Symphony Preview: Preludes and Illuminations

 This Friday and Sunday (March 28 and 30), Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in “lyrical daydreams,” a program of music with poetic roots (most of them French), including two major song cycles.

Léon Bask’s original set for L’après-midi d’un faune

The concerts open and close with works that have the word “prelude” in their titles but not much in common otherwise: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune ("Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun") by Claude Debussy (1862–1918) and Les Préludes by Franz Liszt (1811–1886). Debussy’s is the curtain raiser, so let’s start there, with a somewhat revised version of notes I originally wrote over a decade ago.

First performed in 1894, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune was inspired by an elliptically erotic 1876 poem by Stephane Mallarmé, whom Debussy greatly admired. "The poem's languorous sensuality is subtly shaded," wrote Boston Symphony music librarian Marshall Burlingame for Leonard Slatkin’s 1982 recording with the SLSO, "as the faun's conscious observation of two nymphs in the sunlight drifts into erotic fantasy." Mallarmé apparently agreed. "I have just come out of the concert deeply moved," he wrote to the composer. "I press your hand admiringly, Debussy."

In Debussy's music, the faun is personified by the flute. Indeed, the opening flute solo is probably one of the best-known moments in the classical repertoire. It's haunting and dreamy, and it expertly conjures up the voluptuous, summery world of the poem. Former SLSO Principal Flute Mark Sparks called the work “revolutionary," noting that Debussy “owns the idea of what happens harmonically: ambiguity, consciously taking the traditional Germanic sense, Wagner especially, and throwing it out the window."

On stage, the faun would be personified by the famous dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky who, in 1912, turned Debussy’s work into a ballet for the Ballets Russes. Nijinsky cast himself as the faun in the piece, now titled simply L’après-midi d’un faune, and raised some eyebrows with his sexually suggestive performance.

A year later he would raise more than eyebrows with the Ballets Russes premiere of Stravinsky’s Les Sacre du Printemps the following year. But that’s another story.

Up next the 1939 song cycle Les Illuminations, Op. 18, by Benjamin Britten (1913–1976).  Begun in Suffolk but completed during a brief period of self-imposed exile in the USA, Les Illuminations consists of ten brief settings (the longest runs around four minutes) of wildly imaginative poems by the eccentric French writer Arthur Rimbaud, a remarkable character who lived fast, died young (age 37), and produced his entire literary output before the age of 20. Possibly written under the mind-altering influences of absinthe and hashish, the poems present a succession of surrealistic pictures, culminating in a somewhat nightmarish parade. 

Like Mallarmé, Rimbaud was part of the Symbolist movement, which maintained that truth should be suggested rather than shown. Rimbaud, in particular, advocated for a “systematic derangement of the senses” which anticipates the psychedelic 1960s by a century.

To pick just one example, here’s the opening sentence of No. 7, “Being Beauteous”: “Devant une neige un Être de Beauté de haute taille. Des sifflements de mort et des cercles de musique sourde font monter, s’élargir et trembler comme un spectre ce corps adoré: des blessures écarlates et noires éclatent dans les chairs superbes.” (“Against snow, a Being of Beauty of heightened size. The hissing of death and circles of muted music make this adored body rise, enlarge and tremble like a specter: wounds of scarlet and black burst in the superb flesh.” Translation by singer Julia Bullock). Other movements tell of chalets of crystal and wood moving on invisible pullies and rails or master jugglers who use “magnetic comedy.”

In program notes for the last SLSO performance of Les Illuminations in 2014, Yvonne Frindle suggested that Rimbaud’s bizarre visions “might seem an unlikely source of interest for a British composer,” especially one who loved British folk songs as much as Britten. But the composer’s fascination with French poetry goes all the way back to his adolescence. His Quatre Chansons Françaises, composed at the age of 14, included a poem by Paul Verlaine, and it’s not particularly surprising that a young gay man growing up in the repressive atmosphere of rural England would have identified with Verlaine and his relationship with Rimbaud (for whom Verlaine abandoned his wife and child). As Neil Powell writes in his 2013 biography of Britten, that relationship “would have acquired a special resonance for him,” given the composer’s own involvement with Karl Hermann “Wulff” Scherchen, his first romantic interest.

Although originally written for soprano (specifically for Britten’s friend Sophie Wyss), Les Illuminations is often performed by a tenor. In fact, Britten's life partner (the great English tenor Peter Pears), made what might be the definitive recording of it with the composer conducting the English Chamber Orchestra. And, in fact, this weekend’s soloist will be Michael Spyres who is that rare vocal bird, a baritenor: a singer who can work comfortably in both the tenor and baritone rangers. Those of you fortunate enough to have seen him in the SLSOs Damnation of Faust in 2023 will no doubt recall the power and authority of his voice.

After intermission, it’s another song cycle that has been embraced by both male and female singers: Lieder eines fahrender Gesellen (usually translated as “Songs of a Wayfarer,” although I think “Songs of a Wanderer” might be better) by Gustav Mahler (1860–1911). Written from the POV of a young man grieving for his lost love, the four songs have texts credited to the composer. It was only after his death that scholars discovered that the first one—"Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht" ("When My Sweetheart is Married")—is actually a setting of the first two stanzas of the folk poem “Wenn mein Schatz” from Das Knaben Wunderhorn (“Youth’s Magic Horn”). Mahler would later set many other poems from that collection to music.

In any case, the biographical context of Lieder eines fahrender Gesellen is well documented. In letters to his friend, the archeologist Friederich Lohr, Mahler confided that the inspiration for the Gesellen songs was the disintegration of his affair with singer Johanna Richter when the composer was the Königligher Musikdirektor (Royal Musical Director) in the small central German town of Kassel. “Like all those he had already succumbed to,” writes Henry-Louis de La Grange, “it was stormy affair, and one which was overshadowed by the fear of scandal which, in a provincial theatre, would have no doubt been detrimental to both.” The songs also reflect the composer’s love of nature and the outdoors, most notably in the second song, “Ging heut’ Morgen übers Feld” (“I went out this morning into the fields”).

