SUNDAY, AUGUST 1, 2010 Recordings SALZBURG FESTIVAL ‘THE SUBURBS’
Arcade Fire will play with Spoon at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia on Friday.
Savoring 1960s Mozart on DVD
by Joe Banno
It’s easy to imagine that in our era of plentiful early-music singers, historically informed conductors and theatrically sav- vy stage directors, we’ve pretty much writ- ten the book on how to effectively per- form Mozart’s operas. Spend an evening, though, watching the DVDs that Video Artists International has just issued of historic Salzburg Festival performances and you’ll see Mozart that’s no less engag- ing than the best of what’s on offer today. The spare and drily witty 1967 staging
MERGE RECORDS Arcade Fire’s bombast getting boring
Bigger-than-life approach weighs down third record
by Chris Richards
Expectations run dangerously high for Arcade Fire, a band so fluent in grand ges- tures fans expect nothing short of indie- rock transcendence. But how do you make a tour de force that doesn’t sound tour-de-forced? That’s the riddle the band fails to solve on its third album, “The Suburbs.” It’s a billowy showpiece that embodies every- thing wrong with 21st-century rock mu- sic: the joyless grandiosity, the air-suck- ing humorlessness, the soggy sentimen- tality, all those fussy string arrangements. (U2 can be blamed for most of this.) When Arcade Fire debuted in 2004, its oversize ambition had its charms. In 2010, its music feels heavy-handed enough to karate-chop through every cin- der block in Montreal. That’s the city the band — led by sing-
ing and songwriting hubby-and-wife duo Win Butler and Régine Chassagne — proudly called home when it emerged alongside a horde of Canadian indie-rock
troupes about six years ago. The band’s first two discs — 2004’s “Funeral” and 2007’s “Neon Bible” — were thick with melodramatic verses and overblown cho- ruses. They drew praise to match. Mercifully, “The Sub- urbs” is a touch more re- strained, but the band still goes largely un- checked, exploding emo- tional glimpses of faux- intimacy into emotional swells of faux-profundity. It’s as if they’re transpos- ing the vanilla puddle that separates Wes An- derson and James Cam- eron into rock-and-roll. Which means it’s easy to get sucked into the band’s cinematic bluster, even if you’ve been down this cul-de-sac before. Lyrically, Butler and Chassagne portray America’s suburbs (where Butler grew up) as a place of quiet menace. But in- stead of investigating the complex, grown-up turf mapped out by John Chee- ver and Richard Yates so many decades ago, Butler keeps his gaze fixed on that black hole of a navel called childhood. “The kids want to be so hard,” he sings on the title track, the album’s first and most promising cut. “But in my dreams
we’re still screaming and running through the yard.” It’s one of way too many songs in which Butler ruminates on murky childhood memories and soft- focus regrets. Few tracks shamble past without Butler mention- ing “the kids.” Thankfully, this first cut is rescued when the band’s confi- dent swing dovetails into an elegant chorus, har- vesting sparks from the contact point between Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie. After that, it’s a nostal- gia trip to nowhere. “Took a drive into the
sprawl to find the house where we used to stay,” Butler sings on “Sprawl I (Flat- land),” an anemic waltz as stultifying as its subject. “Couldn’t read the number in the dark.” He remains a vexing frontman throughout. Singing in a distant mid- range, Butler is rarely compelling enough to command the spotlight nor intriguing enough to draw you into his shadow. “The memory’s fading,” he sings on “Deep Blue,” a song that relies entirely on his spectral crooning to get us to the finish. “I can almost remember singing, ‘la, la, la,
la, la, la, la . . .’ ” (Those time-biding la-la- las barely do the trick.) That often leaves his six bandmates to
negotiate the push-and-pull that makes Arcade Fire tick. Guitars always chime, drums always boom, keyboards always glisten, strings always weep. It’s a sonic formula that’s allergic to danger and de- void of surprise, with every cathartic cho- rus staring you down from a mile away. There are two songs that take soft left turns. “Month of May” sounds like a feisty Neil Young fronting the Cars, and “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Moun- tains)” finds Chassagne mimicking the breathless charms of Abba. “The city lights shine,” she chirps over plush syn- thesizers not often heard in the Arcade Fire arsenal. “They’re calling at me, ‘Come and find your kind.’ ” It’s the mildest of tweaks, but com- pared with the tightly scripted vibes that permeate “The Suburbs,” it’s bold, new terrain — enough to make you wonder what might happen if this band ever de- cided to take some real risks.
richardsc@washpost.com
Recommended Track: “The Suburbs”
of “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” (VAI 4521) by legendary Italian director Gior- gio Strehler may claim the classiest theat- rical pedigree. But the 1963 “Le Nozze di Figaro” (VAI 4519), directed by veteran Gustav Rudolf Sellner, with painterly, semiabstract sets by Michael Raffaelli, is a sparkling, tightly woven piece of ensem- ble playing. And Otto Schenk’s alternately literal and winkingly playful “Die Zau- berflöte” (VAI 4520) from 1964 makes for an entertaining show, too (with the excep- tion of some eye-bugging, blackface busi- ness that’s a wince-inducing relic of that era).
