Oberon's Grove

Mignon Dunn as Dalila

In the aftermath of the opening night performance of a new SAMSON ET DALILA at The Met, the folks on The List and at Parterre are discussing favorite interpreters of the opera's title roles; the name of Mignon Dunn came up.  

Mignon was a great favorite of mine and her performances in such roles as Laura in GIOCONDA, Fricka in the RING Cycle, Anna in TROYENS, Brangaene in TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, and Ortrud in LOHENGRIN are among my fondest operatic memories.

In 1985, I had the good fortune to see Mignon Dunn as Dalila in a production by the Connecticut Opera Association at The Bushnell in Hartford. She and her co-stars, Jon Frederic West and Charles Karel, sang powerfully whilst doing what they could dramatically in an old-style, rather campy setting.

In the course of my two-year project of rescuing music from my vast cassette collection, I was able to preserve this recording of Mignon singing Dalila's opening aria from Act II with piano from a radio program in 1975 which I taped off the air:

Mignon Dunn - Amour viens aider ma faiblesse - SAMSON & DALILA - Met Marathon 1975

I'll be seeing the Met's new SAMSON ET DALILA twice in the coming weeks: once with each cast.

~ Oberon

van Zweden's Bruckner 8th @ The NY Phil

Above: Jaap van Zweden, Musical Director of The New York Philharmonic

~ Author: Oberon

Friday September 28th, 2018 - This evening was our first opportunity to hear Jaap van Zweden lead The New York Philharmonic since he officially took up the position of Musical Director. My friend Ben Weaver and I splurged and bought tickets to this concert because Bruckner is always on our must-hear list. In 2014, I had my first live encounter with the composer's 8th in this very hall, under Alan Gilbert's baton. It was a revelation.

Tonight, Jaap van Zweden offered Conrad Tao's Everything Must Go as a prelude to the Bruckner 8th. Does this massive symphony need a prelude? No. As with many 'new' works we've encountered over the past few seasons, Everything Must Go is expertly crafted but it sounds like so much else: by turns spare and noisy, with frequent percussive bangs and pops, this eleven-minute piece (it felt longer) passed by without providing any sense of the composer's individual voice. Perhaps hearing more of Mr. Tao's work - music not yoked to an existing masterpiece that employs the same orchestral forces - will lead us to discover who he is.

Since there was no pause between the Tao and the Bruckner, the audience's response to Everything Must Go could not be gauged. I wonder if the young composer took a bow at the end; we had headed out as the applause commenced.

For the first two movements of the Bruckner, I was enthralled. The orchestra sounded truly superb, and Maestro van Zweden held sway with a perfect sense of the music's architecture. It was a tremendous relief and balm to emerge from the day's madness (the Kavanaugh hearings) into Bruckner's vibrant world.

The Philharmonic musicians offered rich tone and marvelous colours, the brass sounding grand and the violins singing lyrically in their big theme. The music has a Wagnerian sense of the monumental, and a ceaseless melodic flow. Among the solo moments, Sherry Sylar's oboe stood out. At one point there's an almost direct quote from Tchaikovsky's SLEEPING BEAUTY. During a respite/interlude, softer themes mingle before a splendid onslaught from the brass turns grandiose. The movement ends on a murmur.

The Scherzo has as its main and oft-repeated theme a churning 5-note figure that has worked its way into the soundtrack for GAME OF THRONES. As the movement progresses, the harp makes a lovely effect, as do the entwining voices of solo woodwinds. Textures modify seamlessly, sustaining our pleasure.

A deep sense of longing suffuses the opening of the Adagio, with its rising passion. Again the harp glimmers magically. The rise and fall of great waves of sound bring passages of almost unbearable beauty; there's a spectacular build-up to music of searing passion which evaporates into soft halo of solo winds. As the music re-builds, a Tchaikovskian glory permeates. It seems, though, that Bruckner cannot quite decide how to end this epic movement.

Pulsing, march-like, and majestic, the Finale leads us onward. A big swaying rhythm from the timpani leads into a huge tsunami of sound. The work began to feel like a series of climaxes, though, and traces of brass fatigue started to crop up. The Maestro and the musicians were engulfed by gales of applause and cheers at the end. 

I'm probably in a minority in feeling that Alan Gilbert's 2014 rendering of the Bruckner 8th with the Philharmonic reached me on a deeper level, as well as being more exhilarating. "Well, it was faster!", Ben Weaver would say. À chacun son goût...

