The greatest divas...

According to that infamous source, Wikipedia, a diva (/ˈdiːvə/; Italian: [ˈdiːva]) is a celebrated female singer; a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and by extension in theatre, cinema and popular music. The meaning of diva is closely related to that of prima donna.

The Urban Dictionary really cuts to the chase:  (1) female version of a hustler; (2) a bitchy woman that must have her way exactly, or no way at all. often rude and belittles people, believes that everyone is beneath her and thinks that she is so much more loved than what she really is. Selfish, spoiled, and overly dramatic.

Pop music has appropriated the phrase, resulting in some of the negative traits above.  There exists a top ten list of pop divas, generated by the entertainment section of about.com.  These artists include:

1.  Mariah Carey
2.  Cher
3.  Celine Dion
4.  Aretha Franklin (she would probably rank no. 1 on my list)
5.  Whitney Houston
6.  Janet Jackson (really now?)
7.  Madonna
8.  Diana Ross (with no help from the Supremes?)
9.  Barbra Streisand (again, I'd rank her higher)
10.  Donna Summer

In the opera world, although there are definitely traits from the latter definition found in the former, for the sake of our discussion, we'll stick with the prima donnas (of whom I have to hope will leave a more lasting impression upon the history of music.

The Bilerico Project, with a guest post by Michael Knaapen, offers the Ten Greatest Opera Divas in reverse order, making for much more drama!

"Bubbles" with the muppets. Opera can be cool!

10.  Beverly Sills:  "Not only was her voice beautiful and refined, but she used an understated performance technique to get us rooting for her, to bring us along."

9.  Diana Damrau:  "Another high-flyer, this dynamic dame gives us hope for the future. Her voice knows no bounds - she can sing to the rafters, open the ceiling, launch into the stratosphere - and we love her for it."

8.  Anne Sofie von Otter:  "Surprised? Well, don't be. One of those rare operatic mezzos with the depth and breadth to do it all, Von Otter is also one of the most unique, majestic interpreters of art song (opera's little brother)"

7.  Mado Robin:  "What can I say? I love freaks, and this petite French ingenue was a bit of a freak. She could sing - not just whistle, but really sing, with spin and beauty and everything - higher than just about anybody."

6.  Cecelia Bartoli:  "She's an interpretive genius, conveys a love of singing while she's doing it, and

Cecelia: something about those Italian women...

sings high and low. Bartoli also spins through ludicrously dense and rapid fioratura like it ain't no thang, and we love a girl who tears through coloratura."

5.  Birgit Nilsson:  "Everything about this woman was big: big head, big personality, big voice. But her outsize voice made room for a universe of nuance in every performance."

4.  Joyce DiDonato:  "Another grande dame of today, DiDonato embodies everything we love about opera - its outsize character, its grandeur, its emotional depth, its elegance - with the matching set of brains, body, and voice."

3.  Leontyne Price:  "is the kind of old-school diva that we love to love. When her jaw swung open and she graced you with the most crystalline mellifluousness, you were utterly transported, not into a story, but into sheer musical bliss.ceis the kind of old-school diva that we love to love. When her jaw swung open and she graced you with the most crystalline mellifluousness, you were utterly transported, not into a story, but into sheer musical bliss."

Callas: to me, almost a caricature of herself...

2.  Maria Callas:  "Opera was her life, and her life was an opera - a true diva! And when La Divina was at her best, she could sing circles around anybody else."

1. Edita Gruberová:  "is a force of nature: strong as a hurricane, deft as a zephyr. Her coloratura is unmatched, her acting a joy, and her artistic genius without parallel."

There seem to be more than a few missing, although that is often the result of a self-imposed "top ten."  Still, is there not room for some "honorable mentions"? which must include:

Joan Sutherland (who, to me, defines the word "diva")

Fredericka von Stade
Renata Scotto
Renata Tebaldi
Montserrat Caballé
Elizabeth Schwarzkopf

AND Marilyn Horne, Renee Fleming (I'll admit it; I'm in love with her!), Kirsten Flagstad.....

Missing in Action: my "beloved" Renee

Alas......to each his/her own.

Coming soon....the long-awaited 2013 Huey's!!!!!

The greatest opera of them all?

