Sensory-Friendly 'Hansel' a Success

Cast members Daryl Freedman (Mother), Ariana Wehr (Gretel), and Aleksandra Romano (Hansel) with Master Ionarts (photo by CTD)

From a critic's point of view, I had reservations about Washington National Opera's most recent revival of their holiday production of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. At the same time, also noted in my review, enough of this gorgeous score's charm comes through, even in the reduced orchestration, for most listeners to enjoy. Miss Ionarts certainly did on opening night, and even Master Ionarts, who has not been to a musical performance in a few years, had the chance to appreciate it on Saturday afternoon.

Although Master Ionarts went to many kids concerts with me when he was small, including to the first WNO Hansel in 2007, in recent years he has balked at going to performances in theaters. Diagnosed on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, he has pronounced sensitivity to auditory and visual stimuli. When WNO announced that they were going to host their first-ever sensory-friendly performance on Saturday afternoon, Master Ionarts agreed to give it a try. We can report that both the musicians in the pit and the singers made an effort to lower the volume of the music, with only a few moments that bothered sensitive ears. The lights in the theater were kept on but dimmed, so that kids could move around or leave the theater as they needed. The only slight misstep was to keep the flashing lights used for the explosion of the witch's oven: although the sound of the explosion was dampened, the light flash was too much for many of the kids.

Just knowing that this was a performance intended for kids like him put Master Ionarts at ease. As the show began, he smiled as he heard kids shifting in their seats and asking questions loudly, sometimes getting up from their seats and moving around the theater, knowing that all of this was OK during this performance. He himself asked me several questions about the story and the characters, relating it to his favorite topics in math and science, including noting that given the shape of the earth in relation to the sun, the Sandman and the Dew Fairy would always have to be on opposite sides of the planet. During most of the second half, one young girl paced nervously at the edge of the orchestra pit, moving her hand back and forth in the repetitive behavior known as "stimming." All of the performers, and most of the audience members, took all of this in stride.

Master Ionarts insisted that we stay after the performance for the chance to meet some of the performers. He especially wanted to ask Keriann Otaño, who kept her Witch's magnificent cackling to a minimum, what it was like to play such an evil person, but since she could not make an appearance he was happy to speak to the other cast members. Best of all, near the end of the performance, he put his hand on my arm and said he was glad that he came to see the opera because he had "forgotten how enjoyable this was." To see him back in a theater was the best early Christmas gift this father could have received, so the Ionarts family thanks the WNO family for being open to giving this special performance. It meant a lot to many kids and their parents.

The Kennedy Center has announced two more sensory-friendly performances this season. Master Ionarts and I will try to make it to the National Symphony Orchestra concert in April.

Holiday Opera: WNO's Half-Baked 'Hansel and Gretel'

Aleksandra Romano (Hansel) and Ariana Wehr (Gretel) in Hansel and Gretel (photo by Scott Suchman for Washington National Opera)
Washington National Opera tried two new holiday operas in recent years, and both of them were disappointing flops. It seemed like a good sign that the company was returning to Engelbert Humperdinck's evergreen Hansel and Gretel this year, but it has missed the mark by sticking with the chamber ensemble reduction of the score it used in 2007 and 2012, by Kathleen Kelly (strings one on a part, horn, clarinet, flute, and piano). While I have complained about this pale imitation of Humperdinck's rather wonderful Wagner-tinged score before, the third time around was the final straw. The opera frankly sounds pretty awful without the four horns, percussive touches, and symphonic sweep of the full score, especially in the interludes, and there is certainly more room in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater pit, if perhaps not enough for the full orchestration. As heard at the second performance on Saturday night, the musicians play well, but the effect falls far short.

This time around, the voices were all fairly large in scope, which made the imbalance with the mealy-mouthed sound from the pit more evident to the ears. The title roles featured the same pairing of Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists who played Mercédès and Frasquita in this fall's Carmen, with similar results. Mezzo-soprano Aleksandra Romano's Hansel was more sure if a little pushy in the smaller theater, and Ariana Wehr's Gretel was absolutely adorable and with enough power, if slightly unclear at the top. Soprano Kerriann Otaño, whose voice was not quite right for the Countess in Wolf Trap's Marriage of Figaro last summer, here made a delightfully poisonous, overbearing witch, with a cackle that terrified Miss Ionarts. Impressive mezzo-soprano Daryl Freedman was a viperous Mother, with Aleksey Bogdanov's happily tipsy Father lightening the mood. Soprano Melissa Mino was appropriately flowery of tone as the iridescently costumed Dew Fairy, while Raquel González's Sandman was the only voice occasionally eclipsed by the small instrumental consort.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, WNO fires up ‘Hansel and Gretel,’ in a polished but uninviting performance (Washington Post, December 14)

The opera remains an easy sell for kids, especially in this kind of lollipop-flavored staging, with off-kilter sets that are cartoonish and fun (designed by Robin Vest) and equally multi-colored costumes (Timm Burrow). Sarah Meyers directs this time around, with a different spin but similar feel to how David Gately did it last time. The supernumerary animals that menace the children in the forest -- a wolf, boar, vulture, all rebuffed by a protecting owl -- were a particular treat, as was the sound of the WNO Children's Chorus. While there is none of the disturbing imagery aimed more at adults seen in the productions from Virginia Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, for example, there was still enough menace in this version to keep Miss Ionarts on the edge of her seat.

This production is repeated on December 18, 19, and 20, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. In a praiseworthy move, WNO is offering the 2 pm performance on December 19 as a sensory-friendly event, for families with children on the autism spectrum or with other sensory sensitivities. This is a most welcome development for families of special-needs kids, a community that includes Ionarts Central.

Opera Bel Cantanti's 'Amahl'

This review is an Ionarts exclusive.

Menotti, Amahl and the Night Visitors (original television cast), NBC Symphony Orchestra, T. Schippers (RCA, 1951)

In my early years, it seemed like Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors was an annual December tradition. Perhaps memory deceives, but there always seemed to be a church company somewhere that mounted a production, probably in an uninterrupted succession since its premiere, on NBC Television in 1951. Without any data on the matter, productions seem far rarer in the last decade or two, and so it was that even a culture maven like Miss Ionarts had not experienced any production of this opera for children until Saturday night, when Opera Bel Cantanti revived its production, heard at opening night in the parish hall of the Concord-St. Andrew's United Methodist Church in Bethesda.

