Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
Thank you "All Songs Considered."
Evil Urges
My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges
More great stuff outta Louisville.
A Grand Night for Singing opens this weekend at the Singletary Center for the Arts. In our story for today's paper, we talked about the talented "brain trust" that puts Grand Night together from scratch, every year. To compliment that, photographer and producer Emily Spence and I went out to talk to some of the singers about the tunes they get to share and the town and gown camaraderie of Grand Night.
Ramon Vargas and Angela Gheorghiu in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme. Copyrighted photo by Marty Sohl | The Metropolitan Opera.
We're getting into springtime, where weekend matinées can be a harder sell, and that could really be true here in Central Kentucky, where we'll emerge from two days of soaking rains -- I just discovered I have waterfront property -- into what looks like a gorgeous weekend.
But if you're an opera fan willing to give up a few hours of 60s and sunny, your reward would be Angela Gheorghiu as Mimi and Ramon Vargas as Rodolpho in La Boheme, the seventh offering in the Metropolitan Opera's Live HD series. This is the Franco Zeffirelli production, which just became the longest running production in Met history. It shows at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Hamburg Pavilion 16, Lexington Green Movies 8 and Richmond Mall Cinemas 8. There's an encore showing at 3 p.m. April 6 at Lexington Green and Richmond Mall. Tickets are $22 for adults, $20 for seniors and $15 for children. Click here for online ticket info for anywhere in the United States.
If you're inclined to listen to the performance, say, cleaning out your garage or doing something else springy, this performance will also be broadcast on WEKU - 88.9 FM.
We can't go back in time to see how Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte created their 
masterpieces. But you can check out how composer Joseph Baber, librettist Jim Rodgers and the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre are creating their new opera, River of Time, at an upcoming event. Commissioned operas are something of a rarity for college opera outfits but the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth seemed to be the right occasion. The opera, which a local audience got a preview of at the Our Lincoln concert in February, looks at Lincoln's formative years in Kentucky. It will premier next spring.
How Opera is Made will be presented at in the Singletary Center for the Arts recital hall from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Thurs., April 3, and from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 11, at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. It will feature Baber, Rodgers and others talking about the creative process behind their work in progress. Both events are free and open to the public. Call (859) 257-9331 for additional information.
Photo above: Mark Golson and Denisha Ballew in a scene from River of Time at the Our Lincoln event in February. Copyrighted Herald-Leader photo by Joseph Rey Au.
Michelle DeYoung as Brangaena and Deborah Voigt as Isolde in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Tristan and Isolde. Copyrighted photo by Ken Howard | The Metropolitan Opera.
Initially this weekend's Met Live HD broadcast of Tristan and Isolde looked interesting because we don't get much Wagner live (or pseudo-live) here in the heartland and it offered the endurance test of a five-hour-and-35 minute running time.
But a check of the headlines tells us this could be an intriguing show just to see what happens.
Tuesday night, lead tenor Gary Lehman slipped off a bed-like surface, which he was lying on, into the prompter's box -- methinks this could be the dastardly work of silk sheets. Lehman was actually Tristan No. 3. Tristan No. 1 Ben Heppner, fell ill before opening night. He was replaced by his cover, John Mac Master, whose performance was widely panned. Lehman actually finished Tuesday's performance, but Saturday, we will see the Met debut of Robert Dean Smith, Tristan No. 4.
And don't think darling Isolde has gotten off unscathed. Last Friday, Deborah Voigt came down with a monster stomach bug and had to be replaced mid-performance.
So, with all this just going on in the friendly confines of Lincoln Center, who knows what we may have in store when we get to see the show nationwide. Click here for local showtimes.
Anthony Dean Griffey in the title role of the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Peter Grimes. Copyrighted photo by Ken Howard | The Metropolitan Opera.
The Metropolitan Opera’s Live HD broadcasts go dark this weekend with Benjamin Britten’s modern masterpiece Peter Grimes.
Anthony Dean Griffey sings the title role in this story of a fisherman who hopes for a better life but suffers from misfortune and bad temperament. The opera is known for letting the audience decide whether Grimes is a true villain or a victim of society. This production is directed by John Doyle, whose Tony Award-winning production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company originally was staged at Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park.
Anthony Tommasini's review for The New York Times provides a nice, quick historical accounting of the 1945 opera at the Met, and he says that Griffey's performance adds new dimensions to the role:
"Mr. Griffey, even though his voice has heft and carrying power, is essentially a lyric tenor. And it is disarming to hear the role sung with such vocal grace, even sweetness in places. Every word of his diction is clear. You sense Grimes’s dreamy side struggling to emerge. The moments of gentleness, though, make Mr. Griffey’s impulsive fits of hostility, his bursts of raw vocal power, seem even more threatening."
