UAlbany Symphony Orchestra & Concert Band

erforming rts

Paul T aylor

Company

Photo by Laura Halzack

Keziah

Tuba

Teo Jordan

Barrett Tazim Khan

Martinez

Perry Tyler Roberts

Sophia Watts

Violas

Dara Ribis

Kayla Somers Samantha Dalton Jaime Kendrick Catherine Rafferty Breanna Shifrin Robert Lombardo Cellos Joseph Regan Principal Connor Gordon Alisa Bielert Lucy Skidmore Maya Wilkerson Marissa McGuire

Emma Smith Isabelle Autore Sosuke Aizawa Andrew Craner

Double Basses

Erik Laurin

Principal Kevin Kerr

Mary Lemak

Connor Hoolan

Molly Martellotta

Piccolo

Maria Mucaria

Flutes

Jacqueline Tenney Jessica Schuh Maria Mucaria

Oboes

Tyler Leicht Ian Cohen

Clarinets

James Affatigato Emily Lucy

Bassoons

Laura Canham-Lunde Brian Callahan Colin Lunde French Horns Erica DeNicola Priscilla Duskin

Trumpets Sydney Miller Vincent Amodeo Harp Kendra Wang

Orchestra Librarian and Management Jessica Schuh Hope Savercool Assistant Logan Stone

Program Notes

The Anguish of Nosferatu

In the story of Nosferatu, or “Dracula”, Count Orlock must kill innocent victims to sustain his life, and it is the vampire’s curse and anguish that this composition attempts to represent. The minor key, erratic compound meter, and harmonies that often feature tritones (the devils’ interval!) help create the tense and creepy mood the composer was trying to achieve.

Selections from The Phantom of the Opera

There is a reason that The Phantom of the Opera is the longest running Broadway show ever: the music. This medley features Think of Me, Angel of Music, The Phantom of the Opera, All I Ask of You, The Point of No Return, and Music of The Night. All

of these pieces are expertly arranged, and if you have seen the Broadway show, these tunes will bring back all the emotions from that performance. The Broadway run will come to an end in February, but if you can’t get to it, you have this!

The Haunted Carousel

This work, which features a theremin part (performed on a phone or ipad) was the winning composition in 2014 from the National Band Association Composition Contest. The three beat feel is typical of carousel music, but that happy sound has turned spooky in this piece.

At the Movies: Haunted Nights

Anyone who watches scary movies knows how important the music is to help create the appropriate tense mood. Familiar themes and suspenseful ambiances collide in this piece which horror movie aficionados will find very appealing. This medley features music from It, Saw, Scream, and Halloween.

The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's French comedy The Barber of Seville (1775). The première of Rossini's opera (under the title Almaviva, o sia L'inutile precauzione) took place on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, with designs by Angelo Toselli.

Rossini's Barber of Seville has proven to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music, and has been described as the opera buffa of all "opere buffe".

Rossini's opera recounts the events of the first of the three plays by French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais that revolve around the clever and enterprising character named Figaro, the barber of the title. Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro, composed

30 years earlier in 1786, is based on the second part of the Beaumarchais trilogy. The first Beaumarchais play was originally conceived as an opéra comique, but was rejected as such by the Comédie Italienne. The play as it is now known was premiered in 1775 by the Comédie-Française at the Théâtre des Tuileries in Paris.

Other operas based on the first play were composed by Giovanni Paisiello (in 1782), by Nicolas Isouard in 1796, and then by Francesco Morlacchi in 1816. Though the work of Paisiello triumphed for a time, only Rossini's version has stood the test of time and continues to be a mainstay of operatic repertoire. On 11 November 1868, two days before Rossini's death, the composer Constantino Dall'Argine (1842 1877) premiered an opera based on the same libretto as Rossini's work, bearing a dedication to Rossini. The premiere was not a failure, but critics condemned the "audacity" of the young composer and the work is now forgotten.

Masques et bergamasques, Op. 112, is an orchestral suite by Gabriel Fauré. It was arranged by the composer from incidental music he provided for a theatrical entertainment commissioned for Albert I, Prince of Monaco in 1919. The original score contained eight numbers, including two songs for tenor, and a choral passage. These numbers were not included in the published suite, which has four movements.

In 1918 Raoul Gunsbourg, manager of the Opéra de MonteCarlo, invited Fauré to write a short work for the theatre. The impetus came from Fauré's friend and former teacher Camille Saint-Saëns, who suggested to Prince Albert that he should commission Fauré to write a short work for the Monte Carlo theatre. Fauré's opera Pénélope (1913) had been premiered there, and although he felt Gunsbourg had not fully appreciated the opera, Fauré accepted the new commission. He was director of the Paris Conservatoire, and his official duties limited the time he had for composition. For the proposed "choreo-

graphic divertissement", also billed as a "comédie lyrique", he reused material from earlier compositions.

Fauré proposed a story based on the poem "Clair de lune" from the collection Fêtes galantes by Paul Verlaine (1869). Fauré had set the poem to music in 1887. The title of the new work was taken from the opening lines of the poem. The librettist of Pénélope, René Fauchois, provided a scenario accordingly. In the early 20th century the commedia dell'arte of the 16th and 17th centuries provided inspiration for a number of musical works, including Schoenberg's melodrama Pierrot lunaire (1912) and Stravinsky's ballet Pulcinella (1920). Fauchois' story has a commedia dell'arte troupe spying on the amorous encounters of aristocrats in its audience.

The Monte Carlo production was such a success that Albert Carré put the work on at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in March 1920, where it was performed more than 100 times over the next thirty years. The Fauré scholar Jean-Michel Nectoux describes it as paradoxical that Fauré's most frequently performed stage work is also his least ambitious.

The suite drawn from the work has remained one of Fauré's most popular works. It was published by Durand et cie in 1919. It is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, harp and strings. The suite consists of four of the purely orchestral movements.

Next on the Music Program Schedule

Bach to Broadway - Nov. 18

This cabaret features the Department’s vocal students in performances of classical and contemporary song favorites.

UAlbany Jazz Band - Nov. 21

Directed by Keith Pray, this student and community ensemble presents concerts featuring classic and contemporary jazz.

HOUSE POLICIES

Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the management and its staff.

use of photographic or recording devices of any kind during this performance is strictly prohibited.

There is no food or drink allowed in the theatres, nor is smoking allowed in UAlbany buildings.

avoid disrupting the performance, kindly disable any noise making electronic devices you may have with you.

Please take time to note the location of the fire exits nearest to you. In the event of an emergency, an announcement will be made from the stage. Please proceed to the nearest exit in an orderly fashion.

Created and produced by the University

Museum,

Institute

Arts Center in collaboration with WAMC Public Radio,

popular series features

figures

a variety of artistic disciplines in conversation about their creative inspirations, their craft and their careers. “Roundtable” host Joe Donahue conducts live on-stage interviews followed by a Q&A with the audience.

erforming rts enterPAC university at albany State University of New York

Urban Bush

September 20 & 21at 7:30pm

October 6 at 7:30pm

Dance

The

October 21 at 8pm

Performing Arts Center November 13 at 7:30pm

Arts Center January 27 at 7:30pm

Ballet

The

February 17 at 8pm Paul Taylor Dance Company The

March 4 at 8pm

The

March 18 at 7:30pm

The

April 22 at 8pm

Sinopoli

The

May 13 at 8pm

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