This Weekend Only, Two Of Nation's Capital's Classical Musical Institutions Celebrate John Adams's And Peter Sellars's American Musical Civilization

On Saturday afternoon at 1 PM, Sharon Rockefeller's Classical WETA-FM broadcasts, on a delayed basis, the Chicago Lyric Opera's production of John Adams's and Peter Sellars's Doctor Atomic.

On Sunday evening, Washington's superb Choral Arts Society, under Maestro Norman Scribner, performs, in the John F. Kennedy Center Concert Hall, John Adams's El Nino, with accompanying film by Peter Sellars.

Program notes to the contemporary oratorio (El Nino, that is) here.











Fortunately, the former Amerindian deer breeding park at Big Meadows (Virginia) was not used by the U.S. or U.S.S.R. militaries for testing nuclear warheads. The tree, above, was split by lightning; not nuclear weaponry.

Photo credit: (c) Mike Quinn. 2006. All rights reserved. With thanks.

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I apologize for failing to post regularly, recently. I have been tied up at a week- long international conference on improving the underlying economic and social concepts to international growth accounting statistics.

Dream

Thanks To Rostropovich & Michelle And Barack Obama's Chicago Lyric Opera, Sharon Rockefeller's WETA Forced To Broadcast Shostakovich #9 And John Adams

This month's NSO Showcase: May 7, 2008, 9 p.m.

A Tribute to Mstislav Rostropovich

Featured artists:

Mstislav Rostropovich, conductor
Mayu Kishima, violin

Featured music:

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 64
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5

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Chicago Lyric Opera Broadcasts

May 17 at 1:00pm

Chicago Lyric Opera

John Adams: Doctor Atomic

Conductor: Robert Spano

Cast:

J. Robert Oppenheimer / Gerald Finley
Kitty Oppenheimer / Jessica Rivera
Edward Teller / Richard Paul Fink
General Leslie Groves / Eric Owens
Robert Wilson / Thomas Glenn
Pasqualita / Meredith Arwady
Jack Hubbard / James Maddalena
Capt. James Nolan / Roger Honeywell

Plot summary:

Director Peter Sellars takes us to Los Alamos, New Mexico. It's 1945. Scientists are working on a top-secret project for the U.S. government: development of the A–Bomb. We're there for the frenzied three weeks before the blast, and we're there for the final countdown. We watch real people grapple with monumental moral and ethical dilemmas. Could "the gadget" ignite the world's atmosphere?

At the helm, the mercurial Robert Oppenheimer; plus a take-no-prisoners general and scientists — some hawks, some doves — racing for a "successful" conclusion — and unleashing the unfathomable.





















Gerald Finley stars as Robert Oppenheimer in the Peter Sellars-directed Doctor Atomic.

Hopi Zuni War God c. 1930

'A traditional Hopi Kachina of the Zuni Dark Warrior God of the Nadir. The piece is carved of Cottonwood root and painted with a combination of mineral pigments and poster paints of the era. The piece is adorned with turkey and pheasant feathers on the head and the ruff.'

An America beyond skin color and horrid and recurrent threats of nuclear obliteration?

Photo credits: (c) Terrence McCarthy/San Francisco Opera. All rights reserved. And (c) Sherwood, Spirits of America, Santa Fe, New Mexico. All rights reserved. With thanks.

Contemporary Classical Music Continues Slow March On Nation's Capital's Now Crumbling Conservative Classical Music Monoliths

eighth blackbird: The Only Moving Thing
May 13, 2008 at 7:30 PM
Terrace Theater, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Steve Reich Double Sextet
David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe [and choreographer Susan Marshall] singing in the dead of night

Tim Munro, flutes
Michael Maccaferri, clarinets
Matt Albert, violin & viola
Nicholas Photinos, cello
Lisa Kaplan, piano
Matthew Duvall, percussion

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PARKER STRING QUARTET
BORROMEO STRING QUARTET

Friday, May 16, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Library of Congress

The Parker String Quartet opens the program with György Kurtág’s Six Moments Musicaux, op. 44, commissioned for the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition which it won in 2005. The Borromeo Quartet will perform Bela Bartok's String Quartet No. 6 (1939).


