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It has come to the attention of those of us at the Arts Desk that a large portion of the University's population finds opera to be, shall we say, inaccessible and incomprehensible. So, with a new production opening this very evening, we offer a sort of abbreviated introduction to the world of opera and its various components in the hope that it may clear the fog just a bit.
After months of nail-biting and negotiating, the music school has at last reopened the doors to its monumental Musical Arts Center, complete with updated heating, cooling and sound systems, but more importantly, sans the asbestos. \nFollowing a benefit dinner for the Friends of Music Society, the IU Philharmonic, under the able baton of maestro David Effron, gave the MAC its first public performance since its closing at the beginning of the summer for renovations.\nThere are always certain inherent risks to presenting a full concert so early in the semester. Perhaps the music is under-prepared, or possibly the ensemble has not quite achieved the positive sort of group-think necessary for a successful performance. Sadly, neither problem was completely overcome Wednesday evening as the orchestra softly called forth the opening strains of Cesar Franck's "Symphony in D Minor."\nThe orchestra portrayed the several mood changes of the first movement with great drama, but the winds were not without their missteps in pitch and the upper strings possessed an often uncomfortably bright timbre resulting in a lack of blend and pitch accuracy. They were, nonetheless, remarkably responsive to their conductor, allowing Effron to draw from them extreme contrasts of expression throughout the remainder of the symphony.\nThe second movement showcased some fine solo work on the English and French horns, both notoriously difficult instruments. The brass section was also in fine form, maintaining a fine sense of balance and tone.\nThe second half of the evening featured a much-anticipated performance by internationally acclaimed concert pianist Peter Serkin. His first selection was Igor Stravinsky's "Movements for Piano & Orchestra," a wildly obscure experimental piece from the composer's serialist period. Serkin and the orchestra offered a tightly constructed interpretation of this piece to which I, for one, had been previously unexposed.\nSerkin's second selection was Mozart's "Concerto No. 24 in C Minor." This particular concerto was an interesting choice because it came across as being more important for its form rather than for its content. There were several lovely moments, particularly in the Larghetto second movement. But Serkin seemed to exercise a rather heavy-handed approach to Mozart that lacked both clarity and elegance. The orchestra, for its part, responded well to the dictates of the soloist, though still leaving something to be desired in the way of blend.\nThis situation will improve, certainly, as the semester progresses. Ensemble quality is not produced overnight, and there are many future performances to which to look forward.\nThe School's free Orchestra Series continues Wednesday night with a performance of the IU Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Principal Guest Conductor Uriel Segal. Also, the IU Opera Season begins the evening of Sept. 24 with Puccini's classic "La Boheme," and of course, there is the eagerly anticipated Fall Ballet in October.\nIt is my sincere hope that the IU and Bloomington communities will support the School of Music and take advantage of the many invaluable cultural and educational opportunities granted them. They are simply unparalleled.
Classical music fans in the Bloomington area have just two chances left to hear broadcasts of selected performances by Janos Starker, internationally acclaimed cellist and IU distinguished professor of music. In honor of Starker's 80th birthday, which he celebrated over the summer, WFIU, IU's educational radio station, has declared Starker its Artist of the Month for September.\n"It's a designation we do to focus on someone in the community, and we feature their performances," WFIU Music Director Robert Lumpkin said.\nWFIU has already broadcast Starker's recordings of Bach's "Suite No. 2" and Antonin Dvorak's "Cello Concerto in B" as part of its evening classical music programming. At 7:07 p.m. Sept. 23, WFIU will broadcast a performance by Starker and Piano Professor Shigeo Neriki of Rachmaninov's Cello "Sonata in G." The last featured broadcast of the month will take place at 7:07 p.m. Sept. 29 with Starker's recording of Zoltan Kodaly's Cello Sonata.\nStarker, a native of Budapest, Hungary, joined the IU School of Music faculty in 1958 after spending a decade as principal of three of the United States' leading orchestras. In addition to teaching, Starker continued to give concerts worldwide and create countless recordings of the cello repertoire.\nMany of these performances and recordings have been the result of collaborations with other former and current School of Music faculty members. He has edited and recorded jazz professor David Baker's piece for cello and percussion, "Singers of Songs, Weavers of Dreams," an homage to jazz greats of the past, as well as Baker's "Sonata for Cello and Piano." Starker also performed frequently with the late Professors Emeriti Josef Gingold, violin, and Gyorgy Sebok, piano.\nOne collaboration in particular led to the rare opportunity to perform the American premiere of a Haydn composition. Haydn's "Cello Concerto in C" was lost to the world until its discovery in Prague, Czech Republic, in 1961. It was subsequently performed by Starker with the New York Festival Orchestra, founded and directed by IU choral conducting faculty member Thomas Dunn.\n"He possessed a technical mastery and a clear, clean tone that made him easy to accompany," Dunn said. "He was admired by many a young cellist."\nThis admiration has attracted countless numbers of students to Starker's studio, many of whom go on to achieve positions in the world's leading orchestras or, as in the case of Cello Professor Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, return to IU to teach alongside their former teacher. And even as Starker marked his 80th year in July, he has no plans to turn any students away.\n"As long as I can walk into my studio or the students can walk to my house, I will teach them," Starker said. \nWFIU's decision to honor Starker as its Artist of the Month also coincides with the upcoming publication of "The World of Music According to Starker," a compilation of essays and autobiographical anecdotes, and this weekend's 26th annual Eva Janzer Memorial Celebration Sunday.\nJanzer, a childhood friend of Starker's in Budapest, Hungary, joined the School of Music in 1972. After her death in 1978, Starker established the Eva Janzer Memorial Cello Center, which provides scholarships for outstanding cello students and annually honors the achievements of professional cellists for their contribution to the music community. \nThis year's celebration will feature masterclasses by honorees Bonnie Hampton and Alan Harris Sunday in Recital Hall, as well as a Saturday afternoon masterclass by Starker, which is not officially part of the celebration.\n-- Contact staff writer Eric Anderson at eraander@indiana.edu.
