’s voice at first sounded a bit unrefined, but it grew on the audience.  Her rendition of “I know that my Redeemer liveth” had Wyrick standing for the violin accompaniment; it worked very well.  The countertenor Reginald Mobley has a refined sounding voice, but he didn’t quite sing with the heft that would make some of the numbers more memorable.  I do wonder how he would sound in a larger hall (the Newark Cathedral, for instance.)  Bass Charles Wesley Evans had a nice duet with the trumpet when he sang “The trumpet shall sound.”  The trumpet sounded great, and I need to find out who it was.

Patrick Dupre Quigley led the orchestra and the chorus with precision.  At the conclusion of the concert Heather Buchanan went on stage and the artists received one of the heartiest applauses I have seen from a New Jersey crowd.  Buchanan was sitting in front of us, and we could see how tense she was, sometimes nodding her head, sometimes shaking it.  I do think someone should start a petition to have her conduct the oratorio one of these years.  I, for one, think she can do a great job with it.

From left to right: tenor Steven Soph, countertenor Reginald Mobley, baritone Charles Wesley Evans, soprano, conductor Patrick Dupre Quigley (on podium), Heather Buchanan, and trumpeteer.

While attendance was good, I still wish more people would discover and appreciate these local institutions.

Traffic was not bad heading down, but I had a bit of trouble finding off-street parking.  We still had time for a quick meal at Mamoun’s before the concert.  Returning home was quite straightforward.

New York Philharmonic – Jonathan Cohen, conductor. December 12, 2018.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat BB19, $40.)

Program

Messiah (1741) by Handel (1685-1759).

Artists

Lauren Snoufer, soprano; Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor; Andrew Staples, tenor; Neal Davies, bass-baritone.

Westminister Symphonic Choir, Joe Miller, director.

Continuo: Carter Brey, cello; Max Zeugner, bass; Thomas, trumpet; Kent Trittle, organ; Andrew Henderson, harpsichord.

To get a sense of how many Messiah concerts I have attended (not as many as I thought,) I looked back on my blog for them.  One I landed on quite accidentally was the one in 2014.  Some of the words and phrases I used to describe the various components of the performance were: unremarkable, sounded a bit forced, wasn’t at all exceptional, muddled through it.

Without a doubt my assessment of tonight’s concert was very different.  Very soon into the program I was already impressed with how great the oratorio sounded.

The first thing that hit was how precise the chorus was.  Not until it made the first “mistake” (precision) did it occur to me the choir sounded like four voices (instead of four groups of voices,) and that applied to some of the faster 16^th-note runs.  And the phrasing was exquisite.  Oftentimes one could tell how the sopranos strained to reach the high notes (e.g., the A in Hallelujah chorus), but not today.

The individual soloists all did well.  Costanzo, who was impressive in the Glass Handel performance I heard, also did well tonight.  Perhaps it is the characteristic of the countertenor’s range and timbre, the voice didn’t carry as well as it did in the much smaller church a couple of weeks ago.  I suppose the performances were a lot more intimate in Handel’s time. This was the first time I heard Lauren Snouffer sing, and I was impressed.  The aria “I know that my redeemer liveth” was done in a most assured manner.  The Program marks this as her NY Phil debut, although she sang 2014 NY Phil Biennial, per her biography.  The two other male voices were also solid.

And it was always nice to hear the trumpet in the aria “The trumpet shall sound.”

I was ready to crown the performance with “the best ever I have heard” about 30 minutes into the program, and indeed it was a most enjoyable experience.  A poorly performed Messiah can feel likes a few well-known songs with middle-of-the-road material in between; and that was absolutely not the case here.  The quality of the chorus did seem to deteriorate a little bit after the intermission.  One reason may be the length of the program which puts a real demand on the chorus’s voices.  In that sense the Hallelujah Chorus wasn’t as great as I anticipated.

Conclusion of Messiah Performane

There must be many editions of this oratorio.  The version I heard in 2014 was about 15 minutes longer, had a part for a boy soprano, and a virginal was used (although I didn’t see it.)  For tonight we had the conductor at the harpsichord, as well as one sitting behind the orchestra.