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Choral Arts Society of Washington Sunday, May 18, 2008 | 7:30pm
Concert Hall, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

John Adams
El Niño

Norman Scribner, conductor
Children's Chorus of Washington
Joan Gregoryk, Artistic Director

Sharla Nafziger, soprano
Leslie Mutchler, mezzo-soprano
Christópheren Nomura, bass

Brian Cummings, countertenor
Paul Flight, countertenor
Steven Rickards, countertenor

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The Great Noise Ensemble: Learning to See
May 18, 2008 at 6:30PM
West Garden Court, National Gallery of Art

Armando Bayolo, conductor
Music by Bayolo, Chambers, Goins, Rudin, and White

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Sharon Rockefeller's Classical WETA-FM, in the Nation's Capital, celebrates the North Carolina and Indiana presidential primary elections with American Classical composer Arthur Foote's Piano Trio #1 (to be broadcast in its entirety at 11:17 PM).
















Oleg Kudryashov "Vsek Muchenikov (All Sufferers)," 1996, drypoint, watercolor and gouache, 42 x 67 in. (106.7 x 170.2 cm). Private Collection.

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..."Another Pushkin-related production is called "He who Believes, is Blessed…" based on the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin". The composition, created by graduates of the Russian Academy of Theater Art under the direction of Oleg Kudryashov, combines various things ranging from poetry reading - solo and in chorus - to eccentric, nearly circus numbers with changing clothes and different tricks. The production is filled with music: arias, romances, folk tunes. "School study often makes fresh perception of Pushkin impossible," says producer and teacher Oleg Kudryashov. "At first the students took the novel as something dead. Then, in my opinion, a real interest in Pushkin was awakened. Pushkin is a whole universe, an endless world. Finally the students realized that one could enjoy reading and listening to Pushkin in any epoch, that he is always wonderful. Our today's graduates, who live 170 years after the novel was written, seem to trust Onegin. They look upon the story of Onegin's dramatic life and belated love as if it all happened to them. They take the novel as a contemporary story about unfulfilled dreams and frustrated plans." ...

Source: Russian Culture Navigator

Image credit: (c) Oleg Kudryashov. All rights reserved. Image reproduction credit: Gene Shapiro Auctions, LLC. 2007. All rights reserved. With thanks.

Bogalay On My Mind ... (Or, Did or Did Not The World Change After December 26, 2004?)

What is all of this talk -- by an elite educated American -- of obliterating Iran with nuclear weapons?

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Bogalay is on the Ayeyarwady Delta, in the global political jurisdiction of Myanmar, close to the Andaman Sea.

December 26, 2004

Photo credit: (c) Associated Press. 2008. All rights reserved. With thanks.

Perfect Machines, Technically Speaking, With Versatility To Perform Works Like Prokofiev's Symphony No. 3 Or Scriabin's "Poem Of Ecstasy"

... "[Riccardo Muti] called the Chicago Symphony "a perfect machine," technically speaking, with the versatility to play huge works like Prokofiev's Symphony No. 3 or Scriabin's "Poem of Ecstasy" and to perform with the refined delicacy needed for Schubert." ...

Daniel Wakin "Muti Named New Director at Chicago Symphony" New York Times May 5, 2008

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And for the Other America?












Jacob Lawrence, The Migration Series (1940-41, Panel No. 1)
During World War I there was a great migration north by southern
African Americans. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 inches
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., Acquired 1942 © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The Great American Epic:
Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series
May 3-October 26, 2008

The complete 60-panel series, rarely seen in its entirely, will be on view until Oct. 26, 2008 exclusively at the Phillips Collection. Told through vivid patterns and colors, this masterpiece of narrative painting is the first ever produced on the great 20th-century exodus of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. The exhibition will take an in-depth look at Lawrence’s powerful interpretation of this significant moment in American history and examine how the story still resonates today.

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The Phillips Collection: Celebrating Responsible American Cultural Stewardship in Washington, D.C.

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Classical WETA-FM: Generally Celebrating Non-Responsible American Cultural Stewardship in Washington, D.C.

