The English National Ballet On Tour Spreads The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Festivities by Andrew Miller

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The English National Ballet's Daria Klimentová and Vadim Muntagirov in the pas de deux from Swan Lake. Photo by Lightbox Photography.

The Concourse Theatre, Chatswood, Sydney: 8 June 2012
continues in Sydney until 17 June.

Choreography – George Balanchine
Music – Igor Stravinsky
Lighting – David Mohr
Staging – Annette Glushak

Apollo – Vadim Muntagirov
Terpsichore – Daria Klimentová
Polyhymnia – Anaïs Chalendard
Calliope – Adela Ramírez

Trois Gnossiennes
Choreography – Hans van Manen
Music – Erik Satie

Adela Ramírez
Fabian Reimair
Kevin Darvas – piano

Manon (Act I pas de deux)
Choreography – Kenneth MacMillan
Music – Jules Massenet, arr. Martin Yates
Set and costumes – Mia Stensgaard
Lighting – Mikki Kunttu
Staging – Monica Parker

Manon – Elena Glurdjidze
Des Grieux – Arionel Vargas

Swan Lake (Act III grand pas de deux)
Choreography – Marius Petipa
Music – Tchaikovsky
Design – Peter Farmer
Lighting – David Richardson

Odile – Daria Klimentová
Siegfried – Vadim Muntagirov

Suite en Blanc
Choreography – Serge Lifar
Music – Edouard Lalo, arr. Gavin Sutherland
Staging – Maina Gielgud

Sieste – Kei Akahoshi, Jia Zhang, Senri Kou
Pas de Trois – Shiori Kase, Zhanat Atymtayev, Max Westwell
Serenade – Senri Kou
Pas de Cinq – Kei Akahoshi, Guilherme Menezes, Vitor Menezes, Ken Saruhashi, Laurent Liotardo
Cigarette – Elena Glurdjidze
Mazurka – Yonah Acosta
Pas de Deux – Daria Klimentová, Vadim Muntagirov
Flute – Anaïs Chalendard

The Willoughby Symphony Orchestra
Gavin Sutherland – conductor

The English National Ballet, founded in 1950 as the London Festival Ballet (so just slightly past its own diamond anniversary) by Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin from the touring company they put together the year before, right away found itself a niche in the balletomaniac city amongst the Sadler’s Wells companies (one soon to be the Royal Ballet), then dancing in the Sadler’s Wells Theatre and Covent Garden, and Ballet Rambert, as well as all the foreign companies, the Ballets des Champs Elysées of Boris Kochno and Roland Petit who regularly visited London, and many other visiting companies. No doubt this is thanks in part to the experience and enormous artistic talent of the founders, but they were keen to invite outside talent to create and dance in new works as well as the classics, namely Markova’s version of Giselle, The Nutcracker, Coppélia, Les Sylphides, Don Quixote, Études of Harald Lander (featuring as principal Lander’s second wife, Toni Lander) and reviving with Nicholas Beriosoff the early works of Fokine. The new works could be quite experimental and use previously unknown choreographers. The Festival Ballet made a name for itself dancing summer seasons at Royal Festival Hall, and also touring often the UK and to Europe. Markova left the company after a couple of seasons, but, according to Arnold Haskell, they had several very good ballerinas though not a single big star, and many strong male dancers in its first years, having assembled a company of English, Russian and Danish dancers. Nowadays, they still have a niche, retaining their summer season, dancing in larger, less conventional concert halls, namely Royal Albert Hall, and touring often (self-evidently) all the world over, and above all in their unique style of dancing and interpreting the classics. The company is extremely diverse, with dancers from many parts of Eurasia, especially the east, and the Americas, from many different schools (though the company does have their own school attached) and this seems to be a major strength.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!

