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Washington Post
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
In a triumphant ‘Tristan and Isolde,' time stands still (for four hours)
PHILADELPHIA — On Sunday afternoon at Marian Anderson Hall, Yannick Nézet-Séguin led his Philadelphia Orchestra through the four-hour entirety of Richard Wagner's 'Tristan and Isolde.' And I don't think I'm overdoing it to say that once it was over, it felt like something Very Important had just happened. Maybe that's because there were several bits of history in the mix — the sort of things that outside the context of opera's most tormented tragedy would qualify as 'fun facts': In addition to being the first Wagner opera that Nézet-Séguin has led with the Philadelphia Orchestra, this was his first time conducting 'Tristan and Isolde' in full. (His second will take place on Sunday, when the program repeats.) Additionally, this is the orchestra's first performance of 'Tristan' since 1934, when it gave the U.S. premiere of the uncut version of the opera, with Hans Grahl singing Tristan and Marga Dannenberg as Isolde. One more: The orchestra uses and in all of the materials where it mentions the title, but I keep typing und. But more than these tidbits, I suspect the palpable heft of the moment as we all mopped our cheeks and filed out through the plaza of the Kimmel Center was due to what we'd just heard — a finely wrought, fully realized performance of 'Tristan' that will reside in my mind as one of the greatest things I've ever heard. And I say 'fully realized' knowing that it wasn't — a good concert performance of an opera makes you forget it's 'just' a concert, and this was one of those. A few folks I spoke to during one of two intermissions even expressed surprise at their relief, freed as they were from extraneous concepts and undue time travel. Light and effective stage direction was provided by Dylan Evans, situating the singers on a platform above the orchestra, where they indeed roiled like the sea beneath Tristan's ship in the first act. If I make it back to Philly this weekend to do it all over again, it will be because of this highly concentrated, assiduously performed and gorgeous-sounding concert treatment. This was also a performance that looked forward. In March of 2026, Nézet-Séguin will lead the opera at his other home base, the Metropolitan Opera, where Yuval Sharon's new production will star tenor Michael Spyres and soprano Lisa Davidsen in the title roles. But Sunday offered a unique and rewarding chance for listeners to get acquainted with Nézet-Séguin getting acquainted with 'Tristan,' an effort that often had him on tiptoes, and not just to show off his Louboutins. Composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in 1865, 'Tristan and Isolde' is Wagner's telling of the tale of an Irish princess and a Breton nobleman, drawn together through violence and vengeance but ultimately bound in passion by a potent potion — their love in betrayal of a royal betrothal and defiance of the physical world itself. Were it not for the score's relentless climb, it would be heavy stuff. But from the slow, graceful assembly of themes in the first act to the blissful revelation (and resolution) of its final moments ('Liebestod'), Nézet-Séguin kept his players alive, attentive and attuned to Wagner's singular palette of colors. He stoked Wagner's 'fierce and terrible yearning' in storms of brass and scathing strings; but he also coaxed long stretches of impossible delicacy from the orchestra. The quietest parts were louder than the loudest. For Philadelphians who love their orchestra, it was a also a celebration of individual players. Principal viola Choong-Jin Chang had a sensational long afternoon, as did concertmaster David Kim. From an upper tier, Elizabeth Starr Masoudnia offered an entrancing lament on English horn in the third act, followed by Jeffrey Curnow, sounding the Holztrompete to indicate the long-awaited approach of Isolde by sea. One other fact (slightly less fun) is that these concerts in Philadelphia mark soprano Nina Stemme's final turn in the role of Isolde for the complete opera. The Swedish-born soprano first sang the part at Glyndebourne Festival in 2003 under the guidance of Birgit Nilsson. Two decades later, Isolde seems to reside within her body, her incandescent high notes just one feature of her ample arsenal. Stemme's voice can plunge like a blade (as it did in Act 1, as Isolde hungers for revenge) or leap in orgasmic ecstasy (as it did in Act 3's 'sun drenched day of bliss'). But more than anything, she maximized the tension that keeps the opera's massive emotional arc