Just released on the house label of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, these are five compelling essays in lyric and aria, all without words and all premised on song. They were recorded live at Boston Symphony Hall in February 2009, and released on 21 July this year. They are worth the wait.

A general appreciation: the Boston Symphony plays with glorious intonation. Levine at The Met famously has an ear for such things. As music director, he has brought his pitch sensitivity to Boston, and this is one of the rewards to be found here. The matching of pitch from section to section in the orchestra, and across the performance, is truly admirable.

And a specific: Levine has the gift of pulse. In his hands nothing fast ever sounds rushed, nor slow sounds torpid. He has, like Mackerras and Kleiber, a gift of pulse that renews itself without forcing. In music of the Classical era, this is essential. In this music, allusions to dance and topic are everywhere. The formalities count. And in all, key and key relationships lie at the heart of musical architecture. In this recording, Boston gets it right.

They begin with Symphony No. 14, from 1771. Levine uses a harpsichord in the continuo, a wise nod to informed performance practice. Although all five symphonies are played at modern pitch, efforts are made to honour original articulation and ornament. The second movement, Andante, is elegant and lithe, with modest ritards given before each reprise. The third movement declares Mozart’s admiration for CPE Bach, and the shocks and starts of the Rococo. His strange and biting modulations are given weight here, but are never self-regarding.

Symphony No. 18 follows, dated from 1772, and – so typical of Mozart – is already years beyond in formal and technical maturity. Levine doesn’t belabour the point, but simply allows the work to play itself. Lesser or more self-important conductors would linger, staring in the mirror. Levine lets Mozart be Mozart. Notable is the unusual pairing of two flutes and four French horns. Even more so is the tremendously virtuosic horn writing, here played flawlessly by principal James Sommerville and his colleagues. Although the Boston players use modern valve horns, they convey the energy and risk of the original natural horns. They make a good bargain.

Also dating from 1722 is Symphony No. 20 — among the most vocally-oriented of his concert works. Mozart is gaining mastery of orchestration, of blend and balance, and of voicing. Elizabeth Ostling’s flute solo in the Andante is a marvel of eloquence. Levine does not shy from comparisons to Haydn. As the late Michael Steinberg writes in the CD liner notes, Mozart was now almost certainly influenced by the great master at Esterhazy, and here took as his model Haydn’s Symphony No. 42. No wonder. The good humour and propulsive energy of each is an inspired kinship.

Something astonishing happened at Vienna from June to August in 1788. Mozart composed his three last symphonies. All are miracles of structure and energy. Two are on this CD. No. 39, completed on 26 June, was the first occasion on which he included clarinets. It was one of only three occasions he employed the grand device of the slow Introduction.

No. 39 is a compendium of everything Mozart knew about the orchestra. It is daring in its dissonance, and now Levine and Boston and their superb intonation give us so much. Lazy orchestras drift in a cloud of pseudo-dissonance, pitch never being absolutely precise. Not here. The cutting edges are all the more fierce and real for their exactness. So too are the rolling syncopations. Levine shows us that it is possible to be exact without being mechanical.

This double-CD set ends, rightly enough, with the mighty Jupiter, No. 41 in C Major. In some ways this work lives in the rear view mirror. It is a summary of earlier polyphonic styles, formal design, brief utterance and a perfect concision. The work is in no way valedictory, but it is impossible to overlook its place in the composer’s life. Like The Tempest, the fact of standing at the end of a great line cannot be overcome. Levine is aware of this history, but conveys the work without false sentiment, and without regret.

Its surprises are left intact, its jokes never heard before, and its sly allusions played straight. It is this honest play that does Mozart such great service.

Highly recommended.

– Charles Barber

MOZART
Symphonies 14, 18, 20, 39 and 41
Boston Symphony Orchestra
James Levine, conductor
Elizabeth Ostrow, producer
John Newton, Jesse Lewis, Jesse Brayman, recording engineers

BSO Classics, 1001/102
$25.99 US

Available at Sikora’s Classical Records, and in several formats online at www.bostonpops.org/digital

—

WHAT WE’RE DOING: If you can give, or help us find, auctionable works, we will convert those donations into our Production Fund. Art work in storage is our primary target, but artists have agreed to donate and, already, we know that some supporters are taking works down from their walls in aid of this project!

Donors get a charitable tax receipt for the appraised amount in addition to the spine-tingling feeling that accompanies knowing they’ve helped us continue to bring new chamber opera performances to Vancouver audiences. (Plus an invitation-only recital for donors after the auctions.)

