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Words And Music Belong Together

I have to admit that I find OPERA and MUSICALS the most stimulating of art forms. My life has been totally braided with literature and music since the summer of 1953; nothing compares with the best combinations of words and theater and music. While I do indeed prefer being in the audience at a local live performance, I have listened to the MET opera radio broadcasts since the summer of 1963. For the past nine years, I have been willingly seduced by New York City’s Metropolitan Opera “Live in HD” series.

To date, ninety-one Saturday matinee performances at the MET have been broadcast on screen to more than 2,000 movie theaters worldwide. To reinforce - these are not recordings. They are, more or less, closed circuit TV broadcasts of the live matinee performance taking place in New York City, USA, occasional foibles, last minute substitutes, and all. Intermissions are filled with backstage interviews and shifting of sets unseen to those in the MET audience.

This past Saturday featured a performance of Giuseppi Verdi’s setting of “Otello,” W. Shakespeare’s powerful tragedy of jealousy, innocence, and malevolence, sung by a stellar cast of singer/actors. For three hours and fifteen minutes I was completely absorbed in the opera. About forty-five men and women were in the Duluth audience, listening to Desdemona declare her love for Otello, and Otello declare his (deceived) mistrust of her fidelity, having been poisoned by the wickedness of Iago, his ‘trusted’ naval colleague.

I certainly recommend these performances, having attended nearly all of them to date. The theater, the parking, the price, the wine, make these Saturdays very special. On October 31, Richard Wagner’s epic “Tannhäuser” will air at 11am.  Alban Berg’s challenging opera “Lulu” will appear at 11:30am on November 21. More will follow in the new year, and we are fortunate in Duluth to be included by the Marcus Theaters in these amazing productions.

Final (Musical) Revelations By Two Geniuses

On the home front, the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra offered W. A. Mozart and P. Tchaikovsky this past Saturday evening. Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony (No. 41) had a nice chamber intimacy, and stayed effervescent right to the conclusion. This was Mozart’s final symphonic production, hence its inclusion in the ‘Final Revelations’ concert theme.

The other symphony was the Sixth Symphony by Peter Tchaikovsky. The composer conducted the premier performance on October 28, 1893. Nine days later, November 6, 1893, he was dead, most likely by an embarrassed choice of suicide. Conductor/Music Director Dirk Meyer offered the most intimate and most emotional performance of this work I have ever heard.

The first movement is both, with an initial intimacy that later explodes with colorful energy before returning to the intimacy of the opening. Tchaikovsky was a complete master of using orchestral instruments for their rich differences in sound. Principal clarinetist Jennifer Gerth shared exquisite solo passages in both the first and third movements. The strings and the brass, meanwhile, were very crisp during the agitated section of the first movement.

The second movement is almost a waltz, except that Tchaikovsky created it with a consistent pulse based on five beats, rather than three. A certain unevenness captures all the dancers as they might attempt to portray this on the dance floor. The third movement is a whirling dervish from start to finish. Meyer’s tempo was exhilarating, and I knew the audience would jump to applause at its conclusion. They did.

But the fourth movement, ‘Adagio lamentoso’, must cool the enthusiasm, and bring the house back to the poignant intimacy of the first movement. With melodies, harmonies, and tears filling the DECC Symphony Hall equally, the emotional intensity of Tchaikovsky exited the stage in near silence. While we are not really ready for Tchaikovsky’s death, we were certainly made aware of his personal struggles during his 53rd year of life. This was an unforgettable performance by the DSSO.