Texas-born tenor, Jay Hunter Morris, now in great demand, is thankful for those who believed in him during his two-decade journey to the top. One was Eric Mitchko, general director of N.C. Opera, who was Morris’ manager for several years and later hired him at the Atlanta Opera. Morris is repaying that faith by appearing in the company's concert of Wagner arias and excepts.
A moving performance of Johannes Brahms’ “A German Requiem” by the N.C. Symphony and N.C. Master Chorale not only revealed the work’s warmth and beauty but also served as an unplanned but fitting tribute to Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Robert Ward, who died April 3 at age 95. Ward came to North Carolina in 1967 to head the N.C. School of the Arts in Winston-Salem and later taught for a decade at Duke University in Durham, NC, the city where he continued to reside until his death.
The North Carolina Symphony began its 80th season in Raleigh, NC, in September 2012. I attended three out of its six Classical Series concerts in Raleigh between September and December. Overall, the concerts were satisfyingly consistent and engaging, with intriguing repertory that belied any dumbing down or popularizing of the classical series.
On October 30, 2012, Carolina Performing Arts presented the Mariinsky Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev, in the second of two back-to-back concerts. The orchestra and the conductor again upheld their well-deserved stature in an all-Russian program.
The North Carolina Symphony gave fourteen classical concerts on its 2011-12 Raleigh series. I reviewed five of them for the Raleigh News & Observer. Here they are, in reverse chronological order, starting with the May 11 season finale.
Raleigh-based North Carolina Opera finished its 2011-2012 season with a semi-staged concert performance of Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” in Meymandi Concert Hall, one of the company’s strongest showings yet in its fledgling two seasons. Born of two previous Raleigh-based companies, Opera Company of North Carolina and Capital Opera, North Carolina Opera has worked to find its proper balance in offering fully staged grand opera,
Opera is the most expensive art form to produce and it has a reputation as entertainment only for the elite. Eric Mitchko, general director of N. C. Opera, was confronted by both challenges when planning the company's concert production of Gounod's popular "Faust," in Raleigh's Meymandi Concert Hall.
The N. C. Symphony gave one of its most creative and informative concerts Friday night, a "Composer Portrait" of John Adams. Conductor Benjamin Wallfisch took over at the last minute for music director Grant Llewellyn, turning in a confident, exciting and sensitive performance.
Andrea Quinn returned as guest conductor of the N. C. Symphony in Meymandi Concert Hall, the site of her last visit here in 2004 as a finalist for the orchestra's music director. Although Grant Llewellyn ultimately landed that position, Quinn's performances, then as now, prove why she was such a worthy contender.
Like most performing arts groups these days, the N. C. Symphony is trying out innovative ways to counter sagging ticket sales. It hit pay dirt Friday night with its own version of Peter Shaffer's play, "Amadeus." A co-production with Chapel Hill-based PlayMakers Repertory Company, the program was one of the most inventive and successful in many a season.
One N. C. Symphony programming concept this season is a series of four "Composer Portraits," each devoted to a single composer. The first, heard, in Raleigh's Meymandi Concert Hall, offered rare and alternative works by Tchaikovsky, played with considerable panache by the orchestra and insightful illumination from the soloist.
Opera is the most difficult of art forms. The demands are so high that productions rarely succeed in every department, success being measured by having more parts go well than not. The production of Puccini's gritty melodrama "Tosca" by the newly formed North Carolina Opera had several successful elements.
There was great beauty, poetry and refinement in the North Carolina Symphony's first Raleigh classical concert of the season, featuring Beethoven's Triple Concerto. The orchestra had a gorgeous sheen, the soloists demonstrated confident artistry and the conductor offered intriguing insights. But a bit more verve and excitement would not have gone amiss.
