Arturo Toscanini, Music Conductor and Orchestra Ally

The following is an excerpt from The Real Toscanini by Cesare Civetta, as posted on PBS’s Orchestra of Exiles page. Read the entire excerpt on their website.

When the Polish violinist Bronisław Huberman founded the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, he asked Toscanini to conduct a benefit concert in New York for the new orchestra. Toscanini decided to travel to Palestine in December of 1936, train the orchestra, and conduct the first concerts of what later became known as the Israel Philharmonic, composed of refugee Jewish musicians who had escaped persecution. Toscanini refused to accept a fee or reimbursement for his travel expenses.

Toscanini: “I had to show my solidarity.” “It is everyone’s duty to help in this cause according to one’s means.”

The news of Toscanini’s plans to inaugurate the orchestra attracted more musicians to join the orchestra and resulted in very successful fund-raising for the new venture. Toscanini stayed for more than a month. The dress rehearsal for the first concert was open to artists and workers. “The public’s response was one of overwhelming emotion. The president of the Hebrew University broke into uncontrollable tears.” There were nine sold-out concerts in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa, and concerts in Cairo and Alexandria. In Tel Aviv, crowds stood outside near the windows and some people even climbed onto the roof attempting to hear. At the end of the first concert, the ovation lasted for more than thirty minutes.

Keep reading this excerpt on PBS.org!

Tune into the PBS premiere of Orchestra of Exiles on Sunday, April 14, 10 pm.

In The Real Toscanini, Cesare Civetta presents an intriguing collection of vivid, one-of-a-kind interviews with artists who performed with Toscanini. A portrait of the inner workings of the maestro emerges through these extensive conversations, conducted by the author over a period of 20 years, together with other firsthand recollections. These accounts clarify Toscanini’s philosophy, musical style, and techniques. They depict a man tormented by inner demons of anger and depression, which were easily triggered by his frustration at being unable to produce the musical ideal in his mind’s ear.

Remembering George Gershwin, Porgy and Bess

Today marks the 75th anniversary of George Gershwin’s death. Some of his most memorable compositions include Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, and Porgy and Bess. Below is an excerpt from Robin Thompson’s book The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess:

The opera Porgy and Bess would prove to be unique in an even greater way. The period of its creation and its subsequent performance history have been unlike that of any other American opera. As far as George Gershwin was concerned, Porgy and Bess was an opera composed in the operatic tradition, rather than in the musical-comedy idiom of the mid-1930s. Like the book and play, it would break its

own share of boundaries. Certainly, it would contradict the public’s perception of what constituted opera at the time of its New York opening. Porgy and Bess examined American themes rather than those of European history, mythology, or Roman and Greek literature.

It had the structure of opera, built from its customary musical forms of arias, duets, trios, choral ensembles, orchestral interludes and the like, but it was to be composed using the American musical idioms of jazz, “Negro” spirituals, and American popular song. “If I am successful,” Gershwin wrote to a friend, “it will resemble a combination of the drama and romance of Carmen and the beauty of Meistersinger, if you can imagine that.”

However, from its glittering opening on October 10, 1935, at Broadway’s Alvin Theatre and for some years to come, the power to “imagine that” was somewhat lacking. Critics and audiences stationed themselves on either side of the great genre divide. If Porgy and Bess was an opera, then what was it doing in a Broadway theater? Since Gershwin himself called the solo musical numbers “songs” rather than “arias,” didn’t he mean us to understand the piece as a musical? Could American vernacular music really support the dramatic weight of larger-then-life operatic subject,

and so forth. Porgy was confusing in a few ways. More than anything else it was confusing in its newness. Initially, Porgy and Bess did not have the long and successful run that its creators, producers, and cast had hoped for. However, it was far from a failure. Within a few short years, Gershwin’s mix of traditional operatic form with American vernacular music came to be recognized as one of the work’s principal glories rather than its central failing. Few now question the ultimate success of Gershwin’s efforts.

Click here to read the first 15 pages of the book for free.

