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ASO Thursday: Gorecki, Brahms
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3, composed in 1976, languished in obscurity until the late 1980s, when orchestras began programming it. Then a miracle happened.
In 1992, a Nonesuch recording, conducted by David Zinman with soprano Dawn Upshaw, became one of the biggest-selling classical recordings of all time. It topped the Billboard classical chart for 37 weeks, and even got to sixth place on the pop chart in Britain. Since then, it’s become a staple of the repertoire, and was used in Peter Wier’s movie “Fearless.”
So it’s something of a mystery that the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has waited until this week to program it, particularly given their affinity for “safe” modern pieces. As if to make up for lost time, they’re also recording it for Telarc, though you do have to wonder whether the classical world needs yet another recording, with over two dozen already in the catalogue.
Patrons entering Symphony Hall on Thursday might have paused to make sure this was the right place. Instead of the usual unforgiving bright glare, the entire room was dimmed a bit, the sides of the orchestra shell were bathed in colors, highlighting the wall texture, and there were three giant screens behind the orchestra.
In contrast to his earlier, dissonant works, Gorecki’s Third, subtitled “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs,” is thoroughly tonal and melodic. It is also quite slow, with distinct rhythmic patterns. But change is constantly afoot, and the piece seems shorter than its actual length (about an hour). The work is a setting of three Polish texts: a 15th Century Lamentation in which Mary speaks to Jesus as he is dying, a prayer written by a teenage girl that was found on the wall of a 1944 Gestapo prison, and a folk-song in which a mother grieves over a son killed in battle.
The soloist was Christine Brewer, and her large, bright, richly colored voice was a stark contrast to the duskier sound of Ms. Upshaw. She is thrilling to hear, but her focus seemed to be altogether on producing a beautiful sound, rather than giving us a sense of the passion in her texts. Even her facial expression seemed to lack any sense of emotion. She sang with her eyes half closed, as if in a dream. I would question whether her gleaming soprano is right for such a dark piece, but there is no denying the beauty of the sound that filled Symphony Hall as the three chants soared over the strings.
No one could accuse Donald Runnicles, who is conducting, of neglecting the drama in this symphony. Like a giant, pulsing organ, his orchestra took us inside a church of sorts. You could almost smell the incense, as this is a work with a strong Eastern Orthodox feel, although the composer is Polish and Catholic. The first movement, a canon for the strings, starts almost inaudibly in the double-basses and builds up. The singing comes in the middle, then the canon slowly descends. The remaining two movements contain contrasting melodic material, but retain the New Age mystical feel and the slow tempi.
A year ago, the Brooklyn Philharmonic came up with the idea of “staging” this symphony, and brought in visual artists to put together some projections (a movie, essentially), and choreographed movements for the soprano.
Following suit, the ASO in recent seasons has done what it calls “theater of a concert” productions. Hence its own projections and the big screens, but here they scratched the choreography: Brewer is not a dancer. The images, by Anne Patterson and Adam Larsen, were quite subtle and consisted of abstracts, nature scenes, and women’s faces, slowly changing, like the score.
This business borders on pandering, but - like the projected titles - it keeps the audience involved, and there was noticeably less coughing. At times, the images were quite engrossing, and I thought they added to the impact of the piece. For me, the more important effect was the lighting of the room and the musicians, who looked so much better on the darkened stage, gently lit by the glow from their music stands.
Perhaps wanting to give the audience some relief from all this angst, after the intermission they gave us Brahms’ Symphony No. 3, his most exuberant. And here, perhaps still under the spell of the Gorecki, Runnicles’ tempi seemed quite slow at times. This was an intensely dramatic reading. Perhaps too much so. There is an energy ceiling inherent in the work, I think, and a more restrained reading actually has more impact. Still, this was a glorious performance, and it seemed fair to give the woodwinds a chance to show off after the strings had dominated in the Gorecki. Laura Ardan played the andante’s clarinet solo with warmth and great feeling. And we got a second feature from the movie-makers as well. This one consisted mostly of water and trees, and again added to the overall effect.
This concert won’t be repeated tonight, as the orchestra is heading over to Encore Park for its inaugural concert. And on Sunday, the ASO Chorus heads to Germany, where Runnicles will conduct them with the Berlin Philharmonic.