intact. Tenor Stuart Skelton was a sensational Tristan — his voice big and booming yet surprisingly lithe and lean. The resignation in an aria recounting his tormented past — which did sometimes lose him in the wash of the music — showed canny restraint as he unleashed his full force into the great collapse of Act 3. Mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill was endearing and fiery as Brangäne, switcher of potions and (otherwise) protector of Isolde. She's a mighty mezzo, fully present even when singing from the topmost tier, and gifted with strong, expressive instincts. Her 'Beware!' certainly worked on me, if not on Isolde. Baritone Brian Mulligan was also impressive as Tristan's right-hand man Kurwenal, though the role seemed to take a physical toll on him, a white-knuckle tension attending his hard, steely singing. I quite enjoyed bass Tareq Nazmi, who beautifully rendered King Marke's heartbreak over Tristan's betrayal by leaving shadows of his undermined authority intact. Tenor Freddie Ballentine was smart and affecting as royal tattletale Melot. The tenors and basses of the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir, directed by Donald Palumbo, made bracing contributions as a gang of 'sailors, knights and esquires,' depending on the act. If four hours of focused listening sounds demanding, the average concertgoer need not worry: The run time only makes a difference before the concert starts, when you're making your reservations for the dinner you will absolutely need afterward. In the midst of 'Tristan and Isolde,' time itself seems to come undone — Wagner recalibrates fleeting moments into endless eternities (and vice versa). Like the composer's intermingling themes and the lovers themselves, I left transfigured — the potion has yet to wear off. Richard Wagner's 'Tristan and Isolde' repeats Sunday at Marian Anderson Hall, 300 S. Broad St., Philadelphia.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How to Build a Culture
Earlier this week, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, originally expected to open in 2023, announced another delay until 2026 and confirmed it had already cut a significant portion of its full-time team. Likewise, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art recently laid off 29 staff amid a projected $5 million deficit. Theaters in Berkeley and Los Angeles have, in recent years, suspended seasons or warned of closure. Even the Philadelphia Orchestra has experienced ongoing difficulties since merging with its performing arts center to remain solvent in 2021. Across the country, cultural institutions are shrinking, consolidating, or disappearing. Amid this physical disappearing is also a philosophical one: Many institutions have lost clarity about whom they serve or why they exist. The League of American Orchestras offers a clear example. Over the past decade, the League has received nearly $1.2 million from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), much of it in support of initiatives centered on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through programs like the Catalyst Fund, Inclusive Stages, and the League's Equity Resource Center, the League has framed DEI not as one priority among others, but as the defining lens for how orchestras should understand their purpose, their audiences, and their internal structures. Increasingly, the work of cultural institutions justifies itself through language and policy frameworks that are largely internal to the field. The link between funding and the public has frayed. Federal programs have mirrored that drift. The NEA's grant language in recent years emphasized 'capacity building,' 'access strategies,' and 'administrative equity plans.' ArtsHERE, launched in 2023, directed over $12 million toward 'equity-centered frameworks,' focused more on internal processes than public-facing work. The long-term cultural impact of these efforts remains unclear. But that approach is now being reassessed. Whether or not the Trump administration succeeds in eliminating the NEA and other cultural agencies, the programs funded via these agencies are no longer assumed to reflect the public interest. For the first time in years, there is an opening to reconsider how public funding in the arts should be used and what it should be used for. Some ventures already point the way. The Lamp, founded in 2020, is a journal of Catholic arts and letters supported by a small team and the Catholic University of America. It has built a national readership through editorial seriousness and clarity of purpose. Wiseblood Books, founded in 2013, is a small Southern press publishing fiction, poetry, and