Oundjian with the BSO

Tenor Nicholas Phan

Anton Bruckner's setting of the Te Deum, premiered in 1886, needs an ally at the podium to help it win over listeners. The composer's friend and biographer, August Göllerich, recounted a famous anecdote about attending a pretty awful performance of Berlioz's operatic setting of the Te Deum in Vienna with Bruckner. After leaving the performance, in a secular concert hall, Bruckner reportedly shared his thoughts about the work, with his strongest criticism being that the work was "not very ecclesiastical." Not that Bruckner's Masses and the Te Deum do not have their more operatic moments, but Bruckner's approach to sacred music was, by contrast, extremely ecclesiastical. As scholar Paul Hackshaw has put it, Bruckner was "the most important composer since Johann Sebastian Bach to spend almost his entire professional life in the employ of the church," beginning as a choir boy with the Augustinian monks at the Stift Sankt Florian. He published the Te Deum with the Bach-like inscription "Omnia ad maiorem dei gloria," and the work ends with a monumental fugue, a tour de force that is one of the most important contrapuntal achievements of the 19th century, not a particularly contrapuntal age.

Which is all a way of saying that Bruckner's Te Deum can be a bore, leading many conductors to juice up the tempos, exaggerate the tone of declamation from liturgical to hysteric. Such was the approach of guest conductor Peter Oundjian, last heard in the area when he led the National Symphony Orchestra in 2005 (we missed his 2009 appearance in Baltimore), when he led the work, in its first-ever performance by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, at Meyerhoff Hall on Thursday night. A rather fast tempo in the opening was hard to accept as "Feierlich" (solemn), although the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, standing in mixed formation in the chorister seats above the stage, gave the work plenty of "Kraft" (strength). A good thing, since the piece is mostly a choral show, and they sang it with force and beauty, down (up) to the high C in the sopranos on the final chord. The fugue -- with subtle irony, Bruckner composed rather complicated counterpoint for the concluding lines, repeated several times, "O Lord, I have hoped in you, let me never be confounded" -- made up for the rushed feeling in other places, grand and with an eye on eternity.

Part of the problem was that the Te Deum, rushed through in just slightly over twenty minutes, served as a sort of overture to the main course, yet another performance of Beethoven's ninth symphony. The BSO last performed the piece only in 2009, but it will almost always sell out a hall, so it is hard to resist over-programming it -- and equally hard to make a performance distinctive. Oundjian actually did that in some ways, applying the same sort of insistence as he had in the Bruckner, keeping the tempo of the first three movements on the fast side (the scherzo's trio was a delightful romp), so much so that concertmaster Jonathan Carney had some vigorous head-nodding to do to keep the violins on track with Oundjian at the opening of the slow movement. Oundjian, a violinist by training (formerly a member of the Tokyo Quartet), kept the strings in the background at many points, allowing the woodwind parts, often working over themes in motivic bits, to percolate to the top of the texture (one noticeable gaffe, somewhere in the winds, marred the central section of the third movement).

Other Reviews: Robert Battey, BSO’s Ninth Symphony not perfect, but it still stirs the blood (Washington Post, May 28) Tim Smith, Peter Oundjian leads Baltimore Symphony, Choral Arts in Beethoven, Bruckner (Baltimore Sun, May 25)

The famous choral finale was just as urgent, with the cellos and basses almost frenetic in their recitative section, until the introduction of the new theme, which was ruminative and slow, picking up triumphantly in tempo when the brass took it up. The janissary section was a tangy, sharp-footed march, punctuated by the robust blaat of the contrabassoon. In a beautiful effect, the chorus sang some sections of the piece from memory, and it is hard to overstate the emotional impact of all of those faces looking out at you instead of at their scores as they belt out Schiller's ecstatic poetry. Oundjian had a mixed bag of soloists for both pieces, with bass Morris Robinson like a growling linebacker and tenor Nicholas Phan doing a bang-up job filling in for an indisposed Brandon Jovanovich -- the tenor has a fairly central part in both the Bruckner and the Beethoven, and Phan is to be commended for taking on that heavy responsibility, his achievement being more on the side of subtle beauty than that of heroic strength. The female half of the quartet, especially soprano Joyce El-Khoury in a disappointing BSO debut, was mostly evanescent and overwhelmed by the mass of sound from the rest of the stage.