Thanks to the 15 minutes that was edited out, I managed to make the 10:20 pm train, although I had to run from the subway terminal to Track 13, and made the train with less than a minute to spare.  Thanks to the NJ Transit App, I could look at the track information and buy the ticket online without going to the monitor or the ticket machine.

My ticket was bought from Goldstar, and the attendance for tonight was quite good.

Metropolitan Opera – Puccini’s Il Trittico. December 5, 2018.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat M22, $25.)

Story.  See previous post.

Conductor – Betrand de Billy.

Cast Il Tabarro: Giorgetta – Amber Wagner, Michele – George Gagnidze, Luigi – Marcelo Alvarez.

Cast Suor Angelica: Sister Angelica – Kristine Opolais, The Princess – Stephanie Blythe, The Monitor – MaryAnn McCormick

Cast Gianni Schicchi: Zita – Stephanie Blythe, Lauretta – Kristina Mkhitaryan, Rinuccio – Atalla Ayan, Gianni Schicchi – Placido Domingo.

Anne and I saw these operas in 2009, while I forgot most of the experience, the writeup I did in some way baselined my expectations.

The Program Notes has a lot of good things to say about these three one-hour operas, including drawing a parallel with hell, purgatory, and heaven.  My encounter tonight would have to stretched considerably to be close to that.  The first opera was clearly very dark, with Michele first killing Luigi and then Giorgetta.  The second opera was just sad, with Angelica committing suicide at the end; the “redemption scene” was an incongruous add-on, in my opinion.  The third one was just a comedy, and contains the famous melody “O mia babbino caro.”  I can’t imagine anyone associating the plot with anything that happens in heaven.  The Program Notes contains remarks to the effect that Suor Angelica is the weakest, and Gianni Schicchi is the strongest.  That would mean Il Tabarro is in the middle.

Not having found deep meaning in the operas, we come to how I reacted to each opera.

Before curtain someone came on stage.  Instead of the announcement of a cast change, she mentioned that Marcelo Alvarez had a sore throat but decided to go on and asked for understanding.  I had heard Alvarez several times, and have characterized his performance from great to adequate.  Tonight’s was more towards the adequate end of the spectrum.  He didn’t seem to have a firm approach to some of the high notes (surprisingly few, in any case.)

Curtain call Il Tabarro (which according to Google Translate means a coat).  The people in the center are Alvarez, Wagner, and Gagnidze.

The headline singer in Suor Angelica was, of course, Kristine Opolais.  With binoculars and a seat in Row M, I had a good view of her role.  I have been puzzled by the praises that have been heaped on her in recent years, and tonight didn’t change that view.  She certainly sang well, but not exceptionally so.  She could also use more coaching in acting.

 Suor Angelica was the only opera where we were shown the set at curtain call.

Blythe and Opolais.  Not sure who is on the left.

Domingo is the big name for Gianni Schicchi.  Many critics have panned Domingo as a baritone, and I had always defended him.  Tonight’s performance would provide ammunition to those who call for his retirement from singing.  It also calls to mind the interview of Beczala who said he would rather retire at his peak as a tenor, rather than follow the footsteps of Domingo (ouch!)  However, it is a monumental achievement to be singing for a 50^th season, as this season is for Domingo.  “O mia babbino caro” is always a crowd pleaser, and is the (short) aria that could well be worth the price of (a regular) admission, but tonight’s rendition was just adequate.

 Domingo at the end of Gianni Schicchi.

The lady in the short red skirt is Mkhitaryan, to her left Domingo, and her right Ayan.

It isn’t a surprise that the standout was Blythe who appeared in 2 of the 3 operas.  In the 2009 performance we saw, Patricia Racette sang all three lead soprano roles.

So my specific comments about the performances were all negative.  However, I was glad to have gone. So, perhaps there is some truth that when taken together, the operas will provide a more powerful effect.

I found some extra time on my hands this week as a trip to Asia didn’t materialize.  While the performance didn’t have too many seats left, I still managed to get a rush ticket, in Row M.  The regular price for this area is $160 (my guess looking at the prices for 12/12), in the typical rush ticket section of Row BB the price is $85.  The view is clearly better, but I am not sure the acoustics is close to twice as good.  Most of Domingo’s singing was done stage right, that probably contributed to my having problems with his performance.

