Holst’s The Planets

Springfield Symphony, Springfield, MA

www.springfieldsymphony.org

May 15, 2012

by Shera Cohen

The Springfield Symphony Orchestra (SSO) ended its 2011/12 season on figurative and literal high notes. Not only was Holst’s “The Planets” (the primary focus of the concert) an exquisite piece which showed off the talents of these professional musicians, but the evening’s sky lit up with seven planets just as the audience left the hall. What a coincidence! Well, whatever these large red beams were, they certainly brought more cheers, in addition to the deserved and long standing ovation at the conclusion of “The Planets.”

SSO and its Music Director Kevin Rhodes, undoubtedly, can feel proud of their stirring, varied, and well-attended season. There were but a few seats empty in the second balcony on this night.

The familiar “Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” written by Paul Dukas, sweetly charmed the listeners, with many, assuredly, envisioning Mickey Mouse and the walking brooms. Composer William Bolcom (a well-known musician in New England) penned the next piece, “Prometheus, Choral Fantasy.” Huge credit goes to the skilled pianist Jeffrey Biegel and the Springfield Symphony Chorus, led by Nikki Stoia, whose combined efforts made this work accomplish its goals. Yet, the choice of “Prometheus” in this season finale might well have been rethought. While it is wonderful to present contemporary works, this was so dark, bordering on the unpleasant. However, that was its purpose.

“The Planets” encompassed the entire second part of the evening. Each of the seven sections depicted each of the planets. Alas, there was no Pluto due to the fact that it had not been discovered in 1916 (when the piece was composed), not to mention Pluto’s recent demotion in the planet stratosphere. The orchestra created each planet/section distinctly, with #4 Jupiter, the most expressive. Neptune capped off the series with a unique symphonic ending. The percussion team sat still as backstage voices hummed softly, lingering and touching the rafters throughout Symphony Hall.

Mame

Goodspeed, East Haddam, CT

www.goodspeed.org

through July 7, 2012

by Walter Haggerty

That incomparable, enchanting and irresistible character, Auntie Mame, is kicking up her heels once again in a spectacular production of Jerry Herman’s “Mame” at the Goodspeed Opera House. Goodspeed, with two Tony Awards to its credit, is the unrivaled champion of reviving, restoring, and breathing new life into favorite musicals of the past. With “Mame” they have truly outdone themselves. It is a glorious production.

Heading a matchless cast is Louise Pitre, in the title role, and she is incredible. From her entrance and that first blast on the trumpet, Pitre delivers every favorite number and every measure of humor and tenderness called for. She is sensational.

Director Ray Roderick has found an ideal cast for this revival. In addition to Pitre’s Mame, Judy Blazer portrays a marvelous Vera Charles. When these two join forces for their Act II, "Bosom Buddies" duet, they deservedly stop the show. As young Patrick Dennis, Eli Baker is a heart-stealing winner, portraying the character with charm and humor. As the grown-up Patrick, Charles Hagerty glides over the hurdles of maturing and growing and performs a moving reprise of "My Best Girl." James Lloyd Reynolds' Beauregard Burnside is the epitome of a genteel Deep South aristocrat, loaded with charm and money.

Kirsten Wyatt, from her entrance "Hymn to St. Bridget" to "Gooch’s Song," is non-stop hilarious. After learning to “live,” with guidance from Mame, her charactor of Agnes appears to virtually levitate like a hot air balloon, to the delight of the audience.

“Mame” provides a cornucopia of toe-tapping numbers. Starting with "It’s Today," each number has the audience cheering. Following in quick succession are "Open A New Window," "We Need A Little Christmas," the knock their socks off title song. Plus, "That’s How Young I Feel" and Pitre’s moving treatment of "If He Walked Into My Life Today."

Choreography by Vince Pesce captures the frothy spirit of the 1920's and 30's, as do the elegant scenic designs of James Youmans and the gorgeous costumes of Gregg Barnes. This production could easily make the transition direct to Broadway intact. It certainly deserves to make that journey.

La Cage aux Folles

Opera House Players, Broadbrook, CT

www.operahouseplayers.org

through May 20, 2012

by Walter Haggerty

  

From “Little Women” to “La Cage aux Folles” in one season is quite a stretch for any theatre group, but the Opera House Players have pulled it off with great style. The talent and versatility of this exceptional collection of theatre lovers is extraordinary. The word “challenge” must be engraved on their mantra.

When Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein turned the film “La Cage aux Folles” into a Broadway musical in 1983, they created a blockbuster. This troupe has done no less. Every song is given its full-out, rousing delivery by soloists and the spectacular chorus line of “Les Cagelles.” (There are more feathers flying over the Opera House stage than anyone will find in most aviaries).

