Unheralded Tasks in the World of Music
The deeply moving Sunday New York Times story about a man and his cello recalls how Bernard Greenhouse, playing a replica of his Strad at age 95, failed to recognize the difference from the cello he had used all his life.
Just as this column tried to shed light on the neglected role of ushers, it’s time now to deal with memories of transporting artists along with their instruments. It is a lowly task, but “somebody has to do it.” (I invite suggestions of topics about other unknown foot soldiers in the trenches of performing arts.)
The Greenhouse story was forwarded by Kensington classical-music fan, donor, and volunteer László Somogyi. He is the husband of medal artist Marika Somogyi and father of opera executive Peter Somogyi.
Forwarding the Times story, Somogyi wrote: “It reminds me how we attended performances of the Beaux Arts trio many times, when they played at UC Berkeley almost every year. In fact, I had Greenhouse and the cello in my car. I was a volunteer for the UC Berkeley concert series for picking up visiting artists at the airport.”
Another memory is of picking up Nathan Millstein at the airport. As an old Russian, he refused to carry credit cards, paying only with cash. The hotel clerk of course did not know who he was, and refused to check him in without a credit card, even when Millstein offered a cash deposit and told him that the violin in his hand was worth more than the entire block. We ended up giving my credit card to vouch for him. Marika got carried away and invited him for dinner — and he accepted.Another story about artists interfacing with the public from the great baritone Thomas Allen, who made note of it in a biography of him:Millstein’s long-time accompanist was a French pianist named Pludemacher, who came along to the dinner. Years later, in Paris, we were purchasing train tickets to go out to the Monet estate in Givernay, and Pludemacher was standing in-line at the same window to buy his train ticket. We happily recognized each other. I believe he was the only Frenchman we knew in Paris — what are the chances to meet him by this coincidence?
Geraint Evans in his biography recalls that when he first appeared at S.F. Opera, it was his first trip to America, and he was a bit worried about getting around. A fellow singer on the plane told him not to worry because in San Francisco someone always will be waiting for him at the airport.
Indeed, he was welcomed by a board member upon arrival. He was impressed, and acknowledged the city’s (and the company’s) welcome.
Allen, whose main hobby was bird watching, arrived in Dallas, and a board member was waiting for him at the airport. He drove him to the hotel, and told Allen that next day he won’t have any rehearsal yet, perhaps he would like to do sightseeing. Allen answered that he would like to see some local birds. The host said, ‘OK, I will take you tomorrow morning.’Next morning, he showed up bringing two guns with him. So Allen learned that in Texas seeing birds means shooting them.
A Tchaikovsky Onegin to a Different Music
It’s been a long time that I’ve been following dance and dancers, so I had some idea about what hard work it is — daily classes, rehearsals in the morning, performances at night, all in relentless pursuit of a backbreaking physical routine that few professional athletes can endure.
Even so, talking with San Francisco Ballet’s Rubén Martín Cintas last week about his upcoming portrayal of Onegin in John Cranko’s ballet, I was floored by his reply to the question when rehearsals for the season (opening Jan. 27) began.
July. July! Five months of intensive preparations. Who else does that — singers, baseball players, football players? (maybe the new miracle Forty-Niners ...)
Martín (he has added his mother’s name to his own, in the Spanish manner, but only when she started complaining about the success of “Rubén Martín”) thinks nothing of it. He had a fine vacation back home in Reus, Spain, when the last season ended.
“We had May and June off to rest and recharge batteries. No dancing, just stretching and some cross training, and then in July, back here and start daily work.”
Martín will partner Yuan Yuan Tan’s Tatiana in the San Francisco premiere of Cranko’s 1965 Onegin. They will alternate with three other pairs to fill the role during the Jan. 27–Feb. 3 run in the Opera House.
Cranko (1927–1973), the famed late director of the Stuttgart Ballet, used Tchaikovsky’s music, but not from the opera. It is a compilation from several of the composer’s works, none from Eugene Onegin.
The story is the same, both opera and ballet being based on Alexander Pushkin’s 1832 novel in verse (389 stanzas of iambic tetrameter), about thwarted love and challenged honor. Pushkin experienced both, especially the early 19th-century way of defending honor: He fought 29 duels, finally falling victim to one at age 37.
For those who missed so far both Pushkin and the opera, Onegin is “a dandy from Saint Petersburg, about 26, an arrogant, selfish and world-weary cynic.” He rejects the pure and passionate love of young Tatiana, only to fall in love with her years later when she is already married. If you don’t know the plot, going beyond that initial setup would be a spoiler.
