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Hamilton Spectator
39 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Will Crutchfield's Teatro Nuovo revives Verdi's ‘Macbeth' with period instruments
NEW YORK (AP) — Verdi can be played on original instruments, too. While historically informed performances of Baroque music are not surprising, Will Crutchfield and Teatro Nuovo are using period pieces for the rarely heard initial version of 'Macbeth.' 'You wouldn't think that architecture from the mid-19th century would resemble the architecture of today,' cellist Hilary Metzger said. 'The instruments and the way they had to make music back then were very different.' 'Macbeth' and Bellini's 'La Sonnambula' were presented by Teatro Nuovo last weekend at Montclair State's Kasser Theater in New Jersey and repeated this week at New York City Center. 'La Sonnambula' will be performed Thursday. 'I feel like I'm in Scotland,' said soprano Alexandra Loutsion, the Lady Macbeth. 'Modern instruments have a sharpness to them and a pristine quality that period instruments don't.' Crutchfield, 68, was a music critic for The New York Times in the 1980s. He established Bel Canto at Caramoor in Katonah, New York, in 1997, then launched Teatro Nuovo as general and artistic director in 2018, showcasing scholarship and furnishing foundations for singers. 'I got bitten with the bug of historical recordings, and I realized very early on, oh, we think are doing traditional Italian opera nowadays but really what we call traditional means the 1950s,' he said. 'What they were doing in the 1900s was totally different, radically just night and day different from the 1950s. ... and that just made me really curious. OK, if it was that different in 1910, what was happening in 1880, what was happening 1860?' Verdi emerged from Bel Canto era Crutchfield noted Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi all were born from 1792 to 1813, and early Verdi is in the Bel Canto manner. 'The only reason we think of Verdi as belonging to another era is because he was still composing in his 80s and writing masterpieces after the others were long gone from the scene,' Crutchfield said. 'He is based on the same tradition. He learned his craft from hearing their operas.' 'Macbeth' premiered at Florence's Teatro della Pergola in 1847, just before Verdi's middle-period masterpieces. Verdi and librettist Francesco Maria Piave revised it for a run at Paris' Théâtre Lyrique in 1865 that was performed in French. The latter version, translated into Italian for Milan's Teatro alla Scala later that year, is the most common score used. Jakob Lehmann conducted the original version from the University of Chicago/Casa Ricordi critical edition. At Wednesday night's performance, Loutsion sang a high-octane 'Trionfai! Securi alfine,' a coloratura showpiece that Verdi replaced with the more dramatic 'La luce langue,' and baritone Ricardo José Rivera was menacing and mellifluous in 'Vada in fiamme,' which ended the third act and was dropped in 1865 for a duet between the Macbeths. 'The lady is a bit more unhinged in this one,' Loutsion said. 'It's basically about how she's gotten everything that she wants and she's triumphed, and nothing's going to stop them now.' Orchestra seated in early 19th century arrangement First violins were seated with backs toward the audience, facing the second violins, whose backs were to the stage. Cellos, double basses and brass were split on sides of the woodwinds in a seating Crutchfield adopted from Naples' Teatro San Carlo. 'Back in Verdi's day, the first violins were the teachers and the second violins were their students,' Metzger said. Double basses have three strings instead of four, string instruments use gut instead of metal, woodwinds are made of wood and brass have no valves. 'There's a certain clarity to it and there's a certain specificity,' chorus master Derrick Goff said. 'The English horn and the oboe sound even more plaintive to me. You can really hear the way that the composers had to write very specifically for those instruments.' An orchestra of about 53 was used for 'Macbeth' and 47 for 'Sonnambula,' accompanied by a chorus of 28, and the pitch was lower than used by modern orchestras. Men in the cast wore mostly tuxedos and women were dressed in black on a stage with a screen showing projections. Majority of money comes from donors, not ticket sales Two performances of each opera cost a total of about $1.4 million, according to general manager Cindy Marino. Ticket sales generate roughly $160,000, with the remainder raised from donors. 'We obviously want bigger choruses. We want a little bit larger orchestra,' Marino said, 'but we know financially we are trying to take it easy on increasing what we need to raise and not just jumping half a million dollars in order to grow the company.' Orchestra rehearsals started about four weeks out. The cast worked intensively on the period techniques. 'Now that I'm leaving here, I feel like I have a whole other color palette,' Loutsion said. 'The luxury of being able to dig in and all of us nerd out is awesome.'
