Summer evening on top of Mt Helix... Les Miserables!

A few fellow hills-crazy cycling friends and I have been riding up and down Mt Helix in La Mesa a lot lately. It is such a beautiful place with sleepy streets and friendly locals. I don't need a lot of incentive to head that way as soon as I hop on my bike in the morning. All I need is < 87F weather forecast, and I'm there!

 There is an additional incentive to dropping in on Mt Helix this week, though. The Christian Community Theater is putting on a run of Les Miserables at the Nature Theater.

Even if you don't like musicals, it's still a super cool place to be. Usually you are ushered off the mountain withing 1/2 hr after sunset, but during the shows, of course, you can stay longer. Check out http://christiancommunitytheater.com/ for tickets. The show goes on at 8 pm on July 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, Aug 1, 2.



I'm afraid there's no parking up at the theater for this (there's a lot, but it's way too small). You'll have to park off Vivera opposite from the fire station near the base of the hill and take the shuttle bus up.

Classical Music, Opera, Performance Arts in San Diego, CA (March - April 2013)

MARCH
1, 2, 3: Downtown - Copley Hall: San Diego Symphony - Dvorak's 5th symphony & Shostakovich's violin concerto with Jahja Ling & Karen Gomyo.
2: Downtown - Balboa Theater: Academy of St Martin in the Field - Britten, Haydn, Bach.
8, 9, 10: Downtown - Spreckels Theater: San Diego City Ballet presents Giselle.
9: La Jolla - MCASD Sherwood Auditorium: La Jolla Music Society presents Tafelmusik. Music of Handel, JS Bach, Sweelinck, Vivaldi, Purcell, Marais, Telemann.
10: La Jolla - Torrey Pines Christian Church: San Diego Master Chorale - Vernal Spectrum.
10: Costa Mesa - Segerstrom Center for the Arts: Dennis James recreates live organ accompaniment to classic film The Phantom of the Opera.
*14: Chula Vista - Chula Vista Middle School: San Diego Youth Symphony Prepatory Ensemble Concert. Free admission.
15, 16, 17: Downtown - Copley Hall: San Diego Symphony - Jahja Ling & Jessie Chang play Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos. Also Bach's D major orchestral suite & Schumann's 4th symphony.
16: Downtown - Civic Theater: San Diego Opera presents Cruza la Cara de la Luna, a mariachi opera by Jose 'Pepe' Martinez. Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, Brian Shircliffe, Brittany Wheeler, Octavio Moreno, Cecilia Duarte.
22, 23: Downtown - Copley Hall: San Diego Symphony - Kenny G: Heart & Soul.
29: Downtown - Copley Hall: New Orleans Jazz Orchestra with Irwin Mayfield.
30: Downtown - Civic Theater: San Diego Opera presents Pizzetti's Murder in the Cathedral. Donato Renzetti conducts Ferrucio Furlanetto, Allan Glassman, Susan Neves, Helene Schneidermann.

APRIL
2, 5, 7: Downtown - Civic Theater: San Diego Opera presents Pizzetti's Murder in the Cathedral. Donato Renzetti conducts Ferrucio Furlanetto, Allan Glassman, Susan Neves, Helene Schneidermann.
6: La Jolla - MCASD Sherwood Auditorium: La Jolla Music Society presents Alison Balsom & Scottish Ensemble.
8: Torrey Pines - Auditorium TSRI: Chamber Music - Kyoko Takezawa plays Tchaikovsky & Dohnanyi.
9, 10: Downtown - Copley Hall: LJMS present Alvin Ailey American Dance Company.
12, 13, 14: Downtown - Copley Hall: San Diego Symphony - Brahms violin concerto & Schubert's 5th symphony with Kyoko Takezawa.
14: Torrey Pines - Auditorium TSRI: LJMS presents Juho Pohjonen. 
19, 20: Downtown - Copley Hall: The 5 Browns.
20: College - College Ave Baptist Church: San Diego Master Chorale - Grant Us Peace.
20: Downtown - Balboa Theater: LJMS presents Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Ma Maison.
20, 23, 26, 28: Downtown - Civic Theater: San Diego Opera presents Verdi's Aida. Danielle Callegari conducts Latonia Moore, Jill Grove, Walter Fraccaro, Mark S Doss.
21: Downtown - Copley Hall: San Diego Symphony Musical Celebration. Ken David Masur conducts music for special occasions.
26: La Jolla - MCASD Sherwood Auditorium: LJMS presents Kirill Gerstein (piano).

Classical Music and Theater (Ballet & Opera) Performances in San Diego, CA (November 2012 - February 2013)

NOVEMBER 2012
14, 15, 16, 17, 18: Downtown (Civic Theater): Peter Pan. Cathy Rigby stars in the Emmy Award winning and Tony Award nominated Broadway musical.
 15: Downtown (Copley Hall): LJMS - Philharmonia Orchestra. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in Mahler's 9th symphony.
16: Pt Loma (All Souls' Episcopal Church): Maude Gratton organ recital.
16, 17, 18: Downtown (Copley Hall): San Diego Symphony - Beethoven's Pastoral. Christof Perick conducts the SDSO with Jeff Thayer (violin solo) in a program of Richard Strauss' Don Juan, Goldmark's violin concerto, and Beethoven's 6th symphony (Pastoral).
18: Downtown (Balboa Theater): Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. The Classics 4 Kids Philharmonic Orchestra and Malashock Dance perform a tribute to Victor Hartman to the music of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
18 (free): Downtown (Central Library): Public Library Concert Series - Camarada. Camarada performs music of Kummer, Devienne, Chaminade, Dutilleux, Piazzolla and Bloch.

Copley Symphony Hall from the balcony.

