Here are the twelve concerts I think warrant a journey to the Hollywood Bowl this summer:

JULY FOURTH FIREWORKS SPECTACULAR WITH HARRY CONNICK, JR. – July 2^nd – July 4^th

If you’ve never experienced a fireworks show at the Hollywood Bowl, you clearly don’t know what you’re missing. This year’s headliner for the annual July 4^th concerts is Harry Connick, Jr.

His most recent album centered on songs of faith, but I would expect this concert to focus more on the material he’s best known for which are jazz standards and songs from the Great American Songbook.

Thomas Wilkins leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in these three concerts.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

For those not in the Los Angeles area, he’ll be performing at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park in San Diego on July 6^th; Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA on July 9^th and 10^th and at Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville, WA on July 12^th and 13^th. These are the only dates on his schedule right now.

ALL- GERSHWIN – July 11^th

Who could ask for anything more than pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, opera’s Isabel Leonard and Broadway star Tony Yazbeck in an evening of songs and music by George Gershwin?

The program opens with the Cuban Overture and is then followed by Variations on “I Got Rhythm.“ Leonard and Yazbeck conclude the first half with selections of Gershwin’s songs.

The second act features Thibaudet playined Rhapsody in Blue and closes with An American In Paris.

Lionel Bringuier conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

MAESTRO OF THE MOVIES: THE MUSIC OF JOHN WILLIAMS AND MORE – July 12^th – July 14^th

This annual celebration of all things John Williams will be a little different. Yes, Williams curated the program utilizing his own music and many classic scores he loves from the Golden Age, but he will not be appearing this year.

Williams had to cancel all upcoming appearances due to a health issue “from which he is expected to make a full recovery.” Does that mean light sabers won’t be at the ready for the inevitable selections of music from Star Wars? Of course not. 

David Newman, who regularly conducts the first half of these concerts each year, will be conducting the full program.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

BIG BAND NIGHT – July 17^th

If you love large ensemble jazz music, this concert is for you. The evening opens with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra (who have made countless appearances at the Hollywood Bowl).

Next up is The Count Basie Orchestra who will feature vocalist Nnenna Freelon. 

The headliner is the Maria Schneider Orchestra which is celebrating its 30^th anniversary. Earlier this year Maria Schneider released a 3-lp vinyl box set entitled Decades. You can’t stream that recording, you can only get it here. But you can hear this incredible artist and her musicians live. This is her only US appearance until September.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

STRAVINSKY & KHACHATURIAN – July 30^th

I’ve written before how Aram Khachaturian’s music isn’t performed often enough. As they did in the Walt Disney Concert Hall this season, the LA Philharmonic is breathing new life into his work in this program that features the composer’s Violin Concerto and the Spartacus Suite No. 2.  Martin Chalifour is the soloist for the concerto.

The concert closes with the 1919 version of Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite. Kevin John Edusei conducts.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

PROKOFIEV & SHOSTAKOVICH – August 6^th

One of my top five piano concerti of the entire repertoire is being performed by Denis Kozhukhin in this concert. It is Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26. (My favorite recording of it is by Martha Argerich.)

The second half of the program is Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. The work was completed the same year that Joseph Stalin died and is widely interpreted as the composer’s commentary on the brutality of the Soviet government during Stalin’s reign. It’s a big and powerful symphony.

Ryan Bancroft leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

HERBIE HANCOCK HEAD HUNTERS 50^th – August 14^th

Where were you on October 26, 1973? Maybe you remember the release of Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters which is considered amongst the best jazz-fusion/jazz-funk albums of all time.

Watermelon Man may not be a title recognize, but I guarantee you the music has burrowed its way into your soul. 

This is the ONLY reunion of Hancock with the surviving members of that record:  drummer Harvey Mason; saxophonist Bennie Maupin and percussionist Bill Summers.  Playing bass is Marcus Miller as original bassist Paul Jackson passed away in 2021.

The original four-track album runs less than 45 minutes. Which means there will be a whole lot more music performed by Hancock and his bandmates.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

THE ELEMENTS WITH JOSHUA BELL – August 15^th

Joshua Bell commissioned five composers to write individual movements based on the elements: Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Space.  Those composers are Kevin Puts, Edgar Meyer, Jennifer Higdon, Jake Heggie and Jessie Montgomery.

Bell performs the work with Rodolfo Barráez conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Also on the program are Aaron Copland’s El Salón México, which opens the concert and Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story  which closes the concert.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

SARA BAREILLES WITH THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL ORCHESTRA – August 17^th

What at one point years ago might have seemed like a pop concert, is now pure heaven for musical theater lovers. Sara Bareilles is a three-time Tony Award nominee having received two nominations for Best Original Score (Waitress in 2016 and SpongeBob SquarePants in 2018) and for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for the 2023 revival of Into the Woods.

Of course, she’ll perform music from throughout her career and this is her only concert on her schedule until late September.

But wait, there’s more. Tony Award winner Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton) will open the show.

Thomas Wilkins conducts the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

THE RITE OF SPRING – August 22^nd

The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky is one of classical music’s most important and enduring works. Hearing this monumental work outside is reason enough to see this concert. But fans of Stravinsky’s music are in for a full evening of his genius.

Teddy Abrams, Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra, conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a concert that opens with Stravinsky’s arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner. His Circus Polka follows and the first half closes with Leila Josefowicz performing his Violin Concerto. Then the main attraction is on tap for the second half of the program.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

DUDAMEL LEADS BEETHOVEN 9^th – September 10^th

Not sure what else anyone needs to know beyond Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. But here goes:

The soloists for this concert are bass Dashon Burton; mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey; tenor Anthony León; countertenor Key’mon Murrah and soprano Hera Kyesang Park. The Los Angeles Master Chorale also performs.