The opera will be shown at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Regal Hamburg Pavilion 16, Lexington Green Movies 8 and Richmond Mall Cinemas 8; and at 3 p.m. March 16 at Lexington Green and Richmond Mall. Tickets are $22 for adults, $20 for seniors and $15 for children. Click here for links to advance tickets.
If you can't make it to the movie theater, Peter Grimes is also the Met's radio broadcast this week, heard in Central Kentucky on WEKU (88.9 FM).
Colleen Lauve as Gretel and Sarah Klopfenstein as Hansel during the dream sequence from UK Opera Theatre's production of Hansel and Gretel. Photo by Tim Collins | University of Kentucky.
Every University of Kentucky Opera production has
two casts. The main reasons are the UK voice program wants to give stage experience to as many students as possible,
and the opera company schedules its performances on back-to-back nights.
Performing many operatic roles two consecutive nights would be a voice killer,
somewhat akin to asking the
So, since UK Opera doubles up, a lot of opera goers end up
seeing a different cast from many of their friends, and only one of the casts
gets reviewed for the paper. We think UK Opera is worth reviewing because of
the generally high quality of its productions and its status, without a pro
opera troupe here, as Lexington’s de
facto opera company. With adult tickets going for more than $30, they're also charging real money to get in, which obligates the company to perform at a certain standard. But, with limited resources of time and space, plus a
desire to get you a timely review, we usually only review the opening night cast. (And when you're talking about one of these gut-wrenching Puccini or Verdi operas, you can only take it once a season or so.)
We just posted a new album of photos from the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre's 
production of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, which continues this weekend at the Lexington Opera House. The fun thing about this album is, since there are two casts, if you only saw one, this gives you a chance to see what the other crew looked like. You may note that this album is labeled "UK Opera," and we'll try to build it backwards and forwards, picking up some classic shots from productions past and adding ones from future shows. We'll also be looking to launch photo albums on other area groups here at le blog.
The photo, above, is of Amanda Balltrip, who is playing Gretel in the "Hansel Cast" of H&G. Herald-Leader photographer Mark Cornelison shot her in Brown's Bakery on Leestown Road.
~ Hansel and Gretel news: If you missed the Metropolitan Opera's Live HD broadcast of Hansel and Gretel when it showed at movie theaters New Year's week, Great Performances will broadcast the show at 9 p.m. March 26 on PBS. It'll show on PBS HD at 1 p.m. March 30.
University of Kentucky soprano Afton Battle did not advance in today's national semi-final round of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Nine singers were chosen for next Sunday's national finals of the auditions, which are frequently referred to as the American Idol of opera.
Battle (photo, left, by Tim Collins, courtesy of the University of Kentucky) wowed audiences at the Kentucky District and 
Tri-State Regional rounds of the auditions at UK's Memorial Hall with her huge voice and repertoire that included major arias from Giacomo Puccini's Turandot and Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore. Sunday night, University of Kentucky opera theatre director Everett McCorvey said that same material could have turned into a liability in New York, if judges thought the 26-year-old soprano was singing material beyond her years.
Gail Robinson, Battle's teacher and the former national director of the auditions and the Met's Young Artist Development Program, expressed a similar concern in an interview Friday. Opera experts generally believe sopranos' voices are not mature enough to sing arias as big as the ones Battle has been auditioning with until they are in their 30s.
"I hope she's not penalized for singing big rep," said Robinson, who holds UK's endowed chair in vocal performance. "It will be interesting, because Afton does stand out among singers because of her huge vocal qualities."
Battle was Robinson's first student to advance to the Met Auditions national rounds since she came to the University of Kentucky in 2000. She has had a number of students advance to the competition's regional rounds. The last UK students to advance to the national semi-finals of the auditions were Mark Whatley and Corey Crider in 2002. Whatley made it to the finals, but did not win. Gregory Turay remains UK's last Met Auditions winner. He won the 1995 competition.
As of early Sunday night, McCorvey said he had not had a chance to talk to Battle.
"It will be interesting to hear how it went for her," he said.
Win or lose, McCorvey added, the auditions were a great opportunity for Battle to be heard by agents and directors. "Some good things could come out of this for her," he said. And, of course, Battle can compete in the Met Auditions again.
Jonathan Lasch, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music baritone who also advanced to the national semifinals from the Tri-State regional round at UK, also missed the cut.
We are still waiting for world about how Afton Battle did in the National Semi-finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. But something interesting popped up when I put the name of the auditions into Google News a few minutes ago. The top story was about contralto Meredith Arwady, a contralto who advanced out of the Kentucky district in 2003 to win at the national level. Arwady's hometown paper, the Kalamazoo Gazette, profiled her today, talking about her quickly rising star in the opera world. She is currently singing the role of Mistress Quickly in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Falstaff.
Click here to read the Gazette story, and we'll post as soon as we know something about Afton.
