The Well-Tempered Ear
Cellist Camille Thomas makes her Madison debut online from Paris for the Wisconsin Union Theater this Saturday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Wisconsin Union Theater’s fall virtual Concert Series performances will begin this Saturday night, Nov. 7, at 7:30 p.m. CST with a live online performance from Paris by the acclaimed cellist Camille Thomas (below).
The “Midnight in Paris” recital – performed in Paris and streamed — features music by Claude Debussy, Nadia Boulanger, Maurice Ravel and Frederic Chopin. The performance will be preceded by a live 30-40 minute online Q&A with Thomas and pianist Julien Brocal on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. CST.
Here are the specific works on the program, which will last about 75 minutes with no intermission:
Debussy, “Clair de Lune” (arr. Roelens)
Nadia Boulanger, “Three Pieces” for cello and piano
Ravel, Kaddish
Chopin, Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 65; and Introduction et Polonaise brillante, Op. 3
Tickets for this online event are $10 for UW-Madison students, $18 for Wisconsin Union members, and $20 for all other patrons.
For more information about the Thomas’ performance – including a video and how to purchase tickets — visit union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/camille-thomas.
Thomas (below), a Franco-Belgian cellist, says she uses her music to bring people together from a range of cultures and backgrounds. Thomas released her second album, called “Voice of Hope,” with the exclusive Deutsche Grammophon this past June. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear Thomas play a solo version from the album of Gluck’s “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from his opera “Orfeo ed Euridice.”)
Thomas plays the Feuermann Stradivarius cello (1730, below) — named for the famous 20th-century cellist Emanuel Feuermann who played it — with a bow by Eugene Sartory, who is regarded as one of the finest bow makers in history. Joining her for this performance will be pianist Julien Brocal.
“Camille Thomas’s extraordinary talent makes her one of the most captivating artists of our time, as evidenced by being the first cellist in several decades to be signed by the major record label Deutsche Grammophon,” says Wisconsin Union Theater director Elizabeth Snodgrass. “Her ‘Midnight in Paris’ program brings us closer to her roots and reflects the beauty and charm of her personality as well as her musicality.”
The Ear has listened to some of Thomas’ performances on YouTube and finds her tone, intonation and phrasing outstanding.
The performance by Camille Thomas is the start of the fall Concert Series events, which includes a concert with pianist Jeremy Denk (below, in a photo by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times) on Friday, Dec. 11.
In its 101st year, the Wisconsin Union Theater’s Concert Series is one of the oldest uninterrupted series of its kind in the United States.
The Wisconsin Union Theater (WUT) has served as a cultural center for community members and visitors for more than 75 years. The WUD Performing Arts Committee plans many of the Theater’s events, including the Concert Series.
While usually held in-person and most often in Shannon Hall, the Wisconsin Union Theater team will hold this fall’s theater events in a virtual format for the health and safety of patrons, artists and team members in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The team aims for all of its spaces, including online ones, to be accessible. Those that need accommodations can reach out to the Wisconsin Union Theater team at wisconsinuniontheater@union.wisc.edu.
The WUT team says it continues to evaluate what changes may need to occur related to the spring Concert Series events as well as other spring Theater season performances.
The Wisconsin Union Theater has made multiple commitments to take a stand against racial injustice, including being more than allies, being activists; using the arts to create social justice; remembering students are future leaders and must be part of the change; using its voice to influence leadership and being firm in its resolve; and making space, stepping back and learning how to give up undeserved or unnecessary power and privilege.
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Classical music: Acclaimed native son Kenneth Woods returns this weekend to conduct the Madison Symphony Orchestra. He talks to The Ear about what Madison meant to him and his international career
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend, native Madisonian Kenneth Woods (below) returns from his home in the UK to conduct three performances of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
The concerts feature two MSO debuts: the prize-winning young Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor; and the acclaimed guest conductor, Kenneth Woods, leading the orchestra for the MSO premiere of Haydn’s Symphony No. 96, “Miracle” plus Richard Strauss’ tone poem Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life).
Performances will be held in Overture Hall on Friday night, March 6, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday night, March 7, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday afternoon, March 8, at 2:30 p.m.
Single tickets are $19-$95 each and are on sale now, along with discounted tickets, at: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/the-miracle/; through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street; or by calling the Box Office at (608) 258-4141. Fees apply to online and phone sales.
You can view program notes for this concert online at http://bit.ly/msomar2020programnotes
A Prelude Discussion by Randal Swiggum will take place one hour before each concert.
Guest conductor Kenneth Woods is a busy and versatile musician. He is the Principal Conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra and the artistic director of both the Colorado MahlerFest and the Elgar Festival in England. (You can hear Woods conducting Carl Maria von Weber’s “Oberon” Overture in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Woods has won accolades for rediscovering and recording the music of the Austrian-British composer Hans Gàl. Woods, who has played guitar in a rock band, is also a professional cellist who solos with orchestras and plays chamber music. He writes a respected blog. And he currently plays and records in the Briggs Piano Trio for Avie Records.
For much more information about Kenneth Woods, including his blog “A View From the Podium,” go to: https://kennethwoods.net/blog1/
Woods recently spoke via email to The Ear about what Madison has meant to him and to his international career.
How did living in Madison play a role in your decision to become a professional musician?
Madison offered me a chance to hear music at an early age. I was taken to watch a rehearsal of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra as a very young kid, maybe three or four years old. That made a huge impression on me, especially seeing the rehearsal process. Later, my parents took us to all the UW Symphony Orchestra concerts for years.
There’s really no reason not to take young kids to concerts! For me, a love of live music led to a love of recorded music, listening to records at home, and from there, to an interest in playing music as a kid.
We were lucky to have a very strong music program in the Madison public schools when I was growing up here. The orchestras at Memorial High School played some really impressive repertoire under Tom Buchhauser (below top, in a photo by Jon Harlow). The UW Summer Music Clinic made being a musician social – it was a great immersion with one’s peers.