THE Met

Returning from a lengthy hiatus, I will be offering a number of "top" lists, culminating with the (drum roll please) the 3rd annual "Huey's"!






But back to business.  Anthony Craig, on the Grammophone blog, offers his top ten list of the greatest operas of them all.  (I cannot disagree with #1.)

1. Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro
2. Verdi: Falstaff
3. Verdi: Otello
4. Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier
5. Puccini: Madama Butterfly
6. Britten: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
7. Wagner: Die Meistersinger
8. Delius: A Village Romeo and Juliet
9. Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie
10. Verdi: Simon Boccanegra

Three Verdi's and not an American in sight.  We certainly have some work to do.

The Guardian came up with their own list, but it came in at 50-strong and only in chronological order (bloody chickens!)

Stephen McLeod's Listmania offering of Amazon's 10 Best Opera CDs has a Callas Lucia on top with (according to the author) "The greatest achievement in the history of recorded music" (the Solti Ring) coming in third.

Next up:  the divas--with a few surprises.....

Honoring wind music's greatest generation

In 1998, NBC journalist Tom Brokaw wrote of those who have lived through the era of the Second World War, those he called the greatest generation. "At the end of the twentieth century the contributions of this generation would be in bold print in any review of this turbulent and earth-altering time. It may be historically premature to judge the greatness of a whole generation, but indisputably, there are common traits that cannot be denied. It is a generation that, by and large, made no demands of homage from those who followed and prospered economically, politically, and culturally because of its sacrifices. It is a generation of towering achievement and modest demeanor, a legacy of their formative years when they were participants in and witness to sacrifices of the highest order. They know how many of the best of their generation didn't make it to their early twenties, how many brilliant scientists, teachers, spiritual and business leaders, politicians and artists were lost in the ravages of the greatest war the world has seen."

If I am allowed to editorialize, the wind band movement has its own greatest generation, those composer who actually are closely aligned with Brokaw's assessment. These are composers whose achievements, had they not chosen to focus on works for the wind band, might be better known. Still, we owe each of them a debt of gratitude for sharing their time, talents, and compositions with us.

The upcoming concert of the Quad City Wind Ensemble pays homage to these significant contributors to our medium.

Howard Hanson, longtime faculty member of the Eastman School, is the earliest member of this

Howard Hanson

lineage and he penned several works for band, the most well known of which is Chorale and Alleluia. Our program opens with Hanson's Centennial March, written for the 100th anniversary of his home state's (Nebraska) admittance into the union. We are pleased to resurrect this long out-of-print work.

Clifton Williams

It was Howard Hanson who led Clifton Williams to write for the wind band rather than the orchestra, counseling Williams that he would get larger audiences and a larger range of organizations to perform his music in doing so. We offer Williams final work, written literally on his deathbed, Caccia and Chorale.

Lawrence Weiner is the least known of Hanson's disciples, having written only a handful of works; in actuality, I know of only two, including his lovely Air for Band. As lyrical as Frank Erickson's composition of the same name, it is more interesting harmonically. I have recently discovered that this little gem has been released by TRN Music. I hope it finds a place in the band repertoire.

Next comes the part of the lineage that sprang forth as students of Williams. Francis McBeth studied with Williams at the University of Texas, earning his master's degree in 1957. He would also spend time with his compositional "grandfather" at the Eastman School. McBeth felt that his work Through Countless Halls of Air, composed for the US Air Force Band, firmly encapsulated his style and was, therefore his favorite piece. This is virtuosic music of the highest order with challenges for each player in the ensemble.

The death of John Barnes Chance--accidentally electrocuted before his 40th birthday--was among the

John Barnes Chance

most tragic losses to the band world. It seems as though everything he wrote for winds is landmark and possibly none more so than Incantation and Dance, amazingly enough his very first piece for the medium.

Arkansas native Steven Bryant studied with McBeth at Ouachita Baptist University before moving onto the Julliard School. He is part of a growing number of contemporary composers aligning with Hanson's vision that the wind band medium is probably more viable and the orchestra. First Light, a hauntingly beautiful depiction of the sunrise over an Italian village, is among his most evocative works.

The program also includes the winner of the Charles B. DCamp Scholarship, Caitlin Thom, a student at Pleasant Valley High School. She rose to the top over the largest number of entrants in recent memory and will be presenting the thrilling third movement of Eric Ewazen's Marimba Concerto.

