Latest news with #Tchaikovsky
Axios
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Axios
Why America plays a Russian tune on Independence Day
I've long been a fan of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" but was always intrigued about its relevance on America's Independence Day. Why it matters: It's a staple for Fourth of July celebrations nationwide despite its roots in a major Russian military victory. Driving the news: The Houston Symphony will round out Friday's free Star-Spangled Salute at Miller Outdoor Theatre with the overture before fireworks light up the skies over Hermann Park. The intrigue: Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote the piece in 1880 to commemorate the nation's victory over the French during the Napoleonic invasion in 1812, which turned the tides of war. Yes, but: American symphonies and orchestras nationwide play it on America's Independence Day, often during fireworks, timing larger displays with the score's crescendoes. Flashback: The Boston Pops first paired the Russian overture with a fireworks show during its 1974 Independence Day concert, the New York Times reported in 1998. The coupling was an effort to attract more people to the show by playing the piece — complete with real howitzer cannon fire written into the finale — and pop off fireworks at the same time. Two years later, it became a staple when 400,000 people witnessed the performance and fireworks during the 1976 American Bicentennial celebration in Boston.
Los Angeles Times
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Swans, Gupta and ballet on makeshift stage: The Southern California dance superbloom
Los Angeles is neither a dance center nor a dance desert. We don't have much of a history of nourishing major ballet companies. We do have a plethora of smaller companies — modern, classical and international. You may have to look for it, but somewhere someone is always dancing hereabouts for you. I sampled three very different dance programs last weekend at three distinctive venues in three disparate cities and for three kinds of audiences. The range was enormous but the connections, illuminating. At the grand end of the scale, Miami City Ballet brought its recent production of 'Swan Lake' to Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa — beginning a run of varied versions of Tchaikovsky's beloved ballet this summer. It will be Boston Ballet's turn at the Music Center this weekend. San Francisco Ballet gets in the act too, dancing excerpts at the Hollywood Bowl as part of this year's Los Angeles Philharmonic 'Tchaikovsky Spectacular.' On a Television City soundstage in the Fairfax district, American Contemporary Ballet, a quintessential L.A. dance company that explores unusual sites around town, is presenting George Balanchine's modernist classic 'Serenade,' along with a new work by the company's founder, choreographer Lincoln Jones. Meanwhile, on Saturday night, violinist Vijay Gupta and dancer Yamini Kalluri mingled Bach and Indian Kuchipudi dance tradition at the 99-seat Sierra Madre Playhouse. Miami City Ballet has attracted attention for mounting what is being called a historically informed 'Swan Lake' by the noted Bolshoi-trained choreographer Alexei Ratmansky. He has done his best to re-create the 1895 production at the Mariinsky Theater in Ratmansky's hometown of St. Petersburg. Historically informed performance, or HIP, is a loaded term, and 'Swan Lake' is a loaded ballet. HIP came about when the early music movement discovered that trying to re-create, say, the way a Handel opera might have sounded in the 18th century by using period instruments with what was believed to be period practice techniques proved deadly boring. Eventually, the movement realized that using the old instruments in sprightly, imaginative and contemporary ways instead made the music sound newly vital, and even more so when the staging was startlingly up to date. Ratmansky's reconstructed 'Swan Lake' does much the opposite with modern instruments and old-fashioned ballet, and it got off to a disorienting start Sunday night. Tchaikovsky's introduction was played glowingly by the Pacific Symphony in a darkened hall meant to prepare us to enter a different world. But the modern orchestra and distractingly bright audience phones only served to remind us that it is 2025. The orchestras of the late 19th century had lighter, more spirited-sounding instruments, a quality that matched the choreography of the time. But when Sunday's curtain rose to archaic scenery, costumes, choreography and acting, it felt, in this context, like wandering into a tacky antique shop. That said, Ratmansky has a lot to offer. Going back to 1895 can, in fact, signal newness. There is no definitive version of 'Swan Lake.' Tchaikovsky revised it after the first 1877 version but died before finishing what became the somewhat standard version in 1895. Even so, choreographers, dancers, producers and even composers have added their two cents' worth. The ballet can end in triumph or tragedy. Siegfried and his swan-bride Odette may, individually or together, live or drown. 