Archive for October, 2009

Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, Dallas, Oct. 23, 25, 28, 31, Nov. 5 & 8, 2009

Review by Dean Cassella

Well, this HAD to be good, and good it was!  The event in question was not only the commencement of a new Dallas Opera season, but the premiere of the company’s new venue: the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House (see below).

The cast of this new production of Verdi’s Otello (based on the Shakespeare’s play of jealousy and revenge) is perhaps the closest I have ever seen to being perfect.  Dramatic tenor Clifton Forbis, who sings the title role, has a voice that is phenomenally rich and penetrating.  One can dream of hearing him sing Tristan, which has done with distinction in Paris and Chicago.

Baritone Lado Ataneli, a native of Georgia (the country, that is!), in the role of the scheming materialist/agnostic Iago, was the perfect lower register match for Forbis, and their duet at the end of Act II (‘Si, pel cielo marmoreo giuro’) falls short of being described as a “match made in heaven” only because of the subject matter.

Otello is very much a ‘guy’ thing, as it deals heavily with masculine responses to jealousy and ambition.  Consequently, there are only two female roles in the work, and the prima donna part, that of Desdemona, the ill-fated wife of Otello, does not really come into its own until Act III.  There, Montreal native soprano Alexandra Deshorties sang beautifully, although on a few occasions her resonant voice was in danger of being drowned out by the orchestra.  Her duets with Forbis were as well-matched as were Forbis’ and Ataneli’s.

All supporting cast members, most notably tenor Sean Pannikar in the role of Cassio, were outstanding, and no doubt deliver fine performances in heavier roles elsewhere.

Conductor Graeme Jenkins was in generally superb form, and gave the distinct impression of enjoying the sound of ‘his’ new theater—perhaps a little too zealously, at times (heaven forbid that we have been harboring a repressed Herbert von Karajan all this time!!).

The sets, designed by Brit Anthony Baker, update the story from fifteenth-century Cyprus to Verdi’s own nineteenth century.  This is vaguely reminiscent of a similar updating of Wagner’s maritime opera Die Fliegende Holländer by Harry Kupfer at Bayreuth in the early 1980’s (and available on DVD).  The stark, concrete and iron sets are also reminiscent of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, done by FW Opera last season.  (N.B. a new Heggie work, Moby Dick, will be premiered later in the Dallas Opera season)

With the Winspear, Opera House, located in the AT&T Performing Arts Center in the Arts District of Dallas (directly across from the Meyerson Symphony Hall), the Dallas Opera has ended over six decades of wandering in the desert (i.e. Fair Park Music Hall), and at last has come to the promised land.  As most of my readers are aware, there has always been a sense of competitiveness between Dallas and Fort Worth.  One area of pride for aesthetically sensitive Fort Worthians has been in the fine arts.  For those of us who patronize both the Fort Worth Opera and the Dallas Opera there could be no doubt that, although the former is a smaller company, there could be no comparison in regard to venues: Bass Performance Hall is a real opera house, while Fair Park Music Hall is a bloated monstrosity, best left to heavily amplified fare.

The new Dallas house now changes that dynamic, and does so in very interesting ways.  The Winspear almost seems to function as an alter ego of Bass Hall in a manner completely in keeping with the two cities’ contrasting outlooks.  Bass Hall, for example, is predominantly white, inside and out, and has a decidedly retro art-deco look.  The Winspear, by contrast, is decidedly post-modern (or post post-modern, if you will).  At night, the predominant colors are deep red and black, and the interior of the hall is very dark indeed.

And whereas the ceiling of Bass Hall sports a fresco of the daytime sky, the Winspear’s ceiling has a chandelier that, when retracted, looks like evening stars.

According to chief architect, Spencer de Grey, the transparency of the building is an attempt to break down the intimidation factor with potential new audience members.  The idea is to make opera more accessible to a wider audience.  I am not convinced that they are successful in this, because even I, a veteran culture snob, found the building to be a little intimidating upon first entering.  And although I am happy to see the giant-sized candy bars and skittles left behind at the Fair Park concession vendors, their replacements: comparatively rarified snacks such as chocolate covered strawberries, etc., only serve to up the ante in the feel of exclusivity.

In regard to acoustics, the Winspear has some of the finest I have ever heard.  During the opening ceremonies, Don Winspear asked the members of the audience whether they had ever heard opera at Fair Park.  In response to the giggles, the orchestra played a very quiet rendition of the opening bars of the Prelude to Wagner’s Die Meistersinger.  This was followed shortly thereafter by an open-throttle replay that, should the theater have been open-air, would have felled birds unfortunate enough to be flying overhead.  I don’t think that I have ever heard an orchestra located under the stage produce such well-rounded volume.  No doubt, this will keep those fortunate enough to sing at the Winspear on their toes!  By the way, the acoustics at the Winspear cry out desperately for WAGNER!!!!  It is definitely the time for the company to strut its stuff with a new production of the Ring cycle and perhaps (hint, hint. . .) the triumphant return of Clifton Forbis as Tristan.

What: Once is not enough for the Fort Worth Botanic Garden’s annual fall plant sale. A second sale will be held in The Grove – the wooded area west of the Trial Garden and the Japanese Garden parking lot. Limited quantities of native and adapted trees, citrus trees, shrubs, grasses, ground covers, perennials, vines and spring-flowering bulbs will be available. Garden staff will be on site to answer your plant questions.

When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 24

Where: 3220 Botanic Garden Blvd.

Parking: Parking for the public is free in the Linden Street parking lot just off of Montgomery Street.

