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February 7, 2012
Review: Austin Shakespeare's 'Arcadia'
“Highbrow” and “romantic comedy” are not typically adjectival bedfellows. In fact, they’re not often used in the same paragraph, let alone the same sentence. Yet both terms could comfortably be used to describe Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia,” playing now through Feb. 19 at the Long Center and produced by Austin Shakespeare.
“Arcadia” is British playwright Tom Stoppard’s fast-paced, hyper-intellectual witticism at its finest, and Austin Shakespeare’s production confidently tackles the play’s decidedly challenging themes. The show takes on (among other things) the philosophical clash between reason and romanticism; explanations of advanced algebra; the second law of thermodynamics; and academic literary archeology; as they all play out on a country estate at the turn of both the eighteenth century and the twenty-first.
As with many of Stoppard’s plays, “Arcadia” is a challenge to sum up. It follows two asymptotic story lines - a student and her tutor in 1809 and a couple of academics studying the family records in the late twentieth century. Under Ann Ciccolella’s direction, this production rather downplays the tragic finale, resulting in a hybrid performance of light-hearted comedy and heavy-intellectualism.
Overall, the ensemble is excellent, as is much of the design. As the tutor, Septimus Hodge, Collin Bjork is the charming centripetal force of the eighteenth century world - seducing the women and the audience with his spunky equivocations. Georgia McLeland, a long-time veteran of Austin Shakespeare’s Young Shakespeare performances, bursts onto the main stage and proves herself an emerging Austin talent in her role as Thomasina Coverly (Septimus’ student).
Michael Dalmon is the highlight of the evening in his hilarious rendition of the foolish cuckold cum poet, Ezra Chater. Shelby Davenport gracefully slides into the role of the smarmy academic, Bernard Nightingale, and as his intellectual sparring partner, Hannah Jarvis, Liz Beckham’s brusque British reserve is charmingly captivating.
Justin Cox deserves particular acclaim for his fantastic stage accoutrement, as does Jonathan Heibert for his period costumes. Ia Enstera’s epic set design is quite stunning, though it loses some of its luster under too much scrutiny. John Vander Gheynst’s sound design doesn’t really do justice to the space, but the Rollins Studio Theatre offers state of the art assisted listening devices that help to eliminate ambient noise.
The first act of “Arcadia” stretches out like a rolling county green, and although the tempo isn’t particularly fast-paced, the steady rhythm of the witticisms keeps the show moving through the two and a half hour run.
‘Arcardia’ continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 19. Discussion between audience and actors to follow every performance. Rollins Studio Theater, Long Center.s $21-$24. www.thelongcenter.org.
Cate Blouke is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Photo by Kimberley Mead for Austin Shakespeare.
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January 30, 2012
Review: Austin Lyric Opera's Lucia di Lammermoor
Who knew a death scene could be so much fun?
In the Austin Lyric Opera production of “Lucia di Lammermoor” now at the Long Center the most famous scene is a wild and woolly epic run-up to death, a quarter hour that it takes Lucia to paint us the full picture of how completely she’s lost her mind.
Donizetti’s opera, aside from this “mad scene” and the famous sextet at the center of the production, is actually a pretty slim affair. There’s not much of a story in it. Think of a more concise ‘Romeo and Juliet’ set in Scotland, and sung, uh, in Italian. Girl loves bad boy, but girl’s forced to marry a schlub for political stability — problems ensue. There’s betrayal, vengeance, but most importantly, madness.
The sextet (a big chorus piece, highlighting the work’s six principal voices) was smartly paced by conductor Richard Buckley, and had the voices braiding energetically through the hall.
Even so, the production depends on the mad scene, and Russian soprano Lyubov Petrova was a fantastic madwoman, teetering dangerously around the stage, undone by her actions and the circumstances.
Petrova sang delicate waves of sadness, then soaring notes of manic joy, a performance that brought home the crowd’s scandal of seeing raw, unhinged emotion in 17th century Scotland.
Once Lucia comes down the staircase in a bloody nightgown, she’s fully transformed. She hallucinates a scene with her former lover in a giddy soprano, then waves a sword at the terrified crowd, until she’s shocked into the realization that she’s just killed her unwanted husband.
Why is this tragic scene so much fun? For one, we know it’s coming. For two, Petrova’s multifaceted mania cycles through so many contrasting emotions that remains still unpredictable. The audience just sits back and enjoys the performance.
On opening night the principal voices came out of the gate a little cold and overall they remained slightly uneven in quality, though Texas-born tenor Chad Shelton was a deserved fan favorite.
The sets are effective, especially in the large chorus scenes, which had a nice depth, suiting the strong work of the chorus itself. Dim lighting predominates, but added to the eerie mood, and accentuated the rich color palate of the period costumes.
Lucia di Lammermoor continues at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 3 and 3 p.m. Feb 5 at the Long Center. 19-$135.www.austinlyricopera.org
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Photo by Mark Matson for Austin Lyric Opera.
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January 20, 2012
Long Center has layoffs
Leaders at the Long Center of the Performing Arts confirmed today that they have laid off three staff members this week.
A fourth employee resigned last week and that position will not be immediately filled, said Jamie Grant, Long Center executive director and CEO.
He said the layoffs were necessary in order to keep costs in line with revenues. The move saved about $275,000 in payroll and benefit costs and would ensure that the organization’s budget remain balanced, Grant said.
The Long Center has $6.5 million annual budget. The center now has 36 employees.The layoffs were in security and patron service positions.
“It’s strictly a business decision,” Grant said. “We’ve got to make sure we’re as lean as possible. I think the community and donors expect that.”
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December 5, 2011
Review: Ballet Austin's "The Nutcracker"
I’ve seen (and been in) more Nutcrackers than I can count. But I experienced a first Saturday at the opening night of Ballet Austin’s 49th annual production of “The Nutcracker” at the Long Center — seeing the much-beloved ballet with someone who had never seen it before. Ever. In fact, he’d never even seen live classical ballet before.
“The Nutcracker” is oftentimes touted as the great introductory ballet for those who have no or limited knowledge of dance of the classical variety. I believe this is the case for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, at only two acts, it is a relatively short ballet, with a run time of something around two hours; Ballet Austin’s version, with choreography by Artistic Director Stephen Mills and set to Tchaikovsky’s 1892 score performed live by the Austin Symphony, is no exception. Many more of the classics, such as “Swan Lake” and “Sleeping Beauty,” are three-act ballets (in the case of “Beauty,” the addition of a prologue takes the run time up to around three-plus hours, making it a long haul for those who aren’t ballet aficionados).
Secondly, the story-telling aspect is absolutely key to “The Nutcracker”; the first scene of Act I, which portrays a Christmas Eve party, largely consists of pantomiming, rather than dancing. It’s not until the last minutes of Act I, when the Snow Queen and King take the stage along with the ballet corps of snowflakes, that the real dancing begins. Act II continues the dancing, with solos, pas de deuxs and group numbers. The structure of the ballet perhaps makes it easier for youngsters to ease into it, who can be inclined to ask during ballet performances, “Why isn’t anyone talking?” (My own sister is guilty as charged — with a tug of Mom’s sleeve, she asked this question when she was five at a screening of “George Balanchine’s ‘The Nutcracker.’”)
While my companion for the evening was someone who has seen quite a bit of dance (especially in his capacity as a flamenco guitarist), he had never before experienced “The Nutcracker.” At the conclusion of the first act — which features polished performances by students from the Ballet Austin Academy, including Blake Cooper and Peyton Cunningham who share the coveted role of Clara — my companion was eager to experience Ballet Austin’s professional dancers’ performances in the second act.
Preston Andrew Patterson, who led the boisterous Russian dance with unparalleled energy, garnered the most applause of any dancer the entire evening for his explosive jumps and clean turns. Oren Porterfield’s spry performance in the whimsical French dance was one of the more technically challenging.
At times, however, the orchestral work outshone the dance, as climactic moments were achieved aurally with the music but not visually with the choreography (or with the dancers’ interpretations of said choreography, such as in the Sugar Plum Fairy and Cavalier’s pas de deux, which fell flat).
Audiences at “The Nutcracker” tend to be more varied than for any other ballet — from bunheads to proud parents, aficionados to first-time viewers, “The Nutcracker” brings people together to experience a holiday tradition.
Ballet Austin’s “The Nutcracker” continues through Dec. 23. See www.balletaustin.org for tickets.
Claire Christine Spera is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
November 21, 2011
Review: Austin Symphony Orchestra with Anton Nel
The air in the Long Center was extremely dry and cool Friday night, the probable cause of a lot of coughing. But the air also lent the house Steinway piano an icy clarity at the hands of soloist Anton Nel.
Nel, a beloved and longtime Austin resident (and professor at UT) appeared quite sharp in full tux and tails, to play a blistering Liszt piano concerto (No. 2) and the “Symphonic Variations” by Cesar Franck, as well as a encore by Schumann.
This year marks Franz Liszt’s bicentennial, and his second piano concerto is still lush and difficult, with sections that sound like the pianist is fleeing on a bridge above snapping piranhas.
Mellower sections featured beaming horns and a lovely duet with cellist Douglas Harvey. And when the Liszt stormed to its finale you sensed Nel might have gone even faster (and with no loss of precision), but he was reined in to a more reasonable pace by the orchestra. This piece was certainly the evening’s climax.
Conductor Peter Bay and the symphony did quite well on their own. The “Variaciones Concertantes” by Argentina’s Alberto Ginastera has 12 micro-movements with solos working their way through the orchestra. It highlighted some strengths and weaknesses in the various sections, with were some especially fine cello and french horn solos.
Bay’s work stood out in the final movements as he conducted like a ball of energy addressing a flurry of entries and dynamics with a flourish.
The “Symphonic Metamorphosis of themes by Weber” by American composer Paul Hindemith ended the night — a jarring contrast to Nel’s sentimental (and beautiful) encore, the Liszt arrangement of Schumann’s “Widmung.” Despite its bombastic opening, it’s a fine piece with some very pretty flute work on the main theme.
Nel is a dramatic player, more for a monstrous technical precision than for an emotional or lyrical style, but his tone shines at both ends of the keyboard. In the Franck, with its delicate tinkling trills, Nel charged through, delicately declaring each individual note. At times it was too quiet, perhaps, and was blanketed by the orchestra. But in any case, his stunning runs and turns across the piano were more than dramatic enough.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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November 17, 2011
Review: 'Big Love'
What does it take to move people to extreme action? How far are you willing to go to protect a stranger? Your family? Yourself?
“Big Love,” Charles Mee’s adaptation of the ancient Greek drama “The Suppliants,” explores these questions through the conceit of a wedding — for 50 unwilling brides. Playing now through Nov. 27 in the Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center and directed by Robert Faires, this quirky comedy based in ancient Italy deals with myriad concerns facing the contemporary world: the complexity of gender roles, the responsibility of asylum, and the nature of justice.
Led by their sister Lydia (Shannon Grounds), 50 women have fled Greece to escape an arranged marriage to their 50 male cousins. Arriving in a foreign land, the sisters seek asylum from complete strangers, an Italian family led by the matriarch Bella (Lana Dietrich), her eldest son Piero (Robert Matney), and their sprightly, effeminate nephew Guiliano (played by the utterly charming Michael Slefinger). Ia Enstera’s luminescent set design achieves a lovely degree of depth in the spotlessly white world of the Italian villa.
When the grooms arrive to reclaim their contractual rights, the play follows the negotiations that ensue. “Big Love” ends up being less about romance and more about rhetoric — about the force of words to incite, to compel and to justify appalling behavior. The intoxicating poetry of the arguments bewitches us with a desire to agree with most of the characters, only to realize that their positions are antithetical.
Andrea Smith’s character, Olympia, explores whether materialism is at odds with women’s rights. Initially coming across as a poster-child for the embedded sexism of the 21st century, Smith sways us with her sincerity: coming from her, it doesn’t seem wrong to want a man’s love, to want to submit.
And though Piero gives in to the totalitarian demands of the hyper-aggressive groom, Constantine (Rommel Sulit), Matney’s gentle and sympathetic performance makes his decision difficult to condemn.
The production falters, however, in the monochromatic anger of Thyona (Julianna Elizabeth Wright) and Constantine. Their performances fail to achieve the understanding that the script calls for. Mee’s play sets out to deconstruct stereotypes about gender roles and expectations, but Shrewd Productions’ staging inadvertently manages to reinforce a few: both through casting and the women’s scene that devolves into a hysterical man-bashing hissy fit.
The men’s parallel scene, however, is one of the most powerful moments of the performance — where the brothers explore the pressures of patriarchy through a beautifully orchestrated, CrossFit-inspired gymnastic routine.
Ultimately, this talky play is surprisingly physical, and though the power of some scenes gets lost in frenetic performances or ineffectual props, there are many moments of beauty in this production of a thought-provoking comedy.
“Big Love” continues through Nov. 27. Long Center for the Performing Arts, $15-$25, www.thelongcenter.org.
Cate Blouke is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Photo by Kimberley Mead.
November 7, 2011
Review: Austin Lyric Opera's 'The Magic Flute'
Forget the shadow of financial difficulty that’s been cast over Austin Lyric Opera in the past year or so.
Or at least put that shadow aside for the three hours of ALO’s sunny, delightful turn with “The Magic Flute” which opened Saturday at the Long Center in a production by Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera This “Flute” trades deftly on lightness, maximizing and modernizing the comic content of Mozart’s masterpiece without sacrificing any of the essentials.
Against a spare yet fluid all-white set of platforms, ramps and moving panels that captured projections and lighting designs, an energetic and solidly good cast delivered an animated, fresh-feeling production of the opera that ALO began with 25 years ago.
With his spot-on comic timing and physical antics, David Adam Moore is the show stealer as Papageno, and his strong rich baritone nicely balance the shenanigans. Likewise, tenor Doug Jones comically amps up his turn as Monostatos while also never forsaking his very good vocal performance.
The lovely, clear-voiced lyric soprano Hanan Alattar gives her Pamina just enough of moxie to modernize the classic sweetheart role. And as Tamino, tenor Arthur Espiritu garnered a bravo Juliet Petrus does well as the Queen of the Night, competently delivering the challenging and famous Der Hölle Rache aria. James Moellenhoff makes a commanding Sarastro with his full round tones.
If the set by Noele Stollmack actd as a simple white canvas, Christianne Myers’ inspired, whimsical costumes — with sartorial quotes from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” among other contemporary references — more than supply the visual gratification.
Conductor Richard Buckley expertly took a “less is more” approach to Mozart’s beautiful score Stage director James Marvel gives the cast plenty of waggish gestures and movements with just the right hints of camp to make for a terrifically performed fantasy.
A sparkling, joyful performance from start to finish, this “Magic Flute” has plenty of aplomb.
“The Magic Flute” continues 7:30 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Dr. Tickets: $19-$135. www.austinlyricopera.org.
Image: David Adam Moore as Papageno and Jamie-Rose Guarrine and Papagena. Photo by Mark Matson for Austin Lyric Opera.
October 17, 2011
Review: Austin Symphony Orchestra
Art depends on its context. Music, sculpture, architecture — it’s all influenced by what surrounds it. So if you’re mixing one art form with another, there is a lot to consider, but above all, the question is: Do they combine to make a better experience?
Not enough of these questions were posed before this weekend’s performance of Holst’s “The Planets,” by the Austin Symphony Orchestra and conductor Peter Bay at the Long Center.
It was billed as a multimedia experience, but in fact it was a “Hatch Productions” video from 1996, a dated and underwhelming film, the style you might find in a high school library.
The ASO had success with a similar concept last year, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s, “Beyond the Score” documentary production about Dvorak’s writing of his “New World” symphony.
Where that succeeded — live actors, Ken Burnsian photography — the Holst production failed in every measure.
A former astronaut, Colonel Benjamin Alvin Drew Jr., was narrating, but it could have been anyone, reciting facts about the planets and moons. Why not employ his considerable personal experience? The man has flown 10 million miles in space.
And this was in service of low-definition video that moved too quickly, drawing attention away from the music.
Why do this to “The Planets,” one of the great popular orchestral works? Grade school children are captured by its straightforward theme: music about the unique “characters” of our solar system.
If there is a piece that needs no introduction or elaboration to catch the imagination of listeners, this is it. Listeners’ imaginations have already been caught.
One expected more up to date space imagery, like the breathtaking shot of the Horseshoe Nebula on the show’s poster. Surely audiences are not so literal as to require images of only the specific planets.
A single shot of each planet, or at the most, a few images, with very slow, subtle edits, would have improved on the video.
Instead, the churning, jagged animations of a planet’s surface removed all sense of discovery, and showed listeners what to envision.
All this was a shame because the orchestra played a beautiful “Nocturnes” by Debussy, with fine solos, alongside heavenly work by Conspirare’s Symphonic Women’s Chorus, no video required.
And musically, “The Planets” had moments of brilliance. Douglas Harvey’s sublime cello solo in “Venus,” moments of strength from the brass and horns (aside from an occasional squawk), and wonderful textures from the organ and harps.
Let’s hope the ASO weights its next choice of visuals much more carefully.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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October 4, 2011
Review: Austin Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'
Of all of Shakespeare’s tragedies, “Hamlet” is about nothing if not language.
And in Austin Shakespeare’s current production of “Hamlet,” at the Rollins Studio Theatre, the Bard’s poetry shines.
The success of the production lies on Helen Merino’s captivating performance as the young Hamlet. Merino — who made her mark on the Austin stage before relocating to New York a few years ago — inhabits the role, deftly bringing both an urgency and an introspection to the character, delivering a Hamlet that’s convincingly full of energetic, youthful intellectualism yet also beset by unreasoned juvenile emotion.
Merino conveys Hamlet’s inner conflicts with conviction, dexterously bringing a freshness and individuality to the character’s well-known and potent soliloquies, perhaps the best known in theater history.
If not all of the secondary performances in this production, directed by Austin Shakespeare artistic director Ann Ciccolella, measure up to Merino’s considerable verve, it just focuses more attention on her quick-witted presentation.
Leanly staged with minimal sets, 19th-century period costumes, striking lighting by Jason Amato and Patrick W. Anthony, and a deft use of puppetry to portray the brief ghostly moments of the drama, this “Hamlet” satisfies.
“Hamlet” continues 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through Oct. 9. Long Center for the Performing Arts, www.thelongcenter.org.
Photo by Kimberley Mead.
October 3, 2011
Review: 'The Mozart Project'
There’s no denying Ballet Austin’s artistic director, Stephen Mills, is a fan of Mozart. His newest creation, a three-piece series collectively titled “The Mozart Project,” was the company’s 2011-2012 season opener, which premiered at the Long Center last weekend. This work comes after Ballet Austin’s prior season’s closer, “The Magic Flute” — another Mozart-inspired ballet. But this time, Mills has taken Mozart to a new level: This is Mozart gone weird.
The first piece of the evening, “Wolftanzt,” was the most classical. Danced to Michelle Schumann and the Austin Chamber Music Center’s live, pure rendition of Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 12,” the 15 dancers maintained traditional male-female partnering relationships throughout the piece’s three movements, with Anne Marie Melendez as the lead ballerina, and Aara Krumpe and Rebecca Johnson as the two soloists. They were flanked by the corps de ballet and framed by a pink wonderland image of abstract roses projected onto the back screen onstage, which matched the ballerinas’ knee-length dresses in various shades of pink.
Though she was not the principal dancer in the piece, it was difficult for this writer to unglue her eyes from Johnson, whose physique and movement quality represented and interpreted Mills’ choreography in a seemingly effortless fashion. “Wolftanzt” is a joyful, expansive dance that calls for sweeping arm movements, high leg extensions, and the perfect arabesque line; the long-limbed Johnson delivered on all counts, especially in the slower second movement when she performed a gorgeous series of leg extensions that called out the delicateness of the piano. “Wolftanzt” ultimately communicates a sense of possibility and freedom.
In “Though the Earth Gives Way,” Austin-based composer Graham Reynolds’ musical composition, along with Michael B. Raiford’s set design, represented a dramatic shift from the production’s opening piece. Reynolds’ score was appropriately eerie, with an echo-y, pulsating beat and electric violin layered on top. The opening image — two white-clad women (Ashley Lynn Gilfix and Melendez) standing perfectly still underneath long veils — was flanked on three sides by five floor-to-ceiling light panels that shocked the eyes when illuminated for brief moments throughout the choreography.
The women were then joined by four men in black, who entered the stage by desperately falling into rectangles of light illuminating patches on the floor. The angular choreography — bent knees, sharp arms — comes to a stark conclusion in the piece’s final moments, when all of the gigantic panels flash at once, several times; with each illumination, the dancers are in a new pose. The chilling final image, with the two ghost-women once again covered with their veils, this time facing the audience head-on, is thrilling.
After the tone set at the conclusion of “Though the Earth Gives Way,” the opening of the evening’s final piece, “Echo Boom,” felt slow. The Austin Chamber Music Center began by playing Mozart’s famous “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,” which was then “remixed” live by Paul D. Miller (also known as DJ Spooky). This introduction went on for a good 15 minutes, accompanied by an at-times-nauseating, black-and-white projection of words, musical notes and barcodes scrolling across a scrim, before the nine dancers entered the stage.
Christopher Swaim was easily the highlight of “Echo Boom”; his limber back and consciousness of stretching the movement while simultaneously maintaining sharpness to his dancing were engaging, despite a crucial moment when Miller’s composition, in suddenly switching gears to the dissonant, wobbly sound of electronic dance genre dubstep, created a need for audience adjustment to fall back under the spell of the dance.
Claire Christine Spera is an American-Statesman freealance arts writer.
Image: “Wolftanzt” from “The Mozart Project.” Photo by Tony Spielberg.
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September 21, 2011
Review: "Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles"
In the Live Music Capital of the World, it’s only fitting that the Austin City Limits Music Festival be followed by a tribute to the Fab Four.
This week at the Long Center for Performing Arts, Broadway Across America is bringing us “Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles,” which opened Tuesday and runs through Sunday.
Unlike the “Jersey Boys” musical, “Rain” doesn’t tell the story of the band. Instead, the show is a multimedia-enhanced concert. Emphasizing that none of the music is prerecorded, the musicians get a little help from their friends on the production team. Two large video screens and a lot of special lighting accompany the performance, adding the atmosphere of strawberry fields, Norwegian wood and sitting in an English garden. News and film footage combine with era-appropriate music to bridge the gaps between sets and costume changes.
Joey Curatolo and Steve Landes have certainly mastered the aesthetics and stage personas of the lead vocalists. The singers occasionally get the crowd twisting and shouting, though most of the evening is spent in the seats. For the most part, audience participation is fairly subdued — one reason why this half-concert half-spectacle is a fun, albeit strange, substitute for the original.
“Rain” isn’t quite as glittery as a Broadway Across America show might lead us to expect — the animations aren’t terribly sophisticated and the video editing leaves something to be desired (especially an abrupt opening that shifts from the JFK assassination to screaming Beatles fans). But there is some fun video-graphic magic when the giant screens alternate between screaming-fan footage from historic Beatles performances to that evening’s crowd at the Long Center.