The cast featured some excellent singing, led by the Mother of soprano Jennifer Lynn Waters, whose voice has grown admirably in control and power since we last heard her in the Washington National Opera Young Artists performance of Madama Butterfly in 2011. The three kings made a beautiful sound together, with bass Ethan Lee Green, a recent graduate from Maryland Opera Studio, standing out especially. Hannah Slayton, a seventh grader from Charlottesville, was confident and well prepared in the title role, just slightly wan at the top of her voice. In keeping with most productions of this opera, the staging was charmingly homespun, with the company's general director, Katerina Souvorova, providing the accompaniment on an electronic keyboard, with some of the harp and flute effects added via a second synthesizer. Costumes (Linda Jenks) and sets (Olga Shpitalna) were simple but effective.

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Free Concert Series at National Building Museum

Charles T. Downey, National Building Museum kicks off summer concert series with Reverb
Washington Post, July 22, 2014

For parents of young children, summer often boils down to a frantic search for activities that will divert their kids, even for just a few minutes. By mid-July, the situation can get desperate, so the first summer concert at the National Building Museum, heard Sunday afternoon, was perfectly timed. In partnership with Washington Performing Arts, the museum presented... [Continue reading]

Reverb
Washington Performing Arts
Sunday Concert Series
National Building Museum

Dip Your Ears, No. 160 (A Magical Night from Kurt Weill)

Kurt Weill Zaubernacht Arte Ensemble CPO

Unideological Tin Soldiers and Horsies

Art—books, music, whatnot—made specifically for children falls often either pray to insufferable patronization (i.e. Norene Smith’s narration of Mark Petering’s The Tomten and the Fox) or is refreshingly stripped of ideology (Charles Curtis’ Richards Reise, for example). Kurt Weill’s strangely delightful Zaubernacht (music for a children’s pantomime) falls solidly, perhaps surprisingly, into the latter category. Radical and revolutionary November group stuff seems far away when a fairy’s song awakes the toys, and off they go, most pleasantly: A grumpy stove and martial little tin soldiers and nimble Jumping Jacks and horsies and foxtrotting bears—all musically portrayed and invited to a dance. In 1922, 22 years old and fresh off his studies with Humperdinck and conducting operettas in Lüdenscheid, Kurt Weill went to work on Vladimir Boritsch’s piece and came up with something for an (economic) nine-piece combo of piano, percussion, strings, flute and bassoon. The result is an innovatively scored, thoroughly delightful, hour-long dance suite. It might be unfair to the composer (of whose music I’m not usually that keen), or just not saying much, but there’s little of Weill’s music that I enjoy as much as this Zaubernacht. This is the first recording of Weill’s own orchestration.

'Fellowship of the Ring'

This review is an Ionarts exclusive.

Fellowship of the Ring, Wolf Trap (photo by Priska Ketterer Luzern)

Master Ionarts and I have reviewed the last two installments of the Lord of the Rings trilogy -- in 2009 and 2010 -- in the special screenings in the outdoor theater at Wolf Trap. The appeal of such screenings, with the film score performed live by a vast orchestra and choral ensemble, plus soloists, has not diminished. Wolf Trap began a second cycle of these movie screenings, which we saw on Saturday night, in the company of a vast crowd. While Master Ionarts did not quite understand the story the first time around, he understands the Tolkien saga now, and we both sat riveted to our seats by both the cinematic marvels, and in some cases, the musical ones (noteworthy more for the epic sweep than the fine details).

We heard some disappointment voiced by patrons seated on the lawn outside the theater, because there was only one, not especially large screen positioned at the center of the outer wall. From the sides of the especially crowded lawn it was difficult to make out anything on the screen. One imagines that the full effect of the live performance, which is heard mostly through loudspeakers on the lawn, is experienced only inside the theater. The scores of these films, composed by Howard Shore, are not good enough to make the experience worthwhile for someone only interested in music. For anyone like me, however -- who read and re-read all of the Tolkien books obsessively as a young person and watched each of the Peter Jackson movies with the uncanny feeling of having the books come to visual life almost exactly as I had imagined them -- it makes for three hours (with intermission) of visual and aural thrills.

The orchestra for these performances is called the Filene Center Orchestra, and although they do not have much of a cohesive identity as an ensemble, the playing was generally good. At the podium, Erik Ochsner had his work out cut for him in keeping the sprawled-out forces in line, including two choirs, the City Choir of Washington and the World Children's Choir. Two soloists, soprano Kaitlyn Lusk and treble Nolan Musselwhite (from the Washington National Cathedral Boys Choir), had a pleasing sound over the amplification system.

'Potted Potter' at Harman Hall

We are big fans of the Harry Potter books at Ionarts Central, where both kids and both parents are devoted to J. K. Rowling (and the movies that came from her work). So I was glad to have the chance to take Miss Ionarts to see a performance of Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience, presented by the Shakespeare Theater at Sidney Harman Hall on Friday night. The show is a sort of extended vaudeville skit, aimed mostly at kids but partly at the adults who are with them, that attempts to retell the stories of all seven Harry Potter books in the space of seventy minutes.

The creators and the actors are the parody team Dan and Jeff, that is, British actors Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, who have done a couple other shows in the same style. Do not expect, as we did somewhat, any special effects -- one of the running gags is that Dan blew all of the show's budget on one big effect, and that turns out to be a disappointment, too. What you will get is a lot of banter, some cute audience participation, a little smoke, and a few lights and whistles. It is not at all unlike the one-hour programs aimed at kids in the Kennedy Center, but at much higher prices. Miss Ionarts enjoyed the show in much the same way as one of those kinds of shows, but parents will have to decide if the experience is worth as much as $90 a seat.

Other Reviews: Stephanie Merry, Preview: ‘Potted Potter’ at Shakespeare Theatre (Washington Post, August 29) Michael Gioia, Potting Potter: Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner Cast a Spell Off-Broadway (Playbill, July 4, 2012)

Premium seats come with the chance to take part in the "Quidditch game," the big climax of the show, which involves the front section batting a beach ball (quaffle) back and forth, trying to hit an illuminated circle on either side of the house. Two pint-sized volunteers were brought up to the stage to serve as seekers, looking for and ultimately body-tackling a human-sized golden snitch. Here and at other points, improv bits between the two actors, in reaction to unforeseen events, provided some of the biggest laughs. It is likely that anything connected with the Harry Potter books, even in an unauthorized way, will find success among people who love the stories, but as cute as this show is, it may not live up to its big price tag for some viewers.

