Over the River and Through the River

Ionarts globe-trotting correspondent Mark Barry continues his visit to the Dominican Republic.

Over the river and through the river we go. Never ones for the road well traveled, we left Monte Cristi and headed east to the resort area of Puerto Plata, the back way. Three hours of rocky potholed roads and often no road. Over the mountains through plantations and beautiful small villages with brightly painted houses and chapels. Pig roasting on the side of the road over fire pits and goats being skinned for Christmas dinner. Not wild about eating goat, but the pig sure smelled great.

After a few hours of driving on some pretty hairy roads, thank you little Suzuki SUV, we came to the end of the road, literally. It ended at a river bank. A small improvised ferry takes mopeds over but not cars. No turning back, it’s late in the day. A big burly guy on horseback with the biggest machete I’ve ever seen pointed us down river, we followed. He took his horse into the river and motioned to me to drive in, pointing out the shallow path along the way. My girls have never been more quiet. Slipping and sliding on the rocky bottom we drove thru 2 to 3 feet of water for about 50 yards. After landing on the other shore I got out and profusely thanked the burly man and gave him a big tip. We still had many miles of mud and ruts to go but the river was the adventure of the day.

Listening to An American Tragedy

I happily spent the afternoon listening to the Met broadcast of Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy, the new opera that the Metropolitan Opera premiered earlier this month. (See my review of press reactions to the premiere, An American Tragedy, on December 7.)

The opening scene, after a brief orchestral introduction, sets the tone. As the young Clyde, a child (Graham Phillips) sang, quite well, the hymn ’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. This recalls the opening of the source text, Theodore Dreiser's novel of the same name, where the protagonist's older sister, Esta, leads the street singing of "number 27, How Sweet the Balm of Jesus' Love" outside the family's city mission, the background of a life that Clyde comes to despise. (This growing dissatisfaction is described in far greater detail in the novel, about 140 pages of Book One, than is possible in Picker's opera.) As far as I can determine, Dreiser invented the hymn used in his book, so Picker chose to use a real hymn not unlike it. The sound of young Clyde singing comes back several times in the opera, as different times in the narrative are mingled, when Roberta and Clyde exchange memories of childhood and at the execution at the end of the opera.

The opera, understandably, pretty much skips directly into Book Two, when Clyde goes to his uncle Samuel Griffiths' home in Lycurgus, New York, in the hope of finding a job. Ultimately, he meets the woman who will set the tragedy in motion, Sondra Finchley, whose money and social status lead Clyde to forsake his first love, the poor Roberta. Sondra's long aria "New York" is lovely, with at times a lush, Straussian orchestration that perfectly supported the luscious voice of Susan Graham. It even includes a mention of going to the opera, being admired by the men in the audience more than what was on stage, seeing the heroine die in the arms of her lover. Dreiser does not, I think, write about any of the characters going to hear opera, so this is a nice touch added by Picker and his librettist, Gene Scheer. In the first intermission panel with Picker, Patricia Racette, and Nathan Gunn, Susan Graham told a story about how Picker asked her what notes she liked. Apparently, he designed this aria around one of her favorites, the G on the top of the treble staff, and he even quipped that he was "a tailor, not a composer." At this matinee performance, one listener shouted "Brava," and I have to agree that the results were very good.

Roberta's pathetic scene at the end of the first act, when she nervously tells Clyde that she is "past her time" (keening at the top of her voice), is cluttered with dissonance, which is part of Picker's strategic use of atonal colors. The composer leaves no doubt that Clyde's promise, that he will marry her if she goes back home to her parents and waits for her, will not be kept and that the outcome of this story is not going to be happy. Patricia Racette had an intensely powerful sound in this broadcast, nearing a desperate shriek at those climactic points. We look forward to hearing her work with conductor Jiří Bělohlávek next season here in Washington, in David Alden's staging of Jenůfa.

Baritone Nathan Gunn sounded fine, but I understand from those who would know that his primary attraction is of a more visual nature. Mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick, as Clyde's mother, Elvira Griffiths, was a knockout. Their final series of scenes together, at the end of the second act, was terrific, with the young Clyde again. I found the ending unsatisfying, with young Clyde's reprised hymn trailing down to its final note and an orchestral unison, to which instruments are added in a menacing crescendo.