The show also indulges in one of the more annoying aspects of concerts — making you guess whether it’s time to say goodbye. But all in all, “Rain” is a great way to come together and hold your loved one’s hand, getting back to where you once belonged (or where you wish you could have been).
‘Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles’ continues through Sept. 25 at the Long Center. Tickets are $25-$74 www.thelongcenter.org
September 12, 2011
Review: Joshua Bell and the Austin Symphony Orchestra
In just the last eight months the Austin Symphony Orchestra has hosted as many premiere violinists as an aficionado could hope to see in a lifetime: Itzhak Perlman, Anne Akiko Meyers and this past weekend, Joshua Bell for the orchestra’s season opener at the Long Center.
It was no surprise to his fans that Bell embodies a particularly rich sweetness in his tone. And seeing it live was a reminder that some artists simply translate better on stage than on an album (and many of Bell’s albums are already outstanding).
Just as importantly, conductor Peter Bay and the symphony sounded newly invigorated for Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration,” which opened the evening. The strings sounded especially unified, with pinpoint dynamics, alongside fine solos from flute, viola and violin.
Bell began with the Tchaikovsky “Meditation,” arranged by Glazunov, and in his trademark loose black shirt, Bell played this mournful theme with crystal clear tone, a tone that was strikingly elastic, delicately working the fingerboard.
Not to be outdone, there was also some fine clarinet counterpoint to accompany Bell’s ghostly high vibrato.
After intermission, Bell revived Glazunov’s violin concerto, debuting in Austin a work he described in conversation last month as an “old war-horse” of his idol Jascha Heifetz, perhaps the most revered player of the last century.
And it is pleasingly old fashioned, but more importantly, it’s a sprawling showstopper brimming with difficult double stops, left-handed pizzicato, charging melodies and ephemeral bird-like sounds. Apart from its difficulties, and a gloriously off-kilter cadenza, it emits a nostalgia for the black and whites of old Hollywood.
One might argue that Bell’s monster concerto should have closed out the evening.
Certainly there are a plethora of considerations that decide concert order, but there is something in our human nature that revels in the anticipation, like a vintage Bordeaux stored in the cellar for special occasions.
In any case, after well-deserved and copious applause for Bell, the symphony ended with Rimsky-Korsakov’s nicely textured “Russian Easter Overture,” with good work from the strings and brass, including a fine trombone solo, though the brass ramped up the volume a little too soon, drowning out the strings before the triumphant finale, at least as heard in the mezzanine.
It was a standout evening for the orchestra and Peter Bay, and, from Joshua Bell, another coup for classical music patrons.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts writer.
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August 11, 2011
Long Center to host free Grupo Fantasma concert
Grammy Award winning, Austin-based Latin funk orchestra Grupo Fantasma will rock the Long Center for the Performing Arts’ City Terrace during a free concert, Long Center officials announced today.
The show is at 7 p.m. Sept.4. It’s free and tickets do not need to be secured in advance.
The event is the first of the Long Center’s new Terrace Concert Series, underwritten by member of the Long Center’s Concert Club.
Other concerts on the roster include the Marshall Ford Swing Band with guest Redd Volkaert on Oct. 23 and the Austin Symphony Big Band on April 13..
Patrons may bring food, lawn chairs and blankets but are not allowed to bring alcoholic beverages. Pets are not allowed. Food and drink will be available for purchase at the event. Parking will be available in the Palmer Event Center garage for $7. See www.thelongcenter.org for more information.
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June 16, 2011
A victim of drought and fundraising, Fourth of July symphony concert is cancelled
The epic drought that has gripped the region for more than a year can claim another victim — the Austin Symphony Orchestra’s annual Fourth of July concert.
Seems that with the usual fireworks canceled due to fire safety concerns, symphony officials couldn’t raise enough money to cover the cost of the free concert.
Read the story here.
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June 15, 2011
ALO announces new strategies
After announcing that it was more than $1 million in debt and that its managing director had departed, Austin Lyric Opera revealed its newest fundraising and austerity plans Wednesday.
In a release, the ALO board said that it had adopted several strategies for the organization to move forward.
- Effective July 1, Kevin Smith, former president and CEO of the Minnesota Opera, will begin as ALO’s interim director. He will assist the board in a search for a general director.
- Wednesday performances have been canceled for the upcoming season. Each of ALO’s three productions will run for three shows, instead of four.
- The Long Center for the Performing Arts will take on all of ALO’s box office functions.
- An aggressive emergency fundraising campaign has netted nearly $1 million in donations and pledges.
In May, ALO leaders announced that they accepted the resignation of general director Kevin Patterson and that organization faced more than $1 million of debt.
Story developing. Updates to come.
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June 13, 2011
Review: Conspirare's 'Missa Latina'
It was beautiful from its first moments. Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy’s voice spilled out fragile notes of inevitable sadness. Murphy was at the forefront of a stage packed with musicians Sunday night at the Long Center: A battalion of strings, wind, brass, percussion was just the first wave, with 150 voices looming behind them.
“Missa Latina,” a full Latin Mass by Puerto Rican-American composer Roberto Sierra, produced a huge and diverse sound. The choir under Craig Hella Johnson, seamlessly combined Conspirare and the Victoria Bach Festival chorus.
When the Latin rhythm first enters, near the end of the Introitus, it shifts the solemnity, as if we’ve just turned from a church alter to glance out a window into the streets of San Juan. The music remains ponderous and weighted, but in a way that’s peculiar to Latin America.
As it turns out, “Missa Latina” follows the traditional churchgoing variety quite closely. It’s a solemn, spiritual work and, as Sierra recently explained, the Latin rhythms - shakers, arcing trumpet riffs - do not lighten the religious content, but create personal “moments of introspection.”
And it’s not as if Murphy is about to leap out and sing a number from “West Side Story.” Several movements end with a devastating bass drum, as if the gates of Hell just closed behind you.
And in a way, they have. The Credo is a whirlpool of doubt that follows unbridled joy: the orchestra breaking into full-out San Juan ballroom style Gloria, with its infectious “Hosannas” making heads sway in the choir.
Then the Credo, almost painfully drawn out, emanating doubt from all its pores as the sopranos gently, slowly sing like angels.
Johnson expertly managed his army of vocalists and musicians, and moved vibrantly on the podium. An early tempo in the shakers was out of sync with the baton, but was soon overcome. And crisp, moving work by brass and oboe filled the hall.
Baritone Daniel Teadt, gamely filling in for Nathanial Webster, was unfortunately outmatched aside the angelic Murphy. Where Murphy’s voice projected with ease, Teadt’s felt tight. It had trouble resonating, especially in the lower register.
“Missa Latina” is a journey, and not an easy one for the listeners. But, Dios mio, it is rewarding.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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May 25, 2011
Live from the Bolshoi Ballet
Can’t make it to Mosow this weekend?
On May 29, Long Center Cinema series presents a live simulacast of the Bolshoi Ballet’s current production of “Coppelia.”
The live performance will be screened 10 a.m. on the Long Center’s two-story high-definition screen. An encore screening happens at 2 p.m.
The Bolshoi’s lavish production “Coppelia” was composed by Leo Delibes, choreographed by Marius Petipa, recreated by Segei Vikharev and stars Viacheslav Lopatin and Natalia Osipova. Screening time is approximately 2 hours, 28 minutes.
Premiered in 1870, “Coppelia” is a light-hearted ballet based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann entitled “Der Sandmann” (“The Sandman”), about an inventor who creates a life-size dancing doll.
Tickets are $15 ($10 students). See www.thelongcenter.org for more info.
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April 30, 2011
Review: Austin Symphony Orchestra with Itzhak Perlman
On a night of pomp and circumstance, the 100th anniversary gala of the Austin Symphony Orchestra was rippling with energy.
A scintillating performance by (still) the world’s most eminent violinist, Itzhak Perlman, capped off one hundred years of music with a moment that will be remembered as one of the symphony’s best.
There was a palpable energy in the room — the buzz that comes from a concert hall packed full to the rafters.
Conductor Peter Bay and the symphony began with two works that appeared on the inaugural program in 1911. A subdued Mozart “Symphony No. 28” began after the national anthem and a preview of the 2012 season (with yet more big names).
Luigini’s “Ballet Egyptien” had a gorgeously deep, full sound. Strong bass beats and a sweet oboe solo painted a plethora of colors.
When Perlman navigated toward his chair at center stage after intermission, it was to fierce applause.
Bay carried Perlman’s violin on stage, while Perlman held the baton. Bay, holding onto the violin to let the applause last, received a playful scowl from Perlman, which got the crowd laughing.
Perlman, though, in a flowing black shirt, came to play. Max Bruch’s “Violin Concerto No. 1” just seems to suit Perlman, flaunting every one of his strengths (there are no weaknesses, if you were wondering).
Perlman defied already high expectations.
Tone. Honey-vibrato. Piercingly beautiful high notes, blazing through prickly runs. All the while, Perlman is expressive and relaxed. He looks like you’d imagine the Greek Poet Homer, sitting to recite “The Iliad.”
In this already beautiful work, Perlman seemed to pull out even more moments of sweetness. His bow (with such a high bow-hold!) slices like a cleaver through warm butter.
His performance drew the most natural standing ovation of the season, deservedly so.
If the Mozart and Luigini found the symphony reluctant to milk the soap-opera dynamics those pieces seem to demand in this hall, Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” took on the Bruch’s spark.
The trumpets sang out, and the piece had a perfect, quick gallop. The dynamics here felt alive, helped by pulsing woodwinds, a stunning clarinet solo, and a pleasantly triumphant finale.
The cupcakes, champagne and lore around this centennial gala gave this celebration a singular vivacity, yet it’s music like this that will last another hundred years.
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April 29, 2011
Long Center announces 2011-2012 season
The Long Center for the Performing Arts has announced its 2011-2012. On the roster is Broadway’s “Rain, A Tribute to the Beatles,” Complexions Contemporary Ballet, The Improvised Shakespeare Company, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo and a solo appearance by comedian Carol Burnett. “Sing-a-Long-a ‘Sound of Music’,” Broadway singer Idina Menzel and the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin are also on the Long Center’s slate.
The Austin created “The Intergalactic Nemesis” also returns with two more installments of the tongue-in-cheek sci-fi adventure and live radio play.
See www.thelongcenter.org for more information.
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April 21, 2011
Review: ASO's Young Composer concert
On Wednesday night, the Austin Symphony Orchestra and Peter Bay made space on the podium to test out work from the youngest composers in Texas. This was a first in the state, we’re told, for a symphony to debut works written by Texans 18 and under. Out of 25 submissions, the ASO played 12 short pieces.
Disregarding the skills required to write for an entire orchestra, an accomplishment in itself, just listening as the musical vision of these young men came to life with the power of the full orchestra, was impressive.
All of the works had enough interplay between the sections of the orchestra to keep you intrigued. Sometimes the results were unusual — like using the string principals for extended solos — and sometimes the composers forgot to enroll the orchestra at its full capacity, leaving some dead patches. But a few of the them had an advanced understanding of how to put the whole group of players in service of their vision.
One of those was Wyatt Hahn, whose clever “Giovane Ballerina’s Suite,” was a symphony in seven minutes, with three tiny, hugely effective movements. Hahn, amazingly, a freshman at Cedar Park High School added color to a succinct waltz, with chimes. Then wood blocks and snare enforced the theme as it emerged, and faded, with the evening’s best use of dynamics.
Some pieces resembled video game soundtracks, or film scores a la Danny Elfman, and some could back up a PBS documentary, tonight. Quite a starting point for kids who still take P.E.
It was a treat to see so many young faces in the crowd, cheering after each piece. And this could become a “thing.”
Like the University Interscholastic League’s championships, this competition could improve and affect band and string programs in high schools across Texas by giving kids, composing on a computer in their bedrooms, something to aspire to.
As it was, the composers were all male, mostly white and from some of the most elite public schools in the state, something that says more about schools than about the competition itself.
Let’s hope that next year we see the entire face of Texas, including some young women.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
April 14, 2011
Review: Austin Lyric Opera's 'Flight'
Charming and thoroughly modern, Jonathan Dove’s opera “Flight” made a grace landing last weekend at the Long Center in its Austin Lyric Opera production.
And it was easy to grasp why Dove’s opera is a veritable hit on the contemporary opera landscape. (It’s been performed nearly 100 times.) With and appealing score, “Flight” tells the strange but engaging story of a group of travelers stuck in an airport for a night, an experience made all the more surreal by the presence of an undocumented refugee trapped in a kind of stateless suspension.
Dove’s atmospheric music — which must convey everything from a plane landing to the birth of a baby — smartly entwines a panoply of styles from a pleasantly pure brand of minimalism to stylish contemporary tonalities. And conductor Richard Buckley deftly handled it.
April de Angelis’s cleverly rhymed libretto is part modern poem, part snappily timed comedy patter.
But the real treat came from the solid singing throughout the chorus-less cast. Indeed some of the best musical moments were the ensemble singing.
As the the refugee, Nicholas Zammit’s sparking countertenot added and otherworldliness to the already ethereal role. And as the stiff and cool Controller who stays above (literally) the fray of the travelers’ farcical goings-on, soprano Nili Riemer elicited gasps of admiration from the audience Saturday when she effortlessly leapt to a high F in her first solo.
A comedic but thoughtful operatic portrait of life’s transitions, this “Flight” soars.
“Flight” contineus 7:30 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Sunday at the Long Center. www.austinlyricopera.org.
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April 11, 2011
Review: Tapestry Dance Company's "Are You Listening to Me?'
In the hushed theater, this quotation seemed appropriate: “It takes silence to create rhythm.” So said Tapestry Dance Company’s executive artistic director Acia Gray Friday evening during the opening number of the local tap company’s show, “Are You Listening to Me?” Gray, along with six of her company’s dancers and guest theater artist Zell Miller III, then proceeded to treat audiences to a wonderful array of sounds in the Rollins Theatre at the Long Center. The loud, the quiet, the weird, the routine — nothing was off limits for this seasoned troupe of tappers.
Tapestry Dance Company, now in its 21st season, explored the inter-rhythms between the shuffle-shuffle of the feet and the modulations of the voice. In the first piece, “The Voices in Your Head,” the dancers lined up across the stage and spoke rapidly all at once, until they were silenced by some inexplicable force, though still left to gesture wildly with their arms, their mouths simultaneously moving like a fish’s underwater. One by one, Gray touched them, giving them voice, before relinquishing their power.
The voice often functioned as a source of comedy. In “Find the Quiet,” Brenna Kuhn was the object of jibber jabber as each of her fellow dancers approached her to utter nonsensical sounds. Tanya Rivard laughed herself into hysterical crying; Matt Shields voiced what can best be described as a whiny Italian cadence; and Thomas Wadelton’s jig/jibberish combination induced the audience to laughter.
At other times, words were powerful. “The opposite of courage is not cowardice. The opposite of courage is conformity,” pronounced Miller. The dichotomy between courage and conformity was very much present throughout the evening. It was highlighted in “The Journey,” in which the group of six — perfectly synchronized — moved forwards and backwards in profile. One by one, they broke from the herd to forge their own path in this world of daily routines, before rejoining the group. The music, by Jani Sieber, sounded like it could have come off the “American Beauty” soundtrack (though it didn’t) — whimsical, with a touch of melancholy.
There’s no denying the fact that Tapestry’s dancers are talented. In many ways, the most compelling bits of the evening were when they were all-out dancing, pure and simple. As an audience member, it was almost as though I could feel every fiber of my being getting sucked into the vortex of their energy. In one solo, Wadelton performed quick, tiny movements, at times standing up on his tippy toes like an awkward ballerina. Lost in his own world, we came to understand: Life isn’t about perfection. It’s about being you, about being “free,” as Wadelton himself said.
In another solo, Shields tapped in a mini sandbox at the back of the stage, the friction between his shoes and the sand producing a sound like a needle scratch on a record. Although his nimble movements were limited to a small area, he hardly looked constrained.
Conformity or courage? Tapestry chose the latter.
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April 4, 2011
Review: Austin Symphony Orchestra with Nexus
Toronto’s Nexus percussion ensemble brought some mysticism to the Austin Symphony’s performance on Friday night. With two sets of chimes hanging from the upper balcony, Nexus seemed to expand the size of the concert hall to perform Toru Takemitsu’s “From Me Flows What You Call Time,” a meditative work that originally celebrated the 100th anniversary of Carnegie Hall.
Those chimes were strung up to multicolored ribbons that draped over the audience, to two posts on the stage. The ribbons alter the setting, but the sheer arsenal of bells, gongs, woodblocks and drums made the stage look like some medieval Asian marketplace.
The five percussionists enveloped the orchestra, with a set of steel drums dead center. The piece takes a cosmic approach to honor a century of music and performance; it could be the soundtrack of the beginning of the world — often silent, with patterns of chimes, creeks and vibrations that engender awe. If a symphony is an epic poem, this is Takemitsu’s 35 minute haiku.
The orchestra, under conductor Peter Bay, was largely in the background, with eerie, delicate colors. The use of steel drums as a strange centerpiece was striking, but the most stunning moments came from the clanging of a gigantic nippled gong, whose long wavelength oscillated in thick waves.
The pulling of the ribbons to activate the balcony chimes recalled a call to worship, a sign of the music’s power as it reached through the audience and the entire hall.
It was a sonic feast.
The second half marked a shift in moods, with Ravel’s “Menuet Antique” and his orchestration of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
The “Menuet,” a sprightly little work, found Bay and company in a wonderful, brisk tempo. But this was just a little, energetic appetizer.
The main course was Mussorgsky’s symphony standard, as the composer walks us through a literal exhibition — one that moved the composer to give its paintings a soundtrack.
The ASO tackled the work with gusto, with excellent string work, and notably sharp percussion. Saxophone and trumpet solos flowed easily, as did some color from the winds, but the work’s strenuous demands were apparent on a few occasions, as the wind and brass both had trouble articulating some faster, exposed runs, and one solo suffered from tuning challenges.
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March 7, 2011
Long Center launches spring cinema series
The Long Center of the Performing Arts is continuing its partnership with Emerging Cinema and has booked more high definition films of performances by international arts companies including the Globe Theatre and the Paris Opera Ballet. And there’s music documentary to coincide with SXSW.
From the Long Center release:
‘The Harmony Game: The Making of Bridge Over Troubled Water’
4:30p.m. and 7:30p.m. March 19
Tickets: $10
Runs 1 hour 12 minutes.
‘The Harmony Game’ tells the story behind Simon and Garfunkel’s’ Bridge Over Troubled Water’, an album shrouded in rock mythology with legendary tales of inspiration, innovation and separation. This documentary includes archival footage and brand new interviews with Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel along with several of the duo’s collaborators from the period including Roy Halee (co-producer/engineer), Hal Blaine (drums), Joe Osborn (bass guitar), Jimmie Haskell (arranger), and Mort Lewis (manager). Directed by Jennifer LeBeau.
Tosca
3 p.m. March 20
Tickets: $20, students: $16
Runs 2 hours and 30 minutes with two intermissions.
Performed at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Italy. Tosca is presented in Italian with English subtitles. Presented in partnership with Austin Lyric Opera.
‘Romeo & Juliet’
7:30 p.m. March 23
Tickets: $15, students: $10
Runs 2 hours 51 minutes with one intermission.
Performed at the Globe Theatre in London. ‘Romeo & Juliet’ is directed by Dominic Dromgoole. Presented in partnership with Austin Shakespeare.
‘Caligula’
8 p.m. March 25
Tickets: $15, Students: $10
Runs 1 hour 24 minutes.
Performed by Paris Opera Ballet, Caligula is Principal Dancer Nicolas Le Riche’s first choreography set on the renown French company. Constructed as a tragedy, the choreography follows the inexorable progression of this solitary hero towards death, accompanied by Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.”
www.thelongcenter.org.
Image: ‘Caligula,’ Paris Opera Ballet.
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February 28, 2011
Review: Austin Shakespeare's 'Man and Superman'
We all know the saying: Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. In the case of George Bernard Shaw’s “Man and Superman,” as performed by Austin Shakespeare Company at the Long Center’s Rollins Studio Theatre, men live by their own rules while women covertly chip away at their sense of self-being. Such is certainly the case in the dynamic between the witty play’s two leads, manipulative Ann Whitefield (Kimberly Adams) and eternal bachelor Jack Tanner (Shelby Davenport), as Woman succeeds in bringing Superman down to the level of simply Man.
Jack, who lives by his own moral code, is as complex a man as can be, and Davenport plays the role effectively. Portrayal of the character requires a performance filled with passionate debate and brisk comedic timing; Davenport delivers on both counts. “Marriage to me is a violation of my manhood,” explains Jack, with his characteristically Don Juan attitude.
Ann, who is staving off the affections of the overly romantic Octavius (an appropriately blithering Philip Kreyche), has a huge task ahead of her — to somehow convince Jack, without him realizing what she’s doing, that giving up his manhood will be worth the rewards of marriage. In “Man and Superman,” body language is key, and . Adams gets this. Because Ann is unable to speak plainly of her motivations, the interplay between what comes out of her mouth and what the rest of her body is telling us is oftentimes in direct conflict, and provides comedic fodder that keeps the audience laughing throughout the entire production.
The underpinning of the play’s comedy comes from Shaw’s exquisitely funny language. Though this production of “Man and Superman” is a trimmed down version (at full length, the play runs over four hours long), one would hardly guess it. Its philosophical richness and entertaining language, combined with Austin Shakespeare’s top-notch acting, leads to a certain kind of satisfaction, one that Ann’s character shares with the audience by the end of the play.
“I think men make more mistakes by being too clever than by being too good,” Ann slyly notes, clearly referring to Jack’s agreement to marry her at the end of the play. The final score? Woman: 1, Superman: 0.
‘Man and Superman’ continues through March 6 at the Rollins Studio Theatre, Long Center. $15-$25. www.thelongcenter.org
Claire Christine Spera is an American-Statesman freelancer arts critic.
Image: Jill Blackwood and Philip Kreyche. Photo by Kimberley Mead.
February 21, 2011
Review: Anne Akiko Meyers with the Austin Symphony Orchestra
The Austin Symphony’s season has been laced with soloists, but no other performance approached the technical and emotional caliber of violinist Anne Akiko Meyers Friday night at the Long Center.
From the opening notes of Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto No.1 in D Major” Meyers’ tone pierced the hall like a laser beam. Her initial slide on the violin’s fingerboard was literally astonishing. It more closely resembled an electric guitar than the Molitor, her $3.6 million Stradivarius.
The Molitor sounds fierce: rich in the lower register, but liquid smooth up higher, so it stands to reason that the rest of her performance would be electrified. But the truth is that Meyers possesses a tone so pure that it emerges just a few times in a generation.
Meyers’ iridescent blue and black dress mimicked her playing: shifting instantaneously from Prokofiev’s delicate muted passages, to wildly demanding pizzicato and roughness near the instrument’s bridge.
