“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,” as one of those poet fellahs said, and the phrase might aptly refer to the range and variety of events this month as the arts season moves into top gear. The field, (to continue the agricultural metaphor), includes grand opera, a return of Dracula at Actors Theatre, Fanfara at the Louisville Orchestra and a danced version of The Magic Flute from the Louisville Ballet — all amidst much popular fare, including Oliver! at Iroquois Amphitheatre and Kenny Rogers at the Palace.
Back to the Future
Puccini’s final masterpiece, Turandot, was the first grand opera presented at the then-new
Turandot was the swan song of opera as popular entertainment. Many great operas were written after Turandot’s posthumous premiere in 1926 (Puccini died of throat cancer 18 months earlier), but never again would the hit arias of a La Scala premiere become the pop tunes and barrel-organ fodder of the general public. Puccini capped a brilliant career of box-office blockbusters, including La Boheme, Tosca and Madama Butterfly, with this very melodic retelling of the story of the Icy Princess who can only be thawed and won by a prince who will answer her three riddles. Failure means decapitation. A prince whose name we don’t know accepts the challenge to win Turandot’s far-from-tiny but still-frozen hand. He answers the riddles correctly, but then the lady turns uncharacteristically kittenish and says she does not want to marry him. In one of those moments that make you wonder if any tenor should be allowed out without his keeper, he announces that if she can discover his name before dawn, he will agree to get the chop, so to speak.
Word goes out that “none shall sleep” — nessun dorma — and the phrase gives rise to the opera’s big, hit tune. This wonderful tenor aria has been, since the World Cup Final in
Pianist Howard Shelley
Birth of a Blockbuster
Not to short-change Fanfara, the Louisville Orchestra’s greatly re-energized season opener — (this year on Sept. 7 at 8:30 p.m. and featuring pianist Howard Shelley in Rachmaninoff’s thunderous Third Piano Concerto) — the Orchestra event which most catches the eye this month is a Salute to John Williams’ 75th Birthday. For several reasons, Williams should be thought of as one of the great composers of the 20th century and probably has given more happiness to more people than any composer since Gershwin. If you accept my theory — and millions (well, a half-dozen or so) do — that opera was the great art form of the 19th century and cinema the great art form of the 20th, then Williams has a claim with a credit list of movie scores including ET, Home Alone, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Superman. He is also a mentor and fri/files/storyimages/to Bob Bernhardt, so the Louisville Orchestra’s long-serving pops conductor will bring special resonance to this tribute, which will be given for one night at the W. L. Lyons Brown Theatre (Sept 20) and two nights later at the region’s best concert hall, the Ogle Center at Indiana University Southeast. For the Brown concert call 584-7777 and for the Ogle call 361-3100. Bernhardt reminds us that Williams has become the ultimate crossover artist; his sublimely melodic theme for the Spielberg hit movie Schindler’s List is now routinely and regularly offered by soloists and recitalists as a feature or encore at classical concerts.
Final Thought
We should be cautious in the use of the phrase “world-class,” which can be overused from a civic pride and wishful thinking standpoint. And nowhere more than in the arts. But a future event at the Speed Museum catches the eye. An exhibition planned for next fall to coincide with Breeders’ Cup, entitled “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,” will show a fabulous collection of American masterpieces from Yale that have never in their 200 years left New Haven. First presented here, the artworks will then be shown in New York. Giddy stuff.