Leontyne Price turned 85 on Friday. I should have stopped what I was doing that day to make note of the occasion, but will try to make amends now.

No singer I have experienced live sent more chills and thrills through me than Miss Price. Something in the timbre is pure magic; something in the phrasing is extraordinarily communicative and meaningful; something in the bearing says "diva" in the best sense of the word.

You will remember Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard" summing up the glorious days of silent movies: "We had faces!" Whenever I hear Miss Price, I think how ...

Continue reading "Belated birthday wishes for Leontyne Price" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 6:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Clef Notes
        

Some works of art pull you in by the clearest, most direct of means; you know why you're hooked at the start and you know what you've been through when it's all over.

Some works engage you for reasons you can't entirely explain and fill you with more questions than answers when you walk away, but you still feel satisfied somehow.

"Postcard From Morocco" is one of the latter type. Although this 1971 opera by Dominick Argento is nothing if not elusive, it manages to leave quite an imprint -- on singers as well as audiences, I imagine.

Peabody Chamber Opera has an effective staging of the piece well worth catching at the Theatre Project through Sunday.

It's a nice nod to Argento, who turns 85 this year. He earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees at the Peabody Conservatory in the 1950s and went on to become one of this country's most successful and respected opera composers. He deserves plenty of attention any year.

Which reminds me -- the University of Maryland School of Music will salute Argento's 85th with productions by Maryland Opera Studio of "Postcard From Morocco" and "Miss Havisham's Fire" at the Clarice Smith Center in April. Argento will take part in discussions of his work during the April festival, which also features chamber music concerts, master classes and more. An all-Argento concert on March 30 will be at the center as a prelude to the fest.

OK, back to Peabody, Theatre Project and "Postcard from Morocco."

With a libretto by John Donahoe, the piece offers something of ...

Continue reading "Peabody Chamber Opera sends colorful 'Postcard From Morocco'" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Clef Notes, Opera, Peabody Institute
        

Simone Dinnerstein, one of the most interesting pianists on the scene today, will be presented in recital at Goucher College as part of the 52nd Annual Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Lecture-Performance.

Dinnerstein will play excerpts from her just-out album on the Sony label, "Something Almost Being Said: The Music of Bach and Schubert." It's a gem of a recording, typical of the pianist's work -- technically refined and artistically eloquent.

Her account of Schubert's Impromptus, Op. 90, is quite impressive -- check out the video below of No. 3 in G-flat, played with exquisitely intimate phrasing.

As Dinnerstein explains: "Bach and Schubert's melodic lines are ...

Continue reading "Pianist Simone Dinnerstein to give recital at Goucher College " »

Posted by Tim Smith at 6:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Clef Notes
        

As some of you know well -- because I frequently go on and on about it -- I love piano transcriptions.

Over the years, I managed to find quite a few, but not nearly as many as I could uncover in a single hour plugged into the International Music Score Library Project, one of the coolest, most addictive sites I know.

It was a hunt for transcriptions that led me to IMSLP quite a while ago, but I discovered so much more there -- 159,000 scores by more than 7,000 composers.

It's a place I never tire of visiting whenever I want to put eyes on a score quickly and -- my favorite part -- print out something that I want to add to my collection. All for free, mind you.

This is a fabulous public domain space. I suppose it may be threatened, to some extent, by the recent Supreme Court decision regarding copyright protections, but I hope that IMSLP, founded six years ago this month, survives and thrives. I have been using it for a long while now and cannot imagine not being able to access it. 

Soloists and ensembles can find enough vocal and instrumental repertoire here to last a lifetime of performing -- OK, non-contemporary repertoire.

It is one of the most best examples I know of how the Web can benefit musicians.

Back to transcriptions. Just this week, on a whim, I wondered if anyone had ever done a piano arrangement of ...

Continue reading "The addictive attraction of the International Music Score Library Project " »

Posted by Tim Smith at 6:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Clef Notes
        

It's Midweek Madness time again, and, for no reason whatsoever, I thought of Perry Como. And that made me think of this promo for his last great tour:

Continue reading "Midweek Madness: Perry Como and the art of laid-back singing" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Clef Notes, Drama Queens
        

Vocal music fans invariably have a list of singers they feel are not sufficiently appreciated. Topping my list is Welsh tenor Stuart Burrows, who celebrates his 79th birthday Feb. 7.

When I first started getting interested in classical singers, I picked up one of his albums on a whim -- the name meant nothing to me, back in my terribly uninformed days -- and I was hooked at first sound. The velvety tone, with its hint of sweetness; the seemingly effortless legato; the unerring tastefulness -- these are the qualities that most define Burrows (and elude so many vocalists today).