~ Oberon

Robin Becker's INTO SUNLIGHT: A Documentary

Above: dancers Yoko Sugimoto-Ikezawa and Joseph Jehle in a 2011 performance of Robin Becker's INTO SUNLIGHT at the 92nd Street Y; photo by Kokyat

~ Author: Oberon

Thursday September 27th, 2018 - Having followed the development of Robin Becker's profoundly moving anti-war dancework INTO SUNLIGHT from its early rehearsals in 2010, I was honored to be invited to a screening of the new documentary film about the piece this evening.

Robin Becker did not set out to create a dancework about the Vietnam War; her idea was to make a piece that would grow out of her sense of helpless despair when the US commenced its war against Iraq. In researching for her project, she came upon David Maraniss's book THEY MARCHED INTO SUNLIGHT. She immediately felt its power as a depiction of the human aspects of war and of war's effect on both the people fighting it and on their loved ones waiting at home for them to return (or not), as well as thoughtful citizens enraged by the policies and careless disdain for the value of human life of the politicians who wage wars.

INTO SUNLIGHT was inspired by the David Maraniss book 'They Marched Into Sunlight', an account of two days in October 1967 when "...war was raging in Vietnam as the anti-war movement was raging in America." I'm eyeing my copy of the book on my bookshelf as I write this, and will start re-reading it in a few days.

The book - and the ballet - revolve around two events that took place on those days in October of 1967: the ambush of a battalion of American soldiers in the Vietnam jungle, and a protest against the Dow Chemical Company at the University of Wisconsin.

Robin Becker has given the tragic tale a new dimension thru her choreography. Set to a score Chris Lastovicka, Robin's ballet entwines both threads of the book - the war abroad and the reaction at home - in a cohesive narrative, as dark and haunting as any dancework I have witnessed. Along with Jacqulyn Buglisi's deeply resonant TABLE OF SILENCE, INTO SUNLIGHT stands as a truly meaningful dance experience. Both works share a common root: they are about something.

Watch a trailer for INTO SUNLIGHT here. And visit the documentary's website here.

Above: Robin Becker and company photographed while in Vietnam in 2015 for performances of INTO SUNLIGHT

Ron Honsa's film is outstanding on every count. He brings us gorgeously-shot performance footage, segments of Ms. Becker and David Maraniss speaking of the connection between the dancework and the book; and Mr. Honsa follows the Becker company to Vietnam, where INTO SUNLIGHT was performed in 2015.

But Mr. Honsa delves deeper, bringing us interviews with people whose lives were permanently affected by the events of October 1967: Consuelo Allen, Clark Welch, and Paul Solgin.

Consuelo Allen's father, Lieutenant Colonel Terry Allen, Jr., had been home on leave and was saying goodbye to his family before heading back to Vietnam when his five-year-old daughter Consuelo cried out: “You can’t leave! You’re going to die!”  On that fatal morning of October 17, 1967, as he led his Black Lions battalion on a search-and-destroy mission in the Long Nguyen Secret Zone, Terry Allen, Jr. and sixty of his men were killed in an ambush.

Clark Welch was one of Terry's commanders. He suffers extreme mental torment over the loss of his men. Both Clark and Consuelo are deeply touching as the tell their stories for the film.

Paul Solgin was one of the demonstrators at the University of Wisconsin; many of the demonstrators sustained injury at the hands of club-swinging police. Ironically, their freedom of speech and of dissent might be thought to be among the ideals that the soldiers serving in Vietnam were fighting to protect.

Above: me and Robin Becker after the 92nd Y showing of INTO SUNLIGHT in 2011; photo by Kokyat.

Among the audience at this evening's showing of the documentary was dancer Nicole Sclafani, who plays a major role in Robin Becker's INTO SUNLIGHT. In the ballet, Nicole's duet with Oisín Monaghan depicts a woman who dreamed of the death of her brother from a horrific abdominal wound sustained in battle, only to awaken the next day to find that her dream was prophetic.

Another true story that is told in INTO SUNLIGHT is of the death of West Point football hero Don Holleder, who - with his comrades - rushed headlong onto the battlefield that October morning and was immediately gunned down. Compellingly danced by Chazz Fenner-McBride, it's one of the ballet's heart-stopping moments. 

Yet another of the most poignant scenes in the dancework is that of a young widow, danced by Yoko Sugimoto-Ikezawa, visiting the grave of her soldier-husband, portrayed in the film by Ricky Werthen. The distraught woman clings to the gravestone, unable to comprehend the loss of her beloved.