The concert opens with Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

DUDAMEL AND THE STARS OF OPERA – September 12^th

I couldn’t tell you the last time tenor Jonas Kaufmann performed in Los Angeles, but I can tell you the next time he will – at this concert where he will be joined by soprano Diana Damrau.

The two will perform selected arias and duets.

The concert opens with Verdi’s Overture to I vespri sicilliani which is followed by the ever-popular Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni. Respighi’s Pines of Rome closes the concert.

Gustavo Dudamel leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Those are the 12 Hollywood Bowl Concerts Not to Miss in my opinion. What concerts are on the top of your list? Let me know in the comments.

Main Photo: Hollywood Bowl 2023 (Photo by Craig L. Byrd)

The post 12 Hollywood Bowl Concerts Not To Miss This Summer appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

The Elements had its world premiere on September 1st with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra with Alan Gilbert conducting. The US premiere took place in late September and early October with the New York Philharmonic. More performances are being scheduled and on October 25th Bell will perform three movements with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Higdon is one of the most acclaimed composers of her generation. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2010 for her violin concerto. She is the recipient of three Grammy Awards and her opera, Cold Mountain, had its world premiere in 2016 at Santa Fe Opera.

Higdon didn’t get to choose her movement. She took Air as her movement and thought quickly and decisively about the role her movement would play in Bell’s commission.

In this conversation she talks about her approach to Air, thinking about Joshua Bell as the soloist and the role of air in her daily life. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: Joshua Bell had the idea of the elements and then adding space as a fifth component. But was it a lottery? How did you each composer get the element that you ended up writing? 

When Joshua called me he said, “Well, the elements have all been picked, so the only thing left is air.” And I said, okay, I’ll do air. At that point there were only four composers – we didn’t have space as part of it. At some point he decided he wanted space to be a part of the equation and they asked Jessie Montgomery. So I think the guys all picked the elements they wanted. Then they called me.

If it had all been open and you could have chosen any one of the five, which one do you think you would have chosen? 

Well, I think I could have come up with stuff for all of them. There was something interesting about air, though, because I’m a former flute player, so there was something striking about it and I might have picked that. 

I would say that if I were writing one of the other movements, it would be very different than what I wrote. Because to me the different elements feel like musically they would need to have different character just in the materials, the way it’s handled, the speed and the tempo. There are a lot of ways to go, but I think every composer approaches this according to their inner gyroscope. 

You weren’t dealing with air as wind. You were dealing with it as what we take in, what we breathe, what we need, what the planet needs. How did you go from conceiving the work as being about that component of air to what you actually put on paper?

I thought strategically, because I’ve written a lot for violin. My colleagues, I figured, would be excited to write some really virtuosic stuff for Joshua, which he plays fantastic. I thought to myself, what would the audience need to hold them through a long concerto? I love Joshua’s playing. His tone is beautiful in the lyrical lines he plays in all of the concertos and the solo stuff he does.

Maybe I should go and emphasize that and just make a quiet spot so the audience can breathe. I was thinking about the breathing thing. This is a much calmer sort of experience. It’s also a challenge for me because normally I write a lot of fast notes. 

For somebody who writes a lot of notes, how much does stillness, how much does silence, play a role in your concept of air? 

Actually quite a bit – especially in this. I used many more wind and brass voicings and less strings, partly to set off Joshua’s violin voice, but also just because they use air. I do put pauses in there. I make everything move slowly.

I was thinking a lot about the seasons. One of the things that strikes me is when seasonal changes come, the first thing we usually notice is the air when we step outside. The spring smells very different than the fall and winter. The bite of winter feels very different than the summer humidity that we often get on the East Coast. Part of it was just thinking about the distinctiveness of the air.

But I also thought about the fact that the word air is often used as a musical term meaning song, aria. The word aria came out of air, so that made for me a different kind of challenge than most people have. They have trouble filling things up. My goal is backing off and calming down. So I thought this would be a good way to do this. 

How does a work like The Elements come together given that five different composers are writing individual movements for it?

That’s the one thing about this concerto that’s fascinating. Every sound world is different because it’s a different composer. So you’re getting real variety in what you’re hearing. It makes the musical experience different than if you were listening to just a 40-minute concerto from one composer. The language is changing, the pacing, the rhythm, the interchange between the orchestra and the soloist. Actually it’s very, very effective. 

Is cohesion an outdated idea for contemporary works?

I think artists can’t really say anything is outdated. I think everything’s on the board. I like the idea of variety. We can have both. We could have cohesion within our own little movements.

One thing that gives Joshua a chance to do, if he does another piece with another orchestra and he wants to do one of these movements, he can do that. He can just pull it because the things work as self-contained units. They could also combine like maybe two or three of them if he needs a medium size work.

[As is the case with Bell’s October 25th concert with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra where he will perform the Bruch Violin Concerto and three movements from “The Elements.”]

In an interview that you gave to Annelena Lobb for the Wall Street Journal in 2005, she asked what you did to relax. After answering that you walked and went to the movies a lot, she said, “So it’s not music all the time?” And your response was, “I think that would be hard. The brain needs to breathe.” It seems as though, even 18 years ago, you were considering breath and air as part of your need to be healthy. 

