Celebrity Series of Boston Blog

Three interviews with New York Times columnist Frank Rich

Frank Rich is an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times. His weekly essay on the intersection of culture and news helped inaugurate the expanded opinion pages that the paper introduced in April 2005. From 2003-2005, Mr. Rich was the front page columnist for the Sunday Arts & Leisure section.

Jane Wallace interviews New York Times columnist Frank Rich for PBS' NOW. Read the transcript here.

Terry Gross interviews Rich on Fresh Air (Real Player).

Tim Russert's interview with Rich from 2003.

Frank Rich makes his Celebrity Series debut on February 12 at John Hancock Hall.

Universal Classics' e-player for Cecilia Bartoli's "Opera Proibita"

Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli's newest release, Opera Proibita, celebrates operas written in Bartoli's home city of Rome, in the 18th-century, "At a time when opera performance was forbidden by the Church, and female singers were forbidden from singing in public." Bartoli sings arias by George Frideric Handel (Handel lived in Rome during the early 18th-century), Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 - 1725), Antonio Caldara (c.1670 - 1736) .The CD includes world premiere recordings of arias by Scarlatti and Caldara.

Universal Classics has developed an e-player for Opera Proibita which features audio samples, album details, an interview with Bartoli, and concert tour dates (hint: our October 23 Boston concert is included).

If you want to do a little noshing while you listen to Opera Proibita, try The Ultimate Cecilia Bartoli Italian Almond Cake. Named for the legendary mezzo-soprano, the "rich yet light almond cake is an Italian masterpiece," and is "made even more divine with a layer of silky chocolate ganache." You can order The Ultimate Cecilia Bartoli Italian Almond Cake from the Zabar's web site.

The Celebrity Series brings mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli to Symphony Hall on October 23 with Orchestra La Scintilla of Zurich Opera.

Jose Limón biopic to air on WGBH

Jose Limón, founder of the Limón Dance Company, is the subject of a television biography scheduled to air on WGBH television in September. Limón: A Life Beyond Words examines the poignant life and work of the enigmatic Mexican American choreographer Jose Limón (1908–1972) who dealt with his bi-cultural conflicts through art.

The company Limón founded in 1946 with Doris Humphrey comes to the Celebrity Series October 29 & 30 at the Tsai Performance Center at Boston University.

Spanish Harlem Orchestra announces personnel for October 8 performance

The Spanish Harlem Orchestra has announced the personnel for the ensemble's Celebrity Series concert, October 8 at the Berklee Performance Center. True to form, the band is stocked with many of the most prominent instrumentalists and vocalists in latin music. Here is the list:

Oscar Hernandez – Musical Director & Pianist
Ray De La Paz – Vocalist
Marco Bermudez – Vocalist
Willie Torres – Vocalist
Pablo Nunez – Timbales
Bobby Allende – Conga
Jorge Gonzalez – Bongo
Hector “Maximo” Rodriguez – Bass
Mitch Frohman – Baritone Sax & Flute
John Walsh – Trumpet
Jimmy Bosch – Trombone
Dan Reagan – Trombone
Pete Nater – Trumpet

The Spanish Harlem Orchestra makes its Celebrity Series debut Saturday, October 8 at the Berklee Performance Center.

Ira Glass struggling with a TV version of "This American Life"

Longtime public radio producer Ira Glass is working on a televised version of his popular NPR program, This American Life, and the transition is proving difficult, writes Laurence Zuckerman in the New York Times:

"Glass, along with a director, an editor and a producer were camped in an editing studio near Canal Street in Lower Manhattan at 2 a.m. earlier this month, making the last push to finish the 40-minute pilot of This American Life for Showtime. 'This is everything that is really slow about production, times 500,' Glass moaned, summing up the four-month process." Read the article.

Ira Glass and Terry Gross will make their Celebrity Series debuts together at Symphony Hall on April 9, 2006.

