Theatre , Dance, Classical,
KCM VID: Gamelan Genta Kasturi
Gamelan Genta Kasturi (Ensemble of Blossoming Sound) will present two concerts of traditional and modern Balinese Music and Dance in the Main Sanctuary of the Unity Temple on the Plaza on Friday June 18 at 7:30pm and Saturday June 19 at 2pm. Featured works include the classic court dance composition "Legong Keraton", the seminal 1926 Kebyar instrumental composition "Kebyar Ding" and "Gita Genta Kasturi" which was written by the groups' founder I Ketut Gede Asnawa.
Gamelan is the orchestral musical tradition of Indonesia and involves a large group of metallophones, gongs and drums that perform alone or with dance. Gamelan Genta Kasturi is an eighteen-member community ensemble that operates in partnership with the UMKC Conservatory's Community Music & Dance Academy.
PREVIEW:
Gamelan Genta Kasturi
Unity Temple on the Plaza
Main Sanctuary
707 W. 47th St.
Kansas City MO 64112
Friday, June 18 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, June 19 at 2:00 pm
Both shows are FREE (donations accepted)
From the UMKC Gamelan Genta Kasturi website:
The gamelan at UMKC was made by Bali's most highly respected composer, tuner and gong-smith. The ensemble consists of numerous metallophones, vertical and horizontal tuned gongs, cymbals, flutes, fiddles and drums and can accommodate a group of up to 28 performers.
The instruments, made mostly of a highly polished bronze, are housed within elaborately carved and painted teak cases depicting selected episodes of the Hindu Ramayana epic and the parables of the ancient Indian (and Balinese) Tantri (animal) tales. The instruments include the University's logos carved and painted in UMKC blue and gold. It took nearly seven months to construct the UMKC gamelan. Before its months-long journey by cargo ship, the gamelan was given an elaborate ceremony and blessing by several Balinese Hindu high-priests. For three years, the group was led by I Ketut Gede Asnawa, a Balinese Gamelan master.
Bali and Gamelan:
Bali is a small volcanic island which lies in the seas of the South Pacific just to the East of Java in the center of the vast Indonesian archipelago. The Balinese represent a small island of Hindus living peacefully within a sea of Islam. Indonesia is the world's largest Islamic nation. Hinduism reached the islands of the archipelago before the 9th century, and while Islam slowly gained favor among the Rajas (later Sultans) of Java and Sumatra in the 13th and 14th centuries, the Balinese remained steadfastedly Hindu. Music, even before the coming of Hinduism, has played a major role in the daily, court, and religious life of the Balinese until the present day. Music is for the Balinese a kind of aural offering to the Gods, as necessary to the proper fulfillment of a ceremony or rite as are the physical offerings of fruits and meats, the burning of incense or the sanksritic recitations, sloka, of the Balinese Hindu priest. The sounds of the Balinese gamelan, a large set of tuned gongs, flutes, fiddles, xylophones and voices, of which there exist a least 25 different varieties on the island, is a permanent fixture in the Balinese temple. But gamelan/music (the terms are not separable in Bali) also exists in secular contexts and in the highly competitive environment of the annual Balinese gamelan gong kebyar competitions there exists the endless intrigue of musical trade-secrets, hours-long rehearsal sessions lasting well into the night, gamelan 'spies' who sneak into rehearsals to steal the newest ideas of Bali's leading composers, and at times the casting of stones at performers who play sloppily or miss a note in the charged environment of the mabarung, the Balinese musical contests which resemble a British soccer match more than an American orchestral concert.
Balinese gamelan is essentially communal in nature, as is so much of Balinese culture. At the core of all Balinese music is the importance of interlocking patterning played by at least two individuals. And so, aside from stylized vocal genres, no Balinese music can be played by a single person. Musical parts and lines are constructed in such an ingenious fashion so that it is impossible to be fully realized by individuals, but only by the tight coordination of parts, memorized by rote in rehearsal (musical notation is not used in Bali) by a community of performers. Furthermore, the Balinese gamelan is stratified to include a gradation of difficulty. That is, there exist simple, intermediate, and difficult lines, without there being a hierarchy of value imposed upon these roles. This allows the community of players in a gamelan to include a range of talents, and also ages: often one finds very young children, as young as 6 years old playing the easier lines, adolescents playing the intermediate parts, adults playing the most difficult roles and finally the older players, hands stiffened by age, joining the children on the easier and slower moving parts. The gamelan structure therefore provides an excellent scene for musical and cultural socialization.
The UMKC Gamelan:
The gamelan at UMKC is the newest and largest Balinese ensemble in North America, where there are already nearly 100 Balinese gamelan in residence at colleges, universities and private organizations. The ensemble, made by Bali's most highly respected composer, tuner and gong-smith, I Wayan Beratha, is a gamelan semara-dana, a modern ensemble invented by Beratha in the 1980's which represents the combination of two older ensembles: the gamelan gong kebyar, pentatonic secular ensemble which emerged around 1915, and the gamelan semar pegulingan saih pitu, a septatonic sacred ensemble which emerged in the ancient courts of the Balinese rajas sometime before the 16th century. The ensemble consists of numerous metallophones, vertical and horizontal tuned gongs, cymbals, flutes, fiddles and drums and can accommodate a group of up to 28 performers. The instruments, mostly made of a highly polished, brilliant bronze, are housed within elaborately carved and painted teak cases. These cases display highly detailed carved panels which on the front depict selected episodes of the Hindu Ramayana epic and on the back the parables of the ancient Indian (and Balinese) Tantri (animal) tales, much like Aesop's Fables. The sides and edges of the gamelan cases display carvings of fierce fanged bhuta- kala, specters meant to frighten away evil spirits, and to keep the gamelan and its performers safe. The instruments display the University's logos carved within the instrument panels which are painted in the school's colors of blue and gold.