The works will be handled by Heffel’s, Vancouver’s well-known art auctioneers. Works appraised at $50,000 or more will be placed in their seasonal live auction, and other works in an on-line auction. We hope to collect at least fifty works by mid-August to be auctioned this fall.

—

Our goal is to raise $250,000. A small portion will pay our immediate bills. The rest will create a solid foundation for the work of the next two years, including preparations for the opera Pauline, based on the life of the poet Pauline Johnson, with a libretto by Margaret Atwood and music by Christos Hatzis. Your support now will help us access grants that will make the company sustainable in the long term.

The auction work is being assembled by Bill Jeffries, Director of the Simon Fraser University Gallery – he is happy to answer any questions you may have and may be contacted at: bjeffries@telus.net or 604-253-2550.

CITY OPERA VANCOUVER: a professional chamber opera company

Nora Kelly
President

www.cityoperavancouver.com

This has been such a great quarter for City Opera Vancouver, and its many artistic and community partners. We gave the Canadian event premiere of Sumidagawa & Curlew River, co-produced with UBC Theatre and Film, and Blackbird Theatre. It received remarkable reviews, and an overwhelming audience response.

Like to download the actual programme book? Here it is.

Our thanks also to the many groups that helped us present this double bill: explorASIAN, Nikkei Place, the Japanese Language School and Hall, The Bulletin of the Japanese-Canadian Citizens’ Association, the Powell Street Festival, UBC Asian Studies, the UBC Alumni Association, and the Vancouver International Song Institute / VISI. A special thanks to Accent Inns for providing artist accommodation.

Sumidagawa and Curlew River Photos

View many more on our Facebook page, which features plenty of inside information. Not on Facebook? Now you have an excellent reason to join!

Opera Prevents Drowning…

On June 6 we appeared in Italian Day on Commercial Drive, with soprano Mariana Valdés and tenor Nicolas Rhind, joined by City Opera staff pianist Greg Caisley. This free set was organized by Tom Durrie. Two hundred people stayed and cheered in the downpour. Amazing.

Italian Week Opening Celebrations

We were then asked to participate in a major event at the Italian Cultural Centre. On June 20 City Opera Vancouver presented soprano Mariana Valdés and tenor Andrzej Jeziorski, accompanied by our staff pianist Greg Caisley, in a programme of Italian operatic highlights at the ICC on Slocan Street. Tom Durrie was our producer and narrator.

News Flash!

And because these events were so successful, we were just asked by the City of Richmond to participate in an opera series at their beautiful Minoru Chapel this fall. Yes, of course. Opera belongs everywhere.

Membership in City Opera Vancouver Society

Are you a City Opera member? Current memberships in the City Opera of Vancouver Society expire June 30^th. Please consider renewing your membership this month.

Not a member yet?  Please join us.

The modest membership fee of $25.00 per year offers advance information and seating privileges. Membership fees also help support the company’s day-to-day operations as it prepares for new productions. Cheques may be made out to ‘City Opera Vancouver’, PO Box 88393, Vancouver V6A 4A6.

City Opera Vancouver aims to be as affordable as possible. This year, although we presented a double bill at Sumidagawa/Curlew River, we did not raise ticket prices. Please consider making a donation in addition to your membership. Every bit of support helps. We issue tax receipts for gifts over $25.00.

City Opera’s Next Production:

An Art Auction

A fundraising art auction to benefit City Opera Vancouver will be held this fall. We are looking for auctionable art. Can you help? Do you know anyone who might? If so, please contact us at info@cityoperavancouver.com. More details to come in a Special Edition of this E-letter.

Pauline rolls ahead…

Pauline, the new chamber opera by Margaret Atwood and Christos Hatzis,  starring Judith Forst as Pauline Johnson, is well underway. Our story is set at Vancouver in March of 1913. An excerpt from Act One is now available on DVD, and online at our website. www.cityoperavancouver.com

VISI / Wonderful concerts ahead

Our friends at VISI are offering one of their strongest public concert lineups in years. We strongly urge City Opera folks to consider enjoying…

TUESDAY 22 June / 10:30 am

Silk Purse, 1570 Argyle Avenue, West Vancouver

Emerging Artists take the Stage!

The next generation of extraordinary Art Song performers.

