Klarinet Archive - Posting 000330.txt from 2008/11

From: "Forest Aten" <forestaten@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Mitchell Lurie
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:46:38 -0500

A Figaro review by Scott Cantrell.....

PS...we can not wait to get into our new opera hall next year!

------------------------------------

Opera Review: 'Figaro' at Music Hall one of best Dallas Opera productions in
memory

05:12 PM CST on Saturday, November 15, 2008

By SCOTT CANTRELL / The Dallas Morning News scantrell@-----.com

The decors and dress are 18th-century, but the Marriage of Figaro that
opened Friday at Fair Park Music Hall is as lively, as au courant, as a
first-class TV sitcom.

Between a young cast that looks and acts as well as it sings and deft
direction by veteran man-of-the-theater John Copley - and with music
director Graeme Jenkins drawing effervescent, eloquently nuanced playing
from the orchestra - this is one of the best Dallas Opera productions in
memory.

Performance details: The Marriage of Figaro
Mozart's, and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte's, characters are so vividly
drawn, so in the moment, that they keep the audience guffawing, chuckling
and gasping.

Lyubov Petrova is an adorable dynamo of a Susanna, as sweet as she is feisty
and playful, turning on one dramatic dime after another. Her soprano can
blaze, but also lap teasingly and glow warmly.

She and her Figaro, Daniel Okulitch, light the sexual fires right away, as
she relishes pawing on the Canadian bass-baritone's well-toned bare torso.
Mr. Okulitch has a voice to match, as focused and finished as it is richly
textured, and he's an endearing operator.

My one reservation is with Michael Todd Simpson's too insistently hostile,
though well-sung, Count Almaviva. Yes, he's an unprincipled philanderer, but
isn't he driven more by immaturity and insecurity than by anger?

The Countess' wounded dignity is admirably realized by Susanna Phillips,
whose warm, ample tone fills even the Music Hall's vast reaches. Her
achingly gorgeous "Dove sono" would melt the hardest heart.

Jennifer Holloway's creamy-toned Cherubino really does look like an
adolescent boy clumsily exploring this new thing called a libido.

Even the lesser roles are wonderfully cast. Stephen Morscheck and Suzanna
Guzman are a Bartolo-and-Marcellina pair that can really sing. Joelle Harvey
is a petite Barbarina with a big, blazing soprano. Tracy Wise's foppish Don
Basilio looks like an 18th-century Oscar Wilde, a witty touch.

The chorus, prepared by Alexander Rom, sounds hearty and well balanced, but
there was some opening-night rushing.

Sets and costumes, designed by Carl Toms, are from New York City Opera.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Leeson [mailto:dnleeson@-----.net]
> Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2008 11:16 AM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] Mitchell Lurie
>
> Good to see your post, Forest. Figaro is a heartbreaking thing for
> clarinet
> players because there is so little to play, though when one does play,
> it's
> the choicest of music. I think the first clarinet part is some 6-8 pages,
> while the other winds have books of 20-25 pages.
>
> According to Dexter Edge, whose dissertation was on Mozart's Vienna
> copyists, when a second production was of Figaro was made in 1787, Mozart
> revised portions of the opera, even adding an aria with two spectacular
> basset horn parts. It's rarely heard but it's magnificent. The title is
> "Al desio" and it is sung by Suzanna.
>
> Here is a performance from Youtube (voice only):
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7Hshwi9wVY
>
> And here is another live from a performance at the Met in NY (voice and
> pictures):
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ1RFT531Sw&feature=related
>
> But Edge also told me that in the 1787 second mounting of the opera, the
> aria where Cherubino i is sent off to the wars was rearranged (by Mozart?)
> in which the clarinet parts were replaced by basset horns.
>
> See! Your note about Figaro got me wandering.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Forest Aten" <forestaten@-----.com>
> To: <klarinet@-----.org>
> Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2008 8:28 AM
> Subject: RE: [kl] Mitchell Lurie
>
>
> > Cheryl
> >
> > Good to see you post. We just finished a run of Mozart's Figaro at the
> > opera. What a bassoon part. I've never heard Kathleen perform better!
> She
> > was (and is always) incredible.
> >
> > Forest
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Cheryl Cifelli [mailto:Cifelli-c@-----.EDU]
> >> Sent: Friday, November 28, 2008 11:43 PM
> >> To: klarinet@-----.org
> >> Subject: RE: [kl] Mitchell Lurie
> >>
> >> This is very true. My bassoon teacher was Kathleen Reynolds and she
> came
> >> back after that recording and raved about how effortless he made it all
> >> sound. She also had her son, who was maybe 6 at the time, show me the
> >> present that "Mitchell gave you." I was a first year masters student
> and
> >> I still remember thinking that her little boy got to spend that kind of
> >> time with Mitchell Lurie! I was completely jealous!!
> >>
> >> >>> "Forest Aten" <forestaten@-----.com> 11/26/08 10:57 AM >>>
> >> Ben
> >>
> >> More about that recording....
> >>
> >> The Reynolds family had a long standing relationship with Mitchell.
> >> Michael
> >> Reynolds is the cellist with Muir....Kathleen Reynolds is principle
> >> bassoonist in the Dallas opera orchestra and is the Professor of
> bassoon
> >> at
> >> UNT and Terry Reynolds plays 4th horn in the opera orchestra and is an
> >> adjunct professor at UNT. Terry and I were roommates at North Texas
> many
> >> years ago. The Reynolds family talked Mitchell into doing this
> recording
> >> and
> >> it's good for us they did....
> >>
> >> Michael Reynolds founded and owns EcoClassics. All proceeds from
> >> EcoClassic
> >> recordings go to the benefit of "nature"....a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit.
> >>
> >> Forest
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> > -----Original Message-----
> >> > From: Benjamin Maas [mailto:benmaas@-----.com]
> >> > Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 10:49 AM
> >> > To: klarinet@-----.org
> >> > Subject: RE: [kl] Mitchell Lurie
> >> >
> >> > IMO, this is one of the great recordings of the Brahms Quintet.
> >> >
> >> > About a year ago, I was talking with the woman who recorded and
> >> > produced
> >> > the
> >> > album (Judy Sherman- one of the great classical producers out there).
> >> Out
> >> > of the hundreds of albums she has worked on, this was one that stuck
> >> out.
> >> > She told me that there was easily another 2-3 albums worth of
> beautiful
> >> > takes that were "left on the cutting room floor" when it came to the
> >> > editing. Basically, there wasn't anything on the session that wasn't
> >> > of
> >> > the
> >> > highest quality. What stuck out to her was not the just the good
> stuff
> >> > that
> >> > made the album, but the good playing that *didn't* make the album.
> >> >
> >> > --Ben
> >> >
> >> > Benjamin Maas
> >> > Fifth Circle Audio
> >> > Long Beach, CA
> >> > http://www.fifthcircle.com
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > > -----Original Message-----
> >> > > From: Forest Aten
> >> > > Subject: RE: [kl] Mitchell Lurie
> >> > >
> >> > > A great loss.....
> >> > >
> >> > > One of his last professional recordings was with the Muir
> >> > > Quartet...he performed the Mozart and Brahms quintets. An
> >> > > excellent recording!
> >> > >
> >> > > Beautiful playing all around.
> >> > >
> >> > >
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001C2TWOU?ie=UTF8&parent=B001C37Y9E
> >> > >
> >> > > EcoClassics (label)
> >> > > P.O. Box 6834
> >> > > Holliston, Massachusetts 10746
> >> > >
> >> > > Forest
> >> > >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >>
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> >
> >
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> >
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>
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