DECEMBER 2012
1: Banker's Hill (St Paul's Cathedral): San Diego Master Chorale - Handel's Messiah Sing-Along and Holiday Tea.
2 (2PM): Downtown (Copley Hall): San Diego Symphony - Big Business (1929) and Chaplin's Short Films: The Rink And The Pawn Shop. Russ Peck (organ).
2: Downtown (Balboa Theater): LJMS - The Romeros and Concerto Malaga. Handel's Messiah, Schubert's Ave Maria, Massimo Paris' Christmas Suite and Manuel de Falla's Villancicos.
7, 8: Downtown (Copley Hall): San Diego Symphony - John Williams in Concert. John Williams conducts the SDSO with Johannes Moser (cello) in a program of his cello concerto and greatest movie hits.
8 (free): Balboa Park (Museum of Art): Courtly Noyse - December Nights. Free with museum admission. Music of the Renaissance period.
8: Banker's Hill (St Paul's Cathedral): San Diego Master Chorale - Bach's Christmas Oratorio.
11: La Jolla (St. James by the Sea): El Mundo - Buon Natale y Felices Fiestas. Holiday program of Italian, Spanish and Latin American music of Legrenzi, Scarlatti, Kapsberger, Monteverdi, Castellanos, Duron, Ceruti and Cozzolani.
11: UCSD (Auditorium of TSRI): San Diego Symphony - Stravinsky, Mozart, Bach and More! Members of the SDSO's brass and winds sections perform famous chamber works by Gabrieli, Mozart, JS Bach and Stravinsky's Octet for Winds.
13: Downtown (Copley Hall): San Diego Symphony - L'Obsession Fantastique. Jahja Ling conducts the SDSO in Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, with Nuvi Mehta appearing as Francois Habeneck.
14: La Jolla (MCASD Sherwood Auditorium): LJMS - Yefim Bronfman in concert. Sonatas of Haydn, Brahms and Prokofiev.
14, 15, 16: Downtown (Copley Hall): San Diego Symphony - Symphonie Fantastique. Jahja Ling conducts the SDSO with Jeremy Denk (piano) in a program of Verdi's overture to La forza del destino, Mozart's 21st piano concerto, and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.
15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23: Downtown (Civic Theater): California Ballet - Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.
21, 22, 23: Downtown (Copley Hall): San Diego Symphony - Holiday Pops: A Celtic Celebration. Matthew Garbutt conducts the SDSO, Eileen Ivers (celtic fiddle), the San Diego Master Chorale, San Diego Children's Choir in an evening of festive Irish holiday favorites.

JANUARY 2013
1: Downtown (Copley Hall): The Strauss Symphony of America - New Year's Concert 2013 Salute to Vienna. Andreas Mitisek conducts the Strauss Symphony of America in Strauss' waltzes, polkas and operetta excerpts.
4, 5, 6: Downtown (Civic Theater): Rain - A Tribute to the Beatles.
8: UCSD (Auditorium of TSRI): Viviane and Nicole Hagner Perform Schubert. Viviane (violin) and Nicole (piano) Hagner and members of the SDSO perform music from Bartok's Rhapsody No. 1 and Schubert's Piano Trio No. 1.
11, 12, 13: Downtown (Copley Hall): San Diego Symphony - Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. Jahja Ling conducts the SDSO and Viviane Hagner (violin) in a program of Rossini's overture to La gazza ladra, Mendelssohn's violin concerto in E minor, and Nielsen's 5th Symphony.
12: La Jolla (MCASD Sherwood Auditorium): LJMS - Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Nicholas McGegan conducts the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in Corelli, Pergolesi, Vivaldi, Locatelli & Durante.
18, 19: Downtown (Copley Hall): San Diego Symphony - Broadway's Brian Stokes Mitchell. Randall Craig Fleischer conducts the SDSO and Brian Stokes Mitchell (vocals) in a program of Broadway favorites from Ragtime, Kiss Me Kate, and Man of La Mancha.
26: Downtown (Civic Theater): San Diego Opera - Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment. Yves Abel conducts L'ubica Vargicova, Stephen Costello, Donato DiStefano, Ewa Podles, Carol Vaness.
27: Downtown (Copley Hall): San Diego Symphony - The Magic of Mozart. Ken-David Masur conducts the SDSO in a program of the music of WA Mozart.
29: Downtown (Copley Hall): LJMS - The Joffrey Ballet.
29 : Downtown (Civic Theater): San Diego Opera - Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment. Yves Abel conducts L'ubica Vargicova, Stephen Costello, Donato DiStefano, Ewa Podles, Carol Vaness.
31: Downtown (Copley Hall): San Diego Symphony - The Magic of Scheherazade. Mei-Ann Chen conducts the SDSO in Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade.

Watching opera set change at San Diego Civic Theater

FEBRUARY 2013
1, 3: Downtown (Civic Theater): San Diego Opera - Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment. Yves Abel conducts L'ubica Vargicova, Stephen Costello, Donato DiStefano, Ewa Podles, Carol Vaness.
7: Downtown (Copley Hall): San Diego Symphony - Gil Shaham In Recital. Gil Shaham (violin) and Akira Egushi (piano) in a program of Walton's violin sonata, Bach's partita no. 3, Beethoven's 9th violin sonata (Kreutzer), and Bolcom.
8, 9, 10: Downtown (Copley Hall): San Diego Symphony - Scheherazade. Mei-Ann Chen conducts the SDSO and Benjamin Jaber (horn) in a program of Price's Mississippi River Suite, R Strauss' 1st horn concerto, and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.
10: UCSD (The Auditorium of TSRI): LJMS - Benjamin Grosvenor in concert of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Scriabin, Granados, Strauss/Schulz-Evler.
13: Downtown (Copley Hall): Russian National Ballet Theatre - Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet.
14: Downtown (Copley Hall): Russian National Ballet Theatre - Prokofiev's Cinderella.
15: UCSD (The Auditorium of TSRI): Hopkinson Smith - German theobor. JS Bach's cello suites transcription for the theobor.
15: Downtown (Copley Hall): LJMS - BBC Concert Orchestra. Keith Lockhart conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra and Sophie Shao (cello) in a program of Britten's Sea Interludes (from Peter Grimes), Elgar's E minor cello concerto and Enigma Variations, and Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow.
16: Downtown (Copley Hall): The Son of the Sheik. Russ Peck (organ). Silent film.
 16, 19, 22, 24: Downtown (Civic Theater): San Diego Opera - Saint-Saens' Samson et Dalila. Karen Keltner conducts Nadia Krasteva, Clifton Forbis, Tomas Tomasson, Gregory Reinhart. 24: Downtown (Copley Hall): Pipes and Drums of the Black Watch. The Black Watch and the Band of the Scots guards do British pomp and pageantry pieces.

