Part of the fun of living in Washington and being able to hear the National Symphony Orchestra on a regular basis is the chance to hear some of the world's leading musical talents. Those talented artists aren't always just big-name soloists on the concert tour, but sometimes they include major talents known primarily to the craft. Thus it was this past weekend when we went to hear an NSO Pops Concert called "Jerry Herman's Broadway."
Now, anybody can throw together a bunch of Jerry Herman songs and have a Herman concert, but the NSO gave us the singular opportunity to hear Herman conducted by a Herman expert, Donald Pippin.
Donald Pippin? Who? Pippin is the former longtime musical director of Radio City Music Hall and the person who conducted a careerful of major Broadway musicals during their long runs, including Jerry Herman's musicals and other major shows like Cabaret, A Chorus Line, Applause, and Oliver. He's won Tonys, Emmys, gold records, and other drama awards, but since he's in the orchestra pit, most theater goers don't know his name or recognize his face. In putting together this concert, he was able to call up Jerry Herman and discuss what to play, and he already was very, very familiar with the music.
Pippin led the show, sometimes from the podium, sometimes from the piano, and interspersed a comfortable, chatty commentary in between numbers.
The show opened with an arrangement called "Symphonic Overture," and the second half opened with an arrangement of marches from Herman musicals. Near the end of the show, they played a special arrangement of the title song from Hello, Dolly—what Herman calls his most internationally-known song—called "International Dolly," with very cute national flavors from around the world. The rest of the show was a series of solos and duets from Herman's musicals Hello, Dolly, Mame, Mack & Mabel, La Cage aux Folles, Dear World, Mrs. Santa Claus, Milk and Honey and even Herman's brand new musical, Miss Spectacular.
The songs were sung by soprano Melissa Errico, mezzo-soprano Debbie Gravitte, tenor Hugh Panaro, and baritone Ron Raines. All four have considerable Broadway credits, though Raines is probably best known for his long-time character Alan Spaulding on the CBS soap opera The Guiding Light. I particularly liked Gravitte. Her personality was just bubbly and she really commanded the stage when she was on.
The NSO played sturdily for Pippin, though a few times I found them a bit wooden, rather like a Broadway pit orchestra that had played the same show for too many hundreds of times. As they are wont to do at Pops concerts, the gentlemen wore white dinner jackets and the women were in white tops, the fact that we aren't anywhere near Memorial Day notwithstanding. I think they feel it necessary to have a less serious costume for their less serious pops concerts, but I'd much rather they went with blazers and regular ties than dress sartorially incorrectly for the winter.
Also, as usually happens at Pops concerts, special lighting in reds and blues illuminated the side walls of the proscenium arch and the organ pipes in the back of the stage.
After the show, we somehow managed to walk to Adams-Morgan and ate a late supper at Lauriol Plaza, where Kevin had a taco platter, Robert had a fajita platter, and I had shrimp and crab enchiladas, with calimari for the table to share.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Inferno
Last night I had a front row seat to Hell.
The Synetic Theater of Arlington presented "Dante," their adaptation of the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri at the Rosslyn Spectrum Theater, and I was there, right on the front row by the lip of the stage. The Synetic Theater is one of the more interesting small performing arts companies in the metropolitan Washington area. They emphasize motion and dance in their productions, and even have done some things such as their recent Carmen production totally without words. In "Dante," the limited spoken dialogue served mainly to provide continuity between scenes and to introduce what we were about to witness in movement and dance.
The production stars Ben Cunis as Dante and Greg Marzullo as Virgil, plus a large ensemble cast that fills the subsidiary roles and acts as lost souls in Purgatory and Hell, including my friend Scott.
A steeply raked stage provided the main element of the set, with stone-like concentric circles acting as arches and wings plus representing the Circles of Hell. Trap doors were scattered all over the stage floor for dancers to use for entrances and exits throughout the show. Theatrical smoke billowed over the stage (and often into the audience) during much of the evening.
Music design is by Konstantine Lortkipanidze, their resident composer, but I'm not sure if this was original composition, adaptations of existing works, or a combination of the two. From where I was sitting, though, it was all very, very loud.
