By Lyn Bronson

For many years symphony programs tended to have a sameness about them. They often consisted of three works — an overture to warm up the audience, a concerto featuring a distinguished soloist, and after intermission, the conductor’s chef d’oeuvre, a large and imposing symphonic work that demonstrated the skills of the Music Director and showcased the orchestra’s principle soloists. The inducement for audiences to purchase season tickets was the music itself, and, of course, the soloists. However, audiences for conventional symphony programs have been diminishing and aging, not only on the Monterey Peninsula, but everywhere. Therefore, symphony managements all over the world have been seeking ways to present innovative programs that will reach new (and, hopefully, younger) audiences.

In the 1950s Madison Avenue’s advertising and marketing gurus came up with a gimmick — “Sell the sizzle, not the steak,” and recently we have begun to observe the influence of this in Monterey Symphony (and Carmel Bach Festival) programs. More and more we are beginning to observe “themes” that collectively organize and glamorize an entire season’s offerings. The theme for the Monterey Symphony’s present season is “Hear the World!” Inside this theme there are also subsidiary themes for each of the seven sets of concerts: “America Celebrated, Opéra français, Sizzle from Iceland, Russia Revealed, Passionate Scenery, Spiritual Uplift and Mediterranean Melodies.”

This is clever and innovative, but there is still the moment when the patron, whether he is a dinner guest or member of a concert audience, has to go beyond the sizzle and aroma. Will the steak live up to its promoted sizzle? That is the question. Certainly the first concert of the season, “America Celebrated,” featuring an original symphonic work by Dave & Chris Brubeck highlighting projected images of photographs by and about Ansel Adams was a great success. It was well received by audiences and it sold an extraordinary number of single tickets.

The Monterey Symphony presented its second set of concerts of the 2009-2010 season last weekend, its theme being Opéra français, and it was less successful on two counts. The music itself was not as substantial as it might have been, and since the program did not attract as large an audience as for the previous concert, there were a lot of empty seats. Beethoven, Schubert and Weber all died within a few years of each other, and after their deaths the musical center of Europe shifted from Vienna to Paris where audiences became obsessed with opera, as well as with superficial variations and concert paraphrases based on French opera arias. So intense was this preoccupation with opera that Baron Guy de Rothschild in the 1830’s commissioned the chief set designer of the Paris Opera to redo the interior decoration of his Château outside of Paris with murals on the walls of public rooms depicting scenes from his favorite operas.

It was this kind of music that was all the rage in Paris during the middle of the 19^th century that we heard in the second half of the program on Sunday featuring coloratura arias delivered with great gusto by soprano Tracy Dahl. These ran the gamut from a heartfelt Adieu, mon doux rivage from Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine to arias by Gounod and Ambroise Thomas where the outstanding feature was endless virtuoso coloratura cadenzas. Much as we admire Ms. Dahl’s talents, a little of this goes a long way. However, her performance of Adieu, mon doux ravage, was so full of feeling and genuinely expressive, with such a fabulous cadenza, it came across as the high point of the afternoon.

We also had an opportunity to enjoy the artistry of, Arthur Post, who proved to be as articulate in his comments to the audience as he is skilled as a conductor. He gave us an illuminating perspective of French music of this period, and then proceeded to wow us as he led the orchestra through an exciting performance of four scenes from Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz. Right from the opening moments of this work, we heard some of the fascinating innovations for which Berlioz was so famous, and the lovely languorous melodies of the “Love Scene” were rich and satisfying.

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