The IU Opera Theatre has outdone itself. Given all earlier anxiety over acoustics and balance at the IU Auditorium, this weekend's presentation of Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca" surpassed expectation. \nThere were challenges, but they seemed to ultimately energize the production. The auditorium's design provides a shell that naturally responds to the orchestra but tucks the singers into a hole onstage, demanding a greater amount of vocal exertion.\nThe cast, however, overcame this and consistently matched the symphony orchestra -- which gave its own superb performance under maestro Imre Pallo -- in power and passion. And perhaps more importantly, "Tosca," as presented in the auditorium for one weekend only, served as a reminder that opera is indeed theater. It removed the aura of sacredness that is so often applied in opera houses and provided an environment conducive to the intense drama onstage that the cast portrayed so vividly.\nFriday evening's Mario Cavaradossi was Jeffrey Springer, a School of Music alumnus with many performances of this role already to his credit. His experience with the work was on full display as he plunged himself into the depths of Cavaradossi's inner struggles. The weight of his voice, combined with the passion of his presentation, left many applauding at his first high B-flat, a mere 10 minutes into the performance. A painter and political revolutionary, Cavaradossi gives aid to escaped prisoner Cesare Angelotti, sung by graduate student David Swain, and finds himself pursued by chief of police Baron Scarpia. We soon learn, however, that capturing the prisoner is secondary to Scarpia's goal to win over Cavaradossi's lover, the renowned soprano Floria Tosca.\nSinging opposite Springer and matching him in intensity, graduate student Reyna Carguill gave the audience a very human Tosca -- flighty and jealous like any self-respecting diva, yet consumed with love for Cavaradossi. Carguill displayed a maturity beyond her young years, confirming that she is indeed one of the country's most promising lyric sopranos. Her progression onstage from suspicious to martyred lover, from self-absorbed soprano to self-sacrificing murderess, was emotionally charged and artistically superb.\nGraduate student Soon Young Park, as the much feared Scarpia, gave a vocally exciting performance, though his expression was occasionally lacking. He seemed not nearly cruel enough when singing of his desire for forced submission to his desires. But then again, perhaps his easy, happy demeanor while rhapsodizing on his impending rape of Tosca actually served to enhance his evil nature. He still held a commanding presence on stage, lording over his many henchmen, most notably sung by senior Andrew Darling as Sciarrone and graduate student Marc Schapman as the bitter Spoletta. \nThe cast inhabited a fantastic, stylized set dominated by red and black -- appropriate colors for an Italy in the midst of revolution. Originally designed by Michael Yeargan for the Virginia Opera Company, the set was further enhanced by a lighting scheme that made extensive use of shadow, keeping the action onstage as dark as the story being portrayed.\nWhat makes this kind of story often so painful to watch for an audience member, however, is the progression toward seemingly avoidable tragedy. There is always a bad call, a misjudgment that brings about a spiraling downfall everyone but the victim could see coming. And, as Scarpia explains to Tosca his plan for a "false" execution, she commits that one fatal mistake -- she allows herself to believe, in disastrously blind optimism, that she can trust a bargain struck by a conniving and jealous leader facing the fall of his bitter regime. But the promises of such men can never be trusted. And for this folly, Tosca and the good Cavaliere pay the ultimate price, just as Scarpia himself does for his deceits.\nPerhaps, in the end, Tosca's folly, and therefore her fate, could not be avoided. But that should not stop us from learning her lesson: Foes must be treated with utmost suspicion, equal tenacity and unwavering persistence, until they are fully and finally relieved of the power they so terribly hold.
For the second of its summer productions, the IU Opera Theater will present Giacomo Puccini's fifth operatic masterpiece "Tosca" this weekend.\nThe famous piece, set in 1796, the year Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Italy, tells the story of opera singer Floria Tosca, who is pursued by the feared and antiquated chief of police Barone Scarpia. Meanwhile, she is utterly devoted to painter and revolutionary Mario Cavarodossi. The opera is a dramatic tale of entangled love, jealousy and the betrayal of lovers by tyrants in power.\nThe production, conducted by faculty member Imre Palló, will feature two School of Music alumni in the role of Cavarodossi.\nJeffrey Springer, who will perform Friday night, left IU in the spring of 1992 and has since performed the role nearly every year since. Nicholas Coppolo, who completed his bachelor's degree and performer's diploma just a year and a half ago, will sing the role of Cavarodossi for the first time in his career.\n"This is my first 'Tosca' and probably my last for a while," Coppolo said.\nCoppolo, a lyric tenor, said the role is not yet entirely suited for his voice.\nIn the confusing world of voice classifications, such a judgment is not to be made lightly. One's singing career can come to a premature end if roles are assumed before a singer is physically able to handle it.\n"(Cavarodossi) is a spinto role," Coppolo said.\nSpringer, billed by the School of Music as "one of America's busiest spinto tenors," possesses the meatier, more piercing sound demanded of the score.\nSpinto, roughly translated from the Italian, means "to thrust," ideally through the orchestra. This task is made more daunting than usual, however, by the use of the IU Auditorium while the Musical Arts Center remains out of commission because of repairs.\n"(Singing in the auditorium) is less than ideal," Coppolo said. \nThe orchestra pit sits higher than in an opera house, making projection over the orchestra's sound an even greater challenge for the singers, who will not be amplified.\n"The orchestra is set at the level of the audience," explained one violinist. "So we're relying on the conductor."\nAs conductor, Palló will indicate how the orchestra should adjust for balance.\n"The auditorium actually has very good acoustics," Springer said. "If we can get balanced, it will be quite beautiful."\nWhile one tenor is making his first attempt with the role and the other has many performances under his belt, they are both getting their first chance to work with guest Stage Director Dorothy Danner.\n"She has a very specific vision," Coppolo said.\nDanner has directed numerous operas with companies throughout the country since leaving her career as a singer and dancer on Broadway. A member of a particularly talented family of entertainers -- she is actress Gwyneth Paltrow's aunt -- Danner has created a unique theatrical experience for Bloomington operagoers.\n"She's had interesting insights," Springer said. "I've sung in many productions of 'Tosca,' but none with a dream sequence."\nDanner will give a pre-show information session on the third floor balcony one hour before each performance.\nGraduate students Reyna Carguil and Rachel Holland will play the role of Tosca. Carguil, who will perform with Springer on Friday night, has studied under faculty soprano Virginia Zeani, herself a celebrated interpreter of the role.\n"(Carguil's) nervous, but she's really blossoming into the role," Springer said.\n-- Contact staff writer Eric Anderson at eraander@indiana.edu .
