Music in them thar hills

We are in the seventh week of the season here at OIO. The shows are being done in rotation, to surprisingly small houses. I am told attendance will pick up by the last week. Of the two other special programs in the works, we have performed a chamber music concert on Monday in a venue not far from here. It was modern church with a fine piano and great acoustics. The orchestral players organized this for the most part. The program was varied, interesting and very well done. The highlights were the first movement of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet and at the end the program we heard a movement of the Bohuslav Martinu Nonett, a fun piece. I played in several works: the Mozart aria "Parto, Parto" for mezzo soprano from "La Clemenza di Tito" (it has a substantial clarinet obbligato part) and a trio for violin, trumpet and piano by the American composer Eric Ewazen (he teaches at Juilliard). The hit of the program was the Schubert Rondo in A Major for piano four-hands which I performed with my colleague Michael. I say that not because our playing of it was extraordinary (though it was pretty darned good), but because the Rondo is so beautiful. It is vintage Schubert: delectably sweet with that flavoring of Viennese melancholy that pervades the composer's soul. I doubt if anyone in the audience had heard it before. I performed the Rondo two summers ago in Graz on a faculty recital. It was lovely to do it again. The nicest comment I heard was: you can play that Schubert Rondo for us every day!

Of the scenes I am preparing, one of them, the Presentation of the Rose from "Der Rosenkavalier" will be performed during the second act of "Die Fledermaus", the party scene at Prince Orlofsky's. Many of the donors and supporters of the OIO program will be in attendance at that final performance of the opera. I volunteered to arrange the duet for our orchestra. It was a monumental task, but a labor of love. Strauss's orchestration is HUGE. I had to pare it down to what we have here. I can't wait to hear it. The instrumental players are very excited about doing it. Strauss meets Strauss.

We have endured blazing temperatures for many days. Only today did a front sweep in to cool things down a bit and saturate the thirsty earth. It was so warm last night that it was decided to do Figaro without wigs, costumes or make-up. It was 97 degrees in the house at curtain. Last Sunday I went on a hike with a visiting voice teacher who was here to do master classes. Linda di Fiore and I know each other from the Seagle Colony and from Graz. It wasn't the best day to go hiking -- it was 103 degrees!! We must have been nuts. The pic is of Leatherwood Lake, clogged with water lilies. The lake is tucked away in a side valley.