Oberon's Grove

Wendy's Upcoming BUGAKU

At long last, we're going to have Wendy Whelan in BUGAKU. In an interview a few years ago, Wendy expressed her desire to dance this role and now it's finally going to happen. She will be dancing with Albert Evans and has been announced for Saturday May 10th both matinee and evening. I think I'll be doing a double-header that day. The Paul Kolnik photo shows Wendy & Albert in Wheeldon's LITURGY.

Shenyang & Vlad Iftinca in Recital

Tuesday April 29, 2008 - Shenyang, the Chinese bass-baritone who won the Cardiff Singer of the Year prize in 2007 and has since been with the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Program, gave a solo recital at Bruno Walter Auditorium tonight. Vlad Iftinca was at the keyboard.

This was a top-class collaboration with Shen and Vlad very well matched in musicality and expression. Although he is very young (24), Shenyang sings with the polish and authority of a seasoned recitalist. The programme, which included some of the most challenging works of Schubert and Wolf, demanded sustained vocal and interpretive commitment which Shenyang delivered with complete sincerity. His stage presence manages to combine a sense of both modesty and self-assurance. Shen seems very savvy about his instrument and is able to generate enormous power without any feeling of forcing. His extensive range takes him from plushy low notes to a clear, silky top and his dynamics are compellingly modulated. He displays great seriousness of intent. His choice of songs stayed mostly in the darkish, dramatic end of the spectrum and Vlad matched his intensity and nuance measure for measure.

This was a recital which actually had no highlights; I could not single out any one particular song or phrase that outshone the rest because the level was so consistently high. I would say that there wasn't even a single moment where Shen & Vlad were anything less than superb; as Shen unleashed his effortless power in the lower range only to shine seconds later in his luxuriantly controlled heady high register, Vlad made the piano sing with equal clarity of expression. I've never heard the calm radiance of Schubert's "Nacht und Traume" so  movingly conveyed. And Vlad's introduction to the Wolf "Prometheus" was so impressive with its immaculate trills.

This recital was spellbinding. It's easy to understand why Cardiff took Shenyang to its collective heart. Bravo, Shen & Vlad!

Marcelo's Shore Leave

It's just been announced that ABT star and one of my favorite dancers of all time, Marcelo Gomes, will appear as a guest for New York City Ballet's Sunday matinee May 4th performance of FANCY FREE. NYCB are having guest dancers this season as part of the Robbins Celebration so on upcoming dates you can also see ABT's Ethan Stiefel (May 1st) and Herman Cornejo (May 6th) in FANCY FREE. In the Andrea Mohin/NY TIMES photo, Herman and Marcelo with Sascha Radetsky. Wouldn't you know it, though...I'll be out of town on the date of Marcelo's FANCY.   

Rafa Nadal's Double Win

Rafael Nadal won the Men's Singles title at the Monte Carlo Masters for the fourth consecutive year, beating Roger Federer in straight sets. Rafael and his compatriot Tommy Robredo then took the Men's Doubles prize as well. So Rafa has lots of new glassware. In the first photo, Prince Albert of Monaco presents the Singles trophy. I used to wish that I looked like Prince Albert. Now I find Prince Albert is starting to look like me.

Takehiro/Nilas: Day Full of Dance

Saturday April 26, 2008 - Today I went from the Duke Studio on 42nd Street to a church on the Upper East Side: from a rehearsal of Takehiro Ueyama's TAKE Dance (photo) to a performance of works by Dario Vaccaro and Nilas Martins at Di Capo Opera. What the day ended up providing was a realization about myself that I've never put into words until I found myself saying it to Sophie B: I'm supposed to be dancing!  Now that I've spent my life not doing what I was supposed to be doing I wish I could go back and do it over. Life without regrets? Well, that's going to be another blog story.

