Opera for All Voices. Chandler Carter's This Little Light of Mine. October 29, 2022.

Lensic Performance Arts Center.  Sante Fe, NM. Balcony (first row, left, $25).

Synopsis.  The opera follows the life of Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) from a share-cropper to a civil rights activist, emphasizing events that happened during (approximately) the years 1962 to sometime shortly before her death.  See the "official" version in the screenshot below.

Conductor - Jeri Lynne Johnson; Fannie Lou Hamer - Nicole Joy Mitchel, Dorothy Jean Hamer - Kearstin Piper Brown; June Johnson/SNCC Worker - Heather Hill.

Fannie Lou Hamer

We are visiting New Mexico and I came across this event.  The opera featured prominently on the Sante Fe Opera's website, and was commissioned "by the Sante Fe Opera through Opera for All Voices."  My interpretation of this was Sante Fe paid for the composition, but a "community opera" will be performing it.

Lensic Performance Arts Center reminds one of Count Basie and State Theater.  It is in very good condition, so perhaps also renovated recently (indeed completed in 2001).  The theater seats around 800 people, and attendance was 60 to 70% for tonight's performance.  There were very few African American in the audience, perhaps a reflection of Sante Fe's demographics (less than 1%; for the State, 2%).

I didn't know what to expect from the story.  Turns out one didn't have to be too graphic to relate the horrors blacks suffered at that time.  Events that came to mind are: a hysterectomy was performed on Fannie Lou without her knowledge, she was beaten up for standing up for her rights, she was fired soon after her attempt to register to vote, her negotiations with Hubert Humphrey, and her daughter dying young.

The staging was minimal.  The backdrop is a screen with different images and videos projected on it.  The main prop is a platform.  Put some chairs on it, and it is a bus or a church, put a facade in the front and it is a house, project some bars on the screen and it is a jail cell.  Sometimes Fannie Lou would sing as a video of (the real) her is played saying the same words.  The list of orchestra members is short, but produced an adequate sound that balanced well with the vocal lines.

Before the opera started, the composer Chandler Carter came on stage to describe a little bit about the process, and acknowledged the presence of the librettist Diana Solomon-Glover.  Brown, billed as Dorothy Jean, also played many other roles, including a pastor and a white police officer.  There is a warning of "strong language, racial slurs and symbols of violence."

People in the front row: Conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson, Composer Chandler Carter, Librettist Diana Solomon-Glover, Brown, Mitchell, and Hill.

Given the politics of today, one often forgets how necessary the civil rights movement is.  And this also puts the birth of liberation theology in perspective.  It was great that I got a refresher on these issues.

It should be quite easy to get to the venue.  But this was Halloween weekend, so we were caught in traffic - that we missed the entrance didn't help.  We made it to the seats with 10 minutes to spare.

New York Philharmonic. Jaap van Zweden, conductor; Roomful of Teeth, vocal ensemble. October 22, 2022.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat M104, $42.50).

Program

Prelude a l'apres-midi d'u faune (1892-94) by Debussy (1862-1918).

Microfictions, Vol. 3 (2022) by Caroline Shaw (b. 1982).

Symphony No. 4 in D minor (late 1930s) by Price (1887-1953).

Recently I took advantage of a CYO sale and bought tickets to three concerts for the season.  This was not one of those three, but I decided to take advantage of the $35 "any seat" offer.  Anne and I had to look after the grandchildren in Hoboken while their parents were away for the weekend, so I went to the concert by myself.

Nowadays it seems every concert has a piece by a modern woman composer such as Caroline Shaw or Jesse Montgomery.  Today's program also featured a symphony by Florence Price.

The other noteworthy aspect of this concert is that the New York Philharmonic, after in exile for about two year during the hall's renovation (compounded by COVID), has returned to David Geffen Hall.  I was interested in seeing how the new hall worked.

Shaw's piece was commissioned as part of Project 19 to commemorate the 19th Amendment passed in 1920.  Microfictions Volume 1 was premiered by the Miro Quartet in 2021, Volume 2, a cello solo for Alisa Weilerstein, has not been premiered.  Volume 3 was first performed in Bergen, Norway on July 8, 2022, and this series is the US premiere of the work.  One can conclude from the titles that all three would sound very different, and wonder if there is some sort of uniformity in the musical language used across the pieces.  I heard Shaw's piece Blueprint more than six years ago.