Perhaps it’s simply the adversarial nature of the piece, but the symphony felt tentative at time, as it jostled with Meyers for the rhythmic center. Then again, it was a little hard to argue with Meyers’ audibly stomping foot, as it seemed (truthfully or not) to urge the symphony forward.
Stravinsky’s “Petrushka,” though, was the surprise of the evening. Originally scored for the ballet by the same name, the work is a reminder that Stravinsky is music’s James Joyce. Some melodies flow like honey, only to have the rug suddenly pulled out from under them with a low rumble or a circus theme.
But the symphony had this work under its thumb. Maestro Peter Bay, with perfect pacing, set the tone. The orchestra took a piece that feels a little grating on recordings, and made it gorgeous; soft and sweet, but also eliciting chills with abrasive chords when the time came.
The Haydn that began the evening (“Symphony 93 in D Major”) was light and breezy, like a pleasant aperitif. It’s not Beethoven, but the work may have benefited from a quicker pace and more dynamic contrast.
Certainly its finest concert of the season, the ASO hit the sweet spot of a thought provoking Stravinsky interpretation alongside a fiery soloist whose power and grace dominated the stage as only the most gifted artists can.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Photo by Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman.
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January 31, 2011
Review: Austin Lyric Opera's "The Italian Girl in Algiers"
Rossini’s comic opera, “The Italian Girl in Algiers,” was a breezy start to the new year for the Austin Lyric Opera Saturday night at the Long Center.
The funny, lighthearted work is energized by strong leads, clever staging and a nimble score.
The orchestra, under the vibrant direction of Richard Buckley, sets the mood with a brisk, melodic opening. Then, the trouble: a biplane streaks across the stage.
Applause erupts as the set “opens,” revealing a Moorish palace court, with patterned floor and archways.
Elvira (Cara Johnston) enters, complaining that her husband, Mustafa, has fallen out of love.
Mustafa, the “bey,” (a governor, of sorts), makes it known that he’s had his fill with his wife. He’s over her preening and her extravagant demands on his time. That, and he hears stories about the women of Italy.
So, Mustafa declares his plan: He’ll ship Elvira off to Italy with his Italian slave, Lindoro (Javier Abreu), and he’ll send his men to fetch him a Lamborghini upgrade.
As luck would have it, the very woman arrives, having crashed her (stylish) plane in desert, with her new man, Taddeo (Peter Strummer).
But Isabella (Sandra Piques Eddy) is more horsepower than Mustafa expected, and she plots an escape with her fiance, Lindoro.
The leads are brilliant. Pecchioli’s Mustafa dances and moves like Michael Jackson in “Thriller.” His face is elastic, and from pompous to effeminate, he’s hilarious.
Eddy embodies Isabella perfectly, as a cross between Amelia Earhart and Sophia Loren.
The voices of both were resonant and fluid, transmitting a bouquet of emotions, from comedy to despair.
Abreu is fun to watch as the straight man, Lindoro, but his voice seemed a little thin as it crept to the lower register.
All secondary parts were outstanding, most notably Strummer as “uncle” Taddeo, a classic comedy “big man.” Strummer’s perfect timing was matched by an ample voice, which made his little shrieks and movements even funnier.
The score is just as much fun, even when the orchestra outpaced the singers in some brisk verbal passages.
The orchestra’s dynamics were especially tight, and a horn solo early in the first half was especially sonorous and beautiful. The whole work felt fresh.
“The Italian Girl in Algiers” continues 7:30 p.m. Feb. 2 and Feb. 4, 3 p.m. Feb. 6 at the Long Center. www.austinlyricopera.org
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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January 18, 2011
Review: Austin Symphony Orchestra plays Dvorak's "The New World."
“America is full of Indians and wild animals,” says the voice of Antonin Dvorak. It’s 1891 and the composer is mulling over an opportunity to write a symphony.
Dvorak is reluctant, but accepts, and he embarks with his family to New York.
The swirling black and white footage of a sea voyage was a stunning beginning to the live, before-your-eyes film that played onstage above the live narrators and the Austin Symphony Orchestra with conductor Peter Bay, the film’s soundtrack.
The concert’s confusing title (Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s “Beyond the Score”) led to a slightly comical online disclaimer that read “NOTE: Chicago Symphony is not performing.” There was some confusion as to what the program entailed.
With the lush narration talents of Dianne Donovan, Rick Rowley and Tom Byrne (as Dvorak), the period film footage told the story of the construction of Dvorak’s ninth symphony, “The New World.”
The sea rocks and swells with Dvorak’s music pulsing, then the brick and iron of the city vibrates with the crush of people in Lower East Side markets. There’s footage of Niagara Falls and Native Americans in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
Throughout, the narrators embody different characters. The composer is concerned that expectations of him are too great. He senses that he’s being asked “to create for them a national music.”
Dvorak is moved by the story of Hiawatha (actually a Scandinavian myth, we’re told), but here the film lulls, hitting the musical cues while abandoning the narrative.
For the second half, the ASO performed the symphony in its entirety.
It opened with good energy, building to the major theme, but the second movement began a little roughly, with imprecise entries from the brass. The winds and oboe, in particular, made up for it, carrying the solo melody.
The strings’ dynamics had, at times, some wonderful movement.
The third movement, though, felt a little sluggish, and would have welcomed a little more pace.
Although balance seemed fine, this listener’s ear formed a direct, and unfortunate, link to the bell of a trombone for most of the night, again suffering from the hyper-fragility of the Long Center’s acoustics.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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January 7, 2011
Review: Tango Buenos Aires
Onstage, a man and a woman become one. The music — rich, deep, melancholic — magnetizes them, until they’ve lost all sense of self-identity. They are living for each other.
Those at the Long Center Thursday evening for Tango Buenos Aires’ production of “Fire and Passion of Tango” were fortunate to be able to witness what tango is all about. The 10-dancer company exemplified subtlety, coordination, union and passion to the music of a live five-piece ensemble, eliciting ooohs and aaahs from the audience.
To hear tango music live is to feel something shift at the very core of your being. Tango Buenos Aires’ combination of the deep notes of the upright bass and bandoneón (an accordion-like instrument) with the sweet melodies of the violin, guitar and piano, is orchestrated by the company’s musical director Emilio Kauderer, perhaps best known in the U.S. for co-composing the score for 2010’s Oscar-winning foreign film “The Secret in Their Eyes.”
Love is at the heart of the storyline the dancers enact via 24 vignettes, choreographed by Susana Rojo. In the opening number, all five couples build momentum together by dancing fabulously in unison.
In a brief but odd detour to the world of classical ballet — splits and all — the company’s lead dancer removes her tango shoes to don slippers; fortunately, her stiletto heels make a quick return, and the rest of the evening is pure tango.
The most breathtaking partnering comes in the first half of the production. A woman in a lavender chiffon dress and her partner effortlessly dance a series of electrifyingly different moves: He lifts her, and she pedals her feet, as though running on air; they begin a lightening-quick series of legwork, their lower limbs weaving in and out of each other, and one almost expects an intricate tapestry to appear out of nowhere as a result.
The next couple is also skilled at legwork, moving so concisely it appears as though their legs are unattached to their torsos. Another optical illusion is created when the lead dancer dons a dress half red, half fuchsia. Her partner, in flipping her from side to side, shows off a woman split down the middle, torn between two men. In another vignette, two couples meld to become a quartet, arms sideways on each other’s shoulders.
Perhaps that’s what is most beautiful of all about tango — becoming one with another soul. But even though Tango Buenos Aires’ dancers were wrapped up in each other, they still drew us into their intensely satisfying experience.
Claire Christine Spera is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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January 6, 2011
Ballet Austin reports banner 'Nutcracker'
Ballet Austin recent production of ‘The Nutcracker’ was the best ever in terms of attendance and ticket sales.
Some 26,319 people attended the 12 performances that ran Dec. 4-13 at the Long Center, grossing more than $1 million in ticket sales, the second time the organization has topped the million mark with ‘The Nutcracker.’ The 2010 production was the 48th annual for Ballet Austin, making it longest running production of ‘The Nutcracker’ in Texas.
The ‘Nutcracker’ success follows Ballet Austin’s season opener in September in which the company performed ‘Carmina Burana’ and ‘Kai’ to three sold-out performances at the Dell Hall.
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December 6, 2010
Liza Minnelli re-schedules Long Center show
Legendary chanteuse Liza Minnelli has re-scheduled her Austin performance at the Long Center for March 3, 2011. Minnelli was originally scheduled to perform Oct. 10, one of several performances the 64-year-old singer canceled last fall.
Tickets for Minnelli’s Long Center performance will go sale Dec. 13 at 10 a.m. Tickets start at $39. See www.thelongcenter.org for updates.
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November 10, 2010
Review: Austin Lyric Opera's 'La Traviata'
Austin Lyric Opera went for lush and classic to mark the opening its 24th season Saturday night at the Long Center with its production of ‘La Traviata.’
Opulent sets and costumes, a passionately conducted score and solid performances from the singers marked the robust performance.
Tenor Chad Shelton pleased last season as the Duke of Manua in ALO’s ‘Rigoletto.’ Now, as Alfredo, he brought a rich, resonant tone that was nevertheless nicely uncomplicated. Likewise he infused a good deal of realistic energy into the role of the besotted lover, a nice counterbalance to Verdi’s melodrama.
As the doomed courtesan Violetta, soprano Pamela Armstrong delivered plenty of heart-tugging pathos especially on her arias ‘Ah! for’ lui” and ‘Addio del passato,’ her voice creamy and lyric, yet very well articulated.
Germont, Baritone Grant Youngblood, as Angelo’s misguided father, gave both an expressive and authoritative portrayal.
Desmond Heeley’s sumptuous Victorian interiors and costumes, from Lyric Opera of Chicago, lent an elegance while Christine Binder’s dramatic lighting seemed to emphasize the emotional tone of each scene, again a nice counterpoint to the sentimentality of this favorite tragic chestnut of an opera.
Stage director Garnett Bruce centered the dramatic attention on the principals, which left the chorus adrift though the polished singing made up for it.
In the end, what made this a compelling ‘Traviata’ was the conducting of music director Richard Buckley. Buckley excluded the usual sentimentality of most Traviata interpretations and instead, offered a more delicate, nuanced sound that was therefore more emotionally urgent and credible.
‘La Traviata’ continues 7:30 p.m. Nov. 10, 12 and 3 p.m. Nov. 14. www.austinlyricopera.org.
Photo by Mark Matson for ALO.
October 22, 2010
Hartman Foundation pledges $1 million to Austin Symphony Orchestra
Austin Symphony Orchestra announced late Thursday that Austin arts patrons Claudette and David Hartman and the Hartman Foundation have pledged $1 million to endow the orchestra’s annual free summer summer concerts.
The Hartman gift will provide permanent endowment for the 12-week series of one-hour casual concerts performed on the terrace of the Long Center for the Performing Arts. The summer concert series began in 2002 and was first presented in Wooldridge Park before the Long Center opened in 2008. The Hartman Foundation has been the sole sponsor of the summer concert series since its inception.
“It is our hope that these free and very informal outdoor events will provide an opportunity for Austinites to become acquainted — or reacquainted — with a classical music experience at Austin’s new gathering place for the arts,” stated Claudette Hartman in a release from the orchestra.
Read a recent story on the orchestra’s summer concert series “Sunday in the park with the symphony.”
Photo by Jarrad Henderson/American-Statesman.
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October 12, 2010
Review: 'Cowboy Noises'
Before the internet, before the novel, before writing even existed, communication began with a sound. Those sounds evolved into words, and we’ve been talking to each other ever since. Storytelling, the repetition and revision of oral histories, has been a vital facet of human tradition for thousands of years.
In Jaston Williams’ “Cowboy Noises,” playing now through Oct 17 at the Long Center for Performing Arts, Williams narrates autobiographical moments from small-town Texas, exploring the primal and inarticulate sounds that define and connect the men of the south.
A cross between stand-up comedy, mime show, and monologue, the Garrison Keillor-esque show is a soothing trip down memory lane. It’s also a bit of a history lesson for those of us who watched the sitcoms Williams’ references on “Nick at Night” instead of prime time. As such, some of the humor flies right over our heads. But for those in the audience who remember Connie Francis and “I Love Lucy” in the original, the jokes seemed to delight.
Laughter is a common theme in the show, and Williams offers various insights into the connective possibilities that laughter ignites. According to “Cowboy Noises,” laughter can be a way to camouflage fear, to heal the wounded soul, and, most importantly, to connect people across cultural and linguistic divides - it is a sound that anyone can recognize. Williams explains in the second half that laughter is the primal noise that unites him with his adopted son. As he puts it, laughter is the “sound that engendered our kinship.”
The show is filled with eloquent gems of wisdom and beautifully poetic language, and it settles into some very nice moments of quietude. Often where Williams begins isn’t where he ends up, but his narrative peregrinations are enjoyable on the whole. The long preamble of the first half builds to a slow and sweet payoff.
The poster for the performance, however, belies an energy that the show lacks. Williams’ gorgeous writing and fondness for alliteration might be more pleasing on the pages of a novel read by the fireside with a cup of hot cocoa than they were in the theater.
Though “Cowboy Noises” relies to some extent on past experiences with the performer (co-creator and co-star of the “Greater Tuna” plays), this is not a “Tuna” show. The humor is soft and slow burning, the pace is measured, and the performance somewhat subdued.
‘Cowboy Noises’ continues through Oct. 17 at the Rollins Studio Theater, Long Center. $31-$39. www.thelongcenter.org.
Cate Blouke is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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October 11, 2010
Review: Austin Symphony Orchestra and Judith Ingolfsson
The Austin Symphony Orchestra’s second concert this season lacked calling-card masterworks but surprised with moving melodies, an offbeat Berlioz symphony and a virtually unheard Schumann violin concerto featuring Iceland’s Judith Ingolfsson, conducted by Peter Bay.
On Friday night at the Long Center, two harps opened “Vysehrad,” the lyrical first movement from Bedrich Smetana’s anthem to his homeland, “Ma Vlast.” The strings showed beautiful balance, especially as the theme traveled back and forth.
At one point the violas played a remarkably breathless tremolo, a moment that stood in contrast to trumpet lines that felt exposed, struggling to blend. The cymbals, too sounded a little dry.
Leaving patriotic homages far, far behind, Ingolfsson graced the stage in an elegant gown, whose rose, peach and gold stripes popped against the orchestra’s black. Her violin sang with technical runs, chords and spot-on arpeggios, staying ever so slightly in front of the orchestra.
Schumann’s only violin concerto is one of music’s ugly ducklings. Composed just before the composer’s suicide attempt, it forever held that association and was hidden for nearly a century. The piece holds quite a melancholic spirit, and in the latter movements falls somewhat listless.
Nevertheless, the audience was grateful for hearing it, and stood for Ingolfsson’s playing, which compelled an encore that seemed perhaps a touch hasty.
Ingolfsson’s Bach sarabande was welcome, however. It was equally contemplative, without great flair, but with a raw, haunting quality.
Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14” straddled the Classical and Romantic periods, with a wildly bombastic final movement.
With moments almost stereotypically Classical, the long work has a tendency to dull your interest, until a timpani clangs you out of any stupor.
Unlike much of the acoustic music played in Dell Hall, which is often so quiet as to give the impression the orchestra is playing in a separate room, Berlioz’s loudest sections almost rattled you out of your chair.
The familiar third movement was forcefully played, with the trumpets leading the march. The bassoons and oboes offered confident and lyrical lines, including a fine staccato.
Later, a few french horn entries fished for pitch, but this sat as the only issue in the finely played symphony.
The final movement, a truly bizarre sonic romp, uses every section of the orchestra to paint a scene the composer called “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath.”
Its triumphant horn melodies are broken by jarring percussion, teetering strings, and finally anchored by clanging bells, which were played through the stage’s back entrance, as if to let the dreamer know the real world is far away.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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September 28, 2010
Review: Ballet Austin's 'Carmina Burana' and 'Kai'
Ballet Austin opened its new season this past weekend with three sold-out performances at the Long Center — with 6,920 attendees, a record-breaker for the company, more than any other season opening program its presented.
Likely it was the reprise of one of Ballet Austin’s most popular creations — Stephen Mills’ dance interpretation of Carl Orfff’s super-popular choral piece ‘Carmina Burana,’ sung by Grammy-nominated Austin choir Conspirare with the Austin Symphony Orchestra that was first presented in 2005.
Musically, this ‘Carmina Burana’ was spectacular with Conspirare director Craig Hella Johnson and the choir magnificently handling Orff’s challenging rhythm-based score and ever-changing tempo with aplomb and style. Baritone David Small, tenor Tracy Jacob Shirk and soprano Suzanne Ramo skillfully sung the challenging solo arias with Ramo bringing impressive warmth and clarity to her solos. In the pit, conductor Peter Bay and the Austin Symphony Orchestra clearly reveled in Orff’s musical histrionics.
Mills’ choreography finds an ultimately celebratory and revolutionary mood in Orff’s colorful interpretation of medieval songs of fate and fortune. Never mind the ominous and distracting metalwork contraption that loomed above the dancers clad in short colorful unitards. Was that contraption an abstract Wheel of Fortune? It was impossible to tell.
Groups of dancers romped and even tumbled at times during the 60-minute piece, sometimes evoking contemporary balletic spin on folkdance or maypole celebrations. But the corps — particularly the male dancers — lacked basic unison and synchronicity made all the more noticeable given the percussive, rhythm-driven nature of Orff’s raucous music and Mills vaguely abstracted choreography. As the polished sounds of Conspiare’s voice surged forward at Saturday night’s presentation, the dancers seemed pressed to keep up.
The program opened with ‘Kai,’ another reprise of a work by Mills and wholly opposite in mood to the sturm-und-drang of ‘Carmina Burana.’ Set to the music of John Cage, ‘Kai’ employed Mills’s signature angular geometries of ballet movement.
As the lead duo, Jaime Lynn Watts and Frank Shott proved again why they are always a rewarding pair to watch. But again, an inattention to unison of movement by the ensemble weakened any sophistication to this performance of ‘Kai.’
September 27, 2010
'Austin Goes Classical' festival featured on KLRU documentary
In June, Austin became the live classical guitar capital of the world when the Austin Classical Guitar Society played host to the annual Guitar Foundation of America International Convention and Competition.
And Matt Hinsley, executive director Austin Classical Guitar, smartly and artfully turned what is normally an industry-specific event into community-friendly, audience-oriented week-long concert festival complete with family-friendly concerts and a concert featuring 200-plus young guitar students.
The week-long festival, dubbed “Austin Goes Classical,” involved other groups including Austin Symphony, the Miro String Quartet, Austin Chamber Music Center as well as top-flight names in the classical guitar world including Pepe Romero.
Through it all, contestants from 25 countries competed to be in the finals of the world’s most prestigious international classical guitar competition.
Austin’s PBS station KLRU was there to capture it all and a one-hour documentary, “Art on Six Strings,” produced as part of KLRU’s InContext arts series, airs at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30.
Here’s a trailer:
September 12, 2010
Review: Austin Symphony Orchestra, Andre Watts, piano
Though the centennial of Austin Symphony Orchesta’s founding isn’t until April 2011, ASO is starting the celebrations early with a certain fanfare. And in terms of mood, that fanfare was felt at the Long Center Friday night, the opening concert of the orchestra’s new season.
Music director Peter Bay began the program with William Schuman’s New England Triptych. Based on the hymns of early American Revolution-era composer William Billings, the Triptych a kind full-strength twentieth-century Americana — a Main Street parade of musical quotations that flashes by in impressionistic bursts though Schuman lets Billings’ hymns standout. While the orchestra’s general attack and force had an energy to it, there was some noticeable muddiness in the more vigorous stretches where more alacrity seemed needed.
Pianist André Watts, the evening’s guest artist, delivered a polished if a tad perfunctory performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. Thankfully, Watts held back on easily over-dramatized flourishes, letting Beethoven’s lyricism be the focus, especially in the beautiful second movement. And though he was with the orchestra, Watts seemed to sonically avoided joining it altogether.
After what’s become the obligatory standing ovation for orchestra guest artists, Watts left the stage. No encore for Austin, it seems.
Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 finished the evening’s program after intermission. Again if the orchrestra’s basic attack was there, details and finesse were not. The woodwinds cracked at their few important focused moments. More vigorous passages sometimes seemed a scramble for the orchestra. In the end, the orchestra’s essential competency dominated but what was wanting was élan, intensity and inspiration.
Review: Austin Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'
A group of people survive a terrible accident and land on a remote island inhabited by a plotting sorcerer and a host of supernatural beings. Though this may sound like the plot of television’s ‘Lost,’ it’s actually the premise behind William Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest.’
In Austin Shakespeare’s current production, directed by Ann Ciccolella, the title storm that opens the show is a big, rollicking one, made especially thrilling by the way lighting designer Jason Amato’s lightning bolts cut through an unbelievably dense fog.
When the chaos ends, a complicated story begins to unravel. Prospero (a dignified Steve Shearer) is a magician and the exiled Duke of Milan, who has been living on a mysterious island for 12 years with his daughter, Miranda (Lindsley Howard).
He conjured the storm to wreck a ship carrying his deceitful brother, Antonio (David J. Boss) and the current King of Naples (Tom Stephan), in order to seek some kind of redemption for the events of the past. The shipwreck sets in motion all kinds of elaborate subplots, involving enchantments, attempted murder, romance, and way, way too much alcohol.
Most of the performers are quite good at bringing Shakespeare’s language to life. The comedic trio of Stephano, a drunken butler (Nathan Jerkins), Trinculo, a jester (Michael Dalmon) and Caliban, a ‘monster’ enslaved by Prospero (Michael Amendola) are all highly animated and skilled at physical comedy. As Miranda’s love interest, Ferdinand, Travis Emery is sweetly genuine.
Despite the cast’s efforts, the staging is often static, and with such an expository script, a little more physical action would help focus the audience’s attention. The production design hits an odd note as well — it doesn’t create a fantastical island atmosphere as much as it creates a surreal, stark landscape reminiscent of the far out island inhabited by Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow in ‘Pirates of the
Caribbean 3.’
Still, Austin Shakespeare’s production is timely. The 400th anniversary of ‘The Tempest,’ is approaching, and a new film adaptation starring Helen Mirren as a gender-swapped Prospera (directed by Julie Taymor) will be released soon. This might be just the time to catch a theatrical production of the show before the film
leaves indelible images.
‘The Tempest’ continues 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 26 Rollins Studio Theatre Long Center. $23-$29 ($15 for students) www.thelongcenter.org
Claire Canavan is an American-Statesman freelance critic.
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September 10, 2010
Long Center adds Globe Theatre production to HD film screenings
Expanding its agreement with HD film distributors, the Long Center for the Performing Arts has announced that it will now be screening recent Shakespeare productions from London’s Globe Theatre.
The first is the Globe’s 2009 production of ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ directed Dominic Dromgoole. It screens at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 1. Tickets are $15, $10 for students.
Screening dates for more Globe Theatre productions will be announced in the near future.
