by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Art Song Festival hosts a panel discussion about collaboration, two Bach cantatas in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel
. Almanac: Anniversaries of the debuts of two opera houses, and the birthday of soprano Beverly Sills
TODAY’S EVENTS:
At 1:00 pm the Art Song Festival will hold a Panel Discussion, “Let’s Talk About Collaboration!” led by pianist Warren Jones, including a Q&A. Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music. Free registration recommended.
Then at 7:30 pm on Wednesday evening, Ben Johns will direct the Oberlin Chamber Singers & Chamber Orchestra in J.S. Bach’s cantatas BWV 4, Christ lag in Todes Banden, & BWV 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme in Finney Chapel. Click here to view the program, and if you can’t attend in person, click here to access a live stream.
INTERESTING READS:
Music in the time of War? At the height of the Vietnam War, I recall seeing a brochure in my college library advertising a chamber music series in downtown Saigon. Similarly surprising was the news in a Guardian article that live opera performances — with certain protocols in place should Rossini be interrupted by an air raid — have resumed in Kyiv’s grand opera house. Read Bravo! Music at reopened Kyiv opera replaces noise of Russian artillery here.
Last Friday, the renowned percussionist Steven Schick released Hard Rain, the first installment in a multi-album series that represents his most recent thoughts on works he’s performed for 50 years.
In a New York Times article, Zachary Woolfe describes the album as “part textbook, part scrapbook, part lockdown diary, part communion with his younger self, part accumulation of new works. Looking to his past and sketching his future, it is intended as the magnum opus of a figure the composer Michael Gordon has called ‘the philosopher king of percussion music.’” Read The ‘Philosopher King’ of Percussion Starts His Next Chapter here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
May 25 is memorable for the debuts of two of the world’s great opera houses. In 1869, the Vienna State Opera opened its doors with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Watch a brief tour on Vienna/Now led by Adia Trischler, which includes a visit to the costume department and a look at what the Don might have worn, as well as a hint about future social distancing possibilities — performances piped outdoors on a jumbotron.
In the southern hemisphere, on May 25 of 1908, Arturo Toscanini opened the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with Verdi’s Aïda. You can take an extended video tour of the behind-the-scenes preparations for a 2019 production of Turandot here. (And on this date in 1944, Toscanini led a benefit concert in the old Madison Square Garden in New York that raised $100,000 for the Red Cross, and $10,000 more when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia auctioned off the conductor’s baton during intermission.)
Speaking of opera, coloratura soprano Beverly Sills (née Belle Miriam Silverman and nicknamed “Bubbles”) was born on May 25, 1929 in Brooklyn. A cult figure as a singer and later renowned as a manager, in addition to wowing audiences with her coloratura, she ran New York City Opera from 1979 to 1989 and served as chair of Lincoln Center from 1994-2002. She lived in Cleveland briefly in the late 50s, where her husband worked for The Plain Dealer. She departed this life in July of 2007.
One of Sills’ reliable show-stoppers was the aria “Martern aller Arten” from Mozart’s Seraglio. I’ll not forget her performance at Tanglewood in the early 70s — there are probably pirated recordings still in circulation — but you can hear her sing it here with Aldo Ceccato and the London Symphony in 1974. Be patient — there’s a wonderfully symphonic introduction lasting nearly two minutes before the soprano sings that has presented a challenge for stage directors since the opera debuted on 16 July 1782 at Vienna’s Burgtheater.