'Swan Lake' has become so familiar that modern embellishments become just a lot more baggage. In this sense, Ratmansky's back-to-the-future compromise with modernity is an excellent starting place for rethinking not just an iconic ballet but ballet itself and the origins of its singular beauty. The two swan acts display an unfussy delicacy. Cameron Catazaro, a dashing and athletic Siegfried, and Samantha Hope Galler, a sweetly innocent Odette and vivacious Odile, might have been stick figures magically wondrous once in motion. Meaning was found in Siegfried's impetuous leap and the Black Swan's studied 32 fouettés. All else was distraction. That is precisely the next step Balanchine took 40 years later, in 1935, with his 'Serenade,' which uses Tchaikovsky's 'Serenade for Strings,' written just after he composed 'Swan Lake.' In Balanchine's first ballet since arriving in the U.S. in 1933, the Russian-Georgian choreographer wanted to create a new kind of ballet for a new world — no story, just breathtaking design. Although ACB made no mention of the fact, Balanchine moved to L.A. in 1938, three years after the American premiere of 'Serenade,' to a house just a few blocks up Fairfax Avenue from Television City. In the few years he spent in Hollywood, he played a significant role in making dance for the movies that entranced the world. ACB, though, did seem to have movies on its mind in the darkened soundstage with the dancers lit as though in a black-and-white film. But with the audience on bleachers very close to the makeshift stage, the musicians unseen behind the seats and the dancers up close, there was also a stark intimacy that exposed the exacting effort in re-creating the beauty of Balanchine's steps. The effect was of being in the moment and, at the same time, going into the future. 'Serenade' was preceded by the premiere of 'The Euterpides,' a short ballet with a score by Alma Deutscher. The 20-year-old British composer, pianist, violinist and conductor wrote her first opera, 'Cinderella,' which has been produced by Opera San José and elsewhere, at 10. 'The Euterpides' is her first ballet, and it offers its own brand of time travel. Each variation on a Viennese waltz tune for strings and piano represents one of the classical Greek muses. The score sounds as though it could have been written in Tchaikovsky's day, although Deutscher uses contemporary techniques to reveal each muse's character. 'Pneume,' the goddess of breath, gets an extra beat here and there, slightly skewing the rhythm. Jones relies on a dance vocabulary, evolved from Balanchine, for the five women, each of whom is a muse, as well as the male Mortal employed for a final pas de deux. History, here, ultimately overwhelms the new staging in a swank contemporary environment. Gupta makes the strongest conciliation between the then and the now in his brilliant 'When the Violin.' On the surface, he invites an intriguing cultural exchange by performing Bach's solo Violin Partita No. 2 and Sonata No. 3 with Kalluri exploring ways in which she can express mood or find rhythmic activity in selected movements. She wears modern dress and is so attuned to the music that the separation of cultures appears as readily bridgeable as that of historic periods. Well known in L.A., having joined the Phil in 2007 at age 19, Gupta has gone on to found Street Symphony, which serves homeless and incarcerated communities, and to become an inspirational TED talker. He is a recipient of a MacArthur fellowship and, since leaving the Phil, a regular performer around town in chamber programs and plays a Baroque violin in the L.A.-based music ensemble Tesserae. For 'When the Violin,' Gupta employs a modern instrument in a highly expressive contemporary style, holding notes and expanding time as though a sarabande might turn into a raga. He pauses to recite poetry, be it Sufi or Rilke. His tone is big, bold and gripping, especially in the wonderful acoustics of this small theater. The Bach pieces are tied together by composer Reena Esmail's affecting solo for 'When the Violin,' in which the worlds of Bach, Indian music and Kuchipudi dance all seem to come from the same deep sense of belonging together and belonging here and now. It took only a violinist and a dancer to show that no matter how enormous the range, the connections are, in such a dance, inevitable.