This concert will be repeated tonight and Saturday night (May 25 and 26), at the Meyerhoff and Strathmore, respectively.

Bach, Death, and Antihistamines

Notes from the 2012 Dresden Music Festival ( 4 )

I am in beautiful Dresden – birthplace of magnetic tape – for the annual three-week Music Festival that has taken place since 1978. After Mozart-delight, Bach-despair, and Malkovichean divertissement, it was time for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Ian Bostridge to showcase Bach in Dresden’s bombed-out and privately [!], recently re-built Frauenkirche.

The splendor of the ornately catholic-looking Frauenkirche is almost too neat, too clean, to develop all its potentially astonishing effect. There is a hint of artificiality about it in our minds, because the aesthetic of the new is incongruent with our expectations of the historic. Habit has turned the ravages of time, historical wear and tear, an essential, rather than incidental element of anything historic. Not unlike we believe, despite knowing better, that both World Wars were fought in black and white, and how it just feels right that Greek statues appear elegantly white, hewn of pure marble – rather than in their original garish colors.

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Classical Month in Washington (June)

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Classical Month in Washington is a monthly feature. If there are concerts you would like to see included on our schedule, send your suggestions by e-mail (ionarts at gmail dot com). Happy listening!

June 1, 2012 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Delibes, Coppélia
Bolshoi Ballet
Kennedy Center Opera House

June 1, 2012 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Narek Arutyunian (clarinet) and Mariko Furukawa (piano)
Embassy Series
Embassy of Armenia

June 1, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
Music by Strauss, Beethoven
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

June 1, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
With Jonathan Biss (piano), Günther Herbig (conductor)
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

June 2, 2012 (Sat)
1:30 and 7:30 pm
Delibes, Coppélia
Bolshoi Ballet
Kennedy Center Opera House

June 2, 2012 (Sat)
7:30 pm
Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra
Church of the Epiphany

June 2, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
Music by Strauss, Beethoven
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

June 2, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
With Jonathan Biss (piano), Günther Herbig (conductor)
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

June 2, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
Deviant Septet
Atlas Center

June 2, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
Barbara Hollinshead (mezzo-soprano) and Howard Bass (lute)
Washington Early Music Festival
St. Paul's, K Street

June 3, 2012 (Sun)
1:30 pm
Delibes, Coppélia
Bolshoi Ballet
Kennedy Center Opera House

June 3, 2012 (Sun)
2 pm
Kennedy Center Chamber Players
Music by Mozart, Boccherini, Paganini
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

June 3, 2012 (Sun)
3 pm
The Ladyes Delight
Baltimore Consort
Washington Early Music Festival
Cathedral of St. Matthew

June 3, 2012 (Sun)
3 pm
Flute Extravaganza
Benefit for Eclipse Chamber Orchestra
Private home (McLean, Va.)

June 3, 2012 (Sun)
4 pm
Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra
Church of the Epiphany

June 3, 2012 (Sun)
4 pm
Amadeus Concerts
Saint Luke Catholic Church (McLean, Va.)

June 3, 2012 (Sun)
6 pm
Countertop Ensemble
Holy Spirit Catholic Church (Annandale, Va.)

