Conlon Takes Podium with Eisler's and Korngold's Chamber Works

James Conlon, music director of the CSO residency at Ravinia, settles in for the season with a program focusing on works by Hanns Eisler and Erich Korngold, two composers who found success after fleeing Nazi persecution, on July 22. The Martin Theatre concert with soloists from the CSO features the Ravinia premieres of Eisler’s Fourteen Ways of Describing Rain, accompanied by the silent film Regen (Rain), and Korngold’s String Sextet in D Major. The program also includes Wagner’sSiegfried Idyll.

American Idol Phillip Phillips Joins Food Network in Concert at Ravinia

Phillip Phillips, the winner of American Idol season 11, has been added to the roster of music talent for Food Network in Concert at Ravinia on Sept. 20. Having recently released his sophomore album, Behind the Light,Phillips joins headliner John Mayer, DJ Alexandra Richards, Twin Forks(with Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba), jazz musician Raul Midón, indie rock band California Wives, and guitarist/singer Zane Carneyand others for the daylong festival of food and music, featuring some of the best music and culinary talent. Ticket prices for admission to the event include: Lawn Only ($99), Lawn plus Greatest Hits venue-wide tasting event ($199), Pavilion 2 plus Greatest Hits ($249), and Pavilion 1 (premium seating) plus Greatest Hits ($299). Attendees will also have the opportunity to experience exclusive lunch and dinner events hosted by Food Network stars Sunny Anderson, Anne Burrell, Jose Garces, Alex Guarnaschelli,Jeff Mauro, Marc Murphy and Geoffrey Zakarian. These special add-on experiences will feature some of the best BBQ, craft beers, cocktails, wines, sandwiches, desserts and more. Prices vary from $85 and $125 per culinary event, and can be purchased with new tickets or added to previously purchased ones.

Kiri Te Kanawa Program Released

When Kiri Te Kanawa celebrates her 70th birthday with a Martin Theatre recital on Aug. 12, she will sing the world premiere of Newer Every Day, a set of five songs based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson, composed by Jake Heggie, who will accompany her on piano. Heggie is best known as the composer of one of the most successful operas of recent times, Dead Man Walking. The rest of the program has now been released and includes nine pieces by R. Strauss and works by Mozart, the composers most associated with the singer. The singer, who recently appeared on Downton Abbey, will also sings works by Mozart, Granados, Obradors and Guastavino, accompanied by Kevin Murphy, director of the Program for Singers at Ravinia's Steans Music Institute (RSMI). Kiri herself will give a free master class for RSMI singers in Bennett Grodon Hall at 2:00 p.m. on Aug. 10 in preparation for their Aug. 11 "Richard Strauss and Friends" concert.

That Darned Tritone

Notions of which intervals in music are considered pleasing have certainly changed drastically ever since the first polyphony (more than one musical line at a time) emerged in Western music around 900 C.E. Medieval theorists had some very specific notions as to which combinations of sounds should be allowed and which should be avoided. And none was avoided more than the interval known as a tritone, so named because it comprises three whole steps—in the key of C Major (the white keys of the piano), it occurs between F and B. Theorists considered the interval to be unstable and dissonant, and for that reason it was avoided not only in harmony, but even in melodic lines for nearly a thousand years.

When music students first enter conservatory-type schools, they are traditionally required to take a course in “sight-singing,” a thorn in the side of many of music student, unless they possess “perfect pitch,” which is quite rare even among accomplished musicians. In order to identify and sing various intervals, many students learn them as part of a well-known melody. For instance, an ascending perfect fourth is the first two notes of “Here Comes the Bride”; an ascending major sixth is outlined by the first two notes of the iconic musical tag for “N-B-C.” And of course, different students might choose different melodies, depending on what they are most familiar with.

But the tritone? That’s a much harder one to find. And so virtually all music students learn an ascending tritone as being the first two notes of the song “Maria” from West Side Story. 

Was Bernstein, who composed that immortal score, purposely doing something that had once been “forbidden” to make some sort of a point? Dennis Polkow, who has written an article for Ravinia magazine on the musical, points out that it also occurs right at the beginning of the piece between the second and third notes of the little three-note signal that is played by the orchestra as well as whistled by the gang members. Perhaps it is meant to convey the “dissonance” between the warring factions of the Sharks and the Jets.

Or maybe it’s just Bernstein being his iconoclastic self, using whatever means he had at his disposal to achieve whatever effect he was aiming for. But one thing is certain: Most music students will never hear “Maria” the same way again.