Most important, however, was probably the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO). Playing under Jim Smith (below bottom) was the most fantastic education in orchestral playing one could hope for. He and Tom are a big part of why I became a conductor.
Madison in those days wasn’t a super-pressurized scene, like one might encounter around the big pre-college programs in New York or LA. But what I might have missed in terms of conservatory-level instrumentalists in every corridor, one made up in terms of feeling like you could find your own path. By the time I was in high school, I pretty much knew music was that path.
How did your experiences in Madison help prepare you for that career?
I learned so much about rehearsing from Jim Smith. In his first year, we worked on Dvorak’s 8th Symphony pretty much all year. Every week, he opened our ears to new facets of the music. I’ve never forgotten that.
I went off to Indiana University to do my Bachelor’s degree, but returned to Madison for a Master’s, when I studied cello with UW-Madison professor Parry Karp (below top).
Those were wonderful years for me. I learned an enormous amount from Parry as both a cello teacher and chamber music coach (and especially as a person).
I played in fantastic chamber groups, did lots of wacky new music and had solo opportunities. UW Symphony Orchestra conductor David Becker (below bottom) even gave me my first meaningful chance to rehearse an orchestra when he had me take a couple of rehearsals on the Copland Clarinet Concerto.
And I played in both the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. I came away from that time with both new skills and new confidence.
What does returning to your hometown to conduct the Madison Symphony Orchestra mean to you?
It’s both very exciting and a little surreal. Under the leadership of John DeMain (below top, in a photo by Greg Anderson), the MSO (below bottom, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) has come so far since the time I was in it. And the new hall is such a treasure for all of Wisconsin – it’s practically a different orchestra.
I still have many friends and former mentors in the orchestra and it’s going to be wonderful to see them all and make music together again after so long.
But it’s more than a homecoming. It’s a chance to celebrate where we’ve all been and what we’ve all done the last 20 years or so. My musical life has mostly been in the UK for a long time, so to re-connect with my musical roots here is rather magical.
What are your major current and upcoming projects?
The English Symphony Orchestra (below) represents the biggest chunk of my musical life. This year we’re celebrating Beethoven’s 250th birthday and the orchestra’s 40th anniversary.
The ESO has a special commitment to new and unknown music, and right now we’re in the midst of something called the 21st Century Symphony Project, which involves commissioning, premiering and recording nine new symphonies by diverse composers. It’s one of the most ambitious commissioning projects I’ve ever heard of, let alone been involved in.
I’m also excited about this year’s Colorado MahlerFest in Boulder, where we’re focusing on Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” this May, which will crown a week of music exploring themes of color and visual art with music by Wagner, Messiaen and British composer Philip Sawyers.
Is the MSO program special to you?
I must say that it was incredibly generous of John DeMain to offer me such a fantastic program. Not every music director is gentleman enough to let a guest have Ein Heldenleben.
What would you like the public to know about your approach to music and about the specific works by Haydn, Mendelssohn and Richard Strauss?
Haydn’s music is maybe the richest discovery of my adult life. I didn’t get it as a kid, largely because most performances I heard were so dull.
His music is so varied, and his personality so complex, one mustn’t try to reduce him down to a simplistic figure. The late symphonies, of which this is one of the finest, are inexhaustible sources of wisdom, beauty, humor and sanity.
The Mendelssohn is really an astonishing piece. I’ve probably conducted it as much as any piece of music, with so many different soloists, all of whom had hugely different temperaments, personalities, sounds and approaches.
I’ve played it with some of the greatest violinists in the world and with young students. Somehow, whoever is playing, it always leaves me, and the audience, smiling. I’m pretty sure we can continue that streak with Blake Pouliot (below, in a photo by Jeff Fasano).
The Strauss is a rich, personal, wise, funny and moving work. It’s always a challenge, particularly bringing out all the astonishing detail in the score, but it’s also a real joy to perform. If the Mendelssohn always leaves me smiling, the Strauss always leaves me smiling with a tear in my eye.
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Classical music: Saturday afternoon, Live From the Met in HD closes this season with an acclaimed production of “Dialogues of the Carmelites.” Here is a background story, two rave reviews, and next season’s 10 operas
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ALERT:The Brass Choirs of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras will present an afternoon of brass music this Saturday afternoon, May 11, at 2:30 p.m. in Mills Concert Hall, 455 North Park Street, in Madison. Directed by Tom Curry, the program features brass musicians from WYSO’s Concert, Philharmonia and Youth Orchestras. The concert is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLC. Music to be played is by Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Giovanni Gabrieli, Charles Gounod, Edward Elgar, Paul Hindemith, Alan Hovahaness and Karel Husa.
CORRECTION: The Madison Youth Choirs will perform its “Legacy” concerts this weekend in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center on Saturday and Sunday — NOT Friday, as mistakenly listed and then corrected in the original post, which is below: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2019/05/08/classical-music-the-madison-youth-choirs-will-explore-the-theme-of-legacy-in-three-concerts-this-saturday-and-sunday-in-the-capitol-theater-of-the-overture-center/
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Saturday afternoon, May 11, the last production of this season’s “Live From the Met in HD” series, broadcast worldwide via satellite to cinemas, is Francis Poulenc’s “Dialogues of the Carmelites.”
By all accounts, it would be hard to end on a higher, stronger or more darkly dramatic note, given the outstanding music and performance of the score as well as the superb acting. (There is a brief preview of short scenes in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The world premiere of the opera took place in 1957 at La Scala in Milan, Italy. One of the most successful operas of the later decades of the 20th century, “Dialogues of the Carmelites” is a rare case of a modern work that is equally esteemed by audiences and experts, according to program notes from the Metropolitan Opera.