Since her emergence onto the American classical music scene half a century ago, Madame Alicia de Larrocha has become a giant in the world of piano performance. The artist will hold a series of masterclasses in Auer Hall this week.\nHailed by New York critic Jay Nordlinger as "one of the most persistent, indefatigable, and, indeed, peripatetic of performers" of recent times, de Larrocha is making her appearance at the Summer Music Festival at the invitation of IU piano faculty member Edmund Battersby. Battersby first met de Larrocha about 30 years ago while he was a student at the Juilliard School.\n"To me, she's one of the great forces of piano playing of the century," Battersby said. "What I find remarkable about her is that she's retained a simplicity and humility toward art despite an extraordinary career, which is rare."\nBorn in Barcelona, Spain, in 1923, de Larrocha made her first public appearance at the age of 6. She gave her first American performance 24 years later in Los Angeles and returned in 1965 for a performance with the New York Philharmonic that established her as one of the world's leading classical artists. She has since performed regularly with some of the world's greatest orchestras, as well as at many prestigious music festivals. \nDe Larrocha is renowned for her interpretations of the works of Spanish composers such as Isaac Albeniz, Enrique Granadas and Alberto Ginastera. As one of the most recorded pianists in her field, she has recorded the complete Mozart piano sonatas as well numerous solo and chamber works on the Decca and, currently, RCA labels. De Larrocha's performances and recordings have won her many honors, including the Paderewski Prize, Franz Liszt Prize in Budapest and four Grammy Awards.\nBattersby said the School of Music Dean Gwyn Richards encouraged him to extend an invitation to de Larrocha.\n"I told (Richards) I would be in New York for her final concert, and he said 'Why don't you ask her to come?'" Battersby said. "And she was happy to do so."\nA masterclass is a seminar for advanced music students conducted by a master musician. De Larrocha's masterclass series will consist of eight, pre-auditioned participants, with repertoire ranging from Mozart to Ravel. Most of the works will be by the same Spanish composers de Larrocha has championed her entire career.\n"I am looking forward to (the classes) because I respect (de Larrocha)," senior piano student Travis Juergens said. "I think her masterclasses will be especially helpful because I have found that we, as musicians, have often forgotten that music is a language."\nDe Larrocha will conduct masterclasses from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. A daily auditor pass is available for those wishing to attend the masterclasses for $10. For further information, contact the School of Music's Office of Special Programs at 855-1814 or musicsp@indiana.edu. \n-- Contact staff writer Eric Anderson at eraander@indiana.edu .
Forty-nine summers ago, as the newly formed Beaux Arts Trio made its public debut at the Berkshire Music Festival, which is now the Tanglewood Music Festival, pianist Menahem Pressler had no idea he would still be performing with the same ensemble nearly half a century later.\n"I expected (the group) to last a week to make a record," Pressler said.\nThe week Pressler anticipated the group staying together multiplied into decades. The group has recorded an impressive discography covering the entire piano trio repertoire and made innumerable concert appearances all over the world.\nThe Beaux Arts Trio, which will perform at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Auer Hall at the IU School of Music, has earned an international name for itself. It has participated in many high-profile events including the centenary celebration of Carnegie Hall and the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. The late President Ronald Reagan honored the group at the commemoration of its 30th anniversary, and the Library of Congress named the group Congress' first trio-in-residence in 1982. It has been enthusiastically lauded by the press -- the recent addition of violinist Daniel Hope prompted attention from The Washington Post, which declared that "The Beaux Arts Trio has retained its almost utopian level of music-making."\nThis week, the music school is again hosting the trio as a part of its annual Summer Music Festival.\n"We're very excited to have them here," said Interim Marketing and Publicity Director Alain Barker.\nThe Beaux Arts Trio has had a long term relationship with the music school. Group members have associated with the IU since the school's inception. Two group members -- Pressler and the trio's original violinist Daniel Guilet -- have been full-time members of the music faculty. The group has been IU's resident trio during the summer.\nThe group has undergone a lot of changes over the past 49 years. These days Pressler is the sole founding member remaining in the group. The other members, British violinist Hope and Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses, have replaced other members over the years. \n"I am very fortunate to have these guys," Pressler said of his current partners.\nBoth of its newer members enjoyed successful solo careers before joining the group. Hope, who joined the ensemble in 2002 and is the group's youngest ever, previously worked under the wing of maestro Yehudi Menuhin. Meneses joined the group in 1998 and used to work with orchestras worldwide.\nThe trio, which normally performs at the Musical Arts Center, will hold their concerts at Auer Hall this summer, allowing for a an atmosphere more appropriate for chamber music.\n"(Auer Hall) is exceptional for its intimacy," Barker said. "It will be a unique experience for the Bloomington community -- one of the positive results of the move from the MAC."\n--Contact staff writer Eric Anderson at eraander@indiana.edu.
