festivals

“Omar” Triumphs, “Unholy Wars” Struggles

Pictured: Cheryse McLeod Lewis in “Omar” photo by Leigh Webber/courtesy Spoleto Festival USA.

By Lawrence Toppman

“A folk musician and a movie composer.” I heard that fragment of speech, which sounded a bit dismissive, in the lobby of the Sottile Theatre before the second performance of “Omar.” But why should the pairing of co-composers Rhiannon Giddens, who also wrote the libretto, and Michael Abels raise eyebrows?

Composers best known in their day for songs have written operas for 200 years, from Schubert through George Gershwin and up to Rufus Wainwright today. Many authors of film scores have written operas: Bernstein, Copland, Britten, Vaughan Williams, Herrmann, Saint-Saens, Walton and others. And Giddens received classical training at Oberlin College, while Abels has written for symphony orchestras. (The Charlotte Symphony played his “Global Warming” this season.)

In any case, they left virtually no skeptics unconvinced, no eyes dry and nobody’s sense of wonder unstirred with this piece based on the 1831 memoir of Omar ibn Said. They turned that brief and ambiguous book, so short on details about Omar’s passage to America and life as a slave in the Carolinas, into a universal story about a man’s search for self-understanding and refusal to give in to hatred and despair.

Omar, an educated Arabic-speaking man from West Africa, came to Charleston as a slave. His memoir tells us he received cruel treatment at the hands of his first master, ran away, ended up in a Cumberland County jail (surely no other opera contains the plea “Go to Fayetteville!”) and was bought by the relatively kind James Owen, who attempted to convert Omar to Christianity and gets much praise in the little book. Owen may have helped Omar publish his memoirs to show the world Southern slaves were well-treated, but even he probably never knew whether the slave clung to his original Islamic faith.

Writers can adapt this story however they like, and Giddens and Abels did an especially fine job. They quote from it, don’t make significant alternations – Omar doesn’t get a love interest or escape to freedom at last – yet expand it philosophically, as Omar considers his plight and his duty to Allah.

The composers give most of the simpler melodies to the two dozen members of the Spoleto Festival Chorus, who put them across clearly and emotionally. Elements of folk music do come in, as do north African percussion, and all fit. Two women, not described in the book, counsel Omar along the way: young Julie, sung beautifully by Laquita Mitchell, and mama Fatima (dignified UNC-Greensboro and UNCSA graduate Cheryse McLeod Lewis), who supplies balm.

Yet the show belongs to Jamez (pronounced Jah-MEZZ) McCorkle. Spoleto fans heard him in 2017 as a heartbreaking Lenski in “Eugene Onegin.” Here, hobbling slightly on a boot encasing a damaged ankle, he radiated a powerful if sometimes anguished physical presence and a tenor that sailed out over the big orchestra like a lighthouse beacon above a stormy sea. Though the opera rarely approaches atonality, he gets long stretches of declamatory singing, especially in Act 1, and brings each vividly to life.

He will reportedly tour with the show, which goes to Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and New York before ending up in Chapel Hill. I can hardly imagine “Omar” without him, though if the opera has a long life – and this one might – he’ll have to pass the torch.

Karim Sulayman and Coral Dolphin on kneel on stage in a position of prayer in Unholy Wars. Photo by Leigh Webber.
Karim Sulayman and Coral Dolphin in Unholy Wars; photo by Leigh Webber.

In “Unholy Wars,” a worthy idea got short-changed by awkward execution. Lebanese-American Karim Sulayman conceived the idea, assembled the music and sang most of the numbers in a plangent, flexible and sensitive tenor voice. He wanted to look at the way European composers stereotyped Middle Eastern people through opera, especially in works about the Crusades, and challenge our assumptions by giving those characters individuality.

Unfortunately, he chose no composer later than Handel, whose “Lascia ch’io pianga” (the only familiar melody) capped the 70-minute show. That decision made the production monochromatic and finally monotonous – there’s not a single fast-paced section – and simply showing victimized characters as stereotypes does little to make us care about them.