A one-off exception:

May 5, 2008: Concerts from Wolf Trap (Week 12 of 13)

Chopin: Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante in E-flat Major, Op. 22
Joyce Yang, piano

Paul Moravec: Tempest Fantasy
Winner 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music
Trio Solisti

Sadness, Beauty, And Lightness Convergence: Weekend Of Gubaidulina, Maciejewski, And Hakim ... And A Future Of A Jack Reilly Spiritual Oratorio

After N. left for work each day, I listened on Saturday morning to Sofia Gubaidulina's 'Saint John Passion and Saint John Easter'; and on Sunday morning to Roman Maciejewski's 'Missa pro defunctis - Requiem'.

I then attended the beautiful late afternoon organ recital, at the National Cathedral, of Naji Hakim performing his own works, and those of Franck and Messiaen. I was surprised that there appeared to be only about 200 persons in the audience on the beautiful Spring afternoon.

Late yesterday, I received notice that American composer Jack Reilly has been invited to give the UK premiere of his oratorio "The Light of the Soul" -- to be performed at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, Wales, April 20, 2009 during the college's 60th Anniversary Celebration.





















Erick van Egeraat builds National Library and National Bank of the Republic of Tatarstan - A New City Centre for Kazan, the third Capital of Russia

Erick van Egeraat has won the international competition for the National Library in the Republic of Tatarstan's capital, Kazan. The new National Library has a gross floor area of 81.000 m2 and is situated at the Tukay square on the South-Eastern edge of the city centre. Besides offering all traditional facilities of a state library, Erick van Egeraat wants to "invite citizens to explore and experience knowledge. The building provides a home to all modern ways of accessing information, but its flexible setup allows for future forms of working with knowledge, too." Erick van Egeraat designed the building as a covered extension of the city centre. A multi-functional, 18 metre-high atrium serves as a portal between the library and the city. "The building becomes part of the public domain, a portal between the city and the library, a place where the collective and cultural qualities of downtown spaces are combined." The entrance space can be meeting point, boulevard, gallery, living room, garden and educational facility at the same time. Embedded into a hill, the building continues the shape of the landscape and offers a park on top of the building. By linking the existing Hermitage Park, the new library park and the National Library to the adjacent Tukay square, Erick van Egeraat transforms the area into a vibrant hub of Kazan city life. Consequently, Erick van Egeraat proposes to extend the proposed site and allow for the development of the Headquarters of the National Bank, for high-quality offices, luxury apartments and retail. The project is a cornerstone in the urban redevelopment of Kazan and sets an example for other urban regeneration schemes throughout the Russian Federation."

Photos and text credit: (c) (EEA) Erick van Egeraat associated architects. 2007. All rights reserved. With thanks.

More Twentieth Century Architecture ... Hitler's [Gitler's] Bunkers (And The Briefcase) ... And Twentieth Century Architecture of Vinnytsya, Ukraine

Ruin's of Hitler's [Gitler's] Wolf's Lairs in Gierloz, Poland; and Vinnytsa/Stryzhavka, Ukraine.

[Click on images for enlargements.]

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Associated Press "Member of Failed Plot to Kill Hitler Dies at 90" New York Times May 2, 2008. ... [But Tom Cruise lives.]

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... "Nearly 10 German reconnaissance schools were situated near Vinnitsa [Ukraine], which allowed for controlling partisan and conspiracy movements. Not the least role was paid to the fact that the location of the town coincided with the way of the future Trans-European highway from Hamburg to Gotenland (as the Germans called Crimea). Some historians claim that Fuhrer followed the advice of 400 magicians and astrologer from the Institute of Occult Sciences, in Berlin, in the choice as the place of the [Eastern] headquarters." ...















An Art and a Secondary School in Vinnytsya, Ukraine, Future European Union.

[Click on images for enlargements.]

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Photos, text, and map credits: (c) Steve le Gassick. All rights reserved; © 2006 "Vinnitsatourist". Vinnitsa, Ukraine [photo and text]; and (c) Polish map of Hitler's Bunkers. All rights reserved. Wikimedia Commons. With thanks. [find map source]

Pan Cogito Reads The New York Times ... The Return Of Sad Friday

The Gallery of Modern Art at Columbus Circle, New York City, in 1964 and as I remember it from when I lived in NYC in the late 1970s (above); and as deconstructively remodeled into the Museum of Arts and Design, today (2008).

