David MacIntyre’s new “opera cabaret” Love in Public is an imaginative and rewarding entertainment

 

VANCOUVER — David MacIntyre’s new “opera cabaret” Love in Public is an imaginative and rewarding entertainment. The central conceit couldn’t be simpler: three couples (four singers and two dancers) present all forty-four of Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnets from the Portuguese” in a minimal set that suggests a park or garden. There is no obvious dramatic scenario to the just under two hours of music, yet character and a certain emotion-centred plot are implied between the lines, as it were, by action and singularly lovely lighting.

MacIntyre defines no roles beyond The Soprano (Robyn Dreidger-Klassen), The Mezzo (Megan Morrison), The Tenor (Frédérik Robert), and The Baritone (Warren Kimmel). This knowing allusion to the operatic convention whereby certain voice types suggest stereotypical characters is part of the layered fabric.

I hear similar references in MacIntyre’s music, which begins with the piano (confidently essayed by David Boothroyd) in a sort of loosely deconstructed Schumann mode, not the only 19th-centrury resonance: the idea of an extended set of small self-contained pieces for voices and piano can’t help evoking Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes. MacIntyre long ago moved away from the tough constructs of modernist musical language. Even so, his willingness to create a dialogue between musical gestures of the past— patterns and textures suggesting music of the Romantic era juxtaposed with an affectionate recreation of idioms from contemporary music theatre—makes for some unexpected musical bedfellows.

The effects of these juxtapositions are neither naive nor random: rich layers of meaning are built up by this dialogue with multiple narratives.

None of the vocal music requires particular virtuosity, yet the presence of operatically trained singers is essential. Despite a rangey diversity, there is a consistency to the music: fairly restricted vocal lines, a consistently consonant harmonic vocabulary, and spare piano accompaniments add up to an unexpectedly strong whole. Most of the work is cast in solo segments and a handful of duets; ensemble pieces form dramatic counterpoint. The work ends in a glorious five-segment ensemble finale: expressive, poignant, and enchanting music.

Love in Public mostly succeeds in setting Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s love sonnets to music

By David MacIntyre, from the sonnets of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. At the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre at SFU Woodward’s on Thursday, April 19. Continues until April 29

Sanctuary Salves Our Universal Loneliness                                                                           by Michael Scott,                                                                                                                             Vancouver Sun, December 9, 1989   

" Human being spend a lot of time trying to dispel the chaotic darkness of the universe. They weave myths to keep the shadows at bay, and take lovers to share their fears. They use dance and song and rhyme to sort through the world; and draw themselves together into tribes. Mostly, they seek a still place from which to peer out into the cosmos and try to make sense of things - a refuge. David MacIntyre understands the heart's search for such a still point in the world, and creates one, in an astonishingly dramatic new work of musical art. Sanctuary, his piece for string orchestra, conductor and boy soprano, is born of the composer's concern that orchestral music has lost its ability to prick the emotions. By taking his musicians down from the platform and moving them from place to place in the recital hall, MacIntyre gets us thinking about the space we're in, about the physical world around us. Suddenly, though, it's no longer just the Vancouver East Cultural Centre we're thinking about, but the larger world outside - the darkness beyond the light of the campfire." 

"His restless music continually jogs the imagination. What begins with the grief-stained sighs of the 19th century, suddenly bends and dances out in the step-hop-step of a folk dance. Episodes flash past, scores of them - pairs and trios and sextets. Often the music ascends and descends in long phrases, as if it were drawing breath. Some of MacIntyre's most exquisite music rests with his double trio of three cellos and three basses. Ranged across the back of the stage, beyond a scrim, when we first see them, their long ascending sighs seem to yearn up out of Gustav Mahler's pallette. At another point, a songlike melody from a solo violin is taken up by six others, who transform it into an ocean wave rolling into a beach and then receding. MacIntyre plays games with the ear, too, luring it deeper and deeper into patterns where the resoving cadence never quite comes. At the appearance of boy soprano Scott Shymko, optimism enters the music. And then chaos presses in. Grinding, growling chromatics summon up a nightmare jungle. A locomotive streaks past. But MacIntyre refuses to abandon us to the night. A habanera winds out of the low strings, beguiling, irresistible. The players gather at last in a large circle, facing in toward one another like the shamans MacIntyre intends them to be. They create a sacred space between them - the sanctuary we all crave." 