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“The Last Lecture”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Randy Pausch was told last August that he had 3-6 months to live. It has been nine months, and he is still alive.
That’s good news for Pausch and his family. The good news for the rest of us is that Pausch’s book, “The Last Lecture,” has been tearing up the best-seller lists lately. Which means a lot of people are benefitting from Pausch’s wondrous world-view and approach to life, and that, ultimately, his family is benefitting from every book sold. I have rarely felt so good plunking down my $22 for a book.
Here’s the story. Pausch was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He was an award-winning teacher who truly inspired his students, and a man who had married late in life and started a family, with three children under age six. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which has one of the worst fatality rates of any disease, and battled it for a while. But eventually it metastisized, and he and his family had to come to terms with his impending death.
So on Sept. 18, 2007, Pausch stepped in front of a packed hall at his school and delivered his last lecture, on the topic “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. (You can watch it, at over an hour long, on the Youtube link above.) It was funny, upbeat, wise. Although the video is free on Youtube, he expanded the lecture into the book.
Pausch’s advice is not startlingly new to anyone who’s paying attention to what matters in life. Show gratitude. Tell the truth. Don’t obsess over what other people think. Decide whether you want to be Tigger or Eeyore. But the way he delivers all this, both in the video and the book, while facing a death sentence, is just flat-out overwhelming. I’m not ashamed to admit I choked up a dozen times reading this slim book.
Pausch continues to post updates on his life and health on a blog here.
I’d love to hear people’s reaction to Pausch’s last lecture. Or we can go this way: If you were dying, and could pass along some wisdom to those who live on, what would it be?
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‘The Last Schwartz’ @ Jewish Theatre
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B
Don’t cry for Jewish Theatre of the South.
The 13-year-old ensemble may be shutting down at the end of the month. But it’s goodbye gift to the city ends with a howl, not a sniffle.
Deborah Zoe Laufer’s “The Last Schwartz” is a terrifically performed, raucously comic ensemble piece that plays like a softer version of Tracy Letts’ riveting portrait of family dysfunction, “August: Osage County.” With its dead patriarch, juicy female characters, dining-table roulette and ghostly metaphysics, the funny-stinging play conceals dark inner secrets under a playful blanket of sexual parlor games, sibling barbs and hissy fits.
The Schwartzes have gathered at their parents’ upstate New York home to commemorate the first anniversary of their father’s death. But as the decorum dissolves into anger and confrontation, we witness an unexpected primal grief that’s deep, all-devouring and unacknowledged: It’s the living mourning the unborn.
Sound like heavy stuff? It is. But it’s heavier on the laughs.
While brother Simon (Jeffrey C. Zwartjes), a nearly blind astronomer, gazes off into the cosmos, sister Norma (Tess Malis Kincaid) bristles at brother Herb (Jared Simon) for propping his feet on their hallowed mother’s coffee table. Herb listens to his barren wife, Bonnie (Kathleen Wattis), describe an “Oprah” segment on Siamese twins. And when little brother Gene (Chris Moses) drops in with his clueless date, Kia — aka “The Fat No More Girl” (Bethany Ann Lind) — the table is set for a twisted late-night pajama game, and an adoption scheme of such perverse proportions that it would make Jerry Springer smile.
Simon’s Herb has the Borscht Belt timing of Jackie Gleason. Moses gives a dependably good performance, though he’s perhaps a little too boyish to capture the hip slickness of a Manhattan filmmaker. Zwartjes’ Simon — a zoned-out, stargazing savant with apocalyptic visions — is, as the script requires, almost invisible.
But these men are just window dressing for the hormonally overwrought Norma and Bonnie — and the Lolita-like Kia. It’s hard to say who chews the scenery harder. But the delightfully zany Lind is a knockout.
Travis George’s scenic design is authentic to the milieu. Mimi Epstein’s elegant soundscape provides just the right mood. And Linda Patterson’s props and costumes are appropriate to characters who are by turns starched and flirtatious — and a story that uses coffee tables and sideboards to stir emotion.
Even if the playwright’s more serious meditations are never fully realized, the show rarely disappoints. Director Freddie Ashley delivers the goods with comic brio. And artistic director Mira Hirsch says goodbye to her 13-year-old ensemble with a stiff upper lip and a heroic mixture of laughter and tears. Mazel tov.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. 3 p.m. Sundays. Through May 25. $18-$30. Jewish Theatre of the South, Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. 770-395-2654, jplay.org.
