Vermont Philharmonic begins with bel canto
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Vermont Philharmonic Music Director Lou Kosma rehearses the orchestra for the season's opening concerts, Oct. 17 in St. Johnsbury and Oct. 18 in Barre. STEFAN HARD/TIMES ARGUS |
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By Jim Lowe Times Argus Staff - Published: October 9, 2009
The Vermont Philharmonic will open its 51st season, as it has for the last three years, showcasing up-and-coming opera stars, winners of the 2009 Bel Canto Institute competition in Florence, Italy. Vermont's oldest community orchestra's 2009-2010 season will also include performances of Handel's "Messiah," led by Assistant Conductor Lisa Jablow; and continue with Music Director Lou Kosma conducting Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, a zany children's concert, and a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in the Cello Concerto by Vladimir Dukelsky – known in the United States as the pop songwriter Vernon Duke.
This season, the Philharmonic continues to spread its message throughout this part of the state. In addition to the Barre hometown performances, the orchestra is going to St. Johnsbury, Montpelier, Randolph, Hardwick and Colchester.
Kosma, who has been building this orchestra into a reliable performance machine over the last decade, has a certain advantage in the opening program, "Passions: A Sultry Evening of Italian Opera," to be presented Saturday, Oct. 17, at 7:30 p.m., at St. Johnsbury Academy's Fuller Hall, and on Sunday, Oct. 18, at 3:30 p.m., at the Barre Opera House. Kosma's longtime "day job" is bass player, assistant principal this season, at New York's Metropolitan Opera – hence the connection with the Bel Canto Institute.
"This year, we have two winners," Kosma said. "They're going to sing some really good chestnuts from the bel canto era, and one beautiful bel canto-style aria from Verdi's 'Rigoletto,' 'Caro nome.'"
Elise Jablow, currently a senior at McGill University, has been a soloist in a number of performances at the Montreal school, as well as in her native Connecticut. Joan Martinson, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, made her opera debut in 2002 as Barbarina in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro." She has also performed with several regional operas and orchestras.
Also on the program is the "Mad Scene" from Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" (which the Green Mountain Opera Festival has scheduled for June 2010 at the Barre Opera House).
"The orchestral stuff is very interesting," Kosma added. "There's an incredible overture I've discovered by Pietro Mascagni to an opera called 'Maschere (The Mask).'"
"Maschere" refers to the Italian commedia del'arte.
"He paid homage tradition to the 16th century style of comedy," Kosma said. "It's kind of a Rossini-style orchestration, very light in the brass. And the big tune is gorgeous."
The opera was a complete failure but the overture remains. Preceding "Care nome," Kosma has scheduled the prelude to "Rigoletto," which foreshadows the tragedy.
The Philharmonic will be joined in the "Humming Chorus" from Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" by the Johnson State College Choir and the newly forming Vermont Philharmonic Chorus.
"We'll end the first half of our program with the 'Humming Chorus,' and after intermission we'll come back with the prelude to act three, which is exactly how it would be in the opera," Kosma said.
Completing the program, the Philharmonic will perform an orchestral synthesis of the "Hymn" and "Triumphal March" from Verdi's "Aida."
"It won't be with chorus, but we'll make it fun," Kosma said. "It's a damned good opera."
The annual "Messiah" presentations, featuring the Christmas portion, Dec. 4 in Montpelier and Dec. 6 in Barre, will be conducted by Assistant Conductor Lisa Jablow, who is forming the new chorus.
"It's not an auditioned choir yet," Kosma said. "We just wanted to get the thing off the ground, but eventually it will be the Vermont Philharmonic Chorus."
The winter concert, "Slavic Soul," Feb. 6 in Colchester and Feb. 7 in Barre, features Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, the student winner of the Jon Borowicz Scholarship competition in a concerto, and Bedrich Smetana's ever-popular tone poem "The Moldau."
"I rarely do repeats, but at the level the orchestra is playing now, I was very excited to put 'Moldau' on again," Kosma said.
The Tchaikovsky is one of the major works of the symphonic literature, and a difficult one to perform. Kosma tried it on the orchestra at his annual "reading" rehearsal.
"And I realized this summer that we should be able to do that number," Kosma said. "That's one everyone is looking forward to."
The annual "Children's Concert," March 28 in Barre, includes a collaboration with the Green Mountain Youth Symphony as well as some zany activities for the kids.
"At this point, it sounds extremely exciting," Kosma said. "I have asked a guest to come who plays the glass armonica that Benjamin Franklin invented – so this could be cool."
The season finale, "Belle Russo," May 22 in Randolph and May 23 in Hardwick, features works of Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and the Cello Concerto by Vladimir Dukelsky.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's 'The Russians are Coming," Kosma said, referring to the title. "Vladimir Dukelsky is the same guy who wrote 'April in Paris' and 'Autumn in New York' – and his name is Vernon Duke in America."
The soloist, Samuel McGill, Kosma's colleague at the Met, has recorded the work. The major work on the final program will be Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Symphony No. 2, called "Antar."
"It's one of those pieces that were done in the '40s and '50s and '60s by big orchestras and by Stokowski – that era," Kosma said. "The 'Antar' is big."
As are Kosma's plans for the Vermont Philharmonic this season.