Word: brittens
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...most readily seen in the phenomenon of Harvard musical stage productions. Since Cosi fantutte at Leverett two years ago, there has been a steady escalation in the size and difficulty of productions. Last year there were productions of Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat. Mozart's Don Giovanni and Britten's The Turn of the Screw: this year it was hard to decide whether to be more impressed by Leverett's production of The Marriage of Figaro or the Bach Society-Music Club concert performance of Fidelio. The more ambitions these projects become, the more time, money and professional assistance...
...chorus' rendition of the dreamy meanderings of the "Wedding Chorus" were perfectly natural and uninhibited. So were the two spirituals at the end of the program; Archie Epps in "Ride on King Jesus" created a lilting pulse that was still with me long after the concert. And in Britten's "A Hymn to the Virgin" the main chorus and a tiny answering chorus competed (with the small chorus just barely winning) for the honor of making the most refined choral sound of the evening...
...grocery-chain manager. His first walk-on part was as lead choirboy in a processional at St. Paul's Cathedral "because I looked such a cherub. I would just mime the words." He dropped out of school at 15, toured as a boy soprano in Benjamin Britten's Let's Make an Opera. His real education came from performing in 500 radio playlets for the BBC's "School Broadcasts...
Levy, 34, the son of a Passaic, N.J., candy-store owner, seems to be a composer in search of a style; the opera, his first full-length effort, has some swatches of straight classical writing, some Webern, some Stravinsky, some Britten. As a result, the operatic version of Mourning emerges as a compelling drama with polished incidental music. Last week, after two Mourning performances, Levy was busy cutting the three-hour opera by about 20 minutes. It will take more than emergency surgery and fine stagecraft to save a score that was dead to begin with...
Underlying Waves. No glamour boy on the podium, Davis guided the Met orchestra through Britten's surging score with the firm and unerring hand of a ship's captain riding out a sou'wester. His precise baton gave full play to the music's quick, dramatic climaxes, while deftly sustaining the rhythms of wind and waves. His beat was decisive, his attack well balanced and logical...