Sanctuary A Gift of Music                  by Max Wyman                                  Vancouver Province December 10, 1989

"At the centre of the performing space at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre are 16 chairs, 16 music stands. But at the opening of Sanctuary, David MacIntyre's new performance piece for string orchestra, conductor (Owen Underhill) and boy soprano (Scott Shymko), the orchestra that eventually comes to occupy this setting has been exploded, player by player, to the far reaches of the auditorium. We get to know them, instrument by instrument, from this corner and that. The device tunes our ears, and gives transparency to the music that follows. For the 75 minutes of Sanctuary's duration, we are inside the music, wrapped in (to use MacIntyre's own words) a giant resonator...offering us refuge (in music that seems a prism for much of the 20th Century modernism itself) from the sonic panic of modern music and modern life... though never letting us forget it exists. And offering (since MacIntyre is also a fine themesmith) the humanistic, non-denominational solace and sanctuary that is uniquely the gift of music, in a broad, wise, ultimately affirmative conclusion of Mahlerian sweep and majesty." 

This Sanctuary is Lively and Moving                                                                                                by E. Douglas Hughes                                                                                                                        Georgia Straight Dec. 15-22, 1989                                                                                                                                                       "Although it is not usual to think of Yorkton, Saskatchewan as a flourishing centre of cultural activity, this small community nevertheless attracts some international attention every year with a commendable film festival. Now, it may have further claim to attention in David MacIntyre, a composer born there in 1952. A resident of Vancouver since 1979, MacIntyre is a candid individual with an enviable mop of curly hair, deep-set eyes that gleam behind spectacles, a kindly sense of humour, and a gift of the musical gab... After hearing his piece, I formed my own notion that his Sanctuary represents a sanctuary for the protection of live music - and of live music-making - now facing a huge challenge, perhaps even a huge threat, from the electronic industry... So there, Mr. David MacIntyre of Yorkton, Saskatchewan, you did not fail at all."

 

VO premiere of The Architect assured and compelling                                                           by Floyd St Clair                                                   Xtra West, June 17, 1994

Vancouver Opera's world premiere on June 11 of The Architect gave the too-rare pleasure of a new opera fully mounted and set forth with assurance. With music by David MacIntyre and text by Tom Cone it also had the distinction of originating with city-based artists. The intense concentration of the packed Playhouse and highly-appreciative applause at the end was a reassuring signal that the company's gamble of resources and talent to broaden the spectrum of what for many is a museum art had paid off unquestionably.  ...The libretto flowed absolutely naturally as did David MacIntyre's attractively approachable score which gave pinpoint precision to the satiric moments and broad, singable lyric expansion to the characters' wide diversity of emotions. ...Aggressively contemporary the music is not, but with its playful incorporation of blues-feeling moments to the witty use of marimba, it's definitely of our time. The creators have stated that the story is about "a malaise - apathy, fear and greed - all the emotions that drive evil in our society today." If that seems a bit schematic, much of the pleasure in the work in fact derives from the human constiuents of the characters. ... The Architect is a stimulating alternative to mega-musical theatre.  

Power and Relevance are Architect's Hallmarks                                                                                                                                           by Robert Jordan                                                                                                                                 Georgia Straight, June 17-24, 1994

"That jubilant din from Dunsmuir was not as jarring as it would have been during a performance of a traditional opera, as it came from the very world described in Tom Cone and David MaIntyre's remarkable collaboration. That the opera succeeds as it does is a testimonial as much to their talent as to their perspicacity in hammering ou a unified vision. It was the pair's stated intention to write an opera dealing with contemporary issues in an accessible style. To create their penetrating exploration of the malaise - fear, greed, and apathy - rampant in today's society, Cone used the poetry and rhythms of everyday speech, while MacIntyre based his lyrical score on such familiar musical formulas as twelve-bar blues. But superimposed upon this substructure of instantly recognizable components are a number of defiances of traditional dramatic expectation. ...MacIntyre has made the music of that malaise supremely attractive and, with imagination and finesse, has succeeded in wringing an amazing amount of mileage out of his ostinato-driven score. The music underpinning the close of "the Architect's Office", for instance, is potently seductive as Madeline (Sandra's business associate) and the staff anesthetize Sandra's concerns with their surreal lullaby, yet the covert malevolence within that seduction is truly eerie. ...The aria sung by Even, a beach scavenger who is Sandra's only ally, at the beginning of "Even's Place" is a highly poetic paean to an existence of truth and beauty "where the only weapon is music". The rough edge to André Clouthier's tenor voice on opening night lent an added poignancy to this beautiful moment. ...Using accessible language and music, The Architect tells us something new about ourselves and the times in which we live. It may still need some fine-tuning, but it is a powerful and relevant statement that speaks directly to the heart."

