Robert D. Thomas/Class Act

AROUND TOWN/MUSIC: A love interest sparks LA Opera's "La Boheme"

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
This article was first published today in the above papers.

Los Angeles Opera’s production of Puccini’s La Boheme
May 12, 23, 26 and 31 at 7:30 p.m. May 20 and June 2 at 2 p.m.
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles
Tickets: $20-$270
Information: 213/972-8001; www.laopera.com

(below:
The husband-and-wife team of Stephen Costello and Ailyn Pérez will perform the lead roles in Los Angeles Opera’s revival of its production of Puccini’s La Boheme, which opens May 12 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.)

If you’re one of those who rolled their eyes and muttered “Oh, no, not another La Boheme,” when Los Angeles Opera announced that the Puccini potboiler would be the final opera in the 2011-2012 season, you might want to re-assess your reaction.

True, Puccini’s timeless tragic love story of young Parisian artists is one of the most performed works in the repertoire, a fact that presents plusses and minuses. It’s a perfect introduction for those who have never seen an opera and LAO’s revival of this Herbert Ross production has several intriguing factors to recommend it even for opera regulars.

Chief among the virtues are the cast members, all of whom are young enough to actually look the part (not as easy as it sounds, says director Greg Fortner). Moreover, given that opera casts are assembled years ahead of time, LAO has managed to strike gold in that two of the leading characters have won major competitions in the past few months.

Ailyn Pérez, who portrays Mimi, was named winner of the 2012 Richard Tucker Award and Janai Brugger, Musetta in the first three LAO performances, was one of the five winners of the recent Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions held in New York City last month. In a sign of LAO vitality, Brugger, Valentina Fleer (who will sing Musetta in the final three performances) and Museop Kim (Schunard) are all members in this year’s LAO Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program.

Another intriguing aspect to the casting is that Pérez will be partnered by her husband, Stephen Costello, as Mimi’s lover, Rodolfo. Costello (who won the Tucker Award in 2009) and Pérez met in 2003 at Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts, starred together in a 2005 AVA production of “La Boheme,” fell in love and eventually were married in 2008. Pérez is the first Hispanic to win the Tucker Award.

Fortner, who is a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s directing team and has credits at many other companies, will be directing Boheme for the first time. “I realize that many people will have seen Boheme before and some will come with preconceptions about how the piece should look and play,” says Fortner. “One of the first things we did as a cast was sit down and talk through our thoughts and preconceptions and find a way to make this production uniquely ours.”

They will be aided by the veteran hand of conductor Patrick Summers, artistic and music director of Houston Grand Opera and principal guest conductor of San Francisco Opera. The production — originally created by film director Herbert Ross — is familiar to LAO “veteran” patrons; this will be the sixth time that this “Boheme” has been presented in the company’s 26-year history, a total of 43 performances. The story — and the opera — never grow old.

For another look at the cast, read David Mermelstein’s story in the Los Angeles Times HERE.
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(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

OVERNIGHT REVIEW, Christine Brewer in Pasadena Symphony concert at Ambassador Auditorium

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

Christine Brewer was the soloist in Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs in yesterday’s Pasadena Symphony concert at Ambassador Auditorium with Michael Stern conducting. Photo by Ivan Schustak for the Pasadena Symphony.
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Normally when you hear that Christine Brewer is going to appear with an orchestra in Southern California, you’d expect that the ensemble would be the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Not this year. For the final concert of its 2011-2012 season, the Pasadena Symphony engaged the well-known American soprano and had the good sense to ask her to sing one of her signature pieces: Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs in two concerts yesterday at Ambassador Auditorium.

Actually, Brewer is better known for her Wagnerian roles (she was a stellar Isolde in the L.A. Phil’s “Tristan Project” under Esa-Pekka Salonen several years ago) but these were the 81st and 82nd times she has performed Strauss’ magnificent look back on his 84 years of living. She sang them sumptuously yesterday afternoon.

