Articles on Music from Another Time by Nick del Vecchio

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Max de Schauensee

Max de Schauensee was born in Rome, Italy in 1900 and died in Philadelphia, PA on July 24th, 1982. As far as we know, de Schauensee was the solo music critic for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin newspaper during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. It was during that last decade that he was given the title, Music Critic Emeritus. Because of his long tenure at the paper, we have the pleasure of reading about multiple performances of the same opera with world-renown singers from those decades, a feat which would be hardly duplicated today.

During the 1940s, de Schauensee wrote a column for the Bulletin simply called MUSIC in which he covered orchestral concerts, piano recitals and sundry musical events during those years. Of particular interest is a column he wrote on April 20th, 1947 about the vocal talents of four black singers who were prominent at that time- Marian Anderson, Roland Hayes, Dorothy Maynor and Paul Robeson. De Schauensee’s musical insight into these four giants of classical music is remarkable for its succinct prose and in-depth analysis of their vocal techniques.

De Schauensee’s articles and other opera reviews from the above mentioned decades are now posted on livingattheopera.com on the right column under Highlighted Articles.

Nick del Vecchio, Director, livingattheopera.com

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• Bellini’s Norma
• Guiseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto
• Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca

UA School of Dance Salutes Martha Graham

Panorama Rehearsal © UA Dance

It was a typical, balmy March evening outside the Stevie Eller Dance Theatre on the University of Arizona’s campus in Tucson, but inside, serious work was going on. Principal dancer Miki Orihara, who has been with the Martha Graham Dance Company since 1987, was quietly and efficiently rebuilding Graham’s 1935 work, Panorama, using three groups of students (one, all female; the other two, mixed.) At the time Panorama was first produced at Bennington College in Vermont, the work comprised all women.

The groups had been chosen by Douglas Nielsen, resident choreographer and dance professor at the school, but only one, with 34 dancers (including seven men), appeared with the Martha Graham Company on April 16, 2011, as part of the U A PRESENTS series at Centennial Hall. The other two would alternate performances at the dance school’s annual Spring Collection to be presented from April 21 to May 1 at the Eller Theatre. The school, known from its inception as the Committee on Dance in the School of Music way back in the 1980s, has grown into a sturdy and very respected dance conservatory, and today the school enjoys a well-deserved national reputation.
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