A Chat With Steven Ang of The Mad Scene Blog

Being a smorg, I've had the luck to (sort of) meet many wonderfully interesting people via the Internet. One of them is Steven Ang, the Singaporean opera singer/student and writer whose Mad Scene Blog is an ideal source of information on the Singaporean opera scene. I first encountered Steven and his blog in September 2008 while researching opera companies in unlikely places (like in Southeast Asia). I found a few, though none were as co-operative in providing me with up to date information about their company as the Singapore Lyric Opera was.

Being a typical smorg, however, I looked around for collaborating thoughts from non-official sources as well and was completely delighted when Steven agreed to provide a view of the SLO from the audience's side of the orchestra pit. Our collaboration resulted in this 2008 profile of the Singapore Lyric Opera posted at AssociatedContent.com. And so you can probably imagine how thrilled I was to get to interview Steven Ang again, two years later, on the 3rd anniversary of his endlessly fascinating Mad Scene Blog:

2008 production of Turandot at the Singapore Lyric Opera (photo courtesy of the SLO)

Smorg: Steven! Your blog profile describes you as "a dramatic-spinto-lyrico-coloratura soprano trapped in a light baritone's body." Would you care to elaborate on that??

Steven Ang: Well I think that line is already pretty self-explanatory but sure! Its just that there are so many great roles that I would like to sing but they all happen to be in the Callas/Sutherland repertoire, which my voice is probably not suited for. Instead I have a baritone’s vocal range that is firmly stuck in the middle, neither high nor low. So there won’t be any stunning coloratura capped off with high e-flats coming from me anytime soon, neither should you be expecting 9 high Cs nor Sarastro’s spacious low Fs. 

But I suppose its not that bad 'cause there are benefits that come with being a baritone, mostly that we seem to have a longer shelf-life: look at it this way: Pavarotti may have passed away, but his baritone colleagues such as Leo Nucci, Ruggiero Raimondi and Renato Bruson are still singing and making records with sopranos young enough to be their daughters; even Domingo’s switching to baritone repertoire!

Smorg: Tell us the truth... in your most demented dreams, you know, the ones that hit you in the middle of the night after an ill-advised spree of bel canto music binge, who appears in the dream as the bloody Lucia (and who is Edgardo)?

SA: No one in particular really because if I have the right voice, I can easily out-sing all of them. I will be madder than a mad cow, and my high stunning high e-flats will stronger than Sutherland’s, brighter than Gruberova’s and shriekier than Dessay’s.

You see this is what I mean by being a dramatic-spinto-lyrico-coloratura soprano trapped in a light baritone's body! I would so love to run around an opera stage singing a mad scene, but alas there are no high e-flats in my range, so what can I do? *shrugs*

Smorg: What keeps you going writing opera blogs and interviews? 

SA: Well Singapore does not really have a big opera or classical music scene although it's growing at quite an exciting pace now, and certainly no magazines for classical music and opera. I used to read quite a few entertainment magazines when I was younger, and thought about how great it would be if there is something similar in the classical music area, where we can read about the personalities who are producing our concerts. The idea of creating an entertainment e-zine about opera and classical singers in Singapore thus took hold.

Ultimately, I want to create something that can be a central news source for the vocal music community. So many times I’ve asked a friend if he attended a particular concert, only to be told that he hasn’t heard of it, or that I’d learn about a performance by reading a review after its over. So I hope that The Mad Scene has helped in some ways to promote our events to audiences who also love this art form. That vocalists can now find an avenue to reach out to their target audience.

Smorg: What most earth-shattering thing have you learned studying voice at Soochow University in Taiwan so far?

SA: One of the school’s senior staff once told me that there are many vocal students who are only here because they are not good enough to join the piano department. That was quite a shock to me! Thing is, the general impression is that most singers only start training in their teenage years, so the admission standards for voice is generally lower than the instrumentalists. But I am so fascinated by the human voice and all these great musical works written for them, that I can’t imagine anyone would want to do this because they have no other choice. Hopefully these students will be convinced of the beauty of our natural instrument and would aspire to sing even after graduation.

Smorg: You have seen almost every angle of the opera business by now. Is there any myth about this world/art form that you particularly want to see on the Operatic Myth Extinction List?

SA: I’m not sure if I have seen “almost every angle”, but I guess I’ve seen quite a lot in my capacity as both a performer and writer. But then I don’t claim to be a voice expert in any form, just an enthusiastic listener.

One myth I’d like to see go away is the common conception of how a particular voice is only suited to a particular style of music. You know the one where people decide upon a few recordings that a particular voice is not suited to a particular role because it is too high/too low/too dramatic/too much coloratura/not the right style, etc. I’d rather not be so adamant to cast a singer in a particular mould, but to let him or her explore the possibilities of his voice and convince me of it. We should also consider the context of the performance: is it a student or professional gig, piano or orchestra accompaniment, size of hall, etc. Of course a teacher has a responsibility to guide the student in repertoire that is healthy for his or her voice, but as audiences let’s keep an open mind and let the singers show us what they can do.

We should also consider that many singers have created their legend in roles people thought they had no business singing. Waltraud Meier’s Isolde is a good example, as is Shirley Verrett’s venture into soprano rep starting with Lady Macbeth. In our own time, Domingo has sung everything from Count Almaviva’s coloratura in “Barbiere” to baritone roles like Rigoletto. Let’s give these professional performers the benefit of the doubt and trust that they know what is good for their voices.

Smorg: What do you think about the prospect of opera in the mainstream entertainment forums... like reality television shows or cross-over talents contests?