Evidently there is this genre called "microfiction" where stories are limited to 280 characters.  Shaw was trying to paint different micro images with each of the movements, although she took a lot more notes to do the job (or a word is worth a thousand notes?).  Here an ensemble of eight singers would add texture to the music.  Mostly vocalizations, other than a short unintelligible phrase here or there.

What do I think?  The effect sounded interesting, but gets monotonous after a couple of minutes.  It reminds me of Philip Glass, where the overall pace is quite slow as the music slowly changes direction through phrases that change imperceptibly as they get repeated.  At about the 20-minute mark I was wondering how different things could be in the next ten minutes (Program Notes estimated time of 30 minutes).  Things built quickly to a climax and the music ended, somewhat to my relief.

Roomful of Teeth is an octet of which Shaw is an original member.  Shaw participated in the performance.

It is interesting to see if there will be eventually a "Caroline Shaw Sound," as distinct as Glass's.

After the performance of Caroline Shaw's Microfictions, Vol. 3.  Shaw is the third person from the left (dark jacket, bowing).  She was invited onto the podium also.

The young man seated next to me clearly enjoyed it.  He owns the album, loves it, and was excited to see the piece performed live.  I wonder if Shaw's appeal is also a generational thing.

Price certainly could write some very difficult passages for the orchestra.  Her music is quite traditional, so languished in relative obscurity for a while until the current craze (for lack of a better word) to program women composers - especially minority women - into concerts.  Fair or not, one thinks of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, or Shostakovich as the typical twentieth century composer; or more parochially Gershwin, Copland, and Ives.  As a result, the best people can do is date this symphony to the late 1930s, and the piece was premiered in 2018.

Two noteworthy (as far as the Program Notes is concerned) facts.  One is an oboe melody that's surprisingly similar to one in Dvorak's New World.  Melodies of this kind permeated African American soundscape, and I agree (as the Notes implies) that different composers can reference them as they see fit.  The other is the use of the "Juba dance" theme in the scherzo.  The fragment included in the Notes is simple enough, but I frankly didn't catch it.

A musicologist can analyze Price's music for her composition techniques, her ability to organize, her use of different orchestral colors, and how she could weave the motivic material through the movements of her work like a silken thread (all these phrases found in the Program Notes), the fact of the matter is as a 20th century composition one expects something more avant-garde than this, and when compared with more traditional works not quite at the level of a Sibelius or Dvorak.

After performance of Price's Symphony.  It's good to see New York Phil live again.  There were a couple of notable personnel changes in the orchestra.

Unfortunately I didn't make it to Lincoln Center in time to hear the Debussy piece, which should be interesting to hear as the concert hall was newly renovated.  To travel from Hoboken via bus and subway should take about 45 minutes to an hour.  Bus 126 didn't show up at the stop for 15 minutes, Lincoln Tunnel was very congested, and the No. 1 train also took about 15 minutes to show up at the Port Authority Station.  And it didn't stop until the 72 Street station which meant an eight minute additional walk.  Any of these wouldn't have been a problem, but the combination made me miss the Debussy piece, and just barely got seated for the Shaw piece.  (It took me less than an hour for the return trip.)

The young man next to me said the Debussy sounded great, although as a new resident of NYC this was his first concert at Lincoln Center.  The Roomful singers used microphones, and I have nothing to compare the Price symphony with, so while I have no complaints about the acoustics, I am in no position to determine if I like it more.

I noticed the absence of Eileen Moon-Myers, and the return of Liang Wang.  The formed resigned for personal reasons, and the latter after winning an arbitration case.

The common area outside the auditorium has a rather modern look it it.  However, the general color scheme is a bit darker than I'd like.

In the old Avery Fisher Hall there was this slight unease about falling off the (inside) balcony.  The new hall has solved that problem, at least for me.

The blue carpet on the steps (only a little shown in this photo) looks dated already, especially against these bright tiles adorning the walls.

Now one can sit behind the stage.  One can somewhat relate the new layout with the old one.

It used to be simply Avery Fisher Hall.  If the lobby, the theater, and the stage were named for other people, their names were certainly not prominently displayed.  News reports say the theater was name Wu Tsai for a $50M donation, I wonder how much it cost for the lobby and the stage.  In contrast, David Geffen is not seen inside the Hall at all.  May be a case could be made that he gets some of the money back?