The Architect is provocative viewing - VO's first ever commission memorable

by Gordan Armstrong                                                                                                                            XTRA West, June 17, 1994

"The immediacy of The Architect distinguishes it from many new operas of recent years, which have looked to nostalgic headlines (Nixon in China), past cultural heroes (Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha), or even Revolutionary France (Ghosts of Versailles) for safely distant source material. Even as it delights in musical and dramatic lyricism, The Architect cuts through that high-art crap: Sandra initially comes off as - and could have easily remained - a confused, whining yuppie off of a prime-time soap. She is transformed, however, by three blessings from her creators. First there is MacIntyre's shrewd and inspired handling of the psychological subtext in the score (whose life wouldn't gain in urgency, sung to these shimmering phrases?). Second, there is Cone's bold expression of the character's humanity, set against a subtly nuanced suggestion of the dark energies which threaten her. The third factor is the steely spellbinding performance by Parker. Parker is exceptional - not only for her clear, focused mezzo soprano but for her sense of the character's physical life, a rare talent among singers. ... Still, the strength of MacIntyre and Cone's achievement prevails. The score, for strings, harp and percussion, is full of sensual beauty, rich in rhythmic surprizes - a seductive tango, a darkly coloured rhumba, a Gershwinesque inflection of blues. MacIntyre's writing for the chorus is also unique and memorable. ...To hear a banality like "I love your shoes" transformed into song by John Fanning's enveloping baritone is thrilling - it's exactly the sort of touch that makes The Architect a provocative tonic to Vancouver's very real apathy toward its own cultural malnutrition."

The Architect - A Musical Edifice Designed by SFU  Talent   

Welcome to the opera of the 90's! Its themes are real. It's locally set. It's in colloquial English, and ... it's sexy.                                                                       

by Charina Huang                      The Peak                                  June 13, 1994   

The Architect was written scene by scene, libretto and score at the same time - probably the first opera to have been created this way. The opera's focus comes from a collective vision shared by the composer and librettist. Of this vision, MacIntyre states that, "since the night we met, Tom and I have been preoccupied with the thought that our world is on the edge of a precipice. Our world is so bloated by our appetite for information and our inability to act upon it that we are being consumed by our own apathy. And as apathy grows, individual moral responsibility declines. We had found the central conflict of The Architect." A unique point of interest is the colloquial language used in the libretto. It is highly unlikely that phrases such as "Get a grip!", "forget it", or even, "How was your date?", would be used in conventional operas. A comical example comes from a scene in which Sandra is telling her best friend, Madeline, about two incompetent employees who are working for her. She describes them as having "no imagination, smells like television" and then she proclaims, "I'll never have a kid!"

Musically, the opera is a combination of classical orchestration and ornamentation, and contemporary textures. Professor MacIntyre chose this form in order to evoke a melange of emotions and meanings that can be understood by today's audience. He also feels that The Architect is a singer's opera, driven by melody, character and rhythm. "I've tried to create music that reflects a strong sense of physical place as well as the psychological aspects of the characters within their environment. The malaise is created through the turbulent, undulating rhythms and the seductive allure of the melodies. Rather than mirroring our high-tech society, I've chosen a classical orchestration of strings, harp and percussion which serves a dual purpose: as an acoustic metaphor for materials of wood, glass and steel, which form the basis of Sandra's architectural aesthetic, and also to provide us with a fresh perspective from which we see ourselves."    

 Timely opera necessarily naive - and naively necessary  

by Lloyd Dykk                                                                                                                                       Vancouver Sun, June 25, 1994