June 3, 2012 (Sun)
6:30 pm
JACK Quartet [FREE]
National Gallery of Art

June 6, 2012 (Wed)
12:10 pm
Weston Sprott (trombone) and Michael Lodico (organ) [FREE]
St. John's, Lafayette Square

June 7, 2012 (Thu)
9:30 am
National Orchestral Institute [FREE]
Open rehearsal with Alan Gilbert
Clarice Smith Center

June 7, 2012 (Thu)
7 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
Music by Berlioz, Lalo, Tchaikovsky
With Claudio Bohórquez, cello
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

June 7, 2012 (Thu)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
With Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

June 7, 2012 (Thu)
8 pm
NOI Faculty Chamber Music Concert [FREE]
Clarice Smith Center

June 7, 2012 (Thu)
8 pm
L'Arabesque Baroque
Washington Early Music Festival
Cathedral of St. Matthew

June 8, 2012 (Fri)
7 pm
NOI Chamber Music Showcase [FREE]
Clarice Smith Center

June 8, 2012 (Fri)
7:30 pm
June Chamber Festival
American Chamber Players
Kreeger Museum

June 8, 2012 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Yevgeny Kutik (violin) and Timothy Bozarth (piano)
Embassy Series
Embassy of Luxembourg

June 8, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
Music by Berlioz, Lalo, Tchaikovsky
With Claudio Bohórquez, cello
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

June 8, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
With Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

June 8, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
Harmonious Blacksmith
Washington Early Music Festival
St. George's Episcopal Church

June 9, 2012 (Sat)
1 pm
The General (film screening) [FREE]
With live music by Hesperus
Smithsonian American Art Museum

June 9, 2012 (Sat)
3 pm
The Wind (film screening with live music)
World premiere of score by Andrew Earle Simpson
Cantate Chamber Singers
American Film Institute (Silver Spring, Md.)

June 9, 2012 (Sat)
7:30 pm
18th Street Singers
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

June 9, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
NOI Chamber Orchestra
Clarice Smith Center

June 9, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
Music by Berlioz, Lalo, Tchaikovsky
With Claudio Bohórquez, cello
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

June 9, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
With Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Music Center at Strathmore

June 9, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
Mozart, Idomeneo
In Series
Atlas Center

June 9, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
Les Inegales
Washington Early Music Festival
St. George's Episcopal Church

June 10, 2012 (Sun)
2 pm
Washington International Competition for Strings
Friday Morning Music Club Foundation
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

June 10, 2012 (Sun)
3 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
With Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

June 10, 2012 (Sun)
3 pm
American Century Music [FREE]
Music by Ruth Crawford Seeger, others
Smithsonian American Art Museum

June 10, 2012 (Sun)
3 pm
Mozart, Idomeneo
In Series
Atlas Center

June 10, 2012 (Sun)
3:30 pm
Ronn McFarlane, lute
Washington Early Music Festival
St. Mark's Episcopal Church

June 10, 2012 (Sun)
6:30 pm
Rosa Lamoreaux (soprano) and William Sharp (baritone) [FREE]
National Gallery of Art

June 10, 2012 (Sun)
7:30 pm
Vivaldi Project
Washington Early Music Festival
St. George's Episcopal Church

June 12, 2012 (Tue)
7:30 pm
June Chamber Festival
American Chamber Players
Kreeger Museum

June 13, 2012 (Wed)
7:30 pm
Choral Arts Society
Tribute to Norman Scribner
Washington National Cathedral

June 14, 2012 (Thu)
7 pm
NOI Chamber Music Showcase [FREE]
Clarice Smith Center

June 15, 2012 (Fri)
9:30 am
NOI Orchestra [FREE]
Open rehearsal with Leonard Slatkin
Clarice Smith Center

June 15, 2012 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Bizet, Carmen
Opera Bel Cantanti
Catholic University

June 15, 2012 (Fri)
7:30 pm
June Chamber Festival
American Chamber Players
Kreeger Museum

June 15, 2012 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Michael Mizrahi, piano
Mansion at Strathmore

June 15, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
Carmina
Washington Early Music Festival
St. Peter's, Capitol Hill

June 16, 2012 (Sat)
3 and 7:30 pm
Bizet, Carmen
Opera Bel Cantanti
Catholic University

June 16, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
NOI Orchestra
With Leonard Slatkin
Clarice Smith Center

June 16, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
Mozart, Idomeneo
In Series
Atlas Center

June 16, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
Wayward Sisters
Washington Early Music Festival
St. Peter's, Capitol Hill

June 17, 2012 (Sun)
3 and 7:30 pm
Bizet, Carmen
Opera Bel Cantanti
Catholic University

June 17, 2012 (Sun)
3 pm
Calidore String Quartet
Candlelight Concert Society
Howard Community College (Columbia, Md.)