This was written by me after initially reading Mr. Maraniss's book:

"For all the emotional power behind the factual re-telling of these events, by far the most overwhelming aspect of the story comes many years after the incidents when the leaders of the two factions who met on that battlefield that October morning meet once again - now old warriors - and explore the anonymous patch of Vietnamese land where so many young men (from both sides) laid down their lives. If only the two commanders could have met before the battle, they might have realized their differences were vastly outweighed by their common humanity. They could have shaken hands and walked back to their respective camps, refusing to kill each other simply because someone had told them it was the thing to do."

UPDATE: This documentary will be shown at AMC Loew's on Saturday October 20th at 4:00 PM as part of the Chelsea Film Festival.

~ Oberon

Gladys Ripley

Gladys Ripley - Elgar~Where Corals Lie

 

Miro's New Wolfgang Rihm Ballet

Above photo by Arnaud Falchier

~ Author: Oberon

Saturday September 22nd, 2018 - A new ballet choreographed by Miro Magloire to music by Wolfgang Rihm was presented as part of New Chamber Ballet's 2018-2019 season opener tonight at City Center Studios. Also on the program were three works from the NCB repertory: AMITY (from 2017, to music of Mozart), MEMORIES (JS Bach), and THE LETTER (a narrative work, set to Haydn).

Just before heading out to Miro's, I received some bad news on the family front. I thought briefly of just staying home, but then: what could I do at home but brood helplessly? Better to be where there is music and dancing.

The music of Bach is ever an antidote to daily cares. Pianist Melody Fader's playing of the selections from The Well-Tempered Klavier that form the score of Miro's ballet MEMORIES had both spirit and grace. Four dancers - Elizabeth Brown, Kristine Butler, Amber Neff, and Madeleine Williams - appear in Sarah Thea's sleek, colour-vision costumes.

Above: Kristine Butler in MEMORIES, photo by Arnaud Falchier

In the opening moments of this ballet, varying trios of women seem to shut out the fourth. A solo for Elizabeth Brown highlights this dancer's beautiful arms and hands. Amber Neff and Kristy Butler have an animated duet that evolves into a slow, stretchy, intimate partnership. Elizabeth and Madeleine dance in sync, then Elizabeth and Amber team up.

The tall women - Kristy and Madeleine - dance fast, followed by a vivid solo from Amber Neff. In this, Amber's striking port de bras, and a hint that her 'character' might be wounded, give a narrative feeling. A floor-based trio for Amber, Kristy, and Madeleine follows, and then another solo passage from Elizabeth shows her special gift for illuminating the music. The foursome bring the ballet to an allegro finish.

Earlier this Summer, I spent two afternoons watching and re-watching a DVD of Rihm's opera OEDIPUS, which I found quite engrossing. Yet even with that preparation, I was totally unprepared for the effect the composer's Über die Linie VII, as played by Doori Na, would have on me. This made for an unusual experience: the music came to increasingly dominate my mind - to the extent that the dancing seemed more like an accompanying dream.

The ballet, entitled FEEL YOUR FALL, danced by Amber Neff, Madeleine Williams, and Rachele Perla, is rather floor-oriented, with the girls leaning upon one another in encircling embraces, their bodies and spirits enmeshed and entwined. As they rise and dance, one captivating motif stood out: a repeated gathering gesture from the dark-eyed, lovely Ms. Perla which created for me a link to Isadora's port de bras language.

"So enthralled by the music!" I scrawled across my notes. From tonal depths of passion to hair's-breath pianissimi, Doori gave a truly compelling performance of this long and demanding piece. I've come to think of Doori as a violinist who can play anything, and this evening his remarkable playing served as confirmation. He called his preparation of the piece "a journey", and he repays his listeners by taking us on a journey of our own. Simply extraordinary.

I did have two thoughts on the overall effect of this ballet: I feel it could benefit from having more dancers involved - if for no other reason than that they could dance to this music, which must be a revelation. And I think darker, more dramatic costumes would be fantastic: this actually could be a proverbial 'black' ballet. But these are simply idle thoughts: FEEL YOUR FALL is fine just as it stands.

It took a few minutes for me to return to Earth from this cosmic experience. As a diversion, Melody Fader played Haydn for THE LETTER, a ballet in which Elizabeth Brown and Traci Finch might be viewed as mistress and maid. It has its comic aspects, but the mystery remains to the end: we never learn the contents of the letter.

The evening concluded with AMITY, Miro's graceful, golden ballet set to Mozart's violin sonata K. 296 which Doori and Melody played with distinction. Mlles. Butler, Finch, Neff, and Williams floated and flitted about the space, dancing Miro's combinations with joyous abandon, so close we could almost reach out and touch them. AMITY was commissioned by dance-lover Edward Petrou in memory of his wife Rachel; this evening, Miro added a further dedication: to the great Arthur Mitchell, who passed away on September 19th.