The opera focuses on a young member of the order of Carmelite nuns, the aristocratic Blanche de la Force, who must overcome a pathological timidity in order to answer her life’s calling. The score reflects key aspects of its composer’s personality: Francis Poulenc (below) was an urbane Parisian with a profound mystical dimension, and the opera addresses both the characters’ internal lives and their external realities.
The opera takes place between 1789 and 1794 in Paris and in the town of Compiègne in northeastern France, the site of the Carmelite nuns’ convent.
Its historical basis is the martyrdom of a group of 16 Carmelite nuns and lay sisters from Compiègne, who chose to offer themselves as victims for the restoration of peace to France during the French Revolution.
The Met uses the classic John Dexter production of Poulenc’s devastating story of faith and martyrdom.
Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (below right) sings the touching role of Blanche and soprano Karita Mattila (below left), a legend in her own time, returns to the Met as the Prioress.
The conductor for the performance is the Met’s highly acclaimed new music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who also leads the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Metropolitan Orchestra of Montreal.
The high-definition broadcast of the live performance from the Metropolitan Opera (below) in New York City starts at noon and runs until 3:10 p.m. with two intermissions. (It will also air at noon on Wisconsin Public Radio.)
The encore HD showings are next Wednesday, May 15, at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
The opera will be sung in French with supertitles in English, German and Spanish.
Tickets for Saturday broadcasts are $24 for adults and $22 for seniors and children under 13. For encore showings, all tickets are $18.
The cinemas where the opera can be seen are two Marcus Cinemas: the Point Cinema on the far west side of Madison (608 833-3980) and the Palace Cinema (608 242-2100) in Sun Prairie.
Here is a link to the Marcus website for addresses and more information. You can also use them to purchase tickets:
https://www.movietickets.com/movies
Here is a link to the Metropolitan Opera’s website where you can find the titles, dates, casts, production information and video clips of all 10 productions this past season — PLUS an announcement, with dates and titles, for next season’s 10 productions (which feature five new productions but no Verdi):
https://www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/
Here is a background story that focuses on the French-Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who leads the orchestra in this production and is the new music director of the Metropolitan Opera:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/arts/music/met-opera-dialogues-des-carmelites.html
Here is a rave review of “Dialogues of the Carmelites” by senior classical music critic Anthony Tommasini for The New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/arts/music/dialogues-des-carmelites-met-opera-review.html
And here is another rave review from New York Classical Review:
http://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2019/05/met-closes-season-with-a-riveting-devastating-carmelites/
Here are links to a synopsis and program notes:
https://www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/dialogues-des-carmelites/
https://www.metopera.org/season/2018-19-season/dialogues-des-carmelites/
And here is a Wikipedia history of the hi-def broadcast series that gives you more information about how many cinemas it uses, the enormous size of the worldwide audience – now including Russia, China and Israel — and how much money it makes for The Met.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Opera_Live_in_HD
Tags: #20thCentury, #AlanHovhaness, #AlbanBerg, #AnthonyTommasini, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOpera, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BlogReview, #BrassChoir, #BrassMusic, #CapitolTheater, #CatholicReligion, #CharlesGounod, #ChinaBroadcast, #ChristianReligion, #DialoguesoftheCarmelites, #EdwardElgar, #EnglishLanguage, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FrancisPoulenc, #FrenchCanadian, #FrenchLanguage, #FrenchMusic, #FrenchRevolution, #GaetanoDonizetti, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GermanLanguage, #GiacomoPuccini, #GiovanniGabrieli, #GiuseppeVerdi, #Hi-Definition, #HomeWebsite, #IsabelLeonard, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnDexter, #JulesMassenet, #KarelHusa, #KaritaMattila, #LaScala, #LiveFrom the MetinHD, #LivePerformance, #MadamaButterfly, #MadisonYouthChoirs, #Marcus, #MarcusTheaters, #MarcusTheatres, #MetLiveinHD, #MetropolitanOpera, #MetropolitanOperaLiveinHD, #MetropolitanOrchestraofMontreal, #Mezzo-sopranoSinger, #MilanItaly, #MontrealCanada, #MovieTheater, #MusicCritic, #MusicDirector, #MusicEducation, #NewMusic, #NewYorkCity, #NewYorkClassicalReview, #OperaMusic, #OvertureCenter, #PalaceCinema, #ParisFrance, #PaulHindemith, #PhiladelphiaOrchestra, #PhiladelphiaPennsylvania, #PhilharmoniaOrchestra, #PhilipGlass, #PointCinema, #PorgyandBess, #ProgramNotes, #RichardWagner, #RomanCatholicism, #SopranoSinger, #SpanishLanguage, #SunPrairie, #TheFlyingDutchman, #TheMet, #TheNewYorkTImes, #VocalMusic, #Wikipediaentry, #WisconsinPublicRadio, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #WorldPremiere, #YannickNezet-Seguin, #YouthOrchestra, #YouTubevideo, 20th-century, address, afternoon, Agrippina, air, Alan Hovhaness, Alban Berg, alert, Anthony Tommasini, aristocratic, Arts, aspect, audience, background, Baroque, basis, blog, brass, brass choir, Broadcast, calling, Capitol Theater, Carmelite, cast, Charles Gounod, China, choral music, Christian, Christianity, cinema, classic, Classical music, composer, conductor, convent, correction, dark, darkly, date, decade, devastating, dialogue, Dialogues of the Carmelites, dimension, Donizetti, drama, dramatic, Edward Elgar, encore, end, English, enormous, equal, esteem, expert, experts, external, Facebook, faith, forward, France, Francis Poulenc, free, French, French language, French Revolution, French-Canadian, georgegershwin, German language, Gershwin, Giovanni Gabrieli, global, Handel, HD, hi def, high, historical, History, information, inner, intermission, Isabel Leonard, Israel, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Dexter, Karel Husa, Karita Mattila, key, La Scala, language, last, lay, legend, like, link, Live From The Met in HD, live performance, Madama Butterfly, Madison, Madison Youth Choirs, Manon, martyr, martyrdom, Massenet, member, Met Live in HD, Metropolitan Orchestra of Montreal, Mezzo-soprano, Milan, modern, money, Montreal, more, Movie theater, Music, music critic, Music director, Music education, mystical, new, New York City, New York Classical Review, New York Times, Nobel Peace Prize, noon, note, nun, opera, Orchestra, order, outer, outstanding, overcome, Overture Center, Palace Cinema, Paris, Parisian, pathological, Paul Hindemith, peace, Pennsylvania, performer, personality, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Orchestra, Philharmonia, Philip Glass, Point Cinema, Porgy and Bess, preview, prioress, production, profound, program notes, public, Puccini, purchase, rave, realities, reality, Religion, restoration, review, role, Roman Catholicism, Russia, satellite, satellite broadcast, Saturday, scene, score, Season, share, short, showing, sisters, size, soprano, Spanish, story, strong, successful, Sun Prairie, sung, superb, supertitle, synopsis, tag, The Flying Dutchman, the Met, The New York Times, theatre, time, timid, timidity, title, Tosca, touching, Turandot, United States, urbane, Verdi, victim, victims, vocal music, Wagner, Website, Wikipedia, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, work, world premiere, worldwide, Wozzeck, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, you, young, Youth Orchestra, YouTube
Classical music: The Middleton Community Orchestra and solo flutist Iva Ugrcic turn in polished performances of a fun program to kick off the new season
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IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR SHARE IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.