Here, as a birthday salute, a sample of the tenor's artistry -- a performance of "Il mio tesoro" that can, I believe, be mentioned in the same breath as the long-cherished one by John McCormack (the breath control during the coloratura run is marvelous); and two popular 19th century ballads that, again, Burrows delivers with great elegance:

Continue reading "Birthday greetings to Stuart Burrows, a tenor of rare gifts " »

Posted by Tim Smith at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Clef Notes
        

His expertise in historically informed performances to music from the baroque and classical eras makes him a valued guest conductor with modern instrument orchestras. They can always use a little jolt from the authenticity crowd.

With McGegan, you also get an abundance of personality, which makes his appearances doubly welcome. On Saturday night at the Meyerhoff, he danced his way through an attractive assortment of familiar scores by Bach, Haydn and Mozart, and something new to the BSO's repertoire -- a suite from Rameau's opera "Nais."

(As a concert-goer remarked on Saturday, McGegan seemed to be at least a third of the way toward ...

Continue reading "Nicholas McGegan returns to BSO podium for spirited workout" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: BSO, Clef Notes
        

Nothing like an invigorating 70-minute drive to DC, only to discover that the trip is for naught.

Happened to me Saturday afternoon -- arriving all a-flutter at the Kennedy Center to hear Susan Graham's recital for the Washington Performing Arts Society, only to be told by the garage attendant that the mezzo-soprano had canceled. Oy, vey.

I knew my karma was off that day. Earlier, I couldn't access my email (for reasons still unknown), where I would have found a notice of the cancellation. And, just for extra fun, as I arrived at the Kennedy Center, a warning light on the car went off, so I felt my life was complete.

I'm sorry Miss Graham got ill. Honest I am. But, hey, a year ago I went to the Met to hear her sing "Iphigenie" and darned if she didn't cancel. So I am beginning to take this personally -- it's all about me, as you know.

At least there are delightful recordings of this fabulous singer to savor. I put together a few here, to create a mini-recital for the benefit of anyone else who felt forlorn over the weekend. I've chosen a couple of exquisite French songs, and two funny items, including the one about ...

Continue reading "The Susan Graham recital that wasn't" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Clef Notes
        

Otherwise, you may feel just a wee bit twitchy during the second half of Martin McDonagh’s “A Skull in Connemara,” a dark-as-night comedy enjoying a decidedly vivid production at Center Stage. You may want to avoid a front row seat, too.

Bone particles (or a realistic semblance thereof) fly as forcefully as insults and insinuations in this play. It’s set in an Irish town where space in the church yard cemetery is at such a premium that those who have rested in peace for seven years are disinterred to make way for fresh customers.

OK, so. That sure sounds extreme, but not in Connemara.

No one even gives this practice much thought until Mick Dowd, the man in charge of the skeletal business, faces the prospect of uncovering his own wife. You see, her death never was satisfactorily explained for some people in town, so reopening her grave takes on a whole new level of interest.

Things get pretty messy, in physical and emotional terms, before the digging (also in physical and emotional terms) is done. Oddly enough, things get awfully funny, too.

“A Skull in Connemara” springs from ...

Continue reading "'A Skull in Connemara' gets smashing production at Center Stage" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Center Stage, Drama Queens
        

As she is the first to tell you, Carrie Fisher has had an eventful life. Since a lot of those events involved drugs, alcohol, rehab, and battles with bipolar issues, you might not think that it could be such a funny life, too. But funny it is. Pretty endearing, too.

Fisher happily shares her experiences in “Wishful Drinking,” a solo theatrical vehicle the actress/writer introduced in 2006 with considerable success. The show, which arrived at the Hippodrome this week, still has legs. The level of sturdiness, though, can vary from performance to performance. (Video from an earlier production -- pre-weight loss -- is posted below.)

There’s no use pretending that opening night on Tuesday went smoothly. Fisher, who could not have been more unflatteringly attired (surely her weight loss since becoming a spokesperson for Jenny Craig deserves a better outfit), often sounded halting, even with a teleprompter.

The uneven pacing made the show’s length more problematic, underlining the fact that ...

Continue reading "'Wishful Drinking' makes rough landing at the Hippodrome, but still flies" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Drama Queens, Hippodrome
        

If Oliver Hardy had been a conductor, I imagine he would have been just like Joseph R. Olefirowicz, who is as cool and funny and expressive as can be in this clip from the Volksoper in Vienna.

