Sightseeing in Paris with Mercury Musicians and Patrons!

Following a triumphant opening night on Saturday, the Mercury Baroque musicians and members of the tour contingent had a couple of days to decompress and see the sights around Paris before the schedule of performances resumed at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers.

On Sunday, the entire group boarded a bus bound for Versailles.  This year’s Heritage Days (Journées du Patrimoine), when many museums and state-owned facilities are open free of charge, happened to fall on September 18^th and 19^th, so the crowds at Versailles were even larger than usual.  Despite the lack of elbow room, the Mercury group managed to get a fine tour of the chateau, including the famed Hall of Mirrors and Marie Antoinette’s bedroom.  Following that, a guided tour of the gardens occupied the remainder of the day.  Fortuitously, all of the fountains in the gardens were operating (a somewhat rare occurrence!) on the day of the tour, and we were treated to a hydro-show set to music at the Neptune fountain at the conclusion of our visit.

Then it was off to dinner at Le Boeuf a la Mode, a charming traditional French restaurant in the village of Versailles.  It should be noted that the name does not translate as “ice cream on top of beef,” as some in the tour group feared.  Rather, we were treated to a wonderful meal which allowed everyone to compare notes on their experiences in Paris and celebrate Mercury Baroque’s successful performance the previous night.

The following day was highlighted by a guided tour of Louvre.  Well, part of the Louvre in any case, since one can only cover a small portion of the collection in just one day.  In this case, the focus was on French painting from the 14^th through the 19^th centuries, including works by Charles le Brun (Louis XIV’s official painter), the Le Nain Brothers, and Georges de la Tour.  Tuesday  was highlighted by a trip to the Pere Lachaise cemetery, the resting place of luminaries such as Sarah Bernhardt, George Bizet, Maria Callas, Frederic Chopin, Max Ernst, Camille Pissarro, Francis Poulenc, Gioachino Rossini,  Gertrude Stein, and, of course, Jim Morrison.  Rounding out the day was a tour of the Museum of Cité de la Musique, which houses over 1000 musical instruments of all varieties and, for obvious reasons, an eagerly anticipated item on the itinerary.

Today, the Mercury group visits the Centre Pompidou, which houses Europe’s largest collection of 20^th century art, before convening for a farewell dinner and then the trip back to Houston.   Congratulations to Artistic Director Antoine Plante and the Mercury Baroque musicians for making Houston proud!

Opening Night Success!!

Opening Night Success for Mercury Baroque!

The cries of “bravo” rang loud and long through the Théâtre de Gennevilliers tonight, as a throng of Mercury Baroque supporters from Houston joined a jam-packed hall in acclaiming the orchestra’s triumphant Paris debut. Mercury Baroque’s appearance marks the first time a Houston orchestra has performed in Europe in almost ten years.

Mercury Baroque Artistic Director Antoine Plante led the orchestra through an energetic and vigorous performance of Lully’s opera Armide, in a production which premiered in Houston in May of 2009, featuring stage direction by Pascal Rambert. Both Plante and Rambert were sufficiently pleased with their collaboration to mount this cutting-edge production again, this time at Rambert’s home theater in Paris.

Armide is set during the crusades, and Rambert’s staging moves the action to the Middle East of the recent past or the near future. The stage is a large expanse of white, lit by a network of moving fluorescent light fixtures, with dancers and singers in contemporary military garb roaming the spare landscape. Video projections and computer screens are utilized to illuminate the story of Armide, a woman torn between love and hate for the noble crusader Renaud. In this resetting of the 17th century opera, swords become golf clubs, magic shields give way to Polaroid cameras, and golf carts and pickup trucks rather than beasts of burden convey characters around the set.

Isabelle Cals and Zachary Wilder were stellar as the ill-fated lovers Armide and Renaud, and Sarah Mesko, Lauren Snouffer, and Sumner Thompson rounded out a superb principal vocal cast. As for Mercury Baroque, concertmaster Jonathan Godfrey was among the standout instrumentalists, along with harpsichordist William Averill. Other Mercury musicians included Noel Martin, Andres Gonzales, Maria Lin, Oleg Soulyga, Hae-a Lee, Suzanne Lefevre, Kana Kimura, Hillary Schoap, Elizabeth Charles, Louis-Marie Fardet, Michael Greenberg, Kathryn Montoya, Geoffrey Burgess, Colin St. Marin, Gilles Plante, Richard Brown, Erika Johnson, and Charles Weaver.

