Organ Professor Christoph Bull has shared some of his summer activities with us, one of which is a video of his work with the organ at Disney Hall, on which he made the “premiere” recording August 3rd and 4th. Please enjoy the attached video.

Review: Opera San Jose’s ‘Manon’ takes off like a jet, then levels off
By Richard Scheinin

rscheinin@mercurynews.com
Posted: 09/13/2009 04:17:14 PM PDT
Updated: 09/13/2009 06:56:19 PM PDT
All photos by Pat Kirk.

Krassen Karagiozov as Lescaut and Alexander Boyer as the Opera San Jose’s new production of “Manon” takes off like a jet. It’s a refreshing French confection. It’s chiffon. It’s lace. It’s sexy. With great tunes and stylish singing, it goes down like a cool lemonade— at least for its first hour at the California Theatre, where “Manon” opened Saturday to kick off the company’s 26th season.

Along with “Carmen” and “Faust” and one or two others, “Manon,” by Jules Massenet, is a mainstay of the French repertoire. Its music is exhilarating. And its story is a keeper: It’s about the young beauty, Manon, torn between true love and luxury. She chooses love, then luxury, then love again. But her impetuousness leads to a nose-dive and — hey, this is opera — death.

Still, for the first hour it’s about the blossoming of love.

And with the opening night cast (one of this production’s two rotating casts), director Dianna Shuster gives us a kittenish couple in the throes of love: soprano Khori Dastoor as Manon, tenor Alexander Boyer as the Chevalier des Grieux, a student. They fall into each other’s arms in about three seconds, and then we’re off: Dastoor and Boyer, resident artists with the company, flying about in a series of exquisitely lyric arias and duets.

They cuddle. They lounge in bed. Until our fickle heroine gets bought off by a rich stud, De Brétigny (mellifluous baritone Adam Meza), who is part of a plot to abduct Chevalier — thereby bringing Manon into the stud’s 24-carat lair. At last, she’s rich.

But she is complicit in the abduction. And now the story, in its final 90 minutes, darkens: Manon grows progressively complex, a woman of spirit and ambition, of conflicting desires, and very self-aware; she understands the choices she makes and her failings.
Saturday, it was Dastoor who carried the show from this point forward.

Mirroring the deepening of Manon’s character, the soprano’s voice took on new layers, sparkled with new colors. This is her third season with Opera San Jose, and Dastoor has been learning new tricks: Saturday, her pianissimi (whispered signings) were beautifully controlled — and riveting. Dastoor held the stage with a murmur. Her acting was as confident and expressive as her singing.

Boyer, however, isn’t so comfortable in his body. As the innocent student, he was excellent, a goofy guy in love, singing with sweetness, warmth and power.

But as the Chevalier whose life has come asunder — he becomes a priest after the abduction, then rejoins Manon in a life of gambling and social extravagance — Boyer got stuck. He was physically stiff — Little Lord Fauntleroy in his satin suit — and seemed blocked in his efforts to go deeper into the role.

Likewise, the orchestra, crisp and flowing through the first hour, didn’t break new ground as the action twisted onstage. Conductor Joseph Marcheso might want to stir the pot, set those emotional undercurrents roiling as the plot darkens.

Hats off to Larry Hancock, the company’s general manager and production director, who takes on an additional role here: set designer. Within the walls of his 18th-century classical rooms, singing women roamed in lavish Watteau gowns, men in their powdered wigs. The chorus was exuberant — especially the women, whose ensemble piece in the second act was intricate and lovely.

As the Count des Grieux, father of the Chevalier, bass Silas Elash was grandly sonorous. As Lescaut, Manon’s cousin, baritone Krassen Karagiozov was suave, for sure, but lacked bite; Lescaut should be a rougher character.

As Guillot de Morfontaine, the lech who ultimately brings down Manon, tenor Bill Welch hammed it up — and craftily revealed just how repulsive this character really is. His dotty lady admirers (soprano Jillian Boye and mezzo-sopranos Cathleen Candia and Betany Coffland) formed a virtuoso power-trio in close harmony.

In the end, director Shuster, whose “The Elixir of Love” was a delight last season, hasn’t quite unlocked the secrets to “Manon.”

She has also made some questionable cuts, eliminating an entire festive scene in which Manon sings her two biggest numbers, one of them a coloratura extravaganza in which she boasts of her beauty and material acquisitions. Like a beanbag, this aria has been dropped by Shuster into a later scene, where Dastoor, as might be expected, sang it with aplomb.

