The six o’clock news was showing footage of the
military campaign in Iraq. My three-year-old daughter saw something that looked
familiar.
         “Dad,
what’s that thing?” she asked as she pointed to US troops firing a field
artillery cannon. “It’s a cannon,” I replied. “But what’s it for?” she
insisted. “It’s a bad thing, like a gun, used for hurting people,” I explained,
trying to preempt any further inquiry into this child-unfriendly topic.
         “But
I thought cheese comes out of it,” she replied innocently.
         She
was thinking of the scene in the Nutcracker
(which we’ve watched many times on video) in which the Nutcracker’s
soldiers battle an army of mice. The mice are defeated when their attention is
diverted to eating all of the pieces of cheese that the soldiers fire from
their cannon. What a wonderful world it would be if our international disputes
could be settled with cheese.
         It’s
surprising that Tchaikovsky’s 1892 Nutcracker was not actually performed outside Russia until the 1930s. Since then, year
after year children and adults have enjoyed this Christmas favorite based on
E.T.A. Hoffmann’s tale The Nutcracker and
the Mouse King. The complete ballet features many beautiful musical moments
omitted from Tchaikovsky’s well-known Nutcracker
Suite. Fans of Tchaikovsky’s music will be especially delighted by the
slow-building orchestral crescendo that accompanies the rising Christmas tree
just before the Nutcracker soldiers go into battle.
         How
to enjoy the Nutcracker? There’s the
Warner Brothers video of New York City Ballet’s Balanchine production starring
Macaulay Culkin (as the Nutcracker Prince). There’s conductor Valery Gergiev
and the Kirov Orchestra’s outstanding CD recording (on the Philips label). And
there’s even the book version, illustrated by Maurice Sendak (published by
Crown).
         Yet
there’s no better way to enjoy it than to see it in live performance.
Thanksgiving weekend provides the opportunity when the Rochester City Ballet and the Rochester
Philharmonic Orchestra present their annual production twice daily in the
Eastman Theatre. Former and current RCB artistic directors Timothy M. Draper and Jamey
Leverett choreographed it and Michael
Butterman will conduct it. Former and current members of NYC’s American
Ballet Theatre will be performing: Sarah Lane and Misty Copland (alternating as
the Sugar Plum Fairy), Sari Ostrum (Dewdrop), and Danny Tidwell (the Cavalier).
Choral music is another traditional favorite during
the holiday season. RPO pops conductor Jeff
Tyzik will present his annual Gala Holiday Pops concert on December 19, 20,
and 21 in the Eastman Theatre. On December 12 and 13 at Asbury First Methodist
Church, the Rochester Oratorio Society will
presentHandel’s Messiah. Don’t be alarmed by the
repeated phrase “All we like sheep” — it’s merely a clause prefacing “have
gone astray” and has nothing to do with deviant shepherds.
         If
you are tired of the same old Messiah year after year, or crave more music like it, mark your calendar for December
14 when William Weinert leads the Eastman-Rochester Chorus and Philharmonia inHandel’s mammoth oratorio Solomon in the Eastman Theatre. On
December 21, look forward to the Rochester
Bach Festival performing J.S. Bach’s cantata Nun dom der Heiden Heiland, in which the string instruments depict
the words “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” with a steady march of
plucking. The cantata displays Bach’s internationalism as he borrows from the
French overture and Italian opera styles.
         Speaking
of Italian Baroque, the Eastman School’s Collegium
Musicum (a 12-voice vocal ensemble, string orchestra, and continuo group,
lead by Paul O’Dette and Christel Thielmann) will offer
oratorios, cantatas, and concerti grossi by Carissimi, Rossi, Mazzochi,
Scarlatti, and Locatelli on December 11. On December 4 and 7 at the Memorial
Art Gallery, Musica Spei will link
music and visual art in Images of the
Virgin Mary in Art, Sculpture, and Music. On the program are vocal works of
the medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen and Renaissance masters Ockeghem,
Josquin, Isaac, and Ciconia.
         If
it’s 20th- and 21st-century music that lights up your tree, your holiday season
is looking brighter than ever. On November 21, three dozen junior flutists
(ages 10 to 15) from the Rochester area join the Eastman Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra in John Corigliano’s “Pied Piper”Fantasy.Corigliano
originally rose to fame with his magnificent film score to Ken Russell’s
science-fiction horror-thriller Altered
States (1980). This time Corigliano applies his theatrical musical
imagination to the famous legend about rats.
         On
December 4 in Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall, Zambouni’s
Performance Ensemble flies in from Miami, Florida to dance to selected
movements of Brad Lubman’s electronic
work Clear Housing (2003) (previewed
in the City Newspaper article,
“Digital Cubism,” on October 9, 2003). Musica
Nova will also play John Cage’s Four3 (1991) and Earle Brown’s Novaro (1962) on the same program. On December 10 and 20, vocal ensemble Madrigalia will perform Christmas works
of Rochester’s own Sydney Hodkinson, Frenchman Francis Poulenc, and Englishman
Herbert Howells.
         British
composer William Walton’s superb Viola
Concerto (1929)is both darkly
melancholic and delightfully playful. On November 20 and 22 Christopher Seaman and the RPO will accompany guest solo violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama (“Thula”) in this
not-to-miss performance of Walton’s concerto. On the same program Seaman — a
Britisher himself — will be right at home in Benjamin Britten’s “Four Sea
Interludes” from Peter Grimes. And
they’re serving Brahms’ Symphony No.4 as dessert.
This article appears in Nov 19-25, 2003.
