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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2008 > February > 25
Monday, February 25, 2008
Buckley to stay on as ALO conductor
Austin Lyric Opera’s general director Kevin Patterson announced today that noted conductor Richard Buckley will stay on as the opera’s principal conductor through the 2009-2010 season.
Buckley was artistic director of ALO from 2003 until he stepped down from the position in 2007 and took the helm as principal conductor. Buckley is also currently principal conductor for Opera Cleveland.
“I am extremely pleased to have Richard continue with ALO as principal conductor,” said Patterson. “Under Richard’s leadership the orchestra has matured to a very high level artistically. He continues to play a significant role in aiding Austin Lyric Opera to achieve our mission of presenting operas of the highest standard that enrich the lives of this community.”
“There is no doubt that Richard has added a new dimension to the playing of our orchestra,” Patterson said.
During his tenure as ALO artistic director, Buckley staged an ambitious new production of Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” and also the critically-acclaimed American premiere of Philip Glass’” Waiting for the Barbarians.”
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Review: ‘Overwhelming Underdogs’
“Overwhelming Underdogs” certainly does overwhelm, but not entirely with losers. Austin theater vet Joe Hartman’s new one-man show, produced by The City Theatre at Arts on Real, ranges from manic to sappy to sing-song to awkward. It can wipe out an audience with sheer brute-force energy, but “Underdogs” isn’t without its sweet touches as well.
“Underdogs” first half presents a series of nine vignettes with six characters, ranging from a perennial failure in a spelling bee and to an OCD office worker on the hunt for her yogurt’s thief. Some, like a woefully misplaced meditation guru, rely too heavily on frenetic ranting. Hartman’s quips get lost in a stream of noise when two characters go for back-to-back shouting matches.
Others, though, capture the spirit of the underdog and the easy empathy of the audience. It’s a smart choice to end with Armuhd Bursae spelling out worlds such as “victory,” “vulnerability” and “defiance.”
The second act follows Cathy Dresden, a 1950s chanteuse, along her downward spiral of a career and love life until she’s performing (and waiting) at the Burger Barn. The starlet parody, while not entirely original, is livened up by Hartman’s classic song-and-dance act.
Like all of Hartman’s creations, though, Dresden can find the silver lining. While nothing particularly works out for her, Dresden proudly (and Hartman ably) sings “I’m going to live until I die.”
(“Overwhelming Underdogs” continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 5:30 p.m. Sundays through March 16 at Arts on Real, 2826 Real St. $5-$20. 524-2870, www.citytheatreaustin.org.)
Joey Seiler is an American-Statesman freelance critic.
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