Lieder eines fahrender Gesellen is written for “medium voice,” which usually means either a mezzo-soprano or a baritone. It was a signature work for the noted baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, for example, and the recording in the SLSO’s Spotify playlist features the legendary American mezzo Frederica von Stade.

Parts of the vocal line push the high end of the baritone voice, which should make it an excellent match for Spyres. It will be interesting to see what he does with this music. And if some of that music sounds familiar, by the way, it would be because Mahler re-used a few of the work’s themes in both his First and Fourth symphonies. Waste not, want not.

Finally, we have Liszt’s Les Préludes, perhaps the most famous of his thirteen symphonic poems. Originally intended to be the overture for Les quatre elements (“The Four Elements”), a work for male chorus and piano based on poems by Joseph Autran, Les Préludes wound up taking on a life of its own and a different source of poetic inspiration: an ode of the same title from Nouvelles méditations poétiques by Alphonse de Lamartine. As Liszt wrote in a preface to the score: “Notre vie est-elle autre chose qu'une série de Préludes à ce chant inconnu dont la mort entonne la première et solennelle note?” (“What else is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown Hymn, the first and solemn note—of which is intoned by Death?”).

Les Préludes is, in any case, a work that takes us through the mortal storm of love, conflict, and final triumph. Which seems only appropriate for this moment in history. 

The Essentials: Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and vocal soloist Michael Spyres in music by Debussy, Britten, Mahler, and Liszt Friday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, March 28 and 30. Performances take place at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. A recording of the Friday evening performance will be broadcast Saturday at 7:30 pm on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3 and will be available for streaming late the following week at the SLSO web site.

Symphony Preview: Stereophonic sound and other enhancements.

Akiko Suwanzi
Photo: Kiyotaka Saito

This Friday and Saturday, March 21 and 22, Stéphane Denève returns to conduct the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a program titled Bernstein and Williams: Cinematic Visions. That would be Leonard and John, respectively. Therefore, I would like to open this preview with a song:

That number is from the 1957 film version of Cole Porter’s 1955 musical Silk Stockings, which was based on the 1939 non-musical movie Ninotchka. It goes to show that the Broadway/Hollywood barrier has never been all that impermeable.

The song pokes fun at what was, at the time, the cutting-edge technology of stereo sound in cinemas. It was but one of a number of technological changes in movies that included widescreen filming (CinemaScope and its successors) and enhanced color (Technicolor, Metrocolor, etc.). These days, when you can get surround sound and high definition color in your living room, this might all seem a bit quaint, but it was a big deal Back in the Day.

The evening begins and ends with music based on film scores. Kicking things off is the yearning, romantic theme John Williams (b. 1932) composed for the 1996 movie Seven Years in Tibet, featuring a solo cello line that’s deeply infused with Essence of Erhu. Yo-Yo Ma played that in the film soundtrack. This weekend Yo-Yo Ma will be played by the SLSO’s own Yin Xiong.

Up next is the US debut of the 2018 violin concerto Les Horizons Perdus (Lost Horizons) by contemporary French composer Guillaume Connesson (b. 1970). The concerto’s connection to the “Cinematic Visions” concept is a bit tangential since it was inspired by James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon rather than Frank Capra’s classic 1937 film or (heaven forfend) the 1973 musical film. Its four movements capture the contrast between the tranquil utopia of Shangri-La and the hectic quotidian world. “More than the illustration of a fanciful narrative,” writes Connesson, “it is this division and radical opposition between the active life and the perfection of the inner life that constitute the basis of my work” (“Plus que d’illustrer une narration Romanesque, c’est ce déchirement et cette opposition radicale entre la vie active et l’absolu de la vie intérieure qui constituent la trame de mon oeuvre”).

The first movement, “Premier voyage,” is a cacophonous and aggressive depiction of that world, with brief lyrical moments reflecting the desire to find a bit of calm amidst the noise

“Shangri-La 1 – Deuxième voyage” (the linked second and third movements) consists of a brief glimpse of the tranquility of the utopian Shangri-La followed by an exuberant dance-cum-chase scene suggesting the brief departure from and return to the Himalayan paradise.

The start of that journey is where the novel ends, leaving it unclear as to whether the protagonist finds his way back to Shangri-La. Connesson leaves no doubt about it with the final movement, “Shangri-La 2” (hence the title change from singular to plural). It’s the mirror image of the first movement—a slow, meditative mix of the sublime and the nostalgic. “At the end,” writes the composer, “a new theme appears for muted violin, which sings with an infinite tenderness of rediscovered ties with childhood” ("À la fin, un nouveau thème apparaît au violon en sourdine, qui chante avec une infinie tendresse les liens retrouvés avec l’enfance").

Denève has expressed his admiration for Connesson’s music and has programmed several of his works in previous seasons. He conducted the Brussels Philharmonic in the world premiere performance with soloist Renaud Capuçon, so between him and this weekend’s soloist—Tchaikovsky Competition winner Akiko Suwanai—the music will be in good hands.

There’s an intermission between the sublime finale of Horizons Perdus and the raucous opening of An American Port of Call by Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941). Inspired by Norfolk,Virginia—the city he calls home—the title of the work is both a tip of the hat to the suite Escales (Ports of Call) by Jacques Ibert and a portrait of, in the composer’s words, “a bustling American port city.”

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what Hailstork himself has to say:

To me, An American Port of Call bears more than a passing resemblance to another orchestral work about a bustling port city (or at least an etching of one by Thomas Rowlandson): Portsmouth Point by William Walton (1902–1983). Here, in any case, is the celebrated American conductor JoAnn Faletta and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra delivering a slam-bang performance of An American Port of Call. Enjoy!

The program’s big finish (just before the closing credits, including several thousand digital animators) is the 1955 suite Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) assembled from his score for the 1954 Oscar-winning crime drama about corrupt labor unions, On the Waterfront. The composer “initially resisted accepting the commission for the score,” writes musicologist William Runyan, due to his “deep antipathy for the director, Elia Kazan.” He was notably outraged at Kazan’s cooperation with Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anti-leftist witch hunts and his participation in the infamous Hollywood Blacklist, which destroyed many careers and lives.

