Overture
In this issue: The DALLAS International Film Festival, ARTsPARK, The Allen Philharmonic, Nasher Soundings, TITAS, Chamber Music International and much more!
Dallas / Fort Worth • wrr101.com
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A Monthly publication For Friends of WRR
April 2011
The Fort Worth Symphony Presents Ellis Island and Tan Dun Miguel Harth-Bedoya leads the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in two major works by living composers in March and April, and both are engaging Tan Dun both as music and also as pieces of theater. First to be performed was composer-inresidence Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream of America (March 4-6), an epic multimedia piece for orchestra and actors. For the libretto, Boyer fashioned a dramatic narrative out of the real words of immigrants as gathered by the Ellis Island Oral History Project. Unlike other works
in the symphonic repertoire that make use of narration, he says, “this piece demands true actors who can do more than simply read the words, but can embody the immigrants whose actual words these are.” Evocative photos from the Ellis Island Immigration Museum will be projected above the stage. WRR will rebroadcast this groundbreaking concert March 30 at 8 p.m. On April 15-17, the orchestra will perform Tan Dun’s Water Concerto, with soloist David Cossin on water percussion. The FWSO’s percussionists get to have fun here, too. Among the instruments they and Cossin will play: hemispherical transparent water basins with special lighting, a gong with dipping basin for changing pitch, water drums (wooden salad bowls floating upside-down on water), and a long water tube with foam paddle (Cossin says a flip-flop works perfectly). Tan aimed to create “music that is for listening to in a visual way,
and watching in an audio way. I want it to be intoxicating. And I hope some people will listen and rediscover … things that are around us but we don’t notice,” Tan says. WRR will rebroadcast this concert on Wednesday, May 11 at 8 p.m. For tickets to the April 15-17 performances, please call 817-665-6000 or fwsymphony.org.
Miguel Harth-Bedoya
The Dallas Symphony visits Countertenors Descend on Carnegie Hall Fort Worth Opera Jaap van Zweden will mark another important milestone in his tenure with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra on May 11 when he conducts an encore performance – and the New York City premiere – of Steven Stucky’s August 4, 1964 at Carnegie Hall. WRR will simulcast the performance from Carnegie Hall beginning at 7 p.m. The performance by van Zweden, the Dallas Steven Stucky Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Chorus and vocal soloists Indira Mahajan, Kristine Jepson, Vale Rideout and Nathan Gunn is part of the inaugural Spring for Music Festival, to be held May 6 – May 14 at Carnegie Hall. Spring for Music features new and innovative concerts by seven North American orchestras, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, built around adventurous and creative programs at affordable prices. Tickets for all concerts are just $25. August 4, 1964 was commissioned by the DSO in honor of the centennial of the birth of President Lyndon B. Johnson and was premiered by van Zweden and the DSO on Sept. 18, 2008 at the Meyerson Symphony Center. The evening-long concert drama follows events of August 4, 1964 in the LBJ White House – the discovery in Mississippi of the bodies of three recently murdered young civil rights workers, and the spurious “attack” on two American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin. The pivotal day shaped the civil rights movement in America and led to the tragic escalation of the war in Vietnam. Stucky’s August 4, 1964 is based on an original libretto by Gene Scheer created from diaries, news reports and historical documents. The Carnegie Hall performance will mark the fifth performance of the work, the first since its world premiere performances in Dallas. Carnegie Hall Tickets to the DSO’s Carnegie Hall performance on May 11 are available by calling 212-247-7800. Visit springformusic.com
Overture • April 2011
The 2011 Fort Worth Opera Festival offers many “firsts” this spring, when its presents its first fully-staged Baroque Opera: Julius Caesar. Handel wrote the opera for three castrati. Castrati were young men who showed tremendous vocal abilities during childhood. To keep their pure, soprano-esque voices, they voluntarily had Randall Scotting themselves castrated before puberty, so they could retain their higher register throughout their lives. These singers often became the rock stars of their generation— amassing huge performance fees, court appointments, and “groupies” amongst women and men alike. Baroque composers wrote a great deal of music for castrati, and Handel often composed with particular singers in mind. In fact, the castrato Senesino, who created the role of Julius Caesar, enjoyed a celebrated career singing Handel’s work. By the end of the 19th Century, castrati were no longer accepted by society; fortunately, this did not mean the end of Handel’s music. Instead, his music has found new life recently in the skilled hands of today’s countertenors – men whose voices are suited naturally to the specialized roles. However, countertenors are also rare, so North Texas audiences are in for a special treat for Julius Caesar with Randall Scotting singing the title role (opposite local favorite Ava Pine’s Cleopatra), and he will be joined by fellow countertenors Michael Maniaci and José Álvarez. All of these wonderful artists will be under the baton of Baroque Costume Design for Julius Caesar specialist Maestro Daniel Beck with. To maintain the original sound of Handel’s masterful opera, Fort Worth Opera made the choice to introduce three opera singers to the Metroplex who come as close as possible to sounding like castrati. Make plans now to see Julius Caesar during the 2011 Fort Worth Opera Festival, playing at Bass Performance Hall. WRR is proud to feature three special May programs about the Festival that will to add depth and insight to all the productions this year, including the countertenors. Listen Sundays May 1, 15 and 22 at 5 p.m. for our Arts Spotlight featuring the Fort Worth Opera Festival. For more info, go to FWOpera.org.
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