Night After Night

Le Roi Malgré Lui at Bard SummerScape, July 29, 2012

 

Le Roi Malgré Lui, by Cory Weaver

Le Roi Malgré Lui at Bard SummerScape
The New York Times, July 31, 2012

Did it constitute a cop-out when I refused to divulge details of Thaddeus Strassberger's staging for this elegantly daffy Chabrier opera? I had a hard time deciding, not least because many aspects of the production were things you'd want to tell all your friends about. But as I ended up writing, most of these details were successful and enjoyable specifically because they came as surprises; I didn't feel like being that guy who gives away the ending of The Dark Knight Rises.

Whatever the case, I can definitely say that this is a production I'd happily see again. There are three more performances at Bard College, on Wednesday (Aug. 1), Friday (Aug. 3) and Sunday (Aug. 5). Then on October 25, the same production and some of the same principal cast members will be featured in a four-performance run by the Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland.

Among other perspectives, James Jorden expressed his disatisfaction with characteristic insight and pith in his New York Post review, while Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, writing for The Classical Review, had a much more favorable outlook in her review of the Friday night prima.

 

Feng Yi Ting at the Lincoln Center Festival, July 26, 2012

 

Shen Tiemei and Jiang Qihu, by Ruby Washington/The New York Times

 

Feng Yi Ting at the Lincoln Center Festival
The New York Times, July 28, 2012

"…a brilliant morsel of theatrical art, flamboyantly conceived and compellingly staged." Sometimes, ebullience trumps eloquence. Anyway, there is one performance of Guo Wenjing's fabulous 45-minute opera remaining, tonight at 7:30pm at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater, John Jay College. Tickets are still available. Considering buying one.

BloodMist at Roulette, July 25, 2012

Last night at Roulette, Jeremiah Cymerman, Mario Diaz de León and Toby Driver shook the walls with arcane music and occasionally lacerating volume as BloodMist, a new project that had its debut after several days of workshops. More thoughts to come; for now, more poor iPhone photographs.

Playlist.

Derek Rogers - Saturations (Greenup Industries)

Derek Rogers - Informal Meditations (No Kings)

Derek Rogers - Peripetia (A Beard of Snails)

Rolling Stones - Tokyo Dome (Live, 1990) (Rolling Stones Archive)

Nathan McLaughlin - Echolocation #6 (SicSic)

Bad Rep - Chicago Slime (Housecraft)

Rambutan - Silver Pharmacy (Anathema Sound)

Godseye - Bad Blood (Rocket Machine)

Hakobune - Cloak of Gray (Fadeaway Tapes)

Bandicoot Trail - Hocus Focus (Fadeaway Tapes)

Trailing - A Silent Venture (Fadeaway Tapes)

The Howling Wind - Of Babalon (Profound Lore)

Motion Sickness of Time Travel - Motion Sickness of Time Travel (Spectrum Spools)

Camille Saint-Saëns - Symphony No. 3 - Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Barenboim; Danse macabre; Samson et Dalila - Bacchanale; Le déluge - Orchestre de Paris/Daniel Barenboim (Deutsche Grammophon, via MOG)

Johannes Brahms - Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3 - Berlin Philharmonic/Herbert von Karajan (Deutsche Grammophon, via MOG)

Johannes Brahms - Piano Sonata No. 2; Gabriel Kahane - Piano Sonata; Sergei Prokofiev - Piano Sonata No. 7 - Natasha Paremski (Arioso Classics)

Nathan McLaughlin - Echolocation #5 (Notice Recordings)

The North Sea - Never Stop It (Hooker Vision)

Telecult Powers - Orgone Freakout: A Happening with the Telecult Powers (Deception Island)

Mass Ornament / Motion Sickness of Time Travel - split CS (Hooker Vision)

Claude Debussy - Préludes, Books 1 & 2 - Walter Gieseking (EMI Classics, via MOG)

Claude Debussy - Préludes, Book 1 - Alfred Cortot (Fono, via MOG)

Claude Debussy - Préludes, Books 1 & 2 - Paul Jacobs (Nonesuch, via MOG)

Bad Powers - Bad Powers (The End; due Sept. 18)

Bruce Barth - Three Things of Beauty (Savant)

Brian Lavelle - Amulets (Digitalis, via Bandcamp)