Elise and April very kindly invited the local dance bloggers to Takehiro Ueyama's rehearsal for his upcoming performances at the Miller Theatre. I wish more of my blogging mates could have made it to the rehearsal because it really was exciting on several levels. Evan, Taylor and I arrived at the Duke Studio around noon where Take, as everyone calls him, was at the midpoint of a working rehearsal. Immediately on entering the beautifully airy room I realized that this is the kind of place I should have been working all these years: not in a cubicle or a retail outlet. The fascinating thing about dance is actually the process, not the finished product. Over the years I have heard so many dancers talk about this - how it's the class work, the repetition, the creative and collaborative process of making a new piece: that's what being a dancer is really all about. Being onstage with an audience and the lights, makeup, costumes, applause and curtain calls is like collecting your paycheck at the end of the week. But it's the getting to that point that really counts.

I guess that is why we who sit in the audience - in a state of envy and awe - watching other people dance are so intrigued with rehearsal and class photographs and footage of dancers preparing rather than performing. Watching Take's rehearsal was engrossing.

Take was working on two pieces for the upcoming Miller Theatre performances: an untitled work set in part to music from the Pat Metheny Group and in part to silence; and a series of three duets called LOVE STORIES. When we walked in, the 'silent' section was being worked on and it was a little like walking into a church or a meditation session. The only sound was the breathing of the dancers. Then the Metheny music came back on - great to dance to - and the dancers took off in flying, swirling combinations. Take moved around the room calling out corrections; the dancers coached and encouraged one another with a gesture or a glance. Things would stop while Take worked out the details of a catch or when he wanted to sharpen or soften a gesture. The dancers were keenly focussed; the atmosphere was both relaxed and somehow spiritual.

I began to get a feeling for the various personalities and energies of the dancers; sitting next to me was former Paul Taylor dancer Linda Kent who quietly commented on some of the dancers and movements; having seen Kent dance so many times at the Pillow in the 1980s I felt truly moved thinking of the continuum of dance and how the great artists of one generation watch over and communicate to the next. At several points Linda got up and demonstrated or made suggestions to the dancers or to Take about very slight alterations in movement or structure which were illuminating. She and Take have an easy rapport and they and the dancers talked things out with humour and mutual affection before plunging onward.

Then we watched a full run-thru of a beautiful trio of duets called LOVE STORIES; Take has used music from the cinema (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE and AMELIE) and his two dancers, Nana Tsuda and Kile Adair Hotchkiss, offered both physical contrast and inspired rapport. Nana's delicate features are offset by a steely underlying strength and a slightly androgynous quality; Kile is tall, slim and blonde with beautiful hands and feet. They worked so smoothly together in this 'aspects of love' piece which at one point finds Nana improbably lifting Kile and cradling him in her arms. The music perfectly underlines the romantic images and Take said that in performance Nana and Kile will wear masks in the manner of Magritte's THE LOVERS for the final section.

Nana and Kile then sat on the floor to watch a playback of their rehearsal on Nana's camera while the rest of the dancers went thru the Metheny/Untitled piece again with tremendous energy. What a pleasure to see Take dancing again - it's been a decade since I last saw him - and all his familiar musicality and masculine energy reminded me of why he used to be one of our favorites at the Pillow. The driven finale of the Metheny piece gave me a rush and it was something to be seemingly right in the middle of it. The piece ends as the dancers collapse on the floor and in the sudden silence their breathing made me feel oddly breathless.

Then the studio time was over; they dancers packed up quickly and Sophie and I came down to the lobby and had a nice ling chat. The dancers were so sweet, calling out to us as they left. Now I'm looking forward even more keenly to the Miller Theatre performances.

Sophie went off in search of a prom dress (!) and I decided to walk up 9th Avenue to Lincoln Center so that I could quietly reflect on the rehearsal. I was thinking  not only of how beautiful the dancers are but how envious I am of both their accomplishments and of their way of life. It's been such an odd sensation to have finally realized this about myself: this is what I was supposed to have done with my life. I'm supposed to be dancing.

At Lincoln Center I watched workmen putting up the black and white NYCB murals in the lobby of the State Theatre in preparation for the upcoming season. I saw Rebecca Krohn, Austin Laurent and Amar Ramasar coming and going from rehearsals and was thinking how lucky they are to be able to dance for a living.   

Then over to meet Wei at Di Capo where Nilas Martins is Director of Dance and where he had assembled a group of dancers to present two premieres on a programme with The Dario Vaccaro Dance Project's ballet SEGUITI set to the Sonata for Cello and Piano by Tobias Picker.

