Mark your calendars! Monday, July 16th is our time to party at The Las Vegas Valley Theatre Awards!
Are you on our mailing list? Be sure to sign up so you don't miss exclusive subscriber offers for this event! Get on THE LIST here: THE LIST
top of page
Search
Updated: Mar 18, 2019
★★★★½ - Delicious
A most appreciative audience attended Opera Las Vegas’ delicious 4.5 Star celebration entitled “Bravo Bernstein”, at Myron’s Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center last Sunday afternoon. Revenue generated from the Concert and Champagne Reception with the Artists supports outreach programs like Opera on Wheels (a Mozartian version of "The Three Little Pigs" in all four library theatres in May -- with free admission), Opera With Class (scenes and arias in English in 10-12 Clark County Schools, and main stage productions like Rossini’s "La Cenerentola" (Cinderella, to be presented in UNLV's Judy Bayley Theatre on 8th and 10th of June).
Leonard Bernstein is one of the most iconic and successful composers of the 20th Century, and this was just one of countless events included in the two-year centennial celebration, “Leonard Bernstein at 100,” that started at The John F. Kennedy Center on September 22, 2017 – and officially launched the celebrations which continue worldwide through the end of August 2019!
An American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist, "Lennie" (as he was known to his friends) was among the first conductors born and educated in the US to receive worldwide acclaim!
Leonard Bernstein’s range of accomplishments was uniquely broad; in the new millennium, his legacy resonates more than ever. “Leonard Bernstein at 100” celebrates the career of this monumental artist by focusing on four pillars of Bernstein’s legacy: his work as a Composer; Conductor; Educator; and Activist/Humanitarian.
In addition to the Opera Las Vegas program this past weekend, festive performances and events will take place in other U.S. cities that Bernstein held dear to his heart — New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D. C., Los Angeles, San Francisco — and in additional cities such as Austin, Atlanta, Houston, Tucson, and many others.
Kudos to OLV for sharing their talents and for bringing much of “Lennie’s” music to Las Vegas audiences! Jim Sohre, OLV General Director, produced and emceed the program, guiding the patrons and talented operatic ensemble through beloved hits from West Side Story and On the Town, as well as pieces from Trouble in Tahiti, A Quiet Place and the epic concert Mass -- commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to inaugurate The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. in 1971.
The accomplished singers who performed individually, in duets and all together in several choral numbers were: Marcie Ley (Soprano), Athena Mertes (Soprano), Ashley Stone (mezzo-soprano), William McCullough (Tenor) and Aldo Perrelli (Tenor), accompanied by pianist Spencer Baker.
Bernstein was a man of the globe, and so there will be major events in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Rome, Budapest, and Warsaw, as well as in Japan, China, India, Brazil, Australia, South Africa and Israel — and the list goes on.
Several documentary films are in the making, covering a broad range of topics in Bernstein’s life. His musicals will receive revivals throughout the world, including a worldwide tour of the acclaimed BB Promotion’s West Side Story; productions of Wonderful Town in Germany and Austria; and performances of Mass in London, Paris, Los Angeles, Glasgow, and Austin. Bernstein’s opera A Quiet Place will be presented in Vienna and Budapest, among other cities.
Exhibitions are planned in multiple cities. The Grammy Museum is preparing a major Leonard Bernstein exhibition — including artifacts from his composing studio (on loan from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music) —which will travel over two years to cities across the United States. Host organizations include The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in New York City, The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Additionally, the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia will be mounting an exhibition “Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music”.
The Leonard Bernstein Collection in the Music Division of the Library of Congress contains close to 400,000 letters, manuscripts, photographs, and more. Currently, about 1,400 items from the collection are available online, but the Library is in the process of digitizing thousands of additional items from the collection — including, for the first time, musical sketches — which will be added to the site and made widely available for researchers and scholars.
The Leonard Bernstein Memory Project is a growing collection of Bernstein-related memories from around the world. Fans and friends of Bernstein are invited to contribute their reminiscences on the newly renovated Centennial website.
A pioneering educator, Bernstein early on saw the potential of television as a means of communicating the joy of music to young people. Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic brought orchestral music directly into the living rooms of families across America and around the world. Several generations were inspired and motivated by the Young People’s Concerts — 53 programs that still set the standard for music education that engages, delights, and entertains.
Bernstein’s lifelong method of using the arts as a springboard for acquiring all kinds of knowledge lives on in the educational reform model Artful Learning. The model, developed by Bernstein’s son Alexander, is being used in scores of schools around the United States. Not only do Artful Learning students acquire knowledge; they retain that knowledge by learning how to think creatively.
Three of the music festivals with which Leonard Bernstein was closely associated — the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Pacific Music Festival — will pay special attention to his contributions during the Centennial period.
Opera Las Vegas is a nonprofit professional opera company serving Nevada through full-scale productions and a variety of innovative outreach programs in local schools and community venues. Established in 1999, OLV has been producing major, high-quality opera performances since 2005. Its mission is to enrich the culture of Nevada by producing high caliber opera theatre both on and off stage, through a mix of innovative educational experiences and performance events for audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
#operalasvegas #Music #Review #Stalter #OperaLasVegas #Theatre
★★★★☆ - Delicious
Composers Kurt Weill and Arnold Schoenberg aren’t generally paired together as part of an operatic double bill. But the subject matter of this evening presents multiple perspectives on women’s lives, and the cabaret approach to opera links the two pieces for a Delicious Four Star experience for contemporary American audiences.
