MERMAN VS. SHAKESPEARE

posted by James Reel

    Invisible Theatre is running a sweet little show called The Big Voice—God or Merman?

    Now, here's a real odd couple. Jim is an extroverted Brooklyn Catholic who, as a boy, dreamed of becoming pope, mainly because he liked the clothes. Steve is an introverted Arkansas Baptist who, as a boy, toyed with the idea of evangelism until he learned that queers aren't welcome at the seminary, even if they never stray far from the closet.
    Jim grew up going to Broadway shows starring the likes of Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh. Steve once saw a dinner-theater production featuring Bob Crane.
    Jim and Steve meet on a cruise--in the Bermuda Triangle, aboard the sister ship of the Andrea Doria. Surely, the relationship has about as much of a chance of success as Ethel Merman did when she tried to sing quietly.

    You’ll find the rest of my review here, in the Tucson Weekly. Elsewhere in town, a new little group will have a go at Will:

    Shakespearean language is rich, but it's also hard for nonprofessional actors to wrap their mouths around. Yet Shakespeare was a mainstay for the Tucson Parks and Recreation Department's Tucson Community Theatre during the 10 years Michael Givens was in charge of it.
    Not surprisingly, Givens has chosen a Shakespeare work to launch a new company also backed by Parks and Rec, the El Rio Theatre Project.
    Givens is the recreation coordinator at the El Rio Center, but his group is going to hie itself to a different venue, the amphitheater at Himmel Park, to present Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, a comedy of romance and hidden identity.

    Further edifying facts may be found here.

SASO CONDUCTING CANDIDATES

posted by James Reel

    This press release just arrived from the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra:

    The Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra has named four finalists for Music Director and invited them to conduct the orchestra during the 2007-2008 season.
     More than 50 candidates from the United States and abroad applied for this position, according to Search Committee co-chair Tim Secomb. Audiences, donors and musicians will be invited to give input on the four finalists. SASO presents five concert programs each year, with two performances each, one in Tucson and one in SaddleBrooke. This community orchestra was established in 1979.
     • Brian Asher Alhadeff, a conductor and pianist, recently completed his Doctor of Musical Arts with emphasis in orchestra conducting at the University of California in Los Angeles. Since 2003, he has served as associate conductor of the Beverly Hills Symphony. He also served as Director of Orchestras for Grand Rapids State University in Michigan, where he was a visiting assistant professor. Alhadeff is Artist and Music Director of the Hradec Kralove International Summer Opera Festival in the Czech Republic with the Eastern Bohemian Philharmonic Orchestra. He‚s also experienced in conducting opera, ballet and musical theatre. Alhadeff will conduct SASO‚s first concert cycle on Sept. 30 at SaddleBrooke and Oct. 7 at St. Andrew‚s Presbyterian Church. The program includes Massenet's Suite no. 4: Scenes pittoresques, Jacob's Bassoon Concerto with Jessica Campbell as soloist and Franck's Symphony in D minor.
     •Thomas Elefant was both a string player and brass player before turning to conducting at age 27. His doctoral studies were in conducting and viola at Michigan State University. He served as Music Director/Conductor of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra in Indiana from 1985 to 1997. After moving to Israel, he conducted the Camerata Chamber Orchestra in Israel and on tour in Europe. In 2000 he founded the Inter-Generational Symphony Orchestra in Tel Aviv, which he led through 2006. He returned to the United States in 2007. Born in Santiago, Chile, he recently conducted the Orquesta de la Universidad de Santiago. He is proficient in Hebrew, Spanish and Hungarian. Elefant will conduct SASO's second concert cycle on Nov. 11 at SaddleBrooke and Nov. 18 at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. The program features Nielsen's "Helios" Overture, Weber's Concerto No. 1 for clarinet and orchestra with soloist Lucy Huestis and Beethoven's „Symphony no. 6.
     • Matthew Fritz of Scottsdale holds a bachelor's of music in violin performance from Arizona State University. He recently completed his Master of Music at the Eastman School of Music, where he studied conducting with Neil Varon. He served as assistant conductor of the Eastman Philharmonia and the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra. He is the founder and music director of Neo, a student-run outreach orchestra at Eastman offering free, family-friendly concerts designed to cultivate new audiences for classical music. In 2005 he attended the Conductor‚s Institute in Mendoza, Argentina. Fritz will conduct SASO's third concert cycle on Feb. 10, 2008 at SaddleBrooke and Feb. 17, 2008 at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. The program includes Mascagni's Intermezzo from "Cavalleria Rusticana," Faure's "Masques et bergamasques," Strauss' "Burlesque" with pianist Angeline Ng and Mozart's Symphony No. 26, "Linz."
     • Linus Lerner is completing his Doctorate in Music Arts at the University of Arizona, where for three years he served as co-director of the UA Philharmonic Orchestra and assistant conductor of the UA Symphony and Opera Orchestras. Since 2003, he has been Artistic and Executive Director of the Reveille Men‚s Choir. He also is Music Director/Conductor at the Church of the Painted Hills Choir. Between 1988 and 1996, he studied and worked in Brazil, where he conducted the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Youth Orchestra, the Camarata Consort of Guitars and several choirs. Also an opera singer, Lerner knows Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and German. Lerner will conduct SASO's fourth concert cycle on March 30, 2008 at SaddleBrooke and April 6, 2008 at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. The program includes Handel's "Water Music" Suite No. 3 (G major), Elgar's "Sea Pictures" with mezzo soprano Kristin Dauphinais and Tchaikovsky's Suite no. 2, "Caracteristique."
     SASO's current Music Director Adam Boyles, who has led the orchestra since 2005, programmed this year's season and will conduct the final concerts on June 1, 2008 at SaddleBrooke and June 8, 2008 at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. His program includes the premiere of a SASO-commissioned work, Crabtree's "Vegas! An American Nightscape," plus Bernstein's "On the Town: Three Dance Episodes" and Boyer's "Ellis Island: The Dream of America." Boyles is now Director of Orchestras at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. Previous SASO music directors include Warren Cohen (1997-2005), Alan Schultz (1981-1995) and founding music director Henry Johnson (1979-1980).
     Resident Conductor for the season is Martin Majkut who received a Fulbright scholarship in 2003, when he moved to the United States from Slovakia. He is currently enrolled in the University of Arizona's Doctor of Musical Arts program.
     The 2007-2008 SASO season is sponsored by arts advocate and volunteer Dorothy Vanek. For more information about SASO and its upcoming concerts, visit www.sasomusic.org or call 323-7166. Tickets are $15, with discounts for seniors and students at the Tucson concert series. Season tickets also are available for $50.
    All performances are on Sundays at 3 p.m. The SaddleBrooke concert series is presented at Desert View Performing Arts Center, 39900 S. Clubhouse Drive. The Tucson concerts are at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, 7575 N. Paseo del Norte.

