Issue 5: Feb 2012

Page 1

mondavi center

2o11–12

Ballet Preljocaj: Blanche Neige Photo by Jean-Claude Carbonne

program Issue 5: Feb 2012 3

rachel barton pine, violin

11

les ballets trockadero de monte carlo

19

circa

25 loudon wainwright III Leo Kottke 29 eric owens, bass-baritone Robert Spano, piano 51

chucho valdÉs and the afro-cuban messengers

56

the chieftains


from the directo

before the show

• As a courtesy to others, please turn off all electronic devices. • If you have any hard candy, please unwrap it before the lights dim. • Please remember that the taking of photographs or the use of any type of audio or video recording equipment is strictly prohibited. • Please look around and locate the exit nearest you. That exit may be behind you, to the side or in front of you. In the unlikely event of a fire alarm or other emergency please leave the building through that exit. • As a courtesy to all our patrons and for your safety, anyone leaving his or her seat during the performance may not be re-admitted to his/her ticketed seat while the performance is in progress.

Accommodations for Patrons with Disabilities 530.754.2787 • TDD: 530.754.5402 In the event of an emergency, patrons requiring physical assistance on the Orchestra Terrace, Grand Tier and Upper Tier levels please proceed to the elevator alcove refuge where this sign appears. Please let us know ahead of time for any special seating requests or accommodations. See page 67 for more information. Donors 530.754.5438 Donor contributions to the Mondavi Center presenting program help to offset the costs of the annual season of performances and lectures and provide a variety of arts education and outreach programs to the community. Friends of Mondavi Center 530.754.5000 Contributors to the Mondavi Center are eligible to join the Friends of Mondavi Center, a volunteer support group that assists with educational programs and audience development.

S

ince October, the Mondavi Memory Booth has had a steady line of audience members lining up to sit down and be counted! (Our wonderful stage crew built the booth, and I think they did a beautiful job—complete with photographic reminders of each of our first 10 seasons.) Purposely reminiscent of one of those old-time coin-operated take-your-own photo booths, the Memory Booth is a place to reminisce. To prepare for our 10th anniversary celebration, which begins in earnest next October, we want to hear from you about your favorite memories from this first decade. We live in a time, fortunately, when technology makes this a relatively pain-free phenomenon. Currently, we are putting together a 10th anniversary season (to be announced in a few months) that we think you will find appropriately celebratory. We’ll bring back a number of your favorite stars, as well as re-introduce some of our favorite shows that might not have been on your radar screen the first time around. We hope to spend most of next season looking forward, finding ways to make a second decade at the Mondavi Center even better in terms of serving our public on this campus and in our region. When the Mondavi Center was just a gleam, visionaries like Larry Vanderhoef and others believed that this place could make a great difference in our lives and could be a center for beautiful things, for familiar things, for new things, for art, entertainment, for learning and stimulation. When I joined the Center in 2006, I was attracted here because all of these things were already being achieved. So now it gives me great pleasure to ask you all for your impressions of (as New York’s Mayor Koch used to say) “how’re we doin’?” In particular, how has your life been different in the Mondavi Center era? What difference has the Center made for you? What more would you like us to do?

Volunteers 530.754.1000 Mondavi Center volunteers assist with numerous functions, including house ushering and the activities of the Friends of Mondavi Center and the Arts and Lectures Administrative Advisory Committee.

Send me an email in response to these questions at Memories@MondaviArts.org. Your responses, like those from the Memory Booth, will help us build a picture not only of Mondavi Center past, but, like Scrooge and Christmas, a view of present and future as well.

Tours 530.754.5399 One-hour guided tours of the Mondavi Center’s Jackson Hall, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre and Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby are given regularly by the Friends of Mondavi Center. Reservations are required.

Enjoy February at the MC. The lineup this month is one of my favorite “slices” of this season; if you have time, hear and see it all!

Lost and Found Hotline 530.752.8580 Recycle We reuse our playbills! Thank you for returning your recycled playbill in the bin located by the main exit on your way out.

r

info

Photo: Lynn Goldsmith

Before the Curtain Rises, Please Play Your Part

Tell Your Stor y

Don Roth, Ph.D. Executive Director Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

1


Copyright © UC Regents, Davis campus, 2011. All Rights Reserved.

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

We see cells that regenerate heart muscle. You see a way to reinvigorate your life. As the region’s only academic health center, UC Davis is on the leading edge of discovery and innovation in heart care for adults and children. Here, worldrenowned health-care specialists conduct research, teach, and offer breakthrough treatments—including the promise of using a patient’s own cells to regenerate heart muscle that has been lost due to a heart attack. And that’s just the beginning. To see the full story and more, visit YouSeeTheFuture.UCDavis.edu. For more information, call 800-2-UC DAVIS.

YOU SEE A NEW LIFE

2

| mondaviarts.org


Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

MC

Debut

Rachel Barton Pine, violin with The Chamber Soloists Orchestra of New York A Wells Fargo Concert Series Event Saturday, February 4, 2012 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis There will be one intermission. Sponsored by

Additional support provided by Shipley and Dick Walters Pre-Performance Talk Saturday, February 4, 2012 • 7PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis Speaker: Rachel Barton Pine in conversation with Don Roth, Executive Director, Mondavi Center, UC Davis (see bio p. 4) further listening see p. 6

The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

3


capradio.org Pre-Performance Talk moderator: Don Roth, Ph.D Dr. Don Roth is the executive director of the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Roth joined the Mondavi Center in June 2006, arriving from the Aspen Music Festival and School where he served as president from 2001–06. Previously Roth served as president of the Saint Louis Symphony and of the Oregon Symphony and as general manager of the San Francisco Symphony.

welcoMe to Davis

WHERE WORLD-CLASS PERfORmAnCE PAiRS bEAutifuLLy WitH LocaL foods Downtown Davis’ only grocery store

620 g street, Downtown Davis open daily 7am to 10pm www.davisfood.coop

4

| mondaviarts.org

In 2010, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson appointed Roth to co-chair the For Art’s Sake regional arts initiative. Roth also serves on the Board of Overseers for the Curtis Institute of Music, on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Classical Voice and the Advisory Council of American Bach Soloists. He has chaired numerous panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and has served on the Executive Committee of the Sacramento Philharmonic board. In addition, he is a member of the Directors Council (emeritus Board) of the League of American Orchestras, the national organization of symphony orchestra professionals, trustees and volunteers. For almost 10 years, Roth chaired the League’s Orchestra Management Fellowship Program, the leading training program for symphony executives in the U.S. More recently, he taught non-profit management in the arts in the Graduate School of Management, UC Davis.


rachel barton pine, violin

Rachel Barton Pine, violin with The Chamber Soloists Orchestra of New York Jack Rosenberg, viola Adam Grabois, cello Peter Seidenberg, cello Kurt Muroki, bass Melvin Kaplan, oboe Marc Schachman, oboe Sharon Moe, horn Ian Donald, horn

Emily Popham Gillins, violin Miki-Sophia Cloud, violin Michael Dabroski, violin April Johnson, violin Veronique Mathieu, violin Linda Quan, violin DeAnn Letourneau, violin Ynez Lynch, viola

Program Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91) Cadenzas by Rachel Barton Pine

Concerto No. 4 for violin and orchestra in D Major, K. 218 Allegro-Sonata Form Andante cantabile Rondo (Andante grazioso - Allegro ma non troppo) Concerto No. 1 for violin and orchestra in B-flat Major, K. 207 Allegro Adagio Rondo Concerto No. 3 for violin and orchestra in G Major, K. 216 Allegro Adagio Rondo Intermission

Concerto No. 2 for violin and orchestra in D Major, K. 211 Allegro moderato Andante Rondo, Allegro Concerto No. 5 for violin and orchestra in A Major, K. 219 Allegro Aperto - Adagio - Allegro Aperto Adagio Rondo - Tempo di Minuetto

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

5


rachel barton pine, violin

further listening

by jeff hudson There are plenty of rockers who, at a certain age, try their hand at classical music. Paul McCartney has written choral works and a ballet score. Elvis Costello made an album with the Brodsky String Quartet. There’s a related urge among classical musicians. I once saw conductor Michael Tilson Thomas sit down at a piano and jam with former members of the Grateful Dead at Davies Hall in San Francisco. But violinist Rachel Barton Pine, whose career as a classical recording artist was launched in 1994, has taken the next step, gotten dressed up in black leather with metal studs and released an entire album (Dismal Times) with doom metal band Earthen Grave. She plays screaming fast passages on electric violin (one of Mark Wood’s “Viper” instruments). Tracks include “Burning a Sinner,” “Relentless” and “Death on the High Seas.” This wasn’t entirely a bolt from the blue. Recall that in 1997, Pine’s album Stringendo: Storming the Citadel mixed covers of tunes by AC/DC, Megadeth and Black Sabbath with Paganini’s 24th Caprice and a scorching arrangement of Handel’s “Passacaglia.” In 1998, Pine dressed up in black and held a flaming violin on the cover of her (classical) album Instrument of the Devil, which featured fire-breathing violin showpieces (with infernal implications) like Tartini’s “Devil’s Trill” Sonata, Paganini’s “The Witches,” “Mephisto Waltz” and more.

She’s also gone in big time for sweet, rich, mainstream Romantic-era music for the violin, including this year’s recording of the Glazunov Violin Concerto (with the Russian National Orchestra, conducted by José Serebrier), an album of short works by Pablo de Sarasate, the Bruch Scottish Fantasy, a disc of chamber works by Liszt, etc. She’s also a Baroque music performer, having recorded an album of Handel sonatas (accompanied by cello and harpsichord) and two albums of German music (including Bach, Buxtehude and Biber). She’s also released a very interesting disc of violin concertos by black composers of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Chevalier de Saint-Georges (a prominent musician and dashing swordsman in Paris during the late 1700s). In summer 2010, Pine did the trifecta in a threepart concert. The first set featured Baroque music on period instruments with Trio Settecento; the second set paired her with an orchestra for the flashy Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto; the third set featured her on electric violin with Earthen Grave. Rachel Barton Pine has also written (and published) her own cadenzas for several well-known concertos, including the violin concertos of Mozart.

Jeff Hudson contributes coverage of the performing arts to Capital Public Radio, the Davis Enterprise and Sacramento News and Review.

6

| mondaviarts.org


“You have no idea how well you play the violin. If only you would do yourself justice and play with boldness, spirit and fire, as if you were the greatest violinist in Europe!” Thus Leopold Mozart admonished his son Wolfgang Amadeus in 1777. A fine violinist, respected composer and famous pedagogue, Leopold had published a popular treatise on violin playing in 1756, the year his son was born. The treatise, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule, remains very influential to this day. The young Mozart began violin lessons at the tender age of six under the primary tutelage of his father. As a touring child prodigy, he performed on both violin and keyboard throughout Europe. At age 13, Mozart became second concertmaster to Michael Haydn (brother of Franz Joseph) of the Archbishop of Salzburg’s court orchestra. He led the orchestra frequently and took solo parts, often in his own works. But by 1777, he had been succeeded in this position by the Italian virtuoso Antonio Brunetti. Mozart’s concert activities were focused on the piano, and he usually favored the viola for playing chamber music. His father must have been quite disappointed. Perhaps their complex relationship had played a role in Mozart’s choices. The last three of Mozart’s five violin concertos were composed in 1775 when he was 19. From analysis of his handwriting and manuscript paper, scholars have concluded that the first concerto was composed two years earlier. For stylistic reasons, it is believed that the second concerto also must have been written prior to 1775. It is uncertain whether Mozart composed these five concertos for his own use or for Brunetti; both men had a set of parts in their possession. We do know that Mozart chose the alto voice in the Salzburg premiere of his final concerted work for violin, the 1779 Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major for violin and viola KV364. Brunetti performed as his soprano-voiced partner. All five concertos follow the same basic pattern. The first movements are in sonata-allegro form with a double exposition (the first taken by the orchestra and the second by the soloist). The soloist is expected to perform an improvised or composed cadenza at the end of the recapitulation. The second movement of each concerto is in a contrasting key from the outer movements. They are also in sonata-allegro form and leave room for a cadenza just before the concluding phrase. The last movements of all except the first concerto are in rondo form. KV207’s is in sonata-allegro form, though Mozart also wrote an alternate Rondo in B-flat major, KV269, which remains in the repertoire as a stand-alone piece. The Rondos of KV216, 218 and 219 each feature a middle section of a contrasting and individual character. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that they are performed more often than KV207 or 211. Before each return to the rondo theme, the soloist is invited to play an eingang, a miniature cadenzalike flourish that serves as a connecting bridge. KV207 in B-flat major and KV211 in D Major are clearly modeled on the baroque concerto grosso. There are strong contrasts between forte and piano, the soloist and tutti are often in dialogue and many passages are lightly scored for accompaniment only by the violins. Both second movements are beautifully lyrical. The last movement

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

rachel barton pine, violin

Program Notes

of KV207 is brilliant and witty, bearing the unusual tempo marking Presto. The last movement of KV211 is in the style of a French minuet. Mozart’s creativity is evident in the textural variety of the soloist’s iterations of the rondo theme. The first two times, the accompaniment is provided by the violins. The third time, the soloist plays an octave lower with an oboe doubling at the octave above; and the last time, horns are added to the scoring. KV216 in G Major, my personal favorite, is in Mozart’s friendliest key. It is often the first Mozart concerto studied by children, as it lies lower on the fingerboard than KV218 or 219. The first movement begins with a theme closely resembling the shepherd-king Aminta’s first-act aria “Aer tranquillo” from his recently-composed opera Il rè pastore, KV208: “Tranquil air and serene days, fresh springs and green fields, these are the prayers to fortune of the shepherd and his flocks.” The solo sections contain additional themes beyond those stated in the orchestral introduction, and the oboes and horns have a more significant role than in Mozart’s earlier violin concertos. In the aria-like second movement, the delicate texture includes muted upper strings and pizzicato lower strings. Flutes replace the oboes, the only time Mozart includes flutes in his violin concertos. When the five concertos are performed as a cycle, these parts usually are taken by the oboes for practical reasons. At the end of the movement, after the usual brief tutti following the cadenza, the soloist makes one last unexpected appearance. After beginning to play the main theme once again, she quickly changes her mind and concludes the phrase. The cheerful third movement, in 3/8, has a contrasting middle section in duple time. Beginning with a serenade-like melody in a minor key, accompanied by pizzicato strings, it then launches into a rustic folk song from Strasbourg. This tune, which you may recognize from the 2003 film Master and Commander, includes a drone accompaniment and fiddle variations featuring left-hand pizzicato and chromatic triplets. Notes also are plucked in the soloist’s final statement of the rondo theme. The concerto ends graciously, with the winds alone playing the final phrase. KV218 in D Major is more extroverted and virtuosic than are Mozart’s first three concertos. Composed in the traditional key of trumpets and horns, the opening tutti and the soloist’s first entrance begin with a brass-like fanfare. Interestingly, the fanfare never returns, and the first movement’s recapitulation enters with the soloist’s secondary melody. Calmness and simplicity characterize the second movement as the exposition proceeds directly into the recapitulation. The “A” section of the concluding rondo is actually a pair of themes, an incomplete section in a moderate 2/4 that leads into a lively section in 6/8. In the middle of the movement, Mozart surprises us with a stately gavotte, played in part over a drone in imitation of a musette. The last two iterations of the first rondo theme are very abbreviated, and each one features a different accompaniment texture. In contrast to the strong and definitive conclusion to his first D major violin concerto, KV218 simply fades away. KV219 in A Major is the most popular of Mozart’s five violin concertos. It is the longest as well as the most original and adventurous, featuring some daringly imaginative structural experiments. The first movement is marked Allegro aperto (“open,” “frank”), a rare marking in Mozart’s instrumental music but more common in his operas. The joyful opening tutti is followed by a surprise;

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

7


rachel barton pine, violin

an exclusive wine tasting experience of featured wineries for inner circle donors

Complimentary wine pours in the Bartholomew Room for Inner Circle Donors: 7-8PM and during intermission if scheduled. February 9 17

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo Honig Winery Eric Owens • Silverado Vineyards

March 2 24

Angelique Kidjo • Fiddlehead Cellars Circus Oz • Silver Oak Cellars

April 17 28

Anoushka Shankar • Roessler Cellars Maya Beiser • Corison Winery

May 2 12

San Francisco Symphony Chamber Ensemble Traverso Wines New York Philharmonic • D’Argenzio Winery

Featured wineries

For information about becoming a donor, please call 530.754.5438 or visit us online: www.mondaviarts.org. Sponsored by

8

| mondaviarts.org

the soloist enters with a tender Adagio, a type of interlude that does not appear in any of his other concertos. The Adagio material never again appears in the movement. After this brief digression, the soloist continues to startle by playing an entirely new Allegro melody while the orchestra repeats the original opening theme of the exposition, now transformed into an accompaniment. The soloist introduces additional new material of such a dramatic nature that one can almost imagine an operatic dialogue taking place between two characters, at times flirtatious, sentimental, anxious and even angry. The second movement is calm, filled with graceful sighing figures and lovely melodies of an almost painful beauty. After the poignant development section, the main theme returns as a brief fugato. Inexplicably, Brunetti was dissatisfied with this movement and requested a replacement that became the equally gorgeous Adagio in E major, KV261. The last movement is a gracious minuet. The solo and tutti iterations of the rondo theme are constantly varied with an inventiveness and playfulness that feels improvisatory. Halfway through the movement, aggressive, exotic-sounding music suddenly intrudes. Menacing and march-like, this music is typical of the “alla Turca” style that was immensely popular in the Classical period. Mozart imitates the clanging percussion of a Turkish military band by directing the cellos and basses to bang the wooden parts of their bows against the strings. “Alla Turca” music was used by such composers as Gluck and Haydn and famously by Mozart in his KV331 piano sonata and The Abduction from the Seraglio. So widespread was the fad for this type of faux-Turkish music that pianos built for home use often included an extra pedal that operated a pair of cymbals. Far from a harmless amusement, this type of caricature stems from deep-seated cultural and political attitudes that reflected the Western world’s fear of and fascination with Eastern and Arabic cultures and which exaggerated the “otherness” in order to retain a sense of superiority. In his 2010 book, Representations of the Orient in Western Music: Violence and Sensuality, musicologist Nasser Al-Taee effectively argues that such problematic artistic responses are not confined to past centuries and memories of the Ottoman Empire, but in fact continue in our own time. While perhaps not as controversial as, for instance, American music in the minstrelsy tradition, an informed performer’s decision whether to play Western music in the “alla Turca” style presents something of a moral dilemma. However, at least some of today’s classical musicians in Turkey do not share my ambivalence. During my February 2011 Turkish debut, my colleagues in Ankara’s Bilkent Symphony explained that they proudly embrace Mozart’s Violin Concerto in A Major, even augmenting the orchestra with authentic Turkish percussion instruments during the “Turkish” section of the last movement. In Mozart’s day, concertos usually were performed without the benefit of a baton-wielding conductor. The soloist would lead the orchestra and join in with the first violin section when not playing his own solo part, or would direct the tuttis with his hands if playing a different instrument such as the piano or clarinet. I follow this tradition even for performances when a conductor helps me in the leadership duties. This chamber music approach, in which I am the first among equals, enables the music’s flow and texture to sound more authentic and to feel more satisfying than if I were to drop in and out as in a Romantic concerto.


Chamber Soloists Orchestra of New York Acclaimed as an outstanding ensemble of distinguished virtuosi, performing widely diverse repertoire in creatively programmed concerts, the Chamber Soloists Orchestra of New York has maintained a unique niche in the chamber music world for more than five decades. This 12-member ensemble of strings, winds and keyboard can increase to as many as 20 with the addition of guest artists, giving it the flexibility to offer many works that are seldom heard due to the unusual instrumental combinations for which they were written.

—Rachel Barton Pine

With more than 250 works in their repertoire, the Chamber Soloists have made a valuable contribution to the musical life of this country and have helped to expand the audience for chamber music. Their programming innovations have included Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concerti in a single concert, Paris in the ’20s, an American Classics program, the complete Mozart horn concerti and song cycles, cantatas and operas from Monteverdi to Aitken.

Rachel Barton Pine (violin), in both art and life, has an extraordinary ability to connect with people. Her performances exude passion and conviction, and her honesty in communicating the core emotions of great works moves listeners worldwide. Pine’s scholarly fascination with history enables her to bring informed interpretations to her extensive repertoire, while her innate ability to understand and perform music of many diverse genres captivates music lovers of all backgrounds. Audiences are thrilled and uplifted by her dazzling technique, lustrous tone and infectious joy in music-making. During her 2011–12 season she will perform with Brazil’s Orquesta Filarmonica de Minas Gerais, Poland’s Beethoven Academy Orchestra, the Calgary and Las Vegas philharmonics and the Columbus and Tallahassee symphonies among others. Throughout the season she will play works by Bernstein, Brahms, Bruch, Corigliano, Glazunov, Korngold, Ravel, Sarasate, Vaughan Williams and Vivaldi. She will also perform the five Mozart Violin Concertos with the Chamber Soloists Orchestra of New York in Florida, Texas and California. A Chicago native, Pine began violin studies at age three and made her professional debut at age seven with the Chicago String Ensemble. Her earliest appearances with the Chicago Symphony (at ages 10 and 15) were broadcast on television. Her principal teachers were Roland and Almita Vamos, and she has also studied with Ruben Gonzalez, Werner Scholz, Elmira Darvarova and several early music specialists. She performs on the Joseph Guarnerius del Gesu (Cremona 1742), known as the “ex-Soldat,” on generous loan from her patron. Pine lives in Chicago with her family.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

rachel barton pine, violin

Mozart did not leave any written cadenzas or eingänge for the violin concertos as he did for the piano. Soloists from Mozart’s time created cadenzas extemporaneously. Later on, many great violinists of the 19th and 20th centuries composed and published their cadenzas. Contemporary soloists often choose to play these, particularly Joseph Joachim’s. However, I always play my own, as I feel that this is the most personal and organic way to express my feelings about the music. My cadenzas for KV211, 216, 218 and 219 are included in The Rachel Barton Pine Collection, a book of sheet music published by Carl Fischer.