The IU School of Music made its usual summer foray into music theatre this weekend with its production of the 1963 musical "She Loves Me."\nSet in a Hungarian parfumery, designed to storybook perfection by faculty designer Robert O'Hearn, "She Loves Me" follows two sales clerks who, to the great amusement of the audience, despise each other in person while oblivious to the fact they are each other's amorous pen pals. The feeling of deja vu is no coincidence. The musical is based on the play "Parfumery" by Miklos Laszlo, which also beget a screen version -- the 1940 Jimmy Stewart classic "The Shop Around the Corner" -- which itself beget a remake in the form of the Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks film "You've Got Mail."\nWith such a classic love story -- not to mention a saccharin-sweet score by Jerry Bock, perhaps better known for his recently revived "Fiddler on the Roof" -- one would think a successful production would be an exercise of ease. But while O'Hearn's attractive and functional set and Michael Schwandt's subtle lighting design provided a greatly stylized ambience, the cast, under the direction of faculty member Vince Liotta, left just enough to be desired to prohibit calling the production a complete success.\nThe chorus was duly charming and in some instances provided greater expression than the leads they were purportedly supporting. Graduate student Benjamin Eley was serviceable at best in the role of Mr. Maraczek, the paternal parfumery owner. Graduate student Jacob Sentgeorge turned in a sadly unmotivated performance as senior sales clerk Ladislav Sipos, while graduate student Erik Friedman's swallowed sound hardly left anyone bereft when his character, the womanizing Steven Kodaly, made his song-and-dance farewell. Finally, while graduate student Courtney Crouse was at times adorable as the romantic heroine Amalia Balash, even her saddest and most contemplative moments remained merely the stuff of sappy love ballads.\nHowever, there were many performances of positive note. Graduate student Nicholas Provenzale was in great voice and even greater spirit as the romantic hero Georg Nowack. Also pleasing was graduate student Matthew Gailey's adorable interpretation of the maniacally ambitious delivery boy Arpad Laslo. \nAnother fine performance was offered by the always-charming senior Jennifer Feinstein as Ilona Ritter, the empty-headed sales clerk with a heart of gold and absolutely no taste in men. Feinstein showed herself to be one of those rare vocalists willing to lose themselves dramatically in a role, giving the audience an amusing trip to the library they won't soon forget. \nThe surprise scene-stealer of the evening was the consummately snooty head waiter, played hilariously by senior Brian Samarzea. To Bloomington's local theatre aficionados, Samarzea is best known for his recent association with the now defunct theatre company Bloomington Music Works. Now a student in the IU School of Music, he brought to the stage a level of dramatic commitment approached only by a handful of his fellow cast members. \nOperatic presentations can nearly be excused for their lack of dramatic quality for they presumably possess a fine enough score that music alone justifies the production's presence on stage. The existence of a book, however, rids a cast of this safety net and reveals none too subtly the failure of most vocalists to create a character dramatically as well as musically. This weekend's production was no doubt both charming and entertaining. It just can't be helped to wonder how much better similar productions will become once vocalists cease exercising dramatic restraint.
The many legends of the "Southern woman" fill the annals of most every medium -- from the girls of the WhistleStop Café in "Fried Green Tomatoes" to dark, tragic figures of Tennessee Williams' Blanche DuBois and William Faulkner's Miss Emily, from the vivacious women of "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" to the incarnation of the Southern woman herself, Miss Scarlett O'Hara. \nShe is the epitome of dignity and grace. She can bring down the whole of Atlanta with a single, scornful sneer, but in the next instant melt the hearts of the whole Confederate army with her honey-filled drawl. But above all else, she is strong.\nThis combination of beauty and strength, poise and purpose, finds the perfect title in Robert Harling's late-1980s play, "Steel Magnolias," which premiered at the Brown County Playhouse Friday, opening the venue's 56th season of summer theatre. The audience sat with rapt attention as the ups and downs of six witty, stubborn Southern women unfolded in the local beauty shop. \nTruvy, the shop's proprietor, was played ably by IU graduate student Allison Batty. Her grandly wigged and brightly clothed figure was an effervescent presence in the equally ludicrously bright beauty parlor, designed by IU Theatre and Drama Department's Assistant Technical Director I. Christopher Berg. \nAs the play begins, Truvy is joined by her newest employee, the homely and somewhat secretive Annelle, played adorably by senior Jessica Krueger. As we soon learn, Shelby, the play's diabetic heroine, is marrying later that day and must be prettied up in shades of "blush and bashful." Senior Stephanie Dodge gave a safe but effective performance as the ambivalent Shelby -- obstinate to a point, but ever afraid of her mother's disapproval.\nAdding a touch of gray to the ensemble were Clairee and Ouiser, played by Mary Carol Johnson and Diane Kondrat, respectively. One a wealthy former mayor's wife, the other an equally wealthy and inordinately grumpy caretaker of a particularly vicious dog, Clairee and Ouiser are a never-ending source of friendly bickering. Though Johnson and Kondrat's on-stage rapport was strained and often ill-timed, the dynamics of their characters nearly made up for it.\nCarmen Rae Meyers, who just recently completed her master's degree in acting at IU, turned in a magnificent performance as Shelby's overbearing but well-meaning mother M'Lynn. Meyers handled M'Lynn's many mood swings with the dignity and strength of a true Southern woman, at once scolding and comforting her daughter in the easy tones of what was the most believable approximation of a Southern accent all evening.\nThe women that populated the stage Thursday evening complemented the weary, yet vibrant beauty parlor with their own dramatic mix of humor, wisdom and worry -- not at all assisted, unfortunately, by a sadly uncreative lighting design that did nothing to enhance the many changes of season or mood. Their jokes often dragged -- in fact, were sometimes completely lost -- and their movements excessive to the point of distracting. However, all in all, a passable evening of entertainment was spent in the ladies' company. Certainly, Truvy and company would love for you to stop by.