Alex Ross is right, in his article for The New Yorker about the Met's season and this opera in particular (Opera Hot, December 26/January 2), that we should measure the reaction of critics carefully because of the circumstances:

Unfortunately, [opera] premières are still so infrequent that crushing expectations attend them, and disappointment inevitably ensues when a new work fails to astound Diaghilev out of his grave. Picker’s “An American Tragedy,” which had its first performance on December 2nd and plays through December 28th, has had a predictably mixed reception. Opera fans have acclaimed its solid construction and singable lines; critics, by and large, have scoffed. After two viewings, I find myself siding with the fans. The opera is a fitfully inspired creation, wavering along the fine line between tragedy and turgidity, but, on a primal, Pucciniesque level, it hits the mark.

It is impossible to know how this work will be regarded after fifty years, and we should all be careful of making broad judgments on limited hearing (one technically imperfect radio broadcast in my case and two live hearings at the Met, in Alex's). Even so, that is what we are called to do. Previous examples are always helpful. I could listen to my recording of Barber's Vanessa -- a Met commission, premiered there in 1958 -- time and time again, and I wish that it were performed live much more often than it is. I got very angry last year when the Pulitzer Prize folks broadened the criteria of the music prize to include jazz and music theater. Not because I don't like jazz and music theater -- well, that is partially true of the latter -- but because I heard someone saying that Bernstein's West Side Story should have won the Pulitzer that year instead of Vanessa. The former is perfectly nice, but to my ears and mind, Vanessa is a vastly superior work. If any opera ever deserved a Pulitzer, it was that one. Music theater folks, don't worry, I'm fairly sure that West Side Story has made a lot more money and received more prizes, if no Pulitzer. It doesn't need the help of people trying to give it a retroactive Pulitzer.

Where am I going with all this? Will I listen to a recording of An American Tragedy? I don't know. I have to admit that another very successful Met commission, Ghosts of Versailles (1991), is also something I return to quite frequently. I have enjoyed that opera more and more each time that I have listened to it again. My initial feeling is that, by comparison to those two previous Met commissions, this is a weaker work. Just because critics are tough on An American Tragedy, after all, does not mean that they want the enterprise of American operatic premieres to fail. Alex's reservations about the music are all on the money, as usual, and he is not the only one to think that this new work is inferior to Picker's 1996 opera, Emmeline. It is a success just to get a new opera premiered, and to have audiences responds so enthusiastically is its own tribute.

Best of 2005: Addendum

I haven't listened to enough of this year's new recordings to be able to put together a Top 10 List of my own (here is Jens's Best of 2005). However, here are links to some of my thoughts on a few of this year's recordings:

	Cecilia Bartoli, Opera Proibita, with Les Musiciens du Louvre, Marc Minkowski (Decca 475 6924) -- Cecilia Bartoli's New Disc (October 6, 2005)
	Richard Strauss, Daphne, with Renée Fleming, WDR Orchestra Cologne, Semyon Bychkov (Decca 475 6926) -- Renée Fleming at the Kennedy Center (October 19, 2005): comments on CD mixed in with review of the live performance Jens adds, "Fleming's recording is a gift to Strauss lovers and will hopefully bring Fleming lovers into the former's fold, if they are not already. The record collector, however, is not likely to give up his Böhm/Wunderlich/Güden recording up so easily. But the fact that it took 41 years to come up with a recording that seriously scratches on the classic is an achievement."
	Gidon Kremer, Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by J. S. Bach (ECM New Series 1926) -- Bach's Unaccompanied Violin Bible (November 17, 2005)
	Trio Mediæval, Stella Maris (ECM New Series 1929)-- Trio Mediæval (CD review at bottom of the concert review, December 13, 2005)
	Andreas Scholl, Arias for Senesino (Decca 475 6569) -- Andreas Scholl Conjures Senesino (November 21, 2005)
	Osvaldo Golijov, Ayre, and Luciano Berio, Folk Songs, Dawn Upshaw (DG 00289 4775414) -- Stale Ayre (December 6, 2005) This CD was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Classical Contemporary Composition, not Best Classical Crossover Album, where it probably belongs. In my opinion, it cannot hold a candle to its main competition, William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and of Experience (Naxos), which I am still planning to review. Jens says that he is going to take a second (allegedly more positive) chance with Ayre when he reviews another non-classical classical record, the Asha Bosle/Kronos Quartet Bollywood collaboration "You've stolen my heart."
	Renée Fleming, Sacred Songs (Decca 477177) -- Voices from Heaven (via the Marketing Department): Sidebar Comments (September 19, 2005)