They have added substantially to the catalog of 20th century chamber works, with more than 25 compositions written for them by such significant composers as Gunther Schuller, Mario Davidovsky, Ezra Laderman and Mel Powell. The group has also commissioned works for children, including Ferdinand the Bull from noted American composer Hugh Aitken and compositions based on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Gerald Fried and Tania French. The ensemble has compiled an impressive record of repeat engagements in North America and abroad, including 11 European tours, six Latin American tours and numerous tours of Asia and the South Pacific. In the United States, the Chamber Soloists have appeared frequently in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Lincoln Center, in Washington at the Library of Congress, the National Academy of Sciences, Kennedy Center and National Gallery of Art, at major universities across the country from Boston to Berkeley and at the Mostly Mozart, Sun Valley and Caramoor festivals. Recent performances include two at the Casals Festival, as well as the debut of the Chamber Soloists’ new initiative, a large-scale orchestral program featuring luminaries such as Richard Stoltzman, Menahem Pressler and Anton Kuerti. These programs have been huge successes at venues including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kravis Center, UCLA and the University of Arizona. The Chamber Soloists of New York were in residence at the Vermont Mozart Festival every summer from its inception in 1974 through its last year in 2010.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

9


BALLET DIRECTOR

RON CUNNINGHAM ISSUE #6

PLAYWRIGHT

GREGG COFFIN ISSUE #7

TONY WINNER

FAITH PRINCE ISSUE #8 ACTOR

COLIN HANKS ISSUE #15

PERFORMANCE ARTIST

DAVID GARIBALDI ISSUE #16

BROADWAY STAR

MARA DAVI ISSUE #19

Available at Raley's, Nugget Markets and Barnes & Noble.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

10

| mondaviarts.org


Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo A With a Twist Series Event Thursday, February 9, 2012 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis There will be two intermissions. Individual support provided by Dolly and David Fiddyment

The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

11


les ballets trocKadero de monte carlo

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo Featuring:

Colette Adae Lariska Dumbchenko Ephrosinya Drononova Nina Immobilashvili Irina Kolesterolikova Sonia Leftova Sveltlana Lofatkina Katya Lukinatmeya Ida Nevasayneva Marina Plezegetovstageskaya Olga Supphozova Vera Tchumpakova Yakatarina Verbosovich Vanya Verikosa Giuseppina Zambellini

and

Jacques d’Aniels Roland Deaulin Pepe Dufka Stanislas Kokitch Andrei Leftov Araf Legupski Dimitri Legupski Ivan Legupski Marat Legupski Vladimir Legupski Tino Xirau Lopez R.M. “Prince” Myshkin Velour Pilleaux Yuri Smirnov Andrei Verikose

Eugene McDougle Tory Dobrin Isabel Martinez Rivera

General Director Artistic Director Associate Director

Program Program is subject to change without notice.

Swan Lake Intermission

Pas de Deux (to be announced)

Go for Barocco Intermission

Majisimas

12

| mondaviarts.org


les ballets trocKadero de monte carlo

Le Lac Des Cygnes (Swan Lake), Act II Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Choreography after Lev Ivanovich Ivanov Costumes by Mike Gonzales Décor by Jason Courson Lighting by Kip Marsh Swept up into the magical realm of swans (and birds), this elegiac phantasmagoria of variations and ensembles in line and music is the signature work of Les Ballets Trockadero. The story of Odette, the beautiful princess turned into a swan by the evil sorcerer, and how she is nearly saved by the love of Prince Siegfried, was not so unusual a theme when Tchaikovsky wrote his ballet in 1877—the metamorphosis of mortals to birds and visa versa occurs frequently in Russian folklore. The original Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow was treated unsuccessfully; a year after Tchaikovsky’s death in 1893, the St. Petersburg Maryinsky Ballet produced the version we know today. Perhaps the world’s best known ballet, its appeal seems to stem from the mysterious and pathetic qualities of the heroine juxtaposed with the canonized glamour of 19th century Russian ballet.

Benno

Dimitri Legupski (friend and confidant to … )

Prince Siegfried

Andrei Verkose (who falls in love with … )

Odette

Olga Supphozova (Queen of the … )

Swans:

Ephrosinya Kronovnoa, Nina Immobilashvili, Irina Kolesteroliknova, Katya Lukinatmeya, Sonia Leftova, Vera Tchumpakova, Maya Thickenthighya, Giuseppina Zambellini (all of whom got this way because of … )

Von Rothbart

R.M. “Prince” Myshkin (an evil wizard who goes about turning girls into swans) Intermission

Pas de Deux (to be announced)

Go for Barocco Music by J.S. Bach Choreography by Peter Anastos Costumes by Mike Gonzales Lighting by Kip Marsh Stylistic heir to Balanchine’s Middle-Blue-Verging-On-Black-and-White Period, this ballet has become a primer in identifying stark coolness and choreosymphonic delineation in the new (neo) neo-new classic dance. It has been called a wristwatch for Balanchine clock-time.

First Movement (Moderato)

Vanya Verikosa and Yakaterina Verbosovich with Ephrosinya Drononova, Nina Immobilashvili, Sonia Leftkova and Katya Lukinatmeya

Second Movement (Adagio)

Vanya Verikosa and Yakaterina Verbosovich

Third Movement (Allegro)

All Intermission

Majisimas Music by Jules Massenet Stages with additional Choreography by Raffaele Morra Costumes by Christopher Anothony Vergara Lighting by Jax Messenger The music for Majisimas, which occurs in the second act of the 1885 opera El Cid, provides the opportunity for a seductive, exotic and Spanish-flavored demonstration of the intricate beauty of classical ballet technique.

Olga Supphozova and Jacques d’Aniels Sveltlana Lofatkina Lariska Dumbchenko and Yakatarina Verbosovich Marat Legupski, Dimitri Legupski, Tino Xirau Lopez with Corps de Ballet Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

13


les ballets trocKadero de monte carlo

Company History Founded in 1974 by a group of ballet enthusiasts for the purpose of presenting a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form and en travesti, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo first performed in the late-late shows in off-off Broadway lofts. The Trocks, as they are affectionately known, quickly garnered a major critical essay by Arlene Croce in The New Yorker, and combined with reviews in The New York Times and The Village Voice, established the company as an artistic and popular success. By 1975, the Trocks’s inspired blend of their loving knowledge of dance, their comic approach and the astounding fact that men can, indeed, dance en pointe without falling flat on their faces, was being noted beyond New York. Articles and notices in publications such as Variety, Oui, The London Daily Telegraph, as well as a Richard Avedon photo essay in Vogue, made the company nationally and internationally known. The 1975–76 season was a year of growth and full professionalization. The company found management, qualified for the National Endowment for the Arts Touring Program and hired a full-time teacher and ballet mistress to oversee daily classes and rehearsals. Also in this season, they made their first extended tours of the United States and Canada. Packing, unpacking and repacking tutus and drops, stocking giant-sized toe shoes by the case, running for planes and chartered buses all became routine parts of life. Since those beginnings, the Trocks have established themselves as a major dance phenomenon throughout the world. They have participated in dance festivals in Bodrum (Turkey), Holland, San Luis Potosi, Madrid, Montreal, New York, Paris, Spoleto, Turin and Vienna. There have been television appearances as varied as a Shirley MacLaine special, the Dick Cavett Show, What’s My Line?, Real People, On-Stage America, with Kermit and Miss Piggy on their show Muppet Babies, a BBC Omnibus special on the world of ballet hosted by Jennifer Saunders. There have been solo specials on national networks in Japan and Germany, as well as a French television special with Julia Migenes. A documentary was filmed and aired internationally by the acclaimed British arts program The South Bank Show. The company was featured in the PBS program The Egg, about arts in America, winning an Emmy Award for the director, and appeared in a segment of Nightline in 2008. Several performances were taped by a consortium of Dutch, French and Japanese TV networks at the Maison de la Danse in Lyon, France, for worldwide broadcast and DVD distribution. Awards that the Trocks have won over the years include for best classical repertoire from the prestigious Critic’s Circle National Dance Awards (U.K.), the Theatrical Managers Award (U.K.) and the 2007 Positano Award (Italy) for excellence in dance. In December 2008, the Trocks appeared at the 80th anniversary Royal Variety Performance, to aid the Entertainment Artistes’ Benevolent Fund, in London, attended by members of the British royal family. The Trocks’s numerous tours have been both popular and critical successes. Their frenzied annual schedule has included seven tours to Australia and New Zealand, 27 to Japan (where their annual summer tours have created a nationwide cult following and a fan club), seven to other parts of Asia, 11 to South America, three to South Africa and 66 tours of Europe, including 20 tours of the United Kingdom. In the United States, the company has become a regular part of the college and university circuit in addition to

14

| mondaviarts.org

regular dance presentations in cities in 49 states. The company has appeared in more than 30 countries and more than 500 cities worldwide since its founding in 1974. Increasingly, the company is presenting longer seasons, which have included extended engagements in Amsterdam, Athens, Auckland, Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, Brisbane, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Cologne, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Lisbon, London, Lyon, Madrid, Melbourne, Moscow (at the famed Bolshoi Theater), Paris (Chatelet Theater), Perth, Rome, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Vienna and Wellington. The company continues to appear in benefits for international AIDS organizations such as DRA (Dancers Responding to AIDS) and Classical Action in New York City, the Life Ball in Vienna, Dancers for Life in Toronto, London’s Stonewall Gala and Germany’s AIDS Tanz Gala. In addition, the Trocks have given, or participated in special benefit performances for Connecticut Ballet Theater, Ballet Hawaii, Indianapolis Ballet Theater, Rochester City Ballet, Dancers in Transition (NYC), Sadler’s Wells Theater in London, the Gay and Lesbian Community Center and Young Audiences/Arts for Learning Organization and the Ali Forney Center, benefiting homeless gay youths in New York City. In 2009, the Trocks gave a benefit performance for Thailand’s Queen Sirikit’s Scholarship Fund in Bangkok, which helps finance schooling for children of impoverished Thai families. The benefit helped raise more than $400,000. The original concept of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo has not changed. It is a company of professional male dancers performing the full range of the ballet and modern dance repertoire, including classical and original works in faithful renditions of the manners and conceits of those dance styles. The comedy is achieved by incorporating and exaggerating the foibles, accidents and underlying incongruities of serious dance. The fact that men dance all the parts—heavy bodies delicately balancing on toes as swans, sylphs, water sprites, romantic princesses, angst-ridden Victorian ladies—enhances rather than mocks the spirit of dance as an art form, delighting and amusing the most knowledgeable, as well as novices, in the audiences. For the future, there are plans for new works in the repertoire; new cities, states and countries to perform in and the continuation of the Trocks’s original purpose: to bring the pleasure of dance to the widest possible audience. They will, as they have done for more than 38 years, “keep on Trockin’.” www.trockadero.org


Robert Carter Boysie Dikobe Roberto Forleo Claude Gamba Paul Ghiselin Brock Hayhoe Chase Johnsey Roberto Lara Davide Marongiu Fernando Medina Gallego Raffaele Morra Alberto Pretto Giovanni Ravelo Britton Spitler Joshua Thake

Company Staff General Director Artistic Director Associate Director/Production Manager Ballet Master Lighting Supervisor Wardrobe Supervisor Associate Production Manager Costume Designer (emeritus) Company Archivist (emeritus) Stylistic Guru Program Notes Orthopedic Consultant Website Designer Photographer

Eugene McDougle Tory Dobrin Isabel Martinez Rivera Paul Ghiselin Paul Frydrychowski Jeff Sturdivant Barbara Domue Mike Gonzales Anne Dore Davids Marius Petipa P. Anastos, et al. Dr. David S. Weiss Steven Sunderland Sascha Vaughan

Cast of Characters Colette Adae was orphaned at the age of three when her mother, a ballerina of some dubious distinction, impaled herself on the first violinist’s bow after a series of rather uncontrolled fouette voyage. Colette was raised and educated with the “rats” of the Opera House, but the trauma of her childhood never let her reach her full potential. However, under the kind and watchful eye of the Trockadero, she has begun to flower, and we are sure you will enjoy watching her growth. Ephrosinya Drononova, people’s artist and Cat’s Meow, was educated at the Revanchist Institute. She began her career as Pistachia in V. Stolichnaya’s production of the The Nutcracker and achieved stardom as Odette/Odile/Juliet/Giselle/Aurora in the famous “Night of the 1000 Tsars.” Her repertoire encompasses nearly all the works she appears in. Lariska Dumbchenko. Before defecting to the West, Lariska’s supreme agility aroused the interest of the Russian space program, and in 1962, she became the first ballerina to be shot into orbit. Hurtling through the stratosphere, she delivered handy make-up tips to an assembled crowd of celebrities back on earth, including the now legendary “… Whitney Houston, we have a problem …” Nina Immobilashvili, for more years than she cares to admit, has been the Great Terror of the international ballet world. The omniscient and ubiquitous Immobilashvili is reputed to have extensive dossiers on every major dance figure, living and/or dead. This

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

les ballets trocKadero de monte carlo

The Dancers Olga Supphozova and Yuri Smirnov Sonia Leftova and Andrei Leftov Marina Plezegetovstageskaya and Vladimir Legupski Colette Adae and Dimitri Legupski Ida Nevasayneva and Velour Pilleaux Vanya Verikosa and Andrei Verikose Yakatarina Verbosovich and Roland Deaulin Vera Tchumpakova and Tino Xirau Lopez Giuseppina Zambellini and Ivan Legupski Sveltlana Lofatkina and R.M. “Prince” Myshkin Lariska Dumbchenko and Pepe Dufka Nina Immobilashvili and Stanislas Kokitch Irina Kolesterolikova and Marat Legupski Katya Lukinatmeya and Jacques d’Aniels Ephrosinya Drononova and Araf Legupski

amazing collection has assured her entree into the loftiest choreographic circles; the roles she has thus been able to create are too numerous to mention. We are honored to present this grand dame in her spectacular return to the ballet stage. Irina Kolesterolikova was discovered, along with Rasputin’s boot, adrift in a basket on the river Neva by kindly peasants. Her debut at the Maryinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, was marred by her overzealous grand jete into the Tsar’s box, impaling a Grand Duchess. Banished from Russia, she made her way arduously to New York, where she founded and still directs the Ecole de Ballet de HardNox. Her most famous exercise is the warm-up consisting of a martini and an elevator. Sonia Leftova, “The Prune Danish of Russian Ballet,” abandoned an enormously successful career as a film actress to become a Trockadero ballerina. Her faithful fans, however, need not despair as most of her great films have been made into ballets: the searing Back to Back, the tear-filled Thighs and Blisters and the immortal seven-part Screams from a Carriage. Because of her theatrical flair, Sonia has chosen to explore the more dramatic aspects of ballet, causing one critic to rename her Giselle, “What’s my Line?” Sveltlana Lofatkina, lyrical, lissome, long-legged, “the Chernobyl Cherub,” has produced frissons in audiences on every continent but two with her ineffable delicacy and refinement. This limber gamine has captivated hearts since her auspicious debut as Talyusha, the Left Nostril, in the ballet drawn from The Nose by N. Gogol. She is renowned for her portrayal of sensitive, tortured, neurotic ladies and other kvetches. MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

15


les ballets trockadero de monte carlo

Katya Lukinatmeya. Due to persistence in attending company classes and all the rehearsals over the past year, the company was forced to accept her into the ranks as a ballerina, proving that even in the dictatorial world of ballet, there is room for heart.

Roland Deaulin. Having invented the concept of the “bad hair year” or “annus hairibilis,” French-born Roland now devotes his spare time to selling his new line of Michael Flatley Wigs on the QVC shopping channel.

Ida Nevasayneva, socialist Real ballerina of the working peoples everywhere, comes flushed from her triumphs at the Varna Festival, where she was awarded a specially created plastic medal for Bad Taste. Comrade Ida became known as a heroine of the Revolution when, after effortlessly boureeing through a mine field, she lobbed a loaded toe shoe into a capitalist bank.

Pepe Dufka. The ballet world was rocked to its foundations last month when Pepe Dufka sued 182 of New York’s most ardent ballet lovers for loss of earnings. Mr. Dufka claims that 19 years of constant exposure to rotten fruit and vegetables has led to painful and prolonged bouts of leafmold, cabbage root fly and bottom end rot. Sadly, this historic court case comes too late for a former colleague, whose legs were recently crushed by a genetically modified avocado and will never dance again.

Marina Plezegetovstageskaya. Any ballet goer who saw Mme. Plezegetovstageskaya dancing on a herring in her first American tour is not likely to forget her outstanding performance as the Sour Cream Fairy. One of the world’s great dialectical sophists, Honored Artist Plezegetovstageskaya came to the stage from the Bolshoi Academy of Dance Polemics, where she excelled in heroic parts and tableaux vivifies. There she gained youthful fame as a practitioner of barefoot naturalism right up to the eyebrows. Following her graduation she was drafted by the Trockadero for a player to be named later. Olga Suppozova made her first public appearance in a KGB lineup under dubious circumstances. After a seven-year-to-life hiatus, she now returns to her adoring fans. When questioned about her forced sabbatical, Olga’s only comment was “I did it for Art’s sake.” Art said nothing however. Vera Tchumpakova, a celebrated child prodigy back in the Brezhnev era, astounded her parents at the age of two by taking a correspondence course in ballet. Sadly, due to the unreliable Russian postal system, she has only just graduated. Yakatarina Verbosovich. Despite possessing a walk-in wardrobe so large that it has its own post code, Yakatarina remains a true ballerina of the people. Indeed, she is so loved in her native Russia that in 1993, the grateful citizens of Minsk awarded her the key to the city. That might well have remained the “golden moment” of this great ballerina’s career had they not subsequently changed the lock Vanya Verikosa, the hardest working living ballerina, has survived three revolutions, two counter-insurgencies and a Transit strike. Her most unforgettable portrayal was the title role of Godzilla in Croise, praise for which was unanimous, not undue to the lengthy hospitalization required by certain hostile journalists. Giuseppina Zambellini created many original roles in St. Petersburg, where she was the last of a long line of Italian Etoiles to appear at the Maryinsky Theater. It was her dazzling triumph in the role of “Electricity” in the extravagant “Excelsior” in her native Milan which brought her fame. However, no less electrifying was the lineup of perfectly trained elephants, performing like the present day Rockettes. Unfortunately, Mlle. Zambellini’s jealous scenes over the publicity given to these elephants and their ensuing popularity with the public caused numerous problems. She subsequently refused to appear again in this role. Jacques d’Aniels was originally trained as an astronaut before entering the world of ballet. Strong but flexible, good natured but dedicated, sensible but not given to unbelievable flights of fantastic behavior, Mr. d’Aniels is an expert on recovering from ballet injuries (including the dread “Pavlova’s clavicle”). 16

| mondaviarts.org

Stanislas Kokitch, “The Forgotten Man” of ballet, is hardly ever mentioned in reviews by critics or in discussions by devoted balletomanes despite having created several important roles in now forgotten ballets. He is the author of The Tragedy of My Life, an autobiography not at all reliable. The Legupski Brothers. Araf, Dimitri, Ivan, Marat or Vladimir are not really brothers, nor are their names really Araf, Dimitri, Ivan, Marat or Vladimir nor are they real Russians, nor can they tell the difference between a pirouette and a jete … but … well … they do move about rather nicely … and … they fit into the costumes. Andrei Leftov. “The Prune Danish of Russian Ballet,” abandoned an enormously successful career as a film actor to become a Trockadero premier danseur. His faithful fans, however, need not despair as most of his great films have been made into ballets: the searing Back to Back, the tear-filled Thighs and Blisters and the immortal seven-part Screams from a Carriage. Because of his theatrical flair, Andrei has chosen to explore the more dramatic aspects of ballet, causing one critic to rename his Siegfried, “What’s my Line?” Tino Xirau Lopez, a disciple of the Great Panjandrums, is the world’s foremost exponent of “do it” Romanticism. His style becomes a great foil to the “go for it” approach of many of today’s leading ballerinas, especially in the art of the Pas De Deux. R.M.“Prince” Myshkin. Mongolian-born, Cream of the Tartars, the artist formerly known as Prince Myshkin, electrified the world over a decade ago when he leapt Over The Wall or Under the Curtain, whichever came first. Since his arrival in the West, Myshkin’s mercurial charm has quickened pulses, bruised shins and caused gasps of disbelief. Although the current tour marks Myshkin’s American debut, the sovereign of the Steppes has already created a reputation abroad, where he is not expected to return. Recipient of many rewards since his days at the prestigious Young Pioneer’s Academy of Tashkent, he was most recently named People’s Artist of the Komsomol Prospekt with Pirozhki. Myshkin, the beau ideal, brings dignity, restraint, elegance, reserve and pep to his roles and will soon be seen as the entire cast of The Little Troika That Could. Velour Pilleaux, whose political adaptability saw him through two world wars and numerous police actions, comes to America in conjunction with the release of his 10th cookbook, Ma Brie. When asked by an American reporter to describe his most exciting experience in ballet, M. Pilleaux referred to pages 48–55: the night he danced the Rose Adagio (en travesti) in Buenos Aires with four political figures, the names of whom he assured us we would recognize.


Andrei Verikose, the hardest working living premier danseur, has survived three revolutions, two counter-insurgencies and a Transit strike. His most unforgettable portrayal was the title role of Godzilla in Croise, praise for which was unanimous, not undue to the lengthy hospitalization required by certain hostile journalists.

Dancers Robert Carter Birthplace: Charleston, South Carolina. Training: Robert Ivey Ballet School, Joffrey Ballet School. Joined Trockadero: November 1995. Previous Companies: Florence Civic Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem Ensemble, Bay Ballet Theater. Boysie Dikobe Birthplace: Brits, South Africa. Training: South African Ballet Theatre School, National School of the Arts, Washington School of Ballet. Joined Trockadero: February 2011. Previous Companies: South African Ballet Theatre, Cape Town City Ballet. Roberto Forleo Birthplace: Bari, Italy. Training: Scuola di Balletto Classico Cose-Stafanesco, Rudra Bejart. Joined Trockadero: December 2008. Previous Companies: Grupo Corpo (Brazil), Bejart Ballet (Lausanne), Rambert Dance Company, Ballet Biarritiz, La Parenthese, Cie Marie-Laure Agrapart (Paris), Cie Le Guetteur-Luc Petton (Reims). Claude Gamba Birthplace: Nice, France. Training: Paris Opera Ballet School, Rosella Hightower School of Dance. Joined Trockadero: August 2008. Previous Companies: Nice Opera Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Zurich Opera Ballet, La Scala Opera Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. Paul Ghiselin Birthplace: Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Training: Tidewater Ballet Academy, Joffrey Ballet School. Joined Trockadero: May 1995. Previous Companies: Ohio Ballet, Festival Ballet of Rhode Island. Brock Hayhoe Birthplace: Toronto, Canada. Training: National Ballet of Canada School. Joined Trockadero: May 2008. Previous Company: Cape Town City Ballet. Chase Johnsey Birthplace: Winter Haven, Florida. Training: Harrison Arts Center, Virginia School of the Arts. Joined Trockadero: April 2004. Previous Company: Florida Dance Theatre. Roberto Lara Birthplace: Mexico City, Mexico. Training: National School of Classic Dance. Joined Trockadero: December 2006. Previous Company: National Dance Company of Mexico.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

les ballets trockadero de monte carlo

Yuri Ismirnov. At the age of 16, Yuri ran away from home and joined the Kirov Opera because he thought Borodin was a prescription barbiturate. Luckily for the Trockadero he soon discovered that he didn’t know his arias from his elbow and decided to become a ballet star instead.