monographs grounded in craft and moral imagination. Both have earned attention through focus and substance, despite working with limited resources. They show what becomes possible when good work is pursued steadily and with conviction. Yet efforts like these remain rare. One way to replicate these efforts would be for the NEA to create its own cultural accelerator—a short-term program focused on helping serious new institutions take root. The model exists in other fields. Y Combinator, one of the best-known startup incubators, has launched companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe by offering early-stage ventures structure, mentorship, and a public debut. The goal is to help founders establish the conditions for something lasting. Such a model could serve the arts. Each year, a small cohort of groups could be selected based on artistic merit, public purpose, and clarity of vision. These might include a regional theater company, a music ensemble, a press, or a journal of letters and criticism. Participants would receive direct support for legal incorporation, fiscal sponsorship, board development, and strategic planning. They would also receive modest seed funding to design their first season, publication cycle, or exhibition. Finally, each group would be formally launched in partnership with a national institution, giving them public validation and immediate reach. These public partnerships would be particularly critical, as they would give new ventures a clear point of entry into cultural life. A chamber ensemble might debut at the Kennedy Center. A press could collaborate with the Library of Congress to republish forgotten works. A community archive might curate an exhibition with the American Folklife Center. These affiliations would not guarantee success, but they would offer visibility, legitimacy, and an audience. Most early-stage institutions never get that chance. Making their work visible from the start would raise expectations and the stakes. This kind of support would fill a gap in the NEA's current structure. Most of its funding supports specific projects—performances, exhibitions, research, or short-term community engagements—not the formation of institutions. Rather than steering artistic content or reinforcing messaging, the NEA would identify promising founders, coordinate institutional partners, and provide structural tools for early success. The goal would equip serious efforts to begin well—and let the venture do the work of growing well. Such a program would raise familiar questions. What happens if a group draws criticism? What if leadership changes shift priorities? Those are valid questions, but those risks are already part of every public arts program. What matters is whether judgment is applied with seriousness and tied to some shared understanding of the public good. This kind of work has a foundation. The English philosopher and critic Roger Scruton wrote that beauty is a value to be pursued for its own sake. It draws us out of ourselves and teaches us to care for what we inherit and what we make. Beauty invites memory, responsibility, and the desire to preserve. Public arts funding should support work shaped with that kind of intention—not because it looks a certain way, but because it reaches toward permanence. This vision is not theoretical. By the end of the decade, new institutions could be thriving across the country. A sacred music ensemble in Ohio might perform monthly in historic churches. A regional press could republish forgotten authors and release new fiction set in or inspired by local towns. A theater company might stage both contemporary and classic works for local audiences and schools. These groups would be independent and public-serving. We know this is possible. In Los Angeles, choreographer Lincoln Jones built American Contemporary Ballet from the ground up. Without public funding or institutional backing, he created a company defined by musical integrity, formal precision, and belief in the continuing relevance of classical ballet. Today, it performs both original and canonical works to full houses. His success is not common, but it is instructive. A cultural accelerator would not replace such work. It would give more artists the tools to follow through on what they are already building. The point of such a proposal is to build institutions that carry meaning and serve the public. It is to restore the idea that art is not just for the moment, but for memory. And it is to remind us that culture is not something we inherit intact or outsource. It is something we build—deliberately, carefully—with the courage to create what deserves to endure.
