Light Up the Sky lights up Lyric Stage

The Lyric Stage's revival of Moss Hart's charming comedy Light Up the Sky is aptly named, as the cast in this fast-paced comedy make for a delightful evening's entertainment. The play tells the story of a pre-Broadway Boston tryout of a new play by a neophyte playwright. The characters include the playwright, an over-the-top director who cries at the drop of a hat, the producer and his wife who have put up the money after reading the script, the leading lady and her dull stockbroker husband and her caustic mother, as well as an accomplished playwright who acts as a form of Greek chorus, a visiting Shriner and a new grad who is ghost-writing the leading lady's autobiography. The opening appears to be a flop and the the three main experienced characters berate the playwright, who decides to give it all up and go home. The morning papers, however, give the show rave reviews and so they must convince the playwright to return.
The lines are witty, the acting superb, and the time just flies by.  A wonderful ending to the 2014-15 season.

Spanish Baroque at Jordan Hall

As part of the Boston Early Music Festival, Jordi Savall and his ensemble joined with the Tembembe ensemble to perform a feast of early Hispanic music on a variety of period instruments. Despite the logistic flaws (more on that below), it was received with thunderous applause. Mr Savall, of course, is one of the great names in early music. A gambist, he has been performing widely since the 1970's with his group Hespérion XXI. Mr. Savall played a treble viol built in Venice around 1500 and a bass viol built in 1697. His ensemble played a variety of percussion instruments, guitars, theorbo and vihuela. Joining them was the Tembembe Ensamble from Mexico, all teachers at the National University, playing a variety of guitars, violin, and maracas and singing. The first half of the concert included four lengthy pieces from the 16th and 17th centuries, and after intermission began with some traditional Scottish pieces transcribed from bagpipe to viol. They then returned to their Spanish roots, and even favored the appreciative audience with an encore. The playing was sublime, and the few vocal pieces featured Tembembe members with superb tenor voices. The only fly in the ointment was the amateurish logistics. I dropped my wife off 30 minutes before concert time, with everyone milling about in the street and returned about 15 minutes later to find the doors just opened and the audience sent in a conga line down and back a long corridor to be checked slowly in by two ticket checkers. After intermission, Mr Savall made a number of remarks about the instruments and introduced the players, but even though we were in the 11th row dead center, I could barely hear half of what he said. Surely a microphone could have been made available! Jordan hall was almost 100% filled. If you plan to go next year, get your tickets early!

Classic Pops - why we love it

Thursday, June 4 was Tech Night at Pops - all of Symphony Hall was filled with MIT alumni back for reunion. The program was varied and lovely. After a lively Festive Overture by Shostakovich we had the haunting Ayesh's Dance and Lezghinka by Aram Khachaturian. This was followed by Stokowski's transcription for orchestra of Bach's Toccata and Fugue; this was BSO playing at its finest - you could actually "hear" the organ. The final selection before intermission was a fascinating diversion: the ensemble Gamelan Galak Tika, a nine-member group playing the traditional Balinese gamelan - a sort of ancient xylophone struck by hammers - played a selection from a concerto for gamelan and string orchestra. The audience was mesmerized. Starting the second half was the MIT school song and then an MIT senior, John Bowler, soloed in the first movement of Grieg's wonderful Piano Concerto in A minor. Having been subjected to various "talents" from sponsoring organizations, I was skeptical, but was wowed by the virtuoso performance. Mr Bowler could probably give up engineering and make his way on the concert stage if he desired. The finale of the concert was three Pops renditions of popular music from the past - with a twist, that Keith Lockhart gave us each time three selections from which to choose and used audience voting to make the choice. There are not many venues in which one could hear the Toccata and Fugue and Dancing Queen on the same program! All in all, one of the best Pops concerts we have heard.