$12 • 604.925.7292 • silkpurse.ca

More information about the entire VISI Calendar at www.songinstitute.ca

Finally… audience and media reviews for Sumidagawa and Curlew River

“Almost unbearably beautiful.”

“Tenor Isaiah Bell, as the Madwoman, sang fervently with a varied palette and much eloquence.”

Elissa Poole, The Globe and Mail

“Magnificent.”

Hilary Clark, Opera Canada

“Magical, very enriching, captivating, mesmerizing…”

Joy Coghill

“What a fantastic show. A delight to see, a delight to hear. Bravo orchestra. In a way, a grim evening, but so powerful that it didn’t matter… I am hardly a dance enthusiast, but Sumidagawa worked fabulously, too.”

George Zukerman

“Juro Motomasa’s Noh play featured the Toronto butoh artist Denise Fujiwara, whose modern performance was freighted with an intense, ritual, hieratic slowness designed as if to delay time down to speeds and meanings beyond temporal reality.”

“This was a powerful telling of the story with a uniformly strong cast of singers…”

Lloyd Dykk, The Georgia Straight

“I enjoyed the performance last Friday night thoroughly, thoroughly, it was a great treat for me – and such inspiration.  Thank you so much.  Seeing the performances of the two artists performing the madwomen was a deeply moving experience – tremendously sad but of such beauty I wished it would never end.  The images are planted deeply into my heart. I am so glad, glad, glad you are doing the work you are doing.”

Savannah Walling, Vancouver Moving Theatre

“This is an honest production grappling with a complex and enigmatic work.”

…confident playing from flute, horn and percussion made Britten’s detailed, difficult score shine out with all the pathos and power latent in this remarkable fusion of East and West.

Tenor Isaiah Bell is up to almost everything Britten throws at him in the pivotal role of the Madwoman, from stark passages with only a glimpse of instrumental support to extravagant descants floating over complex ensemble numbers that mark critical points in the often austere score.”

David Gordon Duke, The Vancouver Sun

“I almost hesitate to write for fear my words of praise will be inadequate to describe last night’s production. I think I should just say it was one of the most powerful, moving experiences I have ever had in the theatre, and I so admire City Opera Vancouver for its vision and courage in staging a presentation that bridged such an enormous cultural gap so successfully.”

Rosemary Cunningham, author, Bravo! The History of Opera in British Columbia

“Tenor Isaiah Bell as the Madwoman was breathtaking. He sustained an intensity of emotion which never toppled into hysteria. His restrained gestures, like the Madwoman’s simple, haunting curlew motif in the music, slowly built suppressed tension and let Britten’s music work its magic.”

Elizabeth Paterson, Review Vancouver

www.cityoperavancouver.com
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SUMIDAGAWA & CURLEW RIVER
OPENING ON MAY 26

This is a double bill, and a first in Canada. The artistic and production teams are in place, support from the Nikkei community has been tremendous, coaching has begun, and in May you will see something utterly unique: Natsu Nakajima & Benjamin Britten. Japanese dance & Western opera. Together.

Two great traditions. One great story.

Please join us at the Frederic Wood Theatre, UBC, on 26, 27 and 28 May at 7:30pm, and 30 May at 2:30pm. Lots of parking at the nearby Chan Centre.

General admission, $40.00. Students with current ID, $26.00.

We believe this will sell out, as did our Emperor of Atlantis last season. This is rare and special work. It is the simple and universal story of a woman driven mad by the loss of her child. It is the same story told from the vantage of two cultures.

Tickets available in person
Sikora’s Classical Records, 432 West Hastings, 604.685.0625

Tickets available online at www.ticketstonight.ca

Production logo by JADE, www.twentyfourworks.com

A 2011 HEADS UP

In 2011, very early in the New Year, City Opera will be doing our first run-out event. It will take place in White Rock — very special, and much fun. More news to come!

RUSSELL BRAUN RECITAL

City Opera members and supporters were given a unique bargain last month, and many of our friends took full advantage. We’ll be offering more of the same to come – in thanks for your support of our work. And thanks to our friends at the Kay Meek Centre for making it possible.

AND COMMITTED TO THE DTES

City Opera remains deeply committed to bringing our people and our music to Canada’s poorest neighbourhood. We were last there on 19 February, performing at the Homeground Festival at Oppenheimer Park, under the auspices of our friends at the Carnegie Centre.

Caroline Jang, soprano, and Michael Onwood, piano gave a programme of Gounod, Douglas Moore, Schubert, Arlen & Harburg, Gershwin, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Puccini and more to an enchanted audience of about 70 people. It was a wonderful hour.

