Random thoughts on God and Music

So I was thinking the other day about music and how I compare music to God...


"God is Love."
"Music is the food of Love."
"You are what you eat."
Ergo, God is Music. Dumb, I know, but still...I'm a geek, what can I say?

During times of trial people tend to turn to God more than during times of joy. Only when they need something do they approach Him. (I'm guilty of this as well.)  In my observations, people treat music the same. 

Renee Fleming was asked to sing at a ceremony at Ground Zero shortly after 9/11.  She mentions in her book how she thought it was odd...having a singer who is not neccessarliy "mainstream" (like say Mariah Carey) sing.  She contemplated several reasons...I'm not going to delve into them here, you'll have to read her book, but I will say people turned to music (God) as a source of comfort and solace from the tragedies that came before.

A female friend of mine was recently (okay, "recently" meaning several months ago...) frustrated about a guy (men are dumb, but than so are women).  She listened to the loudest song she could get her hands on.  (For some loud, fast songs work.) 

Another time, I pulled into the drive through window at the bank.  The first window, where the teller has to stick the box thing out so you can provide the information for the transaction you wish to make.  The teller was puttering around inside (I could see her quite easily) and another vehicle pulled up to the second window...The other person was helped first.  I was mad!  At the exact moment the teller began to help me ("how can I help you today?") a very relaxing piece began.  Rachmaninoff's Vocalise with Dame Kira te Kanawa.  It instantly calmed me down.  Thankfully for the teller.  I was just about to say something, but how could I? 

When I need to concentrate and my ADD is making that next to impossible, I put on the score to Mr. Holland's Opus, Handel's Water Music, Beethoven's 5th Symphony, or something like that. 

Music also helps out with our physical needs.  Several years ago, when I has getting over the stomach flu (I've had it since than...) and still not feeling up to par, but had to go do something, I sang the entire way there.  I don't remember what, but it helped. 

And now, schools are cutting their music budgets.  People are cutting the arts out of their lives.  The arts are important!  There seven styles/ways of learning/teaching (music being one) and music covers all of them.  Music is math.  (Did I mention I hated math in high school?)  For the sake of simplicity we'll say a single measure equals four beats.  Now in each measure you can have whole notes (4 beats), half notes (2 beats), quarter notes (1 beat), eighth notes (1/2 beat), sixteenth notes (1/4 beat) and so on and so forth.  you can also get really into it and have what are called triplets which would make three quarter notes (1 beat each) equal two beats (ergo, fitting three into two). 

I'd rather go back to trig than have to wrap my brain around all that goes on in a musical score!  (Okay, not really.)  In a recent production ("recent" meaning five months ago), in just one choral movement in this opera, the meaures went from 5 beats to 4 beats to 3 beats (and in all different time signatures 5/4, 4/4, 3/4, 6/8) and than the composer through in some triplets just to throw me off.  It's a conspriacy! 

Now, I'm ranting...the point I was (and still am) trying to make is that music is good for everyone.  It teaches math, it opens up parts of the brain (parts that some people should try to use more often...), in group settings it teaches how to get along with others, it helps with focus...Studies have shown that students who also partcipate in a music class, whether that be studying an instrument, sing in a choir, or study voice, do better on tests in their other subjects.

As a people, we are taking God out of our lives as well.  This will be to our destruction (physically, spirtually, emotionally...)  We need both God and music (for according to the above references, they are one in the same).  I'm assuming most of the people who will read this have some type of god in their lives, so have chosen not to go into too much "god-talk."  Besides the point of all these rantings as about music anyway.  This is my opinion, so take it for what it's worth.

My last vocal recital...

This is the "official" annoucement for my final vocal recital.  There will be two performances.  One in Utah and one in Idaho. 

The dates are:
August 12, 2010 @ 7pm
Community Presbyterian Church
75 North 100 East
American Fork, Utah

August 19, 2010 @ 7pm
First Presbyterian Church
400 Lake Lowell Ave (corner of Lake Lowell and Canyon)
Nampa, Idaho

Joey Calkins, Tenor

Sean Rogers, Piano
FREE ADMISSION
Reception to follow.

This event is sponsored in part by the Utah/Idaho Performing Arts Company.

After ten years of giving vocal recitals I have decided to "retire" as it were. So this will be my last annual vocal recital. The program will be chosen by the audience. I have gone through all of the music I have performed (in recital, stage, church meetings, etc.) within the last ten years and have selected 50 songs for you to choose from.