The New York Times review is very positive, even labeling this as “NYT Critic’s Pick.”  In addition to calling this a “very fine” Trittico, the reviewer also had good things to say about all the principals.  Regarding Domingo, the reviewer wrote “That 1968 Times review described him as ‘a strapping fellow with a plangent and sizable voice as well as considerable stage magnetism.’ Fifty years later, I second that.”

With two long intermissions, the three operas – each lasting about an hour – took more than four hours this evening.  I had enough time to walk from Penn Station to Lincoln Center, and had to wait for the 12:05 am train to return to New Jersey.

New Jersey Symphony – Joshua Weilerstein, conductor; Aaron Diehl, piano. December 1, 2018.

State Theatre of New Jersey, New Brunswick.  Orchestra (Seat D103, $25).

Program

La creation du monde (The Creation of the World) (1922-23,) Op. 81 by Milhaud (1892-1974).

Rhapsody in Blue (1924) by Gershwin (1898-1937).

Piano Concerto in D Minor in One Movement (1933) by Price (1987-1953).

Suite from The Firebird (1909-10, 1919 revision) by Stravinsky (1882-1971).

This was an interesting concert, all the pieces were composed within 20 years or so, in early 20^th century.  Joshua Weilerstein was the assistant conductor of New York Philharmonic, and now leads an ensemble in Lausanne.  He is the brother of the well-known cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

French composer Darius Milhaud was known for polytonality, jazz, and Brazilian rhythms.  The Program Notes added “an unmistakable French irony.”  Again per the Program Notes, “The Creation” was derived from African folk tales.  I am sure there are multiple versions of how the world came into being in the diverse continent, and wonder what particular regional tales Milhaud had in mind when he wrote this.  (We can start with the former French colonies, I guess.)

The piece was performed by a small ensemble, dominated by woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments.  The creation story is told by the sequential introduction of animals, vegetables, then man and woman who come to awareness, desire, consummation, and fulfillment.  Easy enough, except I didn’t get the “plot” at all, such as it is.  I did hear the clarinet solo, but couldn’t associate it with “the human couple’s dance of desire.”  I suppose additional hearings would make me more appreciative of the piece.  For this hearing, the only “characteristic” I could get was the jazz.

The opening theme from George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue is well-known, especially for someone who sits inside United Airlines aircraft a lot.  While I am sure I have heard this before, I was familiar only with segments it, totaling less than 5 minutes.  To a jazz aficionado, the intervening parts where the music meanders on must sound great, to me it was just music meandering.  I wonder if I will ever get to appreciate jazz in all its forms.

Weilerstein did relay a story about Gershwin talking to Ravel and Stravinsky about learning composition from them.  Ravel’s answer was Gershwin shouldn’t try to be the second Ravel, and Stravinsky, after finding out how much Gershwin made, said may be he should be Gershwin’s student instead.  He also talked about how unusual Florence Beatrice Price’s life was.

This was our first encounter with Price, the first African-American female composer to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra (the Chicago Symphony, no less.)  Only the reduced score was left (didn’t they have an archival system at CSO?), and what we heard today was reconstructed by Trevor Weston of Drew University.  The style is “neo-romantic,” which to me simply meant traditional.  The Program Notes for a concert I attended recently mentioned that Dvorak thought it would be proper for American composers to find their voice in spirituals; regardless of if Price had met Dvorak (as Weilerstein mused), there were certain some similarities in the sound with the New World Symphony.

Aaron Diehl after performing the two piano pieces.

Frankly, up to this point the concert had been more a lesson in musicology, illustrating what composers did during the 30 or so year time period.  So I was happy to be on familiar ground when the Suite from The Firebird was performed.  It closed out the evening in some enjoyable music.  The excerpts are: Introduction and Dance of the Firebird, Dance of the Princesses, Infernal Dance of King Katschei, Berceuse, and Finale.

Joshua Weilerstein led a spirited rendition of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.