When Strauss wrote the songs, he was looking back to a musical era — 19th century Romanticism — that had vanished amid the wreckage of what World War II had done to Germany and, in particular, its artistic life. Although there’s no evidence that Strauss intended to group the songs (that was done after his death by his publisher), Strauss used a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff and three by Hermann Hesse for his evocative texts.

Brewer’s lustrous voice swept over the four songs like a soothing balm. The opener, Spring, was bright and the second, September, was wistful. In Going to Sleep, Concertmaster Aimee Kreston’s rich solo line was a perfect complement to Brewer’s singing, and the final song, In the Twilight, was full of aching melancholy.

The orchestra, under the sure hand of guest conductor Michael Stern (music director of the Kansas City Symphony), delivered rich, sumptuous accompaniment for Brewer. Together, it was a memorable performance.

Stern (who by the way, is the son of legendary violinist Isaac Stern) was subbing for the PSO’s music advisor, James DePreist, who is recovering from recent heart bypass surgery. Stern kept the original program, which began with Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey from Wagner’s Götterdämerung, the sort of music for which Strauss was longing in his Four Last Songs. Stern led a brisk rendition of Engelbert Humperdinck’s concert version of Wagner’s music, highlighted by James Thatcher’s horn solos.

After intermission, Stern concluded the program with Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8. Stern obviously knows this piece well (he conducted without a score) and offered a distinctive reading of this four-movement work that Stern, in his preconcert discussion, characterized as another of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances. You might not have fully agreed with Stern’s push-and-pull tempos but the orchestra played gorgeously and he made me think about what was being played — altogether, not a bad combination for a very familiar work.
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Hemidemisemiquavers:
• Although the classical season officially ended yesterday, two free concerts have been added next Saturday at Ambassador Auditorium. At 2 p.m., Jack Taylor will lead his Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra in music by Bach, Rimsky-Korsakov, Copland and others that will be a preview of the ensemble’s upcoming European tour. At 7:30 p.m., Donald Brinegar will lead a new chorus that has been formed at Jet Propulsion Laboratory along with the Pasadena City College Chamber Singers in music by Britten, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Fauré and others. Information: www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org

• The Pasadena Pops opens at its new home, the Los Angeles County Arboretum, on June 16 when Marvin Hamlisch leads a concert version of his own musical, They’re Playing Our Song, with Lucie Arnaz and Robert Klein as soloists. The evening will also include a tribute to Arnaz’s parents, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Information: www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org
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(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

PREVIEW: Pasadena Symphony to conclude 2011-2012 season tomorrow

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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Pasadena Symphony; Michael Stern, conductor
Wagner: Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey from Götterdämerung
Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs (Christine Brewer, soprano)
Dvorak: Symphony No. 8
Tomorrow (Sat., April 28) at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. • Ambassador Auditorium
Tickets: $35-$100 (student and senior rush tickets available)
Information: www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org
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When the Pasadena Symphony announced its 2011-2012 season, the centerpiece of the final concerts (which takes place tomorrow) was soprano Christine Brewer, internationally renowned particularly for her work in Wagner and Strauss. Brewer will, indeed, be performing Richard Strauss’ achingly beautiful Four Last Songs at the 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. concerts, but the day’s intrigue will be conductor Michael Stern (pictured right), who is replacing PSO Music Advisor James DePreist, who is recovering from recent, unexpected heart surgery.

Stern — who was born in 1959 and is the son of legendary violinist Isaac Stern — is now in his seventh season as music director of the Kansas City Symphony and founded the IRIS Orchestra in Germantown, Tenn. He’s also building an impressive conducting resume in Europe. Locally, he made his professional conducting debut with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra 2010 to critical acclaim.

He’s also the 10th guest conductor to lead the Pasadena Symphony since Jorge Mester’s 25-year tenure as PSO music director ended in 2010. It’s a tribute to the quality of the PSO’s musicians that each of the 10 visiting maestros (or maestra, in the case of Mei-Ann Chen) has been able to lead interesting, well-played programs, even with limited rehearsal time. There are things an orchestra misses without a music director (e.g., continuity, a galvanizing community presence) but, at least judging by the PSO, performance quality isn’t one of them.

