The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: “Into the Woods” is a big deal in many ways for the UW-Madison. There are five performances at the Memorial Union between this Thursday night and Sunday afternoon
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By Jacob Stockinger
Make no mistake.
The modern musical and theatrical retellings by Stephen Sondheim (below) of well-known childhood fairy tales do not offer your usual versions of Little Red Riding Hood, Prince Charming, Cinderella and Rapunzel among others.
Moreover the local production of the acclaimed 1986 Broadway musical “Into the Woods” – the woods being a dark, adult and disturbing Freudian metaphor of deeper meanings — is literally a big deal. (You can hear a sample of Sondheim’s music and supremely clever lyrics, taken from the 2014 movie version by Walt Disney, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
It involves both the University Opera and the University Theatre and Drama Department. The ambitious joint production – the first in a dozen years – took almost two years and involves over 90 people.
You can see the promising results for yourself in five performances starting this Thursday night in Shannon Hall at the Wisconsin Union Theater. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights; and at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Happily, there are a lot of ways to check out background and prepare for the show, which faced its own trials.
You’ll notice, for example, that the rehearsal picture below — taken by Beau Meyer of Elisheva Pront (Cinderella) with Jake Elfner (her Prince Charming) — was taken with no costumes, even though such photos were planned. But during the recent deep freeze and big thaw, Vilas Hall got hit with flooding from broken pipes and the costumes got clobbered, so such photos are delayed.
Still, the show must go on — and did.
Here is an interview with David Ronis (below, in a photo by Luke DeLalio), the prize-winning director of University Opera and other members of the production team and actors:
https://arts.wisc.edu/2019/02/15/into-the-woods/
Here is more information, including a plot summary, a cast and ticket information from the University Opera:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/2018/12/27/opera-theatre-sondheim-into-the-woods/
Here is a story from the Department of University Theatre and Drama, including interviews with the two women who play Cinderella:
From the Wisconsin Union Theater, here is the complex and complete ticket pricing information ($10-$40):
https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/into-the-woods/#additional
And here is a complete list of the student cast, who will sing under the baton of UW-Madison professor Chad Hutchinson (below) who will conduct the orchestra:
https://theatre.wisc.edu/2018/10/18/into-the-woods-cast/
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Classical music: It’s summer. Which composers and musical works have been inspired by insects?
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By Jacob Stockinger
It’s summer.
The Ear likes to watch the fireflies or lightning bugs and hear the crickets that come with the season.
But he is much less fond of ants and spiders, of bees and wasps, and especially of mosquitoes, which seem particularly plentiful and aggressive after the very wet spring Wisconsin experienced.
But it turns out that, over many centuries, insects have inspired a lot of composers to write music that mimicked them and their noises and movements.
Professional violist and music educator Miles Hoffman (below) recently discussed insect music on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Here is a link:
You can read the printed transcript, but the real fun and learning come if you listen to the audio clip that includes musical excerpts.
Some prominent ones were overlooked or not mentioned, including Romantic composer Robert Schumann’s “Papillons” (Butterflies) for solo piano, which you can hear played by Wilhelm Kempff in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Can you think of other composers and pieces that focus on insects?
Leave the name or title, plus a YouTube link to a performance if possible, in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
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