My answer is still I take breaks. I compose about 6 hours a day, I have to take breaks. Our brain really does need to break because sometimes it has to solve the musical problems you’re wrestling with. If I go too long without walking, I get cranky in the same way that I get cranky if I go too long without composing. I’m really bad about taking the breaks, but I’ve learned through the years to make sure I do it because it actually helps the music.

What is the conversation that you would like to see amongst contemporary composers that maybe is a different conversation than the one that happens when contemporary works are sandwiched with the works by composers from anywhere from 100 or more years ago? 

I’m not sure how to answer that because I’m always on with older works. One of the things I have noticed when I attend concerts [is] the concerts that seem to be drawing more people are the ones that have some contemporary music on it. I’m not sure what shifted during the pandemic, but something did, and I can tell from quite a few of the concerts I have been to have been sold out. A lot of times I see orchestras just doing the same pieces over and over again, the audiences are shrinking.

One of the things I encounter a lot is the number of people who come up to me and say, “Oh my God, I’m so glad to see a woman on the program.” I didn’t realize how much it meant to other people. I just am writing the music. But other people take it as my voice is heard from the orchestral stage. I think that’s more important than a lot of people may realize because it makes it more relevant in the community. 

I always think of using music now to pull people in to hear an event or something that’s unusual and then program something else on that you really like. I fear that the audience is going to drop off too much. I think LA [Philharmonic] is doing an amazing job balancing that. It may be the orchestra that’s doing it probably better than anyone else.

You works get performed a lot around the world. You’re right up there with Phillip Glass and John Adams. Let’s say you’re in rarified air.

I’m lucky. I have like 250 performances a year, so I get pieces that are just repeated much more than Mozart or Beethoven ever heard in their lifetime. That’s actually an incredible, miraculous thing when I think about it.

I think that more people will get more performances if artistic administrators were looking around, were aware of more composers coming up. It’s ironic. I’m talking to you in L.A. The L.A. Phil is literally the last major orchestra in the United States who has not done my music. I think I’ve worked probably with 700 or 800 orchestras around the world. But the L.A. Phil is literally the only one that I’ve not had a performance with and I get asked about that now all the time. It’s unusual because [1999’s] Blue Cathedral, we’ve had 800 orchestras do that piece and even that hasn’t been in L.A. I’m sure it’ll get corrected in the next couple of years. 

Edith Wharton is quoted as having said, “The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.” How does the air of ideas inspire you as you move forward throughout your career?

It seems to me like anyone who is creative just lives in the era of ideas. Although I do know a lot of composers who struggle. If you’re able to actually write every day that tends to make the air produce more ideas. But I think you have to always be thinking. A lot of times people only get to work some small amount of time on a job. I think it’s hard to kind of air out the laundry and and get fresh ideas in what you’re doing. So it’s interesting. I know that’s a really good question. Isn’t that applicable to anyone doing anything creative, though?

Without that air and without those ideas, we’re stuck.

We’d be dead. It would not be an interesting world. Even the kids would come up with some cool idea of how to skateboard in a different way or something that’s also living in the air of ideas. That’s literally having your ideas fly through the air. But let’s look at the Wright brothers. Those are radical ideas. Same for astronauts and NASA. But I also realize that someone is cleaning a floor somewhere and they’re going, you know, there’s probably a better way to do this. The idea of raising kids, it takes constant creativity, always thinking. So I guess that quote is factual and is applicable to every human being that crosses this planet.

To see the full interview with Jennifer Higdon, please go here.

To learn more about The Elements, please go here.

Main Photo: Jennifer Higdon (Courtesy JenniferHigdon.com)

The post Composer Jennifer Higdon Lives in the Air of Ideas appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

“I’ve always seen all those nuances and everything that’s written on the page and I’ve tried to do them as best I could. But then in French what’s amazing is that it just works,” he said during a recent Zoom call. “It makes more sense. In Italian you had to make sense of it and in French it already makes sense. It makes it easier to sing, but it also makes it easier to understand, not just for us, for the audience. Things are clearer. The text is clear. The intentions are clearer.”

Verdi’s opera tells the story of Don Carlos of Spain (Matthew Polenzani) and Élisabeth de Valois (Sonya Yoncheva) who are betrothed to one another. They have never met. Don Carlos sneaks away to meet this unknown woman. They fall in love. However, their happiness is quickly ruined when Carlo’s father, Philippe II (Eric Owens), announces that he’s in love with her and she is to be his bride.

Even though she is now his stepmother, Don Carlos tries multiple times to woo Élisabeth away from his father.

With the Spanish Inquisition ongoing, the affairs of all three and the appearance of a mysterious monk lead to murder plots, revenge, unrequited love and thievery.

Verdi’s opera debuted in 1867 in Paris in French. Three months later it was performed in London in Italian. That version is the one most commonly performed.

This Saturday’s performance is the last opportunity for audiences to see Dupuis as Don Carlos’ best friend, but it’s also the performance that is being made available around the world as part of Met Opera Live in HD series.

Don Carlos is Verdi’s longest opera, but Dupuis finds much to like in these lengthy works even though they might be a bit convoluted.

“I think that’s a little point, isn’t it? Let’s make this as long as complicated as we can,” he says rhetorically. “You have to understand it from going back in time when they were writing them. These people had nothing like we do to to change their minds and just turn on a machine in their living room. So when they finally got the time to dress up and go to the opera it was a six hour long business. Every opera needed to have a minimum of five acts and a ballet. The only problem when Verdi wrote it was that the opera was too long. The people would have to catch the last train. So you have to shorten it enough so that people had time to go and catch the last train. But he had written even longer than what we’re doing.”

