Jay Harvey Upstage

Ezra Pound once declared, in the authoritative manner in which he specialized, that music became alienated from its true self whenever it departed far from the dance. The core of Musica Pacifica is Robert Mealy and Judith Linsenberg (second and third from left) Certainly the closeness seemed essential before the classical-music world solidified as something apart from popular culture, which had a strong link to social dancing. Musica Pacifica opened the Indianapolis Early Music Festival F riday night at Indiana Landmarks Center with a virtuoso display of such music titled "Dancing in the Isles." The isles in question are British, and the emphasis was on the 17th century. With recorder player Judith Linsenberg and violinist Robert Mealy at the ensemble's center, the seven-piece group  opened with music of Henry Purcell, the one true immortal from that time and place. His Suite from "Abdelazer," written in the last year of his short life (1695), showed ...

Wooden Cities ' feeling for musical tradition extends as far back in its programming as Luciano Berio and Charles Ives, judging from what the ensemble out of Buffalo, N.Y., offered at Butler University Thursday evening. And that's just fine, because this seems to be a genuine new -music ensemble, with a preponderance of its repertoire having been produced in our young century. As a self-described collective, its personnel boundaries go beyond the eight musicians who played here. But the concert presumably got to the pith of Wooden Cities nonetheless, including a generous representation of the group's composers. "Heptagram," the program's newest piece, is a 2014 composition by pianist Michael McNeill. One of Thursday's five works using everybody, it posed the yin of speaking voices against the yang of instrumentation. Its steady pulse helped to emphasize the complementarity of the opposed timbral realms. Other new full-ensemble works ranged from Micha...

You won't get a better musical bargain for $5 than a new series the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra inaugurated Thursday noon in Hilbert Circle Theatre. Eric Zuber displayed a flair for Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. In the summer, the ISO's downtown concert presence over the years has been a peekaboo matter, as it focuses on Symphony on the Prairie until that series at Conner Prairie extends past the orchestra musicians' contracted responsibilities with popular acts sans symphony. The first "Lunch Break" concert attracted a crowd of 500 for a short program of Copland and Gershwin. Both New York City boys and sons of Jewish immigrants, each composer in his own way became an authentic voice of Americana. And none of their compositions could represent them better in this regard than Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Copland's Four Dance Episodes from "Rodeo." David Glover was on the podium, with Eric Zuber at the piano for the ever-popu...

The clash of cultures worldwide has a sorrowful history. "The Book of Mormon," the multiple Tony Award-winner now at the Murat Theatre, Old National Centre, thumbs its nose at all that by poking fun at the pretensions of outreach, particularly when it's guided by intense, self-contained religious doctrine. In this case, neither the weapon (Mormon self-righteousness) nor the target (a superstitious, disease-ridden, warlord-ruled African village) comes off well. The spiritually renewed Elder Price declares "I Believe" with the puzzled cooperation of the local warlord. Wednesday's performance by the Broadway in Indianapolis national touring company showcased endlessly fascinating staging, linked to the performers' well-honed vigor in song, dance and dialogue. Amplification was too loud, which not only diminished the fun but also burdened simple understanding of the words; the noise was returned enthusiastically, however, in the capacity audience's...

John Adams, composer of "The Death of Klinghoffer" Responding to a shakily grounded campaign of vilification against "The Death of Klinghoffer," the Metropolitan Opera has withdrawn the John Adams-Alice Goodman opera from its 2014 schedule of productions shared around the world in high-definition live screening. The work is more than 20 years old, but is still capable of arousing passions you might think more appropriate to a deliberate new provocation by untried artists, instead of an operatic team conspicuously laureled and frequently produced, especially for "Nixon in China." With the Met having caved in to assertions that widespread distribution of "The Death of Klinghoffer" would encourage anti-Semitism, the arts establishment has once again insulated itself from any association with controversy, no matter what its artistic stature. The claims that "The Death of Klinghoffer" has to be a work of beauty and soul-stirring, t...

