Disasters, Natural and Otherwise

Record rainstorms swept into the county at the beginning of 1995, flooding Ballet Pacifica administrative offices in Costa Mesa and causing other major damage. The 32-year-old dance company had already struggled up from the ashes of the 1993 Laguna Beach fire, which had destroyed all its sets and costumes. But this was another unexpected blow. Fortunately, the troupe would recover from this, too, and find a new home in Irvine in September.

Still, an ominous signal for the year had been sounded: Dance in Orange County could be risky.

It was risky for the Orange County Performing Arts Center too. After expanding its dance series from the usual four companies to six for the ‘95-96 season, the center ran into trouble.

Caught in a financial crisis, the Joffrey Ballet canceled its April engagement. Pacific Northwest Ballet and Miami City Ballet were booked as substitutes. The Kirov Ballet, facing its own financial troubles, canceled its entire U.S. tour, so there went the October engagement here. No replacement could be found in time.

Even when a company did show up, audiences didn’t--necessarily. The San Francisco Ballet drew a meager 39% of the house--a record low for ballet at the center--for its mixed repertory programs in November. The troupe’s “Nutcracker,” not surprisingly, drew much better, at 70%.

The fabled Royal Danish Ballet, which had been the sleeper hit of the 1992 ballet series, also drew a small audience. Admittedly, it brought new company director Frank Schaufuss’ dismal production of Bournonville’s classic, “La Sylphide,” which managed to turn this powerful classic into a misdirected bore. But it also brought “A Folk Tale,” which was Bournonville’s favorite ballet, and so one with special meaning for the Danes.

Even so, the center, a major presenter of dance, expressed commitment to supporting the art, come what may. It also brought the Dance Theatre of Harlem to Orange County for the first time, in November. An encouraging sign.

Music in Orange County took a beating, too. After much ballyhoo and a two-year wait, Elliot Goldenthal’s Pacific Symphony commission commemorating the suffering of the Vietnam War finally arrived in April. It landed with a well-intentioned thud.

The orchestra and conductor Carl St.Clair gave Goldenthal’s “Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio” 110% effort, but the immense topic proved too much for the limited talents of the composer, whose bread and butter has been scoring Hollywood films. Still, the piece has a future. The Pacific recorded it, and Boston Symphony conductor Seiji Ozawa plans three performances by his orchestra at different venues on the East Coast in the spring.

Two weeks after the Goldenthal premiere, incidentally, the orchestra played composer-in-residence Frank Ticheli’s fourth piece, “On Time’s Stream,” a modest two-part work loaded (maybe overloaded) with ideas. Less was more in this case.

*

Fortunately, the musical highs for the year were high indeed. James Levine brought the superlative Met Orchestra--the orchestra for the Metropolitan Opera in New York--to the center for two programs in May.

Shockingly, audiences didn’t come to that either. The low attendance--37%--was a cultural embarrassment for the county, and a missed opportunity of unimaginable proportions since this orchestra rarely tours.

Audiences did line up for Cecilia Bartoli’s first Orange County recital, made possible by the Philharmonic Society in September, however. In fact, all the tickets for this fabled mezzo’s local appearance had been gobbled up long before the event. Fans and connoisseurs (the two are not mutually exclusive) who managed to get in were not disappointed. If anything, their expectations were too low.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma ennobled the ennobling Dvorak Cello Concerto in two concerts with the Pacific Symphony led by St.Clair at the center in October.

We can thank Opera Pacific impresario David DiChiera for giving us the chance to encounter the hotly controversial Tiziana Fabbricini. Fabbricini made her West Coast debut here in January as the heroine of Verdi’s “La Traviata.”

She failed on this occasion, however, not only to justify comparisons made before and since with the legendary Maria Callas, but even raised questions how such comparisons could have arisen.

*

The real find during this run was Chilean soprano Cristina Gallardo-Domas, who alternated with Fabbricini as Violetta. Gallardo-Domas revitalized everyone involved, not least of whom was conductor Stephen Mercurio, who led the Pacific Symphony with Italianate flair and style.