But to close the performance, we come full circle to Francis McBeth's transcription of Howard Hanson's famous Symphony No. 2, "Romantic." This work has become known as the "Interlochen Theme" as it closes all summer concerts at the famed music school.

Full circle: McBeth salutes Hanson

For more information on this and other activities of the Quad City Wind Ensemble, visit us on Facebook or our web page: www.qcwindensemble.org

Resolutions

Bill Eddins, who maintains the Sticks and Drones blog, has offered a fairly extensive list of do's and don't's for those of us in the music industry. Not only does he take aim at Boards and Administrators, but also at musicians and conductors (which he intentionally separates).

The complete list can be found here, but I offer a few of my favorites (with my own comments in bold):

Particularly contemporary for the NJ Symphony: do NOT hire a resume-padding pedophile as your orchestra President. This cannot end well.

Aimed surely at the Minnesota Orchestra: do NOT embark on multi-million dollar renovations of your hall while simultaneously complaining about how much ‘the help’ are paid.

For all of us: do NOT allow your Music Director to program Overture/Concerto/Symphony for an entire season. Fire that person.

do NOT hire a Music Director based on one set of concerts. Ever. The only thing worse than making a rush choice is making a bad rush choice. Take your time. You are turning the reins of your orchestra over to someone who needs to be able to go from Bach to (God forbid) Bieber and everything inbetween. And fergodsakes, please make sure that person is at least old enough to shave. (an interesting thought).

To musicians: do NOT be one of those people who show up, sit in the back of the section with a sour look on your face, and complain all day about your job. No, for the vast majority of us this music thing is not an easy life but it beats the hell out of working deep sewer. People pay us to make music. We are running the greatest scam in the history of the world.

do NOT put anyone into your orchestra who cannot play Mozart. Period.

To Conductors: do NOT constantly program overture/concerto/symphony. If you do, you deserve to be fired.

do NOT become Music Director of 5 orchestras simultaneously. One is enough. Pay attention to that one and do your job well. It was good enough for Ormandy, it should be good enough for you.

For the greater good: DO love what you do. If you don’t love it, get out. Please. Music is too beautiful to be taken for granted.

Reflecting on the dissertation, part 1

I am slated to complete my doctoral research, which has been dramatically altered, this semester.  The original project was intended to be the creation of a critical edition of the fourth symphony of Portuguese composer, Joly Braga Santos.  However, events in my personal life as well as the general upheaval in the composer's native land, have proven to make that an impossible task.  Thus, I have changed the project into a conductor's guide to the Variaciones Concertantes of Alberto Ginastera.  Much of the "descriptive material" is completed and now I find myself reflecting on the actual process that goes into the study of any score.

These days it seems as though there are as many texts on conducting as there are conductors.  Still, a limited number of these are considered to be the "Bibles" of the profession.  These include Elizabeth A. H. Green's The Modern Conductor and The Grammar of Conducting by Max Rudolf.  There are few who would discount the impact that both texts have had on subsequent generations of the wielders of the baton, amateur and professional (or those of us who try to straddle both worlds).  Still, while many of these texts are long on technique, most are lacking in more than a cursory presentation of what could be the most important part of the conductor's art:  the actual study of the score.

Green, in its seventh incarnation (released in 2004 by Mark Gibson nine years following Ms. Green's death) devotes a great deal of time, effort (and pages) to technical aspects.  Part I: "Technique" encompasses fully 140 of the approximately 215 pages of text.  Part II, which is entitled "Score Study" actually includes little in the way of significant instruction a comprehensive approach to the score.  Chapters include:

• Clefs and Transpositions (maybe I'm a dolt, but aren't those a given?)
• Instrumental Conducting: Orchestra and Band Scores (discusses more the structure of these)
• Choral Conducting (my pet-peeve, as though the approach to a choral score is any different than any other kind of score.  My motto Conducting is conducting).
• Applied Musicianship: Orchestra, Band, Chorus (and this mean?)
• Conductor as Collaborator: Concertos and Operas.
• Memorizing the score (I certainly wish that there was little emphasis placed upon this "skill."  Some of us have the ability; some of us don't.  I conduct certain pieces in my personal repertoire without looking at the score, but it is always there).  Of course we have Toscanini to blame for this but his insistence on memorization was born out of necessity: his eyesight was so bad that he couldn't read the score on the podium!