After a few weekends off, the Metropolitan Opera's Live HD series is back this weekend with Giacomo Puccini's Manon Lescaut
at 1 p.m. Saturday at Hamburg Pavilion 16, Lexington Green Movies 8 and
Richmond Mall Cinemas 8. There will be an encore showing at 3 p.m. Feb.
17 at Lexington Green and Richmond Mall. Karita
Mattila sings the title role, another Puccini tragedy in which love is
not quite requited. Manon is in love with the young and handsome
student Des Grieux, but can't resist the promise of luxury in marrying
the wealthy Geronte. When she discovers luxury cannot compensate for
the loss of love, her attempts to return to Des Grieux prove
disastrous. Marcello Giordani stars as Des Grieux. James Levine
conducts. Reviewing the live production, Anthony Tommasini says Mattila is the reason to see the show.
Karita Mattila as Manon Lescaut and Marcello Giordani as Des Grieux in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Giacomo Puccini's Manon Lescaut. Copyrighted photo by Ken Howard, courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.
"I don't know how to tell you this," is never a good way to start a conversation, particularly when it comes from my wife. She's not the type to grimly say, "I don't know how to tell you this," and then scream, "WE JUST WON A MILLION DOLLARS!"
That's my shtick, not hers.
So, when she called me at work Tuesday and said, "I don't know how to tell you this," I knew something had died, been broken, Milli Vanilli reunited, or something like that.
"Do you want me to tell you what I found in the pocket of your pants that were in the washing machine?" she asked.
What?! My mind raced. I hadn't done anything recently that would leave incriminating evidence. Did one of the kids give me something I was supposed to take care of, that now had the consistency of tissue paper? Did I leave a pen in my pocket, thereby creating a tie-dye effect on some clothes but, you know, not in a way that looked groovy?
I couldn't think of anything, so I asked, "What?"
"You know your mp3 player . . . " Kate asked.
"Oh nooooo," I thought.
It was Tuesday. Snow day. I was trying to do some work at home and get some laundry done, including my thick black corduroy trousers that I had put my player in the night before. But, as I put them in the wash, I probably hadn't felt the mp3 in the pocket because, you know, they're big . . . thick . . . corduroy . . . "Oh nooooo!"
"I've tried everything," she said, "It's not doing anything."
I said, "Thanks for telling me," and hung up.
Last year, I finally joined the mp3 generation. When you're married with two late elementary school kids, your money takes other priorities. I don't go out and buy the latest gadget the way I did when I was the first of my friends to own a CD player and a VCR.
But, when I finally got an mp3, I was serious about it, and not just for fun. Recent playlists include "UKSO Harrell Concert" (Music that's being played on the University of Kentucky Symphony concert, Friday, with cellist Lynn Harrell). Pretty much any story on this blog or in the paper about music in the past several months I've reported using my mp3. I was seriously considering writing it off on my taxes.
So, how was I going to live without it.
Above: Luther Lewis and Patrick Joel Martin sing Lily's Eyes from The Secret Garden at the debut production by the UK Musical and Operetta Organization. Below: Rachel Farrar and Christopher Baker in Masochism Tango from TomFoolery. LexGo photos by Rich Copley.
Musical theater has been an undercurrent of the University of Kentucky voice program for years.
The annual Grand Night for Singing Broadway revue was developed to give students a taste of musicals, because UK Opera Theatre director Everett McCorvey believed it was important for students to have more than just opera in their repertoire.
The opera program has collaborated with the UK Theatre Department on several musicals and produced its own musical, Carousel, in 2006. Some genuine musical theater talents have rolled through the program, including Michael Turay, Gregory’s brother. But no formal musical program or organization has been established, until now.
Monday night, as snow and sleet
piled up on the street outside of Natasha’s Cafe, the
University of
Kentucky Musical and
Operetta Organization made its debut.
No, it’s not a degree program. It’s a club, made up of UK students who want to present musicals and operetta. Think of the scene at Cambridge in Chariots of Fire where Harold Abrahams is shopping for campus organizations to join and hooks up with the Gonville and Caius Gilbert & Sullivan Society to a rousing chorus of, “If everybody’s somebody, than no one’s anybody.”
Just two-and-a-half months ago, the group was merely a concept in the minds of graduate student Susan Rahmsdorff and several other UK voice students. Three weeks before Monday, it became an official club and set a date at Natasha’s for its debut.
Nicholas Provenzale portrayed young Abraham Lincoln in a few selections from Joseph Baber's forthcoming opera River of Time, at the Our Lincoln program Sunday night at the Singletary Center for the Arts. Below: Jim Sayre delivered The Gettysburg Address as Lincoln. Copyrighted LexGo photos by Joseph Rey Au.
U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler (D-Kentucky) opened Sunday night's Our Lincoln presentation at the Singletary Center for the Arts saying, "The arts are how we tell our story."
For the next two-and-a-half hours, a wide array of Kentucky artists proved that point.
