Seasons at War & an Elephant

Morning. Staring blindly at the ceiling fan above the bed. "It's 9:30 already?" Roll over.

Blink.

Ugh, it's 10:30! "What an unforgiving sleep."

Shower. Get dressed.  "I know I have some clean clothes somewhere." Struggle down the stairs.  Make coffee.  Sit.  Answer emails.  The coffee is ready.  Pour a cup.  Waddle down the hall.  Turn a cold door knob.  Drink a sip.  Press a frozen screen door handle.  And...

Whoosh! "Ha, ha", belted the froren, brumal tongue of the air.  My zombie state was lifting with every sip of my coffee.  My mind's eye awakening, a mental cataract curing to see a new day of ashen sky.  Now looking about from my back patio, the world is sunken, all life drooped in mourning from snow melt.  The grass, the drab apartments, the asphalt parking lot below seem to cry from defeat.  No bird calls, no kids playing soccer. Slam! "Here I am - my fury, my teeth - biting!", cried Winter. I hurry back inside, closing the doors behind me.

My coffee brings the only solace to a new reality.  The zealous hellion, Winter, invades.  A last stand perhaps, but a fight I cannot conquer and one that the weakest of the seasons cannot overcome.  And the saddest truth pervades - a frigid Spring Break has begun.

* * *

It seems like I have very little luck with Spring.  I finish a production, feeling like I have a phantom limb.  I want to be outside, have fun, golf, see the sun for once!!  Music keeps me inside all too often.  Thank you Winter for helping me appreciate the good days by giving me depressing ones.  And when that sunny day comes, I will likely be depressed knowing that I could never take full advantage of a perfect day.  Kansas is the rudest of places for Spring.  Summer arrives shortly after Winter.  I hope Spring doesn't pass me by.

* * *

As for the time being, it appears like I will be plenty busy.  I have added many new performance opportunities to my schedule.  I will be performing the role of "The Believer" in a production of Handel's Passion of the Christ.  I am particularly happy to be part of this because there are several incredibly talented singers in the group performing this.  And I will be performing the National Anthem and the UMKC Alma Mater at eight commencement ceremonies at UMKC!  I don't remember singing the National Anthem at so many events.  I am also singing it at a Kansas City Royals game, Sporting KC game, and at the US Department of Energy's Small Business Conference.  I feel very patriotic - but not so much that I would go crazy like Christina Aguilera.

In other news, I still haven't heard from the Lyric Opera of Kansas City regarding my audition.  I hope to hear at least something, sometime.  Waiting is by far the hardest part of my life...perhaps I drink too much coffee, but I am very pragmatic and like a small town boy who doesn't know any better, I think that my hard work will get me somewhere.  I am very proud of my work ethic, but I know the world is a very complicated place.    There is much more to gain than just a good work ethic.  One of the biggest compliments that I have ever received was, "you sang very intelligently".  As odd as that sounds, that means much more to me than most anything.  The person who said it is very, very intelligent as well, which was most meaningful to me.  I hope as listeners of music, we all can value intelligence just as much as most value hard work, talent, and having fun.

I saw the movie "Limitless" last night.  It is not very good, but it's about a guy who takes a pill that lets him access his whole mind.  This makes him virtually limitless.  He becomes very successful, but when he runs out of pills, the hangover begins to kill him - and he becomes incapable of doing anything.  Reminds me a lot about coffee...

I thought the movie would be good, but I was dead wrong.  I may also be wrong about this next new opera review, but I doubt it.  The opera is called Light and Power by Isaac Schankler and is premiering in Boston on May 17.  It is about Thomas Edison and Nicolas Tesla and the discovery and inventions involving electricity in their time.   The only saving grace is that at one point they fail to electrocute a prisoner in an electric chair and they somehow incorporated the experiment with Topsy the Elephant - you can watch below:  (please don't watch this if you are squeamish or love elephants.  You should also know that Topsy was a deranged elephant that killed three people and was deemed a threat to people at the time - 1903.)