1995 also was a year of name changes. Downplaying the “Orange County” in their names in a year when the term became synonymous with “bankruptcy,” the Master Chorale of Orange County became the William Hall Master Chorale and the Orange County Philharmonic Society became the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. A rose by any other name?

In other happenings:

* St.Clair made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in April and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in May. Sheryl Staples, who had been appointed concertmaster of the Pacific in August of 1994, announced that she would leave to become associate concertmaster for the Cleveland Orchestra in February. The search for a replacement is on.

* The Philharmonic Society and the Pacific Symphony expanded their offerings--the Philharmonic Society by bringing back its recital series after a three-year absence, and the Pacific by announcing it would collaborate with the jazz-oriented Turtle Island String Quartet in 1996.

* Collaborations with dance companies put John Alexander’s Pacific Chorale together with Ballet Pacifica at the Center in February and Oakland Ballet in May. Beth Burns’ Santa Ana-based St. Joseph Ballet continued its regular policy of collaboration, this time with Ugandan composer Samite at a concert at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in April.

* Other important dance events typically took place at the Irvine theater, too, including the National Ballet of Senegal and Susan Marshall and company in March, and Compagnie Maguy Marin in October. Orange Coast College hosted Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in March, Ballet Hispanico of New York in April and Momix in September.

* The fine chamber-music series cosponsored by the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Society and the Philharmonic Society included the Alexander and Angeles String Quartets teaming up on a program in January; while the chamber-music series sponsored by the center at Founders Hall included, among other groups, the Cherubini Quartet in February.

In other news: Ami Porat’s Mozart Camerata moved its series of concerts at Irvine Barclay Theatre to Concordia College in Irvine. The series at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church stayed put.

The Orange County Chamber Orchestra geared down in an effort to survive and offered a series of chamber-music programs, without the actual orchestra, under new music director Diana Halprin.

The Newport Beach Recital Series, launched in 1994, continued with a recital in March, then pretty much dropped out of sight, however. The adventurous Southwest Chamber Music Society departed the local scene to concentrate on growing opportunities in Los Angeles and environs.

Continuing with little fanfare but dogged determination were the Baroque Music Festival of Corona del Mar, the Cypress Pops Orchestra, the Fullerton Friends of Music, the Harmonia Baroque Players, the North Orange County Community Concerts Assn. and the Seal Beach Chamber Music Festival.

Finally, we note the deaths of Orange County music pioneer Frieda Belinfante, in March at the age of 90, and Maurice Allard, who made an immense contribution to choral music in the county, in December, a few days short of his 65th birthday.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

In chronological order:

* Cristina Gallardo-Domas as Violetta in Verdi’s “La Traviata” for Opera Pacific, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Jan. 22, 27 and 29. Gallardo-Domas sang and acted with Italianate richness that galvanized a supporting cast and conductor Stephen Mercurio, who had been intimidated--or demoralized--by her predecessor, the histrionic Tiziana Fabbricini.

* Susan Marshall and Company at Irvine Barclay Theatre, March 23. Modern dance choreographer Marshall used everyday movement with wit and invention to reveal and explore feelings and relationships.

* The Met Orchestra at the Performing Arts Center, May 17 and 18. Music director James Levine has quite simply built the Met Orchestra into a world-class ensemble that was a joy to hear.

* Royal Danish Ballet at the Performing Arts Center, May 26-28. The company danced August Bournonville’s “A Folk Tale,” the choreographer’s favorite of his works, with loving attention.

* Cecilia Bartoli at the Performing Arts Center (sponsored by Philharmonic Society of Orange County), Sept. 21. The mezzo-soprano’s recital exceeded all expectations arising from listening to her superlative recordings.

* Yo-Yo Ma with Pacific Symphony led by Carl St.Clair at the Performing Arts Center, Oct. 11-12. Ma brought deep expressivity and flawless technique to Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor.