By Keith Powers
LENOX, Mass. – Tanglewood would make a great final resting place. Gently manicured nature, music constantly in the air, lavish picnics with kids playing harmless games.
Soft puffy clouds? Yeah, that too.
So when the Music Critics Association of North America’s annual meeting coincided with a visit to Tanglewood, the pastoral home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, it was easy to make travel plans. Not permanent ones, but happy ones.
The MCANA meeting took place in a multi-tasking environment. The BSO offered a concert presentation of Die Walküre over the weekend, and those performances by the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and a starry cast were surrounded with events curated by the Tanglewood Learning Institute, a new BSO initiative, housed in the first building project on the grounds since Ozawa Hall opened in 1994.
The Linde Center – as the home of the TLI is called – will engage more fully the already-engaged adult audience. A small performance space (Studio E), a well-stocked café, and two even more intimate rehearsal buildings are aimed at that captive audience.
“We will serve curious adults,” the new TLI director, Sue Elliott, said emphatically at a press conference. “We want to connect other pursuits with music. It starts with music, but it doesn’t stop there.”
TLI ancillary programs vary. A weekend earlier in July explored Georgia O’Keeffe and her world; performances included a world premiere by Kevin Puts. A film weekend highlighted (no surprise) by John Williams and the annual Festival of Contemporary Music will have complementary events in August. Musicians and other artists, scholars, and political figures will participate.
For the last weekend in July, presentations in Studio E included a lunch with BSO music director Andris Nelsons and soprano Christine Goerke (singing Brünnhilde); a fascinating presentation by BSO artistic administrator and Tanglewood director Tony Fogg and soprano Jane Eaglen (a Brünnhilde on many occasions, who spoke eloquently about that role); Elliott herself giving two lengthy and insightful talks; and a presentation by pianist Jeffrey Swann.
All of those discussions examined specific topics germane to the appreciation of Wagner. But historian Doris Kearns Goodwin made the most popular presentation, presiding over a love-fest to an audience that spilled out generously onto the lawn behind Ozawa Hall. She reminisced voluminously on presidents she’s written about, and offered not-so-thinly veiled skewerings of other political figures.
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While Goodwin’s speech was the most popular of the weekend, the most informative presentations to the core group – MCANA and the 100 or so others who had paid $399 for the complete Wagner weekend package (including lunches) – came from Elliott herself.
She joins the BSO front office in the newly created position of TLI executive director. Her mandate sounds a lot like “Let’s figure this out together.” The Linde Center will certainly have a huge summer presence. Additionally, the BSO plans to create new programming for Tanglewood – “Fall/Winter/Spring season,” Elliott said. The name needs work, and that ambition will seem mighty bold when cold weather descends on bucolic Lenox, but the resources are clearly there.
One sprawling building – a café joined by a hallway to a flexible performance center that seats 250 – has two smaller studio buildings close by. The Linde Center sits on the hill, out back of Ozawa Hall. As much as it will serve the “curious adults,” it will also create more rehearsal space, especially for sections and small ensembles. It will obviously be used for donor relations as well, and provides a welcome upgrade to Tanglewood’s food offerings.
To begin the TLI weekend, Elliott gave a long and enthusiastic master class in Wagner’s music and emotion on Friday morning. She talked mainly about transitions – “first moments,” she called them – and how Wagner colors and supports them during Die Walküre.
“Wagner can become a competitive sport”; “can’t do the Ring with broad brushes, it’s details”; and “Wagner is slow, not long” were some of her memorable sayings. Elliott will help shape the mission of the TLI, but she’s not going to stand by idly while others implement her ideas.
Fogg chaired a lunch discussion with Goerke and Nelsons. Most of that discussion centered on the roles, stamina, and artistry required to sing Wagner. The easygoing session was broken up frequently by Goerke (who could run for office) praising her colleagues, spinning out backstage yarns, and telling personal stories. At one point, Nelsons offered Goerke a contract to sing an entire Ring cycle at Tanglewood in the future – words that spurred dozens of note-takers into action, but may be more hope than anything else.
Equally impressive, there were still more than 100 people who stayed after the lunch on Friday for more discussions. Mid-afternoon, Eaglen (not here to sing, as she now keeps a more modest schedule) shared some stories and her ideas of the Wagner voice.
It was an artist session. Eaglen told stories that revealed just how much of a prodigy she really was. After just two weeks of singing as a child, her teacher said, “You’re going to sing Brünnhilde someday.” In talking about her instrument, Eaglen also noted that at two years old, “I realized I could keep crying for longer than my mother could put up with it.” And so a career in performance began.
Elliott gave another detailed talk on Saturday after lunch, focusing on brass playing, and especially Wagner’s special instruments, in the Ring. The possibilities of a one-hour discussion about steerhorns proved irresistible to Wagnerites.
The MCANA group was invited to the rehearsal for Die Walküre with Nelsons and the TMC Orchestra on Saturday morning. He was doing final prep before the musicians played the three acts behind the soloists. Goerke was joined by soprano Amber Wagner, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, bass-baritone James Rutherford, and others.
Nelsons stopped every few measures during the two-hour rehearsal (or more – these kids don’t belong to the union). He was working the details. Elliott had earlier described the Ring as “17 hours made of second-by-second moments.” Nelsons coached many of those moments in this rehearsal.
The BSO made a gesture toward the health of the players by limiting instrumentalists to two acts. Good thing too: The Shed was oppressively humid. The singers, some of the greatest living Wagner voices, gave what amounted to a masterclass performance for audiences and the TMCO as well.
With at least two dozen reviewers in the audience, this space will stay clear of performance assessments. The three acts were spread out over two days, and that did seem like a just-right dose of Wagner, even with the weekend’s other activities. (Just one observation: Goerke really was weeping at the end of Act III.)
A centerpiece of the weekend was the presentation of the third annual MCANA Award for Best New Opera premiered in North America in the previous year. The choice was p r i s m, composed by Ellen Reid with libretto by Roxie Perkins. Perkins was there to accept the award. A report on the opera, a Beth Morrison Project that had a rolling premiere in Los Angeles and New York, can be found here. p r i s m received the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in music as well.
MCANA members met Sunday morning in the Tappan House to discuss affairs. At the close of the business meeting, Sue Elliott, Tony Fogg, and Boston Symphony managing director Mark Volpe joined the association for a moderated panel. The discussion began with the new initiatives at the TLI, and its target audience. But over the course of a generous hour, the conversation strayed into the troubled James Levine era at the BSO, educational outreach, the future of performance, and other topics. Fogg also talked about programming, emphasizing that he had already engaged some artists that he would not otherwise have considered because they fit the parameters of the TLI programs.
Speaking for myself, to hear respected executives like Elliott, Fogg, and Volpe talk about their work with devotion and intensity helps ease some concerns about our art form. Volpe said passionately, “We’re learning too, at some level. But we want to attract new constituencies. We hope we are furthering the cause of music.”
Keith Powers covers music and the arts in greater Boston for GateHouse Media and WBUR’s ARTery. Follow @PowersKeith; email to keithmichaelpowers@gmail.com.