June 17, 2012 (Sun)
3 pm
Mozart, Idomeneo
In Series
Atlas Center

June 17, 2012 (Sun)
6:30 pm
Ignasi Terraza and Trio (Jazz) [FREE]
National Gallery of Art

June 17, 2012 (Sun)
7 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Glass, Overture for 2012 (world premiere)
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

June 17, 2012 (Sun)
7:30 pm
Ensemble Gaudior
Washington Early Music Festival
St. Peter's, Capitol Hill

June 18, 2012 (Mon)
7:30 pm
Hilary Hahn (violin) and Hauschka (toy piano)
Birchmere (Alexandria, Va.)

June 19, 2012 (Tue)
7:30 pm
Friends of Fasch
Washington Early Music Festival
All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church

June 22, 2012 (Fri)
9:30 am
NOI Open Rehearsal [FREE]
With Daniel Hege, conductor
Clarice Smith Center

June 22, 2012 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Castleton Festival: Opening Concert
With Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano
Castleton Festival (Castleton, Va.)

June 22, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
Summer Gala: A Night in Vienna
Austrian Cultural Forum
Embassy of Austria

June 22, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
La Pucelle: Celebrating Joan of Arc
Suspicious Cheese Lords
Washington Early Music Festival
St. Mark's Episcopal Church

June 23, 2012 (Sat)
7 pm
Rossini, Barber of Seville
Castleton Festival (Castleton Va.)

June 23, 2012 (Sat)
7:30 pm
Washington Chorus
Paola Prestini, Oceanic Verses (folk opera)
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

June 23, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
NOI Orchestra
With Daniel Hege, conductor
Clarice Smith Center

June 23, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
Armonia Nova
Washington Early Music Festival
St. Mark's Episcopal Church

June 24, 2012 (Sun)
2 pm
Castleton Festival Orchestra
Music by Flügelman, Mahler (with Inbal Segev, cello)
Castleton Festival (Castleton, Va.)

June 24, 2012 (Sun)
3 pm
NOI Orchestra [FREE]
Prokofiev, Peter and the Wolf
Clarice Smith Center

June 24, 2012 (Sun)
4 and 6:30 pm
Leslie Amper, piano [FREE]
National Gallery of Art

June 24, 2012 (Sun)
7:30 pm
Le Tendre Amour
Washington Early Music Festival
St. Mark's Episcopal Church

June 27, 2012 (Wed)
8 pm
Stefanie Irànyi (mezzo-soprano) and Asher Fisch (piano) [FREE]
Mahler songs
Clarice Smith Center

June 27, 2012 (Wed)
8 pm
Atsuko Watanabe (harpsichord) and Keith Reas (organ)
Washington Early Music Festival
St. Mark's Episcopal Church

June 28, 2012 (Thu)
6:30 pm
Vocal Colors
Wolf Trap Opera Company
Phillips Collection

June 28, 2012 (Thu)
8 pm
NOI New Lights [FREE]
Clarice Smith Center

June 28, 2012 (Thu)
8 pm
Modern Musick
Washington Early Music Festival
St. Mark's Episcopal Church

June 29, 2012 (Fri)
9:30 am
NOI Orchestra [FREE]
Open rehearsal with Asher Fisch
Clarice Smith Center

June 29, 2012 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Rossini, Barber of Seville
Castleton Festival (Castleton Va.)

June 29, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
Gilbert and Sullivan, The Pirates of Penzance
New York G&S Players
Filene Center, Wolf Trap

June 29, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
Mozart, Don Giovanni
Wolf Trap Opera
Barns at Wolf Trap

June 29, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
Arco Voce
Washington Early Music Festival
St. Mark's Episcopal Church

June 30, 2012 (Sat)
7 pm
Bizet, Carmen
Castleton Festival (Castleton, Va.)