This production continues at Sidney Harman Hall through September 15, after which it will continue on a U.S. tour of various cities through December.

Reviewed, Not Necessarily Recommended: Peter and the Wolf at Lake Wobegon

PETERING The Tomten and the Fox: New Classical Music for Children • Mississippi Gulf Coast Suite, Journey for Two Violins, String Quartet for Pet Rabbit, The Tomten and the Fox • Norene Smith, Mark Petering, Charles Sena (narrators); Stephen Colburn, cond; Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra New Music Ensemble • Zebrina Records ZR1075 (50:30)

M.Petering , The Tomten and the Fox et al., N.Smith, M.Petering et al., S.Colburn, Milwaukee CO, New Music Ensemble Zebrina Records ZR1075

This is a CD for children with music composed for children and extensive narration presumably tailored to a child’s preferences. Lacking children of my own, or accessible nieces and nephews for testing purposes, I tried to listen to this CD with child’s ears of my own. (Incidentally, a childlike state of mind doesn’t present particular difficulties to me.) Not all children are the same, however, and consequently not every child will react to this disc in similar ways as did my six year old alter ego. I happen to have been a child that could not stand condescension and the particular tone of fawning excitement that adults would put on to excite us—and I still can’t abide it.

But I am getting ahead of myself. The title work—The Tomten and the Fox—is a perfectly amiable setting of the Astrid Lindgren story for chamber orchestra and narrator. Oozing wholesomeness, it’s a lightweight version of Peter and the Wolf fresh from Lake Wobegon. Not as good as the original so obviously modeled on, but good enough to recommend as a sequel when the youngster has heard and seen enough of Prokofiev’s duck being swallowed.

Unfortunately that remains the gently elevated highpoint on this disc. As narrator Norene Smith and composer Mark Petering (b. 1972) proceed with the painfully obviously scripted dialog, the cringe factor increases steadily. They introduce and recap “Five Animals” represented by Woodwind quintet, among other items, and after every musically misrepresented beast (cub, fawn, rabbit, skunk, wolf) Smith exclaims in breathless sycophantism how that was totally like a rabbit, or a fawn, or—unintentionally best of all—“this was skunk!”. If you want to teach your child the meaning of servile flattery, you’ve got a winner at hand. The music, utterly competent throughout, lacks variety and sometimes misses the intended characterization entirely. What kind of squirrel is represented by a bassoon, anyway?

The CD ends on a note addressing the children listeners of how Norene and Mark hope that they will make music a part of their every day life. Neat thought, but if instructions to that extend become necessary, perhaps the music simply wasn’t spellbinding enough? Any smart kid and sympathetic teacher or parent will have more from an hour with Messiaen (when it comes to ‘readying’ the youngsters for “new classical music”) or, more conventionally, an audio biography of Haydn or Beethoven. In the end, what you have here is a CD full of good intentions and modest music, the result being the very lowest common denominator of a Garrison Keillor show (the Midwestern niceness) and Peter and the Wolf.

(Marketed directly, here.)

Crunch Time for Missing Children

The Scoping Report on Missing and Abducted Children 2011 states the following: “Children who go missing are at risk of harm. When a child goes missing, there is something wrong, often quite seriously, in that child’s life. The reasons behind missing incidents are varied, where children go missing as a consequence of specific, distinct circumstances. The serious problem of missing and abducted children is a broad, complex and challenging issue. It tends to be poorly defined, lacking in accurate statistics, and is subject to an array of responses at local, national and international levels. At the same time, there is a pressing and urgent concern for improving responses to cases of missing and abducted children. Being missing from home or a place of residence not only entails several inherent risks for children and young people, but is also a cause and consequence of other grave concerns in any child’s life.”

The FBI cites a 2002 federal study on missing children according to which a heartening 99.8 percent of children reported missing “were located or returned home alive. The remaining 0.2 percent either did not return home or were not found. The study estimated that most of missing children cases involved runaways from juvenile facilities and that only an estimated 0.0068 percent were true kidnappings by a stranger. The primary conclusion of the study was that child abductions perpetrated by strangers rarely occur. However, when they do occur, the results can be tragic.”

Tragic, indeed. Which makes the following events all the more dramatic: After a domestic altercation on the evening of April 1^st, two underage siblings went missing near Munich, after being sent out of the house by their mother, to look for berries in the forest. In said forest, the boy and his younger sister eventually happened upon a cannibalistic witch. Those are rare in the local forests, but are known to pop up on occasion of a staging of Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera. Twice, this year, because earlier in the season, the Bavarian State Opera gave its old, sepia-tinted Herbert List production of Hänsel & Gretel (from 1965!) one last hurrah, and now brought a new one onto the stage.

E.Humperdinck, Hanse & Gretel, V.Jurowski / Met C.Schäfer, A.Coote, P.Langridge et al. EMI DVD

New? Well, not that new. Munich has actually brought in the 1998 Richard Jones production from the Welsh Opera—a hand-me-down from the Lyric Chicago and MET, available for everyone to see in an outstanding performance on DVD with Christine Schäfer, Alice Coote, Philip Langridge, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. Most people who will see the Munich shows won’t have seen previous productions in Wales or the US, and experiencing this fabulously, morbidly fun production live, is a whole different ballgame than watching it on the screen. Certainly Hanna-Elisabeth Müller (a nicely pronouncing, fleet Gretel), Tara Erraught (a stentorian Hänsel), and Rainer Trost (as a very wicked witch) were in splendid form, acting and singing their way through Humperdinck’s second-best opera.

It’s a children’s opera, by which people mean an opera that patrons like to bring their children to—mostly because the kids know the story, also because the music is pretty, and perhaps mostly because other patrons can’t complain about the youngsters’ presence. I, for one, love seeing kids in an opera house: An evening of honest reaction to the show is about to commence, with no pretend-guffawing to seem clever, no pseudo-behaved, misplaced reverent silence; hopefully some un-cynical, earnest rapture. A bit of a pulse, amid the formaldehyde.

That said, Richard Jones’ production is not overtly concerned with catering to (parents who bring their) kids. When the scrim to Act III goes down, it continues the would-be culinary theme with the large painted plate on it, plus fork and knife, and a smear of raspberry juice? A frowning, mildly disapproving groan is emitted by a few elderly ladies in front of me. Really? You bring your grandchild to an opera about two starving children being trapped and caged with an eye to cannibalizing slaughter. An opera where the happy end is an old woman being burnt alive… but a bit of implied blood on a plate offends your sensibilities?