Our Lincoln celebrated the Kentucky native who became one of the United States' most pivotal Presidents with primary source art, created in his day, and works that are being developed to this day in tribute to Abraham Lincoln. In two-and-a-half hours, the audience got to see how art can tell our story from the full gale of a symphony orchestra and chorus to the simplicity of words, read by a woman whose voice has been nurtured by her Central Kentucky roots.
Our Lincoln director James Rodgers constructed the evening so that pieces such as Kentucky Poet Laureate Jane Gentry Vance reading Edwin Markham's Lincoln, The Man of the People and the Lexington Philharmonic, Lexington Singers and Lexington Singers Children's Choirs' rendition of Jay Flippin and Rodgers new setting of Jesse Stuart's Kentucky is My Land informed the overall story. One of the best juxtapositions was emcee Nick Clooney recounting the Battle of Perryville followed by Lexington native and Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Nathan Cole performing the mournful Ashokan Farewell with his wife and fellow CSO violinist Akiko Tarumoto.
And there was Kentucky Chautauqua performer Jim Sayre showing how life can become art, with a recitation of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
This evening didn't have a lot of precedents. The closest thing to it in recent Lexington arts history was the Spirit of America Benefit Concert for the Victims of Sept. 11, 2001, which was held at Singletary Oct. 9, 2001, featuring the Philharmonic, Singers, the American Spiritual Ensemble and numerous other soloists and groups. Though Lincoln met a tragic end and presided over a tragic war, this event was a celebration of the fact that Kentucky produced a great President. And in that celebration, we were reminded that the Bluegrass has also produced a lot of great artists who can tell his story.
~ The American Spiritual Ensemble, definitely one of the highlights of Our Lincoln, will be part of festivities Tuesday, Feb. 12, in Hodgenville. This is the big Lincoln ceremony that will be attended by First Lady Laura Bush and all of that good stuff. If you want to watch, the ceremony will be carried on C-SPAN3 -- don't ask me where to get C-SPAN3 -- and streamed at c-span.org, starting at 10:30 a.m. EST.
Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli perform at a pre-Grammy party Feb. 9, a prelude to their tribute to Luciano Pavarotti at Feb. 10th's Grammy Awards. Copyrighted Associated Press photo by Matt Sayles.
OK, for a fleeting moment, my heart jumped in anticipation that the Grammy Awards show might just get it right. It ended its tribute reel to deceased artists with Luciano Pavarotti, and then Andrea Bocelli appeared on stage and began speaking of Pav.
"OK, he's the spokesman," I thought. "That's fine. Pav did like him. He's going to kick off one of those all-star tribute things, right?" Who will be there? Placido Domingo? Jose Carreras? Maybe some of Pavarotti's successors in their prime. Roberto Alagna? Marcello Giordani? Juan Diego Flores? Does it have to be tenors only? Anna Netrebko? Renee Fleming?
We could hope.
But these are the Grammys, which rarely pass up a chance to celebrate mediocrity at the expense of excellence, and this would turn out no different. We did not get real opera singers. We got Bocelli and Josh Groban singing The Prayer. We got a really lame "tribute," with Groban making a weak attempt at some high note to end it. Now, I'm not going for a snob-of-the-year award. I like pop music and singing as much as anyone. But in this case, the Grammys were misrepresenting a pop song sung by two opera-like singers as opera. The Recording Academy owed Pavarotti and the audience the real thing.
It was particularly interesting seeing this right after attending Our Lincoln, here in Lexington, and watching and hearing people who don't normally hear opera singers react to the performers who presented excerpts from Joseph Baber's forthcoming Lincoln opera River of Time and the amazing voices in the American Spiritual Ensemble.
It's always a neat thing to see, because people who aren't "trained" to like opera are still floored when they hear a truly talented and trained opera singer. They often act as if they can't believe those sounds came from a human being.
The Grammys had a chance to give the world that experience Sunday night. But no. Let's put a couple of mediocrities up on the stage so people will feel like they just had a cultural experience.
Walter Tunis was right. It would have been better if the writers' strike had killed this awards show.
~ You know, they do give Grammy Awards to classical artists. Performance Today will review this year's winners in the classical categories at noon and 8 p.m. today (Feb. 11) on WEKU FM-88.9.
~ Opera Chic summarizes the classical Grammys much better than I do.
~ Heather Gross' Resonate says it was a good year for women in classical music at the Grammys.
~ Look for some thoughts on Our Lincoln later today.
David Baker sang the role of Tom Carter in the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre's production of Thomas Pasatieri's Hotel Casablanca on the Lexington Opera House Stage in October and the world premier CD, which was just released. Photo by Timothy Collins, courtesy of the UK Opera Theatre.
The San Francisco Opera got the world premier performance of Thomas Pasatieri's new opera, Hotel Casablanca, but the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre got the world premier recording.
Asked which they would have rather had, Darla Diltz, Tedrin Blair Lindsay and Christopher Probus' answer amounted to, "Duh!"