Techday NZ
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Techday NZ
Artificial intelligence helps create world's first opera at Mariinsky
The Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg has staged the world's first opera created with the assistance of artificial intelligence, premiering the mystical work Mandragora as part of the Stars of the White Nights Music Festival. Opera and technology The performance marks a milestone in the intersection of art and technology, with the opera being based on an original concept by Peter Tchaikovsky and Sergey Rachinsky. The work was completed through the combined efforts of composer Peter Dranga and neural networks developed by Sberbank. Artificial intelligence systems played a role throughout the creative process: GigaChat finalised the libretto, SymFormer contributed to the musical composition, and Kandinsky provided the visual and scenic design. All technological contributions were overseen to maintain adherence to the intended artistic style. The premiere of Mandragora was scheduled to coincide with the 185th anniversary of Tchaikovsky's birth. The opera's unveiling in St. Petersburg holds particular significance, given that the city is where Tchaikovsky lived and worked, and where the original production was intended to be staged. The production is now set to become part of the Mariinsky Theatre's official repertoire for the 2025-2026 season. Collaboration and creative control German Gref, President and Chairman of the Management Board at Sberbank, reflected on the collaborative nature of the opera's creation and the advantages of integrating AI technologies into artistic projects. Mandragora is a collaboration between a large number of people: our wonderful musician and composer Peter Dranga, the brilliant maestro Valery Gergiev and, of course, the artists of the Mariinsky Theatre. And all this is implemented together with artificial intelligence, which saves a huge amount of time. Imagine how long it takes to arrange a score for a large symphony orchestra. This is not the composers' favorite work, because it takes up years of their lives. And thanks to artificial intelligence, a person can focus on creativity — the realisation of what is inside him. And artificial intelligence can be a very powerful helper and inspiration. The conductor, Artistic Director, and General Director of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Theatres, Valery Gergiev, commented on the balance between human creativity and technological innovation in the staging of the opera. Today, we have a determined attempt with our great friends from Sberbank to make a new stage version, featuring not only human talent, but also artificial intelligence. Recently, the latest technologies have been performing on the stages of world theaters, including Russia. An incredible number of interesting things has already been done in the world, and in the world of opera and ballet, using new technologies for real without breaking the natural connection with the creative work on which it is superimposed is the most difficult thing. We hope that our bold move will be received with interest. Composer and Merited Artist of the Russian Federation, Peter Dranga, described the collaborative process and emphasised the spirit of cooperation between human and artificial intelligence in developing the piece. "We have a very interesting story of interaction, when artificial intelligence offers options, helps to refine, speeds up the process and makes it even more interesting. And this is by no means a competition, but an absolute collaboration. I think it will help us all a lot in the future. And our opera should change not only our characters, but also everyone around who watched it. Because people always do certain things in the name of something. They are growing spiritually. The opera is about that. And everything happens inside the head that you will see on stage. This is the personification of Mandragora herself." International production The debut of Mandragora comprised more than 170 artists, featuring the Grand Symphony Orchestra and celebrated soloists. The stage design centred around a giant head, serving as a canvas for video mapping and the presentation of imaginative visual worlds. Direction was led by Ilya Ustyantsev, with costumes by Sergey Novikov and set design by Alexander Kudryavtsev. Other contributors included Alexander Sivaev for lighting, Murad Ibatullin for 3D graphics, Boris Tsibisov for mapping, and Maxim Kozlov as head of production. The project is international in scope, involving soloists, choirs, and orchestras who frequently perform on prominent stages throughout Europe and Asia. Alina Chertash and Vasily Ladyuk, both acclaimed and decorated in international competitions, performed the lead roles. Oversight for the production's technological and promotional aspects was provided by Sber Metaverse Tech and Sber Marketing, respectively.