We were at our Pastor’s house for dinner, and mistimed when we left, so we just made it to the State Theatre.  Our tickets at $25 each were a great deal, and the auditorium was reasonably full (at least the orchestra section.)

Faculty Recital – Yi-Heng Yang, fortepiano. November 30, 2018.

Room 350, Mannes School of Music, The New School, Manhattan.

Program

Polonaises F. 12 by W. F. Bach (1710-1784).

   No. 1 in C Major

   No. 8 in E Minor

   No. 12 in G Minor

Sonata in G Major for Violin and Piano, I. 379 by Mozart (1756-1791).

Trio in D Major, Hob XV. 24 by Haydn (1732-1809).

Melody from Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck (1714-1787).

Sonata in A Major, op. 30 no. 1 by Beethoven (1770-1827).

Artists

Daniel Lee, violin

Max Zeugner, double bass

Yi-Heng is on the faculty of Mannes, and her father told us about this recital.

Yi-Heng began by explaining the instrument in the relatively small room (filled with about 40 people, I had to sit on the window sill,) and how the different registers were designed to mimic the sounds of different instruments. The one used this evening is a replica of one in use in Mozart’s time, and the original sits in the Mozart museum in Salzburg.  The instrument is well suited for an intimate setting such as tonight’s.

The audience for the recital.  It packed the small room.

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was one of J. S. Bach’s many children, and considered one of the best composers among them.  The three short polonaises help me understand (somewhat) the characteristics of the instrument.

Per Chung Shu, Daniel Lee is currently teaching at Yale, and has known Yi-Heng for a long time.  He played tonight’s pieces on a violin strung with gut strings.  Gut strings are sensitive to heat and humidity, and the overcrowded room proved to be a problem.  The violin sound started well, but by the time the concert ended Lee had problems with getting the strings to behave properly, including incidences where no sound would come out (a wet string may not cling to the rosin that readily, that’d be my guess.)

Mozart’s sonata’s tempo markings are (i) Adagio-Allegro; and (ii) Andantino cantabile – Allegretto.  Haydn’s trio was written for the violin, cello, and the piano.  Tonight the cello part was replaced by the double bass.  It worked well.  Max told me afterwards there was no need to transcribe the part.  Reasonable, as the bass is tuned an octave lower than the cello.  The trio’s movements are Allegro; Andante; and Allegro,  ma dolce.

The musicians after performance of the Haydn trio.

The melody from Gluck’s opera isn’t from the one I am familiar with, and played on the double bass sounded very nice.  One could get into an argument if the cello or the bass is the better sounding instrument.

Beethoven’s sixth violin sonata has three movements: Allegro, Adagio, and Allegretto con Varazioni.  I had never heard a Beethoven violin sonata played on period instruments before,   it certainly sounded quite different from how Beethoven’s violin sonatas usually sound.  I guess the fortepiano was still used during Beethoven’s time, so this could have been how Beethoven intended it.

I was able to get most of the music on my iPhone and could follow along.

Chung Shu, Anne and I took the train.  We had dinner at Chipotle’s.

New York Philharmonic – Jaap van Zweden, conductor; Simone Lamsma, violin. November 29, 2018.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra 2 (Seat BB106, $62.50).

Program

Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 15 (1938-39, rev. 1950, 1954, 1965) by Britten (1913-76).

Symphony No. 7, Op. 60, Leningrad (1941) by Shostakovich (1906-75).

I bought tonight’s tickets as part of the subscription I signed up for in the summer, and only knew of the headline “Jaap Van Zweden Conducts Shostakovich.”  That was good enough for me to pick the concert.

I found out earlier today the specifics of the program.  It is some strange coincidence that a piece I hadn’t heard before this month, I would hear twice this month (the Britten violin concerto.)  The Shostakovich piece is 77 minutes long per the Playbill, long enough to be a full-length concert by itself.  Put together we have a program over 100 minutes long, rather substantial by any measure.