Metropolitan Opera. Cherubini's Medea. October 18, 2022.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Balcony (Seat D110, $87.50).

Story.  Jason (Giasone) of Gold Fleece and Argo fame married Medea while in Colchis, they had two sons.  After they moved to Corinth, Jason abandoned Medea while taking custody of the children, and was to be married to Glauce, daughter of King Creonte.  As the wedding is celebrated, Medea appears with her maid ("confidante" in the Program Notes).  She is asked by Creonte to leave, but is successful in pleading for an extra day so she can say farewell to her children, whom are brought to her.  She kills the children, and the gifts she gave Glauce (a robe and a diadem) kill Glauce.  She ends up going up in flames inside the temple holding the bodies of her two sons.

Conductor - Carlo Rizzi; Glauce - Janai Brugger, Creonte - Michele Pertusi, Giasone - Matthew Polenzani, Medea - Sondra Radvanovsky, Neris - Olivia Vote.

View of stage from my seat in the Balcony.  The performance was well-attended.

These two photographs on display at the Dress Circle level (I think) depict scenes from Medea.  I took them on 3/28/2023, while I watched Lohengrin.

The story in the opera begins with the preparation for the wedding of Glauce to Jason, and indeed there are many details put in the story (e.g., Medea struggling to decide what to do with her sons).  The neighbors seated next to me both agree the story is straightforward.

The synopsis for the opera describe a powerful portrayal of how one devolves from being a victim to one bent on revenge ("this entire palate of emotion," as described in the Program Notes).  Medea, however, comes across as mostly a sympathetic figure: a woman abandoned and scorned, and finally decided she couldn't take it anymore, killing her children before killing herself.  Radvanovsky's portrayal elicits pity, but not disgust, fear, and dread.  Perhaps that was the intention, or because her voice is just not appropriate for such emotions.  There is a reason why villains are mostly sung by basses.

She can't quite act the part of a villain either.  The only "fear" she elicited was when she first appeared, covered in a net.  That quickly went away after she removed the veil.  The most hatred she can summon is this slightly hunched stance with clenched fists.  Given the right role, she can be an incredible actor: as Queen Elizabeth in Roberto Devereux at the Met, and more recently as Maddelena in Andrea Chenier in Covent Garden.

The set, designed by David McVicar, was simple.  In the center of the stage there is this partition, which can be a wall or a door depending on the scene.  The "inside" can be a wedding venue, a banquet hall, a bedroom, or - for the final scene - the inside of a temple.  A huge slanted mirror in the back helps generate a somewhat eerie effect from relatively spartan sets - and make the sets twice as rich in the process.

The setting is supposed to be Corinth, at around 1200 BC.  While I can't comment on whether people at that time had light stands, or how they were dressed, I am quite sure they didn't wear eyeglasses or carry rifles around.

The well-known Italian opera composers are Rossini, Verdi, and Puccini.  My limited experience with these composers would place Cherubini between Rossini and Verdi, but closer to the latter.  Just to check: Rossini (1792-1868), Verdi (1813-1901), Puccini (1858-1924); the birth year for Cherubini (1760-1842) would put him before Rossini.  So much for my music sense.  The Program Notes says he was admired by his contemporaries Haydn and Beethoven.  The opera was originally written in French, with considerable spoken dialog.  

And how's the music?  Pleasant, and dramatic as needed.  Medea is the opera, and she is called to sing some very demanding and long arias, which Radvanovsky did very well.  The other standout aria was a rather long one sung by Olivia Vote as Neris, made particularly poignant as a duet with the bassoon, with a subdued orchestra in the background.  Two problems for the casual listener, though: the tunes, while pleasant, are not quite hummable; on their own they don't always portray the emotional state of the singer.

This was the sixth (ever) performance of this opera, and this is the first season Met stages the opera.  Some obscure operas are hidden gems, some are not popular for a reason.

The panels slide open and close, and behind them are sets for various scenes.

Close up (as far as I could) of Radvanovsky.

Curtain call, including conductor and choirmaster.

New installation at the landing.

After all the rush tickets (if any) were sold out, these prices are what I saw on the Metopera webpage.  For $1M I am sure they will be happy to arrange a seat for you, including a chair on stage if necessary.  I got a huge discount as my ticket cost only $87.50.