Founder of Limón Dance Company subject of new children's book

Ruth Tabor writes in the El Paso Times on Susanna Reich's new children's book about choreographer and Limón Dance Company founder, José Limón. The book, José! Born to Dance: the Story of Jose Limon is available at Amazon.com.

"Brava! to Reich," Tabor writes, "For writing this lyrical story about a boy born in Culicacán, Mexico, in 1908, who made it to the top of the international dance world through perseverance and hard work."

You can read about author Susanna Reich on her web site, which includes a list of José! Born to Dance events and signings.

The delightful illustrations are by acclaimed artist Raul Colon. Colon discusses the surprising benefits of having chronic asthma as a child and how he once got a job accidentally by walking into the wrong location for an interview. Read his Houghton Mifflin interview.

The Limón Dance Company celebrates its 60th anniversary with a two-performance run at the Tsai Performance Center October 29 and 30 to open the 2005-2006 Dance Series. The Dance Series is a co-presentation of Bank of America Celebrity Series and The Wang Center for the Performing Arts.

Was pianist Stephen Hough sporting green suede shoes at Mostly Mozart?

   
Pianist Stephen Hough with Osmo Vänskä and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra wowed the Festival crowd last Friday:

"Hough's cadenza for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23," writes Marion Lignana Rosenberg in New York Newsday, "Was a wondrous thing, jagged and acidic, scooting off into unexpected harmonic realms and carrying more than a whiff of Gershwin and Ravel about it. The whoops and applause that greeted it even after the Festival Orchestra resumed playing is something that one hears all too seldom at classical concerts and, like Hough's natty bucks, a refreshing breach in decorum."

Stephen Hough is piano soloist with the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg and conductor Ivor Bolton for a March 5, 2006 Celebrity Series concert.

NOTE: The performance listed above has been changed. Due to funding cuts by the Austrian government, the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg was forced to cancel its North American tour. The venerable - and conductorless - Italian chamber group, I Musici, will replace the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg (and conductor Ivor Bolton) on March 5. We are happy to report that concert will still feature pianist Stephen Hough. The new program and link to purchase tickets are here.

'Send' Me One Great Singer

Daily Variety reports that the Houston Grand Opera has commissioned Michael John LaChiusa to write a one-person opera for soprano Audra McDonald. The new opera - tentative title: Send - is scheduled to premiere in March. Send will share a double bill with Francis Poulenc's 1959 one-person opera La voix humaine ("The Human Voice"), based on Jean Cocteau's play. McDonald will sing in both operas...

Audra McDonald will also visit Sanders Theatre for a Celebrity Series concert on May 20.

Barenboim's orchestra plays for peace in Ramallah

   
"...It is not every day that one sees a rehearsal being guarded by troops armed with semi-automatic weapons, but the atmosphere among the musicians was relaxed and excited..." Read Charlotte Higgins' article in The Guardian..."

Maestro Daniel Barenboim is conductor (and pianist for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22, K. 482) on February 10, 2006 at Symphony Hall when the Staatskapelle Berlin brings an all-Mozart program to the Bank of America Celebrity Series.

Wynton Marsalis to release live recording August 30

Wynton Marsalis is set to release a new quintet recording, Live at The House of Tribes, on August 30 on the Blue Note label. The record was recorded in the intimate confines of The House of Tribes, a small non-profit theater in Manhattan. The lineup features Wessell Anderson on alto saxophone; Eric Lewis on piano; Kengo Nakamura on bass; and Joe Farnsworth on drums. Robert Rucker and Orlando Q. Rodriguez sit in on percussion on selected tracks.

You can hear selected cuts from Live at The House of Tribes plus video footage of the group in performance by visiting the Blue Note web site.

Marsalis will bring a completely different ensemble to his Bank of America Celebrity Series concert at Sanders Theatre on October 30: Dan Nimmer, piano; Carlos Henriquez, bass; Ali Jackson, drums; Walter Blanding, reeds; and Jennifer Sanon, vocals.