SA: You know I came across this wonderful Canadian TV series on YouTube called “Bathroom Divas”, an America’s Next Top Model style competition where 6 amateur singers are picked from auditions. They get to go through professional training including weekly challenges where one contestant will be eliminated, and the eventual winner will get to sing an aria with the Vancouver Symphony. Unfortunately YouTube carries only a short clip from each episode (which is all I’ve seen) but it sounds like an exciting program huh! You can catch the clip of season 2, 1st episode here:


But yeah wouldn’t it be fun to have an idol competition of sorts, with a panel of retired opera personalities as judges? I can imagine Renata Scotto playing mother hen to the contestants, while Franco Zeffirelli makes bitchy remarks about how they are too fat or too old. Guest judge Natalie Dessay can impart the finer points of hyperkinetically rolling on the floor (i.e. “acting”) while Renee Fleming can share tips on how to land that elusive fragrance deal. 

Smorg: You cover the seemingly fertile new (and fast growing) ground in the operatic world, the Asian opera companies. Are you seeing local Asian talents being sufficiently nurtured toward international careers? Is there good support for Asian opera singers in place now?

SA: Well opera is not an Asian art form and I don’t want to give the impression that our scene is anything like those in Europe and America, where top houses stage performances all-year round. We simply don’t have the audience to support that many performances. Our companies here basically scrap together enough funding for about 2 or 3 productions a year and a few recitals and gala concerts.

However with education and outreach efforts, now aided by the internet, the people here are becoming more sophisticated and so audiences are growing. Still opportunities for young singers to gain operatic experience are small, and many serious students still have to do an educational stint in America or Europe to gain any significant professional experience in this most complicated art form.

I have a theory that because classical music is such a universal art form, the symphony first, followed by the opera, are kind of like a status symbol of a particular city’s success (with ballet perhaps being a 3rd status symbol), much like how a successful person would wear a Rolex and carry LV bags to reflect his status. Here is Singapore we have a very successful symphony orchestra, which our government has spent a lot of money to build. Now that our economy is supposedly back on track from the recession, perhaps more support can be given to our opera company, so that we can be seen as a more global city in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Nancy Yuen as Antonia in Les contes d'Hoffmann

Here’s another observation I’ve had: as the Regieteater craze is storming European and increasingly American house these days, it seems that the only place left where one can still catch a traditional production of standard repertory is in Asia. No dancing bumblebees or singers crawling out of giant female body parts for us! Because it’s still such a new thing here, there aren’t as many complaints about our company staging standard repertory such as “La Traviata” or “Carmen”, 'cause we are not that sick of them yet. So there is less need to improvise on stagings. Just fill the stage with the best singers you can find, with sets that are pleasant looking and makes sense to the plot, and we are good to go!

Smorg: Any particular Asian opera singers you think the Western operatic world ought to look out for in the near future?

SA: There are quite a few Asian singers who have performed quite a lot. I can’t really recommend any young singers unfortunately because, as stated earlier, the promising ones are already honing their craft in the States or Europe, so perhaps YOU can do a better job at that :p

Of the stars in these parts, Nancy Yuen has played numerous leading roles in the region, making her one of the true opera stars to be based in these parts. She is a lyrico-spinto soprano with a bright head voice that floats and penetrates with a well-honed technique.

Chu Tai Li as Bellini's Norma

Having moved to Taipei recently, I was really moved by performances of soprano Chu Tai-Li, their prima donna who was trained in Italy since 11. She’s in her 60s now and has recently recovered from a serious battle with cancer, so the voice can sound rather worn although its still an instrument of considerable range and colours. Rather, one is simply moved by the intensity and sincerity of her performances. At the end of her big aria it looked and sounded as though she has just given us every drop of emotion in her body, but after a short break she’ll return looking completely refreshed and ready to bare her entire soul again. This kind of honesty and commitment is so hard to find these days that even her former teacher Tito Gobbi compared her voice to one of his colleagues called “Maria”. I think even the most jaded of opera-goers will be moved by her performances.

To read more about Steven Ang and his operatic experiences, please visit The Mad Scene: The Singapore Opera Blog.

Coming Up: Amigos en Concierto, Spanish Theme Concert in San Diego

This coming Saturday night (June 19th) the San Diego Master Chorale is teaming up with the Romero Duo, Mariachi Garibaldi, San Diego Children's Choir, Tijuana Children's Choir, tenor Enrique Toral and soprano Monica Abrego for a spectacular Spanish-theme Amigos en Concierto at Copley Symphony Hall.

Aiming to raise fund for the Master Chorale's community outreach programs, the concert is packed full of music from Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean. You know, the good stuff that we sway to whenever we chance upon but always seem to neglect on this side of the border. If you are in town on Saturday evening and feel like getting acoustically zested by some classically spicy music, drop in at Copley before 8PM and buy a ticket to the show (tickets available at the Symphony Box Office (619) 235-0804, or at www.sdmasterchorale.org)!

*Smorg is not connected to any of the performing group or Copley Hall... though does tend to find it irresistible to promote good local classical music groups.

Looking forward to Gounod's Romeo et Juliette with Cast Discussion

The San Diego Opera is staging Gounod's Romeo et Juliette at the Civic Theater this month with the first performance on this coming Saturday night (I've bought my ticket, of course, woe to you if you haven't!!!). It's customary for this company to put up a roughly hour long roundtable artists discussion the week before the show and putting the video of it on Youtube.



I always check it out, though find some of them a bit slow-going (especially when the foreign cast members have hard to decipher accent). This production of Romeo et Juliette has an almost all American cast, though (the exception being beautiful Sarah Castle returning to do another trouser role, Stephano), and the program is really quite informative and entertaining.

Added later:
Well, I went to the first performance of the run and must say that this is a show worth paying to see live. My full review of the performance is posted at AssociatedContent. Bravi to most of the cast and crew for putting on a good show.

