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Atlanta Opera’s “La Cenerentola”
OPERA REVIEW Rossini’s “La Cenerentola.” Atlanta Opera. 7:30 Nov 18, 8 p.m. Nov 21 and 3 p.m. Nov. 23. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, 2800 Cobb Galleria Pkwy., Atlanta. 404-881-8885, www.atlantaopera.org
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There’s a style of regional-opera management, more tactical than strategic, where you blow the budget on one famous diva to help sell a production and, by necessity, skimp elsewhere.
The Atlanta Opera’s production of Rossini’s “La Cenerentola,” which opened Saturday night, was billed as the homecoming of mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore, a Marietta girl who has been a star in New York, London and Paris but has never sung with her hometown opera.
Until its move to the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center last season and the arrival of mature leadership a few seasons before that, the company found it impossible to lure talent of Larmore’s stature.
Yet the Atlanta Opera is thinking strategically, and this Cinderella tale is much more than just the Larmore show.
With an agreeable cast and a simple but effective production, “La Cenerentola” must be counted among Atlanta Opera’s great triumphs. (Is this starting to sound familiar? Almost every show, in fact, seems to consolidate gains from recent seasons and, wonderfully, raise the audience’s standards and thus our expectations for the future.)
David Gately is one of the smarter stage directors the Atlanta Opera has hired. His musically alert direction elevated what’s fundamentally a traditional production — with sets rented from Kentucky Opera — in savvy ways.
To get around the crusty censors for the 1817 premiere in Rome, Rossini and librettist Jacopo Ferretti stripped the fairy tale of the supernatural. There’s no fairy godmother, no pumpkins into carriages, no rats as coachmen. And to avoid audience riot at the sight of a sexy, unshod foot, Cinderella — whose real name, befitting her goodness, is Angelina - leaves behind a bracelet, not a glass slipper.
Gately restored some of those familiar folk-magic elements. Alidoro, the prince’s tutor, appears as a beggar and works like a sorcerer-free agent to bring the love couple together. Richard Bernstein, a rich, lyric bass-baritone with a light touch, has sung in Atlanta several times before and is here among the most compelling on stage.
Throughout the show, Gately lets the music inform the movement. The daffy and dreadful step-sisters, getting dressed, push up their brassieres on a bouncy cadence, for example. Ani Maldjian and Magdalena Wor (a recent Georgia State University graduate) played and sang the sisters as a matched set, youthful and vocally pure.
As the Prince, Nicholas Phan sings with a high, bright, Italianate tenor, a glint of silver in his tone, straining a bit only to reach the very top notes. Peter Strummer sings Don Magnifico, the nasty, buffoonish step-father, with the bluster and smooth confidence of a fine character singer. Hugh Russell acts a funny Dandini, the valet who exchanges clothes with his prince, but the baritone trips up on poor diction and unfocused delivery.
Elsewhere, the men’s chorus spin their heads or step out in precise gestures, a delight. The chorus in “Cenerentola” — prepared to perfection by Walter Huff — is only for the men, actually, and in most productions of this opera the women who populate the party scenes are silent extras. Gately here used the composer’s personnel decision to eliminate the band of desperate debutantes all together, focusing exclusively on the sisters and Angelina as the only possible objects of the prince’s affection.
Larmore, of course, commands the title role. In a yearning voice she offers the prescient lullaby “Una volta c’era un re,” but then crisply, fiercely, illuminates her coloratura arias with charm and ease.
When Angelina gets a Sarah Palin moment — boxes of fancy designer clothes! for free! — Larmore’s disarming, girlish demeanor pulls you into her narrative. Although Saturday her voice lacked the radiance of timbre we’ve come to expect, her insights into Rossini’s comically sentimental style were superlative.
That was less the case with conductor Gregory Vajda, a young maestro who supports the singers with care. Yet under his baton, Rossini’s spirit — fleet, frothy, classically elegant — felt missing. The evening dragged a wee bit, which isn’t the way to enliven Rossini. It’s true that veteran conductor’s fees can break a production’s budget, so perhaps hiring the still-developing Vajda was one tactical decision of an otherwise brilliantly planned show.