The small pit band at Dock Street Theatre played with taste and restraint, and soprano Raha Mirzadegan and baritone John Taylor Ward supported Sulayman well, especially in the longest excerpt: Monteverdi’s “Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda,” where a Christian crusader loves a Saracen, kills her unknowingly in battle, then baptizes her so she can enter a Christian heaven.

This demise, as slowed-down as the rest of the show, made Suleyman’s point long before the end of the number. Why silent dancer Coral Dolphin slowly writhed around the stage, sometimes washing herself with water and sometimes with sand, I cannot guess.

     

In Spoleto Festival Chamber Music Series, Last Minute Changes Can Be Good News

By Lawrence Toppman

Ever-restless Geoff Nuttall, wearing a brown suit and a sheepish grin, paced the Dock Street Theatre stage before concert No. 4. “I like getting emails from you,” the host of the Bank of America Chamber Music Series told the audience. “A lot of them start out in a nice way: ‘I really enjoy your chamber music programs.’ Then there’s the ‘but.’ They go on, ‘But…I really don’t like contemporary music as much as you do.’

“Well, those of you who don’t like contemporary music will be happy to hear we’re not playing Andy Akiho’s ‘The War Below,’ because Alexi Kenney got COVID, and the piece was too complicated to get another violinist on short notice.” One audience member applauded lustily. “Don’t be mean!” Nuttall said with a laugh. “The good news is, Pedja Musijevic will play C.P.E. Bach’s Sonata in C Minor instead.”

And there, in 30 seconds, you had the perennial attraction of Spoleto Festival USA’s chamber music concerts: humor, a chatty connection between musicians and listeners, spontaneity at every level and the ability to supply an internationally respected artist on short notice. Musijevic played the piano without a score, so he had the Bach in his fingertips, but he did so with only a day’s warning.

I hadn’t gone to Spoleto on a weekday for many years, and the availability of seats at both the 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. concerts surprised me. They’ve traditionally been full on weekends, but the lesser number of midweek tourists and lingering anxiety about COVID during a spike in Charleston thinned the crowd. (The festival continues through June 12.)

I wouldn’t attribute lower sales to Nuttall’s fresh and ingeniously balanced scheduling. The second program I saw exemplified his deft sonic juggling. It began with a slightly reorchestrated Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, where clarinetist Todd Palmer sailed through the prominent solos usually given to a high-pitched trumpet.

Next came two living composers. Gabriella Smith’s string-woodwind quintet “Children of the Fire” set up a quiet groove, tore it apart to the point of chaos, then set off on a dreamlike, harmonious arc. Tabea Debus turned her recorder into an anxious, fluttering bird through the intense solo “Two and a Half Minutes to Midnight” by Dani Howard.

Then Debus dropped back five centuries to skip nimbly through anonymous Renaissance variations on the tune “La Monica,” subtly abetted by theorbo player Adam Cockerham. Schumann’s Piano Quartet, anchored by gray-maned Stephen Prutsman at the keyboard, ended the program with an ecstatic performance by him and string players from the next generation.

As always, Nuttall prepared the ground for maximum enjoyment. He pointed out that Schumann required the cello to play a low C; cellist Paul Wiancko would suddenly have to re-tune to reach this note for a few moments, then quickly return to conventional tuning to play the rest of his part. Watching Wiancko fiddle frantically with the fine-tuners near the base of the cello added to the pleasure of his warm-hearted playing.

I doubt you could attend two Spoleto chamber concerts without making at least one joyful discovery. I made two.

First, I learned that a sopranino recorder – the tiniest version of that instrument, hardly larger than the fat pencils you give schoolkids learning to write – can sound like something other than steam escaping from an unattended kettle. Tabea Debus played one in the Vivaldi Recorder Concerto in C (RV 443), and the sounds ranged from a pennywhistle-like exuberance to a gentle breeze of melody.

Second, the Castalian String Quartet blew me away with a turbo-charged performance of Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 6, an agonized piece written soon after the death of his beloved sister, Fanny. (This may have been the best performance of Mendelssohn’s last major work I’ve ever heard.) Nuttall’s own St. Lawrence String Quartet played on the first three chamber concerts and left the rest of the festival to the Castalians, who played superbly together and apart when joining other ensembles.