Thank you for reading this.

www.cityoperavancouver.com

&  Accent  Inns

City Opera Vancouver partners with Accent Inns to provide accommodation for our artists, and our out-of-town audience.

They have a Richmond / YVR location that is 17 minutes by car from the Frederic Wood Theatre at UBC, and that offers free shuttle service to and from YVR, and the Canada Line. (The Frederic Wood Theatre, btw, is just steps from The Chan Centre. Park at the Moose and Squirrel end of the Chan Parkade and you’re there!)

If you have friends coming in for the show, Accent Inns will offer them a special discount. It’s easy to obtain. Here’s how. Please visit their website at www.accentinns.com/city-opera-vancouver-sumidagawa-curlew-river

OR call them at 1.800.663.0298, and mention City Opera Vancouver.

That’s all there is to it. (And please make sure your friends order their tickets soon…)

Thanks!

PS:  Don’t forget to visit our Facebook page:

www.facebook.com/pages/City-Opera-Vancouver/297764267658?ref=ts

All best wishes for 2010!

In order to create Sumidagawa & Curlew River in May 2010, we have made a co-production agreement with UBC Theatre and Film, and Blackbird Theatre.

We would like to tell you about Blackbird’s new production of the American classic, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee. It runs from 27 December to 16 January at The Cultch. It stars Gabrielle Rose and Kevin McNulty as Martha and George, and Craig Erickson and Meg Roe as Nick and Honey. Its director is John Wright, who is also directing Curlew River for us.

We are proud to tell you about this and, BTW, it is going to be a smash success.

“To spend an evening with George and Martha is to be on the battlefield of an alarmingly ferocious, caustically funny marital war.  It’s a fight to the death.  You don’t even think about doing this play unless you have a truly superb cast — and we have.” JOHN WRIGHT, DIRECTOR

ticketstonight.ca

604.251.1363

www.blackbirdtheatre.ca

SUMIDAGAWA & CURLEW RIVER

Two Great Traditions.  One Great Story.

May 26, 27, 28 at 7:30 – May 30 at 2:30

Frederic Wood Theatre at UBC – $40.00 general – $26.00 student ID

TICKETS ON SALE AT

Sikora’s Classical Records

ticketstonight.ca

A double bill in May.

From the immortal Noh drama Sumidagawa, two modern tellings.

~  Natsu Nakajima’s Butoh dance, Sumida River

~  Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera, Curlew River

An event premiere in Canada.

We build great bridges, crossing five centuries and two cultures in one narrative. We tell the story of a woman driven mad by the loss of her child. It is agonizing and beautiful.

Japanese dance.   Western opera.   Together.

Motomasa’s Sumidagawa will be told by the legendary butoh artist Denise Fujiwara, coming from Toronto, in a choreography made for her by Natsu Nakajima.

After intermission, the same story will be told again. In this telling, Britten’s chamber opera Curlew River will be given. It offers the same plot and characters, and the same dramatic arc – but from a Western vantage.

Consider Rashomon. Just when we think we understand, we are called upon to think again.

Our production is endorsed by explorASIAN, the Japanese Language School and Hall, the National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre, the Powell Street Festival, Sikora’s Classical Records, The Bulletin of the Greater Vancouver Japanese Citizens’ Association, the UBC Alumni Association, and the UBC Department of Asian Studies. It is supported by Accent Inns, Tom Lee Music, the Michael O’Brian Foundation for the Arts, Yoshiko Karasawa, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the McLean Foundation of Toronto.

Our principal partners are UBC Theatre and Film, and Blackbird Theatre. We have also partnered with Denise Fujiwara Dance Inventions, and the Vancouver Cantata Singers.

*******

Starring as Madwoman in Sumidagawa is the legendary Denise Fujiwara, joining us from Toronto. Her work, drawn from the original Noh play and now given as a one-woman performance, is mesmerizing.

Denise Fujiwara/Madwoman Isaiah Bell/Madwoman

Starring as Madwoman in Curlew River is the remarkable young Canadian tenor, Isaiah Bell. Twenty years from now, you will be able to say that you heard Isaiah in his first starring role. He is that good.

John Minagro, who moved audiences as Death in Der Kaiser von Atlantis, will appear as the Abbot, and the splendid baritones Sam Marcaccini as the Ferryman and Joel Klein as the Traveller. The male chorus comes to us from the Vancouver Cantata Singers.