The most profound thoughts on score study in Green are actually found in the opening essay by the late Philadelphia Orchestra Conductor, Eugene Ormandy, entitled "The Art of Conducting."  Herein the author separates the "art" into three parts: personal study, rehearsal and performance.  And he approaches these concepts in a concise and cogent two pages.  Besides a knowledge of the relationships of the notes on the page, we are reminded to continually understand works within the context of their time (Ormandy uses the Eroica Symphony as an example. We are told to listen and study objectively, remembering Richard Strauss's dictum, "...You are making music not for your own pleasure but for the joy of your listeners."

An examination of Rudolf, now in its third edition (1994) notes a completely different text than "my father's"--actually my own--Grammar of Conducting.  Whereas the original was, in the words of the author, more of a "primer," the book is now "a general guide and source of pertinent information."  It is now divided into four sections, with a significant amount of material aimed toward study and interpretation.

Part III: "Execution and Performance," focuses on:

• Score Study and the Preparation of Orchestra materials (no delineation of band music here).
• Rehearsal Techniques
• Opera and Choral Works with Orchestra

The entirety of Part IV is devoted to Interpretation and Style and includes:

• Aspects of interpretation
• Choice of Tempo
• Performance Practice 
• Aspects of Musical Style

Which is the better?  It would seem as though Rudolf has surpassed Mme. Green in the "score study" department, but still, her contributions to our art cannot be discounted.

One thing that I have learned today is that I need to visit the revised Grammar.  There is much more there than in the old.  I may actually learn something.

Thursday Thoughts

The $50 million lobby for a locked-out orchestra

In the outside world:  the music has died in the Twin Cities...

Orchestras here and abroad remain on the brink.  Both the the mighty (I insist) Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra have locked out their players due to financial issues all while the former spends $50 million on a new lobby for Orchestra Hall.  Drew McManus has written extensively in his Adaptistration blog about the mess, including a down to the word analysis of the proposed master agreement (the red line version).  Recently Bill Eddins, in his Sticks and Drones, has offered his final words on the matter.

To the Minnesota Orchestra Association (management), he states that they must reverse their current path and,

1. Fire the Executive Director and immediately re-open negotiations with the musicians with the help of an independent arbitrator; or
2. Resign en masse.

To the players of the Minnesota Orchestra, he offers,

If neither of the above actions happen then I fear that your careers as true artists with this particular organization are over. Those of you who can leave, leave, whether by retirement, audition, or whatever other method is open to you. There may still be a paycheck here at the M.O. but there is little doubt in my mind that it would be soul-sucking.

To music director Osmo Vanska:

....if the board does not do a volta-face then the only way for you to keep your artistic honor is to resign as Music Director of this orchestra. There will certainly be nothing left for you here but an utterly demoralized collection of unhappy and disgruntled people looking for a way out. Your artistic vision will always be 2nd place to the smooth functioning of the “corporation.” You have no need to be a part of this. You are better than this.

(Eddins is Music Director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and a former assistant conductor with the Chicago Symphony.  He is currently a resident of the Twin Cities.)

* * * * * * * * * *

Robert and Clara

Norman Lebrecht has reviewed Martin Geck's new biography of Robert Schumann in the Wall Street Journal.  His comments can be found here.

Who couldn't be drawn to a text described thus?

The marriage produced eight children and a fresh set of romantic stereotypes—of a couple united in tender devotion and tempestuous passion. No musical marriage is so exhaustively chronicled. The Schumanns kept a joint diary with alternate entries, marking with an f-like symbol the nights they made love. The diaries were written to be read by posterity.

* * * * * * * * * * 

Closer to home and around the dinner table on Sunday evening...

Following an extremely successful (in terms of both quality and size of audience--our largest in six years!) Quad City Wind Ensemble concert, many of us gathered for a post-performance meal.  Discussion eventually turned toward local musical matters, including the operations of several of the area's regional orchestras.  Two of the ensembles in question appear to be cramming their rehearsal and performance schedules into fewer days, causing more than a bit of angst from the players.  The management/music directors from these ensembles refuse to accept that both orchestras glean musicians from the same pool.  Whenever someone is not available (because of a service with the other), the orchestra simply hires someone else on the sub list.  The end result is an orchestra that never has the same players (and it's not even close) from concert to concert.