Madonna Mia, Ci Sono Molte Donne!

There’s a frequently repeated joke about the novice opera-goer who comes out of a performance and comments, “Wow, that Don Giovanni was a regular Don Juan!” The joke being, of course, that Don Giovanni IS Don Juan, translated into Italian.

But Don Juan gave his name to more than an opera and a legend; it also became a psychological diagnosis, the so-called “Don Juan complex.” Quite some time ago, TV talk-show host Sally Jessye Raphael devoted one of her shows to “Don Juans,” which she defined as “men who think they are God’s gift to women.” To qualify for participation on her panel, the men had to have slept with—or claim to have slept with—at least 200 women. One of her four guest subjects actually boasted of having had sexual relations with over 1,500 women, a claim that brought a gasp of astonishment from the studio audience.

What they probably didn’t realize is that Mozart’s Don Giovanni would have sneered at that paltry figure. In the first act, Giovanni’s henchman Leporello is explaining the reality of the situation to the scorned and furious Donna Elvira in the so-called “Catalogue aria,” in which he enumerates his master’s conquests: “In Italy, 640; in Germany, 231; 100 in France; in Turkey, 91; but in Spain, 1,003 and counting.” Mind you, the large number of Spanish conquests is not a moral judgment against Spanish women, but merely reflects the fact that Giovanni lived in Spain and, of course, did better on his home turf.

This brings his total to a whopping 2,065. And had Donna Anna not screamed for help in the first scene, it would have been 2,066. All of which makes Sally Jessye’s guests look like rank amateurs. Fortunately for them, at the end of the taping, they were allowed to simply leave the studio rather than being dragged into Hell by a living stone statue, a far more dramatically effective ending. You can see and hear baritone Christopher Maltman pay the ultimate price for his lecherous ways—all to the accompaniment of the glorious Chicago Symphony Orchestra—on August 14 and 16 in Ravinia’s Martin Theatre.

Nelson Know Depps of Fandom

When you are a multigenerational icon like Willie Nelson, even your fans have fans—Johnny Depp, instance. The movie star is such a big fan of the country legend that he swashbuckled his way onto the stage at a Boston concert to play guitar with Willie. Come see if any stars come out to play when Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss team up at Ravinia on July 12.

Theme From 2001 Expands Across Galaxy of More Unexpected Film

Carl Sagan might say that Richard Strauss’s heavenly Also sprach Zarathustra shows up in billions and billions of movies. Though most earthlings associate the bombastic piece with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, it has crash-landed in some unexpected titles such asZoolander, Land of the Lost, Wall-E, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,Jackass Number Two, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Magnolia andCasino. On July 11 conductor Robert Moody and the CSO prove pop culture and the classics are more intertwined than we think with the program “Classics Go the Movies,” which features timeless favorites made familiar through their use on film soundtracks.

Win Cash For Your High School Music Program

Not only do children and students through college receive free lawn admission to every classical concert at Ravinia, but high-school students could actually win cash for their school’s music program. Each time a student attends a CSO performance at the festival, his or her school earns a point. At the end of the season the school with the most points will receive a check for its music programs from the Ravinia Associates Board. Double points will be awarded at the Tchaikovsky Spectacular on July 27, when Ravinia’s student marketing team will host a free preconcert hangout with food and refreshment for all high-school students. Remember to check in at the box office to get your points.

Hobbit Resource Guide Available Now

Ravinia’s One Score, One Chicago initiative features a piece of symphonic music each year to be the focal point of a public conversation about the art and as a project to bring into schools through its REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs.

This year’s One Score selection is Howard Shore’s Oscar-winning score to The Lord of the Rings—The Return of the King, and an original resource guide is available online now. With his Oscar-winning scores for the Lord of the Ringstrilogy, Howard Shore contributed the heartbeat if not the soul of those phenomenally successful films.

Ravinia concludes the trilogy this summer with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing the score to The Return of the King while the film is broadcast on video screens in the Pavilion and on the lawn on Aug. 7 and Aug. 8. Pavilion or lawn tickets are $25 each. Children and students will be admitted free to the lawn, but tickets must be reserved in advance.