Bottom line: Jewish Theatre of the South ends 13-year run with a juicy comedy — and a dash of existentialism. Finis.
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‘Some Men’ @ Actor’s Express
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW: Grade: C
Actor’s Express’ fondness for male nudity is no secret, but its production of Terrence McNally’s new play, “Some Men,” must rank at an all-time high for flashes of flesh.
Nearly every actor in the nine-man cast drops trou at least once, and some seem to spend more time naked than clothed. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but you have to wonder if it isn’t meant to distract from the disjointed tedium that sometimes plagues the production.
Spanning the decades from 1922 to the present, “Some Men” is a series of vignettes that illustrates the progress gay people have made toward social acceptance. A rich young banker (Louis Gregory) makes love with his Irish chauffeur (Tim Batten) on a dark South Hampton beach before acknowledging they can never share a life together in 1922.
A closeted family man (Doyle Reynolds) flaunts the law to explore his forbidden desires in a hotel tryst in 1968. Middle-aged “show-tune queens” huddle in fear inside a piano bar while the Stonewall riots rage outside in 1969.
The strength of “Some Men” is in the juxtapositions McNally creates between disparate segments of the gay community: young gay activists vs. settled life partners; a man on the verge of coming out vs. an angry closeted colleague; those who are HIV positive vs. those who are not. But there are an awful lot of scenes, and more than a few seem superfluous, making it a challenge to connect the dots. It’s as if McNally set out to include every milepost in gay culture. Gays in the military, check. Gays in the Harlem Renaissance, check. And so on.
The production opens and closes with a same-sex wedding in 2007, but it comes across more like a convenient literary device than the significant cultural milestone it is and the thing that the entire play builds toward. At times director Kent Gash struggles to develop the tension in each vignette, and as a result, the emotional pitch sometimes starts too high, too fast, leaving the actors nowhere to go but louder. By contrast, it is the quieter, less showy scenes that pack the most punch.
Some of the more satisfying scenes underscore the gulf between generations.
In 1975, a pair of slumming “elder queers” (Don Finney and Tom Thon) discover they’re out of their element among the randy young hotties looking for action in a gay bath house. Even more poignant — and universal — is a chat room scene where a middle-age lonely heart (Finney at his best) makes a surprising emotional connection with a cruiser (John Benzinger), only to be dumped with the stroke of a computer key for a young trick just looking for sex.
It just goes to show you: Gay rights have come a long way, baby. But human nature remains pretty much the same.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays. Through May 31. Plus, 5 p.m. May 11 and 25; and 2 p.m. May 18. $16-$27. Note: Contains adult language and nudity. Actor’s Express at King Plow Arts Center, 887 W. Marietta St. N.W., Suite J-107, Atlanta. 404-875-1606, 404-607-7469,actors-express.com.
Bottom line: An uneven comedy-drama about the coming out of gay culture.
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LLoyd Webber picks Alliance’s Booth to direct gospel ‘Superstar’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production company has tapped Atlanta’s Susan V. Booth to direct the forthcoming gospel version of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” scheduled to run at the Alliance Theatre Jan. 14-Feb. 22.
The Alliance artistic director said she was called to London recently for a sit-down with Webber’s Really Useful Group. “Sir Andrew wasn’t there,” Booth said, “because he was on his way Las Vegas for ‘American Idol.’ ”
Detroit native Louis St. Louis is restaging the classic musical as “Jesus Christ Superstar GOSPEL.” To prepare, Booth said they will be hitting Atlanta’s gospel churches in the coming weeks. She says part of the fun is being able to check out churches “other than Presbyterian,” which is her denomination.
Apparently, the search for a director was quite competitive.
“This is their prime copyright,” Booth said. “This is the first major reconception of the work in a long time and that’s a big deal.”
“It’s very humbling and it’s very challenging, and it’s the greatest thing in the world when you get to do that,” she said of her new assignment.
Booth’s connection to the ’70s rock opera is personal. She says she sang “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” in a sixth-grade talent show. “I thought it was stunning, but I don’t think everyone else did.“ She says she now croons “Everything’s Alright” to her 4-year-old daughter, Moira.
