Category: Portland, OR

Stephen Llewellyn, Portland Opera’s official blogger and a lawyer by trade, recently won the #Operplot’s twitter contest, claimed the top prize and then gave it to a music teacher he has never met. How cool is that!

Today’s Washington Post has the entire scoop, plus quotes from Llewellyn and the Washington D.C. schoolteacher who will receive his prize.

In case you don’t have time to read it, here’s the outcome as quoted from the article:

Priscilla Barrow, who has taught music in D.C. public schools for 22 years, learned Monday, out of the blue, that she will be going to the final performance of “Turandot” at the Washington National Opera on June 4 and, the next night, the company’s annual Opera Ball at the German Embassy. In a ball gown provided by the opera’s costume shop.

Llewellyn has also posted his account of how this all happened. Click here.

Hats off to a fellow whose generosity is an inspiration to the rest of us!

The Portland Symphonic Choir gave a sumptuous performance of Sergei Rachmaninov’s “Verpers” on Sunday afternoon (May 17). Standing in the apse of St. Mary’s Cathedral , the 120-vloice choir, under the direction of Steven Zopfi, created waves of warm, rich sounds with excellent tonal blend. Impressive especially were crescendos that reached massive proportions and the many passages in which the basses reached notes that came from the subterranean levels of the Russian soul.

Highlights also included the bell-like sounds from the sopranos and tenors in Movement 7 (“Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will among men”) and the exposed notes held by various sections of the choir in Movement 9 (“Blessed art thou, O Lord”). Mezzo-soprano Sherry Olson sounded terrific during her solo in Movement 2 (“Bless the Lord, O my soul”), but the vibrato in tenor soloist Scott Tuomi’s voice seemed way out of control.

The choir sang the entire 15-movement, hour-long, a cappella piece in Russian with a break between movements 8 and 9 for intermission. I think that the singers were starting to run out of steam in the last movement, because their sound started to lose some of the best colors. Yet before singing the final notes they gathered their artistic might and ended the concert gloriously. The audience responded enthusiastically with a standing ovation and sustained applause.

This concert repeats at St. Mary’s Parish Church in Mt. Angel (575 E. College St.) on Sunday, May 31 at 4 pm.

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Caveat emptor: I have sung with this choir for many years, but I’ve taken my critic’s oath to not let that experience affect my objectivity in this review.

Joshua Bell, one of the hottest names in classical music, maxed out the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and drew a standing room only crowd at the Oregon Symphony’s concert on Saturday evening (May 16), but it was the orchestra’s playing of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 that soared and brought listeners to something in the neighborhood of heaven.

Continue reading Joshua Bell’s Mendelssohn shimmers;Oregon Symphony scales heights and depths of Bruckner’s 7th

Displaying his technical prowess and interpretive skills to the utmost, Arnaldo Cohen delivered a superb piano recital on Monday evening (May 11) at the Newmark Theatre. In a program that consisted of demanding works by Beethoven, Schumann, and Liszt, Cohen’s depth and understanding allowed the musical emotion of each piece to come alive. This concert was the last one in Portland Piano International’s series for this season, and it was a harbinger of great things to come when Cohen returns to Portland next year to play all of the Beethoven piano concertos with the Oregon Symphony.

Continue reading Outstanding piano recital by Arnaldo Cohen brings Portland Piano International series to a close

The Oregon Symphony under the direction of Carlos Kalmar continues to make some amazing music. On Saturday evening (May 9) the ensemble created a seamless transition from the placid atmosphere of Eric Satie’s “Gymnopédies” through the idyllic soundscape of Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” and ending in the jumbletron of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. The Barber and Mahler piece also featured Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin, who last sang with the orchestra in 2006 in Mozart’s Requiem.

Continue reading Karina Gauvin sings Barber and Mahler with Oregon Symphony

The combo of Mark Rucker and Sarah Colburn added an extra layer of emotion that made the Portland Opera production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” a dynamic and satisfying experience on opening night (Friday, May 8). Rucker, in the title role as the hunch-backed jester, blustered, cried, and raged magnificently, and Colburn completely embodied his love-smitten, totally sincere daughter, Gilda.

Colburn’s beautiful soprano tone blended purity, conviction, vulnerability, and energy in intoxicating amounts. Her “Caro nome” (“Sweet name”) aria at the end of the first act was riveting. Another highlight came at the very end of the opera when the ethereal father/daughter duet “Ah, ch’io taccia! (“Let me be silent!”) took the audience to new heights before plunging it into darkness with the death of Gilda in the arms of a utterly devastated Rigoletto.

Continue reading Portland Opera’s Rigoletto heightens melodrama

Mendelssohn and Bach go together extremely well, and that shouldn’t be a surprise since Mendelssohn was the primary person who led the rediscovery of Bach’s music. Yet I haven’t attended many concerts in which their music was performed together until I heard the Bach Cantata Choir in its season finale on Sunday afternoon (April 26), which also featured the music of the early American composer William Billings. The choir, under the direction of Ralph Nelson, sang with excellent diction and blend in its performance before a large and appreciative audience at Rose City Park Presbyterian Church.

Continue reading Bach Cantata Choir ends season on triumphant note