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Cornell singers, dean premiere work

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When Boston vocal ensemble Tapestry takes its new piece on the road, composer James Falzone of Chicago will likely play the clarinet part.

But when “How Can Barren Be So Beautiful” has its world premiere Monday (1/28) night at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Dean Joe Dieker will wrap his artistry around the clarinet role.

Joe Dieker

Dieker, 55, Cornell’s dean since July 1, 2010, holds a doctor of musical arts degree from Arizona State University and taught music for 25 years before becoming an administrator. He still flexes his musical muscles at Cornell, teaching clarinet there and playing with the school’s orchestra, where he was featured  in a concerto performance last April.

“They’re getting used to (hearing) me,” he says with a laugh.

Such opportunities give him a chance to blend both of his career paths.

“Playing music is just what I do. Being the dean of the college is my job,” he says. “This (concert) gives me a chance to get to know students. I wouldn’t normally have as many chances sitting in my office.”

The details

Tapestry, a five-woman ensemble formed in 1995, combines medieval, traditional and contemporary vibes. Falzone is known largely for jazz compositions, but has written across genres, Dieker says.

This piece, which runs about 8 minutes, is based on a series of poems by Margaret Chula of Portland, Ore. Dieker says “Barren” is contemporary in tone and reflects a style of music developed in the past 20 years. It features Tapestry’s female vocalists; the group’s male percussionist, Takaaki Masuko, on vibraphone; Cornell’s Chamber Singers; and Dieker.

The commission and collaboration between Tapestry and Cornell were designed to give students an enrichment experience, in conjunction with the school’s popular Music Mondays concert series.

Tapestry

“It’s really good for our students,” Dieker says. “First of all, they’re singing with a really nationally famous group. Tapestry is a really top-notch group. Plus, they’re singing a piece that’s never been heard before.

“The composer, James Falzone, was out a few weeks before Christmas to rehearse with them, so he actually got to talk to them about how he conceived the piece, why he wrote it the way he wrote it and gave them some tips on how he wants it performed,” Dieker says. “And then he and the Tapestry group will be backed next weekend, and we’ll rehearse this before Monday night’s concert. …

“It’s a pretty unique experience.”

REVIEW: ‘War Horse’ is magnificent theatrical achievement

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Andrew Veenstra portrays Albert, riding atop Joey, powered by John Riddleberger, Patrick Osteen and Jessica Krueger in "War Horse." Mount Vernon native Alex Morf will play Albert on Dec. 15 and 16 when the production's national tour comes to the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines. (Brinkhoff/Moegenburg photo)

DES MOINES — “War Horse” is even more thrilling on stage than on screen.

The 2011 Tony Award-winning Best Play that inspired the blockbuster movie is a magnificent beast of beauty, power and grace. It opened to gasps, cheers and three curtain calls Tuesday (12/11/12) at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, and continues there through Dec. 16.

The show is even more special for Eastern Iowans, since Mount Vernon native Alex Morf, 32, who was wonderful in a supporting role Tuesday, will step into the lead role for all matinee and evening shows Saturday and Sunday.

While we’re used to seeing Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future this time of year, this play, wrapped in the harrowing trappings of war, has an overarching spirit of goodness, honor and kindness. It’s easily a two-tissue experience as we watch a young English boy fall completely in love with his new foal, Joey, a gift his father gave with much sacrifice.

Boy and horse grow together, developing a bond that transcends time, space and trauma when the strapping horse is sold to the British cavalry at the onset of World War I. Joey is shipped to France to serve as an officer’s steed, but through the bombings and strife, is hurtled into impossible peril pulling field guns, dodging tanks, struggling through barbed wire and staring down the barrel of a gun when it seems he can’t go on.

If you’ve seen the movie, you know how that all plays out. That doesn’t lessen the impact of this marvelous piece of theater at its best. It’s an amalgam of impeccable acting, breathtaking battle choreography, multimedia scenery, driving music and puppetry that blazes new trails.

The first national Broadway tour of "War Horse" is onstage at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines from Dec. 11 to 16, 2012. (Brinkhoff/Moegenburg photo)

Every actor in the huge ensemble is solid and crucial to the success of the show, but it’s the horses and auxiliary animals that captivate your attention. The life-size beasts are larger than life in the way they spring into action. Each of the half-dozen or so horses requires three people at the head, heart and hind, bringing such subtly and elegance to their movements and sound effects that the animals seem like breathing flesh and blood, instead of metal framework and transparent cloth.

