{"id":2651,"date":"2009-06-07T18:19:29","date_gmt":"2009-06-08T01:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=2651"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:45:48","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:45:48","slug":"obt-season-ending-performance-dazzles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/07\/obt-season-ending-performance-dazzles\/","title":{"rendered":"OBT season ending performance dazzles"},"content":{"rendered":"

My wife and I attended the Sunday matinee of Oregon Ballet Theatre<\/a>‘s final performance of the 08-09 season.\u00c2\u00a0 It was an amazing show all around.\u00c2\u00a0 First of all, the sets and lighting were phenomenal.\u00c2\u00a0 The orchestra, under music director Niel DePonte, sounded as good as I’ve ever heard them, which was especially gratifying as the pieces presented were difficult fare. And the dancing…\u00c2\u00a0 What a great ballet company this is – full of depth and artistry and passion.\u00c2\u00a0 The ability of all of the solo dancers to functionally act as well as dance the choreography was exceptional – and I think altogether rare until you get to the top-ranked companies.<\/p>\n

Dance is not my area of expertise, so that’s all I’ll say about that, but there are some additional kudos due to the musicians of the Oregon Ballet Theatre Orchestra.\u00c2\u00a0 The opening work by Martinu was first of all, beautiful, I had never encountered this piece before, but it has a lot of similar material to his Rhapsody-Concerto<\/em> for viola that I have performed before, and the entire orchestra played a polished account of the score, especially the full-toned and burnished trumpet playing from principal trumpet David Bamonte. \u00c2\u00a0 Acting concertmaster Margaret Bichteler played her extended solo at the end of Debussy’s Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun<\/em> beautifully, no doubt inspired by the mellifluous and effortless note-spinning of principal flute Georgeanne Ries and principal oboe Kelli Gronli.\u00c2\u00a0 The entire orchestra was tight and stylish in Stravinsky’s Concerto in D for string orchestra<\/em>, with superb viola solos by principal viola Michelle Matthewson.\u00c2\u00a0 The final work, set to pieces by Chopin, largely performed by OBT pianist extraordinaire Carol Rich, was a delight – not just because of the fine piano playing and sensitive accompaniment of the orchestra, but because the Robbins choreography was so funny, witty, and naughty.<\/p>\n

There was such great energy from the pit this afternoon – and you could tell that the dancers were just feeding on it.\u00c2\u00a0 A live orchestra is really much more than a luxury for a ballet company.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a necessity.\u00c2\u00a0 It will be sad to see the darkened pit next season, with no warming up happening before the performances, and no bows of the musicians and Niel DePonte afterward.\u00c2\u00a0 I hope that the orchestra is brought back as soon as it’s fiscally responsible to do so.<\/p>\n

Please go to this Friday’s DANCE UNITED<\/a> benefit for OBT – your ticket could be the one to make the difference between darkness and light on the Keller stage next season.<\/p>\n

Here’s the tally so far, in graphical form:<\/p>\n

\"obt_thermometer\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My wife and I attended the Sunday matinee of Oregon Ballet Theatre‘s final performance of the 08-09 season.\u00c2\u00a0 It was an amazing show all around.\u00c2\u00a0 First of all, the sets and lighting were phenomenal.\u00c2\u00a0 The orchestra, under music director Niel DePonte, sounded as good as I’ve ever heard them, which was especially gratifying as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,225,136,1335,25,2],"tags":[1633,277],"class_list":["post-2651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-bloggers","category-chamber-music","category-dance","category-portland","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-oregon-ballet-theatre","tag-performance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-GL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4148,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/28\/obt-orchestra-returns\/","url_meta":{"origin":2651,"position":0},"title":"obt orchestra returns","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Bob Hicks (a.k.a. Mr. Scatter) has a review of the Oregon Ballet Theater's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which featured the return of the OBT orchestra after being absent due to budget cuts for all of the 2009-2010 season.\u00a0 Here's the portion of the review that deals with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "dance"","block_context":{"text":"dance","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/dance\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/obtfb-400x47.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3262,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/14\/obt-doing-well\/","url_meta":{"origin":2651,"position":1},"title":"obt doing well","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm guessing that Oregon Ballet Theatre is doing very well with their ticket sales for their Emerald Retrospective this week - I tried to buy tickets to their Friday night performance and the only tickets available were over $100 each - too rich for my blood!\u00a0 I'm glad that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "dance"","block_context":{"text":"dance","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/dance\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2298,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/04\/06\/obt-pit-goes-dark\/","url_meta":{"origin":2651,"position":2},"title":"OBT pit goes dark","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"From today's Oregonian: In yet another round of bad news for Portland's arts scene, Oregon Ballet Theatre is cutting its budget 28 percent. The ballet will go on. Just don't expect a live orchestra at any OBT performances or quite as many dancers on stage next season. Approved by OBT's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "dance"","block_context":{"text":"dance","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/dance\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2597,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/05\/28\/dance-united-a-benefit-for-obt\/","url_meta":{"origin":2651,"position":3},"title":"DANCE UNITED: a benefit for OBT","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"If you're a supporter of the arts in Portland (either as a loyal audience member or as a donor), you owe it to yourself to attend their extraordinarily important benefit DANCE UNITED.\u00c2\u00a0 The benefit takes place on June 12, 2009 at 7:30pm Keller Auditorium. Performances will be given by members\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "dance"","block_context":{"text":"dance","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/dance\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3314,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/11\/04\/want-live-music-with-your-ballet\/","url_meta":{"origin":2651,"position":4},"title":"want live music with your ballet?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"If you want live music with your ballet this holiday season, there's only one place to go: Portland Ballet.\u00a0 They're collaborating with the PSU Symphony Orchestra to put on a production of Rossini's\u00a0 La Boutique Fantasque - a holiday company tradition.","rel":"","context":"In "dance"","block_context":{"text":"dance","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/dance\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"web_LBF_09_000","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/web_LBF_09_000.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2727,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/18\/obt-meets-exceeds-fundraising-goal\/","url_meta":{"origin":2651,"position":5},"title":"obt meets, exceeds fundraising goal","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Oregon Ballet Theatre has surpassed its $750K goal by over $100,000 as of today.\u00c2\u00a0 That's great news!\u00c2\u00a0 So, how are they going to continue past the next season, and will that involve a live orchestra?\u00c2\u00a0 Not sure.\u00c2\u00a0 But Bob Hicks has an excellent post at Artscatter concerning the current dilemmae\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "dance"","block_context":{"text":"dance","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/dance\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"obttherm","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/obttherm-200x263.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}