Legendary director, Tito Capobianco arrived back in town over the weekend. Once more he is here as the Jeannine Cowles Distinguished Professor of Opera. He is here to direct this year's Portland State production of Franz Lehar's operetta The Merry Widow. Last night we dined together at the home of a dear friend of mine, Goldyne Rubin, and I did my best to catch up on his activities over the last year. It would seem that one of the high points of his year was visiting St Petersburg to judge a vocal competition. He told us that the breadth and depth of the talent he saw there outstripped almost anything he had experienced before. Unfortunately, the singers apparently lack good vocal technique. But, as I pointed out, you can teach technique, you can't teach talent (or, as basketball coaches would have it, you can't teach tall)!

Yesterday, I sat down and had a chat with Maestro David Hattner, conductor of the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Their Winter Concert is to take place at the Arlene Schnitzer Auditorium on Saturday evening of this week. I attended an orchestral rehearsal last week. That made me think of a number of questions I wanted to put to David and which I thought may interest you. Here is my recollection of our discussion (I do make notes but do not use a recorder.)

When you heard Portland Youth Philharmonic for the first time, what did you feel you could bring out in them and what unrealised potential did you see?

I first conducted them in my audition for the position of resident conductor of the orchestra. I could immediately see that they had spirit, talent and were playing within a system that obviously works. These were all the right basic ingredients I knew I would need to be successful and for them to be successful. A part of my function (as it is for all conductors) was to mix those ingredients to taste. They had recently had four guest conductors and that is asking a great deal of any orchestra. Any conductor wants to put his own stamp on his orchestra and to infuse it with his own musical personality. Indeed, on some level any teacher wants the pupil to play like he or she does. I realized that to do that I would need to empahasise the basics: rhythm, line and intonation and that if I could do that other necessary aspects would almost automatically follow. So far I believe that approach is working.

If you could be a fly on the wall of the Schnitz after a PYP concert, what would you like to hear members of the audience say about your orchestra?

Philip Langridge (1939 - 2010)

It is with some sadness that I have to mention that passing of English tenor Philip Langridge, who died from cancer last week, aged 70. He was seen in performance as recently as January of this year, when he performed the role of the witch in the Met's production of Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel. While he made a name for himself in operatic roles by composers as diverse as Mozart and Stravinsky, it is his singing of English composers for which I will best remember him. His performances in the operas of Britten were marvels to behold. Opera News had a splendid article about him and you can read it here. The announcement in the Daily Telegraph of his death is here. In addition to his operatic performances, Langridge was a consummate singer of oratorio, and many say that his performances of Handels' Messiah are unequaled.

Here he is singing Comfort Ye and Ev'ry Valley from that work.

He will be missed. His picture appears at the head of this post.

"Whether the angels play only Bach praising God, I am not quite sure. I am sure, however, that en famille they play Mozart!"
(Karl Barth 1886 - 1968)

Das Rheingold Baywatch

Tonight I went to the final performance of Opera Theater Oregon's latest production and had just the best time! I am delighted to report that not only was the Clinton Street Theater almost totally full but, that some of Portland's brightest and best were in attendance. Our very own Chris Mattaliano was there with Director of Music Administration for Portland Opera, Clare Burovac, and they were both clearly entering into the spirit of the evening. Stephen Marc Beaudoin was there and in great form. He is currently involve with the Electric Light Opera Company. We agreed that he and I should meet over a glass of wine very soon so he can tell me all about this organisation. With Stephen involved, much fun is pretty well guaranteed. I'll tell you all about it after he and I have chatted. Angela Niederloh, who was such a hit in our recent production of Così fan Tutte, was there and was, of course, her usual shy and retiring self - not!

This show was a huge success for Opera Theater Oregon and I cannot tell you how proud I am to be associated with the organisation. Particular plaudits are due to Artistic Director, Katie Taylor, who brought this delicious idea to fruition and to Erica Melton, for somehow managing to distill Wagner's opera to a reasonable length and to score it for orchestra and rock band.

News from the right coast

I know that quite a few of you travel to New York where you attend opera at the Met and lots more of you attend the high-def screenings of Met operas on a Saturday morning or listen to the weekly radio broadcasts. You may all wish to bookmark this page which provides details of the Met's 2010/2011 season.

A number of the productions are of particular interest to me. The first thing that struck me is that after 24 years they are finally getting around to mounting a production of John Adams's Nixon in China. The direction will be by Peter Sellars who was responsible for the original production (and much else by Adams). This is Sellars' directorial debut at the Met. I am wondering whether the role of Nixon has yet been cast. I know I can hardly be thought of as objective in this regard, but I cannot imagine why the Met would look any further than our old friend Robert Orth. Bob has become the definitive Nixon - the hunched shoulders, raised chin and other body mannerisms just perfectly calculated to fall short of parody, and an ability somehow to make this a sympathetic role.