"I can send this out to people I'm auditioning for," says Diltz, who sings the role of Tallulah Carter on the new CD.
Probus is looking forward to giving one to his grandmother, who didn't get to see the show.
The UK Opera Theatre and Symphony Orchestra recoded the show for Albany Records between performance weekends in October.
The opera is a farce based on the Georges Feydeau play A Flea in Her Ear. Set in 1940s Texas, it tells the tale of how a misunderstanding leads a rancher’s wife to suspect her husband is cheatin'.
The recording was conducted by UK Symphony director John Nardolillo and features soprano Diltz and baritone David Baker as the couple in turmoil. The CD is available online at Amazon.com and at retail outlets such as Barnes & Noble.
"It was a little more stressful," Baker said of the recording, after a news conference at UK to unveil the CD. "But then you had more than one take to get it right."
All of the singers said they were really impressed with the UK Symphony while recording the CD.
"I could go in and out, depending on when I was on," Diltz said. "But they had to be there the whole time. They were real pros."
Part of the stamina could stem from the fact the UK Symphony has three recordings in the can over the past couple of years, including a forthcoming recording of the George McKay ballet score Epoch for Naxos Records. Though they're old pros, Symphony conductor John Nardolillo said he thought Hotel Casablanca came out exceptionally well.
"We had everything going for us," Nardolillo said. "We were in the Singletary Center, which was a warm acoustic environment for the singers, and I was really pleased with the sound of the orchestra."
Nardolillo said he was impressed that the story came through as well as it did.
The UK Opera's last recording was Aaron Copland's The Tender Land in 2002. At the Casablanca launch party, UK Opera Theatre director Everett McCorvey said he is exploring the possibility of recording River of Time, Jospeh Baber's new opera about young Abraham Lincoln, which the student ensemble will premier next year.
The CD cover art (above) is by Richard Kagey, the opera’s director at UK in October and at San Francisco Opera in August. Hotel Casablanca was a co-production of UK Opera and San Francisco Opera.
Metropolitan Opera Tri-State Regional Audition winners Jonathan Lasch (left) and Afton Battle (right) pose for pictures with judge and legendary soprano Mignon Dunn (center). Lexgo photo by Rich Copley.
A few notes from Saturday's Tri-State Regional Round of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, which were won by University of Kentucky soprano Afton Battle and University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music baritone Jonathan Lasch. Read the Herald-Leader story at LexGo, Sunday.
Stiff competition: Once the competition got started, you knew whoever won was going to have to have a really good day. Indiana University's Jing Zhang was second up with a heart melting Un bel di, and she looked the part of Cio-Cio-San. Then came Lasch with his muscular rendition of Ford's Monologue from Falstaff. Baritones have fared well in this region -- see Corey Crider -- and it seemed obvious Lasch could have a good day. Indiana University mezzo Kathryn Leemhuis, who ended up finishing second, came in showing range with comical Cosi and an endearing Romeo's Tomb Scene from from Bellini's I Capuleti ed I Montecchi, plus a rather hip look in a black jacket and slacks with an antiquey top (I'm no fashion writer. Leave that to Opera Chic). Then the competition ended with IU's Jung Nan Yoon, making it look like this could be a three-soprano race between Zhang, Battle and Yoon for win, place and show.
That's what's great about the regionals, which we get once every three years: These are the best of the districts, and with Indiana, CCM and Kentucky in our region, all of the singers are bound to be good.
Sports: Watching the talented field reminded me how former UK voice professor Stephen King used to relate singing to golf, and it's a particularly apt analogy in the Met Auditions. Basically, all you can do is play your game, and hope you have a better day than everyone else. You're not going to impact anyone else's performance, so you just have to do your best, and hope it's good enough.
The Met Auditions always make me think of sports, because covering them, I feel a bit like a sportswriter: "How'd it feel out there today?" "What do you take from this going to the next round?" "How does this impact the program?"
Opera Scene investigators: The Met auditions usually go like this: The competitors come out, sing the aria they choose. Then, the three judge panel requests another piece, the singer does it and is gone. Occasionally, the judges will request a third piece, leaving the audience to wonder, "What does that mean? Does it mean they liked the singer? They didn't Know? They just wanted to hear something else."
Today, the judges threw the auditioners a lot of curve balls, stopping them in the middle of arias, asking for three, but only hearing parts of some works and generally seeming to be on a hunt for very specific things.
"They made us work out there," Lasch said, after the competition.
Speaking of the judges: Weather travails prevented Opera Theatre of St. Louis director Charles McKay from getting to Lexington to judge. So, competition co-director Henno Lohmeyer called Carroll Freeman, essentially the Everett McCorvey of the University of Tennessee Opera, and he agreed to make the three-hour drive up I-75 to fill in. He was joined by Met pianist and assistant conductor George Darden and acclaimed soprano Mignon Dunn.
