Toronto Symphony Went Off to See the Wizard

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For this Halloween seasons concert the TSO tried a new approach.  Rather than a generic concert with creepy musical pieces, they went all out for an event: a showing of the classic MGM film The Wizard of Oz, with all musical accompaniment provided by the live Toronto Symphony Orchestra.  This review is late in the hopes that I could find some pictures elsewhere on the web, as I was without camera.  As luck would have it, google came through and as you'll see, there were some very creative people in attendance.

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The program would appear to be the brain child of producer John Goberman, who also created the Symphonic Night at the Movies series (which includes Rodgers and Hammerstein at the Movies which opened the National Arts Centre Orchestra's Pops series a few weeks ago).  Oz with Orchestra debuted in the summer of 2005 at Wolf Trap with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) conducted by Emil de Cou.  Mr. de Cou was on hand for this concert as well, making his TSO debut.  Currently the Music Director for the Pacific Northwest Ballet, he was the associate conductor at the NSO and a former conductor of American Ballet Theatre for eight years each.  There's something about conductors who've had experience in ballet, maybe it's the required clarity for that type of job, or maybe it's just the genre of symphonic programs in which I tend to see them, but they're engaging to watch.  As an amateur musician who has fun trying to determine time signatures from a conductor's beat pattern, this clarity is particularly welcomed.

Another intriguing aspect of this maestro's work is his position as music consultant to NASA!  He's conducted several programs, include a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the moon landing and 20th anniversary of the Hubble telescope launch.  Let's bring him back to Toronto with that concert!  It would have awe inspiring images to accompany the music.

But let's return to the movie.  The Wizard of Oz was released in 1939 starring Judy Garland (Dorothy), Ray Bolger (Scarecrow), Jack Haley (Tin Man), and Burt Lahr (Lion).  The stories surrounding this cast are quite interesting.  Initially, Shirley Temple may have been considered for Dorothy given her popularity at the time.  Bolger was originally to be the Tin Man but wanted the part of Scarecrow having entered vaudeville after being inspired by Fred Stone who he had seen play the character in 1902.  He won over the producer with his fluid style and swapped parts with Buddy Ebsen, the original Scarecrow.  Unfortunately Ebsen had a severe reaction to the aluminium powder make-up.  During application he had breathed it in, and it had coated his lungs.  He ended up hospitalized in critical condition and never returned to the film.  Enter replacement Jack Haley.  Filming continued with the make-up changed to a paste and a layer of white greasepaint applied first to avoid the same problems.  Ebsen's voice is actually the one heard in the ensemble songs, as Haley only re-recorded solo numbers and lines in songs.

You don't realize how much music is in a movie until you have the musicians playing the score right in front of you.  The songs (by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg) are obviously what people remember, yet the back score, which can be easily forgettable when watching a movie at home, came alive.  Herbert Stothart who was the house composer for MGM wrote it and incorporated themes from the songs as well as classical music.  I had never noticed that until the scene when Dorothy was escaping from the witches castle and Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" started; very fitting for Halloween.  There were occasions when the balance between the movie and the orchestra was off.  The sound effects were still part of the movie and the tornado wind drowned out most of the music during the flight to Oz.  It was also possible to forget that the musicians were even there, a testament to how much in-sync they were with the movie.

It's been many years since I've watched The Wizard of Oz, and I wasn't prepared for the audiences enthusiastic response.  There were cheers for Leo the Lion's roar at the start, Toto's escapes, laughs at the Lollipop Guild (I'd forgotten how campy some lines actually were), boos for the Wicked Witch of the West, and applause following "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".  It was also quite a spectacle on a huge screen in HD.  The colour after the sepia tones of Kansas totally popped.  Whoever decided on the use of colour only in Oz made a fantastic choice.

Costumes were encouraged, and audience and orchestra alike took that to heart.  A few of the notable ones follow:

Principal Bass Jeffrey Beecher as the Yellow Brick Road and Assistant Principal Bass Kristen Bruya as the Tin Man.

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Bassoonist Sam Banks as the Tin Man, Contrabassoonist Fraser Jackson as Dorothy, and the trombone section with their crazy wigs and tie die shirts.

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Cellists Emmanuelle Beaulieu Bergeron as the Poppy Field and Roberta Janzen as Dorothy.

http://toronto.broadwayworld.com

Concertmaster for the evening, Marc-Andre Savoie, in full curly hair lion head piece, violinist Etsuko Kimura as the Wicked Witch complete with green face, and second violin Wendy Rose (I think) as Somewhere Over the Rainbow (the sign on her head says "somewhere").

http://toronto.broadwayworld.com

Tuba player Mark Tetreault was the best member of the Lollipop Guild I saw.  Alas, no photo.

Not to be left out, here's a few of the audience costumes (taken from the TSO's photostream on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/torontosymphonyorchestra)

A group making it a family affair.

A very authentic looking Witch of the West.

Another take on the Yellow Brick Road.

In this era of remakes and updates, sequels and prequels (don't get me wrong I love the music in Wicked!), it was a great experience to return to the ultimate Oz movie in such a great venue!

Independence Day Celebration

Cross it off the Bucket List!  Ok, I don't actually have a hard copy Bucket List, but I managed to pull together a whirlwind trip to Washington DC to see the 30th Anniversary of the "Capitol Fourth" concert LIVE.  I've grown up watching the PBS show and have wanted to see it in person for ages.  Plus the last, and only, time I toured around Washington DC was about 8 years ago, and I wanted to go back with a new knowledge base and see the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum again.