~ Oberon

Nobuyuki Tsujii|ORPHEUS @ Carnegie Hall

Above: pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii, photographed by Georgia Bertazzi

~ Author: Oberon

Thursday September 20th, 2018 - Pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii joining the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for their season-opening concert at Carnegie Hall.

Arvo Pärt's Frates opened the evening. Undoubtedly the composer's best-known work, it was used by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon for his 2003 ballet LITURGY, created on New York City Ballet's Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto.  In that context, I've heard the music performed live many times; but tonight was my first experience of hearing it in a concert setting.

From its ethereal start, Fratres develops slowly as its theme is repeated in varying registers and instrumentations, punctuated by percussion accents. In this evening's concert, the 2007 arrangement was performed, which includes winds. String and wind ensembles alternate 'verses' as the bass and deep celli sustain a low, grounding note of spiritual resonance. The depth of tone summoned up by the Orpheus players gave Fratres a feel of Russian bassos engaged in ritual chant.

Mr. Tsujii then joined the orchestra for a performance of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F-Minor, Op. 21, in an arrangement by Shuying Li. The pianist, who is blind, was escorted to the piano where he sat, rocking gently as he awaited his entrance; he seemed to take the measure of the keyboard before launching his impressive and marvel-filled performance.

 

Nobu (as he is known) gives this music a gorgeous sense of flow. In his first solo passage, his sensitivity and attention to detail were in abundant evidence. He summons up a cushiony sound, and has a keen sense of the mixture of passion and reserve by which the opening Maestoso profits. Blending with the bassoon and then with the horn, Nobu regaled us with sumptuous tone and shining dexterity.

 

In the central Larghetto, the pianist imbued the music with a sense of quiet rapture, building to a state of transportive romance. Over tremolo strings, a feeling of mystery envelops us; silence falls before a delicate cadenza is introduced. The main melody recurs, leading to a quiet end. Throughout this movement, an atmosphere of hushed anticipation in the hall was a tribute to Nobu's artistry.

 

The closing Allegro vivace is styled as a Polish folk dance. Nobu took barely a moment to spring from the Larghetto into this virtuoso revelry, spinning out florid passages with flair.  His buoyant, dazzling playing danced on to the end, when the house erupted in massive applause and shouts of enthusiasm. A full standing ovation greeted Nobu's bows, and he favored us with a jazzy encore: a concert étude by the Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin. A second encore seemed in the offing, but the musicians walked offstage, leaving the crowd wanting more. I'll certainly be seeking out Nobu in future; there's so much music I want to hear him play.

 

Following the interval, Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1 in D-Major, Op. 11, was offered in an arrangement for chamber orchestra by Christopher Theofanidis. The Playbill refers to the piece now as a "Chamber Symphony", which is all well and good, though as my companion Ben Weaver commented, it's almost unrecognizable to admirers of the original quartet setting.

 

Mr. Theofanidis's arrangement - a veritable font of melody - is well-crafted and makes for a pleasing half-hour of listening, being lovingly played by the Orpheus musicians. Unfortunately, maintaining our focus was nearly impossible thanks to a series of distractions. A couple seated nearby spent several minutes intently watching something on their cellphone. Then suddenly the phone began playing Fratres; it took several seconds for the woman to shut it down, whereupon she dropped the phone with a thud. Meanwhile, during the Andante cantabile, a baby fussed loudly. Then the coup de grace: another cellphone played a blithe tune. Amid such shenanigans, concentration on the music we'd come to hear becomes an unnecessary chore.

 

UPDATE: I've just been watching TOUCHING THE SOUND, an extremely moving documentary about Nobuyuki Tsujii's childhood, the discovery of his remarkable gift, his winning of the Cliburn in 2009, and his outreach to school children whose lives were shattered by the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Watch a trailer for the film here.

 

A quote from Nobuyuki: "I can see everything...with my heart."

 

~ Oberon

Hamilton's House

Wednesday September 19th, 2018 - Having lived in New York City for twenty years, and been a frequent Gotham visitor since the 1960s, it's always fun to discover places here in town that I did not know existed. I happened upon Alexander Hamilton's house - officially called Hamilton Grange National Memorial - one day in August while visiting a friend who was recuperating from surgery. The house was not open to visitors that day, but it looked so distinguished sitting there in its grassy park that I knew I wanted to return and investigate.

I was pretty sure my high-school friend Deb Hastings would be interested in this landmark; I suggested we head there the next time she came into town...which turned out to be today.