On Wednesday afternoon about 2:30 p.m., I got called to the principal’s office. Boy was I scared. What could I have done wrong to get called in? I squared my shoulders and walked down the long, long path beside the school toward the office. When I got there, the principal didn’t seem unfriendly, but he did seem to have something important to say.

“I didn’t have any idea this was going to happen,” he told me, “but I just go a phone call that you’re being transferred to another school.” The numbers of students in my class were a bit below maximum, and another school had over-full kindergartens. I would be going to the other school to help alleviate their overcrowding problem. It’s called being “surplus listed” and it had happened to me, as I understand, because I had the lowest seniority, having worked only a couple of months.

Thursday would be my last day of teaching my students, Friday I would clean out my room, and on Monday I would report to the the new campus.

At first I was pretty worried — taking on a newly-formed group of kindergardeners eight weeks into the school year could be a recipe for a lot of chaos. But soon I got good news. The new school would give me an already-formed second grade to teach, and the second grade teacher would start the new kindergarden. So my room would already be set up, my class already together. This sounded promising. And I began to think of the positives. Second grade is considered easier than fourth, and there would be team planning, which means I would be able to share lesson plans with the other second grade teachers.

Another adventure loomed; it was more mountains, as they say, behind mountains. Overall, I have a feeling that I am struggling, but I am swimming, not drowning, and that is good.

Fall is the best time of the year to plant in Fort Worth. Come to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden’s fall plant sale, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 10, and stock up on native and adapted plants that can take our heat and live on our annual rainfall. The sale will be in the Grove, the wooded area west of the Trial Garden and the Japanese Garden parking lot. Free parking will be available in the Linden Street parking lot, just off of Montgomery Street. The garden staff will be available to answer your plant questions. Choose from a wide assortment of trees, shrubs, grasses, groundcovers, perennials, vines and spring-flowering bulbs. The sale features many specialty plants grown at the Botanic Garden. In addition, rose, African violet, begonia, iris, daylily, cactus and succulent, and native plant societies will be selling plants. Other vendors will be selling garden-related merchandise. To learn more, contact senior horticulturist Steve Huddleston — Steve.Huddleston(at)FortWorthGov.org.

Photo credit to ktylerconk from Flickr Creative Commons.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Patricia Roberts Harris National Fair Housing Training Academy will present free mortgage lending seminars in Fort Worth to address fraudulent, predatory and unfair lending practices.

The seminars are open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.

Mortgage Lending Discrimination and Predatory Lending will be presented from 8:30 a.m.-4:15 p.m. Oct. 26 and 27. Participants will be provided practical training using actual loan documents to acquire an understanding of residential mortgage lending discrimination and predatory lending.

The class is recommended for housing and real estate professionals, housing counselors and all others whose business requires this knowledge.

Financial Aspects of Lending will be presented from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Oct. 28-30. Participants engage in hands-on activities that help them understand the different steps to sustainable home ownership and gain an understanding of the mortgage finance system.

This class is recommended for housing professionals, counselors and homebuyers.

Both seminars will be at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel, 1300 Houston St.

Seminars will be offered in English with Spanish interpretation available upon request at registration.

Why haven’t I written more about teaching in the last month or so? Well, as one of my colleagues in the alternative certification program said last week, “I work 24 hours a day.” I remember when they told me I would be working nights and weekends trying to keep up with lesson planning and administratative requirements, and I thought, “that may be true for some new teachers, but I work faster than most people so it won’t be me.”

Me. It is me, and that’s the reason for the silence over the blog lines. And then there’s a second reason for not saying so much. That is that so much of what occurs during the day when you’re a teacher is protected by confidentiality requirements.  You don’t want to tell anybody’s name if you’re blogging about school, or any other identifying details. I write a lot of about the process of learning to teach — I think I’m learning to teach, at least — but it’s all in a paper notebook, where no one can see it. I feel safe writing there. Here, I have to be more careful.

I thought I might try saying things about my subjects, writing and science, in upcoming weeks, and how I am teaching them. The curriculum that we use has changed this year, apparently, and I’m rather pleased to see the way we do things is, surprise surprise, pretty close to the way I would do things if I had designed it myself. We do something called Writing Workshop and Science Journals.

But writing about these things will demand that I start to wake up earlier. I’ve decided to go to bed at ten so I can get up and write at 5. I set my alarm. But getting up is not effortless like it used to be. This morning, I was deep in a dream of some long forgotten love song when the alarm beeped its way into my consciousness.  I had an awful moment of really really not knowing where I was — in the dream, in the song, in life, and what’s more for some reason I was sleeping in the easy chair, not in the bed. This is pretty much how my life goes these days. As I said at the top of this blog, I can barely get out of bed, and when I do, something else happens.

In recognition of Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month, all adoptions at the Animal Care and Control Center through October will be half-price. Dogs can be adopted for $35 and cats for $25. Spay/neuter surgery, microchip, rabies vaccination and a city pet license are included in the price.

Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month will be recognized by proclamation during the Oct. 6 Fort Worth City Council meeting at City Hall, 1000 Throckmorton St. The Animal Care and Control Center’s mobile adoption unit will be at City Hall during the council meeting, with dogs and cats available for adoption.

Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month already is recognized nationally by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Also, as of Oct. 1, any pet adopted by a senior citizen (65 and older) is half-price every day.

Each year, more than 20,000 homeless or lost pets come through the Animal Care and Control Center. Though many find happy, loving homes, an estimated 55 percent of the adoptable animals must be euthanized due to overpopulation.

To learn more about pet adoptions or if you are interested in volunteering with the center, call 817-392-PAWS (7297), e-mail animalvolunteers@fortworthgov.org, or visit http://www.fortworthgov.org/animals/