History of the UMKC Gamelan:
The gamelan at UMKC was forged in small smithies in Bali and Java. The large tuned gongs, which reach a diameter of nearly a meter -- some of the largest gongs in the world, were hand forged and shaped in the famous furnices of Solo, the seat of the ancient Sultanate of Java. These gongs, (the word 'gong' is Javanese in origin and it is, along with 'amok' and 'ketchup,' one of the very few Malay words to make it into the English language) are created slowly over several days, hot hammered from an ingot of bronze measuring only 7 inches in diameter at the beginning of the process. All of the large gongs found in Bali are actually born in Java as the smithy's of central Java, who's craft is still handed down through hereditary lines, have carefully kept the ancient secrets of metallurgy and tuning needed to create these massive gongs. The small gongs and tuned bars that make up the bulk of the instruments in the UMKC gamelan were forged in smithy's in Karangasem, the ancient kingdom of East Bali, and were then transported to the capital city of Denpasar where they were fine tuned by hand. The cases were made in Beratha's main shop in Denpasar, and were made to fit these keys and gongs specifically, as there is no uniform and standard measure or process for the creation of Balinese instruments. Likewise, the tuning of the UMKC gamelan, while very similar to other ensembles made by Beratha is unique as well; there is no tuning standard in Bali, as there is in the West's system of equal temperament and a standard of A=440. When the construction of the UMKC gamelan, a process which took nearly 7 months, was first finished in the spring of 2002 the ensemble was given to several of the best performing groups in Denpasar, the island's capital. This insured that the ensemble was played on every day, gaining a kind of spirit or taksu and, more importantly forced out of tune. As all newly cast bronze is still unstable, and according to Balinese gong-smiths is still 'wet,' the metal gradually detunes within its first year. This process can be sped up if the keys are frequently struck. By late summer 2002 the UMKC gamelan was already somewhat out of tune and was given its first re-tuning by Beratha before being shipped. Before being placed in the rough wooden creates that protected the instruments in the months long journey by cargo ship, the gamelan was given an elaborate ceremony and blessing, presided over by several Balinese Hindu high-priests. The ensemble today still displays the now desiccated palm and leaf offerings tied to the cases by the priests and the oxidizing stains of the holy water sprinkled on each of the keys and gongs.
Patrick Conway, Director
Patrick Alonzo Conway is a percussionist, wind player and composer. He has studied with ethnomusicologist David Locke and such noted Master Drummers as Abubakari Lunna-Wumbie (Dagomba), Frisner Augustín (Haitian), Felipe Garcia Villamil, Alejandro Carvajal (AfroCuban) and I Ketut Gedé Asnawa (Balinese). Mr. Conway has traveled to Cuba to research Afro-Cuban Folklore through the Escuela National de Arté in Santiago de Cuba and Havana. He holds a Master of Music degree in Music Composition from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and was a founding member of the contemporary music ensemble newEar and has served as president and a member of the Board of Directors of the New Music Institute of Kansas City, Inc.. He has performed with the Gillham Park Orchtet, the Terrestrial Consort, Orquesta Inspiracion, Flamanté, Mambo X, ERV Andean fusion group, Grupo Aztlan, Grupo Muralla and worked as performer and composer with Paul Mesner Puppets, Gorilla Theater the National Audio Theater Festival and the UMKC Theater Department. Mr. Conway works with several ensembles under the auspices of the Traditional Music Society in Kansas City, Kansas City Young Audiences, with the bagpipe/percussion duo Goat?s Ear, as conga player with the Mambo DeLeon Orchestra, multi-instrumentalist with Brad Cox Ensemble and also plays percussion and saxophone with BCR and Necessity Brass Band. In the summers of 2001 and 2002, he led Creative AfroCuban Projects as a part of the Studio150 arts-based youth job training program administered by the Arts Council of Metropolitan KC. He currently is the director of Gamelan Genta Kasturi, a Balinese Gamelan Semaradana ensemble functioning under the auspices of the UMKC Community Music and Dance Academy. Recent projects include work as music director/performer on the UMKC Theater Department?s MFA production of Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth directed by Ricardo Kahn, Artistic Director of the famed Crossroads Theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He also traveled to Bali in the summer of 2006 and had his composition Sekar Purwa Pascima read by Kaliungu Kaja Banjar Gamelan, in Denpasar.
More info on Gamelan Genta Kasturi, Bali and Gamelan can be found at the following website: http://conservatory.umkc.edu/community_academy/gamelan.aspx
Classical,
Kansas City's new voice
This past Saturday, the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers (SCCS) presented two concerts of "Go, Song of Mine," a program full of high-quality music that focused on British composers. The assembled choir, consisting of singers from around the country - most with Kansas City roots - displayed near-flawless execution and seamless blending. Carrington is an excellent leader whose gestures were an effective blend of clear patterns and shaping that were never self-indulgent or extravagant and always in good taste.
The program opened with Thomas Tallis' Gaude gloriosa Dei mater, a large-scale motet arranged by Ronald Downs, a member of the SCCS' bass section. The opening portion featured only a small section of the choir, but it wasn't until all the voices entered that the choir's true quality and prowess was made apparent. Carrington was able to achieve a wide dynamic range from the choir from a full dramatic forte to a delicate pianissimo.
With the addition of Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral's John Schaefer on organ, Purcell's Jehova, quam multi sunt, Z. 135 featured soloists Christopher Gilliam, bass, and Matthew Swope, tenor. Gilliam displayed a warm tone while Swope's was more lyrical, despite a few minor intonation issues.
The SCCS continued with three Elgar selections, "The Shower," "My love dwelt in a Northern Land," and "Go, song of mine." The first of the three, in a more homophonic setting, was both serene and calming, yet had a brief moment of hesitation toward the end, resulting in some shaky entrances. The basses and altos laid down a solid foundation for "My love dwelt in a Northern Land" as the tenors and sopranos floated above the texture with flawless, haunting melodies. "Go, song of mine," the most difficult, was both passionate and dramatic. The dynamic range was also extreme here and they saved the loud dynamics for the moments that truly deserved it, however, as the volume increased, clarity and diction seemed to fall behind.
