VOICING MANY DIMENSIONS OF AIDS
                    Young Composer's Hybrid Work Could Propel Trends 
                                              By D. Rane Danubian
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of June 16-23, 2010
                                                                  Vol. 12, No. 112
          TORONTO, CANADA---The city launched its annual "arts and creativity" festival called Luminato, which has commissioned 28 new works in four years. 
            Luminato's opening June 11 featured yet another world premiere, "Dark Star Requiem" by the young composer Andrew Staniland. Though its AIDS theme is a bit dated---the late 1980s would have been the ideal time for it---it's a fascinating hybrid work, a semi-staged concert piece involving spatial elements in various parts of the hall. The 75-minute piece had a little of everything: speech, chorus, solo voice, a cappella, instrumental ensemble, costumes, theater, projections. This intermedia---the hybridization of performance media--- suggests an exciting new direction in presentations that others, I suspect, will be tempted to try. 
            The highly fragmented piece takes up every facet of AIDS, its misconceptions, its gravity, and its attitudes, much of it projected by the baritone soloist (a dazzling actor/singer named Peter McGillivray). The sextet instrumentalists provide apt punctuation while the chorus moves about the hall, sometimes playing the role of the people, as in a Bach passion. The audience did not get personally involved in the show, in large part since the text was almost unintelligible. The Tapestry (intimate opera) company forewent use of supertitle text projections or printed-program renderings. This was a particularly telling debit, as Jill Battson provided an especially eloquent poetic text, at one point describing AIDS as "the black lion silently stalking the unprepared...pressing your tainted teeth into the smooth bodies of supplicants." 
            For this secular requiem, Staniland demonstrates a secure, accessible musical style, with particular talent for choral writing, offset by instruments that often convey the instability and horror of the AIDS epidemic. He invokes three other vocalists (Neema Bickersmith, Krisztina Szabo, Marcus Nance), to play various roles, some of them Africans caught in the midst of the current scourge, others who are gays confident that they won't catch it. Given text projections, his piece---so heavily dependent on comprehension---would have made an enviable impact, I am convinced. But you couldn't help thinking that this was a hot-button issue being taken up far too late to be fully effective.    
            Tapestry's Music Director Wayne Strongman conducted, while various mobile designs and projections were created by artists Beth Kates and Ben Chaisson. 
            Despite a responsive audience applauding the work warmly, no one took bows. 
            The work was presented in the city's newest concert hall, the 1,135-seat Koerner, with a largely wooden facade producing very good acoustics, at first blush. Koerner, which just opened last fall, is part of the Royal Conservatory of Music. 
            There are future plans for both a recording and a Canadian broadcast.   
            KOERNER DETAILS---Koerner Hall, less than a year old, deserves meritorious mention. The 1,135-seat facility attached to the Royal Conservatory of Music already has evoked such favorable chatter that Yo-Yo Ma himself declared his desire to play there in the fall.
            There's no telling exactly how he'll sound. However, Koerner is a superb listening site for recitals, as a Chopin-piano demonstration bore out. The hall is warm and vibrant, with a sound radiating strongly to all directions. The piano fairly sings, even with a so-so performance. I do not believe I have ever heard better anywhere.
            The secret of course was a close collaboration of hall architect (Marianne McKenna) with acoustician (Bob Essert) throughout. The hall has variable adjustments, going from one type of attraction to another, raising or lowering the sound level as curtains are deployed and receded. The best part is that even a mediocre recital performer, like maybe you or I, can sound almost like a---well, maybe a Yo-Yo Ma up on the stage. But it's a multi-use hall, with even conservatory orchestras featured, plus speech events, world music, etc.
            The Canadians did it right. Would that every hall had such a happy ending. 
            "Dark Star Requiem" by Andrew Staniland. At Luminato, a festival of arts and creativity, Toronto, Canada, June 11-20. For info: go online.  <>
        ©D. Rane Danubian 2010
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            D. Rane Danubian has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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