Davide Marongiu Birthplace: Cagliari, Italy. Training: English National Ballet School, American Ballet Theater School. Joined Trockadero: May 2005. Fernando Medina Gallego Birthplace: Madrid, Spain. Training: Rudra Bejart School (Lausanne), Escuela Victor Ullate (Madrid). Joined Trockadero: December 1998. Previous Companies: Classical Ballet of Barcelona, Basler Ballet, Introdans, Ballet de L’Opera de Nice. Raffaele Morra Birthplace: Fossano, Italy. Training: Estudio de Danzas (Mirta & Marcelo Aulicio), Accademia Regionale di Danza del Teatro Nuovo di Torino. Joined Trockadero: May 2001. Previous Company: Compagnia di Danza Teatro Nuovo di Torino. Alberto Pretto Birthplace: Vicenza, Italy. Training: Academie de Danse Classique Princesse Grace, Monaco Montecarlo. Joined Trockadero: February 2011. Previous Companies: English National Ballet, Stadttheater Koblenz. Giovanni Ravelo Birthplace: Bucaramanga, Colombia. Training: Ballet Anna Pavlova (Bogota), the Rock School, Escuela del Ballet Nacional de Cuba. Joined Trockadero: October 2008. Previous Companies: Roxey Ballet, Ballet Nacional de Colombia. Britton Spitler Birthplace: Dayton, Ohio. Training: Pontecorvo Ballet Studios, University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music. Joined Trockadero: January 2011. Previous Companies: Cincinnati Ballet, Charleston Ballet Theater. Joshua Thake Birthplace: Providence, Rhode Island. Training: Boston Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School, Brae Crest School of Classical Ballet. Joined Trockadero: November 2011. Previous Company: Man Dance Company of San Francisco

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Inc. is a nonprofit dance company chartered by the State of New York. Special thanks to: The Harkness Foundations for Dance, Theodore S. Bartwink, Keiko Tomita, Elena Kunikova, Charla Genn, Caridad Martinez, Ludmila Raianova, Julia Glawe, Abby Kahn and Johanna Rajamaki of IMG Artists. Music for Swan Lake, Go for Barocco and Paquita conducted by Pierre Michel Durand with the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Pavel Prantl, Leader. The Trocks rehearse in New York City at the new 42nd Street Studios and City Center Studios. Worldwide Representation by IMG Artists

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

17


El Macero Country Club •18-hole • Managed

championship golf course

by Troon Golf, the world leader in upscale Club management • Seasonal, • Meeting • Just

regional dining options

and event space for outside parties

a few minutes from UC Davis campus

To inquire about banquets or membership, please call or visit El Macero Country Club 530-753-3363

www.elmacerocc.org

18

| mondaviarts.org


Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

MC

Debut

Circa Circa A Bistro 33 Marvels Series Event Saturday, February 11, 2012 • 8PM Sunday, February 12, 2012 • 3PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis

Sponsored by

Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

19


circa

Circa Circa A Circa Production Presented in Association with Arktype

Artistic Director Associate Director Producer Lighting Designer Costume Designer Executive Producer, U.S. Tour

Yaron Lifschitz Ben Knapton Diane Stern Jason Organ Libby McDonnell Arktype/Thomas O. Kriegsmann

Ensemble Members

ValĂŠrie Doucet Casey Douglas Darcy Grant Scott Grove Emma McGovern Lewis West

Circa acknowledges the assistance of the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.

20

| mondaviarts.org


Australia’s Circa is a company of national and international significance with an impressive reputation of innovation, touring and developing repertoire and local workshop programs. Having performed in more than 20 countries since 2006, its work continues to be rapturously received by audiences, presenters and critics alike. Artistic Director Yaron Lifschitz describes Circa’s work as one that defies description: “It is, in its heart, a report on what is alive, nourishing and contemporary in circus. It is also a strange and curious new beast; at once savage, funny, lyrical, pure and challenging. “We cause beauty. We make a kind of physical poetry from the languages of circus. Where other companies tend to add elements (story, character) our work is a stripped-back circus of the heart. It finds new emotional landscapes inside what is generally considered to be a spectacle. Our work has toured to 22 countries across five continents in the past three years. It works across cultures, audiences and venues. I think it is the appeal of something that is skillful but hasn’t forgotten that to be human is, in the first instance, to feel.”

About the Show CIRCA is a work created for seven performers from three of Circa’s acclaimed works: The Space Between, by the light of stars that are no longer … and Furioso. Over 75 intense minutes, the performers move from highly connected acrobatic and tumbling sequences through fast-paced intricate scenes through to the hauntingly beautiful closing scenes of by the light of stars of stars that are no longer … Circa’s signature style—combining poetic physical beauty, extraordinary circus skills and an immersive use of sound, light and projection. With CIRCA, audiences can expect to see amazing circus skills in new and startling configurations, bold and innovative use of video and lights, a moving soundtrack and a muscular and precise movement sensibility. Circa’s work is very fresh—contemporary circus, acrobatic dance, multi-media. But at the end of it all, Circa’s work brings human emotion to circus. Our shows are deeply felt and make audiences think and feel. We are all looking for some way to make our work more powerful. In the actuality of circus, in acrobatics, there is immediacy, a danger and a skill that is extraordinary. I think many people want to tap into this and use its power. I am lucky because I work in a circus, so we start with these elements. They are our basic script. Rather than add circus to choreography, we discover choreographic possibilities inside circus.

Acknowledgements Created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa Ensemble Directed by Yaron Lifschitz Lighting Design Jason Organ Yaron Lifschitz is a graduate of the University of New South Wales, University of Queensland and the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), where he was the youngest director ever accepted into its prestigious graduate director’s course. Since graduating, Lifschitz has directed more than 60 productions including

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

circa

About the Company

large scale events, opera, theater, physical theater and circus. His work has been seen in 22 countries, across five continents by more than 500,000 people. Lifschitz was founding artistic director of the Australian Museum’s Theatre Unit, head tutor in Directing at Australian Theatre for Young People and has been regular guest tutor in directing at NIDA since 1995. He is currently artistic director and CEO of Circa. With Circa, Lifschitz has created works such as Wunderkammer, CIRCA, by the light of stars that are no longer …, The Space Between and 61 Circus Acts in 60 Minutes. His recent works have been described in reviews as being “beautiful and moving” and “the standard to which all other circuses can aspire.” Lifschitz lives in Brisbane with his son Oscar. His passion is creating works of philosophical and poetic depth from the traditional languages of circus. Valérie Doucet has always wanted to be part of the circus, joining a cymnastics center at the age of six. When she was 12, she left gymnastics behind to co-open Les Fous Du Cirque, a small school brought together for the love of circus. As the school expanded Doucet did more and more shows and festivals to expand her skills in both silks and hoop. After turning 15, she finished high school while attending the National Circus School of Montreal, getting into a college program and specializing in hand balancing. Doucet’s performance experiences include performing in Palazzo Colombino, a variety cabaret in Germany and working for Cirque en Vol and Cirque éloize. Valérie joined Circa in 2011. Casey Douglas was born in Perth, Western Australia. Right from the beginning he was a hyper-active child playing all the sports possible, leading him to 10 years as a competitive gymnast. After completing his degree at the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) he received a grant for a training project in Chattellaraut, France, where he completed further studies with seven handstandprofessors from the European Federation of Professional Circus Schools (FEDEC). On returning to Melbourne, Douglas ran Hardy Street Productions, a circus training and arts center before becoming a founding member of ThisSideUp Acrobatics. With this company he has performed at Chalon and Aullriac in France, London and the Edinburgh Fringe, Watch This Space and Galway International Art festivals. ThisSideUp was also commissioned by the Sydney Festival to create Smoke and Mirror, which won Best New Australian Work, Best Cabaret Performer and Best New Score in the prestigious Helpmann Awards. Darcy Grant joined the Flying Fruit Fly Circus at age 13, graduating when he was 18. At 19, he joined Rock’n’Roll Circus, now known as Circa. Darcy specializes in floor-based acrobatics and pointless party tricks from a performance perspective but his talents also extend to training and directing, having led a Circa team on a tour of Regional Queensland. Grant particularly enjoyed the 2008 season of by the light of the stars that are no longer… presented at La Tohu, Canada, and is excited to see what the 2011 tour brings his way.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

21


Wr itte n b y Federico García Lorca D irected b y Gran a d a Ar t i st-in- Res i d e n ce Ju Liet te carriLLo

thu–Sat March 8-10 8pM | Sun March 11 & 18 2pM thu–Sat March 15-17 8pM M a i n T h e aT r e

T i c k e Ts & i n fo r M aT i o n: 53 0.754 . a r t S

th e atr e da n c e .u c dav iS. e d u

22

| mondaviarts.org


circa

Scott Grove has been performing professionally as an acrobat since he was 15. He has toured all over Australia and Asia doing shows at schools, theaters, clubs and corporate events. Over the years he has also worked with various companies including the English National Ballet, the 2000 Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony, Flying Trapeze Australia and the Tom Tom Crew.

instruments • accessories • sheet music • lessons • rentals • repairs

Grove joined Circa in February 2010. His highlights thus far are the Circa Festival at Auch, France, and the fantastic audiences at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2010. Emma McGovern’s passion for the physical art forms have led her on a journey through dance, physical theater, circus and martial arts. Studying dance at the Conservatorium of Arts in Lismore in 1999 then merging into the world of circus, she has been working professionally for the last eight years in Australia and overseas with a variety of companies. McGovern became a Circa ensemble member in 2009, having previously toured with the company. She has many highlights including the Barbican in the U.K., the Circus Festival at Auch, 46 Circus Acts in 45 Minutes at the New Victory Theatre, New York, and performing in the world premiere of Wunderkammer in her home town of Brisbane as part of the Brisbane Festival 2010. Lewis West was born on Australia Day 1988 as the youngest of four boys. With a background in gymnastics, trampolining, breakdance and various circus disciplines, West graduated from National Institute of Circus Artists (NICA) in 2008 with high distinction in both theory and practice. The next day he flew to Brisbane to join Circa’s professional ensemble.

• Locally owned and operated since 1996 • • We stock over 20,000 print music titles • • We offer “guaranteed lowest price” on our huge and diverse inventory of instruments •

Watermelon Music

207 E Street • Davis • C A • 9 5616 • 53 0.7 5 8.4010 M-F • 10-7 • Sa • 10-6 • Su 12-6 • www.watermelonmusic.com

West’s highlights so far have included performing at La Tohu, Canada, the New Victory Theatre, New York and the Barbican, U.K Arktype was founded in 2006 under the direction of Thomas O. Kriegsmann toward the long-term development, production and touring of internationally based performance work and curating. His acclaimed work as producer has been seen worldwide. Kriegsmann began his work in the production and development of emerging ensembles and is currently represented offBroadway and on tours worldwide with Yael Farber/The Farber Foundry (South Africa); Nalaga’at (Tel Aviv); Peter Brook/CICT (Paris); Phantom Limb (New York); Jessica Blank & Erik Jensen’s AFTERMATH (New York); Circa (Brisbane); Mikhail Baryshnikov/ Krymov Laboratory (Moscow/NYC); T.P.O. (Italy); Superamas (Vienna); Aurélia and Victoria Thiérrée-Chaplin (France); KMA (London); Jay Scheib (Cambridge); World/Inferno Friendship Society (Brooklyn); Rude Mechs (Austin, Texas); Theatre for a New Audience (New York), as well as producing the Baryshnikov Arts Center/FSU Ringling International Arts Festival in Sarasota, Florida. Upcoming premieres include Phantom Limb’s 69˚S. in collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Yael Farber’s The Ramayana and Jim Jarmusch and Phil Kline’s Tesla in New York.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

Indulge

Fine ITALIAN CUISINE

2657 Portage Bay East, Davis CA 95616 (530) 758-1324 osteriafasulo.com FREE PARKING FASTEST & EASIEST WAY TO THE MONDAVI CENTER

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

23


Davis Hospitality...

Proud Sponsors of The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis

Amenities Include:

 Breakfast Buffet with Cook To Order Omelets  Nightly Cocktail Reception  Deluxe Plush Bedding  WIFI Throughout  Bee Kind Amenities  32” LCD TVs

Now Featuring: Complimentary Bicycle Program* For reservations or more information* Please contact us at: (800) 753-0035 110 F Street Davis, CA 95616 • www.hallmarkinn.com

24

| mondaviarts.org


Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

MC

Debut

Loudon Wainwright III Leo Kottke An American Heritage Series Event Tuesday, February 14, 2012 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis

There will be one intermission.

Individual support provided by John and Lois Crowe

The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

25


capradio.org

campus community relations is a proud sponsor of the robert and margrit mondavi Center for the performing arts

26

| mondaviarts.org


Musical selections will be announced from the stage.

Loudon Wainwright III Loudon Wainwright III was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1946. His father was Loudon Wainwright Jr., a columnist and senior editor for LIFE magazine, and his mother, Martha Taylor, was a housewife and yoga teacher. He studied acting at CarnegieMellon University but dropped out to partake in the Summer of Love in San Francisco. Loudon wrote his first song in 1968, “Edgar,” about a Watch Hill, Rhode Island, lobsterman and was soon signed to Atlantic Records by Nesuhi Ertegun. Several years later, Clive Davis lured him to Columbia Records, where Album III (1972) yielded the Top 20 hit “Dead Skunk.” His recording career spans a total of 23 albums, including Grammy-winning High Wide & Handsome (2009), a musical tribute to Charlie Poole (1893–1931) the legendary yet obscure North Carolina singer and banjo player (awarded Album of the Year status by Entertainment Weekly editor and NPR contributor Ken Tucker). Wainwright collaborated with songwriter/producer Joe Henry on the music for Judd Apatow’s hit movie Knocked Up, wrote music for the British theatrical adaptation of the Carl Hiaasen novel Lucky You and composed topical songs for NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered and ABC’s Nightline. Wainwright’s songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Earl Scruggs, Rufus Wainwright and Mose Allison among others. Loudon’s acting career includes a recurring role as Captain Calvin Spalding, the singing surgeon, in TV’s M.A.S.H. and a stint in Pump Boys & Dinettes on Broadway and more recent work in films directed by Hal Ashby, Tim Burton, Cameron Crowe, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Guest and Judd Apatow. He also appeared as a regular in Apatow’s critically acclaimed TV series Undeclared. Loudon’s newest CD release is Songs For the New Depression (2010), a collection of topical songs on his own label, Cummerbund Records. www.lw3.com

loudon wainwright III and Leo Kottke

Loudon Wainwright III Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke Acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke was born in Athens, Georgia, but his family moved after a year and a half. Raised in 12 different states, he absorbed a variety of musical influences as a child, flirting with both violin and trombone before abandoning Stravinsky for the guitar at age 11. After adding a love for the country-blues of Mississippi John Hurt to the music of John Phillip Sousa and Preston Epps, Kottke joined the Navy underage and worked underwater, eventually losing some hearing through shooting at light bulbs in the Atlantic while serving on the USS Halfbeak, a diesel submarine. Kottke attended the University of Missouri, dropping out after a year to hitchhike across the country to South Carolina, then to New London and to rejoin the Navy, with his 12 string. “The trip was not something I enjoyed,” he has said. “I was broke and met too many interesting people.” Discharged in 1964, he settled in the Twin Cities area and became a fixture at Minneapolis’s Scholar Coffeehouse, which had been home to Bob Dylan and John Koerner. He released his 1968 recording debut Twelve String Blues, recorded on a Viking quarterinch tape recorder, for the Scholar’s tiny Oblivion label. (The label released one other LP by the Langston Hughes Memorial Eclectic Jazz Band.) After sending tapes to guitarist John Fahey, Kottke was signed to Fahey’s Takoma label, releasing what is now called the Armadillo record. Fahey and his manager Denny Bruce soon secured a production deal for Kottke with Capitol Records. Kottke’s 1971 major-label debut, Mudlark, positioned him somewhat uneasily in the singer/songwriter vein, despite his own wishes to remain an instrumental performer. Still, despite arguments with label heads as well as with Bruce, Kottke flourished during his tenure on Capitol, as records like Greenhouse and the live My Feet Are Smiling and Ice Water found him branching out with guest musicians and honing his guitar technique. With Chewing Pine (1975), Kottke reached the U.S. Top 30 for the second time. He also gained an international following thanks to his continuing tours in Europe and Australia. His collaboration with Phish bassist Mike Gordon, Clone, caught audiences’ attention in 2002. Kottke and Gordon followed with a recording in the Bahamas called Sixty Six Steps, produced by Leo’s old friend and Prince producer David Z. Kottke has been awarded two Grammy nominations; a Doctorate in Music Performance by the Peck School of Music at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and a Certificate of Significant Achievement in Not Playing the Trombone from the University of Texas at Brownsville with Texas Southmost College.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

27


Mondavi Gala featuring the U.S. premiere of

Ballet Preljocaj’s

Blanche Neige Saturday, March 17, 2012 5:30 p.m. Champagne reception – Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center 7:00 p.m. Blanche Neige – Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center Post-performance dinner with Gala Executive Chef Michael Chiarello – Robert Mondavi Institute

Black tie

RSVP by February 17, 2012

For further information or to purchase tickets by phone, please call 530.752.0991

Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi

Margrit Mondavi

University of California, Davis

Chair, Honorary Gala Committee

Honorary Gala Committee Lois and John Crowe Morton and Marcy Friedman Ann and Gordon Getty Kathryn and Craig Hall

Lead Presenting Sponsor

28

| mondaviarts.org

Barbara K. Jackson Garry Maisel Paul and Sandra Montrone Teresa and Richard Niello Randy Reynoso Presenting Sponsor

Consul General of France Romain Serman and Laura Serman Arlene Schnitzer Sofia and Angelo K. Tsakopoulos


Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

MC

Debut

Eric Owens, bass-baritone Robert Spano, piano A Director’s Choice Series Event Friday, February 17, 2012 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis

There will be one intermission.

Individual support provided by Barbara K. Jackson

further listening see p. 30

The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

29


Eric Owens, bass-baritone

further listening

by jeff hudson You wouldn’t know it from his program at the Mondavi Center tonight or from his discography, but when Ebony magazine asked Eric Owens about “a role you haven’t sung yet that you are dying to do,” his answer was decisive. “Any time I get a chance to sing Johann Sebastian Bach, it’s just like a gift. Any time I get to do Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, it’s a thrill to me,” Owens said. Owens likes singing Handel, too. He has appeared in Handel’s operas Giulio Cesare, Ariodante, Hercules (the title role, naturally), Jeptha and the oftperformed oratorio Messiah. Owens made a considerable splash in 2010 as Alberich in the Met’s new production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold—the high-tech production directed by Robert Lepage, with the 45-ton “machine” on stage. (Davis locals may recall the then-impressive but not-nearly-so-large gizmo that the Canadian actor/director brought to town in 2001 for his solo piece the far side of the moon. When music professor D. Kern Holoman saw that mechanical marvel of a decade ago, Holoman worried that Lepage’s equipment would “blow every fuse in the Main Theater” when it was turned on. But the performance came off beautifully.) Owens earned praise from Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times for presenting Alberich (a dwarf ) as “a barrel-chested, intimidating foe, singing with stentorian vigor, looking dangerous in his dreadlocks and crazed in his fantasy of

ruling the universe.” Owens was due back at the Met in January to continue the role of Alberich in Götterdämmerung. Look for broadcasts and DVDs to come of these productions. Owens also appears in contemporary opera—he played the hard-driving Gen. Leslie Groves in the San Francisco Opera premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic (and appears in the DVD version). As Groves, Owens sings what some call “the diet aria,” referencing “three pieces of chocolate cake, 300 calories.” It is one of the few light moments in an otherwise serious opera about the atomic bomb. Owens told an interviewer that “When I sing the line about the cake, it is like having a therapy session in front of a few thousand people, since I’m not exactly a small guy.” Owens has also recorded Adams’s two-act opera A Flowering Tree and sung in performances of Adams’s nativity oratorio El Niño. Owens is relatively young (born in 1970), but he’s made a career playing older guys. He told an interviewer, “Mostly, the bass-baritone repertoire consists of: either you’re somebody’s father or you’re the king, or you’re someone in the clergy, or you’re playing this very wise character. That’s just the nature of the voice type. You’re not going to be the romantic interest, that’s sorta reserved to tenors.”

Jeff Hudson contributes coverage of the performing arts to Capital Public Radio, the Davis Enterprise and Sacramento News and Review.

30

| mondaviarts.org


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Eric Owens, bass-baritone robert spano, piano

Drei Lieder nach Gedichten von Michelangelo “Wohl denk ich oft” “Alles endet, was entstehet” “Fühlt meine Seele das ersehnte Licht” Mein Herz ist schwer, Op. 25, No. 15 Muttertraum, Op. 40, No. 2 Der Schatzgräber, Op. 45, No. 1 Melancholie, Op. 74, No. 6

Wolf

Prometheus, D. 674 Fahrt zum Hades, D. 526 Gruppe aus dem Tartarus, D. 583 Amphiaraos, D. 166

Schubert

Schumann

Intermission Beau Soir Fleur des Blés Romance Nuit d’étoiles

Debussy

L’Invitation au Voyage Le Manoir de Rosemonde Élégie La Vague et la Cloche

Duparc

Don Quichotte à Dulcinée “Chanson romanesque” “Chanson épique” “Chanson à boire”

Ravel

Les Deux Grenadiers

Wagner

Program is subject to change.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