Pianists on the acoustic grand continue to flourish, with their individualism sailing beyond the keyboard flash of those who favor electronics (some of whom are also acoustic pianists, of course). Rob Garcia: Profile of absorption in impressionism. On Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records , Dan Tepfer (familiar in Indianapolis from his victory in the 2007American Pianists Association's Jazz Fellowship Awards) continues his seasoned association with drummer Rob Garcia on "The Passion of Color." And John Chin leads a traditional piano trio (with bass and drums) in "Undercover," evincing something original to say as both writer and improviser. John Chin's "Undercover" exposes a fresh voice. Reminding attentive listeners that he thinks like one-quarter of a unit, "The Passion of Color" is properly attributable to the Rob Garcia 4.  Unlike many drummer-bandleaders, Garcia doesn't make a show of dominating, but he's always promi...

Pan leads the dancing ensemble in a scene from "Daphnis et Chloe." "Daphnis et Chloe" was among the miracles of modernism in its fragile first flowering, before the War to End All Wars obliterated the world that nurtured it a century ago. The three-year gestation of the "choreographic symphony," commissioned in 1909 by the visionary Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev, brought forth a ballet so lavish in its demands that it rarely gets staged by capable dancers and equally fit choral and instrumental forces. Luckily, collaborative efforts between Dance Kaleidoscope and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra offered a background for a fresh look at "Daphnis et Chloe," staged at Clowes Hall (the ISO's former home) and with the assistance of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir. On Friday night (a second performance will take place tonight), the fruits of the newest joint production were abundantly evident in a performance of orchestral splen...

You can encounter darker versions of "Carmen" than Cincinnati Opera is presenting, but the original's balance of gaiety and grim obsession seems worth representing, playing to Georges Bizet's strengths as a composer. That's what this production has going for it, buoyed up by glorious singing. In Thursday night's opening performance, there was no fussing about time and place. We were looking at Seville, Spain, and its environs of about 180 years ago. The background is ordinary life there — in the public square, in taverns, in the pageantry and blood-lust of the bullfight — not at that town's aristocratic level, at which a couple of enduring comic operas by Mozart and Rossini take place. The unit set was cleverly adapted to suit each of the four acts, with the greatest stretch coming in the third act. Too many steps and structures, even in mist and shadow, couldn't come up to the "wild and picturesque place in the mountains" the libretto...

William Shakespeare mined English history using source material that wouldn't pass muster today, but which formed the reigning national narrative and enabled him to apply both poetic and dramatic genius to ancient struggles for his nation's crown, all the while enhancing his growing reputation. EclecticPond Theatre Company currently is offering a heart-healthy feast of the eight history plays under the title "The Wars of the Roses." Early Sunday evening at the Irvington Lodge, I took in two of the eight — all put into fighting trim of less than an hour each — "Henry IV, Part 2" and "Henry V." Not all that is trimmed out of these two plays is dispensable, of course, but to stress that would be to take a purist's view. On balance, I think these reductions work not only as tours de force for ETC's eight-person troupe, but also as a way of presenting some mighty historical dramas to a public that is unlikely to encounter the eight plays o...

Kent Leslie is a teacher and freelance Indianapolis hornist. Since so much of the theory and practice of classical music involves the works of men (almost invariably) who are long gone from the scene, many musicians relish collaboration with living composers. Even if no consultation takes place, just knowing that a composer shares some of your own reality can bring vividness and inspiration to the hard work of getting a piece ready for the public. Of course, this means that a musician's comfort zone can't be too narrow. Kent Leslie has a wide one, all right.  Some of it was evident in the recital he gave with Amanda Asplund Hopson Sunday afternoon at Meridian Music in Carmel. There were a couple of premieres among the six pieces. Concluding the program was Frank Felice's "Honk!" — named for what most of us do with horns as motorists — and it was aptly positioned, with its cheeky energy and idiomatic borrowings from funk and blues music. These are among gen...

Even at its smallest scale, opera does something outsize with the sketchiest drama. A succinct demonstration of the art form's capacity to be larger than life when verbal expression is set to music is being presented this weekend at IndyFringe Theatre. (The second and final performance is at 3 this afternoon.) Intimate Opera of Indianapolis' "Hoosier Connections" presents five operas in just over an hour. They cover a wide range of topic and character, although the tiny format threatens to lend them the hit-or-miss quality of haiku. In some sense, the brevity they share tends to dominate the impressions they make on the audience. The program title didn't apply in the case of the opener, Samuel Barber's "A Hand of Bridge." But launching "Hoosier Connections" with a major composer's minor work helped dial back the audience's expectations even as it set rather a high bar for the other composers. Barber's piece opens up the...

