An Evening of Beethoven

An Evening of Beethoven

Utah Symphony

September 11, 2009

Abravanel Hall

Matthias Bamert, Conductor

Jennifer Frautschi, Violin

The evening started out like any other with the Utah Symphony. Ralph Matson (the concertmaster) walks out. The orchestra "tunes." Then the conductor comes out (not the closet, from backstage. Jeesh people!) The orchestra stands. The maestro steps up to the podium to begin and instead of having sat down like usual, the orchestra (with the exception of the celli and bassi) stayed standing. I was thinking, "okay, this must be some type of 'visual effect' for the 'Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, op.43' that Maestro Bamert decided on." Than they began to play a familiar tune. (I can't hum it for you here, so I'll just give you the words. Boring, I know.) "Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light?" The audience stood (I would hope so.) Some in the audience sang. Followed by thunderous applause. (Okay, maybe not thunderous, but you get the idea.)

The Overture was next. Having never heard it before, it sounded awfully familiar. (Unfortunately, my lack of knowledge of proper terminology while doing reviews of this sort is extremely limited; so suffice it to say, I enjoyed it.) Maestro Bamert left the stage. Assistants came in and moved the 1st violins around. (They had to make way for the violin soloist.)

The Concerto for Violin in D Major, op. 61 was incredible. (It lasted roughly 45 minutes. That's a lot of music.) There are three movements. I. Allegro ma non troppo II. Larghetto III. Finale: Rondo. The first (at first) seemed to drag a little, but then I got into it. (Then the audience applauded after the first movement. Cretins! (Of course I say that with love.) (Honestly, I have no idea why it's considered taboo to applaud between movements. I just know it is, so I don't.) Ms. Frautschi played gracefully. She moved her body (slightly) with the music. Which I didn't find distracting. Sometimes people will wear sequins and THAN move to the music. The lights catch all of the sequins and well, instant migraine. That didn't happen last night. (Thank goodness.) The Larghetto segued into the Finale: Rondo. The high notes echoed through the hall. The trills were exquisite. In response to the audiences applause, Ms. Frautschi came out for FOUR CURTAIN CALLS. (Pardon my ignorance, but I'm not entirely sure what the proper phrase for concerts such as this is. Maybe I'm just involved in theatre too much. I don't know.)

And now, the moment we've all been waiting for...Dun Dun Dun Duuuuuuuuhn! The most famous four-note motif in all of classicdom. (Yes, that IS a word. Well, it is now anyway.) This has always been one of my favorite works. In fact, this is the first symphony (that I remember) ever heard. I was a student at Centennial Elementary School in Nampa, Idaho. The music teacher introduced us to Beethoven. We watched a movie. The title of it was/is (if memory serves. It doesn't always.) Beethoven Lived Upstairs. Well, something like that. I decided I wanted to be just like Beethoven. Well, except for the "dirty old man" thing. All I had ever heard was the first movement. It's the most popular. It would be at Boise State University about 15 years later before I heard the rest of the symphony. At 7:30 in the morning. (That's an awful time for a class by the way.)

The violins play quietly at the end of the third movement, than it "breaks forth triumphantly" as the fourth movement begins. There is no pause between these movements. (I'm sensing a theme...)

The entire evening was great. The fifth is still among my favorite symphonies.

Mission the Musical

Mission the Musical

WestofEast Productions

Written and Directed by Jed Christensen

Music and Lyrics by Eric Malizia and Jed Christensen

I saw an ad for Mission: The Musical on playersanonymous.org while I was posting notices for my company's production of Dido and Aeneas. They were asking for people to come and audition. I probaby would have if I hadn't been busy with Dido. So I emailed them to reserve a couple of tickets for Saturday the fifth of September for the matinee performance.

From the playbill..."Mission the Musical is a coming of age story about the journey through one of life's toughest trials: A mission. It is the story of two young men from very different worlds." Kendall is turning 19 and will be serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saitns. Meekum leaves home to serve in the Army of Helaman (you know, the story of the 2,000 stripling warriors from the Book of Alma in the Book of Mormon...).

"Along the way both will meet interesting and unforgettable characters. Both will learn valuable lessons about life, faith, and the power of decisions. And both will forge the unbreakable bond of friendship that forms when in the service of God."

The musical opens with the mothers of Kendall and Meekum. They are holding their new-born sons. When the curtain opened I, at first, thought the actress playing Susan, Kendall's mom, had forgotten to remove her socks. But then I realized the woman on the other side of the stage was from another century. (There wasn't much difference in their costumes, except for color.)