Bet who Everett bets: Between the judging and the awards, UK Opera Theatre director Everett McCorvey said it was tough to figure out who won. But a few minutes before the awards were announced, he looked at the Met auditions mission statement in the program. He pointed to No. 1, "To discover exceptional young talent," and said if that's what the judges went by, it would be Battle or Lasch. A few minutes later, with the surprise announcement two singers would advance, Everett was proven right. I think I'm going to call him on Derby day . . .
Word from Memphis: Mezzo-soprano Brandy Lynn Hawkins was also in a regional yesterday, in Memphis. She did not advance though. "A baritone from Arkansas advanced," McCorvey wrote in an e-mail. "She felt good about her singing and the comments evidently were very positive. They only advanced one from that region to NY. She was very excited for Afton."
On to New York: The National Semi-Final will be at the Metropolitan Opera Feb. 17, with the finals Feb. 24. If it works the way it did in 2002, when UK's Corey Crider and Mark Whatley advanced, the semis were a smaller, essentially semi-private event. But the nationals are a big, ticketed concert. Here's the link for tickets.
Read it in the (college) paper: Memorial Hall was swarming with a bunch of reporters from UK's student paper, The Kernel, Saturday. I can't wait to see what they write, and will let you know if there are any online links. As a former college paper editor, I love seeing college papers actively covering the arts.
The Broadway cast of Rent, as photographed in July 2007. Copyrighted photo by Joan Marcus, distributed by the Associated Press.
If you entertained thoughts of seeing Rent on Broadway, at its home base in the Nederlander Theatre, you'd better plan your trip soon. The Broadway hit will close in June after a 12-year run that will make it the seventh longest running show in Broadway history. Here's the New York Times story.
Rent was beautiful for several reasons, including the bittersweet story of composer Jonathan Larson's death just before he realized his dream of composing a successful musical. But these are the two I embrace every time I see it:
~ Yes, the pop-rock musical/opera had been done by 1996, when Rent opened. But Jesus Christ Superstar and its ilk seemed distinctly rooted in the previous generation. Rent, for teens and twentysomethings of the 90s was ours, presenting issues and characters familiar to us. And many of them were so beautiful in spirit, regardless of their vices and circumstances.
~ Rent is a portal to the past. You cannot be a Renthead without knowing Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme. Sure, not everyone will follow that thread. But a lot of people -- particularly kids -- who love and are enthralled by art will.
The end of Rent's Broadway run closes a chapter in its history, but there are new ones to be written as it continues to tour and becomes available to theaters across the country.
No day but today
UK opera alum Patrica Andress never advanced beyond the regional rounds of the Met auditions, but has since had a successful career in the United States and Europe. Copyrighted Herald-Leader/LexGo photo by Sam Richie, taken in 2000.
The Tri-State regional round of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions is coming to Lexington for the third time since the Lexington Opera Society snatched the annual Met star search from Louisville in 2000.
University of Kentucky singers are one-for-two in parlaying the home-stage advantage into a trip to New York for the national semifinals. In 2001, theatrical baritone Corey Crider made the cut and found himself on the Metropolitan Opera stage in April. In 2004, dramatic soprano Lillian Roberts looked like a promising candidate but hit the stage hampered by a busy travel schedule and a cold, and failed to advance. This year, UK has some promising competitors.
Soprano Afton Battle has been blowing away pretty much everyone who hears her. Several UK voice professors said they would not normally advise a 26-year-old soprano to carry Turandot’s In questa reggia into a Met audition. But Battle did at the Kentucky Districts in November, and it turned heads, even among the judges.
Battle was taking an offensive approach after the Districts, saying it is time for UK to win at the national level again, “to start a new tradition, and give us someone else to talk about in addition to Greg Turay.”
Turay was the last UK student to win in the national competition, in 1995.
The same year Crider advanced, former UK baritone Mark Whatley advanced to the national finals, though he did not win. (Copyrighted photo, left-to-right, of Whatley and Crider by Mark Cornelison.)
Giving UK a triple threat to advance this year are countertenor Christopher Conley and soprano Hannah Smith. Conley is making his second trip in as many years to the regionals. He struggled as a tenor but has blossomed after finding his higher range, and he seems to have matured several years in the 12 months between district competitions. Smith was a revelation with a delightful rendition of Leonard Bernstein’s Glitter and Be Gay. She’s the sort of singer you could listen to all night.
The districts usually send three competitors to the next level, but only one singer traditionally advances from the regional round. Judges, however, can send more at their discretion.
Any of the three UK hopefuls could score a victory for the Bluegrass and give us a good excuse to turn our attention to New York later this year. In related news, mezzo-soprano Brandy Lynn Hawkins, who has just been accepted to the Washington National Opera’s young artist program, advanced to a regional out of Tennessee. So there are four UK singers vying for a trip to New York.
But even if that doesn’t happen, these singers might already be winners.