The way this will work is as follows: Audience members will have the opportunity to select as many songs as they would like from the list write them (individually) on a piece of paper (which will be provided). The next song on the program will be chosen from these. (Out of a hat or something.)

This is my most difficult recital to date as I will have no control as to what song is next. :)

Songs include:
Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
I, Don Quixote
The Quest (The Impossible Dream)
The Lord's Prayer (two different setting)
Agnus Dei (Beethoven/Calkins)
Pieta, Signore
Music of the Night
and many more.

(For the complete list visit, joeycalkins150.blogspot.com)
 
Links to the Facebook pages:
Utah
Idaho

The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie
by Tennessee Williams
Directed by David Morgan

Reese Phillip Purser - Tom
Stephanie Breinholt Foster - Laura, his sister
Karen Baird - Amanda, his mother
Daryl Ball - Gentleman Caller (aka Mr. O'Conner), his co-worker and an acquaintance of Laura's from High School

For more information on The Glass Menagerie visit here.

Mortals Fools website. (They have several production photos on their website as well on their facebook page.)

So last week I was playing around on facebook, which has, oddly enough, become the center of my social life...Pathetic, I know...when I ran across a post from Mortal Fools (one of the groups I am a fan of) offering comp tickets to anyone who would come to the show and write a review about it on their blog.  (Sure, there was more to it then that, but it's late and the caffeine in the Pepsi I'm drinking doesn't seem as potent as it should...)  Where was I?  Oh, yes.  Free tickets.  Free is always good.  (Sort of...but that's another story.)

So I did the thing (requirements to get the comp tickets), got two comp tickets and got the nerve to ask a girl out for the evening...(She canceled three hours before.  Story of my life.  I'm calling it quits in regards to dating for now.  But I'm not here to talk about my personal life.  That's what I pay my psychiatrist for.)

So that cancellation put me in a bad mood for the evening, but despite that, The Glass Menagerie WAS AWESOME!!!

I'm not going to give a synopsis in this review, you can visit the above link for that.  I'm going to discuss (well, I'm going to type and all y'all will hopefully read what I type...there'll be no actual "discussion.")  :) the overall production.

The set was designed by Nat Reed.  He also designed the set for The Sound of Music (the production I was in a few years ago with the Lehi Arts Council...I played Herr Zeller...I still hate that show!  Though I'm forcing myself to see it this summer in Logan with the Utah Festival Opera.  Three years is enough time...)  The set was relatively simple.  At least in appearance.  (Having designed the set for a couple of chamber operas and a couple other short plays (I'm only in my first year of doing theatre), I know sometimes the simplest looking is sometimes the most difficult to pull off.  My assistant can attest to that.)  Despite it's simple nature, I loved it.  It was dark.  Much like the story.

The character of Amanda (played by Karen Baird) reminded me of some of the women I met while serving an LDS mission in the south.  (Amanda is, after all, a Southern Belle...)  Constantly trying to be charming.  Worried about her family.  Wants to make sure that her family is taken care of.  (And looks, "right."  Because, evidently, how the world perceives us (generally speaking) is the most important thing.  I gave that up awhile ago myself, hence the three inches of mold growing in my kitchen.  Kidding.  My kitchen is clean.  My car on the other hand...You know that's one good thing about my date canceling on me.  I didn't have to clean my car!)

Reese Phillip Purser as Tom, is torn between his loyalty to his dreams and his loyalty to his family.  (Sounds familiar.)  Laura (Stephanie Breinholt Foster) is a shy, timid girl who seems to know what she wants, but is afraid to reach for it.  Amanda (without giving away the plot), to me, blames Tom for what her husband, Tom and Laura's father, did.  (Sorry, I'm not giving it away here.  I only give the plot away if I didn't like something...As an example of this, please see one of my somewhat recent posts.)

There was only one thing that annoyed me about the production, well "on stage" anyway.  The story takes place in 1937.  I could swear they had 33's (that's type of record...you know, an early CD player...) on stage, when in 1937, 33's didn't exist.  They used 78's (okay, so there's more to the numbers then just "33" or "78"...I don't remember the exact "number."  I'm a virgin "audiophile" for cryin'-out-loud!)

When I arrived at the theatre it was about 6:40.  (I left from Salt Lake (about 8000 south for those in the area) and was planning on lots of traffic.  I didn't want to be late.  It's this little thing I have about being early for shows (and rehearsals, hint hint to my performers if they're reading this).)  The show was scheduled to begin at 7:30 (it didn't actually begin until about 7:35...but whatever...They weren't waiting for me!)  So, since I was SOOOOO early, I decided to wait in my car, read some emails (UNIPAC stuff...it never ends.)