Calling it one of its "most highly-requested shows," the IU Auditorium will host the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical RENT for the second time in only two-and-a-half years.\nRENT, written by the late Jonathan Larson, opened in 1996 and soon became a mega hit both on Broadway and across the country. Utilizing a pop-rock idiom and addressing contemporary issues such as AIDS, heroin and homosexuality, the show was as groundbreaking as it was entertaining. \n"RENT is about a community celebrating life in the face of death and AIDS at the turn of the century," wrote Larson several months before the show opened.\nThe question remaining, then, is how does RENT continue to speak to its audience now, four years into the new century? \nConnie Glen, adjunct lecturer in the School of Music, addresses RENT in her class, "The American Musical."\n"I think RENT is a terrific show," Glen said. "I suspect that it may have staying power because its characters have depth and its focus is on contemporary life problems and the music is engaging."\nGlen said the show's popularity is also due to the characters' relevance to ordinary life.\n"Audiences are drawn into the show because they like the characters, can relate to them and develop sympathy for them," she said.\nSome, like senior Brandon Combs, believe the show continues to speak on matters of cultural significance, even as it nears the ten-year mark of its existence.\n"RENT was very progressive at the time," Combs said. "As a society, we're still catching up to it."\nShortly after Larson's death on the eve of RENT's premiere, his family found the following statement on his computer: "In these dangerous times, where it seems the world is ripping apart at the seams, we can all learn how to survive from those who stare death squarely in the face every day and (we) should reach out to each other and bond as a community, rather than hide from the terrors of life at the end of the millennium."\n-- Contact staff writer Eric Anderson at erander@indiana.edu.
The events of Jose Cura's still-blossoming opera career have already become the stuff of legend:\nHe learned the role of Ruggero for Puccini's 'La Rondine' while performing in Verdi's 'La Forza del Destino' by attending 'Rondine' staging rehearsals in the basement of the opera house during the second act of 'Forza,' when his character was not present on stage.\nIn 1999, he made history at the Metropolitan Opera as only the second tenor in the company's history to debut on opening night (the first being the grandest of all tenors, Enrico Caruso, in 1902).\nJust a year ago, he further cemented himself into music mythology by first conducting Muscagni's one-act opera 'Cavelleria Rusticana' at the Hamburgische Staatsoper, then mounting the stage after intermission to perform the role of Canio in 'Pagliacci.'\nThe School of Music had the good fortune to catch this growing titan of the opera world between performances for a special guest lecture and masterclass. \nHis lecture, "Singer, Musician…Antonyms?", attracted a large and attentive crowd to Auer Concert Hall Sunday night, where Cura spoke for nearly two hours over the beginnings, triumphs and frustrations from his extensive career as a professional musician. \nSeated on the edge of the stage, dressed in a black sweater and blue jeans, Cura gazed at the seats directly in front of him.\n"Do you know how I feel coming out here to speak, only to find the first two rows empty," he asked in his strong Argentinean accent. "I refuse to start until you all move up and fill in the front rows.\n"You," he called to those in the balcony, "come down here, the ticket price is the same!"\nCura began the lecture with an interesting question.\n"How does the world regard tenors?" he asked. "Like a piece of shouting meat."\nFor the next hour and a half, Cura was part autobiographer, part philosopher, his penchant for storytelling never failing to deliver a comic anecdote or pearl of professional wisdom. \n"Study, work, bloody your fingers," Cura said. "That's the best luck in the world." \nProclaimed by many to be "a true renaissance man," the tenor certainly does not fall easily into any category. \nThough he is now famous for his interpretations of the great tenor roles -- among them Verdi's Otello and Saint-Saens' Samson, which he is currently performing at the Chicago Lyric Opera -- Cura actually began his musical studies with no aspiration to professional singing. \nHis first piano teacher rejected him for having, in Cura's own words, "no gift for music," and so he decided instead to study the guitar.\nErnesto Bitetti, a professor of guitar at the School of Music was instrumental in arranging Cura's visit and has been a long-term friend of the Cura family. He said he remembers young Jose in his pursuit of guitar mastery.\n"I've known him since he was 14 ... he was a very talented guitarist," Bitetti said. "Now, of course, he is better at his singing."\nIn fact, Cura was apparently so taken with the instrument he wrote a letter to the IU School of Music expressing interest in completing a guitar major at the Bloomington campus. (He was, unfortunately, rejected, as the school did not yet have a guitar performance program.)\nCura was soon studying conducting and composition and in 1991, at the insistence of a university choirmaster, departed for Europe to pursue a professional career in voice. The rest, as they say, is history.\nFor all his worldly experience and artistic expertise, Cura displays a remarkable ease with the students around him. \nTenor Emilio Pons, who was the first to sing in Monday morning's masterclass, was chastised by Cura for spending "half the aria deciding whether you were nervous or not."\nCura encouraged Pons to overcome his nerves by drawing a parallel to performing Verdi's 'Aida.' \n"When you open 'Aida,' [it's so difficult] you think 'f-k you, Verdi,'" he said, eliciting laughter from the audience gathered in Sweeney lecture hall. \n"People ask me what technique I use [to prepare]…there is only one technique," Cura said. "Balls."\n"[Cura] is very comfortable," said tenor Eduardo Gracia, who also sang for him that day. "He transmits calm." \nHis easy, straightforward and always diligent manner revealed itself again while Cura coached soprano Carelle Flores in interpreting the text of her Puccini aria.