Maria Guleghina as Lady Macbeth in the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth. Copyrighted photo by Ken Howard for the Metropolitan Opera.
Update: Zeljko Lucic will actually sing the role of Macbeth after all. The Met sent out a press release late Friday saying Lado Ataneli is, "indisposed."
The credits barely rolled on Hansel & Gretel last Sunday, and the Metropolitan Opera’s Live HD broadcasts are already gearing up for another weekend with the company’s new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth.
This will be Shakespeare-based opera from the perspective of an
honest-to-goodness Shakespearian theater master, British director Adrian Noble.
He was the director of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1991 to 2003, where
he directed Macbeth twice, and he has several
I was in New York the opening night of this production, and tickets were available. But I chose to stay with the group I was with instead of peeling off to see the show. Riding to the airport, I read Anthony Tommasini's New York Times review, and wanted to kick myself for not following my instinct. It's not that Tommasini gave it a total rave, but he conveyed some interesting things about the approach and the musicianship that made it sound like a great night in the theater. The HD broadcast won't totally make up for not being there, but it's a nice second chance.
Showtime is 1:30 p.m. Saturday, in Central Kentucky at the Regal Hamburg Pavilion, Lexington Green Movies 8 and Richmond Mall Cinema 8 and the encore is at 3 p.m. Sunday at Lexington Green and Richmond Mall.
Critic and impresario Joe Horowitz and critic Alex Ross speak at the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University in October.
No one could ever accuse me of being a prolific book reader.
I’m not a speed reader, and with a wife, two kids, a busy schedule and a job that demands a lot of reading, the large swaths of time needed to devour a book are few and far between for me.
I do have a pile of good intentions — books that were started but faded from mind as more fetching reads emerged.
So, when a book overcomes those hurdles and continues to reassert itself, I know I’ve found something special. “Special” is an understatement for Alex Ross’s The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century.
At this point, I might be the last journalist to sing this remarkable tome’s praises, but I’m going to sing them anyway because this book is essential for knowing and understanding the history of classical music in the 20th century. It’s an important period to understand for anyone who cares about the genre. The 20th century was the time in Western culture when classical music went from enjoying a prominent place in society to more of a niche genre that struggled to figure out whom, if anyone, it was supposed to address.
There are all kinds of theories as to why this happened.
Continue reading "(Rare) Book review: 'The Rest is Noise' by Alex Ross" »
Gretel (Christine Schafer) and Hansel (Alice Coote) are enticed to enter the witch's house in the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Hansel and Gretel, with scenic and costume designs by John Macfarlane. Below: The "angels" prepare a feast for the children. Copyrighted photos by Ken Howard for the Metropolitan Opera.
Usually, when we say a show is fantastic, we mean that it was “excellent, superlative,” as Merriam-Webster defines the word. That’s definition No. 3. But in definition No. 1, according to the dictionary’s Web site, fantastic also means “conceived or seemingly conceived by unrestrained fancy.”
The Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel fits either definition. In Richard Jones’ production, originally for the Welsh National Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the opera’s design has been reimagined by artist John Macfarlane. He created a dreary and contemporary present for the unfortunate siblings. But once they enter the haunted forest, it’s a world of wild dreams and nightmares that complements Humperdinck’s timeless family opera.
The New Year’s Day afternoon performance was shown in a live, high-definition broadcast at movie theaters around the world. In the HD broadcast, before the curtain rose, shots of children in theater seats were interspersed with images of musicians warming up and updates on how far we were from showtime. At the Regal Hamburg Pavilion in Lexington, the audience was also dotted with kids, including a family of five that was dressed as if they were at Lincoln Center.
The images that went across the screen aren’t likely to vanish from any of those little boys’ and girls’ minds any time soon: craggy trees in dark suits, a high-concept apartment serving as a forest, the “angels” in the dream sequence portrayed as ultra-portly chefs who serve the children a sumptuous dinner, complete with a fish-head maitre d’. It’s a great show for kids — old enough and mature enough to handle some frightening and grisly images — because it shows so many ways that creativity can be used to make a compelling piece of art, from Humperdinck’s music to Macfarlane’s designs and everything in between.
The danger with high-concept pieces is that the concept will overwhelm the drama. But this H&G, with an English libretto by David Pountney, is still about the title 10-year-olds (sent into the forest by poor and incompetent parents) who must survive by their wits and a faith that God will hear their prayers. The kids are, of course, portrayed by adults — Christine Schäfer, who plays Gretel, has two kids of her own. But they ably get the mannerisms of children down, from their goofy dance in the first act, to the way Hansel’s (Alice Coote) chin trembles in the forest. It makes the Children’s Prayer in Act II all the more poignant, because we feel like we are seeing kids in trouble. And they are, as in Act III, they are enticed by the witch who wants to fatten them up and eat them. Even when he’s acting like Julia Child’s evil twin, Philip Langridge’s witch conveys plenty of menace.
