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B 4 - The Oakville Beaver, W ednesday N ovem ber 14, 2001 ARTSCENE Editor: Carol Baldwin Phone: 905-845-3824 (ext. 254) Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: baldwin@haltonsearch.com WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 21. 2 (X )1 · Page B4 Size does matter Oakville violinist prefers playing with small chamber orchestra By Carol Baldwin ARTSCENE EDITOR and M - math and music are a logical com bination, according to Paulo Springm ann. But then the O akville violinist w orks w ith logic every day at his chem ical engineering job. But the num bers do add up, he says. In fact, num bers are why he becam e a m em ber o f the O akville C ham ber O rc h estra (O C O ) sh o rtly afte r he m oved to O akville three years ago. A violinist needs a violin section. "E ven as a student, I w as part o f an o rch e stra...I think you rem ain co n n ected ; you rem ain a c tiv e ," he explains. "I think, as a violin player, playing by yourself is very boring. If you love m usic, you tend to cluster w ith other people otherw ise y o u 're libel to forget your instrum ent very quickly. You get rusty." Springm ann says he prefers a cham ber orchestra o ver a sym phony because he likes the intim acy o f the sm aller group as w ell as the m usic that has been w ritten for such ensem bles. "I enjoy both types o f repertoire, but I think the audience is very close to the m usicians (in the O C O ). T here is little separation," he explains. "A nd I love the baroque m usic, w hich is real ly m ade for sm aller orchestras." H ow ever, he does adm it that the o rch estra's m usic director is exposing him to m ore m odem m usic as he adds it to the o rch estra's repertoire. "I 'm getting to know all the m usic and to appreciate it, although I have a certain preference. So, it (the m odem style) will never be exactly w hat I w ould put on my short list," he says w ith a laugh. "T he orchestra pushes M me a little bit." M usic, for Springm ann, runs in the family. The m ales in his fam ily from as far back as his grandfather have played the violin; the w om en played piano. So, follow ing in his ancestors' foot steps, S pringm ann took up the violin as a young man. " I sta rted w ith the p ian o but dropped it quickly for the violin. I was six when I started piano. T he violin, I started relatively late - around 11," he says, adding that his daughters seem to be b rea k in g th e m ale/fem ale, violin/piano chain. T he elder plays the violin, the younger the cello. "I think it gives them the ability to concentrate. It helps in a lot o f things." The O C O , now in its 18th season, began as an inform al group o f string players at C entral B aptist Church. In the past six years o r so, since C harles D em uynck took o ver the baton, the orchestra has developed into a solid, non-profit organization w ith a core m em bership o f string players and a list o f guest w oodw in d m u sician s and soloists, says Elaine M oroney, presi dent o f the O C O and also a violinist. "G uest m usicians com e by invita tion. T h ere's a lot m ore w ind players than there are string players. I think they're happy to com e out and have .the opportunity to play the m u sic...T h ere are tons o f flute players but not that m any positions available to them ," she says, explaining that the O CO has three main concerts each year. H ow ever, m any o f its m em bers v o l unteer in string quartets - tw o violins, a viola and a cello, perform ing by request at a num ber o f different func tions. "W e charge a fee. then the play ers donate that fee back to the orches tra. It's fund-raising for us." Photo by Riziero Vertolli · Oakville Beaver Paulo Springm ann is follow ing in the footsteps o f the violin-playing m ales in his family. H is daughters, Vicky, left, and M arianne, however, have changed the tradition a little by playing the violin and cello, respectively, instead o f the piano, which their fem ale ancestors have favoured. Paulo will be playing his violin at the O akville C ham ber O rchestra's first m ajor concert this season at C entral Baptist Church on Saturday. Tickets are $15. T he O C O 's first m ajor concert this season, A Su m m er R eprisietto, will feature the m usic o f G ustav M ahler, Sam uel B arber and W olfgang M ozart at 7 p.m. in Central B aptist Church (R ebecca and M orden) on Saturday, Nov. 24. G uest soloist K yle Engler, a m ezzosoprano, w ill sing Sam uel B arber's Knoxville: Sum m er o f 1915. M oroney says som e o f the m usic in this concert, M ozart's in particular, w as designed to be played by a sm all group o f m usicians. "It's kind o f exciting to play these pieces with the orchestration for which they were intended. It's a wonderful repertoire for our size orchestra," she says. "I don't find the repertoire limiting at all. W e've done some quite m odem w ork...W e have a lot o f English music written for string ensem bles... We do have that variety to choose from ." T ickets are $15, $12 for seniors and students, and are available in advance at A telier G reg o rian an d B ookers B ookstore or at the door on the night o f the concert. Season tickets, w hich also include a concert on M arch 9 and another on M ay 4, are $35, $25 for seniors and students. For m ore inform ation call 905-8227926 or v isit the w eb at w w w .o ak v ille.co