\n"Have you ever been kissed?" he asked her directly. "Was it a revelation of passion?\n"Come on," he said, responding to her embarrassed laughter, "haven't you ever made love? Of course not…you are all nuns here."\nIt is hard to believe that this man, himself so full of passion, still encounters more than his share of resistance in the music industry. \nToward the end of the 1990s, tired of his played-up image as the sex-symbol of opera, Cura declined to renew his contracts with both his agent and recording label. Now, there are opera houses that find it too politically unsavory to engage him. His CDs are harder to find. And yet, he has found a greater peace as a free agent opera star.\n"Now," he said, "I look in the mirror every morning and I am happy. I only go to sing where people want me to sing ... they're not there because they were invited.\n"Plus," he added, "I have contracts until 2010, so I can't complain."\nAnd his audience certainly had no complaints either.\n"Spectacular" was the word of choice for Marianne Kielian-Gilbert, a theory professor.\n"You never see this [kind of event]," she said. "This is right where it should be happening."\nCura concluded Monday's class by performing his final scene from Verdi's 'Otello' -- a scene that has garnered him both praise and criticism for his exceptionally theatrical interpretation. \nCura has brought an extensive amount of research and analysis to the role, not to mention a deep dramatic commitment -- and all were evident to the audience as he played out the suicide of Otello with such abandon as to suggest he had mistaken Sweeney Hall for the Teatro alla Scala. \nHaving heaved Otello's final breath, Cura looked up from the floor where he knelt, breathless from his exertion, and whispered: "If I continue singing for 20 years, it will be like this."\nHis audience, myself included, certainly hopes so.
Excepting the premiere of a new work, it is the accepted task of the critic to express his or her view on the performance of a work and not the work itself. But in the case of "Falstaff," Giuseppe Verdi's last opera, this limitation is difficult to abide by, for throughout the opera, it was the sheer buoyancy and brilliance of the music that left a lasting impression.\nThat being the case, the cast deserves every possible amount of credit, for they achieved that so-often-elusive, so-often-ignored goal of serving the music, and not the reverse. Their performance matched the sharpness and intelligence of the score on many levels and provided an excellent conclusion to the IU Opera Theatre's fall semester.\nFrom the very beginning, the stage action in both spirit and deed was well-suited to the levity of the score, played energetically throughout by the IU Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of maestro David Effron.\nThe appropriately rustic set was efficiently designed by faculty member Robert O'Hearn.\nHoward Swyers, as the pleasantly corpulent Sir John Falstaff, plunged immediately into deceitful hilarity by announcing his plans to seduce two different women, Alice Ford and Meg Page, by writing the exact same love letter to each.\nSwyers' energy was apparent, and his eagerness for the role suggests he will continue to find success with it as his voice will certainly continue to mature, allowing his sound to match the physical size, and age of the character.\nUpon discovering the identical nature of their letters, Alice and Meg, sung by Carol Dusdieker and Kate Lindsey, respectively, embark upon a voyage of comic revenge. They are accompanied by Alice's daughter, Nanetta, played adorably by Samantha Malk, and their companion Dame Quickly, whose assertive portrayal by Patricia Thompson neatly rounded this quartet of conniving women with far too much time on their hands.\nLindsey, blessed with natural dramatic flair and comedic sense -- not to mention a lusciously rich mezzo tone -- played an excellent sidekick to Dusdieker. Her full, mature sound gave an appropriate sense of allure and full-grown femininity to the clever mastermind Alice, who arranges a faux-tryst with the arrogant and clueless Falstaff.\nIt is this rendezvous that builds to the true dramatic triumph of the opera. Here the dishonorable knight finds himself hiding from Alice's enraged husband in an unusually large laundry basket emptied from the window into the river below, much to the glee of all present.\nThe scene, complete with little white lies, clandestine love-making and inadvertent tumbles up the stairs, was executed with remarkable precision, though not without some slight stumbling in the interplay between cast and orchestra.\nHaving been ceremoniously dumped into the river and thoroughly chilled to the bone, Falstaff is convinced to attempt another meeting with Alice, this time in the "haunted" Windsor Woods. The forest scene, reminiscent of Shakespeare's magical "A Midsummer Night's Dream," gives Malk her proudest moment.\nHere, dressed as the Fairy Queen, Nanetta sings to a children's chorus of pixies and various and sundry forest creatures, exhorting them to "weave words with pure gold and silver." The aria is arguably the most beautiful, even sublime, moment in the opera, and Malk's performance was truly mesmerizing. \nOnce surrounded by this host of "fairies" and such, Falstaff is hilariously harassed to the point of repentance and finally decries his lifestyle of trickery.\nActing as a foil character to Falstaff is Alice's husband and Nanetta's father, Lord Ford, sung by Soon Young Park. Ford attempts amidst the masquerading in the forest to deceptively perform a wedding ceremony between his daughter and her arranged fiancée, Dr. Caius.\nOnce again, Verdi's quartet of heroines emerges victorious by turning Ford's trickery back on him. \nAs the grand finale to Verdi's great farce, Falstaff leads the company in a choral fugue declaring, in a comic twist of perhaps Shakespeare's most famous quip, "All the world is a jest, and man born a natural jester."\nThat Verdi could manage to muster this amount of humor in the twilight of his life should serve as a lesson to those bogged down in the twilight of the fall semester.
