2011 Week Two

Following last season’s grand Norma, the Chautauqua Opera Company achieved even finer results Saturday evening with a fine but under-appreciated Giuseppe Verdi work that represents a midpoint between the bel canto style of Norma and the full-out “music drama” Verdi and Wagner were to develop later in the 19th century: 1849’s Luisa Miller. While, it’s never been a crowd-pleaser like Rigoletto or La traviata, it’s a passionate story — full of melodrama, but also full of feeling — and the music is wonderful, culminating in a third act that ranks among the great single acts in Verdi’s huge output.

“Perhaps Chaplain Black’s spirit could best be described by the words that he gave to the president of Oakwood College … he said then, ‘For most of my life, I sought a relationship with God,’” Jane Campbell said in her introduction of U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black, the 2 p.m. Friday Interfaith Lecture speaker. Campbell is the former mayor of Cleveland and was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. She currently serves as the chief of staff to Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.). Campbell is also one of the parishioners at Black’s Wednesday noon Bible study for heads of staff in Washington, D.C.

The term “Western Reserve” refers to a patch of land in northeast Ohio previously owned by the state of Connecticut in the 18th century. Members of the Brass Band of the Western Reserve picked that name over, say, “Brass Band of Akron,” to highlight the group’s diverse geographical makeup. “It just seemed like a good name,” said band director Keith M. Wilkinson. “We didn’t want to pinpoint the name to any particular city, because that’s not the band.”

Before he was the abbot of a Zen Buddhist center, Michael O’Sullivan was a New York City detective for 20 years. You read that right. In fact, if it weren’t for an accident while he was on the job, O’Sullivan might not have discovered meditation at all.

“Can I share some space?” It’s the question that Hugh Butler, president of the Chautauqua Property Owners Association, wants Chautauquans to ask again this season. CPOA is beginning the second summer of its Shared Space Initiative. Butler said this summer is less about spreading the Shared Space logo and more about knowing and practicing the idea behind it.

Masks, clown noses and a silly show are scheduled to take place at 10:30 p.m. Saturday at the Chautauqua Theater Company’s Late Night Mask Show. The show will take place outside rehearsal shacks 64 and 65. Although it falls during Week Two programming dates, the show will take on the theme from Week Three, which is “American Intelligence: Technology, Espionage and Alliances,” said Artistic Director Vivienne Benesch.

Chautauqua offers many activities for youth and adults, but a certain age group is still looking for a place to connect. These topics were at the center of the second weekly Trustees’ Porch Discussion on Wednesday. Sherra Babcock, director of Chautauqua’s Department of Education, and Jack Voelker, director of recreation and youth services, led the discussion, titled “Creating Family Experiences.”

Fishing. It has inspired some great minds, such as Washington Irving: “There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind.”

An opera production derives from the music, not the other way around, said Jay Lesenger, artistic/general director of Chautauqua Opera Company. Sometimes directors will have a concept in mind before delving into a production, but Lesenger said he believes in a firm understanding of opera and its traditions before interpreting the music for the stage. “I’m not of the school that I have to do something different to make it true,” Lesenger said. “I’m all for innovation, but that’s not how I go about looking at a piece. I don’t say, ‘How can we do this differently?’ I just say, ‘How can we do it well?’”

From their porch at the Keystone, Ed Anderson and Joan Parsons can look down to the street below them where Anderson’s children, and now their grandchildren, learned to ride their bicycles, and across to the trees that Anderson, as a birder, studies with a careful eye. Chautauqua is as much a part of Anderson and Parsons’ lives as they are a part of the Institution; this is their second season sponsoring the Scholar in Residence program, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday.

At 9:30 a.m., Sylvia Faust’s grandchildren are all down at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club, and Faust has a rare quiet moment. For most of the summer, this year-round Chautauqua resident has a full house. Faust’s two children and five grandchildren spend much of the season with her, and she channels their energy into her own volunteer work on the grounds. Faust, a Chautauquan for almost a half-century, serves on the Chautauqua Foundation’s planned giving committee.

In the music world, teachers are family. Musicians can trace the lineage of their instructors through generations, forming a musical genealogical web. Technique, fingerings and style are inherited from those teachers, but for students, after months and even years of working with the same teacher, it’s not about the basics. It’s about the personal connection that drives students to work even harder in the practice room because it is no longer a teacher who inspired them; it is a life-long friend.