Tomorrow’s concerts are, as is often the case with the PSO, centered on mainstream, 19th century Romantic music (even the Strauss songs, which were written in 1948, a year before the composer died at age 85, hearken back to Romantic era). Like works of many composers (e.g., Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand), the title, Four Last Songs, didn’t come from the composer; it was appended by Ernst Roth, chief editor of Boosey & Hawkes, who combined Im Abendrot (a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff) with three poems by Herman Hesse (Frühling, September, and Beim Schlafengehen) to create the set.
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(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

PREVIEW: Angeles Chorale to celebrate Morten Lauridsen Sunday

By Robert D. Thomas Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

For choral singers and choral music fans, few — if any — people have been more significant in the past quarter-century than Morten Lauridsen. Angeles Chorale will pay tribute to the Los Angeles-based composer Sunday evening at 5 p.m. with a reception, dinner and concert at Town and Gown on the campus of the University of Southern California.

Members of the Pasadena-based Chorale will sing Lauridsen’s music and there will be a screening of the first two chapters of Shining Night, a documentary by Michael Stillwater released earlier this year about the man who received the National Medal of the Arts in 2007 “for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide." KUSC’s Kimberlea Daggy will emcee the event.

The location is appropriate because Lauridsen, now age 69, is a USC graduate and for more than 30 years has been on the faculty of the USC Thornton School of Music, where he chaired the composition department from 1990-2002 and is now Distinguished Professor of Composition.

Lauridsen was born in Washington and raised in Portland, Ore. After attending Whitworth College for two years, he came to USC in 1963 (his classmates included Michael Tilson Thomas, now music director of the San Francisco Symphony).

Although Lauridsen grew up loving the music of Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter and George Gershwin, he didn’t begin composing until he came to USC. “I came down here with a clean slate,” he recalls. “I had never written a note of music but Halsey Stevens let me in to a class by saying, ‘Let’s try it for a semester and see what you can do.’ He gave me a great opportunity and I ran with it.” Lauridsen later repaid that favor by editing several of Stevens’ pieces when Stevens, by then stricken with Parkinson’s Disease, was too ill to finish the works.

Among Lauridsen’s first jobs was teaching theory to the master classes of violinist Jascha Heifetz. He sang in the USC Concert Choir under James Vail, who took his first piece, Psalm 150, on tour with Lauridsen conducting it. After Lauridsen finished his Master’s degree, he stayed on to teach. “At one time, I was the youngest faculty member,” he says with a chuckle. “Now I’m among the oldest.”

However, for most singers it’s the music that they remember whenever the name “Morten Lauridsen” is mentioned. His output includes seven song cycles, the motet O Magnum Mysterium and, in particular, Lux Aeterna, which Lauridsen wrote when he was composer-in-residence for the Los Angeles Master Chorale (a position he held from 1994-2001). Noted local musicologist and conductor Nick Strimple calls Lauridsen "the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic.”

Poetry plays a huge part in Lauridsen’s life. He begins every class at USC with a poem and many of his works are based on texts of poets including James Agee, Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Graves and Federico Garcia Lorca.

One work not based on poetry was Lux Aeterna, which was premiered 15 years ago tomorrow. The Requiem-like piece touched a wellspring in listeners throughout the world from the time it appeared and its popularity hasn’t diminished.

“This is a very personal piece,” says Lauridsen, “and there were two strong impulses to my writing the work. My mother was on her deathbed at the time, and I was writing the piece as a meditation on light triumphing over darkness. That’s why I wrote an ‘alleluia’ at the end. This isn’t a dark piece. It’s a celebration.”