The opening work on the programme was set to songs by Billy Joel and jointly choreographed by Nilas Martins and John Selya. Dance works set to pop vocal music have hardly ever held my interest and NOCTURNE was no exception despite being well-performed by Brian Gelfand and the excellent instrumental quartet (who later gave us the Rosenthal score). Christina Dooling is an energetic and appealing dancer and she was squired by four dudes in ripped jeans and white tee-shirts: Eric Otto, Alexander Brady, former NYCB soloist Benjamin Bowman and current NYCB soloist Ask La Cour. Ask made an especially fine impression not just because he's so tall but also because his casually jazzy style is subtly underlined by his classical training. 

One of the delights of the programme was the live music, something that cannot always be accommodated in smaller venues. And so in the Vaccaro/Picker work we were treated to cellist Caroline Stinson and pianist Simon Mulligan and their playing of Picker's darkish, lyrical score would have been worth a trek to the East side all on its own. I wished however that Mr. Vaccaro's SEGUITI did not begin with dancers appearing onstage in 'Ellis Island' mode with suitcases because that put me immediately in mind of Bigonzetti's OLTREMARE and I found my thoughts wandering to that tremendous ballet and not giving the Vaccaro work due attention. His piece is dark and dramatic with touches of humour and the music really is superb and he uses it masterfully. But between the distractions of the people sitting behind us and the feeling that we were seeing "OLTREMARE - The Sequel" I'm afraid SEGUITI did not register as clearly as it might have. The musicians and dancers however were unfailingly committed and powerful.

During the intermission we spotted Joaquin de Luz who fortunately seems to be recovered from an injury which kept him sidelined throughout the Winter season. We chatted with Susan, Carley and Verna.  Susan and I had both noticed some very loud offstage talking during the Vaccaro piece and were trying to decide where it was coming from; I wondered later if it was intentionally a part of the performance? (Photo of Joaquin & Nilas).   

The closing work, SwingFlight was the highlight of the evening.

Composer's note: Ted Rosenthal describes SwingFlight as having many moods and feels, including swing, Latin, blues/stride, jazz waltz, hard bop, and modal jazz. The world premiere of the music/dance work will be performed by musicians Mr. Rosenthal selected among his finest former jazz students at Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music, where he is a faculty member. The musicians comprising the quintet are trumpeter Philip Dizack; Janelle Reichman, doubling on sax and clarinet; Yasushi Nakamura on bass, and drummer Mark Dodge, with Mr. Rosenthal at the piano.

This ballet, with four women dancing on pointe and the men in black trousers and fitted vests, combined jazzy elements with classical vocabulary and benefited greatly from Mr. Rosenthal's music and the fine playing of his musicians. It was great to see Monique Meunier again, and to find Nilas dancing very much in his element here with breezy charm and his usual skillful partnering. Heather Gorres and Anastasia Ziatina looked glamorous, and the amazing tall couple Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk (photos/Rubinald's by John Ross) added a splash of flash and fun with their big-scale dancing. Watch Jacoby & Pronk here.  Ask LaCour and William Lin-Yee, who used to be 'tall brothers' at NYCB, looked great. William is now headed for Pacific Northwest Ballet and so this performance was something of a farewell. As he came flying down his first diagonal with his fully-extended jump and wonderfully expressive arms and hands (and later showed both an enhanced stage presence and cool partnering) I regretted all the more that he'll be dancing on another Coast. 

Frederic Chiu at the Caspary Auditorium

Friday April 25, 2008 - A noontime recital by pianist Frederic Chiu lured me across Central Park to the airy, ampitheatre-style Caspary Auditorium today; the hall was packed to the rafters and people stood at the back. It's been a few years since I last heard Frederic play at a Mostly Mozart prelude concert and while in the meantime I have enjoyed listening to his CDs nothing really compares to hearing a great pianist live. And Frederic to be sure is a great pianist.

