The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Award-winning University Opera performs Benjamin Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw” this Friday night, Sunday afternoon and next Tuesday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
The black-and-white poster (below) looks fittingly eerie, spooky and creepy for one of the most famous ghost stories ever written. Look carefully at the blurry outlines of people – or are they spirits? The ambiguity is deliberate.
The poster advertises the opera “The Turn of the Screw,” which was written in 1954 by British composer Benjamin Britten (below, in a 1968 publicity photo by Decca Records taken by Hans Wild) and is based on a famous gothic novella by the 19th-century American writer Henry James. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear an excerpt from the production at the 2007 Glyndebourne Festival.)
The production of Britten’s last chamber opera promises to be exciting, engaging and innovative. That is thanks to the University Opera’s new permanent artistic director David Ronis (below, in a photo by Luke DeLalio), a transplanted New Yorker who recently won national awards for two earlier productions at the UW-Madison when he was the opera company’s guest interim director for two seasons.
Below is a link to the complete story, with links to the awards story and other aspects. It also contains information about the cast and about tickets ($25 for adults, $20 for seniors and $10 for students).
The Ear wants to point out just a few important highlights:
Performances are in Music Hall, at the foot of Bascom Hill, on this Friday at 7:30 p.m., this Sunday at 3 p.m. and next Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.
After each performance, a talk-back for the audience to ask questions of the cast and the artistic staff will be held.
The running time is two hours with intermission.
The opera will be sung in English, but will also feature supertitles so the audience can easily understand the poetic libretto and follow the story.
The talented and experienced UW-Madison graduate student Kyle Knox (below) will conduct members of the UW Symphony Orchestra. Knox has conducted the UW Symphony and the University Opera many times before, and has also conducted for the Madison Opera and the Middleton Community Orchestra. Some mention him as a serious candidate to succeed his retiring and acclaimed teacher, Professor James Smith.
Here is the link to the full story, with many more details including cast members, on the UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music’s website:
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Classical music: Fresco Opera Theatre will celebrate Halloween by performing the world premiere of “The Poe Requiem” this Friday and Saturday nights
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend, the acclaimed and predictably creative Fresco Opera Theatre will celebrate the Halloween season with the literary masterworks of horror short story writer Edgar Allan Poe (below top) accompanied by the world premiere of a score composed by local composer Clarisse Tobia (below).
The Poe Requiem is a unique theatrical experience that will be staged in the beautiful Masonic Center, located in downtown Madison at 301 Wisconsin Avenue, at 8 p.m. on this Friday and Saturday. (You can see a trailer for the Poe Requiem in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
This will be a complete environmental experience with singing, orchestra, artwork, dancers and other surprises along the way.
There will be a chorus with four vocal soloists. The chamber orchestra will include the Masonic Center organ, one of the oldest in the area. Kevin McMahon (below), music director and conductor of the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra, is the conductor.
During the production, Raw Inspirations Dance Company (below) will be performing and will have plenty of other surprises to get audience members in the mood for Halloween.
General seating is $25; Saturday student rush tickets are $15.
The Costume Contest is on Saturday.
There is a Post-Show Historic Ghost Tour of The Masonic Temple.
TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW at www.frescooperatheatre.com
Use the Password “Raven” to get $5 off each ticket
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Classical music: Happy Halloween! Vote for the spookiest classical music you know.
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ALERT: On Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Wind Ensemble Chamber will perform a FREE concert of “Integrales” b, Edgard Varese; “Rondino” by Ludwig von Beethoven; and Kammersymphonie (Chamber Symphony), Op. 9, by Arnold Schoenberg. Scott Teeple (below) is the conductor and Scott Pierson is the guest conductor.
By Jacob Stockinger
Today, Oct. 31, 2012, is Halloween in the U.S., although many celebrations took place last Saturday night to benefit from the weekend.
It is the night of scary hobgoblins and ghosts. It is also the time when disguises and costumes often reveal rather than hide one’s true identity.
But most of all it is a chance for spooky art – Houses of Horrors, Ghost stories and Horror Movies – and The Ear wants to know what you think is the scariest or spookiest music ever written.
For many people, it is Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain.” Here is a link to one performance on YouTube:
The Ear knows one person who likes to play loud organ music – Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor – for young Trick-or-Treaters. And he is not alone. Take a look and listen at various versions of the famous organ piece at NPR’s “Deceptive Cadence” blog where you’ll be treated, not tricked, by the blog’s makeover and new appearance:
You can also hear Halloween-related music today on Wisconsin Public Radio, especially on The Midday (noon to 1 p.m.), which will, I expect, have a Quiz Question related to Halloween. For information or to stream programs, visit ww.wpr.org.
I recently heard a wonderful and absorbing live performance by the all-student University of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra of the famous “Symphonie Fantastique” by Hector Berlioz (below)that includes hallucinatory drugs and a death march to the scaffold and gallows.
And I was struck how the clarinets are used to create a very eerie, even frightening sound, in the Witches Sabbath section. It is a masterful use of orchestration by Berlioz.
Take a listen and let me know.
What do you think is the spookiest or eeriest piece of classical music for Halloween?
Vote for your favorite by leaving a COMMENT in the blog section of this blog, preferably with a link a YouTube performance, if possible.
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