31


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Program Notes Drei Lieder nach Gedichten von Michelangelo (Three Songs on Poems by Michelangelo) (1897) Hugo Wolf (Born March 13, 1860, in Windischgraz, Austria; Died February 22, 1903, in Vienna) As a Christmas gift in 1896, Wolf received a copy of Walter Robert-Tornow’s just-published German translations of poems by Michelangelo from Paul Müller, a friend in Berlin and founder there of the first Hugo Wolf Society, and the following March, only six months before his final mental breakdown, Wolf set three of them. They were his last works, and in his 1910 biography of the composer, English musicologist Ernest Newman wrote that they contain “the throb of feeling as profound as in anything Wolf ever wrote.” In a letter to a friend, Wolf provided his own description of the first song, “Wohl denk’ ich oft an mein vergang’nes Leben” (“I often think on my past life,” excerpted from Michelangelo’s Io crederrei, se tu fussi di sasso—“I believe I could, even if you were made of stone, love you so faithfully”): “[It] begins with a melancholy introduction and holds fast to this tone until the line before the last. Then it takes on unexpectedly a vigorous character (developed from the previous motive) and closes festively with triumphal fanfares, like a flourish of trumpets sounded for [Michelangelo] by his contemporaries in homage.” The second song—Alles endet, was entstehet (Everything ends which comes to be, based on Michelangelo’s Chiunche nasce a morte arriva)—is one of Wolf’s most profound utterances. He once considered titling it “Vanitas Vanitatum.” Fühlt meine Seele das ersehnte Licht von Gott? (Is my soul feeling the longed-for light of God? based on Michelangelo’s Non so se s’è la desïata luce) yearns for spiritual fulfillment but can find no answer within, and ends by tracing the unsettled state of the poet’s mind to an unnamed beloved: I am driven by a yes and a no, a sweet and a bitter—that, mistress, is the doing of your eyes. The four songs by Robert Schumann (Born June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Germany; Died July 29, 1856, in Endenich, Germany) In 1815, Lord Byron (1788–1824) published a collection of Hebrew Melodies, poems inspired by verses from the Old Testament, which the would-be composer Isaac Nathan, the son of a Jewish cantor in Canterbury, had persuaded him to fit to his adaptations of a number of melodies from the synagogue services. My Soul Is Dark, based on I Samuel 16:14-23, was rendered into German as Mein Herz ist schwer by Karl Julius Körner (1793–1873) and given a new and deeply thoughtful setting by Robert Schumann for inclusion in his song cycle Myrthen (Myrtles) of 1840. In 1840, Schumann set five verses by Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75), the prolific Danish writer of novels, travelogues, poetry and fantasy tales, as his Fünf Lieder, Op. 40. In October 1842, the composer sent Andersen a copy of the Op. 40 songs with the following note: “Perhaps the settings will seem strange to you. So at first did your poems to me. But as I grew to understand them better, my music took on a more unusual style.” The strangeness that Schumann perceived in Andersen’s verses is exemplified by the second number of the set, Muttertraum (A Mother’s Dream), 32

| mondaviarts.org

in which a mother lovingly cradles her child while just outside the window ravens, symbolic ill omens since ancient times, gather with sinister intent. In November 1840, two months after his wedding, Schumann created a pendant to his song cycles—Liederkreis—on poems by Heine (1797–1856) and Eichendorff (1788–1857) with the Romanzen und Balladen I, Op. 45, which contains two poems by Eichendorff and one by Heine. The first song—Der Schatzgräber (The Treasure-Seeker)—is a grim morality tale by the devoutly Catholic Eichendorff about the wages of avarice. The verses of Emanuel von Geibel (1815–84), one of Germany’s most popular Romantic poets, were set to music hundreds of times through the early 20th century. Schumann and Geibel met in Dresden four times between April and June 1846, and it is possible that the poet presented the composer on one of those occasions with a copy of his Volkslieder und Romanzen der Spanier (1843), translations of song texts and poems by Spanish and Portuguese Renaissance authors. In 1848, Schumann took over direction of the Dresden Verein für Chorgesang (Association for Choral Singing), and the following March, he set 10 of Geibel’s verses for that ensemble as the Spanisches Liederspiel, Op. 74, which included Melancholie, based on a text by the 16th-century Spanish writer Francisco de Sá de Miranda. The four songs by Franz Schubert (Born January 31, 1797, in Vienna; Died November 19, 1828, in Vienna) Prometheus was the mythological titan of ancient Greece who stole fire, the symbol of enlightenment, from the gods to release mankind from ignorance through science and art. For his brazen disregard of Zeus, Prometheus was chained to a rock, where daily an eagle tore at his liver until he was released by Hercules. Goethe (1749–1832) began a drama on the subject of Prometheus in 1773 but sketched only three scenes, one of which is a poem of raging defiance that Schubert made into a dramatic song (D. 674) in October 1819. The poet Johann Baptist Mayrhofer (1787–1836) met Schubert in 1814, and the two became close friends despite their contrasting character—Mayrhofer was moody and melancholic; Schubert, ebullient and outgoing. Schubert set Fahrt zum Hades (Journey to Hades, D. 526), Mayrhofer’s evocation of the soul’s journey across the River Styx, the mythical boundary separating the lands of the quick and the dead, in January 1817. There is no more disturbing and violent page anywhere in Schubert’s creative output than Gruppe aus dem Tartarus (Group from Tartarus, D. 583), his 1817 setting of Friedrich von Schiller’s (1759–1805) chilling vision of a most fearsome hell. The frightening imagery of Schiller’s poem is heightened by references to ancient mythology: Tartarus was the sunless abyss below Hades, the underworld inhabited by departed souls, where Zeus imprisoned the Titans after defeating them; Cocytus was a tributary of the Acheron, the river over which Charon ferried the souls of the dead; Saturn was the god of agriculture, believed to have ruled earth during a period of happiness and plenty and “shattering his sickle asunder” portends the death of hope itself. In March 1815, Schubert created a marvelous dramatic scena from a poem about the legendary Amphiaraus by the precocious poet and playwright Karl Theodor Körner (1791–1813), who was appointed house dramatist at the Vienna Burgtheater at age


The four songs by Claude Debussy (Born August 22, 1862, in St. Germain-en-Laye, France; Died March 25, 1918, in Paris) Debussy’s Romance (1881) and Beau Soir (1882) are settings of evocative poems by the French writer Paul Bourget (1852–1935), who was noted for his critical essays and his psychologically penetrating novels. Fleur des Blés (Wheat Flower) is Debussy’s winsome setting of a poem by André Girod, who was a director of the Parisian music publishing firm that issued a bi-weekly journal titled L’Art Musical in the 1880s and handled several lesser-known French composers; Girod published the song in 1891. Théodore Faullin de Banville (1823–91) gained prominence through his 20 volumes of poetry, but he was also known as a literary and drama critic, essayist and author of several plays produced at the Comédie-Française. Debussy’s 15 settings of Banville’s verses include a dreamy setting of Nuit d’étoiles (Starry Night) from 1880, which was the young composer’s first published work. The four songs by Henri Duparc (Born January 21, 1848, in Paris; Died February 12, 1933, in Mont-de-Marsan, France) Troubled in spirit and health and sufficiently self-critical to destroy much of what he composed, Henri Duparc is remembered almost entirely for his handful of songs, but what songs they are—exquisite, fluid, precisely inflected musical wrappings of voluptuously beautiful verse that count among the greatest contributions to the French vocal repertory. The sweet, fantastic vision evoked by Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) in his L’Invitation au voyage is perfectly reflected in Duparc’s music. Le Manoir de Rosemonde (Rosemonde’s Manor) sets a text by the Parisian novelist, journalist and poet Robert de Bonnières (1850–1905), a close friend with whom Duparc once shared an apartment. The poem tells of a feverish quest to find the refuge of love in the cryptic “blue domain of Rosemonde,” perhaps a reference to the beautiful Rosamund Clifford, mistress of King Henry II of England (1133–89), who lost his beloved when she had to enter a nunnery after their liaison became public knowledge shortly before her death in 1176. Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

19. Graham Johnson, the English pianist and an authority on the German Lied, summarized the ancient story: “In Greek legend, Amphiaraus was a renowned warrior under the special protection of Zeus and Apollo. He married Eriphyle, sister of Adrastus, and one of the marriage stipulations was that if the two brothers-inlaw disagreed on any issue, Eriphyle’s arbitration was binding. Adrastus wanted to make war on Thebes, but Amphiaraus, gifted with a seer’s powers, knew that this would be disastrous. Bribed by a gold and diamond necklace, Eriphyle declared herself in favor of the expedition and, bound by his promise, Amphiaraus was forced to take part in a war that he knew would lead to his death. He made his young sons swear to avenge him against Eriphyle and departed as part of the disastrous expedition which was the subject of a play by Aeschylus, Seven against Thebes. The war was a long one, but in combat at the city’s Homoloian gate (each of the seven champions attempted to storm one of Thebes’ seven gates) Amphiaraus was finally put to flight by the Theban hero Periclymenus, who chased him to the banks of the Ismenus. Amphiaraus would have been slain had not Zeus sent a thunderbolt which made a cleft in the ground into which horse, chariot and driver disappeared.”

Élégie is Duparc’s setting of the French translation of the verse that Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779–1852) wrote in memory of Robert Emmet, a close friend and fellow student at Trinity College in Dublin, who was captured, tried and hanged for participating in an uprising of the United Irishmen in 1803. The dramatic La Vague et La Cloche (The Wave and the Bell, 1871) takes its text from a poem by François Coppée (1842– 1908), known as the poète des humbles for his sympathetic treatment of ordinary Parisians. Don Quichotte à Dulcinée (1932) Maurice Ravel (Born March 3, 1875, in Ciboure, France; Died December 28, 1937, in Paris) Ravel spent four months early in 1932 on tour with Marguerite Long putting his new Piano Concerto in G on display throughout much of central Europe to enthusiastic praise. When he returned to the Basque countryside for a rest, he found waiting for him a commission to write music for a film version of Don Quixote starring the legendary Russian basso Feodor Chaliapin. Ravel, despite an ambitious beginning during the summer, was unable to complete any of his assignment on time, and Jacques Ibert was entrusted to take over in his stead. Ravel, however, continued the songs as a concert work and completed them sometime early the following year. Don Quichotte à Dulcinée was Ravel’s last work. Each of the three settings of poems by Paul Morand (1888– 1976) is based on a traditional dance rhythm of Spain: Chanson romanesque on the quajira, Chanson épique on the zortzico and Chanson à boire on the jota. The first is a love song of near manic devotion to the beloved Dulcinée in the characteristic Spanish meter produced by alternate measures of 6/8 and 3/4. The second song presents Quixote as a holy warrior invoking the aid of the Madonna and Saint Michael to sustain him in his valiant quest. The closing Drinking Song paints the hero in his one undeniable virtue—as an expansive tippler. Les Deux Grenadiers (The Two Grenadiers) (1840) Richard Wagner (Born May 22, 1813, in Leipzig; Died February 13, 1883, in Venice) In 1840, during the miserable time he spent in Paris debt-ridden and unable to bring his visions of vast operatic ventures to the stage (he was then working on Rienzi), Wagner wrote a few songs to French texts “in order,” he recalled in his autobiography, “to gain the graces of the Parisian salon world through its favorite singers.” He demonstrated his nascent sense of drama early in 1840 in a setting of Die beiden Grenadiere (The Two Grenadiers) by Heinrich Heine that had been rendered into French by FrançoisAdolphe Loève-Veimar. (Robert Schumann set Heine’s poem in the original German that April.) The poem imagines two of Napoleon’s soldiers captured in Russia who only learn of their emperor’s ultimate defeat at Waterloo in June 1815 on their long trek home. One says that it is time to return to his wife and child, but the other experiences one last surge of patriotism that culminates in a fervent reference to La Marseillaise. —Dr. Richard E. Rodda

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

33


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Texts for Eric Owens, bass-baritone

Hugo Wolf: Drei Lieder nach Gedichten von Michelangelo Text by Walter Heinrich Robert-Tornow (1852–95) Based on the Italian text by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564)

“Wohl denk ich oft” (“I Often Think of My Past Life”) Wohl denk ich oft an mein vergangnes Leben, Wie es vor meiner Liebe für dich war; Kein Mensch hat damals Acht auf mich gegeben, Ein jeder Tag verloren für mich war; Ich dachte wohl, ganz dem Gesang zu leben, Auch mich zu flüchten aus der Menschen Schar. Genannt in Lob und Tadel bin ich heute, Und, dass ich da bin, wissen alle Leute!

I often think of my past life, The way it was before my love for you; no one had paid any attention to me then, each and ever day was lost to me; I thought that I would dedicate my life to song, and flee from human throng. Today my name spoken in praise and criticism, and that I exist—that is known by all.

“Alles endet, was entstehet” (“Everything Ends Which Comes To Be”) Alles endet, was entstehet. Alles, alles rings vergehet, Denn die Zeit flieht, und die Sonne Sieht, dass alles rings vergehet, Denken, Reden, Schmerz, und Wonne; Und die wir zu Enkeln hatten Schwanden wie bei Tag die Schatten, Wie ein Dunst im Windeshauch. Menschen waren wir ja auch, Froh und traurig, so wie ihr, Und nun sind wir leblos hier, Sind nur Erde, wie ihr sehet. Alles endet, was entstehet. Alles, alles rings vergehet.

Everything ends which comes to be. Everything everywhere passes away, for time moves on, and the sun sees that everything passes away, thinking, speaking, pain and joy; and those who had been our grandchildren have vanished as shadows flee the day, as a breath of wind dispels the mist. Yes, we once were people too, glad and sad, just like you, and now we are here lifeless, Are but earth, as you can see. Everything ends which comes to be. Everything everywhere passes away.

“Fühlt meine Seele das ersehnte Licht” (“Is My Soul Feeling the Longed-for Light?”) Fühlt meine Seele das ersehnte Licht Von Gott, der sie erschuf? Ist es der Strahl Von andrer Schönheit aus dem Jammertal, Der in mein Herz Erinnrung weckend bricht?

Is my soul feeling the longed-for light of God who created it? Is it the gleam of a different beauty from the valley of misery, reflecting in my heart and evoking memory?

Ist es ein Klang, ein Traumgesicht, Das Aug und Herz mir füllt mit einem Mal In unbegreiflich glüh’nder Qual, Die mich zu Tränen bringt? Ich weiss es nicht.

Is it a sound, a dream vision, that suddenly fills my eye and heart in incomprehensibly burning pain, that brings me to tears? I do not know.

Was ich ersehne, fühle, was mich lenkt, Ist nicht in mir: sag mir, wie ich’s erwerbe? Mir zeigt es wohl nur eines Andren Huld;

What I long for, the sense of what directs me, is not within me: Tell me how do I acquire it? To me it reveals only another’s grace and love;

Darein bin ich, seit ich dich sah, versenkt. Mich treibt ein Ja und Nein, ein Süss und Herbe— Daran sind, Herrin, deine Augen Schuld.

I have been their captive since I first saw you. I am driven by a yes and a no, a sweet and a bitter— that, mistress, is the doing of your eyes.

34

| mondaviarts.org


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

The four songs by Robert Schumann Mein Herz ist schwer (My Soul Is Dark) from Myrthen (Myrtles), Op. 25, No. 15 Text by Karl Julius Körner (1793–1873) Based on the English text by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788–1824)

Mein Herz ist schwer! Auf! My heart is heavy! Arise! Von der Wand die Laute— Take the lute from the wall, Nur sie allein mag ich noch hören, it alone I still wish to hear; Entlocke mit geschickter Hand with a skilful hand entice from it Ihr Töne, die das Herz betören. sounds that beguile the heart. Kann noch mein Herz ein Hoffen nähren, If my heart can still nurture a hope, Es zaubert diese Töne her, these sounds shall magically call it forth, Und birgt mein trocknes Auge Zähren, and if my dry eyes harbour tears, Sie fliessen, und mich brennt’s nicht mehr! they shall flow, and I shall no longer be burned by pain! Nur tief sei, wild der Töne Fluss, Only deep, wild be the flow of the notes, Und von der Freude weggekehret! and turned away from joy! Ja, Sänger, dass ich weinen muss, Yea, singer, that I must weep, Sonst wird das schwere Herz verzehret! otherwise my heavy heart shall be consumed! Denn sieh! Von Kummer ward’s genähret, For look! It was nourished by anguish, Mit stummem Wachen trug es lang, with mute watching it long bore its burden, Und jetzt vom Äussersten belehret, and now, having been taught by the extremes of pain, Da brech es oder heil im Sang. it must break or heal in song.

Muttertraum (A Mother’s Dream), Op. 40, No 2 Text by Adelbert von Chamisso (1781–1838) Based on a Danish text by Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75)

Die Mutter betet herzig und schaut Entzückt auf den schlummernden Kleinen. Er ruht in der Wiege so sanft und traut. Ein Engel muss er ihr scheinen.

The mother prays sweetly and gazes with delight upon her slumbering little one. He rests in his cradle, so tender and cozy. He must seem to be an angel to her.

Sie küsst ihn und herzt ihn, sie hält sich kaum. Vergessen der irdischen Schmerzen, Es schweift in die Zukunft ihr Hoffnungstraum. So träumen Mütter im Herzen.

She kisses him and hugs him, she cannot restrain herself. Forgetting all earthly pain, her hopeful dreams wander into the future. Thus do mothers often dream.

Der Rab indes mit der Sippschaft sein Kreischt draussen am Fenster die Weise: Dein Engel, dein Engel wird unser sein, Der Räuber dient uns zur Speise.

The raven meanwhile, with its clan, shrieks a tune outside the window: your angel, your angel will be ours— the brigand shall serve us at supper.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

35


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Der Schatzgräber (The Treasure-Seeker), Op. 45, No. 1 Text by Josef Karl Benedikt von Eichendorff (1788–1857)

Wenn alle Wälder schliefen, Er an zu graben hub, Rastlos in Berges Tiefen Nach einem Schatz er grub.

When all the forests were sleeping, he began to dig without rest in the mountain deep: for a treasure did he dig.

Die Engel Gottes sangen Dieweil in stiller Nacht, Wie rote Augen drangen Metalle aus dem Schacht.

Angels of God sang while, in the still night, like red eyes, metals emerged from the shaft.

“Und wirst doch mein,” und grimmer Wühlt er und wühlt hinab! Da stürzen Steine und Trümmer Über den Narren herab.

“And you will be mine!” and more grimly did he burrow and burrow downward! Then the stones and rubble tumbled down upon the fool.

Hohnlachen wild erschallte Aus der verfallnen Gruft, Der Engelsang verhallte Wehmütig in der Luft.

Scornful, wild laughter resounded from the collapsed vault, and the angel-song faded away sadly into the air.

Melancholie (Melancholy) from Spanisches Liederspiel (Spanish Song Play), Op. 74, No. 6 Text by Emanuel von Geibel (1815–84) Based on a Spanish text by Francisco de Sá de Miranda (1481?–1558)

Wann, wann erscheint der Morgen, Wann denn, wann denn, wann denn, Der mein Leben löset Aus diesen Banden! Ihr Augen, vom Leide So trübe, so trübe! Saht nur Qual für Liebe, Saht nicht eine Freude, Saht nur Wund’ auf Wunde, Schmerz auf Schmerz mir geben, Und im langen Leben Keine frohe Stunde. Wenn es endlich doch geschähe, Dass ich säh’ die Stunde, Wo ich nimmer sähe!

When, when will the morning come, when, when, when, that will release my life from these bonds? You my eyes, so clouded by sorrow, saw only torment instead of love, saw no joy; saw only wounds upon wounds, agony upon agony inflicted on me; and in my long life, not one cheerful hour. If it would only finally happen that the hour would arrive when I could no longer see! When will the morning come, that will release my life from these bonds?

The four songs by Franz Schubert Prometheus, D. 674 Text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)

Bedecke deinen Himmel, Zeus, Mit Wolkendunst Und übe, dem Knaben gleich, Der Disteln köpft, An Eichen dich und Bergeshöh’n; Musst mir meine Erde Doch lassen stehn Und meine Hütte, die du nicht gebaut, Und meines Herd, Um dessen Glut Du mich beneidest. 36

| mondaviarts.org

Cover your heavens, Zeus, with gauzy clouds, and practice, like a boy who beheads thistles, on the oaks and peaks of mountains; but you must allow my world to stand, and my hut, which you did not build, and my hearth, whose glow you envy me. continued on p.37


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Prometheus continued

Ich kenne nichts Ärmeres Unter der Sonn’, als euch, Götter! Ihr nähret kümmerlich Von Opfersteuern Und Gebetshauch Eure Majestät Und darbtet, wären Nicht Kinder und Bettler Hoffnungsvolle Toren. Da ich ein Kind war Nicht wusste, wo aus noch ein, Kehrt’ ich mein verirrtes Auge Zur Sonne, als wenn drüber wär’ Ein Ohr, zu hören meine Klage, Ein Herz wie meins, Sich des Bedrängten zu erbarmen.

I know nothing more shabby under the sun than you gods! You wretchedly nourish, from offerings and the breath of prayers, your majesty; And you would starve, were children and beggars not such hopeful fools. When I was a child I did not know in from out; I turned my confused eyes to the sun, as if above it there were an ear to hear my laments— a heart like mine that would pity the oppressed.

Wer half mir Who helped me Wider der Titanen Übermut? against the pride of the titans? Wer rettete vom Tode mich, Who rescued me from death— Von Sklaverei? from slavery? Hast du nicht alles selbst vollendet Did you not accomplish it all yourself, Heilig glühend Herz? my sacred, glowing heart? Und glühtest jung und gut, Yet did you not glow with ardent and youthful goodness, Betrogen, Rettungsdank deceived, and full of gratitude Dem Schlafenden da droben? to the sleepers above? Ich dich ehren? Wofür? Hast du die Schmerzen gelindert Je des Beladenen? Hast du die Tränen gestillet Je des Geängsteten? Hat nicht mich zum Manne geschmiedet Die allmächtige Zeit Und das ewige Schicksal, Meine Herrn und deine?

I, honor you? Why? Have you ever alleviated the pain of one who is oppressed? Have you ever quieted the tears of one who is distressed? Was I not forged into a man by all-mighty Time and eternal Fate, my masters and yours?

Wähntest du etwa, Ich sollte das Leben hassen, In Wüsten fliehen, Weil nicht alle Blütenträume reiften?

You were deluded if you thought I should hate life and fly into the wilderness because not all of my budding dreams blossomed.

Hier sitz’ ich, forme Menschen Nach meinem Bilde. Ein Geschlecht, das mir gleich sei, Zu leiden, zu weinen, Zu geniessen und zu freuen sich Und dein nicht zu achten, Wie ich!

Here I will sit, forming men after my own image. It will be a race like me, to suffer, to weep, to enjoy and to rejoice, and to pay no attention to you, as I do!

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

37


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Fahrt zum Hades (Journey to Hades), D. 526 Text by Johann Baptist Mayrhofer (1787–1836)

Der Nachen dröhnt, Cypressen flüstern, Horch, Geister reden schaurig drein; Bald werd’ ich am Gestad’, dem düstern, Weit von der schöne Erde sein.

The dory creaks, cypresses whisper; hear, spirits’ eerie cries. Soon I will be on the gloomy shore far removed from beautiful Earth.

Da leuchten Sonne nicht, noch Sterne, Da tönt kein Lied, da ist kein Freund. Empfang die letzte Träne, o Ferne, Die dieses müde Auge weint.

Sunlight, starlight, neither shines there, no song sounds, no friend is found. Take, o distant land, these final tears my eyes have left to shed.

Schon schau’ ich die blassen Danaiden, Den fluchbeladnen Tantalus; Es murmelt todesschwangern Frieden, Vergessenheit, dein alter Fluss.

Already I see the wan Danaids, and curse-burdened Tantalus; heavy with death’s stillness, Oblivion, your age-old river, murmurs.

Vergessen nenn’ ich zwiefach Sterben, Was ich mit höchster Kraft gewann, Verlieren, wieder es erwerben— Wann enden diese Qualen? Wann?

I call forgetting a second death. To lose what I spent utmost strength to win, and then repeat the struggle— When will these tortures finish? When?

Der Nachen dröhnt, Cypressen flüstern, Horch, Geister reden schaurig drein; Bald werd’ ich am Gestad’, dem düstern, Weit von der schöne Erde sein.

The dory creaks, cypresses whisper; hear, spirits’ eerie cries. Soon I will be on the gloomy shore far removed from beautiful Earth.

Gruppe aus dem Tartarus (Group from Tartarus), D. 583 Text by Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805)

Horch—wie Murmeln des empörten Meeres, Wie durch hohler Felsen Becken weint ein Bach, Stöhnt dort dumpfigtief ein schweres, leeres Qualerpresstes Ach! Schmerz verzerret Ihr Gesicht, Verzweiflung sperret Ihren Rachen fluchend auf. Hohl sind ihre Augen, ihre Blicke Spähen bang nach des Cocytus Brücke, Folgen tränend seinem Trauerlauf. Fragen sich einander ängstlich leise, Ob noch nicht Vollendung sei! Ewigkeit schwingt über ihnen Kreise, Bricht die Sense des Saturns entzwei.

38

| mondaviarts.org

Hark—like the angered ocean’s murmuring, like a brook weeping through rocky hollows, groans yonder, dankly deep, a grievous, vain, Torment-extracted moan. Agony contorts their faces, despair opens wide their jaws in imprecation. Hollow their eyes: their gaze fixes fearfully on Cocytus’ bridge, or, weeping, follows Cocytus’ drear course. Softly and in fear, each of the other asks whether it be not yet the end. Eternity above them whirls in circles, and shatters Saturn’s sickle asunder.


