Orlando Consort Voices Appeared

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Orlando Consort

I had seen Dreyer’s Passion of Joan of Arc several times, but a long time ago. I remember it as a striking and memorable movie, and very modern for a silent movie: no melodrama or stilted movements.

This show was at Spaulding, and not very crowded. The 5 singers were in black to the left of the stage, with the movie on the big screen.

The singing was like Gregorian chant, and I have to admit that it was slightly soporific, and I did doze off once. That makes sense, because the music is all from the period, the early fifteenth century. The contratenor was featured whenever Joan was speaking on the screen, and other deeper voices were the judges and soldiers. The lyrics seemed to be in Latin – I caught a few kyrie eleison here and there. One scene was Joan receiving the sacrament, and the Consort sang the mass, matching the mute voice on the screen.

I liked this with the music – but I’m not sure it needed to be live, frankly.

Renée Jeanne Falconetti as Joan of Arc

I had forgotten that the movie was based closely on the trial of Joan of Arc in 1431, and they actually have something like actual court transcripts.

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Ana Tijoux and Flora de Toloache

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Ana Tijoux

I think we watched the wrong preview video for this first part of the concert, as it turned out that Ana Tijoux is a Chilean rapper. Although there were a couple of ballads mixed in, I did not enjoy the rap songs. I also didn’t understand them as they were in Spanish. It also seemed to me that the piano timing was off for many songs. It seemed like they needed a few bars to get in sync each time.

Flora de Toloache

I’m glad we stayed for the second half: an all-female mariachi band from New York. The four performers shown are Eunice Aparicio, Shae Fiol, Julie Acosta and Mireya Ramos. There were two additional performers, one on violin and the other on trumpet. They played a lot of original and great tunes. They are a good tight band. I did have an issue with the overly long and out of place violin solo. Why didn’t they do the short call and response like the violin and trumpet solo? It kind of spoiled the concert finale.

Although the band was ready for more, there wasn’t an encore as I think the audience was exhausted after three hours!

Press releaseDownload
PlaybillDownload

Barber Shop Chronicles

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This was an interesting set of snippets set in different barber shops between Africa and England, interspersed with short music and dance interludes when the scene changed.

Some of the stories seemed a little slow in the first part, but it all seemed to intersect towards the end. The stories were related through soccer and separation. The London barber provided the drama between the generations, and the resolution. There was lots of comic relief too, as people joked about their hair.

The show was done in Moore, and there was on-stage seating to the left and right which is always fun.

On Saturday, the related talk about community was very interesting. Moderated by a slow-talking Khalil Abdullah, guests were Brian Cook, Board Chair of JAG Productions, Charles Mhlauri, Director of Coaching from Lightning Soccer, Sean Taylor, barber at RVC, and Wole Ojurongbe, director of Dartmouth MALS. It was interesting how their discussion was linked to the barber theme in how they had been concerned about how their hair would get cut once in the Upper Valley. Fortunately Sean is there for that purpose.

Simone Dinnerstein and Pam Tanowitz Dance

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Dancers around piano

This was an interesting concert, with the grand piano in the middle of the Moore Theater stage, dancers all around.

It started with the quiet opening, in the dark, then a faint light shows up on the pianist’s hands, slowly lighting up the stage. Then the dancer’s started moving, turning to the left, then the right.

It was a clever and beautiful piece, with the dancers moving to the music, modern dance. The sound was quiet, so we could hear them thump and swish on the stage. Sometimes too quiet, as some of the variations are slow and like a lullaby. But then a fast variation would come on, and the dancers would leap.

Hope Backstage article

Program NotesDownload

Tales of Hoffmann

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Tales of HoffmannIt is always impressive to see a full blown opera in our small town, at the aptly-named Lebanon Opera House in this case.

I tried to read to read the synopsis from the program, but didn’t really understand.  Fortunately it wasn’t too important, and the story became clearer as it unfolded.  The prologe and epilogue framed three independent acts focussing on a past love of the German poet Hoffmann.

The singing was beautiful, with the duets and trios in particular as highlights.  Even though I was sitting right next to the orchestra (on the front left side of the theater), the voices were strong and clear.  All the leads were great singers, and the campy villain was quite amusing, especially as Doctor Miracle in the second act.

An unusual touch was the admonition by Evans Haile before the start for the audience to shut of their cell phones of course, but also to unwrap their lozenges before the show started.  He had a good point, as the elderly crowd is wont to do that (and I can attest from the many chamber music concerts that I go to).

Valley News review

Rutland Herald review

Opera North Summer 2019 programDownload