The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess by Robin Thompson (Amadeus Press)

In this lavishly illustrated 75th anniversary volume, created with the participation of the Gershwin estate, opera producer and author Robin Thompson recounts the history of Porgy and Bess as he looks at the various interpretations of the work and the many layers of meaning to be found in the story of the crippled Porgy, the conflicted and vulnerable Bess, the dope peddler Sportin’ Life, and the other residents of Catfish Row.

Packed with unique, rarely seen archival photographs and documents associated with the production, Porgy and Bess commemorates this uniquely American blending of musical, ethnic, and creative styles and the people, the performers, and the times that produced it.

Fall Book Preview

Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group is thrilled to announce the Fall 2012 titles that we will be publishing!
Disclaimer: Cover images are subject to change.

Backbeat Books

            

Hal Leonard Books

               

Amadeus Press

 

Applause Books

         

Limelight Editions

   

Remembering Rabin

Forty years ago today was the passing of one of history’s greatest violinists, Michael Rabin. To tell Rabin’s story, Anthony Feinstein (pictured left) has written the first, authorized biography of this man who had such rare talent.
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The following is an excerpt of Michael Rabin, America’s Virtuoso Violinist, recently revised and updated from Amadeus Press, written by Anthony Feinstein.

On August 7, 1950, Michael made his much-heralded appearance on the Telephone Hour’s tenth anniversary program, but not before special permission had been obtained from the local musicians’ union because of the soloist’s young age. He was accompanied by Donald Voorhees and the Bell Telephone Orchestra. “Michael borrowed a Guarnerius violin and played the Paganini Caprice No. 17 and the finale of the E Minor Violin Concerto by Mendelssohn, that standard testing piece of all violinists,” noted Newsweek:

 When his trial by air was over, Michael was tired. Nevertheless, by 7:30 the next morning he was out on the streets of New York with his shiny new bicycle, his current pride and joy. But like all good violinists, Michael is also a good table tennis player and is hoping someday to take on Jascha Heifetz, dean of ping-pong peddling fiddlers.

Michael did not have to wait long before meeting his idol, which took place on October 30. “Four o’clock today is H-hour for 14-year-old Michael Rabin, colorful young violinist,” wrote a columnist for the New York World Telegram and Sun:

 He will be photographed with Jascha Heifetz. The brilliant Mr. Heifetz is his idol and the extremely reticent Mr. H. has made the comment that with hard work the teenager has possibilities for the future, words that have Michael working harder than ever at his practice sessions. Today’s picture taking will be long remembered.

The photograph that was released shows Heifetz playing, Voorhees conducting, and in the bottom right hand corner, in profile, the face of young Michael, looking up at Heifetz, who towers physically and metaphorically above him. It was at this meeting that Heifetz — reserved, austere, a world removed from the effusive bear-hug embrace of Mischa Elman — autographed Michael’s score of the Bach sonatas and partitas. There were no encouraging remarks, no warm regards expressed — just the bare signature, “Heifetz.”

In Michael Rabin: America’s Virtuoso Violinist, Anthony Feinstein tells the poignant story of the life and career of one of history’s greatest violinists. As a child prodigy, Rabin had the classical music world at his feet. Notable successes included a coveted EMI contract, recording the soundtrack for an Elizabeth Taylor movie, and guest appearances on the Milton Berle Showand the Bell Telephone Hour.

Yet no sooner had Rabin taken his place alongside such illustrious colleagues as Heifetz, Milstein, and Stern than he abruptly and inexplicably disappeared from the concert stage. For three years, the public saw and heard little of him. In the mid-1960s, Rabin resurfaced and painstakingly began rebuilding a once-great career. Then one morning, the music world awoke to news of his sudden, mysterious death at age 35.

For the first edition of this biography, Feinstein had unprecedented access to Rabin’s private papers and medical history. Now he draws on additional material obtained from recent interviews with Rabin’s colleagues, girlfriends, and management. The result is an added appreciation of Rabin’s remarkable family, his cloistered upbringing, and a micromanaged career that ensured not only great success but also periods of deep despair. Michael Rabin: America’s Virtuoso Violinist is more than a story of a great violinist. It is also the moving account of a man of rare talent who never stopped battling to find personal happiness on that fragile journey from wunderkind to adulthood.