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Amphiaraos, D. 166 Text by (Karl) Theodor Körner (1791–1813)

Vor Thebens siebenfach gähnenden Toren Lag im furchtbaren Brüderstreit Das Heer der Fürsten zum Schlagen bereit, Im heiligen Eide zum Morde verschworen. Und mit des Panzers blendendem Licht Gerüstet, als gält’ es, die Welt zu bekriegen, Träumen sie jauchzend von Kämpfen und Siegen, Nur Amphiaraos, der Herrliche, nicht.

Before the seven wide-open gates of Thebes, in dreadful fratricidal dispute lay the prince’s army, ready for battle, sworn in sacred oaths to murder. And with the dazzling light of their armor, girt as if they intended to wage war with the world, they dreamed with joy of battles and triumphs— all but Amphiaros the magnificent.

Denn er liest in dem ewigen Kreise der Sterne, Wen die kommenden Stunden feindlich bedrohn. Des Sonnenlenkers gewaltiger Sohn Sieht klar in der Zukunft nebelnde Ferne. Er kennt des Schicksals verderblichen Bund, Er weiss, wie die Würfel, die eisernen, Er sieht die Moira mit blutigen Krallen; Doch die Helden verschmähen den heiligen Mund. Er sah des Mordes gewaltsame Taten, Er wusste, was ihm die Parze spann. So ging er zum Kampf, ein verlor’ner Mann, Von dem eig’nen Weibe schmählich verraten. Er war sich der himmlischen Flamme bewusst, Die heiss die kräftige Seele durchglühte; Der Stolze nannte sich Apolloide, Es schlug ihm ein göttliches Herz in der Brust.

For he reads in the eternal cycle of the stars whom the coming hours threaten with hostility. The sun-god’s powerful son sees clearly into the future’s nebulous distance. He knows of Destiny’s fatal covenant: fallen, he knows how the dice—the iron ones—will fall; he sees Moira with bloody claws ... but heroes spurn the sacred mouth.

“Wie?—ich, zu dem die Götter geredet, Den der Weisheit heilige Düfte umwehn, Ich soll in gemeiner Schlacht vergehn, Von Periklymenos’ Hand getötet? Verderben will ich durch eigene Macht, Und staunend vernehm’ es die kommende Stunde Aus künftiger Sänger geheiligtem Munde, Wie ich kühn mich gestürzt in die ewige Nacht.” Und als der blutige Kampf begonnen, Und die Eb’ne vom Mordgeschrei widerhallt, So ruft er verzweifelnd: “Es naht mit Gewalt, Was mir die untrügliche Parze gesponnen. Doch wogt in der Brust mir ein göttliches Blut, Drum will ich auch, wert des Erzeugers, verderben.”

“What? I, to whom the gods have spoken, I, surrounded by the sacred, wafting fragrance of Wisdom— am I, in common battle, to be killed at the hand of Periklymenos? I would rather die through my own power and in the time to come it will be heard with astonishment from the sacred lips of future singers how I boldly leapt into the eternal night.”

He saw the violent acts of murder, and knew what the Fates were spinning for him. So he went to battle, a lost man, by his own wife shamefully betrayed. He was aware of the heavenly flame, which hotly burned in his strong soul; the proud man called himself a son of Apollo, with a divine heart beating in his breast.

And when the bloody struggle began, and the plains echoed with murderous cries, he called desperately: “It approaches with force, what the infallible Fates have woven. But in my breast surges divine blood, so, worthy of my father, I will die.” continued on p.40

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

39


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Amphiaraos continued

Und wandte die Rosse auf Leben und Sterben, Und jagt zu des Stromes hochbrausender Flut. Wild schnauben die Hengste, laut rasselt der Wagen, Das Stampfen der Hufe zermalmet die Bahn. Und schneller und schneller noch rast es heran, Als gält’ es, die flüchtige Zeit zu erjagen. Wie wenn er die Leuchte des Himmels geraubt, Kommt er in Wirbeln der Windsbraut geflogen; Erschrocken heben die Götter der Wogen Aus schäumenden Fluten das schilfichte Haupt. Doch plötzlich, als wenn der Himmel erglühte, Stürzet ein Blitz aus der heitern Luft, Und die Erde zerreisst sich zur furchtbaren Kluft; Da rief laut jauchzend der Apolloide: “Dank dir, Gewaltiger, fest steht mir der Bund. Dein Blitz ist mir der Unsterblichkeit Siegel; Ich folge dir, Zeus!”—und er fasste die Zügel Und jagte die Rosse hinab in den Schlund.

And he turned the horses for life or for death, and plunged toward the river’s high, raging flood. Wildly the horses snort, loudly the chariot rattles, the stamping of hoofs crush the road. And faster and faster still it races, as if it were hunting the fleeing Time. As if he had stolen the torch of heaven, he comes flying in a tornado of wind; terrified, the gods lift their reedy heads from the waves of the foaming flood. But suddenly, as if heaven were on fire, a lightning-bolt plunges down from the sky and the earth tears apart into terrible gaps; then the son of Apollo calls loudly, rejoicing: “Thank you, o Powerful One! You stand by me. Your lightning is the seal of immortality; I will follow you, Zeus!” and he seized the reins and spurred the horse down into the abyss.

The four songs by Claude Debussy Beau Soir (Beautiful Evening) Text by Paul Bourget (1852–1935)

Lorsque au soleil couchant les rivières sont roses, Et qu’un tiède frisson court sur les champs de blé, Un conseil d’être heureux semble sortir des choses Et monter vers le coeur troublé.

When streams turn pink in the setting sun, and a slight shudder rushes through the wheat fields, a plea for happiness seems to rise out of all things and it climbs up towards the troubled heart.

Un conseil de goûter le charme d’être au monde, Cependant qu’on est jeune et que le soir est beau, Car nous nous en allons comme s’en va cette onde, Elle à la mer, nous au tombeau.

A plea to relish the charm of life while there is youth and the evening is fair, for we pass away, as the wave passes: the wave to the sea, we to the grave.

40

| mondaviarts.org


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Fleur des Blés (Wheat Flower) Text by André Girod

Le long des blés que la brise Fait onduler puis défrise En un désordre coquet, J’ai trouvé de bonne prise De t’y cueillir un bouquet.

Amid the wheat that the breeze has ruffled in playful teasing, leaving disorder so gay, here I seize my chance to please you, and pluck for you a sweet bouquet.

Mets-le vite à ton corsagen— Il est fait à ton image En même temps que pour toi … Ton petit doigt, je le gage, T’a déjà soufflé pourquoi:

Place it lightly on your breast; I made it in your image blest and do you say, “Tell me why?” A little bird, I have guessed, has already told you why!

Ces épis dorés, c’est l’onde De ta chevelure blonde Toute d’or et de soleil; Ce coquelicot qui fronde, C’est ta bouche au sang vermeil. Et ces bluets, beau mystère! Points d’azur que rien n’altère, Ces bluets ce sont tes yeux, Si bleus qu’on dirait, sur terre, Deux éclats tombés des cieux.

First some ears of wheat, the flare of your lovely hair, golden tresses full of sun; now the scarlet poppies fair, These your lips that love has won. And these bluets, how enchanting, but of azure disconcerting, these bluets are your own eyes, no blue on this earth so dazzling, heaven’s flow’rs fall’n from the skies.

Romance Text by Paul Bourget (1852–1935)

L’âme évaporée et souffrante, L’âme douce, l’âme odorante Des lys divins que j’ai cueillis Dans le jardin de ta pensée, Où donc les vents l’ont-ils chassée, Cette âme adorable des lys?

The vanishing and suffering soul, the sweet soul, the fragrant soul of divine lilies that I have picked in the garden of your thoughts, where, then, have the winds chased it, this charming soul of the lilies?

N’est-il plus un parfum qui reste De la suavité céleste Des jours où tu m’enveloppais D’une vapeur surnaturelle, Faite d’espoir, d’amour fidèle, De béatitude et de paix? …

Is there no longer a perfume that remains of the celestial sweetness of the days when you enveloped me in a supernatural haze, made of hope, of faithful love, of bliss and of peace?

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

41


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Nuit d’étoiles (Starry Night) Text by Théodore Faullin de Banville (1823–91)

Nuit d’étoiles, sous tes voiles, sous ta brise et tes parfums, Triste lyre qui soupire, je rêve aux amours défunts.

Starry night, beneath your pinions, beneath your breeze and your perfumes, lyre, in sorrow, softly sighing, I dream of a love long past.

La sereine mélancolie vient éclore au fond de mon coeur, Et j’entends l’âme de ma mie Tressaillir dans le bois rêveur.

Melancholy, so sadly tranquil, fills with gloom my poor weary heart. And I hear your dear soul, my darling, quivering in the dreamy wood.

Dans les ombres de la feuillée, Quand tout bas je soupire seul, Tu reviens, pauvre âme éveillée, Toute blanche dans ton linceuil.

In the shadows of the greenwood, when, alone, I am sighing low, you come back, O! poor soul awaken’d, pure and white as snow in your shroud.

Je revois à notre fontaine tes regards bleus comme les cieux; Cettes rose, c’est ton haleine, Et ces étoiles sont tes yeux.

I watch here at this, your small fountain your blue eyes like the sky; this rose, it is my dear hope, and these fair stars they are your eyes.

The four songs by Henri Duparc L’invitation au voyage (The Invitation to the Voyage) Text: Charles Baudelaire (1821–67)

Mon enfant, ma soeur, Songe à la douceur D’aller là-bas vivre ensemble, Aimer à loisir, Aimer et mourir Au pays qui te ressemble.

My child, my sister, think of the sweetness of going there to live together! To love at leisure, to love and to die in a country that is the image of you!

Les soleils mouillés De ces ciels brouillés Pour mon esprit ont les charmes Si mystérieux De tes traîtres yeux, Brillant à travers leurs larmes.

The misty suns of those changeable skies have for me the same mysterious charm as your fickle eyes shining through their tears.

Là, tout n’est qu’ordre et beauté, Luxe, calme et volupté.

There, all is harmony and beauty, luxury, calm and delight.

Vois sur ces canaux Dormir ces vaisseaux Dont l’humeur est vagabonde; C’est pour assouvir Ton moindre désir Qu’ils viennent du bout du monde.

See how those ships, nomads by nature, are slumbering in the canals. To gratify your every desire they have come from the ends of the earth. continued on p.43

42

| mondaviarts.org


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

L’invitation continued

Les soleils couchants Revêtent les champs, Les canaux, la ville entière, D’hyacinthe et d’or; Le monde s’endort Dans une chaude lumière!

The westering suns clothe the fields, the canals and the town with reddish-orange and gold. The world falls asleep bathed in warmth and light.

Là, tout n’est qu’ordre et beauté, Luxe, calme et volupté.

There, all is harmony and beauty, luxury, calm and delight.

Le Manoir de Rosemonde (Rosemonde’s Manor) Text: Robert de Bonnières (1850–1905)

De sa dent soudaine et vorace, Comme un chien l’amour m’a mordu … En suivant mon sang répandu, Va, tu pourras suivre ma trace … Prends un cheval de bonne race, Pars, et suis mon chemin ardu, Fondrière ou sentier perdu— Si la course ne te harasse! En passant par où j’ai passé Tu verras que seul et blessé J’ai parcouru ce triste monde, Et qu’ainsi je m’en fus mourir Bien loin, bien loin, sans découvrir Le bleu manoir de Rosemonde.

With its sudden, voracious fangs, love, like a dog, has bitten me … Following my spilled blood, come, you will be able to retrace my path … Take a horse of good breed, set out, and follow my arduous road, marsh, or lost pathway— if the journey does not exhaust you! Passing where I have passed, you will see that, alone and wounded, I have traversed this sorry world, and that I thus went off to die far, far away, without discovering the blue domain of Rosemonde.

Élégie Text: Anonymous Based on an English text by Thomas Moore (1779–1852)

Oh! ne murmurez pas son nom! Qu’il dorme dans l’ombre, Où froide et sans honneur repose sa dépouille. Muettes, tristes, glacées, tombent nos larmes, Comme la rosée de la nuit, qui sur sa tête humecte la gazon;

Oh! breathe not his name. Let it sleep in the shade, Where cold and unhonor’d his relics are laid: Sad, silent and dark, be the tears that we shed, As the night-dew that falls on the grass o’er his head.

Mais la rosée de la nuit, bien qu’elle pleure en Fera briller la verdure sur sa couche Et nos larmes, en secret répandues, Conserveront sa mémoire fraîche et verte dans nos coeurs.

But the night-dew that falls, silence, though in silence it weeps, Shall brighten with verdure the grave where he sleeps; And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls,

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

Shall long keep his memory green in our souls.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

43


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

La Vague et La Cloche (The Wave and the Bell) Text by François Coppée (1842–1908)

Une fois, terrassé par un puissant breuvage, J’ai revé que parmi les vagues et let bruit De la mer, je vouguais sans fanal dans la nuit, Morne ramuer, n’ayant plus l’espoir du rivage …

Once, laid low by a potent draught, I dreamed that amid the waves and the roar of the black sea I drifted without beacon at night, a bleak oarsman, with no hope of reaching land …

L’Ocean me crachait ses braves sur le front, Et le vent me glacait d’horreur jusqu’aux entrailles, Les vagues s’écroulaient ainsi que des murailles Avec ce rythem lent qu’un silence interrompt …

The ocean spat its foam on my brow, and the wind froze me through with horror, the waves crashed down like walls about me, with that slow rhythm a silence severs …

Puis, tout changea … la mer et sa noire melée Sombrérent … sous mes pieds s’effondra le plancher De la barque … et j’étais seul dans un vieux clocher, Chevauchant avec rage une cloche ébranlée.

Then everything changed. The sea and its black tumult subsided … beneath my feet the floor of the boat Gave way … and I was alone in an old bell-tower, furiously riding a swaying bell.

J’éreignais la criarde opiniatrement, Convulsif et fermant dans l’ mes paupiéres. Le grondement faisait trembler les vieilles peirres, Tant j’activais sans fin le lourd balancement.

I endured this shrill persistence, effort convulsed and screwing up my eyelids in the effort, the rumbling caused the ancient stones to shake, so that I had difficulty in keeping my balance.

Pourquoi n’as-tu pas dit, o reve, Ou Dieu nous méne? Pourquoi n’as-tu pas dit s’ils ne finiraient pas, L’inutile travail et l’éternel fracas Dont est faite la vie, hélas, la vie humaine!

Why did you not say, O dream, where God leads us? Why did you not say if they will ever end, the fruitless toil and the endless strife of which human life, alas, is made?

44

| mondaviarts.org


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Maurice Ravel: Don Quichotte à Dulcinée Text by Paul Morand (1888–1976)

“Chanson romanesque” (“Romanesque Song”) Si vous me disiez que la terre A tant tourner vous offensa Je lui dépêcherais Pança: Vous la verriez fixe et se taire.

If ever for rest you are yearning, I’ll hush the winds and the seas, my love, I will say to the sun above, “Cease in your flight, stay in your turning!”

Si vous me disiez l’ennui Vous vient du ciel trop fleuri d’astres, Déchirant les divins cadastres, Je faucherais d’un coup la nuit.

If ever for morning you sigh, the stars I will hide and their wonder, the splendor of heaven tear asunder, and banish the night from the sky.

Si vous me disiez que l’espace, Ainsi vidé ne vous plaît point, Chevalier-dieu, la lance au poing, J’étoilerais le vent qui passe.

If space lost in chaos was o’er you, filling your soul with nameless fear, god-like I’d come, shaking my spear, and sow the stars, radiant before you.

Mais si vous disiez que mon sang Est plus à moi qu’à vous, ma Dame, Je blêmirais, dessous le blâme Et je mourrais, vous bénissant. O Dulcinée.

But if ever I hear you cry, “Give me your life! Prove how you love me!” Darkness will fall, shadows above me, blessing you still, then I shall die. O Dulcinée.

“Chanson épique” (“Epic Song”) Bon Saint Michel qui me donnez loisir De voir ma Dame et de l’entendre, Bon Saint Michel qui me daignez choisir Pour lui complaire et la défendre, Bon Saint Michel veuillez descendre Avec Saint Georges sur l’autel De la Madone au bleu mantel.

Saint Michael, come! my lady bring to me, unto my soul her presence lending, Saint Michael, come! he champion let me be, with knightly grace her fame defending, Saint Michael, come! to earth descending, with good Saint George before the shrine of the Madonna with face divine.

D’un rayon du ciel bénissez ma lame May the light of heaven on my sword be lying, Et son égale en pureté give to my spirit purity, Et son égale en piété and lend my heart sweet piety, Comme en pudeur et chasteté: Ma Dame, and lift my soul in ecstasy, undying! (O grands Saint Georges et Saint Michel) (O good Saint George and Saint Michael, hear me!) L’ange qui veille sur ma veille, An angel watches ever near me, Ma douce Dame si pareille A Vous, my own beloved, so like to you, Madone au bleu mantel! Amen. Madonna, maid divine! Amen.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

45


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

“Chanson à boire” (“Drinking Song”) Foin du bátard, illustre Dame, Qui pour me perdre à vos doux yeux Dit que l’amour et le vin vieux Mettent en deuilmon coeur, mon âme! Ah!

Lady adored! Wherefore this sorrow? I live in your glances divine, say not that love, love and good wine, brings to us mortals grief tomorrow! Ah!

Je bois A la joie! La joie est la seul but O! je vais droit … lorsque j’ai ... lorsque j’ai bu! Ah! Ah! Ah! la joie! La La La! Je bois A la joie!

Drink then! drink to joy! For good wine makes you laugh like a merry boy! Makes you laugh, laugh like a boy! Ah! Ah! Ah! to joy! La La La! Drink on, drink to joy!

Foin du jaloux, brune maîtresse, Qui geind, qui pleure et fait serment D’être toujours cepâle amant Qui met de l’eau dans son ivresse! Ah!

Who wants a maid (not I, I’m thinking!), a maiden who mopes all day long, silent and pale, never a song, frowning to see her lover drinking! Ah!

Je bois A la joie! La joie est la seul but O! je vais droit … lorsque j’ai ... lorsque j’ai bu! Ah! Ah! Ah! la joie! La La La! Je bois A la joie!

Drink then! drink to joy! For good wine makes you laugh like a merry boy! Makes you laugh, laugh like a boy! Ah! Ah! Ah! to joy! La La La! Drink on, drink to joy!

46

| mondaviarts.org


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Richard Wagner: Les deux grenadiers (The Two Grenadiers) Text by François-Adolphe Loève-Veimar Based on a German text by Heinrich Heine (1797–1856)

Longtemps captifs chez le Russe lointain, Deux grenadiers retournaient vers la France; Déjà leurs pieds touchent le sol germain; Mais on leur dit: Pour vous plus d’espérance;

Two grenadiers were returning to France, from Russian captivity they came. And as they crossed into German lands they hung their heads in shame.

L’Europe a triomphé, vos braves ont vécu! C’en est fait de la France, et de la grande armée! Et rendant son épée, l’Empereur est captif et vaincu!

Both heard there the tale that they dreaded most, that France had been conquered in war, defeated and shattered! That once proud host— And the Emperor, a free man no more.

Ils ont frémi; chacun d’eux sent tomber des pleurs brülants sur sa mâle figure. “Je suis bien mal” ... dit l’un, “je vois couler des flots de sang de ma vieille blessure!”

The grenadiers both started to weep at hearing so sad a review. The first said, “My pain is too deep; my old wound is burning anew!”

“Tout est fini,” dit l’autre, “ô, je voudrais mourir! Mais au pays mes fils m’attendent, et leur mère, qui mourrait de misère! J’entends leur voix plaintive; il faut vivre et souffrir!” “Femmes, enfants, que m’importe! Mon coeur par un seul voeu tient encore à la terre. Ils mendieront s’ils ont faim, l’Empereur, il est captif, mon Empereur!

The other said, “The song is done; like you, I’d not stay alive; but at home I have wife and son, who would not survive without me.” “What matters son? What matters wife? By nobler needs I set store; let them go beg to sustain their life! My Emperor, a free man no more!

Ô frère, écoute-moi, ... je meurs! Aux rives que j’aimais, rends du moins mon cadavre, et du fer de ta lance, au soldat de la France creuse un funèbre lit sous le soleil français!

Promise me, brother, one thing: if at this time I should die, Take my corpse to France for its final rest; as a French soldier let me lie in France’s dear earth.

Fixe à mon sein glacé par le trépas la croix d’honneur que mon sang a gagnée; dans le cerceuil couche-moi l’arme au bras, mets sous ma main la garde d’une épée;

The Cross of Valor, on its red band, over my heart you shall lay; my musket place into my hand; and my sword at my side display.

de là je prêterai l’oreille au moindre bruit, jusqu’au jour, où, tonnant sur la terre ébranlée, l’écho de la mêlée m’appellera du fond de l’éternelle nuit!

So shall I lie and listen in the ground, a guard watching, silently staying till once more I hear the cannon’s echo and the hoofbeats of neighing horses.

Peut-être bien qu’en ce choc meurtrier, sous la mitraille et les feux de la bombe, mon Empereur poussera son coursier vers le gazon qui couvrira ma tombe.

Perhaps in the shock of battle, under fire and with bombs falling, my Emperor will pass right over my grave, with each sword a flashing reflector.

Alors je sortirai du cerceuil, tout armé; et sous les plis sacrés du drapeau tricolore, j’irai défendre encore la France et l’Empereur, l’Empereur bien aimé.”

And I, fully armed, will rise up from that grave, and under the sacred folds of the tricolor, I’ll again defend France and the Emperor, the beloved Emperor.”

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

47


eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Eric Owens Acclaimed for his commanding stage presence and inventive artistry, American bass-baritone Eric Owens has carved a unique place in the contemporary opera world as both an esteemed interpreter of classic works and a champion of new music. Equally at home in concert, recital and opera performances, Owens continues to bring his powerful poise, expansive voice and instinctive acting faculties to stages around the world. The 2010–11 season saw Owens’s Ring cycle debut as Alberich in Wagner’s Das Rheingold in Robert Lepage’s new production at the Metropolitan Opera, conducted by James Levine on the opening night of the Metropolitan’s season. Universally praised, Owens’s performance was considered a standout of the production. The 2010–11 season also saw Owens as Ramfis in Aida at San Francisco Opera and in the title role in Peter Sellars’s new Hercules at Lyric Opera of Chicago. On the concert stage, Owens appeared as Lodovico in Otello with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Riccardo Muti in performances at Symphony Center in Chicago and Carnegie Hall in New York. During 2011–12, Owens embarks on a significant recital tour with pianists Robert Spano and Craig Rutenberg. With engagements in Washington, D.C., Berkeley, Portland and Philadelphia, Owens will also perform at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. He sang Bach Cantatas with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on December 6. This season, Owens continues his work with the Metropolitan Opera’s Ring Cycle, with his character Alberich reappearing in October in Siegfried and in January in Götterdämmerung. The complete cycles will begin in April 2012. Owens will perform Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, one of three appearances there in 2011–12. Appearing as Jochanaan in Strauss’s Salome with the Cleveland Orchestra, Owens assumes the role in both Cleveland and at Carnegie Hall in May. Summer 2012 begins with Owens reprising the role of the Storyteller in A Flowering Tree by John Adams with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Owens will continue his summer at Glimmerglass Festival 2012 as the Artist in Residence, where he will appear in Aida and Lost in the Stars and will perform a jazz concert. Owens has created an uncommon niche for himself in the evergrowing body of contemporary opera works through his determined tackling of new and challenging roles. He received great critical acclaim for portraying the title role in the world premiere of Elliot Goldenthal’s Grendel with the Los Angeles Opera and again at the Lincoln Center Festival in a production directed and designed by Julie Taymor. Owens also enjoys a close association with John Adams, for whom he created the role of General Leslie Groves in the world premiere of Doctor Atomic at the San Francisco Opera and of the Storyteller in the world premiere of A Flowering Tree at Peter Sellars’s New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna and later with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Owens made his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut under the baton of David Robertson in Adams’s Nativity oratorio El Niño. Owens’s career operatic highlights include his San Francisco Opera debut in Otello conducted by Donald Runnicles; his Royal Opera, Covent Garden debut in Norma; Aida at Houston Grand Opera; Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and La Bohème at Los Angeles

48

| mondaviarts.org


A native of Philadelphia, Owens began his musical training as a pianist at the age of six, followed by formal oboe study at age 11 under Lloyd Shorter of the Delaware Symphony and Louis Rosenblatt of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He later studied voice while an undergraduate at Temple University and then as a graduate student at the Curtis Institute of Music. He currently studies with Armen Boyajian. He serves on the Board of Trustees of both the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and Astral Artistic Services.

