“A cavalcade of cooperation ignited a musical and visual event marking the opening of the Santa Barbara Symphony’s concert season,” writes Daniel Kepl in Friday’s (10/23) Casa Magazine (Santa Barbara, CA). “Last Saturday’s full house at the Granada Theatre gave currency, literally, to the value of collaborative effort. A celebration of Santa Barbara’s … performing arts community, artistic partners included the Santa Barbara Center for the Performing Arts, State Street Ballet (just back from a major tour of China), and the Santa Barbara Choral Society. Opening the concert, Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b was led by Music and Artistic Director Nir Kabaretti, who is celebrating his tenth season at the helm of the orchestra. Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, with the Santa Barbara Choral Society and countertenor Randall Scotting conducted by the ensemble’s artistic director, JoAnne Wasserman, paved the way for the main attraction of the evening, conducted by Kabaretti, a fully staged production of Carl Orff’s splendidly entertaining Carmina Burana, set on State Street Ballet by New York City-based choreographer William Soleau.… Soleau’s visual imagery throughout was both simple and symphonic, his unerring savvy matching of sound to movement, spot-on; likewise, orchestra, chorus, and soloists.”
Posted October 27, 2015