By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT 89.9 FM. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. He also took the performance photo.
By John W. Barker
The opening concert on Wednesday night by the largely amateur Middleton Community Orchestra (below top), under the baton of Steve Kurr (below bottom), was a relatively brief but pithy one, with only three short works on the program.
The opener was Autumn, the most frequently played section of the ballet The Seasons, Op. 67 (1899), by Alexander Glazunov (below) and one of the composer’s most frequently heard pieces. It is a rondo-like sequence of varied dance movements, full of lyricism and bright colors. The Middleton players dug into it with gusto.
Second came the Flute Concerto in D Major, Op. 283, by the prolific 19th-century German composer Carl Reinecke (1824-1910, below). He was conservative as a teacher and as a prolific composer.
Among his concertos, this one was his last, written just two years before his death. It is an engaging work, not notable for great ideas, but amiable, with a good virtuosic workout for the soloist.
The soloist was the Serbian-born flutist Iva Ugrcic, an absolute whiz of a player, and, among other things, a product of the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music doctoral program. She played with super-precision and confidence, giving her instrument great personality.
Without intermission, the concert ended with the Symphony No. 100, known as the “Military,” by Franz Joseph Haydn (below). It was first played in 1794 among the composer’s “London” Symphonies during his second visit to England. But it may well have been begun while he was in Vienna, for it reflects a particular fad popular there.
This was the use in orchestral writing of an adaptation of the sounds of the Turkish Janissary band. In the second movement, whose tune was taken from an earlier chamber work of his, Haydn introduced recurrently the “Turkish” instruments (two clarinets, triangle, cymbals, bass drums) with startling effect.
At the movement’s end, a trumpet call brings these novelties back for a crashing conclusion. And then, in the fourth movement’s ending, the “Janissary” instruments return for another razzle-dazzle finish. (You can hear the fourth movement in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
It’s all great fun, and the orchestra players seemed to find their own enjoyment in it.
The MCO continues its steady growth as a polished and reliable ensemble — all 98 players!
Tags: #19thCentury, #AlexanderGlazunov, #AmateurMusician, #AmericanRecordGuide, #BalletMusic, #BassDrum, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BlogReview, #BrassSection, #CarlReinecke, #DanceMovement, #EmeritusProfessor, #FacebookPost, #FluteConcerto, #FranzJosephHaydn, #GermanComposers, #GreatIdea, #IsthmusNewspaper, #IvaUgrcic, #JanissaryBand, #JohnW.Barker, #LondonEngland, #LondonSymphonies, #LyricalMusic, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MedievalHistory, #MiddletonCommunityOrchestra, #MilitarySymphony, #MusicReview, #OrchestralPlayers, #PercussionSection, #PopularMusic, #RadioHost, #RussianComposer, #SteveKurr, #StringSection, #TheSeasons, #TrumpetMusic, #TurkishMusic, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #ViennaAustria, #WindSection, #WORT-FM89.9, #YouTubevideo, Alexander Glazunov, amateur, American Record Guide, Arts, Autumn, ballet, bass, bass drum, blog, Carl Reinecke, Cello, clarinet, classicalmusic, color, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, confidence, conservative, cymbal, dance, drum, Early music, emeritus professor, England, Facebook, fad, flute, flutist, Franz Joseph Haydn, German, great, gusto, History, host, idea, instrument, Isthmus, Iva Ugrcic, Jacob Stockinger, Janissary, John W. Barker, London, London symphonies, lyricism, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Mead Witter School of Music, Medieval, Middleton Community Orchestra, military, Military Symphony, movement, music review, Orchestra, performance, personality, photo, photography, piece, popular, precision, program, prolific, Radio, razzle-dazzle, review, rondo, Russia, Russian, seasons, Serbia, Serbian, soloist, Steve Kurr, symphony, Teacher, The Seasons, triangle, Trumpet, Turkey, Turkish, Turkish music, United States, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vienna, Viola, Violin, virtuosic, virtuosity, Wisconsin, workout, WORT-FM 89.9, Writer, YouTube
Classical music: Today is the first day of Spring. What piece of music best suits the season? Then take a quiz to see what composer and which spring music best suits you
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is the Vernal Equinox – the first of day of Spring 2018.
It arrives at 11:15 a.m. CDT.