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What Are Your Encore Park Expectations?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The newest major performance venue in metro Atlanta’s northern suburbs won’t open until Saturday, with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra inaugurating the $35 million Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park. The rest of the summer calendar is booked with vintage rock acts — Styx, Stevie Nicks, the Steve Miller Band — and a variety of community events.
But the 12,000-seat pavilion, off Ga. 400 across from North Point Mall, has already been a topic of both anticipation and concern among patrons and Northside residents.
Alpharetta High School principal Buck Greene calls Encore Park “a great experiment for us.” On opening night, the school’s marching band will join the Atlanta Symphony (along with numerous other local youth groups) in the bombastic, cannon-blasted finale of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”
Then, on May 24, the high school’s seniors will graduate from the stage.
The concert, says Greene, “is great public time for the school, and with the students working side by side with the ASO, a priceless opportunity.”
For the graduation ceremony, the school will pay about $7,000 in fees, including security and audio-visual equipment — or about $3,000 less than the Gwinnett Center charges for a comparable rental.
Brandon Beach, president of the North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, was a key figure in the original Encore Park conception, hoping to build an arts and community center on the site.
“Concerts were the one missing component in north Fulton,” he said, “but everyone knows that the arts and performances are a quality of life issue, and we expect [Encore] to bring the business community together. Encore will be our meeting ground.”
Yet even as some Alpharetta residents see an attractive opportunity, others are not convinced Encore Park will meet their summer entertainment needs.
Sydney Sivertsen and her husband, John, an attorney, are in their 50s with children away at college. They were initially thrilled that the ASO would be performing just a couple of miles from their house.
As she checked into her options, however, she compiled a checklist of “disappointments” — mostly in comparison with concerts at the ASO’s other outdoor venue, Chastain Park Amphitheatre in Buckhead.
Where patrons often bring elaborate picnic meals to ASO concerts at Chastain, Sivertsen worries that Encore Park’s no-outside-food rule will steer the event too down-market.
“A hot, Southern evening at the symphony,” she says, “calls for vichyssoise, cool pasta salad and fresh fruit, with a nice wine and candles. If we want burgers and hot dogs and beer, we go to a baseball game. It’s a different aesthetic, and the ASO should know that.”
With frustration in her voice, she adds that if Encore Park’s owner, the Woodruff Arts Center, “is being greedy and is mistaken in its sense of ambience, maybe we should continue to fight traffic down [Ga.] 400 to Chastain for our summer arts.”
Indeed, ASO leaders had anticipated these sorts of concerns. ASO president Allison Vulgamore sees three distinct identities for its three venues — Encore Park, Chastain and Symphony Hall in Midtown. Encore Park includes 184 VIP seats, although all those spaces are already sold-out for the summer.
“We present the orchestra in different settings,” she says. “Chastain is under the stars and you bring your own [food] basket.”
At Encore, “we have a chef on-site [for the VIP tables], and you’re under a cover in case it rains.”
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Twice the Clarks!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We don’t see too many of these: A mother and daughter, both best-selling authors, appearing together.
Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark are being billed as the Queen and Princess of Suspense for their appearance tonight at the Atlanta History Center.
Mary, the mom, is one of those brand names in publishing like Nora Roberts or James Patterson that’s just a force of the marketplace. She has sold more than 85 million books in the United States, according to her publisher. Her latest thriller is “Where Arte You Now?”
Carol, the daughter, has co-written four suspense novels with mom, and then created her own series of mysteries around Regan Reilly and her husband Jack. Her latest is “Zapped,” which takes place during a blackout in New York City.
The lecture and signing is sponsored by the Margaret Mitchell House; admission is $5 for members, $10 for non-members. Reception at 6, lecture at 7.
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Shake at the Lake opens with goofed-up ‘Servant of Two Masters’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The farce is with Shake at the Lake, even if the Bard himself is nowhere to be found. Georgia Shakespeare’s annual al fresco springtime outing on the dock at Lake Clara Meer in Piedmont Park kicked off Wednesday night with a goofed-up version of “The Servant of Two Masters,” a farce by Carlo Goldoni.
Piedmont Park has been off-limits to large events like the Peachtree Road Race of late because of the drought. But Shake at the Lake is restricted to under 1,000 people per night, only a few on grass, so it’s allowed.
