James Fellenbaum has a real problem.
In Sunday's UT Symphony Orchestra concert, "A Halloween Spooktacular," the Maestro went through three costumes changes, muttered under his breath while conducting and wearing a "fright" wig, had a light-sabre battle with a persistent organ-playing Phantom of the Opera, all the while coaxing as much entertainment out of his players that we in the cobweb-infested, spider laden audience could take.
His problem? What does he do next year?
The biggest sport of the afternoon, though, may have been the fabulous pianist Ying Feng who performed Liszt's Totentanz on a Steinway grand that was on the verge of rolling away. (Thankfully, not from supernatural causes) Ms. Feng performed the work attired in an admittedly fetching Halloween purple gown with a matching headgear that appeared to be a cross between cat's ears and a devil's horns.
The afternoon got off to a raucous start with a musical duel between the Phantom of the Opera (Nathan Stewart) playing the Cox Auditorium's pipe organ and the orchestra led by the mock-exasperated Fellenbaum in the Stokowski arrangement of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Scary. Movements IV ("March to the Scaffold") and V ("Dream of a Sabbath Night") from Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique concluded the concert.
Disclaimer: Don't try this at home. The danger of a concert of this sort is that the student performers are so caught up in the theatre of it all that a quality music performance takes a backseat to comedy. Oh well, no harm done, I guess. Now, if I can only get these fangs out of my neck.
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