Recently, the Long Center began screening Emerging Pictures Opera in Cinema series of recent production from international opera houses. The next in that series is London’s Royal Opera House production of ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ which screens at 7 p.m. Sept. 14.
See thelongcenter.org for more information.
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September 6, 2010
Review: 'Intergalactic Nemesis'
If you’ve ever wished you could see a comic really come to life, Jason Neulander has the show for you. Despite the recent rash of Marvel-funded feature films, movie theaters aren’t the only place where comic-book credits roll across the screen.
Making it premier at the Long Center for Performing Arts last weekend, the most recent manifestation of “The Intergalactic Nemesis,” written and directed by Neulander, is an illustrated journey across both time and space.
Originally envisioned as a live-performance radio drama inspired by Star Wars, Indiana Jones and pulp detective thrillers, “Nemesis” harkens back to an earlier time in American entertainment while simultaneously venturing into a potential future of inter-planetary warfare.
Touted as a live-action graphic novel, “The Intergalactic Nemesis” combines the efforts of three actors, one Foley artist, one composer, a comic-book artist and a few dozen microphones to create “a period-action-sci-fi-horror-space-opera-adventure” that will entertain comic fans of all ages.
While images from the comic book series (inspired by the script of the early versions of the show) were projected onto the Long Center’s enormous 42 foot by 24 foot screen, we watched and listened as performers brought the pictures to life.
Displaying a vocal versatility to be reckoned with, Chris Gibson gave voice to hero, villain, and henchman, at times all in the same breath. But the delight didn’t end with his audible emissions. Gibson enlivened his roles with surprising dynamism considering the performers are largely stationary throughout the show.
Surrounded by a mountain of miscellaneous objects and microphones, Buzz Moran, the show’s sole Foley artist, was equally enchanting to watch at work.
Given its reliance on comic and pulp fiction conventions, the overall story line is a bit predictable, but “Nemesis” manages to make the impossible plot twists entertaining by being self-aware about its own cheesiness.
The characters employ adorable colloquialisms to make them identifiable. The unlikely librarian-hero, Ben Wilcott (Chris Gibson), is particularly endearing with his “by the archive’s” and good old-fashioned right hooks.
The giant projections did some disservice to the art of the comic book, and the performers were much more engaging to watch up close. I can’t speak for those unfortunates in the balcony seats, but the Long Center’s Dell Hall may have been too large for such an intimate and interesting concept.
Cate Blouke is an American-Statesman freelancer critic.
September 3, 2010
Liza Minnelli cancels Long Center show
From the Long Center of the Performing Arts comes this announcement this afternoon:
Due to scheduling conflicts, Liza Minnelli has cancelled her previously announced October 10 performance. The Long Center hopes to re-schedule her for a future date.
August 30, 2010
'Opera in Cinema' at the Long Center fills the house for its first screening
Can a free show be sold-out?
Well, it certainly can be maxed-out which what happened at the free screening of La Scala’s ‘Aida’ at the Long Center Friday night. All of the 2400 available tickets were reserved in advance. And while there may have been a few no-shows, nearly every seat was taken.
The screening was the first of a new collaboration with Emerging Pictures, purveyors of hi-def movies, many of them cultural. The Austin Lyric Opera is co-sponsoring the 2010-2011 ‘Opera in Cinema’ series with the Long Center.
With bragging rights to the second-largest movie screen in town (after the IMAX screen at the Bullock Museum), and with hi-def projection equipment, the Long Center makes for (literally) picture perfect of hi-def films. The image was crystalline — perfect for the Zeffirelli-designed production and its lavish sets and costumes. Indeed, the quality of the projection was leagues better than Austin screenings of the Met Opera hi-def movie series shown venues that lack hi-def projection equipment.
Without a proper cinema sound system at the Long center though, the acoustics weren’t quite as sparkling as the image, leaving the sound a little mono-directional. (A cinema sound system would cost the non-profit Long Center several tens of thousands of dollars. Who wants to donate that?)
Still, the audience was appreciative Friday night, applauding the arias while they sipped drinks (yes, water and clear-colored beverages are now allowed into the Long Center’s Dell Hall for certain shows).
Up next, on Sept. 14,is Mozart’s ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ from London’s Royal Opera House followed by ‘Carmen’ from Spain’s Gran Theatre del Liceu on Oct. 13.
See www.thelongcenter.org for more info.
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August 18, 2010
La Scala's 'Aida' screens for free at the Long Center
Opera aficiandos, you have options now.
Thanks to collaboration between Austin Lyric Opera, the Long Center for the Performing Arts and Emerging Pictures — an all-digital alternate contect theater network in the United States — Austin will be getting the ‘Opera in Cinema’ series, hi-def screenings of opera productions from around the world.
To kick things off, there will be a free screening Aug. 27 of Verdi’s Aida in the 2006 production by Teatro alla Scala of Milan. Director Franco Zeffirelli brought his trademark over-the-top extravagance to the production which features an ensemble of over 300 actors. It stars soprano Violeta Urmana and tenor Roberto Alagna.
The screening starts at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free, but tickets are required and limited. To obtain tix visit www.thelongenter.org, call 512-474-LONG (5664) or stop by the Long Center box office.
Paul Beutel, interim executive director of the Long Center, and Austin Lyric Opera general director Kevin Patterson will announce the remainder of 2010-2011 opera screenings in the next few weeks.
The free ‘Aida’ screening kicks of a weekend of hi-def cinema at the Long Center.
Aug. 28:
2 p.m. Kurosawa’s ’ The Hidden Fortress’
5 p.m. Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’
Aug. 29:
3 p.m. ‘The Girl With the Dragoon Tatoo’
7 p.m. ‘Monty Python & The Holy Grail’
Admission: $7 advance; $9 day of show ($2 off for kids under 13 and seniors over 65)
P.S. in this Texas heat wave: The Long Center is always a comfortable 68 degrees inside.
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July 20, 2010
Long Center director Cliff Redd to retire
Cliff Redd, executive director of the Long Center for the Performing Arts since 2004, announced Tuesday that he will retire.
Redd said his decision was mostly related to personal reasons.
“My intention was to get the center well-launched and keep all the promises that we made when we raised the money (to build the Long Center),” Redd said. “And I couldn’t be more pleased that we did that. Now is a good time for me retire.”
Redd added that his partner, Rick Johnson, was seriously ill. “My family requires a great deal of attention right now,” Redd said.
Redd, 59, suffered a mild heart attack in 2008 but said his health is fine and was not an issue in his decision.
Craig Hester, chair of the Long Center board, said that managing director Paul Beutel has been appointed interim executive director effectively immediately. The board will undergo a national search to fill Redd’s position, Hester said.
“It’s been an honor and privilege to work with Cliff,” Hester said. “Cliff’s energy and enthusiasm knows no bounds. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Long Center wouldn’t have been completed without him. The board owes him a great deal of thanks.”
Hester said that in recognition of Redd’s years of service, the board has named him executive director emeritus, a title he will hold in perpetuity.
Redd took the helm in July 2004 — a low point during a campaign to build a civic performing arts center that started in the early 1990s. In January 2004, Long Center officials announced that they planned to downsize the project from the original $125 million four-venue complex and instead build a $77 million two-theater space. At the time only $59.6 million was in place.
Bringing more than 30 years of experience as an arts leader in Dallas, Redd amped up the Long Center’s fundraising record, surpassing the $77 million goal. When the center opened in March 2008, about $82.5 million had been raised.
The primary performance venue for the Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony Orchestra and Ballet Austin and host to other local and traveling shows, the Long Center
June 28, 2010
GFA announces winners to 2010 competition
The Guitar Foundation of America wrapped up its annual convention Sunday night at the Long Center for the Performing Arts with its International Concert Artist Competition concert.
The winner was Johannes Moller of Sweden. Second place was Artyom Dervoed, with Eduardo Costa netting third place and Alexander Milovanov, fourth.
Among the other prizes Moller wins is a 50-concert international tour. Austin audiences take note — that tour will include Austin at some point.
GFA Hall of Fame awards were given to Pepe Romero, Richard Long, Bernard Maillot and John Gilbert.
This year’s convention and competition was hosted by Austin Classical Guitar Society and featured some 60 concerts and events presented in cooperation with several other Austin arts groups including Austin Symphony Orchestra, Austin Lyric Opera and Austin Chamber Music Center.
June 25, 2010
GFA Fest puts 200 guitarists on Long Center stage, and more
Quick — how many guitarists can fit on the stage of the Long Center’s Dell Hall?
Try 200. And it was a phenomenal and charming sight.
Last night, as part of the Guitar Foundation of America’s annual convention and competition now taking place in Austin, some 200 young guitarists from around the country took the stage for a short concert under the direction of Michael Quant. The sea of strings sounded lush and colorful, particularly during the premiere of ‘Powerman,’ a fun yet thoughtful piece commissioned for the event from Austin composer Graham Reynolds. Let’s hope the young guitarists continue to rock on.
The youth guitar orchestra was the warm-up act of sorts for the evenings featured performers: guitarist Adam Holzman with the Miro Quartet.
But before the music started, GFA president Brian Head announced the 12 semi-finalists of the International Competition. Click here to see the list. The semi-finalists are competing today. On Sunday, four finalists will compete in a public concert beginning at 6:30 p.m. The winners will be announced during a 9 p.m. ceremony.
But last night the stage belonged to Holzman and the Miro. All on the faculty of UT, the fivesome clearly relished in the collaboration of playing together. That particularly came through in Boccherini’s exuberant Quintetto No. 4 a piece that bounced between virtuosic flourishes (particulary from the cello) and spirited leitmotifs full of Spanish flare.
Another treat was seeing Miro first violinist Daniel Ching play the delightful Giuliani’s Sonata Op. 85 in duet with Holzman.
The GFA concerts continue tonight with a flamenco program by Grisha at 8 p.m. See www.austingoesclassical.org for complete information.
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June 16, 2010
Review: Conspirare's Bach Mass in B Minor
Two years ago, Austin’s Grammy-nominated choir Conspirare stunned when they performed Verdi’s Requiem in the then-brand new Long Center for the Performing Arts. In a way it was a concert that defined a moment in Austin’s cultural history — a spotless, virtuosic performance and the first proof that the Long Center’s Dell Hall is a first-rate listening room for choral music.
Sunday night, Conspirare the choir, led by Craig Hella Johnson, returned to Dell Hall for another monumental masterpiece of the choral repetoire — Bach’s Mass in B Minor.
And while not as breathtaking and daunting a performance as the once-in-a-lifetime Verdi was two years ago, the Bach nevertheless proved Johnson and his vocalists are superb interpreters, able to bring freshness to even an oft-performed piece like the B Minor Mass.
Presented in collaboration with the Victoria Bach Festival — of which Johnson is artistic director — Sunday’s concert featured the Victoria Bach Festival Orchestra, a 31-piece period instrument ensemble that provide an authentic underpinning to the Baroque masterpiece.
Among the soloists soprano Kathlene Ritch and tenor David Farwig, both regular Conspriare soloists, delivered sensitive performances. Soprano Abigail H. Lennox and tenor Matt Tresler deftly handled the duet “Domine Deus.” Alto Wendy Bloom sang the “Agnus Dei” with delicate melancholy.
Conspriare recently announced its 2010-2011 season at www.conspirare.org. Next June the choir will once again return to the Long Center with the Victoria Bach Festival, this time with Roberto Sierra’s Missa Latina, a critically acclaimed work by the Puerto Rican-born composer.
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May 4, 2010
Fusebox 2010: John Kelly's Paved Paradise Redux
There is sweet pleasure in watching one person love another. That’s what watching John Kelly performing as Joni Mitchell feels like: watching a great fan honor a great woman.
Kelly’s “Paved Paradise Redux,” the latest incarnation of the New York-based artist’s drag show about Joni Mitchell, is an always sensitive, sometimes hauntingly dark tribute to Mitchell and fandom. The piece, seen this weekend at the Long Center’s Rollins Theatre, felt like a perfect ending to the ten-day Fusebox Festival.
Kelly’s creates Mitchell from precise attention to quirky details. As he moves through about sixteen of Mitchell’s songs, Kelly mirrors Mitchell’s incredible range, shifting from high-pitch trills to her soothing alto. He wears diaphanous dresses—first white, then blue velvet—that hang from stooped shoulders and trail behind as he meanders in wandering pathways atop leopard-print high heels. These details contribute to a sense his Mitchell is both in the theatre and not. The music and often-hilarious musings between songs often feel poignant, but Kelly has perfected a paradoxical stare for his Mitchell. She gazes past the horizon with such intensity, her gaze turns back on itself, ably reflecting the retrospection and longing in Mitchell’s music.
For all of the love in the show, Kelly traffics in Mitchell’s darkness a great deal, too. Even when Mitchell’s lines (many of them drawn from live concert recordings) could be funny, Kelly cuts off the end of the sentence. His refusal of comedic timing pushes the Mitchell character in a very different direction than the male-to-female drag common in mainstream media today, which so often makes fun of female figures.
Familiarity with Mitchell’s work would be a bonus at the show, but Kelly has developed such a full character that owning the albums isn’t required. Regardless of the size of one’s Mitchell CD library, “Paved Paradise Redux” offers many of the joys of live concert going. “Case of You” is probably one of Mitchell’s best-known songs. Seeing Kelly play it—after he hilariously riffs on the genealogy of the odd instrument—brings out the song’s sexy percussion.
Seeing Kelly as Mitchell also brings out Mitchell’s lyrics differently. “Paved Paradise Redux” illustrates how her poetic words are not just descriptions of the relationships of others, but are about the relationship between a musician and her listeners. Kelly and Mitchell are now friends (the dulcimer he plays in the show was a gift from Mitchell), but as Kelly performs it’s obvious that the lyric he sings early in the show “she comforts him sometimes” describes a much longer relationship between Mitchell and this adoring fan.
Songs come to life in one body,
but they often gain their fullest expression when they come to live in the bodies
and lives of others.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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April 19, 2010
Long Center announces 2010-2011 season
Broadway greats Tommy Tune and Liza Minnelli are just two of the acts that will be coming to the Long Center for the Performing Arts as part of its 2010-2011 season.
Also on the roster are comedy troupe the Capitol Steps, Tango Buenos Aires, the Vienna Boys Choir, Cirque Dreams Illumination and Blue Man Group.
‘Cowboy Noises,’ a play written by and staring “Greater Tuna” originator Jaston Williams, will start the Long Center’s off-Broadway season of plays.
And Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel will present his original musical “A Ride With Bob: The Bob Willis Musical.”
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February 15, 2010
UT and Long Center to share Broadway shows
Touring Broadway shows will be spread between Austin’s two major venues next season as the University of Texas’ Texas Performing Arts and the Long Center announced Monday that the two organizations have formed a new alliance with Broadway Across America, the national tour promoter and producer.
Though the 2010-2011 Broadway Across America season has not been announced, the Long Center will host one of the five touring productions next season. The other four will play at UT’s Bass Concert, the long-time home for touring Broadway shows in Austin. In the last 25 years, Bass has presented over 100 Broadway productions including blockbusters like ‘Wicked,’ the three-week run of which last summer landed the venue on the number even spot of Pollstar’s list top 100 Worldwide Theatre Venues for the first three quarters of 2009.
Kathy Panoff, executive director of Texas Performing Arts said that the cooperative agreement also comes as a result of “my more strategic goals for Texas Performing Arts.”
“If I’m going to provide programming that’s in better alignment with the academic and research mission of the university, it will result in us making more choices in about the Broadway shows we present,” she said. “We’ll choose Broadway title that are a better fit with the academic mission (of the university).”
With an annual budget of $10 million, TPA stands to lose maybe $100,000 to $150,000 in income by foresaking one Broadway show per season. But Panoff said that the difference would be made up as the TPA moves to being “more of a donor-focused organization.”
(With this arrangement) we can take a leadership role as a community partner and fulfill our role as an academic partner within the university,” she said.
The Long Center opened in 2008 and is the permanent home to Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony Orchestra and Ballet Austin. It also presents touring shows.
“Co-operating with other Austin performing arts organizations is central to the mission of the Long Center,” said Cliff Redd, executive director, “The partnership with Texas Performing Arts and Broadway Across America makes total sense both organizationally and from a customer service point of view.”
February 1, 2010
Review: Austin Lyric Opera's 'The Star'
Combine a zany plot propelled by wacky characters, charming music laced with witty dialogue and a mad world made into a visually arresting mod funhouse and you have the utterly entertaining production of Emmanuel Chabrier’s ‘The Star,’ now getting a turn by Austin Lyric Opera at the Long Center.
Only now recognized for its brilliant goofiness after a century in obscurity, Chabrier’s 1877 opera bouffe is a sparkling confection — a bon bon for the opera connoisseur in this impressive, inventively-designed production by New York City Opera and Glimmerglass Opera.
And yet, with its mix of dialogue and singing — and thanks to some very clever direction by Alain Gauthier and droll dance moves by choreographer Jeff Michael Rebudal - this version of ‘The Star’ is also pure delight for any opera novice or musical theater aficianando.
Superbly conducted by Richard Buckley, who brilliantly extracted the lyrical wittiness in Chabrier’s exquisite score, ‘The Star’ is an opera bouffe that gently satirizes opera itself.
In this comic confection, King Ouf the First (tenor Jean-Paul Fouchecourt) scours his kingdom to find a subject to impale — a public execution, after all, being Ouf’s favorite birthday celebration. But unluckily, Ouf chooses a young peddler Lazuli (mezzo-soprano Deborah Domanski), whose star, the king’s astrologer, Siroco (basso buffo Kevin Glavin), reveals, is linked to Ouf’s.
And the problem? If Lazuli dies the king will die a day later — and Siroco 15 minutes after that. To complicate things, Lazuli falls in love with Ouf’s fiancée, Princess Laoula (soprano Nili Riemer)
After that, well, the plot spins comically out-of-control.
As Ouf, Fouchecourt is a remarkably gifted comic actor and sang with terrific lyricism. Domanski did well in the classic trouser role, all gangly moves capped by a sweet tone. Riemer impressed as Laoula. But it was the ensemble together in comic play that impressed the most.
So did the crazy yet stylish sets and costumes. Set designer Andrew Lieberman and costumer Constance Hoffman created a world where characters clad in saturated hues stood out against bright white surfaces and curving funhouse mirrors. Costume silhouettes are part period Toulouse-Lautrec, part animated Beatles movie, “Yellow Submarine.” Characters rode goofily adorned scooters on and off the stage. Ouf’s throne is giant, inflatable and yellow.
Special props have to go to the chorus who not only sang well but managing the abundant comic choreography with aplomb.
For a relatively young regional company, Austin Lyric Opera has made many a sophisticated gestures itself in its almost 25 years through tackling challenging contemporary repertoire, staging productions in non-traditional venue and premiering new operas.
Now, ALO demonstrates its sophistication again by joining the strata of international opera presenters who are smartly resurrecting forgotten jewels of the repertoire.
‘The Star’ continues at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 3 and 5 and 3 p.m. Feb. 7 at the Long Center. $29-$133. www.austinlyricopera.org
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December 3, 2009
Austin choral group Conspirare nets fifth Grammy nomination
Austin-based professional choral ensemble Conspirare has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Album for its CD ‘Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert’ on the Harmonia Mundi label.
“Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert” was recorded live at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in October 2008 in cooperation with PBS television station KLRU. It was first released as a DVD for national broadcast on PBS affiliate stations nationwide beginning in March 2009, and was subsequently released on CD by Harmonia Mundi in June 2009. Both the CD and DVD are available for purchase through Conspirare www.conspirare.org.
Previously, Conspirare received Grammy Award nominations in 2009 for “Threshold of Night.” The nominations were for Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance.
Conspirare previously received two nominations in 2006.
‘Christmas at the Carillon’
Conspirare’s annual holiday concert showcases artistic director Craig Hella Johnson’s blending of music old and new. This year’s special guest is Patrice Pike.
8 p.m. Long Center. 701 W. Riverside Drive
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December 2, 2009
First Night Austin adds 'The Long First Night'
First Night Austin and the Long Center for the Performing Arts are teaming up to provide a new party attraction for the New Year’s Eve arts-filled celebration.
‘The Long First Night,’ is a ticketed New Year’s Eve gala, from 5 p.m. to midnight on Dec. 31. It is co-sponsored by Sterling Affairs.
The event at the Long Center— utilizing both the outdoor City Terrace and the mezzanine inside the performing arts facility — will bring music, food and drink to the annual First Night Austin festivities.
First Night Austin, now in its fifth year, brings free visual and performing arts to downtown Austin for a public celebration that attracts up to 100,000 revelers.
Tickets for ‘The Long First Night,’ which is will be sold at a special advance rate until Dec. 18.
General admission tickets, which include access to the Long Center, cash bars and food, and all entertainment (which will include music from bands and DJs, as well as a children’s activities area), are $15 until the Dec. After that, tickets are $20.
Details of the entertainment offerings are TBA.
A limited number of VIP tickets, on sale for $95 until Dec. 18 and $110 starting the Dec. 10. VIP tickets include access to the Long Center and all entertainment, as well as access to open bars, complimentary buffets and chefs stations and a private VIP party.
Tickets for the event are available via the Long Center website (www.thelongcenter.org the First Night Austin website www.firstnightaustin.org.
November 23, 2009
Review: Austin Symphony Orchestra and Conspirare
The soaring articulate voices Grammy-nominated choir Conspirare proved the star Saturday night at the Long Center when joined forces with the Austin Symphony Orchestra.
And Cary Ratcliff’s sweeping oratorio ‘Ode to Common Things’ proved to be the hit — a captivating, charming ride.
Collaborations between two of Austin’s major classical groups are always rewarding. That this one featured contemporary repertoire — not so typical for ASO — was decidedly refreshing.
Too bad, then, that attendance was far less than capacity. Empty seats — sometime whole rows — were scattered around the house.
The Rochester-based Ratcliff set music to poems by Chilean writer Pablo Neruda who, throughout the course of his life, devoted four volumes to odes to ordinary, everyday objects. Ratcliff selected five, keeping the text in the original Spanish.
Percussionists and harpist stayed busy with the shifting rhythms. Two pianos and a synthesizer (which added echoing sounds and Dopple shifts) gave the music dimension.
Starting with the percussive ‘Ode to Things,’ Ratcliff’s score rapidly shape-shifted through many moods yet the fury never overwhelmed. There was pleasure in the racket Ratcliff created — the almost 100 voices of Conspirare generating the rhythm with the textures of short consonants and open vowel sounds of Spanish.
The musical, and emotional, dimension grew deeper with ‘Ode to the Bed’ before the reflective ‘Ode to the Guitar.’
Among the trio of vocal soloists, mezzo-soprano Dana Beth Miller impressed in ‘Ode to the Guitar’ particularly in the almost edgy duet with acoustic guitar which echoed the darker, thoughtful tonal colors and complex harmonies.
The mood shifted again with ‘Ode to Scissors,’ a gentle parody of sorts of Orff’s over-played Carmina Burina. Syncopations ruled here, rhythms snipped along.