The show used a series of twelve scenes to depict Dante's dream-vision of Hell, with the ancient Roman poet Virgil serving as his guide. At each level of Hell, the cast, using different costuming and occasional props, danced, moved, and writhed in frenetic ways to illustrate the torments of the damned at that particular level of Hell, and Dante interacted with them, sometimes at his peril.
This is a very interesting production, and one that is hard to describe. Go see it if you can. It runs through March 21.
The Synetic Theater of Arlington presented "Dante," their adaptation of the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri at the Rosslyn Spectrum Theater, and I was there, right on the front row by the lip of the stage. The Synetic Theater is one of the more interesting small performing arts companies in the metropolitan Washington area. They emphasize motion and dance in their productions, and even have done some things such as their recent Carmen production totally without words. In "Dante," the limited spoken dialogue served mainly to provide continuity between scenes and to introduce what we were about to witness in movement and dance.
The production stars Ben Cunis as Dante and Greg Marzullo as Virgil, plus a large ensemble cast that fills the subsidiary roles and acts as lost souls in Purgatory and Hell, including my friend Scott.
A steeply raked stage provided the main element of the set, with stone-like concentric circles acting as arches and wings plus representing the Circles of Hell. Trap doors were scattered all over the stage floor for dancers to use for entrances and exits throughout the show. Theatrical smoke billowed over the stage (and often into the audience) during much of the evening.
Music design is by Konstantine Lortkipanidze, their resident composer, but I'm not sure if this was original composition, adaptations of existing works, or a combination of the two. From where I was sitting, though, it was all very, very loud.
The show used a series of twelve scenes to depict Dante's dream-vision of Hell, with the ancient Roman poet Virgil serving as his guide. At each level of Hell, the cast, using different costuming and occasional props, danced, moved, and writhed in frenetic ways to illustrate the torments of the damned at that particular level of Hell, and Dante interacted with them, sometimes at his peril.
This is a very interesting production, and one that is hard to describe. Go see it if you can. It runs through March 21.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
An unexpected moment of patriotism
Was yesterday some kind of national holiday? We were surprised at the National Symphony Orchestra concert when the conductor came out, took his initial bow, then immediately launched the orchestra into a rendition of the National Anthem. I've been to dozens of NSO concerts, and this is not their normal procedure.
Everyone, having just settled in and having arranged their bags and heavy winter overcoats around them and on their laps, had to stand up and figure out what to do with all their stuff.
Once our patriotic duty was done, though, the orchestra settled down to play an all-French musical concert, beginning with a work by a living composer, then doing a 1930 work, then an 1830 work.
The opening work was certainly the most interesting of the evening. "Apex" is a work of the profilic French composer Pascal Dusapin. It's very modern and abstract, a collection of tone clusters and swells of sound one might called organized noise.
Chinese pianist Lundi Li provided the entertainment for the featured work of the evening as he played the very difficult Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major. Generally I only like the first movement, which reminds me of the jazz influences of the major classical works of George Gershwin. The middle, slow movement was interesting, though, and Li's work can best be described as placid. Then he moved into the bombastic final movement and we finally got to see some emotion from the piano.
After the intermission, they played Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14.
The symphony played well under the baton of Emmanuel Krivine.
Oh, did I mention the audience kept applauding between movements?
Everyone, having just settled in and having arranged their bags and heavy winter overcoats around them and on their laps, had to stand up and figure out what to do with all their stuff.
Once our patriotic duty was done, though, the orchestra settled down to play an all-French musical concert, beginning with a work by a living composer, then doing a 1930 work, then an 1830 work.
The opening work was certainly the most interesting of the evening. "Apex" is a work of the profilic French composer Pascal Dusapin. It's very modern and abstract, a collection of tone clusters and swells of sound one might called organized noise.
Chinese pianist Lundi Li provided the entertainment for the featured work of the evening as he played the very difficult Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major. Generally I only like the first movement, which reminds me of the jazz influences of the major classical works of George Gershwin. The middle, slow movement was interesting, though, and Li's work can best be described as placid. Then he moved into the bombastic final movement and we finally got to see some emotion from the piano.
After the intermission, they played Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14.
The symphony played well under the baton of Emmanuel Krivine.
Oh, did I mention the audience kept applauding between movements?