The world premiere of What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?, Melissa Dunphy's winning work of the SCCS' first composition competition, was the most modern piece on the concert. The choir shimmered in the closely spaced sonorities at the beginning and convincingly brought out Dunphy's carefully thought-out text painting, most notably her setting of the words "I have seen so much, so much blood and guts, so much suffering, much sacrifice," and the text making up the title. Despite being clearly the most difficult piece for the choir, they still gave a top-notch performance. The intonation wavered on the initial attack of some of the sustained sonorities, especially those in a high range.
Perhaps the most compelling songs of the afternoon were two short selections from the Strathclyde Motets by Scottish composer, James MacMillian. The first, "Factus est repente," displayed sonorous parallel harmonies reminiscent of medieval organum and highly ornamented modal melodies. In contrast, "Dominus dabit beningnitatem" occupied the opposite end of the spectrum with its delicate texture and exposed vocal parts. Both were simple yet effective and impeccably executed with a strong sense of dynamic control. You could hear a pin drop as the barely audible final notes of "Dominus" dissipated into complete silence.
Following the MacMillian, the Singers left the stage to allow an assembled group of high school students from the Kansas City area to sing two works. The choir struggled with rhythmic clarity and diction in the lively tempo of Come away, sweet love by Thomas Greaves, but felt more in their comfort zone with the relaxed tempo of a Clear and gentle stream by Gerald Finzi. The students sang with confidence and showed a maturity beyond their years.
The SCCS then joined the high school choir for the aptly titled Everyone sang by Bob Chilcott, a former King's Singers colleague of Carrington. Both choirs blended beautifully without the SCCS being overpowering.
The final two works on the program were performed solely by the SCCS. The first was a setting of Robert Burns' O My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose. The quiet opening was somewhat disrupted by some of the high school choir, still trying to find their seats after leaving the stage. The work featured a solo by tenor Jason Parr, whose calming tone was an effective compliment to Carringtons' delightful arrangement.
The last and least effective work on the program was an arrangement of The Who's Pinball Wizard. The opening staccato notes, mimicking the rhythm of the strumming guitar in the original version, were blurred by the resonance of Grace and Holy Trinity. The SCCS' enjoyment singing this song was apparent - it was the first time every choir member was smiling and singing with an injected dose of energy not present in any of the previous works. The energy seemed to fade towards the middle and the choir's stylistic direction seemed to drift closer to Tallis than Townshend. The energy picked up again at the conclusion, prompting an instant standing ovation from the audience.
Go, Lovely Rose by Geoffrey Wilcken, a former student of Carrington's at KU, was the encore. Wilcken's setting featured soprano Estelí Gomez, whose voice soared over the choir but struggled to reach a few high notes and exhibited a bit too much vibrato for my taste.
My one regret is that we only get to hear the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers once a year and I believe Kansas City audiences would jump at the opportunity to hear them sing more often. With that said, I look forward to what Carrington has in store for next year!
REVIEW:
Simon Carrington Chamber Singers
Go, Song of Mine
Saturday, May 29 at 12 p.m. (Reviewed)
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
415 West 13th Street, Kansas City, MO
and
Saturday, May 29 at 8 p.m.
First Presbyterian Church
2415 Clinton Parkway, Lawrence, KS
www.simoncarringtonchambersingers.com
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Classical,
Russian favorites end KCS season in style
The Kansas City Symphony ends the season this upcoming weekend with one of the monumental works of the symphonic repertoire, the Prokofiev Symphony No. 5 and one of the great piano concertos ever written, the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1. To round out the program, the orchestra plays another Russian work, the arely heard Overture to Colas Breugnon by Dmitri Kabalevsky.
Sergie Prokofiev (1891-1953) was a 20th century Russian composer who followed in the footsteps of his compatriot Igor Stravinsky in breaking musical molds. His adventurous melodies and harmonies tweaked the ears of his day in somewhat unpleasant ways, but in the intervening years his music has acquired a more mellow sound because of the even more outrageous musical revolutionaries who followed. Today we consider him one of the "classic" Russian orchestral composers.
Prokofiev's most popular symphonies are the No. 1, entitled the "Classical" because it is reminiscent of earlier symphonic forms, and the much more ambitious and aggressive No. 5, which contains some of the most dramatic Russian symphonic music since Tchaikovsky. Written in 1944, it was composed when Russia was in the throes of World War II, battling the invading German forces. Inspired by Russia's military successes as the tide of the war was turning, Prokofiev may have been trying to portray the heroism of the Russian troops in some of the vast, sweeping melodic lines which punctuate the work.
As Prokofiev himself was conducting the January 15, 1945 world premiere, the audience inside the concert hall could hear the gunfire outside marking the final push of Russian troops to victory over the Germans. The symphony seemed to almost accompany the victory, and such was the acclaim it brought its composer that America's Time Magazine put him on its cover the following week.
Trivia note: The opening of the third movement, an Adagio, features a triplet accompaniment similar to that of Beethoven's "Moonlight" sonata, Lenin's favorite piece. This oblique tribute may have paid off, for Prokofiev's Symphony was later awarded a Stalin Prize.
The critic Paul Serotsky has aptly said that Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 is "one of the defining works of the Twentieth century," and so it is.
Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 was written 70 years before Prokofiev's symphony and has none of the later composer's sometimes jarring tonalities. It has, however, been one of the most popular concertos in that repertoire - although it hardly started out that way.
Tchaikovsky was still a young composer when he wrote his first piano concerto and showed the work to his mentor Nikolai Rubenstein, director of the Moscow Conservatory of Music. To the composer's consternation, his professor heaped scorn upon the piece. As Tchaikovsky later wrote in a letter to his patron Nadia van Meck, "a torrent poured from Nikolay Grigoryevich's mouth, gentle at first, then more and more growing into the sound of a Jupiter Tonana. It turned out that my concerto was worthless and unplayable; passages were so fragmented, so clumsy, so badly written that they were beyond rescue; the work itself was bad, vulgar; in places I had stolen from other composers; only two or three pages were worth preserving; the rest must be thrown away or completely rewritten."
