Features

The Glimmerglass Festival evolved from the Glimmerglass Opera, founded in 1975 and is now the second-largest summer opera festival in the United States. Every summer the rotating repertory company mounts performances of four productions selected from grand opera, the Broadway stage and new and lesser-known compositions. In the true sense of a festival, there are special events including interesting and informative talks by composers and artists and guest speakers. There are nearby galleries and museums.  The operas are presented in the Alice Busch Opera Theatre about 13 kms north of Cooperstown. For anyone not familiar with “Glimmerglass” it is the name used by author James Fenimore Cooper, referring to Otsego Lake on which the Glimmerglass State Park is situated.

Francesca Zambello, the distinguished stage director whose work may be seen on several outstanding new releases on Blu-ray discs including Porgy and Bess from San Francisco and Don Giovanni from Covent Garden, has been the Glimmerglass’ artistic and general director since 2011. Her personality and enthusiasm illuminate every aspect of the festival.

The four offerings for 2014 are Madame Butterfly, Carousel, Ariadne auf Naxos and An American Tragedy.

In mid-February David Perlman and I, along with a few dozen others, braved a bitterly cold Toronto winter evening to attend the Heliconian Hall launch of Mosaic, the second solo CD by the outstanding Toronto-based classical guitarist Michael Kolk.

An hour or two later, having just witnessed as fine a display of classical guitar playing as either of us had ever seen, we found ourselves wondering: If an artist of Kolk’s world-class quality was launching a solo CD in such a small, intimate venue with 30 people attending, was the classical guitar, if not exactly on the solo concert instrument critically endangered or endangered lists, at least on the vulnerable list? Furthermore, in this age of downloading and ubiquitous social media, was the whole concept of venue even relevant any more?

Jörn Weisbrodt, 41, is the third part of the German trifecta that is moving and shaking the arts in Toronto. In 2011, he was appointed the artistic director of the Luminato Festival, and thus joins the Canadian Opera Company’s general director, Alexander Neef, and music director, Johannes Debus, as a member of the wunderkind generation of Young Turk Germans making a splash on the worldwide culture scene. (The Neef/Debus Q&A was in last month’s WholeNote.)

When the Weisbrodt/Luminato announcement was made, every news story mentioned the fact that his life partner was Canadian/American superstar, singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright. (The couple’s 2012 New York celebrity wedding had huge coverage in the international press.) One does not, however, become head honcho of one of North America’s leading festivals of arts and culture by being “husband of.”

What follows is an in-depth conversation with Weisbrodt that gives a perspective on his life history and the life skills that brought him to Luminato.

Tell me about your background. I was born in Hamburg, and I’d describe my life as a typical middle class tapestry. My dad was head of logistics at Unilever and my mother was a housewife. My brother is an engineer with Lufthansa. Instead of going into the army for mandatory conscription after high school, I opted for social service instead. I worked for 15 months in an operating theatre dressing the doctors and nurses, positioning the patients and getting all the equipment together, making sure everything was sterile. I’ve been a great defender of compulsory social service for young people ever since.

Their birthdays are a month apart. They have just turned 40. They are both German, but they never knew each other in their home country. They also just happen to be the leading lights behind the Canadian Opera Company.

General director Alexander Neef was appointed in 2008, and music director Johannes Debus the following year. Together they represent the wunderkind generation who are the new movers and shakers in the arts.

We three met in Neef’s office for a wide-ranging conversation about the COC in particular, the arts in general, and, of course, living in Toronto. Debus came across as an idealist, Neef as a realist.

In anticipation of the Canadian Brass’ upcoming appearance April 27, the final concert in this year’s Mooredale Concert Series, I tracked tuba player Chuck Daellenbach down for a thoroughly entertaining hour-long chat at his south Rosedale Toronto home, middle of March 2014.

What follows is a full length transcript of  that chat: a conversation that roamed here and there over the whole 44 years of the Brass’ existence: commissioning and arranging, their momentous 1977 groundbreaking trip to China, recording, media, player personnel and more. Or you can click HERE for a flip through replica of the article the way it appears in the April 2014 print edition of The WholeNote Magazine. (Story commences on page 11.)  Either way, what follows gives a taste of the indefatigable Daellenbach, now the only member of the original quintet still in full-time performing harness with what is undoubtedly the best-known Canadian chamber ensemble of our (and perhaps all) time. Enjoy.