It's been quite a year of listening for us here at Ionarts. Judging by our little catalogue, we have published more concert reviews this calendar year than the previous year and a half combined. So it's very hard to cull our schedule of listening, between two critics, down to the ten best concerts Ionarts heard in Washington this year. Here's how it comes down, in chronological order:

1. Boris Godunov, Kirov Opera (January 22, 2005)
   
2. Evgeny Kissin at Strathmore (April 8, 2005)
   
3. Kremerata Baltica at Shriver Hall (May 3, 2005)
   
4. Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin at Library of Congress (May 14, 2005)
   
5. BSO, Fazil Say (September 23, 2005)
   
6. Nikolaj Znaider with National Symphony Orchestra (October 7, 2005)
   
7. Strauss's Daphne, with Renée Fleming (October 20, 2005)
   
8. Cecilia Bartoli at the Kennedy Center (October 28, 2005)
   
9. Mitsuko Uchida at Strathmore (November 18, 2005)
   
10. Trio Mediæval at the Kennedy Center (December 13, 2005)

The Joys of “Christmas Music”

For us at Ionarts, Christmas season is a little like being shipwrecked on the ocean. Three days without attending a concert is akin to having gone so long without water. Not that concerts are not abound – but they are all Christmas-themed and just like the shipwrecked knows he has to resist drinking salt water, so we, too, should know better.

Christmas with the Choral Arts Society, N. Scribner

But I was weak. With just a little friendly encouragement I was no longer able to fight the urge to go to hear some live music and hurled myself headlong into the Choral Arts Society of Washington’s Christmas Music concert at the Kennedy Center. These kinds of concerts are actually more of a challenge to review than an NSO or Royal Concertgebouw concert, because the audience, their expectations, and indeed the entire purpose of the “Christmas concert” is a very different one. To write about the latter as if that difference did not exist or matter would be useless and silly, if perhaps temporarily amusing. But then again, “ChASo” is also a very professional musical institution and deserves to be held to the highest standards of performance, ‘even’ in a Christmas concert. In order to strike a fair balance between assessing the performance for what it was supposed to be (and not to indict it on that very account) and to accept what the audience likely expected to get – instead of measuring it against an abstract and absolute standard of musical craftsmanship – it helps to have a certain amount of detachment to the goings-on on stage.

The processional with tambourine is therefore safe from my personal indignation, and children crying or a toddler’s attempt to sing a phrase that caught its fancy put a smile on my face rather than eliciting an exacerbated scoff. A wonderful O Magnum Mysterium – Gabrieli – even suggested delight waiting in the wings! But that winner was followed by a succession of less successful adventures. Washington composers and ChASo-members John Pickard and Richard Wayne Dirksen were presented to the audience with a vocal work of their own making each.

Pickard’s, set to a text of his own, took everything I don’t like about British choral writing (and none of what makes it bearable), everything that makes American “Rutter-ite” choral music sound insipid and emasculated (to my ears, at least) and then proceeded to throw in a saccharine dose of über-wholesome middle-Americana ‘we-love-Jesus’ spirit into the ghastly mix. Its crime was not even that it was outrageously bad but that it didn’t even have the guts to be bad. It was evasivley mediocre, which is even worse. One exquisite choral turn of a phrase where a second of Brucknerish gravitas interrupted the musical meaninglessness did not salvage “Beneath the Stars” for me. Even the audience, though duly applauding, doggedly resisted a standing ovation for the present composer.