Simone Lamsma is a Dutch violinist in her 30s, and this was her first appearance with the New York Philharmonic.  Although we heard this played early this month, the piece still sounded as difficult as it did then.  Lamsma certainly could rise up to the technical challenges.  It would be difficult not to compare how her playing stacked up against Hadelich’s, and – with great reluctance – I must give the nod to Hadelich.  Tonight there were more intonation problems, some sloppiness with the harmonics, and I on occasion detected hesitation.

The “Mlynardski” Stradivarius (1718) she performed on sounded very smooth, it projected very well to our seats.  At times it was a bit overwhelmed by the orchestra, though.

Simone Lamsam after performing the Britten Violin Concerto.

In any case, it was violin performance at its peak form, and I was glad to see it a second time.

Lamsma performed a short encore (she announced it from the stage, but I and those around me couldn’t make out what she was saying.)  It was an virtuoso piece, but it would be difficult to get a piece to showcase more of the musician’s prowess after the Britten piece. And this one doesn’t have the glissandi and left-hand pizzicatos required by Britten.

The Playbill contains much background about the Shostakovich symphony, completed at the end of 1941, during the siege of the city.  It was premiered in March, 1942, and found its way to the New York Philharmonic in October, 1942.  The most recent performance by this orchestra was in 2005.  I am quite sure this was my first exposure.

The music didn’t sound as grim as its background would suggest.  Compared to how Shostakovich can sound, this could even be considered sunny.  What most stood out for me was this theme that got repeated by nearly all the sections of the orchestra.  The siege had just started, and all the horrors of the two-plus year siege had not yet visited on Leningrad.  When the symphony was first performed in Leningrad about a year into the siege, the effect was tremendous: “tears of deep feeling welled up in their eyes.  They had not cried over the dead bodies of their loved ones in winter, but now the tears came, …”  Twenty-seven musicians who had rehearsed did not play in the concert, 25 because they had died.

A full orchestra was used, with a large number of percussion instruments, and more than usual number of brasses (seated on both ends of the stage.)  It sounded loud at times for us, we only hope the players wear ear protection.

The full orchestra sounded very loud at times.  Note the brass players at both ends of the orchestra.

This has been a busy week for concerts.  I will need to wrap this write-up very quickly so as not to fall behind.  On Monday I saw Glass Handel with Chung Shu, Wednesday the Pearl Fishers, Thursday evening this New York Philharmonic concert, earlier this (Friday) evening a Mannes faculty concert featuring Yi-heng and Max (guess who told us about the event), and we have tickets for tomorrow’s New Jersey Symphony concert.  So it will be five concerts in six days, four of them in New York City. I feel a bit rushed and overwhelmed, but not tired.

The New York Times review of the program is generally positive, although less insightful than what I usually expect.  The snare drum with the repeated themes also reminded the reviewer of Bolero.  Turns out Lamsma and van Zweden’s cooperation went as far back as 2007.

We were at Ellie’s in the afternoon, and left Hoboken for Lincoln Center around 4:30 pm.  Traffic was okay and we found parking on 70^th.  We were early enough that we found time to eat at Legend 72. The ramp to Turnpike Eastern spur was closed when we exited Lincoln Tunnel, but the detour didn't add a lot of time to our drive home.

Metropolitan Opera – Bizet’s Les Pecheurs de Perles. November 29, 2018.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat CC26, $25.)

Story.  See previous post.

Conductor – Emmanuel Villaume.  Zurga – Alexander Birch Elliott, Nadir – Javier Camerena, Leila – Pretty Yende, Nourabad – Nicolas Teste.

This was the second time I saw this production of this opera at the Met, and the fourth time overall.

My Rush Ticket seat was in the right rear orchestra section, so I had a completely different perspective of the production, compared to what I saw in January, 2016.

This time, I was not nearly as impressed with the set design.  At the 2016 performance I felt it was a very poetic and effective design (if memory serves,) For tonight it served the purpose, and that was about it.  The dreamy waves that turned into a storm were not nearly as dreamy or menacing, and I am sure I saw people at the back moving the sheets around.  I didn’t catch the divers that climbed onto the boat either, only someone sitting in the swaying boat (no one prone to motion sickness need apply.)

The auditorium was quite full, which was good.

