Show Review - Peabody’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)… just like an NYC opera

Thanks to our newest contributor, J. Varrone for this review of Peabody's performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute.

From March 12 until March 15, 2008, the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University performed Mozart’s The Magic Flute, held at 7:30pm each night in the conservatory’s Friedberg Hall. The entire opera was performed in German and featured students of the graduate and undergraduate level. With a sell-out performance each night I was glad to have purchased my tickets early, especially for Wednesday’s opening performance. Having seen several renditions of The Magic Flute prior to this one, I was eager to see Peabody’s take on Mozart’s renowned opera.
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A little about its history: premiering in Vienna’s Theater auf der Wieden on September 30, 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) was one of his last opera’s composed and performed before his death in December. It was written as a Singspiel, a style of opera that includes both spoken dialogue and singing, and is based on a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. Comprised of two Acts and featuring a variety of folk-like songs, The Magic Flute is reminiscent of a children’s fairy tale. And as with any fairy tale, there is a happy ending… a contrast to any ending normally found in opera. Because of this, The Magic Flute is appropriate for all ages.

Upon taking my seat in the audience I was immediately drawn to the simple set design, featuring a small runway-style platform with two sets of stairs. But hidden behind this platform was a screen that, as I would soon find out, displayed projected images of various backgrounds designed by several students at MICA. Being an admirer of art and the artistic interpretation of text and music, I was very impressed with this concept. The use of screens to change sets was a fantastic idea, requiring fewer stagehands and decreasing the amount of time spent to create the background. I was especially impressed with the screen used in Act I when we were first introduced to the Queen of the Night. The entire background was dark purple in color and had images that appeared to be glow-in-the-dark, and only the faces of the Queen of the Night and the three ladies were lit. Other screens were less dramatic, but the use of props added a certain element that made the scenes more realistic. Peabody’s choice and use of scenery was extremely effective and made me feel as though I was one with the scene, simply acting as a witness to Tamino’s trials and Pamina’s bouts of depression.

Having good scenery also requires a good cast, and Peabody was easily able to accomplish that. The roles were cast perfectly. I was very impressed with the level of professionalism of the performers, and from the crowd’s reaction it appears they were impressed as well. In my opinion, operas should be performed in the original language the libretto was written in… English translations are not my thing. For example, the Met performed The Magic Flute in 2004 and although they did a fantastic job with the sets and props, they failed to perform it in German. This greatly detracts from both the arias and the spoken dialogue. Peabody’s choice to perform The Magic Flute in German, with super-titles for us non-German speakers, was a wise choice.

When the opera ended and the performers took their last bows, I left Friedberg Hall and asked myself why people pay hundreds of dollars for NYC operas when we have great operas being performed right in our city. Great music of all genres exists in every city, and musicians will always need an audience. Having been a bass player in several jazz bands back in the day, I know the feeling. Definitely expand your horizons and check out a few other genres of music… you never know what it’ll amount to.

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Dub gets the academic treatment

Dub, born out of Kingston dance halls and soundclashes, will be the topic of an upcoming lecture at Peabody Conservatory. On Wednesday, February 6 Michael Veal, of Yale University, will give the free talk on the bass-heavy, reverbed-out reggae offshoot . And later that night a bunch of Peabody students, otherwise known as Soul Cannon (Baltimore's live hip hop band) hit the stage of the Talking Head.

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UPDATE: I have been obsessed with dub-step master Burial's 2007 LP Untrue lately. 3 tracks for your listening pleasure...--A.S.

Dub icons Lee "Scratch" Perry and Mad Professor



Soul Cannon







--Bez

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There's always room for cello...wait...what?

Why would Aural States review a classical recital? Why would we, a brand new blog, even bother with something that won't earn us indie/hipster/scenester cred?

Because Aural States is by music geeks, for music geeks.

