Month: August 2009

Ticciati teams up with Levin and the Age of Enlightenment in all-Mozart concert

ticciati

Who would’ve thought that there’s an up-and-coming conductor with a mop of Gustavo Dudamel-like hair who is younger than Dudamel himself? Well, the 26-year old Robin Ticciati is just such a fellow. Starting this fall, Ticciati begins his first season as principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Since 2007, he has been the music director of Glyndebourne on Tour and has already conducted several top-tier orchestras in Europe and has become the youngest conductor at La Scala (in 2005) and the Salzburg Festival (in 2006). Continue reading Ticciati teams up with Levin and the Age of Enlightenment in all-Mozart concert

Adams’ A Flowering Tree blossoms at Lincoln Center

flowering tree

One of the loudest splashes at this year’s Mostly Mozart Festival (now in its 43rd year) was made with “A Flowering Tree,” an opera written by John Adams as a commission in 2006 by Lincoln Center for the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. Originally premiered at the New Crowned Hope festival in Vienna, Austria, this production of “A Flowering Tree” took place at the Rose Theater (in the Time Warner Center). I attended the performance on Friday, August 14th and was very impressed with the engaging new music that Adams created and the exciting performances by the principals and the chorus. Continue reading Adams’ A Flowering Tree blossoms at Lincoln Center

Q&A wtih Cassidy Brettler: Seattle Opera Confession’s winner

Richard Paul Fink teaches Cassidy Brettler how to scamper like Alberich. Photo courtesy of Seattle Opera and Bill Mohn.
Richard Paul Fink teaches Cassidy Brettler how to scamper like Alberich. Photo courtesy of Seattle Opera and Bill Mohn.

If you need to know something about the Ring Cycle, you probably shouldn’t ask Cassidy Brettler. She really doesn’t know anything about Richard Wagner’s masterpiece. If you want to know what will make the Seattle Opera’s staging of the 15-hour-long, four-opera cycle exhilarating, though, she is the perfect person to ask. By the time Seattle Opera’s production begins later this month, the 20-year-old will have experienced how the Rhine Maidens fly, faced Fafner the dragon and absorbed more about Richard Wagner’s masterpiece than anyone could ever hope. Not bad for someone who is not, technically, a part of the massive production. Brettler is the winner of Confessions, a Seattle Opera contest that pitted four opera newbies against one another for the chance to host a 10-minute documentary on the Ring and the Seattle Opera. For the last month Brettler has been collecting her prize, shadowing singers, stagehands and others as they prepare for the major stage and musical event of the summer. Sound talked with Brettler about her experiences thus far.

Continue reading Q&A wtih Cassidy Brettler: Seattle Opera Confession’s winner

Last concert of the Summer Festival

Extraordinary weather and extraordinary playing marked this year’s Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival, first at Lakeside School (for the last time) and for the past ten days at The Overlake School in Redmond.

The programming was a little uneven, though no one can have too much Brahms (who was by some standards over represented). A few too many works of lesser quality got included. They may have brought some variety, but not of the best kind, and it always seems hard on the musicians who work so intensely when they are here, for them to have to take the time and energy to learn and perform something eminently forgettable. They do it with grace and good humor and it’s clear that the festival is almost like a much-loved summer camp to them.

Continue reading Last concert of the Summer Festival

The first cycle in three of Seattle Opera’s “Ring” closed Friday night at McCaw Hall

“Gotterdammerung,” the concluding episode of Richard Wagner’s tetralogy, “Der Ring des Nibelungen,” is an arduous journey, impossibly lengthy and complex. At its best, it is thrilling and sublime, at its worst, boring and just long-winded.

Seattle Opera’s production, its third in some 34 years, is nearly always riveting, making drama both visually and musically, and immensely appealing and human. Credit goes to stage director Stephen Wadsworth, who only stumbles on occasion, and a long list of singing actors who bring their roles to life. Over an amazing three-month rehearsal period, every detail is meticulously worked out, so that the result is an almost seamless flow of action wedded to music. In the pit is conductor Robert Spano, his second Seattle “Ring,” who presides over the affair in a sensitive and alert manner.

Continue reading The first cycle in three of Seattle Opera’s “Ring” closed Friday night at McCaw Hall

My Ring journey: Siegfried

Wednesday night at the Seattle Opera’s first Siegfried of August, Stig Andersen achieved a feat worthy of Wagner’s mythic Siegfried.

Just before the curtain came up, Speight Jenkins edged his way onto the stage for an announcement. Stig Andersen, it seems, was plagued by a viral infection that had attacked his voice and sapped his constitution with a fever. There were gasps and a few worried looks around me, but then Jenkins reassured the concerned that Andersen would still sing the part. The show would go on as planned.

“He’s strong and is experienced. Stig Andersen wants to sing his role.” Jenkins said.

Andersen is strong and experienced, but is this enough for a role as demanding as Siegfried? From beginning to end, there are few moments when Siegfried isn’t on stage and when he is on stage he is singing some of the most demanding and stimulating music Wagner wrote for a tenor.

Continue reading My Ring journey: Siegfried

Stig Andersen makes his Seattle debut in “Siegfried”

“Siegfried” is considered by many to be the most problematic opera in Wagner’s “Ring.” It is not the longest –“Gotterdamerrung” gets that prize, logging in at nearly five and one-half hours — but it has the fewest characters, all of whom, except for the Forest Bird, tend to make long speeches on a variety of subjects. But when it works, it works –glorious and profound, even fun.

Seattle Opera’s production, which was performed at McCaw Hall Wednesday night, may linger on occasion but it rarely gets stuck. With Stephen Wadsworth’s staging, there is usually a sense of purpose and progress, although on Wednesday the final scene seemed overlong, in a major part because the Siegfried, Stig Andersen, was suffering from an infection and his voice was slowly disappearing. Like any company that produces the opera on a regular basis, Seattle has had its share of problems with tenors doing this role. Sometimes they get sick and have trouble doing the role and sometimes they can’t do it at all. Whatever the reason they seem to come to grief with some regularity.

Continue reading Stig Andersen makes his Seattle debut in “Siegfried”

Two new categories added

Because TGN has been extensively covering the Seattle Chamber Music Society summer festival and Seattle Opera’s 2009 Ring, I have created two new categories that will take you to every post on either music event.  You’ll notice these two categories in the sidebar and at the bottom of relevant posts.  Click the category, and you’ll be directed to a complete list of all posts for that category.