Robert Spano Robert Spano (piano) is one of the brightest and most imaginative conductors of his generation. As music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, he has enriched and expanded its repertoire and elevated the ensemble to new levels of international prominence. In 2012, Robert Spano became music director of the Aspen Music Festival and School and is also a fellow of the Aspen Institute as part of the Harman-Eisner Artist in Residence Program. Spano’s 2011–12 engagements include appearances with Seattle Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Respected as a collaborative pianist and composer, Spano joins bass-baritone Eric Owens for three recitals in Denver, Davis and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in New York. Spano conducts the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra as well as the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in Philadelphia and at the Dresden Music Festival. Twenty-eleven marked the final year of Spano’s three-year residency at Emory University. In its 165-year history, Emory University has honored only seven other individuals with such expansive residencies, including the Dalai Lama, President Jimmy Carter and author Salman Rushdie.

eric owens, bass-baritone, and robert spano, piano

Opera; Die Zauberflöte for his Paris Opera (Bastille) debut and Ariodante and L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the English National Opera. He sang Collatinus in a highly acclaimed Christopher Alden production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at Glimmerglass Opera. A former member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Owens has sung Sarastro, Mephistopheles in Faust, Frère Laurent, Angelotti in Tosca and Aristotle Onassis in the world premiere of Jackie O (available on the Argo label) with that company. Owens is featured on two Telarc recordings with the Atlanta Symphony: Mozart’s Requiem and scenes from Strauss’s Elektra and Die Frau ohne Schatten, both under the baton of Donald Runnicles. He is featured on the Nonesuch Records release of A Flowering Tree. In addition to great popular and critical acclaim, Owens has been recognized with multiple awards, including the 2003 Marian Anderson Award, a 1999 ARIA award and second prize in the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition.

an ASO commission by Atlanta School of Composers member Adam Schoenberg and works by Alvin Singleton and Marcus Roberts. Spano oversees two Theater of a Concert performances: Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and John Adams’s A Flowering Tree. With an extensive discography of 16 critically acclaimed recordings for Telarc and Deutsche Grammophon, Spano has garnered six Grammy Awards. In February 2011, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Naxos created ASO Media and the label’s first recording was released in April 2011. The unanimously praised premiere recording featured new works by Atlanta School of Composers members Jennifer Higdon and Michael Gandolfi conducted by Robert Spano: Higdon’s On a Wire and Gandolfi’s QED: Engaging Richard Feynman. The second recording on the label was released in June 2011; a recording of the Atlanta Symphony commission of Christopher Theofanidis’s Symphony paired with Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs, exquisitely sung by mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor. Musical America’s 2008 Conductor of the Year, Spano is on the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory and has received honorary doctorates from Bowling Green State University, the Curtis Institute of Music, Emory University and Oberlin. Spano served as director of the prestigious Festival of Contemporary Music at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Center in 2003 and 2004, and from 1996–2004 was Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He headed the Conducting Fellowship Program at the Tanglewood Music Center from 1998–2002 and was music director of the 2006 Ojai Festival. In May 2009, Spano was awarded Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award for the advancement of American music. Born in 1961 in Conneaut, Ohio, and raised in Elkhart, Indiana, Robert Spano grew up in a musical family, composing and playing flute, violin and piano. He is a graduate of Oberlin, where he studied conducting with Robert Baustian, and continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with the late Max Rudolf. In 2004 at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Spano performed under water, a work for solo piano he composed based on Debussy’s Engulfed Cathedral. He has been featured on CBS’s Late Night with David Letterman, CBS Sunday Morning, A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts and PBS’s City Arts. He makes his home in Atlanta.

Spano opened the Atlanta Symphony’s 2011–12 season last September and in October conducted the U.S. premiere of EsaPekka Salonen’s Nyx in both Atlanta and New York’s Carnegie Hall. Spano conducts three world premieres in Atlanta this season:

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

49


50

| mondaviarts.org


Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

MC

Debut

Chucho Valdés and the Afro-Cuban Messengers A Chevron World Stage Series Event Saturday, February 18, 2012 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis

Sponsored by

Pre-Performance Talk Saturday, February 18, 2012 • 7PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis Speaker: Raúl Fernández, Professor, School of Social Sciences, UC Irvine (see bio p. 52)

The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

51


The magic of Offering Private INDOOR & OUTDOOR Dining Rooms

Perfect for your next:  Holiday Party  Cocktail Reception  Company Mixer  Family Reunion  Retirement Party  or Special Occasion 102 F Street, Davis | (530) 750-1801 www.seasonsdavis.com

Voted “Best Place to Eat Before a Mondavi Center Performance.” —Sacramento Magazine (2010)

Pre-performance Talk speaker: Raúl Fernández

Professor Raúl Fernandez completed his secondary education in Cuba, received his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1966 and his Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University in 1971. He has been in the faculty at UC Irvine since 1969 and is the Chair of the UC-Cuba Multi-Campus Research Program. His research is focused on economic and cultural transactions between the U.S. and Latin America. He has authored six books, including Latin Jazz: The Perfect Combination (Chronicle Books) and From Afro-Cuban Rhythms to Latin Jazz (University of California Press, 2006). Fernandez was the Curator of the Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit Latin Jazz: La Combinación Perfecta, which opened in Washington, D.C. in 2002 and traveled to 12 U.S. cities through 2006.

52

| mondaviarts.org


chucho valdés and the afro-cuban messengers

Chucho Valdés and the Afro-Cuban Messengers Chucho Valdés, Piano and Band Leader Mayra Caridad Valdés, Vocals Lázaro Rivero Alarcón, Bass Juan Carlos Rojas Castro, Drums Yaroldy Abreu Robles, Percussion Dreiser Durruthy Bambolé, Batá Drum and Vocals Carlos Manuel Miyares Hernandez, Tenor Saxophone Reinaldo Melián Álvarez, Trumpet

Music selections will announced from the stage.

Chucho Valdés Winner of five Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards, Dionisio Jesús “Chucho” Valdés Rodríguez has performed all over the world in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Hollywood Bowl and has shared the stage with such musical luminaries as Herbie Hancock, Billy Taylor, Chick Corea, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Branford and Wynton Marsalis, Carlos Santana, Grover Washington Jr., Dizzy Gillespie, Taj Mahal and Tito Puente, to name but a few. Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1941, the pianist, composer, arranger, band leader and music professor began his musical life at home under the direction of his parents: his mother, Pilar Rodríguez, a singer and piano teacher, and his father, the great Bebo Valdés.

Theatre of the Havana Orchestra. At Leo Brouwer’s recommendation, he simultaneously created his Combo that in 1965 added the singer Amado Borcela (better known as “Guapachá”), paving the way for a new era of Cuban popular music. This Combo was like Irakere’s preamble, where many of the founders came together. In 1967, he started playing with the Cuban Modern Music Orchestra under the direction of Armando Romeu and Rafael Somavilla and became the group leader before long. In1970, he debuted his Combo in a quintet format at the Jamboree International Jazz Festival in Poland, marking the first time a Cuban group participated in a jazz festival abroad and giving Valdés international recognition as one of the five greatest piano players in the world along with Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea.

At three years old, Valdés could already play the melodies he heard on the radio by ear using both hands in any key. At age five, Valdés began piano, theory and solfège lessons with Professor Oscar Muñoz Boufartique, finishing his studies at the Municipal Music Conservatory of Havana at the age of 14. He also took private lessons in piano and composition with such noted teachers as Zenaida Romeu, Rosario Franco, Federico Smith and Leo Brouwer.

In 1972, after recording Jazz Bata with Carlos del Puerto and Oscar Valdés, Valdés decided to add a brass section and drums to his Combo. It was then, in 1973, that he founded Irakere, widely recognized as the most important group in Cuban musical history in the second half of the 20th century. An explosive mixture of jazz, rock, classical and traditional Cuban music, Irakere produced a sound that had never been heard before and that revolutionized Latin music.

At the age of 15, he formed his first jazz trio with Emilio del Monte and Luis Rodríguez and later worked as pianist in the Deauville and St. John hotels in Havana. He also played with the Sabor de Cuba Orchestra directed by his father, accompanying important singers of the time like Rolando Laserie, Fernando Alvarez and Pio Leyva.

In 2006, in a ceremony held at the Vatican, Valdés was named Good Will Ambassador by the Food and Agricultural Association of the United Nations. He gives annual benefit concerts in Havana on October 16, World Food Day.

Between1961–63, he worked as pianist at the Martí Theatre, International Salon of the Havana Riviera Hotel and at the Musical

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

In 2009, he formed Chucho Valdés & the Afro-Cuban Messengers. The group tours internationally and recorded Valdés’s most recent release, Chucho’s Steps (2011).

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

53


HOTITALIAN.net

University research shows flower givers are considered likeable, friendly and successful. Contact us today and we’ll help you give the best impression.

Strelitzia Flower Co. 4614 2nd St. Suite 1 Davis, CA 95616 (530) 758-5050 visit us online at strelitziaflowers.com experts in the art of expression

54

| mondaviarts.org


Lázaro Rivero Alarcón (bass) was born in Manicaragua, Cuba, in 1966. In 1982, he entered the National Art School where he studied clarinet and contrabass. In 1996, he joined the group Otra Vision directed by the flautist and composer Orlando Valle Maraca and performed in numerous jazz festivals throughout Europe. As an instrumentalist he has participated in Pa los Malos Ojos and Malembe together with Carlos del Puerto, Tata Guines, Emilio del Monte and Roberto Vizcaino among many other projects. Since 2000, as a member of the Chucho Valdés Jazz Quartet, he has toured more than 20 countries. Alarcón records for the Blue Note label, sharing discography projects and the stage with international figures such as Bebo Valdés, Concha Buika and Michel Legrand. He has recorded Color de la Vida with Charles Aznavour, Obatala with Mayra Caridad Valdés and El Ultimo Trago with Concha Buika. Juan Carlos Rojas Castro (drums) graduated with honors with a degree in percussion from Cuba’s National Art School of Music in 1982. That same year, he began his professional career in the Santa Clara’s Modern Music Orchestra in Villa Clara, his hometown. Castro has performed with prestigious Cuban groups including Varadero International Orchestra, All Stars Orchestra with Tata Guines, Frank Emilio, Richard Egúes and Omara Portuondo among others. As a member of the group Otra Vision from 1995– 2006, he participated in various recordings including La habana llama with Miguel Diaz Anga and Habana Flauta with Jane Bunnett among others. Castro has toured the U.S., Europe and Canada with Wynton Marsalis and his orchestra. In 2006, he joined the Chucho Valdés Jazz Quartet and appeared at such prestigious musical events as the Sevilla International Festival (Spain), Cape Town Jazz Festival (South Africa), Blue Note Jazz Festival (Italy), Orleans Jazz Festival (France), Canaries Jazz Festival (Spain) among many others. His work as instrumentalist has been reviewed in the magazines Jazz Hot and in different editions of Latin Beat Magazine in the U.S. The author of a percussion method based on the mixing of drums and timbales, Castro has taught percussion in Europe, the U.S. and South America. Yaroldy Abreu Robles (percussion) was born in Sagua de Tanamo, Cuba. He started his professional career in Holguin in 1995 with the group Agua and then formed the experimental percussion ensemble Cinco Puntos. He graduated with honors with a bachelor’s degree in percussion from the Higher Institute of Art in 2001. While Robles was still a student, Chucho Valdés invited him to join his group Irakere and in 2001, the Chucho Valdés Jazz Quartet. Robles has shared the stage and recorded with many musicians inside and outside of Cuba: Muñequitos de Matanzas,

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

chucho valdés and the afro-cuban messengers

Mayra Caridad Valdés (vocals) is one of the more intense and versatile voices in contemporary Cuban Latin jazz. Born in 1956 to Bebo Valdés, a legendary Cuban jazz pianist, Valdés studied at the National Art School in Cuba and graduated in 1975 with a degree in choral music. In 1980, Harry Belafonte invited her to perform with him at his concert in Cuba. This was the beginning of her professional career as a vocalist. She toured Japan and Europe as a solo vocalist and as a member of numerous groups including Irakere, a group she permanently joined in 1994, and also in her brother Chucho Valdés’s quartet. Valdés has shared the stage with international figures such as Gladys Knight, Flora Purim and Tania María. In 2002, she released her debut solo album, La Diosa del Mar, a collection of Afro-Cuban jazz standards and traditional folkloric songs. Her second CD, Obatalá Estoy Aquí, was nominated for the Cubadisco Prize 2008.

Roberto Vizcaino, Jose Luis Cortes, David Sanchez, Giovanni Hidalgo, Mañenguito (Puerto Rico), Wynton Marsalis, Chico Freeman, Dave Valentin, Sonny Rollings, Michel Camilo, Arturo Sandoval (U.S.) and Tania Maria (Brazil). In 2003, Robles was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Traditional Tropical Album for Amadito Valdés’ Bajando Gervasio; in 2004 he won the Latin Grammy Award in the Latin jazz category for Chucho Valdés Jazz Quartet’s New Conceptions. An esteemed teacher, Robles has been invited to teach master classes in Europe and the U.S. and at various music festivals throughout the world. Dreiser Durruthy Bambolé (batá drum and vocals) was born in Guantánamo in 1977. In 1994, he toured France with the French Young Ballet, as part of an exchange program between Cuba and France. In 1997, he entered the Higher Institute of Art in Cuba from which he graduated with a degree in dramatic arts in 2004. He toured the world from 2003–06 with the Carlos Acosta Company. Bambolé appeared in the CD Afrocuban Jazz Project with Orlando Maraca Valle and with the Cuba Jazz Sanchez on the CD Semos. In 2007, he worked with Lady Salsa Company and toured Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Japan, England, South Africa, Germany, Belarus and Australia. In 2009, Bambolé joined Valdés’s AfroCuban Messengers and recorded the CD Chucho’s Steps, on which he both sings and plays the batás. Carlos Manuel Miyares Hernandez (tenor saxophone) was born in 1980 in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, and started his music studies at the age of seven at the Vocational School of Arts, where he initially studied piano, but then switched to saxophone after four years. He studied with Julio Cesar Gonzalez at the Esteban Salas Conservatory, graduating in 1999. Hernandez has appeared at festivals throughout the world and has toured Jamaica, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Brazil, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, England, Scotland, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and Austria. Selected discography: Chucho’s Steps (Chucho Valdés), Puertas Liuba (Maria Hevia), Full Time (Jorge Chicoy), Columpio (Coro Diminuto), Amaray (Ricardo Amaray), Sentimiento (Francis del Río) and Beat Cubano (Manolito Simonet). He has collaborated with Alexis Bosch, Pasaje Abierto, David Álvarez, Juego de Manos, Chala Cubana, Carlos Varela and many others. Reinaldo Melián Álvarez (trumpet) was born in 1960 and graduated from Cuba’s National Art School in 1982. He gave trumpet lessons at the Music School of Pinar del Rio from 1982– 85, simultaneously working with the Cuban popular music band Ireme, with which he went on tour to Russia, Angola and Tunisia. He participated in the recording of musical tracks for films and TV series such as En Silencio ha tenido que Ser and El Regreso de David. In 1985, he joined Gupo Proyecto, a jazz band directed by pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba.Working with the band until 1997, he traveled worldwide to various festivals including Montreal, Vancouver, North Sea Jazz (Netherlands), San Sebastián (Spain), Mont Fuji Festival (Tokyo) and others in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Germany, Finland, Russia, Luxembourg, Brazil, Italy and Norway. Álvarez has performed at the Blue Note clubs in New York, Tokyo, Osaka, Yoshi’s in San Francisco and Ronnie Scott’s in London. During this period, and as part of Rubalcaba´s band, he participated in the following projects: Giraldilla, Mi Gran Pasión and 4 y 20. From 1997–2009, he worked with Orlando Maraca Valle’s band Otra Vision. In 2009, he joined Chucho Valdés and the Afro Cuban Messengers and recorded Chucho’s Steps with the band.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

55


Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

The Chieftains 50th Anniversary Tour: Voice of Ages Paddy Moloney & The Chieftains with Special Guests A Mondavi Center Special Event Wednesday, February 22, 2012 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis

There will be no intermission.

Sponsored by

The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal. 56

| mondaviarts.org


the chieftains

The Chieftains 50th Anniversary Tour: Voice of Ages Paddy Moloney & The Chieftains with Special Guests

Paddy Moloney, Tin Whistle & Uilleann Pipes Kevin Conneff, Bodhran & Vocals Matt Molloy, Flute Triona Marshall, Harp Alyth McCormack, Vocals Jeff White, Guitar, Vocals Deanie Richardson, Fiddle Jon Pilatzke, Fiddle & Dancer Nathan Pilatzke, Dancer Cara Butler, Dancer

The Chieftains Six-time Grammy Award-winning artists the Chieftains are now recognized for bringing traditional Irish music to the attention of the world. They have uncovered the wealth of traditional Irish music that has accumulated over the centuries, making the music their own with a style that is as exhilarating as it is definitive. The Chieftains were formed in 1962 by Paddy Moloney from the ranks of the top folk musicians in Ireland. Moloney brought together musicians such as fiddler Martin Fay, flautist Michael Tubridy, tin whistle virtuoso Seán Potts and bodhrán player David Fallon. They recorded a supposedly one-off instrumental album but five years later were reunited with some additions— fiddler Seán Keane and Peader Mercier replacing Fallon. Harpist Derek Bell came on board in 1973. It wasn’t until 1975 that the Chieftains began playing together full time and they marked the event with a historic performance at Royal Albert Hall in London. The following few years saw the departure of Mercier and the addition of bodhrán player and vocalist Kevin Conneff. Another lineup change in 1978–79 saw the departure of Potts and Tubridy and the addition of a new flautist, Matt Molloy. Although their early following was purely a folk audience, the range and variety of their music very quickly captured a much broader public, making them the best known Irish band in the world today.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

Never afraid to shock purists and push boundaries, in their nearly 50 years together the Chieftains have amassed a dizzyingly varied resume. They have been involved in such historic events as a tour of China (being the first Western group to perform on the Great Wall), Roger Waters’s The Wall performance in Berlin in 1990, being the first group to give a concert in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. (at the invitation of former Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’ Neill), and in October 2001, Moloney performed at a Ground Zero memorial service in New York for the victims of September 11. They have performed with many symphony and folk orchestras worldwide and have broken many musical boundaries by collaborating and performing with some of the biggest names in rock, pop and traditional music in Ireland and around the world. On top of their six Grammy Awards, they have been honored in their own country by being officially named Ireland’s Musical Ambassadors, performed during the Pope’s visit to Ireland in 1979 in front of a 135,000,000 strong audience and were the subject of a Late Late Show tribute in 1987, their 25th anniversary. In 2010, Paddy’s whistle and Matt’s flute traveled to outer space with a NASA astronaut and this past year in 2011, the band performed for HRH Queen Elizabeth II during her historic visit to Ireland.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

57


the chieftains

In 2010, the Chieftains released a collaboration with guitarist/ producer Ry Cooder entitled San Patricio on the Concord Music Group label. The album was named after the San Patricio Battalion, a group of Irish immigrant conscripts who deserted the U.S. Army in 1846 to fight on the Mexican side of the MexicanAmerican War. This release proved a remarkable collaboration, with many of the most distinguished Hispanic musicians including Lila Downs, Los Tigres Del Norte, Los Cenzontles, and Carlos Nunez, as well as narration by Liam Neeson and a piece featuring Linda Ronstadt. A commercial and critical success, the album sold more than 60,000 copies in North America and charted number 37 in the Billboard 200, the highest-charting of all 58 Chieftains albums. Extraordinarily, San Patricio was the subject of a St. Patrick’s Day 2010 New York Times editorial, which celebrated the unlikely juxtaposition between the Irish and the Mexicans: “The rest is joy, thoroughly Mexican yet utterly Irish, carried aloft by tin whistles, skin drums, pipes, harps, guitars, and stomping feet. It’s a mix you’ve never heard, but eerily familiar … We are all people who have lost our land in one sad way and found another. Whether we lament and celebrate in a pub or cantina, whether our tricolour flag has a cactus on it or not, we are closer to one another than we remember.” The trappings of fame have not altered the band’s love of, and loyalty to, their roots; they are as comfortable playing spontaneous Irish sessions as they are headlining a concert at Carnegie Hall. After all these years of making some of the most beautiful music in the world, the music of the Chieftains remains as fresh and relevant as when they first began. The year 2012 will mark the group’s 50th anniversary, and they plan to celebrate the momentous occasion by collaborating with old and new friends alike, reliving past memories and introducing the Chieftains historic career to a whole new generation of fans.­­­­­

Alyth McCormack (vocals) is one of the most exciting singers on the Celtic scene. Her vocal talent and her understanding approach give her an ability to cross over diverse singing styles, making her comfortable performing with a variety of artists. She was born and raised on the Island of Lewis off the northwest coast of Scotland. Having been immersed in the culture of these islands and being given the opportunity to perform from a young age, McCormack decided to feed her love of performing and expand on her traditional background and studied classical singing and drama at the RSAMD in Glasgow, where she enjoyed the freedom to experiment and develop her vocal technique. After the academy, McCormack returned to her roots and began another education altogether, touring with various bands throughout Germany, Spain, Italy, Estonia, North America, the U.K., Brazil, Ireland, Switzerland, Greece, Austria, Hungary, Norway and Sweden. During this time she recorded with various artists, appearing on 16 albums to date, and in 2000 released her first solo CD An Iomall (The Edge) on Vertical Records.

58

| mondaviarts.org

She has appeared at various festivals—Celtic Colours, Celtic Connections, Edinburgh International, Lammertree, Hebridean Celtic Festival—and in 2001, she performed with her trio as part of “Distilled-Scotland Live in New York.” McCormack also works as an actress performing for both stage and screen. She has worked with such directors as Alison Peebles, Ian McElhinney and Chris Baldock and is a founding member of the Scottish theater group Dogstar, taking leading roles in their award-winning productions. McCormack has appeared on various film soundtracks, most notably Festival by Annie Griffin, winner of the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Film 2005. She is an artist who thrives on discovery and diversity. She has shared the stage with folk greats Martin Carthy and Norma Waterston, jazz singers Jacqui Dankworth, Sara Colman and Leanne Carol, Brazilian ensembles, Bulgarian choirs and Scotland’s own Eddi Reader. Her performance is inspired by the beautiful, harsh and natural landscape of her youth, its vibrant oral and musical tradition and the passion of the songs she learned as a child, which she has endeavored to carry on in her interpretation and performance as an adult and through her desire to communicate with her audience.