I tried to get a rush ticket for the performance, but forgot I had to be logged on to do that.  By the time I got in, the performance was sold out.  The full price ticket I got is cheaper than the last one (La Traviata), I guess no one planned for inflation when the prices for this season were set.  The house was full.  Masks requirements would be dropped at the end of the month, but they were still strictly adhered to for this performance.

I took the train as I was going by myself.  The experience wasn't bad at all.  They did renovate parts of Penn Station.  I notice most people were against the wall in the subway stations, perhaps a precaution as a result of the recent pushing incidents.  The train going to New York was empty, but quite crowded on the way back.  I made it to Penn Station at 10:19 pm for the 10:20 pm train.

Midtown Concerts - In the Middle of Mozart. Yi-heng Yang, fortepiano; Aisslinn Nosky, violin. October 13, 2022.

Livestreamed.  Free.

Event location: St. Malachy's Church, New York.

Program

Trio a due violini e basso in B-flat Major (arranged for violin and fortepiano) by Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen (1745-1818).  Allegro no tanto - Adagio - Allegro.

Sonata in E-flat Major, KV. 302 by Mozart (1756-1791).  Allegro - Rondo: Andante grazioso.

Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 1, No. 2 by Jane Mary Guest (1762-1846).  Allegro - Minuetto Grazioso.

Sonata for piano and violin, Op. 16, No. 3 by J.C. Bach (1735-1782).

Sonata for piano and violin in E minor by Mozart.  Allegro - Tempo di Menuetto.

CS alerted us to this concert, which we enjoyed in the comfort of our living room.

It was a delightful performance of easy-listening pieces, five of them in 45 minutes.  Clearly we had a period instrument in the fortepiano, but I couldn't tell if the violin was a period instrument.  The bow looked modern, the violinist used a moderate amount of vibrato, but she had to tune her instrument often: so either gut strings, or new ones.

This was my first encounter with the early women composers Sirmen and Guest.  And I was happy to "meet them."

The only piece I know well is the last one on the program.  I suspect most violin students would have encountered it in their relatively early student days.  It sounded a bit hurried, and consequently a bit chaotic.  Perhaps the performers were watching the clock?

The Sirmen piece was originally written for 2 violins and a bass.  I wonder who did the arrangement for the piano/violin combination.  There are no doubt many more notes involved in doing the arrangement.

Nosky is the concertmaster of the Boston Handel-Haydn society.  Yang teaches at Julliard.

A recording of this concert is available on YouTube  Above is a screenshot.

One of the benefits of living in the NYC area is access to these intimate events on a regular basis.  This "Midtown Concerts" organization has a weekly program that lasts the good part of a year.  (On good authority) they seem to pay the performers a minimal amount.

Boston Symphony Orchestra. Andris Nelsons, conductor; Jennifer Koh, violin. October 7, 2022.

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA.  Balcony Center (Seat E15, $60.50).

Program

Starling Variations (2022) by Elizabeth Ogonek (b. 1989).

Serenade (after Plato's Symposium), for violin and orchestra (1954) by Bernstein (1918-1990).

Chichester Psalms (1965) by Bernstein.

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat, Op. 20, The First of May (1929) by Shostakovich (1906-1975).

Artists

Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton, conductor.

Linus Schafer-Goulthorpe, boy soprano.

Solo Quartet: Natalia Hubner, soprano; Lena Costello, alto; Stephen Chrzan, tenor; Matthew Christopher, bass.

We were visiting the area for a few days, and had time to take in this concert.  Except for a couple of Princeton Chamber Concerts, this would be the first "full scale" concert we went to since our European trip (last concert on that trip was Andrea Chenier at Deutsche Oper Berlin).

Ogonek came on stage before her piece was performed to talk about her (planned) three sets of variations which she calls a triptych.  The first set is titled Cloudline based on "looking up."  Today's title is self-explanatory: the inspiration is from the murmurations of starlings that one sometimes sees.  A third piece will be performed by the San Francisco Symphony in January, 2023.  These and her other compositions speak well for this young composer.  And she is an assistant professor of composition at Cornell.

The word "variations" in the title is not meant in the traditional sense.  They are just episodes Ogonek composed illustrating different musical moods, again inspired by starling murmurations.  If one conjures up these images in one's mind, and try to imagine music that describes them, what I heard today would be far from it.  The music is interesting, quite accessible even on a first hearing, but without being primed would not make one think of starling flittering about; not in my case, anyway.