One look, and I knew I had to share it on your favorite Wednesday online featurette in the entire cyber-cosmos, Midweek Madness. You will thank me. Profusely. (As I thank my Florida buddies for alerting me to it.)

This was filmed just last week during a concert version of ...

Continue reading "Midweek Madness: The ultimate in carefree conducting" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 6:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Clef Notes
        

There's a great opportunity to experience an important silent film, D.W. Griffith’s "Intolerance" from 1916, with live musical accompaniment from the Baltimore band Boister at 7 p.m. Thursday at Stevenson University. It's a free event -- with advance reservations (call 443-334-2163).

Here's more from the press release:

The concert will be held in the ...

Continue reading "D. W. Griffith classic will be screened with live soundtrack" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Clef Notes, Drama Queens
        

After Bach spins 30 ingenious variations on that material, he reprises the Aria, which cannot help but sound all the more fulfilling, having generated so many powerful intellectual and emotional responses.

It is no accident that this Aria provides the opening and closing sounds in the Arena Stage presentation of John Logan's "Red," a portrait of the brilliant, path-breaking painter Mark Rothko -- for many people, his work represents something profoundly spiritual, too. (The production originated at Chicago's Goodman Theatre.)

The intermission-less play is, essentially, a series of variations on complex, challenging themes of art and philosophy. It ends where it started, pondering an answer to the most difficult question of all: What do you see?

Talking about art can turn pretentious and tedious in no time. A play about talking about art could be even worse. Logan's remarkably feat here is to address a whole bunch of difficult issues in such a way that they become not just interesting and illuminating, but also downright entertaining.

The drama in the play is largely ignited by the commission Rothko received to paint murals for the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York, an unlikely -- and, as it turned out, impossible -- place for his art. "Red" lets the artist to rant marvelously at the rich and oblivious who would be dining in front of his work.

Other great material involves Rothko discussing ...

Continue reading "Seeing 'Red' at Arena Stage: A compelling experience" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Drama Queens
        

Camilla Williams, who broke a racial barrier several years before Marian Anderson famously did so at the Metropolitan Opera, died from cancer at the age of 92 in Bloomington, Ind., where she was a professor emeritus at Indiana University.

Ms. Williams is credited as the first African American to be featured in a starring role with a major American opera company. That debut on May 15, 1946 was in the title role of "Madama Butterfly" with the New York City Opera. The soprano went on to become the first singer in a major role at the Vienna State Opera in 1954, a year before contralto Marian Anderson made her Met debut.

Ms. Williams also was involved in another bit of history -- she sang the national anthem at the Lincoln Memorial before Martin Luther King's delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech there.

Here is a disarming video clip of Ms. Williams describing her early career, which got a boost from the legendary ...

Continue reading "Camilla Williams, who broke down racial barriers in opera, dies at 92" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Clef Notes, Opera
        

This ensemble of 15 from Quebec City delivered a sterling demonstration of period instrument panache, and had the extra advantage of a Pied Piper-like soloist who worked his magic on three concertos.

The whole program had an infectious energy. And, for all of the obvious discipline and fine-honing in the execution, there was an air of spontaneity, too.

If you never thought a "historically informed" performance could be fun, this concert would have turned your ears.

Les Violons du Roy, conducted by founding artistic director Bernard Labadie, got things started with Handel's Concerto Grosso in B-flat (Op. 6, No. 7).

There were pianissimi of the finest grade. Every crescendo, accelerando, ritardando and other expressive device was achieved with great finesse.

The overall sound of the orchestra was quite warm, far from the dry tone of early music groups in the first days of the authenticity movement; tempos, too, felt more flexible.

When speed was desired, as in the most spirited variations in the "La Follia" Concerto Gross by Geminiani (after Corelli), it hit unabashedly supersonic levels, yet never left a single player in the dust. Solo playing within the ensemble was uniformly impressive, at whatever speed.

The rest of the program was devoted to ...

Continue reading "Les Violons du Roy, recorder soloist Maurice Steger light up Shriver Hall " »

Posted by Tim Smith at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Clef Notes, Shriver Hall
        

Eschenbach cooked up an Austro-German feast that mixed standards -- Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, Schubert's Symphony No. 9 -- with a fascinating dose of new music by Munich-born composer and clarinetist Jorg Widmann, who was also the soloist in the concerto.

Widmann's "Armonica," from 2006, has a prominent part for the glass armonica, that ethereal instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin.

The device provides not only sonic interest here, but also a way for the composer to treat the rest of the orchestra. Waves of sound emerge, gradually, pulsate and dissipate.