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ASO, Dame Evelyn and a New Percussion Concerto
CONCERT REVIEW Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Thursday in Symphony Hall. Program repeats 8 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday. 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dame Evelyn Glennie, the superstar of her field, is playing with Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony this weekend. She’s the living embodiment of the fact that rhythm has pushed aside its rivals, melody and harmony, to become the dominant component of music.
Classical composers still typically deploy percussionists — who stand at the back of an orchestra — mostly for accent and spice. But a rock-steady beat drives 99 percent of pop music, and a heavy, discernable pulse gave modernism its freshness at the start of the 20th century (think “Rite of Spring”) and powers some of the most gut-pleasing music today (think “Ainadamar”).
But percussion up front? As soloist? How eccentric.
Glennie, a preeminent figure, has redefined her station. She’s the Yo-Yo Ma, and then some, of instruments that go thump! and thwack! and ting!
She has premiered dozens of major works. A few have already entered the canon: James MacMillan’s “Veni, Veni, Emmanuel” (1992), a percussion concerto, is among the strongest works composed by anybody in recent decades.
John Corigliano’s “Conjurer,” premiered by Glennie in Pittsburgh in February and played here Thursday, isn’t up to that standard, although its best moments held the magical sound when percussion takes the lead with violins in the back.
“Conjurer” is in three section, each introduced by a brief solo passage and each with a subtitle. “Wood,” involving a xylophone, marimba and smaller wooden instruments, starts with clicks like a cricket chirping, then watery drips then expands into spooky and mystical images that’s a Corigliano signature style.
At the end of “Metal,” a gorgeous section for gongs, bells and glockenspiel, Glennie struck a marimba note then stroked it with a bow, producing a rich, eerie, yearning sound accompanied by a halo of pure tones from the orchestra strings.
“Skin,” for drums of all shapes and sizes, showed Glennie’s theatrical, whole-body approach, where she telegraphs each bang on the drum so you anticipate what it’s going to sound like.
I usually respond to Corigliano’s music, and he typically excels when given a challenge. He was on hand to introduce his latest creation from the stage.
Yet I kept waiting for the 37-minute “Conjurer” to seize my attention. Surely Glennie and the ASO, skilled in contemporary styles, revealed everything in the score. I felt like the music remained distant, a very polished exercise in writing a percussion concerto.
Not lost among the battery of wood, metal and skin was Runnicles, the ASO’s principal guest conductor, making his first appearance of the season — the first of just four.
Before our eyes and ears, over the past eight years, Runnicles has matured into a sensationally good maestro. In Dvorak’s high-calorie “New World” Symphony, which closed the evening, he pulled from the ASO a sort of relaxed intensity, paying attention to detail while making cosmic sense of this familiar work.
They opened with Gershwin’s “Cuban Overture” a zesty carnival of music from 1932. Compared with some of the authentically Latin music the ASO has played in recent years — works by Osvaldo Golijov, for example — Gershwin’s exoticism now sounds a bit four-square and cartoonish.
Still, it’s wonderfully fun, and the ASO played it gaily. And it packs a rhythmic punch that set the mood for the rest of the show.
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‘Doctor Atomic’ documentary tonight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A look at ‘Atomic’ opera
On Nov. 11 the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will offer a free screening of “Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic,” a documentary about the opera “Doctor Atomic.” The behind-the-scenes feature will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Richard H. Rich Theatre of the Woodruff Arts Center. ASO Music Director Robert Spano and Georgia Tech economic history professor August Giebelhaus are scheduled to participate in a pre-film discussion.
The ASO’s premiere of John Adams’ “Doctor Atomic” is Nov. 21 and 23 at Symphony Hall.
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2008 Suzi Bass Awards handed out
Updated with photo gallery. Clink "Suzi" below.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Alliance Theatre dominated the Suzi Bass Awards on Monday night — picking up 13 of the 20 artistic prizes.
