Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Heitor Villa-Lobos

Macbeth, Emperor Jones & Lost Music

This week on “The Lost Chord,” I indulge my inner English major with a program inspired by two plays that explore the relationship of power and corruption – Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and Eugene O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones.”

The impulse grew out of my recollection of the rarely-heard ballet by Heitor Villa-Lobos, which originally aired on television in 1957. However, since the score was never published, it was believed lost for decades until rediscovered by the conductor Jan Wagner (who is Venezuelan, despite his Teutonic name). Wagner will conduct the Odense Symphony Orchestra, a Nordic band, in a surprisingly idiomatic performance.

Also on the program will be a half-remembered relic of American musical history, an aria from Louis Gruenberg’s opera, “The Emperor Jones,” sung by baritone Lawrence Tibbett, recorded in 1933.

“The Emperor Jones,” written in 1920, could be a potentially sensitive subject in a more politically correct era. No doubt about it, O’Neill’s tragedy is a product of its time, with plenty of minstrel show dialect, and the uncomfortable use of the N-word.

Already in 1924, Sidney Gilpin, the actor who created Brutus Jones, hedged at playing the character in its first revival, unless O’Neill first changed what he perceived as some of the more offensive passages. O’Neill stood his ground, and Gilpin’s replacement, Paul Robeson, went on to international stardom.

It’s easy to write-off “The Emperor Jones” as an embarrassing relic. Yet there have been some high-profile stagings over the past few years which demonstrate that the play still has much to tell us.

Jones is a former railroad porter and convict, who kills a guard in his escape from prison, and through bluff and bravado establishes himself as emperor of a Caribbean island. He maintains his power through cruelty and exploitation. However, he overplays his hand, and the situation quickly erodes. As his subjects rise up against him, Jones retreats into the jungle and descends into primal fear, haunted by images of his victims.

The play not only parallels some of the themes of “Macbeth,” it also demonstrates the fragility of human reason; how easily under the influence of adrenaline, brought on by raw terror, man is undone by the animal impulses of fight or flight; the psychological impact of guilt; and an insight into tyranny which was remarkably prescient given that fascism would soon overtake Europe.

I don’t know why it never occurred to me before to juxtapose the two plays, but a quick Google search reveals that I am not the first, so there goes my dream of an honorary doctorate.

Also on the show will be selections from rarely-heard incidental music written for two productions of “Macbeth,” by William Walton (for John Gielgud) and Sir Arthur Sullivan (for Henry Irving), respectively.

Power corrupts, on “Power Plays,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times for all three of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EASTERN)

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EASTERN)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EASTERN)

Stream all three, at the times indicated, by following the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

PHOTOS: Gielgud as Macbeth (left) and Tibbett as Brutus Jones

April 20, 2024
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Brazil’s Musical Genius

On the birthday of Heitor Villa-Lobos, here’s a documentary about Brazil’s most celebrated composer. Of course, most of it’s in Portuguese, but there are plenty of candid stills and footage and examples of his music, and Arthur Rubinstein speaks French.

A few bonuses:

Villa-Lobos plays Villa-Lobos

Andrés Segovia (at 93)

Julian Bream

Arthur Rubinstein

Nelson Freire

Leonard Bernstein talks Villa-Lobos

Conducting Villa-Lobos’ greatest hit, the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5

Joan Baez gives it a whirl

The classic recording with Victoria de los Angeles and the composer conducting

Bernstein conducts “The Little Train of Caipira,” from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2

The José Limón Dance Company performs “The Emperor Jones”

Folkloric rainforest piece, “Uirapuru,” named for a Brazilian bird

Feliz Aniversário, Heitor Villa-Lobos!

March 5, 2024
Copland’s Appalachian Spring: A Ballet’s Journey

One might say it’s a little cool for spring. But when Aaron Copland came to write his magnum opus, he wasn’t thinking of spring or even the Appalachia, for that matter. What he had to work with were a series of impressions from Martha Graham. In fact, while composing the music, he thought of the project simply as “Ballet for Martha.”

This week on “Music from Marlboro,” we’ll celebrate Copland’s birthday with a suite from this most durable of American ballets, since recognized as “Appalachian Spring.”

It was Graham who came up with the title, well after Copland had finished. A phrase in a poem by Hart Crane had caught her fancy. When Copland asked her if the ballet had anything to do with the poem, Graham said, “No, I just liked the title and I took it.” Yet, as Copland loved to relate, people were always coming up to him and saying, “Mr. Copland… when I hear your music I can just see the Appalachians and I can just feel spring.” (FUN FACT: In Crane’s poem, “spring” isn’t even seasonal; it refers to a source of water.)

Graham, every bit as concerned as Copland with forging a uniquely American art, had envisioned a ballet set during the Civil War. In her correspondence with the composer, she was quite specific in the moods she wished to evoke.

