FROM THE STAGE TO THE PAGE
From Baskerville Publishers, based in Dallas, comes Great
Voices, a new series of books that no historically minded opera fan will want
to do without: classic biographies of the greats of yesteryear, each
accompanied by a well-filled CD of choice recordings. The first volume is Titta
Ruffo's My Parabola, exceptional in that it comes from the pen of the
subject himself, an astounding artist whose ambitions and imaginative powers
one may judge by the fact that he recorded not only arias but also the
soliloquies of Hamlet, in Italian, to spine-tingling effect (alas, not reissued
here). Second in the series is the Renata Tebaldi biography The Voice of an
Angel, which, title notwithstanding, brings the diva to the page with
considerable candor. Both volumes are scrupulously prepared, with an impressive
apparatus of notes and dates, not to mention rare archival photographs. Next
month look for the life of the tenor Tito Schipa, insightfully set down by his
son Tito Schipa Jr., and How Cinderella Became Queen, a biography of
the mezzo soprano Giulietta Simionato, an artist who combined loftiness of
expression with towering passion. (To order call 800-932-7771.)
The second in a series
Photo: Courtesy of Baskerville Publishers
PUTTING THE RESTLESS TO REST
From July 22 to August 11 Lincoln Center will present
an ambitious (some might
say hubristic) new festival, and everyone in the business wants to know, Will
it fly? Space, as they say, does not permit us to examine the rich
multicultural offerings in any detail, but one event deserves special mention:
a rare performance of Morton Feldman's String Quartet II, written for and
performed by the Kronos Quartet but unrecorded because it consists of a single
five-to-six-hour movement (longer than the three acts and two intermissions of
Parsifal) that contains not a single rest. Feldman is classified as a
minimalist, a label that, though accurate, does his exquisitely crafted writing
a heinous disservice. According to David Harrington, one of the two Kronos
violinists, once the players take up their bows, they do not lift them
from the strings of their instruments until the piece ends. Four helpers step
forward every ten minutes or so to turn the pages. "I get the most intense
backache," Harrington says. "It comes and goes through the experience of
that music. At moments I'm so angry at Morton Feldman, and at others I
think this is the most beautiful piece of music ever written. And
there's every possible emotion in between. When it's over, it takes
three to four days to recover physically." There have been only
eight performances of the quartet to date. Potential listeners
should know a) that no guards will be posted at the door to intercept
anyone returning from a comfort break, and b) that this will be the last
performance of String Quartet II. For a bite-size sample of Feldman's intricate
art try the recording of his single-movement Piano and String Quartet, which
runs a mere seventy-nine minutes and thirty-three seconds (Nonesuch). For
festival information call 212-721-6500.
Top: Morton Feldman
Photo: courtesy of Lincoln Center Festival
Bottom: The Kronos Quartet
Photo: Michael Lavine
INNOCENCE LOST
Who was Emmeline? According to local legend in tiny Fayette, Maine, she was a
poor girl who, in a time of great hardship, was sent to make money in the
cotton mills of Massachusetts. Innocent, friendless, and thirteen years old,
she became pregnant, bore a child in secret, and went home, her shame
unrevealed. Years later, when a young stranger came to town, she married him,
only to discover that the young man she loved was her own son. As Emmeline lay
in her coffin, her sister raised a hand to God and declared: "At last she has
paid for her sins." Readers of romance novels know this tale from Judith
Rossner's Emmeline. Viewers of the PBS series The American
Experience have seen it dissected in a documentary called "Sins of Our
Mothers," which confirms that Emmeline existed and fills in much bleak social
background, along with a lot of largely unverifiable oral history. In
particular the filmmakers could turn up no hard evidence of incest, though to
old-timers in Maine the fact is not in dispute. Now the composer Tobias Picker
and the poet J. D. McClatchy have recast this sad New England horror story in
the medium it cries out for. This summer The Santa Fe Opera presents the
world premiere of Emmeline the opera, and if the artists have done their
work properly, audiences far from Fayette will believe and shudder (July 27 and
31 and August 9; 505-986-5900).
Tobias Picker in his milieu
Photo: John Chidiac
Austin Baer is a writer based in New York.