They and Debus both reside and work in England. We’re lucky that Nuttall keeps finding new faces like these, and Spoleto Festival USA keeps footing the bills to bring them to us.
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Featured Image: Geoff Nuttall (far left) with Owen Dalby, Paul Wiancko, Christopher Costanza, and Lesley Robertson at the Dock Street Theatre. Photo by William Struhs/courtesy of Spoleto Festival USA.

Carolina Summer Festivals: Live and In-Person

Updated July 15, 2021.

Though virtual offerings have been a sustaining force for music lovers over the past year, there’s something about enjoying a symphony in the fresh mountain air that screens can’t replace. Luckily, more and more beloved Carolina festivals have announced plans to safely return to in-person performances as summertime approaches. With countless opportunities to hear live classical music just a day trip away from Charlotte, where will this summer take you?

St. Lawrence String Quartet during the Bank of America Chamber Music series in 2019. Photo by William Struhs.
St. Lawrence String Quartet during the Bank of America Chamber Music series in 2019. Photo by William Struhs.

Spoleto Festival USA  |  May 27 – June 13

Location: Charleston, SC   |   spoletousa.org

There’s a reason Spoleto Festival USA is recognized as America’s premier performing arts festival. For 17 densely packed days, Charleston, SC explodes with music, theatre, and dance from a vast variety of genres and styles. As Spoleto embraces a hybrid approach, parts of this year’s festival remain virtual, while many in-person performances will be held in outdoor venues. Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration and intimate chamber concerts are among the season’s classical music offerings.

Find Tickets Here

Eastern Music Festival  |  June 26 – July 31

Eastern Music Festival (EMF) Young Artist Orchestra overhead with Jose Luis Novo 2018. Photo by Ken Yanagisawa for EMF.
Eastern Music Festival (EMF) Young Artist Orchestra overhead with Jose Luis Novo 2018. Photo by Ken Yanagisawa for EMF.

Location: Greensboro, NC   |   easternmusicfestival.org

Greensboro’s Eastern Music Festival (EMF), a nationally recognized classical music festival and summer educational program, celebrates its 60th season this year with a return to in-person concerts. At EMF, accomplished faculty and renowned visiting artists guide 265+ student musicians each summer as they work toward careers in classical music. Though the festival’s calendar of events and student count have been reduced this season to maintain safety, classical music lovers can choose from over 35 exciting concerts, including Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Eastern Festival Orchestra performances each Saturday evening.

Find Tickets Here

An Appalachian Summer Festival  |  July 2 – 31

Location: Boone, NC   |   appsummer.org

Now in its 37th season, Boone’s An Appalachian Summer Festival brings the best of music, dance, theatre, visual arts, and film to the Appalachian State University campus every summer. This year, the festival will present a mixture of virtual and in-person, COVID-compliant programming, with live programs rotating between two outdoor venues. Attendees can look forward to a stacked lineup of events for all tastes, including evenings with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, the Tesla Quartet, Alan Cumming & Ari Shapiro, and more. 

Find Tickets Here

Brevard Music Center Summer Festival  |  July 9 – August 8

Brevard Music Center Students at a Waterfall. Photo by Steven McBride.
Brevard Music Center Students at Waterfall. Photo by Steven McBride.

Location: Brevard, NC   |   brevardmusic.org

Nestled in the heart of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, the Brevard Music Center (BMC) is one of the nation’s premier summer training programs for young musicians. Students perform alongside distinguished faculty and guest artists in dozens of concerts throughout the summer. This season, Beethoven takes center stage as the festival presents a celebration of the composer’s 251st birthday, and concertgoers will experience the inaugural season of the newly built Parker Concert Hall. Other standout events include Hollywood Under the Stars featuring the Music of John Williams, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and featured performances from violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and pianist Lara Downes.

