The DMMO Years
The 2011 Summer Season
The 2010 Summer Festival was a great success, and an excellent test of the team that would pick up the baton of leadership from Dr. Robert L. Larsen. Dr. Larsen was one of the co-founders of the Des Moines Metro Opera (the other being the late Douglas Duncan, who passed away in 1988.) He was the principal conductor, stage director and artistic director from the company’s inception in 1973. While not officially relinquishing the title of artistic director during the 2010 season, he stepped down from active participation in the festival during that season turning the conducting over to David Neely and guest conductor Joseph Mechavic, and the artistic director’s responsibilities to Michael Egel, his long-time associate. Stage direction was assigned to three excellent directors: William Farlow; A. Scott Parry, and Dugg McDonough. With each subsequent season, the lineup of guest conductors and stage directors changed. Shortly after the 2010 season, Dr. Larsen officially retired and assumed emeritus status. Michael Egel succeeded him as Artistic Director, eventually becoming General Director as well. David Neely later became Music Director and Principal Conductor, and this set the stage for a new era at DMMO.
The 2011 season was musically a rich one. Two Italian operas, and one French opera were on the “menu” so to speak. Puccini’s beloved “La Boheme” kicked off the season, followed by Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale“, and the final mainstage production of the season was Francis Poulenc’s “Dialogue of the Carmelites.” The first two operas were quite familiar to me, as I shall explain later on in this post, whereas the Poulenc opera was a revelation. Technically, this season was a challenge, as all three operas had important timpani parts. Healthwise, the season was a bit of challenge, but more on that later.
My Situation
I mentioned earlier in this post that the season was a challenging one for me health-wise. Up until now, I had experienced no symptoms of any kind of illness and generally enjoyed each season to the full. This season was different. First off, it had been a very wet spring all over the Midwest, and Indianola had its share of severe storms. I don’t react well to overly long wet seasons, and that was part of my problem. The bigger problem was a severe case of anxiety, which turned out to be the bigger issue. A lot of it had to do with “La Boheme“. I had performed it with the Oslo Philharmonic in concert version in 1996 under Mariss Jansons. The first performance of it went well until the last eight minutes of the opera, when Mariss Jansons suffered a heart attack and had to be carried off-stage, still conducting. That was quite the shock. Fortunately, he survived, but it was about six months before he returned to the orchestra. The second performance was taken over by Klaus Weise. I had no issues with that performance, and the 2001 off-season production at the Civic Center. However, for some reason, during the rehearsals for the 2011 production, I started to brood upon that incident, and every time in rehearsal and performance, I became very anxious, and my heart began to race a bit, particularly at that point where Mariss had his collapse. Luckily, I was able to calm down and perform more than adequately. However, this anxiety carried over to “Don Pasquale ” as well. Not to the same extent, but there were two instances in which I was playing a very active passage in one of the choral ensemble numbers when the anxiety attack hit, and it was all I could do to muster enough will power to “ride it out”. After all, I had no choice – there was no place go. The Lord did some of the playing – I am sure He got me through. Again, I was the only one who noticed. During my days off, I was careful to have myself checked out at the local hospital, and I was found to be in normal health. That helped easy my mind a lot and made the rest of the season easier to get through. By the time of the third production. “Dialogue of The Carmelites“, I was on the mend and actually enjoyed that production.
In terms of instruments, I had the Light Mark XIs out for the season. I really enjoyed playing those, and they were ideal for the entire season. Incidentally, this was to be the last season that I took them out to Indianola. I used the Yamaha 6000s for my last five seasons. While the Lights were superior in tone and easy to play, they were getting a bit “cranky” – with slipping pedals and other issues. They were due for a renovation, and it was decided that they were to go to Denver in the summer of 2012. I had decided that the Yamahas sounded well enough and were easier to move; they did valiant service during my last five seasons at DMMO. From 2012 on, I used the Lights only in Illinois. More on this subject in another blog post.