A present? For me? Really?

This was a busy musical weekend in Portland. I have now lived here for about five years but am sometimes still astounded by the rich variety and high quality of the musical life in this city. It seems like it never stops. We are so lucky.

I attended the PSU Symphony Orchestra's concert at Kaul Auditorium, Reed College, yesterday afternoon. As I sauntered around the lobby I spotted conductor Ken Selden approaching me, his hand stretched out in greeting. "I have a present for you today!" he said, gleefully. "As we had some flexibility in the programming and I knew you would be here, I have included some Elgar for you!" Is this a sweet man, or what? The center-piece of the concert was a performance of Concierto de Aranjuez with Cuban guitarist Manuel Barrueco. I happen to know this work extremely well and am very fond of it, so my over-riding feeling when attending a live performance of it is usually along the lines "Please don't mess up one of my favourite pieces!" Yesterday I had no such concerns. Maestro Barrueco is a consummate artist and his performance thrilled me. Yes, actually thrilled me. I could have wished for larger orchestral forces but the playing was crisp and had all the right feel to it. The frighteningly exposed cor anglais solo in the second movement was played with aplomb. I chatted with Maestro Barrueco during the intermission and was immediately struck by what a warm and charming man he is (that's us in the picture). I hope he comes back to Portland very soon. Oh, the Elgar piece? The Serenade in E minor. Played beautifully.

Bravo, PSU Symphony and two thumbs up and my thanks to Maestro Selden.

This is a busy weekend for Operaman. Today at 3pm I shall be at PSU to attend a rehearsal by the PSU Symphony Orchestra under Ken Seldon in preparation for their 'Soundscapes' concert at Kaull Auditorium, Reed College, on Sunday afternoon. The programme includes a performance of the famous guitar Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo. The guitar soloist is Manuel Barrueco. Tickets for this concert, I am told, will be available at the door. This sounds like a splendid way to spend a couple of hours on Sunday and I am looking forward to it. On Saturday I will be at Hagg Lake at not-quite crack of dawn to watch Holly run a 25 k trail race. It's usually a mud race but with the weather having been dry and sunny the course should be somewhat easier to traverse. On Saturday afternoon at 3pm I shall be found at Sherman Clay in Southwest Portland for a violin/piano recital being given by Susan Chan and Madeleine Mitchell. This will include works by Mozart, Brahms and Bridge. This is a freebie! Let's go!

Back in October I wrote about the gentleman who owns the grocery store near to my apartment, and how I found out that he is an opera fan and that he is married to a lady named Thaïs, after the Massanet opera of that name. The blog post about them is here. Well, last week, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and it seemed to me that the occasion provided the perfect excuse for me to invite them to Portland Opera as my guests. Yes, I know it may seem that Così fan tutte is not quite the message of congratulations one might wish to give a couple on their Golden Wedding Anniversary, but I thought that, after having been together so long, with all of the ups and downs marriage brings over that time, that they would be able to laugh at an opera that accuses women of being fickle and doesn't exactly show men in the kindest of lights, either. So, on Saturday evening, Wendel and Thaïs Pilger joined me at the Keller Auditorium for the opera's closing night. They had dressed to the nines and turned up bang on time and looking maaahvellous!

Metropolitan Opera

There was something I should have mentioned about last Saturday's performance of Simon Boccanegra that I omitted. Most importantly, the role of Gabriele Adorno was sung by tenor Marcello Giordani, a singer who is having a tremendous career, not just at the Met but worldwide, and seems to be getting better and better. Why does that have anything to do with us? Because, gentle readers, Giordani made his US debut with our very own Portland Opera in 1988, playing the role of Nadir in Bizet's Pêcheurs de Perles. Didn't he do well? He obviously just needed something only Portland could give him.

News has issued from the Met that Peter Gelb has hired his predecesor, Joseph Volpe, (seen above with Beverley 'Bubbles' Sills), to undertake, on behalf of the Met Opera management, the negotiations with unions and other employees over fresh contracts. For a number of reasons this was not a ho-hum announcement. I could explain to you why that is the case, but Zach Woolfe has written a splendid article about it in The New York Observer, and I encourage you to read it. This is important stuff and Woolfe gives us some tremendous insights into the machinations at our premier opera house. I suspect Volpe is the perfect man for this job. He began life at the Met as a carpenter and worked his way up to being the boss of the whole shebang. Now, there's a guy who knows how to get along with people.