American Military News
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- American Military News
Richard Wernick, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and Penn music professor emeritus, has died at 91
Richard Wernick, 91, of Haverford, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, acclaimed conductor, retired Irving Fine Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania, and former consultant to conductor Ricardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra, died Friday of age-associated decline at his home. Professor Wernick was prolific and celebrated as a composer. He wrote hundreds of scores over six decades and appeared on more than a dozen records, and his Visions of Terror and Wonder for a mezzo-soprano and orchestra won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for music. In 1991, his String Quartet No. 4 made him the first two-time winner of the Kennedy Center's Friedheim Award for new American music. 'Wernick's orchestral music has power and brilliance, an emphasis on register, space, and scale,' Lesley Valdes, former Inquirer classical music critic, said in 1990. His Violin Concerto tied for first place in the 1986 Friedheim Award competition, and former Inquirer music critic Daniel Webster described it as 'a tightly organized piece in which thematic ideas, harmonic gestures, and subtly organized instrumental colors provide a panorama against which the virtuoso violin part grows, takes a theatrical stance, and then plunges toward a heroic conclusion.' A judge at that competition told Webster: 'Wernick's piece demands to be heard. That is a measure of great music.' His Piano Concerto finished second in the Friedheim competition in 1992. Professor Wernick was named the 2006 Composer of the Year by the Classical Recording Foundation, and he earned grants, fellowships, and other awards from the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, and the Ford, Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and Naumburg Foundations. For him, personal prestige came second to appreciating the music. 'This should be a celebration, not a competition,' he told Webster after his 1991 Friedheim award. 'Our society puts so little value on the arts that this prize should recognize the art more than the person. Music wins the prize in this event.' He was composer in residence for the Philadelphia Orchestra for several years in the 1980s and earned high-profile commissions from the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, National Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, National Endowment for the Arts, and other groups. His work has been performed at the Academy of Music, Curtis Institute, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Ravenna Festival in Italy, Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, and elsewhere around the world. He told The Inquirer in the 1980s and '90s that his work was 'rhythmically challenging' and that he often used inspirational quotes, religious text, and personal experience to 'shape the material.' He poured his own emotions into his work, his son Adam said, because music was his deepest form of expression. 'I look back over my music, and I can see the differences as time goes on,' Professor Wernick said in 1991. 'But I see a similarity within all my music. This evolution is an important process.' He was a consultant on contemporary American music to the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1983 to '89 and then special adviser to Muti until 1993. He was affable with a hearty laugh and spoke comfortably at conferences, seminars, workshops, and public appearances before performances. 'Muti said he found Wernick a musician he could respect and trust,' Webster said in 1991. He studied with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts in the 1950s and went on to conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra, his own Penn Contemporary Players, and other ensembles. He was recruited from the University of Chicago to Penn in 1968 by fellow composer George Crumb and was the Irving Fine Professor of Music, music department chairman, Magnin Professor of Humanities, and a mentor to student composers until his retirement in 1996. He was especially active with young composers at what is now the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance in Israel. 'He was hands-on and tough, and loved when his composing students became colleagues,' his son said. Earlier, he was music director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and then music professor at the State University of New York in Buffalo and the University of Chicago. He also studied at Mills College in California and spent much of the 1950s and early '60s writing music for theater, film, TV, and dance productions. 'I was originally headed for electrical engineering,' he told Bruce Duffie of Chicago's WNIB radio in a 1993 interview on 'I'm glad I'm not an electrical engineer. I'm very glad I stuck it out. It's been a wonderfully exciting and rewarding existence.' Richard Frank Wernick was born Jan. 16, 1934, in Newton, Mass., about 10 miles west of Boston. He played piano and clarinet as a boy, and started composing music as a teenager. He studied with several maestros in high school and college, and earned a bachelor's degree in music at nearby Brandeis University. He met bassoon student Beatrice Messina at Tanglewood, and they married in 1956, and had sons Lew, Adam, and Peter. Peter died in 1986. Wernick was a lifelong Boston Red Sox baseball fan. Later, he adopted the Phillies as his second-favorite team. He was an avid reader, and his home was full of history books and biographies. He and his wife lived for nearly 40 years in Media before moving to the Quadrangle in Haverford in 2007. They also built a home in Vermont and went there often to garden, hike, consume ice cream and root beer, work quietly, and take in the music at local festivals. 