June 30, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
NOI Orchestra
Mahler, Symphony No. 3
With Stefanie Irànyi (mezzo-soprano), Asher Fisch (conductor)
Clarice Smith Center

June 30, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
Gilbert and Sullivan, The Pirates of Penzance
New York G&S Players
Filene Center, Wolf Trap

June 30, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
The Hunchback (film screening with live music)
Medieval music by Hesperus
Washington Early Music Festival
St. Mark's, Capitol Hill

Sex, Lies, and Mozart Arias

Notes from the 2012 Dresden Music Festival ( 3 )

I am in beautiful Dresden – birthplace of milk chocolate – for the annual three-week Music Festival that has taken place since 1978. After Mozart-delight and Bach-despair, it was time for something completely different:

The Infernal Comedy, Malkovich, Haselböck et al. ArtHaus DVD The Giacomo Variations, Malkovich, Haselböck et al. ArtHaus DVD

John Malkovich is Jack Unterweger, innocent mass murderer, world famous in Austria [sic], back from the dead, and on a publicity tour for his tell-all-or-does-it biography. But John Malkovich is also being John Malkovich (pun hard to avoid), capricious actor, on tour with a Viennese baroque orchestra performing the morbid musical comedy “The Infernal Comedy”. For a while there is a deliberate ambivalence between the characters, which contributes to the hard-to-pin-down quality of the show. Whether that’s good or bad would depend on how keen the viewer is on pinning things down hard. Jack Unterweger, with about a dozen sexually assaulted murder-victims to his name, would presumably have been all for pinning down. Creator and director Michael Sturminger, co-creator and conductor Martin Haselböck, and the pivotal Malkovich less so apparently, or else they wouldn’t have brought something on stage (and toured with it for four years) that leaves half the audience wondering what they had just witnessed.

Is “The Infernal Comedy” a play with applied music? Is the music integral or incidental? Do they demand each other; does one improve the other hierarchically (like whisky improving a cigar, but a cigar not improving whisky), or is it arranged for mutual benefit? Is it a dubiously efficient ploy to get people into the theater and listen to beautiful but obscure (and a few famous) classical and baroque arias that interactively alter with the ‘chapters’ of Malkovich-Unterweger’s story? “Sposa son disprezzata” (Vivaldi, Ottone in Villa) “Berenice, che fai” (from Haydn’s dramatic cantata Scena di Berenice), Carl Maria von Weber’s patchwork aria for an Étienne Méhul opera, “Ah, se Edmundo fosse l’uccisor” are all magnificent to hear, and Martene Grimson—one of the two sopranos that are part of the play—was delectable in Vivaldi and Weber and Beethoven’s “Ah perfido!”. Sophie Klußmann, substituting for the other soprano of the cast, managed her vocal and scenic duties admirably, too – whether she was being strangled, molested by Malkovich’s lusty-disturbed Unterweger, or singing Gluck and Mozart. The scraggy, committed Vienna Academy Orchestra was a delight, buzzing through the music with a transparency that brought out voices within the music that are all too often hidden by smooth homophony.

Amid this, Malkovich (who has done several projects that combine classical music and theater since the inception of this production) went through concentric circles of contrivance with a Pepé Le Pew routine in pseudo-Austrian accent (strategic mispronunciations alternating with eloquent runs of idiomatic American) and the slight difference that he didn’t just want to smooch his Penelope, but strangle her with her own brassiere. (A tragic end for any pussy.) Are we not entertained? Most of the audience seemed sufficiently engrossed with these “confessions of a serial killer”: drawn in by the enigmatic presence of Malkovich’s creepy predator and entertained by terrific music.