We have just received an email from Professor Juliana Gondek about her activities during Spring Quarter and the early part of the summer. Here is what she shared with us:

“During my Spring Quarter sabbatical leave, I traveled to Italy to give a series of talks on Handel opera and teach master classes to voice students at the top music school in Tuscany, the “Luigi Cherubini” Conservatory in Florence. Here, I’m working with a young professional Italian soprano on German art song.”

“In June I was in residence at the Astoria Music Festival, located in a charming port town at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. While there, I taught master classes and private lessons to the singers of the Festival Young Artists program and performed as soloist with orchestra in performances of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, in a fully staged production of Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen” (in the title role), with chamber ensemble singing Astor Piazzolla’s “Tango Songs”, and as The Old Lady in “Easily Assimilated” from Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide”. Below is the review of “The Fairy Queen” that appeared in the Portland “Oregonian”. Paragraphs #4 and #6 mention my work.

=====
Land of enchantment at the Astoria Music Festival
by David Stabler, The Oregonian
Sunday June 28, 2009, 12:46 PM

ASTORIA — Fantasy is alive and well in Astoria. Fairies dance, lovers kiss and a queen falls in love with an ass. Yes, we’re in a mid-summer night’s dream, but not Shakespeare’s. Henry Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen” is its musical equivalent, a lyrical semi-opera based on the familiar play, so we are once again in the land of nod, presided over by the sleep-induced Titania, Queen of the Fairies.

The Astoria Music Festival, going strong in its seventh season (it ended Sunday) drew a soldout crowd to the Liberty Theater, Saturday, for this rarely seen masterpiece of the 17th century. An obscure choice for a summer festival? Yes. But definitely an enchanted evening, as unstuffy as they come, filled with bright, inventive music, elegant dancing, bawdy humor, wonderful singing and a colorful mix of flowing period costumes and sleek modern dress. The only drawback is that it did not repeat.

For all its obscurity — artistic director Keith Clark claimed this was its West Coast premiere — “The Fairy Queen” made a certain amount of sense at the festival, where risk and reward go hand in hand. Clark’s tenure has seen other seriously creative productions, including the regional premiere of “The Stone Philosopher” with its recently discovered and much heralded contribution from Mozart.

Part of the pleasure came from the unexpected mix of elements: veteran singers such as Richard Zeller and soprano Juliana Gondek strutting about with young singers just starting their careers; a briskly paced hybrid orchestra of modern and Baroque instruments (theorbo, harpsichord); and an overall feel of professionalism supported by community enthusiasm (the performers stay in local homes).

Too many highlights to name, but the orchestra was one, catapulting Purcell’s endlessly inventive music into the auditorium with color, character and zest. From brassy fanfares to weeping laments, the players enlarged each of the many scenes with clarity nicely scaled to the room.

Another was Titania’s lament, “O let me weep,” which stopped the show when Gondek brought forth a voice of mahogany tone and aching musical depth in her halting phrases. Her voice was a reflection of full-bodied grief. Now there’s a singing actress.

Everywhere the eye looked, something was happening, thanks to New York director and choreographer Catherine Turocy. Two members of her New York Baroque Dance Company circled and bowed with stately grace. Fairies flirted, monkeys pranced, singers courted, laughed and wept and a poet got drunk.

It all sounds improbable, and it is. A cumbersome and episodic 17th-century masque that could have bumped along in fits and starts, but no. Clark’s production lifted our spirits, tickled our ribs and touched our hearts. That’s entertainment.
============

“I rounded out my summer travel with my annual stint as Head of Voice Faculty at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival on the Big Island. Here I performed on several concerts and taught students ranging in age from 14 to 72. This year we had an outstanding collection of young professional artists from the U.S. and Canada, as well as two incoming UCLA MM Voice students. Snorkeling and swimming with the “honu” (the endangered giant green sea turtles that inhabit the shallow water) provided an almost daily thrill, not to mention a great suntan!

Here’s a YouTube clip of my Opening Gala performance posted by a fan of the festival. I’m singing a piece by Astor Piazzolla arranged by UCLA DMA composer Bruno Louchouarn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlKxxGNFx4c
Alguien le Dice al Tango

On May 29, 2009, in the city of Wavre just outside of Brussels, Belgium, Kevork Andonian’s piece for flute and marimba entitled ‘A Longing For Joy’ was recorded by flutist Marc Grauwels and marimbist Sarah Mouradoglou for the Naxos record label. This Naxos CD project will be completed by July of 2009 and the album will be distributed and available worldwide in stores as well as on the Internet.

