Photo by Ben Zadan
Long in coming, but impressive in scope and selections, the San Francisco Symphony's season-closing Britten centennial celebration offers three weeks of masterpieces from the composer, who was actually born on Nov. 22, 1913. Better late than ...
Among the highlights of the festival running June 12-29 are the ballet score The Prince of the Pagodas in a concert that also features Balinese dance and gamelan instruments; and the opera Peter Grimes, with Merola veteran Stuart Skelton in the title role.
The first series of concerts, conducted by MTT, present the ballet excerpts and Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2, with Gill Shaham, and feature Gamelan Sekar Jaya in the dance piece Legong Pengleb on June 12 and 14, and the instrumental Tabuh Pat Jagul on June 13 and 15.
Emiko Saraswati Susilo, director of the gamelan company (and daughter of founder Hardja Susilo), describes the two works:
Tabuh Pat Jagul is gorgeous, with melodic lines that are hauntingly beautiful. It is a reflection of the structure of the entire universe — the divine, the human, and the natural world. The piece is usually played lovingly in the temples of Bali, accompanied by the the priests' bells, quiet mantras, the scent of flowers and incense. When I play and hear Jagul, I feel that multi-faceted beauty and profound tranquility.Just saying Legong Pengleb makes my heart flutter. Pengleb means "to be set free," it is a true masterpiece of the Balinese kebyar repertoire. [Kebyar means "the process of flowering," and refers to the explosive changes in tempo and dynamics characteristic of the style.]
Our dancers traveled to Bali to study directly with the master teacher who reconstructed the work in 2010 — originally it was created in the early 20th Century, at a time when Indonesia was really pushing back against the Dutch colonial presence, and there was a growing awareness of the restrictions that young women faced in society and in their families.
The piece follows the journey of young women, beginning rather quietly and pensively. Through their persistence, cleverness and loving approach with their families, they attain the freedom that they long for, finally set free. The dance ends with tremendous energy and playful joy.
Photo by Clive Barda/ENO
In the Peter Grimes cast — along with other Merola/Adler alumni Elza van den Heever, Nikki Einfeld, Eugene Brancoveanu, John Relyea, and Kevin Langan — Skelton is returning to San Francisco with accolades for his performances around the world. He says of singing Britten's tragic antihero, which has become his signature role:
There are so many facets to Peter, but for me I think the standout is that combination of ethereal vocal writing for Peter as a visionary/dreamer and the visceral torment of Peter the outsider, the combative, obstinate, granite-like form. The challenge is finding the ragged edge of each, both dynamically and histrionically.It's good to be back in San Francisco with a role that is so deeply and permanently under my skin, a role that has taken me to some truly wonderful places and afforded me the opportunity to work with some absolutely wonderful colleagues.
I am looking forward to working with MTT again [they performed and recorded Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde together] because he is a musician's musician and a man of the theater, he has an innate understanding of and deep affection for Grimes.
SFS, despite my years next door in the War Memorial, is my musical home in San Francisco. I have always been welcomed to Davies Symphony Hall, and it's a special occasion to be here now with this absolute masterwork of 20th-century opera.