m an d fo llo w the links fo r the O ak v ille C h am b er O rchestra. Physical humour desperately needed in Anouilh play By Carol Baldwin ARTSCENE EDITOR A fantasy play, a rom antic com edy, a rom antic charade - these are ju st som e o f the m onikers that have .been used to describe Jean A nouilh's play L 'Invitation au C hateau (1947) or Ring the M oon. T he playw right him self probably w ould have referred to it as "B rilliant" - his term for a play o f his that com bines pink (fantasy) and black (realistic tragedy) in an aristocratic environm ent. A nouilh w as also know n for trying to strike a balance betw een seriousness and farce, w hich, I am convinced, he w as aim ing for in R ing R ound the M oon. If I am right, Oakville Players' interpretation, currently on stage at the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts, falls short in the farce depart ment. Even some o f the actors in this production are not sure whether to call it a dram a or a comedy. Well, I can tell you, as an audience m em ber on opening night, it's a dram a - and a long one at that. It runs three hours w ith tw o interm is sions. A nd for a play o f that length, the hum our needs to be farcical - quick-paced, lots o f physi cal com edy, num erous speedy exits and entrances, and snappy, witty, poor. A nd R ing R ound the M oon anim ated dialogue. is exactly that, as the heartless I'm not sure why director H ugo plays fairy godfather to a Larry M arin chose not to give w orking-class dancer/actor, by the audience that m uch-needed turning her into a beautiful aris silliness in an otherw ise serious tocrat for a ball at his au n t's play. A m ajor obstacle to the manor. pace o f the play is that K evin H ugo d o esn 't appear to R ound Haxell, w ho plays tw ins H ugo believe in happiness and seem s and Frederic, is expected to exit to get a sadistic thrill from the from one side o f the stage and m isery o f others. H is tw in, on reenter on the other, w hich the other hand, is a sensitive, m eans, o f course, that he m ust considerate hum an being w hose run around the back o f the stage idea o f happiness is to be the each tim e. M aybe that is done to object o f a w om an's love. The convince the audience that hapless dancer, Isabelle, played Hugo, the m ain character, and by L isa H eim stra, is equally Carol Baldwin his brother really are different sm itten by the prospect o f actors - tw ins perhaps. rom antic love. But audience m em bers are sm arter than that Such a story has am azing possibilities when and should be given their due. If H axell entered it com es to com edy as w ell as pathos. M istaken from w here he last exited, he w ould save tim e identity, an affair betw een tw o other guests at for him self, those w aiting on stage for him to the manor, a chance reunion, and an astute, but reappear, and the audience. T hat change alone sensitive old w om an in a w heelchair can add up w ould inject som e oom ph into the production. to great dram a and side-splitting hum our. A nouilh's plays, popular in the U.S. during H axell gave an im pressive perform ance as the '50s and early '60s, are often about individ the tw ins, and the perspiration glistening on his ual happiness as defined by both the rich and the face dem onstrated his equally stellar attem pt at keeping it all together. Like A tlas holding up the w orld, the entire play seem ed to be balanced on his shoulders, not to m ention the physicality o f his exits and entrances. H e, along w ith Isabelle B runo as M adam e D esm ortes, and B arbara W inther, w ho played the d an c er's m other, w ere the w izards in this production, holding the au dience's attention and pulling it back from the brink w hen the pace n eeded a quick shot o f adrenaline. O n the w hole, the acting w as good, the set am azing, and the w riting excellent. W ith all those ingredients, R in g R ound The M oon should have com e across as a great dram a w ith lots of com ic relief and farcical fun. H ow ever, the rate o f delivery needed a potent tonic to bring it up to speed and turn it into the `b rillian t' play that A nouilh wrote. Perhaps a few m ore rehearsals and live pre sentations since opening night have polished it to a brilliant shine. R ing R ound The M oon continues at the O akville C entre tonight, tom orrow , Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $17 and are available by visiting or calling the box office at 130 N avy St., 815-2021, w eekdays from noon to 5 p.m., Saturdays from 2 to 5 p.m. or tw o hours prior to a perform ance. omething for Every owe a t our Exceptional hops fr Services B. B. Bargoons Bengal Rugs Bowrings Brentwood Kitchens Crescent Hill Gallery Custom Cinema & Sound Deblins Linens Dig This HausenBarn Hearth Manor Heidecker Interiors J. J. Mirror & Closets Kinsella Interiors Pacific Passage Paint Paper Plus Richway Furnishings Sklar Peppier Showcase The Grand Oak Gallery The Light Shoppe The Trading Post Furniture Co. ·T U B S · Veronica's Treasures ...and Eat! Eat!At Tony Roma' s Place for Ribs cro otitessori * OPEN HOUSE for PRESCHOOL REGISTRATION N ew 3-Year-Olds FOR FALL 2002 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29TM at 7:30 p.m 1167 Lakeshore Rd. E. O akville 905-844-2114 The M ississauga HOME 2575 Dundas Street West, Mississauga, Ontario DESIGN Oust East of Winston Churchill Blvd.) PLENTY O F FREE PARKING