Mrs. Carol Block, music-loving wife of our Chancellor Gene Block, has been hosting a series of recitals for the last two years at the Chancellor’s residence featuring artists from different departments. Another such recital took place May 27th, and featured Music Department DMA violin student Ji Young An and DMA piano student Young Ah Ha. Ji Young played the Department’s Stradivarius violin, the Duke of Alcantara, to the great pleasure of invited guests. Ji Young comes to UCLA from Paris Conservatory where she won First Prize with great distinction. Young Ah Ha is a first year DMA student, studying piano with Professor Walter Ponce. This concert was attended by staff members of the Anderson school.

The program presented was:

Adagio and Fuga of Sonata in G minor for violin solo–J.S. Bach
Sonata for violin and piano in G minor–Claude Debussy
La Valse–Maurice Ravel
Scherzo-Taranteel op. 16–Henryk Wieniawski

Photo, left to right: Professor of Violin Guillaume Sutre, Ji Young An, Young Ah Ha, Mrs. Carol Block

On June 3rd the art song class of Judith Hansen presented an outstanding and extraordinary concert of all-Russian art songs, by such great Russian composers as Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Glinka, Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Voloshin. Most of these songs are seldom performed in this country, but with the able coaching of Professor Vladimir Chernov, who assisted with the class this quarter, fourteen students each sang two songs in Russian. All were well prepared and sang beautifully, with great passion and expressiveness. The vocal quality of these students was extraordinary, filling the room with sound. We hope everyone will make a point of attending next year’s concerts, which will cover songs from English and French repertoire plus one as yet undecided language.

The art song class, with Judy Hansen and Vladimir Chernov, center

Daniel Suk, tenor, singing “Don Juan’s Serenade” by Tchaikovsky.

Christina, who graduated from UCLA with an MM in Voice, has won a prestigious award–she is the first participant in the Deborah Voigt/Vero Beach Opera Foundation’s Protegee Mentoring program. Please read the artcle by Peter Pringle in its entirety in the TC Palm news at: http://tcpalm.com/news/2009/may/28/voigt-selects-protegee-to-mentor-for-program/.

Congratulations, Christina!

As many of you know, Professor Guillaume Sutre of the UCLA Department of Music is also the first violin of the renowned Ysaye Quartet.

He writes:

“A few weeks ago, the Guarneri quartet was canceling its farewell tour in Europe because of health issues of one of the members. Their manager asked us to take over the tour with the same programs and dates, with my colleagues of the Ysaye Quartet.”

Venues were:

Venezia (IT) – Teatro La Fenice
Hannover (Ger) – Hannover Congress Centrum , Beethovensaal
Kopenhagen (DK) –
Helsinki (FI) – House of Nobility
Milano (IT) – Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, Sala Grande
Wien (Aust) – Musikverein, Brahmssaal
Baden-Baden (Germ) – Festspielhaus Baden-Baden
Basel (Swi) – Stadtcasino-Musiksaal
München (DE) – Herkulessaal

The works performed were:

Cesar Franck: Streichquartett (ca. 56 min)
Cesar Franck: Piano Quintet with Pascal Rogé (ca. 40 min)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Streichquartett Es-Dur op. 127 (ca. 36 min)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Streichquartett Nr. 15 a-moll op. 132 (ca. 40 min)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Streichquartett c-moll op. 18 Nr. 4 (ca. 22 min)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Streichquartett Nr.10 “Harfenquartett” Es-Dur op. 74 (ca. 30 min)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Streichquartett Es-Dur op. 127 (ca. 36 min)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Streichquartett Nr. 15 d-moll KV 421 (417b)
Bartok String quartet No. 6
Anton Dvorák: Streichquartett Nr. 12 F-Dur op. 96 ”American”

The Ysaye quartet, with Prof. Sutre at far left.

Congratulations to the quartet for filling in at the last minute with this challenging repertoire!

Just another reminder–Woodwind World is almost upon us. Prof. Gary Gray has provided the attached photo of participants:

Back row, left to right: Professors Jonathan Davis, Gary Gray, John Steinmetz, and Brian O’Connor
Front row, left to right: Justin Takamine, bassoon, Theodosia Roussos, oboe, Jackie Hancock, horn, and Virginia Figuereido, clarinet

“It’s a Woodwind World III”
Wednesday March 4, 2009
8:00 PM Schoenberg Hall

The Program will be:

Bernhard Heiden…………..”Intrada” for flute/oboe/clarinet/bassoon/horn/saxophone (1970)

David Gillingham…………..”American Counterpoint” for flute/clarinet/saxophone

Camille Saint-Saens………”Caprice on Danish and Russian Airs” for flute/oboe/clarinet/piano Op. 79

INTERMISSION

Bill Dobbins “Meet Me at Dreamland” for saxophone trio
Dr. Douglas Masek plus Music Department alumnus David Brennan
and MM saxophonist Ryan Weston

Bruce Broughton “Hudson River Valley” Octet for 2 oboes/2 clarinets/2 bassoons/2 horns
(Los Angeles Premiere)

SHERIDON STOKES….our flute instructor for many years who is an icon of the studio recording world and recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Flute Society.

