Don Giovanni

I'm excited to be going to the Opera New Jersey performance of Don Giovanni tomorrow afternoon with my daughter. Andrew Garland, pictured in the photo at left, will be playing the title role. I'll be the gray longhair with the pouting teenager on my arm. But, come to think of it, in a town like Princeton, that may not be enough information to single me out.

The opera is one of Mozart's finest, of the trio of collaborations with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte that also includes "Le Nozze di Figaro" and "Cosi fan tutti". These are all mature Mozart, setting stories told cleverly and often brilliantly by Da Ponte. "Don Giovanni" is the Don Juan legend, the story of a libertine nobleman who seduces scores of women and finally meets his fate at the hands of a murdered father's graveyard statue.

Da Ponte's colorful life brought him to the U.S., where he made many important contributions to the fledgling national culture, primarily through his expertise in Italian literature. (He was apparently the first to teach the works of Dante in America, among other things.)

But he is still remembered first and foremost as Mozart's librettist. He liked the notoriety and played it up, even crediting himself with discovering Mozart and introducing the composer to the world's audiences.

"I can never remember without exultation and complacency," he once wrote, "that it was to my perseverance and firmness alone that Europe and the world in great part owe the exquisite vocal compositions of the admirable genius."

Well, they are three really terrific operas, that much is certainly true. Mozart had written well over a dozen others before his collaborations with Da Ponte and none of them really captured the public's imagination in the same way.

So I'm excited to be going to see what promises to be a good production. Showtime is 2 p.m. at Princeton's McCarter Theatre, main stage.

--C.
http://www.theandofone.blogspot.com

APP on Live Music in New Jersey

An editorial in the Asbury Park Press from May 1 sparked a lively retort from a member of the Monmouth Civic Chorus, printed in the paper the following week as a guest editorial. The writer of the response, Jenni Blumenthal, was ticked that in extolling the virtues of live music in New Jersey the editorial didn't mention any of the local classical groups.

It didn't mention classical music at all in fact, local or otherwise. I suppose as a classical music fan, I should be offended by that. But the fact is, I'm used to it. The Monmouth/Ocean media and general population overlook classical music. It's very difficult to generate an audience for it, even if you're a world-class outfit like the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra or the Opera New Jersey. That's why theaters in Monmouth County aren't even on the radar for groups like Opera New Jersey. That's why the 50-summer run of the Metro Lyric Opera could halt without any public outcry and without attempt to replace it. That's why NJSO now limits its performances here to an educational "Best Of ..." series of one-hour concerts--the NJSO is bending over backward to cultivate an audience because the culture for appreciating classical music just doesn't exist here.

When the media talk about live music, they are generally talking about longtime pop radio celebrities of one stripe or another, names that can fill thousands of seats at a shot. But that's just not who we are musically, nor is it who we want to be. I don't expect everyone to be a classical music and jazz fan. But most of the live music that happens here is in yet another category: hundreds of small local bands that are touring and may exist as a performing unit only for a year or two. But even that rich, vital culture of bands and clubs that host them gets barely a whipser of mention in this APP editorial. Instead the writer mentions only the big theaters and arenas and the acts that can fill them. The most commericial kind of musical experience.

While some current pop stars, like Lady Gaga, make the list, most of the names mentioned by the APP writer are stars in their 60s and 70s who've turned gray playing their hits of 30 years ago. Classical and jazz traditions exist to continually reinvent the past, but pop rock does not. It exists in the moment and then quickly fades into memory. As a group, what these artists have to offer is notalgia for a time when their music was relevant. There's nothing wrong with that. But if we're trumpeting the musical vitality of New Jersey, citing the living dead as an example is hardly the way to go about it.

--C.
www.theandofone.blogspot.com

Storms and Reviews

Our local Monmouth Symphony Orchestra is scheduled to perform this afternoon at 3 p.m. The group has posted a note on its website that says the performance is going ahead as scheduled despite the remains of the storm that are everywhere here. I plan to be there and to write a review for the Asbury Park Press (running probably Tuesday or Wednesday).

I had planned to review the production of Carmen that opened at McCarter Theatre in Princeton Friday with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Opera NJ. But with the Weather Channel warning that blizzard conditions could shut down I-195 ... I opted to stay home. Performances of Carmen in New Jersey continue at 3 p.m. this afternoon at The State Theatre, 15 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick and 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre, 1 Centre Dr., Newark. For tickets and information visit the NJSO website, www.njsymphony.org or call 1-800-ALLEGRO.

--C.
www.theandofone.blogspot.com

Opera New Jersey

Just received an email from Opera New Jersey announcing that Scott Altman has accepted a position as General Director of the Arizona Opera and he and his wife Lisa Altman are stepping down as directors of the company they founded in 2002. Based in Princeton, OperaNJ has grown enormously in that time and is one of the leading operatic companies in the state, offering many performances by young operatic stars in many venues in many towns through New Jersey. The pair will continue to work with OperaNJ through the end of the calendar year to ensure a smooth transition, and the group plans to continue its 2009-10 season as scheduled.

--C.
www.theandofone.blogspot.com

[This article was corrected 10:10 a.m. 10/15/09: "they founded in 2004." was changed to "they founded in 2002."]