A lot of classical composers have written works inspired by Spring, which often appears in the title.
Here is a link to a YouTube video with almost two hours of Spring music – including works by Vivaldi, J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Grieg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfe3MUMdWKQ
But recently a close friend reminded The Ear that spring-like music doesn’t have to allude specifically to spring. And the friend said that the “Trout” Quintet by Franz Schubert fits the bill perfectly.
So the Request Line is open, and here, for The Ear’s good friend, is the “Trout” Quintet, with pianist Yuja Wang, in the YouTube video at the bottom. It does indeed seem ideally Spring-like with its freshness, liveliness and bubbliness.
What music do you think best celebrates the coming of Spring?
Leave the composer, the work’s title and, if possible, a link to a YouTube performance, in the COMMENT section.
Why do you like it?
Moreover, did you choose correctly?
Here is a fun quiz, from the famed radio station WQXR in New York City, that can help you determine which composer’s piece of music about spring best fits you and your personality:
https://www.wqxr.org/story/quiz-which-spring-themed-classical-music-piece-are-you/
Tags: #AntonioVivaldi, #EdvardGrieg, #FranzSchubert, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohannStrauss, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #NewYorkCity, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #TroutQuintet, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YujaWang, Arts, Bach, Baroque, bass, Beethoven, bubbly, celebrate, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, concerto, double bass, Early music, equinox, Franz Schubert, fresh, fun, Grieg, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, link, lively, Madison, Mozart, Music, New York City, Orchestra, past, personality, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Piano, quintet, quiz, Radio, Sonata, Spring, station, Strauss, symphony, title, Trout Quintet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vernal equinox, Viola, Violin, Vivaldi, Waltz, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, work, WQXR, WQXR-FM, you, YouTube, Yuja Wang
Classical music: On Sunday, the Madison Symphony Orchestra will crack the code of Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations
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By Jacob Stockinger
So what is the mystery or puzzle behind the famous “Enigma” Variations by the British composer Sir Edward Elgar?
On this Sunday afternoon, the Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO, below) and music director John DeMain will explore Sir Edward Elgar’s famous and frequently performed Enigma Variations.
The concert is at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall of the Overture Center, 201 State Street. Ticket information is below.
Created by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, “Beyond the Score® Elgar: Enigma Variations” is a musical experience that involves a multimedia examination of the music. This is the third “Beyond the Score” production done by the MSO.
The first half is accompanied by photos and image projections, musical excerpts and narration by Wisconsin Public Radio’s Norman Gilliland (below top) along with actors James Ridge (below second), Kelsey Brennan (below third), and Brian Mani (below bottom) from American Players Theatre in Spring Green.
The second half features a full performance of Enigma Variations in its entirety, with audience members listening with a deeper understanding of the composer and the music.
There are really two enigmas within the piece, the most famous work by Edward Elgar (below) after his “Pomp and Circumstance” March No. 1 in D Major used at graduations.
The first enigma is about whom each piece was written, bringing about much speculation as each piece is named with only initials. (You can hear the famous “Nimrod” variation in the YouTube video below.)
The second enigma is a musical enigma about the theme being a counterpoint of a popular tune, an enigma that remains unsolved.
To prepare with more information, variation by variation, here is a link to the Program Notes written by UW-Whitewater professor and MSO bass trombonist Michael Allsen:
http://www.allsenmusic.com/NOTES/1718/6A.bts18.html
This Beyond the Score® performance delves into those special personalities that are the basis for this famous musical masterpiece.
The MSO recommends that concert attendees arrive early for each performance to make sure they have time to pass through Overture Center’s security stations.
Single Tickets are $15-$65 each and are on sale now at https://www.madisonsymphony.org/singletickets, through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street, or by calling the Box Office at (608) 258-4141. Balcony tickets are $15 and $35, and are still available.
Groups of 15 or more can save 25% by calling the MSO office at (608) 257-3734. For more information, visit: https://www.madisonsymphony.org/groups.
Student rush tickets can be purchased in person on the day of the concert at the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street. Students must show a valid student ID and can receive up to two $12 or $18 tickets. More information is at: https://www.madisonsymphony.org/studentrush
Seniors age 62 and up receive 20% savings on advance and day-of-concert ticket purchases in select areas of the hall.
Discounted seats are subject to availability, and discounts may not be combined.
Beyond the Score® is a production of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Gerard McBurney is the Creative Director for Beyond the Score®
Tags: #AmericanPlayersTheatre, #BeyondTheScore, #BritishComposers, #BritishMusic, #ChicagoSymphonyOrchestra, #EdwardElgar, #EnigmaVariations, #JohnDeMain, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #OvertureCenter, #PompAndCircumstance, #ThemeAndVariations, #WisconsinPublicRadio, Actor, afternoon, Arts, British, Cello, Chicago, Classical music, code, composer, crack, creative, discount, enigma, examination, excerpts, experience, explore, Gerard McBurney, graduation, group, image, initials, Jacob Stockinger, John DeMain, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, masterpiece, multimedia, Music, musical, mystery, narration, Nimrod, notes, Orchestra, Overture Center, performance, personalities, personality, photo, photyo, piece, Pomp and Circumstance, popular, production, professor, program, program notes, projection, puzzle, security, senior, solve, speculation, Spring Green, Spring Green Wisconsin, star, Sunday, theme and variations, ticket, Trombone, tune, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, unsolved, UW-Whitewater, Viola, Violin, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, YouTube
Classical music: Pianist Alon Goldstein and the UW’s Pro Arte Quartet perform Scarlatti, Mozart and Brahms this coming Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Farley’s
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By Jacob Stockinger
Acclaimed Israeli pianist Alon Goldstein (below, in a photo by Cigna Magnoli) returns to Madison this weekend for a Salon Piano Series concert in which he will be joined by University of Wisconsin-Madison’s own Pro Arte Quartet.
