An Opening Grand Enough for Two
Nights
Berlioz’s “Les Troyens” is grand on a large
scale and spectacular in recounting Virgil’s tale of the
sacking of Troy by the Greeks and the visit to Carthage of the
Trojans, including the romance of Dido and Aeneas. Hector Berlioz
recalled in his memoirs how reading Virgil as a lad initially
opened his heart, with an impression extremely profound, Cassandra’s
suicide noticeably affecting him: “I was seized with a
nervous shuddering and stopped dead,” reaction enough
to cause his father to close the book.
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The composer later noted his torment with the idea of writing
a vast opera for which he would provide both the music and the
words, and the result eventually was “Les Troyens.”
“The Trojans,” more than four hours of words and
music, will inaugurate the 2008 season at Tanglewood in grand
French opera style, on two evenings, Part I describing “The
Capture of Troy” on opening night, July 5, and continuing
the following afternoon, with Acts II and III, Part II, of “Troyens,”
“The Trojans at Carthage.”
James Levine, who conducted a memorable “Troyens”
at the Metropolitan Opera during the Met’s 1983-84 centennial
season, of course is at the helm of this concert version as
music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
His cast is led by the tenor Marcus Haddock and mezzo-soprano
Anne Sofie von Otter as Aeneas, the Greek warrior, and Dido,
the Queen of Carthage. The soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci sings
Cassandra, the daughter of King Priam of Troy, and baritone
Dwayne Croft is her lover Chorebus. Choral voices are crucial
in this musical extravaganza and, at this outing, as in Symphony
Hall last winter, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus is very involved.
Since the opera’s debut in Paris in 1863, few companies
have attempted “Troyens”—it took the Met until
1973 to introduce it to its audiences. Berlioz did not live
to see a staged version of Part I of the opera.
“Oh my noble Cassandra, my heroic virgin,” lamented
the composer, “I must then resign myself. I shall never
hear you, and I am like Chorebus, insano Cassandrae incensus
amore, inflamed with an insane love for Cassandra.”
Ah, Boyz Will Be Boys (and
Girls)
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Michael Nunn and William Trevitt are former stars of the very
proper Royal Ballet, but the two have established themselves,
over a couple of decades, as leaders in most innovative contemporary
dance. The Ballet Boyz, first featured in their documentary
style video diaries on the farther-out British tube favorite,
Channel 4, became celebrated for what was known as their “Naked
Tour.”
But jump to no conclusions, please. “Naked is the story
being stripped back and about us bearing our own souls and putting
a major work out there for the first time,” Nunn explained
to an eager BBC reporter. Added Nunn: “The show is called
Naked, it’s not called nude. This is what we try and tell
people, the dancers are wearing clothes—most of the time.”
The Boyz and their ensemble—of boys and girls, be clear—stop
off at Jacob’s Pillow for a week’s engagement this
month in the Ted Shawn Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow. Nunn
and Trevitt promise some of today’s most adventurous European
choreographers, among them Liv Lorent whose “Propeller”
will be explored, along with three U.S. premieres, including
Russell Maliphant’s “Broken Fall” and Craig
Revel Horwood’s “Yumba vs. Nonino,” a new
tango work with music by Astor Piazzzola, and you know how much
fun that can be.
The Boyz are well-known for short films that spice their performances,
adding life and humor, if that really is necessary with their
repertory, but they do demystify the art of ballet, which some
will agree is good.
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It’s Love, Yes, But
Sinister
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Korean filmmaker Son Jae-Gon’s multi-syllabic “Dalkom,
salbeorhan yeonin” may be loosely translated as “My
Scary Girl,” definitely an art-house film, and one that
those attracted to it found really weird, but extremely engaging.
Its principals are Dae-woo, a timid college lecturer and Mina,
a real charmer who, as the two become involved appears to have
a few dark—very dark—secrets. Indeed, it’s
a Hitchcockian sort of romp, and one that Will Aronson found
irresistible for musical settings to a book by Kyoung-ae Kang
and Mark St. Germain, with the lyrics by Kyoung-ae.
The show will make its debut this month as part of Barrington
Stage’s Musical Theatre Lab. Comparisons often are invidious,
but nonetheless people at Barrington Stage are suggesting we
think “Little Shop of Horrors” meets “So I
Married an Ax Murderer” meets (a Korean) Gertrude Stein.
If we seize the challenge and attend, we’ll also discover
that Mina contends she is an intellectual, but has never heard
of Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” nor
has she heard of Piet Mondrian, although one of his paintings
is prominent in her living room. But that is but the tip of
the “Scary Girl” iceberg. Shuddering already?
Riches True, But Hardly
Embarrassing
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Those who savor the music of our time will find heavy activity
this month at the usual locations. In past years, the Bang on
a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA and Tanglewood’s
Festival of Contemporary Music have enjoyed separate dates,
the second beginning as the first concluded. Not so in 2008.
This year, the big Bang at MASS MoCA runs July 10-26, Tanglewood’s
festival, July 20-24.