One thing that quite bugged me, though, is Stephen Costello, the Romeo who is well endowed with a beautiful voice, secure technical control, and even a very handsome stage presence, but who also seems rather overly addicted to the sound of his own voice. I'm no prude when a tenor in good voice decides to milk one or two high notes during a 3 1/4 hrs opera. But this guy did it no less than 6 times even when he was sharing a scene with his co-stars. That, my friend, is decidedly unneighborly to your colleagues and infuriatingly intellectually insulting to many fans who don't consider ourselves brainless suckers to tenor high notes. This is San Diego, California, not La Scala in the mid 50's.

If you think I am being harsh, have a watch at this cast discussion clip and note how this is not an isolated incidence. One can make a silly faux pas like this and joke about it if one only does it once... but not when one keeps on steamrolling other singers who are trying to help create a good dramatic opera performance. At least the first mistake was unintentional. The second was really childish and inexcusable. One of these days those high notes won't come as easily as they do now... then what?

Carmen HD Broadcast (Garanca/ Alagna)

... Having convinced myself that timeliness is a virtue unknown to anyone whose screen-name is only a couple of letters different from both a slug and a snail, I indulge myself on procrastination and happily fail to acknowledge the unfashionable-ness of writing about things a whole week after they had gone out of the hip list. After all, Haiti remains quite thoroughly ruined now as it was a week ago, and Elina Garanca's performance as Carmen last week at the Met can't get any less stellar no matter how late I report on it.... I think.In case anyone still isn't privy to it, the Metropolitan Opera is having quite good success broadcasting many of its performances in high definition to movie theaters around the globe. If you are living in a big American city, chances are there is a theater near you carrying the gig!

I should state outright that I went into the well packed theater rather skeptical of Elina Garanca in the title role of this fiery Spanish-flavored French opera. She has always struck me as something of a gorgeous voiced ice queen, whose singing is invariably flawless and dramatically uninvolving. But man, how wrong she showed me to be last Saturday! That she is one of the most beautiful women to grace the operatic stage is already a given, but that she could transform herself into a deliciously poisonous femme fatale to gay guys and straight women (and everything in between) alike was a revelation worth paying a fortune to see (which I didn't... tickets to Met HD broadcast are only $22!).

Frau G was gorgeous with clothes on (and even more when it was just barely on... as was the case in the final scene) and sang gorgeously and expressively even when afflicted with all the dance moves imposed on her by Richard Eyre, the stage director (how in the world does she keep singing like that while being carried around supine by the dancers in a mystery worth a scientific investigation). I still think she slipped back into cold and detached singing during the most dramatic moments of the opera (Act III tarot card scene and the final scene with Jose) and that sometimes her super clean French diction gets in the way of the music, but theatrically the lass was absolutely beyond any criticism through out the evening.

As her temperamental Don Jose was the acclaimed French tenor, Roberto Alagna, whose Sicilian disposition is a perfect fit for the hot blooded soldier from Navarre. As theatrically convincing as he was, though, his singing was rather suspect especially up top. After quite a few wayward top notes during his duet with the stellar Micaela of Barbara Frittoli (beautifully well rounded portrayal if with too wide a vibrato on held notes) you could actually see his Carmen quietly bracing for the worst as her Jose worked himself up to the climatic lines of the famous Act II flower song.... which was quite drastically improvised into a phraseful of falsetto. But one must give M. Alagna credit for his rallying back in the final two acts and earning his warm ovations at the curtain. Everyone has a bad day every now and then, to dig himself in and make a fine lemonade out of a (hopefully temporary) sour voice is a good show of character!

Mariusz Kwiecien was slated to sing Escamillo (I liked him a lot when he was here singing the Count in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in 2007) but took ill and was replaced on short notice by New Zealander Teddy Tahu Rhodes (previously known to me as the Pilot in Portman's The Little Prince), who gave a good performance as a dashing and very tall bull fighter. The young Canadian maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin led the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra on a spirited pace that made the whole show seemed half its length (a good thing considering that the one intermission lasted a good 40 minutes!). 


If this show is ever released as a commercial DVD, I'd be hard pressed to have to choose between it and the DVD from the ROH with Anna Caterina Antonacci and Jonas Kaufmann as Carmen and Jose (Garanca compares very well with Antonacci, whose choreography makes her seem too vulgar for me for much of the show. Kaufmann gives the superior performance on both theatrical and musical front, though I like Nézet-Séguin's brisk pacing better than Pappano's sometimes sluggish tempo, but the ROH cast also has Elena Xanthoudakis as its sterling voiced Frasquita).... Though I'm still hoping for a DVD release of this same opera from Opernhaus Zurich with the singular Vesselina Kasarova in the title role! Three good recent DVDs of the show surely is better than just one, ay?

Anyhow, the sold out audience were rightfully ecstatic about the performance (and it seems the Met is enjoying quite a box office hit with the thing). I'm compelled to try to catch the re-broadcast of Der Rosenkavalier next Wednesday... and get into a seriously operatic mood by the time the San Diego Opera season begins with La Boheme on the 30th!

A Chat with Gary McKercher, San Diego Master Chorale's Forward-Looking Music Director

Established in 1961 as the San Diego Symphonic Chorale attached to the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the San Diego Master Chorale broke off to become an independent art organization supported by a grant from the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and by private donations in 1979. The SDMC performs 25 or more concerts each year all over the city and even abroad, with a vast choral repertoire ranging from spiritual to classical to operatic numbers. I heard them for the first time in April 2008 singing in the world premiere of Daniel Kellogg's The Fiery Furnace with the San Diego Symphony (the collaboration won them the 2009 Chorus America/ASCAP Alice Parker Award), and have since been so impressed with their consistent excellence that I stopped by at their reception table during a recent concert of Beethoven's 9th symphony not long ago and, with the help of Dr. Carol Manifold, the SDMC's vice president, got to ask their music director, Dr. Gary McKercher, a few questions:

Smorg: Is the SDMC composed of mostly local singers? Do you get big turn outs at your auditions?
Gary McKercher: SDMC draws its membership from every direction of San Diego County. Audition turnouts vary from a half dozen to as many as 20-25 singers. There doesn't seem to be a pattern.