Not coincidentally, the script was written by Budd Schulberg and starred Lee J. Cobb—both of whom also collaborated with McCarthy.

Bernstein was also less than thrilled about the way his music was treated in the editing process—which is probably why On the Waterfront was his first and last soundtrack.

“And so the composer sits by,” Bernstein wrote in a May 30, 1954, article for the New York Times, “protesting as he can, but ultimately accepting, be it with a heavy heart, the inevitable loss of a good part of the score. Everyone tries to comfort him. ‘You can always use it in a suite.’ Cold comfort. It is good for the picture, he repeats numbly to himself: it is good for the picture.”

The suite has, in any case, been critically praised for the way in which it weaves together themes from the original score into a twenty-minute distillation of the original story. As critic Mark Swed wrote in the Los Angeles Times, Bernstein “wrenched his atmospheric themes into something far grander, a symphonic suite.” Listen to the composer’s own performance with the New York Philharmonic and see if you don’t agree.

And, of course, the full playlist for the concert is available on Spotify.

The Essentials: Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, along with soloists Yin Xiong (cello) and Akiko Suwanai (violin) in music by John Williams, Guillaume Connesson, Adolphus Hailstork, and Leonard Bernstein. Performances are Friday at 10:30 am and Saturday at 7:30 pm, March 21 and 22, at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The Saturday evening performance will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3 and will be available for streaming late the following week at the SLSO web site

Symphony Preview: A hazy shade of winter

Hannu Lintu
Photo: Marco Borggreve

Spring may be on its way, but this Friday and Sunday (March 14 and 16) a brisk Nordic breeze will, sonically speaking, waft through the Touhill Performing Arts Center for the first half of  the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert as Finnish guest conductor Hannu Lintu presents a pair of works from his native land. They’re part of a tribute to the late Helsinki-born composer Kaija Saariaho, who died of a brain tumor in 2023.

The concerts open with Saariaho’s “Ciel d’hiver” (“Winter Sky”), which had its local premiere on October 7, 2022, under the baton of Jonathon Heyward. My description of it here comes from the preview article I wrote back then.

Since 1982, Saariaho had been living in Paris, where her studies at the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM) convinced her to turn away from serialism and towards spectralism, a movement that treats orchestral color (the sonic spectrum) as a compositional cornerstone.  You can hear that in the rich acoustic palette of “Ciel d’hiver,” which is a 2014 re-orchestration of the second movement of Saariaho’s 2002 suite "Orion."

Kaija Saariaho
Photo courtesy of the SLSO.

Beginning with high woodwinds suspended over growling low notes with not much in between, the work strongly suggests the bleak emptiness of a dark, chilly night. The aurora borealis shimmers in the exotic percussion battery, and eventually the winds begin to moan ominously. Finally the sky clears to a tinkling piano motif and an evanescent cello melody and it all fades to black.

All that suggests, as W.C. Fields repeatedly declaims in “The Fatal Glass of Beer,” that “it ain’t a fit night out for man nor beast.” But this music has a forbidding beauty all the same.

Up next is the local premiere of the 2024 Viola Concerto by Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958) with soloist Lawrence Power, for whom the concerto was written. I interviewed Lindberg about it on my YouTube blog:

Lindberg’s comments on the virtues of writing for an 18th century-sized orchestra (strings, woodwinds, and trumpets only) are especially interesting, as are his thoughts on how his approach to composition has evolved over the decades.

The concerts conclude with the Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 68 by Robert Schumann (1810–1856). Written in 1845 and 1846, it’s the product of a time in the composer’s life marked by both an intense burst of creativity and an onset of the illness that would eventually destroy both his mind and body. If the first half of the program is about varieties of darkness, then Schumann’s symphony is about an eventual emergence into the light.

“For several days,” he wrote to his friend Felix Mendelssohn in September of 1845, “drums and trumpets in the key of C have been sounding in my mind. I have no idea what will come of it.” What came of it was the fanfare-like motif that dominates the Sostenuto assai – Allegro, ma non troppo first movement. Although highly reminiscent of the fanfare that opens Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 (“London”), it’s much more emotionally ambiguous, especially in the overall context of a movement that Judith Chernaik (in Schumann: The Faces and the Masks, 2018) describes as “agitated, even distraught in feeling.” Indeed, both the first movement and the Scherzo second movement can come across as a mix of the energetic and febrile, depending on how the conductor approaches them.

Schumann recognized that there was an element of agony and conflict behind the symphony. “I sketched it out,” he wrote to Mendelssohn, “while suffering severe physical pain; I may well call it the struggle of my mind, by which I sought to beat off my disease.” That struggle is most apparent in the anguished Adagio espressivo third movement, which Chernaik accurately describes as “an unmediated expression” of the composer’s suffering. It’s only in the Allegro molto vivace finale that he shows us his hope of returning health.

P.S. I put together my own playlist for this one so that I could include the world premiere recording of Lindberg’s concerto as well as a recording of the Schumann Symphony No. 2 by the SLSO under the baton of the late Jerzy Semkov, who was Music Director of the orchestra from 1975 to 1979.. 

The Essentials: Hannu Lintu conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and soloist Lawrence Power in the Viola Concerto by Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho’s “Ciel d’hiver,” and Schumann’s Symphony No. 2. Performances take place at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on Friday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm, March 14 and 16. The Friday concert will be broadcast on Saturday night, March 15, at 7:30 pm on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3.

St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of March 10, 2025

What's on St. Louis theater and cabaret stages this coming week. Please leave a comment if anything was wrong or got left out

Albion Theatre Company presents The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh March 14 through 30. “Set in the small town of Leenane, County Galway, Ireland, The Beauty Queen of Leenane tells the darkly comic tale of Maureen, a lonely woman in her early 40s, and Mag, her manipulative aging mother. Mag’s interference in Maureen’s first and possibly final chance of a loving relationship sets in motion a train of events that leads inexorably towards the play’s terrifying denouement.” Performances take place in the Black Box Theatre at the Kranzberg Center, 501 N. Grand in Grand Center. For more information: albiontheatrestl.org.