Tchaikovsky rallied to his own defense, and according to his letter, " 'I shall not alter a single note,' I answered, 'I shall publish the work exactly as it is!' " And this he did.
Good thing, too, for the concerto is one of the masterpieces of the literature. Its music is so ingrained in the modern concert audience member's mind that it is impossible for us to reconstruct what Rubenstein's complaints might possibly have been.
At any rate, Tchaikovsky turned next to the famed conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow, whose perception of the work was entirely different. Von Bülow proclaimed the work "lofty, strong, and original." Von Bülow was planning an American tour in the fall of 1875, and he offered to learn the concerto for that trip. The premiere took place in Boston, followed shortly by one in New York. In both cities the work was tremendously popular with the audiences, who demanded a repeat of the finale. The music won the battle against the critics, and even Rubinstein eventually admitted his error, learned the concerto, and performed it many times.
The Symphony's soloist will be Russian pianist Vladimir Feltsman, who has a special affinity for the music of his countryman. This season he has soloed with the New York Philharmonic, Caramoor Music Festival, London Symphony Orchestra, Kirov Orchestra and others, and also has given recitals in Chicago Detroit, Florida and Lincoln Center in New York. He is also a noted conductor, performing especially with his ensemble the Moscow Virtuosi Orchestra. He is on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music in New York. Feltsman will be back in Kansas City on October 1 to perform a recital as the opener for The Friends of Chamber Music's 35th Anniversary season.
Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987) saw his most creative years in mid-century. Working as he did in the midst of Stalinist Russia, where "deviant" composers were ostracized and punished, Kabalevsky attempted to hoe the Soviet line, producing music that generally met with official approval but was found by critics to be bland.
Colas Breugnon, written in 1938, was the first of his six operas. Based upon a novel by the Frenchman Romain Rolland, it tells the story of a Robin Hood-like character, tinged with a bit of French decadence. For the overture, according to one writer, Kabalevsky wrote "a gay, almost Mozartian piece, delicate, sophisticated, sentimental, ironical, and utterly delightful."
PREVIEW:
Kansas City Symphony
Season Finale: Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev
Friday, June 4 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 5 at 8:00 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
and
Sunday, June 6 at 2:00 p.m.
Yardley Hall, Carlsen Center
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 816-471-0400 or online at www.kcsymphony.org.
Classical,
VID: "What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?"
Columns,
She is the light in the Piazza
Metropolitan Ensemble Theater's (MET) 5th season final play (or in this case, musical), The Light in the Piazza, opened last Thursday to a reportedly packed house - as was the Friday night performance that this reviewer attended.
Adapted from Elizabeth Spencer's 1960 novella of the same name, MET artistic director Karen Paisley takes center stage as Margaret Johnson, a 1950s mother thrust into "protective mode" when her simple and naïve daughter falls in love with a local boy while vacationing in Italy. Izzie Baldwin plays the daughter, Clara, and Sam Wright plays the local boy, Fabrizio Naccarelli. Rounding out the main cast is Fabrizio's family - father Signor Naccarelli played by Robert Gibby Brand; mother Signora Naccarelli played by Sarah Kleeman; brother Giuseppe played by Michael Dragen; and sister-in-law Franca played by Natalie Liccardello. Real life husband John Robert Paisley has two small scenes as Margaret's husband, Roy. The play takes place in the summer of 1953, mostly in Florence, with a few scenes in Rome. John Staniunas directed.
From here forward, this review is essentially about babies and bath water and my attempt not to throw out the latter at the expense of the former, because for me what this production boiled down to was a valiant attempt by MET to overcome a mediocre work. This statement alone would apparently put me in the minority, given the accolades the play and its writer/composer (Adam Guettel, a protégé of Stephen Sondheim, no less) received on Broadway, including two Tony Awards.
During its Broadway years, however, there were some notable criticisms with which I wholeheartedly agree, Village Voice noting "considerable shortcomings" and The New York Times citing it as "encouragingly ambitious and discouragingly unfulfilled..." Personally, I found most of the music to be rather contrived and formulaic, and some of the writing (the first Octet in Act II, Scene 3, for example) to be downright sloppy. If analyzed purely as a "classical" operatic work, rather than as a traditional Broadway work - a fair analysis, as the former is clearly what Guettel was going for - I would give the music a "D" and the libretto, generously, a "C+". There is a small degree of salvation in a few nicely-crafted songs and, specific to the MET's endeavor, in particular due in large part to the artistic and vocal chemistry between Baldwin's Clara and Wright's Fabrizio - especially in Wright's Il Mondo Era Vuoto, the duets Passeggiata and Say It Somehow, and Baldwin's The Light in the Piazza.
The play's plot line is, admittedly, rather intriguing and unique. Clara, we learn only towards the very end, is 26, but (we learn this much earlier) her mental end emotional development was traumatically muted at age 12 when she was kicked in the head by a birthday party pony that her parents rented. The result is a simple and very child-like woman - literally a girl in a woman's body. Baldwin does a nice job of balancing those two dynamics, often navigating back-and-forth within a single scene. What she reveals is an adult woman with a maturity and intellectual level advanced enough to know that "something's not right" within the context of a girl who still reacts and responds much like one would expect of, as they call them these days, a "pre-teen."
Wright's Fabrizio is equally naïve but in a far more natural way (thankfully, no adolescent equine trauma for him). Again we learn only towards the end that he is barely 20, without much experience with women - of any age - and his love-struck fascination upon first laying eyes on Clara is portrayed with endearing warmth and sincerity. Having seen (and liked) Wright in "Seascape" I was again impressed with his dramatic range and his excellent tenor.
Karen Paisley held her own as Margaret Johnson - my only real criticism being a selfish one: of all the roles she chose to step into this season I'd have picked a different one ("Nancy" in Seascape comes to mind), as I'm not sure this one was best suited to her. Her vocal work was strong in spots (particularly in Dividing Day), but a tad pitchy in others. Here again, I didn't come away with the sense that the musical genre is her best suit.