[I remember attending, with my mother, the opening day of the old American Crafts Museum, on West 53rd Street in NYC. I especially remember the beautiful and wonderful craft objects and the beautiful light oak flooring.]

Photo credits: Via New York Times. With thanks.

A Special Invitation To You, Dear Reader, To Picture America (But Not To Hear America)

[Click on image for enlargement.]

Restored Warner Theatre, Washington, D.C.
Free. Tickets required.
info@neh.gov or call 202-606-8400

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Your National Endowment for the Humanities invites you to Picture America.

Your National Symphony Orchestra invites you to Hear Aaron Copland's America.

Sharon Percy Rockefeller's Classical WETA-FM, so-called public radio in the Nation's Capital, denies you the opportunity to Hear American Classical Music.

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Please write to WETA President and CEO Sharon Percy Rockefellor and demand that WETA-FM restore American classical music to its programming:

Sharon Percy Rockefeller
President and CEO
WETA
2775 South Quincy St.
Arlington, VA 22206
tel 703.998.2600
fax 703.998.3401

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Image credit: (c) National Endowment for the Humanities. 2008.

May Day! May Day! ... Belarus Dictator Lukashenka Steps Up Anti-Democratic Campaign While Promising To Bring Belarus To Forefront Of World Nations

April 30, 2008

... "Belarusan dictator Lukashenka has also stepped up his campaign against pro-democracy activists.

On April 22, a Belarusian court sentenced opposition activist Andrey Kim to 18 months in prison for allegedly attacking a police officer during a protest in January. Two days later, on April 24, another activist, Syarhey Parsyukevich, received a 30-month sentence for allegedly beating a guard while serving a 15-day sentence for participating in the same protest.

In his April 29 state of the nation address, Lukashenka fiercely defended the crackdown, ridiculed the young pro-democracy activists, and questioned the motives of opposition leaders.

"Who should we protect in this case? Hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens or a group of unrestrained loafers who want to play the role of professional revolutionaries with someone else's money," Lukashenka said. "Honestly, I feel sorry for these kids who are posing as revolutionary fighters. They are put in the front lines like meat, while those behind them seek to fulfill their own personal political ambitions. A whole dynasty of professional revolutionaries is emerging."

In response to the crackdown, Hans-Gert Poettering, the president of the European Parliament, called Belarus "Europe's last dictatorship."

Lukashenka in his speech pledged to modernize Belarus's economy, bring the country into the ranks of "leading nations," and double average monthly wages by 2011." ...


Brian Whitmore "Belarus: Lukashenka Abandons Courtship Of West" Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty April 30, 2008

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"Political prisoners in Belarus are of greater importance for the United States of America than the number of American diplomats in the country", Jonathan Moore, US Chargé d’Affaires, during press conference in Minsk on April 30, 2008.

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According to the World Bank's (possibly biased) statistics [2006], Belarus has a poverty rate of about 40%, while Ukraine had a poverty rate under 20%. [The World Bank has also estimated (July 2007) that Ukraine's poverty rate may have most recently dropped to 8 to 10% following almost a decade of very strong economic growth, the 'Orange Revolution', and strong government transfer payments -- especially to the elderly.]

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The Strategic Plan of Minsk Development by the Year 2020.

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28 May 2008: Opening concert of the first International Forum of Graduates from the Belarusian (Soviet) Higher Educational Establishments “Education without Frontiers”.

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Photo credits [Faces of those arrested by Lukashenka]: (c) charter97.org. With thanks.

Be Impressed By Light ... But Also Beware Of Light

Roger Fenton
British, 1819 - 1869
Moscow, Domes of Churches in the Kremlin, 1852
salted paper print from paper negative, image: 18.2 x 21.2 cm (7 3/16 x 8 3/8 in.)
mat: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)
Paul Mellon Fund
2005.52.1

Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840–1860
February 3–May 4, 2008

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.