The good news is that the agile fan of contemporary music can
hit the high points of both events, provided that he/she is
not frightened by the signs at the gasoline pumps. The big Bang
on a Can All-Stars night, with special guest Lee Ranaldo of
Sonic Youth, and offering new music by Ornette Coleman, Lukas
Ligeti, Todd Reynolds, Julia Wolfe and Evan Ziporyn takes place
one night before Tanglewood’s festivities begin. The big,
six-hour Bang on a Can Marathon with the composer Terry Riley
as special guest, along with rarely performed works of Frank
Zappa and the mixed media oratorio, a collaboration from Michael
Gordon, David Lang, Wolfe and Ridge Theater will be on stage
the evening after the conclusion of the Tanglewood mini-festival.
The customary daily gallery concerts will take place, along
with the popular “Kids Can Too” program.
Tanglewood’s festival literally is a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity, as it commemorates the Elliot Carter Centennial
Celebration with programs that will be devoted entirely to the
legendary composer’s amazing output, his recent works,
as well as some of the great Carter classics of the past. James
Levine, Oliver Knussen, Ursula Oppens and Fred Sherry are among
the participants, along with this year’s Tanglewood fellows.
Every performance is special, among the highlights, the world
premieres of “Mad Regales” and “Sound Fields,”
the American premiere of “Mosaic” and a screening
of the Tanglewood Music Center’s 2006 performance of Carter’s
provocative one-act opera, “What’s Next?”
Dance, Lighter and Fantastic
Just imagine “Romeo and Juliet” danced to Prokofiev’s
original score, with this Shakespearean tragedy moving to a
happy ending, and, as a bonus, Mark Morris creating the choreography.
No, it’s not too good to be true. The “R&J”
in mind is the opening salvo in Bard College’s SummerScape
2008, among the nation’s most inventive of the festivals—and
right here in our backyard.
Following the custom of focusing on a composer, SummerScape
this summer has selected the works and world of Sergei Prokofiev.
Morris will be making his SummerScape debut in setting to dance
what is known as “Romeo & Juliet on Motifs of Shakespeare,”
using the original story concept by the Soviet dramatist Sergei
Radlov and Prokofiev’s original music score, which includes
20 minutes of previously unheard music and six new dance numbers.
Sergei Prokofiev initially envisioned a happy ending to the
piece, but his intentions were not permitted in the 1930s by
the oppressive regime of Josef Stalin, but now the work has
been reconstructed from exclusive documents unearthed in Moscow
by Princeton University musicologist and Bard scholar-in-residence
Simon Morrison.
This original conception will be performed by members of the
Mark Morris Dance Group, and Leon Botstein will conduct the
American Symphony Orchestra in the pit of the handsome Richard
B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard. Allen Moyer
has created the scenic design, costumes are by Martin Pakledinaz
and lighting is by James F. Ingalls, all longtime collaborators
of Morris’.
“The opportunity to present the premiere of one of the
greatest full-length works for dance in its original form—the
one completed by the composer without regard to the pressures
of Stalinist censorship—is thrilling,” declared
Botstein, who is president of Bard and co-artistic director
of the festival.
Decisions, Decisions, But
Be Careful!
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Women are faced with dilemmas in their lives, requiring decisions,
monumental ones for the big issues, and small ones, but each
has its consequences. And it’s all been set to music,
opera, it turns out, a perfect forum for so many of life’s
celebrated adventures of the will. This month, Berkshire Opera
will explore such matters in its opening performance at the
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. “Women
on the Verge,” according to Ryan Taylor, the company’s
new general director, will deal with women at certain crossroads
in their lives, visiting certain situations requiring some action:
Mozart, for example, frames the question in Zerlina’s
mind, “should I or should I not,” in the duet “La
ci darem la mano.” Most likely she shouldn’t, since
the gent facing her is Don Giovanni.
The show offers many other turning points, Taylor says, in situations
posed by Delibes’ “Lakme,” Massenet’s
“Werther,” Gounod’s “Faust,” and
Bellini’s “Norma,” to name a few of the evening’s
taskmasters.
The challenge is being taken up by the popular soprano Maureen
O’Flynn, the French mezzo-soprano Marie Lenormand, the
young American tenor Scott Scully and bass-baritone Patrick
Carfizzi, with the company’s artistic director, Kathleen
Kelly conducting the Berkshire Opera Orchestra. “Women
on the Verge” is part of a season, titled intriguingly,
“Uncharted Territory,” which includes a multi-disciplinary
musical event, “Secrets of the Sky and Sea,” later
this month, and a full production of Mozart’s “Le
nozze di Figaro” in August.
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Here’s to the Man
Who Yells at Them for Us
Will Rogers once observed that he was not a member of an organized
political party. “I’m a Democrat,” he declared.