Find Tickets Here


Charlotte New Music   |   Events July 17, July 21 – 31

Beo String Quartet - four members of the group hold their instruments as they look toward the camera.Location: Charlotte, NC (plus virtual performances)   |   charlottenewmusic.org

Charlotte New Music (CNM), the leading new music organization and contemporary music festival in the Southeastern United States, has an exciting lineup of summer fun planned for Charlotteans and music lovers around the globe! At CNM’s upcoming in-person Stargazer Music Fest (July 17, 8 PM – midnight), concertgoers will be treated to a serene evening of original music and night-sky viewing. Read more about the Stargazer Music Fest and find tickets here. Next, after a tremendous virtual season in 2020, the Charlotte New Music Festival returns July 21 – 31 with a full calendar of innovative virtual concerts. Visit the Charlotte New Music website to learn more.

Is your summer festival missing from this list? Contact Mary Lathem at malathem@wdav.org to request an addition.

More Summertime Fun 
SummerStages on WDAV   |   July 3 – August 7

Each summer, with blankets and picnic baskets in hand, millions of Americans enjoy classical music in the casual setting of music festivals. SummerStages takes its listeners on the road each week to summer music venues across the southeast. Listen Saturdays at 6 p.m. on WDAV starting July 3.

Summer Festivals Play On(line)

By Frank Dominguez

As the pandemic drags on in the Carolinas, the arts continue to feel the repercussions. Particularly hard hit are the regional summer music festivals that have been a haven of culture for both locals and vacationing visitors for many years. With customary creativity, these festivals have pivoted to present virtual programs in the spirit of the in person festivals.

Given how long WDAV has benefited from close partnerships with An Appalachian Summer Festival in Boone, the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, and the Brevard Music Center and Summer Festival in the western Blue Ridge Mountains, we feel an obligation to keep their presence front and center with our listeners.

Every Wednesday at 10 a.m. during the month of July, we feature a different classical music performance from An Appalachian Summer Festival, many of them featuring the acclaimed Broyhill Chamber Ensemble.

The Eastern Music Festival, helmed for decades now by the distinguished American conductor Gerard Schwarz, enjoys a similar showcase on WDAV Tuesdays and Saturdays at 10 a.m. beginning July 14th through the 28th. We’ll share concert highlights from the festival that have previously aired on our weekly concert program, Carolina Live.

Our strongest ties are with the Brevard Music Center, which shares Davidson College as a “parent” in common with WDAV. The college is where music professor James Christian Pfohl first hosted the summer music camp that eventually moved to Brevard in the 1940s. It has grown to be one of the premier music centers and festivals in the nation. For more than a decade, WDAV has produced a concert series drawn from festival performances. A retrospective of the best of Open Air Brevard is available on WDAV Saturday evenings at 6 through August 15th, as well as on demand at our website.

Information about the online offerings of all these festivals is available at the WDAV Events Calendar.

Spoleto at Home

Pictured: The St. Lawrence String Quartet plays Haydn’s “Emperor” quartet during the Bank of America Chamber Music series. Photo by William Struhs.

By Frank Dominguez

I didn’t travel to Europe for the first time until 2012, when I accompanied a group of WDAV supporters on a trip to Paris and Provence. Immersing myself in the history, food and culture of Europe was an experience that is still vivid in my mind.

Before that, I experienced that kind of euphoric heightening of the senses regularly without plane travel – in fact, just a few hours’ drive away – at the annual Spoleto Festival USA.

With Charleston, SC, providing the historic atmosphere and gourmet cuisine, the festival provided the cultural stimulation any arts lover covets, with a kaleidoscopic array of theater, dance and music of all types.

For me the highlight was always the incredible classical music, with performers from around the globe presenting chamber music concerts twice daily, rarely heard operas, and the types of orchestral programs that are simply not practical for our beloved regional orchestras to present most of the time.

The Spoleto Festival USA has been the site of some of the most intense memory making of my artistic life. So while the news of the festival’s cancellation this year because of the pandemic came as no surprise, it was nevertheless an intensely sad moment for me, and I expect for many of WDAV’s listeners who are also fans.

That’s why we’re bringing them highlights of past festival performances virtually, every Wednesday at 11 a.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. through June 6th, to coincide with what would have been the festival’s run this year.