La Juive - powerful theatre

We were lucky to be in Nice, France, this May when Halevy's opera La Juive had four performances at the Nice Opera House. Written in 1835, this opera was widely performed for the next 100 years and then fell out of favor. The recent staging packed a powerful punch. The basic story line is a variation on the eternal triangle with racism thrown in. Rachel, the daughter of the Jewish goldsmith Eleazar, is in love with "Samuel," who is actually the Christian general Leopold, just returned from vanquishing the Hussites, but who claims to be Jewish to win her favor. He attends a Passover Seder wearing a skull cap but remaining silent during prayers and trying to discard his matzoh. Also in love with Leopold is the princess Eudoxie, who asks Eleazar to make a pendant for her fiancee. Rachel denounces Leopold at the banquet as having slept with a Jew, her. Rachel, her father and Leopold are all condemned. Eudoxie visits the doomed Rachel and begs her to recant to save Leopold and after much soul-searching, Rachel does just that. A twist is that the leader of the Christians is Cardinal Brogni, who came late to the clergy after his family and possessions were burned by invaders. Eleazar tells him that his daughter was actually saved by a Jew and that he knows their whereabouts, but refuses to tell him as punishment. Eleazar asks his daughter if she will save her life by converting but she refuses. At the final scene, Rachel is cast into the flames and then Eleazar tells Brogni that it is HIS daughter who is dying. All of the lead roles had powerful voices and all wonderfully expressive faces that added to the drama. The Nice Opera Orchestra was superb. The only detraction was the heat in the venue, which is beautiful but lacked functioning air conditioning. If you have the chance to see this opera, grab it.

NBSO Goes Out With Flare

The final New Bedford Symphony concert of the 2014-15 season was a bell-ringer! First up was Berlioz' Roman Carnival Overture, a fast-paced orchestral piece featuring brass and full percussion. Flawlessly paced and played, it got the audience "up" for the rest of the evening. This was followed by Edward Elgar's deeply moving Cello Concerto, a work that became the "signature piece" of famed cellist Jacqueline du Pre. The concerto was composed just after WW I, and the tragic loss of lives in that conflict clearly influenced Elgar's composition. The magic was briefly interrupted by a broken string, but the professionalism of soloist and orchestra allowed them to pick up and finish while returning the audience to intense contemplation. The solist, Jesus Castro-Balbi, was flawless in his interpretation. After intermission came Borodin's In the Steppes of Central Asia, with its evocation of endless open spaces and horsemen, a beautiful and well-known classic work. Again the orchestra played to perfection. The final work was The Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi. This saw the return of a full, and I mean full, orchestra. We had multiple percussionists on stage, a brass section playing off stage and Paul Cienniwa on the organ. The work also allowed several of the woodwind players to show off their talents. The rousing finish left the audience breathless and on their feet. I look forward the next, centennial season with great anticipation.

Handel & Haydn finishes with a flourish

During their bicentennial season, H&H have brough out all the "big guns." Last month was Elijah, and the final concert of the season was Haydn's The Creation. In additon to the always-splendid H&H chorus, this wortk requires top-notch soloists, and we were not disappointed. Tenor Jeremy Uriel, a newcomer to H&H but not to the concert stage, was a fine Uriel. Sarah Tynan, a British soprano, was another newcomer to the H&H, but also a seasoned operatic performer. Her voice soared but the words were often lost in her trills. Heading the cast as Raphael and Adam was bass-baritone Matthew Brook. His expressive facial gestures added a touch of whimsy to the performance as he described the arrival on earth of the nimble stag and the burrowing worm. All three voices were sublime, as was the chorus. The H+H orchestra gave a flawless performance, and we got to hear featured the forte piano played by Ian Watson accompanying many of the recitals. A fitting ending to a celebratory season.

BSO starts slow, finishes strong

The week 26 performance featured several old "war horses," in performers and selections. The guest conductor was Bernard Haitink, the renowned Dutch conductor who has been on the podium for 60 years, and the pianist was Maria Joao Pires. The opener was the Overture to Manfred by Schumann. As one would expect from the BSO, it was beautifully played, but had little character and sounded like background or movie music. Next up was Mozart's Piano Concerto #23. As Ms. Pires is a Mozart specialist, the piece was technically perfect. Unfortunately, it is a "small" piece, almost more of a chamber music piece, that was not well-suited for Symphony Hall. The pianist got a well-deserved ovation, but we finished the first half somewhat disappointed and bored. Fortunately the second half was a rousing rendition of Brahms' Symphony #1, often referred to as "Beethoven's 10th," reflecting the weight of expections that had been placed on Brahms' shoulders. He took five years to complete the work, and it is monumental. Fully orchestrated, the piece more than filled the hall, and was a suitable last concert for our BSO subscription.