Smorg: Is singing at the SDMC a full-time job or secondary job for the singers?
GM: If by job you mean, a real job with remuneration, it is neither full or secondary. All singers are amateur/volunteer performers, generally with an extensive singing background. They are rigorously auditioned. Unless retired or having someone in the household bringing home the tofu, no singer could live on a union wage even if we were paid. The payoff is solely musical and the joy of the corporate singing experience.

Smorg: Has the economic downturn been rough for the SDMC in the past year?
GM: It has had its negative impact. The largest hit was suffered in the men's sections with members losing jobs and having to leave the area permanently, or jobs that stayed here and were expanded making it impossible to meet the SDMC performance schedule and many variations on this exclusive theme. A few local critics seem not to uniformly understand the social dynamics of this situation for our organization and others like it. If a job or family takes singers away, I don't have a pool of professionals to whom I can immediately turn.

Smorg: I feel I get every cent's worth of the ticket price every time I attend one of your performances. But it has to be a tough job to keep the entire chorus performing so well in so many different repertoire. How do you keep everybody so musically on-the-same-page in a chorus this big? Is the rehearsal time taking up all the weekends and holidays?
GM: SDMC rehearses one night a week for 2 1/2 hours and that's the whole cahuna. I very, very seldom schedule weekend rehearsals, and never holidays unless we are contracted by the SDSO (i.e. 4th of July). When the preparations tend to get crowded, I have a system of musical checkpoints which identifies for singers the sections, or movements, or entire pieces that must be ready by a designated date. Thus far, it has worked pretty well, but I always feel a bit like a well-known variety show act, the one where a guy is spinning plates at the top of sticks. When one is wound up another is winding down and needs attention.

Each Monday post-rehearsal, I have to assess what the group has or has not achieved, whether or not I can leave things that might be improved simply through repetition for the following rehearsals, but also that which will need much more time refining. The expectation is that the black and white on the page will not be taught in rehearsal. That's singer homework.

Smorg: I was very pleased to see such a good audience turn out during the Beethoven 9th concerts in early December since classical music (choral and opera included) events here don't seem very prone to selling out. The SDMC has performed abroad in Europe where classical music isn't as far removed from the mainstream as it seems here. Do you notice many differences in how performances are organized and how the audience reacts in Europe versus here in America (I'm assuming that the European audience would tend to be more familiar with the music performed than the American audience would)?
GM: This is an interesting and perplexing question, one which I and many colleagues have pondered at length over the years. There seems to be a hunger for live performance overseas on a more consistent level than here. Let's face it, European classical music was transported to the States, and being an adopted somewhat elitist art music in its early life, it tended not be a music of the American people at large nor have their widespread interest.

Jazz and musical theatre is what America has uniquely contributed to the music world and these have had a major impact. The pervasiveness of popular culture in this country is seductive, but I sense no more so than in Europe. What is crucial to creating new audiences is that which happens in formative years in school and home with probably home being prime.

There is no logical reason why the Midwest has produced such a fertile choral culture other than these two sources and the strength of the academic, community, and religious choral traditions. When I was growing up in rural northern Iowa, one would be hard-pressed to have found a household either in town or country that did not have a piano. Every little Midwest town had a choir and a band and many still do. This can create a culture not only of performers, but eventually, listeners.

Smorg: Last year the Zurich Opera staged a performance of Verdi's La Traviata at their central train station and broadcast it live on TV. It was a major hit with the television audience in Switzerland. Do you think the same sort of thing can be attempted here? Would it successfully draw enough attention and new audience to classical music and opera to offset the cost?
GM: I applaud any efforts to bring new audiences to the music that we have grown to appreciate. Some of this may appear to be gimmick-laden, but so what? Last summer I attended a choral convention in Philadelphia where a new work, "Battle Hymns" was premiered in the city's 18th century armory, just a vast open warehouse area.

The work opened with a horse and rider sauntering in then out, followed by the appearance of a choir in military costume marching (after a fashion), but often moving during the piece. There were also dancers amidst the choir and a percussion ensemble stationed at opposite ends of the armory. By the way, the horse and rider returned to end the work.

Engaging? Arresting? Very... Groundbreaking? I'd say so. The performances not staged for the convention participants (mostly choral directors) later in the week were sold out. Something like what you mention and I describe could to be staged here in San Diego, but it takes an organization willing to take a risk and some major underwriters.

Smorg: Is there any chance of the SDMC doing Beethoven's Choral Fantasy or Verdi's Requiem in the near future? :oD
GM: We performed the Choral Fantasy January '09. Verdi has been done in past, but no plans for it in near future, but definitely being considered by SDSO in years to come.

Smorg: What is the best thing that could happen to a choral performance? Is there any sort of experience that makes one feel really good about singing at the SDMC?
GM: That it moves both audience and singers; that it explores familiar and unfamiliar musical terrain; that it represents the highest possible musical attainment and potential of the singers. That is makes hearts pump and tear ducts active. I loathe the common introduction to audiences just before a performance: "Sit back, relax, and enjoy the performance". I feel a really engaging concert should have people on the edge of their chairs, a little tense, and sometimes not entirely entertained, but at very least a concert experience that asks people to think and feel on several levels.

Smorg: Is there any sort of project/performance that you would really like to put on if you don't have to worry about funding or attracting good audience turn out?
GM: A concert of the most cerebral choral music currently available. Mind you, there is good stuff and there is a lot that is not so good. I throw one or two pieces of this nature on our self-produced concerts, but wish I could do more.

I am especially attracted to the music of the 20th century/new millennium Swedish choral school, but also the relatively unknown choral music of Max Reger, Bartok, Hindemith, Pizzetti, and Richard Strauss. There are some next generation Americans who belong on that list such as Stephen Paulus, Frank Ferko, Libby Larsen, Howard Helvey, Stephen Sametz and many others. It's almost overwhelming the number of good young composers currently creating for our art form.

