It was a nerdy Friday night, with a wonderful collection of opera geeks in the Lecture Hall at the Center for Education. WTOC coach/pianist Jeremy Frank and four Studio Artists treated us to a whirlwind tour through Stravinsky’s musical styles.
Our Fine Tuning series kicked off last year with a companion concert to our Tales of Hoffman production, “The Tale(nt)s of Hoffmann” – a look at the creative output of E.T.A. Hoffmann. This year’s installment was called “The Composer’s Progress” – a riff on the title of our current opera at The Barns (The Rake’s Progress).
Songs included “Pastorale,” “Two Poems of Verlaine,” “The Owl and the Pussycat,” “How the Mushrooms Mobilized for War,” excerpts from Pulcinella and Oedipus Rex, and more. Jeremy geeked out on music theory trivia (“TWELVE!!!!”) (sorry… had to be there…); demonstrated at the piano; set up the excerpts; and treated us to artwork, photos and even movie clips that enhanced the music. Coaching fellow Tomoko Nakayama even treated us to haiku in her native Japanese.
It was a lovely penultimate evening for this 2012 season, which will close tomorrow night at The Barns.
Photos top to bottom: Host & pianist Jeremy Frank, bass Rhys Talbot, mezzo-soprano Aleksandra Romano, soprano Emily Misch, tenor Yoni Rose
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