'He was such a dynamic, forceful, humorous, vibrant, impossible human being,' his son Adam said. His son Lew said: 'He was a man of very high standards and great integrity in both his professional and personal life.' In addition to his wife and sons, Wernick is survived by five granddaughters, a great-granddaughter, and other relatives. A private service and celebration of his life are to be held later. Donations in his name may be made to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Box 781352, Philadelphia, Pa. 19178. ___ © 2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
San Francisco Chronicle
23-04-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Ryan Fleur is promoted to president of the Philadelphia Orchestra
Ryan Fleur was promoted Wednesday to president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, leading an institution that he has worked for since 2012. Fleur had been interim president since January, when Matias Tarnopolsky left to head the New York Philharmonic. Fleur said he will concentrate on trying to fill seats for the roughly 20% of capacity that is not being regularly sold. 'I also want to aggressively make our venues available to both community groups and education groups that might not otherwise realize that these spaces are open to them,' he said. 'I want every Philadelphia school student, K (kindergarten) through 12 to walk through our doors at least three times in their formative years, whether it's coming to a Philadelphia Orchestra open rehearsal or a school concert or to our jazz for freedom program, which connects the history of jazz with the civil rights movement. ' Now 53, Fleur was president and CEO of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra from 2003-12, when he became Philadelphia's executive director of orchestra advancement. He also served as interim president in 2018 after Allison Vulgamore left to run the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and before Tarnopolsky started in Philadelphia. Fleur had been Philadelphia's executive director since 2021, the year the orchestra merged with the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the orchestra's home. The institution rebranded as Ensemble Arts Philly last year. Revenue for the 2023-24 season was $132.6 million, of which 38% was ticket sales, 24% from ancillary streams such as parking and rentals and 38% from contributions and endowment. Capacity for all presentations was 76% in 2023-24, up from 69% in 2022-23. This season is on track for 77%. 'We are seeing audiences now at levels slightly higher than before the pandemic,' he said. 'It's no longer predominantly subscribers. There are a lot of single-ticket buyers. One of the benefits of the merger is that we have a very large database through many genres to cross-market to. We see people attending not just Broadway (shows), but they'll come to an orchestra classical performance and they'll come to a jazz performance.'
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ryan Fleur is promoted to president of the Philadelphia Orchestra
Ryan Fleur was promoted Wednesday to president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, leading an institution that he has worked for since 2012. Fleur had been interim president since January, when Matias Tarnopolsky left to head the New York Philharmonic. Fleur said he will concentrate on trying to fill seats for the roughly 20% of capacity that is not being regularly sold. 'I also want to aggressively make our venues available to both community groups and education groups that might not otherwise realize that these spaces are open to them,' he said. 'I want every Philadelphia school student, K (kindergarten) through 12 to walk through our doors at least three times in their formative years, whether it's coming to a Philadelphia Orchestra open rehearsal or a school concert or to our jazz for freedom program, which connects the history of jazz with the civil rights movement. ' Now 53, Fleur was president and CEO of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra from 2003-12, when he became Philadelphia's executive director of orchestra advancement. He also served as interim president in 2018 after Allison Vulgamore left to run the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and before Tarnopolsky started in Philadelphia. Fleur had been Philadelphia's executive director since 2021, the year the orchestra merged with the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the orchestra's home. The institution rebranded as Ensemble Arts Philly last year. Revenue for the 2023-24 season was $132.6 million, of which 38% was ticket sales, 24% from ancillary streams such as parking and rentals and 38% from contributions and endowment. Capacity for all presentations was 76% in 2023-24, up from 69% in 2022-23. This season is on track for 77%. 'We are seeing audiences now at levels slightly higher than before the pandemic,' he said. 'It's no longer predominantly subscribers. There are a lot of single-ticket buyers. One of the benefits of the merger is that we have a very large database through many genres to cross-market to. We see people attending not just Broadway (shows), but they'll come to an orchestra classical performance and they'll come to a jazz performance.' The orchestra's contract with Local 77 of the American Federation of Musicians expires in September 2026.