The Black Rep presents The Wash by Kelundra Smith March 12 through 30. “Ordinary women become working class heroes in this true story of the Atlanta 1881 Washerwomerl' Strike. America's first successful interracial organized labor strike. Tired if being overworked and underpaid, Black laundresses stage a strike just weeks before the International Cotton Expedition comes to town. The story gives us an intimate and often humorous peek at the women who fought for their rights and won. Presented as part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere.” Performances take place at the Catherine B. Berges Theatre at COCA. For more information: www.theblackrep.org.

Who Killed Aunt Carloine?
Photo: John Lamb

Clayton Community Theatre presents the mystery Who Killed Aunt Caroline?, Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through March 16. “Following the struggling Endicott family, a murder takes place in their residence; this raises questions about inheritance and the character of this not-so-innocent family and those they call ‘friends.’” Performances take place at the Washington University South Campus Theatre, 6501 Clayton Rd. For more information: www.placeseveryone.org.

Mean Girls
Photo: Jeremy Daniel

The Fabulous Fox presents the musical Mean Girls Friday through Sunday, March 14 through 16. “Cady Heron may have grown up on an African savanna, but nothing prepared her for the vicious ways of her strange new home: suburban Illinois. Soon, this naïve newbie falls prey to a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina George. But when Cady devises a plan to end Regina’s reign, she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a Queen Bee without getting stung.” The Fabulous Fox is on North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: fabulousfox.com.

First Run Theatre Playwright’s Workshop presents a reading of the one-act plays Inside Boone Smalley and The Pachyderm by Kenn Stillson on Monday, March 10, at 6:30 pm. “Inside Boone Smalley is an expressionistic comedy about a simple man living in the nightmarish purgatory of his family room in 1998. It's prom night, and his loud and overbearing wife and his hellion daughter engage in an epic battle before and after the arrival of the girl's prom date . The Pachyderm is an absurdist comedy that asks the question, ‘How does the majority of Americans simultaneously lose their collective minds and reelect a clownish fraud and convicted felon to become president of the most powerful country in the history of the world? They drink the Kool-Aid.’” The readings take place at Square One Brewery and Distillery in Lafayette Square. For more information: firstruntheatre.org.

Kirkwood Theatre Guild presents comedy Into the Breeches March 14 through 26. “WWII era. Oberon Playhouse’s director and leading men are off at war. Determined to press on, the director’s wife sets out to produce an all-female version of Shakespeare’s Henriad, assembling an increasingly unexpected team united in desire, if not actual theatre experience. Together they deliver a delightful celebration of collaboration and persistence when the show must go on!” Performances take place at the Strauss Black Box Theatre in the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center. For more information, ktg-onstage.org

The Rocky Horror Show
Photo: Jill Ritter Lindberg

New Line Theatre presents the rock musical The Rocky Horror Show through March 22. “As the Culture Wars continue to escalate, ROCKY HORROR is as relevant today as it was in the early Seventies, a brilliantly creepy, wickedly funny satire that spotlights Americans' frequent cultural freak-outs, all told in the language of 1930s horror-sci-fi movies, 1950s "physique" magazines, and 1970s punk rock. This glam-punk celebration of the mad variety of human sexuality and gender is particularly timely right now.” Performances take place at the Marcelle Theatre in Grand Center. For more information: www.newlinetheatre.com.

The Theatre Guild of Webster Groves presents Herb Gardner’s comedy A Thousand Clowns Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 pm through March 16. Performances take place at the Guild theatre at 517 Theatre Lane, at the corner of Newport and Summit in Webster Groves. For more information: www.webstergrovestheatreguild.com.

Looking for auditions and other artistic opportunities? Check out the St. Louis Auditions site.

To get your event listed here, send an email to chukl at pobox dot com. Your event information should be in text format (i.e. not part of a graphic), but feel free to include publicity stills.

Symphony Review: Gemma New returns for a celebratory Beethoven Ninth

Gemma New. Photo by Chris Christodoulou

Guest conductor Gemma New, in comments preceding her appearance with St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) last Saturday (March 1), said that the concert would be about “celebrating our Earth and our life upon it.” Certainly the work that opened the evening, the local premiere of “Hymn to the Sun” by St. Louis’s own Kevin Puts (b. 1972), was quite a party.

[Find out more about the music with my symphony preview.]

Commissioned by the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in 2008, “Hymn to the Sun” is described by Puts as “a wild, sacred dance to call forth the sun and all its powers, and then the sudden and magnificent rising on the horizon.” It absolutely was that on Saturday night, with terrifically demanding writing for the percussion section (especially the marimbas, xylophone, and piano) and elaborate passages for the flutes. The mood abruptly shifted to a powerful chorale for the strings—the hymn of the title—before returning to the sense of wild revelry that opened the work.

Props to percussionists Will James, Alan Stewart, Kevin Ritenauer, and Charles Renneker; pianist Peter Henderson; and the members of the flute section: Jennifer Nitchman, Jennifer Gartely, and Ann Choomack (doubling on piccolo). New led her forces through this elaborate web with that perfect mix of what my fellow critic Gary Liam Scott described as “poise and control” a few years ago.

The mood turned reverential with the next work (also a St. Louis premiere) the Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537, by J.S. Bach (1685–1750) in a 1921 orchestration by Sir Edward Elgar (1857–1934). Elgar employs the full resources of the post-Wagner orchestra (around 80 players) with spectacular results, especially in the final moments of the fugue.

Elgar doesn’t unleash the full power of that big band for the first time until nearly the end of the fantasia, which begins with the main theme played by the oboes and clarinets—done with great feeling Saturday by Phil Ross and Xiomara Mass (oboes) along with Abby Raymond and Thomas Frey (clarinets). Shannon Wood on tympani and (I think) Will James on bass drum provided the ominous processional tread that Elgar added to Bach’s original. The composer doesn’t pull out all the stops again, so to speak, until the final pages of the fugue, when the horns and bras sections really come to the forefront. They sounded terrific Saturday night, especially Thomas Jöstlein’s horns in those exposed trills.