There will be two performances: on Saturday, March 10, at 7:30 p.m.; and on Sunday, March 11, at 4 p.m. Both performances are at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522 Seybold Road, on Madison’s far west side neat West Towne Mall.
Tickets are $45 in advance or $50 at the door, with $10 admission for full-time students. You can buy tickets by calling Farley’s at (608) 271-2626 or going online at www.brownpapertickets.com
An artist’s reception follows each concert and is included in the ticket price.
Goldstein will begin the concert with solo Scarlatti sonatas, one of which he’ll play on a clavichord built by Tim Farley. (A half-hour before each concert, a video about the restoration of the 1908 Chickering concert grand that Goldstein will play on will be screened.)
Then the Pro Arte Quartet (below top, in a photo by Rick Langer) and UW-Madison double bassist David Scholl (below bottom) will join him on stage for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488, in a chamber music arrangement, and the Brahms Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34. (You can hear the opening movement, with an engaging graphic display of its structure, of the Brahms Quintet, played by pianist Stephen Hough and the Takacs String Quartet, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
According to a press release: “Alon Goldstein is one of the most original and sensitive pianists of his generation, admired for his musical intelligence, dynamic personality, artistic vision and innovative programming.
“He has played with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the San Francisco, Baltimore, St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, Toronto and Vancouver symphonies as well as the Israel Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles and Radio France Orchestra. He played under the baton of such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Herbert Blomstedt, Vladimir Jurowski, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, Peter Oundjian, Yoel Levi, Yoav Talmi, Leon Fleisher and others.
“The New York Times’ senior music critic Anthony Tommasini wrote of Goldstein’s performance: “Here was a beautifully balanced approach to the score, refined yet impetuous, noble yet spirited.” The Philadelphia Inquirer stated “Such performances take a kind of courage so seldom heard these days you want to hear him at every possible opportunity.”
About the Salon Piano Series
Now in its fifth season, Salon Piano Series was founded by Tim and Renée Farley to continue the tradition of intimate salon concerts at Farley’s House of Pianos.
The setting replicates that experienced by audiences throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and offers audiences the chance to hear artists whose inspiring performances are enhanced by the setting and the fine pianos.
Concerts take place at Farley’s House of Pianos and feature historic pianos restored in the Farley’s workshop. For more information, go to: www.SalonPianoSeries.org
Tags: #ChamberMusic, #ChicagoSymphonyOrchestra, #DomenicoScarlatti, #Farley'sHouseofPianos, #HerbertBlomstedt, #JohannesBrahms, #LeonFleisher, #LondonPhilharmonic, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #PeterOundjian, #PianoConcerto, #PianoMusic, #RafaelFrühbeckdeBurgos, #ScarlattiSonatas, #TakacsQuartet, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VladimirJurowski, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YoavTalmi, #YoelLevi, #ZubinMehta, 18th century, 19th century, Alon Goldstein, Anthony Tommasini, arrangement, artist, artistic, Arts, audience, Baltimore, Baroque, bass, bassist, Cello, Chamber music, Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chickering, Classical music, clavichord, composer, concert grand, concerto, conductor, critic, Dallas, display, double bass, dynamic, Farley's House of Pianos, France, generation, graphic, historic, Houston, innovation, innovative, intimacy, Israel, Israeli, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, London, Los Angeles, Madison, movement, Mozart, Music, New York City, New York Times, opening, original, performance, personality, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Enquirer, photo, Pianist, Piano, Piano Quintet, Pro Arte Quartet, quintet, Radio, Radio France, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, reception, restoration, restored, salon, San Francisco, Scarlatti, score, sensitive, solo, Sonata, St. Louis, stage, Stephen Hough, symphonies, Takacs, Takacs Quartet, Takacs String Quartet, The New York Times, ticket, Toronto, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vancouver, video, Viola, Violin, vision, weekend, West Towne Mall, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, workshop, YouTube, Zubin Mehta
Classical music: UW oboist Aaron Hill performs world premieres and little known composers in a FREE recital Sunday afternoon
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By Jacob Stockinger
This is Homecoming weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and it is busy on many counts, including several classical music concerts in the city on Sunday afternoon.
But one of the more intriguing is a FREE recital at 3 p.m. in Mills Hall by UW-Madison Professor Aaron Hill (below), who teaches oboe and also performs in the Wingra Woodwind Quintet.
Hill will be joined by collaborative pianist Daniel Fung (below), who is also a vocal coach at the Mead Witter School of Music at the UW-Madison.
Particularly noteworthy is the number of world premieres and relatively unknown contemporary composers on the program.
Here is the program:
“Poem,” for oboe and piano (1953) by Marina Dranishnikova (1929-1994, below). (You can hear it in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Oboe Sonata (1947) by Jean Coulthard (1908-2000)
- Gently Flowing
- Sicilienne
- Allegro
Intermission
* Soliloquies (2013) by Andre Myers (b. 1973)
- To be or not to be
- There’s Rosemary, that’s for remembrance
- In the Month of May
- Spring Discourse
* world premiere performance
* After Manchester (2017) Aaron Hill and Michael Slon (b. 1982 and 1970, respectively) * world premiere performance
Four Personalities (2007) Alyssa Morris (b. 1984)
- Yellow
- White
- Blue
- Red
Here are some program notes by Aaron Hill:
“This program highlights five different ways to program previously unfamiliar music, as explained below.
“Poem” by Marina Dranishnikova came to me through our local community. Oliver Cardona, currently a junior music major at UW-Madison, initially brought it to my attention. The work was discovered and edited by my predecessor, Professor Marc Fink (below), during his travels in Russia.
I first heard the Oboe Sonata by Jean Coulthard (below) at the 2017 International Double Reed Society conference at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis.
Charles Hamann, the principal oboist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, edited and recorded it as part of a large project to bring international attention to masterpieces by Canadian composers.