Frederic Chiu is perhaps best known as an interpreter of Prokofiev's solo piano works but in fact he has a large stylistic range and today he showed us the beauty and grace of his technique with works by four composers. Normally when a performer talks before his recital it drives me crazy but Frederic was so charming and candid in his remarks that I forgave him. The recital centered on the Liszt transcription of Beethoven's 5th symphony and Frederic said he had chosen the rest of the programme as a sort of  demonstration of different aspects of the piano's capabilities - the singing qualities of Chopin, the colours and dynamics of Debussy and the percussive attributes as employed by Prokofiev - which would be combined in the climactic Beethoven/Liszt.

And his Chopin surely did 'sing' and was so appealing in it's melodic flow. The Debussy displayed his mastery of touch and nuance and the Prokofiev Toccata was so dynamic and assured that the audience was swept into an enthusiastic response. The slender, graceful pianist in his black silk shirt, shining black hair combed back into a long ponytail, wire-rimmed spectacles and an air of gentle sincerity is as engrossing to watch as to hear. His understanding of the music and his joy in sharing it shine through at every moment.

Frederic pointed out that in the years following its creation, many music-lovers experienced the Beethoven 5th in the Liszt transcription before ever hearing it played by an orchestra. Concert pianists would tour with the transcribed version to cities that had no symphony orchestra (or an orchestra not up to the demands of Beethoven) and thus did the symphony gain wide popularity.

Playing with great commitment and vibrancy, Frederic made a few random passing 'wrong notes' irrelevant with the sweep and grandeur of his concept. I must say I was completely engrossed by his performance and had a wonderful vantage point looking straight down the length of the piano at eye-level so that Frederic's expressive face communicated as movingly as his playing.

A quote from Frederic's website: "Music is not an escape from life; it is a doorway into life." As the final note of the Beethoven sounded the entire audience rose in to their feet and bravos filled the air as the modest pianist acknowledged our affection. And when the cheers continued he obliged with a Liszt encore.

Frederic Chiu tours extensively and if he comes to your area all I can say is, go and hear him. His playing quite simply made me feel glad to be alive.

CHOPIN
Etudes from Opus 10 and 25

DEBUSSY
Cloches a travers les feuilles (Bells heard through the leaves)
from Images

PROKOFIEV
Toccata, Opus 11

BEETHOVEN/LISZT
Symphony V in C minor, Opus 67

GLASSY ESSENCE @ CEDAR LAKE

Wednesday April 23, 2008 - Tonight Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet invited local dance and performing arts bloggers to the final dress rehearsal of their new installation GLASSY ESSENCE. Cedar Lake's connection with the blog-community is a two-way street: they get written up with the speed and variety of viewpoints that the bloggers offer; and we get to see something before the general public does. And it's something that most likely I wouldn't have otherwise tried: I had read about Cedar Lake of course (at The Winger) but it wasn't until I received their invitation in January that I connected with this Company that I have now come to love.

From Shakespeare's MEASURE FOR MEASURE:

"But man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep."

Entering the darkened performance space of Cedar Lake's theatre on West 26th Street before most of the invited crowd arrived I noted the dimly lit screens which wrapped around the room, a dark wall at the far end with various boxes and steps jutting out, and a large table-like platform. As the area filled with spectators, the screens began to flicker with ghostly filmed images of the dancers wandering the streets of the City. Composer Stefano Zazzera's score pulsated from the speakers and we were enveloped in the world of GLASSY ESSENCE.

I cannot recall any dance, operatic or theatrical performance over the past four and a half decades that seemed - paradoxically - both so immediate and so illusionary. The standing audience shifts and yields to Cedar Lake's powerful, sexy dancers as they take over the space in a variety of movement ranging from running to complex duets and ensembles which materialize and vanish seemingly out of nowhere. As one pair or group of dancers 'fade' others appear in another part of the room. Meanwhile the screens sustain a dreamlike quality with still images of the dancers which shift and zoom to closeup. Tonya Plank has graciously loaned me this photo which illustrates the interesting juxtaposing of the dancers performing in front of large photographs of themselves projected on the screens.

The dancers scale The Wall and with incredible strength the men lift and 'partner' the women from perched positions; this holds the audience mesmerized. The dancers pass among us silently; the platform is illuminated for a stylized wrestling match. Later the boys on The Wall rise, writhe and float on trapeze-like suspended harnesses. Watch the flying Cedar Lakers here.