Alliance artistic director Susan V. Booth’s haunting production of “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” — named the best production of 2007 by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution — led the pack with five of the silver-star medallions, followed by playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “In the Red and Brown Water” with four and Sarah Ruhl’s “Eurydice” with two. (“Eurydice” was a co-production with Georgia Shakespeare.)
All three productions were produced on the Alliance’s downstairs Hertz Stage, making it the year’s most acclaimed and essential drama destination.
The Suzi Bass Awards, named after a beloved Atlanta actress who died of melanoma a few years ago, were presented at a classy and formal affair in the Fox Theatre’s Egyptian Ballroom. Over the past four years, the Suzis have become Atlanta’s answer to the Tony Awards.
The top acting awards for a play went to LaLa Cochran for “The Little Dog Laughed” at Theatre in the Square and Joe Knezevich for his lead performance in Georgia Shakespeare’s “Richard III.” Natasha Drena won for best lead actress in a musical for Aurora Theatre’s “Annie Get Your Gun,” while Craig A. Meyer won the best lead actor in a musical for “Jacques Brel.”
Atlanta playwright Pearl Cleage showed up to claim the Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award for “A Song for Coretta,” and her first comments were a celebration of “being alive in the new America” of President-elect Barack Obama.
“Her characters are so much like our new president,” said 7 Stages artistic director Del Hamilton as he introduced Cleage. “Overwhelmingly positive and optimistic.”
“A Song for Coretta” is about a group of women waiting in the rain outside Ebenezer Baptist Church to view the body of Coretta Scott King. “This is the first play I have written in 10 years,” Cleage said, “and it’s a heck of a way to come back.” Cleage is also a highly regarded novelist.
The evening’s tribute to Suzi Awards founder Gene-Gabriel Moore and Spirit of Suzi Bass Award winner Carol Mitchell-Leon were bittersweet. Moore, who died in July after triumphing over a series of catastrophic health problems and forming a theater for the disabled, was remembered in a slide presentation, accompanied by Louis Armstrong’s rendition of “What A Wonderful World.”
It would have been hard for anyone to find words to describe the irrepressible and irascible Moore, but the pictures were profiles in courage. Moore, a former print journalist and TV inteviewer, was shown looking handsome and vital in pictures from his middle years. In images shot after a series of strokes and other ailments, he remained witty and spirited.
Leon, who has been suffering from an undisclosed illness for nearly a year, was saluted by former student Dorothy Bell and close friend Jen Harper. “She was the fiercest actor I have ever known,” Harper said of Mitchell-Leon, who taught at Clark Atlanta University and has been one of the city’s most visible actresses for years.
Harper said when she told Mitchell-Leon about the award, “She frowned up a little bit, and then the biggest smile came across her face, and she said, ‘Tell them thank you.’ “
“She is so deserving and the battle she has fought and won, I have never heard a complaint,” said Bell, who teared up as she recounted anecdotes about her mentor.
Here’s a full list of winners:
Featured actress, play. Bethany Anne Lind, “The Last Schwartz,” Jewish Theatre of the South.
Featured actor, play. Andrew Benator, “Eurydice,” Alliance Theatre/Georgia Shakespeare co-production.
Lead actress, play. LaLa Cochran, “The Little Dog Laughed,” Theatre in the Square.
Lead actor, play. Joe Knezevich, “Richard III,” Georgia Shakespeare.
Lead actress, musical. Natasha Drena, “Annie Get Your Gun,” Aurora Theatre.
Lead actor, musical. Craig A. Meyer, “Jacques Brel,” Alliance.
Director, play. Tina Landau, “In the Red and Brown Water,” Alliance.
Director, musical. Susan V. Booth, “Jacques Brel,” Alliance.
Production, play. “In the Red and Brown Water,” Alliance.
Production, musical. “Jacques Brel,” Alliance.
Scenic design. Kat Conley, “Eurydice,” Alliance/Georgia Shakespeare.
Lighting design. Scott Zielinski, “In the Red and Brown Water,” Alliance.
Sound design. Chris Bartelski, “In Darfur,” Horizon Theatre.
Costume design. Christine Turbitt, “The Merchant of Venice,” Georgia Shakespeare.