And for die hard festival lovers, the news is even better, as Spoleto at Home offers free digital programming for audiences to enjoy in lieu of the 2020 season.

Until we can again contemplate the prospect of crowds in Charleston’s French Quarter, these offerings provide a wonderful way to keep alive the spirit of one of the nation’s most distinctive cultural events.

Remember to tune in to WDAV Wednesdays at 11 a.m. and Saturdays at 2 p.m. through June 6th to hear highlights of past festival performances. Broadcast from the Spoleto Festival are made possible by DaisleyLegal.

A Festive Carolina Summer

Summer festivals, featuring diverse artistic contributions from chamber music and orchestra to theatre and choral singing, are happening across North and South Carolina. Below you’ll find highlights from a selection of festivals, as well as access to websites for performance schedules and event details.

An Appalachian Summer Festival

An Appalachian Summer Festival Logo

In its 35th anniversary year, the Appalachian Summer Festival offers an array of performances that run the gamut of artistic media, from the symphonic music of the Eastern Festival Orchestra to the voice of Patti LaBelle to a night with comedienne Lily Tomlin. Lasting over a month, this festival offers myriad opportunities to engage with some of the foremost cultural, artistic, and musical figures of the present moment.

Brevard Music Center Summer Festival

Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium; Photo courtesy of Platt Architecture, PA.

The 2019 Brevard Center Summer Festival, set near a lake in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, will host a wide selection of musical artists. The festival features a large collection of works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Aaron Copland, as well as a screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark with a live performance of John Williams’ compositions for the score.

Eastern Music Festival

The Eastern Music Festival showcases the musical fruits of an educational experience for young musicians. Coming from across the United States, over 200 students from ages 14 to 23 descend on Greensboro, NC, for five feverish weeks of intensive study and practice of instruments ranging from classical violins to trumpets to acoustic guitars. These students prepare eight full-length concert programs, to be performed after mastering each program.

Spoleto Festival

The Spoleto Festival, held annually in Charleston, SC, features a diverse collection of theatre, chamber music, dance, and choral and orchestral performances. Highlights of the season include a trio of Shakespeare’s plays ( Twelfth Night, Comedy of Errors, and Pericles ), a “Classical Showcase” by the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra of works from the classical and neoclassical periods, and various choral works with the voices of the Westminster Choir.

Unable to make it to the festivals this year? Tune in to WDAV Classical Public Radio to hear music from many of these festivals on programs like Open Air Brevard, Spoleto Chamber Music Series and Carolina Live. Check the WDAV program schedule for air dates and times.

Dispatch from Spoleto: A Night at the Opera

Pictured: Elliot Madore in the US premiere of Tree of Codes, with music and libretto by Liza Lim. Photo by William Struhs.

By Lawrence Toppman

Every opera at Spoleto Festival USA that gets a U.S. premiere – in this case, both fully-staged offerings for 2018 – begins as a mystery. Have long-lost pieces by masters been unreasonably neglected? Have current composers remained obscure for a reason?

On the evidence of Gaetano Donizetti’s “Pia de’ Tolomei” and Liza Lim’s “Tree of Codes,” which run in repertory through June 8, I’d answer “Yes” to both questions.

Donizetti and librettist Salvatore Cammarano, who collaborated on eight operas, premiered “Lucia di Lammermoor” in 1835. “Pia” came along two years later and seems like a little sister: Beautiful, worth knowing, but living in the shadow of an immortal.

Amanda Woodbury and Valdis Jansons in the US premiere of Donizetti's Pia de' Tolomei. Photo by William Struhs.

Amanda Woodbury and Valdis Jansons in the U.S. premiere of Donizetti’s Pia de’ Tolomei. Photo by William Struhs.

The authors took “Pia” from a quatrain in “Purgatorio,” where Dante writes of people who were penitent at the times of sudden violent deaths. Nello, Pia’s jealous husband, imprisoned her after an accusation of infidelity by Ghino, who wanted her but couldn’t tempt her. The man she keeps in the shadows is her brother, Rodrigo, who has escaped jail as a political refugee.