Joshua Bell builds on his legacy. For a composer who was quickly and permanently lionized by his countrymen, Jean Sibelius carried a nagging sense of failure throughout his long life. In his Violin Concerto — the centerpiece of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra 's Classical Series finale this weekend — the focus of his shortcomings is palpable regret about not being a violin virtuoso. Many commentators have pointed this out, as well as calling attention to the odd manner in which Sibelius manipulated the work's premiere, almost ensuring a debut marred by a journeyman fiddler's performance. Masters of the violin have taken the piece up over the past century, however, up through such performances as the one Joshua Bell offered Friday night at Hilbert Circle Theatre. The Bloomington native dependably blended vulnerability and bravado in his interpretation. At 46, Bell has balanced those qualities so enchantingly that he could be called the Frank Sinatra of the violi...

Mark Buselli has a heartwarming new CD With all the nonstop cross-fertilization in today's jazz, it may be doubtful to find stylistic regionalism on the contemporary scene. But here are two excellent examples of trumpeter-led small groups whose new recordings indicate contrasting aspects of East Coast and Midwestern sensibilities. From Mark Buselli, director of jazz studies at Ball State University who is well-known for his trumpet, flugelhorn and congas work around town here, comes "Untold Stories" (OA2 Recordings ). And from David Weiss, a native New Yorker and veteran of its jazz scene widely respected for his compositions as much as for his trumpet-playing, issues "When Words Fail" ( Motema ). David Weiss converts personal loss into musical treasure. I don't want to make too much of regional differences, but on the strength of these two fine recordings, you can hear from Buselli and his quintet a more relaxed, open-hearted, genial approach ...

Not many founders of artistic organizations enjoy the advantage of having mentored their successors for half their lives. Susan Kitterman will be NWYSO artistic director for one more season. Susan Kitterman, founder and artistic director of the New World Youth Symphony Orchestras , occupies such an enviable position as she prepares to retire at 62. She will yield artistic directorship of the young people's ensemble she founded in 1982 to Adam Bodony, a trombonist-conductor who came up through the organization, from student member to executive director. In an interview, Kitterman recalled the day her son Ben came home from school at Hamilton Southeastern and told her: "There's a new freshman baritone player in the band who I think is a real musician." Remembering  the endorsement of her oldest child (now a dobro/pedal-steel player with country musician Aaron Lewis), Kitterman invited the baritone-playing freshman to an informal audition. Impressed, she told h...

From the firm foundation of the ever-ripening "Fruit Flies Like a Banana," the Fourth Wall Ensemble at Central Library put forward a new piece addressed to longer attention spans. It made a challenging companion to the whimsically titled variety show that was a hit for the trio at last summer's Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival. Just as its "hybrid arts" innovations embrace dance, theater, and music, its programming ranges over the head-spinning variety of "Fruit Flies," with the clock counting off an hour into which Fourth Wall tries to pack as many audience-selected repertoire items as possible.  And, in this instance, it ends with  the 25-minute "Cinquillamente," a piece written for the flute-trombone-percussion trio by Dominican composer Jose Guillermo Puello. You rarely get straight-up music-making from the Fourth Wall. It's always a thrill to hear new music, particularly for unconventional ensembles. There the resourceful...

Sweet dreams, baby! It's been a difficult decision, and I won't have the support of all my friends and family, but it's time I stopped dreaming unarmed. This is a simple assertion of rights long claimed, and even endorsed by legally constituted authorities, in the waking world. For various reasons, I've not followed up in that sphere by purchasing any weaponry, getting trained in its proper use, and complying with the minimal regulations that apply to U.S. citizens. But those hurdles are absent in the dream world, which I assume also enjoys the unassailable protection afforded to all Americans by the Second Amendment.   And when I'm dreaming, I've come to deplore my vulnerability. I'm at the mercy of any threat, whether truly evil or simply weird, that may enter a given dream scenario. It seems foolish to continue counting on waking up to escape the threat. Besides, even though I wake up every time (so far), it often feels too late. M...