Global News
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Global News
Looking back on the early days of LGBTQ2 rock
Music can be a very powerful thing when it comes to changing the world. Rock has been used to spread political and social messages. It has been used to enlighten, to educate, to motivate, and to protest. These are the stories of musicians who weren't afraid of admitting to their sexuality when society wasn't ready to hear it. Pride Month is the perfect time to recognize the contributions and sacrifices made by various LGBTQ2 musicians during the era when you just didn't talk about who you loved. I'll start by posing this question, although you know the answer, but I'll ask it anyway. What do the following people have in common? Tchaikovsky, Handel, Schubert, George Gershwin, Beatles manager Brian Epstein, Freddie Mercury, B-52's singer Fred Schneider, Morrissey, punk legend Bob Mould, and Michael Stipe of R.E.M.? Here are a few more: Pioneering pre-rock guitarist sister Rosetta Tharp, Janis Joplin, Joan Jett, Mellisa Etheridge, Tegan and Sara, and St. Vincent. Story continues below advertisement All of the above — and many, many more — identify as gay, non-binary, bisexual, or someone LGBTQ2. Who was the first rocker to come out of the closet? A good pick would be Little Richard, although he battled with his sexuality throughout his life. His image was always campy and fabulous and the original uncensored lyrics to his hit 'Tutti Frutti' leave little doubt. But in 1957, right in the middle of an Australian tour, he had a crisis of faith after claiming to have dreamt of his own damnation, much of which had to do with being gay. He quit the music business and never again reached the rights he achieved in the 1950s. The next major coming-out was David Bowie. He's been sporadically attracting attention since 1964 when he appeared on British TV as the spokesperson for a made-up organization known as The International League for the Preservation of Animal Filament. He was just 17 at the time. Story continues below advertisement But Bowie had just started. In January 1970, he became one of the first pop stars to be interviewed by Jeremy, a gay magazine. The article had nothing to do with his sexuality, but the very fact that he appeared in a gay magazine was very radical. Just three years earlier, you could still be sent to prison for being a homosexual. Ten months later, the cover of his The Man Who Sold the World album featured Bowie lounging in a long flowing blue dress designed by a man known as Mr. Fish. This was the most feminized male image of a rock star the world had ever seen. Many record stores (especially in the U.S.) refused to display or even stock the record, necessitating the release of a version with alternate artwork. Even so, the record sold less than 1,500 copies in America between November 1970 and June 1971. Such was the state of the world then. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The real shock came in the Jan. 22, 1972, issue of Melody Maker, one of the U.K.'s big weekly music magazines when Bowie stated, 'I'm gay and always have been.' It was largely a publicity stunt to set up the debut of his Ziggy Stardust character. But for certain people, the effect of those words was incalculable. Ziggy's androgynous bisexuality, makeup, and glitter (along with what was described as a lewd performance on Top of the Pops) offered hope to closeted people around the planet. Story continues below advertisement Yet Bowie (via Ziggy) wasn't the world's first openly gay rock star. We might look to Lou Reed, whose parents sent him for electro-shock therapy as a teenager as a way to exorcise what they feared were 'homosexual tendencies.' In 1972, after leaving The Velvet Underground, he adopted a very glam image, wearing S&M and fetish gear, hair bleached almost white, and black painted fingernails. His songs often explored the kinky side of life, including 'Walk on the Wild Side,' a top 40 hit that told the story of some of the more colourful real-life characters in Andy Warhol's world: Candy Darling, Holly Woodlawn, Joe Dallesandro, and Joe 'Sugar Plum Fairy' Campbell. Even though Lou married a woman in 1973, many just supposed he was gay. Was he? Certainly bisexual at the very least, but he never was public about it. Story continues below advertisement The first rock singer to be unambiguous about being gay was Jobriath. Born Bruce Campbell, he was a former member of a forgotten California band called Pigeon. From there, he got into musical theatre, performing in productions of Hair. He was also a part-time drug addict and occasional rent boy. In the early 1970s, he acquired a manager named Jerry Brandt who almost immediately struck a half-million-dollar deal with Elektra Records. His debut album was recorded with help from Peter Frampton and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. To launch the record, Elektra paid for a $200,000 billboard of a nearly-nude Jobriath in the middle of Times Square. Full-page ads appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Vogue, and even Penthouse. Another $200,000 was spent on a stage production that was supposed to open at the Paris Opera House, which included a 40-foot model of the Empire State Building that was supposed to symbolize…well, you know. And in interviews, Jobriath referred to himself as 'a true fairy.' Story continues below advertisement But it all came crashing down. The Paris shows never happened, and after two poorly-selling albums, Jobriath disappeared. He bounced between New York