| John R. Pierce My e-mail address: johnrpierce@yahoo.com |
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| If you like what you are reading at johnrpierce.com, if you would like to see the site continue to grow, and if you believe that johnrpierce.com is providing a worthwhile service, please give us a hand and contribute to the site. A donation of just $10 or $25 will prove immensely helpful towards enabling us to continue and to expand. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Friday night December 13, 2002, I attended a performance of Handel’s Messiah by Boston Baroque at Jordan Hall in Boston. The audience size appeared to be close to the capacity of the hall. There were a few empty seats here and there. I don’t know whether they were unsold or whether they belonged to subscribers who chose not to come. The audience was better dressed than your usual Jordan Hall audience. Apparently many people consider the Messiah something of a Christmas event for which they dress up somewhat. When the four soloists and the conductor walked onto the stage, I thought that the tenor Stanford Olsen had changed so much as to appear a completely different person. And it was a different person. Martin Pearlman, the conductor, announced that Stanford Olsen (whose name appeared in the program) would not be there, and that Carl Halvarson would be singing instead. The orchestra, chorus, and soloists were all very competent. However, neither the overall performance nor any of the soloists moved me very much. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood. The chorus, as well as soprano Esther Heideman, tenor Carl Halvarson, and bass-baritone Kevin Deas all enunciated the text very clearly and projected their voices well. A few of the soprano’s high notes did not sound very pleasant to me. The mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Shammash had the most attractive-sounding voice of the soloists, but her enunciation was not always as clear as one might have wished. In her first two airs, she did not project her voice quite enough and did not make quite the effect that many mezzos achieve. I have no idea how much rehearsal there was, but maybe there could have been even more. I wonder whether the tempo could have been adjusted to better suit the singer’s ability and to produce better dramatic effect. In the rest of the performance, she projected her voice well enough and seemed also to improve her enunciation. |
| "On Monday [December 16, 2002] it was announced that the Ondine recording of soprano Soile Isokoski singing Richard Strauss's Orchestral Songs, including the Vier letze Lieder, had been voted Classical Album of the Year for 2002 by the users of the BBC's website," reports Helsingin Sanomat. |
| The new film Chicago may revive the Hollywood musical genre, says a Reuters article. |
| On the night of December 25, 2002, many of the television stations affiliated with the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) broadcast a San Francisco Opera performance of Lehar’s The Merry Widow. Yvonne Kenny, in the title role, does not have a beautiful voice and appears older than is ideal for the role, but has an attractive stage presence that eventually won me over to her performance. Bo Skovhus, as Danilo, has an attractive voice and is very good-looking. He was, in my opinion, the most satisfactory member of the cast. I am very familiar with recordings of Die Lustige Witwe with sopranos such as Emmy Loose and Barbara Bonney in the role of Valencienne. It is a mystery to me why the San Francisco Opera chose to cast a mezzo, Angelika Kirchschlager, in the role, since the sparkling duets with tenor Camille de Rossillon seem to call for a soprano soubrette, not a mezzo. Nonetheless, Kirchschlager did a good job and created a sympathetic character, to the extent possible in such a story. Gregory Turay, a tenor that I liked very much in a live performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Boston’s Symphony Hall, did not make quite a strong enough impression as Camille. He would have looked better without the pencil-line moustache. The performance held my attention throughout (which is a lot more than I can say of many recent Met television broadcasts) and was quite enjoyable. The sets and costumes were especially good. |
| Thank you very much! During 2002, visitors to this site have bought various items from amazon.com and other retailers. Of the items purchased from amazon.com by visitors to this site, the following are the most popular in each of the categories listed: Music Debut--Nathan Gunn--"American Anthem" from Ragtime to Art Song Books Getting Them Sober: You Can Help! and Marriage on the Rocks and Under the Influence: A Guide to the Myths and Realities of Alcoholism Video Mozart--The Magic Flute DVD Verdi--Rigoletto--Chailly, Pavarotti, Wixell, Gruberova, Vienna Philharmonic and Puccini--La Bohème--Baz Luhrmann, The Australian Opera Kitchen Simply Calphalon Nonstick Anodized Collector's Edition 12-Inch Round Griddle Downloadable Software Typing Quick & Easy 12 Thank you again! |