Picture of John Malkovich courtesy Dresden Music Festival, © Stephan Floss

Notes from the 2012 Dresden Music Festival ( 2 )

I am in beautiful Dresden – birthplace of the toothpaste – for the annual three-week Music Festival that has taken place since 1978. After Kristian Bezuidenhout’s very attractive Mozart recital on my first night here, I was headed for another concert that had all the makings of an absolute highlight: an all Bach recital on the historic Silbermann organ in Dresden’s Katholische Hofkirche, the Catholic Church of the Royal Court of Saxony that the catholic ruler had built, to achieve ecclesiastic balance as the protestant townspeople put their efforts into building the Frauenkirche.

I’m highly susceptible to all-Bach in a church, and when I heard Pieter van Dijk in the Oslo Cathedral earlier this year, it was all quiet ecstasy and elation. With the historic instrument in the back and the church’s white walls cast in the evening sun’s friendly warm light, the ears were perked and the tear ducts prepared. What a shame then that Martin Haselböck’s recital merited only tears of anguish, and perhaps worry for the instrument¹. Haphazard and inept, the program seemed like an hour-long meditation on the sufferings of innocent Johann Sebastian Bach, played at speeds considerably faster than Haselböck’s fingers, and with the music well ahead of the rhythm throughout.

J.S.Bach, Organ Works, performed on Silbermann Organs Berlin Classics

The apocryphal but too-famous-not-to-be-by-Bach Toccata & Fugue in d-minor BWV 556 ran away as soon as it started, never to be caught up with again. The fugue was, as almost everything else in this recital, a bloody mess with no chance whatsoever for Bach’s invariably compelling rhythmic force to strike. The six Schübler Chorales (BWV 645-650) were devoid of any spiritual element whatsoever, just a race to the finish and so bungled along the way that during “Kommst du nun, Jesu” it sounded as though a long defunct part of the organ got in a tangle and played bits back, with a ten second delay and a tone much like the croaking hoot of a dented fire truck. A gentleman with an increasingly worried look next to me inquired under his breath whether the noise came from the instrument. One was afraid, that yes, it did. It was, in a way, like involuntarily witnessing the slow implosion of instrument, or performer, or Bach, or all three. There is little point in pointing out brief moments of respite and competence during the Adagio-Grave of the C-major Toccata (BWV 564), which lasted for half a minute before Haselböck tripped himself up again – much like he did in the very briefly promising beginning of the Partite diverse sopra il Corale, “Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig” (BWV 768). If Haselböck had only just pressed the requisite notes down all at once, the concert would have been considerably more efficient, mercifully shorter, and frankly not much worse.

Gottfried Silbermann died 259 years ago whilst working on his organ at the Hofkirche. In a way he was dying all over again, last night.

¹ That particular worry proved unfounded; the next day the church’s regular organist produced a beautiful mid-day recital of Bach & beyond, open to all.

All photos author's own

Goldoni at STC

Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793) had an important influence on the history of comic opera, transferring the broad humor he adapted from the commedia dell'arte tradition to the opera buffa librettos he wrote for Galuppi, Piccinni, Haydn, and others. In his colorful Memoirs, Goldoni wrote about how, in 1743, an offer from Sacchi -- Antonio Sacco, a celebrated Truffaldino in the commedia improvisational style -- led to the creation of Arlecchino servitore di due padroni (The Servant of Two Masters, trans. Edward J. Dent). His initial sketches for the play left many of the scenarios for Sacchi and his players to improvise, the fruits of which Goldoni apparently incorporated into the completed form of the play, published a few years later. The production now showing at the Shakespeare Theater Company, seen on Sunday night, attempts to go back to that rough, physical form of humor -- the masks, traditional costumes (Harlequin and others), improvisation, slapstick (although without an actual batacchio, or slap stick), wisecracking servants (zanni) -- that gave us a whole vocabulary of comedy.