Ok, perhaps they could stage that pretty creatively.  Maybe the elephant sings?  But in all seriousness, even I don't want to hear arias about AC and DC currents, a chorus number about transformers, or any opera where the climax of the libretto happens to be about mercury arc valve rectifier stations.  As for the rating, there is probably a great chance that I would laugh through the whole opera, but really, there is no hope for Light and Power.  This one receives the lowest score possible:

1 Susan Boyle

(Sometimes judging a book by its cover is commendable)

Finally, I would just like to admit to a new low in tenorism.  If you remember back on President's Day, I forgot that I didn't have school.  I sank to a new low.  I thought my spring break was last week - only to find out that I have spring break this week.  I did find out soon enough and went to class last week, but it was pretty embarrassing.  And so goes Bryan's adventures in tenordom.

UPCOMING PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

• The Believer in The Passion of the Christ by Handel - 10:45am St. John's United Methodist Church, Kansas City, MO - 4/10
• World Premiere - "Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day" by Betty Liang - 5pm, Grant Recital Hall, Kansas City, MO - 4/17
• National Anthem - Kansas City Royals vs. Cleveland Indians - 4/18
• Conservatory Finale  - Poulenc Gloria (probably on my top 10 favorite pieces ever) featuring the Conservatory Choirs and Orchestra - 4/23
• National Anthem - UMKC School of Nursing Commencement - 5pm 5/5
• National Anthem - UMKC School of Computer & Engineering - 10am 5/6
• National Anthem - UMKC School of Arts & Sciences - 1pm & 4pm 5/6
• National Anthem - Bloch School of Business and Public Administration - 7pm 5/6
• National Anthem - UMKC School of Education - 10am 5/7
• National Anthem - UMKC School of Pharmacy - 1pm 5/7
• National Anthem - Kansas City School of Dentistry - 7pm 5/7
• National Anthem - DOE Small Business Conference & Expo - Kansas City Convention Center - 5/10
• Administrative Director of the 33rd Annual Summer Choral Institute - 6/5-11
• National Anthem - Sporting KC vs. Vancouver Whitecaps - 6/25
• Sugar Creek Opera Festival (Chicago) - role: chorus/cover, opera: Daughter of the Regiment - 7/20-8/7
• Kansas City Symphony Chorus Auditions - tba

Don Giovanni and Helicopters

I want to thank all of my friends and family who came to watch the opera this weekend.  It really means a lot to me that you made the trip to see my performance in Don Giovanni at the Conservatory.  I thought it went well, and I am excited to now have the time to begin work on other things.

For the most part, this week I will be trying to recoup from being in performance mode for so long.  Every day that I had to sing, I went through a specific routine of allergy medicine, coffee, bananas, sleeping at the same times, all to keep my voice in some kind of healthy shape.  It becomes a little neurotic at times, but it is all for the love of the art.

Thank you for all the comments about the "Lazy Person's Guide to Opera" posts last week.  I hope that you find some entertainment out of those, and hopefully I will be able to add to those in the future.  If you missed them, here are the links to the posts:

Sex and Death: A Lazy Person's Guide to Don Giovanni

A Lazy Person's Guide to Opera: Don Giovanni - Part 2

A Lazy Person's Guide to Opera: Don Giovanni - Part 3

A Lazy Person's Guide to Opera: Don Giovanni - Part 4

This week made me think a lot, not only about Don Giovanni, but opera in general and what the future of opera looks like.  I love to go to the movies and I caught myself searching for upcoming releases to see what I could be looking forward to: war movies, sequels to other movies that I like, movies from directors that I like, etc.  That lead me to think that this was probably how opera was received in Mozart's time.  I know we will never see that kind of reception for opera again, but perhaps there are some things to get excited about.