Now fast forward to 2008 and find Lewis Black, the popular stand-up
comedian, actor and author intoning one better, “Republicans
are a party with bad ideas,” chortles Black, “and
Democrats are a party with no ideas.” Lewis is a well-know
figure on cable, notably on Comedy Central’s “Daily
Show” and his HBO specials, which transport live performances
to the tube. Those live performances, most fans agree, offer
a cathartic release of anger and disillusionment for listeners—our
champion Lewis yells so they need not. Black has a personal
message about which the rest of us must keep silent in polite
company, and he’s bringing that to the stage of the Palace
Theatre in Albany this month, a message that is said to cause
audience members to laugh themselves into incontinence, while
making compelling points about the absurdity of our world.
All’s Well With Music
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In assembling this summer’s new production of “All’s
Well That Ends Well,” Tina Packer turned to music as the
unifying force in Shakespeare’s tale of lovers and the
games these people play. The events take place in Roussillon,
a pre-revolution province near the Pyrenees where the proud
tradition of the troubadour originated.
“‘All’s Well’ is myth, a folk tale,
where lots of unexpected things happen and people’s motivations
seem to change over the course of it,” noted Packer, Shakespeare
& Co.’s artistic director. “By meeting this
in the colorful troubadour tradition, we’ve emphasized
the through-line that will allow the audience to experience
all the levels of the play.”
Packer drew some from original troubadour works, as well as
from Shakespeare’s texts. And she is fortunate to have
on her team Bill Barclay, the company’s resourceful resident
music director who has written original music, most performed
by the talented cast, which includes some fine actors from the
company stable, among them, Jason Asprey, Dennis Krausnick,
Nigel Gore and Elizabeth Ingram. Susan Dibble is back to choreograph
some appropriately canny dance expressions.
Barclay said that, rather than attempting to re-create an accurate
period sound, he sought inspiration from latter-day heirs of
the troubadour tradition, mentioning Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen
and Bob Dylan. In modern Broadway parlance, we now have, “
‘All’s Well,’ the Musical.” It sounds
like fun.
A Favorite Dance Maker
Returns for a Visit
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David Parsons and his troupe return for his third summer season
this month to that curious Saddle Span tent just up Route 66
from the Village of Chatham. Of course, the people at PS21,
the company that will perform “Caught,” that beloved
1982 piece involving one dancer and a strobe light that seems
to suspend him at incredible heights, a dance familiar over
the years to audiences at Jacob’s Pillow and other centers
blessed by the spirit of Terpsichore.
Parsons’ “Kind of Blue,” set to Miles Davis’
“So What” also is on the program. It offers a flirtatious
and alluring quartet of dancers that casually turn, twist and
strut through pools of light with a collective confident competitive
air, suggesting the old boast, “anything you can do, I
can do better.”
PS21, incidentally, stands for Performance Spaces for the 21st
Century, a site presenting an engaging program of music, dance,
theater and film throughout the summer, and it’s going
to be around to embrace its century, affirms Judy Grunberg,
its founder and president. Plans call for an eventual 28,000
sq. ft performing arts building.
The Second Ten
The region’s summer arts environment is so rich that it’s
difficult to settle for only ten special occasions. Here, with
little additional comment, are ten more events worthy of attention.
“Musical of Musicals, The Musical,” five composers’
views, Theatre Barn, New Lebanon, July 24-Aug. 3, www.theaterbarn.com;
“Das Liebesverbot,” opera by Wagner based on Shakespeare’s
“Measure for Measure,” Glimmerglass Opera, Cooperstown,
NY, July 19-Aug. 22 www.glimmerglass.org; SooJin Anjou, piano,
Mozart, Ravel, Strauss, Messiaen, Concerts at Tannery Pond,
July 12, 8 p.m., www.tannerypondoncerts.org; “The Violet
Hours,” Richard Greenberg’s jazz-age tale, Barrington
Stage, July 17-Aug. 2, www.barringtonstageco.org; “Three
Sisters,” Chekhov’s drama, Williamstown Theatre
Festival, July 16-27, www.wtfestival.org; “Music From
the Library of Thomas Jefferson,” Mozart, Bach and the
third President’s other tastes, Aston Magna Concerts,
Bard College, Annandale-on Hudson (July 4) and Bard College
at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA (July 5); Sterling
& Francine Clark Institute, Williamstown, MA, (July 6),
www.astonmagna.org; “The Book Club Play,” northeastern
premiere of Karen Zacarias’ play, Berkshire Theatre Festival,
Stockbridge, MA, July 11-19; Chopin Festival, Marcella Sembrich
Opera Museum, Bolton Landing, NY, July 23-27, 518/644-2431,
www.operamuseum.org; “The Understudy,” world premiere
of Theresa Rebeck’s backstage comedy, Nikos Stage, Williamstown
Theatre Festival, July 23-Aug. 3; “Gianni Schicchi”
and “Buoso’s Ghost,” double bill of Puccini
and Michael Ching operas, Lake George Opera, Spa Little Theatre,
Saratoga, NY, July 10, 12, 518/584-6018, www.lakegeorgeopera.org.
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