The words left the singer’s mouth in a snarl, no longer the dulcet tones that had been heard in the measure before.

‘Take that damn pipe out of your mouth, you rat!’

The instruments cut off sharply, as did any background noise provided by the audience. The auditorium fell silent and the shock was palpable. With this moment, Eighth Blackbird made one thing very clear: This would not be your typical exhibition of classical music.

This defining transition seemed to open the door for an onslaught of haunting, unorthodox, yet masterfully done pieces of music. The singer was dramatic, haughty and sang with a piercing operatic voice that was impossible to ignore.

While the music itself was groundbreaking enough, the theater etiquette encouraged by the Syracuse University performing arts presenter, host Carole Brzozowski, was also surprising. Brzozowski invited audience members to leave their phones on during the performance and engage in some live tweeting about the show. This acknowledgement of modern social media seemed to mirror the innate progressiveness of the performance.

The first act ended with a chilling performance of Kurt Weill’s ‘Mack the Knife.’ After this, lights came up for a 15-minute intermission.

Esther Lee and Sarah Han said they enjoyed performance.

‘It was very minimal in terms of instruments. There’s one singer, but each song is so different,’ said Lee, a junior social work major. ‘I like that.’

Han, a senior psychology major, was also impressed.

‘There was change of tones, emotions,’ she said. ‘You could actually connect with the main singer.’

When intermission ended, the house lights dimmed and the stage lights seemed to illuminate a completely new performance. This was ‘Pierrot Lunaire,’ a melodrama by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. Although the company performed the piece in German, none of its emotion was lost in translation.

This second act was full of drama, featuring two dancers and a complex lighting production. At times it featured only the flutist, standing alone in a pool of dim blue light. At other moments, every musician seemed to be redefining the term fortissimo, with the singer lamenting her sorrows in a screech over it all.

‘I think all of the staging of Pierrot made it much more accessible to students and updated it,’ said Carol Babiracki, associate professor of music history and cultures who shared her thoughts after the performance. ‘Made it more modern.’

Assistant professor of music history and cultures Rodney Foster, who brought one of his history of music classes along, also enjoyed the event.

‘I thought the staging was really incredible,’ he said.

Brzozowski, the host, said she was thrilled to provide this opportunity for students, not hesitating to say why she chose the group for the event.

‘Because they’re willing to take risks,’ she said. ‘There’s lots of stuff that they could do, but they chose to stage ‘Pierrot Lunaire.”

The show ended and the audience trickled out. Lucy Shelton, the soprano featured throughout the night, talked about why ‘Pierrot Lunaire’ was so interesting to perform. After delving into the history of the piece and singing the praises of Schoenberg, she summed up the piece’s genius.

‘The crazy thing is that it’s still such a new piece, and it’s 100 years old.’

cedebais@syr.edu

Published on January 24, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chelsea: cedebais@syr.edu | @CDeBaise124