Tonight at the Musical Arts Center, the IU Opera Theater will open its production of Giuseppe Verdi's comedic masterpiece and final opera, "Falstaff."\n"I've wanted to write a comic opera for 40 years; I've known 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' for 50," Verdi wrote to a music critic in 1890, 11 years before his death. "However, the usual 'buts' … always prevented me from satisfying this wish of mine. Now (Arrigo) Boito (the librettist) has resolved all the 'buts' and has written me a lyric comedy quite unlike any other … The opera is entirely comic!"\nThe plot, loosely contrived from characters and events from Shakespeare's "Merry Wives of Windsor" and "Henry IV," begins with old Sir John Falstaff attempting to unwittingly seduce two different women by sending them two identical love letters. Deception, jealously, debauchery and all-around chaos ensues.\nThis comic nature brings a sense of energy and excitement to the opera, said conductor David Effron.\n"It's an incredibly youthful work," Effron said. "It's hard to believe it was written by someone of his age ... Some people say it's his greatest opera." \nThe opera is not without its many formidable challenges, said graduate student Kate Lindsey.\n"There are many complicated ensembles," she said. "We are constantly interacting with each other as an ensemble, and it is essential that we are connecting with our colleagues onstage."\nLindsey will be singing the role of Meg in both Friday performances. \n"She is one of the women that Falstaff is trying to seduce," Lindsey said. "(She) plots with her girlfriends about how to get back at Falstaff."\nSir John Falstaff, the title role and object of Meg and company's devious plotting, is a unique dramatic character, said director Vince Liotta, who has directed around two dozen operas since joining IU's music faculty in 1995.\n"Falstaff is a hybrid," Liotta said. "In 'Merry Wives of Windsor,' Falstaff is just a buffoon; in the "Henry IV" he's something of a scoundrel, but he also is a person of much more depth of character. What Boito did was take the personality of Falstaff from the Henry plays and put it into the context of 'Merry Wives.'"\nSinging the part of Falstaff for the Saturday performances will be baritone Timothy Noble, a voice faculty member who has made Falstaff his signature role. \nIn recent years, as the caliber of student performers has steadily increased, the practice of having faculty members perform lead roles has all but disappeared. In this case, however, Noble's presence in the cast proved a valuable learning experience.\n"There are certain distinct advantages to having a faculty member sing this role," said Effron. "You can't help but be infected by it and learn things from him."\nLiotta agreed.\n"Falstaff is a larger-than-life role … and you can do a lot more with it than sing it as an homage to Verdi," he said. "(Through working with Noble), students see how bold you can be, have to be to give a successful performance."\nNoble said he views rehearsing with the cast of students, some of whom have had little stage experience, as a chance to teach these budding professionals about the "baptism of fire" that is the production process.\n"I've really enjoyed the educational process," Noble said.\n"This whole learning process has been relaxed, yet productive." Lindsey said. "We have worked to create a production in which the audience can just sit back, relax and laugh a little or a lot!"\nThe opera will be performed at the Musical Arts Center Nov. 14, 15, 21 and 22 on Jordan Avenue. Tickets are available in the MAC Box Office, or by calling Ticketmaster at 812-333-9955. \n-- Contact staff writer Eric Anderson at eraander@indiana.edu.
Composer Claude Debussy's spirit of musical pioneering was part of a discussion at Sunday's faculty recital in Auer Concert Hall, the first of a three-recital series entitled, "Debussy Festival: A celebration of the music, art, and era of Claude Debussy."\nThe festival, an extension of the Honors College H203 course "Debussy and His Era," is the brainchild of piano professor Jean-Louis Haguenauer and comparative literature professor David M. Hertz, who teaches the course. The two met a year ago through a mutual friend and discovered a shared interest in and expertise on Debussy's music. As a result of this chance meeting, and its many ensuing discussions, the concept of a course focusing specifically on Debussy, his music and his historical and cultural context became a reality.\n"The idea was to begin with the study of a single important composer in the classroom and learn about his music and his culture," Hertz said. "Many courses in both of our fields don't allow for such a detailed study of one figure, with enough time left over to look at parallel trends in the various arts."\nThe course also has given students a unique opportunity to make connections with other genres.\n"Sometimes you study art and just art; or you study literature and just literature … (the course) has a way of bringing it all together," said junior English major Thade Correa, who is Hertz's teaching assistant.\nThe natural outcome of such an interdisciplinary approach, in Hertz's and Haguenaur's view, was this series of performances that would illustrate on stage what was being taught in the classroom.\n"The festival was a key goal from the beginning, but the course was a means of getting ready and creating a link between learning and performing," Hertz said.\nThat link having been forged, the festival got under way Sunday with a recital featuring performances from half a dozen music faculty and an introductory lecture by Hertz. The lecture -- reflecting the program's title, "Debussy: Musician of 'Plaisir' and Musical Adventurer" -- focused on two facets of Debussy's style of composition: the one that loved sensual pleasure, and the other that was not afraid of forging ahead as an avant-garde composer. \nThe lecture was then followed by four "Preludes," performed by Haguenauer, and Debussy's masterpiece for solo flute, "Syrinx," performed by Kathryn Lukas.\nHertz returned to the stage to introduce the works for voice and piano as examples of Debussy's ability to write with "more luxurious" sonorities and textures in comparison to his contemporary Gabriel Faure, whose songs were also performed to demonstrate the contrast. Soprano Mary Ann Hart first sang Debussy's "Trois" melodies and followed it with both Debussy's and Faure's settings of the Verlaine poems "En sourdine" and "Clair de lune." \nHertz pointed out in his remarks that Faure's writing makes clear the boundaries between melody and accompaniment, whereas, Hart said, "with Debussy, there is no melody, only music."\nThe second half of the program began with tenor Allen Bennett's performance of Faure's song cycle La Bonne chanson, which displays Faure's mastery of traditional writing, yet also a certain originality that brings a sense of what Bennett refers to as "over-abundant joy."\nThe recital concluded with one of Debussy's latest works, the "Sonata for Violin and Piano," performed by violinist Federico Agostini and pianist Edmund Battersby.\nThe final two performances of the series will take place at 8 p.m. tonight and at 4 p.m., Dec. 6, at Auer Concert Hall in the School of Music.\n-- Contact staff writer Eric Anderson at eraander@indiana.edu.