Smorg: Aside from joining the San Diego Symphony in formal concerts and performing at private events, you also have excellent outreach programs that visit local schools and retirement homes. Tell us a bit about it?
GM: We have a dedicated corps of singers who have developed a program called "A History of Choral Music" which recently has taken off in a much more active way in county elementary and middle schools. It incorporates both recorded and live music to a visual track at a very basic, but engaging way in order to inform young listeners about the art form in which we are involved. The retirement home outreach is really a more "ears-on" experience where singers get seniors singing and listening to music that is familiar to them from their pasts through home, church, or school.

......................................................
Pretty cool, ay? I didn't even realize before that the 125 men and women singers of the San Diego Master Chorale don't even get paid to perform. They are amateurs in the tradition of Bobby Jones, if you will, doing their thing for the love of the art. And doing it exceedingly well! If you ever find yourself in San Diego and with some free time on your hand, why not check to see if there is a SDMC performance going on near you? You can even hire them for private performances (like a wedding or other ceremonies). Visit their website at www.sdmasterchorale.org for more information.

Upcoming performances by the San Diego Master Chorale (2010):

February 14(4PM) - Sacred & Profane: Five Centuries of Music of Love and Laughter
Rancho Bernardo Presbyterian Church: 17010 Pomerado Rd, San Diego, CA 92128
March 20(8PM) - Cathedral Classics: Music for Choirs from Sacred Spaces
St. Paul's Cathedral (Banker's Hill): 2728 6th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92103
June 19(8PM) - Amigos in Concert: Music from Latin America
Copley Symphony Hall (Downtown): 1245 7th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101

Out And About All Weekend!

I finally got to hear Beethoven's ninth symphony live on Friday night when the San Diego Master Chorale and the San Diego Symphony under Jahja Ling had their first of three performances of the piece at Copley Hall in downtown San Diego.

Those not familiar with classical music would still probably know a bit of Beethoven's 9th as the famous 'Ode to Joy', of course. That bit of music comes over 50 minutes into the piece, though. The monstrous (in more ways than one) symphony is a remarkable composition that looks both backward and forward in its resolve to enjoy life in all its manifestations. A study in musical story-telling (Wagner probably got his 'Leitmotif' idea from Beethoven's last symphony) that made use of dissonance without losing sight of the virtues of melody and harmony. A genius Beethoven was, he was also mindful that music is communication and that communication is a two-way street (in other words, it ain't no fun just talking to oneself when there are others around). He pushed the envelope without forgetting to make sure that what he was trying to say could be readily shared by his audience... (which is definitely not something I can say of many melody-hating composers that came after him).

Anyhow, it was quite a good performance. I should admit that Jahja Ling always strikes me as someone a bit too even-tempered for the Romantic Period music (especially the moody works of Beethoven), but he did some serious exorcising from the podium on Friday night and elicited quite a spirited performance from the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.

In stead of a bass soloist, they used the baritone Nathaniel Webster to ring in the choral finale of the symphony, so some vocal gravity was missing even though there was an additional shine to the optimism of the piece. Robert Breault (tenor) and Mary Dunleavy (soprano) were in very good form and had no problem soaring over both the orchestra and the (exasperatingly reliably splendid) San Diego Master Chorale. Rounding out the solo voices was pleasingly dusky voiced (if a bit under-projected) mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor. The capacity audience clapped everyone back for 3 well deserved curtain calls. A definite good start to the holiday season!

Saturday morning saw the 46th edition of the North Park Toyland Parade. Even the weather must have been looking forward to it and the multitude of clouds turned up to watch the event while staying high enough above the ground to avoid raining on the crowd of local residents lining University Avenue between Utah and Iowa Streets.

I'm afraid there wasn't any horse this year, though the equine-deficiency was well substituted by the cheerfully wheeled Derby Dolls and a fleet of spiffily shined hot rods.

My flatmate and I also invaded Balboa Park on Saturday evening to catch a bit of December Night celebration. Judging from the size of the crowd, the sluggish economy sure didn't put much damper on the local holiday spirit....

Though the flu is doing a bit of that to my head so I'll have to write up on it later (my nose is putting on a good show of liquefying itself). Hope December has started well wherever you are!

A Day Trip To Palm Spring, CA

A few weeks ago yours truly and a few friends hopped on a car and drove out to Palm Spring on the east side of the mountains to catch the Gay Pride Parade there. I had never been to one before, so that was a rather gay (in every sense of the word) experience.

We opted the northern route up I-215 to Route 60 and I-10, and breezed downwind into Coachella Valley, being heralded part of the way by the electricity-generating wind turbines. We only caught the last few minutes of the parade, as it turned out, having arrived at Palm Canyon Drive a bit later than expected. They were playing Village People's YMCA and everybody was dancing to it...

But why is YMCA such a gay anthem to begin with? (I really haven't a clue)

Afterward we went and wander around their excellently maintained Palm Spring Art Museum... and even caught a free piano recital at their underground auditorium (they have this 'Free 2nd Sunday' promotion going. Free admission to the museum and performances!). They have some really cool abstract arts and American Western theme exhibits... I don't know why, but I found myself quite mesmerized by this interestingly proportioned sculpture. Perhaps my math-loving friends could come up with an equation to describe her!
We didn't get back until after 9PM that day. I've been too zapped to write the trip up properly, though. Anyhow, if you'd like a glimpse of the famous celebrity oasis in the California desert, here's a little slide show that hardly does it justice at all.
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Interview With Esther Barr, A Metalworks Artist Who Turns Copper Into Living Sea

While walking around the Embarcadero Marina Park (north) in San Diego last month during Artwalk2009 looking at tents filled with fantastic arts and crafts by local artists yours truly ran into a positively entrancing exhibit of repoussé capturing marine animals and birds so vividly that I wondered if I hadn't unwittingly escaped into a 5th dimension and an alternate universe where all living things were made of copper and grew on walls... and that maybe I was much an exhibition to them as they were to me!

