Klarinet Archive - Posting 000152.txt from 2007/01

From: "Forest Aten" <forestaten@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Dallas Opera this evening.....at the Meyerson
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:52:54 -0500

I've played with the Dallas Opera since 1978...and we have NEVER =
cancelled a
performance....even if 15 showed up at the hall for an audience.

They have a ton of money invested in this and I believe that it's a =
go...

Forest

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Daniluk [mailto:bdaniluk@-----.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 9:03 AM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: RE: [kl] Dallas Opera this evening.....at the Meyerson
>=20
> Forest - is there any indication of this performance being
> cancelled/rescheduled because of inclement weather?
> BD
>=20
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Forest Aten [mailto:forestaten@-----.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 7:48 AM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] Dallas Opera this evening.....at the Meyerson
>=20
> A treat and an especially rare offering tonight....
> If you are in the Dallas, Tx area....this is a presentation worth
> attending.
>=20
> Forest
> 888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
>=20
> Musical stronghold
>=20
> Bartok's 'Bluebeard's Castle' is rarely performed and hauntingly =
beautiful
>=20
>=20
> 05:58 PM CST on Tuesday, January 16, 2007
>=20
> By SCOTT CANTRELL / The Dallas Morning News
>=20
> One of the most sensuous and strangely beautiful operas of the last
> century
> is by a composer who wouldn't immediately spring to mind. Gentle =
paddings
> of
> string tone, seductive twinings of winds and voluptuous harmonic
> progressions suggest the Claude Debussy of Pell=E9as et M=E9lisande, =
completed
> nine years earlier. The extravagant orchestrations of Richard Strauss =
are
> another conspicuous influence.
>=20
> But Bluebeard's Castle is an early work by the Hungarian composer =
B=E9la
> Bart=F3k, who lived from 1881 to 1943.
>=20
> Only an hour long, with little action, calling for only two singers =
but a
> huge orchestra, it's an awkward fit for opera-company seasons. Its =
rare
> performances are usually in symphony-orchestra concerts.
>=20
> But, as part of its 50th season, the Dallas Opera is presenting a
> theatrically enhanced concert performance =96 not in the usual Fair =
Park
> Music
> Hall, but at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. The concert, a
> fundraising gala, will feature two internationally celebrated singers:
> English bass Robert Lloyd as the mysterious Duke Bluebeard and =
American
> mezzo Denyce Graves as his new wife, Judith.
>=20
> Music director Graeme Jenkins will conduct the Dallas Opera Orchestra,
> with
> extra brass and rumbles from the Meyerson's big C.B. Fisk organ. The
> performance will be sung in the original Hungarian, with simultaneous
> English translations projected overhead.
>=20
> "We have a complete lighting plot by Marie Barrett," Mr. Jenkins says.
> "And
> there will be these doors hung above the orchestra. At the opening of =
each
> door there's a new color of light, which is specified in the =
libretto."
>=20
> Although Wednesday's performance will be the first for the Dallas =
Opera,
> Bluebeard's Castle actually had its American premiere in Dallas, at =
the
> Music Hall. The 1949 performance was by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra,
> then
> led by Bart=F3k's countryman Antal Dorati.
>=20
> "Dallas in the 1940s was an amazing place," Mr. Jenkins says. "What =
Margo
> Jones did at the Magnolia Lounge was extraordinary, and then there was
> what
> Nicola Rescigno and Larry Kelly did with the Dallas Opera in the late
> 1950s."
>=20
> As with Debussy's Pell=E9as et Melisande, though in a much shorter =
time
> span,
> Bluebeard's Castle has a dreamy, mysterious quality. We're not quite =
sure
> who these people are, or where or when =96 except "in legendary =
times."
>=20
> Bart=F3k's librettist, B=E9la Bal=E1zs, was strongly influenced by the =
Belgian
> symbolist poet Maurice Maeterlinck, whose Pell=E9as et M=E9lisande =
Debussy
> turned into his opera. Maeterlinck's own play on the Bluebeard legend,
> Ariane et le Barbe-Bleu, was turned into an opera by the French =
composer
> Paul Dukas.
>=20
> Bart=F3k's miniopera opens with a brief spoken introduction, after =
which
> Bluebeard and Judith enter a gloomy castle hall. She's deeply in love, =
but
> soon unsettled to discover that there are no windows. There are, =
however,
> seven doors, which she insists on opening, one by one. "Show me all =
your
> hidden secrets," she demands.
>=20
> All along, Bluebeard tries to head off her inquiries. "Sohse =
k=E9rdezz," he
> keeps singing, in the Hungarian libretto. "Ask no questions."
>=20
> Opening the first five doors in turn, Judith finds:
>=20
> =95daggers, shackles and branding irons, in what Bluebeard reveals is =
his
> torture chamber;
>=20
> =95spears, daggers and armor, in Bluebeard's armory;
>=20
> =95mountains of gold, gems and crowns, in the castle treasury;
>=20
> =95a luxurious secret garden; and
>=20
> =95Bluebeard's kingdom, of "silken meadows, velvet forests/tranquil =
streams
> of
> winding silver./Lofty mountains blue and hazy."
>=20
> "Up until the fifth door, things are going OK," Mr. Jenkins says. But =
on
> closer inspection, the beautiful vistas prove to be stained by blood. =
Even
> the dank castle walls weep blood.
>=20
> Bluebeard more and more strongly urges Judith not to open any more =
doors,
> but she is increasingly determined. The music becomes more agitated, =
even
> ominous.
>=20
> The sixth door opens onto a still lake of tears. Finally, from the =
seventh
> door emerge Bluebeard's three previous wives, in glorious crowns and
> robes,
> living and breathing, but dead to the outside world. To find out what
> happens next, you'll have to see the performance.
>=20
> "It's about second wives that want to come in and redecorate the =
place,"
> Mr.
> Jenkins says. "And they wonder what's in that locked closet, what
> skeletons
> are hidden.
>=20
> "Does he want this marriage to work, or is poor Judith on the road to =
the
> same destruction?
>=20
> "It's the way the darkness of her situation grows in the music over =
the
> hour
> that I find absolutely incredible."
>=20
> E-mail scantrell@-----.com
>=20
>=20
> Plan your life
>=20
> 8 p.m. Wednesday at Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora. =
$50
> and
> $70 ($200 including reception). 214-443-1000, www.dallasopera.org.
>=20
>=20
>=20
>=20
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
email
> klarinet-owner@-----.Org, =
Inc.
> http://www.woodwind.org
>=20
>=20
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org