Composer Nathaniel Stookey

THREE CENTURIES OF OPERA AT NOVEL MARIN SYMPHONY CONCERT

A rainy March 13 evening couldn’t dampen the spirits of Marin’s music lovers at the Marin Symphony fourth concert set of the season at the Civic Center Auditorium. An almost capacity audience was treated to a concert that “broke the mold” from ordinary symphony concerts, and for this creative transformation, Conductor Alasdair Neale is the key person. His imaginative programming can be credited for keeping Marin’s enthusiastic audiences attending the concerts each season.

A program of orchestral music as well as pop works and classical opera was the agenda and the audience was enchanted. Each of the three works performed at Sunday’s concert was from a different century, and all had one commonality: opera.

Leonard Bernstein’s classic Broadway opera/musical, Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, opened the program with members of the orchestra in full “swing” in the most literal sense. From the Prologue and majestic, Somewhere, to the Latin rhythms of Mambo, Cha Cha and the jazzy Rumble, the orchestra was in fine tune, even including their finger snaps! According to the program notes, Bernstein’s original score calls for a full orchestra, including a variety of 25 percussion instruments, all allowing the composer to take advantage of the panoply of available orchestral colors. March 13’s concert included five or six percussionists who covered for all the multiple instruments needed. It was a wonderful performance and enjoyable to watch.

The middle and most recent work performed was Zipperz (a soaPOPera), composed in 2008 by San Francisco native Nathaniel Stookey (b.1970). Part opera, part pop and part pulp, this work tells the familiar love-affair story from two different perspectives, all at the same time and “zipped” together. The text was written by poet Dan Harder. Mr. Stookey uses the Sprechstimme technique throughout, a speaking-voice where the tone of the voice is that of speech, but modulated as in a song. Composed in two acts, soprano Robin Coomer and Tenor Manoel Felciano spoke, sang, and even acted their parts successfully and beautifully. Zipperz (a soaPOPopera) is a creative and praiseworthy work. Mr. Stookey’s use of orchestrated sound effects (e.g. the ringing cell phone) were successful but the length of the piece is almost 50 minutes. The composer might consider some condensing. Both the composer and the lyricist were introduced after the performance and received a standing ovation.

The concert ended with the hundred-plus outstanding voices of the Marin Symphony Chorus, directed by Stephen McKersie. A group of six familiar opera choral works from the 19th century was sung, accompanied by the Symphony. Choral works, including Wagner, Borodin, Verdi and Leoncavallo were performed con Amore. It was the perfect ending to a night of standard repertoire, as well as the new and creative. What more can one ask for one evening’s concert?