The final ‘Ode to Bread’ was as much urgent as hymnal, a reminder of our connection to the universal life of the everyday.
On the program’s first half, ASO music director Peter Bay placed Mendelssohn’s Incidental Music to ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Performed nicely, it was nevertheless an oddly formal counterpoint to Ratcliff’s expressive, emotive work.
November 8, 2009
Review: Austin Lyric Opera's 'La Boheme'
How to make “La Boheme” one of the most performed and beloved operas of all times sparkle anew?
Add some youthful energy. Austin Lyric Opera does just that with its current production at the Long Center which opened Saturday night. A roster of up-and-coming soloists bring vigor to this “La Boheme.” And that gives this story of struggling Parisian artists and a doomed love affair — wrapped in achingly beautiful music — a new vitality.
The bravos started early Saturday night, coming first for French tenor Sebastien Gueze who sang the role of Rodolfo, the poet who falls in love with the tuberculosis-stricken Mimi. His ‘Che gelida manina’ — one of the opera’s most famous arias, and really, how to follow up when the likes of Pavorotti made it world-famous to a popular audience? — brought Gueze spontaneous cheers. No wonder: Gueze delivered it with a bright-toned richness and his lyric quality seemed effortless. And after that, he could do no wrong with the audience. Acting the role of the young lover, Gueze was all gangly energy and expressive emotion.
As Mimi, Dina Kuznetsova had a sweet tone and manifested a sense of pathos in her tragic role.
Baritone Craig Verm — a native Houston making his Austin Lyric Opera debut - shone as Marcello, Rodolfo’s sidekick. Again, a youthful energy made for a character that was robust and forceful while Verm’s tone rich and passionate.
Liam Moran sang a touching Colline in the fourth act and Sari Gruber’s vivaciousness made a saucy Musetta.
Conductor Richard Buckley brought a gorgeous lushness along with a refreshing dynamism to the score. Puccini’s big sweeping emotional moments got all their due and then some without ever over-shadowing the tenderness of the smaller poignant episodes.
The scenic design, by San Diego Opera, only got its most interesting in the second act when giant Toulouse-Lautrec inspired posters decked out the Cafe Momus, the artists’ hangout. Indeed, the visual trappings of this “La Boheme” didn’t stray beyond the traditional.
But any conventionality to this production was undone by a uniformally lively young cast replete with excellent singers. Pucinni’s romantic coming-of-age tale rings true in this “La Boheme.”
“La Boheme” continues 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11 and 13, 3 p.m. Nov. 15. www.austinlyricopera.og.
Image: Craig Verm as Marcello, Jonathan Beyer as Schaunard, Liam Moran as Colline, Sébastien Gueze as Rodolpho. Photo by Mark Matson.
September 9, 2009
Long Center generates $43 million in economic impact, study says
Long Center officials say an economic impact study shows that the performing arts center generates $20 million per year in direct economic impact through its activities and supports 950 jobs.
The report, released Wednesday and conducted by Michigan firm New Economy Strategies, also revealed that Long Center events generate an additional $18 million in indirect economic impact in the greater Austin area.
Economic impact numbers for the Long Center and its founding resident companies — Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony Orchestra and Ballet Austin — are derived from ticket sales, food and drink revenues, rental income from special events and philanthropic contributions.
The total economic impact of the building of the $77 million two-venue facility was $105 million during the four-year period of 2005 through 2008.
More than 200,000 people attend events at the Long Center each year, the study showed.
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May 27, 2009
Review: Audio Inversions' 'Meditations and Homage'
Austin indie classical music group Audio Inversions paid a smart homage Friday night at the Long Center to one of their inspiring sources, the late American composer Lou Harrison — a pioneer in the use of world musical influences, new instruments. inventive textures that yet never lost track of a deeply felt lyricism and delightful tonality.
The winner of the third Audio Inversions composition competition? ‘Lou’ by Balinder Singh Sekhon, a short piece for percussion ensemble of regular and irregular instruments (including flower pots, brake drums and metal pipes) and amplified cello, written as tribute to Harrison.
And ‘Lou’ was a fitting tribute: percolating with offbeat character, filled with world music references that were honest and not hamfisted (as such reference so often can be) and a delightful challenge to the cellist Benjamin Westney who didn’t so much touch a bow as strummed and picked. ‘Lou’ rocketed along, sometimes almost threatening to collapse under its own rhythmic cacophony. But it recovered and ended with an energy-packed flourish.
Sekhon received Audio Inversions $750 prize money along with the premiere performance.
‘Lou’ made a fitting to finale to solidly conceived program of new classical music, a keen mix of brand new works and two masterful song clusters by Henryk Gorecki.
Both the captivating Gorecki vocal pieces — ‘Three Lullabies’ and ‘Szeroka Woda’ — got a luminous treatment from the unaccompanied vocal quintet (Jeb Mueller, Amanda Lundy, Jimmy Shepard, Meredith Bowden and Caitlin Anderson-Patters) and seemed to grab the audience in a thrall of hushed awe.
James Norman’s ‘Incline, O Maiden’ was a brilliant mini-opera enchantingly sung by mezzo-soprano Misha Penton. Using text from Goethe’s Faust, Norman — who is composer-in-residence with Audio Inversions — gave us a jewel-like monodrama modern in its stylings and packed with both visceral drama and ethereal sounds. Short, dramatically direct, modern — is ‘Incline, O Maiden’ the anti-Wagner opera? Perhaps.
Audio Inversions stirred up entries from more than 100 composers for this year’s composition contest. And in addition to performing the Sekhon’s winning entry, the group also premiered Delvyn Case’s ‘Gemini Variations,’ the competition’s honorable mention and a short, spirited if still immature piece for two saxophones.
Audio Inversions does it right. Taking matters into their own hands, they advocate for the progression of classical music by just doing it — supporting new compositions, framing new classical music in approachable terms and making it happen. Kudos.
May 18, 2009
Review: Austin Symphony Orchestra's make Mahler mighty
Austin Symphony Orchestra left the audience — and itself — breathless Friday night after its performance of Gustav Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony, the final concert of the orchestra’s subscription series.
Have we ever seen so many musicians on the stage of the Long Center’s Dell Hall? With Mahler’s massive work requiring additional musicians to the orchestra’s line-up and the 110-member Conspirare Symphonic Choir upstage, the musicians, in particular the string sections, spilled out past the proscenium.
This mighty mob of musicians was up to the monumental task Mahler’s emotional — and technical — rollercoaster of a symphony, as was conductor Peter Bay. (Conspirare conductor Craigh Hella Johnson prepared the choir.)
From the opening tremor of the bass lines to the massive chorale finale, Bay kept a tight reign. And the musicians respond with focus and energy.
Mostly importantly, Bay kept the musical integrity of each movement in tact, balancing the first movement’s motion between edgy tensions and soulful emotions while letting the second movement sound ethereal and nostalgic. The scherzo starts with a surprisingly sunny theme that’s then contrasted against bold fanfares before spinning seemingly out of control. But Bay kept Mahler’s musical madness in check while accentuating its complexity.
We’re almost exhausted by Mahler’s mood shifts by the time we get to the massive fifth movement. But it’s in the fifth movment that the whole package arrives and Bay and the musicians delivered it with gusto.
Having the violins well in front of the proscenium in Dell Hall, though, meant they didn’t always project as well and were sometimes overshadowed by the winds and brass. And while soprano Linda Mabbs and mezzo Susan Platts performed nicely, and both had lovely tone, they too perhaps suffered from being past the proscenium and somewhat subdued.
Next season, ASO and Conspirare will collaborate again, this time on Cary Ratcliff’s oratorio ‘Ode to Common Things’ based on the poems by Pablo Neruda. Let’s hear it for such musical partnerships.
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April 20, 2009
Long Center, and other projects, nets architecture prize
The Long Center for the Performing Arts netted a 2009 AIA Austin Honor Award Saturday night from the Austin chapter of the American Institute for Architects.
Design architects Nelsen Partners Architects and lead designer Stan Haas were honored.
I sent my design love to the Long Center last year in a review shorty after it opened. A year later, I still think the Long Center is one of the smartest additions to our built landscape.
AA-S photo.
Also among the 14 winners of an AIA design award this year was “Ultimate Pulse,” the temporary public art project by Legge Lewis Legge architects that lit up First Night Austin 2008 with 1000 LED flashlight discs.
“Ultimate Pulse.” Image courtesy Legge Lewis Legge.
And Miro Rivera Architects won for their very sculptural public restroom on the north side of the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail.
AA-S photo.
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Monday morning report: No perfect storm
Last year, the convergence of the Austin Lyric Opera at the Long Center and the Reggae Festival on Auditorium Shores caused what Long Center leaders dubbed “a perfect storm” of traffic congestion.
In April 2008, the 1,200-space city-owned Palmer Events Center garage - which serves the Palmer and Long centers - filled up with reggae festival attendees by mid-afternoon. By the time evening rolled around, those with tickets to the Austin Lyric Opera, the garage was full and the area around South First Street, Riverside Drive and Barton Springs Road was gridlocked.
Not so this past Saturday night. Parking in the Long Center garage (which is operated by the Austin Convention Center, not the Long Center) was reserved for opera patrons. Reggae Festival goers were directed to the nearby city-owned One American Center.
Yes, the area was crowded. And with a hot rod car show in town and construction along Riverside Drive, there was plenty of traffic. But that traffic flowed and tempers didn’t flare like last year.
In fact, on the Long Center’s City Terrace some opera patrons were even seen grooving to the reggae beats that floated over from Auditorium Shores. Maybe we can all get along…
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April 19, 2009
Review: 'Dialogues of the Carmelites'
Austin Lyric Opera delivers a nuanced yet gut-wrenching production of Francis Poulenc’s “Dialogues of the Carmelites” which opened Saturday night at the Long Center.
And that’s no a small feat to pull of with Poulenc’s very modern intellectual yet ultimately emotional query into the nature of belief. “Dialogues” is hardly an easy opera (to like or to present well) though it’s gaining currency as one of the masterpieces of the 20th-century repertoire.
Premiered in 1957, “Dialogues,” is based on a screenplay that was in turn was based on historical accounts of 16 Carmelite nuns sent to the guillotine by revolutionaries during France’s Reign of Terror.
(ALO’s special guest in the audience Friday night was the renowned soprano Virginia Zeani who originated the role of the young nun Blanche de la Force and who was invited by Poulenc himself to take the role.)
As the title suggests, most of the opera is conversationally sung text. That throws a challenge to those who might expect that opera can only be bodice-ripping romances filled with show-stopping arias.
And it clearly threw a challenge to the audience at the Long Center Friday night: In the orchestra section at least, empty seats appeared after intermission.
That’s too bad because this “Dialogues” not only had vocal talent in spades but rang with a smart emotional and intellectual clarity.
Her voice beautifully shaded in tone yet powerfully dramatic, Emily Pulley relayed every ounce of Blanche’s neurosis, fear and ultimate acceptance of her vows. In Pulley’s hand, Blanche’s anxiety-fueled religious conversion and subsequent psychological journey rings with a very contemporary reality.
Always a highlight of any ALO productions she joins, the luminous soprano Suzanne Ramo brought a charming no-nonsense to Constance, the nun whose good nature belies her smarts and her beatific faith.
In their solos, Jennifer Check (Madame Lidoine) and Dana Beth Miller (Mother Marie) unleashed torrents of luscious clear tones.
Conductor Richard Buckley perfectly calibrated the color and pace of Poulenc’s score which is by turns hauntingly lyrical, sweepingly cinematic and even occasionally playful.
Director Eric Einhorn brought a very modern, realistic tone to this nicely spare production (originally created by Calgary Opera). These were no one-dimensional nuns but rather each emerged as complex and distinct as they wrested their decisions to sacrifice their lives for their faith.
In this telling, this production of a about 18th-century Catholic nuns transcends time and place to speak to us now.
“Dialogues of the Carmelites” continues 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Friday, 3 p.m. April 26 at the Long Center. See www.austinlyricopera.org for ticket information.
March 30, 2009
Anton Nel: A luscious Long Center showing
The audience wouldn’t let Anton Nel leave the Long Center stage Sunday afternoon.
That seemed just fine with Nel. The celebrated Austin pianist exudes an elegant joy when he performs. And he clearly preferred to be nowhere else but performing for a hometown audience and on the stellar nine-foot Hamburg Steinway he helped the Long Center select.
The admiration was mutual. And Nel rewarded the audience’s appreciation and ovations with three encores after a particularly rich — and rigorous — program.
Indeed the concert was a bit of Austin arts history in the making. Since opening a year ago, the Long Center — Austin’s first civic performing arts center — hasn’t yet had a solo classical recital grace the stage of the acoustically exquisite Dell Hall. Fitting perhaps then Nel played the first such concert. The South African-born pianist and now proud Austinite has been eager supporter of the Long Center despite his own hectic schedule of teaching at the University of Texas and concertizing around the world. Nel made the Dell Hall and its Steinway shimmer Sunday.
Brilliantly virtuosic in his technical ability, Nel so smartly eschews showiness. He’s far too sophisticated a musician to be aggressive with the flourishes. Emotional tone and color is what he draws out with style and nuance.
Nel drew the intricacies out of Brahms’ Vier Klavierstucke and out of Schubert’s Fantasy in C Major, Nel extracted an ethereal mood. The selections from Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words Nel offered like distinct little jewels, each with its very different shine. And he played Mendellsohn’s Fantasy in F Sharp with a kind of affecting intensity which made the profound and deep moments all the more exquisite.
Nel’s a jewel himself. Would that we could have a Long Center recital by him an annual event. Please?
March 25, 2009
Happy Birthday Long Center!
The Long Center for the Performing Arts opened a year ago this weekend. And the new venue proves popular despite economic downturn.
We’ve taken a look at the first year of the Austin’s first civic performing arts center.
We’ve also assembled some fun facts, and we have the exclusive announcement of the Long Cente’s 2009-2010 season.
LONG CENTER’S FIRST YEAR BY THE NUMBERS
181,500: Total attendance
110,000: Tickets printed at the box office.
27,000: Bottles of water sold
7,000: Bottles of wine sold
1,500: Wine and drinking glasses broken
THE LONG CENTER: 2009-10 SEASON
2009
‘The Doyle & Debbie Show,’ June 4-7
‘The Wonder Bread Years,’
Aug. 11-16
‘Ballroom With a Twist,’
starring Mario Lopez, Sept. 11
‘The Five Browns,’ Sept. 12
San Jose Taiko, Sept. 27
‘Grease,’ starring ‘American Idol’ winner Taylor Hicks, Oct. 12
‘Cirque Mechanics: Birdhouse Factory,’ Oct. 20-21
‘A Conversation With Stephen Sondheim,’ Nov. 12
‘101 Dalmatians,’ Nov. 23
‘Sister’s Christmas Catechism,’ Dec. 1-20
The Capitol Steps, date TBA
2010
Ballet Folklórico de México, Jan. 19
‘Groovaloo,’ Feb. 27.
Peter Schickele’s PDQ Bach ‘Jekyll & Hyde Tour,’ March 3
‘Spirit of Uganda,’ March 5
‘Lady Bird, Pat & Betty:
Tea for Three,’ March 9-14
Patti LuPone & Mandy
Patinkin, March 27
‘Guthrie Family Rides Again: Arlo Guthrie,’ March 31
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March 21, 2009
Austin Symphony Orchestra plays SXSW? No, but they did play delightfully
Friday night, inside the Long Center, the Austin Symphony Orchestra sparkled with a smartly coordinated program of seminal mid-century American music by Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin and the often over-looked Oklahoma-born Roy Harris.
Outside, though, the crowds filled Auditorium Shores across the street for a free concert featuring Raul Malo and the Arc Angels, part of the South By Southwest Music Festival. Families laid blankets on the Long Center lawn to avoid the Auditorium Shores crowd. Children cart-wheeled in the evening light. And a few symphony-goers bopped to Malo’s Latin-infused rhythms.
Inside, the orchestra - and particularly its sharp and friendly 20th-century American program — was just as much an embodiment of Austin’s claim as the “Live Music Capital of the World” as the bands on Auditorium Shores.
And yet the disconnect between inside and outside the Long Center Friday night felt profound.
Why? It needn’t have been that way.
Now that ASO artistic director Peter Bay has had a full year in the Long Center’s acoustically perfect Dell Hall, he’s wrested greater nuance and color from the orchestra. That was evident in Harris’s sweeping, pastoral Third Symphony. Even more so with Gershwin’s Concerto in F that featured celebrated pianist Jon Nakamatsu.
This Gershwin Concerto had plenty of sass without being showy - a smart reading of Gershwin’s compelling yet sometimes emotionally ambiguous major work. Nakamatsu brought a bluesy and very moving sensibility to the soulful adagio.
Bay also brought a smartness to the program’s second half — Bernstein’s Facsimile and his ‘On The Town: Three Episodes.’ - in particular giving Facsimile a nice burnish of anxiety suited to the Bernstein’s ballet of disconnected love.
There wasn’t an anxiety to the disconnect between the orchestra and the SXSW concert. More just a polite distance. (Parking and traffic congestion seemed to not evolve into a crisis but remained a well-organized, if crowded, flow.)
Why not an ASO showcase as part of SXSW? Or a free community concert during SXSW? Or at least a ticket discount for SXSW wristband wearer?
Would that classical music in Austin not keep itself so exclusive of the rest of our live music scene.
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March 10, 2009
Headed to Auditorium Shores for SXSW? Expect parking problems
If you plan to hit the free SXSW showcases at Auditorium Shores March 20 and March 21, plan ahead for parking congestion.
With the Austin Symphony Orchestra playing atthe Long Center March 20 and 21, and the Spa Show at thePalmer Events Center, the Palmer/Long Center garage will be reserved for ticketholders for those two events from 1-8:30 p.m. on both days.
According to an Austin Symphony representative, traffic signs and DPS will send all SXSW parkers to One Texas Center Garage, at S. First St. and Barton Springs Road (Cost: $7). Shuttles will also be made available with stops at the Austin Convention Center on Trinity and the Convention Center parking garage on E. Second St.
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March 9, 2009
Review: Tapestry Dance Company's 'Head to Toe'
Tapestry Dance Company shows always exceed categories. Ranging from tap to modern dance to jazz, the company is, as artistic director Acia Gray describes it, a “multi-form company.”
Sunday’s “Head to Toe” performance at the Long Center marks the company’s first incursion into one of Austin’s newest dance spaces, and the packed audience got a little bit of all the forms and approaches Tapestry employs.
The show featured twenty different numbers, mainly choreographed by Gray and guest collaborator and local dancer and teacher Erica Santiago.
In solos, Gray and Santiago built portraits of individual personalities, and then later duets drew individuals together. In Jason Janas’s “Feeling Found,” Katelyn Thompson and Janas flirted with each other and Al Green’s music, looking like a pair finding the sweet spot of couple-dom where hips and shoulders sway in synchronous motion. Clarity and simplicity also guided dancer Matt Shields’ choreography for Tapestry’s newest (and welcome) additions, Siobhan Cook and Tony Merriwether.
Improvisation continues to birth some of Tapestry’s most eloquent work. In an improvisation to Gnarls Barkley’s “Searching,” Janas managed to grieve with his body, sending echoes of pain flying with every foot stomp.
As Janas painted an aural landscape of trauma, a single chair became the focus of his anger, until he crashed into it, overcome. In other solos, like Santiago’s “To Feel” for Thompson, chairs were less character and more prop. From television to modern dance, the emotive, often earnest or angsty “chair dance” is a well-traveled road. But the use of chairs as a recurring prop helped give the multi-faceted show a thru-line.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance dance critic.
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January 11, 2009
Review: 'Delta Dandi'
Some playwriting needs to be rolled around in actors’ mouths.
Sharon Bridgforth’s writing needs, even relishes, bodies.
Bridgforth’s newest work ‘Delta Dandi,’ in its premiere Saturday at the Long Center, has a roundness and thickness to it. The layers of language move and merge with song and dance as the actors conjure mostly momentary characters in the creation of a poetic landscape.
Bridgforth designed the play with the tone poems of African American musicians such as Mary Lou Williams in mind. The result is a performance that feels like a series of poems held together by a loose sense of place: a hot bayou rich with juke joints and simmering collard greens. From this place arises “Delta Dandi’s” funniest character, Honey Pot, a seductively wild pianist Bridgforth describes as “the kind of woman who will steal your girlfriend.”
The ensemble gives full-bodied attention to the humorous sensuality, aided by choreographer Baraka de Soleil, who also dances in the production.
But bodies break and tear in Bridgforth’s bayou, ripped apart by racism’s violence. Florinda Bryant, who generally seems to be “Delta Dandi’s” lead character, shudders with sadness, chest sinking, chin dropping. Yet in the face of lynchings and random violence, the actors tap defiance in their stance. The female chorus evokes women warriors: delivering many lines with feet spread, knees bent, pelvises sinking.
Children speak back — almost spit back — at racial trauma. Azure Osborne-Lee holds one shoulder back, pumping it as she yells at the unseen white man who beat her younger brother. And then there is Helga Davis, whose bold, deep, slipping/sliding voice proves the perfect compatriot to Bridgforth’s language. Davis can touch deep pain, but she also gives quick, mischievous glances over her shoulder, reminding the audience that she always retains control—and a sense of humor.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
‘Delta Dandi’ performed Jan. 9 and 10 at the Long Center.
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December 19, 2008
Long Center aims to wipe out construction debt
Seems another major arts non-profit is steeling itself against the recession.
A few days ago, Austin Lyric Opera said it was canceling its opulent annual ball, instead reallocating all of the money raised from the annual fete directly toward opera programming and education.
Now, the Long Center for the Performing Arts is giving itself a challenging New Year’s resolution. Center officials announced yesterday that they plan to pay off the center’s construction debt in 2009. The center has already wiped out more than 99 percent of its $77 million debt. The plan is to dispense of the remainder of it early next year, possibly even in time for center’s first anniversary celebration in late March.
The Long Center is owned by the City of Austin, which leases it to the nonprofit organization that raised the money to build it. All of the money raised to build the Long Center came from private sources. No public money was used.
“Operating the Long Center without any construction debt will free up future fundraising to focus solely on a variety of performing arts programs and on keeping the doors of this fine facility open,” Cliff Redd, executive director of the Long Center, said in a statement.
To date, the Long Center has reached about one-third of its goal of $1.9 million in fundraising for 2008-09, Redd said. The center’s 2008-09 budget year ends June 30, 2009. The fundraising goal for 2009-10 has been set at $1.5 million.
“We have gotten ourselves lean and mean to cope with the current economic times,” Paul Beutel, managing director of the Long Center, said. “The financial health of the Long Center is good. We have been taking steps to ensure it remains good.”
Among those steps, Beutel said, is concentrating on shows that sell. “Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy” attracted more than 15,500 patrons during its eight-performance run in late November. However, both the David Benoit concert and the “King Operetta,” scheduled for January, were canceled because they were underperforming in ticket sales.