As to those soloists' songs, the performances are superb. As George, Chad Shipley is solid and sensitive, particularly with “Song on the Sand,” and with Luis Manzi as Albin, a touching “With You On My Arm.” As great as Manzi is with “A Little More Mascara,” his shattering delivery of “I Am What I Am” captures every ounce of anger, frustration, and hurt that is packed into that anthem. It is a triumph!

David Lopes, as Jean-Michel, does full justice to “Anne On My Arm,” as well as to a from-the-heart “Look Over There.” Jacob/Claudine as the butler/maid, or whomever or whatever, goes well “over-the-top” in Keith Leonhardt’s extravagant performance – and the audience loves every minute of it. Kiernan (Cone) Rushford as Anne is appealing and charming. Her parents, played by Harry and Sudie Evageliou, are suitably stiff and serious.

With Jerry Herman’s unerring talent for building show-stoppers, step-by-step, “La Cage” has an ample supply. From the opener, “We Are What We Are,” to the title song and the incomparable, “The Best of Times,” there are plenty of opportunities to cheer.

As director, Sharon FitzHenry deserves highest praise for an ensemble performance that has just the right touch to let the love and heart of the story shine through. The choreography of Kristen Shaw and tap choreography of Leonhardt, are perfection – a term, in fact, that should be applied to the entire production.

A Theatrical Anniversary

Suffield Players Celebrate 60 Years in Community Theatre
Mapleton Hall, Suffield, CT

www.suffieldplayers.org
May 5, 2012
by Mary Fernandez-Sierra

This spring, a very special year-long series of events begin for the Suffield Players, commemorating 60 years together. The "Diamond Anniversary" festivities start during their performance of "Lady Windermere’s Fan" by Oscar Wilde. This play, the Players’ 140th production, runs through May 19.

Suffield Players veterans ("Diamonds From The Past") who are in the audience will be recognized during the opening remarks before each performance, which are usually given by President Robert Lunde, or by longtime Technical Director Jerry Zalewski. The kindness and talents of folks who supported Suffield Players over time are in the spotlight this year.

The group will also award free tickets to the 60th patron ("A Diamond In The Door") who walks into Mapleton Hall to attend any "Lady Windermere’s Fan" performance.

More special recognition awaits anyone who makes a $60 contribution to the "Sixty Dollar Stepgift" fund, which will be dedicated to repairing the steps and balustrades of historic Mapleton Hall’s portico. These generous supporters will be listed with honor in the Suffield Players Programs and Newsletters throughout the "Diamond Anniversary" season.

Theatrical Vignettes and Music from Past Productions will be presented at Suffield-On-The-Green on September 8 and 9. Some most unusual theatrical surprises await attendees.

"Everything Old Is New Again" for Suffield Players, as their Diamond Anniversary Year begins. To slightly revise The Bard: "The Play is STILL The Thing…" even after 60 years. The Players invite everyone to join in the celebration.

Bob Weir Solo Acoustic

Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield, MA
www.colonialtheatre.org
by Eric Sutter

"Lay your burdens down" was the general feeling present at Colonial when Bob Weir's Solo Acoustic Tour came through Pittsfield. The performance had been postponed from last August, so a mighty anticipation was obvious. The legendary rhythm guitarist from The Grateful Dead performed in an intimate living room style setting, making use of his devoted following who sang, danced and clapped along to nearly every song.

Weir opened with his own "The Music Never Stopped," which sounded powerfully good. The warm receptive audience shined the lights from cell phones and captured his image in photo. He was barefooted and humble as he passed a nod of recognition to Bob Dylan with a rendition of "Maggie's Farm" on bottleneck slide guitar. The Marty Robbins cowboy tale "El Paso" was an unexpected treat. He followed with other tales such as the sparse sadness of the Dylan lament "Desolation Row" and continued in a similar vein with the traditional murder ballad "Frankie and Johnnie" which featured nimble guitar playing.

Strangely, the fire alarm in the Colonial went off, and audience members were told to evacuate until the Fire Department could check things out. After 20 minutes, Weir resumed. In spite of the interruption, he kept it rolling along with the mellow sing-a-longs "Artificial Flowers" and "At The Festival." The crowd was enthusiastic and full of song and dance. Some looked like open -handed human umbrellas as they praised the sound with hundreds of parachuting memories.

