Copious Notes

Musicians in the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Singers and UK Chorale settle onto the stage of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the Our Lincoln performance Feb. 2, 2009. Photo by Jonathan Palmer.

The presentation of Our Lincoln at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in February was undeniably a big deal for Kentucky arts and humanities.

Artists who live and work here were presented on one of the nation’s most ­prestigious stages along with hometown kids who have made good and a few international stars, such as violinist Mark O’Connor. A production conceived and produced in Central Kentucky went to an international arts showplace and acquitted itself admirably.

I sat with a Washington cameraman who went on at length about how great the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra is. It was one of numerous anecdotes about seasoned Washington arts observers who were impressed with Our Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln played by Jim Sayre of Lawrenceburg, left, and Henry Clay played by George MGee of Georgetown put the finishing touches on their costumes outside the entrance to the Kennedy Center.

But it is understandable that this might be lost on people who weren’t among the 1,463 people who saw the ­performance, given while the state was in the throes of an ice storm. ­Overseeing recovery ­efforts forced Gov. Steve Beshear to cancel his plans to attend.

But now Beshear and anyone else who would like to see the show can catch it in Michael Breeding’s PBS-quality DVD, which has just been released.

After raising the money to get the program to ­Washington, the Kentucky Humanities Council had to go back to the well for an ­additional $6,500 to produce the DVD, with the total costs to be recouped through sales.

What we can now see is that Breeding and his crew captured the proceedings in stunning detail, with shots that take the viewer onto the stage with the performers and also relay the grandeur of the occasion.

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Billy the Barber (Reginald Smith Jr.) is a key character in reminding Abraham Lincoln (Nick Provenzale) of his commitment to fight slavery. Photo from Sept. 29 rehearsal by Rich Copley, LexGo.com.

I’ve talked before at le blog about the challenge of reviewing University of Kentucky Opera Theatre productions because the collegiate company always double-casts shows due to singers’ needs for vocal rest — professional companies rarely put a show up on consecutive days for that reason — and to spread experience around.

It has its up sides, of course, but one downside is that only one cast gets reviewed by the paper. We simply do not have the time or space to review a show twice, and waiting for both casts to perform would hamper our efforts to deliver a timely review.

The same is true for UKOT’s world premier production of River of Time, which opened Thursday night at the Lexington Opera House. Nick Provenzale sings the lead role of Abraham Lincoln all three nights, but most of the primary singing roles are double cast. We reviewed Cast A (UKOT’s termionology) last night, which acquitted itself quite well in a new opera that had some big issues in story and pace.

Abraham Lincoln (Nick Provenzale) tries to comfort Ann Rutledge (Julie La Douceur) in her final hours in "River of Time."

That said, I did get to catch Cast 1, which performs tonight (Oct. 9), in a rehearsal last week, and if you are holding tickets for tonight’s performance or are thinking of going, I don’t think you’ll be shortchanged.

Among the standouts set to go on tonight are Reginald Smith Jr. as Billy the Barber and Julie LaDouceur as Ann Rutledge.

Based on what I caught that evening, some of the different performers will likely bring different vibes to their work. LaDouceur’s Ann seemed sweeter and more whistful than Amanda Balltrip’s more feisty, jocular take. And Smith, whose voice will always get your attention, put a lot of comand behind his version of Billy, performed with tremendous empathy by Mark Elliott Golson II last night and Saturday.

So the takes may be somewhat different, but either way, you should expect some terrific performances.

Ann Rutledge (Amanda Balltrip) and Abraham Lincoln (Nick Provenzale) at a town dance in New Salem, Ill., in the world premier production of Joe Baber's "River of Time." Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

Note: Space is finite in newspapers, really more finite than ever. This being a new opera, I wrote a bit longer than a usual review, and a little bit longer than the printed page in Saturday’s paper will hold. This posting of our River of Time review contains portions that will not be in the print edition.

No one in Abraham Lincoln’s home state has celebrated the bicentennial of the 16th president’s birth as well as the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre.