The Long Center has also trimmed its 2008-09 operating expenses by 20 percent. “As the venue has been up and running for nine months, we’ve gotten smarter about how to operate more efficiently and yet still maintain the high level of customer service that audiences and artists expect from the Long Center,” Beutel said.
December 9, 2008
Review: Conspirare's 'Christmas at the Carillon'
It’s time to declare it: Conspirare is Austin’s most original classical music group.
And if you want to dispense with misleading, and empty, descriptors, let’s just drop “classical.” Conspirare is one of Austin’s most original musical treasures.
Monday night, Conspirare artistic director and founder Craig Hella Johnson and his Grammy-nominated choir made their primacy on Austin’s cultural landscape abundantly clear. With singer-songwriter Eliza Gilkyson as a special guest, Conspirare brought its beloved annual “Christmas at the Carillon” concert to the Long Center for the first time. Though the holiday concert was originally conceived in the mid-1990s to fit the intimate Carillon chapel, Johnson and the singers perfectly transported an abundance of warmth and soul to the 2,400-seat Long Center.
Part of the reason Conspirare brought its holiday concert to the Long Center was to test the waters with a wider — and more affordable — range of ticket prices than is available at the Carillon. The experiment paid off. Monday night’s concert was virtually sold-out. (Maybe that was also due to the excitement generated by last week’s announcement that Conspirare is up for two Grammy Awards this year for its latest CD ‘Threshold of Night.’)
Against a backdrop of towering potted oak trees, decorated with strands of white lights, Johnson, Gilkyson and the 22-member choir thrilled with a 100-minute concert that seamlessly blended everything from plainsong chants to gospel hymns to traditional carols to Bach motets.
In lesser hands that collaging of different musical styles can come off as forced and usually treacly. But Johnson’s touch is supremely artful. A combination of surprising arrangements and masterful direction — coupled with an unerring instinct never to overdo it — makes Johnson’s always collaging glorious, fresh and full of sincerity. A blending of Madonna’s “Deeper and Deeper,” Bach’s “Alles was Odem hat” and the freshly minimal work of Eric Whitacre? Sure, it’s all sounds good and glorious in Johnson’s hands.
With only Johnson accompanying on piano (Thomas Burritt provided light percussion) and Gilkyson occasionally on guitar, Conspirare kept the audience captivated. These are singers so dedicated and in love with what they do their devotion spills from the stage. Powerful solos came from Kathlene Ritch, Lauren Snouffer and David Farwig. And Gilkyson mesmerized with her haunting song “Beautiful World” and delighted with the upbeat “Day of Jubilo,” by her father, noted songwriter Terry Gilksyon.
But soprano Nina Revering (who also directs Conspirare’s youth choir) brought the audience to tears with her achingly beautiful treatment of the folk pop song “Child in Me Again.”
Indeed there’s a depth of emotion — a sense of occasion — to Conspirare’s concerts that’s missing from just about most other classical music event in Austin. Through talent, creativity, dedication and accessibility, Conspirare makes a diverse range of music absolutely vital.
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December 8, 2008
Review: Ballet Austin's 'The Nutcracker'
Something magical happened to Ballet Austin’s production of ‘The Nutcracker,’ now at the Long Center for the first time.
It glitters like never before.
After years in the University of Texas’ Bass Concert Hall — and last year spent at the Paramount Theatre while the Long Center finished construction and the Bass was under renovation — ‘The Nutcracker’ has landed in its new home with a re-invigorated splash of sugar and spice.
Maybe it’s the Long Center’s sharp acoustics that make Tchaikovsky’s romantic score sparkle. (The necessary use of recorded music last year at the Paramount gave the show a dreary feel.) Guest conductor Jeff Eckstein led the Austin Symphony Orchestra in an engaging performance.
Maybe it’s the excitement of performing in a new permanent venue built just for Austin’s top trio of performing arts groups (Ballet Austin, Austin Symphony Orchestra and Austin Lyric Opera). Across the cast Saturday night, the dancers projected verve and excitement. They have room to breathe on the Long Center stage and it showed Saturday night with bright, animated performances. Rebecca Johnson and Edward McPherson gave an inspired and flirty performance as the pair of Arabian dancers. As the Sugar Plum Fairy, Aara Krumpe kept the multiple pirouettes full of pop. And Allisyn Paino’s Snow Queen was utter elegance.
Then again maybe it’s Tony Tucci’s refreshed lighting scheme that gives this ‘Nutcracker’ a pretty new shimmery look. Tucci washes the magical Land of Snow with soft violet shades and adds some fun special effects when Clara’s house morphs into a dreamlike world. And to the Land of the Sweets, Tucci adds nice touches of subtle motion and shifting mood.
Thanks to the Long Center’s superb sight lines, the pretty freshness of this ‘Nutcracker’ projects even up in the balcony where the budget-minded can find seats for $12 to $45. (The show runs about 2 hours and 10 minutes including intermissions.)
And after a year’s hiatus, the guest Mother Ginger role is back. Who doesn’t enjoy watching a local personality goof it up while dressed in a giant red hoop skirt?
And who wouldn’t enjoy letting this ‘Nutcracker’ transport them away?
Ballet Austin’s ‘The Nutcracker.’ Photo by Jay Janner.
‘The Nutcracker’ continues 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Dec. 18-23, 2 p.m. Dec. 20-21 at the Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Dr. Tickets are $15-$71. 512-476-2163, www.balletaustin.org
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December 5, 2008
Long Center receives challenge grant
The Long Center for the Performing Arts has received a $87,000 matching grant from the Austin-based Tomblin Family Foundation. The grant will match the amount of donations obtained by Long Center board members by Dec. 18.
In a release issued today, Long Center officials said that the privately run, two-venue performing arts center is headed for a break-even budget this year that includes $2.5 million in charitable support from the community.
Cliff Redd, the center’s executive director, said: “The Long Center’s presenting income, ticket sales and rental income will provide 73 percent of our revenue for 2008-09. That is one of the highest self-supporting percentages for any performing arts center in the country. So, those who love and want to support the performing arts can be proud and confident to invest in the Long Center.”
Certainly the Long Center seems to be fairing better than the city-operated Overture Center in Madison, Wis. which announced yesterday that it was cutting about 25 percent of its workforce to make the budget balanced for next year. Roughly similar in size and scale as the Long Center, the Overture also had to liquidate its trust fund to pay for construction debt. Ouch.
The Overture’s tale of troubles joins a string of bad news from arts non-profits across the country who are feeling the effects of the economic downturn. So far in Austin we’ve had no news of arts groups facing life-or-death financial straits. In January, we’ll take a look at the state-of-the-arts in Austin as the country grapples with a now-official recession.
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November 21, 2008
More parking options for this weekend
As orchestra patrons head to the Long Center and shoppers head to the Junior League’s “A Christmas Affair” at the Palmer Event Center Friday and Saturday nights, the parking situation could get crowded.
Hence, Austin Symphony Orchestra will be providing shuttle service from the Austin Convention Center Parking Garage on E. Second and Brazos streets to the Long Center.
ASO encourages its patrons to use the Austin Convention Center Garage for parking and take provided shuttles to the Long Center.
Cost for parking is $7 per car, but shuttle service is free.
Shuttles will run every ten minutes from 6:30 pm to 11:30 pm on Friday and Saturday, November 21-22.
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November 20, 2008
Avoiding the parking storm at the Long Center this weekend.
With a convergence of events this weekend at both the city-operated Palmer Events Center and at the neighboring Long Center, there’s due to be thousands headed to W. Riverside Dr. and Barton Springs Road.
But, according to a recent new release, a little planning between the concerned parties has resulted in some transportation options. The plan came about as a result of meetings among representatives of the Long Center, Capital Metro, the Downtown Austin Alliance and the City of Austin.
Capital Metro will expand the hours of the #450 Congress ’Dillo on Nov. 21-22 to accommodate those headed to either the Junior League’s 33rd annual A Christmas Affair at the Palmer Events Center or to the Austin Symphony Orchestra concerts at the Long Center.
The #450 Congress ’Dillo — which loops around the Long Center then runs up Congress Ave. to the Capital and its surrounding parking lots — will operate until 10:30 p.m. Nov. 21-22 to help shoppers and orchestra attendees easily get to and from these events.
After 7 p.m. Nov. 21-22, the Congress ’Dillo will operate on a 15-minute frequency. The ’Dillo costs 50 cents for a two-hour pass.
“We want as many people as possible to enjoy events at the Long Center and Palmer Events Center by making it easier to get to and from these venues,” said Cliff Redd, executive director of the Long Center, in a news release.
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November 10, 2008
Review: 'Fantasmaville' at the Long Center
“Fantasmaville” is a play about ghosts. Unfortunately for a play that can otherwise be charming, funny, and topical, it has a few of its own as well.
“Fantasmaville,” a new project from playwright Raul Garza and Teatro Vivo, focuses on an East Austin neighborhood undergoing gentrification, from a new mixed-race family moving in to defend the traditions to the city pushing a dog park on an empty lot. For the families involved, its less a referendum on economic statuses than cultural and personal histories — at least it’s meant to be.
Tensions run high between Flor, filled with sass and sweetness by Patricia Arredondo, and her mildly estranged daughter Celeste. While Celeste and her gringo husband, Martin, played by Karinna Perez and Chase Wooldridge, epitomize bleeding heart yuppiness, bordering on cliché, other locals like Gustavo and Freddy, laconically drawled out by Donato Rodriguez III and Rupert Reyes, are content to sit in a re-imagined Scoot Inn drinking the day away.
The first half of the play introduces the whole cast of characters, switching mostly easily among them. Stylized animations projected on the back of the stage, loosely connected conversations and monologues, and, of course, an Austin focus give the progression a “Slackers” feel. With some that feel more rambling than ambling, though, that brings the good and bad side of Richard Linklater.
Overall they remain largely enjoyable through the first act, and Garza balances well, switching between domestic conflict, sitcom laughs, bilingual cursing, and simply pleasant vignettes. As the neighborhood begins to clash over the proposed dog park and undercurrents of racism, though, the conversations have a tendency to sound more like formal debates or Socratic dialogs than parts of the building story.
The second half, with its literal ghosts and fixation on the past, exacerbates the situation. “Fantasmaville” becomes more about what has happened than what is happening. The transition gives David Blackwell, as a bigoted white resident of the neighborhood, a chance to shine as he recalls better times, evoking humanity under his bitterness. Sadly, the narrative twist involved in the revisionist reminiscing undercuts the moment.
It’s perhaps appropriate that a story about a community with so many different approaches to life, politics, and culture has so many ups and downs. Fortunately, the warm jokes and conflicted neighborhood still make it worthwhile. And, oh yes, the preachy, life-size racoon spirit guide doesn’t hurt either.
(Joey Seiler is a freelance theater writer in Austin.)
(“Fantasmaville” continues at 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 16 at the Long Center Rollins Studio Theatre, 701 W. Riverside Drive. $14-$18. 474-5664, thelongcenter.org.)
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October 27, 2008
Review: Ballet Austin and 'Episodes'
Ballet Austin has a knack for choosing good bedfellows. Working with Washington company the Suzanne Farrell Ballet elevated the company’s dancers and brought a rarely seen, but important dance work to Austin audiences. The company’s season opener Friday at the Long Center featured George Balanchine’s 1959 ballet “Episodes,” reconstructed in partnership with Farrell and her company. The dancing, like the ballet, was clean, clear, and smart. (The season opening program also included Artistic Director Stephen Mills’ premiere “Liminal Glam” and Twyla Tharp’s “Nine Sinatra Songs.”)
Balanchine built “Episodes” from intelligent couplings, too. Originally the ballet had two sections: the former choreographed by modern dance matriarch Martha Graham and the latter by Balanchine.
Musically Balanchine paired the sparse dissonance of Anton Webern with the lush baroque of Bach, arranged by Webern, and played this weekend by the Austin Symphony. Graham’s portions of “Episodes” lasted only two years, but what remained — Balanchine plus Webern and Bach — feels like a revelation, a palate cleanser of ballet.
“Episodes” featured dancers from Ballet Austin and Farrell. Ballet Austin’s Ashley Lynn and Paul Michael Bloodgood were excellent in the ballet’s first section, “Symphony,” which turns an investigative eye to the body’s joints, exploring how limbs move. The leads, accompanied by a corps that included Austin’s Orlando Canova and Christopher Swaim, suddenly break their legs at the knee or the ankle. Then Lynn and Bloodgood move on to the hips; he holds her as she swings her legs in ever-widening circles. Individual bodies break into pieces and then reform into coherent wholes as Webern’s equally segmented “Symphony Op. 21” spits notes into the air. Knees bend. A triangle tinkles. They connect.
If “Symphony” assembled the body, “Episodes” second movement assembled a couple. Austin’s Allisyn Paino and Farrell’s Momchil Mladenov play with moving together, rarely to graceful effect. Paino has had so many comedic roles in various Ballet Austin programs, and she is funny here, too. But it is not a character that makes her funny, but rather the placement of her body against Mladenov. The dancers take full advantage of the choreography’s intended awkwardness, coming together like the pieces of an old jigsaw puzzle. They fit together, but not so cleanly that the lines between them disappear. “Episodes” final sections, “Concerto” and “Ricercata,” feature Farrell dancers as the leads, though some of the most beautiful work comes from “Ricercata’s” corps, which included many Ballet Austin dancers.
Six women stand frozen for the ballet’s beginning, then start a series of arm and leg movements, visually and kinetically layered over the rest of the corps, who are on their knees, extending and circling their arms and legs. Bach’s music buoys Balanchine’s simplicity, and “Episodes” threatens a pleasurable overflow. All the pieces of Webern and Balanchine get added together, the precision of arms and legs in unison or in canon suddenly offer emotional sustenance.
Clare Croft is a dance freelance critic for the American-Statesman.
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September 22, 2008
Review: 'Field of Infinite Forms'
Several shouts of ‘bravo’ followed the ending flourish Friday night at the Long Center of ‘Field of Infinite Forms’ the engaging new piece by composer Christopher Theofanidis with electronic realizations by Mark Wingate.
And deservedly so.
Not only was ‘Field’; a delightful five-movement work that intriguingly nudged the boundaries of contemporary symphony orchestral music, it also signaled a major — and much-needed — artistic step forward into the 21st-century on behalf of Austin Symphony Orchestra who commissioned the piece from the 40-year-old celebrated composer.
Appropriately, Theofanidis and Wingate took the Long Center’s Dell Hall as a starting point for their piece, specifically making use of the new hall’s sharp acoustics and technically sophisticated sound system. Wingate works with a more a sophisticated version of Surround Sound that has the ability to make the origin of sound seemingly fluid. Theofanidis writes in a viscerally melodic style that unconsciously borrows from many classical and world music styles without ever being pretentious. Together they crafted an electro-acoustic symphonic piece that literally filled the Dell Hall — and all its corners — with captivating sound.
‘Field’ started with the sound of fluttering wings (and the unmistakable squeak of the Mexican free-tailed bats that live under Austin’s Congress Avenue Bridge) rolling up from the rear of Dell Hall before swooping down to the stage, where the orchestra burst into a fanfare of sorts. That surging fanfare continued in an antiphonal pattern with the electronics, emphasizing the enveloping effect of the Surround Sound affects.
From there, Theofanidis and Wingate took us on a sublime and surprising journey through a new sonic landscape. At times a single pulse seemed to hang in the air above the audience before being picked up again by the orchestra (masterfully conducted by Peter Bay). At other times the ethereal sounds of gongs and bamboo wind chimes gracefully sighed while the electronic stylings added a breathy sonic aura.
‘Field’ ended with an appropriate series of aural explosions that built in drama that started with the electronics and then shifting to the orchestra, building in harmonic intensity to a flourishing finish.
‘Field of Infinite Forms’ sounded like no other piece the 98-year-old often very traditional Austin Symphony Orchestra has ever done. Yet for all its electronic stylings and effects, ‘Field’ was alluring and beguiling music — boldly going where American symphonic music has never gone before.
September 12, 2008
Yo-Yo Ma gives the Long Center two thumbs up
The audience showered him with applause and ovations last night at the Long Center after famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma finished a virtoustic performance of Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor.
But the ebullient cello master had praise of his own to bestow. Pointing in animated way to the ceiling of the Long Center’s Dell Hall, Ma then flashed two thumbs up.
The crowd roared back. Ma likes the place — he really, really likes Austin newest jewel of a performing arts center.
Ma was in town as a guest of the Austin Symphony Orchestra at a special gala kick-off concert to its new season. The concert sold out weeks ago.
As it was the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Ma and ASO music director Peter Bay, both fittingly paid tribute.
After a gorgeous presentation of Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony, Bay returned after intermission to lead Carter’s gentle Elegy for String Orchestra and the Bach-Stokowski orchestration of “Sheep May Safely Graze.” Bay asked that both not be rewarded with applause, the silence instead a memorial for the victims of Sept. 11.
Then Ma took the stage for the Elgar concerto. A master musician such as Ma becomes music the music he plays — he doesn’t just perform it.
Interestingly, Ma, a longtime New Yorker, was on the road touring on Sept. 11, 2001 and scheduled to play the Elgar concerto, which he did. We asked him about the experience and you can about it here
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Review: 'Macbeth'
Austin Shakespeare puts out a polished new production of “Macbeth” — one that is smartly burnished with just enough bits of contemporary culture to make the 17th-century tragedy of political power feel necessary and relevant today.
To mark the company’s debut at the Long Center — where a sold-out crowd filled the 200-seat Rollins Studio Theatre on Wednesday night — director Ann Ciccolella wisely places this “Macbeth” in a broadly global contemporary context.
The ambitious nobleman Macbeth — powerfully played by Marc Pouhe — is surrounded by soldiers in modern military fatigues and a royal court ringed with bamboo and draped with towering clear plastic curtains. Sharron Bower brilliantly delivers a Lady Macbeth brimming with brittleness, one who nervously texts, pops pills and slinks around her husband’s court in sleek modern gowns.
The production values make this show. Costume and set designer Michelle Ney has smartly blended silhouettes that read both classic and contemporary — the crowning image comes in the shape of the three witches who are nightmarish birds swathed in strips of white plastic, ammunition-filled bandoliers strapped to their chests. And Jason Amato’s shrewdly designed psychologically-charged lighting gives the entire setting an appropriately anxious edge. Music director Michael McKelvey charges the whole show with an edgy original score.
If some of the secondary roles didn’t consistently impress with their power, this “Macbeth” nevertheless delivered.
‘Macbeth’ continues at 8 p.m. tonight, Saturday and Sept. 18-20, and 3 p.m. Sunday and Sept. 21 in the Rollins Studio Theatre, Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive. $18-$36. www.austinshakespeare.org. 474-5664. For ages 13 and older.
September 4, 2008
Review: 'A Bronx Tale'
Sweet and sharp, tender and tough Chazz Palminteri delivered an entire world in just 90 minutes Wednesday night at the Long Center when he premiered the national tour of “A Bronx Tale,” his semi-autobiographical one-man show about growing up in a Mafia-managed Bronx neighborhood.
Slipping effortlessly in and out of more than a dozen characters, sometimes impressively orchestrating a conversation between three or four of them, Palminteri unwinds his tale with tenderness — and also a master storyteller’s flare for charming, captivating and surprising.
Sure, “A Bronx Tale” story may feel like it covers little new ground in a post-Sopranos cultural landscape — a young boy caught between his fascination with a Mob boss and his upright father, the insular Italian American community cracking under the social upheavals of the 1960s. But Palminteri’s clear affection for his characters gives his tale heft and sincerity.
Indeed it was Palminteri’s earnestness that enthralled the near-capacity audience Wednesday night.
Began in 1989 as an off-Broadway play then made into a movie in 1993, Palminteri revived the stage show on Broadway last year.
Still, this isn’t some shop-worn solo show. Instead, “A Bronx Tale” is reaffirmation that good storytelling and theater thrive.
“A Bronx Tale” continues 8 p.m. tonight and Friday and 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday. Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Dr. $40-$80. 474-5664. www.thelongcenter.org.
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August 22, 2008
Long Center names managing director
The Long Center for the Performing Arts has hired Paul Beutel, veteran Texas theater professional and former longtime manager of the Paramount Theatre, as managing director, Long Center officials will announce Monday.
Beutel is currently managing director of the Miller Outdoor Theatre in Houston.
The new managing director position will oversee all programming, marketing, finance and operations and will report to Long Center executive director Cliff Redd. As part of his job, Beutel will assume the duties of Tammie Ward, Long Center director of programming, who resigned several weeks ago.
Beutel will start at the Long Center September 15 on a part-time basis while he finishes the duties of his current position. He will begin full-time at the Long Center November 10.
Beutel is credited with rescuing the Paramount from closure in the late 1980s and reviving the theater’s popular summer movie series. He stepped down from the Paramount job in 2003 and joined the Miller in 2005.
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Yo-Yo Ma sells out the Long Center
The upcoming concert by famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma hosted by the Austin Symphony Orchestra at the Long Center has sold out, symphony officials have announced today.
Tickets went on sale to symphony subscribers in June and to the general public on August 11.
The concert on Sept. 11 will feature Ma on Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E.
In May, Ma was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.
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August 21, 2008
Freescale Semiconductor donates $1 million to Long Center
Freescale Semiconductor has pledged $1 million to the Long Center for the Performing Arts, as reported today.
Specifically, the money will go towards making events at the Long Center more accessible to children and to support diverse cultural offerings. The contribution will go towards the establishment of the Freescale Fund which will provide approximately 2,500 to 3,500 tickets annually over the next four years.
From the official release comes this statement:
“Freescale is committed to enhancing the quality of life in the communities where we live and work,” said John Torres, senior vice president of Freescale and chairman of the company’s global community relations council. “When we started working with the Long Center last year, we concluded they had done a terrific job of fundraising for the construction and operation of the facility. We wanted to direct our donation to where it could have the biggest impact; which for us is increasing access to the performances and promoting diversity. The building itself was designed to promote inclusiveness and accessibility to the arts.”
Freescale will also officially present the Long Center Children’s Series by providing better pricing and accessibility for children programming. The 2008-2009 Children’s Series currently features “The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley,” ” -Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy” and “Bob the Builder Live.”
In addition, Freescale also plans to be the presenting sponsor, along with the Austin Area Heritage Council, of “The Last Day in the Life of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As Devised By Waterwell: A Rock Operetta” which plays Jan. 19, 2009.
Freescale is also lined up to be the presenting sponsor of the Long Center/Austin Asian Cultural Center’s Asian American Festival in May 2009.
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July 31, 2008
'Field of Infinite Forms' to celebrate Dell Hall, Long Center
Noted composer Christopher Theofanidis has announced the title of his new work written specifically for the Dell Hall at the new Long Center for the Performing Arts.
‘Field of Infinite Forms’ is a commission from the Austin Symphony Orchestra — a brilliant idea of ASO music director Peter Bay who conceived of celebrating the new hall with new music written specifically for it. Hey — Bay knows what it takes to keep it real in the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World.
