{"id":3511,"date":"2025-10-28T10:33:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T04:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kettledrummer.com\/?p=3511"},"modified":"2025-10-30T07:57:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T01:57:35","slug":"my-musical-career-part-seventy-nine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kettledrummer.com\/?p=3511","title":{"rendered":"My Musical Career Part | Seventy-Nine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The DMMO Years<\/strong>

The 2015 Summer Season<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After those2013 and 2014 Summer Festivals, one would think that DMMO would take a bit of a break and go for lighter operatic fare. This was definitely not the case with the 2015 Summer Festival season, which was even more ambitious than its predecessor. Not only were there the usual three mainstage productions, plus one Second Stage production, there was another off-season production after the mainstage season in December of 2014. I was involved in all productions except for the off-season production. The repertory for the 2015 festival season was exciting and challenging. It covered all the traditional genres and then some! The season opened with five performances of Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio. <\/em>Next up was Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West<\/em> (The Girl of The Golden Wes<\/em>t), also with five performances. This was followed up by DMMO’s first-ever production of a Czech opera. Janacek’s Jenufa<\/em> was the chosen opera to represent the Czech operatic repertory, and it is quite something. Second Stage was to have two productions instead of the one as in the 2014 Summer Festival. The first of these was the above-mentioned offstage production in December 2014 – Jake Heggie’s Three December<\/em>s”. The other was performed during the actual 2015 Summer Festival itself. This was Catan’s Rappacini’s Daughter<\/em>. Since I was not involved in the off-season production, I will not be mentioning that one any further as I have had no experience with it. I did take part in Rappacini’s Daughter<\/em> and will talk about it later in the blog post. The housing and musical arrangements were the same as in the previous two seasons – I used the Yamahas again in 2015 – and would do the same in my final season, which would be the 2016 Summer Festival. I remained a contented occupant of Room 100 in Kresge Hall, and all the logistics for this season went off without a hitch. In addition to the mainstage performances and Rappacini’s Daughter, there<\/em> was the usual “Stars of Tomorrow” concert held at Sheslow Auditorium on the campus of Drake University during the last week of the season. More on these concerts in a later blog post. This was a busy season, and I liked to be busy rather than bored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Operas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Operas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had taken part in performances of The Abduction from the Seraglio<\/em> on only one occasion in the past, and this happened during my senior year at Manhattan School of Music. I was fortunate to be part of that college production, which was conducted and staged by Maestro George Schick, our school’s president and an expert opera conductor, with a particular bent for the Mozart operatic canon. I fell in love with the opera then and love it to this day. You may remember some of the music from the movie” Amadeus” as some scene from the opera feature prominently in it. It is a happy opera – C major is always a happy key. The overture has always been a favorite of mine as well as the whole of the first act. I have heard it said that the second act is the weaker of the two acts, and I remember asking Maestro Schick about that in college. At a fifty-year remove from that occasion, I cannot remember his exact words, but they had something to do with the fact that the music and the action did not mesh as well as that of the first act. Having said that, it is still lovely music and great fun. The timpani part is not overly taxing, but with Mozart (as with all opera), one must keep alert and play with sensitivity. My Eerho disc- shaped timpani mallets came in handy, as well as my Carlisle Mozart mallets. I also made use of my Sarah Basel timpani mufflers, and I was very satisfied with the results.
The production was an excellent one. Dean Williamson conducted, and Chas Rader-Scheiber was the stage director. What a team! The production sparkled under their inspired collaboration, and the cast was superb. The cast included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belmonte: Ben Bliss
Konstanze: Amanda Woodbury
Blonde: Ashley Emerson
Pedrillo: Jonathan Blalock
Osmin: Matt Boehler
Bassa Selim: David Adam Moore<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could not have asked for a better cast. All sang and acted on a very high artistic level. The audiences at these performances were most appreciative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 By now, the DMMO had gone over to five performances for all productions (at least for this season), and so Abduction<\/em> received five superb productions. The opera was performed in German with English dialogue.

Here is a link to the opera. This is a performance conducted by Georg Solti at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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