The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Retiring University Opera director William Farlow bids farewell to the University of Wisconsin-Madison with three performances of Hector Berlioz’s “Beatrice et Benedict” on this Friday night, Sunday afternoon and next Tuesday night.

By Jacob Stockinger

This weekend’s performances by the University Opera of the charming Shakespeare-based opera “Beatrice et Benedict” by the early and influential French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz (below top) are notable for several reasons.

Some of the rotating cast of student performers include (below bottom, in a photo by Max Wendt) Daniel López-Matthews as Bénédict; Lindsay Metzger as Béatrice, in purple; and Anna Whiteway as Hero, in red.

The new production is the final production by UW Opera director William Farlow (below, in a photo by Katherine Esposito) before he retires at the end of the semester.

NOTE: From what The Ear understands, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music is currently looking to replace Farlow with an interim director for one year, and then next year the school will launch a national search for Farlow’s successor.

Performances will be sung in French with English surtitles created by Christine Seitz. They will be held  in the Rennebohm Auditorium of Music Hall (below), at the foot of Bascom Hill, on this Friday at 7:30 p.m., this Sunday at 3 p.m. and next Tuesday, April 15, at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets for general admission are $22; $18 for senior citizens and $10 for students. See below for more details.

I was hoping and planning to have a longer story about the production, but things just didn’t work out.

I did have a brief Q&A with Bill Farlow when he announced his retirement. Here is a link:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2013/09/05/classical-music-university-opera-director-wiiliam-farlow-talks-about-his-retirement-at-the-end-of-this-season-and-the-rewards-and-challenges-of-staging-opera-at-the-university-of-wisconsin-madison/

But then I thought: Why re-invent the wheel?

It turns out that two terrific sources -– the UW School of Music blog “Fanfare” and critic John W. Barker (below), who writes for Isthmus and for this blog — both had previews and interviews that provided excellent background for seeing and hearing this production.

So here they are, both forming a kind of primer on “Beatrice et Benedict” (below, in a another photo by Max Wendt), which features a lovely duet that you can hear at the bottom in a YouTube video:

Here is a well done general appreciation by John W. Barker for Isthmus that appeared on that publication’s website The Daily Page:

http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=42432

And here is a link to details about tickets:

http://www.thedailypage.com/theguide/details.php?event=313813&name=University-Opera

Here is another story about the production, with details about the production staff as well as the music staff — including conductor and music director James Smith (below) with the UW Chamber Orchestra — on “Fanfare”:

http://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/2014/04/01/farlow/

And here another story about Farlow’s tenure at the University Opera, with lots of photos,  which also appeared on the Fanfare blog:

http://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/2014/04/01/farlow_beatrice/