Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Recording Babbitt's Music for the Mass

Last year, the International Orange Chorale, a much-decorated Bay Area chorus that sings a lot of interesting and often difficult 20th & 21st century music, put on an extremely rare performance of Milton Babbitt's Music for the Mass. Written 74 years ago, it's hardly been performed since. IOC was in contact with Babbitt's family toward the end of the composer's life, and so he knew that it would be performed. I am enormously touched by this.

This year, IOC is raising funds to record Music for the Mass. This is such a great use of Kickstarter, and as a Babbitt fan, I'm so happy I'll get to hear it.

If you can throw in a couple of bucks toward this worthy project, please do; if you're a fellow complexity lover, please spread the word!

5 comments:

Henry Holland said...

I know you'll have a LAO season annoucement post soon, I just need to vent (posted at Parterre Box):

***

Damn I can't wait until that ego maniac Domingo leaves Los Angeles Opera, it can't happen a moment too soon. The entire, dreary beyond imagination season for 2012-13:

I Due Foscari (is that even third rate Verdi?)
Don Giovanni (5th time in the company's 26 year history? 6th?)
Butterfly (it must be the 7,342nd time in 26 years or it just seems that way)
Fliegende Hollander
La Cenerentola
Tosca (see Butterfly comment)

The LA Times was skimpy on casting.

Domingo: "I'm looking for tenor parts and some new baritone parts," said Domingo, 71. "I'm also looking for parts closer to my age. All the young lovers tend to be tenors."

Oh just retire already, you scabby old rat bag (tm Basil Fawlty) or f**ck off back to Spain.

So, the Britten cycle gets the usual incompetent LAO treatment, as does the Recovered Voices project:
But the new season won't feature any Britten operas on the main stage. The company said it was a question of balance and finding operas more popular with audiences

Hmmmmm.....maybe if this morons running this once-interesting company hadn't nearly driven it over a cliff with a Ring that nobody was really clamoring for and alienated a good chunk of the people that were, they could afford to finish the damn projects that they themselves launch with a huge amount of back-patting and publicity and then drown like Jenufa's baby through incompetence.

Gah, die LA Opera, just die. Nobody will care any more.

Patrick J. Vaz said...

Henry,
Have you seen the Opera Company of Philadelphia's next season? Owen Wingrove (with the Curtis School). Also Powder Her Face (I don't remember if Ades is a composer you like).

Henry Holland said...

PJV, saw your post over at Opera Tattler. Yes, I'm seriously thinking about going to Philly for the Owen Wingrave, it's the one Britten opera I've not seen a production of. I like Ades music (Asyla is incredible), I need to get his The Tempest.

If they wanted to do "popular" Britten, why not do Grimes, Billy Budd and The Dream? They've done them all before, but that doesn't seem to be a problem.

Patrick J. Vaz said...

I see I misspelled Wingrave as Wingrove and I feel obliged to state that I do know the correct name. . . .

And actually I would go see I Due Foscari, since I've never seen it before, but I wouldn't make a trip down to LA for it. . . .

Lisa Hirsch said...

S. Radvanovsky as Tosca, Domingo is singing a baritone role in I due Foscari. Poplavaskaya the controversial is in one or the other of the operas.

I haven't read the press release, but two Puccini operas in a six-opera season? Gaaah.