Hamilton's house is located on 141st Street at Saint Nicholas Avenue in Manhattan. With the success of the musical HAMILTON, the house has become something of a tourist destination. Deb saw HAMILTON and loved it. Myself, it interests me not at all.

After strolling around the exterior...

...we went into the visitor's center for our "un-guided" tour, which started at noon. Only another woman and her teenaged son were in our 'group'...the boy reminded me so much of my first lover, TJ.

Films shown at such landmarks are not always of great interest, but the two we watched here were excellent: the first about Hamilton's life (and death) and the other about the incredible feat of moving the house to its present location from a couple of blocks away.

We climbed a steep, narrow staircase to the main floor, where three period rooms are open to the public:

The dining room...

...sitting room...

...and Hamilton's small study, with a little writing table, above...

...and a large desk.

More images from our visit:

Sitting room carpet detail

Though our tour was not guided, a woman from the National Parks Service was on hand, and she answered Deb's questions in detail. We then walked up the hill to Amsterdam Avenue and had a delicious lunch at the Grange Bar and Eatery.

{The statue shown in the photo at the top of this article stands in the churchyard at St Luke's Episcopalian, adjacent to where Hamilton's house was located prior to its being moved to the current location.}

~ Oberon

Übermächte sind im Spiel!

Above: Alfred Roller design for Die Amme (the Nurse) in DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN

DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN (The Woman Without a Shadow) is Richard Strauss's massive fairy tale of an opera. The "schatten" (shadow) of the opera's title symbolizes a woman's ability to bear children. The Empress, a half-human half-spirit creature, is shadowless; thus her marriage to the human Emperor is childless. As the opera opens, the Empress's nurse receives word that Keikobad, the spirit-king and father of the Empress, will re-claim his daughter for the spirit world if she cannot cast a shadow within three days; and in addition, her husband will be turned to stone.

Die Amme, the Nurse, is the Empress's faithful companion. She grudgingly agrees to help her mistress obtain a shadow from the human world; their quest settles on the wife of the lowly dyer, Barak. Promising the unhappily-married Dyer's Wife untold riches and a handsome youth to be her lover, The Nurse arranges that the shadow of the Wife will be transferred to the Empress.

After bitterly renouncing Barak, the Wife submits to the Nurse's magic spell of transference. Suddenly a magic sword flies into Barak's hands; his brothers urge him to kill the deranged, possessed Wife. Overwhelmed by the situation, the Wife relents at the last moment and begs her husband to slay her; Barak raises the sword, but Keikobad intervenes: the sword is shattered, the house begins to crumble. Crying out "Higher powers are in play! Hither, to me!", the Nurse leads the Empress away from the destruction.

The brief scene of the Wife's change of heart is excitingly sung here by Marilyn Zschau, and the Nurse's spectacular cry of "Übermächte sind im Spiel! Her zu mir!" climaxes on a sustained high B-flat from Mignon Dunn in this, one of the most thrilling "curtains" in all opera.

Marilyn Zschau & Mignon Dunn - FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN ~ finale Act II - Chicago 1984

M.N. as E.M.

Soprano Maralin Niska in the final scene of Leoš Janáček's The Makropoulos Affair. The role of Emilia Marty, in Frank Corsaro's multi-media production for New York City Opera, was one of the great triumphs of the Niska career.

Maralin Niska as Emilia Marty - finale of The Makropoulos Affair - NYCO 9~5~71

Audrey Stottler Has Passed Away

September 15th, 2018 - I've learned of the death of Audrey Stottler (above), who I met in 2003 when she was in New York City to cover - and sing a single performance of - the Dyer's Wife in FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN at The Met.

Audrey came in the opera room at Tower Records where I was working at the time, and my boss Bryan and I chatted her up. Bryan had seen her as Turandot at Virginia Opera in 1993. and I'd seen her 2002 Met Turandot - a role she sang worldwide - and we were looking forward to the FRAU. She was most gracious during our long conversation.

Audrey had a notable success as the Dyer's Wife; I recall being especially impressed by her juicy upper tones, the unusual richness of her lower range, and the sense of lyricism in her singing.

This scene from WALKURE displays her vocal attributes quite well:

Audrey Stottler - Die Walküre ~ Der manner sippe

And this is thrilling, grand-scale Wagner singing:

Audrey Stottler - Tristan und Isolde ~ Isolde's Narration & Curse

At the time of her unexpected death, Audrey was running a popular voice studio in Minneapolis.

Bryan took this photo of me with Audrey the day we met her. There are some lovely tributes to her on Norman Lebrecht's blog.

~ Oberon