Set Design (Delores Ringer) reflected MET's typical and tasteful sparseness, with a good use of the space. Moveable "marble" columns were used for mood/scene changes; three "indoor" scenes included the Naccarelli's tie shop, home, and the Johnson's hotel room. Sound Design (Donna Miller) was pretty good, overall, although I found the singers over-mic'd at times. Costumes (Atif Rome) were beautiful.
In its totality the work has a nice theme and, especially when viewed from a 21st century sensibility, makes a touching statement about the limitations - but, more importantly, the capabilities - of the cognitively disabled. Clara is slow, but not stupid (she quickly learns Italian in order to better communicate with Fabrizio); naïve, but not gullible (she steadfastly challenges her mother's attempts to thwart the romance due to her "problem"); child-like, but maturely insightful (she correctly points out, to her mother's horrified astonishment, that her husband - Roy - doesn't love her...and probably never did).
I think what makes this particular presentation enjoyable enough to recommend is, first and foremost, MET's impeccable (and well-deserved) reputation, and - as I've said many times about other productions - casting, in particular that of Baldwin and Wright. The light in the piazza, it turns out, is Clara - illuminating the realities of romance and true love, and making a bold statement for all those who may be similarly underestimated - in any society, in any era - due to physical or mental shortcomings.
And to that, I will always say...Brava...
REVIEW:
Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre
The Light in the Piazza
Music & Lyrics by Adam Guettel
Book by Craig Lucas
Directed by John Staniunas
Runs May 20 - June 6 (Reviewed Friday, May 21)
MetSpace
3614 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64111
For tickets call 816-569-3226 or online at www.metkc.org
Cover Photo: Karen Paisley as Margaret Johnson and Izzie Baldwin as daughter, Clara. Photo by Bob Paisley
Film,
"The Secret in Their Eyes"
Watching movies on a continuous basis can sometimes leave you feeling a little numb, yet every once in a while something extraordinary like The Secret in Their Eyes comes along and reminds you why you love the art form.
The 2010 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, The Secret in Their Eyes begins in 1999 with retired Argentinean justice agent Benjamín Esposito (Ricardo Darín) trying to finish his novel about a rape and murder case that still haunts him.
Twenty-five years earlier, a young woman is found dead and there are no immediate suspects. When Benjamín meets her stunned husband, Ricardo Morales (Pablo Rago) he is overwhelmed by the love he sees in his eyes. This spurs him forward to solve the case by any means necessary.
With the help of his alcoholic assistant Pablo Sandoval (Guillermo Francella) and newly arrived justice department chief Irene Menéndez Hastings (Soledad Villamil), who he instantly falls in love with, Benjamín is able to track down an elusive suspect, Isidoro Gómez (Javier Godino).
Justice in an era of dictatorship eludes Benjamín and by 1999 the middle-aged retiree doesn't like what he sees in the mirror. He still pines for the woman he thought he could never have and is desperate to find closure to a case that threatens to plague his soul for eternity.
Based upon the novel by Eduardo Sacheri and brilliantly adapted for the screen by director Juan José Campanella, The Secret in Their Eyes has a script that Shakespeare could be proud of. It's smart, crisp and above all, passionate. The emotions it generates are palpable.
Campanella, who has helmed several American television shows including Law & Order: SVU, maintains an excellent sense of pacing throughout the film's running time. He also gets tremendous efforts from a cast whose chemistry with each other is boundless. Rare is it that two lead actors such as Darín and Villamil can say so much without saying anything.
The Secret in Their Eyes may be one of the best films you will see this year.
On a letter grade scale from A being excellent to F for failing, The Secret in Their Eyes receives an A.
The Secret in Their Eyes is rated R and has a running time of 127 minutes.
Now showing through June 3 @
Tivoli Cinemas
Westport Manor Square, 4050 Pennsylvania, KCMO
Visit www.tivolikc.com or call 913-383-7756 for show times.
Glenwood Arts
9575 Metcalf, Overland Park
Visit www.fineartsgroup.com or call 913-642-4404 for more information.
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KCMetropolis.org - YOUR Online Journal of the Performing Arts - is a nonprofit arts service organization designed to offer critical, quality dialogue about our community's performing arts through new online technologies and social medias. We are just completing our second full season of publishing articles on traditional and independent classical music, dance, theatre, indie films and jazz. KCM is a true grassroots organization with 20+ local volunteer writers on board - talented and expert voices coming from the musicologists, musicians, artists, actors, professional writers, etc within the community.
KCMetropolis.org is a FREE weekly publication that promotes and celebrates the performing arts in the Kansas City metro area. We debuted our first edition on October 2008 and now have more than 800 articles up on site. And publishing in 'virtual' space has allowed us to offer more, and more easily accessible coverage of performing arts events - both small and large - than has ever been offered in one place to the Kansas City public.
Last July, KCMetropolis.org launched a new performing arts calendar - KC Events - that allows arts organizations to add and manage their own events. It is much more than just a listing - click on the link and find an entire page of information on each performance, all with easy links to share, print, send to your mobile, etc. We are partnering with other performing arts organizations, online arts purveyors and tourism-based businesses to make KC Events easily accessible in many locations.
The past two years have been extremely difficult for the performing arts, and the next fiscal year (FY 2010/11) is shaping up to be harder still. State funding for the arts has been zeroed out in both Kansas and Missouri, foundations and corporations have cut back sharply their giving patterns and the average joe-on-the-street - the arts supporter - has much less money in his pockets.
This unsettled economy has also seen the decrease or demise of many traditional medias like newspapers and magazines... and as they explore new ways to keep their voices alive, new and innovative organizations like KCMetropolis.org are cropping up all over the country to assure that the arts continue to have a strong voice in our society.
It is imperative that publications like KCMetropolis.org and other nonprofit ONLINE arts service organizations continue to exist to provide this voice for the arts in the community.
In order to continue to offer quality performing arts information through critical dialogue to you, we depend on financial support from the readers we serve. We will never institute a subscription fee for our information like many other online informational journals are now exploring. It is our mission to keep the performing arts easily accessible for all in the community.
