Intense ‘Faust’ Concludes Festival Opera Season

By Eman Isadiar

Walnut Creek, CA – Festival Opera music director Michael Morgan concluded the season on August 16 with a dazzling performance of Faust by French composer Charles Gounod. Tenor Brian Thorsett appeared in the title role opposite soprano Kristin Clayton, who sang the part of Marguerite. Bass Kirk Eichelberger and baritone Eugene Brancoveanu appeared respectively as Mephistopheles and Valentin.

Before the performance, Morgan acknowledged his board of directors from the stage for maintaining the number of productions this year despite the tough economic times. While most performing arts organizations are reducing performances, Festival Opera seems to be moving full-steam ahead. Puccini’s Turandot opened the season last month.

The opera is largely based on the play of the same name by Goethe, and tells the story of an old scholar, Faust, who accepts eternal servitude to the devil in the next world in return for youth and love in this one. The object of his affection is Marguerite, who is known to all not only for her beauty, but also for purity and virtue.

Act I. Brian Thorsett (Faust), Kirk Eichelberger (Méphistophélès) Photo by Robert Shomler

With his newfound youth and charm, Faust manages to seduce and impregnate Marguerite soon after her protective brother Valentin ships off to war. Upon his return, Valentin is consumed with rage when he discovers the affair and attacks Faust, but is fatally stabbed.

While villagers gather around and implore Valentin to forgive Marguerite in his final moments, he shows no mercy and condemns her while drawing his final breath.

Apparently having killed her child, Marguerite awaits execution in prison. Aided by Mephistopheles, Faust offers to help Marguerite escape, but is shunned by her. She finds divine redemption and a chorus of angels sings as she mounts the scaffold to her death. Faust is once again alone and realizes he must now pay the ultimate price.

Making his company debut, Brian Thorsett proved to be a strikingly gifted tenor, with a deeply moving, resonant and unblemished voice. One of the opera’s brightest moments was Thorsett’s “Chaste et pure”, in which Faust expresses his longing for Marguerite.

Kristin Clayton sang the part of Marguerite with stellar acting and rare talent. A memorable scene of the opera was Clayton’s rendition of “Si belle en ce miroir”, where Marguerite admires her own reflection adorned by Faust’s jewels.

Act II. Kristin Clayton (Marguerite) Photo: Robert Shomler for Festival Opera

In his short-lived moments on stage Eugene Brancoveanu was simply brilliant. His voice has the kind of carrying power that few others possess and many sigh for in vain. As Mephistopheles, Kirk Eichelberger truly did justice to the dark figure of the underworld, and lent much credibility to the production as a whole.

Appearing in the supporting roles of Siebel and Wagner, soprano Erin Neff and baritone Zachary Gordin each gave a strong performance.

Another important feature of this opera was the expressive choreography of Mark Foehringer and his six nimble dancers. As always, the chorus added great depth and dimension to the production thanks to director James Toland.

The orchestra and stage direction were simply flawless under the direction of Oakland East Bay Symphony conductor Michael Morgan, known affectionately by his fans as “MoMo.”

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area

Cabrillo Festival Brings Together Emerging Composers and Conductors

By Eman Isadiar

SANTA CRUZ, CA – Nine promising conductors were selected from a pool of international applicants to lead the Cabrillo Festival orchestra in three short works by emerging composers. Serving as the festival’s music director for the past 18 years, renowned Baltimore Symphony conductor Marin Alsop headed the five-day workshop in collaboration with her own mentor and teacher Gustav Meier. The training culminated in a free public concert on August 5.

The composers featured in this year’s program were Eastman School of Music doctoral candidate Baljinder Sekhon, award-winning Columbian-born composer Federico Garcia, and recent ASCAP laureate Steven Rice.

Composers pictured left to right: Baljinder Singh Sekhon II, Federico Garcia, Steven Rice (Photos courtesy of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music)

The conductors were Pierre Simard from Quebec, Alejandra Urrutia-Borlando from Chile, Christopher Morris Whiting from Switzerland, Nicholas Leh Baker from Houston, Joshua David Gersen from Philadelphia, Jonathan A. Govias from Quebec, Ryan S. Haskins from Baltimore, Olivier F. Ochanine from Los Angeles and Benjamin Rouse from Phoenix.