They should have saved their gasps for the third act proper. Maybe the bone saws on the wall in the witch’s kitchen. Or the ready-bake children’s corpses lined up like mummified nibbles. Or when the shemale witch of this production opens the fridge to briefly reveal contents that Jeffrey Dahmer would have been proud of: A nice touch from stage and costume designer John Macfarlane. (I don’t remember that being part of the Met production, though.) The part that offends me the most—far more than child-eating witches ever could—is the food-fight, though: perhaps my protestant roots coming to the fore, and those ingrained lessons on the immorality of wastage.

Apart from standouts Trost and Müller, the glittering-glamorous South African Dew Fairy Golda Schultz delighted. Father Peter, scrawny-looking Alejandro Mareo-Buhrmester, convinced after a few minutes of warming up. Janina Baechle successfully made her character Mother Gertrud look a harridan, but was prone to a burnt-out, shrill tone that would have been suitable for the witch just as well. The orchestra, in a faultless but routine performance administrated by Tomáš Hanus, covered the singers all too often, undercutting the few occasions where the pronunciation was clear enough to follow the text. Then again, the orchestral parts of this opera are so beautiful, there’s little harm in hearing them loudly.

Low marks only for the absence of supertitles and for the increasingly pretentious, idiotic programs of the Bavarian State Opera and their flavor-of-the-day graphic stylists whose aren’t-we-awfully-clever-design this time consisted of wrapping them in parchment paper, nicely rustling all the way through the performance.

Pictures below courtesy Bavarian State Opera, © Wilfried Hösl

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Washington Ballet's 'Cinderella': Spring 'Nutcracker'

Morgann Rose, Ji Young Chae, Emily Ellis, and Aurora Dickie in Cinderella, Washington Ballet (photo by Brianne Bland)
What is to prevent a ballet company from replicating its December cash cow, The Nutcracker, in the spring season? The Washington Ballet could just about make it work with its pastel-pink production of Prokofiev's Cinderella (created in 2003, last revived in 2008), made for little girls, which we saw on Friday night at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Septime Webre's choreography even recycles some of the vignettes from his Nutcracker, including little kids as adorable butt-shaking bees and sweet snow angels. It is a traditional, wedding-cake kind of staging -- far from the updating of Alexei Ratmansky, the art deco vision of American Ballet Theater, or the mise-en-abyme staging of Yuri Possokhov for the Bolshoi -- but with enough wit and charm, and pleasing dancing, to keep adults engaged. Its smaller scale and use of recorded music -- the lovely performance by André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra (EMI) -- might draw a negative comparison to the Russian National Ballet's touring version, but the evening is packed with laughs and sweetness.

Prokofiev, Cinderella, London Symphony Orchestra, A. Previn (EMI)

Most of the comic relief is due to the two stepsisters, cast as campy drag queens by Webre and hilariously realized by Luis R. Torres and Zachary Hackstock, the latter especially over the top with his grotesque smile and big-legged hamming. Exceptional beauty of movement came with the divertissement of the four seasons, with elegant dances by Ji Young Chae (Spring), Ayano Kimura (Summer), Morgann Rose (Autumn), and Aurora Dickie (Winter), and the transformation of Sona Kharatian's Beggar, all hunched form and pointed hands, into the tall, refined Fairy Godmother was remarkable. As Cinderella, Emily Ellis was youthful but more feisty than shy, not willing to submit to the (mild) abuse from the stepsisters but also not overly assertive in her steps. The Prince of Jonathan Jordan was earnest but more of a complement to Ellis, making for a lovely pas de deux, than a standout on his own. Andile Ndlovu made an athletic Jester, entertaining the Prince in the ball scene and creating many humorous diversions with the stepsisters.

Other Reviews: Sarah Kaufman, Washington Ballet’s ‘Cinderella’ enchants with humor and splendid dancing (Washington Post, March 23)

The problems for the ears remain insurmountable: a ballet without live music is deprived of half of its life, its ability to stretch and breathe, its spontaneity. Washington Ballet, faced with ongoing budget shortfalls, is doing its best to make this unfortunate situation work, and its Cinderella offers much to impress the eyes. Beautiful settings are evoked through minimal sets designed by James Kronzer -- a ghostly forest, a fireplace, chandeliers, fancy tall mirrors that tip vertiginously to reflect the waltz in the ball scene -- and the costumes by Judanna Lynn are alternately outrageous (the multi-colored bustles of the stepsisters) and sickly sweet (the cloudy pinks of Cinderella and the Prince, complete with fairy-tale trains for both). It is not a production for purists and it offers little that is new about the story, but younger viewers will likely be as charmed and thrilled by it as Miss Ionarts was.

This production will be repeated today and tomorrow (March 23 and 24), in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater.

Bella goes to the Prinzregententheater

Writing from the Family Concert of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on September 29^th is our Junior Family correspondent, Isabelle Lysette Zeba. We’re very grateful that she took the time out of her busy schedule of being fabulous, eating flowers, sipping champagne, and furthering her operatic career-in-the-making, to report from this glamorous event with artists from the BRSO, Yefim Bronfman, and speaker Sunnyi Melles. Text—a putative children’s story really for adults—by Katharina Neuschaefer. The whole thing was a racket collaboration arranged with the Sueddeutsche Zeitung to support one of the latter’s relief-organization-schemes.

I went to a Kids concert. I’m a lady, of course, and not a kid. But I guess it’s nice and I had to go, because Gilligan the bear is busy and I had a new bow I needed to wear! Also, there was Mister Bronfman playing, and of course he has played many times for me already, in Washington and Salzburg and Munich! Of course Mister Bronfman is no Grigory Sokolov, but I say that only because I have heard someone say that and it always makes everyone nod! And the nice Mister Tzimon Barto is much more muscular and doesn’t look like such a gray blob. But I am told I digress.

They started with a speech, which I don’t like. It was all bla bla bla bla bla bla money bla bla bla bla bla wonderful bla bla bla bla bla poverty bla bla bla bla music instruments. And oooooooh! There came a blonde girl finally. A little like a giraffe with suuuuch a pretty pink hat! And with a costume that glittered and with six inch heels. Hihi! That was exciting. Oh, and she’s almost a real princess!

