Tag: opera

CHQ: Ballet, opera, and more music

Hansel and Gretel

Angel Kotev

Ballet is not something I attend very often. But when in Chautauqua, do as the Chautauquans do.

My wife and I attended a musical event at 8:15 p.m. each weeknight except for the Wednesday opera at 7:30 p.m. (The music I linked to is NOT the performances we heard.)

Monday, July 22

“The Music School Festival Orchestra and the School of Dance come together for an amazing night of song and dance under the baton of guest conductor Rebecca Tong.” The orchestra is more or less below the dancers, though people in the front row can see them.

Rhapsodic Dances – Choreography by Sasha Janes

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 – Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 – 1943) -Sean Yang, pianist

This looks like what I expect ballet to look like.

Summer Camp – Choreography by Sasha Janes

Symphony No. 38 in C major, Hoboken I/38, 1768 – -Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809) I. Allegro di molto II. Andante molto

This does NOT look like what I expect ballet to look like. The dancers are wearing contemporary clothes. Someone’s even riding a skateboard. This was a lot of fun.

For the Trees – Choreography by Kara Wilkes

Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 – -Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) II. Allegretto

This expresses the natural motif of the title, with lots of greens and browns and dancers portraying seed, soil, sand, mycelium, and other elements. Effective. And the music is among my favorites of all time.

Intermission

Rubies – Choreography by George Balanchine; Staged by Patricia McBride

Capriccio, 1929 – Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971) I. Presto II. Andante rapsodico  III. Allegro capriccio so ma tempo giusto. Spencer Myer, pianist

“This performance of Rubies, a Balanchine® Ballet, is presented by arrangement with The George Balanchine Trust and has been produced in accordance with the Balanchine Style® and Balanchine Technique® Service standards established and provided by the Trust.”

The lead male’s face was very expressive.

Dvorak 8
Tuesday, July 23.

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra:  Chia-Hsuan Lin, conductor

Program

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912): [Not to be confused with Samuel Taylor Coleridge] Petite Suite de Concert, Op. 77 (1911) La Caprice de Nanette; Demande et réponse; Un sonnet d’amour; La tarantelle frétillante

Tyzen Hsiao (1938–2015): The Angel from Formosa (1999)

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904): Symphony No. 8 in G major, B. 163, op. 88 (1889). Allegro con brio; Adagio; Allegretto grazioso; Allegro ma non troppo

“Hailed by the Virginia Gazette as a ‘rock solid’ and ‘animated’ conductor, Chia-Hsuan Lin (pronounced ‘jah-shwen’) delights audiences throughout the world with her trademark energy and command. The Associate Conductor of the Richmond Symphony, Lin also debuted in 2023 with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and returns to conduct concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Williamsburg Symphony, and Fort Wayne Philharmonic this year.”

Opera!

Hansel and Gretel, an opera by Engelbert Humperdink (English), [not to be confused with Engelbert Humperdink]

It was more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Even though the dialogue was in English, it was superimposed onto the screens above. The screens also showed scenes of moving through the forest from nightfall to daybreak, looking like a large Jacquie Lawson ecard. It was also used to great effect to show the terrified cookies. 
The program, which I failed to copy, noted that the woman playing the mother would also play the witch. However, the woman playing the witch was not the woman playing the mother; the mother in Act 1 differed from the mother in Act 2. I THINK the woman playing the mother in the first act sang the witch part in the second act offstage while the original witch pantomimed the role.
Living composer

Thursday, July 25

Rossen Milanov, conductor

Program

Samuel Barber (1910–1981): Essay No. 1, op. 12 (1937)

Angel Kotev (b. 1951): Rhapsody No. 3 ‘Fateful’ –  American premiere

It was lovely to see Kotev beaming after the performance. He and his wife have been coming to CHQ for 5 or 6 years

Béla Bartók (1881–1945): The Miraculous Mandarin Suite, BB 82, op. 19 (1927)

1 act in 8 sections:
Beginning—Curtain rises
First seduction game
Second seduction game
Third seduction game—the Mandarin enters
Dance of the girl
The chase—the tramps leap out
Suddenly, the Mandarin’s head appears
The Mandarin falls to the floor

This time, we decided to sit behind the orchestra. It was great to see the conductor’s face and to note that 47 of the 50 musical scores I could see were paper, not electronic. The downside is that we could not see the horns or percussion.

The Kennedy Center Honors 2013

saw keyboardist/composer Herbie Hancock perform in the Albany area, perhaps in the 1990s at the Palace Theatre, though it could have been at the Troy Music Hall.

Right before they went off to South Africa to honor Nelson Mandela, Barack and Michelle Obama attended The Kennedy Center Honors. I always watch the broadcast, which this year is on December 29 on CBS-TV. Four of the five honorees I’m very familiar with.

Opera singer Martina Arroyo is a name I’ve heard, but to say I was familiar with her work would be a gross overstatement.

Actress Shirley MacLaine was in a number of movies I’ve seen over the years, including The Apartment (1960), the creepy The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972), The Turning Point (1977), the Oscar-winning Tears of InternmentTerms of Endearment (1983), Steel Magnolias (1989), Postcards from the Edge (1990), Guarding Tess (1994), and most recently in Bernie (2011), which I liked. I probably saw her sitcom in the early 1970s. But my favorite MacLaine vehicle has to be Being There (1979) with Peter Sellers, one of the very first VHS tapes I ever bought, along with Annie Hall.

One of my work colleagues was listening to Soul Sacrifice, the song that ends the first Santana album, just last month. It was the version of that song at Woodstock that turned the world on to the guitar artistry of Carlos Santana. I loved the first several Santana albums, especially the second one, Abraxas, with that Black Magic Woman-Gypsy Queen/Oye Como Va segue. (Here’s the original Abraxas and here’s the Abraxas with extra live tracks.) I have some of his jazz fusion music as well. If I wasn’t as enamored with some of his all-star collaborations this century, it was no reflection on his fine playing.

I saw keyboardist/composer Herbie Hancock perform in the Albany area, perhaps in the 1990s at the Palace Theatre, though it could have been at the Troy Music Hall. I didn’t love the show – it seemed too sedate -but I have enough of his albums, including his Joni Mitchell tribute album I picked up just this year, to know that his recordings are quite eclectic. My collection spans back to Maiden Voyage in 1965 and includes Gershwin’s World (1998), featuring Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder, and The New Standard (1996) that my jazz-loving friend Donna hated, but that I embraced, so she gave it to me. Here’s Hancock’s YouTube channel.

I have a LOT of albums by Billy Joel, singer, composer, Piano Man. He I saw in concert in New Paltz, NY in 1974. He was very late – they got lost coming up from Long Island. He wasn’t the showman he became, sitting stiffly at his piano, but his songs, even early on, were always strong. His early MTV videos were generally quite entertaining. I’d be hard-pressed to come up with my favorite of his songs (but I’ll try in five years). Here’s Joel’s YouTube channel.

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial