This weekend at Blossom, see classic Bugs Bunny and other cartoons projected on giant screens under the stars, with the original cartoon scores performed live by the Blossom Festival Orchestra! Conductor George Daugherty returns with Bugs Bunny at the Symphony on September 3 and 4 at 8:30 p.m. Fireworks will follow both performances, weather permitting.
Bugs Bunny at the Symphonyspotlights many of the original Looney Tunes treasures of Bugs Bunny on Broadway while adding cartoons featuring favorite Warner Bros, characters such as Tweety, Sylvester, and Pepe Le Pew, plus special guest appearances from the expanded Warner Bros. animation family including Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, and others. The new concert also includes a critically acclaimed montage titled “I Love To Singa,” celebrating the Looney Tunes legacy of songs and songwriting throughout the golden age of cartoons.
Jack Sutte, second trumpet of The Cleveland Orchestra, has a new solo trumpet recording with pianist Laurent Boukobza. Beyond the Moon contains recent music by David Loeb, Adam Schoenberg, Robert Pound, and Verne Reynolds. It's available at cdbaby.com
The Wisconsin native joined the Orchestra after studies at Curtis and Juilliard and a position in the Bergen (Norway) Philharmonic.
It's always great to discover a new piece by a composer you love. Ever heard of a piece called In the South by Edward Elgar (better known for his “Pomp and Circumstance” or the Enigma Variations)? Cleveland Orchestra assistant conductor James Feddeck (photo, right) told Mike Telin of clevelandclassical.com all about the work, which is on the program he'll conduct at Blossom on Sunday, Aug. 28. Excerpts from the interview follow.
MT: The first half of the program is about virtuosity; what about the second half?
JF: The second half is entirely about description, which I think is perfect at Blossom. I just love Blossom, it’s so beautiful and serene, and the music has a whole new context when you’re in that semi-outdoor environment. So the second half really makes sense with On the Town, where we have this wonderful description of New York, and In the South. Elgar made a family vacation to Italy in the winter of 1903 or 1904, and he was so taken with his surroundings that he crafted this piece in one day. He says that the hills, the mountains, the trees and the water, all of them spoke to him. There is one point in the piece where you can hear church bells. They’re not actual bells, but he orchestrates the ringing of the bells. Elgar calls the piece a concert overture, and it’s pretty short, only about twenty minutes, but to me it’s really a tone poem because it’s totally describing this wonderful place. So as a pair, the Bernstein and the Elgar work together.
MT: It’s scored for large orchestra? JF: Yes, and it begins very heroically, but that leads to some calm and very intimate music. There is also a very extensive viola solo in the middle, which I think is wonderful. It’s actually a song that I believe Elgar wrote to a poem of Shelley. I do think it is a wonderful piece, and the orchestra has played it only one time, and that was back in 1973 or 1974. So when I heard that fact, I said, I’m sold. We can do something new and different, but with a name like Elgar, we can trust it.
See Cleveland Browns president Mike Holmgren's message inviting you to attend The Cleveland Orchestra 9/11 Commemoration Concert. The free concert takes place on Public Square at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 11. For more information, please visit clevelandorchestra.com.
"To have this phenomenal ballet company with one of the best orchestras in the world at the same time is extraordinary," says DanceCleveland executive director Pam Young in Cleveland Magazine
Since 1968, many major dance companies have performed at The Cleveland Orchestra's Blossom Festival in Cuyahoga Valley National Park including, New York City Ballet, Vienna State Opera Ballet, Harkness Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, National Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, San Francesco Ballet, Feld Ballet, Houston Ballet. In 2009, The Orchestra returned to partnering with the Joffrey Ballet, presenting 2 performances of the same program each season at Blossom. The partnership continues this weekend with a special program of five diverse works from the Chicago company’s repertory.
The Orchestra will play from Blossom’s orchestra pit under the direction of Tito Muñoz, who served as assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra from 2007 to 2010. Mr. Muñoz conducted each of the Joffrey’s performances at Blossom during the past two summers, and toured with The Joffrey Ballet during the 2010-11 season.
Here is the program being performed at Blossom Music Center on Saturday, August 20, and Sunday, August 21, both at 8 p.m.
NIGHT
Choreography by JULIA ADAM
Music Composed by MATTHEW PIERCE
Costumes by BENJAMIN PIERCE
Lighting by LISA PINKHAM
Night, choreographed by Julia Adam, was premiered by the San Francisco Ballet in 2000. It
is a contemporary odyssey into one woman’s nocturnal dreams. This is a dance of flight
inspired by the dreamscape paintings of Marc Chagall. With a commissioned score by
Matthew Pierce, Adam creates the impression of flying, falling, and being chased.
