Brian Dickie

MOB on form

I am just back from the Music of the Baroque concert - a program of comparative rarities.  Especially pleasing was the Handel Concerto a due cori written for a 1747 production of Judas Maccabaeus.  The two cori (choirs) of the title were Brass (4 horns) and woodwind (4 oboes and 3 bassoons).  This was altogether magnificent - a splendid piece unknown to me.  Handel borrowed bits and pieces from other works - but good for him.  It was all his own work!

And we also had Haydn's delectable 98th symphony, written in London in early 1792 as he received news of Mozart's death on December 5 1791.  We know the London Symphonies well of course - but Haydn is little enough performed in Chicago alas.  So this was a real treat.

Nicholas Kraemer was on sparkling form - so I had a nice evening after a long day in the office.  And on the bus on the way home on my 151 bus one of the COT audience, who has been living in Chicago for 50 years but was brought up and educated in Westphalia, started up a conversation.  So we gossipped about Bertelsmann and Gütersloh.  A good end!

Handel and Haydn are coming to town

There is a lovely program at the Harris Theater tomorrow evening from our friends at Music of the Baroque.  The orchestra's Pricipal Guest Conductor, Nicholas Kraemer, will be doing the honors on the podium.  I hope that you will be there - this is a delicious program ending with "Papa" Haydn's 98th symphony.  That's a lot of children - he went on to give us 106...........if you include the so called Symphones A and B from the 1760s, when he was writing symphonies at the rate of one every three months.  And since he is also regarded as the father of the String Quartet and wrote almost 70 of those he can't have had much sleep!

So do go along and hear Nicholas Kraemer tomorrow at the Harris.  He and Jane Glover were on the music staff together at Glyndebourne more than 30 years ago.  They even shared digs and shared the conducting of performances of Die Entführung with our touring company.  And now they are sharing responsibility for Music of the Baroque. And I guess they hardly ever meet these days! 

Jane meanwhile is on the east coast preparing Gluck's Armide at Juilliard/Met, as well as doing a gig with Mark Morris at the Kennedy Center which closed last night. Our world sometimes feels very small!

Bitter wind

 Belmont Harbor 4:15 pm Saturday January 28 2012

It has been a gorgeous day here, as long you stayed inside.  There is a fierce wind accompanying the freezing temperature, an unpleasant recipe.  But out I went for some fresh air and a little exercise, and soon scuttled back after 30 minutes extreme exposure!  The marina at Belmont Harbor is deserted of course - by June it will be jam-packed again.

Some of my colleagues, including my Board president are in Long Beach this weekend for the opening of the Long Beach Opera's production of Astor Piazzolla's Maria d Buenos Aires.  This is the company run by my successor, Andreas Mitisek, who takes over on September 1 this year.  And not only is he conducting it, he has conceived, directed, and designed the production as well!  Good luck to him I say!  There are just two performances, tomorrow afternoon and next Saturday at 8pm. 

Piazzolla's nuevo tango music is very seductive - and no doubt will be a great treat for those fortunate enough to be there.  I alas am not - so cannot report first hand.

24 hours later!

Chicago River from Wabash Bridge 1:30 pm Friday January 27 2012

And here you have Chicago basking in sunshine at 1:30 pm today - something of a contrast with yesterday's picture in the post below taken from around the same spot at the same time.  And they are now telling us that we will have 2 inches of snow tonight.  (PS - we didn't!)

I spent this morning in Ganz Hall at Roosevelt University where we had auditions for the two places available in our COT/CCPA diploma program next academic year (2012-13).  I was joined by Scott Gilmore, who also played, as well as by Andrew Eggert and Cynthia Clarey.

It is always so good to see Cynthia.  She was the Serena in the famous 1986 Glyndebourne production of Porgy and Bess conducted by Simon Rattle and directed by Trevor Nunn.  She also appeared there as Ottavia in Poppea.

Anyway we heard 10 singers shortlisted from the multitude of CDs sent in.  We have just the two places as we had a larger than usual intake last year.....so we will be able to be quite selective.

I think that I will be taking the weekend off musically speaking.  I am not sure that I can really cope with Carmina Burana - so I will do much needed domestic chores - and start my taxes!

Misty moisty morning............

Chicago River from Wabash Bridge 1:30 pm Thursday January 26 2012

Yes, cloudy is the weather today - but it is cozy inside and I took the opportunity to go to the Pub for Fish and Chips. Cod was $11 and Halibut $19.  I saved the $8 for future purchases.......

And to keep in tune with the general gloom we are looking ahead to the final development of the 2013 budget, the approval which needs to happen on February 21, the date of our next board meeting.  I am sure that we will get there in time.............we have to - the 2013 season will be announced in March/April.

At last I have a full evening at home today.  I am resisting going to the CSO - but Muti is back.

Stop thief!!!!........

That is a pretty futile cry these days.  And in my case today particularly useless.  During the lunch hour when a good many people were out of the office and the others not paying particular attention - they were working after all - someone walked in, wandered down the corridor, into my office, nabbed my iPad off my desk, and calmly walked out again, down the stairs to the side exit. He, and an accomplice, were recorded on the CCTV.  But just generic folks - no particular characteristics. 

