Separate recent newspaper articles track extra-musical activities by conductors Gustavo Dudamel and Ivan Fischer. “Gustavo Dudamel said he has completed scoring and recording the soundtrack to the movie ‘Libertador,’ [a biopic of Simón Bolivar] which stars Edgar Ramirez as the South American revolutionary figure,” writes David Ng in Monday’s (8/12) Los Angeles Times. “The period movie, which follows Bolivar’s life and military adventures, is awaiting a release date. Dudamel … said the soundtrack was performed by members of the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra and the Simón Bolívar National Youth Choir at recording sessions in Venezuela. (The conductor is the music director of the Bolivar Symphony as well as the Los Angeles Philharmonic.) The movie represents the first time that Dudamel has composed music for a feature film.” On Tuesday (8/13) New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini reviews Le Nozze di Figaro at the Mostly Mozart Festival, featuring Ivan Fischer’s “staged concert performance [involving] an insightful dramatic take on a complex opera, charming costumes, ingeniously simple yet evocative sets, and a cast of appealing singers who work together like the actors of a repertory theater company…. In Mr. Fischer’s concept, the players are part of the drama.… For extended stretches of the opera, Mr. Fischer, not wanting to get in the way, just sits among the violinists to lead what is clearly a well-rehearsed performance.… Two years ago, his staging of Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’ … was a highlight not just of the Mostly Mozart festival, but also of the opera season in New York.”
Posted August 13, 2013