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KCM Staff and Board of Directors
City Classics,
Music and Dance through June
Kansas City Symphony Chamber Players
Chamber Players at Webster House
Thursday, June 3 at 6:15 p.m.
Webster House
1644 Wyandotte Street, Kansas City, MO
Free admission; for dinner reservations at Webster House, call 816-221-4713.
The Kansas City Symphony Chamber Players give delightful small scale performances of chamber works at various venues around town throughout the year, and this time they have picked a doozy: the charming Webster House Restaurant in the Crossroads Art District, just a stone's throw from the site of the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts now under construction. Check out the view of the construction, especially from the second floor of Webster House. It's awesome.
As for the free music (you don't need to eat dinner there to attend, but this writer attests that the food and ambience are excellent), you will enjoy the Tchaikovsky String Quartet No. 1 and Prokofiev's Quintet in G Minor. Consider the performance a sort of preview to the full-scale performance of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev orchestral works in the full Symphony concert to follow this weekend.
Kansas City Symphony
Season Finale: Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev
Friday, June 4 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 5 at 8 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
and
Sunday, June 6 at 2 p.m.
Yardley Hall, Carlsen Center
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 816-471-0400 or online at www.kcsymphony.org
Read the KCMetropolis preview here.
Musica Vocale
Honegger's Le Roi David (King David)
Sunday, June 6 at 3:00 p.m.
Temple Beth Shalom
9400 Wornall Road, Kansas City,MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.umkc.edu/cto
Arnold Epley's Musica Vocale, a 32-singer vocal group which performs with a small orchestra, ends its second season this weekend with a performance of a rarely known but widely acclaimed work, the "dramatic poem" (many call it an oratorio) Le Roi David (King David) by Swiss composer Arthur Honegger. The work features both speaking actors and singers, and of course focuses on the life of the legendary founder of the nation of Israel.
Honneger (1892-1955) counted Le Roi David, written in the early 1920's, as among his most popular works. A member of the famous French group Le Six (he was an expatriate in France during the World War II years), he combined a flair for French impressionistic orchestral work with Bachian counterpoint to produce a unique musical language.
The concert also features a performance of four motets by the 20th century American composer Aaron Copland.
Epley and his group should be applauded for bringing these unusual works to the Kansas City concert stage.
Bach Aria Soloists
Lee Hauskonzert Finale
Sunday, June 6 at 7:00 p.m.
Private Home
Tickets, if any are available, can be purchased from the Bach Aria Soloists.
For contact information see the website at www.bachariasoloists.com
For those who have not experienced them, the Bach Aria Soloists' Hauskonzerts feature delightful private performances of outstanding chamber music works in the intimacy of private homes. These concerts take you back to the gracious day of the 18th century where such performances were often given in the homes of generous private patrons. But don't feel intimidated...powdered wigs are definitely not required (although respectable dress is appreciated).
This concert, the finale of the Bach Aria Soloists' 10th anniversary season, features virtuoso guitarist Douglas Niedt collaborating with Bach Aria Soloists founder and violinist Elizabeth Suh Lane in performances of the works of Corelli, Bach, DeFalla, and more.
These concerts are often sold out way in advance, but check the Bach Aria Soloists at the above number to see if a ticket might still be available. By the way, the concerts also feature sumptuous food after the concert. Classical music and food! What a combination.
Kansas City Chamber Orchestra
Mozart Fest: Mozart's Requiem
With the choirs of Village Church and St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Friday, June 11 at 8 p.m.
Village Presbyterian Church
6641 Mission Rd, Prairie Village, KS
For tickets call 816-235-6222. or onlie at www.tickets.cto.umkc.edu/public/load_screen.asp
The KCCO has offered a Mozart Fest for several years now, but has never performed Mozart's Requiem in the Orchestra's 23 year history. With the addition of the Village Church and St. Paul Episcopal choirs, this is sure to be a treat for the ears.
The Requiem Mass in D minor (K. 626) was composed in Vienna in 1791, during the last year of the composer's life. The requiem was Mozart's last composition and is certainly one of his most popular and respected works, although the question of how much of the music Mozart managed to complete before his death and how much was later composed by Franz Xaver Süssmayr or others is still debated - and has become the stuff of legends.
Kansas City Symphony
Symphony in the Flint Hills
Saturday, June 12 at 6:45 p.m.
Bass Ranch in Chase County, KS
Tickets are available from Flint Hills, Inc. at 620-273-8955. For online information, see www.symphonyintheflinthills.org.
The Kansas City Symphony's annual Symphony in the Flint Hills concert will be given at the South Clements Pasture of the Bass Ranch in Chase County, Kansas this year. According to publicity information, the ranch is just seven miles south of Cottonwood Falls, or eight miles west of Bazaar, Kansas. This year's theme is "Ranching on the Tallgrass Prairie."
This is the fifth anniversary of the Symphony in the Flint Hills event, and in honor of the occasion, four-time Grammy award-winning artist Lyle Lovett will make a special guest appearance and perform three numbers with the Kansas City Symphony.
The regular priced tickets for this event were sold out within an hour and a half of going on sale a couple of months ago, so you are way too late to purchase one of those. If you wish to purchase a patron's ticket, however, a few may still be available. Contact information appears above.
Heartland Men's Chorus
Go West, Young Man
Saturday, June 12 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, June 13 at 4 p.m.
Folly Theater
12th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets visit www.hmckc.org
After highlighting British artists in its last concert, Heartland Men's Chorus returns to the American songbook for the final concert of its 24th season, Go West, Young Man.
HMC will welcome special guests, the Portland Gay Men's Chorus and will swell the number of singers on stage to over 250!Representing both ends of the historic Oregon Trail, the choruses will celebrate the American spirit through the diverse genres of folk music, spirituals and more.
Quixotic Fusion
Live at the Madrid Theatre
Thursday, June 17 at 8 p.m.
Friday, June 18 at 8 and 10 p.m.
Saturday, 19 at 8 and 10 p.m.