This book is available at Amazon, B&N, independent bookstores, and from Amadeus Press.

Great Singers and Great Actors? Yes, please!

Guest blogger:  Alan Hicks, author of Singer and Actor: Acting Technique and the Operatic Performer. Available from Amadeus Press, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Illustration by Cliff Mott

In the last ten to fifteen years, many changes have occurred in the operatic profession largely due to a dwindling audience and a need to attract the next generation of operagoer. The most obvious example of such a change is the advent of the high definition broadcast – for an eighth of the price of an orchestra seat at the Met, opera lovers can go to their local movie theater (maybe “theatre” is more appropriate here) and see the latest operatic offering.

In addition to changes in marketing and the diversification of mode of presentation (and perhaps, because of these changes), artistic directors are now looking for the “total package” performer – one that can sing, looks the part, and (hold your breath), can ACT.

Most people think opera is a musical art form. Well, they are only half right. When the Camerata met in the late 1500’s, they were not setting out to create a new musical art form – they were setting out to create a new theatrical art form. It was Greek theatre and the use of the voice in Greek theatre that inspired the first operas. Letters from the great composers including Verdi, Mozart, Gluck, and Wagner (to name only a few) prove their desires for singers to be not just great singers, but also great actors. Gluck and Wagner went so far as to say that drama was more important than music. And these guys were no slouches.

So, why did we get away from the theatre of opera? There are likely many reasons, one of the most interesting being the advent and mass distribution of sound recordings, which allowed consumers to listen to the music of opera devoid of the theatrical spectacle. Whatever the reason or reasons, operatic theatre (and by association, acting) seems to be making a comeback.

Available now from Amadeus Press

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Singer and Actor demystifies theatrical acting technique stemming from Stanislavski’s Method of Physical Action and provides singers at all levels a roadmap with which to complete character preparation, using a clear and organized progression based on the work of Franchelle S. Dorn and exercises and examples (recitatives, arias, and ensembles). Singers (including choristers) are given the necessary tools to prepare auditions and inhabit a character from rehearsal to final performance.

Singer and Actor also provides a history of acting from its beginnings to the present day, including a survey of acting techniques from Stanislavski, Meisner, Hagen, Strasberg, Larry Moss, and others. Drawing additionally on the writings of composers and other creators of opera, the book deals with the misconception that only the singing matters in opera and includes a discussion of previous approaches to operatic acting.

Alan E. Hicks, in nearly twenty-five years in the arts, has worked as a professional opera singer, award-winning stage director, and teacher of musical theatre and opera. He is a former faculty member of the Actors Studio Drama School and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts as well as schools of music across the country. His students have found success from Broadway to network television and from opera to major motion pictures. He lives in Iowa City, Iowa.

The Music of Silence

Andrea Bocelli has brought operatic music to millions, and last night, on a cool and sometimes rainy evening, he brought that and more to 60,000 fans in Central Park. Joining him onstage were Celine Dion, Tony Bennett, and the New York Philharmonic.

The concert will be available in November as both a CD and DVD, and a PBS special will air in December. Those who don’t want to wait that long for another Bocelli fix can read his newly translated memoir, The Music of Silence, published by Amadeus Press.

Bocelli tells his own story in the form of an autobiographical novel, naming his alter ego “Amos Bardi.” He writes of a loving family that encouraged his musical gifts from an early age and of the dedication that led to his professional breakthrough and his meteoric rise to stardom.

Dion has said, “If God had a singing voice, it would sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli.” Just as it did in Central Park last night, that voice rings clearly on every page of this compelling autobiography. The Music of Silence will touch and captivate all Bocelli fans, as well as anyone who admires perseverance in the face of life’s great challenges.

The Music of Silence

Andrea Bocelli has sung to sold-out audiences all over the world, and his legions of admirers have included popes, presidents, and monarchs as well as some of the greatest stars of classical and popular music.The Music of Silence, a newly revised and updated edition, is an intimate analysis of his life, loves, and losses – the result of wisdom gained from the increased personal and artistic maturity gained in the subsequent decade of his life.

Available for purchase from Amadeus Press.