Among the Houston contingent in the opening night audience were Mercury Baroque President Susan Carlyle and board members Bob Sanborn, Tim Howard, Susan Lindberg, Ana Treviño-Godfrey, and Bill Guest, as well as Executive Director Deborah Lugo.

Countdown to Opening Night!

It is now less than 24 hours before the downbeat for Mercury Baroque’s first performance in Europe, and the sense of anticipation is palpable. The next dispatch filed will feature complete opening night coverage of Armide, so watch this space for more information. The tour group comprised of Mercury Baroque board members and supporters arrived in Paris early this morning, and a full day was planned to keep everyone moving, combat jet lag, and make the most of our time in the City of Light. The slate of activities included the St. Denis Abbey, where the kings of France are buried, and a welcome dinner at L’Opportun, a restaurant near the Novotel at Montparnasse Station, which will serve as the tour group’s base of operations while in Paris. The hotel is in a perfect location, within walking distance of the Luxembourg Gardens and many other Paris landmarks. Tomorrow, a number of members of the group will embark on a “Basic Paris” tour, which will introduce the travelers to some of the favorite Left Bank haunts of the “Lost Generation” writers and post-war existentialist philosophers. Also on tap are visits to the Place Saint Michele, Notre Dame, and a variety of Right Bank highlights, including the Palais Royale, the Palais Garnier (the former home of the Paris Opera), and, of course, the Eiffel Tower. After a full day of exploring Paris, it will be back to the hotel and off to the Théâtre de Gennevilliers for opening night of Armide!

Updates from Rehearsal

 

Rehearsals continued today, with the Mercury Baroque musicians hard at work preparing for opening night of Armide on Saturday.  Meanwhile, the rest of the Mercury Baroque staff arrived in Paris.  All except for marketing associate Evin Ordowdu, who is keeping the lid on back in Houston.  Thanks Evin – we’ll bring you some swell souvenirs!  Actually, the refrigerator magnet that I got today¸ one modeled after the gargoyles at Notre Dame, is pretty cool, so you may not snag that one….

While this is most certainly a working trip, we did not neglect the fun.  Today, your intrepid reporter managed to squeeze in a visit to Sainte-Chapelle – a thirteenth-century chapel with gorgeous stained glass windows located on the Ile de la Cité near Notre Dame – along with a trip to the Musée d’Orsay, a museum housed in a former train station which boasts an impressive collection of paintings by impressionists such as Van Gogh and Gauguin.  And in the midst of all that, a mid-afternoon snack at Les Deux Magots, a left bank café that was frequented by Ernest Hemingway during his Paris years. 

Hey, all work and no play makes Jacques a dull garçon!  

View from the audience

The musicians at work

A scene from Armide

Arrival in Paris!

The Mercury Baroque musicians arrived in Paris over the weekend and are now in the midst of rehearsals, preparing for the opening night of Armide on Saturday. Over the next several days, Mercury Baroque staff members will land in the City of Light to begin their assignments related to Mercury’s engagement at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers. Finally, on Friday, a tour group comprised of board members and other Mercury Baroque supporters will arrive in Paris. So by the time the curtain goes up on opening night, Mercury Baroque and Houston will be well represented in the City of Light. Reports from the theater are that opening night is near a sellout, with sales also said to be robust for the remainder of Armide’s run. Fortunately, the five performances are spread out over a week’s time, so everyone should have plenty of time to sightsee in Paris. One of the highlights of our visit will be a trip to Versailles, complete with a tour of the palace and dinner afterwards. Also on the agenda – and eagerly anticipated for obvious reasons – is a tour of the Museum of Cité de la Musique, which features one thousand musical instruments and artwork encompassing 500 years of musical heritage. Maybe they’ll let Jonathan Godfrey play a fiddle or two?

Mercury Kicks off the 10th Season and Departs for Paris!

Mercury Baroque at the Dosey Doe!

Mercury Baroque at Miller Outdoor Theatre!

Mercury Baroque kicked off its Tenth Anniversary season in fine fashion over the Labor Day weekend, performing concerts of Brandenburg Concertos at the Dosey Doe in the Woodlands (as reported in a previous installment of this blog), the University of Houston Clear Lake, and Miller Outdoor Theater.

The University of Houston Clear Lake concert was both well-received and well-attended. The Mercury musicians played brilliantly, and Artistic Director Antoine Plante was “on” that night, drawing chuckles with his commentary between pieces. The audience, which university representatives informed us was the largest ever in their classical music series, gave the musicians a rousing standing ovation at the conclusion of the performance.