The libretto’s no clumsier than most from the mid-19th century, and director Andrea Cigni makes it more plausible and relevant by updating it to Fascist Italy in the pre-war 1930s. Rodrigo has been jailed not for belonging to a different family but for leading the Resistance; Ghino’s unconvincing fatal wound in battle in the original narrative has become an accidental killing at the hands of sentries.

Cassandra Zoe Velasco (center) in Donizetti's Pia de' Tolomei. Photo by William Struhs.

Cassandra Zoe Velasco (center) in Donizetti’s Pia de’ Tolomei. Photo by William Struhs.

Pia now tries to save great art from destruction by right-wingers, including a portrait of her by Eliseo Sala (painted after the opera premiered). This irrelevant but unobtrusive subplot doesn’t hold the production back. Nothing could on opening night, including a power outage at Sottile Theatre that left only one floodlight operating at last. (Well, the final scene is set in a dungeon.)

Matthew Anchel (center) in the US premiere of Donizetti's Pia de' Tolomei. Photo by Leigh Webber.

Matthew Anchel (center) in the U.S. premiere of Donizetti’s Pia de’ Tolomei. Photo by Leigh Webber.

The melodies show Donizetti near the peak of his skill, from one of the soprano-mezzo duets he loved — this time in friendship, not enmity — to a somber “Lucia”-like ensemble for four soloists and chorus. Amanda Woodbury’s creamy soprano served the title role well, and Cassandra Zoe Velasco’s hefty voice made Rodrigo a presence with whom to be reckoned. Isaac Frishman’s small, flexible tenor put Ghino’s arias across in the smallish hall, and baritone Valdis Jansons brought unexpected complexity to the mostly snarly Nello.

Spoleto’s pick-up orchestra, augmented in “Pia” by Westminster Choir, remains a marvel, and Lidiya Yankovskaya conducted with the brio and tenderness this opera demands. Those same musicians played with equally scrupulous dedication for conductor John Kennedy in “Tree of Codes,” though nobody in the audience would’ve known if they’d hit clinker after clinker.

Elliot Madore in Tree of Codes, with music and libretto by Liza Lim. Photo by William Struhs.

Elliot Madore in Tree of Codes, with music and libretto by Liza Lim. Photo by William Struhs.

Virtually everything about Lim’s opera seemed random, from the wisps of orchestration to the rambling dialogue. (She wrote her own libretto.) Extensive program notes promised a philosophic piece I’d like to have seen onstage but never did, except for hints of one theme: Received wisdom from the past lies heavily and perhaps foolishly on us in the present.

The disconnection between idea and execution began with Scott Zielinski’s set. According to the notes, an “onstage monolith evokes the loss of Jewish lives in the last century, which is the loss for all mankind.” This edifice resembled a maquette for a six-story parking deck that had sunk into the ground at a 30-degree angle, and nothing in the text referred to it. (I did enjoy the lights that slashed across it, from bilious green to celestial white.)

Elliot Madore and Marisol Montalvo in the US premiere of Tree of Codes. Photo by William Struhs.

Elliot Madore and Marisol Montalvo in the US premiere of Tree of Codes. Photo by William Struhs.

Soprano Marisol Montalvo and baritone Elliot Madore had excellent pitch and diction as Adela, a mystic, and Son, a boy mourning (or perhaps simply missing) his father. Yet singers can’t seem anything but ridiculous while sitting at center stage, clutching megaphones and repeatedly uttering “I wish. I want. I wish. I want.” (Or, to be precise, “I wiiiiiiiish. I waaaaant.” Melismas were the order of the day.)

Elliot Madore and Marisol Montalvo in Tree of Codes. Photo by William Struhs.

Elliot Madore and Marisol Montalvo in Tree of Codes. Photo by William Struhs.

A mute character dubbed The Dreamer (costume designer Walter Dundervill) placed props, occasionally dressed or undressed the singers and pulled them around on wheeled platforms meant to lend mysterious grace to their movements. Dundervill retained a stone-faced dignity even as Son ranted in Russian (or was it Esperanto?), which suggested he wisely wasn’t paying attention.