JONATHAN DAVIS…..Dr. Davis is our oboe instructor and he graduated from Juilliard and the Yale School of Music and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Pacific Symphony and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

GARY GRAY……… our full time Professor of Clarinet and Chair of Woodwind Studies @ UCLA was a Grammy Nominee for his solo concerti CD with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a founding member of the Pacific Serenades chamber ensemble here in Los Angeles.

JOHN STEINMETZ…our bassoon instructor is also an accomplished composer and is Principal Bassoonist of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and winner of Chamber Music America Awards.

BRIAN O’CONNOR….our horn teacher for the past 10 years, has done the studio recording for over 2,000 Hollywood Films and was featured at the International Horn Symposium in 2008.

DOUGLAS MASEK…. Dr. Masek is our saxophone instructor and is a well recognized virtuoso who performs regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra as well as traveling internationally as a soloist.

NEAL STULBERG…..Head of Orchestral Studies @ UCLA and Conductor of the UCLA Philharmonia…who also has an internationally acclaimed conducting career.

UCLA Music Students included in this performance will be:
Theodosia Roussos….oboe
Virginia Figueiredo…..clarinet
Justin Takamine……..bassoon
Jacqueline Hancock..french horn
Ryan Weston………..saxophone

UCLA ALUMNUS
David Brennan……….saxophone

The variety of styles goes from a French romantic masterwork by Saint-Saens to a brand new work by American film composer, Bruce Broughton. The connecting thread through the whole concert is that each work has it’s own unique “story” attached to it…also with the addition of saxophone(s) the repertoire can naturally tend toward jazz-influenced works..i.e. “American Counterpoint” and “Meet me at Birdland”.

However, the opening piece by Bernhard Heiden, adds saxophone to the WW5 but is in a contrmporary style more akin to Hindemith.
So DO come and be surprised by this year’s special issue of “It’s a Woodwind World”!

Ticket Information $15 General Admission
Seniors and Students $7
UCLA Central Ticket Office (310) 825-2101

www.cto.ucla

Wind faculty left to right: Douglas Masek, Gary Gray, Sheridon Stokes

We thought you might be interested in reading a couple of the recent reviews of Opera UCLA’s production of Le Nozze de Figaro. Photos are courtesy of Mona Lands.

From reviewer Carrie Delmar for Opera Online:

Opera UCLA scores big with Mozart’s
‘Le Nozze di Figaro.’ WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
OPERA UCLA
FEBRUARY 6, 2009 By: Carie J. Delmar
OperaOnline.us

It was raining outside, I was late, I had no plans of writing a review. I do not think that writing reviews of university productions is even appropriate. I just planned to sit with my friends obscurely in the last row of UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall and watch the opening night performance of the music department’s “Le Nozze di Figaro.” I didn’t take notes, I didn’t catch all the visuals, but I did hear every note.

Yes, there were things that could be criticized. After all, this wasn’t the Met, Los Angeles Opera, San Diego Opera, or even a smaller professional company like Long Beach Opera. This was a student production comprised of students and graduates — among them, a few who have worked as pros. And the effect was bewitching, so why be critical?

The opera revolves around the issue of “le droit du seigneur” – the right of a nobleman to sleep with his servant’s bride on the eve of her wedding. Although Count Almaviva has ended this practice, he still has his eye on Susanna, which leads Susanna, the Countess and Figaro — Susanna’s fiancé — into a scheming frenzie to deter the Count’s success. Add to this a young testosterone-driven page and a postmenopausal housekeeper who is after Figaro, and you have all the makings of a Beaumarchais comedy, or in this case, an opera buffa. Mozart’s music is so glorious, so perfect, so melodious that a student production with mediocre voices could make a mockery of it. Instead, I witnessed a production where every voice had a place in the ensemble. The baritone sounds of In Joon Jang (Figaro) and Hongsuk “Mario” Chae (the Count) were richly mellow; the soprano notes of Lauren Michelle (Susanna) and Andrea Fuentes (the Countess) were warmly focused. Tracy Cox brought her well-projected mezzo to a delightfully robust Marcellina. Leslie Cook was an engaging Cherubino; Dory Schultz (Don Basilio and Don Curzio) seemed to have a hilarious action for every occasion; and Christopher Remmel and Micaela Tobin added ample support.