She spoke very fast and very German, though, and I’m not sure how much I understood. Or the other kids. They looked confused, when I looked around the auditorium. Also, I think that the kids were outnumbered by the adults. I didn’t see any teddy bears, like Gilligan told me there would be. They played a very nice tune with the piano and the violins and such [the Schumann Quintet in E-flat] and then the pink giraffe-lady started talking. A little bit like a frog, or a little girl.

And there was someone who was drawing while the music was playing and the talking went on, and those were very cute pictures and they were projected in very big on the wall. They helped me understand the story, which was about a lady-lion-dog [a Sphinx, actually] and a big bad dog [Cerberus, to be precise] and a funny-looking sad bird [Phoenix]. And first the big bad dog wanted to bite the bird, I think. But then he didn’t want to bite the bird anymore, but the bird died. But they had become friends. I don’t know what happened to the lady-lion-dog. The pictures were very cute. But the lady-lion-dog had a wrong tail. They have a tassel, I know that, because I don’t like lions. Lions are evil and dangerous and not at all as pretty as beautiful tigers. And they have a tassel on their stupid tails, and the cartoon-drawing person forgot that. My boyfriend is a tiger!

Picture courtesy Bavarian Radio, © Astrid Ackermann
Drawings © Florian Mitgutsch

Ionarts Kids: Fall Calendar

People ask me all the time about performances for children, and this new "Ionarts Kids" feature is a way to make this sort of information available to everyone. Over the years our children, Master Ionarts and Miss Ionarts, have gone with me to review most of the children's concerts in the area. They have enjoyed all of them, and yours probably will, too.

OPERA:
Washington National Opera's Family Look-In is coming up later this month (October 16, 2 pm). In recent years this event has presented a kids-length excerpt of one of the operas in production, with some of the company's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists as the cast. This year's performance includes excerpts from The Magic Flute, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Madama Butterfly -- none of which are on the stage this season -- woven into a story about four children who get lost in an opera house.

NSO:
For the youngest children, ages 3 to 5, we recommend the series of Teddy Bear Concerts, performed by members of the National Symphony Orchestra in the Kennedy Center Theater Lab: the next one is coming up soon (October 23, 11 am and 1 pm). The programs of this sort we have heard were short, selections of ear-pleasing music with a fun story to string them together. Go early or stay after the concert for the Instrument Petting Zoo run by NSO volunteers, where kids can hear what instruments sound like and give them a try. For older kids, we recommend the NSO's Family Concerts, which are in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall: the next one is the annual Halloween program of spooky music (October 31, 1 and 3 pm). Of course, costumes are expected.

N. Stookey / L. Snicket, The Composer Is Dead (book with recording by San Francisco Symphony)

BSO:
We have also made the trip up to Baltimore's Meyerhoff Symphony Hall for the kids' concerts presented by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Their next program is also for Halloween, a performance of Lemony Snicket's The Composer Is Dead, an ingenious introduction to the orchestra in the form of a murder mystery (October 30, 11 am). All of us really enjoyed this piece when the NSO played it last spring.

NUTCRACKER AND HOLIDAY MUSIC:
Introducing kids to ballet with Tchaikovsky's Christmas-time classic is a December tradition. The big one is Septime Webre's Washington-based version the story, presented every year by the Washington Ballet at the Warner Theater (December 2 to 26). Miss Ionarts and I both loved it. The Kennedy Center also usually hosts a visiting company's production of the ballet, with the Pennsylvania Ballet last year and the return of the Joffrey Ballet this year (November 24 to 28), in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Sarah Kaufman, who reviewed the Joffrey Ballet production the last time it was here, in 2008, said that it "makes a resounding case that The Nutcracker is -- dare I say it -- a perfect ballet." For very small kids or children you think might not make it through the whole ballet, which is pretty long, try the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's program of excerpts, with dancers from the Baltimore Ballet (December 4). For holiday concerts, try the kid-friendly performances of the Cathedral Choral Society's holiday program (December 10 and 11), the Choral Arts Society of Washington's Family Christmas Concert (December 18), and a Christmas-themed program by the Vienna Boys Choir at George Mason in Fairfax (December 18 and 19).

OTHER:
The Candlelight Concert Society has a series of performances for kids. Although we have never reviewed any of them, the offerings sound good: a Sleeping Beauty from the National Marionnette Theater (November 21) and a musical version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by TheatreWorksUSA (December 12). Opera Lafayette has been giving family performances of some of its programs of historical music, with Clérambault's La Muse de l’Opéra featured this year (November 13), involving the participation of some D.C. public school students, at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H St. NE. Also at the Atlas, the Capitol City Symphony offers a family concert called The Case of the Missing Melody (November 14), with an Instrument Petting Zoo. See also the list of family programs at the Kennedy Center, some of which do not include classical music.

OLDER KIDS:
We do not recommend this for little kids, but for teenagers who have an interest in music and are ready for some full-length concerts, the National Philharmonic offers free tickets for kids (under 18) when accompanied by an adult.

Please feel free to add any child-friendly classical music or opera events not listed here in the comments section.

'We Sing of God'

We Sing of God, Choirs of St. Paul's Parish, K Street, R. McCormick (released on June 18, 2010) Pro Organo CD 7238 | 74'01" Available only from Pro Organo

This new CD, released last week, is the first to be recorded by the Choirs of St. Paul's Parish, K Street, under the current director of music, Robert McCormick, who was appointed in 2008. It would not be appropriate for me to write a review of it, because Master Ionarts was for a time a chorister there, including when this CD was made. However, I can give this excellent choral program another plug by letting you know about the CD, which has a beautiful selection of unusual music in the Anglican tradition that is its specialty: Sidney Campbell, Peter Hurford, Charles Wood, Herbert Howells, as well as the lesser-heard Evening Service in E Minor by Leo Sowerby and the first-ever recording of McNeil Robinson's Missa Brevis. It is not all performed by just the boys' choir but includes performances by the adult, girls, and teen choirs, along with organ improvisations and pieces played by McCormick and his assistant, John Bohl.

The boys' choir sings at the weekly Sunday evensong (6 pm) during the school year, and for any parents looking for a top-notch musical education for their son, I cannot recommend the boys' choir highly enough. It is a choir of boys and men in the high Anglican tradition, and the boys sing an impeccable and extensive repertory of the best historical music. Boys can enter the program at any time, beginning at around age 8 and until their voices break, and the application and audition process is painless and puts no pressure on the boys. Unlike many children's choirs, furthermore, there are no fees to pay, just the commitment to bring your child to rehearsals and performances. It is an intense experience but also extremely fulfilling for both children and their parents.