In addition to the exotic flavor of the armonica, the orchestra is enhanced by such unexpected instruments as ...

Continue reading "Austro-German feast from Eschenbach, NSO; Jorg Widmann dazzles in debut" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Clef Notes, NSO
        

Music can tell stories as riveting as the best literary texts, can paint images as vivid as the finest works on canvas. That message is reinforced on the first half of the latest Baltimore Symphony program, and then, to an extent, reversed on the second.

The sonic-only pictorial lesson comes from Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony, the composer’s extraordinary evocation of a visit to the countryside, complete with babbling brook, tipsy farmers and a cool thunderstorm.

This classic is matched with a multimedia production, “LIFE: A Journey Through Time,” with an evolutionary tour of nature through the work of National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting, matched to music by Philip Glass.

Here, the sounds serve as complement or counterpoint to the imagery. The accompaniment was not created with the visual in mind, but matched to it subsequently. The pictures clearly could stand on their own without a note, but the match-up provides an extra kick. 

Marin Alsop, who was instrumental in generating the Lanting/Glass epic, introduced it to the BSO in 2007. Given all the other music available by Glass, one of Baltimore’s most famous sons, and given that his 75th birthday will be observed on Tuesday, it’s disappointing that we didn’t get something new to the BSO repertoire. “LIFE” is a compilation of previously existing pieces (arranged for orchestra by Michael Riesman). A symphony by Glass would have been very welcome.

Leaving that aside, it was impossible not to be impressed by ...

Continue reading "BSO takes nature walk with Beethoven, Frans Lanting, Philip Glass" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: BSO, Clef Notes, Marin Alsop
        

Here's more from the release:

Readings will take place on Saturdays in February and March, at various theaters in the Baltimore area. Directors will be assigned a script, and are responsible for casting actors to fill the required roles, holding at least one read-through rehearsal, and being present to direct the staged reading on the date scheduled. Prior theater experience is preferred, but not necessary.

For more information, contact Miriam Bazensky: vchair@baltplayfest.org, 410-756-2762.

Posted by Tim Smith at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Drama Queens
        

Hey, I know you don't want to forget to wish Mozart a happy 256th birthday. (To tell the truth, I almost forgot myself.)

As Nicolas Slonimsky so succinctly put it in his Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Mozart was the "supreme Austrian genius of music whose works in every genre are unsurpassed in lyric beauty, rhythmic variety and effortless melodic invention." That covers it pretty well.

To mark the composer's birthday, I wanted to keep it short, sweet and sublime -- three of the most divine minutes in all of Mozart -- "Soave sia il vento," the trio from "Cosi fan tutte."

In this scene, two women who think their boyfriends are sailing off to war, and the cynic who knows it's a ruse meant to test the issue of fidelity in the female sex, join voices in wishing the men a safe journey.

The whole thing could have been played just for laughs in this very adult comedy, but Mozart, that "supreme genius," went for something else -- the heart. You may need to have yours examined if you ever find yourself less than deeply entranced by this trio.

There are many wonderful performances out there, but I could not resist this one, because it features two of my all-time favorite singers ...

Continue reading "For Mozart's birthday, three of his most divine minutes" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Clef Notes
        

The orchestra, founded in 2000 by composer, pianist and conductor Darin Atwater and made up predominantly of African American musicians, had an affiliation with the Baltimore Symphony for most of its first decade.

Thanks to the recently launched Hippodrome Arts Fund, Soulful Symphony is now a partner with the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center.

"We're ready to launch this thing again," Atwater said. "It's a new chapter, a new home -- but the same soul."

One aspect of that new home is the possibilities it offers to have a more ...

Continue reading "Soulful Symphony's first Hippodrome season to open with Michael Jackson tribute" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 6:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Clef Notes, Hippodrome
        

Michael Weller’s recent drama “Fifty Words” focuses unflinchingly on a married couple, Jan and Adam, who have to face something formidable in their Brooklyn brownstone — a night entirely alone.

It’s the first such night since their son was born nine years earlier; the boy, having finally made a friend, is away on a sleep-over. This leaves the parents with a lot of time, if not each other, to kill.

Adam, a moderately successful architect, decides an amorous romp with his wife is in order, before he has to leave for another business trip in the morning. But Jan seems terribly preoccupied, both with left-over work related to her start-up business and with her absent child, who has developed a distinctive way of hiding under his own troubles.

Before long, the spring-loaded spouses uncover any number of suspicions, resentments and long-avoided truths.

“It’ll sting; I can’t help that,” Adam says to Jan at one point, treating a fresh cut on her foot after one of their rounds.

