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| Click to enlarge. After the rainy season ends in the Fall, wild flowers still abound in Mexico. Here Morning Glory drapes itself over a huizache with another purple wild flower on the ground. |
I've often thought that Shostakovich might have become known as one of the leading opera composers of the 20th century were it not for the derailing of his opera composing career by Stalin and his minions after they saw a production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. The New York Times has an extensive article on a new production of his early absurdist opera, The Nose, that illustrates why: A New Era Takes Shape at the World’s Opera Capital.
Jurowski said his preparations for “The Nose” involved a lot of conversations with Serebrennikov — especially in person, whenever Jurowski was in Russia for work — long before rehearsals began. “We are completely d’accord,” he added, “in terms of this production,” in which the hapless protagonist is depicted as being alone in having just one nose, while everyone else wears grotesque masks adorned with many of them. Serebrennikov’s staging subtly raises political questions like the one the German critic Bernhard Neuhoff posed in his review of the premiere: “Is it normal to be human when everyone is inhuman?”
Speaking by phone after opening night, Dorny said that what Jurowski and Serebrennikov achieved together was “powerful”: a production that offered a fresh visual and metaphorical take on the piece, and a musical performance that was “quite definitive.” He was pleased with the audience’s sustained applause, but even happier overhearing them discussing the opera afterward.
“It’s a very good opening piece for the Bayerische Staatsoper,” Dorny said. “It should not just be that you walk out and you forget what you’ve seen, but that you take it with you — that it stays with you. That is what I would like to achieve.”
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Orchestras are developing new concepts in video streaming: Reaching Beyond the Concert Halls With Digital Content
It may be counterintuitive, but the consensus view is the best way to produce the emotional intensity of a live performance is to create programming distinctly different from the work being done onstage. That can mean everything from documentaries and mini-recitals to short films in which new music is paired with highly cinematic imagery.
“The power, the energy of a live orchestra is not something you can get on your flatscreen. We have no interest in trying to recreate that,” said Oliver Theil, head of digital innovation at the San Francisco Symphony. “We’re creating content that’s unique to the digital realm.”
For this season, that includes a new film of Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale, featuring actors, musicians, and dancers, and an innovative offering entitled Ligeti Paradigms. To be released in early December, “It’ll be a half-hour program combining art and technology to explore creativity — a combination that will drive much of our work going forward,” Theil said.
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And there is new technology enabling musicians to rehearse remotely: Evolving Technology Keeps Musicians in Touch
The past 18 months have been pretty grim for music journalists covering the live-performance scene. Cancelation notices dominated SFCV news items during the spring and summer of 2020, and we turned our critics loose on recorded music and streaming performances to compensate for the lack of live concerts. Many musicians, however, were persisting — some even thriving — during lockdown, and one truly positive story in those first months was a report on new technology the Ragazzi Boys Chorus was using that enabled them to maintain real-time rehearsals with everyone singing safely from their own homes.
The technology in question, JackTrip Lab’s Virtual Studio, comprises software and a hardware interface that allows each participant to use a microphone, headphones, and a home computer to connect directly other musicians via a dedicated JackTrip server. The result dramatically reduces latency — that maddening little delay in time between connected parties over the internet than can make conversations stilted and music-making impossible. With JackTrip, audio is perceived as more-perfectly synched.
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Some really interesting musings on art from an economics blog (I read 'em all!):
COWEN: Yes, but just to be very concrete, let’s say someone asks you, “I want to take one actionable step tomorrow to learn more about art.” And they are a smart, highly educated person, but have not spent much time in the art world. What should they actually do other than look at art, on the reading level?
SALLE: On the reading level? Oh God, Tyler, that’s hard. I’ll have to think about it. I’ll have to come back with an answer in a few minutes. I’m not sure there’s anything concretely to do on the reading level. There probably is — just not coming to mind.
There’s Henry Geldzahler, who wrote a book very late in his life, at the end of his life. I can’t remember the title, but he addresses the problem of something which is almost a taboo — how do you acquire taste? — which is, in a sense, what we’re talking about. It’s something one can’t even speak about in polite society among art historians or art critics.
Taste is considered to be something not worth discussing. It’s simply, we’re all above that. Taste is, in a sense, something that has to do with Hallmark greeting cards — but it’s not true. Taste is what we have to work with. It’s a way of describing human experience.
My emphasis.
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Not a lot of interesting links today, so let's have some good envois! First up some rockin' harpsichord music from Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer played by Jean Rondeau:
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