OTHELLO-DUET (excerpt)
from Othello — A Dance in Three Acts
Choreography by LAR LUBOVITCH
Music by ELLIOT B. GOLDENTHAL
Scenery by GEORGE TSYPIN
Costumes by ANN HOULD-WARD
Lighting by PAT COLLINS
Projections by WENDALL K. HARRINGTON
Assistant Choreographer: GINGER THATCHER
Joffrey Premiere: October 2009
Special thanks to Rebecca Rigert and Scott Rink for their creative assistance.
Costumes executed by Barbara Matera
Set construction and painting by R.A. Reed Productions, Inc., Portland, Oregon
Projections produced by Eriksson Design, Inc., NYC
Othello — A Dance in Three Acts was given its World Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on
May 23, 1997, at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, danced by Desmond Richardson
(Othello), Sandra Brown (Desdemona), Parrish Maynard (Iago), Martha Butler (Emilia), and
Keith Roberts (Cassio).
This production of Othello — A Dance in Three Acts was originally co-produced with the San
Francisco Ballet in collaboration with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company.
CHOREOGRAPHER’S NOTE:
Othello — A Dance in Three Acts has been adapted from three sources. The Moor originated
as a story by Geraldo Cintio in The Hundred Tales and was published in Venice in 1566. The
characters and the basic plot of the Cintio tale were used by William Shakespeare for his play
Othello, The Moor of Venice, written around 1602 and later restructured and adapted for
Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Othello in 1887.
—Lar Lubovitch
Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain is a ballet of bold movements and heartfelt emotion. In Part I, danced to the first movement of Pärt’s Tabula Rasa, the three couples’ opening movements find the men lying on the floor with the women standing over them, en pointe, with their left legs thrust in the air. From that powerful image, the couples perform a series of intricate lifts and turns that often mirror one another. They are dressed in steel gray, reflecting the striking backdrop, in which a revolving palette of grays resembles glass covered with raindrops. The colors and mood shift dramatically in Part II, a pas de deux danced to Spiegel im Spiegel. The ballerina is dressed in pink and her partner is bare chested. In a series of unfolding partnering moves, the dancers explore the shifting emotions of their relationship. At times they are close and tender with one another, while at other times they inhabit the same space but are separated and searching for one another. The ballet is short in length–lasting about 22 minutes–but rich in invention and feeling. While many dance companies have performed parts of this work, The Joffrey Ballet is the first company outside of the company for which it was created to be awarded the rights to perform the piece in its entirety. Repertory notes courtesy of and adapted from New York City Ballet Online Repertory Index.
TSCHAIKOVSKY PAS DE DEUX
Choreography by GEORGE BALANCHINE
® The George Balanchine Trust
Costumes by BARBARA KARINSKA
Music: Excerpt from Act III of Swan Lake by PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Staged by VICTORIA SIMON
Lighting by THOMAS SKELTON
The music for this piece was originally intended for the pas de deux in Act III of Swan
Lake. Because it was not published with the rest of the score, it remained unknown to Petipa and Ivanov when they were preparing to stage the St. Petersburg version. They substituted music from Act I, which became the famous “Black Swan” pas de deux.
STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO Choreography by GEORGE BALANCHINE ® The George Balanchine Trust Music: Concerto in D by IGOR STRAVINSKY Staged by MARIA CALEGARI and BART COOK Lighting by MARK STANLEY Blossom Festival Violin Soloist: Jung-Min Amy Lee BALLET NOTES: In 1941, Balanchine choreographed Balustrade for the Original Ballet Russe to Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto in D. When he returned to the score three decades later, he could no longer remember his original choreography, but Balanchine was not at all disturbed by the loss. “What I did then was for then,” he said, “and what I wanted to do to this music for our Stravinsky Festival... represented more than 30 years’ difference.” The new choreography, rooted in Georgian folk dance, follows the score directly: An opening “Toccata” and a final “Capriccio” enclose two central “Arias,” which form contrasting pas de deux for two different couples. Repertory notes courtesy of and adapted from New York City Ballet Online Repertory Index.
The entire community is invited to submit original artwork and photos for Images of Peace — a community slide show to be displayed on a giant Jumbotron screen prior to The Cleveland Orchestra 9/11 Commemoration Concert, and on the Cleveland Orchestra Blog. Please submit photos and artwork of people, places, imagery, or anything that means peace to you.
Simply email (must be 1MB to 3MB in size in order to be
displayed) your original Images of Peace, your name,
and the city where you live, by August 30, 2011,
to peace@clevelandorchestra.com
or mail photos or artwork to:
Images of Peace
c/o Communications
Severance Hall
11001 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44106
See photos and videos of the Orchestra on YouTube and Flickr
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