Madrid Theater
3810 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
For ticket call 816-235-6222 or online at www.umkc.edu/cto.
For general information visit www.quixoticfusion.com.
During the classical dance-starved months of summer you will undoubtedly be entertained by this high-flying acrobatic and musical performance. According to publicity, this new show by Kansas City-based Quixotic Fusion "features all new high-flying aerial contraptions, inventive lighting landscapes and interactive projection installations all performed to our live musical ensemble." Quixotic Fusion has garnered outstanding reviews in its first few seasons and this should be a stimulating and unusual performance.
Local Arts News,
Charlotte Street Foundation announces 2010 Generative Performing Artist Awards Fellows
Launched in 2008, the Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Awards support and recognize artists creating outstanding, innovative, original work in the fields of dance, theater, music, experimental music performance, theater/performance art, and hybrid/interdisciplinary versions thereof. The awards seek to foster the continued creative and professional development of the selected artists, provide the means for them to further focus on and develop their work, and increase exposure for their accomplishments, as the CSF Visual Artist Awards have done since 1997. Through its Awards programs, CSF seeks to contribute to the vitality of Kansas City's art community and to enhance Kansas City's desirability as a place for artists to work and live.
The recipients were selected based on the quality of their work and accomplishments to date, as well as promise for continued development as generative artists; relevance of their work in relation to local, regional and national contemporary art discourses and to the contemporary moment and culture in which we are living; and the potential of their work "stand up" nationally, influence the field, and have lasting value. With these latest awards, Charlotte Street Foundation has now recognized a total of 78 Kansas City based visual and generative performing artists, with a total of $490,500 in unrestricted cash grants distributed directly to the artists. A public performance of the work of this year's Generative Performing Awards Fellows is planned for fall, 2010.
The 2010 Generative Performing Awards Advisors responsible for selecting the recipients included David Ford, multi-disciplinary artist; Michael Joy, Director of Artists and Educational Programs, Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey; Joette Pelster, Executive Director, Coterie Theatre; Cynthia Rider, Managing Director, Kansas City Repertory Theatre; and Paul Rudy, Professor of Composition, UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance.
The panel first met in early February, at which time they selected six semi-finalists from a pool of 25 nominated artists. In addition to Cox and Roberts, semi-finalists included composer Christopher Biggs, choreographer Sabrina Madison-Cannon, composer Ingrid Stolzel, and director/writer/actor Heidi Van. Between February and the final selection meeting on May 18, panelists were encouraged to attend live performances and expand their familiarity with the work of the semi-finalists.
Partial funding for CSF's 2010 Awards programs has been generously provided by Dallas and Scott Pioli, J Scott Francis, Nancy and Rick Green, Julie and Mike Kirk, Meg and Bill Zahner, and Jeanne and Charlie Sosland.
ABOUT THE 2010 FELLOWS:
BRAD COX
As a performing composer, Brad Cox embraces a wide range of musical traditions and expressions. His explorations include techniques central to Western Classical music, such as notated pitch, rhythm, and timbre, as well as improvisation and chance elements. Fascinated by the communal aspects of music making, he has been strongly influenced by the tradition of jazz music, in particular the collaborative aspects of the jazz ensemble.
Cox views composition not as a process in which the composer notates every idea as fully as possible in order to have it rendered exactly by performing musicians, but rather as an ongoing creative collaboration. The resulting music may range from fully notated to freely improvised, and just as in life, the most interesting moments are often unplanned. He frequently makes use of a collage-like compositional approach, with different layers of a piece having varying degrees of improvisational freedom. Being interested in a wide range of musical expression, Cox endeavors to create a body of work that encompasses a spectrum of human experience, from the comic to the terrifying, and from the absurd to the sublime.
Brad Cox received his Master of Arts in Music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2001. He is co-founder, composer, arranger and musical director of Owen/Cox Dance Group, whose recent projects include The Lewis and Carroll Expedition, Bottom of the Big Top, Presumed Lost, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, and The Christmas Story - A medieval Mystery Play. He is also composer, arranger and ensemble organizer of The People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, which performs extensively, and whose recent projects include The Battleship Potemkin, an original score created for the classic Eisenstein film.
STEPHANIE ROBERTS
Stephanie Roberts is what has at times been called a "slash artist" - an actor/creator/writer/singer/songwriter/musician/teacher. For fifteen years she has been creating
original ensemble theatre. Although she specializes in mask and red-nose clown traditions, with each project she allows content to inform the form. Her work is typically character-driven, informed by music, and embraces the poetic clown - flawed, ridiculous, fiercely determined, and desperately seeking love.
Roberts' most recent work, Boom! An international Lost and Found Family Marching Band, mixes genres both theatrical and musical. The ensemble of six portrays reunited sibling orphans from around the world, whose "sad, sad story" unfolds with each new song. Roberts is inspired by the collision of disparate characters and how despite, or perhaps because of their differences they are inextricably connected to one another through a beautiful and human need.
Roberts received her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Ensemble Based Physical Theatre from the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, CA in 2006 and her BFA in Acting from Cornish School of the Arts, Seattle, WA in 1990. Currently Assistant Professor of Physical Theatre at University of Missouri, Kansas City, she has directed productions at UMKC including Slammed! (2010), and Meanwhile (2006); has provided movement coaching/choreography for productions including The Cripple of Inishman, Nebraska Repertory Theatre; Under Midwestern Stars, Kansas City Repertory Theatre; and numerous productions at UMKC, most recently Train to 2010, directed by Ricardo Khan, and Pericles, directed by Carla Noack.
Solo performance projects include 60x60 Dance, Electronic Music Midwest Festival, Kansas City, KS; At the Beach, Byrd Productions; Party Girl, Annex Theatre, Seattle; and Threads, Bumbershoot Arts Festival, Seattle. Collaborative performance projects include Broke People's Baroque People's Theatre with My Barbarian at Urban Culture Project's la Esquina as part of the exhibition Ecstatic Resistence, produced by Grand Arts, and The Greatest Story Never Told and The Whisper, both at the Mad River Festival, Blue Lake , CA, the latter of which was awarded "Best of the Fest." Roberts is the recent recipient of an Inspiration Award from the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City and is an Urban Culture Project Performing Studio Resident. She is currently working on a one-woman play, The Mask of The Broken Heart, which will premiere in Kansas City in June.