However, I did get to appreciate the story.  While there were still holes in the plot, I could follow much better the emotional trajectory through which it took the audience.  Similar, I enjoyed many of the music numbers beyond the famous duet between the leading men.  The orchestra sounded well the few moments I managed to pay attention to it, and there was none of the jitters I logged in my two previous entries.

The program artists for Zurga and Nadir were Kwiecien and Camerena.  Elliott was called as the stand-in for Kwiecien because of illness.  This is the first time I came across the name Elliott, but he did well, at times at the “breakthrough” level (of course for all I know he may be already world-renowned.)  Camerena had one of the few encores I heard a few years ago in Cinderella (Rossini’s version.)  He did well today, but the performance didn’t quite measure up to my expectations.

Pretty Yende is a recent addition to the Met’s roster, and this is the first time I saw her perform.  She has a beautiful voice that came through very well.  There were slight intonation problems, and harshness sometimes crept it, but I am sure she will be heard from often.  Indeed she will sing the role of Marie in La Fille du Regiment at the Met early next year.

Curtain Call.

Here is the New York Times review.  The reviewer loves Yende, and compares Camerena’s singing to Polenzani’s (whom we also saw.)  In that performance (11/14) Elliott stepped in mid-performance to substitute.  I appreciated the short synopsis she gave, which includes “But then!  Zurga has a better idea.  He sets fire to his village so Nadir and Leila can escape.  They seem as confused as the audience at this point, … Curtain.”

I had to help out at Ellie’s this afternoon, so I took the bus from Hoboken to New York City.  On the way back there were delays in the subway system due to track repairs, so I didn’t get back to Hoboken until after 11 pm.  After eating at Mamoun’s, it was around 12:30 pm that I was home.

What does food from Mamoun's have to do with the opera?  Well, this is my blog, and I can post whatever I want.

Glass Handel. Eric Jacobson, conductor; Anthony Roth Costanzo, counter-tenor. November 26, 2018.

Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York City.  Apse, center rear.

Program – Music by George Frederic Handel and Philip Glass

Handel – Inumano fratel … Stille amare (Tolomeo)

Glass – Liquid Days

Handel Rompo I Lacci (Flavio)

Handel Lascia Ch’io Pianga (Rinaldo)

Glass In the Arc of Your Mallet (Monsters of Grace)

Handel Vivi Tiranno (Rodelinda)

Glass How All Living Things Breathe (The Fall of the House of Usher)

Handel Pena Tiranna (Armadigi di Gaula)

Glass The Encounter (1000 Airplanes on the Road)

Cast

Painter – George Condo

Dancers – Daniel Applebaum, Patricia Delgado, Ricky Ubeda, Zoe Zien

Orchestra

People Movers

If I am asked to have one description about this concert, I would characterize it as a recital by the counter-tenor Constanzo.  But that would be short-changing it, by a lot.  Let me explain.

Chung Shu had a ticket he couldn’t use, so I came along.  I think he told me (via email) that the concert is called “Glass Handel,” and that his daughter would be at the harpsichord.  I just assumed it was Handel, played in a particularly way – probably with period instruments, as the harpsichord is involved.

That would be a fraction of half correct.  Indeed the program consisted of alternate songs by Handel and Glass.  Many, if not all, of them are arias from the composer’s operas.  While one could definitely hear a huge difference between Handel’s and Glass’s music, the same baroque orchestra (for lack of a better description) was used.  And strangely, the whole thing felt natural.

Behind the orchestra was a screen with a painter behind it.  His shadow would be cast on the screen as he painted on the white canvass.  He was busy at work during the approximately 60-minute duration of the program, and managed to fill the rather large canvass with some beautiful images.

To the orchestra’s right (from my perspective) was a platform for up to four ballet dancers.  The location was such that I had to make an effort to look at them, and therefore didn’t see them much.  For one number a dancer was on center stage.

To the orchestra’s left was a screen where “opera music videos” (I would simply call them “music videos”) were projected.  They ranged from the surreal, the idyllic, the dreamy, to the melancholic.

