posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel
Today, June 29, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Bernard Herrmann, best known for his scores for Psycho, not to mention 67 other films. Today on KUAT-FM, we're celebrating the occasion by sampling several of his film scores through the day, and also looking into his concert-hall works: among them a garitty sinfonietta for string orchestra and a lovely clarinet quintet called "Souvenir de Voyage," a bittersweet work that should appeal to anyone who loves the Brahms Clarinet Quintet. Stay tuned.
Classical Music,
June 29th 2011 at 6:14 —
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Your friendly neighborhood members of Congress are on recess for the Independence Day weekend. But wait; isn't Independence Day next weekend? Like four days from now?
Yes, but they needed an early start so they could meet and greet their constituents, none of whom should be too happy with what these public non-servants are doing at the moment.
It's one week since the big Republican walkout from the negotiations dealing with the federal budget deficit and the debt, which now has cleared the ceiling and is poking skyward through the shingles.
Our very own Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ, was the last to depart the talks on behalf of his party. Should make all Arizonans feel proud.
And then there was Rep. Raúl Grijalva's countenance on the local TV news Monday evening touting a new solar energy facility in Tucson as he stood in the shade on a 112-degree day. Repeat: He was in Tucson. Not in Washington where the work needs to be done.
Appropriately, during Grijalva's time on camera, a freight train blew its whistle and rumbled by in the background.
He and every other member of Congress need to take a reality pill. They think they're engineering the train, but in actuality, it's left the station without them.
June 28th 2011 at 13:14 —
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Arizona Week on Friday will focus on the state's legacy as manifest in its people and customs and in the plans and projects under way for statehood centennial next year.
Interviews for Friday's program will include:
-- Dora Vasquez, chair of the Arizona Historical Advisory Commission, which is reviewing proposals for Arizona Legacy Projects. They are described as projects that portray significant aspects of Arizona history, offer wide public wide access and sustainable beyond 2012.
-- Karen Churchard, director of the Arizona Centennial Commission, which is raising money for the celebrations and coordinating the planning of numerous activities statewide for the Feb. 14, 2012 anniversary.
-- Thomas Sheridan, a University of Arizona anthropologist who has written a history of the state and of Tucson's Mexican-American population in the 19th and 20th centuries.
-- Ned Norris, chairman of the Tohono O'odham Nation, descendants of the Pima people who have lived in Arizona the longest -- 4,000 years or more -- and whose ancient language gave Arizona its name.
June 28th 2011 at 11:21 —
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By DIANA SOKOLOVA, Arizona Week intern
The Grand Canyon state is counting down the days till its 100th birthday. The official commemoration began in January 2011 with planning for celebrations all over the state.
Arizona was admitted to the union as the 48th state on Feb. 14, 1912.
The Arizona Centennial Commission, established by Gov. Jan Brewer, is planning and coordinating a wide range of festivals, events and projects.
Initially, $5.5 million was allocated from the state general fund for grants to organize communities’ celebration events, but it wasa cut because of the state's tough economic times.
The centennial commission is relying on private donations, sponsors and volunteers and hopes to get Arizona's 120 cities and towns, 15 counties and 22 Native American tribes involved.
Phoenix, Tucson and Prescott will participate in the "Arizona Best Fest," feature restaurants, wineries, microbreweries, local foods and traditional arts and crafts highlighting Arizona traditions and cultures.
Arizona Week will pursue interviews with Native American tribal leaders, a historian and the head of the centennial commission for Friday's program.
June 27th 2011 at 11:31 —
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posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel
A review I contributed to Fanfare magazine ...