New possesses a singular combination of artistic sensitivity and fine craftsmanship, especially when it comes to revealing sonic details. I could, for example, hear that in the way she kept the threads of the fugue clearly delineated while losing none of the raw power of the composer’s orchestration. This was a classic case of the iron fist in the velvet glove, a fine mix of finesse and force.

The same was true of her take on the evening’s Big Event, the Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 (Choral) by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827). Ideally, the Ninth ought to open with a mix of otherworldly mystery and tension, like the components of a nebula spiraling together to form a star, moving from pianissimo violins over a horn pedal point to a fortissimo statement of the first theme by the full orchestra. With the right pacing and instrumental balance, that first movement (Allegro ma non troppo e un poco maestoso—“not too fast and somewhat majestically”) should grab one by the throat.

The SLSO did all that and more under New’s direction. She  is, as I have written previously, an engrossingly theatrical conductor who engages on a very physical level with the score. Her big, sweeping gestures are a kind of 3-D metaphor for the music, bringing an added visual dimension to an already persuasive performance.

The first movement was rich in orchestral detail and forward momentum. The Molto vivace—Presto second movement featured some delightfully precise playing by the horns and woodwinds. The Adagio third had a balletic flow and heightened the contrast with what went before. And then there was the famous choral finale.

In looking over my notes from Saturday night, I find that my handwriting (which is never all the clear, even to me) deteriorated to chicken scratches as I tried to keep up with all the great things happening on stage. The vocal quartet was quite impressive, particularly bass-baritone Nathan Berg, who sang from memory and was deeply connected to the lyrics. 

Tenor Jamez McCorkle was a bit more dependent on his score but nevertheless turned in a fine performance in the alla Marcia solo. The decision to put the marching band in its own space stage right worked very well here, allowing the audience to hear both it and soloist quite clearly.

Soprano Susanna Phillips and mezzo Sasha Cooke, both familiar faces locally, rounded out the quartet in fine style, their powerful voices blending perfectly.

Under Erin Freeman’s direction, the SLSO Chorus were in top form. Their enunciation was crisp and their vocal lines clear, even during the complex contrapuntal moments in the choral finale. Beethoven, as New remarked back at the top of the evening, was a great admirer of Bach—a fact that is abundantly clear in Ninth. Indeed, in the hands of some conductors (the late Wilhelm Furtwängler comes to mind) Beethoven’s writing can be a bit of a strain for the singers. Happily, New and Freeman appear to have a better grasp of what works best for choristers.

So, yes, another immensely satisfying Beethoven Ninth from the SLSO. The last time they did it (February 2020) with Stéphane Denève at the podium, I praised their performance as “the Ninth against which all others must now be measured.” This one, I’m pleased to report, measured up quite well.

Next from the SLSO: Jason Seber conducts the orchestra in David Arnold’s score for the 2006 film version of Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale as the movie unspools on the big screen overhead at the Stifel Theatre. Performances are Saturday at 7:00 pm and Sunday at 2:00 pm, March 8 and 9.

Symphony Preview: Sleepers, awake!

“What’s so funny,” asked songwriter Nick Lowe in 1974, ”‘bout peace, love and understanding?” Good question, that. These days, it seems, it’s not so much “funny” as anti-American. And, of course, “woke.”

How is this relevant to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts former Assistant Conductor Gemma New (now Principal Conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) will lead this Saturday and Sunday (March 1 and 2)? Simple: it’s relevant because the featured work is the Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 (Choral) by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)—music that, in its advocacy of universal human fellowship, is about as “woke” as a 200-year-old piece can get.

[Note: at this point I’m going to quote—ahem—liberally from the article I wrote in 2020 for the SLSOs last performance of the Ninth. It’s still very relevant, trust me.]

The symphony’s commitment to inclusivity is clear from the first verse of Friedrich Schiller's poem "An die Freude" ("Ode to Joy"), which Beethoven uses in modified form as the text for the final movement:

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Which, in a singable English translation, becomes:

Joy, thou source of light immortal,
Daughter of Elysium!
Touched with fire, to the portal,
Of thy radiant shrine, we come.
Your sweet magic, frees all others,
Held in custom's rigid rings,
All men on earth become brothers,
In the haven of your wings.

It's hard to justify warfare, apartheid, oligarchy, and other core ideas of the far right with those sentiments. Ditto autocratic rule, which is not surprising, given that Beethoven was "a staunch republican and in both his letters and conversation spoke frequently of the importance of liberty."

Bernstein at the Berlin Wall.
Photo by Andreas Meyer-Schwickerath

The late Leonard Bernstein certainly understood that. In December 23, 1989, he led an orchestra of musicians from New York, London, Paris, Leningrad, and both East and West Germany in a performance of the Ninth in Berlin to celebrate the lifting of regulations governing travel between East and West Berlin—a change which marked the beginning of the end of the infamous Berlin Wall. To drive the point home, he changed the word "freude" ("joy") to "freiheit" ("freedom"), making it literally an "Ode to Freedom."

Maybe it’s time to revisit that change. Especially since it has often been speculated that “Freiheit” was the word Schiller originally planned to use anyway. “The thought lies near,“ wrote Alexander Wheelock Thayer in Volume III of his Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, “that it was the early form of the poem, when it was still an ‘Ode to Freedom’ (not ‘to Joy’), which first aroused enthusiastic admiration for it in Beethoven’s mind.” Maybe it’s time for a performance at Lincoln Center?