Dupuis counts himself amongst those who are usually most comfortable when opera hues primarily to the way fans and audiences usually see them. But with Don Carlos he thinks there is a great argument for performing Verdi’s work in the original French language.

“We like things the way we know them,” he says. “It is assembled this way, conducted this way, stage like that. And so it’s really hard for anyone to come up with something new. What’s interesting is that in this case we’re not changing what Verdi wrote. We’re using what Verdi wrote. What the French triggers is perhaps the sense that you’re hearing it for the first time. It allows you to re-hear it for the first time to possibly re-experience that first-time experience of the initial moment you actually heard this. But I know it’s not easy for everybody to open up their mindset to that.”

To make his point he brings up an example of his first aria in the opera which he describes as being a bit on the boring side…until it is sung in French.

“My first aria can be very boring. It might still be, I don’t know, but it’s two verses of the same music. The entire goal of this aria is to convince the Queen to have a meeting with Don Carlos. That’s all I’m doing. But I never understood how every word is carefully chosen so that it would make sense for the Queen to accept this invitation. So it’s very interesting how I get to play with those words so much better in the French. Even though I do speak Italian, when I sing the Italian it’s an inversion of the lines. It’s so intricate to be fitting the music that I feel like I’m losing this sense that the whole time my character is talking on a second degree. That’s lost in the translation because they had to make every word fit the the musical line. Instead of fitting the music on the words it did the opposite and it didn’t allow them to have these layers of understanding.”

One of the best known arias in Don Carlo is Dieu, tu semas dans no ames. To be performing an opera that features an aria about devotion to liberty at a time when the world is crisis adds additional meaning to Don Carlo for Dupuis.

“Every word that I say just made more sense. It already made sense in a generic context of war. But if you think of my character as this guy who is following the army. He goes to Flanders and he sees what the king and most importantly, the church, the Inquisition, he sees what they’re doing to those people because they’re not of the same religious belief. They’re Protestants and so the only response that they have is we kill everyone that doesn’t think like of us. And boom! Immediately we’re like, wait, is that what Putin was saying? This country right next to us they don’t think like me. Therefore, I must crush them like this. It seemed to me that that’s exactly what was happening.”

A different language and a new awareness are just two factors that allow Dupuis to try to achieve perfection in this production and in his art. Verdi said, “I have striven for perfection, it has always eluded me, but I surely had an obligation to make one more try.” Dupuis completely agrees with the composer.

“I don’t think perfection is achievable, but I think it’s a great goal. I think the people that have obsessed a bit too much about it definitely either changed careers or drowned in their careers. I think one of the hardest things to do is to strive for perfection and then have the humility to recognize that you did your best.”

One of Dupuis’ best attempts at that was in Jake Heggie‘s opera Dead Man Walking in Montreal.

“It was by far the most successful show I’ve ever been in opera. Not one review, not one person had anything bad to say about it. But it wasn’t perfect and I know it wasn’t. What was great about it though is that there was emotion. People lived something. They experienced something. Did we go to the theater for a reason? Do we live something that made us interested in going back? I think that’s what we should strive for, but I don’t think perfection is attainable. And I think that’s OK.”

There is so much more to my conversation with Etienne Dupuis. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel here.

Main photo: Etienne Dupuis (Photo by Dario Acosta/Courtesy of the artist)

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“Shall We Gather is like my other child. I’m about to give birth on September twenty fourth and if…” and before pianist Irina Meachem could finish her sentence, her husband, opera star Lucas Meachem added, “it doesn’t happen, we will induce.”

They are talking about their new Rubicon Classics album of American art songs that features Irina on piano and Lucas on vocals being released on Friday. It’s the perfect example of a passion project for the two who have been married since 2016.

After Lucas made his joke, Irina continued when I spoke by Zoom with them last week.

“It’s just years of passion, or hard work and being told we shouldn’t do this and we can’t do it by people in the business. and I’m just so happy to show that we have done it.”

You may recall that I recently interviewed Lucas when he was appearing in the Santa Fe Opera production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Irina works as an accompanist and also coaches opera singers. Since that interview was so recent, I want to give Irina the opportunity to do most of the talking in this interview. Though Lucas will have his say before we’re done.

Shall We Gather features songs by Aaron Copland, Stephen Foster, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, Florence Price, William Grant Still, Kurt Weill and others. The Meachems uses these songs to explore all the different ways and reasons why we gather.

Irina told me why they wanted to do this project.

“Many years ago we wanted to create something that would be very demonstrative of Lucas and his musicianship and his singing. And we went down the usual route, which is all of the famous arias that he sings. And we were dead set on that for some time. Then we realized there is an opportunity to use the platform that Lucas has to really say something. At the time it was about just inspiring people to come together to find commonalities. And we wanted to challenge ourselves and find repertoire that could really have an impact on those who listen and inspire some positive change.”

It was a journey that ultimately ended up yielding not just an album, but their own foundation.

“We went through a journey of finding repertoire that has been historically overlooked and we found that there were so many challenges with it. It was it was not as easy as it was to find [Samuel] Barber’s Sure on This Shining Night. That’s everywhere and it’s been done so much. So we had to challenge ourselves. That’s what’s inspired us to create Perfect Day Music Foundation. It invites other musicians to go across the same journey that we took the to expose ourselves to new, overlooked and neglected repertoire that deserves to be at the forefront of the standard American art song repertoire. I just I want them to have experience what we have. There’s a lot out there. This album is not a consummate collection. This is just the beginning. This is just our own journey with it.”