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Banksy work 'The Migrant Child' removed from Venetian palazzo for restoration and future display
MILAN (AP) — Art restorers have removed a deteriorating piece of graffiti by the street artist Banksy titled 'The Migrant Child' from the side of a building overlooking a Venetian canal to preserve the work for future public display, officials said Thursday. The removal from the wall of Palazzo San Pantalon was carried out in consultation with people close to the secretive British street artist, according to the Venice-based bank Banca Ifis' art program that promotes art and culture. The artwork depicting a shipwrecked child holding a pink smoke bomb and wearing a lifejacket appeared along Rio di San Pantalon in Venice in May 2019, and was acknowledged by Banksy. Marked on online maps, it has become a tourist destination. But six years of neglect had led to the deterioration of about a third of the work, the bank said. The restoration is being overseen by Federico Borgogni, who previously removed dust and cleaned the surface before detaching a section of the palazzo's facade overnight Wednesday, Banca Ifis said in a statement. The bank is financing the project, but didn't release the cost of the operation. The bank intends to display the work to the public as part of free cultural events organized by Ifis art once restoration is completed. No time frame was given.
Hamilton Spectator
3 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Golden Earring co-founder George Kooymans dies at 77
NEW YORK (AP) — George Kooymans, the guitarist and co-founder of the Dutch band Golden Earring who co-wrote the hard-rock classic 'Radar Love' and wrote and shared lead vocals on the top 10 hit 'Twilight Zone,' has died at age 77. Kooymans' family and the surviving members of Golden Earring announced that he had died Wednesday from complications of ALS, which he had been diagnosed with in 2020. He retired from the band soon after. 'George bore this devastating and debilitating illness with exceptional strength and dignity,' the statement from Golden Earring reads in part. 'We bid farewell to a great musician and composer, whose work extended beyond Golden Earring. George was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, but above all, a friend.' A native of The Hague, Kooymans was in his mid-teens when he helped found what became Golden Earring in the early 1960s: The band's name was inspired by an instrumental of the time, 'Golden Earrings.' He was also a core member of the group's best known lineup, which featured drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk, singer-guitarist Barry Hay and bassist-keyboardist Rinus Gerritsen and stayed together from 1970 until Koosyman's departure. With more than 20 top 10 singles in their native country, Golden Earring had more success at home than overseas. But they began to attract an underground following in the U.S. in the late 1960s and broke through commercially in 1973 with the worldwide hit 'Radar Love,' which has been covered by U2, R.E.M. and hundreds of others and used on the soundtrack to 'Baby Driver,' 'Wayne's World 2' and other films. 'Radar Love,' with its stately opening riff and memorable opening line 'I've been driving all night, my hands wet on the wheel,' was once ranked by Rolling Stone as among the greatest road trip songs. Golden Earring shared bills with Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin among others and toured with such stars as Aerosmith, Rush and the Doobie Brothers. In 1982, 'Twilight Zone' became their biggest U.S. song with the help of a video on the recently launched MTV, while other popular tracks included 'When the Lady Smiles' and 'Going to the Run.' Golden Earring continued to tour and record in the 1990s and beyond. For its 50th anniversary, in 2011, the band was honored with a commemorative stamp from the Dutch postal service that through an app could be linked to 'Radar Love.' A farewell performance, without Kooymans, had already been scheduled for early next year.