At the start of the celebration in 2008, the Opera Theatre teamed with the Kentucky Humanities Council to present Our Lincoln, a multi-faceted tribute to the Hodgenville native that eventually traveled to Washington, D.C.

Before that show was even conceived, UK Opera Theatre director Everett McCorvey had commissioned an opera about Lincoln from composer Joe Baber and librettist Jim Rodgers.

That opera, River of Time, had its world premiere Thursday night at the Lexington Opera House. It’s not the unqualified success of Our Lincoln, but there is much to like and even potential for Baber’s opera to endure as a portrait of the president before he was presidential.

River of Time’s story takes Lincoln from birth through the death of his first true love, Ann Rutledge. Along the way, he fights with his dad, becomes a bookworm, grieves the deaths of the three most important women in his life and even wrestles.

That story makes for some great moments, including a slave auction in New Orleans where Lincoln declares that if he gets a chance to fight slavery, “I’m gonna hit it hard.” The scene, with a heavy dose of spirituals, is the grand opera spectacle of the show.

But for the most part, this opera strives for a soothing — sometimes too soothing — Midwestern feel, in the spirit of Aaron Copland or Samuel Barber. That’s exemplified in a small-town dance scene in which Lincoln and Ann realize that regardless of whether she is engaged to another guy, they are in love. Read the rest of this entry »

Click the play button to hear a podcast of our River of Time report for WEKU-FM 88.9:

Copious Notes podcasts are available on iTunes.

The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre presents the world premier production of composer Joe Baber and librettist Jim Rodgers’ River of Time Oct. 8-10 at the Lexington Opera House. The opera, commissioned by UK Opera, looks at Abraham Lincoln’s early years including his search for purpose in his life and the roots of his desire to fight slavery. Photos by Rich Copley | staff.

Feature: Lincoln Opera portrays a ‘journey to greatness’

Gregory Turay's (right) last Lexington performance was a benefit production of La Traviata on October 2006. He sang the role of Alfredo opposite Darla Diltz (left) as Violetta. Photo by Joseph Rey Au.

Gregory Turay, the tenor who helped put the University of Kentucky’s voice program on the map, will be back at UK next year.

According to UK Opera Theatre director Everett McCorvey, Turay will be an artist-in-residence at the school, teaching master classes, giving recitals and even possibly performing in some of next year’s opera productions. Turay will also have some national and international engagements while he is working here.

“They get to work with someone who is currently out in the field having a career,” McCorvey said of the UK students. “They are pretty excited.”

When Turay won the Metropoilitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1995, it sort of fast-tracked his career. So, while he started work on a masters degree, he has not had the time to complete it. He will be working on that degree while at UK next academic year. UK has had numerous internationally acclaimed singers and directors in to work with students for short durations. Turay’s stay will be the first time the opera program has had a year-long artist-in-residence.

Christopher Tolliver’s friends and colleagues in the Lexington arts community will pay tribute to the late musician and actor in a memorial service at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Lexington Children’s Theatre.

Christopher Tolliver sang the role of El Gallo in a 2003 production of "The Fantasticks" at Studio Players. Herald-Leader file photo.

Tolliver was killed in a shooting at the Lexington Green shopping center on March 5.

The murder came at a time Tolliver’s career was just getting into gear, colleagues said, as he was composing music for the Children’s Theatre as well as a proposed outdoor drama in Corbin based on the life of Col. Sanders. Over the past decade, Tolliver had worked with an array of Lexington arts groups including the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre, Studio Players and ActOut Theatre Group.

In the last few years, Lexington Children’s Theatre had become Tolliver’s theatrical home, where he was the go-to music director for the theater’s recent musical productions.

Tolliver’s close friend Karyn Czar, a reporter for WLAP-AM 630 and actor, said the memorial will be, “very informal…a celebration of Chris.

“We’re going to be playing his original music, showing photos and videos of shows he’s worked on. There will be a short sing-along from the shows he music directed: Beauty and the Beast, Seussical and Honk. We’re also going to fill out memory cards for the family, some of our favorite memories of Chris at LCT.”