Having gained some unexpected time-off, in 3 days I arranged accompaniment, accommodation, directions, maps of downtown and the Metro subway system, and a very rough plan.  I even found the prohibited items list for the Capitol Hill lawn (good thing since I would have taken my umbrella for shade and ended up losing it) and discovered a great piece of info...there was a dress rehearsal open to the public the night before the show!  Never one to turn down seeing what was sure to be a great concert more than once I added that to the list of things to do.  Now onto the concert.

The magnitude of things was certainly what I expected.  The Capitol Building is huge, and very impressive in any light.  Being there extra early for the real show we got to take pictures as the sun was setting and it's very pretty.

We were standing at the base of it for the dress rehearsal (the centre lawn had been opened at 3pm and filled by 5pm), and it was a good spot.  Thankfully I had remembered my binoculars, and you could see the stage and narration hut quite well, even if the performers were small.  The added bonus of attending the concert this year was not only that it was the 30th Anniversary, but also the first "Capitol Fourth" that my favourite, Jack Everly, was conducting.  He's replaced Erich Kunzel who had conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in this and the Memorial Day concert for the last 20 years.  I'm probably bias, but I think they made an excellent choice and he did a wonderful job.

Funny things happen in rehearsal and with professionals I guess it's no exception.  First Gladys Knight and Darius Rucker weren't there, so they had stand-ins who lip-synced to the songs they were going to sing.  The Darius Rucker guy (seen in photo) was really quite entertaining and the stand-in fiddle player was very energetic in his air fiddle playing.  Jimmy Smits hosted, and after introducing the people who weren't there tongue-in-cheek, he was especially sincere with the introductions of David Archuleta, Lang Lang and Reba McEntire since they actually were performing.  Lang Lang's intro included some background on one of the pieces that didn't make the final concert.  At the rehearsal his first piece was "the theme from a movie starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour called Somewhere in Time.  Also known as Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Variation 18" [my paraphrase].  After stumbling over "Rachmaninov" and having the audience say it with him, Jimmy said he'd just refer to it as "the theme from Somewhere in Time" which is what he did the next day.  During the end of the rehearsal with the orchestra playing the "1812 Overture" and a few other marches, they showed fireworks from previous years on the large screen, but they had the real cannon fire!

July 4 was hot, full sun, with not a cloud in the sky, and we arrived just as they opened the security line at about 2:45pm.  The concert started at 8pm, so yes a long afternoon waiting.  However, it really didn't seem that long.  When we arrived the real Darius Rucker was practicing, there were always people milling around on stage, and watching the lawn fill in, as well as the people who picked spots on the Capitol Building steps (the poor people, the steps were in full sun and they had 5 hours to wait!), eliminated the bore factor.  Plus I had the fun of constructing my own lean-to for shade using chairs, a sheet, and clothes pins.  The fence we sat in front of helped immensely.  What do you think?  Do I get my Girl Scout badge? :)   Hehe, interestingly enough the book I was reading is visible in this photo.  A biography of Irving Berlin, one of America's great songwriters who's "God Bless America" has probably been in this concert for all 30 years.

The real concert was worth the wait.  It started with David Archuleta singing "The Star Spangled Banner", then Gladys Knight did her set of songs, followed by a taped history segment with NSO background music, and the real Darius Rucker in the mid-lawn stage.  Watching what actually happens on the stage preparation wise that you never see on TV was really neat.  There's all the instrument additions and removals (the drum set for the back-up bands and the grand piano for example), plus the orchestra and chorus relaxing.  Well not exactly relaxing, but the chorus got to sit, and the Maestro removed his jacket at every opportunity, it must have been brutally hot up there.  The orchestra was featured in the overture to the musical "George M" which included Cohan songs such as "Yankee Doodle Dandy", "Mary's a Grand Old Name" and "Grand Old Flag".  It was a crowd pleaser, as was Lang Lang's performance of Horowitz's "Variations on the Stars and Stripes".  Really there was nothing to say after him but WOW, even the orchestra was applauding.  There was a nice tribute to Erich Kunzel by John Schneider singing "When the Saints Go Marching In" and the Marine Drum and Bugle Corps played the "Washington Post March".  This was by the fountain of the Capitol Building which was hidden behind walls of people so we couldn't see it except on the large screens, but they sounded good.

Reba McEntire played two of her popular songs, then was awarded the National Artistic Achievement Award.  Patriotism took over as she sang "God Bless America" and the fireworks started.  Unfortunately trees were in our way since we were on the side of the centre lawn.  People had started leaving as soon as she was given the award and I wondered why, the concert wasn't over and they'd sat there all afternoon!  Turns out they were going around to the other side of the trees to get a good view of the Washington Monument since the fireworks originated behind it.  With the emptying out of people though I was able to move up closer and watch the orchestra during the "1812 Overture" and the two marches they played at the very end which is when the following picture was taken.  One I think was a much longer version of the "Washington Post March" the Marines had done.  The musicians use clothes pins to attach the music to the stand so it doesn't blow away.  I don't there there was enough of a breeze to cause that, but better to be safe than sorry!

The fireworks were pretty amazing, they just never stopped!  The display certainly goes much longer than you get to see on TV, and you never get to hear the full orchestra at the end either, they usually cut the broadcast off shortly after the "1812 Overture".

The concert and just July 4 in Washington DC was a great thing to be able to experience.  I've now done the Canadian and American capital bashes.  They are very different, but both fun.  I didn't hear an official crowd estimate for this July 4, but previously I'd heard something like 500,000 people attend.  Everyone we chatted with was friendly, and it really is fun to sing along to the US National Anthem and God Bless America, and the other patriotic songs that are great pieces of music, but are rarely heard (and understandably so) north of the 49th parallel.  But for one day, I got to be an honorary American!