Metropolitan Opera general director Peter Gelb has said he wants the venerable opera house to be a place where great artists come to work, be they musicians, stage directors or visual artists. This is a production that fully realizes that goal.
The New Year's broadcast was a great alternative to meaningless college football games (yes, even the arts writer has to take a shot at the crock that is the Bowl Championship Series), and if you didn't get to catch it, it repeats at 3 p.m. Jan. 6 (in Central Kentucky at the Lexington Green and Richmond Mall cinemas). The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre will also offer up its own take on Hansel and Gretel in March.
Shakespeare at Equus Run was one of several events launched in the Summer of 2007 to fill the void left by the closing of the Lexington Shakespeare Festival. Herald-Leader/Kentucky.com photo by Matt Goins.
"This is a developing story . . . " is a fairly common phrase in the news biz, and it certainly applies to the arts in Lexington in 2007. When you start thinking back on the big stories of the past year, several of them were stories that carried over from 2006. And heck, some of them won't be resolved by the time this piece is being penned in 2008.
There's quite a bit of evolution and change taking place here, and that usually doesn't easily fit into a calendar year. But evolution and change are also exciting, so let's see what was going on.
Summer reboot: One of the late-breaking stories of 2006 was the dissolution of the Lexington Shakespeare Festival. The arts community responded big time, filling the summer with events including Actors Guild of Lexington's Shakespeare at Equus Run and another festival that swooped into the Arboretum to replace the Shakespeare Festival. The summer also saw the debut of new chamber music festivals at the beginning and end of the season: The Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, featuring the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, at Shakertown and the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, featuring Lexington native and Chicago Symphony violinist Nathan Cole, at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion.
This story will continue to develop in 2008. Actors Guild has already decided to pass on presenting a indoor musical, as it did with Kiss Me Kate, this year, and SummerFest will likely look different in its 2008 offerings than it did this year. We'll keep you posted.
The search begins: George Zack is an indisputable institution in the Lexington arts community. So it meant a major change was afoot late last year when he announced he was stepping down as music director of the Lexington Philharmonic after 35 years on the job. This year, the change started happening. Though Zack's final concert isn't until September 2008, and his successor won't be announced until 2009, we got a look at the first two candidates for his job -- Phoenix Symphony Orchestra assistant conductor Kayoko Dan and Alexander Platt, who has several orchestras under his baton -- and an idea what the Phil will look like without Zack. In 2008, we should see at least five more candidates for the job.
Laura Bell takes the lead: No, this did not happen in Lexington. But if you ever wanted a statement that you can be born and raised in Lexington, go to school here, sharpen your skills in local arts entities and go on to top the marquee in a major cultural capitol, Laura Bell Bundy's star turn in Legally Blonde -- the Musical was a strong one. The Lexington native and Lexington Catholic graduate culminated years of working through stage and film to grab the leading role in one of Broadway's hottest shows, and a Tony nomination for the performance. Bundy's a performer with a lot of irons in the fire, so we'll see where 2008 leads her.
Zirkel's passing spotlights his cause: Ross Zirkle's death from cancer robbed the University of Kentucky of one of its beloved art professors and Lexington of a strong and active member of its visual arts community. It also revived a cause that Zirkle had fought passionately for: Getting the University of Kentucky administration to pay attention to the deplorable conditions at the Reynolds Building where the art department is housed. Despite problems that prompted an accreditation team to call the building, "a disaster waiting to happen," and previous problems including a collapsing staircase, the University of Kentucky administration has not made renovating the facility a top priority. We'll see if Zirkle's passing prompts any change of heart in '08.
The UK Symphony goes on the record and on the road: This year saw conductor John Nardolillo putting his orchestra on the national map with achievements including recording a CD for Naxos Records, the largest classical music label in the world, and playing Carnegie Hall with folk legend Arlo Guthrie. That CD of ballet music by George Frederick McKay should come out in 2008, and we'll see how else Nardolillo turns heads in the new year.
UK Opera joins forces with San Francisco Opera and composer: The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre increased its national profile joining with the San Francisco Opera's Merola Young Artist Program for the world premier of Thomas Pasatieri's comic opera Hotel Casablanca. It put the UK company in league with one of the nation's strongest opera companies, a prolific composer, and it stamped its name on a show that could wind up on stages around the world.
The Mayor issues a challenge: New Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry made the Lexington arts community nervous when he initially declined to declare a donation to the LexArts annual Campaign for the Arts as the effort got underway, breaking a tradition set by several of his predecessors. But he came back with an interesting proposal: He allocated $350,000 to the campaign and offered an additional $150,000, if LexArts could match the grant by coming up with new donors to pledge an additional $150,000, at no more than $1,000 each. LexArts rose to the challenge and acquired a new base of support, thanks to Newberry's visionary proposal that he hopes to apply to other concerns in the city. Now it's up to LexArts to build on the money and the new donor base.