Similarly, the Miller Outdoor Theater concert was highlighted by a large and enthusiastic audience. Miller Theater officials estimated the crowd in the seats and on the hill at approximately 3900, making it another record breaker, in this case the largest Mercury Baroque audience to date!

Mercury Baroque Board President Susan Carlyle purchased the “Conductor for a Day Package” for the second year in a row at Mercury’s Holiday Auction in December, and she opened the second half of the Miller concert by conducting an Air and two Gavottes by J.S. Bach, gracefully wielding her baton and drawing a sublime performance from the orchestra. Look out, Antoine!

This week, preparations have been feverish for Mercury Baroque’s trip to Paris. Antoine departed today, and most of the Houston-based musicians will fly over on Saturday, along with Production Manager Steve Friedlander, who will be coordinating logistics during the Paris engagement. A week of rigorous rehearsals will follow, leading up to opening night of Lully’s Armide at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers on Friday, September 18. Four more performances will follow through September 25, and we will be providing updates on Mercury Baroque’s inaugural European tour throughout the orchestra’s visit to the City of Light.

Paris Warm-up Concert…At The Dosey Doe??

As a prelude to the upcoming performances in Paris, Mercury Baroque welcomed the faithful back from summer last night with a rather unique – and incredibly fun – concert at the Dosey Doe in the Woodlands.

For those who have never visited, the Dosey Doe is a concert venue / restaurant that generally plays host to acts that you would find in the “Country and Western” section at the CD store, folks like Clint Black, Larry Gatlin, Ray Price, Asleep at the Wheel, etc. Not to mention older rockers like Edgar Winter, Richie Havens, and the Cowsills. (Come on, I know that some of you remember!)

The building itself is a 150-year-old barn from Kentucky that was disassembled and moved to the Woodlands a little over three years ago. Since that time, owner Steve Said has created one of the best live music venues in the state. The Dosey Doe is known not only for its superior acoustics but also for their incredible creations from the kitchen and a thoroughly professional staff that offers service that is second to none.

For its first trip to the Dosey Doe, Mercury Baroque presented an all-Bach program featuring four of the Brandenburg Concertos. A highlight of the concert was the Concerto No. 3, played at breakneck speed by concertmaster Jonathan Godfrey and the rest of the Mercury musicians. You could say that it was a real barn-burner. Or not…

Some of the musicians sported cowboy hats, in keeping with the Dosey Doe’s interior decoration theme, which features memorabilia from western films and numerous examples of Texana. Trumpeter Nate Mayfield even managed to talk Dosey Doe manager Mike Ford into loaning him his prized straw hat for Nate’s solo turn in the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2. Mike commented that he never lets anyone wear his hat, but that he made an exception because he was enjoying the music so much.

Mercury Baroque immediate past president Bob Sanborn was celebrating his birthday with a large group of family and friends, and the musicians serenaded him with a rendition of “Happy Birthday” at the conclusion of the concert.

Music geeks take note: As most fans of period music know, Baroque music was usually played at a pitch somewhat lower than the standard A = 440 that is used by most modern orchestras. A = 415 is often used for early music performances, but for this weekend’s performances of the Brandenburg Concertos, Mercury Baroque Artistic Director Antoine Plante has chosen to play at A = 392, which was more common in France during the baroque period. This will provide the musicians an excellent warm-up for their performances of Lully’s opera Armide in Paris later this month, which will, of course, be played at the French pitch. It’s probably a law over there.

If you missed the Dosey Doe concert, the program will be repeated Friday, September 3, at the University of Houston Clear Lake and Saturday, September 4, at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park. For more information, go to http://www.mercurybaroque.org.

Mercury Baroque’s Pre-Departure Party!