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Mechanical music
The rubber and metal of the escalators at the Silver Spring Metro were all rubbing together tonight in such a way as to sound exactly like a gaggle of saxophones playing jazz.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Concert time
Last Thursday Kevin and I went to go hear the National Symphony Orchestra play one of its regular subscription concerts. It featured Philippe Jordan making his directorial debut with the orchestra.
Jordan is young, tall, and slender, looking very elegant in his white tie and tails, and he worked with a great deal of energy and enthusiasm. The strings took a moment to warm up at the beginning, but ultimately the orchestra played well for him throughout the performance.
Featured soloist for the evening was Lynn Harrell, the well-known American cellist, who played the Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129. Harrell is a master of technique and his nearly fifty years of professional experience was readily apparent as he finessed his way through the Schumann. Thursday was a tough crowd, though, giving him only one extra curtain call before the nearly full house ran out for intermission cocktails.
NSO opened the evening with Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, "Classical," featuring several tunes that are very recognizable to those who listen to classical music radio stations. After intermission, they closed with the familiar Beethoven Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60. The Beethoven was clean in the classical manner, though I thought Jordan embued it with a bit of a Romantic flavor, not unexpected, given his high level of opera conducting experience.
We had a good time, and I think Kevin particularly enjoyed the people watching. Our seats were right in the middle of the center section about 60% of the way back, so we had great views of the stage and many of the patrons. Some of the people do carry on so! We had a group behind us that went from chattering about their New York Broadway trips to their hints on ski resorts and skiing all of whom had to be in their sixties.
Jordan is young, tall, and slender, looking very elegant in his white tie and tails, and he worked with a great deal of energy and enthusiasm. The strings took a moment to warm up at the beginning, but ultimately the orchestra played well for him throughout the performance.
Featured soloist for the evening was Lynn Harrell, the well-known American cellist, who played the Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129. Harrell is a master of technique and his nearly fifty years of professional experience was readily apparent as he finessed his way through the Schumann. Thursday was a tough crowd, though, giving him only one extra curtain call before the nearly full house ran out for intermission cocktails.
NSO opened the evening with Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, "Classical," featuring several tunes that are very recognizable to those who listen to classical music radio stations. After intermission, they closed with the familiar Beethoven Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60. The Beethoven was clean in the classical manner, though I thought Jordan embued it with a bit of a Romantic flavor, not unexpected, given his high level of opera conducting experience.
We had a good time, and I think Kevin particularly enjoyed the people watching. Our seats were right in the middle of the center section about 60% of the way back, so we had great views of the stage and many of the patrons. Some of the people do carry on so! We had a group behind us that went from chattering about their New York Broadway trips to their hints on ski resorts and skiing all of whom had to be in their sixties.
Monday, January 12, 2009
No Russians this year
Well, I don't get to dance with the Russians this year.
I was called again to come to audition for a supernumerary role with the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet's Don Quixote production, so I dragged myself down to the Kennedy Center for the auditions tonight. You may recall that I've danced with them the past three years. But, not this year. They only cast eight men, all of them about 5'8" or 5'9" and with a similar build.
So much for all my practicing on my grands jetés and plies. LOL. Seriously, though, professional ballet is often cast based on who fits the existing costumes, not who is the best dancer, and it sounds to me like they've got eight costumes for eight average-sized guys. The production opens tomorrow night, so there wouldn't be time to build all new costumes for a bunch of different sized supers.
I'm not all that disappointed. Since I don't live in Foggy Bottom anymore, it's a major effort to commute all the way down to the Kennedy Center daily, and, on top of that, the television weathermen are predicting really cold temperatures ("fifteen year lows") the end of the week. So, I'll just stay home and keep warm.
I was called again to come to audition for a supernumerary role with the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet's Don Quixote production, so I dragged myself down to the Kennedy Center for the auditions tonight. You may recall that I've danced with them the past three years. But, not this year. They only cast eight men, all of them about 5'8" or 5'9" and with a similar build.
So much for all my practicing on my grands jetés and plies. LOL. Seriously, though, professional ballet is often cast based on who fits the existing costumes, not who is the best dancer, and it sounds to me like they've got eight costumes for eight average-sized guys. The production opens tomorrow night, so there wouldn't be time to build all new costumes for a bunch of different sized supers.