An intricate guitar instrumental became another vehicle for celebration and set up the classic "Cassidy." The collective consciousness of the Dead Head audience was placated by the opening acoustic guitar chords of the Beatles "Dear Prudence." The joyously visceral Bo Diddley beat of Buddy Holly's "Fade Away" had the put the audience in Weir's hands. In loud unison, the audience became a boisterous chorus. The fluttering farewell was like some low voltage charge of electricity. "Brokedown Palace" tapped into a secret place of coagulated energy. The tribe went out happy.

Close Encounters with Music: Trade Winds, From China with Love

Mahaiwe Theater, Great Barrington, MA

www.cewm.org

April 21, 2012

by Michael J. Moran

 

In setting the stage for this concert’s “musical dialogue between East and West,” cellist and CEWM Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani noted that while western music typically features “a buildup of tension followed by release,” Chinese music seeks instead to achieve “a state of nirvana.” The enterprising selection of European and Chinese music that followed largely confirmed this distinction.

The program opened with Ravel’s “Mother Goose” Suite in an arrangement by the performer, Bulgarian-born pianist Emma Tahmizian. Before playing, she explained that her arrangement focused on the “magical notes” connecting the five movements and that she would omit the second movement, “Little Tom Thumb.” This was an unfortunate loss, as her playing was rich in detail and nuance, and her arrangement gave the piquant music a newly chromatic edge.

For the rest of the program’s first half, Tahmizian was joined by Israeli violinist Hagai Shaham. Their taut but flexible rendition of Debussy’s “Violin Sonata” made it sound both jazzier and more exotic than usual. The exhilaration they demonstrated in a passionate account of Joseph Achron’s soulful “Hebrew Melody” looked much like the nirvana that Hanani associated with Chinese music. And they were so exuberant in Fritz Kreisler’s “Tambourin Chinois” that Shaham broke at least one string before it ended.

"Empress of Pipa" Liu Fang

After intermission China’s “Empress of Pipa,” Liu Fang, played three traditional Chinese pieces on the pipa, a sort of Chinese lute that produces a high-pitched, bell-like sound. The concluding march, “King Chu Doffs His Armor,” built especially well to an ecstatic climax. The speed with which Fang plucked her strings was often mesmerizing, but every note she played was crystal clear. 

Cellist Hanani then joined her for two American premieres: Zhou Long’s “Green,” and Ahmad Hamdan’s “From Ahmad to Liu Fang.” Though the balance between the two instruments didn’t always work, Long’s piece made the stronger impression.

It was a gutsy move to conclude the program with Tahmizian’s dazzling account of Leo Ornstein’s “A la Chinoise,” which, though written almost a century ago, sounded like the most modern and cosmopolitan work of the evening.

Musical Legacy

Hartford Symphony, Hartford, CT

www.hartfordsymphony.org

through April 15, 2012

by Michael J. Moran

Gerard & Julian Schwarz

The special attraction of the seventh “Masterworks” program in the Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s current season was the chance to see guest conductor Gerard Schwarz lead a concert featuring his son Julian as soloist. The esteemed elder Schwarz retired last year as music director of the Seattle Symphony after 26 years in that post. His twenty-year-old son is a rising cellist who, though still a Juilliard student, has already performed with many professional orchestras.

The program opened with an HSO premiere: Chinese-born composer Bright Sheng’s 2006 arrangement for orchestra of Brahms’s “Intermezzo in A Major” for solo piano. The 7-minute piece, which Sheng gave the enigmatic title “Black Swan,” captured and even magnified the autumnal warmth of the original and was given an appropriately lush and tender performance.

Schwarz told the Hartford Courant that these HSO concerts marked his first collaboration with his son in perhaps the greatest of all cello concertos, Dvorak’s 1895 “Concerto in B minor.” Its many Czech-sounding melodies recall the composer’s homeland, including a quotation from one of his songs that was a favorite of a beloved sister-in-law who died while he was finishing work on the concerto.

The memorable performance revealed all the drama and poignancy of the music, from the grand opening of the first movement with its solo horn melody beautifully played by principal Barbara Hill, through the bucolic central Adagio, to the fleet rondo finale. The soloist’s rich, expressive tone and his interpretive maturity easily met both the technical demands and the wide emotional range of this 40-minute masterpiece and earned him an enthusiastic standing ovation.

The program closed with a powerful account of Sibelius’s “Symphony No. 2,” acclaimed at its world premiere in 1902 as a bold statement of Finnish nationalism. Schwarz’s affinity for this piece, which he told the Courant first inspired him to study conducting, was clear in the dark, brooding sound he drew from the players, especially brass, woodwinds, and percussion.  Mutual applause showed how much conductor and orchestra enjoyed working together.

The “musical legacy” of this father has a long and promising future with his son.