The Superconductor Interview: Different Strings

Composer Vivian Fung discusses her new Harp Concerto.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Composer Vivian Fung. Courtesy Metropolis Ensemble/BuckleSweet Media.

"I wanted get away from the traditional harp sound and to see what the harp is capable of. It's capable of such a variety of color and it doesn't get expressed as much."

The speaker is composer Vivian Fung. Her Harp Concerto is a feature of Cymbeline, two concerts to be given by the Metropolis Ensemble at the downtown performance space Le Poisson Rouge. This concerto, which throws the spotlight on an instrument usually relegated to the roles of color or accompaniment, will feature soloist Bridget Kibbey.

Concert Review: Allegations and Alligators

The Attacca Quartet plays John Adams.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Attacca Quartet and a former escalator rider.
Photo © AttaccaQuartet.com

The Attacca String Quartet are one of the bright lights of the chamber music scene in New York right now. On Tuesday night, the group celebrated the release of Fellow Traveler, their new CD featuring the chamber music of John Adams with a concert Le Poisson Rouge.  Mr. Adams was in attendance.

Concert Review: High and Tight

Nicholas Phan Sings Britten at Le Poisson Rouge. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Nicholas Phan's new release Still Falls the Rain.
Image © 2012 AVIE Records.

The Connecticut-born singer Nicholas Phan has come forth as one of the most promising young tenors singing today. On a rain-soaked Monday evening, the singer performed at Le Poisson Rouge, offering songs by Benjamin Britten in a concert that was also streamed live on the website Concert Window.

Appropriately enough, this concert was in conjunction with the launch of his second disc, Still Falls the Rain, a haunting collecton of art songs and folk songs by the 20th century British composer. This is Mr. Phan's second set of songs by the composer. (The first, Winter Words, focused on Britten's relationship with his muse and life partner, tenor Peter Pears.)

Britten wrote (or in the case of the folk-tunes, arranged) these songs for Pears' remarkable instrument. Mr. Phan brings a different sound quality to the works, a youthful, clear tenor and a pliant, powerful tone that can hit difficult high notes and swoop down into the lower range without a break between registers. That flexibility was on full display as Mr. Phan tackled this challenging material, accompanied by harp, horn and piano.

Concert Review: Point-Counterpoint

Taka Kigawa plays Bach at Le Poisson Rouge.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pianist Taka Kigawa is a regular at Le Poisson Rouge.
Photo from the artist's website.

There's something to be said for attending a concert with just your ears.

That was the case at a crowded Le Poisson Rouge on Monday night. The event: pianist Taka Kigawa was the featured artist playing all of Johann Sebastian Bach's The Art of the Fugue. In a crowded club, it wasn't always possible to watch the artist play, which led to one's ability to concentrate on and enjoy this final Bach masterpiece.

Before the review: some explanation:

The Art of the Fugue is one of Bach's last creations. Starting with a simple theme:

the composer embarks on a thorough exploration of counterpoint and thematic development. In the course of the fourteen movements, this theme is subject to the following techniques:

• augmented: note values lengthened.
• diminished: note values shortened.
• inverted: (a low melody trades places with a high one)
• imitated: (a theme is repeated on lower or higher voices)
• stretto: ("narrowed") where themes are repeated in an overlapping structure.

Bach's work contains double, triple and quadruple fugues, where the artist is responsible for maintaining many contrasting voices all overlapping. There are also so-called mirror fugues (where the whole piece is played, inverted and then repeated) and the four canons that divide the 14 movements and provide a stylistic calm at the center of a storm of counterpoint.

Opera Review: Anarchy and the Argonauts

Opera Omnia presents Giasone at Le Poisson Rouge

Opera Omnia's poster art for Giasone. Image from Opera Omnia.

The promising Queens-based troupe Opera Omnia ended a three-year silence on Thursday night, with Giasone, the first fully-staged opera of the budding Fall 2011 season. Written in 1649, Francesco Cavalli's opera takes an unlikely comic approach to the myth of Jason and the Argonauts. The fully staged production was sung in English.

Cavalli was one of the most popular of the early Italian opera composers, and this cheerfuly mythology was his most popular work. Leading the Argonauts to recover the Golden Fleece, Jason (Cherry Duke) gets caught between two queens: witchy Medea (Hai-Ting Chinn) and his ex-, good girl Hypsipyle (Katharine Dain.) But unlike most versions of the myth, bloodbath and infanticide are replaced with comic mistaken identity and (failed) murder plots.

These were familiar faces, often seen on New York's smaller opera stages. They were well-chosen for this unfamiliar treatment of the myth. Ms. Chinn was a strong Medea, dominating the room with mesmerizing eyes, a flapper haircut and a pliant, agile voice. Ms. Dain brought a dewy quality to the love-struck Hypsipyle. Cherry Duke, often heard in travesti roles, was a comic, befuddled hero who generated convincing chemistry with both female leads. Sharin Aposolou made the most of her brief opportunities as the maid Alinda, who makes time with Besso (Nathan Baer) another Argonaut.


Each singer was helped by the flattering acoustics of Le Poisson Rouge. The only puzzling element was the inclusion of an old-style condensor microphone, on a stand next to the small orchestra. It was used to make the characters' introductory arias into a series of cabaret-style turns. Puzzlingly, the mic was on, its enhancement clearly audible in some of the numbers. Mr. Singer scorned the mic, and delivered one of the evening's best numbers in the role of the perpetually suicidal Egeus.

As Hercules, bass-baritone Mark Uhlemann strutted a dark, rich instrument and strong diction. Bass Nathan Baer is a less subtle singer. He compensated with good comic timing. Patrick Murray and Isai Jess Muñoz made a memorable Mutt-and-Jeff pair as Orestes and the hunch-backed Demo. In the role of the nurse Delfa, high tenor Karim Sulayman played the part in Max Klinger-style drag with hilarious results.

Crystal Manich's production put firm emphasis on lewd humor and drew inspiration from the Greenwich Village venue. Characters out of myth were in period boho dress. The Argonauts were done up as street toughs with vests, long safety pins and buttons with the Ⓐ symbol and the Batman logo. The Golden Fleece was a fleece-lined denim jacket with a giant Fordham-style ram emblazoned on the back. Medea, Hypsipyle and their handmaidens looked outfitted by the Antique Boutique. Avi Stein led a crisp performance from the seven-piece ensemble, conducting from the harpsichord and occasionally doubling on the portative organ.