Interview with Judy Grunberg and Yehuda Hanani – PS21 presents the 7th Annual Paul Grunberg Memorial Bach Concert , Saturday, June 16, 7.30 pm: Yehuda Hanani, cello; Emma Tahmizian, piano

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Johann Sebastian Bach

Saturday, June 16, 7:30 pm
7th ANNUAL PAUL GRUNBERG MEMORIAL BACH CONCERT
Yehuda Hanani, cello
Emma Tahmizian, piano

Yehuda Hanani’s charismatic playing and profound interpretations bring him acclaim and reengagements throughout Europe, North and South America, Asia and his native Israel.

Tahmizian’s international career was launched when she won the grand prize at the1977 Robert Schuman International Competition. She went on to win prizes in the Tchaikovsky, Leeds, Van Cliburn and Montreal competitions. She tours throughout the US and Europe in a wide variety of appearances.

Johann Sebastian Bach

French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816

Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord No. 1, BWV 1027

Cello suite No. 3 in C Major

Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord No. 2, BWV 1028

Hear the podcast on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


The Sydney Theatre Company Plays Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood by Andrew Miller

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Jack Thompson "begins at the beginning" Sydney Theatre Company’s Under Milk Wood. Photographer: Heidrun Löhr © 2012

Under Milk Wood, A Play for Voices
by Dylan Thomas

Sydney Opera House, Drama Theatre: 31 May 2012
plays in Sydney until 7 July

The Sydney Theatre Company

Director – Kip Williams
Set Designer – Robert Cousins
Original Costume Design – Alice Babidge
Lighting Designer – Damien Cooper
Musical Director & Composer – Alan John
Sound Designer – Steve Francis
Costume Realiser – David Fleischer
Voice and Dialect Director – Charmian Gradwell
Dramaturg – Andrew Upton
Scenic Photographer – Derek Henderson

With
Paula Arundell
Ky Baldwin
Alex Chorley
Drew Forsythe
Cameron Goodall
Sandy Gore
Alan John
Drew Livingston
Bruce Spence
Jack Thompson
Helen Thomson

It is no easy task to stage a radio play, or even a “Play for Voices.” We’re not talking about, say, making a dreadful Hollywood movie, or even a schlocky 1950′s film of War of the Worlds; in Under Milk Wood nothing happens. That’s not so much even the main difficulty, though, as is presenting something to the eye which complements Dylan Thomas’ “prose with blood-pressure,” an actor’s doing things — or choosing to stay immobile — and creating activity in a sensible way without stepping on the imagination’s toes. Something similar goes for the cooperative efforts of the costume, set, and music. One way might be to make a sort of symphonic concert out of it, in three movements: night, day, and evening, the actors using their voices mainly with minimal secondaries of costume, gesture, lighting and music, a verbal analogue to a recital or concert. The other extreme might be to turn it into a ‘proper play,’ with with changing sets of Coronation Street, matte paintings behind of Llareggub Hill and Milk Wood, changing to Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard’s parlor, and so on, but even these couldn’t keep up with Thomas’ fast-as-dream flight from house to house, it would look like an attention-deficient mess, would have destructive sentimentality, and would abuse the audience’s imaginations and their ears’ and mind’s eyes. Dylan Thomas’ description is so vivid, the imagery in his prose (which he was sensible, honest and unpretentious enough to call prose), with its quick unfurling of chains of words, and its taught, lithe rhythm, which is more than poetic enough for the sharply outlined, almost to the point of caricatured, characters with their simple psyches who we see unconscious and conscious, inside and out. There are few scientific mysteries in Llareggub, or rather they are brushed aside. The description is unsolid and doesn’t need to be solid, it is so vivid. The characters are borderline cartoonish already, or perhaps nowadays we could say graphic novelish, the play does remind me a bit of Ben Catchor’s.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an international journal for the arts!

The New York Philharmonic; Alan Gilbert, conductor; Yefim Bronfman, piano; at Davies Hall, San Francisco, play Dvořák, Lindberg, and Tchaikovsky, by Steven Kruger

by  • JUNE 2, 2012 • PRINT-FRIENDLY

Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic. Photo Chris Lee.