About the Charlotte Street Foundation
Charlotte Street Foundation (CSF) supports and recognizes outstanding artists in Kansas City; presents, promotes, enhances, and encourages the visual and performing arts; and fosters economic development in the urban core of Kansas City, Mo. On all levels, CSF places artists at the center of its mission and has built an infrastructure that depends on and reflects their involvement. As a result, we are an organization that continually evolves in response to their input and in relation to the city's larger cultural ecosystem. For more about the Charlotte Street Foundation, visit www.charlottestreet.org
City Stage,
Theatre listings through June
New Theatre Restaurant
Becky's New Car
By Steven Dietz
Starring John Davidson
Runs April 15 through June 20 at New Theatre Restaurant
For tickets call 913-649-SHOW (7469) or online at www.newtheatre.com/home.html
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.
To call John Davidson "a man of many talents" is to utter the understatement of the year. He has made a very successful career out of excelling in just about every form of entertainment there is. From Broadway to TV to movies and a dozen or so solo albums. John's talents prove him to be much more than just an incredibly nice, handsome man. And in BECKY'S NEW CAR, he's also very funny!
Becky Foster has a pretty good job, a pretty good husband and a pretty good life so when a charming, bumbling billionaire starts flirting with her, Becky is surprised that she allows him to believe that she is widowed.
Read the KCMetropolis review here
American Heartland Theatre
Dixie Swim Club
Runs May 7 through June 27 at Crown Center
For tickets call 816-842-9999 or online at www.ahtkc.com
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.
American Heartland Theatre presents the Kansas City Premiere of The Dixie Swim Club, May 7th through June 27th, 2010. Five Southern women, who were teammates in college swimming, reunite each year at the same beach cottage in North Carolina. Free from men, children, and jobs, they laugh, catch-up, and meddle in each other's lives. As their lives unfold and the years pass, these women increasingly rely on one another, through advice and raucous repartee, to get through the challenges (men, sex, marriage, parenting, divorce, and aging) that life flings at them.
The Dixie Swim Club is the newest "girl-friend" show to sweep the nation, playing in more than 45 theatres this spring alone. "This play is easily the hottest show in the country right now," proclaims the Danville News.
American Heartland Theatre brings this hilarious and touching comedy, about friendships that last forever, to life with five great women of Kansas City theatre: Starring Cathy Barnett, Debra Bluford, Missy Koonce Jennifer Mays and Cheryl Weaver.
Read the KCMetropolis.org review here.
Egads Theatre Company
Eating Raoul: The Musical
Book by Paul Bartel
Lyrics by Boyd Graham
Music by Jed Feuer
Runs June 4 through July 3 at Off Center Theatre
For tickets call 816-842-9999 or online at www.egadstheatre.com
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.
Meet the Blands. She's Mary. He's Paul. They're a perfectly platonic couple hopin' to open a restaurant far away from the undesirables of 1960s L.A. To achieve their dream, they'll need money. To make money, they'll need to kill and rob as many sex perverts as possible. To kill, Paul will use a frying pan to "bop" victims to death. Meet Raoul. He's their superintendant, and he wants in on the deal (and into Mary's pants). Unable to resist the advances of this sexy Mexican, Mary must ultimately choose between her Latin lover and her roly-poly faithful foodie hubby. Well, who would you "bop"?
Directed by Steven Eubank. Music Direction by Daniel Doss. Choreography by Tiffany Powell
Padgett Productions
RENT Live at Union Station
Runs June 10-21 at Union Station
For tickets call 816-460-4020 or online at www.unionstation.org/rent.html
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.
RENT is one of the most popular musicals in theatre history. With a twelve-year run on Broadway, the show is an update of the Puccini's LA BOHEME, but takes place in late 20th century New York. The gritty subject material and powerful songs of Jonathon Larson combines to make the show a new icon of modern musical theater. Larson set out to transform the tragic opera into a modern day New York setting, complete with rock music. Adding to the legend of the show is the tragic death of Larson at age 35 the day before the show's New York opening.
In 1996, the Broadway community would award Rent four Tony Awards, for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. RENT also received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, only the seventh musical to do so.
The musical was so successful in its life onstage, that it was made into a movie in 2005 and was an instant hit all over again!
Quality Hill Playhouse
Souvenir
Runs June 11 though July 11 at Quality Hill Playhouse
For tickets call 816-421-1700 or online at www.qualityhillplayhouse.com
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.
Florence Foster Jenkins wanted so much to make it to Broadway, and she finally did- by renting out Carnegie Hall and giving recitals that became legendary for her over-the-top (and under-the-pitch) performances. This show takes a humorous look at the true meaning of music and the art of performing.
Starlight Theatre
Little House on the Prairie The Musical
Runs June 22 through June 27 at Starlight Theatre
For tickets call 816-363-7827 or online at www.kcstarlight.com
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.
The beloved literary series LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE takes on a new frontier in this uplifting new musical that stars Melissa Gilbert (who we embraced as "Laura" in the much-loved television series) as "Ma." Recommended for the entire family, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, THE MUSICAL explores the joys and sorrows of pioneer families during the settlement of America's prairie.
Coterie Theatre's Lab for New Family Musicals
TYA Premiere: Lucky Duckz
Runs June 22 through August 8 at Coterie TheatreLocation:
For tickets call 816-474-6552 or online at www.coterietheatre.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.
A singing swan supermodel! It's The Ugly Duckling meets Project Runway, with music by the composer of Dreamgirls! Homely songbird Serena is viewed as an odd duck by her family, and escapes these fowl days of barnyard mockery to seek her special destiny-success as a supermodel swan.
For complete Theatre listings through 2010, click here to visit the KC Events calendar.
To be included in this column, you must have your event listed on the KC Events Calendar. Click here to learn how.
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