The second reason was the commission from the Los Angeles Master Chorale. “I wrote Lux Aeterna specifically for Paul Salamunovich and the Los Angeles Master Chorale,” relates Lauridsen. The work’s ancient lyrics and Gregorian chant-inspired music were a perfect fit for Salamunovich (an internationally recognized authority on Gregorian chant) and the Master Chorale. “I told Paul, ‘You’re in every note of that piece of music,’“ remembers Lauridsen. “I had in my mind, especially, the Chorale’s marvelous alto section and the wonderful sound that Paul got from his men.”

From its premiere, the work has remained extraordinarily popular throughout the world. “I gave Paul a pitch right down the middle,” says Lauridsen with a chuckle, “and he belted it out of the park.”

The entire piece and one section in particular, O Nata Lux, have sold millions of copies. “My publisher told me that there were about three dozen sets orchestral parts of Lux Aeterna being used throughout the world during Holy Week this year,” says Lauridsen, and that doesn’t count the number of performances being sung with organ accompaniment. Lauridsen wrote the piece with both accompaniments to broaden its accessibility.

Thousands of people have written Lauridsen to tell him how much the music has touched their hearts, either through performances or via the two CDs that have been made. Many of those letters came after the 9-11 bombings.

That popularity will continue, believes Dana Gioia, who headed the National Endowment for the Arts when Lauridsen received his National Medal of the Arts. “He is one of the few composers,” says Gioia, “who I have conviction will be performed a hundred, two hundred years from now.”

For information about Sunday’s event, call 818/591-1735.
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(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

PREVIEW: John Rutter Requiem — x 3

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

Two of the most popular choral works of the past quarter-century are Morten Lauridsen’s transcendant Lux Aeterna and John Rutter’s elegant Requiem. Each deals profoundly with the subjects of death and eternal life.

Although neither is easy to sing, both were written so choral groups with a wide range of skill levels (and budgets) could perform them. Both were designed to be sung in concert but they can also be adapted to worship service formats (indeed, when Pasadena Presbyterian’s Kirk Choir sang the West Coast premiere of the complete Rutter Requiem in 1986, it did so within the context of Sunday worship).

I’ll have a lot more to say about Morten Lauridsen next week but the Requiem by John Rutter (pictured right) is very much on the calendars this season with at least three churches presenting the work within the next few weeks.

Rutter’s Requiem will be the centerpiece of Pasadena Presbyterian Church’s 15th annual Good Friday concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Timothy Howard will lead his 50-voice choir, about two dozen community singers who have rehearsed specifically for this concert, soloists and orchestra. The free-admission program also includes O Vos Omnes by Pablo Casals, Bob Chicott’s God So Loved the World and John Tavener’s Song of Athene.

Since I’ll be singing in the choir and giving a preconcert lecture at 7 p.m., you can view this post with whatever level of skepticism you care to muster. Assuming the technology gods work adequately, my lecture will include video clips of Rutter discussing why he wrote the piece, its liturgical context and form.

The concert and the lecture are free; free parking is available and the church sanctuary is handicap accessible. Information: www.ppc.net

On the same day and hour, First Presbyterian Church Monrovia will sing the Rutter Requiem as part of what the church’s Web site describes as a “Good Friday Service.” Information: www.fpcmonrovia.org

Finally, on May 6 Calvary Presbyterian Church in South Pasadena will perform the Rutter Requiem in a 4 p.m. concert. Michael Wilson will lead his Chancel Choir and community singers (rehearsals are on Saturday mornings from 9-11 a.m. for those interested in singing). “This is an expansion of our “Messiah Sing-a-long,” says Wilson. “We call it Calvary’s ‘gift to the community.’ Last spring’s work was Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. Information: www.calvarypressopas.net

Virtually every choir member knows the name John Rutter; in addition to writing hundreds of works, he has co-edited four volumes of the Oxford “Carols for Choirs” series, which are staples in most choir libraries.

What makes the Rutter Requiem so popular? At least one reason stems from the 66-year-old English composer’s inspiration: his father had died in 1983. “My father loved music,” explains Rutter. “He had a good ear but he never had any musical training. [The kind of piece that I wanted to write] was one he would have appreciated if he had been sitting in the front row.”

