Kristof Barati takes a ride through Ernst’s arrangment of Schubert’s “Der Erlkönig.” The violin is a Guarneri made in 1741.
Guest blog: River North Dance Chicago launches Laguna Dance Festival
Laura Bleiberg reviews:
River North Dance Chicago on Thursday kicked off day one of Laguna Dance Festival. This is the festival’s seventh season of dance performances, master classes and collaborations with art galleries, all in Laguna Beach.
River North has been a regular visitor to Southern California in the past six months, with shows at the Cerritos Center and the Smothers Theatre in Malibu. The audience cheered lustily, nonetheless, when festival founder and artistic director Jodie Gates announced that this was River North’s first time in Laguna Beach. And there’s the draw of this plucky festival, which moves this year from the high school auditorium to the slightly smaller, but more suitable Laguna Playhouse.
Laguna Dance Festival draws a small crowd, but it’s an intense and proudly local one. Never mind if not every show is an exclusive event; it’s more important that they have come to Laguna Beach. But more on the festival in a bit.
River North is a going-on-23-year-old jazz and contemporary dance company, its roots not unlike those of its more established cross-town cousin, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Artistic director Frank Chaves choreographs for the jazz side of the repertory. His work tends to be balletic and lyrical, as we saw in the multi-section show-closer, “Habaneras, The Music of Cuba,” the swirling, overstuffed duet “Sentir Em Nos,” and a second duet, for a charmingly smitten couple, performed to “At Last,” that Etta James signature song (all the music was recorded).
Opera News: ‘Maria de Buenos Aires’
I’m not sure why Opera News does this, but then I’m sure about a lot of things these days. The venerable publication has just put my review of Long Beach Opera’s January production of Piazzolla’s tango operita Maria de Buenos Aires online, though I wrote and delivered it months ago. The review is only available online to subscribers and will not appear in the print publication.
Maybe it’s because my prose is timeless. Yeah, that’s it.
Anyway, if you’re a subscriber to the magazine, you can click here to read my review.
Ruggiero Ricci plays Paganini
The Caprice No. 5.
Vintage baseball cards
As part of my relentless effort to increase page views, I have put together a slide show of vintage baseball cards for today’s Orange County Register online, just in time for opening day of the Angels.
No, I’m actually not a huge baseball fan (though I enjoy it), nor am I a particularly knowledgeable historian of the game.
But putting together this slide show of old baseball cards from the Library of Congress collection and searching for information on the players, some quite obscure, turned out to be a pretty fun job. I’ll not forget Dummy Hoy. The captions to the slides contain the information I gleaned over the last few weeks.
Click here to see Antique baseball cards: From Cy to Ty with Angels in between
Hilary Hahn plays ‘Der Erlkonig’
Worth hearing again. Hilary Hahn plays Ernst’s transcription for solo violin of Schubert’s song Der Erlkonig.
Alsop, Baltimore Symphony play Copland, Tower, Higdon and Prokofiev
In today’s Orange County Register online, I review last night’s performance by the Baltimore Symphony in Segerstrom Concert Hall.
Click here to read my review, or pick up a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper.
Note: In the print above, the main building of the Peabody Conservatory of Music is directly to the left of the monument, kitty-corner. It’s still very much there, as is the monument. I lived on campus, now basically the entire square block, for two years when I studied there.
Wagnerhaus, March 26, 2006
Six years ago today. Photos by me. You may click on the photos for larger views.
Update: It has come to my attention that March 26, 2006 was a Sunday. I wrote the item below for my blog on March 25, but was unable to post it until the 26th.
Saturday was a free day in Lucerne for the musicians, so many of them went gadding about, shopping, skiing, museum-hopping. A few visited one of classical music’s holy shrines: Richard Wagner’s home in Lucerne, pictured above as it looked on Saturday around, well, I’d say 12:30-ish. It was about a 35-minute walk from the Palace Hotel, where half of the orchestra and a certain music critic were staying.
The house, known as Tribschen, is now home to a modest museum. The cashier’s room was Wagner’s bedroom. King Ludwig II, Wagner’s patron, slept in the so-called Green study, a small room now with glass cases holding Wagnerian mementos and old etchings on the walls. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche also visited here, as did Franz Liszt. Wagner’s old Erard piano (on which he completed “Die Meistersinger”) sits in the living room, along with the original manuscript of “Siegfried-Idyll.” The composer lived in Lucerne from 1866-1872, married Cosima von Bülow, Liszt’s daughter, in a Lucerne church, and his son, Siegfried, was born at Tribschen. Siegfried’s room, by the way, is now the repository of stacks of folding chairs.
Approaching Tribschen
Inside Tribschen. Wagner's Erard piano is in the corner.
Manuscripts in Wagner's hand. I believe that is 'Siegfried Idyll' on the bottom.
The office at Tribschen
Looking back at Lucerne from Tribschen
Pacific Symphony premieres Danielpour oratorio, celebrates Nowruz
In today’s Orange County Register online, I review last night’s Pacific Symphony concert, which featured the world premiere of a new work by Richard Danielpour and the Shams Ensemble.
Click here to read my review, or pick up a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper.
Martha Argerich plays Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6
We haven’t heard Martha in a while … this is from 1966.
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