Charles Baudelaire
Category Archives: Twin Cities performances
Baudelaire premiere
“Correspondences,” my song cycle on the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, will premiere at the Thursday Musical series in Saint Paul. Brad Bradshaw, tenor and Tom Bartsch, piano. They’re both great musicians. It’ll be fun!
New opera
I was about to write a big long critique of Kevin Puts’s Silent Night, which premiered at the Minnesota Opera this season. But really, what’s to say? A lot of people seemed to love it. I thought it was a dramaturgic mess. It’s Puts’s first opera, and it is to be hoped he writes another. He’s a good composer, but this piece didn’t make it.
Minnesota Opera has raised a lot of money and a lot of expectations with its new works initiative. I didn’t see Ricky Ian Gordon’s Grapes of Wrath so I can’t say much, except that judging from recordings it’s more musical-theatre than opera. (Which raises the question, what’s an opera? But we’ll leave that aside.) There was a plan to present another Gordon work only three years later, an adaptation of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, which disappeared from the season without a trace. The other “new” works MNOp has programmed in this initiative have been the American premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Pinocchio and a revival of Dominick Argento’s Casanova’s Homecoming.
So. One very messy “real opera,” one sort-of opera, one developed by MNOp in 1985, and one not developed by the company at all. I wonder what is going on with their process. Actually, I can guess. It’s big and unwieldy, it’s expensive, it wants to make its mark for the company. SOP in the large, nonprofit theatre scene.
It’s always difficult to do opera. And creating new work…well, most things are going to fall short. I try to walk into a theatre with a clear mind and no expectations. But there are moments–like when Silent Night’s creaky turntable intruded, to the accompaniment of orchestral fill, or when the Guthrie Theatre decorated a set with an unplayed grand piano–that I get a little pissed. If you have that much money, could you please get it right? Or spend less money?
a quick update
The blog has been shamefully neglected recently.
Here’s a summary of past and current activity:
I’m working on a musical theatre adaptation of the impossibly wonderful comic “Josh and Imp” by Jon Bernhardt and Diana Nock.
The Picnic Operetta has one more performance, October 1st, on Nicollet Island. It’s been a smash hit, and I’m happy to have been the MD.
Fidgety Fairy Tales is in rehearsal and performance. Most of the performances will be at non-public locations this fall, but there will be a big Fidgety Festival November 6th at the Children’s Museum, featuring all three plays and a sneak peek at the fourth (to be written…ay!)
I’m teaching a couple classes at Children’s Theatre this fall, and more in winter, spring and summer. So far, just doing other people’s music, but I am planning for several lovely original bits this summer. You can now look at the class schedule and see who the teacher will be.
I spent a month overseas, mostly hanging out. A dear friend in Amsterdam passed away while I was there, so it was not an entirely joyous occasion, but it was good to get away.
My house is a mess. There are piles of books and papers all over the place.
This Friday, I have a one-night revival of Margo McCurry’s Diggity Dog Days, a benefit for Dreamland Arts.
I understand the links to my music samples are broken on this site. I’ll be fixing that soon.
Oh, and I read a couple books on my To-Be-Read list, Max Havelaar and The Maias. They were good, and I’ll have more to say about them later. I’ve read a lot of other things of course, but I can’t say this year has been the greatest one for books. I haven’t read anything that has slayed me recently. I’m thinking about cracking open Don Quixote.
That’s all for now.
Fidgety 3 premiere
The first performance of Fidgety Fairy Tales Part 3 will be this coming Sunday, April 3rd, 1:00 pm at the Saint Paul Jewish Community Center. This is the first in a series of ten performances funded by the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, all of which are free and open to the public.
Reservations are recommended, and can be made at the MACMH website.
We have a dynamic and sensitive group of young performers working on this piece. I’ve been impressed by their ability, their imagination and by their willingness to stretch themselves. I’d be very interested in what you have to say about the show after you’ve seen it.
the whizbang
I had an opportunity to see many people from the community loosely known as the West Bank last night at the Hinkley memorial event. There were many wonderful musical performances in a number of genres, all having roots in traditional music of Europe, Africa and North America.
There’s a lot to say about it, and I won’t say it. Today I am thinking about the role musicians play in bringing coherence to a community. Music, even vocal music, being an abstract form that people seem to need in order to make sense of their lives, their emotions. Yes, it is abstract but it is experienced so directly, through our bodies, our ears, our dancing feet. It pulls us into harmony with ourselves and with one another.
The status that Bill had was a result of his importance to a community of free thinkers who were trying to move into something new and to create a new world. Bill and Judy’s music helped to knit the community together. And so here we are. Still standing.
The Palm Room–photo taken by a new world at flickr.
waltz
I wrote a tune in honor of Bill, with Daithi Sproule’s admirable contribution, and am messing around trying to post it to my music page. In the meantime, you can find it on the internet archive right here here. This recording features Tom Schaefer on violin, Daithi on guitar and Laura MacKenzie on flute. Willie Murphy engineered and mixed the recording. Many thanks to all of them.
