Music (2 cents)

MUSIC:

I recently attended two musical performances.

The Washington National Opera is performing "Sophie's Choice", Nicholas Maw's controversial opera, based on William Styron's book. The 3 (formerly 4) hour opera has received reviews which I would characterize as good if you like this kind of thing. At the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage, the opera company puts on, with respect to each opera, a talk back with musical selections. I went last Monday evening to learn a little more about Sophie's Choice.

I have not read the book. I saw the movie, and did not like it. It is not that I didn't like the cinematography or the acting; I did. I didn't like the story. I found it extraordinarily manipulative. Any story which has the heroine having to decide which of her children to save and which to let go to the gas chambers is, by its very nature, manipulative. And, I think that there are enough real Holocaust stories, that you don't need to sweeten the pot with made up ones.

But I was intrigued by the opera, and wanted to learn more. The talk back featured three of the leading performers, including Angelika Kirschlager, who sings the role of Sophie, Dale Duesing (the narrator) and I believe Rod Gilfrey, who sings Nathan. They were all in the British production, which was the world premier. The fourth participant was Marin Alsop, newly appointed director of the Baltimore Symphony.

The conversation was fascinating. What it is like to play in a show this emotional. What it was like taking a four hour opera and condensing it to three. What were the differences in the London production, with a complicated set and 17 costume changes for Sophie, compared to the Kennedy Center production with a minimalized set. The difficulties of singing such a complicated musical score. And the orchestra: how to keep everyone together and on cue with a score that the musicians are not familiar with, and which has no regular rhythmic structure. How to keep the orchestra from overwhelming the voices.

The two pieces which were part of this talk-back were sung by understudies, and young artists, and they were terrific. And the talk back conversation was, I thought, extraordinary. These were four very able speakers, who seemed to be willing to share very much about their own feelings towards the script and towards each other with the audience. It is too bad that it won't be repeated, and was not (I don't think) recorded.

On Tuesday, I went back to Epiphany Church for what I hoped would be an enjoyable cello and piano concert, the cellist being John Kaboff and the pianist David Kosutic, both locally based teacher/performers. Disappointment. In part it was the selection, I think. An Adagio and Allegro by Schumann and the Sonata in G minor by Chopin, neither of which I am familiar with (is that the problem?), and neither of which seemed particularly memorable. But more than that it was the cello tone, and what I perceived as a lack of true sympatico between the musicians. The last piece was an excerpt from Ernst Bloch's Baal Shem Suite, again something I am not familiar with, but it did nothing for me.

You regular readers may recall a concert by Kaboff last year at the Andersen House. What did I say there? I said that the pieces were unfamiliar to me and that the musicianship, while competent, was not star quality. I guess I skip the next Kaboff concert. How will I ever remember?