DPO, Opera and Ballet celebrate New Year’s Eve with ‘Grand Tour’
Ring in the new year with a night of global musical delights.
The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance rings in 2018 Sunday, Dec. 31, at the Schuster Center with a New Year’s Eve celebration focused on global musical delights.
Entitled “The Grand Tour,” the program promises a fun, festive and elegant collaboration between the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Dayton Ballet and Dayton Opera. The evening will salute such composers as Brahms, Dvořák, Ravel, Copland, and the father-son duo of Johann Strauss I and Johann Strauss II.
“It’s always nice to do an around-the-world-in-80-minutes program,” said DPO Music Director Neal Gittleman. “Each part of the music world has its own particular sound that sets it apart. But they all share one thing: rhythm. The rhythms aren’t the same, but there’s always some kind of particular rhythmic impulse. When you think about it, it makes sense that rhythm is the common thread.
“After all, it’s the common thread we all share – the rhythm of our heartbeats. Our bodies may be difference in size, shape, hue, hair, etc. — but inside we’re all pumping blood at more or less the same pulse.”
Choreographer Case Bodamer, a member of Dayton Ballet memorably seen as George Wilson this fall in “The Great Gatsby,” is excited to bring flavor to the various rhythms on display, particularly in the Eastern European “Slavic Dances” and “Hungarian Dance.” Overall, he says the range of choreography encompasses musical theater, classical ballet and contemporary movement. He will perform along with fellow company members Margot Aknin, Claire Bergman and Annalise Woller.
“I love that this performance gives me another opportunity to not only dance but also explore and develop my skills in creating new dance,” Bodamer said. “The New Year’s performance offers a unique set of parameters, but are a welcomed challenge and it is fun to have to find solutions and creative ways to work around things. This year we will be using
a large bench in each of the pieces which will be incorporated in the choreography and, at times, be used as a resting station while other dancers continue dancing.
“My hope in approaching each piece is to offer as much variety as possible to the audience. I think we have created pieces that will be both fun and stimulating to the audience and fun for the dancers, too.”
Selections include “And This Is My Beloved” from the musical “Kismet,” “Greensleeves,” “Variations on a Shaker Melody,” “Mai Nozipo,” the Act II finale from “Die Fledermaus,” “The Blue Danube Waltz,” and “The Radetsky March.” In particular, the DPO will present a special orchestral premiere of two movements from Steven Winteregg’s “Sketches of Venice,” the fourth movement called “Ponte Vecchio” and the fifth movement, “Church Bells.” In fact, Winteregg is the DPO’s former Principal Tuba and wrote “Fanfare for a City” for the first DPO New Year’s Eve concert in 1995.
“I really love Steve’s music and we’ve played many of his pieces over the years,” Gittleman said. “He sends me new scores periodically. ‘Ponte Vecchio’ is a bit of a surprise since it’s kind of a jazzy piece – not mandolins and gondolier songs. But it perfectly captures the quirkiness and slightly crazy character of the bridge.”
In addition, the Dayton Opera will be represented by three of its four 2017-2018 Artists-in-Residence. Soprano Olivia Yokers, mezzo-soprano Noragh Devlin and tenor Michael Anderson will be joined by baritone Brian Hupp in his Dayton Opera debut. Hupp was notably seen last season as Sky Masterson in Dare to Defy Productions’ presentation of “Guys and Dolls” at the Victoria Theatre.
The evening, which will open with Walter S. Allen’s “Dayton Centennial March” and also incorporate a flute of champagne at intermission and a colorful climactic balloon drop, will conclude with a traditional rendering of “Auld Lang Syne.” The concert also includes a special sneak peek of the DPAA’s 2018-2019 season.