Andre Myers (below) attended the University of Michigan with me and we first became acquainted when I performed one of his orchestral works. His beautiful writing for English horn started our friendship and 15 years later, he wrote his Soliloquies for me.
The first two are based on famous scenes from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” The third is based on a poem by Minnesota’s first poet laureate, Robert Bly, which will be read aloud from the stage. The final movement is inspired by a dream vision he had of centaurs playing in a meadow.
“After Manchester” was originally a free improvisation I recorded and posted to social media in the wake of the terror attack at Ariana Grande’s concert on June 4, 2017.
Later in the summer, Professor Michael Slon (below), the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Virginia, transcribed my improvisation and wrote a piano part to transform it into a piece of chamber music. The work was completed just days before the violent events in Charlottesville.
Professor Alyssa Morris (below) currently teaches oboe at Kansas State University and her compositions have become widely performed as standard literature for oboists in recent years.
She wrote “Four Personalities” to perform in her own undergraduate recital at Brigham Young University and I first heard it while searching for oboe music on YouTube. The piece is based on the Hartmann Personality Test.
In her words, the colors correspond to the following types:
Yellow: Yellow is fun-loving. The joy that comes from doing something just for the sake of doing it is what motivates and drives yellow.
White: White is a peacekeeper. White is kind, adaptable, and a good listener. Though motivated by peace, white struggles with indecisiveness.
Blue: Blue brings great gifts of service, loyalty, sincerity, and thoughtfulness. Intimacy, creating relationships, and having purpose is what motivates and drives blue.
Red: Motivated by power. Red is aggressive and assertive. Red is visionary, confident, and proactive.
Tags: Aaron Hill, adapt, afternoon, aggressive, allegro, aloud, Andre Myers, Appleton, Ariana Grande, Arts, assertive, beautiful, beauty, blue, Brigham Young University, busy, Canada, Canadian, centaur], Chamber music, Charlottesville, city, Classical music, colors, community, composer, Composition, Concert, confident, Creation, Daniel Fung, discourse, dream, England, English horn, famous, flowing, Folger Shakespeare Library, friend, friendship, fun, fun-loving, gentle, Hamlet, Hartmann Personality Test, Homecoming, improvisation, improvise, internaitonal, International Double Reed Society, intimacy, Jacob Stockinger, Jean Coulthard, Joy, Kansas, Kansas State University, laureate, Lawrence University, Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, listener, Love, loving, loyalty, Madison, Manchester, Marc Fink, Marina Dranishnikova, masterpiece, May, Mead Witter School of Music, meadow, media, Michael Slon, Michigan, Minnesota, motivation, Music, National Arts Centre Orchestra, New Music, notes, Oboe, Orchestra, orchestral, Ottawa, peace, personality, personality type, Piano, poem, poet, Poet laureate, Poetry, power, premiere, proactive, professor, program notes, purpose, read, recent, recital, red, relationship, Robert Bly, Russia, scene, service, Shakespeare, Sicilienne, sincerity, social media, soliloquy, Sonata, Spring, stage, summer, Sunday, teach, terror, terrorist, terrorist attack, thought, thoughtfulness, transcribe, transcription, travel, type, UK, undergraduate, United Kingdom, United States, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, violence, Virginia, vision, visionary, white, Wingra Woodwind Quintet, Wisconsin, world, world premiere, years, yellow, YouTube
Classical music: Madison Symphony Orchestra’s music director John DeMain discusses the 2017-18 season with critic John W. Barker
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, an interview with the Madison Symphony Orchestra‘s music director John DeMain about the next season, conducted and written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog John W. Barker.
Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison.
By John W. Barker
Last month, I had a welcome opportunity to sit down with John DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad), music director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, together with his marketing director, Peter Rodgers, to discuss the orchestra’s recently announced 2017-18 concert season. (NOTE: Today is the deadline for current subscribers to renew and keep their seats. You can call 608 257-3734 or go to https://www.madisonsymphony.org/reneworder)
This meeting allowed me new insights into the various factors that go into selecting a season’s repertoire. It also gave me further appreciation of Maestro DeMain’s personality and talents.
It further revealed the unfairness of some criticism made that the coming season is “conservative” and repetitive of familiar works. In fact, his programming involves very thoughtful awareness of the differing expectations of the varied audience.
It has become customary to make the season’s opening concert a showcase for talented members of the orchestra, rather than for guest soloists.
The September program thus offers a masterpiece I particularly relish, Hector Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, a symphony with viola obbligato — featuring the orchestra’s principal violist, Chris Dozoryst (below).
But the inclusion of the neglected Fifth or “Reformation” Symphony by Felix Mendelssohn was decided as a link to this year’s 500th-anniversary commemoration of Martin Luther’s launching of the Lutheran Reformation in 1517. Also on the program is Leopold Stokowski’s orchestral arrangement of the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The October program contains a notable example of a familiar and popular “warhorse,” Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” This was indeed performed by the MSO two seasons back as part of the “Beyond the Score” presentations. DeMain indicates that the close repetition is made deliberately to connect with that past event, to expand further the audiences’ understanding of the work.
He is also juxtaposing the symphony with the appearance of the acclaimed Olga Kern (below), playing the Piano Concerto by Samuel Barber and with the “Mother Goose” Suite by Maurice Ravel.
The November soloist is guitarist Sharon Isbin, in two concertos, one new (“Affinity” by Chris Brubeck) and one old (Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo) She plays with her instrument electronically amplified, something very off-putting in my experience. But DeMain notes that all guitarists do that now in concert work, and he wanted to include the guitar to bring in new and different audience members.
Inclusion of suites by Aaron Copland and Manuel de Falla – “Billy the Kid” and “The Three-Cornered Hat,” respectively — also represent popular appeal.
