In this issue: Swiss Avenue, Tut’s coming to a close, DADA Art Walk, Book review: The Composer is Dead
Dallas / Fort Worth • wrr101.com
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The Official Publication of WRR
April 2009
Fort Worth Opera Festival Returns by Matt Erikson A sultry cigar-smoking siren, a classic storybook romance and a contemporary tale of redemption are the themes of the 2009 Fort Worth Opera Festival which kicks off at the end of this month. Bizet’s Carmen, Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Cinderella), and Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking will all get repeat performances at Bass Hall during the concentrated 16-day event. And WRR will be there before and during the festival to keep listeners informed of all the activities. Get a sneak-peek with singers in the casts, composer Jake Heggie and Fort Worth Opera staff on Wed., Apr. 1 when WRR broadcasts live from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at One Arts Plaza. It’s one of two extended programs that WRR will produce about Festival 2009. For opening night, Sat., Apr. 25, join host Adriana Bate for a two-hour broadcast featuring live backstage and pre-recorded interviews, along with reports of the grand festivities
Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award goes to Arlington composer
Last month Arlington composer Michael Taylor was featured on From the Top, which airs Saturdays at 9 a.m. Seventeen-year-old Michael Taylor was born in England to an American mother and Australian father. Perhaps the variety of his geographic background cultivated in him a predisposition toward being at home in many places – and with many instruments: piano, violin, and composition. Michael is the recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award. The award supports Michael’s private violin, piano, and composition lessons, as well as his summer studies at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Michael has compiled many awards for his talent in each concentration including first place in the 2009 Dallas Symphonic Festival on violin and first place in the 2008-2009 Music Teachers National Association Senior Piano Competition. He will go on to represent Texas in the National Finals of the MTNA in Atlanta, Georgia this Spring. Michael’s works so far include pieces for solo/duet piano, violin, viola, cello, bassoon, choir, string quartet, and a clarinet sonata (in progress). His current teachers are Tamas Ungar (piano), Jan Mark Sloman (violin), and Michael Cox (composition). If you missed the original broadcast, listen to an original work by Michael on the From the Top web site at www.fromthetop.org.
• April 2009
This season features a number of familiar and fresh faces. Mezzo-soprano Beth Clayton, a graduate of Southern Methodist University, sings her signature role of Carmen on Apr. 25, May 3 and 8. The 2000 opera Dead Man Walking receives its North Texas premiere with mezzo-soprano Robynne Redmon (Suzuki in Fort Worth Opera’s 2006 production of Madame Butterfly) and bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch (Figaro in Dallas Opera’s The Marriage of Figaro last season) in the leads. Performances are May 2 and May 10. WRR will broadcast Rossini’s La • Fort Worth Opera joins Cenerentola live on Sun., Apr. 26 at 2 p.m. Isabel Adriana Bate at One Arts Leonard sings the title character in a production Plaza April 1 directed by David Gately. The laughs and bel canto tunes will continue to roll on May 1 and 9. • Adriana takes us backSeason tickets for this year’s Fort Worth stage April 25 for all the Opera festival run from $31 to $394. Individual opening night buzz tickets range from $19-$159 with special student • Rossini’s La Cenerentola and military pricing available. For more inforbroadcast live April 26 at 2 mation, call 817-731-0726 or go to the web site p.m. on WRR www.fwopera.org.
Cowtown’s Cultural Celebration MAIN ST. Fort Worth April 16-20 Join WRR at MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival, Cowtown’s most honored event, April 18 from 10-5 p.m. Meet WRR announcers, get some WRR goodies, enjoy all the great food, music and art MAIN ST. is famous for. MAIN ST. hosts tens of thousands of people annually during the four-day visual arts, entertainment and cultural event. It showcases a nationally recognized fine art and fine craft juried art fair, live concerts, performance artists and street performers on the streets of downtown Fort Worth, stretching nine blocks on Main Street from the Tarrant County Courthouse to the Fort Worth Convention Center. The streets of downtown are filled with fascinating sights and sounds as more than 500 fine artists, dancers, performance artists, musicians, exhibitors and food vendors take part in the fourday celebration. Two hundred juried artists line Main Street weaving a diverse blend of texture and shape down the “magnificent mile” of visual art booths, performance stages and intriguing characters against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century buildings and modern skyscrapers of downtown Fort Worth. MAIN ST. opens each day at 10 a.m. and closes at 10 p.m. on Thursday, 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at 8 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, visit mainstreetartsfest.org.
Movies worth mentioning Already getting the Oscar buzz, Paris 36 gets its debut in Plano April 15. Set in Paris in 1936, the film visits a group of out of work characters as they set out to bring the stage back to the war torn Parisian people. The Los Angelos Times said “When it was shown at the Toronto and Montreal film festivals, it was widely compared to past Oscar contender Amelie in whimsical approach” and Variety says “A bracingly old-fashioned, lushly visualized showbiz meller set against pre-World War II Gallic political unrest, Paris 36 is a loving tip of the hat to studio-bound French pics of the period that’s plenty entertaining on its own terms.” The film’s sound track features works by Wagner and WRR will have a private screening at the Angelika in Plano April 15 at 7:30 p.m. Sign up for the Classical Connection at wrr101.com to learn when those tickets become available.
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