The heart of GLASSY ESSENCE is a gorgeous duet for Acacia Schachte (photo) and Jason Kittelberger which is both athletic and sensual; Stefano Zazzera's music here turns to a ravishing melody for cello as the dancers mesh and meld in complex partnering made more intense by the limited space. After a pause where we are distracted by other things happening around the room the duet resumes but now Mr. Kittelberger is in a 'flying' apparatus which gives the notion of ballet lifts a whole new dimension. This 'coda' to the duet is accompanied by the eerie sound of the wind rushing as in a vacuum.

Mr. Zazzera's score is fascinating in that he is able to meld  everything from Schumannesque solo piano music to industrial sounds without artifice or any hint of being merely clever; the music and the movement are organically intertwined and Mr. Zazzera's effortless transitions help lead the viewer to the next 'scene' of the work.

The only problem with GLASSY ESSENCE was the feeling that while you are watching one area of the room or focusing on particular dancers you feel you are missing something equally worthy of your attention elsewhere. When it was over, I wanted to see it again and see what had eluded me on the first run-thru. All the more reason, therefore, to love Matt Murphy's breath-taking photos at The Winger.

Meeting with bloggers in the 'upper room' after the performance, choreographer Benoit Swan-Pouffer said that the idea of multiple things happening at the same time and the audience's shifting center of attention was one of the things he was aiming for. He doesn't want us to be able to take it all in. He also said - incredibly - that he had put the piece together over a rehearsal period of approximately three weeks. I would have assumed they'd been working on it for months. (Photo/Jason Kittelberger & Swan).

We came back downstairs where Mr. Kittelberger was stretching and unwinding; I felt awestruck to be in same room with him and with Miki Orihara, Stephen Pier, Kristin Sloan, David Hallberg and Matthew Murphy (and Maya Collins who I didn't get a chance to meet) as well as my blogging mates Tonya, Evan, Allison, Doug and Tony. I realized too that I was by far the oldest person there.

GLASSY ESSENCE photos...thanks to Evan Namerow of DANCING PERFECTLY FREE.

Guga Says Goodbye

After struggling with a chronic hip injury for the last few seasons, former world Number 1 and Brazil's beloved tennis hero Gustavo Kuerten is retiring. I remember the first year Wei and I went to the US Open that we ended our visit with a night match between Kuerten and Juan Carlos Ferrero and the crowd was so revved up: screaming, shouting, stomping for every point. I don't even remember who won, just that it was a crazy and exhilarating way to end our day. You can watch a little of Kuerten's magic here.      

A Good Idea

Today I bought my first batch of tickets for New York City Ballet's Spring season and this notice was in the ticket envelope. As someone who has had an increasing number of performances disturbed by unruly children in recent seasons this seems like a very good idea. How it will be 'enforced' remains to be seen.

SATYAGRAHA at the Met

Saturday April 19, 2008 matinee - Over the years I have refused to fall into either camp when it comes to the music of Philip Glass. Some people simply can't stand it while on the other hand he has many avid admirers. I love the combination of vitality and mystery in the Glass/Robbins ballet GLASS PIECES; I love his timeless/timely score for THE HOURS; I saw THE VOYAGE at the Met and WHITE RAVEN at the Lincoln Center Festival and enjoyed them. The idea of seeing the Met's presentation of SATYAGRAHA was neither here nor there for me; I hadn't planned to see it but on viewing the photographs on display at the Performing Arts Library I began to think it would be something worth attending. When I told some of my friends I was planning to see SATYAGRAHA, the basic reaction was, "Why?"

Satyagraha may be interpreted literally as "the firmness of truth", in which was rooted Gandhi's life-long campaign of non-violent resistance.

For the first two acts today I was completely enthralled by the opera both musically and visually. A progression of powerful scenes depicting Gandhi's time in South Africa - experiences which coloured everything that came after - were presented by a strong cast against strikingly imaginative sets. The floor is covered with newspaper (indicative of Gandhi's pioneering Indian Opinion) and projections of quotations loom over the stage where events from the Indian community's struggle for acceptance and equality are depicted in slow-moving, stylized sequences.

