23 Casanova Interview with Oregon Mozart Players Music Director Kelly Kuo

Interview with Oregon Mozart Players Music Director / Harpsichord Kelly Kuo

photo by kim o’neill

This spring, Ballet Fantastique brings our original (Misadventures of) Casanova to the Hult Center stage.  The project features decadent live music played by the Oregon Mozart Players with internationally renowned Baroque musicians from across the globe.  Music Director Maestro Kelly Kuo conducts the Casanova soundtrack, including some of the most gorgeous music in history by Antonio Vivaldi, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jean Baptiste de Lully, and Johann Sebastian Bach.  Oregon Mozart Players was founded in over 40 years ago presenting works written for small orchestras and intimate venues, making them the perfect fit for Ballet Fantatsique’s signature chamber ballet dance theater storytelling.

We caught up with Maestro Kuo, to hear his inside perspective on performing alongside BFan’s artists, our guest celebrity stars, and to discover more about the musical fabric for bringing Casanova to life.

Back in 2013 when BFan’s Casaonva premiered, it was with recorded music.  What can our audience expect this time with a live orchestra for the first time?

We asked Jason Fromme to make a special arrangement of the musical works in this production for a chamber orchestra that combines the modern strings of Oregon Mozart Players along with a number of period instruments and a soprano.  Your audience will be hearing fresh new orchestrations that will hopefully bring a heightened sense of intimacy with the dancers on stage!

OMP performed with Ballet Fantastique at the Hult Center for the sold out premiere of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2017.  What are you most looking forward to in this next BFan collaboration?

Crouching Tiger was such a rewarding collaboration and, to this day, it remains one of my favorite musical memories.  This time I’m looking forward to conducting from the harpsichord and contributing to the musical sounds instead of just waving my arms.

What influence does working with dancers have on how you play?

Just as for instrumentalists, there are physical elements that influence the music-making.  From tempi to phrasing, the way the dancers move in their choreography directly relates to how we must collaborate.

PHOTO BY PHILIP GROSHONG

What pieces of music can our audience members expect to hear?  Why is this music important?  Do you have any personal favorites?

The production is filled with music that was written in the same time period in which Casanova lived—so basically, 18th century baroque music.  Works of Vivaldi are well-represented, but Bach, Handel, Lully, and Rameau in addition to an original composition by the established baroque cellist, René Schiffer.

Tell us about the process of choosing instrumentation for this project and the balance of contemporary and traditional baroque instruments.  How did you choose the arrangers for Casanova and what factors into the choices of instruments for the live performances?  I started by familiarizing myself with the original compositions and their respective orchestrations and tried to determine how OMP’s musicians could best serve the music.  For example, the modern instrumentalists on which we perform can affect the pitch and tempi of each work.  Next, I tried to pick period instruments that could provide the most range of color possibilities for the entire program.  I knew I wanted another continuo instrument and a theorbo gives a completely different spectrum of color compared to a harpsichord and also frees me to use my hands to conduct at times instead of being glued to a keyboard.  Given that there were a number of selections that utilized winds, brass, and voice, having a soprano and a wind instrument or two seemed necessary as well.  Baroque percussion is wonderful to add rhythmic spice into energetic works, too.  My friend, Jason Fromme, is a professional violinist, composer, and arranger, and I thought of him immediately when faced with the task of arranging these works for this specific ensemble and he brought his own ideas of orchestrating to this project.

You lead classical music, opera, and unique theater projects across the US and the world.  What makes this project different?

I have admired Ballet Fantastique for its creative choices of music, arrangements, and ensembles for their productions through the years I’ve worked in Eugene.  They are not afraid to rock the boat a little in order to tell their stories in a way that is original and truly authentic to them and they challenge me to think outside the box and push the boundaries of expectation.  It makes for meaningful collaboration!

PHOTO BY DANIEL CAVAZOS FOTO

You can purchase tickets to see Kelly Kuo and the Oregon Mozart Players during Casanova here!