The wine of youth is fermenting tonight in the banks of God."\nWith these words, Atar Arad introduced an evening of wonderful viola music, erupting immediately into the opening strains of Rebecca Clarke's "Sonata for Viola and Piano" and concluding nearly an hour and a half later with the playful Bela Bartok "Sonatina." It was an amazing performance, in the truest sense of the word.\nThere was but one problem.\nYou see, when presenting a critique of an artist such as Arad, there arises a unique challenge: when a performer's reputation is solidly established -- and has been, in fact, for many years -- how can one possibly praise him without repeating what is already seemingly obvious to the rest of his audience? His stage presence, his technical facility, his interpretive maturity -- they are all to be expected from a veteran performer of so many decades.\nWhat remains, then -- what sets Arad apart -- is the passion he holds for his music and his instrument that brings newness to everything he plays. The passion that possesses his audience like a contagion and holds them in a state so taut, averting one's eyes seems irreverent.\nFrom the beginning, the Clarke sonata, described by Arad as a "masterpiece of the viola," was performed with a remarkable evenness of tone and confidence. The second movement was a well-coordinated conversation between viola and piano; the third, nostalgic without being sentimental.\nThe second sonata on the program was a work of George Rochberg, the only living composer on the program, other than Arad himself. Arad brought intense drama to the opening of this piece, while bringing a spiritual, almost funereal timbre to the Adagio.\nA bit of musical theme from each of these sonatas was then given a new setting in what turned out to be the real treat of the evening -- Arad's own caprices.\nEach of the four caprices is named after a composer of a famous viola piece. The first and third are called "Rebecca" and "George," respectively, and feature a musical "quote" from the sonatas also on the program. The other two, "William (Walton)" and "Bela (Bartok)" make reference to these two composers' well-known viola concerti.\nArad's expressed desire of combining technical and musical expression was surely realized in what will hopefully be the first of many similar short works for the viola. His long-standing familiarity with the instrument combined masterfully with a creative mind to produce a set of pieces that is certain to become a new standard of the viola repertoire.
Atar Arad, a professor of viola at IU's School of Music, will be presenting a recital Sunday of 20th century works, including four original compositions.\nA former prize-winner at the Geneva International Viola Competition and frequent recording artist, Arad has established himself as one of the music world's "foremost violists performing today," according to radio station WFIU.\n"(He is) a wonderful, dazzling musician whose personality is as wonderful as his playing," colleague and voice professor Alice Hopper said.\nArad's interests are not restricted to merely playing the viola, but extend to writing for it as well.\n"I have this habit of playing the instrument and improvising," Arad said. "Before I knew it, instead of my instrument, I was holding a pen and music paper."\nA self-described "late bloomer," Arad has discovered new ways to express himself through composition. His first piece, completed in 1992, was a sonata for solo viola, a composite of his many improvisations. \n"With the food came the appetite," Arad said.\nSince the completion of his sonata, he has composed a string quartet which he said was "one of the most exciting things of my life" and the four caprices he will perform in his recital Sunday. \nHis earlier works, particularly the sonata, reveal his native Israel to be a source of inspiration. \n"Very quickly, I discovered that what I was writing expressed something else than just the technique of the viola …" Arad said. "It was mainly a feeling of Israel and Israeli music of the '50s and '60s." \nThis musical culture in which he grew up was a result of the mass migration to the infant nation in the years following the Holocaust. Countless Eastern European Jews found a new home in Israel and strove to create a new, distinct sound, he said. \nWhat resulted was what Arad calls an "attractive mish-mash" of styles, incorporating the sounds of the Arabs, Bedouins, and other regional flavors, while drawing from the music traditions of Eastern European and Balkan nations, including his mother's native Bulgaria.\n"I really wanted to do something which reflects the technique of the viola," he said of the caprices, his most recent compositions, " ... and also to do something where you don't know if the importance is in the musical ideas or the technical expression. ... Hopefully, the two will go together." \nAs a model, Arad uses violinist Niccolo Paganini's set of 24 caprices as well as Frederic Chopin's catalog of piano etudes, describing each as a masterpiece of both musical integrity and technical facility. \nIn addition to using existing repertoire as a formal model, Arad inserts bits and pieces of famous viola works, including two of the sonatas on the program, into each caprice.\nHe said he hopes eventually to have a complete set of 24 caprices as well as a viola concerto. \n"I'm just having fun writing for the instrument," he said.\n-- Contact staff writer Eric Anderson at eraander@indiana.edu.
