Tag: Seattle

Amelia sneak peek

Daron Hagen, the composer of Amelia.

Reminder

: I’ll be live blogging the Amelia sneak peek tomorrow afternoon.  Check back here at 2 pm and you can access my live blog of the event.  To watch the live blog, click the link below and a new window will open up.  Or, if you prefer, you can click the Live Blog tab at the top of the page and you can watch an embedded version of the blog.  I hope you tune in, It should be fun and interesting.

Seattle Opera is holding a “sneak peek” event for bloggers on April 13 from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm.  Seattle’s community of arts bloggers (who are they?) will be meeting with the creative team responsible for Amelia.  It is the first commission for the opera in more than 40 years.  Perhaps more striking is Amelia is an American opera, set in America, about American things.  American opera isn’t as cemented in the repertory as its French, German, and Italian counterparts.  Of course, there are exceptions.  Nixon in China (John Adams), Porgy and Bess (George Gershwin) and Vanessa (Samuel Barber) are successful relative to other American operas, but I would hesitate to call them repertory staples.

Amelia is a big deal for Seattle Opera and could be considered a more important operatic achievement than the every-four-years Ring cycle.  In any event, you can use the link below to open up a pop out window that will let you follow the live blog.  Or, you can always check out the Live Blog page by clicking the tab at the top of this page.

Lisa Daltirus gets to the heart of Verdi’s Leonora

Lisa Daltirus (Leonora) rehearses the opera with director José Mariá Condemi. Bill Mohn photos
Lisa Daltirus rehearses the opera with director José Mariá Condemi. Bill Mohn photos

In Verdi’s three most popular operas – La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Il Trovatore – the heroine suffers a tragic fate.  In Traviata, Violetta loses love, gets sick, and dies just after one final encounter with her beau.  Gilda, the heroine in Rigoletto, decides to sacrifice her own life to spare that of the Duke’s – her father’s tormentor and the man she has fallen in love with.  And then there is Leonora, who poisons herself to stay true to her love Manrico.  Simply focusing on the tragic end of these three women doesn’t do justice to the depth of Verdi’s characters.  They are complex, constantly changing, and determined to leave their own mark on the world.

Continue reading Lisa Daltirus gets to the heart of Verdi’s Leonora

Breaking news (tomorrow)

Update :

Communications staff forwarded answers to me yesterday evening.

Update 2:

I’ll be listening by iPhone (thank you Apple and Dan) and posting later today.

The Seattle Symphony issued a media advisory this afternoon, announci ng that Leslie Jackson Chihuly (Seattle Symphony Board Chair) will hold a media advisory tomorrow at the Olympic Fairmount Hotel.  Finally.  While the advisory describes the event as an opportunity for Jackson to share the board’s five-year plan for the orchestra.  By the end, I hope we will actually have a plan that is more than just a theme and variation on the stalled contract negotiations with the musicians.

Continue reading Breaking news (tomorrow)

Kurt Masur Makes His Welcome Debut at Benaroya Hall

By R.M. Campbell

Even though the Seattle Symphony Orchestra is in another uneasy period with troubled labor negotiations, the imminent departure of its chief executive and a long-standing deficit, it made splendid music to open the New Year Thursday night at Benaroya Hall.

The galvanizing force was Kurt Masur in his local debut. While the German conductor is in his early 80’s and suffers from Parkinson’s, he was a dynamic force on the podium, revealing his utter command over Mozart and Bruckner. SSO musicians responded with vigor and insight. The entire concert was a revelation and, for once, the cheers and standing ovation were justified.

Continue reading Kurt Masur Makes His Welcome Debut at Benaroya Hall

Beethoven’s Ninth: an occasion in itself

There is perhaps no ninth symphony as famous as Beethoven’s Ninth – the Ninth.  It is the summit every composer after him sought to reach but none surpassed.  Johannes Brahms’ crafted his own first symphony in the shadow of Beethoven, paying homage to the great composer through musical references.  Bruckner, another great symphonist, reached his own ninth but died before it was completed.  Stricken by self-doubt through his life, never sure of his own talents, it is ironically Bruckner’s own ninth which many consider his best.  Then there is Mahler, who was so intimidated by Beethoven’s symphonic opus that he renumbered his own symphonies to avoid the magic number “9.”

Continue reading Beethoven’s Ninth: an occasion in itself

Are SSO contract negotiations a canary in the coal mine?

Is the Seattle Symphony heading toward a civic calamity?

The changing economics of the arts industry has left many orchestras on the brink of catastrophe. The Philadelphia Orchestra is the highest profile example. A large deficit, no permanent music director, and general disdain for the musicians is jeopardizing the future of this Big Five orchestra. Other orchestras are suffering too. The future of the Everett Symphony is uncertain, while the Bellevue Philharmonic is still on shaky ground after a leadership brawl last year. And not long ago, the Columbus Symphony, the professional orchestra for Ohio’s largest city, disappeared entirely for a period of time.

Continue reading Are SSO contract negotiations a canary in the coal mine?

A Choral Arts Christmas

Choir

On Saturday, December 19th, Choral Arts gave a wonderful Christmas Concert at the Trinity Parish Church in Seattle. Led by Robert Bode, and accompanied by Libby Watrous, the Choral Arts choir sang Christmas songs and carols from multiple cultures. The concert was divided up into four parts: Seeking Sanctuary, Inviting Mystery, Mother and Child, and Love Came Down. Every piece had its strong points, and among the many wonderful carols that were sung, I was very impressed with three in particular.

When the Choral Arts choir sang The Road Home from “Southern Harmony”

, arranged by Stephen Paulus, I was engulfed in the story of the song. I believed them as they sang. The sincerity that they sung with cannot be taught. In order to be that believable when you’re performing you have to perform with true intention, from a meaningful place deep inside yourself that can only be sung out in song. The vocalises before each stanza were especially poignant. The arrangement was also beautiful. The traditional treatment of the harmonies complimented the choir’s timbre.  There were no individuals, only the choir as a whole. And, with the delicate pronunciation of the words, the audience wasn’t hit over the head with syllabic singing.

My favorite German piece of the program was Komm, Heil’ger Geist

by Georg Schumann. The intent behind the singing was also wonderful in this piece. That sincerity coupled with the effectiveness of their dynamic contrast and the modulation in the middle of the piece heightened the auditory response and made the performance even more powerful. Right before the modulation the sopranos were singing in octaves with the altos and the effect was heavenly. The sopranos were able to sit on top of the harmony without overpowering the choir, while enhancing the harmonics of the chord. It was an excellent way to lead the audience into the dramatic key change.

Venez, Mes Enfants

, arranged by  Donald Patriquin, was also wonderful. The carol itself is very playful and light, and the mood created by the choir with their bubbling voices and delicate pronunciation emulated the phrase, “C’est La Vie.” The call and response section between the men and the women was especially enjoyable. The Choral Arts women had a strong core sound that resonated into the highest arches of the church and the men’s voices were just as powerful. My favorite part of the piece was the ending. The coordinated release at the end of the last verse was breathtaking. It made the silence following the piece all the more deafening. Overall, the performance was fantastic and I would highly recommend seeing them when they come back to Seattle. Their next concert is going to be at St. James Cathedral on Saturday, March 20th at 8PM.