If you're a dilettante more worried about having the tightest jeans at the show, than about the music, I can recommend other, more cholesterol rich Baltimore music blogs for you to visit that are probably much better at and more focused on getting you your fix. But if you take music seriously, and see it as more than just a signifier of you coolness, then this blog has something to offer you.

Classical music isn't as stuffy as you might think. An audiophile simply wants to hear good music, regardless of its genre or classification. And when you see a classical performance, you can be certain of one thing...shit will be done right.

We’ve thrown the old Adorno model of high art vs. low art out the window long ago. Pop/rock/electronic musicians have long had classical influences, as well as many contemporary classical musicians and composers looking to the pop world. Philip Glass wrote works based on Bowie's Heroes. Aphex Twin hangs out with Glass. Leonard Bernstein thought Brian Wilson was a genius. Jonny Greenwood's recent soundtrack for There Will be Blood bears the mark of Gorecki to be sure, and perhaps other 20th century European composers. Talk to anybody involved in anything experimental about Stockhausen, and they won't shut up. The point is that people listening to popular music can't simply dismiss classical music.

With that said, I recently got the chance to see Peabody faculty member Amit Peled perform the complete Beethoven cello sonatas. To me this was very exciting. I began playing cello when I was about seven. I’ve played most of the Beethoven cello sonatas, though my performances were never worth much notice. But going beyond my personal involvement with the instrument, this recital allowed the listener to hear (and see) Beethoven’s progress and development writing for an instrument over the course of nearly 20 years.

All 700 seats of Peabody’s Freidberg Concert Hall were filled, though some of those seats were taken up by conservatory student’s cello cases (and when bows alone can cost well into the tens of thousands of dollars, it’s understandable wanting to keep a close eye on you instrument). People were visibly excited, if not just to see someone complete the marathon performance of going through all the sonatas.

Mr. Peled, accompanied by Alon Goldstein, took the stage. The first two sonatas are not very strong pieces, and there isn’t too much the performer can do about it. When Beethoven wrote the first two sonatas, he had no understanding of how to exploit the cello’s strengths. Beethoven stuck to what he knew, so the focus of the first two remained the piano, with the cello playing little more than a glorified continuo.

During the first sonata, Mr. Peled had an embarrassing, though common, mistake for cellists—his endpin kept slipping. The endpin is the pointed metal rod at the base of the cello, and it supports all of the weight. Mr. Peled couldn’t find a notch in the floor keep to the endpin in place, so he supported the cello instead by holding the body between his knees—like a baroque cello, or a viola da gamba.

Before beginning the second sonata, Mr. Peled found a knick in the floor and readjusted his chair.

“I always tell my students to find the hole before the recital,” he joked.

For my money, sonata No. 3 was the highlight of the whole night. This is when Beethoven finally understood what to do with the cello. The first movement opens with the cello playing alone in the lower register. Sonata No. 3, and the scherzo movement in particular, work to the advantages of the cello. The themes are muscular and resonating. Mr. Peled’s approach was very physical, very forceful. Horsehairs were snapping all over the place.

In the last two sonatas the dynamic between Mr. Peled and Mr. Goldstein became apparent. At this point in Beethoven’s writing the interplay between the cellist and pianist becomes (and this will sound trite and cliché, but it’s true) a dialog.

It can be said that the first two sonatas were piano pieces that just happen to have cello included, the third is definitely a cello piece, but the final two sonatas treat the two instruments as equals, as partners. To have seen two tremendous musicians locked into this conversation was amazing.

Going into the final work, adrenaline was pumping through both musicians, but Mr. Peled paused and began to speak. Before he would get a word out, an amped Mr. Goldstein hammered the opening chord. Realizing what he had done he completed the cadence. Everyone laughed. After three hours of intense concentration, a little humor to break the strain is fine. Mr. Peled dedicated the final sonata to his students. His level of energy, and the audience’s too, were remarkably high.

I thought sitting through the entire performance would be draining, but I left feeling invigorated. This is the effect of great music. --Bez

Jacqueline du Pré playing Scherzo from Beethoven's Cello Sonata No. 3

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