The text was adapted by Constance Congdon, from the English translation by Christina Sibul, revised by Congdon for the 2010 production at Yale Repertory Theater revived here. The staging is directed by Christopher Bayes, who teaches physical acting at Yale, and it crackles with energy that is as much physical -- foot stomps, dances, gags -- as it is verbal. While most of the text is kept -- including, happily, the Latin jokes inserted by the pompous Dottore, updated with salacious double-entendres -- the play is largely a new creation. After a prelude in broken Italian, during which a couple of workmen discover a magic box in a dusty vecchio teatro, the action begins to pulsate with the score created by a pair of musicians, Chris Curtis and Aaron Halva, on accordion and violin, with an array of other instruments (toy piano, percussion, even -- I think -- musical saw). Some charming visual effects -- floating lights like fireflies, flitting white butterflies, maybe one two many jokes with a big switch that turned out all the lights (lighting designed by Chuan-Chi Chen) -- lightened up the action, set mostly in front of a frame-hung curtain, reminiscent of a traveling commedia dell'arte performance (set design by Katherine Akiko Day).

Other Reviews: Peter Marks, At Shakespeare Theatre, a true master of its comic domain (Washington Post, May 22) Barbara Mackay, The trouble with serving two masters (Washington Examiner, May 22) Ben Brantley, Mistaken Identity May Be Closer Than It Appears (New York Times, April 18)

The fine cast is headed by Steven Epp as Truffaldino, the eponymous servant who gets himself into trouble by taking on a second employer in the hopes of feeding his ravenous appetite. He is not so much the clever servant who outwits his master -- the model for the Figaros and Leporellos of opera -- as one who gets himself into more and more trouble. He follows his first master, Beatrice (a supercilious Rachel Spencer Hewitt), to Venice where she, dressed as a man, seeks to regain some money from her father's business partner, the greedy Pantalone (crooked-bodied Allen Gilmore). The problem is that Pantalone's daughter, Clarice (a spoiled princess as played by Danielle Brooks), who was betrothed to Beatrice's brother, is really in love with Silvio (bratty, red-faced Andy Grotelueschen). The other problem is that, unbeknownst to Beatrice, her lover Florindo (an over-the-top Latin lover in the hands of Jesse J. Perez) has followed her to Venice and takes up Truffaldino as his servant. Of course, in a comedy, lovers are united, and even Truffaldino finds romance with Pantalone's serving girl, Smeraldina, played with equal flightiness by Liz Wisan. She and character tenor Don Daryll Rivera as the Dottore had the best turns in the couple of ensemble numbers, some of the most whimsical parts of the score. All in all, it is a fizzy version of a classic, with perhaps a few gags that are repeated a few too many times, but highly recommended.

This production continues at Shakespeare Theater Company through June 24. UPDATE: The run has been extended to July 8.

Notes from the 2012 Dresden Music Festival ( 1 )

I am in beautiful Dresden – birthplace of the bra – for the annual three-week Music Festival that has taken place since 1978. Embarrassingly, I knew nothing about it until I randomly ran into its head of PR, a Munich acquaintance, at the Barbican last year. Now I am making sweet amends.

From May 15^th until June 3^rd the Festival offers a varied lineup of star attractions (Vienna Philharmonic in Mozart under Daniel Barenboim) and newcomers (Dalia Dedinskaitė), insider favorites and the tried-and-true who appear in a host of locations all over Dresden. The program is equally varied; perhaps a little on the safe side but with plenty cleverly delectable moments: Smetana and Pavel Haas string quartets (by the splendid Pavel Haas Quartet) in the neoclassical Albrechtsberg Castle high up on the south bank of the Elbe. The early music punks L’Arpeggiata around Theorbo-rocker Christina Pluhar in the brand new historic Frauenkirche. At Radebeul’s Wackerbarth Castle Muzsikás, the Hungarian folk group that I remember well from their appearances at the Freer Gallery with the Takács Quartet. And yesterday the very reason for arriving as soon as I could, fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout (whose Mozart topped my Best of 2011 list) with an all Mozart program in the wonderfully dilapidated, partially restored Summer Palace in Dresden’s Großer Garten.

The select state of decay of the large barren hall in the piano nobile of the Palais makes it hard to tell if certain bits of it had remained escaped destruction, or whether some parts had been restored before the money ran out, or whether it’s an ingenious renovation scheme that deliberately juxtaposes decay and splendor, the newly restored and the authentically destroyed. Whichever it may be¹, it’s a brilliant space perched above the Great Garden which is visible through windows on all four sides.