Bernstein's serenade was composed on a commission from the Koussevitzky Foundation, but was premiered in Venice, Italy.  Bernstein wrote a commentary on this work the day after he completed the score.  Many references can be found on this, but I note with interest the take by Houston Symphony (Article dated Feb 20, 2018).  The commentator states that Athenians at that time would understand the "love" being spoken in Plato's Symposium would be male homosexual love.  I don't know how well the music can make that point though.  Regardless, it was an interesting piece of music, requiring different skills from the solo violin.  One could do a detailed comparison of Bernstein and Plato, and determine how well Bernstein reflects Plato (as the Houston Symphony article did), or one can simply listen to the music and let it evolve, as I did today.

Janine Jenson was going to be the soloist, but withdrew because of illness.  Koh's violin sounded a bit weak at times, but it had a great sound which Koh used to excellent effect.  It turns out I had listened to this a few years back, with Joshua Bell and the New York Philharmonic.  The five movements are (1) Phaedrus; Pausanias (Lento - Allegro); (2) Aristophanes (Allegretto); (3) Erixymachus (Presto); (4) Agathon (Adagio); and (5) Socrates; Alcibiades (Molto tenuto - Allegro molto vivace).

Jennifer Koh at conclusion of Bernstein's Serenade.

Photo taken while stage was being rearranged for the next piece to be performed.  Why are some chairs black, while most are white?  And I forgot to take a photo when Ogonek was on stage: a bit rusty in my blogging routine.

Chichester Psalms was a commission from the Very Rev. Walter Hussey, Dean of Chichester Cathedral, Sussex, England.  It was first performed by the New York Philharmonic before being performed at Chichester.  The composer envisioned an all-male chorus, with treble parts sung by boys.  Both the first performance and today's used women for the high voices.

The work comprises of three movements, each with texts in Hebrew from one complete Psalm and selected verses from another Psalm.  The Reverend provided further contexts/requests: use of all-male choir, availability of instruments, reference to Psalm 2, and - most interestingly - that he wouldn't mind reference to West Side Story.  Bernstein certainly met the Reverend's expectations, and we hear a few references to the Broadway Show.

The three movements are (1) Psalm 108 (v. 2); Psalm 100 (complete) Maestoso ma energico - Allegro molto; (2) Psalm 23 (complete); Psalm 2 (v. 1-4) Andante con moto, ma tranquillo - Allegro feroce; (3) Psalm 131 (complete); Psalm 133 (v. 1) Prelude - Sostenuto molto - Peacefully flowing.

With some prior knowledge of these psalms, I found the composition speaking well to the different messages in the texts.  The vocal parts were sung well.

At the conclusion of Bernstein's Chichester Psalms.  Note the boy soprano in front.  This photo was time-stamped 3:13 pm, and we still have a full Shostakovich Symphony to go.

Over the years I have heard quite a few of Shostakovich's Symphonies (there are 15 of them).  This was my first encounter with his third.  As far as I could tell, anyway; I don't know any of his symphonies well enough to tell which ones I have heard before.

Shostakovich is well-known for being in and out of the good graces of the Soviet government.  There certainly would be no problems with this one, titled "the First May Day," and including lyrics such as "every May Day is a step towards socialism."  Of course one can read all kinds of sarcasm and parody into the music and the lyrics.  Unfortunately when one tries to decipher the political message one tends to lose sight of the music, which - per the Program Notes - can be quite interesting.  First, Shostakovich claims that not one single theme would be repeated.  In trying to listen to the political message (which, except for the obvious, I didn't get), I didn't pay attention to this aspect.  The second point was this work is very tonal, especially in comparison with the Second Symphony.  It was indeed quite easy to get.  There was this long timpani passage that seemed to go on forever.  It started at about the :20 mark, and went on for about nine pages, with a one measure break.  (From examining this YouTube video.)

There is only one movement.  The markings provided in the Program Notes are Allegretto - Piu mosso - Allegro - Andante - Allegro - Andante - Largo - Moderato, "On the first May Day."  The chorus sang at the end of the piece.

The Symphony isn't very long at a little over 30 minutes.  However, the program had other substantial pieces, so the concert (which started reasonably promptly) didn't end until 3:50 pm.

End of concert.  3:53 pm time stamp on this photo.

We took Uber both ways.  Traffic was already piling up on the way back.  The driver is a painter from New Hampshire, and talked effusively about his craft, and how he learned to do it from watching Bob Ross videos.