PURCELL Dido and Aeneas • Christopher Hogwood, cond; Sarah Connolly (Dido); Lucas Meachem (Aeneas); Lucy Crowe (Belinda); Sara Fulgoni (Sorceress); Anita Watson (Second Woman); Eri Nakamura (First Witch); Pumeza Matshikiza (Second Witch); Iestyn Davies (Spirit); Ji-Min Park (Sailor); O of the Age of Enlightenment (period instruments); Royal Op Extra Chorus; Dancers of the Royal Ballet • OPUS ARTE BD 7049 D (Blu-ray: 72:00) Live: 4/3,8/2009
Although it lasts only an hour, Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas presents any number of problems that are rarely apparent in audio recordings, because the challenges tend to be conceptual rather than musical. The basic story is tragic: A vindictive sorceress manipulates Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, her Trojan lover, so that Aeneas feels compelled to abandon Dido and continue his travels,which will lead to his founding of Rome. Dido, distraught, commits suicide. Yet this very serious action is leavened by several dance interludes, and the role of the sorceress is often treated comically—should it be? And how can the lighter dance sequences be intergrated into the rest of the action? And how is the important role of Belinda, Dido’s maid, to be handled without making her seem like a mere lapdog? When you listen to a CD, you can work these issues out for yourself, or ignore them entirely.
On stage and on video, a director’s treatment of these issues is imposed on you, and brings great complications to what otherwise for most audiences is usually a purely musical experience.
“Purity” is a word that might be applied to Wayne McGregor’s staging of the work for England’s Royal Opera House; performances from a year ago are documented on this new Blu-ray disc from Opus Arte. If McGregor has a sense of humor, it isn’t manifested in this particular project. Oh, there are elements of the grotesque in his handling of the Sorceress and her two witches, which are here played as biracial conjoined twins who don’t get along, but they certainly don’t come off as comic. Neither do they really seem very terrifying, so the tone McGregor is trying to set is puzzling. Furthermore, the three of them—Sara Fulgoni as the Sorceress, Eri Nakamura and Pumeza Matshikiza as the witches—deliver the least appealing vocalism in this production, and I don’t think it’s because they’re trying to sing in character. As for the dance interludes (and dance overlays with some of the vocal numbers), McGregor’s choreography seems almost tense; the dancers tend to maintain ramrod posture and favor repetitive gestures that allude to the imagery from the vocal text, and never break away as independent beings. There’s much to be said for such a consistent approach to the total work, unless you find a full hour of unrelieved gloom to be unbearable.
Similarly, Hildegard Bechtler’s sets are extraordinarly spare: a wall of faux granite in the palace, a line of emaciated young trees in the forest scene, a ruined ship’s hull on the beach, the only objects relieving the expanse of a bare stage.Fotini Dimou’s costumes further the notions of spareness and darkness: somber hues for all but the principal singers, almost everyone, male and female, clad in unisex tunics and ankle-length skirts.
The musical elements work with and against the rest of the production in interesting ways. Christopher Hogwood, that longtime by-the-book HIP specialist, leads the period-instrument Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in a typically light and lean reading that makes all the necessary points while eschewing most special effects. The singers, in contrast, are hardly the white-voiced wraiths that dominated English Baroque performance 30 years ago. Aside from the impassioned Aeneas, Lucas Meachem, who seems to have wandered in not from Troy but from some 19th-century Italian opera house, the singers expertly employ just enough vibrato and other subtle techniques to bring substantial warmth to their work without creating an excessively anachronistic sound. In this regard, Sarah Connolly as Dido and Lucy Crowe as Belinda are outstanding—expressive, focused, entirely comfortable in their roles’ tessituras, keenly attuned to the text (and always employing crystal-clear diction). Dido doesn’t give Connolly much emotional range, but Crowe makes Belinda a bundle of devotion, concern, anguish, and even at one point a little jealousy without ever overplaying.
Perhaps this production sounds too ascetic to you, but be assured that it is hardly bloodless. The audio formats are limited to PCM 2.0 and 5.1. The only special feature worth noting is a fairly interesting 10-minute interview with McGregor; there’s also a good booklet note by Rebecca Herissone on how Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas has fared through history. James Reel
Classical Music,
June 27th 2011 at 8:45 —
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Gabrielle Giffords' doctor, Gerard Francisco, was on Capitol Hill this week to discuss rehabilitation efforts as part of the country's health care system, and he spoke with the Website POLITICO about her recovery.
"I think in about a year or so, we will have a better idea of what her functional abilities are going to be eventually," Francisco said. He added that it would be unfair to Giffords to speculate about a timetable or what might occur.
Read the full story here.
June 25th 2011 at 12:02 —
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