January will bring a triumph for DeMain: the appearance of violinist Gil Shaham (below), after 15 years of efforts to secure him. Shaham will perform the Violin Concerto by Peter Tchaikovsky.
The all-Russian program also allows DeMain to venture for the first time into “The Love for Three Oranges” suite by Sergei Prokofiev and the Third Symphony of Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The issue of “warhorse” repetition is raised by the First Symphony by Johannes Brahms in the February program. But DeMain points out that it has been 10 years since the MSO played the work, a significant one that richly deserves performance by now.
He is also proud to include with it the outstanding Rossini opera overture (Semiramide) and the rarely heard Cello Concerto, with German cellist Alban Gerhardt (below), by the 20th-century British composer William Walton.
DeMain admits to mixed feelings about the “Beyond the Score” presentations of music and background context, but he is confident that the one offered (one night, outside subscriptions) on March 18, about the monumental Enigma Variations, by Sir Edward Elgar, (below) will work well.
The combination in April of Benjamin Britten’s powerful Sinfonia da Requiem and Robert Schumann’s First Symphony (“Spring”) with Antonin Dvorak’s sadly neglected Violin Concerto has special meanings for the maestro. It allows the return of the greatly admired Augustin Hadelich (below) as soloist.
But it also allows DeMain’s return, for his first time since 1974, to the Schumann score, with which he had a crucial encounter in a youthful appearance with the Pittsburgh Symphony.
Finally, the May program is an unusually exciting combination of Mozart’s too-little-appreciated Piano Concerto No. 22 with soloist Christopher O’Riley (below) of NPR’s “From the Top” with the roof-raising Glagolitic Mass, featuring the Madison Symphony Chorus, of Leos Janacek.
DeMain has made important commitments to the orchestral music of Janacek (below) before this, and his advance to the composer’s great blockbuster choral work is a landmark.
Amid savoring DeMain’s thoughts on the season – which also includes the MSO’s traditional Christmas concert in early December — and his wonderful recollections of past experiences, I came to recognize more than ever the remarkable combination of talents he brings to his Madison podium.
Beyond so many conductors, DeMain has had deeply engaging phases of his career in orchestral literature (large and small), in opera and musical theater, and in chamber music, while being himself an accomplished pianist.
With the breadth of his range, he brings a particular sensitivity to the contexts and diversities of what he conducts. He has become to his musicians not only a skilled guide, but also a subtle teacher, deepening their understanding without any hint of pedantry.
It cannot be said enough how truly blessed we are to have him with us in Madison.
For more information about the 2017-18 season, including specific dates and times, and about purchasing tickets for new subscribers and renewing subscribers, go to:
http://www.madisonsymphony.org/17-18
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: The timing and political climate could not be more relevant for seeing the Madison Opera’s production of “Fellow Travelers” this Friday night and Sunday afternoon
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PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
You might recall from a previous blog posting that this weekend, the Madison Opera will present its production of the 2016 opera “Fellow Travelers.”
(A preview from the Minnesota Opera’s production, which featured the same sets and many of the same singers at the Madison Opera’s production, can be seen in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Performances are this Friday night, Feb. 7, at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon, Feb. 9, at 2:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.
Here is a link to more background and details about American history, the production, the cast and tickets.
https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/01/14/classical-music-background-discussions-lectures-and-documentaries-lead-up-to-madison-operas-production-of-the-new-lgbtq-themed-opera-fellow-travelers-on-feb-7-and-9/
Today, all The Ear wants to do is to point out how timely this story about the “Lavender Scare” of purging and punishing gays during the Red Scare, anti-Communist witch hunt of McCarthyism in the late 1940s and 1950s.
The opera’s story is about a young man (below) who supports Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin and then finds himself romantically and sexually attracted to another man who works in the State Department, one of McCarthy’s favorite targets.
He then has to deal with hypocrisy, with the contradictions between his personal life and his political beliefs as he goes from being victimizer to victim.
The political climate for such a work exploring fear and prejudice couldn’t be more relevant .
A lot of the credit for that can go directly to President Donald Trump (below), the master of “Fake News.”
Trump is a right-wing fear-monger and name-smearer, constantly raging against “radical left-wing Democrats.” He has even called Sen. Bernie Sanders — a Democratic candidate for president — a “Communist,” even though Sanders describes himself as a democratic Socialist along the lines of Western European socialists.
It is also no secret that in addition to such unfair and insulting name-calling, Trump and his homophobic supporters – including Vice President Mike Pence and Christian Fundamentalists – are looking to roll back the civil rights and human rights of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer.
And they want to do so even at a time when an openly gay man who is married, Pete Buttigieg, is running for president and seems to have just won the Iowa caucuses.
Moreover, there is a direct link between McCarthyism and the homophobia of the Liar-in-Chief.
Remember that McCarthy’ lawyer was a closeted and self-hating gay man named Roy Cohn (below right, with McCarthy). There is some evidence that McCarthy himself was secretly homosexual too.
After the humiliating end of the Army-McCarthy hearings and the premature death of McCarthy, Cohn went into private practice in New York City.
And that is where Cohn became the lawyer – and a role model of thuggish public behavior — for a young real estate developer named Donald Trump (below left, with Roy Cohn).
Such partisan times as the present seem to call for and inspire didactic art – better called “message art.” The Ear hasn’t seen the opera yet, so he can’t say how well it fits the bill.
But at first glance, the opera sure seems to fit the times we live in and the personalities of many of those who determine such a disturbing political and social climate. As The Nation magazine put it, “Trumpism is the New McCarthyism.”
In short, the opera’s plot seems both pertinent and realistic, one that could take place in today’s Washington, D.C.
The Ear is anxious to find out more and to make up his own mind, including about the music to be sung by the cast and played by the Madison Symphony Orchestra under conductor John DeMain.
He also hopes many of you will see the opera, and then leave your reactions and comments here, be they positive or negative.
The Ear wants to hear.
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