A "NEW" HALL, BUT NOT A SYMPHONY HALL
                And an Audience That's Multi-Racial, Not Uni-Racial  
                                              By D. Rane Danubian
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of Oct. 6-13, 2009
                                                                  Vol. 12, No. 21
          OAKLAND---Pops, yes, Tchaikovsky no.
            A gala symphony season-opener showed the newly renovated Fox Theater  possible for pops concerts, but inadequate for symphony concerts.
            The historic 1928 movie palace was close to collapse for decades at the most frayed edge of downtown when the  $75 million renovation brought it back for multiple uses. Its bizarre architecture---a blend of elegant Moorish and Hollywood-garish, complete with Buddha-like glowering statuary---is high camp to the core. I will come to love it, I keep telling myself.
            The community turned out for the 20th-anniversary celebration on the local scene of both the maestro, Michael Morgan, as well as the Oakland East Bay Symphony---itself a foster child of the extraordinary Oakland Symphony, which eventually went under much like the Fox itself.
            When Morgan first arrived, he had many bridges to cross, including the boycotts of the former orchestra subscribers embittered when they were left holding the bag after the bankruptcy. Much to his credit, Morgan has been a catalyst, bringing in a new constituency, devoting unprecedented energies to music in the schools (the program beneficiary of this particular gala) and leading the ensemble with high proficiency. On the side, in summer he also conducts an opera company in Walnut Creek. The fact that he is articulate (as well as black) has helped him communicate a love for the medium to the throngs of minority schoolkids dominating the school system. And he has brought on a strong multi-racial audience representation  at symphony concerts, which in most communities is lamentably uni-racial.
            So Morgan does produce a much-needed success story in Oakland, a city otherwise notorious for ballet and opera flame-outs, dreadful sports teams, high homicide rates, absentee mayors, a lively drug trade---have we forgotten anything? Oh, yes, earthquakes and wildfires.  
            The concert was a strange mix of the bad, the beautiful, and the sublime. When Morgan’s fellow Washingtonian, operatic mezzo Denyce Graves, turned up on stage as the star attraction, all the quibbling had to subside. Graves delivered Dalila’s big aria “My Heart Opens to Your Voice” by Saint-Saens in a way that could seduce 10 Samsons. Her French was good (if blurred), and her manner enticing, as if choreographed. Graves has the warm lyric voice, with a rock-solid lower range, and no strain or wobble at all. 
            She continued with that other signature role of hers, Carmen, vie the Seguidilla and the Habañera from the Bizet opera, giving the patrons ample chance to see why she has sung leads on the major opera stages from Washington to San Francisco. She exhibits great stage presence. Also it was refreshing to see an opera star with a waist-line about 40 in. smaller than much of the competition.
            She also interpreted the dreamy Ravel “Schéhérazade” songs, pairing with flutist Alice Lenaghan in "The Enchanted Flute." and ending with “L’Indifférent,” which was barely audible because of a loud ventilation system---or perhaps amplification hum.
            The amplification was a major headache. The OEBS appeared to have found the acoustics to be wanting. It thus amplified everything on stage, including Ms. Graves, whose voice people pay good money to hear naturally, without mikes. The system also had an unfortunate resonance so that when the contrabasses hit a low note (below the cello's low C), my balcony seat began to vibrate.
            Furthermore in order to provide a full orchestral sound, the OEBS added a synthetizer to the mix, which is not what I think Monsieur Bizet had in mind for “Carmen” more than a century ago.  
            The orchestra also gave a spirited reading of Gershwin’s “American in Paris,” making do with some brass-blast substitutions when the uniquely dissonant Paris taxi bulb horns were not available.
            Presumably when the OEBS gets back to the Paramount Theatre for its subscription season, it can burn the mikes and speakers, ban the synthesizer, and let the soloists sing for themselves, all out.
            And my seat will stop vibrating.
            The Fox however could serve for future pops concerts where mikes are accepted. In addition, the dinner-theater-style seating option for the downstairs could readily be set up again, just like the highly successful Boston Pops events back east. Otherwise, it can accomodate up to 2,800 seated patrons.
            MUSIC NOTES---Not only were both Morgan and Graves from the nation’s capital, but both attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, though close to two decades apart....The OEBS has no plans for return concerts at the Fox during 2009-10.
            Oakland East Bay Symphony, Michael Morgan, music director, resuming concerts in the Paramount Theatre, Oakland Nov. 13. For info: (510) 444-0801, or go online. 

        ©D. Rane Danubian 2009
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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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