"A few of us were standing outside Vancouver Playhouse during the interval of David MacIntyre and Tom Cone's The Architect, the first new work ever commissioned by Vancouver Opera. Brian Tate, a noteworthy local composer, loved it. He mentioned the music's diminished seventh chords, which reminded him of Stravinsky, and there was some Stephen Sondheim in there too, but it wasn't a pastiche or an imitation, he said. It had it's own quality. This was true. In addition to gorgeous vocal lines, it did seem to inhale Stravinsky's fresh athletic air. There were even bits of Philip Glass and Latin syncopated beats that gave it a certain chic. We agreed that it was "a very modern opera." And it looked so good. It would have to. It was about the rarefied heights of modern architecture, after all. ... Part of the charm of The Architect, which has the disadvantage of being in English, is its nakedness. I loved every modern reference: pentothal, bank lineups, metal detectors, men's ponytails, tennis balls, sorbet, ophthalmology, stress-fracture, and especially Chanel. In the 1920's in Germany there was a style of operea that was hugely popular, called Zeitopern - "opera of the times." Though most of its composers are now little but footnotes in music (because nothing dates like modernity), their purpose was to express what was in the air. These antiques of modernism include Paul Hindemith's 1929 Neues vom Tage, a satire on the press, with a notorious aria sung by a soprano in the bathtub extolling the advantages of electric heating over gas (a local gas company sued). The hero of Ernst Krenek's sensational 1927 Jonny spielt auf, the world's first jazz opera, was a black jazz musician - a symbol for America - who steals a precious Amati violin that represents a decadent old world. Its scenes included an automobile, radio, a jazz band, a loudspeaker, and a train station with a huge clock, clouds of steam and a deafening whistle. The Architect seems to be in this utilitarian tradition of reminding us that we live in an ongoing world. Whatever you made of it, I think it was a good experience since our definition of opera has become old guard. ...Whether or not The Architect goes down as 2060's Neues vom Tage, it continued a very old tradition in a new way and at least tried to keep us in tune with the times. By commissioning a new work and attempting to ensure that we don't bury our own age, the architects of Vancouver Opera were bravely responsible in their duties.
        

• "The most memorable cultural event of the year for me was The Architect [a Vancouver Opera production], and not just because my husband is an architect. It showed me that the city had really grown up; every aspect of it was created in Vancouver. That was really impressive, to see it happen here rather than in some place like New York." Councillor Lynne Kennedy, quoted in The Georgia Straight.

• "The saxophonists were marvelously integrated into the performance... Certainly the score by David MacIntyre, a composer from Vancouver, British Columbia, worked to perfection in its fragmentary structure. Separate phrases (not always melodic) were often played by soloists but also by all 10 instrumentalists, creating rich overlapping textures... "Piazza" has a resolution however. A high point was the moment when the saxophonists were all visible, strung out in a horizontal line with the male and female dancers at their feet. Music soothes the savage breast - the final image was of multiple duets in which tenderness among couples wiped out the anxiety of the past hour." Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times

• "Perhaps the reason that... "Piazza" has quotes around it is that the piazza in question is half-imagined, nowhere in actual sight... But the 24 dancers who gradually enter to stud the space look decidedly urban... David MacIntyre's music, coming from behind distant trees, is made by 10 saxophones (two sopranos, two altos, two tenors, two baritones, two basses) - nightlife-in-the-city instruments... At one marvelous moment, the saxophonists, now invisible, seems to have surrounded us, and MacIntyre's quite spare and delicate score becomes acutely polyphonic: we hear each separate voice as if we were in the midst of a 19th Century hunting party with several quarries being sighted at once. "Piazza", sensitively constructed and perfomed, simple but rich to the eye..." Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice, New York

• "You could say they met through the New York Times. Picture this: Here is Tom Cone, a New York-based playwright, vacationing in Vancouver for the summer. He, like all good New Yorkers, picks up the Times whereever he goes, and one morning he reads about David MacIntyre, a Vancouver-based composer who has just received rave reviews for a new work performed at the First New York Interntional Festival of the Arts. A few days later, David MacIntyre is back in Vancouver having a drink with a friend at the Arts Club bar on Granville Island. Tom Cone is also there and comes over to say hello to the friend. Tom meet David. David, Tom. And so began a working friendship, as that very night the two discussed each other's work and dreamed aloud of collaborating on an opera for which Cone would write the libretto and MacIntyre would compose the music." Jillian Hull, Western Living

• "The manner in which David MacIntyre's musical score (for Piazza) - at times lyrical, at times percussive, echoed mysteriously into the gatherine night: All of it added up to a palpable mood" Stephen Greco, Dance Magazine