DIAMOND MUSIC

posted by James Reel

    Got an extra million dollars lying around the house? You can trade it for fake diamonds made from Beethoven’s hair.

SYMPHONY STRIFE

posted by James Reel

    Dave Devine’s contribution to the current Weekly is a good story about the feud between the Tucson Symphony Society—the formal entity that is the Tucson Symphony Orchestra—and what was formerly known as the Tucson Symphony Women’s Association. The way Dave tells it, this looks like a bullying money grab by the TSO, a financially desperate organization that is overspending by half a million dollars a year. Read the article, and see what you think.

BUT NEITHER BORROWED NOR BLUE

posted by James Reel

    Something old, or at least expected, and something new from me in the latest Tucson Weekly. First, the usual theater review:

    Did you know that "George Gershwin" is a registered trademark? Yeah, sure, Gershwin was certainly not ashamed to make money as a songwriter, and he was a great composer who deserved every penny he got. But there's something unseemly about the Gershwin estate ostensibly protecting the composer's interests by trademarking the name; not only can granting the right to use the music generate income, but the man himself has been commodified.
    Actor-writer-pianist Hershey Felder had to get permission from the Gershwin Family (that's what the group is called, as if it included certain Sopranos) to research and perform George Gershwin Alone, a chatty evening in which Felder portrays Gershwin reminiscing about his career and playing some of his hits. Felder's family-authorized depiction of Gershwin, currently being presented by Arizona Theatre Company, is squeaky-clean, breezy and superficial, and by the end of the short performance, a lot remains unsaid. Yet what we do get is remarkably engaging, witty and entertaining from beginning to end.

    You’ll find the full review here, but don’t think you’ll have had your fill of me once you’ve seen that. The Weekly’s editor cajoled me into joining the restaurant-review team, and for my first expense-account visit I naturally chose a fairly expensive restaurant:

    The few times that foie gras appears on the menu at Bar 58 and Bistro, it's accompanied by the specification "humanely raised." Presumably, that means that some poor goose or duck did not sacrifice its liver after a lifetime with a feeding tube jammed down its throat.
    Or perhaps the practice of gavage has been perfected to resemble an evening at Bar 58: being pampered with an abundance of fine wine and rich food to the point that you hardly care that your liver is becoming a quivering ball of fat.

    Health be damned; I was actually inspired to write a positive review of the experience, which you can find here.

ARRR!

posted by James Reel

    Elgar? Keelhaul the scurvy dog!
    Something I won’t be saying on the air, even though this is “Talk Like a Pirate Day.”