Czar said Tolliver’s friends and family are invited to attend.

Note: Since Chris Tolliver did not have life insurance, a fund has been set up to help his family with expenses. Donations can be made to the Chris Tolliver Memorial Fund c/o Ashley Norvell at Central Bank and Trust, 256 Southland Dr., Lexington, KY 40503.  If more is raised it will be given to Lexington Children’s Theatre.

Byron Johnson of Jackson, Miss., won second place in the UK Opera's Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition on March 8, 2009, at the Singletary Center for the Arts. Photos by Tim Collins.

Last Sunday was a good day to be a Johnson from Jackson in the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre’s Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition.

Dione Johnson of Jackson, Tenn., was the first-place winner in the graduate division of the scholarship competition.

Taking home the graduate grand prize of $10,000 plus full tuition and a graduate assistantship was Dione N. Johnson of Jackson, Tenn. She was also the recipient of the Kentucky Opera Prize guaranteeing her a main stage role in a future production by the Louisville company.

The second graduate prize of $7,500 plus full tuition and a graduate assistantship went to Byron Johnson of Jackson, Miss.

In the undergraduate division, first prize of $5,000 and full tuition went to Elizabeth Maurey, a soprano from Brazil, Ind. Second prize of $2,500 and full tuition went to Keymon Murrah of Louisville.

This was the fourth annual edition of the competition, designed to attract students to UK’s voice program. Students must come to UK to receive the prizes. The impact of the event can be seen throughout the UK Opera Theatre’s current production of Lucia di Lammermoor as numerous leading singers are Alltech winners including David Bellamy Baker, Bruce Bean and Megan McCauley, who sings Lucia in one of the casts of the production, which closes Saturday night.

Here are the rest of the prize winners, as provided by the UK Opera Theatre:

Bio-Cat, Inc. Encouragement Award: Undergraduate - Keymon Murrah, $500; Graduate - Christine Jobson, $500.

McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie & Kirkland, PLLC Audience Favorite: William Clay Thompson, $1000.

Anonymous Best Communicator Award: Jondra Harmon, $1,000.

Stoll Keenon Ogden PLLC Musicianship Award: Samuel McDonald, $1,500.

Powell ~ Walton ~ Milward a division of J. Smith Lanier & Co. Outstanding Transfer Student:
Matthew Gamble, $1500 plus a tuition waiver.

Mr. William L. Rouse III “The Barbara Rouse Kentucky Prize,” for a student born or educated in Kentucky: Ellen Graham, $5000.

Study at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria in 2009 or 2010:
Graduates - Dione Johnson, Byron Johnson and Samuel McDonald, $2200 each toward tuition.
Undergraduates - Elizabeth Maurey and Keymon Murrah, $1750 each toward tuition.

• Here’s our slide show from the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor. Mouse over the bottom to get controls. Click on the little comment cloud to the left to activate captions. If you click on a photo, it will take you to a larger version of it at Picasa, and you can click the link at the bottom left for a larger version of the whole show.

Raimondo (Mark Elliott Golson, center) referees a confrontation between Enrico (David Bellamy Baker, left) and Edgardo (Jeremy Cady, right) in UK Opera Theatre's production of "Lucia di Lammermoor." Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Lucia di Lammermoor is an opera about a man who forces his sister to marry for money.

His sister is in love with another man — in her mind, married to him. But the brother tricks the sister into a miserable arrangement. By the time the final curtain falls, Lucia and both of the men who called her wife are dead, the husband she didn’t want dying in Lucia’s ghastly murder of him.

It’s an odd mix: bel canto singing — beautiful singing — with treachery and carnage.

The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre’s production of the Lucia, which opened Friday night at the Lexington Opera House and has three more performances tonight and next Friday and Saturday, had the bel canto part down.

But the show never felt dangerous, even as Lucia staggered around the stage with a bloody knife in her hand.

Darla Diltz as Lucia.