RSMI Alumna Wins 'Bravas' For Singing Mozart Roles

It’s not easy to impress the critics at the Financial Times. Layla Claire just makes it look that way. In fact, the alumna from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute (RSMI) is winning raves from publications around the world for her performances in two Mozart operas, the Canadian Opera Company’s Così fan tutte and the Glyndebourne Festival’s Don Giovanni (which runs through Aug. 1). The Financial Times said, “Layla Claire’s Donna Anna dominates through the size of her voice and the electric current that runs through it.” Ravinia presents two Mozart operas of its own, Don Giovanni on Aug. 14 and 16 and The Marriage of Figaro on Aug. 15 and Aug. 17, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under James Conlon in the Martin Theatre.

There's Something New In The Park (Besides our 50+ Debut Artists)

Ravinia has unveiled the newest addition to its sculpture collection, a monumental painted stainless-steel figure by internationally celebrated Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa, who attended the June 14 unveiling event.

Titled Silent Music, the 2012 sculpture is approximately 150 × 90.5 × 90.5 inches and lights up at night. The piece is on extended loan to the festival from the Joel and Carole Bernstein Family Collection. Plensa is best known locally as the designer of the Crown Fountain—popularly referred to as the “spitting fountain”—at Chicago’s Millennium Park. The sculptor found his inspiration for Silent Music in his early childhood experience of crawling underneath the family piano while his father played it, creating a complete sensory experience. “It vividly illustrates the full Ravinia experience in that our audiences can immerse themselves totally in music, just as one can literally crawl into Plensa’s sculpture to experience the artist’s vision from within, to be surrounded by art the way the boy under the piano was surrounded by music,” said Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman.

Billy Corgan Gets Greenlit On Behind-The-Scenes Wrestling Show

Those who don’t know Billy Corgan as the creative force behind The Smashing Pumpkins might recognize him as the Highland Park entrepreneur behind the 1930s-style teahouse Madame ZuZu’s. But it’s his third career that will bring him to television. Corgan is creative director of theChicago-based Resistance Pro wrestling league, and AMC has just given him an eight-part series that lifts the curtain on the popular attraction, showing the creation of wrestling storylines, choreography and behind-the-scenes arguments. The title and airdate of the reality show is not yet announced, but in the meantime, Corgan makes his Ravinia debut in an acoustic evening with Katie Cole on Aug. 30.

Ukulele Master Proves Nerd Cred With Montage Of TV Themes

The fun-loving Jake Shimabukuro, described by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the best axmen in the world even though he doesn’t play guitar, has already been labeled a “ukulele hero” by the media. And now he’s labeled himself a nerd in this viral video that has the artist strumming out TV and movie theme songs on the instrument he helped to make popular again. Shimabukuro returns to Ravinia Aug. 1 to open for Lyle Lovett.

Do The Math: Five For Fighting Equals One

Anyone who listens to contemporary radio knows that Five for Fighting is responsible for the hits “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” and “100 Years,” but can anyone name all five musicians? Nope. It’s a trick question. Five for Fighting is a one-man band, less well-known as Vladimir John Ondrasik III. The singer-songwriter, a huge fan of the L.A. Kings, adopted the hockey penalty term as his stage name. But when Ondrasik returns to Ravinia on Sept. 14, he won’t be alone. He’ll perform his hits with a 30-piece symphony orchestra.

Ravinia Awards Two Scholarships Through Chamber of Commerce

Ravinia was so impressed with the Class of 2014 student leaders identified by the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce, that this year it awarded two scholarships. As has been tradition, the first went to a Highland Park student who intends to pursue music- or performance-related studies in college. Congratulations go to Highland Park’s Scott Greene, who has already racked up many awards for his work with the school band. In conjunction with Ravinia’s Student Marketing Board, a second scholarship was awarded for a student with a future in media or mass communications. Congratulations toShealtiel “Bosco” Israel for winning this inaugural prize. Over the past 12 years, Ravinia scholarship winners have gone on to internships at the festival, studies at Juilliard and careers in the arts. Ravinia is proud of them all and equally admiring of the Class of 2014

Documentary Explores Life Of Grateful Dead's "Other One"

Documentarian Mike Fleiss admits in Rolling Stone magazine that he was nervous about breaking the news to Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir that he wanted to title the film he was making about the singer-songwriter The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir. The filmmaker behind God Bless Ozzie Osbourne worried that suggesting Weir was second to the late Jerry Garcia might upset his subject, hurt his feelings or otherwise harsh his mellow. Nothing doing. Weir immediately embraced the title, and the documentary, which is expecting a release date soon, opened to rave reviews in April at the Tribeca Film Festival. Bob Weir and RatDog make their Ravinia debut on Aug. 31, joined by Dwight Yoakam.