The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The new opera “Fallujah” is based on the Iraq War. Will the Madison Opera or the University Opera be interested in staging it? Plus, this afternoon is your last chance to hear “Carmina Burana” performed by the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Read three rave reviews.
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ALERT: This afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall is your last chance to hear the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in “Carmina Burana” in the MSO’s spectacular season-closing program. Read three rave reviews by local critics:
Here is what John W. Barker wrote for Isthmus:
http://isthmus.com/music/big-orchestra-monuments/
Here is what Greg Hettmansberger wrote for Madison Magazine and his blog WhatGregSays:
https://whatgregsays.wordpress.com/2016/04/30/farewells-to-a-season-and-some-friends/
And here is what Jessica Courtier wrote for The Capital Times:
By Jacob Stockinger
Who says you can’t mix art and current events?
Especially if the current events also count as history, which has often been an inspiration for fiction and art.
Iraq and Afghanistan — the United States’ longest wars — are back in the news again making big headlines. And PTSD or Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is a story that never goes away.
But not all of the news has to do with politics, suicide bombings, increased troop commitments and fierce fighting in a civil war.
It also has to do with art.
Specifically, opera — that potent combination of theater and music.
The Long Beach Opera commissioned and recently premiered a new chamber opera based on the Iraq War and PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder), and us based on the life and work of U.S. Marine Christian Ellis . It is called “Fallujah” and it is the first such opera to be written. (A photo below is by Keith Ian Polakoff for the Long Beach Opera.)
You can hear librettist Heather Raffo and composer Tobin Stokes discuss the opera in the YouTube video at the bottom.
It makes The Ear wonder if it might find its way into an upcoming season of the Madison Opera, which tends to use its smaller winter productions to stage works that are newer, smaller, more adventurous and more exploratory.
Or maybe the University Opera at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music might find it a good choice for a student production?
Anyway, here is a fine write-up that you can find on NPR or National Public Radio:
Tags: 2003 invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Art, Arts, Baghdad, blog, choral music, Christian Ellis, Classical music, critic, current events, Falluja, Fallujah, fiction, Greg Hettmansberger, Heather Raffo, historical fiction, History, Iraq, Iraq war, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Jessica Courtier, John W. Barker, Long Beach Opera, Madison, Madison Magazine, Madison Opera, Marine, Music, NPR, opera, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatment, Post-Traumatic Stress DIsorder, Posttraumatic stress disorder, PTSD, review, Saddam Hussein, suicide bombings, The Capital Times, theater, Tobin Stokes, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University Opera, US, vocal music, war, Weapon of mass destruction, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Meet Zuhal Sultan, the founder of the Iraqi Youth Orchestra
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By Jacob Stockinger
Wouldn’t it be nice for a change to hear good news from Iraq?
Usually we hear about sectarian violence, suicide bombings and widespread government corruption.
So for a change of pace, meet Zuhal Sultan (below), the woman who founded the Iraqi Youth Orchestra.
Her words remind us of what must have been in the mind of Marvin Rabin when he founded the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra, which is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Sultan’s words about the importance of music education and music performance have meaning not only to Iraq and other nations at war but also to us.
Not that she and the Iraqi Youth Orchestra (below) don’t continue to face major obstacles, especially from The Islamic State (or ISIS or ISIL) as they were preparing for a tour. (You can hear the orchestra during a festival in Scotland in a YouTube video at the bottom. Be sure to check out the comments by readers and listeners as wells by Zuhal Sultan.)
But NPR, or National Public Radio, has done a public service by offering us a fine interview with her, by showing harmony amid conflict.
Here is a link to the story done by the reporter and new host of “All Things Considered” Ari Shapiro. You can read the set up piece, but you a should also listen to the audio:
Tags: All Things Considered, Ari Shapiro, Arts, Baghdad, Bomber, bombing, Cello, Classical music, festival, harmony, Iraq, ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Music, NPR, Orchestra, Scotland, Suicide attack, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, WYSO, YouTube
Classical music: Remember the Cellist of Sarajevo from 23 years ago? Now there is a Cellist of Baghdad. Read or hear all about him on NPR.
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By Jacob Stockinger
How music persists and endures in even the hardest and bloodiest and most unlikely of circumstances!
Perhaps you remember that during the Balkan wars, when Serbian snipers threatened daily life in Sarajevo, there was Vedran Smailovic (below), better known as the Cellist of Sarajevo, who defied the killers and resisted terror with beauty.
Now in the midst of the chaos created by religious conflict and the barbarism of ISIS comes The Baghdad Cellist. If you listen to the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear him playing — and it seems to be music, an excerpt from the solo suites for cello, by Johann Sebastian Bach, perhaps the most universal of composers.
And why the cello in both cases? Perhaps, The Ear thinks, because it so approximates the human voice and seems a perfect stand-in for a human being in such inhuman situations. What do you think?
Read or hear about Karim Wasfi, the extraordinarily brave professional musician who performs at the sites of terrorist car bombings and who was recently featured on NPR or National Public Radio:
http://www.npr.org/2015/06/08/412284066/amid-violence-in-baghdad-a-musician-creates-a-one-man-vigil
Tags: Arts, Bach, Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, Baghdad, Balkan Wars, Baroque, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnians, Cellist of Baghdad, Cellist of Sarajevo, Cello, Classical music, DASH, Iraq, Iraq war, ISIL, ISIS, Islam, Islamic State, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Karim Wasfi, Madison, NPR, Sarajevo, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Suite, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, YouTube
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