'The Composer Is Dead'

Read my review published today on the Washington Post Web site:

Charles T. Downey, NSO offers kids classical music as whodunit
Washington Post, May 11, 2010

N. Stookey / L. Snicket, The Composer Is Dead (book with recording by San Francisco Symphony)

A family concert by the National Symphony Orchestra on Sunday afternoon featured the Washington debut of Nathaniel Stookey's "The Composer Is Dead." Commissioned and premiered by the San Francisco Symphony in 2006, the work is a dark updating of more familiar children's introductions to the orchestra, with text by Lemony Snicket written as a grimly humorous detective story. The composer of the work has been murdered, and suspicion falls on the musicians on the stage: One by one, they provide musical alibis that simultaneously prove their innocence and identify the quirks of their instruments.

The strings were playing a waltz at a ball, a tune that is then deconstructed into its melodic and accompanying parts, including the self-pitying viola countermelody that no one will ever care about or hear. The dizzy flutes were imitating bird songs, and the arrogant brass were playing noisy fanfares. Along the way Stookey's inventive score has episodes in various jazz and classical idioms, including probably the only duet for tuba and harp in the orchestral repertoire, all punctuated by an ominous refrain heard whenever death is mentioned. [Continue reading]

National Symphony Orchestra Family Concert
Nathaniel Stookey and Lemony Snicket, The Composer Is Dead
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

SEE ALSO:

• Ronnie Scott, An Interview with Daniel Handler (Bookslut, October 2008)
  
• Zack Smith, An unfortunate composer (Indy Week, March 4, 2009)
  
• Rebecca Milzoff, The Composer Is Dead Author Lemony Snicket on His Parents’ Fear of Accordions and Why Gallows Humor Is for Kids (New York Magazine, March 6, 2009)
  
• Lemony Snicket's Musical Murder Mystery (All Things Considered, March 10, 2009)
  
• Joshua Kosman, Symphony: 'The Composer is Dead' (San Francisco Chronicle, March 22, 2009)
  
• Daniel J. Kushner, Nathaniel Stookey and Daniel Handler Raise the Dead (NewMusicBox, September 23, 2009)

Tooth-Rotting Children's 'Nutcracker'

Waltz of the Snowflakes, Nutcracker, Pennsylvania Ballet (photo by Paul Kolnik)

In addition to Septime Webre's Washington-specific Nutcracker for Washington Ballet, which Miss Ionarts and I attended last year, the Kennedy Center usually hosts a visiting company that mounts Tchaikovsky's evergreen Christmas-themed ballet. After the Joffrey Ballet's visit last December, it was the Pennsylvania Ballet's turn, giving a series of performances this week of George Balanchine's classic choreography (the one created for New York City Ballet and supposedly performed in Washington for the first time in this production) in the Kennedy Center Opera House. With so much of the ballet performed by children -- talented, well-coached child dancers, but still -- it is probably not a Nutcracker for a serious dance enthusiast, but Nutcracker is not really about serious dance for most people in the audience. Judging by the reaction of Miss Ionarts, who is my constant companion for this sort of event, at last night's performance it is an excellent option for a child viewer.

The production has broad, colorful set backdrops and numerous special effects, including a couch and bed that glide about by themselves, a flying ship, and a little moving toe plate on which the Sugar Plum Fairy floats en pointe. Herr Drosselmaier (Maximilien Baud) is a more menacing figure than in other versions, stealing back into the house while Marie (Clara) is asleep. One factor that shifts this staging toward the children is the decision to cast the Prince (Nutcracker) as a child, the poised and sunny Peter Weil, who appears first as Drosselmeier's nephew at the party, returning later in Marie's dream. This approach had its physical limitations especially in the battle with the Mouse King (Nicolas Sipes) and his forces. The corps de ballet shone strongest in its lovely, unified women as the Snowflakes (Act I) and the Flowers (Act II), with strong solo performances from the Sugar Plum Fairy of Arantxa Ochoa, Meredith Reffner's curving, long-legged Coffee (the Arabian dancer -- the Chinese dancers' scene is called Tea), and the Mirlitons of Abigail Mentzer and colleagues (called the Marzipan Shepherdesses).

Other Articles: Sarah Kaufman, With this 'Nutcracker,' the magic is in the music (Washington Post, November 26) Jean Battey Lewis, 'Nutcracker's' zestful magic sparks season (Washington Times, November 26) Ellen Dunkel, Notching several firsts in the capital (Philadelphia Inquirer, November 27)

Where this production definitely trumped the Washington Ballet, at least as heard last year, was in the musical performance, with many details of Tchaikovsky's luminous and complex score sparkling in their best light. This was especially true of the children's chorus in the Waltz of the Snowflakes, which is omitted in some versions (including several I have witnessed) -- but there it is in on the page, a two-part chorus of trebles voices, indicated by Tchaikovsky to be hidden if sung by women or on stage by children (the Norwood Middle School Choir was piped in and added some lovely sounds). Balanchine added a scene in the first act, after the guests leave the house when we see Marie, fallen asleep on a couch, covered in a blanket by her mother. The music played at this point is an entr'acte composed originally by Tchaikovsky for the second act of Sleeping Beauty, with an extended violin solo, whose complicated passages were played admirably on Friday night. Miss Ionarts and I were also surprised to see the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy almost at the beginning of the second act, another example of Balanchine's reordering of the ballet.

Three performances of Pennsylvania Ballet's production of Balanchine's Nutcracker remain at the Kennedy Center Opera House, today at 1:30 and 7:30 pm and tomorrow at 1:30 pm.

'Two Towers'

Ludwig Wicki conducting a Fellowship of the Ring at Wolf Trap (photo by Priska Ketterer Luzern / Wolf Trap)

This review is an Ionarts exclusive.

Following up on a successful screening of the first volume of Peter Jackson's sprawling Lord of the Rings trilogy in May 2008, the Filene Center at Wolf Trap hosted two screenings of The Two Towers this past weekend. In spite of intermittent rain on Saturday night, which provided atmospherically appropriate lightning and rumbles of thunder, the lawn was filled with umbrella-toting Tolkien fans -- we saw at least one Gandalf impersonator, complete with tall, pointy hat -- as were the more expensive seats in the theater, with some empty patches at the back. Why were people willing to pay $25 to $55 to see a movie that came out in the theaters some years ago? Because a pick-up orchestra of area players, the City Choir of Washington, and two vocal soloists performed Howard Shore's alternately ethereal and booming score live during the screening. The main outdoor screen, attached to the wall of theater, was pretty small, but the one inside the theater, hung in line with the proscenium arch, was cinematic in size, and the sound of the massive performance forces swept over us in the front of the orchestra section with tidal might.

