Aisle Be Seeing You

Happy Birthday Mr. Stokes Mitchell

Yes, today is both Halloween and Brian Stokes Mitchell's birthday. He's probably sick of Halloween-related birthday jokes, so I recommend a nice card.

Hilary Hahn announces Boston program for January 12

One of our favorite violinists, Hilary Hahn, has announced her Jordan Hall recital program for January 12 with pianist Valentina Lisitsa. You can find the program, along with other key items, like, say, ticket links, here.

Also, here is a link to what was, as of this writing, Ms. Hahn's most recent online journal entry (from the airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin). Complete this sentence: Milwaukee, home of the fighting...

What do you know about Swan Lake?

The Bolshoi Theatre, site of the original Swan Lake

Here are five facts I'll bet most of you didn't know about Swan Lake, culled from wikipedia's vaults. Maybe you can find a few more...

1. Though the Kirov's Swan Lake is the definitive version of the ballet -- and most ballet companies base their own productions on it -- it wasn't the first production. It was first presented as The Lake of the Swans in 1877 by Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet.

2. The production by the Kirov (then known as the Imperial Ballet) was originally set to debut in the fall of 1894 but was delayed several months due to the death of Czar Alexander III and the coronation of his son Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia.

3. Tchaikovsky lifted the music for the first movement of Act IV from his first opera, "The Voyevoda."

4. Opus 20, the music usually heard in the ballet and attributed to Tchaikovsky, is not the composer's original score, but rather a revised score with many deletions and changes arranged by Riccardo Drigo, the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre's conductor at the time.

5. One of the more successful alternate versions of the dance is Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, which features a male dance corps as the swans.

Source: wikipedia

The Kirov Ballet and Orchestra in Swan Lake, Nov 9-12, The Wang Theatre

Ottawa mad for the Kirov

Ann Marie McQueen, writing for the Ottawa Sun, was bowled over (though she wasn't surprised) by the Kirov's Swan Lake, at Ottawa's National Arts Center this weekend:

"The famed Kirov Ballet flitted into the National Arts Centre, all ethereal ballerinas and powerful, tautly muscled dancers, wowing a sold-out crowd at Southam Hall just the way everyone knew they would."

McQueen was especially taken with Alina Somova, who will dance the Odette/Odile role on Saturday, November 11 at The Wang Theatre:

"The undeniable focal point of the evening was prima ballerina Alina Somova, a lithe, impossibly slim dancer who thrilled most when she was clad in black to play Odile, the evil twin of Odette."

Read all of Kirov Wows Ottawa Audience.

Leonid Hambro, pianist, straight man, 1920-2006

Leonid Hambro (left) and Victor Borge

Pianist Leonid Hambro died on Monday at 83. Mr. Hambro had an illustrious career as a concert pianist, making over 100 recordings and performing with the likes of Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, and Isaac Stern and was conducted by Arturo Toscanini, Dmitri Mitropoulos, Leonard Bernstein, and Eugene Ormandy, among others. He was known for an astounding musical memory and great skill at improvising. So it's arguably both ironic and charming, that he was best known for a roughly ten-year stint playing the straight man to pianist/comedian Victor Borge. He left Borge in 1970 to join the faculty of Cal Arts.

He never stopped doing serious concert work, but he also proved himself worthy of his time with Mr. Borge. Consider this excerpt from a New York Times review of a 1992 recital by Mr. Hambro:

"When a pair of latecomers took their seats after the second piece, he asked, "Where are you from?" When they said New York, Mr. Hambro said: "Isn't that funny? I'm from Los Angeles and I got here before you did."

And here's an anecdote about Victor Borge in Hambro's own words:

"'We came to a place where I played on three pianos, his piano, and my piano for the two-piano work, and then an offstage piano. And then one day we came to a place where my piano on the stage was very old, and the keys were very yellow, it was so old. So he had the microphone -- the audience could never hear me -- and I turned to him and I pointed to my keys, and I said, "My elephant smoked too much.'