Both pieces are sung in English — and supertitles make it even easier for audiences to understand what’s being sung. “Seven Deadly Sins” features piano and percussion accompaniment; “Erwartung” is scored for piano and winds.
The Seven Deadly Sins, music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht
Like few others, the names Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht are synonymous with the radical politics and cultural innovation of the Weimar Republic. Most famously with their hit Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera), but also with numerous other collaborative pieces, the duo represented everything that the Nazi regime declared its enemy. The Jewish Weill and the Marxist Brecht were two of the earliest and most obvious targets of Nazi cultural oppression.
As Darren Weller notes: “A product of this personal and global upheaval, "The Seven Deadly Sins" is a scathing satire of capitalism told through the lens of exile: a family exiled from their dreams by poverty and a daughter exiled from her home as she struggles to lift her family into the middle class…”
Brecht's story became one of the greatest satires of modern music. A young woman -- represented by the practical Anna I (sung by Dina Emerson) and the impulsive, flighty Anna II (danced by Anastasia Weiss) -- leaves her two brothers and parents and sets off on a seven year, seven city jaunt across the United States to make enough money to buy her family a little house in Louisiana. Temptation and torment are constant bedfellows and Anna finds herself torn between her pious past and the thrill of the future.
In each city, Anna II succumbs to one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and has to be reined in by the sensible Anna I, so that their ultimate goal can be achieved. The massive irony is that this goal is by no means virtuous. To make their fortune, men are seduced, robbed, blackmailed and driven to suicide by the two Anna's.
Brecht's message is clear. Capitalist ambition is the greatest Deadly Sin, and ultimately, in a capitalist world, the wages of such sins are success.
This is quintessential Weill: driving rhythms, discordant harmonies, and his unusual orchestrations. Though scored for soprano (Anna I) and male singing quartet (the family), in this production the four family members are all played by women – extending the parody of a society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.
Director Darren Weller effectively captures the essence of cabaret and provocative theatre which flourished during the Golden Age of the Weimar Republic (1924-1929), and its new satirical works, including political plays like Brecht’s which confronted audiences.
The talented performance ensemble handled both the acting and vocal challenges with ease, flowing naturally between powerfully operatic moments into tender theatrical interludes. The ever-present family quartet -- Rabuel Aviles (Mother), Casey Dukas (Brother), Kim Glover (Father), and Nicole Harris (Brother) -- effortlessly balanced their choral, set change and costume quick changes. The two Anna's -- Anna I (mezzo-soprano Dina Emerson) and Anna II (dancer/choreographer Anastasia Weiss) – revealed their unique creative talents while remaining joined at the hip dramatically.
Erwartung (Expectation), music by Arnold Schoenberg and libretto by Marie Pappenheim
In this monologue for Soprano by modernist master Arthur Schoenberg, with original libretto by Marie Pappenheim, Erwartung ("Expectation" is the best English translation) is the archetypal expressionist work, and one of the high-water marks of musical modernism. The protagonist of this taut, half-hour drama is an unnamed woman, who wanders through a moonlit forest, looking for her lover who, it seems, has betrayed her. Eventually she finds his blood-stained body, but who has killed him, and for what reason, remains unclear.
In her Director’s Note, Kate St-Pierre says: “I was moved to direct this piece due to its intense dissidence and the journey the main character, the Woman, takes throughout its brief narrative....The composer and librettist created a text which effectively obscures the boundaries between the protoganist’s conscious and unconscious thoughts, hence confusing the audience’s perception of reality and illusion.”
Schoenberg projects this allusive, psychologically wracked fable in a single continuous span. The soprano writing for the Woman is immensely taxing, demanding a huge vocal range and sometimes a Wagnerian power and authority. There are occasional repeated motifs and rhythmic patterns, but no long-range musical links. It is the drama, finally, that binds the teeming score together.
Rebecca Morris (The Woman) has a rich, powerful soprano sound and commanding stage presence well-suited to this solo performance. Mychal Fox (The Man), is a formidable though silent manifestation of her lover. Director Kate St-Pierre adeptly balances the maelstroms of perception against the flights of fantasy, the conscious and the subconscious, throughout.
The small instrumental ensemble handled the operatic compositions with ease and was well-suited to supporting the vocalists in the intimate Art Square Theatre: Dean Balan (conductor/musical director), Christin Nance (flute) and Manny Gamazo (percussion).
Production elements were well-matched to the cabaret style of these operatic pieces, including: lighting by Ellen Bone, sets by Alexia Chen, projections by Rakitha Perera, and costumes by Ginger Land-van Buuren.
“It’s a true co-production,” according to Ginger Land-van Buuren (also Executive Director of Sin City Opera), with Cockroach Theatre Company choosing the directors (Weller for “The Seven Deadly Sins,” Kate St-Pierre for “Erwartung”), who then brought in their own artistic teams. Sin City made sure that “the opera elements are guarded and protected,” she adds. “It’s a wonderful, seamless, easy co-production.”
#Theatre #Music #Review #sincityopera #Cockroach #Downtown #opera
bottom of page