All this was enough to keep one’s senses fully occupied.  On top of that, Constanzo went through three costumes, from bright red, to blue, to patterns on white.  By taking the layered approach, not much time was needed as he shed the dresses during the performance.  I enjoyed his strong singing voice.  His name is quite familiar, and I do have several entries about him in this blog.

The three costumes worn by Costanzo for the concert.  Notice the progress in the painting behind him.  The shadow of the painter could be seen while he was doing his work (not captured in these photos.)

Curtain Call.  From right: conductor, dancers, guy in white shirt (painter?), Costanzo, and guy in black coat (I have no idea.)

The most puzzling were these 25 or so “people movers” dressed in red tops and black pants who lifted the seats in the audience (with people in them) one by one with “wheelbarrows” from one location to another.  During the entire program.  Our seats were “static” so we didn’t get the ride.  After a while I decided there was no meaning I could get out of it.  My view of the stage, unfortunately, was blocked quite often.  Since the people that got moved had even more disruption, perhaps I needed a different mindset and looked at the whole program as more than just an audio-visual experience.

There would be two performances of this program for today and the day after, it must put quite a strain on the performers.

I took the train in on this raining day.  Chung Shu and I met up at Panda for a quick bite before the concert.  By moving from the local 1 train to the 2 train at 96 Street station, we managed to make the 9:38 pm train back home by 2 minutes.

A search of the web yielded this New York Times article from September 2018 that talked about how Costanzo went about getting the project realized.

The Philadelphia Orchestra – Yannick Nezet-Seguin, conductor; Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano. November 13, 2018.

Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall.  Balcony (Seat D34, $20.)

Program

Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin (1848) by Wagner (1813-1883).

Anthology of Fantastic Zoology (2014) by Bates (b. 1977).

Poeme de l’amour et de la mer, Op. 19 (1882-1890, rev. 1893) by Chausson (1855-1899).

Fountains of Rome (1915-1916) by Respighi (1879-1936).

As the “At a Glance” of the Playbill describes it, tonight’s program was inspired by “a medieval German legend, the magical realism of Jorge Luis Borges, French poetry, and the sights of Rome.”  Indeed, there is a “program” behind each of the compositions.

Of the ten Wagner operas (per the Playbill) that are still performed regularly today, the only one I haven’t seen is Lohengrin, who is the son of Parsifal, and a guardian of the Holy Grail.  The prelude is supposed to start softly, builds to a crescendo representing the unveiling of the grail, and then returns to the soft opening to conclude.  It sounded well enough, but I thought the dynamics was a bit on the flat side.

A few words about our tickets.  Recently I installed this TodayTix APP on my phone which offers discounted tickets to mostly Broadway-like shows, but they do have a few Met, NY Phil, and Carnegie Performances on there.  Today’s tickets were discounted from $43, and were supposed to be “center balcony.”  They were actually on the far right hand side, and we moved to some empty seats one section closer to the center after the Prelude.  While $20 is a great value, I do wonder if I should’ve shelled out more for better seats in this auditorium.  The acoustics was good, but my complaint about Carnegie Hall is the sound can be “too clean,” for lack of a better phrase, still applies.

The stage looked really far away from our seats in the balcony.  We could hear the music well, most of the time.

Mason Bates wrote the Anthology based on the short book by Borges.  The work consists of 11 movements, played without pause: Forest:Twilight; Sprite; Dusk; The A Bao A Qu; Nymphs; Night; The Gryphon; Midnight; Sirens; The Zaratan; Madrugada.  In the Program Notes Bates provides a description of the various creatures and how he constructed the music.  One interesting movement is “The A Bao A Qu,” describing a snake slithering up a tower, molting at the top, and slides back down.  The movement is an exact palindrome.  I could tell which movement it was, but didn’t catch how the music was reversed.  (It took me a while to get the Rachmaninoff inversion, which is simpler.)  The descriptions of the movements are such that the audience spends a lot of time trying to match them to the music.  (And what does “luring the violins one by one” mean practically?)  Eventually I thought 30 minutes of this intellectual exercise was too much and gave up. At that point the music just sounded flat and meandering until the orchestra picked up the pace for a loud finale.

