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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1988)
just entertainment PGMC premieres Caesarian opera The true story of Julius Caesar’s love for Nicomedes, King ofBithynia posers Orchestra. The premiere of Harrison’s first opera, Rapunzel, was sung by Leontyne Price, and pera will come busting out of its closet won the composer the Twentieth Century this spring with the first full-scale staging Masterpiece Award, which was presented to of Young Caesar, an opera by Lou Hamson that him in Rome by Igor Stravinsky. tells the true story of Julius Caesar ’s love affair An earlier version of Young Caesar was com with an Eastern king. pleted in 1971. It has been performed in Young Caesar will be produced and performed sophisticated puppet theater productions, but by the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus on Saturday has never been staged with live singers. and Sunday, April 9 and 10, in the Intermediate About one of the puppet productions, the Theatre of the Portland Center for the Perform music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle ing Arts. As a musical event, this premiere is important wrote, “ It was one of those rare modem events in music, in which artistic attainment out enough that critics from several other cities are weighed the importance of the original ground expected to attend. As an event in gay cultural plan . . . The historic significance of Young history, it is unique: an opera on a gay theme by Caesar has much to offer the creative field in a major composer. general. Its lesson is the viability of simplicity Ric Young, the audacious and sometimes as an end. Taken seriously, this might well be controversial theater director, has staged the the salvation of opera.’’ opera and designed the elaborate costumes. The critic wrote of the libretto, “ It was pep Visually, the production is inspired by Fellini’s pered with marvelous one-liners within a con Satyr icon. stant shift of mood: now serious, now comic, The story derives from a biography of Caesar never gross." written by Suetonius, a second-century Roman Harrison has written a new orchestration and historian. Robert Gordon, a successful San added men’s choral music, written especially Francisco playwright, has written the text in for the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus. modem English. It follows Caesar’s life from Sets are by Jim Gilsdorf; lighting is by Jeff his coming-of-age through his visit to the capi Forbes. Both arc well known in Portland for tal of Bithynia (now Turkey). He went there as their work with Storefront Theatre. an envoy to hasten the delivery of some ships Robert Hughes, distinguished guest conductor promised to Rome by the Bithyman king, from the Bay area. has been engaged by the Nicomedes. Chorus for Young Caesar. He has conducted I'he king was enchanted with the brash young the Oakland Symphony, the San Francisco Roman, and persuaded him to remain in Ballet, and the Western Opera Theater of Bithynia during the course of a fervent love the San Francisco Opera. He led the original affair. puppet theater presentation of Young Caesar at Eventually Caesar’s ambition prompted him the Cabrillo Music Festival in 1971. to leave the king and return to the Roman army. The orchestra will be the Virtuosi della Rosa, The opera ends with Caesar sailing out of the made up of players from the Portland Opera and harbor and Nicomedes broken-hearted on the the Oregon Symphony. quay. David York, conductor of the Chorus, will Most of the story is treated in a light way, sing the title role in the opera. Other major roles aiming to be tender and funny. will be sung by Steven Fulmer (narrator) and Ric Young summarizes the opera’s theme Kevin Walsh (the king). Barbara Irvin (who this way: “ Caesar gives up love for power; played Mrs. Lovett to striking effect in Civic Nicomedes jeopardizes his power for love.” Theatre's Sweeney Todd) will sing the role of The composer, Lou Harrison, has a world Caesar’s scheming aunt. wide reputation that continues to grow as Staging includes extensive blocking for the younger composers are influenced by his music Chorus, and will take advantage of the huge and philosophy. His works have been performed stage and state-of-the-art technical equipment by major artists for some 50 years (he is now in the new Intermediate Theatre. 70). Last November the Philadelphia Orchestra By far the biggest project the Chorus has recorded two of his symphonic works; his re undertaken. Young Caesar is funded in part by cent piano concerto has been played by the San grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Francisco Symphony, the Tokyo Symphony, Metropolitan Arts Commission and the White- and in Carnegie Hall by the American Com B_Y___ R I C H A R D B R OWN O X , T V /A A light Foundation. Tickets are $15, $12, and $8 at the Per forming Arts Center box office. Mail orders to the Chorus are encouraged; checks payable to PGMC may be sent to PO Box 3223, Portland, Ore- 97208. Better seating is available for the Sunday evening performance. • Julie and Nico Young Caesar may shock some people by portraying the first emperor of Rome in a gay love affair. But it won’t surprise history buffs. Caesar's dalliance with King Nicomedes was so widely known in its own time that he was referred to in at least one edict as “ the queen of Bithynia.” The Roman biographer Suetonius reports that at the triumph held in honor of Caesar's conquest of Gaul, his soldiers chanted, “ Caesar conquered Gaul; Nicomedes, Caesar.” These references are cited by Jon Boswell in Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homo é CHEF JACK ELM ER’S ^ Ric Young, Director of Young Caesar. CHOCOLATES I » PASTRIES J MINTS, CAKES & WEDDING CAKES . O o ° . ° © WHOLESALE & RETAIL 234-8115 4733 SE HAWTHORNE BV Just Oui • 20 • March |988 THE FINEST OF ('HOCOLATES A BLEND OF SWISS. BELGIAN & AMERICAN CHOCOLATE. COMBINED WITH Licit ERS FRUITS AND NUTS TO MAKE THE AWARD WINNING JA CIVA S BLEND HANDMADE IN OREGON WE SHIP U P S o oO. | ° 0 ® o all with your own scent o ♦ soaps, bubble bath, skin care (V n 0 o •® :O .O . e>’ ~o° ° • bubble bath to lotions ♦ over 100 fragrances CHOCOLAT UR SWISS TRAINED Here is how Boswell begins his chapter on Rome: “ In a now famous remark, Edward Gibbon observed that ‘of the first fifteen emperors, Claudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely correct,’ meaning heterosexual. If Gibbon was right, the Roman Empire was ruled for almost 200 consecutive years by men whose homosexual interests, if not exclusive, were sufficiently noteworthy to be recorded for posterity.” • ° .o * 0 o O O o O sexuality. Boswell also quotes Curio the Elder as calling Caesar “ Every man’s wife and every woman's husband.’ ’ He must have been as busy in bed as he was on the battlefield. Boswell even suggests who did what to whom, noting that Caesar was “ widely rumored to have been passive” in his relations with Nicomedes. “ In contrast, the charge that Augustus had as a boy submitted to Caesar in the same way seems never to have done him much harm.” O O ♦ cards, gift bags, <3 o w rap,. . . and more d o * A e s c e n tia l now open in two locations O 0 7 days a week O OPEN MON - SAT 0 36:38 SK H a w th o r n e Blvcl. 0 727 N W 2ISI A v e . 236-7976 248-9748 * O0> O