All three productions have fine conduc- tors who match the theatrical vibe the di- rectors have created — Istvan Kertesz a model of balance and appropriate tempos in “Zauberflöte,” Zubin Mehta keeping things moving in “Entführung” but know- ing when to let a phrase hang in the air to underscore Strehler’s elegant composi- tions, and a startlingly young-looking Lo- rin Maazel lending “Figaro” an airy speed and litheness not out-of-keeping with cur- rent notions of how this score should go. The greatest pleasure, though, is en- countering iconic singing actors of the past, caught in signature roles. Has there been a Papageno of easier charm than Walter Berry’s? Can you remember an Al- maviva of such conversational fluency as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau? What delight to put (often animated) faces to voices long familiar from classic recordings, like Geraint Evans, Paul Schoeffler, Reri Grist, Gerhard Unger, Fernando Corena or the youthful Roberta Peters. And for those with a taste for shimmering, silver-toned sopranos, the ravishing selection here in- cludes no less than Hilde Gueden, Gra- ziella Sciutti, Evelyn Lear, Pilar Lorengar, Lucia Popp and Ingeborg Hallstein.
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Banno is a freelance writer. Engagements | Weddings | Anniversaries ——Weddings——
Susanne Horn Marries Monica Fitzgerald —April 19, 2010—
To place an announcement: email:
weddings@washpost.com phone: 202-334-5736 fax: 202-334-7188 ——Anniversaries——
——Anniversaries——
Moton Golden Anniversary —July 30,1960—
Kowalski 50th Anniversary —August 6, 1960—
Springfield, Virginia – Col. Harold W. (“Hal”) and Joan C. Kowalski will be celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary on August 6. They will have a family gathering at their Lake Gaston, North Carolina home to celebrate the joyful occasion.
Susanne Horn and Monica Fitzgerald
Susanne Horn and Monica Fitzgerald were married on April 19, 2010 in a ceremony officiated by the Reverend Karen L. Brau Pastor of Luther Place Memorial Church. They repeated the vows they made to each other on August 6, 2005 at a joyous event attended by more than 100 guests. Ms. Horn is the daughter of Guenther Horn and Ursula Horn. Ms. Fitzgerald is the daughter of Mary Fitzgerald and the late Joseph Fitzgerald.
Susanne is a graduate of Middlebury College and earned a MSW from The Catholic University. She directs the Representative Payee Program at Bread for the City. Monica is a gradu- ate of Augsburg College and has a master's degree in Intercultural Rela- tions from Lesley College. She is employed by the General Services Administration. The couple resides in Washington,D.C. with their two young children.
Mr. and Mrs. Moton
50 years ago today on July 30th, 1960, a man, Efford Moton, Jr., took the love of his life, Sylvia Magdalen Munson and together they vowed to respect, love, and cherish each other.
Through this magical union, they were blessed with four children, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
As they celebrate their, "Golden Anniversary," may God continue to bless them with many more years of marital bliss.
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Announce your Engagement,Wedding or Anniversary in The Washington Post’s Sunday Arts & Style Section. (Birthdays, Graduations & other Special Events have moved to Thursdays.) You may provide text and photos. Color is available. Many packages include keepsake plaques of your announcement.
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All materials must be received by Monday at 1 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Palmer
Congratulations to Don and Joanne Palmer who are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows in the presence of their friends and extended family on Saturday, July 31st. Their marriage and commitment to family is a wonderful example to their five children and 14 grandchildren. Long time residents of McLean, Virginia, they are tireless supporters of their children’s and grandchildren’s activities as well as local com- munity organizations in their retirement location of Gainesville, Virginia. Happy Anniversary and may you have many more joy- filled years together!
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Penick 10th Anniversary —July 22, 2000—
Hal Kowalski and Joan Mayne met in 1956 on a blind date. They were married August 6, 1960 at the St. Agnes Catholic Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Shortly thereafter, Hal joined the Air Force. The couple moved 19 times all across the country - finally settling in Springfield in 1985. Following retirement from the Air Force in 1990, Hal spent 15 years as Director of the Nuclear Risk Reduction Center at the US Department of State, where he retired (again) in 2005. Throughout their marriage, Joan enjoyed being at home and worked periodically in banking and residential real estate. Hal and Joan currently enjoy dividing their time between Springfield and Lake Gaston.
The Kowalski’s raised three children, all of whom are now married - Mark and Bobbie Kowalski of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Sheryl (Kowalski) and Kevin Kattwinkel of Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Mike and Kari Kowalski of Lansdowne, Virginia. Hal and Joan have five grandchildren – Virginia and Claire Kowalski and Zachary, Bethany and Mackenzie Kattwinkel.
Palmer 50th Anniversary —June 18, 1960—
——Anniversaries——
Mancini 30th Anniversary
—August 2, 1980—
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Mr. and Mrs. Mancini
John & Mary Glenn Mancini "I still do . . . I still do too . . ." Happy 30th Anniversary! Love,Your Kids
Mr. and Mrs. Penick
Mr. Richard W. Penick and Ms. Ola L. Harvey live in Temple Hills, Maryland and will celebrate 10 years together this month.They look forward to many more happy years together.
NF407 6x.5
C650 2x1
C650 1x2
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