I'm not all that disappointed. Since I don't live in Foggy Bottom anymore, it's a major effort to commute all the way down to the Kennedy Center daily, and, on top of that, the television weathermen are predicting really cold temperatures ("fifteen year lows") the end of the week. So, I'll just stay home and keep warm.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Milk
Laurent and I went to see the late showing of Milk tonight at the E Street Theater. It's a poignant film and well worth seeing, especially to see Sean Penn's portrayal of Harvey Milk.
After the show, Laurent said he liked the movie, but he thought it must have resonated a lot more with me. Meh. He makes me feel geriatric. I was in college when Milk was elected and assassinated; Laurent wasn't even born yet.
Being in the heartland of the country, we heard (barely) bits and pieces of Milk's activism, though his name was not familiar to me at the time. There really wasn't much gay activism in Oklahoma and Kansas in the mid-1970s, and what he was doing was just branded more of that "California" kind of hippie/radical extremism. We certainly knew about his nemesis Anita Bryant—she's a former Miss Oklahoma and runner-up Miss America—and her viewpoints that were considered very normal in middle America. When Milk was assassinated in 1978, I heard about his death because that was my Georgetown semester, and it was news in D.C.
Recently the phrase "men who have sex with men" has been created by the HIV/public health community; it's a phrase we really needed in the 1970s, because there were a lot of us MWHSWMs who did not embrace the queer, gay, homosexual, or even bisexual labels. We didn't think of ourselves as being closeted, either, because we didn't think of ourselves as being gay, secretly or otherwise. Back then, I was busy being a typical fraternity man and overachiever who'd go on the occasional date (with a girl) arranged by fraternity brothers and with a little private "hobby" on the side. If there was a gay movement in Oklahoma or Kansas, I missed it.
So, the movie has made me a bit melancholy.
I'm also a little saddened because thirty years later, we're still fighting the same conservative Christian voters with the same ignorance and tired arguments who are choosing to vote on gay civil rights. Back then, it was employment security; today, it's marriage rights. There are times when democracy is a very disappointing and unsatisfactory form of government. I can't wait for science to conclusively prove the biological etiology of homosexuality and the futility of attempts to "cure" it. Then, perhaps, people will be more open minded to seeing gayness the same as race or gender.
Obviously, we still have our issues and our need to progress, but at least Milk gives us a brief, sanitized, and scrubbed look at gay life of the 1970s and tells us the story of one of the great heroes of the gay rights movement.
After the show, Laurent said he liked the movie, but he thought it must have resonated a lot more with me. Meh. He makes me feel geriatric. I was in college when Milk was elected and assassinated; Laurent wasn't even born yet.
Being in the heartland of the country, we heard (barely) bits and pieces of Milk's activism, though his name was not familiar to me at the time. There really wasn't much gay activism in Oklahoma and Kansas in the mid-1970s, and what he was doing was just branded more of that "California" kind of hippie/radical extremism. We certainly knew about his nemesis Anita Bryant—she's a former Miss Oklahoma and runner-up Miss America—and her viewpoints that were considered very normal in middle America. When Milk was assassinated in 1978, I heard about his death because that was my Georgetown semester, and it was news in D.C.
Recently the phrase "men who have sex with men" has been created by the HIV/public health community; it's a phrase we really needed in the 1970s, because there were a lot of us MWHSWMs who did not embrace the queer, gay, homosexual, or even bisexual labels. We didn't think of ourselves as being closeted, either, because we didn't think of ourselves as being gay, secretly or otherwise. Back then, I was busy being a typical fraternity man and overachiever who'd go on the occasional date (with a girl) arranged by fraternity brothers and with a little private "hobby" on the side. If there was a gay movement in Oklahoma or Kansas, I missed it.
So, the movie has made me a bit melancholy.
I'm also a little saddened because thirty years later, we're still fighting the same conservative Christian voters with the same ignorance and tired arguments who are choosing to vote on gay civil rights. Back then, it was employment security; today, it's marriage rights. There are times when democracy is a very disappointing and unsatisfactory form of government. I can't wait for science to conclusively prove the biological etiology of homosexuality and the futility of attempts to "cure" it. Then, perhaps, people will be more open minded to seeing gayness the same as race or gender.
Obviously, we still have our issues and our need to progress, but at least Milk gives us a brief, sanitized, and scrubbed look at gay life of the 1970s and tells us the story of one of the great heroes of the gay rights movement.
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