These young artists are constantly learning, and their presentations of Mozart’s timeless arias will no doubt become more secure with enhanced experience and under the tutelage of their fine directors, coaches and teachers. The overall feel to this “Marriage of Figaro” was really quite wonderful due to the energy and freshness that only a young cast can bring.

Neal Stulberg conducted the UCLA Philharmonia with strong conviction, thus enabling a clean clarity of sound and rhythmically well-paced orchestration that was stylistically bona fide Mozart. His firm hand gave the young artists structure and guidance.
The sets and costumes were simple, traditional and in good taste. Most opera companies believe that they have to create extravagant thrills in order to draw in new audiences. Mozart’s brilliant score doesn’t require such distractions. So bravo to UCLA!

And bravissimo to director Peter Kazaras who is a genius at drawing out the best qualities from his young cast members. His singers were relaxed – not self-conscious or stiff — and he enabled them to develop their characterizations by giving them creative blocking and actions that they could rehearse and then make their own. I do have one question for Mr. Kazaras, though: Why? When Figaro was singing “Non più andrai” at the end of Act 1, describing the rigors of military life to Cherubino, Cherubino was busily facilitating a set change with the other cast members. Although the overall visual effect was creative and resourceful, it detracted from Figaro’s aria and the reason Figaro was singing it. There was a great opportunity here for interaction between the two characters and for humor, yet Cherubino wasn’t even paying attention.

Hard Times:
In the current economic environment, opera companies are cutting their budgets and producing fewer productions each season. Administrators think that young audiences aren’t attracted to opera and that the only way to entice them is with costly, lavish productions that in turn necessitate inflated ticket prices.

Well, I don’t agree. When I observed how the UCLA audience laughed when Figaro measured Susanna’s skirt instead of the room in Act 1; how everyone chuckled when Figaro discovered that Marcellina and Dr. Bartolo were his parents; how amused they all were when Figaro hid behind a tree in the last act and moved it across the stage to maintain his cover – then I knew that opera certainly doesn’t have to be costly for people to appreciate it. I am beginning to think that it is the people behind opera that make it so ultra-sophisticated and expensive that the average person cannot partake. I have discovered that many people don’t even know what opera is. At $20 a ticket and less for students and seniors, each one of us has the opportunity to attend a university production and discover opera. Opera is for everyone, and there is no reason that it should become a dying art.

I am sold on Opera UCLA, and I’m sure that there are other such ensembles in conservatories and universities throughout the country. Opera is alive and well! So get the word out!

Libretto: Lorenzo da Ponte
Conductor: Neal Stulberg
Stage Director: Peter Kazaras
Scenic Design: Curtis Wallin
Lighting Design: Dayna Morgan
Costume Design: Anna Björnsdotter
Assistant Conductor: Stephen Karr
Music Director, UCLA Opera Studio: Rakefet Hak

This production was double cast.

Joanna Foote (Susanna, seated), and l to r: Emily Lezin (Marcellina), Julian Arsenault (Figaro), and Christopher Remmel (Dr. Bartolo).

Joanna Foote (Susanna), Dory Schultz (Don Basilio), Douglas Carpenter (Count Almaviva) and Judy Tran (Cherubino, seated).

In addition, former LA Weekly critic Alan Rich blogs about Figaro:

2/10/2009

THE SPICE OF LIFE:
Eye surgery in the morning, Figaro after dinner: there’s nothing like a little variety, so they say, to add spice to ones life. The surgery went well; bye-bye cataracts. All else pales before The Marriage of Figaro. Those kids at UCLA really got it right.

Peter Kazaras brought the school’s opera program into its own with an astonishing Falstaff a couple of years ago; Figaro was even better. The musical ensemble was a joy to watch (Kazaras’ doing) and to hear (Neal Stulberg’s razor-sharp baton). The look of the stage was mostly make-do, but good of its kind; the most dangerous moments in the action – the deployment of the characters in the final scene, so that the right person gets slapped at the right moment – came off capitally. The two arias usually omitted, for Marcellina and Basilio in the last act, were allotted their proper place this time. It may be out of place for an elderly critic to go gaga over student singers a fourth his age, but there was so much delight in the work of Lauren Michelle, the wonderfully wise and composed Susanna, and Leslie Cook, the airborne Cherubino, that I would risk betraying Dr. Yuri’s eyeball surgery if I let them pass unnoticed. Two performances remain, this Friday and Sunday, crammed into UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall. There are two casts, and Neal Stulberg assures me that the second ensemble is every bit as fine as the group I saw. Since he is, himself, responsible for the magic of this truly splendid event, I tend to believe him. Halos are in order, all around.