Written for unaccompanied chorus and setting a fifteenth-century carol, Mr. Dirksen’s contribution was far better and failed to take off completely only because the choir’s higher registers couldn’t sing, much less sustain, a decent piano/pianissimo. Instead of ‘subtle’ they made the music sound wimpy. Followed “Noël Nouvelet” with gorgeous soprano Arianna Zukerman. For a while I thought I was just not familiar enough with historical performance practices of medieval French song, but it emerged quickly that it was just not sung well by Ms. Zukerman – and mostly straight into her score rather than the Concert Hall at that.

But it all would have been ignored and forgiven for a great -- nay, even a good -- performance of the Bach cantata Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen. Normally I would overlook the petty fact that the cantata was misspelled on every occasion by an overzealous Umlaut-user (“Jauchzet Gott in allen Länden” is not only wrong but is homophonic to “Praise God in all loins” which, I believe, would be one of Bach's more secular cantatas) – but it serves so well as an example how there were things wrong with every single aspect of the cantata’s performance. The difficult trumpet part sounded, well… difficult, and Ms. Zukerman overwhelmed and underrehearsed, just like all her instrumental colleagues. Her voice was best when inaudible in a venue and work that were evidently a size or two too big for her. Perhaps the standards are different with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra or the Chattanooga Symphony or the Jackson Symphony (I am not being an ass – those are actually the highlights on her bio. OK, so I am being an ass – but I am still only quoting from the “Meet the Artist” notes), but they shouldn’t be, or at least shouldn’t be imported to Washington. Anyway, the complete mess that conductor and ChASo-founder Norman Scribner made of the Bach was a sad example of shoddy musical standards, indeed; completely unbecoming of such revered institutions as Scribner himself and his group.

The first half of the program ended with a world premiere of James Grant’s Eja! Eja!. I quote the composer from the program notes:

In the summer of 2004, Norman Scribner commissioned me to compose a “multi-purpose” work for the Choral Arts Society’s 2005 Christmas Music concert. The commission was requested for several reasons: one, to celebrate the Choral Arts Society’s Fortieth Anniversary Season; two, to honor the retirement of Fred Begun, principal timpanist with the National Symphony Orchestra and longtime friend and timpanist with the Choral Arts Society Orchestra; and three, to make full-throttled use of the Choral Arts Society’s 200 voices in a joyful Christmas romp for timpany, soprano solo, chorus, and orchestra.

He managed to fulfill all purposes. It was a romp, it was a fun work for the audience and the timpanist, and Ms. Zukerman sang much better than in the Bach. The whole thing sounded like the soundtrack to “Return of the Jedi – Christmas Edition,” but that might put it into direct neighborhood with the Korngold Violin Concerto and there is nothing wrong with that.

The second half was dedicated to celebrating sacred rhythms. It started with three parts (of a total six) of Ariel Ramírez's Navidad Nuestra, which is also included on a new disc by the Choral Arts Society (coupled with Ramírez’s Misa Criolla and the Congolese Missa Luba by Father Guida Haazen) distributed by Naxos sometime in the next few months. I vaguely remember a Jose Carreras recording. During the first part, La Anunciación, I also remembered a few East Village Mexican Restaurants (although Ramírez, it must be said, is an Argentine) where the jukebox played hits from the 70s and 80s. It is of dubious musical worth but has an undeniable fun-factor. That is, if the idea – in Los Reyes Magos – of the three wise men wearing bombachas and ponchos is alright with you. Manuel J. Meléndez, José Sacin, and Pablo Talamante were the three tenors. The Gloria from the Misa Criolla was more pleasing, still; cut from the same catchy musical cloth.

“Carols for all” was the order for the rest of the concert, including the sing-along favorites “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” “Silent Night” (with an amusing language lesson added as the second strophe was to be sung in Portuguese), and “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.” Peter Yarrow’s “Light One Candle” along the way sounded rather awful, but this time Ms. Zukerman cannot be blamed because she remained completely inaudible. The inevitable Bach/Gounod Ave Maria exemplified the constant struggle between the soprano and the music, culminating in two last notes that she probably wishes she had let out with less of a shriek. Other than that, things rolled out nicely and the crowd enjoyed itself, especially the two kids next to me who played hand-held video games all along. As I left the Concert Hall, Ms. Zukerman engaged with “I wonder as I wander,” which seemed apt.

Monte Christi Symphony

Ionarts correspondent Mark Barry continues his holiday visit to the Dominican Republic.

