Newark Symphony Orchestra

This year, the Newark Symphony Orchestra is test-driving some conductors to find a new Music Director.

Nicole Aldrich took the baton yesterday, conducting the Bacchanale from Camille Saint-Saens’ opera Samson et Dalila. I was delighted to see former Music Director Roman Pawlowski in the percussion section - not just because he knows how to keep the beat – but also because he can enjoy the fruits of his labors as he experiences the impressive sound of the orchestra he worked so hard to develop.

Kathleen Hastings, violin and Cheryl Everill, cello were soloists in the Double Concerto for violin and cello by Johannes Brahms. Their smooth ensemble and the chiaroscuro contrast between soloists and orchestra was a pleasure to hear.

The Symphonic Dances, Opus 45 by Sergei Rachmaninov gave both the string section and the woodwinds/brass a chance to shine. Laura Grass’ trumpet and Anna Montejo’s English horn playing were highlights, as was Serban Petrescu’s violin solo.

It is time we started paying attention to this very well-established orchestra. The next concert dates are December 13, 2009, March 7, 2010 and May 16, 2010. Each concert will have a finalist conducting with the last two featuring the Youth Concerto Competition Winners.

See www.newarksymphony.org

Evita: Saving a Town’s Victorian Jewel with Theater

I hadn’t been in Middletown’s Everett Theater since it had been remodeled last year. Several years ago, some parents at MOT Charter arranged for our Acting Club to use the theater for our home-grown musical. The students were loved to performing there, but parents knew not to sit under the balcony because of the ceiling’s instability. Three years later, a portion of the ceiling did indeed collapse in the empty theater hours after a performance. Associated Community Talents, Inc. (ACT), owners of theater since 1983, mobilized the community and town to repair and refurbish it.

ACT’s production of Evita on 10/18 was well done. A cast member had invited me to the show, and I was thrilled to discover a few of the other young people in the ensemble were former students of mine. Tracy Friswell-Jacobs’ crisp choreography was dynamic and carried out nicely by the cast members.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical has its highs and lows. Sometimes, Tim Rice’s lyrics leave the actors stranded in a sea of mediocrity: “I could find job satisfaction in Paraguay”, sings the talented Eric Bayne as Juan Peron. Other times the work is highly successful, with a musical theme signifying ambition and hunger for power weaving in and out of the drama. Evita is blatantly operatic: It opens with Eva Peron’s corpse lovingly caressed in a casket, surrounded by mourning citizens.

From there, we observe her desperate climb from actress to First Lady. Adrienne Blair, who shared the part with Friswell-Jacobs, was sympathetic and tragic in the role of Eva. Eva’s thirst for power is palpable in A New Argentina, and her suffering and sense of loss in Lament is wrenching. Producer Peter Briccotto was captivating as Che: ever present, always offering another almost point of view, which often broke the third wall.

I look forward to seeing more off ACT’s productions and am so relieved they have mobilized residents and artists to save a historical landmark in a town where so many treasures have been torn down.

Jessica Graae in Concert

As I listened to Jessica Graae’s elegant and powerful voice at the Methodist Country House on October 23, I wondered how she, like many artists in Delaware, manage to go through a full seven hours in the ‘day job’, rush home to dress up and race to rehearsal.

Facing the audience in the Danby Chapel, Jessica beamed a hundred-watt smile which told the audience this was the moment of the day for which she lived – her art.

Her voice has a wide range and she soared through Handel and Mozart. She then switched to a selection of introspective poems set to music by Johannes Brahms, showing her ability to interpret in a totally different style.

A quick and vamping romp through Carousel selections had the audience humming. The man next to me, Joe Ferrare, was delighted with the versatility and the variety of selections.

Jessica then picked up her guitar and accompanied herself on some quiet Spanish love songs, leaving plaintive minor echoes in our heads as we set out in the dull, dark rain of an October night.

When not singing, giving voice lessons, or working her full-time office job, Jessica also writes for the Community News and for this blog, She is a soloist at Trinity Episcopal Church and will sing in the Schubert Mass in C, Opus 48 on Sunday, November 1 at 10:30 a.m. She will also sing Tiny Tim in A Gilbert and Sullivan Christmas Carol and Dell in Gift of the Magi at Unitarian Universalist Church in Media PA on December 4,5, 6 and at the Arden Gild Hall on December 18 and 19.

See www.jessicawgraae.com.