Dominique-René de Lerma:
Das Paradies und die Peri. I
heard this cantata by Schumann only once, which I thought was far more than
sufficient. I had attended the concert in the company of a friend of Philip
Creech, who had stepped out of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for a solo role.
The work, which (alas) took up an entire evening, was conducted by James
Levine. He made his entrance not only with Phil, but another from the chorus -
mezzo-soprano Isola Jones - and this imposing triangular figure, regally clad,
whose name was totally new to me: Jessye Norman. Quite soon, we all knew who
she was. The ninth program in Bill McLaughlin's Portraits in Black, Brown,
and Beige had this superstar represented by the deeply touching farewell of
Richard Strauß: Vier letzte Lieder. That set the mood for much of this
tribute's penultimate program.
It had begun with Kathleen Battle
and Wynton Marsalis, paired in Handel. I always felt Marsalis excelled in the
classical repertoire, despite his orthodox stance on straight-ahead jazz. As
for Ms Battle (a name well suited for this prima donna who rivaled Maria Callas
in her audacious behavior), she has been an eternal ingenue on stage, a
superb singer. When she was dating Ben Holt, he excused her behavior; when she
was dating Kevin Short (who took her to baseball games in Japan), Kevin said
she really had to have others do for her what she could or would not do for
herself. I reminded him of her days teaching public school in Ohio. He said
she was known at the Met as "U.N." (which was not a reference to any
international organization). Sadly for us and her, she left the opera stage
for good in 1984, not her choice. Should there be any one who has not seen her
performance of spirituals with Jessye Norman, Deutsche Grammophon's DVD is yet
available. Be sure to catch Sylvia Lee at the piano -- that sassy country gal
we all loved so very deeply -- who told Levine that the spirituals should never
be performed with an orchestra! Since when have conductors listened to
anyone?
It must have been difficult to
select a work to represent Olly Wilson, a most major among senior giants, even
if he is dramatically underrepresented discographically. The evening's
sobriety was continued, intensely, by the second movement of his Sinfonia, a
memorial to Olly's father and to that young genius, the conductor Calvin Simmons,
who drowned accidently in frigid waters near Lake Placid, when only 32.
Our host, who also has a career
as conductor, modestly included a sample of his own work with Maps of
Anthony Davis. Here is a composer who has had as major an impact on the direction
of contemporary opera as anyone -- most dramatically and initially with X;
the life and times of Malcolm X. Its première had Ben Holt in the title
role -- in fact, he was Malcolm! -- but Ben died before the CD, so Davis
had the recording issued in his memory (Bill told me he had the experience of
conducting Ben while that gifted baritone was still performing).
The Afro-Latino element, which is
enormous, was introduced with the saxophone concerto by Roberto Sierra, of
Puerto Rico. The identification of who is Black is basically quite easy in the
United States, for reasons all Americans have to live with. In Hispanic
countries, however, ethnicity is far less important than nationality and it
seems foolhardy to isolate the African element from the others, which is why
Tania León does not wish to be identified only as a Black musician. Even
before the massive miscegenation throughout the southern Americas, some of us
took care of that back in Spain, with the aid of the morenos.
Time obligated only brief
attention to the Met's principal clarinetist, Anthony McGill, and none to his
gifted brother, Demarre in Seattle. While Awadagin Pratt entered the scene as
pianist with Brahms, this most remarkable triple-threat Peabody graduate
majored no less in violin and conducting. I always lamented he did not take my
class in Black music history, but was comforted in knowing he was going to make
it.
------------------------------------
Dominique-René
de Lerma
