The Castleton Diaries: Week 7- A Condensed Week and an Elegy

I had originally meant for this to be posted before the events of Sunday came around. Unfortunately, things never go as you plan, life has its ways of taking the things we hold dear. I am currently in mourning of Lorin Maazel, a great man who I had the privilege to meet a few weeks ago, but whom I had admired my entire life. So, I will divide this into two parts: a quick summary of the week following the Don Giovanni premiere and my thoughts on the late maestro.

The Sunday after opening night, I went to a wonderful after party hosted by a donor, and went swimming in the lake with the rest of the CATS.

 Monday I went to Shenandoah Park and did a 2 mile hike with my housemates.

 The rest of the week went by without much except a concert on Thursday at the wonderful Hylton Center at George Mason University with Jonathan Beyer and Denyce Graves.

 Then I met Margaret Warner, famous host of PBS News Hour, who was to narrate Peter and the Wolf that Sunday. After another Butterfly and Don Giovanni performance, we all got the shocking news that Maazel passed on Sunday morning, so we dedicated the Story in Music Concert in his memory. Dietlinde, his wife, was not able to narrate his pieces as originally planned. Luckily, Maria Tucci, who had performed in a reading of Don Juan in Hell by GB Shaw, had agreed to step in. Plus, we had the wonderfully outlandishly dressed Sir James Galway perform in one of the pieces. He also gave a masterclass the day beforehand. During the company party, we gave a toast to Lorin Maazel, "the greatest showman who ever lived".

Now, how to honor this man? How do I go and tell the world the great deeds he has done? I can't. Everyone else has. It would be useless to say what he has done when it has been printed by every newspaper in the world. I attended a memorial service for him this past Wednesday. Never in my life would I ever think I was important enough to be part of his family. But there I was, with my fellow "Castletonians" as one speaker put it. I can never thank the man enough for everything he has done to inspire my life's ambitions. The man was truly a citizen of the world, and just for a few weeks, he was part of mine.

Now, I never got to shoot the breeze with him.The only time I ever talked to him about anything musical was over Facebook. And I think I lost that conversation years ago. And when I finally talked to him here, It was just a question as to whether or not I needed to print scores for all the conducting fellows. That was all. Everything else I ever heard him say was to the orchestra and singers. And every word out of his mouth was magic, or to more age appropriate, remarkable. The last time he was in the theater was for a Don Giovanni dress rehearsal. Since then, he had been watching every performance from his manor house on the farm. He was a pleasure to meet and will be an inspiration to millions in the future. Thanks to this festival, Youtube, and the hundreds of recordings he has made. No future musican will ever be able to learn about great music men without hearing the name Lorin Maazel. Thank You Maestro. Godspeed.

The Castleton Diaries: Week 7, Extra- The Rant (Optional Reading)

---Warning: Rant Ahead-----

The Don Giovanni premiere went very well. Splendid cast and orchestra, wonderful sets, not so shining reviews. 

"Worse was the coda: Giovanni’s comeuppance is taken not by him, but by a doppelganger who shadows him at various points during the show. Giovanni stands by to watch, bemused, as the doppelganger is dragged off to Hades. He then provides cynical, pantomime commentary on the other characters’ denouements, upstaging them with a quick, final sexual conquest. So the moral of the story, I guess, is that as long as you stay true to your libertine principles, nothing bad will befall you."-Robert Battey, Washinton Post

He bashed the conductor, the costumes, and our concept, but the cast blew him away. I don't care what he has to say. I thought everything was incredible. My personal philosophy for putting on an opera is that you are always putting on a show for someone who has never seen an opera. Your production be whatever you want, but if your audience can't follow along with the story or with the emotions of the characters, then you are, and excuse my language for this with kids, s**t out of luck. This production was alive and engaging, and I was sitting in the wings the entire night. 

But the one thing I will care about is how in both opera reviews from The Washington Post, they continually set out to rip on the conductors. I think that this is simply because they are not Maazel. Things happen, people get sick, that is the whole reason why we have assistant conductors. Brad Moore is exceptional. Salvatore Percacciolo knows the work with such clear definition in his mind. I have spent weeks watching these rehearsals. The only things I have concern over are the length of the rehearsals, at least two 3-hour rehearsals a day for at least 6 days of the week. These musicians are kicking behinds and taking names, and I think that people should give them a break when it comes to being criticized. 