‘Field of Infinite Forms’ will premiere Sept. 19-20. There are five movements to the 16-17 minute piece: Introit; Superunison; Hall of Mirrors; They Listened, Trembling; Dazzler of Heaven. Theofanidis is collaborating with electroacoustic music pioneer Mark Wingate.
The Dallas-born Theofanidis received lots of attention earlier this year for “The Refuge,” his massive musical and community event for the Houston Grand Opera inspired by Houston’s fabulous polyglot immigrant community.
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July 29, 2008
Long Center announces 2008-2009 season
Patti LaBelle, Marvin Hamlisch, the Blind Boys of Alabama with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and “The King Operetta,” the critically acclaimed musical dramatization of the last days of Martin Luther King Jr., are just some of the shows the Long Center for the Performing Arts has booked for the 2008-2009 season. The Long Center announced the shows today. Tickets will go on sale soon.
Family-friendly shows and popular entertainment spectacles form the majority of the lineup, though celebrated and sublime Austin piano master Anton Nel will give a major solo recital in March.
Tickets to Patti LaBelle are already selling well, Long Center representatives report, as are tickets to “Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy.” And back by popular demand in March is “Video Games Live,” the visual and musical celebration of video game music that recently wowed Austin fans.
However, five-time Tony Award-winning musical “The Drowsy Chaperone,” originally scheduled for Aug. 19-24, has been canceled because of lack of ticket sales. Seems the musical about a die-hard musical theater fan hasn’t been doing great guns in other markets on its national tour.
From the Long Center season announcement news release, here’s the full schedule:
KIDS/FAMILY
CIRQUE DREAMS JUNGLE FANTASY, Nov. 25-30, 2008: Direct from Broadway, Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy is an exotic encounter inspired by “nature’s unpredictable creations” that are brought to life by an international cast of 25 soaring aerialists, spine-bending contortionists, acrobats, jugglers and musicians.
BOB THE BUILDER LIVE!, March 1, 2009, 3 p.m. 7 p.m.: Everyone’s favorite fix-it guy is steamrolling into town and bringing his lovable gang along for the ride in Bob the Builder Live.
DANCE SPECTACLE
REVOLUTION, Oct. 9, 2008, 8 p.m.: A brand new show that incredibly blends tap with rock n’ roll music, Revolution is a sweaty mix of live music, sex appeal and some of the world’s best Irish and tap dancing for the “tweeners” generation. Creators Mike Schulster and Joel Hanna of Riverdance are joined on stage by a live rock band and a dance ensemble direct from Broadway.
GARTH FAGAN DANCE, Feb. 18, 2009, 8 p.m.: Critically acclaimed Garth Fagan Dance has toured for 35 years on six continents under the direction of Tony Award-winning Garth Fagan, choreographer of Broadway’s The Lion King. The contemporary dancers in this Rochester, New York-based company are renowned for their individuality, unmannered approach and virtuosity.
JUNGUA, May 23 and 24, 2009, 8 p.m.: a show for all ages and inspired by the rich culture and traditions of China, Jungua balances traditional yin and yang by combining masculine martial arts and kung fu and quigong with the feminine grace of contortion, acrobatics and dance.
MUSIC
3 MO’ DIVAS, Oct. 19, 2008, 7:30 p.m.: From the creator of the hit concert 3 Mo Tenors, Marion J. Caffey’s brings 3 Mo’ Divas, a musical journey celebrating the amazing versatility of three classically trained female voices in a theatrically staged event. The Divas deliver their versions of opera, Broadway, jazz, movie soundtracks, blues and rock ‘n’ roll.
DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE: THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA WITH THE PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND, Nov. 23, 2008, 7:30 p.m.: New Orleans’ legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band and vocal titans the Blind Boys of Alabama join forces to present this musical journey combining jazz and gospel hymns.
ONE NIGHT OF QUEEN, March 8, 2009, 8 p.m.: One Night of Queen celebrates the iconic passion of Freddie Mercury, his music and the genius of Queen.
THE TEN TENORS, April 8, 2009, 8 p.m.: Australian group the Ten Tenors is a platinum record-selling singing act bringing their interpretations of the tenor repertoire in a splashy concert; from classical and operatic arias, to Neapolitan ballads, to their native Australian folk songs.
SPECIALS
ANTON NEL, March 29, 2009, 8 p.m.: Winner of the 1987 International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall, Austin’s own classical pianist Anton Nel has played in major musical halls the world over, including South Africa, Europe, Asia and North and South America. He makes his Long Center recital debut with this concert.
DRUMLINE LIVE!, Jan. 11, 2009, 8 p.m.: DRUMLine Live! brings the black marching band traditions to the theatrical stage for the very first time, featuring a large cast of performers from the country’s top historically black colleges and universities.
THE|KING|OPERETTA, Jan. 17 and 19, 2009, 8 p.m.: Turbulent and uplifting, The|King|Operetta tells the story of Martin Luther King from April 4, 1967, to April 4, 1968 - the last year in his life, featuring a score of hard-edge rock, blues and funk. The New York Times hails the work as, “brilliant, original and inspired.” From the New York Drama Desk Award nominated Waterwell Theater Company.
MARVIN HAMLISCH, March 26, 2009, 7:30 p.m.: As composer and conductor, Hamlisch has won virtually every major award that exists: three Oscars, four Grammys, four Emmys, a Tony and three Golden Globe awards and a Pulitzer Prize. Hamlisch is best known for scores to such films as Ordinary People, The Way We Were, and Sophie’s’ Choice; and such Broadway musicals as A Chorus Line, They’re Playing Our Song, and Seesaw.
VIDEO GAMES LIVE, March 28, 2009, 8 p.m.: Back by popular demand for one night only, VIDEO GAMES LIVE, presented by Razer, has the power and emotion of a symphony orchestra mixed with the excitement and energy of a rock concert and the technology and interactivity of a video game, all completely synchronized to amazing cutting edge video screen visuals, state-of-the art lighting and special on-stage interactive segments with the audience.
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July 24, 2008
Review: 'Winterreise/Werther'
We’ve run out of superlatives when it comes to complementing artistic director Michelle Schumann’s smart programming for Austin Chamber Music Center.
Well, almost.
Saturday night Schumann added savvy new meaning to what a chamber music festival can offer in the 21st century with the presentation of the Long Beach Opera’s affecting staged version of Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’ song cycle at the Rollins Studio Theatre as part of the 2008 Austin Chamber Music Festival.
Long Beach Opera artistic director Andreas Mitisek made a bold move when he combined Schubert’s song cycle for solo voice and piano, based on poems by Wilhelm Mueller, and wove them together with spoken passages from Goethe’s novel about unrequited love, “The Sorrows of Young Werther.”
But it was a bold move that worked, garnering Long Beach Opera critical praise when it premiered there in 2005.
Schumann, who performed in the original Long Beach production, smartly brought the show to Austin for this summer’s festival. (For last year’s festival, she presented Long Beach Opera’s “Diary of Anne Frank” production — also a much-welcome addition to the festival’s offerings.)
Rollins Studio Theatre’s dark warehouse-like look and intimate setting made for a perfect fit for the moody set, a simple bedroom in disarray with an eery mirrored floor.
Tenor Erik N. Werner was already on stage and in character as the audience took their seats. A charismatic actor with a clear musicality to his voice and perfect German diction, Werner brought a refreshing everyman quality to the role of Werther. An edgy, obsessed everyman that is — Werner kept the dramatic tension suspenseful. You never knew when he might fly into a rage (which he did on several occasions smashing a mirror and tearing a bed apart) or crack under the heartbreak of his unrequited love for Lotte.
Schumann gave a nuanced and passionate performance from the piano that was set behind a scrim, the shimmering dressing gown she wore echoing the one worn by Jennifer Hart Jackson who played the Lotte character in a silent role.
A highly original and creative approach to a classic, “Winterreise/Werther” was superbly and movingly performed by Werner and Schumann and offered a welcome new avenue to experience a treasured jewel of 19th-century music.
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July 17, 2008
Long Center budget update
Reports that the new $77 million Long Center for the Performing Arts is facing budget shortfalls are wrong, Long Center executive director Cliff Redd said.
“We’ve said all along that revenues from ticket sales and facility rentals will not cover all the costs of running the Long Center each year,” Redd said. “Like every other non-profit, we have to raise money every year.”
The Long Center’s current annual budget is $8.8 million. Redd said preliminary projections indicated earned income from endowments, ticket sales and rental fees would cover all but $1.5 million.
However about $500,000 in additional parking and security costs have upped the figure to $2 million, Redd said. Insufficient public parking at the city-owned parking garage adjacent Palmer Events Center garage has meant that additional traffic control and security personnel are needed for each event. “We weren’t expecting to have to shoulder those additional expenses,” Redd said. “But we’ve already started fundraising for it.”
Published reports also said that Long Center had asked the city for money. However Redd said the Long Center, like dozens of other Austin arts organizations, has simply applied for funding through the city’s cultural funding program for the first time. The cultural arts funding contracts are announced in September. Last year, the city awarded a total of $5.5 million to Austin arts groups. Among the largest cultural contracts were $150,000 to Ballet Austin and $146,000 to Paramount Theatre. The Long Center has applied for $200,000.
In April, a massive traffic and parking snarl left opera-goers tangled with people headed to a reggae festival on Auditorium Shores adjacent to the center. The 1,200-space city-owned Palmer Events Center garage — which serves the Palmer and Long centers. With additional parking spaces in nearby city-owned garages at Town Lake Center and One Texas Center, both on Barton Springs Road, there are a total of 2,254 spaces available.
The Dell Hall, the Long Center’s main venue, has 2,400 seats. The Long Center’s Rollins Studio Theatre can accommodate up to 240 people. Estimated peak capacity for the Palmer Events Center is 6,000, according to the city.
Built to replace the city-owned 1959 Palmer Auditorium, the Long Center was built by a private non-profit organization started by backers of the Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony Orchestra and Ballet Austin in order to give those organizations a permanent performance venue. The $77 million raised for the new center came entirely from private donations.
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June 23, 2008
Review: Verdi's Messa da Requiem
Grammy-nominated Austin chorus Conspirare often defies — what other superlatives to praise the vocal ensemble led by Craig Hella Johnson?
With Conspirare’s performance of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem Saturday night at the Long Center, we can add ‘profound’ to the list.
Johnson, the 200-plus member chorus, four soloists and the orchestra made transcendent a musical masterpiece already considered a stroke of Verdi’s genius in concentrated form. And Johnson concentrated that genius even more into a mesmirizing 90-minute musical miracle.
Perhaps that’s because as transcendent as the performance itself was the glorious sound of the acoustically-smart Dell Hall. To be sure, Johnson demonstrated that he has a clear mastery over the new hall, bringing the edge of the proscenium as far out into the hall as the flexible staging system would allow and even placing trumpet players in orchestra-level boxes for the dramatic ‘Tuba mirum’ movement.
The result was spine-tingling clear and rich sound that had a fullness and liveness never heard in Austin before. For years, Austin audiences have had to put up with inferior-sounding fine arts halls, Bass Concert Hall being the most prominent. Bass swallowed sound, altogether deadening it at times. (Bass it is currently undergoing renovations that include planned improvements to the acoustics.) Dell Hall celebrates and distinguishes every note, giving each palpable resonance that extends to the very farthest row.
Of course, none of the superior acoustics matter unless the performance itself is not also superior as Johnson’s emotionally-charged interpretation proved Saturday. (Johnson and the ensemble performed the Requiem Friday night in Victoria as part of the 2008 Victoria Bach Festival of which Johnson is artistic director.)
Verdi’s Requiem is an emotional rollercoaster, rocketing back and forth between disparate moods and musical colorations. It’s magnificent pictorial sweep has the potential to overwhelm. But when its dramatic depth is smartly plumed, as Johnson did Saturday, the Requiem’s emotional force can pack an enormous and meaningful whollop. And this was a Requiem performance to be reckoned with: the smaller moments of light and peace perfectly underpinning the rolling, wild waves of sadness and fright that form the backbone of Verdi’s funeral tribute.
The quartet of soloists — soprano Kallen Esperian, mezzo-soprano Robynne Redmon, tenor Karl Dent and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn — each delivered richly-rewarding performances with their combined talents making the quartet work on the ‘Lacrymosa’ achingly beautiful. Redmon sounded particularly resonant and Esperian deftly handling the considerably challenging ‘Libera me’ solo at the finale.
Johnson has never not delivered an emotionally resonant performance. But with his Requiem on Saturday, he created a singularly majestic moment.
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June 11, 2008
Review: 'Love, Janis' at the Long Center
There’s an irony in watching a Janis Joplin stand-in talk about the Monterey Pop Festival, the hazy launching pad for the Summer of Love, in the Michael and Susan Dell Hall at the Long Center, where you can’t even bring in a glass of pinot grigio.
There’s also plenty of fun to be had.
“Love, Janis” tells the story of the Texas native from the time she makes her way through her first audition with Big Brother and the Holding Company to her death, jumping from letters she sent home, read Tuesday night by Marisa Ryan, to the songs she made famous, sung by Mary Bridget Davies. It doesn’t make for much of a narrative arc — they are, after all, letters and songs, not chapters — but it’s enough.
Ryan offers a take on Janis’ letters that’s more lonely and filled with a need for approval than the singer’s brassy music would let on. Davies, though, belts out some of her own interpretations that, especially in “Summertime” and “Ball and Chain,” offer an alternative to Joplin’s while still celebrating the original.
The two Joplins complement each other, but, as could be expected, the music overpowers the story. Because while Ryan’s reading of the letters can be funny and heartfelt, it feels most like Boomer nostalgia. The music, though more familiar, feels fresh.
(“Love, Janis” continues at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive. $34-$59. 474-5664, thelongcenter.org.)
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June 6, 2008
Teatro Vivo sells out first Long Center shows; tix still available for this weekend
Teatro Vivo has sold out the first three of its five-show debut at the new Long Center for the Performing Arts.
“Petra’s Sueño,” — Teatro Vivo founder Ruperto Reyes’ popular bilingual comedy about a South Texas matriarch and tortilla-maker who thinks she’s the victim of supernatural happenings — sold out its Wednesday, Thursday and Friday shows at the Long Center’s, 225-seat Rollins Studio Theatre.
Tickets are still available of posting time for the 8 p.m. Saturday show and the 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday shows. Tickets are $12-$15 and are available at www.thelongcenter.org or by calling 474-5664.
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June 2, 2008
Review: Austin Lyric Opera's 'The Bat'
Any fair assessment of Austin Lyric Opera’s production of “The Bat,” now being performed in Dell Hall at the Long Center, needs to begin by considering the size and difficulty of rewriting a well-known opera with its setting in Austin. But the creative brains behind Esther’s Follies — Shaun Wainwright-Branigan handling dialogue and Lyova Rosanoff and Steve Saugey providing often brilliant rhymed couplets for the music — have crafted an affectionate and funny send-up of all things Austin-tacious whose quality, sustained over the length of a three-hour show, is generally spectacular.
Anyone who is acquainted with “Die Fledermaus,” Johann Strauss Jr.’s first, most popular and probably best operetta, should enjoy the deft sensitivity with which the authors blend elements of the original story and text with a multitude of modern and local references. Weird things happen at a costume party at the Driskill Hotel hosted by “Jefferson Kodosky” (played by Joseph Frank), at which hardly a notable Austinite, character or even landmark is not represented: Willie Nelson, Lance Armstrong, the Mangia dinosaur, the Texas Capitol, the University of Texas Tower, on and on. Burnt orange and Longhorn logos are everywhere. Genuine Austin performers make guest appearances; at my show the Biscuit Brothers and Albert & Gage provided a refreshing 10-minute interlude.
I was surprised at some of the abysmal Texas dialects displayed. Only Ev Lunning Jr. (originally from Iowa and a faculty member at St. Edward’s University), as the jailer Frosch in the last act, nailed the look and the sound of a son of Texas and threw in a couple of good “bits” besides.
The really extraordinary moments in the original “Die Fledermaus” were the few passages where the new lyrics felt clunky: the intoxicating salute to champagne in this version mentioned almost every well-known alcoholic beverage except champagne; and the sweet hymn to brotherhood and love appropriately became a love song to Austin, but the new text was earthbound next to the refined music.
This production includes plenty of excellent singing, though there aren’t any stars. Austin is the star this time. Richard Buckley, with the ALO orchestra and chorus, provided a spirited musical backdrop to the proceedings. This production is something that just can’t happen anywhere else and surely won’t happen again here anytime soon. If you can get tickets for the second weekend, don’t miss it.
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May 28, 2008
Symphony summer concerts in the park move to Long Center
The Austin Symphony Orchestra is moving its popular Hartman Foundation Concerts in the Park to the new Long Center for the Performing Arts.
The free Sunday evening concerts will now be on the Long Center’s City Terrace with its expansive view of downtown Austin and Lady Bird Lake. Audiences are invited to bring a picnic dinner and a blanket and take a seat on the Long Center’s lawn.
The family-friendly events feature smaller ensembles from the Austin Symphony playing everything from jazz and light classical to pops selections and film scores. Concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. every Sunday from June 1 through August 24. Admission is free.
Call 476-6064 or visit www.austinsymphony.org for more information.
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May 17, 2008
Review: Austin Sympony Orchestra, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
Shouts of ‘bravo’ and a rousing standing ovation topped off Austin Symphony Orchestra’s presentation of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 Friday night at the Long Center, the first of two sold-out concerts the orchestra performs this weekend.
True, orchestra music director Peter Bay and the orchestra may have made their official Long Center debut in April. But Friday’s concert had the festive feel of a true premiere.
Generally good traffic and parking flow and orderly box procedures lay a calm foundation for the evening. And the seasonably cool spring night drew concert-goers to the Long Center’s stunning City Terrace before the show began where they enjoyed the sweeping views of downtown and almost seemed reluctant to go inside.
But once inside, the audience was amply rewarded.
Over the course of two seasons, Bay has presented all of Beethoven’s symphonies in order with an aim to end with the Ninth in the new Long Center. Friday, Bay started the evening with a pleasant playing of Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony — a short, melodic happy symphony that’s almost uncharacteristic when compared to others by the dramatic German composer.
The drama was delivered after intermission when Bay and company attacked the Ninth.
Much is required of an orchestra and chorus to shape Beethoven’s intense last symphony. And it started with the verve and emotional, with Bay clearly extracting rich color from the orchestra — a considerable effort given the stormy first movement and the even more spectacularly brisk, forceful and energetic second movement.
Bay and the musicians are still clearly experimenting with the subtle of acoustics of the Long Center’s Dell Hall. At their disposal is a range of quiet modes, vastly different than the full-out volume that was required to fill the orchestra’s long-time home, the University of Texas’ Bass Concert Hall. Now, delicacy is a new instrument for ASO to master. Beethoven’s sweeping Ninth Symphony proved a test. There’s still some tweaking that’s needed, evidenced in the third movement where the direction of the orchestra sounded unresolved in its focus. The Dell is ultimately a quiet sounding hall that’s unforgiving of any musical indecisiveness.
But the orchestra pulled it together for the final movement, when a 175-member choir, under the direction of Kenny Sheppard, assembled to sing what’s become commonly known as ‘Ode to Joy’ chorus.
And that’s where the energy and drama counted most, when the emotional build-up of the nearly hour-long symphony finally, and joyously, is released in a shower of rousing glory.
Bay is to be commended for his two-year Beethoven journey and the smart timing to end it in the new Long Center. He’s clearly up for the challenge of the new hall — and full of ideas and energy to meet that challenge
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May 14, 2008
Tix on sale Sunday for Broadway shows at the Long Center
Tickets go on sale this Sunday, May 18, for the three Broadway shows headed to the Long Center for the Performing Arts.
The Long Center box office will open at 10 a.m. Sunday. The Long Center is at 701 W. Riverside Drive.
Tickets will also be available online at www.thelongcenter.org and by calling 474-5664.
The five-time Tony Award-winning “The Drowsy Chaperone” will play August 19-24. Academy Award-nominated actor Chazz Palminteri will kick off his U.S. tour of “A Bronx Tale” in Austin Sept. 2-7. And direct from Broadway, the internationally acclaimed “Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy” will play Nov. 25-30.
“We are thrilled to present Broadway to Austin. While the Long Center is worth a visit in and of itself, we are excited to say that these dynamic shows are just the beginning of the wonderful and diverse lineup the Long Center will bring to the Austin community,” states Cliff Redd, executive director of the Long Center.
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May 12, 2008
Review: Ballet Austin's 'Don Quixote'
In an impromptu fashion, the dancing started outside the Long Center Friday night before Ballet Austin made its debut on the stage of the new $77 million civic venue. A handful of little girls danced playfully and on the large, flat circular lighting feature set in the lawn at the top point of the Long Center’s City Terrace.
And, perhaps in deference to the parking problems that have plagued the Long Center on some occasions, one couple was seen arriving in the relaxed comfort of a pedicab. Inside, a nearly full house packed Dell Hall with anxious anticipation, there to drink in the spectacle of “Don Quixote,” the sweeping classical story ballet that Ballet Austin chose for their inaugural performance in their new performance home, though their last show of this season.
Indeed, a ballet spectacle doesn’t get more spectacular than this “Don Quixote,” a hybrid of choreography combining the original 19th-century Russian ballet by Marius Petipa and subsequent American versions. To wit: When Don Quixote (Greg Easley) and his sidekick, Sancho Panza (Kevin Hockenberry), paraded onto the stage in the first act, they rode a live horse and donkey, respectively. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, the Long Center’s first instance of live onstage animals drew audible gasps of surprise from the audience.
This “Don Quixote” is a demanding three-act, two-and-a-half hour ballet of one virtuosic pas de deux after another by the story’s young lovers Kitri (Michelle Thompson) and Basilio (Frank Shott) intermixed with equally showy solos and small ensemble dances.
Ballet Austin’s true strength is perhaps as a contemporary ballet company with expressive, theatrically nuanced dancers. And true to that, the company succeeded in extracting the comedic elements of “Don Quixote” with utter charm, playfully incorporating a little slapstick and mime in a light manner.
However, with the exception of Thompson’s commanding and sparkling performance — do we have a new leading ballerina of the company? — the technical flourishes demanded by the rigorous choreography wasn’t consistently there throughout the company.
This “Don Quixote” might have been a stage spectacle aimed at filling Dell Hall with splash and glamour. It did in terms of its scale, but not its finesse.
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May 2, 2008
City announces new Long Center parking plan
Assistant City Manager Rudy Garza released a memo Friday detailing a new parking and traffic plan for the Long Center, Palmer Events Center and Auditorium Shores.
Memo on Long Center Parking Meeting (pdf)
April 23, 2008
Austin Symphony Orchestra announces new season
A solo concert by famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma and a world premiere of a piece specifically for the Long Center’s Dell Hall by noted composer Christopher Theofanidis and electroacoustic music pioneer Mark Wingate are just two of the highlights of the Austin Symphony Orchestra’s 2008-2009 season, which was announced Wednesday.
Maestro Peter Bay made the announcement on the Long Center’s City Terrace with a fanfare provided by the symphony’s brass quintet.