Cara Butler (dancer) Under the tutelage of renowned Irish dance master Donny Golden, Butler won numerous Irish dance championships at world-class levels, including five regional and six national titles. Her competitive years were also intermingled with performing with Cherish the Ladies, Green Fields of America and Solas. Since 1992, she has been the principal female dancer with the Chieftains. Butler is famous for her starring role as the lead dancer in the nationwide Folgers coffee commercial, A Dancer’s Morning, and can be seen dancing in Shania Twain’s video Don’t be Stupid. In 1999, Butler opened as a principal dancer in Jean Butler and Colin Dunne’s Dancing on Dangerous Ground in London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane. She continues to work with her sister (of Riverdance fame) doing dance workshops and appearing in Jean Butler’s Masterclass, an instructional DVD. Butler’s expertise lies in her formal Irish dance training but is not limited by it. She is a performer at heart and her various talents have enabled her to excel in many mediums. In 1996, she toured with Ashley MacIsaac showcasing her virtuosity as a singer and dancer and is now performing with the StepCrew, which has brought together tap, Canadian and Irish step dancing in a thrilling new dance show.

Deanie Richardson (fiddle) Long regarded as one of country and bluegrass music’s most soulful and heartfelt fiddle players, Nashville native Richardson has toured and recorded with some of the most respected names in the industry, including Vince Gill and Patty Loveless, who’s Grammy-nominated Mountain Soul and Sleepless Nights showcase her unique and inimitable musicianship. Despite her busy touring, performance and recording schedule, Richardson devotes much of her time to her school, the Main Stage, teaching and guiding a new crop of young fiddle, guitar and mandolin players down Tennessee’s rich country music roads.


Jon & Nathan Pilatzke (step dancers) This duo, undoubtedly the most dynamic and energetic pair of step dancers to ever hit the stage, have been performing together for upwards of 20 years and have more than 45 years of step-dance experience between them. Hailing from the Ottawa Valley of Ontario, Canada, Jon and Nathan (who has been aptly nicknamed “Crazy Legs”) started step dancing at the tender ages of four and five, respectively. Jon picked up the fiddle at age nine. Since 2002, these brothers have been touring the world with Irish moguls the Chieftains, visiting Sweden, Norway, China, Australia and most of Eastern Europe and North America. They have performed everywhere from the Ryman Auditorium with Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs and Alison Krauss to Late Night with David Letterman and Conan O’Brien. Jon was invited in 2001 to join 10 of Canada’s best fiddlers in a diverse musical show called Bowfire, which is currently touring North America. The year 2005 proved triumphant for the Pilatzke brothers, as they garnered a Gemini Award (the Canadian equivalent of the Emmy) for “Best Performance in a Variety Program” on The Chieftains in Canada. Jon and Nathan were also extremely proud to be performing throughout the 2005 Grammy-nominated record The Chieftains Live From Dublin: A Tribute to Derek Bell. Back in Canada, Jon and Nathan perform with the StepCrew, a group that combines tap, Canadian and Irish step-dancing in a thrilling new show.

the chieftains

Jeff White (singer and guitar) has been active on the bluegrass and country scene for the last 20 years. Starting out with Alison Krauss and Union Station back in the late 1980s White contributed to two of Alison’s early recordings, playing guitar and singing harmonies on Two Highways and the Grammy Award-winning I’ve got that Old Feeling. After arriving in Nashville in 1992, White started playing and singing harmonies with country artist Vince Gill. He has contributed to many of Gill’s records, most recently his box set These Days, which was nominated for Album of the Year honors at this year’s Grammy Awards. White began touring with the Chieftains in 2000, and in 2002 he helped the band with its two bluegrass/ greengrass records, Down the Old Plank Road and Further Down the Old Plank Road, and their Live in Dublin: Tribute to Derek Bell album. He has appeared on records or toured with Tim O’Brien, Patty Loveless, Lyle Lovett, Keith Whitley, Charley Pride and made two solo albums on the Rounder label. He is a fiddle freak who loves all styles of fiddling. He has produced two award-winning albums with fiddle ace Michael Cleveland the last of which featured an all-star lineup with guests Del McCoury, Vince Gill, Dan Tyminski and Tim O’Brien. He is a songwriter as well, his songs having been covered by Alison Krauss and Union Station, Del McCoury and Dan Tyminski.

Tríona Marshall (harp) Trained as a classical harpist, Marshall was principal harpist with the RTE Concert Orchestra for five years up to 2003, when she was invited to play as guest harpist with the Chieftains. Since then she has performed solely on the Irish harp, playing as both guest harpist with the Chieftains on tours throughout the world and as a solo performer, with performances at the 9th World Harp Congress, the Special Olympics Opening Ceremony held in Croke Park, Dublin and at the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where with Thomas Ranjo—the sole non-Japanese performer on the Satsuma biwa or “Lute of the Samurai”—she successfully performed both Japanese and Irish music with harp and shakuhachi as well as harp and biwa. As principal harpist with the RTE Concert Orchestra, she likewise explored a number of different styles varying from jazz to modern Irish and standard classical. These included, among others, the premiere performance of contemporary jazz artist Bobby Lamb’s “Shining Sea” for harp and orchestra, Robert Farnon’s “Intermezzo” for harp and strings, Bill Whelan’s “Seville Suite” and the “Concierto de Aranjuez” by Joaquin Rodrigo. Marshall comes from Portlaoise in Ireland. She is one of five in a family of musicians and started playing the harp when she was seven. After winning numerous harp competitions throughout Ireland, her studies and performances took her around Europe. She also made a number of tours as a member of the EUYO (European Union Youth Orchestra) for four years.

Hyatt P la ce is a proud sponsor of The robert and margrit Mondavi Center for the performing arts, UC Davis

Hyatt Place UC Davis 173 Old Davis Road Extension Davis, CA 95616, USA Phone: +1 530 756 9500 Fax: +1 530 297 6900

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

59


Mondavi Center

Corporate Partners Platinum

g n i v i g f o t r a e th Donors

Your generous donation allows us to bring world-class artists and speakers to the Sacramento Valley and energize and inspire tens of thousands of school children and teachers through our nationally recognized Arts Education programs. In appreciation of your gift, you receive a host of benefits which can include: • Priority Seating • Access to Donor-Only Events • Advance ticket sales for Just Added shows • Invitation to a cast party • Much, much more …

gold

Remember: Ticket sales cover only 40% of our costs.

silver Office of Campus Community Relations

For more information about how you can support the Mondavi Center, please contact: Mondavi Center Development Department 530.754.5438.

bronze

Visit our video booth and share your Mondavi Moment.

MONDAVI CENTER GRANTORS AND ARTS EDUCATION SPONSORS

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Tell Your Stor y Simply pop in by yourself or with a friend or family member and start talking!

As our audience, you have been a vital part of our success over the last 10 years. Now that we’re approaching our 10th anniversary, we want to hear your stories. Tell us how the performing arts at the Mondavi Center have thrilled you, inspired you and entertained you!

EVENT & ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PARTNERS

Boeger Winery Caffé Italia Ciocolat El Macero Country Club Hot Italian

60

| mondaviarts.org

Hyatt Place Osteria Fasulo Seasons Restaurant Strelitzia Flower Company Watermelon Music

Talk to us about: • A favorite show • A time with friends or family • Something that surprised you • The show that made you think The video booth will be in the lobby before the shows and during intermission. Your few moments of sharing will play an important role as we get ready to celebrate our 10th season.

mondavi center


Mondavi Center

Individual Supporters

MondaviCenter InnerCircle Inner Circle Donors are dedicated arts patrons whose leadership gifts to the Mondavi Center are a testament to the value of the performing arts in our lives. Mondavi Center is deeply grateful for the generous contributions of the dedicated patrons who give annual financial support to our organization. These donations are an important source of revenue for our program, as income from ticket sales covers less than half of the actual cost of our performance season. Their gifts to the Mondavi Center strengthen and sustain our efforts, enabling us not only to bring memorable performances by worldclass artists to audiences in the capital region each year, but also to introduce new generations to the experience of live performance through our Arts Education Program, which provides arts education and enrichment activities to more than 35,000 K-12 students annually. For more information on supporting the Mondavi Center, visit MondaviArts.org or call 530.754.5438.

† Mondavi Center Advisory Board Member * Friends of Mondavi Center

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

Impresario Circle $25,000 and up

John and Lois Crowe †* Barbara K. Jackson †* Friends of Mondavi Center And one donor who prefers to remain anonymous virtuoso Circle $15,000 - $24,999

Joyce and Ken Adamson Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Anne Gray †* Mary B. Horton* Grant and Grace Noda* William and Nancy Roe †* Lawrence and Nancy Shepard † Tony and Joan Stone † Joe and Betty Tupin †* Maestro Circle $10,000 - $14,999

Wayne and Jacque Bartholomew †* Ralph and Clairelee Leiser Bulkley* Oren and Eunice Adair-Christensen* Dolly and David Fiddyment † M. A. Morris* Shipley and Dick Walters* Benefactors Circle $6,000 - $9,999 California Statewide Certified Development Corporation Camille Chan † Cecilia Delury and Vince Jacobs † Patti Donlon † First Northern Bank † Samia and Scott Foster † Benjamin and Lynette Hart †* Dee and Joe Hartzog † Margaret Hoyt* Bill Koenig and Jane O’Green Koenig Garry Maisel † Stephen Meyer and Mary Lou Flint† Grace and John Rosenquist* Chris and Melodie Rufer Raymond and Jeanette Seamans Ellen Sherman Larry and Rosalie Vanderhoef †*

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

61


Producers Circle $3,000 - $5,999

Neil and Carla Andrews Hans Apel and Pamela Burton Cordelia Stephens Birrell Kay and Joyce Blacker* Neil and Joanne Bodine Mr. Barry and Valerie Boone Brian Tarkington and Katrina Boratynski Michael and Betty Chapman Robert and Wendy Chason Chris and Sandy Chong* Michele Clark and Paul Simmons Tony and Ellie Cobarrubia* Claudia Coleman Eric and Michael Conn Nancy DuBois* Stephen Duscha and Wanda Lee Graves Merrilee and Simon Engel Catherine and Charles Farman Domenic and Joan Favero Donald and Sylvia Fillman Andrew and Judith Gabor Kay Gist Fredric Gorin and Pamela Dolkart Gorin Ed and Bonnie Green* Robert Grey Diane Gunsul-Hicks Charles and Ann Halsted Judith and Bill Hardardt* The One and Only Watson Lorena Herrig* Charley and Eva Hess Suzanne and Chris Horsley* Sarah and Dan Hrdy Dr. Ronald and Lesley Hsu Debra Johnson, MD and Mario Gutierrez Teresa and Jerry Kaneko* Dean and Karen Karnopp* Nancy Lawrence, Gordon Klein, and Linda Lawrence Greiner Heat, Air, and Solar Brian and Dorothy Landsberg Drs. Richard Latchaw and Sheri Alders Ginger and Jeffrey Leacox Claudia and Allan Leavitt Robert and Barbara Leidigh Yvonne LeMaitre John T. Lescroart and Lisa Sawyer Nelson Lewallyn and Marion Pace-Lewallyn Dr. Ashley and Shiela Lipshutz Paul and Diane Makley* In memory of Jerry Marr Janet Mayhew* Robert and Helga Medearis Verne Mendel* Derry Ann Moritz Jeff and Mary Nicholson Philip and Miep Palmer Gavin Payne Suzanne and Brad Poling 62

| mondaviarts.org

Lois and Dr. Barry Ramer David Rocke and Janine Mozée Roger and Ann Romani* Hal and Carol Sconyers* Tom and Meg Stallard* Karen and Jim Steidler Tom and Judy Stevenson Donine Hedrick and David Studer Jerome Suran and Helen Singer Suran* Rosemary and George Tchobanoglous Della Aichwalder Thompson Nathan and Johanna Trueblood Ken Verosub and Irina Delusina Jeanne Hanna Vogel Claudette Von Rusten John Walker and Marie Lopez Cantor & Company, A Law Corporation* Bob and Joyce Wisner* Richard and Judy Wydick And six donors who prefer to remain anonymous Directors Circle $1,100 - $2,999 John and Kathleen Agnew Dorrit Ahbel Beulah and Ezra Amsterdam Russell and Elizabeth Austin Murry and Laura Baria* Lydia Baskin* Connie Batterson Jo Anne Boorkman* Clyde and Ruth Bowman Edwin Bradley Linda Brandenburger Robert Burgerman and Linda Ramatowski Davis and Jan Campbell David J. Converse, ESQ. Gail and John Cooluris Jim and Kathy Coulter* John and Celeste Cron* Terry and Jay Davison Bruce and Marilyn Dewey Martha Dickman* Dotty Dixon* Richard and Joy Dorf* Thomas and Phyllis Farver* Tom Forrester and Shelly Faura Sandra and Steven Felderstein Nancy McRae Fisher Carole Franti* Paul J. and Dolores L. Fry Charitable Fund Karl Gerdes and Pamela Rohrich Henry and Dorothy Gietzen Craig A. Gladen John and Patty Goss* Jack and Florence Grosskettler* Virginia Hass Tim and Karen Hefler Sharna and Myron Hoffman Claudia Hulbe

Ruth W. Jackson Clarence and Barbara Kado Barbara Katz* Hansen Kwok Thomas Lange and Spencer Lockson Mary Jane Large and Marc Levinson Edward and Sally Larkin* Hyunok Lee and Daniel Sumner Linda and Peter Lindert Angelique Louie Natalie and Malcolm MacKenzie* Stephen Madeiros Douglas Mahone and Lisa Heschong Dennis H. Mangers and Michael Sestak Susan Mann Judith and Mark Mannis Maria Manoliu Marilyn Mansfield John and Polly Marion Yvonne L. Marsh Robert Ono and Betty Masuoka Shirley Maus* Ken McKinstry Joy Mench and Clive Watson Fred and Linda J. Meyers* John Meyer and Karen Moore Eldridge and Judith Moores Barbara Moriel Mary-Alice and Augustus B. Morr Patricia and Surl Nielsen Linda Orrante and James Nordin Alice Oi, In memory of Richard Oi Jerry L. Plummer Prewoznik Foundation Linda and Lawrence Raber* Larry and Celia Rabinowitz Kay Resler* Prof. Christopher Reynolds and Prof. Alessa Johns Thomas Roehr Don Roth and Jolán Friedhoff Liisa A. Russell Beverly “Babs” Sandeen and Marty Swingle Ed and Karen Schelegle The Schenker Family Neil and Carrie Schore Bonnie and Jeff Smith Wilson and Kathryn Smith Ronald and Rosie Soohoo* Richard L. Sprague and Stephen C. Ott Maril Revette Stratton and Patrick Stratton Brandt Schraner and Jennifer Thornton Verbeck and friends Louise and Larry Walker Scott Weintraub Dale L. and Jane C. Wierman Mary Wood, Ph.D. Paul Wyman Yin Yeh Howard and Diane Zumsteg And five donors who prefer to remain anonymous


Mondavi Center Donors

Encore Circle $600 - $1,099

Gregg T. Atkins and Ardith Allread Drs. Noa and David Bell Marion Bray Don and Dolores Chakerian Gale and Jack Chapman William and Susan Chen Robert and Nancy Nesbit Crummey John and Cathie Duniway Shari and Wayne Eckert Doris and Earl Flint Murray and Audrey Fowler Gatmon-Sandrock Family Jeffery and Marsha Gibeling Paul N. and E. F. “Pat� Goldstene David and Mae Gundlach Robin Hansen and Gordon Ulrey Cynthia Hearden* Lenonard and Marilyn Herrmann Katherine Hess Barbara and Robert Jones Paula Kubo Frances and Arthur Lawyer* Gary and Jane Matteson Don and Sue Murchison Robert Murphy Richard and Kathleen Nelson Frank Pajerski John Pascoe and Susan Stover Jerry and Ann Powell* J. and K. Redenbaugh John and Judy Reitan Jeep and Heather Roemer Jeannie and Bill Spangler Sherman and Hannah Stein Les and Mary Stephens Dewall Judith and Richard Stern Eric and Patricia Stromberg* Lyn Taylor and Mont Hubbard Cap and Helen Thomson Roseanna Torretto* Henry and Lynda Trowbridge* Donald Walk, M.D. Geoffrey and Gretel Wandesford-Smith Steven and Andrea Weiss* Denise and Alan Williams Kandi Williams and Dr. Frank Jahnke Karl and Lynn Zender And three donors who prefer to remain anonymous

Orchestra Circle

$300 - $599 Michelle Adams Mitzi Aguirre Susan Ahlquist Paul and Nancy Aikin Jessica Friedman Drs. Ralph and Teresa Aldredge Thomas and Patricia Allen Fred Arth and Pat Schneider Al and Pat Arthur Shirley and Michael Auman* Robert and Joan Ball Beverly and Clay Ballard In memory of Ronald Baskin Delee and Jerry Beavers Robert Hollingsworth and Carol Beckham Carol L. Benedetti Donald and Kathryn Bers* Bob and Diane Biggs Al J. Patrick, Bankruptcy Law Center Elizabeth Bradford Paul Braun Rosa Maquez and Richard Breedon Joan Brenchley and Kevin Jackson Irving and Karen Broido* In memory of Rose Marie Wheeler John and Christine Bruhn Manuel Calderon De La Barca Sanchez Jackie Caplan Michael and Louise Caplan Anne and Gary Carlson Koling Chang and Su-Ju Lin Jan Conroy, Gayle Dax-Conroy, Edward Telfeyan, Jeri Paik-Telfeyan Charles and Mary Anne Cooper James and Patricia Cothern Cathy and Jon Coupal* David and Judy Covin Larry Dashiell and Peggy Siddons Thomas B. and Eina C. Dutton Micki Eagle Janet Feil David and Kerstin Feldman Sevgi and Edwin Friedrich* Dr. Deborah and Brook Gale Marvin and Joyce Goldman Stephen and Deirdre Greenholz Judy Guiraud Sandeep Kumar Guliani Darrow and Gwen Haagensen Sharon and Don Hallberg Alexander and Kelly Harcourt David and Donna Harris Roy and Miriam Hatamiya Stephen and Joanne Hatchett Paula Higashi Brit Holtz Herb and Jan Hoover Frederick and B.J. Hoyt Pat and Jim Hutchinson* Mary Jenkin Don and Diane Johnston Weldon and Colleen Jordan Mary Ann and Victor Jung Nancy Gelbard and David Kalb Douglas Neuhauser and Louise Kellogg Charles Kelso and Mary Reed Ruth Ann Kinsella* Joseph Kiskis Judy and Kent Kjelstrom Peter Klavins and Susan Kauzlarich Charlene Kunitz Allan and Norma Lammers Darnell Lawrence and Dolores Daugherty Richard Lawrence Ruth Lawrence Carol and Robert Ledbetter Stanley and Donna Levin Barbara Levine Ernest and Mary Ann Lewis* Michael and Sheila Lewis*

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

David and Ruth Lindgren Jeffrey and Helen Ma Pat Martin* Yvonne Clinton Mazalewski and Robert Mazalewski Sean and Sabine McCarthy Catherine McGuire Michael Gerrit Nancy Michel Hedlin Family Robert and Susan Munn* Anna Rita and Bill Neuman John and Carol Oster Sally Ozonoff and Tom Richey John and Sue Palmer John and Barbara Parker Brenda Davis and Ed Phillips Bonnie A. Plummer* Deborah Nichols Poulos and Prof. John W. Poulos Harriet Prato John and Alice Provost J. David Ramsey Rosemary Reynolds Guy and Eva Richards Ronald and Sara Ringen Tracy Rodgers and Richard Budenz Sharon and Elliott Rose* Barbara and Alan Roth Marie Rundle Bob and Tamra Ruxin Tom and Joan Sallee Mark and Ita Sanders Eileen and Howard Sarasohn Mervyn Schnaidt Maralyn Molock Scott Ruth and Robert Shumway Michael and Elizabeth Singer Al and Sandy Sokolow Edward and Sharon Speegle Curtis and Judy Spencer Tim and Julie Stephens Pieter Stroeve, Diane Barrett and Jodie Stroeve Kristia Suutala Tony and Beth Tanke Butch and Virginia Thresh Dennis and Judy Tsuboi Ann-Catrin Van Ph.D. Robert Vassar Don and Merna Villarejo Rita Waterman Norma and Richard Watson Regina White Wesley and Janet Yates Jane Y. Yeun and Randall E. Lee Ronald M. Yoshiyama Hanni and George Zweifel And six donors who prefer to remain anonymous

Mainstage Circle $100 - $299

Leal Abbott Thomas and Betty Adams Mary Aften Jill Aguiar Suzanne and David Allen David and Penny Anderson Elinor Anklin and George Harsch Janice and Alex Ardans Debbie Arrington Shota Atsumi Jerry and Barbara August George and Irma Baldwin Charlotte Ballard and Bob Zeff Diane and Charlie Bamforth* Elizabeth Banks Michele Barefoot and Luis Perez-Grau Carole Barnes Paul and Linda Baumann Lynn Baysinger*

Claire and Marion Becker Sheri Belafsky Merry Benard Robert and Susan Benedetti William and Marie Benisek Robert C. and Jane D. Bennett Marta Beres Elizabeth Berteaux Bevowitz Family Boyd and Lucille Bevington Ernst and Hannah Biberstein Katy Bill Andrea Bjorklund and Sean Duggan Lewis J. and Caroline S. Bledsoe Fred and Mary Bliss Bobbie Bolden William Bossart Mary and Jill Bowers Alf and Kristin Brandt Robert and Maxine Braude Daniel and Millie Braunstein* Pat and Bob Breckenfeld Francis M. Brookey Linda Clevenger and Seth Brunner Mike and Marian Burnham Margaret Burns and Roy W. Bellhorn Victor W. Burns William and Karolee Bush Gary Campbell and Sharon Lewis Lita Campbell* Robert and Lynn Campbell Robert Canary John and Nancy Capitanio James and Patty Carey Michael and Susan Carl John and Inge Carrol Bruce and Mary Alice Carswell* Jan and Barbara Carter* Dorothy Chikasawa* Frank Chisholm Richard and Arden Christian Michael and Paula Chulada Betty M. Clark Gail Clark L. Edward and Jacqueline Clemens James Cline Wayne Colburn Sheri and Ron Cole Steve and Janet Collins In honor of Marybeth Cook Nicholas and Khin Cornes Victor Cozzalio and Lisa Heilman-Cozzalio Lorraine Crozier Bill and Myra Cusick Elizabeth Dahlstrom-Bushnell* John and Joanne Daniels Nita Davidson Johanna Davies Voncile Dean Mrs. Leigh Dibb Ed and Debby Dillon Joel and Linda Dobris Gwendolyn Doebbert and Richard Epstein Val Docini and Solveig Monson Val and Marge Dolcini* Katherine and Gordon Douglas Anne Duffey Marjean Dupree Victoria Dye and Douglas Kelt David and Sabrina Eastis Harold and Anne Eisenberg Eliane Eisner Terry Elledge Vincent Elliott Brian Ely and Robert Hoffman Allen Enders Adrian and Tamara Engel Sidney England Carol Erickson and David Phillips Jeff Ersig David and Kay Evans Valerie Eviner Evelyn Falkenstein Andrew D. and Eleanor E. Farrand* Richard D. Farshler Liz and Tim Fenton Steven and Susan Ferronato Bill and Margy Findlay Judy Fleenor*