That’s nothing compared to the emotional wounds inflicted on both people before the night is over, more wounds than could ever properly heal. Recalling earlier conflicts, Adam tells his wife: “We were just learning how to hurt each other back then. We were amateurs.”

They are professionals now.

Everyone knows some seemingly incompatible mates who are nonetheless bound together. Marriages can be complex, as theater-goers already know well from Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” In that drama, George and Martha reveal an uncanny ability to goad and ensnare each other. Their weapon — or refuge — of choice is booze, so much easier than sex.

For Adam and Jan, physical intimacy is the trap, and has been from the day they met. They have developed ...

Continue reading "Everyman Theatre explores marital crisis in (more than) 'Fifty Words'" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Drama Queens, Everyman Theatre
        

My thanks to Brian Sacawa, the effortlessly cool dude who guides Mobtown Modern, for alerting me to a contrapuntal tribute to Lady Gaga.

I got quite a kick out of what you might call Bach's "Bad Romance," so I just had to choose it for my next installment of the life-enhancing feature known as Midweek Madness. You might go a little gaga over it, too.

Let the fugue begin:

Continue reading "Midweek Madness: The art of the fugue, Lady Gaga-style" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 6:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Clef Notes
        

The early music scene in our region -- the early music scene, period -- is particularly fortunate to have Opera Lafayette as a major player.

The D.C-based company has been reviving neglected repertoire since 1995, and doing so with remarkable style. Several Naxos recordings document the quality.

The latest discovery, in a production presented at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater Saturday night and heading next to New York on the way to Versailles, is Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny's "Le Roi at le fermier."

This 1762 opera enjoyed considerable popularity back in the day, so much so that it was performed in 1780 in the Theatre de la Reine, starring no less than Marie-Antoinette. That alone gives "Le Roi at le fermier" ("The King and the Farmer") abundant curiosity value.

When Opera Lafayette performs the piece at Versailles, it will be with restored sets from 1780, which, somehow survived all these years in storage. The performances, Feb. 4 and 5, will be in the recently renovated Opera Royal at the storied palace.

"Le Roi et le fermier" abounds in felicitous melodies that settle easily into the ear, and they are enhanced by remarkably colorful orchestration.

The libretto by Michel-Jean Sedaine spins a simple tale set in Sherwood Forest involving a farmer named Richard and his concern for his beloved Jenny (the role Marie-Antoinette sang). That concern stems from the fact that Lurewel, a courtier of the King of England, has dastardly designs on Jenny.

The king, lost during a hunting expedition, ends up in Richard's humble abode, where he learns how decent and wise commoners can be, and how bad Lurewel is for his image. All ends sweetly.

It may be hard to, um, wrap one’s head around the notion that Marie-Antoinette would want to perform in an opera that depicts how benevolent a monarch could behave toward the little people of his kingdom -- a message that doesn't seem to have stuck with the Queen of France, or her hubby, who witnessed her performance.

But it is easy to ...

Continue reading "Opera Lafayette uncovers Monsigny work once sung by Marie-Antoinette" »

Posted by Tim Smith at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Clef Notes, Opera
        

Carnegie Hall seems more than ever to be the epicenter of classical music life in this country, what with the Achievement Program already launched and the National Youth Orchestra of the United States being created there in 2013.

Another of the many initiatives that keep Carnegie Hall so interesting is a festival called "Spring for Music," which bowed last year.

This annual event in May focuses on "the quality and creativity of North American orchestras." With tickets popularly priced at $25 and repertoire that emphasizes the off-beat, the festival has obvious appeal.

The two major orchestras in our area will be showcased during the 2013 Spring for Music.

Marin Alsop will lead the Baltimore Symphony May 6, 2013, in a program that includes ...

Continue reading "Baltimore, National symphonies to play Carnegie Hall's 2013 Spring for Music " »

Posted by Tim Smith at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: BSO, Clef Notes, NSO
        

I always worry about my blog-only readers missing some of my inestimable prose elsewhere -- that's the kind of caring person I am -- so I just wanted to let you know that I have a follow-up to the New York Philharmonic cell phone disaster in today's Sun.

This one looks at how some of our local arts organizations are trying to cope with the menace from those smart (or evil) phones.

And speaking of that menace, please take a moment to check out a great refresher course on cell phone etiquette from the Washington Post's Maura Judkis. Not that you need the reminder, of course, but you may know some less enlightened souls would would benefit from the suggestions. And, one day, we may all once again enjoy the fullness and richness of uninterrupted live performance.

Posted by Tim Smith at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Clef Notes, Drama Queens