Any journey they undertook for Shall We Gather meant they had to have a common definition of what an American art song is. Irina was very precise in describing what they were looking for.

“I think what makes an America art song unique is that are the differences; there’s so much variety. You have the older pieces and the Appalachian songs. We have the Aaron Copland and Stephen Foster. But then you also have blues influence, you have jazz, you have these amazing rhythmic freedom of expression. You have this openness to just possibility.

“And there are certain struggles that we all can come together with. For instance, the song that was released as our first single, That Moment On from Pieces of 9/11 by Jake Heggie. That was something uniquely American. Yet I just saw someone comment on one of Lucas’s posts saying it was not just America, the whole world was impacted by it. So there is this influence that America has on the rest of the world. But it is a place of hope. It is a place of rebellion. It is it is a unique place. And that’s what we tried to find.”

Lucas told WQXR radio that he had to find his husband hat and his singer hat when working with Irina and that the challenge is to find the right balance. Does Irina believe that there is one form of balance for the two when they work together or if it changes project-by-project?

“The first year or two of us collaborating together we had to learn what that balance was. And now it’s the same for every project where where the husband hat doesn’t come off for him. We just are so close. Sometimes in a relationship where you really trust somebody you’re not fully acknowledging the other person for what they have to offer. I feel like we are very respectful of our differences. But when it came to communicating, something as simple as that is just as important as the ideas themselves.”

As in relationships, sometimes the most powerful thing in music is silence. Both Irina and Lucas agree that it is arguably one of the most important parts of their lives.

Irina began by saying, “It speaks louder than the applause itself. There is anticipation, there’s numbness when you’re taking in what that sound really was beforehand.”

Lucas added, ” It also shows a collective agreement with the audience that this is a special moment. When you hear it it’s almost like it’s not even that no one’s speaking, it’s that no one’s breathing and you can feel that. It happens rarely in performances because sometimes you get the crinkle of the wrapper or the cough or anything. But when it does, it’s palpable for me as a performer. And it’s like the audience and I are sharing this moment together.”

In the end Shall We Gather doesn’t just represent what Lucas and Irina Meachem believe are the qualities that bring us together. It also celebrates the project that brought them together.

“This is a duet album and Lucas was so thoughtful to to have included me in such a big part because it is it is equal parts,” Irina says. “A singer goes through so much; they have such a big job to do. And I respect what they go through. I can’t do it. Yet there are things that the pianist does which is equally impressive and important for me.

“I feel like I live a very privileged life because all of the work that I’ve put into creating my art, to creating a strong relationship with my spouse and to creating a safe space for my son. That has actually ended well. The most fulfilling part is doing it with Lucas who is a really exceptional singer. And the art, I think, really reflects that.”

Lucas and Irina Meachem’s Shall We Gather will be available on Friday, September 24th.

All photos by Nate Ryan/Courtesy Rubicon Classics

The post Irina Meachem Celebrates The Ways We Come Together appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

From that experience Gordin has developed a great relationship with Heggie. When he was looking for a unique way of re-launching programming at Festival Opera, he turned to Heggie’s work.

“We have this tradition of producing the sort of standard repertoire and we’ve had a commitment to developing some new works and presenting good works of American composers. We’ve had Jake’s work performed before. So he’s certainly not new to our audience and not new to the Bay Area.”

On Friday and Sunday, Festival Opera will present A Jake Heggie Triptych that will feature three of the composer’s works: At the Statue of Venus, Camille Claudel: Into the Fire and For a Look or a Touch.

Last month I spoke with Gordin about Heggie, the character he’ll be singing in For a Look or a Touch and the battles he’s faced in his life. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

If you go to Jake Heggie’s website there are ten pages of compositions he’s written – most of which the world doesn’t know. So when you have such a broad menu of pieces from which you can choose, how and why did you choose these three?

I heard For a Look or a Touch initially when the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus produced it. It must have been seven or so years ago. And it was moving. I saw that there were other versions of it that had been developed. So I was intrigued.

I didn’t do any more than that until Jake reached out to me to cover the role of Manfred in it. Into the Fire had been staged by a dear friend, Diana Tash, who’s actually doing it in our production. And I thought, why don’t we give that a full theatrical production with our resources. So there was that piece of it. And then I was familiar with At the Statue of Venus from seeing it on YouTube. And so I thought, what’s the heartbeat of these three pieces and it boils down to love. So they are thematically joined by this human desire for love, acceptance and being seen. That’s how they came be this triptych.

When I read the libretto for For a Look or a Touch, I was reminded of a scene in Martin Sherman’s play Bent. [Heggie’s work is based on the true story of Gad Beck and Manfred Lewin, two men whose relationship in Germany during World War II lead to acts of bravery and the execution of Lewin at Auschwitz.] How do the arts allow for a more public expression of ideas that aren’t always common seen or shared elsewhere?

I think it’s the job of artists, and certainly in my position here, to create experiences for people to come together and relate to each other. As far as different kinds of relationships, it’s important to portray the humanity in those relationships and give people the opportunity to experience that.

I’m assuming you didn’t grow up seeing work like this on a regular basis. As a gay man, what priority are you putting on telling gay stories and/or supporting other gay artists like Jake?