Featured actress, musical. Marva Hicks, “The Women of Brewster Place,” Alliance.
Featured actor, musical. Eric Moore, “Godspell,” Theatrical Outfit.
Ensemble, play. “In the Red and Brown Water,” Alliance.
Ensemble, musical. “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,” Alliance.
Choreography. Byron Easley and Kent Gash, “Sophisticated Ladies,” Alliance.
Musical direction. Michael Fauss, “Jacques Brel,” Alliance.
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‘High School Musical 2’ @ the Fox
“High School Musical 2 — On Stage!” Grade: C+. 8 p.m. tonight-Saturday. 2 p.m. Saturday. 1:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday. $20-$68. Theater of the Stars, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Midtown. 404-817-8700, ticketmaster.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Disney entertainment empire mastered the art of summer vacation decades ago. To visit a Disney theme park is to enter a fantasy world where your favorite cartoon characters spring to life in amazing Technicolor.
No wonder, then, that summer break is the conceit of “High School Musical 2.” In the second installment of the tween phenomenon, the entire East High gang relocates from Albuquerque, N.M., to the Lava Springs Country Club, which happens to be owned by the parents of thespian over-achievers Ryan and Sharpay Evans.
Lava Springs may not be a theme park. But as portrayed in Theater of the Stars’ world premiere of “High School Musical 2 — On Stage!” at the Fox Theatre, it becomes a sugared overload of cotton-candy colors, kitschy song-and-dance numbers, innumerable swimsuits and beachballs and one very meaningful kiss between East High dream couple Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez.
The thinnest episode in the “High School Musical” franchise (Part Three is now a big-screen blockbuster), “High School Musical 2” loses its way by venturing off campus; in dancing from classroom to poolside, from restaurant kitchen to golf course, from baseball diamond to talent show, it goes off game.
The music is thin, and in this stage treatment the cast is uneven. But even though director Jeff Calhoun and choreographer Lisa Stevens can’t rival Busby Berkeley, they keep the 41-member cast on its toes and deliver a family entertainment that succeeds at tickling the fancy of kids while numbing the minds of adults. And every now and then, this “ever-effervescent” show evokes some genuinely affecting moments.
You feel that magic anytime you hear “You Are the Music in Me,” the duet that Kelsi (the lovely Olivia Oguma) has written for Troy (Anderson Davis) and Gabriella (Arielle Jacobs, reprising her role from the Theater of the Stars-incubated national tour). And you sense it in the finale’s “Every Day” and “All for One,” after Troy realizes his mistakes and trouble-maker Sharpay (Rebecca Faulkenberry) is redeemed.
Finding the onstage equivalent of Ashley Tisdale’s Sharpay has always been problematic, and Faulkenberry is no exception. Her singing is adequate but never memorable, and her one-note acting fails to exploit Sharpay’s delicious diva potential. And though Bobby List encapsulates the sweetness of Ryan, his take sometimes veers off to a fluttery and squeaky-voiced extreme.
Jacobs, on the other hand, has matured into a dazzling Gabriella — very pretty, and very easy on the ears. While Davis doesn’t quite have the dreamy charisma of film counterpart Zac Efron or the touring company’s John Jeffrey Martin, he puts his own stamp on Troy. In dealing with Sharpay’s ridiculous shenanigans, Davis nails the “what-the-heck-is-going-on-here?” look. He’s fun.
Beyond the principals, there’s not room for much character development. But attention must be paid to the following: the delightful Patrick Richwood as the officious, rubber-jowled Mr. Fulton, the country club manager and Sharpay’s pawn; Shannon Antalan as Taylor McKessie and Travis Waldschmidt, as the nervous and over-rehearsed ventriloquist, waiting in the wings for the talent show.
Though the actors look like they might slide off a couple of Kenneth Foy’s skewed set pieces, his design for the pool scenes is wondrous, as is Wade Laboissonniere’s endless parade of flashy costumes.
“High School Musical 2” may not be fabulous, and it definitely won’t get a prize for plumbing the truths of the human condition. But it knows its audience, and it knows how to whip up a summer’s worth of froth and fun.
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