1:45 am. After 4 hours of sound sleep we are awakened by the sharp, shrill call of a very large rooster. Then the mournful wail of a dog, followed by a tribe of neighborhood dogs. The chorus grows, joined from many directions. From what was one, now there are hundreds of dogs howling, whimpering, and wailing. Aside from an occasional rooster, the dog lament will continue for hours. Throughout, the faint rhythm of crickets ties this organic composition together.

4 am. A moped sputters and starts, then slowly drives away; a rooster responds loudly. Then it’s quiet. Once again, from under my window a loud burst of rooster. From the distance many roosterian replies. Over the next hour this will grow to literally thousands of birds throughout the town calling, wailing, calling; the distant meld sounds like human moaning.

By 6 am, more mopeds start, toilets flush, voices call out; a magnificent sunrise appears over the ocean. Birds begin their own routine, chirping along with baaa-ing goats and an occasional pig grunt. Buenos días!

Meme of Four, As Seen Everywhere

We at Ionarts sometimes are not sure that what we are running here is a blog. As a result, memes are not part of our day-to-day content, but what the hell, here it goes, as suggested by OGIC at About Last Night, the Meme of Four. Please pass this along, which is what you do with memes. So they tell me.

Four jobs you've had in your life:

1. Research Assistant (solitary bee research project in northern Michigan)
   
2. Chant Database Indexer (Project CANTUS)
   
3. Copy Editor (microbiology journals)
   
4. Music Historian/Teacher

Four movies you could watch over and over:

1. The Exorcist
   
2. Heathers
   
3. The Empire Strikes Back
   
4. Swingers

Four places you've lived:

1. Jackson, Michigan
   
2. Crystal Falls, Michigan ("Da Yoop")
   
3. Méricourt, France
   
4. Washington, D.C.

Four TV shows you love to watch:

1. Futurama
   
2. Family Guy
   
3. Cops
   
4. The McLaughlin Group ("Wrong! Bye-BYE!")

Four places you've been on vacation:

1. Sanibel Island, Florida
   
2. Los Alamos, New Mexico
   
3. Stockholm, Sweden
   
4. Paris, France (my second home)

Four Web sites you visit daily:

1. Le Figaro
   
2. DCist
   
3. Le Monde
   
4. Boing Boing

Four of your favorite foods:

1. Frittata
   
2. Roquefort
   
3. Oysters
   
4. Crabcake

Four places you'd rather be:

1. Paris
   
2. Rome
   
3. Montréal
   
4. Michigan

Baroque Christmas with the Folger Consort

Christmas Concerts at Ionarts: Master Chorale, Candlelight Christmas Concert (December 22) Suspicious Cheese Lords, National Gallery (December 20) Family Christmas Concert, Choral Arts Society (December 20) Opera Lafayette, La Maison Française (December 19) Vienna Choir Boys, Strathmore (December 17) Messiah, National Symphony and Washington Chorus (December 16) Trio Mediæval, Kennedy Center (December 13)

Among the many worthwhile activities of the Folger Shakespeare Library here on Capitol Hill are the concerts given by the early music group of the Folger Consort. After their October concert, dedicated to the music of Heinrich Isaac and Josquin Desprez, the group continued this month with its next concert devoted to a pair of composers, Corelli and Charpentier. This theme worked very nicely with the timing of the concert in the Christmas season, and the program turned out to be one of the more interesting and beautiful Christmas concerts in Washington this year, and I have heard many of them, if not nearly all (Deo gratias).

Marc-Antoine Charpentier held his own quite well when paired with an earlier Italian composer -- Claudio Monteverdi, a composer whom I regard as the Beethoven of his age -- on Opera Lafayette's holiday concert last weekend (Opera Lafayette at La Maison Française, December 19). I am also an avid fan of the music of Arcangelo Corelli, if not to the same degree as Monteverdi, and this was a much more even match for Charpentier, but I still prefer not to have to make the choice between the two.

