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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > April > 17
Friday, April 17, 2009
Eric Einhorn rethinks ‘Dialogues of the Carmelites’
Eric Einhorn thinks of himself as a storyteller. And he’s the first to admit that’s almost a traditional way of thinking about his role as an opera director, not one you might expect from a 28-year-old like himself.
It’s hard to know what would be typical from someone who isn’t even 30 and has already started to carve a national reputation for himself in a notoriously hierarchical and competitive profession.
Einhorn arrived in Austin about a month ago to direct Austin Lyric Opera’s production of Francis Poulenc’s “Dialogues of the Carmelites” which opened last night at the Long Center. Einhorn has a regular gig as an assistant director for many productions at the Metropolitan Opera. And increasingly, he’s invited to direct for opera companies across the country.
“What I crave (in an opera) is human interaction,” he says. “And what the challenge is for me as a storyteller, is to make those human relationships as real and direct as possible.”
In our day and age of multimedia, Einhorn points out, there’s no fooling an audience any more with routine theatrical tricks. If you can YouTube your way through the world, what haven’t you seen at this point? If media keeps you in the role as passive observer, what do you crave? Maybe, Einhorn suggests, what would feel new to an audience today is something immediate and human — a story told with clarity and sincerity.
Kevin Patterson, managing director at Austin Lyric Opera, says he invited Einhorn to direct “Dialogues” because Einhorn’s background and fresh approach would give a very 21st-century perspective to Poulenc’s psychologically charged opera about nuns during the French Revolution.
“I (also) asked him to direct this opera because he’s not Christian. He is Jewish,” Patterson says. “I wanted to not get caught up in all of the Catholic trappings of cloistered nuns. On a very basic level (‘Dialogues of the Carmelites’) is a story of nuns, but I wanted to challenge Eric to go beyond that initial story line as both he and I agreed that this opera has a strong universal statement. Beliefs are universal. They do not know the bounds of religion.”
Written in the mid-1950s, “Dialogues” musically typifies Poulenc’s lush harmonies, striking melodic lines and arresting orchestrations. And it also speaks of Poulenc’s own lifelong struggle with his Roman Catholic beliefs.
Based on historical events, “Dialogues” is set during the French Revolution and subsequent Reign of Terror. The opera tells the story of a nervous young woman of nobility, Blanche de la Force, who chooses to abandon her rank, and the violence of the secular world, for the safety and sanctity of a Carmelite convent. But once at the convent, Blanche realizes the convent is hardly a place that will protect her from the revolutionary terror that is ripping through the country. The anti-religious revolutionary forces are out to seize the convent and arrest the nuns. Blanche runs away, but once she learns that the nuns are condemned to death by guillotine, she realizes she might have saved her own life but not her soul. She joins her sisters on the march to the guillotine.
“(The story) is not really about nuns,” Einhorn says. “It’s about the choices we make and the conviction we have — or don’t have — to follow through on them.” And so, Einhorn conceived of the characters not as anonymous women in matching black and white habits, but rather as separate individuals.
“This is not some homogenous group of dour women,” he says. “This a microcosm of society. All of the women are there for very different reasons. All make their decisions to die for their beliefs for very different reasons.”
And all, he says, have their own fears as they approach the guillotine.
“Everybody fears death,” Einhorn says. And there’s no glossing over that fear. And as a good storyteller, he’s striving to make sure that emotion feels palpable to the audience.
“The story has to feel real, has to be told to you immediately and directly,” he says. “That’s my job.”
‘Dialogues of the Carmelites’ plays 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Wednesday and Friday, 3 p.m. April 26. Dell Hall, Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive. www.austinlyricopera.org
Photos by Laura Skelding/A-AS.
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Review: New percussion music beats in
Tom Burritt and the UT Percussion Ensemble charmed Tuesday night with premieres of new works by Austin composers Graham Reynolds and Dan Welcher.
Reynold joined the 12-piece student ensemble on piano for his ’ ‘Whale Drum.’ Rollicking minor chords pumped through decidedly groovy riffs that were alternated with more lyrical heartfelt moments. If anyone denies that a gathering of a dozen percussion instruments can’t be melodic, Reynolds proved otherwise, unleashing a funky harmonius frenzy.
“Whale Drum” is just first of three pieces UT’s music faculty have commissioned from Reynolds that will be premiered this spring. That inclusive gesture to a non-UT musician is welcomed bridge over the town-gown divide that keeps UT music efforts so often disconnected from the Austin community.
Welcher’s “You Can Fool” was a smart musical reflection on the recent presidential election. Written by the request of ensemble students Matthew Teodori and Philip Welder - the first commission Welcher said he’s ever received from students - “You Can Fool” flashed by as intense musical postcards of wildly different mood and color. The quartet of players paired off in duos, then rejoined at times in a dance of musical cooperation and opposition. Finally, a brief moment of peaceful world music soothed before the piece finished with rolling military snare drums. So much for a visionary getting through the layers of history, Welcher’s composition seemed to say.
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This weekend, it’s crazy choral confluences
It never fails to happen at least several times during the arts season: Everybody’s event lands at the same time. This weekend, it seems like it’s all choral concerts all the time. I wonder, how can any hope to attract a full audience? And never mind that Austin Lyric Opera is opening “The Dialogues of the Carmelites” this weekend too along with UT’s production of Duke Ellington’s opera “Queenie Pie.” Tough choices, all around.
While you make your choices, listen to “We Remember Them” by Austin composer Donald Grantham, performed by the UT Chamber Singers.
SATURDAY
‘Harmonie and Thyme.’ Austin Singers take on John Rutter’s ‘The Sprig of Thyme’ along with Hayden’s ‘Harmoniemesse’. 8 p.m. Hope Presbyterian Church, 11512 Olson Drive. $5-$15. 314-5532 www.austinsingers.org.
‘Invitation to the Voyage.’ Madrigals and spirituals including Lauridsen’s ‘Lux Aeterna’, Brahms’ ‘Zigeunerlieder’ and Rachmaninov’s ‘Bogoroditse Devo’. 8 p.m. First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive. $15-$20. 372-3233 www.txconsort.org.
SUNDAY
Texas State University Singers, Women’s Chorus, & Men’s Chorus Concert.* Music by Eric Whitacre along with Britten’s ‘Rejoice in the Lamb’ and Rutter’s ‘Gloria.’ 2 p.m. Covenant Presbyterian Church, 3003 Northland Dr. Free. 512-245-2851. www.music.txstate.edu.
‘Invitation to the Voyage.’ (see above.) 3 p.m. First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Dr.
UT Chamber Singers and Concert Chorale. Music from several centuries from Brahms to Bernstein. 4 p.m. Bates Hall, Music Building, $10, www.music.utexas.edu.
‘Harmonie and Thyme.’ (see above) 4 p.m. University Presbyterian Church, 2203 San Antonio St. $5-$15. 314-5532 www.austinsingers.org.
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