Let me conclude with nine interesting (I hope) facts about Beethoven's Ninth:

1. By the time the Ninth had its premiere, Beethoven was already completely deaf. He never heard a note of his last major work live.
2. Nevertheless, Beethoven "had absolute pitch, so he could imagine the sounds and the harmony in his mind without hearing them on an instrument."
3. Beethoven spent at least three decades trying to set Schiller's poem to music. As an article on the Ninth in the Encyclopedia Britannica notes, the composer started working on a musical setting of the poem as early as the 1790s and, once he finally decided to include it in his symphony, he "considered and rejected more than 200 different versions of the 'Ode to Joy' theme alone."
4. The music (but not the words) of Beethoven's setting of the "Ode to Joy" was adopted by the Council of Europe as its anthem in 1972 and as the official anthem of the EU in 1985.
5. That last fact might explain why, on July 2, 2019, members of Nigel Farge's Brexit party attending the European Parliament in Strasbourg petulantly turned their backs on a performance of the EU anthem.
6. All audio CDs are 12 cm in diameter because that was the size necessary to accommodate a complete performance of the Ninth which usually runs between 65 and 74 minutes.
7. The instruments used by contemporary orchestras are, in many cases, very different from those used in Beethoven's day, so most contemporary performances sound very different from what the audience would have heard at the 1824 premiere. Roger Norrington's 1987 recording with the London Classical Players (a personal favorite of mine) was the first one to use reproductions of period instruments. At 62 minutes, it's also one of the shortest.
8. The finale of the Ninth makes huge demands on the chorus. You can hear that most clearly in Wilhelm Furtwängler's 1951 Bayreuth Festival recording (another of my favorites, even if it comes from a completely different universe than Norrignton's). At 74 minutes, it's one of the longest.
9. Bottom line: the Ninth is great enough to have inspired wildly different interpretations from both critics and performers. As Nicholas Cook wrote in his book "Beethoven: Symphony No. 9" (cited in an excellent article by Tom Service at The Guardian): "Of all the works in the mainstream repertory of Western music, the Ninth Symphony seems the most like a construction of mirrors, reflecting and refracting the values, hopes, and fears of those who seek to understand and explain it ... From its first performance [in Vienna in 1824] up to the present day, the Ninth Symphony has inspired diametrically opposed interpretations."

Kevin Puts. Photo by David White.

Sharing the bill with the Beethoven Ninth back in 2020 was the “Silent Night Elegy” by St. Louis-born composer Kevin Puts. His music will keep company with Beethoven’s again this weekend as the concerts open with the St. Louis premiere of his “Hymn to the Sun,” commissioned by the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in 2008. In his program notes, Puts cites the “ancient Egyptian appeal to the deific sun” as the inspiration for the piece:

“I imagined a wild, sacred dance to call forth the sun and all its powers, and then the sudden and magnificent rising on the horizon. The image of the sun’s rays binding all the lands is particularly moving to me in the context of today’s tense global climate.”

“Hymn to the Sun” isn’t available on Spotify, so it’s not part of my playlist, but you can watch a 2017 video by the Detroit Youth Symphony Orchestra that makes it abundantly clear how accurate the composer’s description is. Puts wrote it as a “curtain raiser” and to my ears it more than meets the requirements for that category.

The mood turns more solemn with the next work—another St. Louis premiere. It’s the Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537, by J.S. Bach (1685–1750) in a 1921 orchestration by Sir Edward Elgar (1857–1934). As orchestral transcriptions of Bach’s organ works go, I’d say it’s quite a decent one.

Elgar circa age 60, from
The Musical Quarterly,
Vol. 3, No. 2 (April 1917)

I’ve provided an excellent 1980 recording of the Bach original by the legendary Marie-Claire Alain as the first item in my playlist, followed immediately by Elgar’s orchestration performed by our own Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin and the BBC Philharmonic. Listen to them back to back and I think you’ll agree that Elgar did a masterful job of translating Bach into the idiom of early 20th-century orchestra.

The final moments of both the Fantasia and the Fugue employ the full resources of the post-Wagner orchestra with spectacular results. We’re talking over 80 musicians, including five horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, two harpists, and seven percussionists. Even for the Stifel stage, that’s quite party.

The Essentials: Gemma New conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and vocal soloists Susanna Phillips (soprano), Sasha Cooke (mezzo-soprano), Jamez McCorkle (tenor), and Nathan Berg, bass-baritone in the Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven. Also on the program are two St. Louis premieres: “Hymn to the Sun” by Kevin Puts and the Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537, by Bach (arr. Elgar). Performances are Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, March 1 and 2, at the Stifel Theatre, downtown.

The Saturday performance will not be broadcast live, but at 7:30 pm that night St. Louis Public Radio will play a recording of the February 8, 2020 Beethoven Ninth with Stéphane Denève conducting. At the time, I called that the best damn Beethoven Ninth that I have ever heard. If you’re not going to be at Stifel that night, I recommend tuning in.

Symphony Review: Afkham and Ashkar are a Dynamic Duo with the SLSO

David Afkham. Photo by Gisela Schenker courtesy of the SLSO

It’s always intriguing to see what happens when a guest conductor makes his debut with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. German-born conductor David Afkham’s first appearance with the orchestra last Sunday (February 23) was quite a striking one, with dynamic performances of Mozart, Brahms, and contemporary (b. 1985) Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen.

[Find out more about the music with my symphony preview.]

This weekend marked the second appearance of Tarkiainen’s music on an SLSO program (the first was her 2019 “Midnight Sun Variations” in 2021), and I was struck with the similarity between that work and the one we’ll hear this weekend, her 2021 “The Ring of Fire and Love” from 2021. Both works begin and end quietly with the orchestra’s highest voices playing against the lowest, both build to a blow-your-hair-back sonic explosion, and both conclude almost (but not quite) as they began.

Both were also heavily influenced by the experience of Tarkiainen giving birth to her first child and both have a strongly visual aspect for the composer, who is synesthetic—someone who literally sees music as colors. In this respect, she’s in some august company, including Scriabin, Rimski-Korsakov, and Gully Foyle in Alfred Bester’s science fiction classic “The Stars My Destination” (which, BTW, now looks eerily prescient).

Those superficial similarities aside though, “The Ring of Fire and Love” feels like a much bigger and more cinematic work. In a BBC interview, the composer described “Midnight Sun Variations” as being mostly about “the colors of the northern sky during the summer…but also about the opening of a woman’s body to accommodate a new life.” As Tarkiainen writes on her web site, “The Ring of Fire and Love” extends the scope to include the geological and astronomical “Rings of Fire” as well as birth experience:

Outi Tarkiainen. Photo by Saara Salmi
courtesy of the SLSO

“The Ring of Fire is a volcanic belt that surrounds the Pacific Ocean and in which most of the world’s earthquakes occur. It is also the term referring to the bright ring of sunlight around the moon at the height of a solar eclipse... Yet, the same expression is also used to describe what a woman feels when, as she gives birth, the baby’s head passes through her pelvis. That moment is the most dangerous in the baby’s life, its little skull being subjected to enormous pressure, preparing it for life in a way unlike any other. The Ring of Fire and Love is a work for orchestra about this earth-shattering, creative, cataclysmic moment they travel through together.”

