Favorite Pianist

Check out this picture of Skelly the pianist jamming out to some tunes of the 1800's. He's got a new gig at a haunted house out in the western suburbs of Chicago, and I'm a pretty big fan of his. Rumor is that he also knew Scott Joplin.

Happy Halloween!

Iphigenie en Tauride

Last Saturday I attended Lyric Opera's staging of Iphigénie en Tauride at the Civic Opera House. Susan Graham offered the audience an outstanding Iphigénie, who is a high priestess tasked with killing any strangers captured in Tauris. If you are not familiar with the opera, it is one of the more prominent roles for mezzo-soprano in operatic literature. Ms. Graham had such wonderful control in all registers and gave a wonderful rendition of the classical role. There's a great writing by Susan Graham that is contained within this publication [local copy] in which she explains her thoughts that Gluck naturally bridges the gap between Mozart and Berlioz, thereby bridging classical and romantic music. If you get a chance, read that article.

Lyric's staging was very minimalistic, using water and lighting effects against a black stage and backdrop. There was no scenery to speak of in this production, and only near the end of the opera does the stage setting change. However, I enjoyed the minimal setting that was presented, and I felt that the stage setting was perfect for this dark, ominous opera. In retrospect, the staging of this opera was strikingly similar to the way Greek tragedy was presented, and I'm assuming this was done purposefully.

Iphigénie is fairly light in it's percussion requirements; only cymbals, triangle, field drum, and timpani are used. The battery of instruments all perform within the first act of the opera and depicts Turkish music which was normally offered by the Janissary bands. Only the timpanist plays the full opera,although in a limited capacity.

If you are able to attend this opera, I recommend it highly. It's also a good "beginner" opera as it isn't very long and the dialogue is fairly straight forward.

Drums on the Brain

The CSO had this very interesting banner ad on the Chicago Tribune website. Seems like someone enjoyed the concert enough to have drumming on their brain! Click on the link to enlarge it.