George Yeh, Classical Music Director of KWUR, reports that Wash. U. Professor Hugh McDonald, one of the world's leading scholars on Hector Berlioz, will lead a free symposium on The Damnation of Faust this Saturday to dovetail with a Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra performance of same. Dr. McDonald is joined by D. Kern Holoman, professor of music at UC-Davis and author of the Harvard Press biography of Berlioz; Francesco Izzzo, visiting professor from University of Chicago, who is a music scholar, pianist and specialist in Italian opera; Amy Kaiser, director of the Saint Louis Symphony Chorus; and Hugh McDonald, Wash. U. Avis Blewett Professor of Music.
The panel will discuss how Berlioz's work relates to Goethe's Faust, including the challenges it presents to both musicians and audiences. If you're unfamiliar with Faust, the most important thing to know is that Berlioz didn't call it an opera or a symphony, but rather a "légende dramatique," for orchestra, voices and chorus; you can hear an excerpt of it on SLSO's website, though I think the perfect summation is the New York Times' description: "a curious mixture of French refinement and fantastical wildness." --Stefene Russell
Berlioz Symposium
Wilson Hall, Room 214, Washington Univeristy Campus
April 18
10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Free
Coffee and donuts will be served; parking on Wash. U.'s campus is free on Saturdays.
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra: The Damnation of Faust
April 17 & 18
8 p.m.
$16-$105
Call 314-534-1700 or go to slso.org.