One of the music directors maintains a permanent residence far from the orchestra's base and seems to be using his home (and the musicians around it) as a potential pool for additional players.  Of course, one must take into account the amount of money the orchestra is paying for mileage (I don't know the distance, but can vouch that it is more than a six-hour drive!) rather than staying closer to home.  And this from an orchestra that was unhappy with its previous Music Director because he lived less than three hours away!  I don't understand....maybe I'm not supposed to.

* * * * * * * * * *

The funding is in from (I can't recall whom) and we are proceeding with plans for our "all women composers" QCWE concert on March 3.  The program will include the following:

Ann McGinty:  To Keep Thine Honor Bright 

            

Jennifer Higdon:  Oboe Concerto, featuring our outstanding principal oboe, Mark Fitkin

Nancy Galbraith: Danza de los Duendes 

Tania Leon:  Alegre 

Shelley Hanson: Dances with Winds

I.               Gaida

II.             Irish Star

III.           Serbian Dance

Julie Giroux:  Vigils Keep

I remain continually excited about the prospects for this concert as well as our April closer, a tribute to the "greatest generation" of wind band composers.  Stay tuned for more information as the days draw nigh.

* * * * * * * * * *

That's enough thinking for one Thursday.  I have orchestra parts to bow.

My Musical Moments

Arthur Rubenstein

Arts critic Anthony Tomassini (he of the infamous list of greatest composers) has begun a new series in the New York Times, found here.  In it he discusses (in print and with a continuing video) those musical moments forever etched in his mind and heart.  His first example is a brief phrase in Chopin's G-minor Ballade (as performed on LP by Arthur Rubenstein):

"The ballade opened with a forceful line that began in the low register of the piano and rose up the keyboard in octaves, as if making some grim declaration. At the peak of the ascent the line twisted into a soft plaintive turn, delivered in two halting phrases.

Then something stunning happened, just for a moment: a short gesture, a softly sighing three-note melodic fragment landing on a dissonant-seeming chord that at first sounded as if it were wrong. Yet the harmony lingered, and the pungency of the clashing notes was strangely beautiful, almost comforting. This led into what seemed the saddest melody I had ever heard. The main business of the ballade had started.

I remember how powerfully I reacted to that moment with the sighing phrase. I still get shivers when I hear it or play it."

Tomassini goes on to state (and I completely agree) that these moments do not have to be viscerally thrilling or climactic.  In fact, it might very well be the absence of these factors that more completely imprints in our psyche.

For me, I can never forget the first time I ever heard Guiseppe Giordani's Caro Mio Ben.  Of course, it had yet to become a kind of classical "top 40" hit then.  I remember the performance as if it was yesterday, sung in our old choir room at Grand Ledge High School.  I fell in love with that singer that day.  I never told her of it, even though we did date for a little while our junior year.  I acted like an idiot; she found another and they're still very happily married today.

But from my own conducting experiences I can recount at least two moments that, for me, are monumental musical moments.

Gustav Holst's E-flat Suite (Op. 28a) is one of the cornerstones of the band literature.  There remains a fair amount of debate in the wind world about which of his two suites is better.  I believe that the E-flat is, due in no small part to the composer's manipulation of a tiny motive in structuring the themes in each of the three movements.  In the third movement, the opening theme of the march and the tune of the trio come together in astounding counterpoint.  At measure 130, I conduct the passage differently than almost any other performance I've heard, allowing the "Land of Hope and Glory" tune to shine through without a break in the phrase.  I've led the work dozens of times (at least) but this moment gives me shivers--and sometimes before the fact.

My other "moment" (at least for today) is from Richard Strauss's Serenade, Op. 7.  At m. 71, he writes an awe-inspiring climactic phrase to begin to close off the work's exposition.  The kicker is that he employs only seven of his thirteen instruments:  four horns, two bassoons, and contrabassoon.  The combination of sounds cannot be described....

Perhaps I will write as Tomassini has and make this a continuing series.