Maazel was there when they picked every musician and conductor who auditioned for this program. He has given his blessing to everything in the output and input of these performances. He has been watching every performance via live stream. He is essentially our Big Brother, ironic because he wrote the operatic version of 1984. Plus, we are working with ridiculous circumstances. Musicians are out of commission left and right and we need to fill replacements at the last minute notice. New practice parts have to be scanned and printed on the daily, not just for concerts, but Chamber Cabarets before each concert and the weekend chamber and scenes concerts. Instruments have to be moved between rehearsal spaces and performance venues on the daily. Internet and Phone service are incredibly limited. But that is all made up for in talent and drive. 

After Maazel passes over the reins of this festival, it is up to the musicians, singers, directors, teachers, and conductors to make this festival worth while for the duration of its existence, which i hope will be a long one because Rappahannock County needs this festival like a dog needs a bone. I have total faith in the people who brought me here. And one day, I hope it will be able to stand on its own without Maazel. He started this project, and it is up to the people to keep it going. 

---This concludes the rant. We return to our original programming in the next post---

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The Castleton Diaries: Week 6- The Storm and Patriotic Flag Waving

I'm very glad to say that opening night for Madama Butterfly was a huge success. We had a sold out audience and a wonderful cast and orchestra to brighten the tears in peoples' eyes following the ending. The Mozart concert the following day was also wonderful. Donald Runnicles is a pleasure to have at Castleton. So what next....

Full on battle mode for Don Giovanni has been the driving force of my work ethic that past week. We open just a week after Madama Butterfly, and on top of that, we had the Military Reserve Band led by Colonel Bourgeois. That in itself was a real experience to witness. The brave men and women who fought to serve our country and protect our rights were together to play some extraordinary music. Marches, Slow Drags, Anthems and Hymns, you name it, they played that patriotic tune. Plus, three choruses, US Army Men's Chorus, a youth choir from DC, and the Castleton Festival Chorus. We also had the honor of having Joseph Alessi, aka the world's foremost trombone player, to play the solo in Arthur Pryor's Blue Bells of Scotland, followed by an encore of Debussy. So moving, and on such a peculiar instrument.

       Colonel Bourgeois leading the dress rehearsal

The rehearsal beforehand also was a sight to behold. We had a huge storm the Wednesday before and the power went out several times. During the longest outage, the band played through The Stars and Stripes Forever by memory. Not something you see or hear everyday. Also, I spent that night without power or running water in our house. FUN!

The craziness ensued as we worked our butts off to make the music for Don Giovanni sound incredible. The horns had the blunt end of the demands from the maestro. "Can we get them to sound softer?". They moved around, muted, covered the area behind them with padding and blankets and even putting in sound guards. The next logical thing is to put them offstage. Hopefully I'm just being ridiculous and it won't come to that.  

Fireworks

Also, this is a time where I no longer trust all reviews. We got a pretty nasty review in the Washington Post for Madama Butterfly. But then we got a great review from DC Theatre Scene. I was pretty worried. But honestly, we still are selling out shows left and right, and we have a great Don G production premiering by the time this goes online. I have my doubts, but I also have great hope for the talent and production design. 

The raven ladies, symbolizing Don Juan's past

The big ending of the production may also scare a few purists, but when it was explained to me, it made sense in terms of the mythological man known as Don Juan. The production makes him out to be more of a legend more than a man. During the finale, the Commendatore is accompanied by Raven Ladies, symbolizing the women who Giovanni had "conquered". Then, Don Giovanni's body double, who lurks in the background of the show and who wears a mask made for this production from a face casting of the star baritone, is dragged to hell instead of him. But Don G is still out of reality by remaining on the other side of the pit and in the audience. This is supposed to represent how the legend of Don Juan survives in every generation.

Set design for Act 2 

The work has also been piling up in other departments. We had a late arrival of parts for the CATS opera scenes concert, so we attempted to use a program called Partifi to make easy parts from the scores. It ended miserably and now I keep getting pop ups on my Chrome browser. Musicians can't play music if they are missing measures. Luckily, we have all the parts now and the concerts will sound spectacular.

That's all I can really say for this week. Until next time, this has been The Castleton Diaries.

A very tired oboist goes full zombie from rehearsing all day.