and Los Angeles, not doing much of anything because of a punishing iron-clad managerial contract. By the early '80s, his bathhouse habits caught up to him and he contracted HIV/AIDs. He died on Aug. 3, 1987, one week after his 10-year contract with Jerry Brandt expired. Years later, thanks mostly to a contingent of fans who discovered him after his death — Morrissey is one of his great admirers and promoters — the world came to know about Jobriath's contribution to LGBTQ2 history. We need to acknowledge a few others. A British folk-rock band called Everyone Involved sang a few pro-gay songs as early as 1972. There's a 1973 song by Chris Robinson entitled 'Looking for a Boy Tonight.' A German band, Flying Lesbians, appeared briefly in 1975. Steve Grossman was an openly gay folk-blues singer in the '70s. And in 1978, The Gay/Lesbian Freedom Band, which billed itself as the first openly gay musical organization in the world, was founded in San Francisco. One of the great things about '70s punk rock was the concept that music belonged to everyone and that anyone should be able to make music, regardless of age, economic background, musical ability, gender, or sexual orientation. Punk allowed gay performers such as Pete Shelley of The Buzzcocks, Elton Motello, Jayne (formerly Wayne) County, and Ricky Wilson of The B-52's (who tragically may be the first rock performer to die of AIDS). Story continues below advertisement There were others, too. While no one in the New York Dolls was gay (at least we don't think so), they were the first band to really push androgyny as part of their image with makeup, big hair, and of course, plenty of spandex (history records that they seem to have been the first group to perform in spandex.) Big Boys were a Texas punk band into skateboarding long before it was mainstream. Frontman Randy 'Biscuit' Turner was loudly and proudly out. New Wave took the campy elements of disco and featured hundreds of techno-pop acts with effeminate men and androgynous performers. By the early '80s, many bravely played up their sexuality. Think Boy George of Culture Club, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Canada's Carole Pope in Rough Trade, a name taken from gay subculture. She was up front about being a lesbian. 'Yeah, I've got different ideas about sex. You wanna make something of it?' Pretty bold stuff for dull, boring, conservative Canada. Story continues below advertisement As the '80s faded into the '90s, projections and demonstrations of non-heterosexuality became mainstream. There's still homophobia and prejudice, but most music fans today could care less about whether a performer is gay, straight, queer, or trans. And we wouldn't have arrived here if it were not for those brave early pioneers. Happy Pride, everyone.
Times
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Eugene Onegin review — no frills Tchaikovsky goes straight to the heart
When Dominic Dromgoole, who ran Shakespeare's Globe from 2006 to 2016, was asked to direct Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin for the first time, he knew he didn't want to make it fiddly. And opera these days tends towards the fiddly. Dromgoole, though, tells us in the programme for this excellent touring production by Wild Arts that he 'just wants life to be life, and plays to be plays, and operas to be operas'. He adds: 'It's almost impossible now to go and see a play that is just itself, that hasn't been 'versioned' by somebody or other.' This Onegin succeeds because it is direct, simple, heartfelt. All harder goals to achieve than they sound. It's also something of a bravura exercise in plate-spinning. At this premiere in the barn at Layer Marney Tower in Essex, given as part of the Essex Opera Festival, Orlando Jopling conducted a band of five strings, four winds and one horn, who achieved minor miracles in sustaining Tchaikovsky's plangent lyricism, yet still rose to the boisterous exuberance of the dances. • Read more theatre reviews, guides and interviews The cast multitask too, forming the choruses themselves, getting nifty in the dances or arranging the spartan set with a gravitas that creates atmosphere in a small but meaningful way. Costuming adds its own story: Sion Goronwy's appealing Gremin is a military hero on crutches — unlike the ennui-ridden Onegin, he has actually done something with his life. It all meshes tightly with a story that's about repression; big emotions hemmed in by a small, petty world. 'Contentment is as good as love' is the sad motto disingenuously adopted by Hannah Sandison's excellent Madame Larina, volatile and even flirtatious (the character is often the blowsy, mumsy type). It's one of several good lines from a thoughtful English translation by Siofra Dromgoole (Dominic's daughter), nearly all of which carries straight to the audience, some just a few feet away. Onegin tartly tells Tatyana to 'practise some restraint'. There are moments here that are perhaps too restrained, when you want things to boil as well as simmer. Xavier Hetherington's callow Lensky and Emily Hodkinson's enigmatic Olga don't always punch out. But Dromgoole draws out sometimes agonising intensity from the central couple's doomed entanglement. Gleamingly sung, Galina Averina's Tatyana is at her best by the final scene. Conversely, by that point Timothy Nelson's once haughty Onegin is a wreck who's realised just how badly he's screwed up. That's life. That's opera.★★★★☆165minLayer Marney Tower, Essex to Jun 21; touring to Sep 18, Follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