Martín, whom you may remember him as the dancer in Mark Morris’ Joy Ride, wearing a gold lamé costume, is thrilled with the assignment “to develop a role from beginning to end, to be seen here for the first time.”
Coached by Cranko specialist Jane Bourne, in San Francisco to stage the production, Martin is deeply involved with the character of Onegin — “coldish, calculating, trying to keep feelings inside, then everything coming together in an explosion.”
Cranko was born in South Africa, started his dancing and then his choreographing career in London, finally making his mark as the pioneering director of the Stuttgart Ballet. His other major full-length works, Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew, have been seen — and acclaimed — in San Francisco before, leaving only Onegin as being unfamiliar to local audiences.
Walter Johnson
Walter Johnson, a veteran San Francisco Labor Council official, died last week after suffering a heart attack. He was 87.Carl Hall writes in the Media Workers Guild newsletter:
Mr. Johnson, a lifetime member of the UFCW, was a ferocious defender of worker rights and civil rights whose dignified bearing and droll humor never wavered.Nora Heiber, AGMA area representative, said of Johnson, “He was one of the most beloved of San Francisco union leaders and offered invaluable support to AGMA whenever it was needed.”“He was the ideal witness,” Duane Beeson, the veteran Oakland labor lawyer, said Friday. “He had a completely accurate memory. He was always truthful. But he had an irrepressible sense of humor, and invariably, during the middle of his answer, he would slip in something completely outrageous. But for some reason the judge would always allow it.”
He liked to needle members of the Media Workers Guild as “intellectuals,” but during the 1994 San Francisco newspaper strike, he was the smartest one on the picket lines. He seemed to know more about Puccini than the opera critics.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday in Grace Cathedral.
Zambello Nuptials
San Francisco Opera and Washington National Opera Artistic Advisor, Glimmerglass General and Artistic Director (taking a deep breath), S.F. Opera Ring director, etc., etc. Francesca Zambello tied the knot last month. The news is just beginning to circulate.
Says a well-known society website:
It seems belated congratulations are in order to Francesca Zambello, who, in between finalizing arrangements for her Wild West Ring production to travel to Washington, D.C., found time to get married to Faith Gay.
Vows were said December 22 in Cooperstown; in attendance were (among others) Deborah Voigt, Kirstin Chavez, Beth Clayton, and Patricia Racette.
The Gondoliers Punt Into the City
Yes, they do. Punt. Nothing to do with football (or the Forty-Niners). Not “row.” No, using a pole to propel.
After the composer half of the Gilbert & Sullivan partnership (Arthur Sullivan) visited Italy in 1888, the next G&S operetta, The Gondoliers, appeared, complete with tarantella, saltarello, and under the obvious influence of Bellini and Donizetti. It takes place, of course, in Venice.
The Lamplighters present this very Italian musical work, all in the King’s English. When it premiered in London in 1889, the Queen Mother became one of its avid fans. Among the outstanding Lamplighters in the current production: Sonia Gariaeff and Elise Marie Kennedy.
Bring your poles to the YBC Novellus Theater, Jan. 20–22; if you miss it, float yonder to the Lesher Center for the Arts, in Walnut Creek, Jan. 27–29.
Long Beach Opera's Eye-Popping Season
Setting the piece during Argentina’s “Dirty War” illuminates powerful themes implicit in the work.
Sung in Spanish with English supertitles, performances will take place in the Warner Grand Theater in San Pedro.
Next up: a double-bill, March 11 and 17, of Poulenc’s The Breasts of Tiresias and Martinů’s Tears of a Knife.
Later in the year is Golijov’s Ainadamar, May 19 and 26; and finally, June 16 and 24, Michael Nyman’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
Bravo!
SQWONK cometh
Anna-Christina (“Annie”) Phillips is an S.F. Symphony publicist as well as a bass-clarinet player. In the latter capacity, she is calling attention to two notable fellow clarinetists who are coming to the Bay Area.They are SQWONK, consisting of Jonathan Russell and Jeff Anderle, directors of the Switchboard Music Festival, an all-day marathon of new music, to be held in the Brava Theater, on April 1.
Phillips’ opinion of her competitors: “They are pretty badass, and give unforgettable performances.” Evidence is available in their performance of the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, transcription by Russell.
The SQWONK tour includes San Francisco (Jan. 27, Old First, with The Living Earth Show and ClassiCool), Berkeley (Jan. 28, Subterranean Art House, with Amy X Neuberg and Solstice), and Palo Alto (Jan. 29, Unitarian Universalist Church, with Areon Flutes) — the music having been commissioned or transcribed specifically for these groups.