There will be a memorial service for Bill Hinkley at the Nicollet Island pavilion in Minneapolis, Wednesday, July 7th, 2010, from 5:00 to 11:00 p.m.
Saint Anthony Falls, 1865
One of the difficulties the organizers of this event faced was finding a place big enough to hold all the people who loved Bill. The trade-off for having a lovely location with enough room is that it’ll be a catered affair, no potluck. However I have some friends on the Island, so maybe we can hang out on their front porches.
obituary
Bill Hinkley died last Tuesday. Because links to the Minneapolis paper also die, I am reproducing below the obituary Judy Larson posted:
Hinkley, William Bradbury, Age 67, of Minneapolis, died Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at the Minneapolis VA Hospital. Preceded in death by his parents Howard and Dorothy Hinkley, brother Seth Howard Hinkley, and sister Jane Lapchak. Survived by his wife, Judy Larson; daughter Rebecca Nyros; granddaughter, Briana Nyros; sisters, Carolyn (Arthur) Green and Cindy (Richard) Reinking; nieces and nephews, Beth Kling, Sally Star, Mary Elizabeth, Seth James (Sara) Jennifer (Milo) Miller, Christina Lapchak, Sarah Lapchak, Alicia Lapchak, and Phillip Lapchak; and numerous grandnieces and grandnephews.
Blessed with prodigious recall, Bill mastered Chinese and Japanese while serving in the Air Force from 1961-1965. After leaving the Air Force Bill turned his attention to music. Always seeking knowledge,he taught himself guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, jug and a number of other traditional instruments; ever the player and instructor, he spent the rest of his life teaching others to play. Countless students learned their craft from him, and, in doing so, found that a music lesson from Bill was, on a greater scale, a lesson in life.
Bill’s five-decade long career as a musician started with a gig at the Tokyo Grand Old Opry in the early 1960’s. After moving to Minneapolis in 1970 he joined the legendary Minneapolis group The Sorry Muthas and toured with them nationally. He became musical and life partner with Judy Larson in 1972. They helped inaugurate Garrison Keillor’s radio show, A Prairie Home Companion and were featured regularly thereafter. They also toured nationally for decades. After a long engagement they married in 1990. They remained partners in life and music.
Bill was loved and respected by all who knew him and he will be deeply missed by family, friends and the greater musical community. A celebration of Bill’s life will be announced. RIP Bill. Boat for sale.
Bill and Judy, photo by Ron Miles
I have happy memories of time with Bill and Judy playing music, chatting, eating, fooling around. I am grateful especially for the encouragement Bill gave me in making and performing music. Bill Hinkley was a generous, hospitable, funny, determined, gifted man whom I am honored to have known and loved.
my friend
There are not many people who have taught me as much, been as steadfast, generous friends and contributed to my development as a person as Bill Hinkley and Judy Larson. There are hundreds of others who could say the same thing.
Bill and Judy, 2009, from picasaweb.google.com/Kevin.Shashin/IFEL62Reunion
Bill is nearing the end of his long struggle with disease now. He’s worn out, in pain, and a color somewhere between green and yellow. He’s parked in the hospice wing of the Veteran’s Administration Hospital. He can still play and sing a little. And there is still a sparkle in his eyes.
fantastic new music
There hasn’t been enough buzz about the International Marimba Festival now taking place. I chanced upon it through the SPCO’s contemporary music series, Engine 408, a beautiful, affordable series of concerts in the Hamm Building in downtown Saint Paul. The program I saw will be repeated Saturday, May 1st. Go hear something from this festival. You will be glad you did. I’m planning to see everything I can fit into my schedule.
Teruyuki Noda’s Mattinata for Marimba for marimba, three flutes and double bass with William Moersch soloing, was revelatory. Beautiful use of each instrument in its place, and grand expansion. I started to ask myself about sustained notes on the marimba, and how rolls correlate to strums on plectrum instruments. David Kechley’s Iberia answered my questions. The composition was well thought-out, and in particular the adagio was lovely and emotional. The marimba part was a good correlate for guitar, while doing harmonic action a guitar would be incapable of. The sax quartet was beautifully prepared, Gordon Stout played artistically and humbly, and the piece came off perfectly.
The other outstanding moment on the program was Alejandro Viñao’s Tumblers for Marimba, Violin and Computer. After computer glitches which caused the piece to be moved to the end of the evening, marimbist Ji Hye Jung and violinist Nicholas DiEugenio appeared on stage and confessed that they would be performing “like real musicians” without a click track in their ears. They did. It was a heartfelt, funky performance which really opened my ears. From here on, I hope Ms. Ji will abandon the click track altogether.
I dig how we are venturing into the 21st century with this instrument. Tonalities, timbres, voice combinations, rhythmic and melodic set-ups, expectations, relationship to audience, emotional caliber, virtuosity…none could have happened any time but now. The language of our times, on an instrument that was a novelty half a century ago.
Go hear for yourself.