The minute we see baby Joey onstage, we understand why Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones of Handspring Puppet Company in South Africa received a special Tony award for their work. And when the actors mount the adult horses to ride into battle or frolic across the stage, the moments are truly monumental achievements.

All of the horse operators are dressed in the early 1900s garb of young men, which is another stroke of genius for the overall stage picture. We know they are there, but they are instantly at one with the animals — including an especially hissy goose — so when the horses charge into battle, we see “real” horses rearing on their hind legs. And we weep at their demise.

Music undulates throughout the show, sometimes through the Song Man, a lilting Celtic narrator and his accordion accompanist, other times through a brass band (where Morf plays a mean, crisp trombone) and several times, from the entire cast. The only permanent scenery is a giant swath of torn paper suspended above the stage, where pencil-sketch scenery is projected in animated form. Stark lighting and blinding bomb blasts engulf the stage and audience in the most intense sensory assault at the height of battle.

This is a play that will never grow old, shedding light on a horrible war eclipsed by ensuing 20th century violence. Above all, it is a story of a love and devotion that knows no cost.

The details

  • What: “War Horse”
  • Where: Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, 221 Walnut St.
  • When: Through Dec. 16; 7:30 p.m. through Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday
  • Tickets: $45 to $90 at the Civic Center Box Office, Ticketmaster outlets, 1-(800) 745-3000 or CivicCenter.org
  • Extra: Alex Morf and musical friends from the show will play a bluegrass concert to benefit the Mount Vernon High School theater program, 8 p.m. Dec. 17, Cornell College theater complex

Related: Mount Vernon native saddles up for ‘War Horse’ lead role

 

Mount Vernon native saddles up for ‘War Horse’ lead role

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Generally, Alex Morf plays a young British lad named David, occasionally a young feisty foal named Joey, but during four matinee and evening performances Dec. 15 and 16, the Mount Vernon native will step into the lead role of Albert in “War Horse.”

The first national tour of Broadway’s 2011 Tony-winning Best Play is charging toward the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines for eight performances Tuesday to Dec. 16.

“We all have to be a jack-of-all-trades,” Morf, 32, now based in Manhattan, says by phone from the show’s current tour stop in East Lansing, Mich. “I play the role of the best friend of the main character, but I also understudy about six roles, including the lead, which I’ll be going on for in Iowa.”

Aside from the fact that family and friends will be in the audience, he feels an extra synergy between the play and his home state.

“Albert is a young boy who grows up on the English countryside. That’s one of the reasons I’m really excited to bring it to Iowa,” he says. “It’s really about people who live in and around farm land.”

The details

Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 best-selling book inspired the play, which opened in London in 2007, and in turn, inspired Steven Spielberg’s 2011 film.

It’s the story of young Albert, who receives a foal from his father. Albert raises the horse he names Joey. They develop such a strong bond that when Joey is sold to toil for the arduous World War I effort, Albert sets out to find his beloved friend and bring him home.

Alex Morf

“It’s really a story about hope against the greatest odds,” Morf says, “and also a story about human beings’ relationships with animals. It’s a really special bond that anybody who’s had a pet or a relationship with a horse or any kind of animal, knows.

“One of the things I love about it — it’s a show that people can see and identify with and love in all parts of the country. We’ve played in the heart of San Francisco and the heart of Dallas … and everywhere we go, people react really strongly to this play. It’s a special thing to be a part of, and it’s going to be really special to bring it to my home.”

The puppets have been hailed as mechanical and emotional marvels wherever the show has traveled. Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones of Handspring Puppet Company in South Africa — the men behind the artistry — were lauded with a special Tony award for their work.

Each horse takes three people to spring to life. They are halfway through their yearlong tour.

It’s an ensemble effort, many rotating in and out of the physically and mentally demanding animal roles.

“The horses are the stars of the show, make no mistake, and they should be,” Morf says. “But, the horses wouldn’t be as interesting without the stories of the human interactions, and likewise, we wouldn’t be as interesting without the horses, so we really try to work together to tell the story.

“It’s a story that really deserves being told …” he says. “It’s been interesting for me, because my grandfather fought in World War I. It’s been neat to get to research the period, because it’s a war that’s often forgotten, especially by Americans. It’s a unique piece of history that still holds a lot of resonance today.”