About 6:50 I walked to the front door...Locked!  A woman waiting in her car said they'd open the door in about ten minutes.  My first thought was, "what? No lobby!?!  I need to pee, dang it!"  So I went back to my car and checked Fox News.  What did I ever do before a Blackberry?  About five minutes after seven, I went back. The door was STILL locked.  But this time I walked around the building...There was another door!  Imagine that!  Another door.  (Note to anyone from Mortal Fools who may be reading this, a sign on the front door would nice.  It would sure save a little old lady from walking up the steps to get to that door and then have to walk down them again to get to the other door.   Which happened.  I saw it.)

Other then the 33's (I emailed one of the producers about this, offering to loan them one of my "78" albums to use...), the lack of a sign on the front door and the apparent not letting people into the theatre until 30 minutes before curtain (with UNIPAC, the House doors open 60 minutes before curtain, but people can come in anytime before the show opens...well as longs as the person with the key, typically, the person who we're renting the building from, is there to unlock the building for us) it was a GREAT show.

I would go again, unfortunately though, my finances won't allow it.  (This March is quite busy.  Opera.  Theatre.  Concerts.  Phantom of the Opera in Las Vegas...)    But, hey, I could always sacrifice decent food and live on peanut butter and Ramen noodles for what I love.  Art.  Music.  Theatre.  It's what I do.  Something to say, "I Was Here." Of attending the theatre doesn't exactly help the sentiment of this song along, but, well, never mind.  (This link will take you to youtube.  This recording isn't exactly the best, but it's decent enough for my purpose in posting this song.)

If you're able; GO SEE THIS SHOW! 

And then come see the FREE concert that I'm directing of "The Garden" by Bryce Neubert and Michael McLean on Easter Sunday, April 4th @7:00 at the Alpine Tabernacle in American Fork (110 East Main Street).  Visit UNIPAC's blog for more information.

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Mortal Fools Theatre Project is presenting Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" this month.  It opens this weekend, Friday, March 12th (a preview performance on Thursday, March 11th).  I love the classics.  maybe that's why I love opera so much.  (Or maybe I love opera so much, because I'm really a sadist and love to watch people die by "one of four causes: murder, suicide, madness or TB." [Anna Russell])

Did I mention that by posting this and promising to do a review of the show I get in for free?  Yep, thats right.  But only opening weekend.  (At least according to a note posted on facebook.)  Gotta love free stuff, right?

So I will be attending the performance on Monday, March 15th.  I would go opening night, but I have a concert that I'm singing in and another concert I'm attending on Saturday night and a rehearsal I'm in charge of on Sunday night.  More information about that at UNIPAC's blog, here.  My this is going to be a busy weekend.  I was going to go to the opera on Monday, but I can go on Wednesday night instead.  (But that's Criminal Minds, I guess I can find a friend to TiVo it for me.)

For more information (including production photos, which by the way, look really cool) visit Mortal Fools Theatre Project's website here.

Glad I only paid $1.50

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT
So I get a text message last night about 7pm saying "meeting at sticky shoe to see 2012 at 9."  Well, after a short texversation it was decided that I would leave home the second Criminal Minds was over.  I walked into the movie about three minutes into it.

Besides the blatantly obvious conclusion, it was a decent movie.  It was a typical story of the government knowing about a natural disaster, making preparations, selling "safety nets" to the rich, a lone man finds out about it, works his butt off trying to save his family which consists of him, his ex-wife, two children, and the ex-wife's boyfriend.  There's the brainiac who is looked at at being somewhat inferior.  The brainiac's superior who's only worried about one thing.  Saving his own ass and the plan.  (Okay, so two things.)  The brainiac's love interest who is always the daughter of some "powerful" big-wig (who happens to be the president of the United States and is almost always some minority, whether it be a black man or a woman.  (Or a combination of the two.)  And then you've got the minor characters towards the end who help the lone man and his family...often at their own peril.  There's always the older "foreigner" jerk.  The one who is rich and trys to buy his way out of trouble.  He has a girlfriend half his age.  And two children from his ex-wife.  Who both (the older "foreigner" jerk and the girlfriend) die at the end. And don't forget the OFJ is always a dick until the very end of the movie when he fulfills his one redeeming moment. 

