When shopping for a new general director, one could do worse than engage the first monotheistic pharaoh.
It has been announced that countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, who created a sensation as Philip Glass’ “Akhnaten” at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, will become the next general director and president of Opera Philadelphia. On June 1, Costanzo will replace David Devan, who directed the organization for 13 years. It will be Costanzo’s first administrative position in an arts organization.
In 2018, Costanzo sold out three performances at the Barnes Foundation of “Glass Handel,” a large-scale operatic art installation given its premiere at Festival O. It went on to further sell-out runs in New York and London. His most recent appearance with Opera Philadelphia was in 2022, when he led the fundraising concert “Only an Octave Apart” with Justin Vivian Bond, based on their studio album of the same name.
Costanzo, who graduated from Princeton University in 2004, is scheduled to sing in Christoph Willibald Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” at the Met, beginning on May 16.
You know him as LSD (the flower-power Hitler) from Mel Brooks’ “The Producers,” as Sylvester Marcus from “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” (“Your baby’s comin’ to save you, Mama!”), and as Snow Miser from “The Year without a Santa Claus.” Now…. Dick Shawn sings Pagliacci.
“Vesti la giubba” begins around 6:20. I’ve got it cued up for you at the link. The end of the routine refers back to a Civil War bit in first half of the video. Sobering to think this was only 90 years after the actual war. Hell, we’re 70 years away from this video now!
In a week full of holidays and anniversaries, I’m only just getting around to sharing these photos of the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey’s ambitious Saturday night concert, a showcase for George Antheil’s “Ballet Mécanique” – the most notorious work by Trenton’s native son. (It instigated a riot at its premiere in Paris 100 years ago.) The piece was heard on Saturday in its 1953 revised version for four pianos and percussion, because, let’s face it, even Antheil was pragmatic enough to deduce that if it were ever to be performed again, a requirement of 16 player pianos, on top of everything else, would be a bit much to expect.
The stimulating program also included unusual fare by John Cage and Lou Harrison (well, maybe usual for them), incorporating industrial and found objects. I would have liked to have heard the rest of Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra, as soloist (and Capital Philharmonic concertmaster) Nina Vieru played the first movement ravishingly.
The concert opened with music director Dan Spalding’s “Overture to Industry,” a lively curtain-raiser, repurposed, like so many of the program’s unconventional instruments – in this case, from a percussion piece of his youth. Also featured was J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Four Harpsichords in an arrangement (also by Spalding) for four pianos and xylophones.
The event was greatly enhanced by entertaining interludes, executed as the stage was reset, by Trenton Circus Squad, with its jugglers, acrobats, clowns, and stilt-walkers, largely supported by the positive energy of the Plenty Pepper Steel Band, and of course the apt setting, inside Trenton’s historic Roebling Machine Shop. An enormous backdrop displayed an abstract rendering of an airplane propeller, another unusual item featured in Antheil’s score (reproduced on Saturday’s concert electronically).
The photos of the musicians were taken by Dan Aubrey, my editor at U.S. 1, because they are more interesting and came out much better than mine. Equally, most of my photos of Trenton Circus Squad were in poor resolution. For a more rounded view of what it was like to be there, there are additional photos and videos posted on the Facebook pages of the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic Orchestra and Trenton Circus Squad. Thanks to everyone involved for the unusual experience!
In case you missed it, here’s the preview I wrote (with more colorful Antheil anecdotes) for U.S. 1 newspaper.
April 23 – The feast day of Saint George, dragon-slayer and patron saint of England (and elsewhere). He’s famously invoked in Shakespeare’s “Henry V,” during the siege of Harfleur. It’s only appropriate that England’s most-celebrated playwright was born on this date in 1564. Or was he? We’re not sure, but we know he was baptized on April 26, and he died on April 23, 52 years later, so we’re inclined to make it fit! Methinks the Bard would appreciate the touch of poetic license.
Happy birthday, Shakespeare, and cry Harry, England and Saint Geooooooooorge!
Olivier, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends!”
Branagh, same
Bonus! Brian Blessed, who played Exeter in the Branagh version, at 84
Edward Elgar, “The Banner of Saint George,” conducted by the late Sir Andrew Davis
Some of the most impressive artistic renderings of St. George aren’t even English. And I kind of feel sorry for the dragon, to be honest.
Branagh as “Henry V” (left) and “Saint George Killing the Dragon” by Bernat Martorell
For the first day of Passover, here’s a complete performance of the oratorio “Haggadah shel Pesach,” by German-Jewish composer Paul Dessau.
Dessau was a successful theatrical musician, who worked both in opera, as an assistant to Otto Klemperer and Bruno Walter, and with cinema orchestras. However, in 1933, with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany, living conditions became intolerable for Dessau, who fled to Paris, and then the United States. He settled in Hollywood in 1943. Later, in 1948, he returned to East Berlin, where he taught at the Staatliche Schauspielschule (Public Drama School) and became vice president of the Academy of Arts.
While in exile in Paris, Dessau composed “Haggadah del Pesach,” on a libretto by Max Brod. Brod is probably best known as the friend and biographer of Franz Kafka. Since neither Dessau nor Brod were fluent in Hebrew, they enlisted the help of Rabbi Mordecai Langer to assist with translation.
Read at the Passover Seder, the Haggadah relates the story of Exodus and explains the Passover rituals. Brod interpolates additional texts from the Torah, Talmud, and Midrash. The oratorio describes “The Feast of Passover,” “Moses Slays the Egyptian,” “The Girls by the Well,” “The Saving of the Girls,” “Chorus,” “The Entrance of Pharoah,” “The Plagues,” “The Slaying of the First-Born,” “Midnight Hymn,” and “Israel’s Departure from Bondage to Freedom.”
Whether your taste runs to maror or charoset, I hope you’ll find something in it to enjoy.
Not your cup of Manischewitz? Try Leopold Koželuch’s “Moisè in Egitto” (“Moses in Egypt”).
Koželuch, a very capable composer, probably would have enjoyed a more respected standing among his peers, if not for a markedly irascible personality. According to legend, he delighted in trash-talking both Haydn and Mozart, which didn’t sit well in certain circles. Is it true? Probably to the extent anything circulated about Salieri is true.
Regardless of what his colleagues may have thought of him, he never seemed to lack for patronage. He was offered the position of court organist in Salzburg, vacated by Mozart, but declined. Later, following Mozart’s death, he assumed the responsibilities of Kammer Kapellmeister (conductor) and Hofmusik Compositor (composer) at the Imperial Court in Vienna, at twice Mozart’s salary.
Yeah, he could be a little rough (Beethoven once described him as “Miserabilis”), but he was also a shrewd political operator.
There’s no questioning his talent. And face it, even Moses had his moments.
