Concert Review: The Kids Are Alright (though one is a brat)

The Juilliard Orchestra plays Debusssy and Ravel.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor Emmanuel Villaume led the Juilliard Orchestra on Monday night.
Photo by Paul Leclaire.

The combined forces of Juilliard Orchestra and Juilliard Opera students came together on Monday night to give an evening of Debussy and Ravel, a set of performances that offered a much needed beacon of musical hope in what is a particularly dark and troubled time for the arts community around Lincoln Center. The program, under the direction of French conductor Emmanuel Villaume offered a major work by each composer and a Ravel rarity to boot.

Opera Review: Après de La Belle Epoque

The Manhattan School of Music offers a French double bill.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Images related to L'Enfant et les Sortilèges (left) and Persée et Andromède
presented as a double bill this week by the Manhattan School of Music.

French opera in the 1920s was marked by a spirit of wild experimentation. Composers, shocked by the destruction of the First World War, explored subjects from childhood or Greek mythology in an attempt to reach some sort of musical truth. This week, the Manhattan School of Music presented a pair of these works from 1924: Jacques Ibert's Persée et Andromède and Maurice Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortileges, in the conservatory's final opera production of this current season.

Opera Review: Magic on Mass. Ave.

Charles Dutoit conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

by Paul Pelkonen

"Now children, swish and flick." Charles Dutoit casts a magic spell.

Thursday night's Boston Symphony Orchestra concert at Symphony Hall featured a twin bill of 20th century operas by Stravinsky and Ravel. Although very different in sound, each 45-minute opera was dedicated to the exploration of fairy tale worlds and the use of vast orchestral resources to depict magical events. The program was conducted by Charles Dutoit.

The Stravinsky work was Le Rossignol, ("The Nightingale") an opera set in that same peculiar European vision of ancient China as Puccini's Turandot. This short three-act opera is based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen, of a Chinese emperor's complicated relationship with a nightingale (Olga Peretyako) whose song has the power to bring tears and ultimately, save the life of the dying Emperor.

Le Rossignol had a difficult genesis. In fact, the composer had only just finished the first act when he was commissioned by his friend Sergei Diaghalev to write a ballet for Paris, a work that turned out to be The Firebird. He did not complete the second and third acts until after the premiere of The Rite of Spring. The first act breathes with exoticism and orchestral combinations that are redolent of Stravinsky's teacher Rimsky-Korsakov. The second part features a thunderous Chinese march and strange tonalities permeating the final confrontation with Death.

The Superconductor Interview: Misplaced Childhood

Julie Boulianne sings L'enfant et les sortilèges.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The destroyer: Julie Boulianne sings the Child in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges
at Boston's Symphony Hall. Photo © 2012 IMG Artists.

It's not easy being a brat.

That's certainly the case for Canadian mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne , who sings the title role in the Boston Symphony Orchestra's two performances of Maurice Ravel's opera L'enfant et les sortiléges ("The Child and the Enchantments") at Symphony Hall this week. The concert marks Ms. Boullaine's debut at Symphony Hall.

"It's a little tough," she admits in a telephone interview with Superconductor, speaking of the title role in this opera, an obnoxious brat who destroys his possession and his surroundings only to have them come to life and take umbrage at his behavior. "He's all over the place. "He's so mean to everybody."

"It's really written like a child would sing it," she says. "The comments (in the score) are 'child-like' and vocally you feel as if you are a child too. I bring something different to the voice and the musical phrasing--I try to keep it as a younger child would sing it without taking away the beauty of the music."