“I’ve come every year. It’s just amazing,” said Dayna Holbel, a stay-at-home mom from Morningside, who showed up at at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning to get her tickets. “The sun going down, the water behind it, everybody’s really sweet and sharing wine.”
Like Chastain Park on a more intimate, less intricate scale, Shake at the Lake is about pre-show picnicking as well as the play itself. Mary Wellington and five friends brought wine, salads and deviled eggs stuffed with spicy hummus; many who showed up opted for carry-out subs or pizza.
“I enjoy the Shakespeare,” said Wellington, “but this is not Shakespeare.” She wasn’t complaining, but the “Servant” trotted out here is re-written in the extreme, with Miley Cyrus jokes and a record number of deliberate mispronunciations of Dahlonega. Since hardly anyone has seen the original play, hardly anyone can take offense at Georgia Shakespeare’s liberties.
For those wanting to try it through Sunday, the Shake rules must be obeyed. Tickets are free, but they are only available the day of the show to people who come in person to the visitor’s center at Piedmont Park. The handouts start at 10 a.m., the line starts earlier. No lawn chairs, pets, Frisbees, or anything that makes noise is allowed; coolers are cool, but keep them small.
More info: www.shakeatthelake.com • Map it and review it
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New Chairman at Woodruff Arts Center
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Woodruff Arts Center approved a new chairman today: Phil Kent, CEO of Turner Broadcasting.
Kent replaces Neil Williams, who has been chair since 2002. Williams, a retired partner of the law firm Alston & Bird was honored for his 36 years of volunteer service to the Woodruff Arts Center and one of its organizations, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. (He became involved in the symphony’s governance after singing in its choir.)
The Woodruff — or WAC, as some fondly call it — is Atlanta’s biggest arts organization by far. It’s the parent of not only the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra but the High Museum, Alliance Theatre and the youth arts education group Young Audiences.
Kent comes to the position with a wealth of experience managing a big organization with multiple divisions. At Turner, he oversees one of the biggest programming empires in cable TV. The Atlanta-based subsidiary of Time Warner includes CNN, Headline News, TBS, TNT, truTV (formerly Court TV) and the Cartoon Network, among its 40 networks throughout the world.
Any thoughts about what should be on Kent’s to-do list at the Woodruff?
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Story-time for Grown-ups
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wordsmiths Books in Decatur continues to come up with awesome-sounding new promotions. Like this one.
Tonight, Wordsmiths is offering its first “Story-time for Grown-ups.” It brings together Will and Benji, who are Open Mic night regulars, and decribed by Wordsmiths as “a little off-color, a little offensive;” the Kennesaw State University Regulars, who are billed as very much in the same vein; and author Ben Tanzer.
Milk will not be served, but adult libations will. No nap mats will be provided, but you can sprawl on the floor if there’s room. Sounds like a blast. 7:30 tonight at Wordsmiths, which is on Decatur Square.
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Getting together at Piedmont Park is about people watching, enjoying a show & a laugh. To all you black & white bigots — please don’t attend; you ruin it for the rest of us who enjoy variety & living life.... read the full comment by Gordon | Comment on Shake at the Lake opens with goofed-up 'Servant of Two Masters' Read Shake at the Lake opens with goofed-up 'Servant of Two Masters'
Randy says in his book that you’re either an Eeyore or a Tigger. I’ve always been a “Nice Day if it doesn’t rain” type myself. Randy’s lecturehas me picking up the “hope” slip out of Pandora’s box.... read the full comment by Goodship Sue | Comment on "The Last Lecture" Read "The Last Lecture"
Funny how the photographer found the ONLY black couple at Shake, and ajc.com used their picture on the front page of website… What a hoot!... read the full comment by diddy | Comment on Shake at the Lake opens with goofed-up 'Servant of Two Masters' Read Shake at the Lake opens with goofed-up 'Servant of Two Masters'
would love to attend one of these events. I live out in Loganville…… (waaay outttt). It would be nice to be able to pick up tix somewhere in Gwinnett or Walton County.... read the full comment by Lynette | Comment on Shake at the Lake opens with goofed-up 'Servant of Two Masters' Read Shake at the Lake opens with goofed-up 'Servant of Two Masters'