An enterprising New York City publicist named Amanda recently contacted a number of Bay Area journalists and bloggers and asked if we wanted to interview anyone connected with a "Wordless Music" concert at the Herbst Theatre in the Veterans Building on Thursday.
Charlise, the indispensable Opera Tattler (above), was first out of the gate with a long interview of Ronen Givony (click here). He founded the Wordless Music series in New York to try to bridge "the gap between musical genres, since we're in the 21st century and the distinctions between classical, jazz, and rock are disappearing."
After a few successful concerts in New York, he decided to bring the show to San Francisco...
...and enlisted the help of a brand-new chamber outfit called The Magik*Magik Orchestra which includes some of the starriest musicians in the Bay Area, including percussionist William Winant and cellist Joan Jeanrenaud who was the Kronos Quartet's original cellist.
The concert started with John Adams' "Shaker Loops" for string septet, which was how the modern classic was written before being expanded for a larger orchestra, and the performance was a complete treat.
This was followed by Winant and Jeanrenaud playing "Save As," a recent composition by the English guitarist and composer Fred Firth. I thought the piece was a bit silly, but it was fun seeing Joan Jeanrenaud for the first time channeling her Rocker Chick personality into the cello performance, and Winant is simply a master.
The second half was devoted to three pieces for string orchestra by Arvo Part, Mason Bates and Jonny Greenwood of the rock band Radiohead.
When I asked the conductor Benjamin Shwartz (above), who also is the Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, what his favorite and least favorite "crossover" pieces were by classical and rock composers, he had a good answer:
"I find that music that tries to crossover from classical to popular or in the other direction tends to disappoint. What I find stimulating is music that isn't easily branded as either. The music of Aphex Twin, especially the album Drukqs, is more imaginative than half of the music on concert stages today. Likewise, many composers these days are deeply inspired by popular music but take it in much more creative directions."
The Greenwood piece, "Popcorn Superhet Receiver," turned out to be fascinating. If you've seen the Paul Anderson movie "There Will Be Blood" with Daniel Day-Lewis, you've heard the music which was already composed before the director decided to use it for his long, wordless scenes. It may be one of the most audacious uses of "modern" music in a film since Kubrick stole Ligeti's music for "2001."
The concert was sold out, by the way, either because of Amanda's sterling publicity work, or because people were desperate to get a close-up look of Jonny Greenwood who was in attendance. Either way, it was an auspicious start for a brand-new orchestra, and I can't wait to see what they do next.
After close to three months of coaching in everything from languages to stage movement, two dozen young singers from around the world took the stage of the San Francisco Opera House and proceeded to sing their hearts out. Janos Gereben at SF Classical Voice writes that it was "a group without a weak link" (click here for the entire review), and though I'm not prepared to be that generous in praise, it's close to being true.
Everyone who was anyone was in attendance, including Sid Chen (above left) who has a beautiful bass voice which he often uses to sing modern classical music, particularly Meredith Monk (click here for his seminal "Standing Room" blog). He was joined at the empty box bar by "manprano" (above right), a newly arrived San Francisco countertenor who was just selected to sing in the famous Chanticleer chorus (click here for his blog, "The Ubiquitous Hobbit").
Thanks to one of my all-time favorite San Francisco Opera choristers, Charlie Lichtman and I were given comp tickets for the party afterwards in the Green Room at the Veterans Building next door.
Though I already knew after three weeks of daily rehearsal that the "Don Giovanni" principals all had great voices, there were still some wonderful surprises when we got to hear the "Giovanni" chorus take over the stage as soloists, including Renee Tatum above who sang a long scene from Massenet's "Werther"...
...with Nathaniel Peake (above) giving a knockout rendition of Goethe's poet.
The charming New Zealand tenor James Benjamin Rodgers (above) did a sensational job in a scene from Barber's "Vanessa"...
...where he was paired with Amanda Majeski (above) whose voice is seriously ready for prime time. She filled the huge opera house and it was beautiful.
Though Leah Crocetto was deservedly many people's favorite of the evening for her two knockout Verdi arias, my favorite voice belonged to Rena Harms (above). It's a completely subjective opinion, but there is something about her sound that makes me very happy, even though she doesn't have it completely under control yet. Her big scene from "Arabella" was just plain exquisite, though I felt terrible for YoungJoo An, the Korean baritone playing her lover Mandryka. That character has to be one of the most ungrateful leading romantic male parts in all of opera, ugly and barking. Plus, you have to sing it over a monster Strauss orchestra.
Good luck, everyone, in your very difficult, competitive and rewarding careers.