The New York Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano

Davies Hall, San Francisco
Sunday, May 13, 2012

Dvořák - Carnival Overture, Opus 92
Lindberg – Piano Concerto No. 2
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Opus 36

I caught recently one of the concerts given in Davies Hall by the New York Philharmonic, my old hometown band, as part of our 100th Anniversary Season. It was enough to set me thinking again about the role a good hall plays in shaping the fame of an ensemble.

Fifty years of struggle with the Lincoln Center acoustic has clearly left its mark on the New York orchestra’s reputation — though I must say not on the quality of its playing — which remains stunningly world class. But one is surprised to find in the sonority a burnished warmth and tonal delicacy similar to that of the Cleveland Orchestra. Understated tonal virtues have seldom been possible at Broadway and 65th Street. At least in the way we think of the orchestra. But they were notable here and speak well of Alan Gilbert’s Music Directorship.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


Aston Magna Celebrates its 40th Anniversary: Season Preview with Concert Schedule 2012, by Michael Miller

Like all the great institutions which are celebrating anniversaries this year, Aston Magna’s 40th anniversary season is much like any other. What better way to celebrate an important anniversary than to maintain the quality one has been known for and to reaffirm the founding principles? This year’s season, launched by gala events at Brandeis and at Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, will be rich in familiar repertory — Monteverdi, Purcell, Vivaldi, Telemann, the Bach family, and Mozart — and familiar faces: the violinist Daniel Stepner, the gambist Laura Jeppesen, harpsichordist John Gibbons, singers Dominique Labelle, Deborah Rentz-Moore, and William Hite. Of course Stanley Ritchie will be on hand. Some verydistinguished artists will be joining them: keyboard players Peter Sykes and Malcom Bilson, and Eric Hoeprich, whose Glossa recording of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto I just now warmly praised in a review article—and this is only a few.

Read the full preview
on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!








SPAC to open season with a major event in their dance program: Modern Dance Masterpieces by Bill T. Jones, Thurs, June 7, 8 pm

Modern Dance Masterpieces by BILL T. JONES at SPAC 

Thurs, June 7, 8 pm

Program by Renowned Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company Opens SPAC Season

Master Class and “Arts Alfresco” Celebration of Art, Wine & Food Also Announced

Bill T. Jones, D-Man. Photo 2009 Paul B. Goode.

Modern dance masterpieces by choreographer Bill T. Jones, one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the world of modern dance and the artistic creator of Broadway hits Spring Awakening and Fela!, will come to SPAC’s Amphitheatre Stage on Thursday, June 7 @ 8 p.m. The mixed repertory program features  avant-garde and classic works, including Jones’s signature piece, D-Man in the Waters, never before seen at SPAC. Tickets, just $30, are available online at spac.org.

Read the full preview on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


The Music of Mozart’s Last Months: La Clemenza di Tito at Emmanuel, Die Zauberflöte at Salzburg under Furtwängler, 1951, and Beecham’s Requiem from Pristine, by Michael Miller

The arrival of the Queen of the Night. Stage set by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) for an 1815 production

Mozart – La Clemenza di Tito

Saturday, April 14, 2012 – 8 pm
Pre-Concert Talk at 7 pm by John Harbison

Emmanuel Church, Boston

The Orchestra and Chorus of Emmanuel Music
Ryan Turner, conductor
Tito – William Hite, tenor
Vitellia – Deborah van Renterghem, soprano
Sesto – Krista River, mezzo-soprano
Annio – Pamela Dellal, mezzo-soprano
Servilia – Susan Consoli, soprano
Publio – Aaron Engebreth, baritone
Susan Larson, narrator

The primary occasion for this writing was Emmanuel Music’s fine performance of Mozart’s last opera, La Clemenza di Tito, under Music Director Ryan Turner. However, two extraordinary recordings of works Mozart composed during those busy final months of his life have appeared, as downloads from Pristine Classics, and they are not only magnificent in themselves, but they provide an enlightening context for this somewhat elusive opera seria. These recordings are of the legendary 1951 Salzburg performance of Die Zauberflöte under Wilhelm Furtwängler in the spectacularly improved sound we have come to expect from Andrew Rose, and a magnificent studio recording of the Requiem under Sir Thomas Beecham from 1954-56.

