IU Opera turns to ‘Figaro’
February 17, 2008
by Peter Jacobi
For the eleventh time in its close to 60 year history, the Indiana University Opera Theater is turning to Mozart’s indelible comedy, “The Marriage of Figaro,” in a production set to open next Friday evening at the Musical Arts Center.
On this occasion, the action will unfold amid scenery designed for performances in 2001 by Robert O’Hearn. He’ll be around to make sure everything of an environmental nature is in place. He’ll be doing so for the last time because this amazing octogenarian has announced his retirement from the university, following a brilliant career not only here but at the Metropolitan Opera and other distinguished theaters on both sides of the Atlantic.
The stage direction, for a work that requires distinctive acting and interacting, has been assigned to the sought-after, peripatetic Michael Ehrman who won local audiences over with well considered and achieved previous IU productions: “Susannah” last October, “Romeo and Juliet” the previous October and “The Ballad of Baby Doe” in February 2004.
The gentleman in charge of the music is a newcomer, certainly not to the national and world scene but to Bloomington. Will Crutchfield, director of opera for the Caramoor International Music Festival, seems to be on everyone’s list when the search is on for a conductor to prepare a Mozart or Italian bel canto opera. For years, Maria Levy, the executive administrator for IU Opera Theater, has tried to lure him here. Finally, a slot opened in his otherwise hectic schedule, and here he is, working “very interestingly” with two casts and insisting that rehearsals “are going very well.”
The main challenge for the students, he says, is “that most of them are performing for the first time an opera with a lot of recitative. That puts pressure on their knowledge of Italian, 10 times that in ‘La Boheme’ or ‘Rigoletto,’ where the composers give you the rhythm. Here, the rhythmic flow most be generated by the performers, and that requires a greater comfort level with the language. The singers must reach deep into the background of the characters. That’s a help to them. They’re catching on.”
For Crutchfield, working with students means “going back and forth from being a conductor shaping the music to being a teacher showing them ‘here’s what we need to do to get you in command of a problem.’ With seasoned professionals, somewhere in the past, they’ve confronted the skills necessary for ‘Figaro.’ With the young singer, at an early stage of development, we deal with how to keep the singing voice present while talking and just how to turn around on stage and still face the audience.”
Crutchfield refers to “The Marriage of Figaro” as “a miracle of humanity and balance and subtleties of character. For performers, it poses all the demands of theater at the most sophisticated level. As music, it’s a jewel far from easily accomplished. This opera could stand as theater alone or as music alone, in concert form without voices. Mozart has achieved a balance so perfect. Thank goodness, we have the full package.”
And a full package we’ll see and hear, thanks to Messrs. Crutchfield, Ehrman, O’Hearn, and countless others on stage, in the pit, and behind the scenes.
WHAT: Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.”
WHO: The IU Opera Theater offers two casts conducted by Will Crutchfield, stage directed by Michael Ehrman, on sets designed by Robert O’Hearn.
WHERE: Musical Arts Center on the Bloomington campus.
WHEN: Next Friday and Saturday evenings at 8, along with a pair of performances next week.
TICKETS: Opening night, general admission, $25 adults, $12 for students. On remaining nights, with reserved seating, $15-$35 for adults, $10-$20 for students.
It’s Camerata Time
This afternoon, the Camerata Orchestra takes the stage of Carmichael Hall at Bloomington South High School for a program its founder, mother hen, and concertmaster Lenore Hatfield has titled “Technicolor” because its content, she says, is “music of colors, of wonderful rhythms and stimulation.”
She’s hired Steven Smith as guest conductor. It will be a return visit for Smith, the music director of the Santa Fe Symphony, who has not only led the Camerata previously but served orchestras at IU’s Jacobs School. “He’s not only a very good conductor who can make the most of us, but he’s nice,” says Hatfield. “Working with him is always a pleasure.”
She expresses satisfaction also at having snagged Jeff Nelsen as horn soloist, he the virtuoso recently added to the School of Music and who doubles as member of the Canadian Brass. He’ll perform the Horn Concerto Number 1 by Richard Strauss, a score written when the composer was 18, which Hatfield describes as “dynamic and colorful, in line with the theme of our concert.”
The two Daphnis and Chloe Suites of Ravel — “huge works, wonderful, and with a spectrum of colors,” Hatfield says — will conclude the program. To start the concert, there’ll be a premiere commissioned by the Camerata, a Concert Overture by Alfonso Montecino, the retired IU professor of music, still an active teacher of piano master classes and a busy composer.
He’s just returned from Nashville, Tenn., where, at Vanderbilt University, he heard the performance of a trio he wrote in 2007, which has had a string of six performances in just as many cities under the auspices of the American Composers Forum.
His piece for the Camerata uses “popular rhythms and reminiscences of folk songs from Chile, my native country,” he says. “It incorporates an anonymous lullaby that is close to my heart.” As for how the commission came to be, he explains: “Lenore suggested I write it. We’ve been friends for many years. We’ve played together often as violinist and pianist. I was pleased to accept the request.”
WHAT: “Technicolor,” music by Richard Strauss, Maurice Ravel and Alfonso Montecino.
WHO: Bloomington’s Camerata Orchestra, led by Steven Smith, with Jeff Nelsen as horn soloist.
WHERE: Carmichael Hall of Bloomington High School South.
WHEN: This afternoon at 3:30.
TICKETS: $12, or $4 for students.
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music would like
to thank the Herald Times for permission to republish this review.