John Minagro/Abbot Sam Marcaccini/Ferryman Joel Klein/Traveller

Janet Lea and Nora Kelly are the producers. John Wright directs. Robert Gardiner is the scenographer, Marti Wright the costumier, Bob Eberle our production coordinator, and Charles Barber leads the music.

Free talks

To promote Sumidagawa & Curlew River we are giving free talks across Metro Vancouver. If you would like a presentation we have DVDs, CDs and print materials, and can offer from fifteen minutes to ninety. Interested? artisticdirector@cityoperavancouver.com

Production logo designed by JADE - www.twentyfourworks.com

Listen by clicking the arrow below, or download this podcast by right-clicking here.

City Opera will soon appear in the West End. Soprano Melanie Kreuger and pianist Greg Caisley will present a concert that could have been heard a century ago at Roedde House, a wonderfully restored Victorian mansion.

You’ll have a chance to sing along in Bless This House and The Holy City – and enjoy much more, including a song written by Pauline Johnson herself. It’s all a benefit for Roedde House and City Opera Vancouver.
1415 Barclay Street.    Tickets $25.00 at the door.  www.roeddehouse.org

Melanie Kreuger, soprano                                     Greg Caisley, pianist

NEXT MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION

Beginning on 26 May 2010, partnering with UBC’s Department of Theatre and Film and numerous groups in the Japanese and other communities, City Opera will present a Canadian event premiere.

Sumidagawa and Britten’s Curlew River, which tell an identical story from 16th and 20th century perspectives, will be given in tandem. These are deeply moving works of art, and not to be missed. The extraordinary Denise Fujiwara will give the Sumidagawa element. Her work is spellbinding.

Denise Fujiwara                                          photo courtesy Cylla von Tidemann

JUNE GOLDSMITH JOINS ARTISTIC COMMITTEE

We are proud to announce that June Goldsmith, C.M., O.B.C., founder of  Music in the Morning and first producer of Curlew River in Vancouver, back in 2000, has joined the Artistic Committee of City Opera Vancouver.

PAULINE DVD ONLINE

You can now see a preview from Margaret Atwood and Christos Hatzis’ new chamber opera, Pauline, at www.cityoperavancouver.com. Even the Globe & Mail has run a sneak peek.

Pauline is City Opera’s first commission, generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Tom Lee Music, Steinway & Sons, the late Prof Abraham Rogatnick – and you… via our Support page.

Our DVD features Judith Forst as Pauline Johnson, Sam Chung as the doctor, with David Boothroyd on the piano. It was produced by Douglas Berg and a brilliant team from Vancouver’s film and television industry.

A SPECIAL INVITATION…

City Opera board member Dr Jaap Hamburger trained as a composer and pianist at the Royal Amsterdam Conservatory. On 2 and 4 October, 8pm at Ryerson United Church, you will be able to hear his latest work, Remember to Forget, given in premiere by the Turning Point Ensemble.  www.turningpointensemble.ca

A SAD INVITATION…

Our friend and patron, Prof Abraham Rogatnick, passed away at age 85 on 28 August 2009. A memorial will be held in the Great Hall of the Law Courts buildings, 800 Smithe Street, Vancouver, at 2pm Sunday 25 October.

A SPECIAL CONGRATULATIONS…

You may know that the box office hit of the summer has been the remarkable sci-fi morality tale, District 9. You may not know that the film’s editor, Julian Clarke, is the son of City Opera’s president, Dr Nora Kelly.

WHO WAS CARLOS KLEIBER?

On 26 September, from 12:15 – 13:00 GMT, our Artistic Director appears in a Saturday Music Feature documentary on BBC Radio 3, Who Was Carlos Kleiber? This essay includes Placido Domingo, Christine Lemke-Matvey, and Sir Peter Jonas, and examines the art of legendary conductor Carlos Kleiber. It may be heard at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/weekschedule/. It will be available by podcast for a week thereafter.

STANDING WITH OUR FRIENDS

As many friends of the arts are unhappily aware, there is currently a full-blown funding crisis in British Columbia, unleashed by the provincial government’s sudden withdrawal of gaming funds previously awarded to arts organizations. A few specific cuts have been reversed, but most arts groups must now plug a significant gap in their budgets. City Opera will be asking your support for our new productions. Your donations are now more important than ever. We thank you, more than ever.

www.cityoperavancouver.com

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