The Operas
Puccini: La Boheme
This was DMMO’s fifth production of Puccini’s beloved opera; the last production was in 2001, which was an off-season production performed at the Civic Center in Des Moines. I took part in that production, which was excellent. I believe I reported on that in an earlier blogpost, and I pretty much said all that there is to say about the opera, which despite my anxiety attacks during the 2011 summer season, remains one of my favorites. It has been said that, along with Verdi’s Rigoletto and Bizet’s Carmen, this a good opera for those new to the genre to listen to as it has great music, a believable plot, and is not overly long. All of that is true, and while I love the other Puccini operas, this one has always captured my heart, and it never grows old with each listening. Having said that, let me get on with the production details. The musical director and conductor for this production was David Neely, who was fitting into his new role as principal conductor and music director of the company quite nicely. The stage director was Kristine McIntire. She has since become one of the SMMO’s noteworthy stage directors, and her work as a stage director (or producer) is remarkable, as it was with this production. There were six performances and each one was first-rate. In addition to my anxiety attack, I had one small mishap, this time involving my cell phone. I had forgotten to turn it off and we were well into the second act, when an incoming phone call disturbed the proceedings. I immediately squelched it, but not before it attracted notice. I later received a kind but pointed “ding” for that, which was incidentally my only one in nineteen seasons. It was also during this season, that I noted that the Light timpani were beginning to show their need for some “TLC” – for that, read “renovation”. Nonetheless they worked well enough, but for my final five seasons, I used the Yamahas as the Lights went into the shop for renovation. The cast was fantastic! Everybody gave their all, the audiences responded accordingly. The cast included Michael Mayes as Marcello; Harold Meers as Rodolfo; Benjamin LeClair as Colline; and Brandon Hendrickson as Schaunard. The role of the landlord, Benoit was sung by Tony Dillon. Jan Cornelius was cast as Mimi, and Colleen Daly was cast as Musetta. A first-rate production, as I have stated and a great start to the 2011 season.
Here is a link to my favorite recording of the opera:
Donizetti: Don Pasquale
This opera was no stranger to me, as I had played it in two productions, neither of which happened to be with the Lake George Opera. Both of them happened to be in my last years at Manhattan School of Music, and one was actually a production of the school’s John Brownlee Opera Theater, under the direction of Anton Coppola, and the other was an off-campus production in New Jersey – Jersey City, if I an not mistaken. This was also conducted by Anton Coppola. Both productions were excellent, and Maestro Coppola had this opera down cold – he could practically solfege the entire opera! In addition to playing timpani in the opera in both productions, I was also the orchestra manager. In previous posts and a memorial tribute to Maestro, as we called him then, I mentioned his personality and musical qualities, which were more than considerable, so I won’t go into detail here, but suffice it to say that playing this under an expert conductor like Maestro made it hard for me to get used to playing it under the DMMO’s guest conductor for this 2011 season production of the opera, Michael Borowitz. Michael had been an assistant conductor and rehearsal pianist for several previous seasons and was quite well known to the orchestra members. He was and is a very talented musician and acquitted himself very well. A. Scott Parry was the stage director for this production, which was up to his usual high standards. Sets and staging were excellent, and the opera’s relatively small cast outdid themselves in bringing out the best of the opera. The chorus (made up of the company’s apprentice artists) were superb, as usual. There were six performances, all well-received. Despite my panic attacks, I got through this production as well, and despite them, enjoyed it immensely. The cast included Rod Nelman as Don Pasquale; John Moore as Dr. Malatesta; Taylor Stayton as Ernesto; Zulimar Lopez-Hernandez as Norina; and John Arnold, as The Notary.
Here is a link to the opera. This is the 1994 La Scala production:
Poulenc: Dialogue of the Carmelites
As this production was performed in English, I will use the English title. For me, this opera was a “sleeper”. A sleeper not in the sense that it was in any way boring or uninteresting, but in a good sense in that I was unaware of its many good qualities, especially the powerful final scene. Thie opera brought home to me the genius of Poulenc, and the power of his music. Especially with the shock of the final scene, this was for me one of the most powerful productions of my tenure at DMMO, and I am grateful that I was part of it. I had heard of the opera before. My teacher in passing, mentioned that he had a performance to play one evening after my lesson, and he spoke well of it. After that, I did not have any connection with the opera until I started learning it during the run-up to the 2011 season. I listened to the Kent Nagano/Lyons Opera recording, which was of great help in familiarizing myself with the music. I found it beautiful. But the biggest surprise, or shock, to put it more accurately, was when I saw the actual staging of the final scene of the last act. This was the scene where the nuns were executed by guillotine. The stage director was Dugg McDonough, and he was faithful to the plot, showing the nuns in a line walking calmly to their fate. The guillotine was portrayed acoustically, but it was realistic, nonetheless. The march-like music and the hymn sung by the nuns, “Salve Regina”, as they went to their execution just blew me away. The shock of the guillotine interrupting and accompanying the music made for an unbelievably powerful conclusion to the opera. I shared my feelings with David Neely, the conductor of the production, and he said this is what the composer intended, and agreed that it was very, very powerful.
It was such a good production, that it was a bit sad that this was the third production of the season, which usually was scheduled for only four productions. This was one that I would have minded having the full six!
As I mentioned earlier, David Neely was the conductor and music director, with Dugg McDonough as stage director, and a huge cast. It was extremely well-received, and everyone involved put their hearts into it.
The cast included Tony Dillon, Chad A. Johnson, Jane Redding, Sondra Kelly, Brenda Harris and many more. Truly a great opera, and one of the highlights of my tenure.
Here is the final scene. “Salve Regina”. Quite powerful:
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