By the time she came to choreograph the piece, Graham decided on a scenario built around the courtship and wedding of a young couple in a western Pennsylvania community in the early 19th century. One of the original dancers, Pearl Lange, remembered, “The first day we heard the music, it was like the sun spread over the floor.”

All the themes are Copland’s own, except of course for “Simple Gifts,” the Shaker hymn that forms the basis for a series of variations at the work’s climax.

“Appalachian Spring” was given its first performance at the Library of Congress on October 30, 1944. On V-E Day, 1945, the work was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music. We’ll hear it performed this evening in its original guise, for a chamber ensemble of thirteen instruments, from the 2006 Marlboro Music Festival.

We’ll preface that with music by Heitor Villa-Lobos. In parallel with Copland’s experiments to the north, Villa-Lobos made a conscious effort in the late ‘30s to embrace a more populist style. The sixth of his seventeen string quartets was composed in Rio de Janeiro in 1938. The work received its first performance there on November 30, 1943. The quartet incorporates elements of Brazilian folk and popular music. At the same time, the composer is not at all bashful about his debt to the works of Franz Joseph Haydn.

We’ll hear a performance of Villa-Lobos’ String Quartet No. 6, from the 2007 Marlboro Music Festival, featuring violinists Celeste Golden and Lucy Chapman, violist Kyle Armbrust, and cellist Wendy Law.

It’s music from the Americas on this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

PHOTO: Copland, feeling a little nostalgic for that Appalachian spring

November 14, 2018
Brazilian Music on WWFM This Afternoon

For those of you under the spell of the Summer Olympics in Rio, you’ll have some more opportunities to enjoy some Brazilian music this afternoon, including works by Camargo Guarnieri and Heitor Villa-Lobos; also a piece inspired by Brazil by David Gunn.

In addition, we’ll be celebrating the birthday anniversaries of French composers Cécile Chaminade and André Jolivet. I hope you’ll join me in some musical globetrotting this afternoon and early evening, from 4 to 7 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

August 8, 2016
Macbeth & The Emperor Jones on the Radio

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” I indulge my inner English major with a program inspired by two plays that explore the relationship of power and corruption – Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and Eugene O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones.”

While the world’s eyes are on the Olympic Games in Brazil, our ears will be with the country’s most celebrated composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and a ballet which was originally performed on television in 1957. Somehow the score was never published. In fact, for decades it was even believed lost, until rediscovered by the conductor Jan Wagner (who is Venezuelan, despite his Teutonic name). Wagner will conduct the Odense Symphony Orc hestra, a Nordic band, in a surprisingly idiomatic performance.

Also on the program will be a half-remembered relic of American musical history, an aria from Louis Gruenberg’s opera, “The Emperor Jones,” sung by baritone Lawrence Tibbett, recorded in 1933.

“The Emperor Jones,” written in 1920, could be a sensitive subject in a more politically correct era. No doubt about it, O’Neill’s tragedy is a product of its time, with plenty of minstrel show dialect, and the uncomfortable use of the N-word.

Already in 1924, Sidney Gilpin, the actor who created Brutus Jones, hedged at playing the character in its first revival, unless O’Neill first changed what he perceived as some of the more offensive passages. O’Neill stood his ground, and Gilpin’s replacement, Paul Robeson, went on to international stardom.

It’s easy to write-off “The Emperor Jones” as an embarrassing relic. Yet there have been some high-profile stagings over the past few years which demonstrate that the play still has much to tell us.

Jones is a former railroad porter and convict, who kills a guard in his escape from prison, and through bluff and bravado establishes himself as emperor of a Caribbean island. He maintains his power through cruelty and exploitation. However, he overplays his hand, and the situation quickly erodes. As his subjects rise up against him, Jones retreats into the jungle and descends into primal fear, haunted by images of his victims.

The play not only parallels some of the themes of “Macbeth,” it also demonstrates the fragility of human reason; how easily under the influence of adrenaline, brought on by raw terror, man is undone by the animal impulses of fight or flight; the psychological impact of guilt; and an insight into tyranny which was remarkably prescient given that fascism would soon overtake Europe.

I don’t know why it never occurred to me before to juxtapose the two plays, but a quick Google search reveals that I am not the first, so there goes my dream of an honorary doctorate.

Also on the show will be selections from rarely-heard incidental music written for two productions of “Macbeth,” by William Walton (for John Gielgud) and Sir Arthur Sullivan (for Henry Irving), respectively.

Power corrupts, on “Power Plays,” this Sunday night at 10 EDT. Listen to it then, or catch it later as a webcast, at wwfm.org.

The José Limón Dance Company performs Heitor Villa-Lobos’ “The Emperor Jones”:

PHOTO: Choreographer José Limón as Emperor Jones, with Mindinha & Heitor Villa-Lobos

August 7, 2016

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