Conductor Ludwig Wicki, who has led these screening-performances all over the world, led with a veteran's hand, lining up most of the pieces of the score, divided up into discrete numbers, with the visual cues, which he followed on an individual laptop screen on the podium. In a few places, of course, the music did not quite synch up with the film, as when Gandalf and the Balrog fall through the mineshaft of Moria near the beginning -- as we see the flaming demon fall into a large cavern with an underground lake, there is a shift in the score, which came a few seconds late, for example. Most of the success or failure of this kind of performance is due to how well the ensemble can imitate the performance on the soundtrack, and that it mostly did, from the dynamic swells and chanted Tolkien languages of the choir to the amplified solo violin (Norwegian fiddle) of the Rohan music. The same was true of the vocal solos, including the white-toned soprano solo of the Arwen music (although Kaitlyn Lusk's rendition of Gollum's Song, the pop song that is heard with the credits, with lyrics by Fran Walsh, was embarrassingly over the top, complete with arm movements).

Although Master Ionarts would not normally be allowed to watch such a violent movie at his age, he went with me on Saturday night to support his friend and musical colleague, treble Nolan Peters, who was spot-on in the elfin, otherworldly treble solos toward the end of the film. Fortunately for the younger audience members, the shorter, theatrical version of the film was screened, which with a welcome intermission, still lasted over three hours. Howard Shore may not be a great original composer -- witness the abject failure of his opera The Fly -- but he is a brilliant chameleonic imitator of evocative styles. Minor-to-minor mediant chords and minor (mostly) pentatonic scales evoke the rough, folksy feel of the Rohirrim, with a skillful use of exotic instrumental color, and an imitation of Holst's Mars music, in 5/4 even more slavish than John Williams's adaptation of that famous music for the Star Wars Imperial March, serves nicely for the marching orcs. All in all, an effective way to combine two of my nerdy tendencies, orchestral music and Lord of the Rings.

If you missed these performances at Wolf Trap, you could take a trip to the screening of the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring , also with live music but at a considerably higher ticket price, at Radio City Music Hall in New York (October 9 and 10).

Concert Hall Not Just for Adults Anymore

We welcome this review of one of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's summer concerts from Mrs. Ionarts and Master Ionarts.

A lot of parents are (understandably) nervous about taking their young children to classical music performances. They worry that their children will be bored and will behave badly. However, I am here to tell you it can be done. Longtime readers of Ionarts will already know that Master Ionarts (now age 7½) is already a seasoned concert- and opera-goer, and Miss Ionarts (4¾) is not far behind him. Last night, Master Ionarts and I went eagerly to hear the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Günther Herbig, perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in the Music Center at Strathmore. Our choice of this particular concert goes along with my first recommendation about taking a child to a classical music concert: pick a concert with familiar repertoire. Master Ionarts has listened to Beethoven’s Ninth dozens of times and consequently is quite familiar with and quite excited by the piece. He was reluctant to miss Tae Kwon Do but was quickly convinced by the promise of the Ninth.

After a good night of sleep and a restful day at home (two more crucial parts of successful child concert-going), he had a hearty dinner and then we headed out with plenty of time to spare. It is important to arrive at the venue with plenty of time to stretch those energetic kid legs and hit the bathroom and water fountain one more time before sitting down. An extra bonus was the excellent café at Strathmore, which sells the magic combination of candy and soda. Fully loaded up on sugar energy, we took our seats and waited for the magic to unfold.

The Beethoven was, of course, transcendent. It is difficult to find another word more appropriate to describe the Ninth Symphony. The first two movements were exciting enough to keep Master Ionarts engaged, but the third movement brought yawns and requests to sit in my lap. The lull was quickly replaced by excitement when Master Ionarts’ ears picked up the first strains of the “Ode to Joy” tune. I took him to the concert primarily so that I could see the look on his face when the chorus started singing and it was a look that made it completely worth it. He looked like a boy who had just been given a puppy and the keys to a toy store. I love the Ninth myself, but hearing it through the ears of a young child made it doubly enjoyable.

The Baltimore Symphony played extremely well. There were a few shaky notes in the trumpets in the first movement, but the overall excitement of the players made any small errors unimportant. They and the chorus were clearly enjoying the choice of music, which is always nice to see. The soloists were excellent as well, especially soprano Heidi Stober, who had a particularly lyrical voice. Tenor Gordon Gietz has a beautiful voice that was sadly drowned out by the orchestra and chorus at some points of his solo. The 100+ members of the Baltimore Choral Society (we counted!) formed an impressive wall of sound that was enough to make the most disinterested child sit up in his seat.

Other Reviews: Tim Smith, Baltimore Symphony closes summer season with Beethoven's Ninth (Clef Notes, July 24) Robert Battey, The BSO's Triumphant Ninth (Washington Post, July 24)

At the end of the concert, we did as all parents with kids in tow should do: we stood up as soon as the applause started and headed for the parking garage. It’s far preferable to miss the crowds and be one of the first cars out than to stand through the multiple ovations (that were certainly well deserved) and then try to shepherd a young child out through a big crowd. Anyone who has ever had a child in his life will understand why you are making a beeline for the exit.

The Baltimore Symphony is trying to attract young audiences with its summer offerings. Earlier this summer it put on a program of Disney tunes, sure to attract an audience full of children. The Beethoven was sold out, and I counted many other young children in the audience. Easily accessible pieces such as these are an obvious way to introduce children to the classical concert hall in a way that is appealing.

This concert will be repeated this evening (June 24, 7:30 pm) at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. Grab your favorite 6+-year-old (concert hall rules) and head to Baltimore to catch this family-friendly performance.

Miss Ionarts Takes in NSO Teddy Bear Concert

Miss Ionarts pets the harp at the NSO Instrument Petting Zoo

Miss Ionarts has enjoyed the opera, children's concerts, and especially the ballet since making her debut as a pint-sized concert-goer last year at her first NSO Teddy Bear Concert. A return visit on Saturday morning may have been my last Teddy Bear Concert, now that Miss Ionarts will soon age out of the intended audience: so let this brief review serve as a general notice of my endorsement of this high-quality series of concerts for very small children at the Kennedy Center. Members of the National Symphony Orchestra -- oboist William Wielgus, flutist Aaron Goldman, and cellist Janet Frank -- put together a pleasing selection of music arranged for the combination of their instruments, around a charming story involving a tree that grows hats. As the players picked the hats from the tree and put them on, they told and enacted stories that led into each piece. Most importantly, no musical selection lasted very long, adding up to a child-appropriate length of 45 minutes and keeping little minds engaged with as much good humor and diverting variation as possible.

