Music at Popejoy Hall
10:54 PM
I just came back from a cultural evening on the University of New Mexico campus. First I went to the last concert of the 35th Annual John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium, because my friend Curtis urged me to go (even though he couldn't) and it was free. I was dubious, because I didn't think I would like the avant garde music, and it turned out I was right. The first piece, Tempo Mental Rap, by Michael Edward Edgerton, was played on the guitar by Stefan Ostersjo (with an umlaut over the last O), who was specially brought over from Sweden to play this piece, "truly one of the most ambitious and explorative works to have been written for the acoustic guitar this past decade." It consisted of a variety of strange sounds made by the guitar, not at all melodic, and aided by various pieces of metal and other gadgets. I was glad I brought my Ruth Rendell thriller novel with me, which I read by flashlight, and ate my diabetic chocolate almond hazelnut candy bar, waiting for the next piece. I had already found out that the dance piece at the end of the program was in a different building, requiring a walk across part of the campus in the dark. Between compositions, it was announced that there would be a gathering at Yanni's Opa! Bar after the concert, at our own expense. So there was no reception in the Keller Hall lobby this time.
The next piece was called Dodge at Mann Gulch, a composition by Beth Weimann for clarinet, electronic sound and video, so it was little more interesting. The video included a few sentences from Norman MacLean's book, Young Men and Fire, (University of Chicago Press) describing the happening on August 5, 1949 in Montana during the Mann gulch fire that killed 12 firefighters who had parachuted into the wilderness. According to the program notes, "On that day, crew chief Wag Dodge was able to set an escape fire so that the main forest fire could wash over him while he lay in the ashes. Doge was not able to convince any others in the crew to go into the area of the escape fire."
I was looking forward to Rollerchant, by Matthew H. Fields, because the composer's program notes said that it was inspired by his experience in Oslo's Frogner Park, which I had visited when I was in Norway, and it was a virtuoso showpiece for the solo cello. Boring.
I left the hall after the next piece, Surfer's Guide for the Perplexed (or Jonah on the Raging Sea, by David Lefkowitz. As it happened, Hairspray, the musical was playing across the lobby at Popejoy Hall, and it had just let out for intermission. So, instead of heading home, I decided to go in for the second act, since I could do that undetected in the crowd, without buying a ticket. It's set in Baltimore in 1962, and is a bit corny or campy, but the music and dancing were lively and everyone in the audience seemed to be having a good time. I got to sit close up on the main floor, so it was fun. The costumes were colorful. The theme of the story was about the racial integration of the Miss Hairspray contest on national TV. And two of the main characters where generously proportioned women, a mother and her daughter. The mother was actually played by a man, J.P. Dougherty, who was the standby in the Broadway production for the role played by Harvey Fierstein. The daughter, of high school age, got her man, the hearthrob Link Larken, even though she was fat. All the women had really big hair, which was part of the gimmick for this show that was supposedly sponsored by Harriman F. Spritzer, the owner of the hairspray company.
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