To learn more about the performances at this year’s festival, visit Spoleto Festival USA.

Dispatch from Spoleto: Seven Memorable Moments from the Chamber Music Series

Pictured: Geoff Nuttall (far left), the Director of the Bank of America Chamber Music series, with members of the St. Lawrence String Quartet and pianist Pedja Muzijevic at the Dock Street Theatre. Photo by William Struhs.

By Lawrence Toppman

Geoff Nuttall, host of every chamber music concert at Spoleto Festival USA, was about to begin the downstroke of a Mozart piano concerto adapted for sextet. Suddenly, upon a sign from another member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the first violinist turned to the audience.

“There’s a secret signal we use – I’m not going to tell you what it is – to let me know…my fly is open,” Nuttall informed the Dock Street Theatre crowd. Hiding his indiscretion behind his instrument, he fiddled with his trousers. Somewhere, the ghost of Mozart giggled. Then pianist Pedja Muzijevic, double-bassist Doug Balliett and the quartet galloped happily into the reduction of Piano Concerto No. 12.

That’s the reason seeing music live makes a delightful difference. Recordings and broadcasts can’t capture the excitement, humor and full educational value of a live concert. (Who but violists knew that violas carry so much emotional weight in the string orchestra version of Barber’s “Adagio”?)

Here are six more reasons, all made palpable in the second and third of 11 concerts in the Bank of America Chamber Music Series, which runs through the last day of Spoleto on June 10.

1) Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, perhaps the most-anticipated of the fine guest artists on opening weekend, broke your heart one day with a Handel aria from “Amadigi di Gaula.” The next day, aiming for hipster credibility with the Peggy Lee song “Fever,” he tried in vain to flick a lighter open and set a “cigarette” aflame in the break between verses. Even he laughed. (He eventually succeeded.)

2) Charles Wadsworth, now 89 and creator of the chamber music program at Spoleto USA, missed only his second festival in 42 years. Nuttall, who took over for him nine years ago, asked the crowd to holler “We miss you, Charles!” We did, and wife Susan Wadsworth recorded us on her cell phone. After that tender moment, Nuttall and Costanzo segued into a conversation about the 17th-century process for creating castrati and the unresonant noise Costanzo would make if he had vocal chords but no head: “It would sound like a kazoo.”

3) The St. Lawrence played a relatively early Haydn quartet, the sixth and last of the Op. 20 set, with such passionate affection that the room rocked and strings came loose from their bows. Nuttall, who all but idolizes Haydn, preceded it with a mini-lecture on the revolutionary use of folk music and democratization in the string quartet, where each instrument got a chance to shine. You could see this music pointing the way for Mozart, Beethoven and their descendants.

4) The St. Lawrence Quartet and the JACK Quartet (named for the first initials of its original members) lined up at opposite sides of the stage for a 16th-century rarity by Giovanni Valentini. With Balliett accompanying both quartets as “referee,” this “Enharmonic” Sonata turned into a battle of the bands, and variations bounced back and forth. The visual element added suspense. Who can guess the last time any American – perhaps anyone at all – heard this music?

5) Balliett, this year’s composer in residence, debuted “Gawain’s Journey.” The music was lush, angry, sweet and melancholic, always in conjunction with supertitles telling a chunk of the British legend in which Gawain battles the Green Knight. Someone hearing a broadcast at home would wonder why the crowd laughed. The answer? A title reading, “He had no one to talk to but God…and his horse.” The work dealt with Gawain’s bloody, violent, footslogging attempt to reach the castle of the Green Knight, without knowing if he ever would – Arthurian chivalry meets “Waiting for Godot.”

6) In Pauline Oliveros’ mystical “Horse Sings From Cloud,” the JACK quartet spread out around the hall. They and selected members of the audience activated xylophone-like cell-phone apps that played tones of various pitches, volumes and durations. That created a contemplative atmosphere and made the wood and cloth of the theater part of the piece. Was this really “music?” A discussion for another time, perhaps – but it was worth hearing, either way. And you had to be there in person to appreciate it.


To learn more about the performances at this year’s festival, visit Spoleto Festival USA.