I think that there is a deeper integrity when the people in the work are sharing a lived experience. From my perspective I have gone through my own journey of being brought up as a Mormon boy and coming out and having all sorts of rejection and having to rebuild community. So there were certainly moments in the story that I could relate to. And I think that’s an important element. I’ve seen lots of white, Christian, very straight people playing roles that are really not in their lived experience and it provides a different lens that provides maybe a bit of detachment that is not interesting to me.

Isn’t the whole idea of being an artist to be able to enter into these worlds and bring them to life? Either through research, their own experience or through some amalgamation of both to create a character? At the risk of being absurd, should serial killers only be able to portray serial killers?

Well that’s a bit of a leap. I think it’s all an individual perspective. Any artist, especially in opera, is going to have an opportunity to play roles and to take part in stories that have nothing to do with them. My point here is that we’re lucky to get the people involved who have had their own experiences to bring to the table in their storytelling.

Gad Beck gave an interview where he said, “Look, if I am a hero, I am a little one. Everyone has to fight sometime in their life.” How and when have you had to fight the most?

I grew up in an extremely abusive home. As a child I was subjected to a lot of physical abuse and just surviving through that I had to fight. I certainly had to fight coming to terms with myself. Now as an impresario, an advocate for the opera company, I fight for my artists and I fight to keep this company alive. It’s definitely requiring us to dig deep.

There’s a line that Manfred sings in For a Look or a Touch [the libretto is by Gene Scheer] when he sings, “I hear a voice that ends all doubt.” Do you have that one voice that ends all doubt for you?

I think the closest thing I have to it is nature. The peace that I see and feel when I’m surrounded by a group of redwood trees or I’m looking out on the ocean and I am just part of something that is so much larger than me that there’s no room for anything else but that awareness.

Does that help you conquer the doubt being in that space?

It certainly helps me dissociate. I certainly suffer from a version of perfectionism and I think it has to be tempered with a kind of being able to put that away so that whatever mastery or whatever you have within you can come out.

And the interesting thing is that truth is often changing.

Absolutely. I think that’s part of growing as a being. Like your awareness and your consciousness hopefully shift and your opinions get revised and your life experience brings to you things that change you. And that’s all important.

For tickets for the Friday performance, please go here. For tickets for the Sunday performance, please go here.

Photo of Zachary Gordin by Bradford Rogne/Courtesy Festival Opera

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A Streetcar Named Desire – National Theatre Live – Now – May 28th

This week’s offering from National Theatre Live is the 2014 production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire starring Gillian Anderson as Blanche, Ben Foster as Stanley and Vanessa Kirby as Stella. Benedict Andrews directed this Young Vic production.

Williams won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this play about two sisters (Blanche and Stella) who find themselves sharing a small apartment in New Orleans with Stella’s volatile husband, Stanley. He doesn’t trust his wife’s sister and thinks there’s much more going on with her than she admits. Tensions rise as he becomes more distrustful and Blanche’s drinking, which she tries to conceal from them, becomes more and more problematic.

Andrews took a non-traditional approach to this production which was modern in look and feel and involved a set that was constantly in motion. Anderson earned rave reviews for her performance. Susannah Clapp, writing for The Guardian said of her performance:

“Gillian Anderson captures both Blanche’s airy pretensions to grandeur and her desolate loneliness. Her Blanche is a deeply sensuous, tactile woman whose natural instinct is to stroke Stanley’s hairy forearms or to provocatively disrobe in front of a flimsy curtain. But Anderson also conveys Blanche’s emotional solitude: she is especially fine in the scene with her nervous beau, Mitch, where you sense two helpless people desperately reaching out to each other.”

Anastasia – The Royal Ballet – Now – May 28th

The classic story of the young girl who may be Anastasia, the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and the only person to survive the assassination of the Romanovs in 1918, was first turned into a one-act ballet by Kenneth MacMillan in 1967. Four years later he completed the full-length ballet set to music by Tchaikovsky and Bohuslav Martinu.

As part of their programming available for home viewing, The Royal Ballet has made this 2016 production of this ballet available for free streaming. Natalia Osipova dances the role of Anastasia. Christopher Saunders dances the role Tsar Nicholas II. Christina Arestis dances the role of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorova and Thiago Soares dances the role of Rasputin.

PBS Shows – Now – May 26th

Social media has been filled with posts about PBS making 20 Broadway musicals and/or concerts available for viewing through May 26th. A careful examination found that not all productions are available in all areas.

The following titles may be available regardless of where you live in the United States:

Annaleigh Ashford in Concert; Megan Hilty in Concert; Celebrating Sondheim; Leslie Odom, Jr. in Concert; A Broadway Celebration at the White House; Macbeth with Patrick Stewart; Alfred Molina in Red; Doubt from the Minnesota Opera and Cynthia Erivo in Concert.

Residents in these counties: NY: Bronx, Dutchess, Kings, Nassau, New York, Orange, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk, Sullivan, Ulster, Westchester; NJ: Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, Warren; CT: Fairfield; PA: Pike have access to the following titles:

Buried Child with Ed Harris and Amy Madigan; Richard Thomas in Incident at Vichy; Bill Irwin and David Shiner in Old Hats; School Girls or, The African Mean Girls Play; Jay Sanders in Uncle Vanya and Kelli O’Hara in a New York Philharmonic concert of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel.

Sutton Foster in Concert seems to be an expired link.

Timon of Athens – Stratford Festival – Now – June 11th

In this Shakespeare play, the title character starts off rather care-free. He’s generous to a fault which prompts his friends to take full advantage of that generosity. When suddenly he finds himself bankrupt, he also finds himself without those same friends. Disillusioned and bitterly disappointed, he leaves Athens and becomes a hermit.

