November 18, 2007

This week in classical music 11-18-07

It’s this week in classical music, an update on what’s happening in the classical music world, I’m Randy Kinkel.

A new Oratorio by Christopher Theofanadis was premiered yesterday in Houston. The Refuge, with music by theofanadis and libretto by Leah Lax, tells the stories of seven groups of immigrants.  It’s part of Houston Grand Opera’s outreach program, The Song Of Houston. Composer Theofanadis said,"Each of these cultures and communities have such a distinctive musical tradition that some kind of core feeling had to be in the music (of The Refuge), But there is no mistaking that The Refuge comes from the symphonic tradition of Western classical music,”  About 175 performers will appear in The Refuge, including HGO's orchestra, chorus and children's chorus; members of the HGO Studio; vocal ensembles; solo singers; and instrumentalists.  Among the community performers will be members of the Mukule family, who sing with the group Gifted and Talented. Originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, they fled the Rwandan genocide.

the Herb Alpert Foundation has given the university a $30-million endowment pledge to establish the cross-disciplinary UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, officials announced today. 
The endowment will unify the university's departments of ethnomusicology, music and musicology under a single umbrella for the study and performance of world, popular and classical music, jazz and other genres.  "The landscape of music has changed so dramatically in the last few years and the ways of making, delivering and sharing music have become so diverse, there needs to be a new approach to music education," the 72-year-old Alpert said last week. 
"I was looking for a school that would respond to the global environment we are in now," he said, "and UCLA has some real visionaries on staff who have some far-reaching, really beautiful ideas of how to pull it all together."  Timothy Rice, a professor in the department of ethnomusicology since 1987, has been named the school's first director.

Product placement – that’s the inserting of brand-name products like sodas or candy in scenes -- is common in TV and film.  Could the opera be next?  In Pittsburgh, the answer is “yes!”  In the Pittsburgh Opera's performances of "The Elixir of Love," which opened last week and continues this weekend, an ice cream truck bearing the Local brand Bruster's Ice Cream logo appears on the stage.

Pittsburgh Opera's  Mark Weinstein said the use of the Bruster's sign was done in the spirit of localizing the production to reflect 1910 America,  "Because this was an Americana production, why not come up with a local ice cream company?" he said. "Plus, it is a tongue-in-cheek kind of show, and we felt it was appropriate and added to the fun. We reached out to Bruster's ... and they loved the idea. We didn't charge them money but did a cross-promotion in which we had total creative control."

It is one of the first times an American operatic production has used a company logo as a prop and been paid for it (tradeout rather than money). Bruster's agreed to send e-mails with a special $20 ticket promotion to its customers and provide free ice cream to patrons at Sunday's matinee. Programs carried coupons for Bruster's ice cream.