May Festival's Second Weekend Promises to Shake Music Hall
Talk about frat parties. The king of Babylon threw a memorable one in the sixth century B.C.
Famous ever after for the handwriting that appeared on the wall to warn him of his imminent demise, Belshazzar’s feast is one of the best known stories in the Bible.
English composer William Walton set it to music in 1931 in his oratorio “Belshazzar’s Feast.” Loaded with and color and drama, Walton’s 35-minute work will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday (May 21) at Music Hall to open the second weekend of the 2010 May Festival.
Director of choruses Robert Porco will conduct the May Festival Chorus, members of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus,
the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and baritone Ljubomir Puskaric in the
riveting work. The biblical text, taken
from the Books of Isaiah, Daniel, Psalms (137 and 81) and Revelation, was assembled by Osbert
Sitwell, brother of Dame Edith Sitwell, whose witty poems are the subject of Walton's well known "Facade."
The most famous episode in the oratorio is Belshazzar’s toast
to the heathen gods using vessels stolen from the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. The gods of gold, silver, iron,
wood, stone and brass each get a sonorous salute: full orchestra for gold, glockenspiel and piccolo for silver, anvil for
iron, wood block and xylophone for wood, whip (or slapstick) for stone and, of course, plenty of brasses for brass.
Also on the program is Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms,” with the May Festival Chorus, CSO and countertenor Paul Flight.
The concert will open
with the world premiere of “Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking,” a 2009 a capella
work by American composer Ian Krouse commissioned by current and former members of
the May Festival Chorus in honor of Porco’s 20th anniversary (2009)
as chorus director.
Krouse’s text comes from Walt Whitman’s “Sea Drift,” a cycle of poems about the sea from his famous compilation “Leaves of Grass.” According to Krouse’s program note, "'Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking' is about “a mockingbird who, having inexplicably lost its mate, cries out to the sea for understanding and solace.” He describes his setting as “a primordial outpouring of deep longings.”
The 2010 May Festival concludes in a big way at 8 p.m.
Saturday (May 22) at Music Hall with an all-Russian program comprising
Rachmaninoff’s one-act opera “Aleko,” the Prologue and Coronation Scene from
Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” (both in concert performance, i.e. unstaged) and Tchaikovsky’s “1812” Overture. May Festival music director James Conlon will
conduct.
“Aleko” is the tale of an outsider (Aleko) who, who, like Don Jose in Bizet’s “Carmen,” falls in love with a gypsy, but doesn’t understand gypsy ways. Lush and beautiful, it was the 19-year-old Rachmaninoff’s graduation exercise at the Moscow Conservatory. Singing Zemfira, the gypsy whose fickle heart spells her doom, is soprano Kara Shay Thomson. Bass-baritone James Johnson is Aleko, the luckless man who falls for her. Tenor Rodrick Dixon sings the Young Gyspy who wins Zemfira’s love and also her fate. Zemfira’s father (the Old Gypsy) is bass James Creswell, with the May Festival Chorus as the band of gypsies. CSO fans may recall the Dances from “Aleko,” performed by Paavo Järvi and the CSO in 2006 at Music Hall and included on their 2007 Rachmaninoff CD for Telarc.
Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” (to be heard in the re-orchestration by Shostakovich) contains some of the grandest music in the Russian repertoire. Based on the 1825 play by Alexander Pushkin, it tells the story of Russian czar Boris Godunov whose rise to the throne at the end of the 16th century was clouded by suspicion that he had done away with the hereditary heir to make way for himself. The Prologue and Coronation Scene are the first two scenes in the opera.
Singing Boris will be bass-baritone James Johnson, with Creswell as the Policeman,
Puskaric as Schelkalov, Dixon as Suisky and the May Festival Chorus as the Russian people. Tchaikovsky’s warhorse “1812," with the CSO and May Festival Chorus, will close the evening with a bang. There will be plenty of bells, both in "Boris Godunov" and the "1812" Overture, but the cannon fire in "1812" -- RIP Erich Kunzel -- presumably will be taped.
Earlier this week, the May Festival announced that Conlon has renewed his contract through the 2013 festival. This will make him the longest tenured music director in the festival's 137-year history. Conlon, who turned 60 in March, will have completed 34 years as head of the May Festival, exceeding only founding conductor Theodore Thomas, who served from 1873 to 1904.
In ceremonies onstage at Music Hall, Conlon was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame preceding opening night of the May Festival, May 14, 2010.
Tickets for the May 21 and 22 concerts are $18-$100. Get them at the Music Hall box office, call (513) 381-3300, or order online at www.mayfestival.com