Sean McCann and Matthew Sullivan - Jackpot (Ekhein)

MatthewDavid - Destin (Ekhein)

Geoff Mullen - Alone and in a Room (Ekhein)

The Compass Rose - The Simulation District (Ekhein)

The Accidents - Demo Colors (Ekhein)

Jeremiah Cymerman - Under a Blue Grey Sky (Porter, via MOG)

Tartar Lamb II - Polyimage of Known Exits (Ice Level Music, via MOG)

21st Century Schizoid Band - Pictures of a City - Live in New York (Iceni)

All mod CON: Conrad Schnitzler tribute in NYC July 24–30, 2012.

A bit of late-breaking news here: Conrad Schnitzler, the influential, prolific German electronic-music pioneer who was an early member of Tangerine Dream and a founder of Kluster, and who passed away in August 2011, is the subject of CON-Mythology, an ambitious week-long tribute that starts today in New York City. Included among the festival's events is a 60-hour continuous, no-repeats playback of Schnitzler's music outside of Audio Visual Arts (AVA), located at 34 East 1st Street in Manhattan, running from Friday at 6pm EST until Monday at 6am and also streaming on the web.

In addition, Harvestworks (596 Broadway, sixth floor, just south of Houston Street) will host three of Schnitzler's Cassette CONcerts, based on a boxed set of tapes Schnitzler designed to allow for performances of his music that didn't require his presence. The CONcerts will take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 4 to 7pm EST; Friday's event features the live participation of Gen Ken Montgomery, the New York sound artist behind much of this festival. Here's an excerpt from one such concert:

For complete details, including further events involving Anthology Film Archives, the Clocktower and WFMU, check out the CON-Mythology site.

Bel Canto at Caramoor, July 21, 2012.

 

Eglise Gutierrez, by Gabe Palacio/The New York Times

 

I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Caramoor International Music Festival
The New York Times, July 23, 2012

Seeking objective truth in reviews of live events is always a fascinating prospect. In this review, I'm very keen on Eglise Gutiérrez, more moderate but still positive on the whole about Kate Aldrich, and supportive of the remaining cast members. Mike Silverman, writing for the Associated Press, was even more enthusiastic about Gutiérrez, but found Aldrich lacking and wrote of Leonardo Capalbo's struggles with pitch – an effect that I didn't notice enough to be bothered. The consistently insightful Charles T. Downey of Ionarts, writing for The Classical Review, found less to appreciate in Gutiérrez's work, agreed that Aldrich recovered well from a poor start, and heard a false entrance in the orchestral playing during the tomb scene that I missed outright.

Things like this used to bother me greatly. Now, though, I've come to accept that it's to some extent an inevitable result of different listeners with different backgrounds, seated in different locations in the house, provide insights regarding the same performance. It's not quite Rashomon, but the truth most likely comes in portions from a variety of reviews. (I'm looking forward to seeing reviews from David Shengold and Paul Pelkonen.)

Still, I was pleased to see that Charles also cited the outstanding work done by French-horn, cello and clarinet soloists – and here I'll tip my hat to festival publicist Lois Cohn and her associate, Fiona Zwieb, for working overtime on Sunday morning to provide me with their names.

Hello again.

Those who've read this blog on a more than occasional basis since it started know that in the last six years I've written here far less than I used to, for fairly obvious reasons. The posting went down still more a few years later, also having to do with taking on more professional responsibilities.

None of that has changed. But for some time now, I've been mulling over the notion of reactivating this personal parcel of the web. I've been active on Twitter. I started a Tumblr. I even joined that social network I swore I would never become a part of. Things happen.

All along, I've missed what I used to do here. And, for reasons that don't bear divulging, none of my current working situations can provide me with everything I want. Figured it was time to come back and see what I could do about making those two points add up to something new.

It'll take some doing, in terms of finding the time and exerting the discipline. But I've finally figured out that Night After Night gave me a few things I didn't have anywhere else. I'd be a fool not to take advantage.

As ever, you're welcome to join me. I plan to start renovating shortly…don't mind the mess.

Your truly,

Steve Smith

Music editor, Time Out New York

Freelance contributor, The New York Times

Blogger

Ain't nothing like the real thing.

Rumble…crackle…snap…ping.

Stay tuned.