The excellent Apple "Find my iPad" system immediately established that they were professionals.  They had wiped its data off already.......I changed the password, so apart from the loss of the hardware no further harm done.  I called Verizon and they credited me back $20.  I thought that was nice of them!

Lesson to be learnt?  Well I really do not know - we have all been behaving the same way in that building for 13 years.......I guess there are no more crooks now than ever there were.  Just bad luck I guess.  We really can not lock up every time we go out, any more than we can lock up our daughters.

Anyway I will not replace it yet - there will be new one out in March and mine will be available still but at half the price I would have to pay for it this evening.  And I can go back to reading the New Yorker on paper two days later.  But it is a great device.........so we shall see!

Our dear colleague Evamaria Wieser in in town again.  We will be having supper this evening at the Osteria via Stato - on State Street of course.  That's my day!

"Junior" Flute

Chicago's Lyric Opera did a school performance this afternoon of Die Zauberflöte.  Of course it was the same production that has been a staple of the Lyric season since well before Christmas. And very well it has done.

But the feature of greatest interest today was the appearance of some young members of the Ryan Center in major rȏles.  And of course the highlights were the Tamino and Pamina, René Barbara, last year's winner of Domingo's Operalia Ccmpetition in Moscow; and Kiri Deonarine. 

René won a huge amount in Moscow at Operalia - including a very nice Rolex thank you very much!  Three prizes in total.  And he still sings extremely well and was a beguiling Tamino vocally.  Kiri likewise, with less money and no watch as far as I know, sings utterly wonderfully too - this is a classy Pamina indeed.

Other than that my day has been quiet, but I did have the crowning glory of a lovely dinner with two board members at the University Club.  You must think that my life consists of just opera, eating, and drinking.  Well there really is more to it than that but the rest is somewhat repetitive.  And I fear that this blog is becoming likewise.

So I will now go off to watch some tennis from the Aussie Open - and then to sleep.

Gloomy weekend

Its those January blues time again - the remnants of a heavy snow fall on Thursday creating a slushy obstacle course, then rain to wash away the remaining white stuff, then a rare late night thunder and lightning storm - rare that is in January but a regular exciting summer phenomenon.

But the brighter side?  A visit to the Met HD live screening of The Enchanted Island on Saturday afternoon was a great treat.  I had seen it live at the Met two weeks ago.  This was something different again, with nice interviews by presenter Deborah Voigt in the Intermission, in particular with the birthday boy Plácido Domingo, and the enchanting Danielle de Niese and Joyce DiDonato, as well as the eloquent David Daniels and Luca Pisaroni. And of course the Emperor of Baroque himself - William Christie!

I am an unashamed fan of these screenings - they are so well executed in every department.  They give the opera audience away from New York some memorable performances, and add so much the to knowledge of the repertoire which no opera company can possibly cover in its entirety.  But let there be no misunderstanding.  They are not a substitute for the real thing, the live performances in the theater - an altogether different experience. 

So buy your tickets now for the COT season.  This spring you can see two operas which you will not see in the Met HD live series.  And if you really love opera you can surely not get enough of it!

More snow!

We had another dumping of snow yesterday.  The picture above is of what it WILL look like later today!  Figure that out!

The Enchanted Island is on screens around the city today from 11:55.  You should try to see this - it seems that there will be reprise next month so all is not lost of you miss it.  But you might want to see it twice!!  I do - having been to a performance at the Met two weeks ago I am happy to spend $20 for another look!

Fun day

Masterclass - Marlena Malas and Louise Rogan - Sarah Cushman at the piano

Marlena Malas'a rare appearances in Chicago are greatly anticipated and it was a treat for the singers at the CCPA this afternoon to get a dose of such rigorous and experienced advice.  And also to see and hear what a difference just a few tips and and a few minutes can make.  I was able to be there for 75 minutes or so during which time two of the young people in our diploma program, Andrew Harris and Louise Rogan, were put through their paces.  And their friends and colleagues looked on - terrifying I would have thought!

I then went back to the office for a few last minute signatures, and on to the offices of the Chicago law firm Mayer, Brown who were hosting the Chicago Harvard Club's Lyric Opera event - Anthony Freud announced to be speaking about his first 100 days as General Director, but in reality delivering a brilliant description of his philosophy and attitude.  And speaking also about his pride in guiding what he rightly regards as a magnificent opera company through the treacherous waters of the 21st century.

Anthony has speedily embedded himself in the cultural community of Chicago and is widely liked and admired.  This is a very good thing indeed for Lyric.  He is leading his team into what I am sure will be another golden period.

I then returned to my Roosevelt friends - supper at David and Deborah Holloway's, with Marlena of course, as well as Richard Stilwell, Michael Best, and Judith Haddon - all voice faculty members.  A happy ending to a fun but frigid day.  We are in for another little snow storm tomorrow.