Miss Ionarts loves the elitist associations of classical music, always insisting on dressing up and wearing plenty of bling-bling (a tiara, necklace, and three over-sized rings on one hand this time). Not surprisingly, her favorite hat was the blue crown, which turned cellist Frank into an overbearing queen, serenaded by Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1. Other favorites included a bird hat with bright pink and purple feathers (that evoked a story of birds and a barking dog in a park, to the soundtrack of a Haydn trio) and the golden turban that transformed oboist Wielgus into a genie (accompanied by César Cui's Orientale, which reminded Miss Ionarts of the Arabian Dance from her beloved Nutcracker). When Wielgus dozed off under the sleeping hat, to the strains of de Falla's Nana, she heartily joined in with all the kids to yell, "Wake up, Bill!" The audience was one of the best behaved in memory, with many children spellbound by the story and music, prompting some parents to leave early with restless children (although, frankly, one of the best things about these concerts is that no one much minds the chatter -- let them interact, I say). A resounding bravo to the big hearts of the musicians and the volunteers of the ever-popular NSO Instrument Petting Zoo for helping to foster the next generation of classical music listeners.

This concert repeats this coming Saturday (May 9, 11 am and 1 pm), in the Kennedy Center Theater Lab.

Russian National Ballet's Cinderella

Dancing Master, Stepmother, Cinderella, and Ugly Sisters in Cinderella, Russian National Ballet Theater

The Russian National Ballet Theater brought one of its multiple-ballet touring extravaganzas to the George Mason University Center for the Arts last weekend. The company, founded by Elena Radchenko, a former principal dancer at the Bolshoi, maximizes the number of performances on its tours, tending to present as many audience favorites as possible to pack the house. Although this performance on Friday night felt, as a result, perfunctory and routine, the strategy paid off for the company, as lots of parents with their little girls turned out to see the RNBT's Cinderella. It was the second ballet for Miss Ionarts, after her first experience with The Nutcracker in December, and she loved it in spite of its shortcomings.

Many of the RNBT choreographies are the classic ones by Marius Petipa, which have been recycled and updated by many companies. This Cinderella was originally choreographed by Rostislav Zakharov, for the premiere of Sergei Prokofiev's fabulous score at the Mariinsky Theater in 1945. The saddest part of this performance was that that brilliant music was not performed by an orchestra, which has been part of previous tours, but played on the sound system from a recording. Not only did that result in an unsatisfactory canned sound, adding to the impression of the dancers phoning in the performance, but the transitions between tracks was unfortunately clunky, chopping up the musical continuity, too. Another sign of financial hard times.

The women, both in the corps and among the soloists, were generally stronger than the men, beginning with the attractive Cinderella of Marianna Chemalina, girlishly delicate yet flirtatious. When she combined with the five fairies (the Fairy Godmother and the four Seasons), the ensemble was the strongest, elegantly unified in line and action. The Dancing Master of Marat Abdrakhmanov was athletic and graceful, while the tall Prince of Ruslan Mukhambetkaliev started off strong in Act II but seemed to weaken toward the end, with buoyant leaps but his lifts losing some of their ease of motion. Some of the best parts of this choreography are the comic relief, the Stepmother (a drag role) and two Ugly Sisters, who danced with burlesque broadness. The sets were fairly plain, a necessary evil of the touring company, but the costumes were appealing, especially for the two leads, not least the gorgeous white gown Cinderella wpre to the ball, which put stars in Miss Ionarts' eyes until she fell asleep in the car on the way home.

The next ballet event in Washington is the Washington Ballet's production of Peter Pan, directed by Septime Webre, at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater (April 1 to 5).

Christmas Addendum: San Francisco Nutcracker

Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker, H. Tomasson, San Francisco Ballet (released on November 18, 2008) Opus Arte DVD OA 1002 D

After attending her first Nutcracker, Miss Ionarts has been obsessive about that ballet, meaning that we have been watching this recently arrived DVD of San Francisco Ballet's new production of this Christmas chestnut (also broadcast last month on PBS). Unlike the Metropolitan Opera Hansel and Gretel DVD reviewed yesterday, this is a very kid-friendly version of a beloved work that is, at the same time, not bogged down (too much) in the same old traditional ideas. Helgi Tomasson's choreography, premiered in 2004, shifts the action to San Francisco at the time of the 1915 World's Fair. After the devastating earthquake of 1906, the city celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, in a moment of quintessentially American optimism, with a lavish fair to represent the city's hope of becoming a center of commerce because of the new possibilities in Atlantic-Pacific trade.

Michael Yeargan's sets place the opening scene on a fog-filled San Francisco street of Painted Ladies, the brightly colored Victorian houses for which the city is famous. A fairly traditional opening to the first act, including the Harlequin and Colombine toys presented by Drosselmeyer, has a few interesting changes. The soldier's dance is recast as a dance for the Nutcracker, who appears in his large form early. The transformation into Clara's dream is exciting, as the Christmas tree grows upward and huge forms of the small presents by the tree appear (the fireplace and toy cabinet, too), showing Clara shrinking down to the size of the mice.

The real ingenuity of the production is in the second act, where Clara and the Prince, after passing through the world of snow, arrive at the Sugar Plum Fairy's realm, not of sweets, but transformed versions of the national pavilions at the World's Fair grounds. For the Arabian dance a genie appears from Aladdin's lamp, there is an articulated New Year's dragon for the Chinese dance, three Russian dancers pop out of Fabergé eggs, and the three ribbon dancers for the Mirlitons seem like French can-can dancers. Miss Ionarts especially liked Mère Gigogne and the polichinelles, who were clowns that come out from a huge circus tent mother, with a very cute dancing bear. Tomasson made the most striking change by having the Grand Pas de Deux at the end be danced not by the Sugar Plum Fairy, but by Clara (and the Nutcracker Prince, instead of the Cavalier), whom we see transformed from a little girl (Elizabeth Powell) into a real ballerina (Maria Kochetkova). For Miss Ionarts and surely many other little girls watching this production, that is a dream come true.

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