• "Vancouver Opera's world premiere on June 11 of The Architect gave the too-rare pleasure of a new opera fully mounted and set forth with assurance. With music by David MacIntyre and text by Tom Cone, it also had the distinction of originating with city-based artists. The intense concentration of the packed Playhouse and highly appreciative applause at the end was a reassuring signal that the company's gamble of resources and talent to broaden the spectrum of what for many is a museum art had paid off unquestionably...The libretto flowed absolutely naturally as did David MacIntyre's attractively approachable score which gave pinpoint precision to the satiric moments and broad, singable lyric expansion to the characters' wide diversity of emotions... The Architect is a stimulating alternative to mega-musical theatre." Floyd St. Clair, Opera in Canada
  

"A few of us were standing outside Vancouver Playhouse during the interval of David MacIntyre and Tom Cone's The Architect, the first new work ever commissioned by Vancouver Opera... Brian Tate, a noteworthy local composer, loved it. He mentioned the music's diminished seventh chords, which reminded him of Stravinsky, and there was some Stephen Sondheim in there too, but it wasn't a pastiche or an imitation, he said. It had it's own quality. This was true. In addition to gorgeious vocal lines, it did seem to inhale Stravinsky's fresh athletic air. There were even bits of Philip Glass and Latin syncopated beats that gave it a certain chic. We agreed that it was 'a very modern opera.'...By commissioning a new work and attempting to ensure that we don't bury our own age, the architects of Vancouver Opera were bravely responsible in their duties."

•  "Every now and then, a movie comes along that's so touching it sticks with you for awhile. The same can be said for dance - and such was the case with Squeeze: A Duet for Musician and Dancer, which turned out to be one of those performances that replay in my mind days after I saw them. Created by David MacIntyre, who composed the score for solo concertina, and Catherine Lubinsky, who choreographed the piece's varied movement... What unfolded was a moving story about life's ups and downs that combined a dynamic score, powerful dance, flashes of humour, and even some heartfelt, if at times campy, singing. Together, these elements illustrated how life exists in a state of flux, constantly spinning from joy to sorrow." Gail Johnson, The Georgia Straight.
  

• "David MacIntyre, an SFU educator and prolific composer of music for theatre, opera and choir has collaborated with his wife and partner, Catherine Lubinsky in the creation of Squeeze, a duet for solo dancer and a musician playing the concertina, or squeeze box. Thankfully, this innovative, odd-ball piece takes its cues from popular street theatre rather than polka parties. The 70 minute work... makes the push and pull of the concertina its driving metaphor. Squeeze is at its best when the duo assume the raw and rough energy of street performers pulling liberally from various folk traditons to create a vibrant little gumbo of stripped-down dance and music. MacIntyre's score uses repetitive harmonic bursts, a now familiar signature of modern composition. But the sparse acoustic backdrop is layered and softened with snippets of original songs delivered cabaret style... In a clear, soaring tenor, MacIntyre sings about life in the downtown eastside, overheard conversations and his lover... According to its creators, Squeeze has undergone numerous drafts and revisions, yet the show retains the sprightly improvisational feel of a late-night jam session or a curbside performance." Amanda Gibbs, Vancouver Sun 

 
             Canadian and International Press / various projects (1979 - 2015)

• "an attractive piece by David K. MacIntyre entitled Even in our Sleep, filled with vivid harmonic writing..." The Calgary Herald

• "David MacIntyre's Ave Maria possesses beguiling syncopation and hypnotic rhythms of great power and urgency.” The New Amsterdam Singers of New York

• "David MacIntyre's vibrantly original Ave Maria seems predestined to become a standard choral work... it is deeply fascinating – and beautiful.” Goran Forsling, Sweden’s International Concert Review

•  "The score by David MacIntyre (for Highway 86 Event) for eight saxophones and percussion, at once a cry and a song, is a work of art in itself." Aline Gelinas, La Presse, Montreal

• "Refrains - An Opera by David MacIntyre and Jean-Pierre Perreault was an intriguing and eloquent commentary on our lives..." Ruby Mercer, Opera Canada

• "Calliope - for six dancers playing thirteen harmonicas - was certainly an extraordinarily well-defined and entertaining piece... It was engaging and outrageous and I understood, as though for the first time, the meaning of mouth organ." Burf Kay, Dance in Canada

• "The integration of dance and music in Calliope is ingenious." Stephen Godfrey, Globe and Mail

• "MacIntyre's tuneful (Humulus the Mute) score is as witty and charming as the libretto without being cute or obvious. I wouldn't be surprised to find David MacIntyre established as an important composer in the years to come." Richard Todd, Monday Magazine

 

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