Sights and Sounds of Summer

Twenty-two years ago I committed to riding 91 roller coasters in 1991. It was an ambitious goal but several road trips and a couple flights made it possible. I visited parks in Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, as well as Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Texas. The sights and sounds of that summer included beautiful wooden coaster cathedrals; unbelievably high and steep metal monsters; screaming, happy children of all ages; hot dogs, fried dough and sno-cones -- and me, grinning from ear to ear in the front seat of some magic machine or another. That’s the Texas Giant pictured, my all-time favorite roller coaster (since torn down and rebuilt as a wooden/metal hybrid that I have not ridden).

Twenty-two years later the sights and sounds of my summer are decidedly different. They are mostly indoors and exclusively theatrical or musical, sometimes both.

In June I saw ABT (American Ballet Theatre) present a very enjoyable evening of three pieces by Alexie Ratmansky; enjoyable, but lacking the fireworks with which the departed Angel Corella regularly lit up this company. The next night Paulo Szot sang beautifully with the New York Philharmonic in a program of mostly musicals and standards and a week later the Philharmonic played Dukas and Stravinsky to perfection.

The International Festival of Arts and Ideas comes to New Haven every summer and this year brought one of the most creative Shakespeare productions I have ever seen: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the Bristol Old Vic in association with Handspring Puppet Company. The same festival showcased a brilliantly sung rendition of the ethereal and haunting Rachmaninoff Vespers as well as the extraordinary performance that Ransom conducted, al fresco at Marsh Botanical Garden, of John Luther Adams songbirdsongs. My last festival event was Sequence 8, a compelling dance/theatre/acrobatic tour de force by the Canadians Les 7 doigts de la main, a gorgeous group of young gymnasts.

I visited the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival to hear Ransom perform Haydn and Mozart and to say goodbye to the famed Tokyo String Quartet at their last-ever public performance. Then back to New York for Michael Urie’s fabulous one-man show Buyer and Cellar, imagining what it would be like to work in Barbra Streisand’s underground mall – there really is such a thing. Read about the show here.

Venturing away from classical music I heard one of my favorite artists, Steve Forbert, at the intimate and classy Kate (Katherine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center) in Old Saybrook, and Emmy Lou Harris with Rodney Crowell at Caramoor. Both concerts were excellent and reminded me that aging baby boomers still like the music we've loved for decades (see picture); no Muzak for us, thank the gods.

The most intense electric music I heard all summer was in New Orleans, about which I just wrote. I bought El DeOrazio’s music when I got home and have been listening to it a lot. Their kick-ass live performance is more compelling, but check them out here and pay as much or as little as you wish.

This summer on Broadway I caught Nathan Lane in The Nance, saw the revival of Pippin and scored two good seats to the Tony winner for Best Musical, Kinky Boots. Sally was in town, about to board the Queen Mary 2 for a five-day cruise, and we both LOVED Kinky Boots. Who knew Cyndi Lauper could write a Broadway show? I also just saw Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, this year’s Tony winner for Best Play. It was brilliant, with David Hyde Pierce delivering the most screamingly funny rant I have ever heard on stage. Alas, in an all-too-typical sign of tourists’ love of musicals over plays, it will have closed by the time you read this.

I managed four events at this year’s fringeNYC (New York International Fringe Festival) but only one is worth mentioning: Gotham Radio Theatre’s performance of The Awful Truth as a radio broadcast. I LOVE the 1937 Cary Grant/Irene Dunne film and this production was wonderfully inventive: five actors playing all the roles, creating the sound effects and reading the commercials. Delicious fun.

Earlier this summer there was also the voiceless opera about which I wrote on July 20: Michaels Reise um die Erde, a fascinating, disorienting and enchanting hour of music -- and, at the other end of the spectrum, a great outdoor event on the New Haven Green: K C and the Sunshine Band. Disco rocks!

Yale classes start on Wednesday, so summer is over for me. The final cultural event was one of the best: Louis Langrée leading the Mostly Mozart Orchestra in the last three Mozart symphonies. Each one is a perfect example of the composer’s craft; hearing all three at once was a rare thrill.

Summer might be over, but there’s a lot to anticipate in the coming months:

The opera season opens for us with Anna Nicole by Mark-Anthony Turnage at New York City Opera. I know nothing about her, but am always interested in new operas that got good reviews. Ransom and I are going on my birthday.

And on HIS birthday we're going to – sit down for this – Matilda on Broadway. Matilda! With all those kids. OMG! I'm optimistic that I will like it; everyone says it’s great. But all those kids! OMFG!

Later operas include Two Boys -- Nico Muhly, composer; Craig Lucas, libretto -- and Prince Igor – for the first time at the Met since 1915 -- as well as the shortened, English-language version of Julie Taymor’s brilliant production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

I am also looking forward to Romeo and Juliet, with Orlando Bloom, on Broadway, as well as A Streetcar Named Desire at Yale Rep, featuring True Blood’s Joe Manganiello (he of the sexy body and brooding look). And I'll return to the New York Philharmonic as they present 2001: A Space Odyssey with the image on screen and the soundtrack played live; the Boston Symphony will do the same with West Side Story in February, repeating a Tanglewood performance my brother said was outstanding. I am excited about both.

I am equally anticipating a BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) performance of Angelin Preljocaj’s dance/theatre work And then one thousand years of peace that I loved so much in Edinburgh last summer and wrote about on 20 August 2012.

Music I’m looking forward to includes Graham Nash in Tarrytown, NY, on September 29, the Yale Philharmonia’s Rite of Spring the week before and the NY Phil’s Mozart Requiem in November. Add to that the Brandenburgs with Ransom and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as well as him conducting the Purchase orchestra three times this year and, well, as usual, it will be quite a dance card.

Come join me for a waltz!