The composer Mason Bates came on stage at the conclusion of the performance of his piece.  Notice the array of percussion instruments in the back, they kept the three percussionists very busy.  The keyboard artist does double duty on the piano and the celesta.

One noteworthy characteristic of the composition is the use of many percussion instruments.  The Program Notes lists 27 different kinds (counting the piano and the celesta,) and the percussionists had to go back and forth for the different instruments.  With 9 drums and 2 music stands in front of him, the timpanist got a work out.  He did great.

The timpanist had a real workout, attending to nine drums.  He also has two music stands.

One can find video clips of this work on YouTube.  I wonder how likely I will listen to them?

While the Chausson piece was about 30 minutes long, a lot of that was taken up by the orchestra.  Indeed in the video clip on the Carnegie Hall website Nezet-Seguin describes the voice as an integrated part of the music.

There is something about French love songs (even classical ones) that make them appealing.  I don’t know how good DiDonato’s French is, but she certainly painted a beautiful and melancholic picture with her delivery.  The sadness is described by one critic as “the inexpressible horror of dead love.”  I simply found the words “the season for lilac and the season for roses will not come back …” incredibly regretful.  I have always liked DiDonato’s sound, too bad sometimes it didn’t carry well into the balcony.

Joyce DiDonato at the end of Chausson's Poeme.

Respighi used the Fountains of Rome to describe four fountains around the city in four different parts of the day.  I was in Rome recently, and really should have visited these fountains (and the pines.)  I have visit Trevi and Triton, but not Valle Giulia and Villa Medici.)  The only other blog entry for this work was a concert I attended while visiting Montepulciano, Italy during a family vacation in 2013.  Embarrassingly, tonight’s performance didn’t feel that different from the one by the Orchestra of the Royal Northern College of Music of Manchester, held outdoors in a cool evening.

It was a good concert, and we enjoyed it despite our seats far away from the stage.  I had higher expectations though.  Things sometimes look better on paper.

Metropolitan Opera – Boito’s Mefistofele. November 12, 2018.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat BB31, $25).

Story and cast.  See previous blog.

Yes, I went back to see this opera.  Bottomline: going a second time added a lot to my understanding and appreciation of the opera.

While the auditorium was still reasonably filled, I managed to move in a few seats (to BB27) at the start of the performance, and to AA17 after the first intermission.

Perhaps it is the location, or perhaps this was the second performance this season, the singers sounded much better this evening.  Both van Horn and Fabiano sounded strong, and Meade was exquisite, especially the aria she sang lamenting the deaths of her mother and child. Fabiano’s voice was a bit strained when he had to belt out the high notes, though.  Compared to the three, Check was quite weak.

I also managed to jot down the different scenes of the play: Prologue – where the choruses sang praises to God; Act I, Scene 1: Carnival, at the end of which Faust met Mefistofele; Act I, Scene 2: Faust’s study, with a telescope symbolizing his quest for knowledge; Act II, Scene 1: a garden scene that Margherita’s mother spins with a ‘mill’ mechanism, it was here that Fabiano had trouble with the high notes; Act II, Scene 2: Witches’ Sabbath scene; Act III: Margherita is in prison, but finds redemption when she renounces Faust; Act IV: ancient Greece - I didn’t realize that Faust and Mefistofele walked down the aisle at the start of the act to get on stage; Epilogue, Scene 1: Faust’s study where he contemplates the futility of it all; Epilogue, Scene 2: back to original set, here Faust dies.  He remains a young man after his transformation in Act II; I guess there isn’t an opportunity to put on the considerable make-up to age Fabiano.

The story was a bit more coherent, but I still don’t understand why or how Margherita and Faust get redeemed.

Meade’s total time on stage is about 35 minutes.  In that time she manages the aforementioned aria, and the duet “Lontano, Lontano” with Fabiano.

Curtain as viewed from Orchestra Seat AA17.

I took the train in, and the train schedule was such that I didn’t get home until after 1 am.  And dinner was after 11:30 pm at Wasabi in Penn Station.  I am glad I took the time to go.

This is not a food blog, but Box and soda at Wasabi in Penn Station for $16.90, not bad.