Entertainment 2000 Fall Calendar: The Classics Honor Some Birthday Boys
September 13, 2000
By Mark Stryker, Free Press music writer

Thank God for birthdays, death years and other assorted anniversaries. Otherwise, classical music groups might have to do some truly creative programming, or at least find other ways to repackage warhorse repertoire. The men of the year for 2000-2001 include Giuseppe Verdi and Johann Sebastian Bach, both conveniently celebrating anniversaries of their demise. Verdi died 100 years ago in 1901; Bach died 250 years ago in 1750.

Of course, Verdi is the lifeblood of Italian opera and hardly a season goes by that Michigan Opera Theatre doesn't offer Verdi in the mix anyway. But by presenting "La Traviata" and "Falstaff" in April and May, MOT offers a welcome opportunity to ruminate on the master's art. Moreover, MOT opens its spring season on Jan. 27 - 100 years to the day after Verdi died at age 87 - with a concert by the Parma Opera Ensemble performing arias and chamber music by the composer.

Others are traveling back to Bach. Noted harpsichordist Bradley Brookshire performs the "French Suites" at Ann Arbor's Kerrytown Concert House in October. Kerrytown is also the November home for three evenings of Bach by pianist Sean Duggin.

Other Bach programs range from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's rare performance of the great B minor Mass in May to this Friday's concert at Oakland University by the pianists known collectively as the Bach Four.

One other anniversary: the 50th birthday of of the Cranbrook Music Guild, where performers play by lamp light in the library of a 1908 English country manor. Cranbrook is inviting stars from its past, including the Juilliard String Quartet (October), pianist Ruth Laredo (November) and violinists Ani and Ida Kavafian (March).