So, I did some searching online about some upcoming operas, just to see if I could feel the same excitement towards them as I do movies.  Keep in mind, that I am an opera freak, fully aware of the differences between movies and opera.  None of these have had their world premiere, but I tried to study them a little bit - this takes the place of a teaser trailer.  And in the movie critic (Roman Emporer) culture of thumbs up and down, I will set a rating system using Pavarotti Hankies and Susan Boyle - 2 Pav Hankies mean I am the most excited, 1 Pav Hankie means I am looking forward to it even though it may be weird, and a Susan Boyle means that it looks and sounds pretty strange to me.

So, here is my first review (keep in mind, this is just measuring my personal excitement - so there's nothing scientific about any of this)

Sonntag aus Licht by Stockhausen

This opera is premiering April 9 at Oper Köln (Cologne, Germany).  Out of a long list of premieres, it caught my eye because it was written by Stockhausen.  Stockhausen is one of the most important composers of the last 100 years, however he died in 2007.  So, to produce an opera after death - it is pretty intriguing.  AND, this is the last opera in a cycle of operas.  Each opera is a different day of the week - this one means "Sunday".  Stockhausen began writing the first opera (Thursday) in 1978, so this is a long work coming.  The operas are about the mythology that brought about the days of the week - gods, battles, love, and all.  Yet another exciting thing is the instrumentation and composition in the first six operas including: trumpets on rooftops (Thursday), eyebrow and nostril dances (Saturday), the first "modern orchestra" of synthesizers (Monday), the battle between Lucifer and Michael using eight loudspeakers (Tuesday), an opera for children's orchestra and children's choir (Friday), and the most odd of them all, a helicopter and string quartet - using four string instruments and four actual helicopters (Wednesday).  By the way, the whole opera cycle is about 29 hours long!

"Sunday" is the last opera of the cycle by Stockhausen.  It was finished in 2003 but this is the first time that it will be performed.  The story is about Eve and Michael, but what intrigues me are his inventive programming and orchestration choices. Scene two is called "Angel-Processions" and is written for seven choirs!  Scene four is called "Scents-Signs" and involves the release of fragrances as sort of a smell symphony.  And scene five (which I'm sure will be tortuously long) consist of a Hochzeit (a traditional Germanic musical form for the wedding celebration) for five choirs and one for five orchestras.  They perform them simultaneously in two separate auditoriums, and at various points, windows are opened to hear the other performance going on.  AND THEN, the performers switch halls and they do the whole thing again, so the audience has two different perspectives of the piece.

I am very sorry for the English speakers out there, but here is a German video about the music from the first scene that has many musical excerpts.  (I dare you to listen for longer than 15 seconds)

Ok, so for the rating.  I am not too excited about Stockhausen's music since it is pretty mathematical and not even close to tonal - the movie equivalent to a film being an hour of random color blotches instead of being a Disney animated feature.  But his ideas seem to be really neat, and I like mythology in art - it usually brings about some pretty awesome and imaginative things.  So, I will give it:

1 Pav Hankie

(It might put me to sleep, but I've never smelt music before)

Also, I have one more schedule update.  I will be performing the world premiere of "Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day" by Betty Liang, an art song for marimba and tenor on April 17 at Grant Recital Hall at the Conservatory.

Last and certainly not least, THE KANSAS SENATE SUCCESSFULLY REPEALED THE GOVERNOR'S EXECUTIVE ORDER ABOLISHING THE KANSAS ARTS COMMISSION!

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

• World Premiere - "Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day" by Betty Liang - 5pm, Grant Recital Hall, Kansas City, MO 4/17
• National Anthem - Kansas City Royals vs. Cleveland Indians - 4/18
• Conservatory Finale  - Poulenc Gloria (probably on my top 10 favorite pieces ever) featuring the Conservatory Choirs and Orchestra - 4/23
• National Anthem - DOE Small Business Conference & Expo - Kansas City Convention Center - 5/10
• Administrative Director of the 33rd Annual Summer Choral Institute - 6/5-11
• National Anthem - Sporting KC vs. Vancouver Whitecaps - 6/25
• Sugar Creek Opera Festival (Chicago) - role: chorus/cover, opera: Daughter of the Regiment - 7/20-8/7
• Kansas City Symphony Chorus Auditions - tba