And then you've got the people who play important parts in the story, but really don't do much else except die to save the lives of the lone man, the ex-wife, two children, the ex-wife's boyfriend, the OFJ, his girlfriend and children by "landing" a plane on ice as the "group" exits the plane in some fashion that would make James Bond and MacGyver proud, as the group watches said plane with the pilot fall off a cliff.  (Yeah, I didn't see that coming! *rolls eyes*)

We mustn't forget the crazy person who was right the whole time.  And of course, he dies as well.  But he dies early on.  The crazy person, though, does have an opportunity to save his life, offered by the lone man, but he refuses, deciding instead to stay and watch all hell break loose and proclaim to no one but the audience in the movie theatre (who is bored to tears at this point) that he was right all along.

Towards the end of the movie the lone man and the group find a way to board the "saving" vessel that will take them to safety from whatever the pending disaster may be.  Whether they sneak on or board "legally."  And then you've got the expected malfunctions in the "saving" vessel that the lone man must go and fix.  He completes his mission but doesn't return.  Well, until the required "suspenseful" moment when the music suddenly stops and he appears.  Alive.  Unharmed.  (I forgot to mention the ex-wife's boyfriend always dies.)

So what movie am I describing?  Well, 2012, but really, this could be ANY movie from the genre.  Titanic, Deep Impact, Armagedon, Independence Day, Dante's Peak, Volcano...This particular genre of movie reminds me of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera.  Essentially every single one has the same basic plot with only slight variations.  The music sounds the same.  And they star the same type of actor.  The good looking ones who can't act to save their lives. 

Sure I'll probably buy it when it goes to the $5 bin at Walmart, but until then...I'll be renewing my season subscription to the opera.

Carmen

Carmen

Utah Opera

Capitol Theatre

Salt Lake City, Utah

January 16, 2010

Ari Pelto, Conductor

Garnett Bruce, Director

Leann Sandel-Pantaleo, Carmen

Chad Shelton, Don Jose

Christopher Feigum, Escamillo

Seriously; now I know why I don't usually sit in the first couple of rows when I go to the opera. The orchestra was echoing off the box seats just above me. I couldn't see about 1/3 of the blocking...But can I just say how much I love Bizet's Carmen? Of course, I love any opera where the tenor doesn't die at the end. Especially if said tenor gets to stab someone. Even more so if that someone is a soprano. (Well in this case, it was a mezzo-soprano, but still...)

This is my second time THIS season to see this opera. The first was in Logan with the Utah Festival Opera. (I also saw Carmen for the first time several years ago...in Logan.)

It gets better every time I see it. Thankfully, it's a popular opera so opera companies do it farily regularly. Which is nice. Because I love to watch the tenor kill a soprano (or mezzo-soprano). I know, I know, I'm sadistic. UFO also did I pagliacci this last season. I had an enjoyable couple days up there. Lots of murdering of sopranos. (Insert evil laugh here.)

Overall the production (Utah Opera's) was great. Like I mention earlier I couldn't see about a 1/3 of the blocking. My fault really, I chose that seat! It was only bad in Act One when you have literally everyone on stage. Carmen's entrance was a little blocked from my view.

The character of Carmen, to me, is a suducer. Ms. Sandel-Pantaleo pulled that off well. Mr. Shelton was amazing as Don Jose, the hopeless romantic with fits of jealousy and rage. Mr. Feigum was...okay. I personally didn't care for him. He seemed kinda stiff. I don't mean the character. Escamillo is arrogant, self-absorbed...I've never known a baritone who wasn't. (A note to all my baritone friends; "Just kidding."). I think I remember hearing that this is his first time in the role, so perhaps he's just not sure of himself yet. Don't get me wrong, Mr. Feigum does have a beautiful voice.

(I'd never sing the role. I'm a tenor and even though it's most likely in my comfortable singing range, tessitura aside, I'm the only person for whom I'll degrade myself my singing baritone. Which I have done. Once. In Utah/Idaho Performing Arts Company's production of The Other Wise Man by M. Ryan Taylor. Directed by your's truly...Singing baritone is beneath me.)

Personally, I would love to see this production again. The set was different then what I've seen before. Which is nice. I like to see things different then what other people do. Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend again. My paycheck only goes so far and I have my own company to support. Visit UNIPAC's blog for more information about our upcoming concert on February 6th. An evening of opera arias, art song, lied, and broadway ballads. Single tickets are $8.00 and $14.00 for couples.

God Bless,

Joey

Plays

I took a vacation last weekend (New Years...) and worked on revising my current plays. Confession, From Deep Within, and Help Me! are once again DONE!!! This is the last time I'll revise them. Unless I find some formatting or spelling mistakes... I am satisified with the stories as the currently stand (or sit) and I am looking for some people who would like to read them. Send me an email at josephcalkins_tenor@yahoo.com if you would be interested.