“Cataclysmic,” as it happens, is a pretty good way to describe the experience of seeing “The Ring of Fire and Love” live. The delicate passages for harp, celesta, and muted trumpet that make up most of the second half of the work were nicely done by Megan Stout, Peter Henderson, and Steven Franklin, respectively. The combination of shrieking high woodwinds and ominous, growling percussion that open the piece conjure images of something big and dramatic—a promise kept by the massive orchestral blowout at almost exactly the halfway point.

The piece was a major attention grabber. Vast quantities of congratulations are due to all concerned.

Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K.491 by W.A. Mozart (1756–1791), while lacking the HD flash of “The Ring of Fire and Love,” is still a strikingly dark and dramatic work. First performed in 1786 in Vienna, it’s scored for what was, for Mozart’s time, a pretty large orchestra, including woodwinds, horns, and tympani. The long, dramatic opening movement would have felt like cutting-edge stuff at the time and is widely viewed as one of his greatest piano concertos. Beethoven and Brahms were both big fans.

Soloist Saleem Ashkar was a perfect choice for this material. When he made his debut here with the Mendelssohn Concerto No. 2, I noted the impressive combination of technical skill and terpsichorean lightness in his playing—both of which were evident on Sunday. His cadenzas (Mozart didn’t provide any) had a Beethoven-esque feel to them that might be out of place in an earlier Mozart concerto but felt exactly right here. Afkham’s direction did not stint on the darkness that pervades the concerto, especially in that first movement, but it also brought out the tenderness in the in second movement. Yes, there moments in that movement where the drama returns, but overall it felt almost like a cradle song.

Saleem Ashkar, photo courtesy of the SLSO

The concert concluded with the Symphony No. 1, Op. 68, by Johannes Brahms (1833–1897). Like the Mozart concerto, it’s in C minor and like “The Ring of Fire and Love” it begins on a portentous note with strings Un poco sostenuto over the steady tread of the tympani. Like many composers of his time, Brahms composed in the looming shadow of Beethoven (“You have no idea what it's like to hear the footsteps of a giant like that behind you,” he once said), and I tend to hear those footsteps in that introduction. Certainly Afkham’s reading had plenty of ominous weight, offering an effective contrast with the propulsive Allegro that followed.

The Andante sostenuto second movement featured meltingly lovely solos from Principal Oboe Jelena Dirks and Principal Clarinet Scott Andrews as well as a duet between Concertmaster David Halen and Principal Horn Roger Kaza. The Un poco Allegretto e grazioso third movement was graceful and easygoing with good stuff from the clarinets (Andrews and Tzuying Huang). Afkham seemed particularly caught up in the lively Trio section, but then so was I.

A brief pause, and then we were into the stormy opening of the final movement with its titanic struggle between darkness and light and its famous main theme (which later became the theme of the hymn “Refuge”). The horn section were really in their element here, rich and warm in the main theme and simply blazing in the C major finale.

I had planned to finish this with a few words about Afkham’s podium style and the expressive use of his left hand, but upon visiting the conductor’s web site I discovered that the Chicago Tribune had beaten me to the punch:

“Afkham was a model of physical grace and musical purpose on the podium. His left hand traced broad arcs of sound while his right hand articulated beats and phrases with the utmost clarity and precision. Every interpretative choice was well-motivated and grounded in an ability to maintain orchestral control that was exacting, yet never rigid.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Next from the SLSO: On Friday February 28 at 7:30 pm, Grammy Award-winning vocalist Donald Lawrence joins the SLSO, the IN UNISON Chorus, and vocal soloists for “Lift Every Voice,” the annual Black History Month celebration. Kevin McBeth conducts. Then on Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, former SLSO Resident Conductor Gemma New conducts the orchestra and vocal soloists for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 along with “Hymn to the Sun” by Kevin Puts and Elgar’s orchestration of J.S. Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537. All three performances take place at the Stifel Theatre downtown.

St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of February 24, 2025

What's on St. Louis theater and cabaret stages this coming week. Please leave a comment if anything was wrong or got left out

The Alpha Players present The Sweet Delilah Swim Club February 28 through March 9. “Five women, whose friendships began years ago on their college swim team, set aside a long weekend every August to recharge. Free from husbands, kids, and jobs, they meet at the same beach cottage, the “Sweet Delilah” to catch up, laugh and stick their noses in each other’s lives. Join us as we visit with them on four of those weekends spanning 33 years and rediscover the importance of enduring friendships.” Performances take place in the James J. Eagen Center in Florissant. For more information: www.alphaplayers.org

Act Two Theatre presents the comedy Nana’s Naughty Knickers Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm February 27 through March 9. “What happens when you mix a sweet grandmother with a saucy secret business? When Bridget moves in with her Nana for the summer, she expects quiet days in New York, but quickly discovers Nana is running an illegal boutique out of her apartment, selling risqué lingerie to seniors! With nosy neighbors, landlords, and the law looming, Bridget must help her quirky Nana keep the business afloat while trying to avoid eviction—or worse, arrest. Katherine DiSavino’s hilarious comedy delivers non-stop laughs in this zany tale of family, mischief, and a whole lot of naughty knickers.” Performances take place at the St. Peters Cultural Center in St. Peters, MO. For more information: www.acttwotheatre.com

Coconut Cake
Photo: Keshon Campbell

The Black Rep presents Coconut Cake by Mealdy Beaty through March 2. “Eddie Lee seeks companionship with his friends at the local McDonald's, swapping stories for advice over coffee and games of chess. But what happens when a mysterious woman comes to town, offering visitors a tantalizing coconut cake along with another big secret? Life takes a interesting turn for all of them.” Performances take place at the Edison Theatre on the Washington University campus. For more information: www.theblackrep.org.