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

63


Lisa Foster Robert Fowles and Linda Parzych Marion Franck and Bob Lew Anthony and Jorgina Freese Joel Friedman Larry Friedman Kerim and Josina Friedrich Joan M. Futscher Myra Gable Charles and Joanne Gamble Peggy E. Gerick Gerald Gibbons and Sibilla Hershey Louis J. Fox and Marnelle Gleason* Pat and Bob Gonzalez* Michael Goodman Susan Goodrich Louise and Victor Graf Jeffrey and Sandra Granett Jacqueline Gray* Donald Green Mary Louis Greenberg Paul and Carol Grench Alexander and Marilyn Groth June and Paul Gulyassy Wesley and Ida Hackett* Paul W. Hadley Jim and Jane Hagedorn Frank and Ro Hamilton William Hamre Jim and Laurie Hanschu Marylee and John Hardie Richard and Vera Harris Cathy Brorby and Jim Harritt Ken and Carmen Hashagen Mary Helmich Martin Helmke and Joan Frye Williams Roy and Dione Henrickson Rand and Mary Herbert Roger and Rosanne Heym Larry and Elizabeth Hill Calvin Hirsch and Deborah Francis Frederick and Tieu-Bich Hodges Michael and Peggy Hoffman Steve and Nancy Hopkins Darcie Houck David and Gail Hulse Lorraine J. Hwang Marta Induni Jane Johnson* Kathryn Jaramillo Robert and Linda Jarvis Tom and Betsy Jennings Dr. and Mrs. Ronald C. Jensen Pamela R. Jessup Carole and Phil Johnson SNJ Services Group Michelle Johnston and Scott Arranto Warren and Donna Johnston In memory of Betty and Joseph Baria Andrew and Merry Joslin Martin and JoAnn Joye* John and Nancy Jungerman Nawaz Kaleel Fred Kapatkin Shari and Timothy Karpin Anthony and Beth Katsaris Yasuo Kawamura Phyllis and Scott Keilholtz* Patricia Kelleher* Dave and Gay Kent Robert and Cathryn Kerr Gary and Susan Kieser Louise Bettner and Larry Kimble Ken and Susan Kirby Dorothy Klishevich Paulette Keller Knox Paul Kramer Dave and Nina Krebs Kurt and Marcia Kreith Sandra Kristensen Leslie Kurtz Cecilia Kwan Donald and Yoshie Kyhos Ray and Marianne Kyono Bonnie and Kit Lam* Angelo Lamola Marsha M. Lang Bruce and Susan Larock

64

| mondaviarts.org

Harry Laswell and Sharon Adlis C and J Learned Marceline Lee Lee-Hartwig Family Nancy and Steve Lege Suzanne Leineke The Lenk-Sloane Family Joel and Jeannette Lerman Evelyn A. Lewis Melvyn Libman Motoko Lobue Mary S. Lowry Henry Luckie Maryanne Lynch Ariane Lyons Ed and Sue MacDonald Leslie Macdonald and Gary Francis Thomas and Kathleen Magrino* Deborah Mah* Mary C. Major Vartan Malian Julin Maloof and Stacey Harmer Joan Mangold Bunkie Mangum Raymond and Janet Manzi Joseph and Mary Alice Marino Donald and Mary Martin J. A. Martin Mr. and Mrs. William R. Mason Bob and Vel Matthews Leslie Maulhardt Katherine F. Mawdsley* Karen McCluskey* John McCoy Nora McGuinness* Donna and Dick McIlvaine Tim and Linda McKenna Blanche McNaughton* Richard and Virginia McRostie Martin A. Medina and Laurie Perry Cliva Mee and Werner Paul Harder III DeAna Melilli Barry Melton and Barbara Langer Sharon Menke The Merchant Family Roland and Marilyn Meyer Leslie Michaels and Susan Katt Jean and Eric Miller Phyllis Miller Sue and Rex Miller Douglas Minnis Steve and Kathy Miura* Kei and Barbara Miyano Vicki and Paul Moering Joanne Moldenhauer Lloyd and Ruth Money Louise S. Montgomery Amy Moore Hallie Morrow Marcie Mortensson Christopher Motley Robert and Janet Mukai Bill and Diane Muller Terry and Judy Murphy Steve Abramowitz and Alberta Nassi Judy and Merle Neel Sandra Negley Cathy Neuhauser and Jack Holmes Robert Nevraumont and Donna Curley Nevraumont* Keri Mistler and Dana Newell K. C. Ng Denise Nip and Russell Blair Forrest Odle Yae Kay Ogasawara James Oltjen Marvin O’Rear Jessie Ann Owens Bob and Beth Owens Mike and Carlene Ozonoff* Michael Pach and Mary Wind Charles and Joan Partain Thomas Pavlakovich and Kathryn Demakopoulos Dr. and Mrs. John W. Pearson Bob and Marlene Perkins Pat Piper Mary Lou Pizzio-Flaa

David and Jeanette Pleasure Bob and Vicki Plutchok Ralph and Jane Pomeroy* Bea and Jerry Pressler Ann Preston Rudolf and Brigitta Pueschel Evelyn and Otto Raabe Edward and Jane Rabin Jan and Anne-Louise Radimsky Kathryn Radtkey-Gaither Lawrence and Norma Rappaport Evelyn and Dewey Raski Olga Raveling Dorothy and Fred Reardon Sandi Redenbach* Paul Rees Sandra Reese Martha Rehrman* Eugene and Elizabeth Renkin David and Judy Reuben* Al and Peggy Rice Joyce Rietz Ralph and Judy Riggs* David and Kathy Robertson Richard and Evelyne Rominger Andrea Rosen Catherine and David Rowen Rina Roy Paul and Ida Ruffin Michael and Imelda Russell Hugh Safford Dr. Terry Sandbek* and Sharon Billings* Kathleen and David Sanders* Glenn Sanjume Fred and Polly Schack John and Joyce Schaeuble Patsy Schiff Tyler Schilling Leon Schimmel and Annette Cody Fred and Colene Schlaepfer Julie Schmidt* Janis J. Schroeder and Carrie L. Markel Rick Schubert Brian A. Sehnert and Janet L. McDonald Dinendra Sen Andreea Seritan Dan Shadoan and Ann Lincoln Ed Shields and Valerie Brown Sandi and Clay Sigg Joy Skalbeck Barbara Slemmons Marion Small Judith Smith Juliann Smith Robert Snider Jean Snyder Blanca Solis Roger and Freda Sornsen Marguerite Spencer Johanna Stek Raymond Stewart Karen Street* Deb and Jeff Stromberg Mary Superak Thomas Swift Joyce Takahashi Francie Teitelbaum Jeanne Shealor and George Thelen Julie Theriault, PA-C Virginia Thigpen Janet Thome Robert and Kathryn Thorpe Brian Toole Lola Torney and Jason King Michael and Heidi Trauner Rich and Fay Traynham James E. Turner Barbara and Jim Tutt Robert Twiss Ramon and Karen Urbano Chris and Betsy Van Kessel Diana Varcados Bart and Barbara Vaughn* Richard and Maria Vielbig Charles and Terry Vines Rosemarie Vonusa* Richard Vorpe and Evelyn Matteucci Carolyn Waggoner*

M. Therese Wagnon Carol Walden Marny and Rick Wasserman Caroline and Royce Waters Marya Welch* Dan and Ellie Wendin* Douglas West Martha S. West Robert and Leslie Westergaard* Linda K. Whitney Jane Williams Marsha Wilson Linda K. Winter* Janet Winterer Michael and Jennifer Woo Ardath Wood Timothy and Vicki Yearnshaw Elaine Chow Yee* Norman and Manda Yeung Teresa Yeung Phillip and Iva Yoshimura Heather Young Phyllis Young Verena Leu Young* Melanie and Medardo Zavala Mark and Wendy Zlotlow And 47 donors who prefer to remain anonymous

CORPORATE MATCHING GIFTS Bank of America Matching Gifts Program Chevron/Texaco Matching Gift Fund DST Systems We appreciate the many Donors who participate in their employers’ matching gift program. Please contact your Human Resources department to find out about your company’s matching gift program. Note: We are pleased to recognize the Donors of Mondavi Center for their generous support of our program. We apologize if we inadvertently listed your name incorrectly; please contact the Development Office at 530.754.5438 to inform us of corrections.


School Matinee Support

The Friends of Mondavi Center is an active donor-based volunteer organization that supports activities of the Mondavi Center’s presenting program. Deeply committed to arts education, Friends volunteer their time and financial support for learning opportunities related to Mondavi Center performances. When you join the Friends of Mondavi Center, you are able to choose from a variety of activities and work with other Friends who share your interests.

Friends of Mondavi Center support the school matinee series which serves students and teachers throughout our region. One aspect of the support is our pre-matinee classroom talks in which docents visit classrooms before a school matinee to prepare students for their visit to the Mondavi Center. Sub-Chair Lydia Baskin organizes the docent guide writers who prepare extensive materials for the classroom visits and docent schedulers who orchestrate the program, offering docent visits to any class attending a matinee. During the 2010–11 season, 17 docents visited 63 classes, travelling 1,756 miles to schools in Nevada City, Loomis, Folsom, Sacramento, Suisun City, Woodland, Esparto, Winters, Davis, Vacaville, Vallejo and Napa. Friends listed below volunteer as docents. If you see one of them, be sure to say, “Thanks.”

Friends of Mondavi Center also support the Arts Education Program by ushering students and teachers to their seats at school matinees. During the 2010–11 season, Friends ushered almost 10,000 enthusiastic students from 12 school districts. It takes a well-organized army of volunteers to accomplish this task and Sub-Chair Karen Broido and her excellent group of volunteers deserve a pat on the back for a job well done. Docents Shirley Auman Lydia Baskin Lynn Baysinger Kathy Bers Dan Braunstein Catherine Coupal

For information on becoming a Friend of Mondavi Center, email Jennifer Mast at jmmast@ucdavis.edu or call 530.754.5431

Joy Dorf Judy Fleenor Bob Gonzalez Jacqueline Gray Judy Hardardt Sally Harvey Phyllis Keilholtz

Francie Lawyer Michael Lewis Linda Meyers Margaret Neu Sandi Redenbach Ralph Riggs Sharon Rose

Julie Schmidt Hal Sconyers Linda Winter Joyce Wisner Phyllis Zerger

Docent Guide Writers and Schedulers Lydia Baskin Lynn Baysinger Edelgard Brunelle Phyllis Farver Teresa Kaneko Sally Larkin Shirley Maus Linda Meyers Henry Trowbridge

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

65


Mondavi Center Staff DON ROTH, Ph.D. Executive Director

AUDIENCE SERVICES Emily Taggart Audience Services Manager/ Artist Liaison Coordinator

Jeremy Ganter Associate Executive Director

Yuri Rodriguez Events Manager

PROGRAMMING Jeremy Ganter Director of Programming

Natalia Deardorff Assistant Events Manager

Erin Palmer Programming Manager

Nancy Temple Assistant Public Events Manager

Ruth Rosenberg Artist Engagement Coordinator

BUSINESS SERVICES Debbie Armstrong Senior Director of Support Services

Lara Downes Curator: Young Artists Program

Mandy Jarvis Financial Analyst

ARTS EDUCATION Joyce Donaldson Associate to the Executive Director for Arts Educaton and Strategic Projects

Russ Postlethwaite Billing System Administrator

DEVELOPMENT Debbie Armstrong Senior Director of Development

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Darren Marks Programmer/Designer

Alison Morr Kolozsi Director of Major Gifts

Mark J. Johnston Lead Application Developer

Elisha Findley Corporate & Annual Fund Officer Amanda Turpin Donor Relations Manager Angela McMillon Development and Support Services Assistant FACILITIES Herb Garman Director of Operations Greg Bailey Lead Building Maintenance Worker

TICKET OFFICE Sarah Herrera Ticket Office Manager Steve David Ticket Office Supervisor

Daniel Goldin Master Electrician Michael Hayes Head Sound Technician

Susie Evon Ticket Agent

Daniel F. Dannenfelser Registered Piano Technician

MARKETING Rob Tocalino Director of Marketing

Russell St. Clair Ticket Agent

Adrian Galindo Scene Technician

Will Crockett Marketing Manager

production Donna J. Flor Production Manager

Kathy Glaubach Scene Technician

Erin Kelley Senior Graphic Artist

Daniel Thompson Scene Technician

Christopher Oca Stage Manager

Morissa Rubin Senior Graphic Artist

Christi-Anne Sokolewicz Stage Manager

Amanda Caraway Public Relations Coordinator

Jenna Bell Production Coordinator Zak Stelly-Riggs Master Carpenter

Head Ushers Huguette Albrecht George Edwards Linda Gregory Donna Horgan Mike Tracy Susie Valentin Janellyn Whittier Terry Whittier

Jennifer Mast Arts Education Coordinator

Mondavi Center Advisory Board The Mondavi Center Advisory Board is a university support group whose primary purpose is to provide assistance to the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis, and its resident users, the academic departments of Music and Theatre and Dance and the presenting program of the Mondavi Center, through fundraising, public outreach and other support for the mission of UC Davis and the Mondavi Center. 11-12 Season Board Officers John Crowe, Chair Joe Tupin, Patron Relations Chair Randy Reynoso, Corporate Relations Co-Chair Garry P. Maisel, Corporate Relations Co-Chair

Members Jeff Adamski Wayne Bartholomew Camille Chan Michael Chapman John Crowe Lois Crowe Cecilia Delury Patti Donlon

David Fiddyment Dolly Fiddyment Mary Lou Flint Anne Gray Benjamin Hart Lynette Hart Dee Hartzog Joe Hartzog Vince Jacobs

Garry P. Maisel Stephen Meyer Randy Reynoso Nancy Roe William Roe Lawrence Shepard Nancy Shepard Joan Stone Tony Stone

Joe Tupin Larry Vanderhoef Rosalie Vanderhoef Honorary Members Barbara K. Jackson Margrit Mondavi

Ex Officio Linda P.B. Katehi, Chancellor, UC Davis Ralph J. Hexter, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, UC Davis Jessie Ann Owens, Dean, Division of Humanities, Arts & Cultural Studies, College of Letters & Sciences, UC Davis Jo Anne Boorkman, Friends of Mondavi Center Board Don Roth, Executive Director, Mondavi Center, UC Davis Erin Schlemmer, Arts & Lectures Chair

Arts & Lectures Administrative Advisory Committee

friends of Mondavi Center

The Arts & Lectures Administrative Advisory Committee is made up of interested students, faculty and staff who attend performances, review programming opportunities and meet monthly with the director of the Mondavi Center. They provide advice and feedback for the Mondavi Center staff throughout the performance season.

11-12 Executive Board

11-12 Committee Members Erin Schlemmer, Chair Celeste Chang Prabhakara Choudary Adrian Crabtree Susan Franck

66

Kelley Gove Aaron Hsu Holly Keefer Danielle McManus Bella Merlin

| mondaviarts.org

Lee Miller Kayla Rouse Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie

Jo Anne Boorkman, President Laura Baria, Vice President Francie Lawyer, Secretary Jim Coulter, Audience Enrichment Jacqueline Gray, Membership Sandra Chong, School Matinee Support Martha Rehrman, Friends Events Leslie Westergaard, Mondavi Center Tours Phyllis Zerger, School Outreach Eunice Adair Christensen, Gift Shop Manager, Ex Officio Joyce Donaldson, Director of Arts Education, Ex Officio


Accommodations for Patrons with Disabilities

Ticket Exchange

The Mondavi Center is proud to be a fully accessible state-of-the-art public facility that meets or exceeds all state and federal ADA requirements.

• • • • • • • •

Tickets must be exchanged at least one business day prior to the performance. Tickets may not be exchanged after your performance date. There is a $5 exchange fee per ticket for non-subscribers and Pick 3 purchasers. If you exchange for a higher-priced ticket, the difference will be charged. The difference between a higher and a lower-priced ticket on exchange is non-refundable. Subscribers and donors may exchange tickets at face value toward a balance on their account. All balances must be applied toward the same presenter and expire June 30 of the current season. Balances may not be transferred between accounts. All exchanges subject to availability. All ticket sales are final for events presented by non-UC Davis promoters. No refunds.

Parking You may purchase parking passes for individual Mondavi Center events for $7 per event at the parking lot or with your ticket order. Rates are subject to change. Parking passes that have been lost or stolen will not be replaced.

Group Discounts

Patrons with special seating needs should notify the Mondavi Center Ticket Office at the time of ticket purchase to receive reasonable accommodation. The Mondavi Center may not be able to accommodate special needs brought to our attention at the performance. Seating spaces for wheelchair users and their companions are located at all levels and prices for all performances. Requests for sign language interpreting, real-time captioning, Braille programs and other reasonable accommodations should be made with at least two weeks’ notice. The Mondavi Center may not be able to accommodate last minute requests. Requests for these accommodations may be made when purchasing tickets at 530.754.2787 or TDD 530.754.5402.

Special Seating Mondavi Center offers special seating arrangements for our patrons with disabilities. Please call the Ticket Office at 530.754.2787 [TDD 530.754.5402].

Assistive Listening Devices

Entertain friends, family, classmates or business associates and save! Groups of 20 or more qualify for a 10% discount off regular prices. Payment must be made in a single check or credit card transaction. Please call 530.754.2787 or 866.754.2787.

Assistive Listening Devices are available for Jackson Hall and the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre. Receivers that can be used with or without hearing aids may be checked out at no charge from the Patron Services Desk near the lobby elevators. The Mondavi Center requires an ID to be held at the Patron Services Desk until the device is returned.

Student Tickets (50% off the full single ticket price*)

Elevators

Student tickets are to be used by registered students matriculating toward a degree, age 18 and older, with a valid student ID card. Each student ticket holder must present a valid student ID card at the door when entering the venue where the event occurs, or the ticket must be upgraded to regular price.

Children (50% off the full single ticket price*) Children’s tickets are for all patrons age 17 and younger. No additional discounts may be applied. As a courtesy to other audience members, please use discretion in bringing a young child to an evening performance. All children, regardless of age, are required to have tickets, and any child attending an evening performance should be able to sit quietly through the performance.

Privacy Policy The Mondavi Center collects information from patrons solely for the purpose of gaining necessary information to conduct business and serve our patrons efficiently. We sometimes share names and addresses with other not-for-profit arts organizations. If you do not wish to be included in our e-mail communications or postal mailings, or if you do not want us to share your name, please notify us via e-mail, U.S. mail, or telephone. Full Privacy Policy at MondaviArts.org.

POlicies

Policies and Information

The Mondavi Center has two passenger elevators serving all levels. They are located at the north end of the Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby, near the restrooms and Patron Services Desk.

Restrooms All public restrooms are equipped with accessible sinks, stalls, babychanging stations and amenities. There are six public restrooms in the building: two on the Orchestra level, two on the Orchestra Terrace level and two on the Grand Tier level.

Service Animals Mondavi Center welcomes working service animals that are necessary to assist patrons with disabilities. Service animals must remain on a leash or harness at all times. Please contact the Mondavi Center Ticket Office if you intend to bring a service animal to an event so that appropriate seating can be reserved for you.

*Only one discount per ticket.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 5: Feb 2012 |

67


september 2011

december 2011

21 30

7–10 8 11 15 18

Return To Forever IV with Zappa Plays Zappa Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder

october 2011 1 2 6 8 13 19 20 21 24 29 29–30

Wayne Shorter Quartet Alexander String Quartet Yamato Jonathan Franzen San Francisco Symphony Scottish Ballet k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang Rising Stars of Opera Focus on Film: Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould Hilary Hahn, violin So Percussion: “We Are All Going in Different Directions”: A John Cage Celebration

november 2011 4 5–6 7–8 9–11 12 12–13 14 14–15

mondavi center–

Tia Fuller Quartet Mariachi Sol de México de Jóse Hernàndez Lara Downes Family Concert: Green Eggs and Ham Blind Boys of Alabama Christmas Show American Bach Soloists: Messiah

january 2012 5 9 14–15 19 25–28 27 29 30

San Francisco Symphony Focus on Film: Platoon Alexi Kenney, violin and Hilda Huang, piano Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca Alfredo Rodriguez Trio Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Alexander String Quartet Focus on Opera: Tosca

february 2012

3 4 Cinematic Titanic Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise 9 Hot 8 Brass Band 11–12 Trey McIntyre Project 14 and Preservation Hall Jazz Band 17 Lara Downes: 18 13 Ways of Looking at the Goldberg Focus on Film: Salaam Bombay! 22 Growing Up In India: 25 A Film and Photo Exhibition

Oliver Stone Rachel Barton Pine, violin, with the Chamber Soloists Orchestra of New York Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo CIRCA Loudon Wainwright III & Leo Kottke Eric Owens, bass-baritone Chucho Valdés and the Afro-Cuban Messengers The Chieftains Overtone Quartet

Media Clips & More Info:

MondaviArts.org

MondaviArts.org

Rachel Barton Pine

530.754.2787

2 9 10–11 17–18 18 22 24–25 29

Angelique Kidjo Garrick Ohlsson, piano Curtis On Tour Ballet Preljocaj: Blanche Neige Alexander String Quartet Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion Circus Oz SFJAZZ Collective

april 2012 1 9 11 13 14–15 17 18–21 19–22 28

2 9 12 13 14 16–19

530.754.2787

| mondaviarts.org

march 2012

Young Artists Competition Winners Concert Focus on Opera: The Elixir of Love Sherman Alexie Bettye LaVette Zippo Songs: Poems from the Front Anoushka Shankar The Bad Plus The Improvised Shakespeare Company Maya Beiser: Provenance

may 2012

Call for Tickets!

68

2o11 12

866.754.2787 (toll-free)

San Francisco Symphony Chamber Ensemble Patti Smith New York Philharmonic ODC/Dance: The Velveteen Rabbit Focus on Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor Supergenerous: Cyro Baptista and Kevin Breit


507_02705 7.25x9.25 4c

The art of performance draws our eyes to the stage

Our community’s commitment to arts and culture says a lot about where we live and it brings us together from the moment the lights go down and the curtains come up.

wellsfargo.com © 2011 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. (594507_02705)

594507_02705 7.25x9.25 4c.indd 1

8/4/11 3:10 PM


can The health plan that

take care of your employees. And your bottom line.

As a founding partner of the Mondavi Center, Western Health Advantage has been a strong supporter of local arts. Which might explain why we’ve lifted local health care to an art form. What’s our method? We deliver friendly, responsive service, keep costs low, and provide access to 2,300 area physicians and specialists. Maybe that’s why over 4,000 local businesses offer our plans and 90,000 individuals and families choose our coverage. That kind of recognition is worthy of a standing ovation.

Visit westernhealth.com to learn more about our health plans.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.