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State-of-the-Art Storage Rooms Complement Newer Galleries at National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

'The new[er] galleries will make it possible for works from the collection of photographs to be seen more frequently as part of changing exhibitions. However, because photographs are fragile and subject to deterioration if exposed to light for extended periods of time, the collection is stored under strict conservation guidelines and made available for study only by appointment.

The collection storage room for photographs consists of two rooms: one maintained at 62 degrees Fahrenheit and 40 percent relative humidity for optimum storage of black-and-white photographs, and the other at 50 degrees Fahrenheit and 40 percent relative humidity for color photographs. Storage at these temperatures and humidity levels extends the life of photographs by slowing the rate of change in their components.'

Source

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Image credit: (c) National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C. All rights reserved.

May Day! May Day!

One of the eight victims of the Chinese Communist massacre at Kirti Monastery, Tibet, Spring 2008.

Amnesty International

Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy

Photo credit: (c) freeTibet. All rights reserved. 2008. With thanks.

Art And Media Studies: Classical WETA-FM Salutes Rostropovich And The New MET Opera Announces Next Season's Video Broadcasts

Today, Sharon Rockefeller's Classical WETA-FM, in the Nation's Capital, will offer a 9 PM special broadcast honoring the late Mstislav Rostropovich; who sought, only partially successfully, to entrench Washington, D.C. firmly in the international classical music world. The program, hosted by David Ginder, will feature short interviews with Hugh Wolff, a Rostropovich conducting protegee, as well as several musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra.

N. and I will each be hurrying home from work in order to listen.

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The New Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from the Neubauer Family Foundation.

Opening Night Gala
(North America only)
La Traviata (Act II) – Verdi
Manon (Act III) – Massenet
Capriccio (Final Scene) – Richard Strauss
Monday, September 22, 2008 (6:30 pm ET)
James Levine conducts Renée Fleming in a performance of fully staged scenes. Also starring Ramón Vargas, Thomas Hampson, and Dwayne Croft.

Salome – Richard Strauss
Saturday, October 11, 2008 (1:00 pm ET)
Karita Mattila reprises her acclaimed interpretation of the title role.

Doctor Atomic (New production) – John Adams
Saturday, November 8, 2008 (1:00 pm ET)
Gerald Finley stars in the Met premiere of John Adams’s modern masterpiece. New production by Penny Woolcock.

La Damnation de Faust (New production) – Berlioz
Saturday, November 22, 2008 (1:00 pm ET)
Robert Lepage directs Marcello Giordani in the title role of this new production, conducted by James Levine. Also starring Susan Graham.

Thaïs (New production) – Massenet
Saturday, December 20, 2008 (12:00 pm ET)
Renée Fleming stars in the title role opposite Thomas Hampson.

La Rondine (New production) – Puccini
Saturday, January 10, 2009 (1:00 pm ET)
Puccini’s melodic gem stars real-life couple Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna.

Orfeo ed Euridice – Gluck
Saturday, January 24, 2009 (1:00 pm ET)
Mark Morris’s production returns with Stephanie Blythe and Danielle de Niese in the title roles.

Lucia di Lammermoor– Donizetti
Saturday, February 7, 2009 (1:00 pm ET)
Anna Netrebko sings the title role in Mary Zimmerman’s hit production, opposite Rolando Villazón and Mariusz Kwiecien.

Madama Butterfly – Puccini
Saturday, March 7, 2009 (1:00 pm ET)
Anthony Minghella’s stunning production returns with Cristina Gallardo-Domâs and Marcello Giordani in the leading roles.

La Sonnambula (New production) – Bellini
Saturday, March 21, 2009 (1:00 pm ET)
Mary Zimmerman stages this new production, which stars Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez.

La Cenerentola – Rossini
Saturday, May 9, 2009 (1:00 pm ET)
Rossini’s Cinderella story returns to the rep with Elīna Garanča in the title role.


Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Foundation for the Health and Future of Children, Washington, D.C.


















Mstislav Rostropovich playing the Duport Stradivarius at the White House in 1978; and children (and possible future musicians if the world lets them live) at the orphanage in Batumi, Republic of Georgia, ca. 2007.

Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons and Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Foundation web-site. All rights reserved. With thanks.