The Fabulous Fox presents the musical Some Like It Hot opening on Tuesday, February 26 and running through March 9. “Set in Chicago when Prohibition has everyone thirsty for a little excitement, SOME LIKE IT HOT is the “glorious, big, high-kicking” (Associated Press) story of two musicians forced to flee the Windy City after witnessing a mob hit. With gangsters hot on their heels, they catch a cross-country train for the life-chasing, life-changing trip of a lifetime.” The Fabulous Fox is on North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: fabulousfox.com.

"Just Coffee" from Spectrum 2025.
Photo: Sean Belt

First Run Theatre presents the Spectrum 2025 Short Play Festival, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through March 2. The program consists of seven new one-act plays by local playwrights:Bell Bottom Boos by Rita Winters (St. Louis, MO),Girl and Goat by Dennis Fisher (Belleville, IL), Just Coffee by Marella Sands (St. Louis, MO), Points of Intersection by M.K. DeGenova (St. Genevieve, MO), Put Me In Coachby Stuart A. Day (Lawrence, KS), and Silver Lining and Stranger Than Fiction, both by Marjorie Williamson (St. Louis, MO). Performances take place at The Chapel, 6238 Alexander Drive in Clayton. For more information: firstruntheatre.org

KTK Productions presents Love Letters Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm, February 28 through March 9. “A Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama, A.R Gurney’s Love Letters is a two-hander drama comprised of letters exchanged between two friends over a lifetime. Andrew and Melissa, both born into wealth and position, begin their correspondence in childhood with birthday party thank-you notes. Their letters continue through their boarding school and college years while they are romantically attached and later through their individual marriages and careers. As the actors read the letters aloud, an evocative, touching, frequently funny, but always telling pair of character studies is revealed, where what is implied is as revealing and affecting as what is written down.” Performances take place at the Saint John the Baptist Gymnasium, 4200 Delor Street in south St. Louis. For more information: kurtainkall.org

New Line Theatre presents the rock musical The Rocky Horror Show, February 27 through March 22. “As the Culture Wars continue to escalate, ROCKY HORROR is as relevant today as it was in the early Seventies, a brilliantly creepy, wickedly funny satire that spotlights Americans' frequent cultural freak-outs, all told in the language of 1930s horror-sci-fi movies, 1950s "physique" magazines, and 1970s punk rock. This glam-punk celebration of the mad variety of human sexuality and gender is particularly timely right now.” Performances take place at the Marcelle Theatre in Grand Center. For more information: www.newlinetheatre.com.

Clyde's
Photo: Jon Gitchoff

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents Clyde’s by Lynn Nottage through March 7. “From two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage comes the Tony-nominated-play, Clyde’s. In a small run-down sandwich joint, ex-cons endure Clyde’s fiery critiques and a scorching kitchen. Yet, when a mystic chef throws down the gauntlet—craft the ultimate sandwich—the team ignites with newfound zeal. Fueled by this savory challenge, they transform their past into a recipe for triumphant fresh starts. Join this spirited culinary quest where second chances are as vibrant as the flavors sizzling in the pan!” Performances take on the main stage of the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. For more information: www.repstl.org.

St. Louis University Theatre presents Secret Order by Bob Clyman Thursday through Saturday at 7 pm, and Saturday and Sunday at 1 pm, February 27 through March 2. “A young, idealistic cellular biologist with a brilliant new idea for curing cancer is recruited from relative obscurity to a major cancer research institute by its charismatic director with the offer of his own lab and all the resources he will need to pursue that idea. As the pressure to show publishable results begins to build, his research suddenly hits a snag. He is faced with having to choose between full disclosure of the problem, which would jeopardize the funding he needs, and making the more expedient decision to bend the rules just a little, which will buy him enough additional time to solve the problem.” Performances take place in The Kranzberg Black Box Theatre, 501 N Grand in Grand Center. For more information: www.slu.edu.

The Washington University Theatre Department presents The Wolves Friday at 7:30 pm, Saturday at 2 and 7:30 pm, and Sunday at 2 pm, February 21 through March 2. “The Wolves, by Sarah DeLappe, is a 21st century coming-of-age tale. A finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the play offers a glimpse into the lives of nine teenage girls who are teammates on an indoor soccer team. In a series of scenes depicting their pre-game warm-up routine, the girls engage in seemingly frivolous banter, but under the surface, they are vying for power, understanding, and acceptance as they figure out their place in a changing world.” Performances take place in the Edison Theatre on the Washington University Campus. For more information: https://pad.wustl.edu/events.

Webster Conservatory presents The Legend of Georgia McBride by Matthew López Friday at 7:30 pm, Saturday at 2 and 7:30 pm, and Sunday at 3 pm, February 28 through March 1. “He’s young, he’s broke, his landlord’s knocking at the door, and he’s just found out his wife is going to have a baby. To make matters even more desperate, Casey is fired from his gig as an Elvis impersonator in a run-down, small-town Florida bar. When the bar owner brings in a B-level drag show to replace his act, Casey finds that he has a whole lot to learn about show business — and himself.” Performances take place in the Emerson Studio Theatre at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. For more information: www.webster.edu/conservatory.

Winter Opera presents Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) Friday at 7:30 pm and Saturday at 2 pm, February 28 and March 2. “Embark on a fantastical adventure filled with wonder, humor, and timeless music in Mozart's enchanting opera, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)! Prince Tamino, guided by a magical flute, embarks on a quest to rescue the beautiful Pamina, stolen away by the mysterious Sarastro. Along the way, he encounters a cast of unforgettable characters: Papageno, a comical birdcatcher with his own desires, three wise Ladies, and a chilling Queen of the Night. This beloved opera is a delightful blend of fantasy and allegory, with trials to overcome, secrets to be revealed, and the power of love and reason to conquer all. ” Performances are in German with English supertitles and take place at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center, 201 E. Monroe in Kirkwood, MO. For more information: winteroperastl.org

Looking for auditions and other artistic opportunities? Check out the St. Louis Auditions site.

To get your event listed here, send an email to chukl at pobox dot com. Your event information should be in text format (i.e. not part of a graphic), but feel free to include publicity stills.