He thought that was very funny, and he said, 'Can any of you in the balcony see Mr. Hambro's keys? Mr. Hambro just told me that his elephant smoked too much.' So he was willing to give credit."

Here's the rest of the conversation:
A Conversation with Leonid Hambro from Annals of Improbable Research

Mr. Hambro made three appearances on the Celebrity Series with Victor Borge that I can verify, but he likely made more (if we were lucky).

New York Times obituary

Washington Post obituary

Sheetmusicplus.com link to Mr. Hambro's composition Happy Birthday Dear Ludwig

Newsletter of NYC Atheists with item on Mr. Hambro entertaining the group at a dinner and his membership (pdf)

"Kirov Ballet: Cool Perfection" says Orange County Register

Uliana Lopatkina and Danila Korsuntsev
of The Kirov Ballet in Swan Lake

Laura Bleiberg, reviewing for the Orange County Register, was knocked out by the Kirov's Swan Lake, and principal Uliana Lopatkina in particular:

"Principal dancer Uliana Lopatkina inhabited the enchanted spirit of the swan queen Odette with a cool authority on Friday. She has crystallized not just the role, but every muscle twitch to its essence. Her arms rippled, her head flicked oh-so-delicately and she appeared, quite simply, to flow about the stage."

Read complete review

Here in Boston, Uliana Lopatkina dances the role of Odette in Swan Lake on Thursday, November 9. Detailed casting, tickets and more can be found here.

Malcolm Gladwell speaks at Newyorker.com

This goes back a few months. Writer/thinker/guest of Charlie Rose Malcolm Gladwell talks about "the phenomenon of prodigies and late bloomers in art." It's audio in 3 parts from The New Yorker web site. Just a quick link I thought you (whoever you are) might enjoy.

Kirov's Swan Lake reviewed in Los Angeles Times

Lewis Segal reviewed Friday evening's Orange County opening performance of Swan Lake by the Kirov Ballet and Orchestra for the Los Angeles Times:

"Thirty-two swans moving as one, a Swan Queen of thrilling classical purity, an overfamiliar Tchaikovsky score made fresh and glowing: The Kirov Ballet certainly knows how to keep an audience happy and it did just that Friday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

In the company's first performance this season of the complete 'Swan Lake,' corps values remained stratospheric, Pavel Bubelnikov led the Kirov Orchestra to glory and Uliana Lopatkina made Odette not only a stellar projection of the corps' pristine style but also a living embodiment of the music. The way she magically softened during the White Swan duet proved highly imaginative, tracing Odette's growing trust, hope and love without any obvious acting ploys."

Read the full review.

The Kirov Ballet and Orchestra brings Swan Lake to The Wang Theatre November 9-12.

Vegemite is right out

This just in from boingboing.net: Because of its folate content, the U.S. government has banned Vegemite. It seems folate can only be added to breads and cereals on our fair shores. That's right, the brown, yeasty goo that Aussies love can cross our borders no more. No word yet on Marmite and Promite.

I certainly feel safer.

Anyway, back to the arts...

Sweet Honey's Shirley Childress Saxton from Tulsaworld.com

Shirley Childress Saxton

From Tulsa, Oklahoma comes this story by James D. Watts, Jr. for Tulsaworld.com on Shirley Childress Saxton, the woman who serves as sign language interpreter for the a capella singing group Sweet Honey In The Rock. Ms. Saxton joined the ensemble in 1980 and is a permanent member of the group, a symbol of the ensemble's bedrock commitment to the deaf community:

"'For many deaf people, music simply is not a part of their lives,' Saxton said, speaking by phone from her home in the Washington D.C. area. 'It takes a lot of courage and open-mindedness on the part of deaf people even to set foot in a concert hall.'

'But it has been a part of the mission of Sweet Honey in the Rock from the beginning to make its performances accessible and inclusive to all people,' she said. 'And there aren't many performers out there that have been willing to make the interpretation of their work for the deaf an integral part of what they do.'"  Full story

Sweet Honey In The Rock and Shirley Childress Saxton return to the Celebrity Series and Symphony Hall on May 6, 2007.