On a raised platform at the South-Western end of the hall stood a 30 year old copy of a Paul McNulty-built 1792 Anton Walter fortepiano, gorgeously restored and fresh on its third soundboard. Behind it two of originally four faux-marble Corinthian columns remain intact, a third a tall stump with the capital missing and the broken plaster at the bottom exposing the wood underneath. On it – the platform – Bezuidenhout showed the instrument’s ability off in the brisk but beautifully clear Allegro assai of Mozart’s F-major Sonata K332, with all notes appearing like a little organically shaped pearls, delicately separated, no matter at what speed Bezuidenhout dashed them off. But that the fortepiano – a good sounding one, that is – has merits all around and not just at high speeds where it enjoys a natural, physical advantage over the modern grand piano, was amply demonstrated in the preceding Adagio. The little instrument with the knee levers has a round, fresh, and fully functional sound. (You’d think the latter be a given with any professionally used instrument – alas, too many crummy fortepianos have been used in the past, and their deficiencies praised as the somehow admirable twang and clatter of authenticity.)

If Mozart’s Variations are not taken all that seriously, perhaps that’s because they are not the convenient fillers in the LP and CD age, a fact that has helped Beethoven’s Variations – at least those for Cello and Piano – to a modicum of fame. In any case, their neglect seems to be in direct contrast to their musical merit – by which I mean: entertainment value. I absolutely love the “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman” Variations, and the ten “Unser dummer Pöbel meint” Variations on Gluck’s theme from The Pilgrims from Mecca follow close on their heels. They were next on the program and the lively variety and variance of Bezuidenhout’s Variation-game should have made lots of new friends for the work. Stately, busy, lustily-heavy, saucy, flamboyant: there was something in there for everyone.

The Fantasie in c-minor K475 had a dramatic air about it, like a looming thunderstorm with its pregnant silences: Superficially mellifluous like a deceptively calm and deep rivulet, and with the raw bite of the forte piano’s refusal to smooth anything over. In the end the storm passed by, a few miles away, but the proto-Beethovenian qualities of this Fantasia remained present to the end. The tender-lively B-flat Sonata K.333 closed the recital in muted beauty, with a chorus of birds outside still happily participating, despite it being a little past avian bedtime.

¹ The second version is more or less the correct one, and restoration continues piecemeal as the funds can be raised.

American Opera Gets Its Day

Charles T. Downey, WNO’s young singers illumine lesser-known American operatic works
Washington Post, May 22, 2012

J. Heggie, Dead Man Walking, J. DiDonato, P. Cutlip, F. von Stade, Houston Grand Opera, P. Summers (released on April 24, 2012)

Washington National Opera has another promising crop of young singers in its Domingo-Cafritz apprenticeship program. It showed them off Sunday afternoon in a recital at the Renwick Gallery, a program of scenes from five American operas. None of these operas, which premiered from the 1950s to 2000, is ever likely to see the main stage of the Kennedy Center. What a shame, because any one of them would be a worthier option for an opera company than “Show Boat,” which the WNO is offering next May.

Pride of place went to the two Washington-born basses, Kenneth Kellogg and Soloman Howard, who have already made quite an impression in the company’s current productions of “Werther” and “Nabucco.” Kellogg gave a brooding resonance to the servant John in Ned Rorem’s “Miss Julie,” and Howard drew the most subtlety from his sometimes overwhelming voice as the Rev. Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd’s “Susannah.” Mezzo-soprano Sarah Mesko, the best part of the Young Artist Program performance of “Madama Butterfly” last year, brought a rich blossom of sound to the prayer scene of Sister Helen in Jake Heggie’s moving “Dead Man Walking” and a sunny innocence to Merry in William Schuman’s “The Mighty Casey.” [Continue reading]

Members of Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program
Washington National Opera
Renwick Gallery