Conductors pictured left to right, top to bottom: Benjamin Rous, Alejandra Urrutia-Borlando, Joshua David Gersen, Olivier F. Ochanine , Ryan S. Haskins, Nicholas Leh Baker, Jonathan A. Govias, Pierre Simard, Christopher Morris Whiting (Photos by R.R. Jones).

The first piece on the program was Sekhon’s Ancient Dust, conducted consecutively by Simard, Urrutia-Borlando and Whiting. The piece, as described by the composer, attempted to depict the traces of time left on objects of antiquity, which render them unique.

Sekhon’s work was in three distinct sections, opening with a still and mysterious segment containing faint melodic fragments, suggesting perhaps the subtle specks and blemishes of age. Then, followed a more animated passage with a persistent undercurrent leading to a dramatic crescendo. The final section was announced by a haunting double bass solo and ended in peaceful atmospheric sounds.

Simard’s conducting of Ancient Dust was especially fluid and delicate, while that of Urrutia-Borlando had sharper accents and syncopations. Whiting’s interpretation of the piece was rather multi-layered and brought out the counterpoint in the interplay between the parts.

Though each of the remaining conductors brought a similar measure of individuality to the music, the composers’ active participation in the workshop likely prevented extreme artistic variances from one conductor to the next. This rare partnership between composer and conductor is a distinguishing feature of Alsop’s workshop.

The second piece on the program was Inter Alia by Federico Garcia, possibly named for the ensemble he co-founded, “Alia Musica Pittsburgh.” Garcia noted that the piece was loosely composed in two sections with multiple phrases in each section, followed by an ending passage or coda. He added that the two prevalent ideas in the piece are ambient music and a more rhythmic dance-like pattern.

Inter Alia opened with a recurring motif of a descending minor second, which was interwoven throughout the piece and brought a sense of organic cohesion. Another memorable aspect of the music was the rich, lyrical violin solo, which added a touch of romanticism.

While conductors Baker and Gersen each gave a solid and masterful rendition of Garcia’s work, Govias stepped up the tempo ever so slightly, which gave the music a boost of energy.

The final piece on the program was titled The Henry Ford Old Time Orchestra Plays Real American Tunes by Steven Rice. In a surreal introduction from the stage, Rice recounted how Henry Ford – despite being dead for more than 60 years – commissioned the piece for his own orchestra, which factually never existed.

The fibbed description indicated that the composition might include non-musical elements, such as the spoken introduction itself, and perhaps even the audience’s reaction to it, which was a mix of nervous chuckles and coughs.

The piece featured a trio consisting of a masked violinist, a tuba player and a pianist with a remarkably worn-down, public school-issue upright piano. They were accompanied by the orchestra in a kind of deliberately discordant triple concerto, in the style of honky-tonk, ragtime and ice-cream truck music, all rolled into one.

The music ended with a monologue by the masked violinist, who knocked over a table with various items of cookware, which were then picked up and rearranged on the table.

Although the majority of the audience perceived the theatrics of Rice’s music as humorous, conductors Haskins, Ochanine and Rous each managed to draw out the deeper aspect of the music, which was clearly intended to bewilder, amuse and provoke.

Known as the father of the assembly line, the reference to Henry Ford may have been a statement on mass-production and consumerism in the arts, and the allusion to out-of-tune old American music was perhaps a reminder of our nation’s humble cultural origins.

Be that as it may, it is the composer’s prerogative to infuse a precise or vague meaning into the music, while it is the conductor’s job to act as the trusted emissary and interpreter. This is exactly the symbiotic relationship fostered by this prestigious Santa Cruz workshop.

The Composers/Conductors Workshop is a joint project of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and the Conductors Guild, a Virginia-based international organization dedicated to promoting the art of conducting.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.