We are, of course, talking about Lucia’s mad scene, after she has stabbed her new, unwanted husband to death and comes into the wedding party with a blood-splattered white dress. It is a tough scene for a soprano as she has to navigate a treacherous vocal line while holding the stunned party-goers in horror for nearly 15 minutes.

Darla Diltz has one of the most beautiful instruments to come out UK’s voice school in years, her tour de force playing Violetta opposite star UK opera alum Gregory Turay’s Alfredo. And that voice is on dispaly again in the mad scene, particularly echoing Aaron Sexton’s flute. But, except for a moment where she raises the knife to one of the guests, there’s never a sense that she’s going to strike again or that the party guests are afraid of her.

And the scene is hardly set, as David Bellamy Baker isn’t convincing as such a meanie that he would force his sister to submit to a life of misery. He only really has a sense of urgency when directly challenged by Diltz.

He too has had great successes, such as an empathetic Schaunard to Jeremy Cady’s Rodolfo in La Boheme last fall. Now Cady, once again employing romantic lead sweetness as Edgardo, does fix Baker’s Enrico with a death stare that means business in their big confrontation. He also pulls off one the biggest challenges in the tenor repertorie: successfully following the mad scene.

There are some other outstanding performances from the supporting cast, including Mark Elliott Golson II as a commanding Raimondo and Luther H. Lewis II as a deliciously slimy Normanno. Gavin Wigginson is a strong and gregarious presence in his one scene as Lucia’s doomed groom.

Director Richard Kagey has designed a strong traditional setting for the show, and the UK Symphony sounded as sharp as it ever has in the pit. The chorus was also in top form, bringing some of the best moments of the show, including the scene where they are supposed to be celerating Lucia and Arturo’s marriage and instead see an ugly confrontation between Edgardo and pretty much everyone else.

The show just wasn’t a compelling package, and the lack of drama, of any emotional spark was surprising, considering one of the primary strengths of UK Opera during its ascendancy has been acting. It has been a company sending singers into the world with the knowledge that opera today needs more dramatic flair to draw in new audiences. It has been the company that brought us shows like Don Giovanni with the Giovanni-Leporello combo of Mark Huseth and Corey Crider, a Carmen that, by all rights, should be a precursor to Brandy Lynn Hawkins doing the title role again and again and again, and last fall’s total package Boheme.

This is a company that has always remembered theater was part of its name. Let’s not forget that.

This show was double cast, with the cast reviewed performing again March 13. The other cast performs March 7 and 14.

• Did you see the other cast? Tell us how it went by commenting below, or chime in on the performance reviewed.

• This week, we bring you Live this Weekend video style, with the stars of Lucia di Lammermoor discussing the famous mad scene. Click play to watch the film.

As the plot thickens in Psycho, Norman Bates delivers a foreboding understatement: “We all go a little mad sometimes.” It’s meant as a general — albeit creepy, in context — assessment of life. But if you are an operatic soprano, going mad comes with the job.

The operatic repertoire features several mad scenes of note. The next two weekends, a pair of University of Kentucky sopranos will tackle one of opera’s most iconic scenes of a woman going insane as they take on the title role in Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.

For Lucia, “the mad scene is a release for all the torments she’s had to deal with the last several months,” says Megan McCauley, one of the sopranos who will share the title role in the 1830s Italian opera.

Darla Diltz, the other Lucia, says, “It’s finding a balance between being angry and delusional, which is really happy. I have to remind myself that if I was really crazy, I wouldn’t always be mad.”

Lucia is a victim of circumstances, forced to marry a man she does not love so that her family can maintain its home and position. To make that happen, Lucia’s brother has tricked her and her true love, Edgardo, into believing that they have renounced each other. Lucia goes through with the marriage, but as soon as she gets in the bedroom after the wedding, she stabs her new husband to death. She comes back out to the wedding party, her dress and the knife bloody and her mind occupied by wild hallucinations.

It’s 15 minutes that look ripe for theatrics. But the singers and director say they have to remember that this is opera. They have to be able to sing the soaring melody while moving erratically around the stage.

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