Read the full review
 on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!








Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Turns 80: Preview and Schedule for the 2012 Festival by Andrew Miller

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Jacob's Pillow: the outdoor stage. Photo from jacobspillow.org.

June 16 – August 26, 2012
Jacob’s Pillow, Becket Massachusetts

See below for schedule.

That Ted Shawn founded the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 80 years ago speaks to how old the art form is. Of course it is difficult to speak of ‘modern dance’ as an art form or even an art movement, when its main characteristic and initial need to exist, a need going back to Nijinsky’s and Diaghilev’s to create Le Sacre du Printemps in 1913, is a highly individual self-expression through movement, though it seems that from year zero as important as this honest self-expression of the choreographer and dancer(s) are common qualities such as a sense of theatre, for like ballet this is theatrical dance, and a degree of training, a technique, even a theory (however batty). Also as important is a company for the choreographer to work with and a school attached to the company, perhaps because of the difficulty to communicate the new choreography and its ever changing styles to the dancers. But one doesn’t want to be too rigid about it. What does “Self-expression” even mean in a cooperative performing art involving many “selves”?

Read the full preview on the Berkshire Review, an international journal for the arts!

Tannery Pond Benefit Concert: Sebastian Bäverstam, cello, and Yannick Rafalimanana, piano, play Kodály and Franck, by Michael Miller

Yannick Rafalimanana, pianist, and Sebastian Bäverstam, cellist. Photo Michael Miller 2012.

Tannery Pond Benefit Concert
May 5, 2012
Sebastian Bäverstam, cello
Yannick Rafalimanana, piano
at the home of Lois and Chris Herzeca

Cello Sonata, Op. 8 (1915) by Zoltán Kodály
César Franck, Violin Sonata in A Major, arranged for cello

The summer festivals of the Berkshires and Hudson Valley are to a large extent about young artists. Some festivals, like Tanglewood, Marlboro, Jacob’s Pillow, Shakespeare & Company, Yellow Barn, and Norfolk, are basically music schools or have an educational institution as a core adjunct. Marlboro and the Tanglewood Music Center focus on musicians who have just completed their conservatory work and are ready to begin their professional careers. Others, like Music Mountain, offer courses for adults and students. The benefits cut both ways: young musicians, actors, and dancers get to perform, and audiences get to hear fresh talent and new insights. Young professionals are a vital part of Tannery Pond’s program. Both Christian Steiner, the Artistic Director, and Leslie Teicholz, President of the Board, believe in working with young talent, through Young Concert Artists or other agencies. 

Read the full review
 on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!








A Singer’s Notes by Keith Kibler 49: Amadeus at Hubbard Hall, Macbeth at Shakespeare and Company

The Weird Sisters in Macbeth: Shakespeare and Company's New England Tour Production. Photo Kevin Sprague.

Amadeus at Hubbard Hall
Macbeth at Shakespeare and Company

Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Schaffer’s Amadeus are fundamentally monologues. Even as arresting a character as Lady Macbeth is given a relatively short part. As the play nears its end, she is effectively eliminated with only a short sleep-walking scene allowed her. Salieri, in Peter Schaffer’sAmadeus, basically tells the story he is the main actor in. Mozart is given considerable stage time, but even his most tragic appearances are always book-ended with dry ice comments, increasingly cold, from Salieri. Why? These two masterpieces have mostly to do with the power of narrative, how the story is told. How it is told becomes continually becomes the main character. Central to any kind of narrative predominance is the ever-present passing of time. Macbeth’s time moves rapidly, at a headlong pace. Salieri’s time drags along on a path of morbidity, and at the end he cannot really die. Interruptions to the flow of time in both of these dramas are quickly dispatched or folded into the larger narrative structure so that they seem excrescences.

Read the full article on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!