From Corelli, we heard two concerti grossi from his opus 6 collection, with a favoriti group of guest violinists Tim Haig and Risa Browder and cellist John Moran. The first of these concerti, which opened the concert, was troubled by intonation problems, most noticeably in the bass line. These were mostly ironed out by the end of the first half, the eighth concerto, the famous one "fatto per la notte de natale" (made for Christmas Eve). In both pieces, the lead violin playing of Tim Haig stood out for its accuracy, flair (in ornamentation, especially), and beauty. By contrast, in the fastest passages, the playing of cellist John Moran occasionally had a labored quality.

More on the Folger Consort: Joan Reinthaler, Folger Consort (Washington Post, December 19) Folger Consort, Isaac and Josquin (Ionarts, October 8)

Charpentier also wrote excellent instrumental music, but this program gave us only the suite of his arrangements of noëls, French Christmas carols, edited by renowned French Baroque specialist H. Wiley Hitchcock. These noël suites were actually quite common in Baroque France, and they point out the melocentric nature of French music. To this day, I think that the average French person would be able to sing many more traditional melodies than the average American person. At least some of these tunes that are still widely known go back to the Baroque period and beyond. One of the noëls set by Charpentier is Laissez paître vos bêtes, dating from at least as early as the 16th century. You may know it set to the words "Venez, divin Messie," or in English as in the Catholic hymnal, "O come, divine Messiah." It was a nice touch that the Folger Consort also performed four of the noëls arranged by Charpentier in the vocal form collected by publisher Christophe Ballard, as sung by the ever-present Rosa Lamoreaux.

There were also four vocal pieces on the program, beginning with excerpts from Charpentier's pastorale Sur la naissance de notre Seigneur Jésus Christ, H. 482. This performance showed Charpentier at his best, that is, as a dramatic composer, creating scenic chains like the madrigal series of late Monteverdi. Lamoreaux's ecstatic statements as the Christmas angel, in the air Nolite timere, pastores, were followed by the joyful Marche, an instrumental processional to accompany the shepherds to the manger. This was followed by the stately Salve puerile, the tender words of the shepherds greeting the baby on the straw.

Pieces by Giacomo Carissimi, Domenico Mazzocchi, and Antonia Bembo rounded out the program with some other styles. Rosa Lamoreaux, who is always a delight to hear and watch, mastered them all. Especially in Mazzocchi's A travestirsi, a sort of extended recitative with extensive runs and ornaments, the continuo playing of Webb Wiggins -- formerly of Baltimore, now of Oberlin -- stood out as sensitive, well timed, and tastefully realized. Bembo's solo cantata spirituale, Per il Natale: In braccio di Maria, opened up a rather interesting, particular feminine perspective on the life of the Virgin Mary. Its Italian text reads like the wanderings of Mary's mind as her newborn son lies in her arms, as she contemplates her own greatness and immediately banishes such thoughts as "vainglory." This performance was well executed -- with a few minor reservations -- and a true pleasure to hear, especially after so many much less daring Christmas concerts.

Dominican Christmas

Ever expanding, Ionarts has opened an outpost in the Dominican Republic, to search for signs of music and art and a few good ball players, for the Ionarts semi-pro team. We needed to diversify our portfolio.

We began our journey to the the Dominican Republic with a fight from Baltimore to Miami. Landing in Miami, we noticed a lot of commotion on the runway, which turned out to be the tragic crash of a commuter plane from the Bahamas. After a short stop, we changed planes and continued on to Santiago, DR., arriving at 9:30 pm.

The next morning we rented a car and headed North to Monte Cristi, to visit new friends and volunteer at an orphanage. The orphanage is presently home to nine children, ages 5 to 18. Most come as small children and stay through their teens, hopefully going on to college. It’s an oasis from a rough beginning.

A short 20-minute drive west, through craters and cows, is the town of Dajabon, which borders Haiti. Every Friday and Monday the bridge from Haiti into the Dominican is opened to allow Haitians to shop in the open-air market here for 4 hours only. Thousands cross the bridge or wade through the river to shop, barter, beg, and steal. After the 4-hour time limit they must return, by force if necessary. This was not a market day, so just imagine the sight. It’s a very sad sight that people so close to the U.S. live in such despair.

On the outskirts of Monte Christi is a National Park, with a deserted beach below a beautiful rocky cliff. Here I got some painting in. I really enjoy the contrast of the sea and land, especially a rocky coast. This reminded me of Monet.