The metalworks that had me well surrounded that Sunday afternoon was the creation of Esther Barr's imagination and adept handy work. The metalwork artist from Massachusetts now lives and works in Burbank, California (in Los Angeles area) and was kind enough to grant me a cyber interview posted below:

Smorg: How did you get into metalworks art? Why did you decide on copper repoussé as your specialty?

EB: I was only fifteen when I first saw an artist working in copper relief while on a family trip to Israel. We visited many galleries in Safed, an artist colony, where one of the artists was kind enough to invite us back to his studio while he was working on a copper relief piece. This event did not make an immediate impact on me, as it took nearly 25 years before I finally decided to try to form a design with a piece of metal.

I had always wondered what art medium I was really best suited for. Between films I would sometimes work on an oil painting, watercolors, pastels or printmaking. One day I decided to look up repoussé on the Internet. I found a workshop given by Sharon Anhorn and it changed my life.

Smorg: You grew up by the sea in Massachusetts. How has your upbringing influenced your art?
EB: Marblehead, Massachusetts was a wonderful place to grow up. We were only a couple of blocks from the ocean in one direction. In the other direction there was open undeveloped land (unfortunately no longer there), and a trail that had once been the old railroad tracks. The arts were very important to the town, and I was lucky to have very talented and encouraging art teachers in the public schools.

Every summer for a week The Festival of Arts takes over "Old Town" which is very historic and has a picturesque Town Hall where the original painting "The Spirit of 76" resides. Boston was a little over 30 miles away, so I was able to frequent the Boston Museum of Arts as well as the city's numerous galleries.

Smorg: Were your parents supportive of your career choice?
EB: There was really never any doubt that I wanted to be an artist when I was growing up. My parents were very supportive of my career choices. They supported me when I chose to study at Rhode Island School of Design as an Illustration major and again when I decided to change my major to Experimental Film Animation and study at California Institute of the Arts.

The most fortunate part is that we never really talked about how I would eventually make a living while I was going to school. This allowed me to concentrate on first trying to become a better artist, and just letting the future take care of itself. When I decided to quit animation after a 20-year career to become a fine artist, it was valuable to know that I had to take the time (over 3 years) to develop a body of work before I could even think of exhibiting and selling my metal works.

Smorg: Any favorite artist who influences your style?
EB: No particular artist had an overall effect on my work but I have always loved the Arts and Crafts movement and especially Art Nouveau, which borrows forms from nature and can be highly stylized. When I began to work in metal I didn't want to just re-create the standard metal work images from the past (gingko leaves, pine cones, etc). Most important to me was that I wanted to be able to continue to keep the same feeling of movement I had when designing animation special effects and to now translate this in my images on metal.

Smorg: You are living and working in California now, though. Is the coast here very different from back east? Do you look at, say, an octopus here and wonder about its counterpart in the Atlantic Ocean?
EB: I have mostly concentrated on creatures from the Pacific, but I did create a horseshoe crab piece. I admit that I wasn't sure if anyone here would even know what they were, let alone want artwork of a blue-blooded spider (they are not crabs, and have copper based blood) on their walls. To my surprise the piece got a lot of attention and now resides with a geologist who lives in Utah.

Smorg: You also worked with film companies, providing them with special effects animation. What are some of the films where we can see your work in? Tell us a bit about your experience during the project? Any favorite anecdote?
EB: I preferred moving from project to project, studio to studio. The longest stop in my career was my last at Dreamworks Animation. I had been designing effects for Steven Spielberg's company, Amblimation, when Mr. Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg both asked me to join their new studio. Their first project was "The Prince of Egypt" The studio was in its infancy, so I was able to get involved in both helping to organize the effects department as well as suggesting designs and concepts for the film. It was a great experience to be at the studio in the beginning.

Smorg: I was mesmerized by your Boundless copper relief. It's a still of a fish jumping out of the waves, I think, but the fish seems to have a past and a future somehow. It isn't that it is lifelike, but that it has a life and would jump off from that copper sheet it is barely contained in if only it could.... which could make for an unsettling occurrence. Anyhow! Did you base that work on any real fish you witnessed in a stream somewhere or is he purely the product of your imagination? How close is the final work to what you had in mind when you started sketching it?
EB: I am really pleased to hear that you could feel what I did when I created this piece, I couldn't say it any better than you did. "Boundless" is an adult Chinook salmon in the ocean, starting to make his final journey back again to his original fresh water birthplace.

Boundless

While traveling the Pacific Northwest I fell in love with travels of salmon and their incredible life cycle transformations, as they migrate from their freshwater birthplaces to the ocean, and later struggle back to return to their place of origin. Their sacrifice perpetuates the species.

When I started this piece, I only had a rough idea of what the final piece would look like. My original designs are often very rough sketches on multiple pieces of paper. Most of this final design was created directly on the copper. I prefer to work intuitively this way and let the piece evolve while I work on it.

Smorg: What sort of music do you enjoy listening to? Do you have it on the stereo while working?
EB: I have a very eclectic music collection, some classical, blues, jazz, rock, Broadway musicals etc, but lately I have mostly been listening to music from the 70's such as Cat Stevens, Leo Kottke, and James Taylor. I usually have either music playing or one of the two local public radio stations.

Smorg: What are you working on now?
EB: I continue to work on my water creatures but I have decided to also take to the air and feature a new bird series. My first subjects have been hummingbirds.

Using torch-fused glass enamels over my hummingbird reliefs creates a multitude of abstract colors. This is predominately achieved with only one color of glass. The torch heats the metal unevenly causing the copper to oxidize at different rates as the powdered glass fuses. While firing, all I can see are concentrations of bright yellows and oranges, but this gives me a sense of what the piece might become. When the piece is cooled down I finally see the results and either the piece is finished or needs further heating or additional glass enamels.

Smorg: Where can we see your works? Any exhibition planned soon?
EB: I am working on my 2010 schedule of exhibits. Email me from my website for an exhibit schedule and gallery page. You can also find me on Facebook.