Nineteen years later! Kendall is in his bedroom with his girlfriend. He tries, several times, to kiss her. All attempts are unsuccessful. They are repeatedly interuppted by Mom (Susan), Dad (George), and Grandpa (Earl). (Earl was one of my favorite characters. He was the one who saw life a little differently, perhaps, because he's also the oldest character in the show.) Kendall shares (to one extent or another with parents, girlfriend and the audience) his concerns, his worries about serving a two year mission. (Anyone who HAS served a mission has felt these. I know I did.)

In the Nephite world, Meekum tells his mother he will join Helaman's army in defense of his people. She reminds him of the covenant they made to never go to war. "That was our fathers," he replies. (For more information on this, read of the Book of Alma in the Book of Mormon.) As a result he leaves.

Moving right along...Kendall leaves on his mission. (He stays up until 3 am writing his talk. Susan laments over his leaving. George tells her to make up her mind as to whether or not she wants him to go. And Kendall and Melissa, his girlfriend, get into an argument.) Meekum meets a fellow soon to be warrior and they run off to Helaman's Army's camp. (Try saying that three times fast.)

At the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Kendall meets his companion. Who feels that showering once a day is a little ridiculous. Nine weeks later Kendall leaves the MTC. (This nine-week period takes place in about five minutes. Mostly dance. With a tap dancing janitor, who by the way, wore a santa claus wig and beard. I guess the producers have never heard of buycostumes.com...That's were I get all my wigs. For my performing arts company silly!)

We see Meekum and the other Nephites for a minute and then the scene changes to Kendall's apartment where he lives with his current mission companion, Elder Walton. Elder Walton is a trunky missionary about to go home. ("Trunky" is a term used in the mission field for those who get lazy and all they begin to do is think about going home, so they don't do much in the way of "missionaryizing." Yes, that is now a word. I just made it up.)

Then, INTERMISSION!! During which time, I leaned over to my assistant..."The girl playing Melissa can't act to save her life. This stage kinda sucks (ADD moment: We're looking for a place to hold our season next year.) This music reminds me of Bare the Musical." She agreed on all points. (Bare the Musical takes place at a Catholic school. Peter wants to bring his relationship with Jason out in the open. Jason says no, they break up. Jason decides he does in deed love Peter, ends up overdossing and dies. That's a VERY brief summary. It's actually a much better show then I have made it sound here.)

Act Two begins with the Lamanites, (aka, the "bad guys" of the Book of Mormon. Well...nevermind. I don't want to confuse anyone. In this case, the Lamanites are the bad guys.) dancing around in their loin clothes. (Dont' worry, they were decent.) Kendall wonders if he's doing any good. Helaman and Nephites go to battle against the Lamanites. They fight. (The fight scene needed some more rehearsal time.) Melissa tells her boyfriend du jour, "I have brains too." Elder Walton prepares to go home. They finally have begun to have some success in their missionary work. Then Susan and George get a letter, "He's coming home." At the train station, Kendall says goodbye to Elder Smith (his current companion - missionaries go through a lot of companions. I personally had 12.) Meekum says goodbye to a friend. Then Kendall and Meekum sing, "Goodbye Brother, Good Fight." Meekum returns home. His mother sees him. "My son." (Then the scene ends with that.) The next scene is at the air terminal. Kendall has come home. He and Melissa get back together and the show ends.

Despite some poor acting, poor singing, poor directing the show was pretty good. I would have liked to have seen more with Meekum. I had nothing to relate to him with. We see Kendall with his girlfriend, mission companions. But not so much with Meekum. We don't get to see him grow. There could have been more of Kendall's growth as well, but what we did get to see was "okay." The man who played George, also performs with the Utah Opera. I have seen better things from him before, which leads me to believe the directing wasn't exactly beer and skittles. (Which is partly why I said, "poor directing.")

Helaman...oh boy, well he was kinda scrawny. I my biceps are bigger than his calf muscle. (Okay that's a stretch, but still.) I've always imagined Helaman to be big and muscular. Not skin and bones. Of course, that could've been a casting issue. In the program the writer and director mentioned some of the issues they had with casting...So perhaps that was the issue with some of the other people. Well, I'll go with that.

Would I see it again? Perhaps. It runs until this weekend. The final show is Saturday September 12th at 7pm. Matinee at 1pm. I might go. But then I have tickets to the symphony on Friday and an "Opera Gala" concert for Saturday evening. And Glenn Beck is doing a "special" on Fox News during the day on Saturday. So perhaps I won't be seeing Mission the Musical again during this run. Hopefully, next time, they'll get a few of the bugs worked out (in the script. ie., adding some detail in the Nephite scenes. "Give me something to relate to!")