Also on the schedule next season is the premiere of Austin composer Dan Welcher’s Symphony No. 5. Conspirare, Austin’s Grammy-nominated choral group, will join the symphony May 15-16, 2009, for Mahler’s mighty “Resurrection” Symphony No. 2 in C Minor.
Other special guests include famed British flutists Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway, Austin pianist Anton Nel, violinist Sarah Chang and pianist Jon Nakamatsu, whose recording of Gershwin music with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra spent 27 weeks in Billboard’s top classical charts last year, peaking at an impressive number 3 position. Nakamatsu will play Gerswhin’s Piano Concerto in F Major. The all-American concert will also feature works by Roy Harris and Leonard Bernstein.
The Long Center’s Dell Hall will be celebrated with the innovative collaboration between Theofanidis and Wingate. The as yet untitled suite of five short pieces will employ both the symphony orchestra and Wingate’s live surround-sound samplings. Theofandis and Wingate were in town recently to explore the Dell Hall and find inspiration in the venue’s architecture and acoustic possibilities.
The Texas-born award-winning Theofanidis received national kudos and attention this year for “The Refuge,” his massive musical and community event for the Houston Grand Opera inspired by Houston’s polyglot immigrant community and involving the opera’s singers and community performers. Wingate, by the way, received his doctorate in composition from the University of Texas.
Hats off to Bay for pursuing such a ground-breaking commission perfect for Austin and the new Long Center.
Peter Bay on the stage of the Long Center’s Dell Hall.
For tickets and more information go to the Austin Symphony Orchetra’s Web site.
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April 21, 2008
Review: Austin Lyric Opera's 'Carmen'
The audience buzz was high Friday night at Austin Lyric Opera’s debut performance at the new Long Center for the Performing Arts, the first of four sold-out shows of Bizet’s “Carmen.”
A “Home Sweet Home” banner greeted a festive crowd as they climbed the stairs to Dell Hall, the much-anticipated new home stage for the 22-year-old opera company. But unfortunately that audience energy far exceeded the verve coming from the stage. Awkward stage directing and weak performances from the lead performers left this “Carmen” lackluster.
Thankfully, sharp conducting by music director Richard Buckley flaunted the Long Center’s sparkling acoustics and provided the performance’s only real sizzle.
As Carmen, mezzo-soprano Beth Clayton lacked volume and a fullness of tone, never quite grabbing the pitch she needed during what should have been show-stopping arias. Tenor William Joyner, as Don Jose, likewise struggled with consistent delivery.
In the secondary roles, soprano Barbara Divis, as Micaela, did manage more volume and flair. And as Escamallio, Luis Ledesma had a good tone and plenty of dramatic flourish. Alas it was some of the only dramatic action we saw. Stage director David Gately seemed to have given little structure or purpose to the movement during the crowd scenes and principal characters lacked focus. This was a Carmen and Don Jose in love? It was hard to buy.
Perhaps the only star of the evening was the Dell Hall and its acoustics, amply celebrated by Buckley and the orchestra. Buckley drew a nuanced and shimmering sound from the pit that resulted in hearty cheers from the audience.
If this “Carmen” was underwhelming, at least Dell Hall and its sound continues to impress.
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April 15, 2008
Long Center announces Broadway shows
The new Long Center for the Performing Arts will play host to three Broadway shows this year, center officials announced today.
Five-time Tony Award-winning musical “The Drowsy Chaperone” will play the Long Center’s Dell Hall Aug. 19-24.
Academy Award nominated actor Chazz Palminteri will kick off his U.S. tour of “A Bronx Tale” in Austin Sept. 2-7.
And direct from Broadway, the internationally acclaimed “Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy” will play Nov. 25-30.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 18. Tickets available online at www.TheLongCenter.org at (512) 474-5664 or at the 3M Box Office at the Long Center. Groups of 20 or more may call (512) 457-5161 now to pre-book tickets before the public on-sale.
From the Long Center press release:
“The Drowsy Chaperone” received more Tony Awards than any other musical of the 2006 Broadway season, including Best Book, Original Score, Costume Design, and Scenic Design. A completely original musical comedy, “The Drowsy Chaperone” tells the story of a modern day musical theater addict known simply as “Man in Chair”. To chase his blues away he drops the needle on his favorite LP — the 1928 musical comedy, “The Drowsy Chaperone.” From the crackle of his hi-fi, the musical magically bursts to life on-stage telling the tale of a pampered Broadway starlet who wants to give up show business to get married, her producer who sets out to sabotage the nuptials, her chaperone, the debonair groom, the dizzy chorine, the Latin lover and a pair of gangsters who double as pastry chefs.
Directed by Tony Award-winner Jerry Zaks, “A Bronx Tale” features Palminteri as 18 characters depicting a rough childhood on the Bronx streets. First mounted Off Broadway in 1989, “A Bronx Tale” helped establish Palminteri as a writer and actor. He now has over 50 movies to his credit, including “The Usual Suspects,” “Bullets over Broadway,” “Analyze This,” “Hurly Burly” and “Mulholland Falls.”
“Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy” sees 25 aerialists, contortionists, acrobats, jugglers and musicians combine athleticism and theater in a spectacular show inspired by nature’s unpredictable creatures.
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April 14, 2008
Review: Austin Chamber Music's Long Center debut
If you have the talent to show off, why not do so?
That’s what Austin Chamber Music Center did for its flourishing debut at the new Long Center for the Performing Art’s Rollins Studio Theatre Sunday night.
In a program of three virtuosic — and demanding — pieces, ACMC artistic director Michelle Schumann and guests — violinist Sonja Braaten and cellist Martha Baldwin, both of the Cleveland Orchectra — impressed a near-capacity audience that rewarded with an enthusiastic standing ovation at concert’s end.
And what was there not to be utterly impressed with? Schumann and Braaten opened with Beethoven’s mighty Kreutzer Sonata and deftly interpreted the piece’s vast scale, coaxing great nuance from a score that sweeps in mood from furious to meditative and joyously exuberant.
Schumann showed her whip-smart sense of programming with the surprising Ravel Sonata for Violin and Cello, an untypical Ravel piece with tonal austerity that nevertheless radiated with a kind of modernist lyricism and undeniable vigor.
In a testament to sheer power and endurance that this trio of female musicians displayed, the concert concluded with Tchaikovsky’s demanding Piano Trio in A minor. The undeniably dramatic work — about 40 minutes in length — builds from a dirge-like romantic opening into a series of increasingly complex and ecstatic variations before ending in a quiet yet moving funereal march. And Schumann and company crafted it to be equal parts breathtaking technique and passionate emotion.
Schumann made the forward-thinking decision to be the first of Austin’s not-major classical groups to use the new $77 million downtown performing arts center as its principal concert venue.
To be sure, the Rollins Studio Theatre isn’t as ideal acoustically for classical music as the Long Center’s Dell Hall is. Dell Hall sparkles with clarity and warmth. Rollins is fine, but a bit dry; the vibrant halo of sound doesn’t hold and linger the way that it does in Dell Hall. But the Rollins’ sophisticated (and comfortable) setting lends a refreshing urban aura to a centuries-old musical genre.
Before Sunday night’s concert, the Rollins lobby made a commodious and attractive venue for a short concert by a brass quintet from ACMC’s community music school. Afterward, audience members lingered to chat with the performers.
Welcome to chamber music’s chamber for the 21st century.
Michelle Schumann in the Rollins Studio Theatre. Photo by Riccardo Brazziell.
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'Carmen' sells out Dell Hall; live broadcast planned
Austin Lyric Opera’s production of “Carmen” — the organization’s debut at the new Long Center for the Performing Arts — has sold out all of its four upcoming performances at the Long’s 2,400-seat Dell Hall. As of blog posting time, all but a few single tickets have been sold.
But even if you don’t have a ticket, you’ll still have the chance to hear the inaugural performance Friday night when Classical 89.5 KMFA broadcasts the opera live beginning at 7 p.m.
This is the first of a series of planned simulcasts of ALO’s productions.
The simulcast commentary will be hosted by Lauren Rico, also the host of Minnesota Opera broadcasts on public radio. Intermission interviews will feature ALO’s General Director Kevin Patterson, Principal Conductor Richard Buckley and stars from the production.
Celebrated mezzo-soprano Beth Clayton will sing the role of Carmen. William Joyner will sing the role of the young soldier Don José.
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April 8, 2008
Review: Kathleen Battle at the Long Center
It was a diva evening: glittering opera legend graces the stage of the Dell Hall on Monday night at the new, and equally glittering, $77 million Long Center for the Performing Arts hosting the first classical concert presented by the Long Center itself.
Days before her much-anticipated return to Carnegie Hall this Sunday, luminary soprano Kathleen Battle sang a captivating two-hour recital with selections spanning three centuries, from baroque to gospel.
To be sure, there was some inconsistency with Battle’s delivery. Perhaps she was holding back in preparation for Carnegie Hall? Still, when she did deliver she did so brilliantly, re-affirming that at moments Battle still has one of the most distinctive voices of our era. And she also re-affirmed that the acoustics of the new Dell Hall sparkle with perfection.
Taking the stage in a simple yet elegant black velvet dress and wrapping a full-length golden satin stole around her with dramatic flair, Battle began with a set of songs by baroque composer Henry Purcell — a strange fit for her that she obliviously seemed unsure of herself with, as was evident in her breathy delivery and unsure pitch on sustained notes. Her surety and flair kicked in a bit more when she moved on to a set of Schubert lieder, and a trio of songs by Felix Mendelssohn demonstrated her extraordinary clarity and dramatic turns.
After intermission, she resoundingly impressed with Franz Liszt’s “Die Lorelei” garnering the first of several shouts of “brava” from the audience that rippled through the recital’s second half.
But when she emerged alone on stage without accompanying pianist Ted Taylor to sing an awe-inspiring a cappella version of “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” we heard the legendary beauty. Gone was the distracted glancing at musical scores, the audible inhaling of breath, the odd facial expressions. Instead, Battle unleashed a full, rich, resonant sound.
And that was the diva the audiences came to hear.
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April 7, 2008
Review: Austin Symphony Orchestra Long Center debut
Subtlety and sharpness marked the Austin Symphony Orchestra’s debut at the Long Center of Performing Arts Friday night.
And music director Peter Bay smartly picked a program that showed off the sophisticated acoustics of the new Dell Hall, the Long Center’s main 2,400-seat venue. With the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet as special guests, Bay presented a program of all Spanish music rife with bright colorations, crackling rhythms and spirited melodies — perfect for making the most of Dell Hall’s exceptional sound.
After all, the Dell Hall is a vastly more complex instrument than we’ve ever experienced in an Austin concert venue. Gone is the need to make every concert simply - and awkwardly — loud as was necessary in the Bass Concert Hall at the University of Texas, the symphony’s home since the early 1980s.
Clarity is the starting point in Dell. Nuance rules. And that means that there’s a whole new range of volumes and colors a symphony orchestra can employ as Bay so deftly demonstrated Friday night, unfortunately to an audience that had noticeable holes of empty seats scattered through it in every of the three levels of seating.
Bay could not have picked a better piece than Luciano Berio’s ‘Versions of ‘Night Retreat from Madrid’’ to start with. Berio’s variations on a popular theme, superimposed on each other, start soft then builds into an impressive volume before receding as if a band of musicians were approaching and then passing along the way. And thanks to Dell Hall’s exceptional nuance, we heard those crescendos and decrescendos with great delicacy.
Though amplified with microphones, the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet nonetheless delivered a crystalline performance of Joaquin Rodrigo’s sensuous and virtuosic ‘Concierto Andaluz.’
Undoutedly the great flourish of the evening’s program was the finale, Manuel de Falla’s ‘Three-Cornered Hat.’ The frolicking piece, originally commissioned as a ballet version of a familiar folk tale, starts with castanet rolls and shouts of ‘Ole’ from the orchestra. Then it’s a sonic celebration as everything from a blackbird’s chirp to a squeaking well is delightfully rendered by the orchestra. At one point a soprano (Liz Cass) sings a tune from off-stage. A sprightly fandango erupts; A snippet from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony pops up in a humouros moment. A cuckoo clock strikes. Could there have been a more charming - and musically eclectic - piece to show off Dell Hall’s dazzling acoustics? Perhaps not, and Bay made it sparkle with finesse.
This reporter spent the concert’s first half in an orchestra level center-section seat, the most expensive the symphony offers. (If bought outside a season ticket plan, the cost is $48.) If there was a fault of the evening, it was that the symphony didn’t take advantage of Dell Hall’s flexibility that allows for the orchestra pit lifts to be raised, thus moving the entire symphony out further into the hall to maximize the acoustics. What was a wonderful sound could have been spine-tingling. And given the number of empty seats around the house and especially in the first few rows, one wonders about the judiciousness of the decision to forego artistry over potential revenue.
But spine-tingling happened in the balcony during Falla’s ‘Three-Cornered Hat.” From a seat in the front section of the balcony - a $27 ticket - every note shimmered and glittered. It was an auspicious debut of Austin’s newest cultural gem.
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March 31, 2008
Long Center blows it out at gala fundraisers
The big ticket fundraising galas this weekend came darned close to blowing the top off the new $77 million two-venue performing arts center.
The top ticket-dollar two-night fundraisers started Friday night with a black-tie affair replete with Cirque du Soleil-esque performers greeting party-goers.
Inside, the hour-long concert featured short show-stopping mini-performances by Long Center founding resident companies Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony Orchestra and Ballet.
But the two highlights were pianist Anton Nel and composer and pianist Graham Reynolds, both of whom delivered sublime performances, Reynold’s a smart piece of his own creation.
Saturday it was more down-home and casual. Though nothing was ordinary about stellar all-star line-up of talent — Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Ray Benson, Rick Trevino and Flaco Jimenez — who altogether delivered a rewarding two-hours of solid Texas style.
Afterwards a fireworks display — one of the best Austin has ever seen — lit up the downtown skyline.
For our complete Long Center coverage, click here
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March 10, 2008
Grupo Fantasma rocks the Long Center
It didn’t take long for Austin powerhouse band Grupo Fantasma to get the near-capacity crowd rocking Sunday night at the new Long Center for the Performing Arts.
The cumbia-funk favorite clearly brought part of its devoted fan base with them for the free show, the finale to this weekend’s Long Center open house. But there were converts aplenty after just a couple of songs and the aisles of the 2,400-seat Dell Hall filled with the dancing hordes. People in the balconies and the box seats couldn’t sit still either — the Dell Hall was dancing top to bottom.
Grupo Fantasma sounded leagues better than the Antonie’s All Stars did a couple of weeks ago at a public ‘sound check’ concert. Here’s the thing to remember with the Dell Hall — the place is acoustically perfect. You don’t need to crank the volume to be plenty loud and extremely clear.
Making their second appearance this weekend, Long Center namesakes Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long got a standing ovation from the crowd after center executive director Cliff Redd introduced the Austin philanthropists. “This is your center, Austin,” boomed Joe Long. By the way, the Grupo Fantasma concert was the only show the Longs took in Sunday.
Also netting a rousing round of applause was Long Center architect Stan Haas. After all, what’s not to love about a groovy new building that’s not only ecologically smart, but honors the past while looking ahead to the future?
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March 9, 2008
Crowds, and the Longs, come out to welcome new Long Center
The crowds came out Saturday to tour the new Long Center for the Performing Arts. By early afternoon, Long Center officials estimated that more than 3,000 had stopped by the new $77 million two-venue complex with another 7,000 to 8,000 expected by the time festivities ended at midnight. The Long Center offers stunning view of downtown Austin.
Perhaps nobody was more proud than Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long, Austin philanthropists who contributed $22 million to build the center. Beaming with pride, the Longs stopped by to see an afternoon performance of Ballet Austin in the 2,400-seat Dell Hall.
Members of Austin Poetry Slam entertained on the City Terrace.
The Austin Classical Guitar Society were the first to take the stage at the Rollins Studio Theater on Saturday morning.
Just moments after performing with ProArts Collective in the Rollins Studio Theatre — where she reprised her role in the recently critically acclaimed production of “Death and the King’s Horseman,” by Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka — actress and storyteller Carla Nickerson entertained children in the kids’ activities tent.
The Capital City Men’s Chorus entertained on the City Terrace Saturday evening.
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March 8, 2008
Big strings descend on the Long Center
Never mind the chilly night — about 1,000 people turned out Friday for the second night of the pubic open house for the new Long Center for the Performing Arts. Visitors toured the new $77 million two-venue complex, sipped cocktails while taking in the sweeping views of downtown Austin and enjoyed a most unusual musical performance.
Bill Close, inventor of the massive Earth Harp, leads members of his **MASS Ensemble in a performance on the Long Center’s City Terrace.
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March 7, 2008
Free tickets to Long Center moving briskly
Everything is FREE this weekend at the new Long Center for the Performing Arts.
But you’ll need to claim a ticket if you want to get in to any of the music and theater performances in the Dell Hall (capacity 2,400) or the Rollins Studio Theatre (capacity 280). And reports from Long Center officials say that tickets are moving briskly.
Get tickets by calling the Long Center box office at 474-5664 or online here.
All performances and activities on the Long Center’s City Terrace are free.
Photo by Larry Kolvoord.
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March 5, 2008
Long Center: No matter the weather, shows will go on
Never mind the predictions of cold and rainy weather Thursday evening. The first night of the “Sneak Peek” weekend at the new Long Center for the Performing Arts will go on no matter what, officials say.
Things kick off at 6 p.m with tours of the $77 million two-venue performing arts center. Then at 8 p.m. a performance by the New York-based MASS Ensemble on their giant stringed instrument known as the Earth Harp is set to take place on the Long Center’s City Terrace. But if weather is yucky, the performance will be moved inside to the lovely 2,400-seat Michael and Susan Dell Hall.
The ‘Sneak PeeK” continues Friday from 6 to 10 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. All of the concerts are free, but you’ll need to get a ticket. Tickets are available online and at the Long Center box office.
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February 26, 2008
Long Center: Grupo Fantasma to play free concert opening weekend
Powerhouse cumbia-funk band Grupo Fantasma will play a free concert at the new **Long Center for the Performing Arts to cap off the center’s opening weekend March 6-9.
Grupo Fantasma will hit the stage at the new Dell Hall — one of two Long Center venues — at 8:15 p.m. March 9, at the end of the center’s “Sneak Peek Weekend.” Dell Hall seats 2,400.
Other performers that weekend include Tosca String Quartet, Will Taylor & Strings Attached, Austin Poetry Slam, Aztlan Dance Company, Austin Classical Guitar Society and Austin Shakespeare Festival.
See here for a complete list of “Sneak Peek” events, including building tours of the new $77 million complex opening at West Riverside Drive and South First Street.
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February 13, 2008
Long Center: Pitching to be perfect
Last night, the Austin Symphony Orchestra wasn’t but a few minutes into a rehearsal at the new Long Center for the Performing Arts when like fairy godparents, Joe and Teresa Lozano Long slipped in.
The Austin power philanthropists, who gave $22 million to the $77 million two-venue civic performing arts center, had apparently snuck back into town on a quick break from a two-month round-the-world cruise.
Suntanned and relaxed-looking, they beamed with pride as they tiptoed around the Dell Hall, the 2,400-seat main venue, gleeful smiles never leaving their faces. After trying out seats in couple of different places in the orchestra section, they crept up to the mezzanine.
“Peter, you sound great!” shouted Joe Long from the mezzanine when symphony conductor Peter Bay paused for a break.
“We’ve never had sound this good in Austin,” Long said a few moments later after he and his wife had checked out the balcony and one of the parterre boxes.
That’s for sure.
Although tweaks are still being made by acoustician Mark Holden of Jaffe Holden Acoustics, the Dell Hall already sounds pitch-perfect.
Featuring a classical theater design with parterre, mezzanine and balcony levels essentially wrapping around the orchestra level seating, the Dell Hall provides immediately more intimate seating than any other major theater in Austin.
Add to that some sharp architectural acoustic design that gently directs the sound around the hall instead of giving it harsh angles to echo off of, and you’ve got a theater that sounds both clear and warm.
It certainly did last night.
Cherrywood paneling, hand-buffed Venetian plaster walls and a series of motorized cloth banners and tracked curtains add to more audio quality.
An especially clever feature are the “transparent” balconies that allow sound to move through openings rather than get trapped underneath a balcony and deaden as sound frequently does in most traditional venues. Last night, from behind the last row seats in the upper balcony, the symphony sounded as bright and warm and detailed as it did from the best seats on the orchestra level. Utterly impressive.
Also on hand at last night’s closed rehearsal was Conspirare director Craig Hella Johnson. The Grammy-nominated choir will not only take part in the Long Center opening festivities in March, but come June, Conspirare is destined to blow the roof off the place with Verdi’s dramatic “Requiem,” the ultimate power choral music if there ever was any. Johnson, who also tried out the sound from different seats throughout the theater, said he was “impressed” with the Dell Hall and found it “very intimate.”
The Long Center will open with a Sneak Peek Free Open House March 6 to 9 with performances, tours and all kinds of activities including a presentation of “The Earth Harp,” a monumental stringed instrument by New York-based multimedia performers MASS Ensemble.
Austin Symphony Orchestra will make its Long Center debut April 4-5 with guests Minneapolis Guitar Quartet. Then in May the symphony will do Beethoven’s majestic Ninth Symphony.
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February 6, 2008
Long Center to host first show Feb. 14: Antone's musicians to take the stage for public sound check concert
Testing, testing, 1-2-3.
Before it throws open its doors for its grand opening March 6, the Long Center for the Performing Arts is hosting a public one-night-only concert Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. with the Antone’s House Band All Stars so it can fine-tune the acoustics on the Dell Hall, the 2,400-seat main venue of the $77 million two-theater facility.
The 90-minute set will feature singer Malford Milligan along with guitarists David Grissom and Derek O’Brien, drummer Barry “Frosty” Smith, Larry Fulcher on bass and keyboardist Riley Osborne.
Tickets are $5 and can be purchased online at www.thelongcenter.org, by calling 474-5664 or at the Long Center box office, 701 W. Riverside Drive, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Tickets include a free drink.
Free parking is available at the Palmer Events Center parking garage.
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December 19, 2007
Long Center to be one giant stringed instrument on opening weekend
When the Long Center for the Performing Arts opens its doors to the public March 6-8, 2008 for a giant open house celebration, the whole place will sing.
Actually, the 30,000-square-foot north-facing plaza will be converted into “The Earth Harp,” a monumental stringed instrument. The creation of New York-based multimedia performers MASS Ensemble, “The Earth Harp” shape shifts depending on where MASS artistic director Bill Close and his team decide to install it. The instrument’s resonating chamber rests on the ground and strings shoot upward at an angle and attach to nearby architectural elements. Performers wear rosin-covered cotton gloves and run their fingertips along the strings to create deeply resonating low tones.
Sounds trippy. And here’s what “The Earth Harp” looks like in an outside installation.
In other Long Center news, look for an announcement in early January about what shows will be coming to the new facility in spring and summer. Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Austin and Conspirare have Long Center debuts planned. But we’re told there’s much more to come!
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