‘The Red Violin,’ From the Silver Screen to New West

Distinctive Quebecois film director Francois Girard has done more than his share to bring the fineries of classical music culture into the realm of the movie world--no easy feat.

His engaging and unusually structured film, “32 Short Films About Glenn Gould,” did well on the festival and art-house circuit after its release in 1993. Next up, Girard struck a more popular chord with his 1998 historical saga, “The Red Violin,” which managed to wed mystery and the wandering story of a cherished violin through the centuries.

Now the film’s score, by noted composer John Corigliano, has crept back into the concert hall.

The Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra, from the film’s score, was a showcase work in the recent program of the New West Symphony. It was played with requisite flair and care by New West concertmaster Charles Stegeman in the challenging soloist role, and the orchestra, under Boris Brott’s hand, was up to its usual high standards. Still, this is music that may have served the screen well but projects something of an identity crisis live. With tendrils in the 19th century romantic concerto tradition, 20th century Hollywood and the composer’s own eclectic voice, the work dazzles but fails to cohere into much that is memorable.

In this program, Corigliano’s music ended up being outshone by the works surrounding it, for very different reasons. Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera’s “Suite From Estancia” opened the concert. Emotionally exuberant but also cerebral in design, it was a too-rare blast of creative excitement from Latin America. That’s an area the New West should be paying closer attention to, for reasons of proximity and aesthetics. The orchestra certainly played it with a winning intensity.

After intermission came the concert’s real highlight--and one of the strongest performances of its current season--on the weird, classic hoary theme of Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique.” As Brott mentioned in his preconcert banter, it is hard to believe that this impressionistic-cum-romantic piece was penned in 1830. Inspired by unrequited love and probably by opium abuse, the opus has an exotic back story.

But in the end, it is the music that speaks for itself.

Singing in City Hall: A sense of lightheartedness is programmed into the very name of the local group called Opera Unplugged. It has presented several more serious operatic programs in its young but energetic life, but Friday at Ventura City Hall show tunes are on the menu. The program called “I’m in the Mood for--Love,” which opened last weekend, is the first of three programs to include “I’m in the Mood for--Celebration” and “I’m in the Mood for--Jazz.”

On Friday, singers Arlene Thomas, Gene Brundage, Vicki Harrop and Bruce Liberty will traipse down Broadway lane. Ed Scott, the pianist for the show, has a direct Broadway connection as a friend and colleague of Frank Loesser.

*

* Opera Unplugged presents “I’m in the Mood for--Love,” Ventura City Hall atrium, 501 Poli St., Friday, 8 p.m. $25; senior citizens, $22.50. (805) 643-2742.