Joseph Ziegler plays Timon in this 2017 production directed by Stephen Ouimette. Ben Carlson plays the philosopher Apemantus; Tim Campbell plays Timon’s friend Alcibiades and Michael Spencer-Davis plays Timon’s steward, Flavius.

This is part of Stratford Festival’s At Home series where each week a new production becomes available for streaming for three weeks. Still available are productions of Macbeth and The Tempest.

Anne-Sophie Mutter: Mutter Virtuosi – May 22nd – May 24th

This 2014 Carnegie Hall concert by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter found her leading the Mutter Virtuosi Ensemble and playing violin. The ensemble is comprised of young students and professional string players who are alumni of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. 

The program for this concert included: Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, Strings, and Continuo in D Minor, BWV 1043; the US premiere of André Previn’s Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra (with two Harpsichord interludes); Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and the Presto from Concerto in G Minor for Violin and Orchestra, RV 315 (L’estate) and Bach’s Air on the G String.

The program is available of Medici.tv and does not require membership. It is free.

Are you ready for more Best Bets at Home: May 22nd – May 25th?

Cendrillon – The Royal Opera – May 22nd – June 4th

Of Jules Massenet’s best-known operas, his version of the Cinderella story isn’t top of the list. The opera had its world premiere in 1899 in Paris and features a libretto by Henry Caïn.

This 2011 Royal Opera production stars Joyce DiDonato as Cendrillon, Alice Coote as Prince Charming, Ewa Podlés as the Stepmother and Eglise Gutierrez as the Fairy Godmother.

Laurent Pelly directed this production. The orchestra is lead by Bertrand de Billy.

Moby Dick – San Francisco Opera – May 23rd

The next in the streaming productions from San Francisco Opera is Jake Heggie’s opera based on the Herman Melville novel no one wanted to read in high school. The libretto is by Gene Scheer. For those who might be worried, they have condensed this whale of a book into an opera that runs just shy of two-and-a-half hours.

Heggie, who is perhaps best known for his opera Dead Man Walking, was commissioned by the Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, Calgary Opera, San Diego Opera, and the State Opera of South Australia to write Moby Dick. The opera had its world premiere in Dallas in 2010. Reviews were overwhelmingly positive.

Jay Hunter Morris sings the role of the single-mindedly determined Captain Ahab. First mate Starbuck is sung by Morgan Smith and Queequeg is sung by Jonathan Lemalu. Interestingly, Ishmael, the narrator of the book, is not part of the opera.

Leonard Foglia directed this 2012 production (which was a San Francisco Opera premiere) and the orchestra is conducted by Patrick Summers.

This SF Opera production is available for viewing beginning at 1 PM EDT/10 AM PDT on Saturday, May 23rd through 2:59 AM EDT on May 25th/11:59 PM PDT May 24th.

Our Lady of 121st Street – LAByrinth Theatre Company – May 23rd

In the movie The Big Chill the characters talk about how there’s always great post-funeral bash. When friends of the family of Sister Rose show up at the funeral home in Our Lady of 121st Street, they can’t have that bash…until they find out who stole her body.

Don’t get carried away thinking this will be a riotous broad comedy. It comes from the mind of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis. This dark comedy reveals what happens when life’s circumstances bring old friends back together who haven’t fully sorted out lingering issues nor overcome old wounds.

LAByrinth Theatre Company, who first premiered the play, will do a virtual reading with many of the members of the original off-Broadway cast on Saturday, May 23rd at 8 PM EDT/5 PM PDT. The reading will be available for viewing for 24 hours.

The reading will be directed by Elizabeth Rodriguez and feature eight members of the original Off-Broadway cast: Elizabeth Canavan, Liza Colón-Zayas, Scott Hudson, Russell G. Jones, Portia, Al Roffe, Felix Solis, and David Zayas. Joining them are Bobby Cannavale, John Doman, Laurence Fishburne, and Dierdre Friel. David Deblinger will read stage directions.

The Marriage of Figaro – Glyndebourne – May 24th – May 31st

Michael Grandage directed this 2012 production of the Mozart/DePonte opera at Glyndebourne in Sussex County, England. He updates the setting to the 20th century during the waning days of Franco’s regime in Spain.

The Marriage of Figaro is a comic opera in which Figaro and Susanna plan to get married. In order to do so, they must navigate the wandering hands and eyes of her employer, Count Almaviva.

The opera continues the story that was started in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.

Figaro is sung by Vito Priante. Lydia Teuscher is Susanna and Isabel Leonard sings the role of Cherubino. The countess is sung by Sally Matthews and her husband, Count Almaviva, is sung by Auden Iverson. Robin Ticcati conducts the orchestra.

Grandage, best known for his work on stage (he’s a Tony Award-winner for directing the play Red by John Logan), made his debut as a director of operas with Billy Budd at Glyndebourne.

Lyrics and Lyricists – Jerry Herman: You I Like – May 24th – May 31st

The 92nd Street Y in New York is celebrating the 54th anniversary of the opening of Jerry Herman’s musical Mame at the Winter Garden with this concert from the Lyrics and Lyricists series celebrating the composer.

In addition to Mame, Herman’s musicals include Milk and Honey, Hello Dolly!, Ben Franklin in Paris, Dear World, Mack and Mabel, The Grand Tour and La Cage Aux Folles. Herman, who died in 2019, was the recipient of three Tony Awards and a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Participating in this concert (which took place earlier this year) are Tony Award-winner Cady Huffman, who made her Broadway debut in the original production of La Cage Aux Folles; Quentin Earl Darrington (who starred as Coalhouse Walker in the 2009 revival of Ragtime); Bryonha Marie Parham (Prince of Broadway); Andrea Ross (The Sound of Music) and Ryan Vona (Beautiful).