There is not a lot of narrative or action; the opera instead is a series of vignettes. The opening debate between Arjuna and Krishna sets a mythical tone and later, when reality has set in, the opera retains the flavor of an epic. Followers come to join Gandhi at the Tolstoy Farm. In a harrowing scene, the kindly Mrs. Alexander saves Gandhi from a mob (Ken Howard photo).

The second act ends with the protest against the harsh laws imposed by the Europeans as the Indian population burn their registration cards. The opera reaches its high point in this powerful scene and the hypnotic spell of the music has carried us to this moment on waves of orchestral and vocal expression which seem almost spiritual in nature. Had the opera ended here, I would have rated it a masterpiece.

But there is a third act, depicting the strike by the miners at New Castle which eventually showed the success of Gandhi's theory of passive resistance. The act opens with a very long duet for Gandhi's wife and his assistant, Mrs. Naidoo. This develops into a VERY long sextet for Gandhi and his followers. Then the stage slowly clears and we see a visionary juxtaposition of Dr. Martin Luther King who adapted Gandhi's methods in his own quest. The silent actor who mimes the role of Dr. King ascends a high lectern and appears to be addressing a crowd as Gandhi sings a trance-like ascending scale, endlessly repeated. This phrase which seemed so compelling at first became almost silly after about 20 repeats, undermining the effect by overkill.

The third act was a severe letdown, partially because the women's voices in the opening duet did not blend easily and the duet was much too long. The even longer sextet was rendered unpleasant because the vibrato patterns of the six voices did not mesh, making it seem 'noisy' rather than musical. The simplicity of Gandhi's final 'song' was undone by repetition, and poor actor who had to mime Dr. King's speech gestured interminably. Interestingly the audience, who had seemed thoroughly involved and notably 'still' during the first two acts, began to show signs of restlessness in the third act and indeed several people struggled down the staircases in the dark to escape. How powerful the opera would have seemed had it ended with Act II! The third act simply petered out and all the bad things people say about the Philip Glass style began to seem true.

Richard Croft embodied Gandhi not just physically but in the pure beauty and spellbinding nuances of his voice which cast a spell over the house much as the poignant simplicity of Gandhi's message must have enthralled his followers. Onstage virtually throughout the long opera, Croft showed unfailing vocal stamina and great clarity of expression: he was able to vary the colour of his tone in long passages and the plaintive sound frequently became mesmerizing. Indeed I would rank this as one of the great operatic interpretations I have had the pleasure of witnessing - on the same high level as the Vickers Grimes, the Elektras of Behrens and Jones, the Emilia Marty of Maralin Niska.

The men in the cast were all extraordinary in their vocal power and clarity: Richard Bernstein as the blue-faced Krishna was especially fine and Bradley Garvin (Prince Arjuna), Alfred Walker (Parsi Rustomji) and the warm-toned Earle Patriarco (Mr. Kallenbach) were all vocally distinguished.

Of the women I was most impressed with Mary Phillips (photo) as Mrs. Alexander, partially for the strength of her singing (which matched the strength of her character) and partly because she is the first singer I've ever heard who reminded me a little of my long-time favorite Maralin Niska. Rachelle Durkin as Miss Schlesen, Gandhi's secretary, was asked to sing endlessly in her upper-middle and top range and she  showed vocal thrust and courage but also sounded tired after Act I. Her vibrato and those of Ellie Dehn (Mrs. Naidoo) and Maria Zifchak (Kasturbai, Gandhi's wife) did not blend well.

The chorus and orchestra had their work cut out for them sustaining the Glassian repetitions and they  succeeded superbly under the skilled baton of Dante Anzolini. It was good to note the large numbers of young people in the house and their strict attentiveness, and to overhear their entusiastic comments on the performance during the intermissions.
   
A story from Playbill here. All production photos by Ken Howard from the Met website.

To contemplate Gandhi's impact on the world in a theatrical context was really rewarding in its own right; but it also prompted me to read more about his life and work. I soon realized how little I actually knew about him. His approach to resisting evil and promoting change thru non-violence is something I've believed in since high school and preparing for the opera led me to discover the influences that took Gandhi on his life's mission. I was particularly moved by this quote which is more timely than ever today: "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"