During the 1980s, Rutter was doing research on Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. “When the manuscripts were handed to me and I touched them,” recalls Rutter, “I think that was the moment when I realized I wanted to write a ‘Requiem’ myself.”
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(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

(Revised) OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Nicholas McGegan and Pasadena Symphony at Ambassador Auditorium

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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Pasadena Symphony; Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Mendelssohn: The Fair Melusina Overture
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466 (Nareh Arghamanayan, pianist)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (Eroica)
Saturday, March 31, 2012 • Ambassador Auditorium
Next performance: April 28 (NOTE: This is a change from the original review)
Information: www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org



Pianist Nareh Arghamanayan, conductor Nicholas McGegan, and the Pasadena Symphony rehearse Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 for their concerts yesterday.
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For more than a quarter-century, Nicholas McGegan has made an international reputation as a Baroque music specialist, primarily through leading his San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. However, in recent years McGegan (now age 62) has broadened his repertoire and the Pasadena Symphony grabbed the opportunity to add him to its schedule of guest conductors for both this season and next.

McGegan is a compact perpetual bundle of energy on the podium with a seemingly unending smile (even when a cell phone went off between movements of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, McGegan merely looked over at the offending holder and smiled until the phone was turned off).

He conducts without a baton and clearly telegraphs his intentions not only to the musicians but also to the audience. He also seated the orchestra in an unconventional manner (for the PSO, at any rate), with the violins divided left and right, the cellos and basses to the left and the timpani perched on a platform to the right of the orchestra.

However, the key questions about any conductor are (a) how does the music sound? and (b) how well does the orchestra play? Both answers were strongly affirmative in yesterday afternoon’s performance (the concert repeated last night). McGegan shapes phrases lovingly and elicits rhythmic precision when it is called for. The orchestra responded as if McGegan was a familiar presence; overall this was a scintillating afternoon of music making.

A major portion of the enjoyment came courtesy of young Armenian pianist Nareh Arghamanayan, who was an elegant soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466. Wearing a wine-colored gown, she bobbed and swayed to the music to get in the mood even when she wasn’t playing. When she was in the spotlight, she produced a silken tone, punctuated by occasional sharp attacks, and a carefully thought-out concept of this familiar, albeit somewhat dark work, one of just two (out of 27) piano concerti that Mozart wrote in a minor key. Winner of the 2008 Montreal International Piano Competition, she is a name to remember. McGegan and the ensemble accompanied sensitively.

After intermission, McGegan led a buoyant performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (Eroica). At 46 minutes long, the tempos were brisk but they didn’t seem rushed. The orchestra (which numbered about 50, the size that Beethoven reportedly assembled for the work’s premiere) was led by its winds (notably Principal Oboist Lara Wickes) and played expertly. The members seem to relish exploring and meeting the challenges that come with having a different conductor for each program.

The afternoon opened with a rarity: Mendelssohn’s The Fair Melusina Overture, which has unmistakable overtones of the composer’s two previous efforts in the concert-overture genre: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage and The Hebrides, most notably in their allusions to the rolling sea. McGegan and Co. played it with considerable panache. At the end, McGegan beamed — as he did all afternoon.
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Hemidemisemiquavers:
• The PSO placed flowers on the seats of those subscribers who have renewed for the 2012-2013 season. It was a nice touch and also a way to remind others to either renew or become season-ticket holders.
• The season’s final concert on May 15 will see James DePreist, who has served as the PSO’s music advisor since Jorge Mester departed as music director two years ago, leading a program of Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey from Wagner’s Götterdämerung, Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8, and Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs, with Christine Brewer as soloist.
• When McGegan appears next season on Feb. 9, his program will pair Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto (with the PSO’s Principal Clarinet Donald Foster as soloist) with Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. McGegan will be one of two conductors repeating from this season (the other is Mei-Ann Chen, who will open next season on Oct. 6).
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(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.