This concert was conceived and music directed by Andy Einhorn (Hello, Dolly! revival) and was directed by Huffman.

Jerry Herman: You I Like becomes available on May 24th at 7 PM EDT/4 PM PDT and will remain available through May 31st at 11:59 PM EDT/8:59 PM PDT.

Don’t forget you can also check out SFJazz’s Wayne Shorter Celebration Part 1 on May 22nd. The Metropolitan Opera offerings this weekend are Don Giovanni, Faust and Manon.

That’s it for this weekend’s Best Bets At Home: May 22nd – May 25th

Enjoy your long weekend!

Update: This post has been updated to correct the composer of The Barber of Seville as Rossini, not Mozart. Cultural Attaché regrets the error.

Main Photo: Gillian Anderson in A Streetcar Named Desire (Photo by Johan Persson/Courtesy of NT Live)

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“I was asked by Dallas Opera to write something for them, and they were building a new American opera house,” he says. “It’s red. It’s bold. I knew that [the opera] needed to be something big, bold, and daring. It was Terrence McNally’s idea. He was going to be the librettist but he had to withdraw for personal reasons. That’s when [Gene] Scheer took over and wrote a brilliant libretto.”

Heggie admits to experiencing the same problems most students do when first reading the epic novel. “I don’t know how people read it in high school,” he admits. “I found it difficult to do as an adult. To really give yourself over to that world is a really big commitment. I read it twice through before we started writing. All the chapters that irritated me at the beginning are now my favorites—those side chapters not involved in the plot.”

As daunting as Captain Ahab’s pursuit of the whale is, it may be less daunting than adapting the story for opera. The key, Heggie says, is “making it human. Shrinking the landscape to the point where it seems doable. The more specific you get with the things, the more doable and somehow the broader they can be. If you get specific you can accomplish a lot. The big breakthrough was to put ‘Call me Ishmael’ at the end and really earn that line.” (For those who need to brush up on the book, that line opens Melville’s novel.)

Moby Dick is dedicated to one of Heggie’s biggest influences—Stephen Sondheim. “He told me that’s the highest praise of all and thanked me very warmly,” Heggie says. “He’s been very generous and kind and supportive to me through the years. Sweeney Todd showed me there was still a lot to say on the American Lyric stage and there were many ways to do it.”

Heggie is now based out of San Francisco, but he previously lived in Los Angeles. As such, he is thrilled that LA Opera is staging his work. “Before I moved to San Francisco I was an LA Opera subscriber,” he says. “In fact, LA Opera’s 1984 production of Peter Grimes was the first time opera really made sense to me. That production blew the top of my head off. They are responsible for my formative years of opera experience. I saw Tosca the night Placido Domingo was supposed to conduct, but wound up singing it. I saw Die Frau ohne Schatten. It was electrifying. To have them embrace a piece of mine these years later is enormously moving.”

Photo by Cory Weaver/Courtesy San Francisco Opera

Originally published at LAMag.com on October 28, 2015

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“When I went to New York, I was sent there by my boss at the San Francisco Opera,” says Heggie. “He pulled me out of the PR department and sent me to meet with Terrence McNally. It was his wish for the millennium to do something celebratory and bubbly. Terrence wasn’t interested at all in that kind of project. He wanted to do a serious American drama. When he told me Dead Man Walking all the hairs stood up and I knew it was the right idea.”

The opera premiered in 2000 as planned in San Francisco. Subsequent productions have taken place in various parts of the United States and also in Australia, Canada and Europe. The production appearing at the Broad Stage is performed by Opera Paralléle.

“I’ve seen it done a few times with smaller ensembles,” Heggie offers. “This is the most spare I’ve seen and somehow because it’s a smaller theatre and pared down you get the human drama more than ever. It feels more visceral. You feel like you are experiencing the story in real time. It can touch your heart in ways that will surprise.”

Sister Prejean recently said when speaking at the University of Dayton that “opera is just a spiritual invitation to go deeper.” Heggie was touched by her comments. “She didn’t know much about opera until her story was turned into one. She has an enormous appreciation for it now. I hope that opera is an invitation to a deeper reflection on something, to reflect on things you hadn’t taken the time to do before. The death penalty is sort of the abstract. When you sit and really reflect on it and see a human drama unfold in front of you, that’s a very different experience.”

As for his own views on the death penalty, Heggie reveals his own journey. “Before I wrote it, I didn’t reflect on it either. I went into it very deeply. I didn’t want to impose my personal feelings at all. My goal is to empathize with every single character and not judge them and get their story out there the best way possible. We are all capable of enormous good and enormous evil. Does repeating the worst behavior of a criminal and putting that onto them solve anything? Does that make us better? Who has all the answers?”

With Sister Prejean as its central character, Heggie believes Dead Man Walking has the right person to ask all these questions. “If you look at most operas, there’s usually an intimate story at the heart of it. Something where the emotions are so big that it makes sense for characters to sing and sing in a way that fills an opera. She’s so real and genuine and she’s walked the walk. She’s gone places most of us can’t imagine going. She has great empathy and sympathy for both sides. She’s a wise remarkable woman.”

Photo by Steve DiBartolomeo

Originally published at LAMag.com on March 4, 2015.

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