With our departure for Paris drawing close, Mercury Baroque Board President Susan Carlye and her husband Dennis hosted a party at their home on August 31 for Mercury patrons and musicians who will be making the trip across the pond for Mercury Baroque’s performances of Lully’s opera Armide at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers September 18-25. Much of the evening was spent discussing the activities that are planned for out Parisian jaunt, with everyone eagerly anticipating a tour of Versailles with dinner afterward. Other highlights of the trip will include a guided tour of the Louvre and a visit to the Cité de la Musique museum, which contains one thousand musical instruments, along with art works and audio illustrations illuminating 500 years of musical heritage. If all goes well, some of the Mercury musicians will have the opportunity to demonstrate these historic instruments. Guests sipped sparkling wine and were also treated to macaroons made from scratch by Dennis, who has studied pastry making in France. (The lime-flavored confections were my favorite!) In fact, Dennis is such a Francophile that he will be heading for Paris in advance of the Mercury group so that he can spend an entire month there practicing his French language skills through cultural immersion. Those at the soiree included Tim and Janice Howard, David and Mary Ann Haberman, Don and Erika Johnson, Antoine Plante, Robert Lane, Richard Brown, Laine and Tim Twining, Nora Klein, Deborah Lugo, Jonathan Godfrey, Ana Treviño-Godfrey, Maria Lin, and Hae–a Lee. A quick aside: Did you know that Susan Carlyle grew up living next door to Chester Gould, the creator of the “Dick Tracy” comic strip? She has a personally inscribed drawing of the square-jawed detective hanging in her entry hall to prove it! Watch this space for more dispatches as we ramp up to Mercury Baroque’s first-ever European performances, with daily reports from the City of Light during Mercury Baroque’s residence. And be sure to catch Mercury performing Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, with performances Thursday, September 2, at the Dosey Doe in the Woodlands, Friday, September 3, at the University of Houston Clear Lake, and Saturday, September 4, at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park. Go to http://www.mercurybaroque.org for details.

Q&A with Antoine Plante, Artistic Director

In the weeks leading up to the Paris tour, what are you doing to prepare?
Study, study, study. Basically, the preparation has four different aspects: listening to what we did, decide of changes (we will do few instrumentation changes); going through the score to decide tempos and characters; memorize the music as much as possible; making sure that the physical movements are strong and meaningful.

Once you arrive in Paris, what are your responsibilities before opening night?
Really intense rehearsal process. It took 4 weeks to put the show on last time and we have a bit more than one week this time! Of course, we don’t need to invent it so we gain a lot of time but it will still be really intense. We are using a different choir. Also, few of the small roles are done with soloists from the choir and I need to spend extra attention to them. So basically, it’s rehearsals from 10 am to 10pm every day before the premiere. First with just the cast and continuo (mostly the same people than last time). The orchestra arrives mid-week and then I split between working with them and with the stage until we all get together. It will be really fun.

What is it like performing in another country? Is there any extra excitement or can you sense you are somewhere else?
Or can you completely concentrate on the music. It is really exciting to bring Mercury to Paris. We have made several tours before but never at that level. I’m curious to see how people will react. A Texan baroque orchestra performing French 17th century music that is rarely played! I think we will be a bit of a curiosity. But, when it comes down to it, a stage is a stage. I’m working with people I know well so I’m not too anxious. I know we will do a great appearance.

Anything you “must” see or do while you are in between rehearsals in Paris?
Eat! They are few restaurants I have to go visit again. I also really enjoy walking in Paris and going to museums. I will join the group of Houston patrons that are travelling with us for few activities: Versailles, Cité de la musique… They are few friends I need to visit. But since we are opening our season in Houston shortly after our return, I will have to spend most of my free time studying for the next thing…

How will Mercury’s first European tour change the future of the orchestra?
It’s hard to tell. It’s a great experience for the orchestra and we will grow out of it. I know few presenters and agents will be at our performances and we may be able to make good contacts. I love to travel and we will certainly go back to Europe. Only the future will tell us.

Mercury first performed Lully’s Armide in May of 2009, yet the foundation of the project began as far back as 2007 with the initial planning of our 2008/2009 season. After a few seasons of performing smaller scale operas, Antoine Plante, Mercury’s Artistic Director, decided it was time to tackle a larger work. Antoine searched through the French repertoire and fell in love with the music of Armide.

Knowing he wanted to take a different approach to the opera, Antoine invited famed French Stage Director Pascal Rambert to Houston in August of 2008 to discuss the project. Pascal immediately fell in love with the city, finding inspiration in Houston’s importance to the Oil industry and setting the production in the Middle East during the Crusades. This production of Lully’s Armide wouldn’t have the powdered wigs and elaborate costumes of other 18th century Operas. Instead, Rambert aimed to “…create a reflection on the stage – A mirror turned towards our audience of today”. The staging features real and concrete objects. Even the actions of the singers and “non-dancers” on-stage are meant to reflect reality.

Mercury Baroque’s performances of Armide received high praise from both critics and audience members, alike. It was based on that success that Pascal Rambert invited Mercury Baroque to his Théâtre de Gennevilliers in Paris to reprise the production for their season. This tour marks Mercury’s first European tour and will be our first tour since performing in Ecaudor in 2006.