MUSIC/DANCE ’87 : THE BECKMESSER AWARDS OF 1986

It was a happy, sad, frustrating, exhilarating, discouraging, encouraging, soothing, frazzling, stimulating, depressing, uplifting, benumbing, painful, joyful, dull, exciting, hysterical, lackadaisical, exceptional, humdrum year. Just like 1985.

To commemorate the high--and low--points, The Times proudly and shamelessly presents the 18th annual awards dedicated to the spirit and memory of Nuremberg’s immortal and most noble, most misunderstood humanitarian, critic, musicologist, lutanist, poet, bon vivant and guardian of public virtue, Sixtus Beckmesser.

Let us know if we have overlooked anything. CHEERS

It-can-still-happen-here award: To the good people of Orange County, who built a big, beautiful, reasonably functional, relatively modern, world-class, $70.7-million concert hall/opera house in the fertile wilds of Costa Mesa.

Resident-opera-is-alive-and-pretty-grand-and-almost-well award: To Peter Hemmings & Co., for finally getting the major-operatic curtain up at the Music Center--despite financial problems, artistic glitches, sociopolitical hitches, false starts, artistic woes, empty promises, wishful thinking, second guessing and a nervous curtain that actually refused to budge, for a while, on opening night.

The-Russians-came-the-Russians-came award: To the Ambassador impresarios, the local latter-day Huroks who brought the mighty, fabled, much-changed, often inspiring Kirov Ballet of Leningrad back to Shrine Auditorium after a ridiculous 22-year absence.

The New Yorkers-came-the-New-Yorkers-came award: To the Orange County impresarios, the Cosa Mesa neophytes who brought the mighty, fabled, somewhat-changed, often inspiring New York City Ballet of Balanchinedom back to Southern California after a ridiculous 12-year absence.

Year’s most daring act of self-revelation: Gelsey Kirkland’s autobiography, a harrowing account of pain, misery, abuse and self-torture in the surface-pretty world of the sweetheart ballerina.

Podium hero of the year: Kurt Sanderling, whose guest appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic repeatedly restored faith in such old-fashioned Romantic virtues as poetry, majesty and introspection.

Conservatism-need-not-be-a-vice awards: To Andre Previn and the Philharmonic, for rescuing Harold Shapero’s eloquent Symphony for Classical Orchestra from quasi-oblivion; and to Jorge Mester and the Pasadena Symphony for introducing us at last to Peter Mennin’s heroic Cello Concerto.

Most welcome orchestral guests: Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Less-still-can-be-more award: To the New Music Group of the Philharmonic for an extraordinarily illuminating, supple, crisp and compelling--dare we say definitive?--performance at the Japan America Theatre of the Stravinsky Octet.

Unretired and undraggy tippy-toe widow of the year: Stanley Holden, who re-created the adorably doting duties of Mamma Simone in the appreciative Joffrey Ballet production of Ashton’s “La Fille mal Gardee.”

Operatic surprise of the year: Maria Ewing’s daring, hypnotic, childlike, utterly convincing Salome in the brilliant Music Center Opera staging of Strauss’ little shocker--a triumph of anti-type casting and a healthy jolt to critics susceptible to hasty predictions (this critic, for instance).

Conquering-fiddler award: To Erick Friedman, who as soloist with the troubled Glendale Symphony managed to make the tired platitudes of the Mendelssohn Concerto sound both vital and elegant.

It-doesn’t-have-to-be-dismal-in-the-pit award: To Evgeny Kolobov of Leningrad, who made Tchaikovsky’s potential banalities surge with independent force, with passion and lyrical splendor while conducting a locally recruited orchestra for the Kirov “Swan Lakes.”

Most engaging enfant terrible: Mark Morris, whose gutsy modern-dance company made a memorable local debut in the unlikely but supportive environs of Cal State Long Beach.

Still-the-finest-corps-de-ballet award: To the women of the Kirov, who reminded us that great solo dancers may come and go (in this case, mostly go) but the unison glory of the perfectly poised masses prevails.

Fracci-and-Bruhn-are-not-forgotten award: To Alessandra Ferri and Mikhail Baryshnikov, who brought genuine star-power and eloquent mutual rapport to “Giselle” as rehashed by the now often-bland American Ballet Theatre.

Not-so-odd-operatic-couple-awards: To Gabriela Benackova and Leonie Rysanek, for their poignant collaboration in the San Francisco “Jenufa” revival; to Robert Lloyd and Alan Titus, who ignited comparable sparks--and garnered less applause--in the problematic new “Don Carlos.”

Belated-queen-of-the-night-awards: To Edita Gruberova, reigning diva of Vienna, who won all hearts at her Ambassador recital debut; to Arleen Auger, former prima donna assoluta of San Pedro, who bewitched the Wiltern throng onstage and out front as Handel’s Alcina.

Fan of the year: The lady in the audience who emits those marvelously uninhibited, ear-piercing, super-enthusiastic whistles at Andre Previn concerts (Mrs. Andre Previn).

JEERS

Mustache-on-the-Mona-Lisa award: To Franco Zeffirelli, for defacing, mutilating and trivializing Verdi’s “Otello” in the mock-pious name of cinematic exigency.

Year’s most meaningless awards (apart from the Beckmessers): The Grammys, which, thanks to block voting and ballot-box stuffing and a gaffe in the rule book, virtually proclaimed the Atlanta Symphony the world’s greatest orchestra.

Performance hype of the year: The overpublicized premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti’s cliche-ridden, empty-headed, mawkish, derivative and fundamentally silly “Goya” in Washington, an event recorded by public television for a dubiously grateful posterity.

Advertising hype of the year: The San Diego Opera’s come-on for Bellini’s “Norma,” which neglected to mention the soprano in the title role (the awful Cristina Deutekom) or the mezzo singing Adalgisa (the wonderful Delores Ziegler) yet did bother to declare that in this opus “a Druid Priestess seeks love in the arms of a Roman conquerer (sic), but finds only tragedy.”

Miscalculation of the year: The debut of John Currie, new Scottish mastermind of the L.A. Master Chorale, in an over-ambitious, underpowered performance of the Verdi Requiem.

Dante’s-inferno-was-nothing-like-this award: To American Ballet Theatre, for allowing John Taras to concoct an elaborate kitsch monstrosity called “Francesca da Rimini,” which was almost instantly consigned to overdue oblivion.

Year’s most successful demonstration of candy-coated piety: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s yucky Requiem, at a New York church, on television, on recordings and--look, Ma, we’re squirmin’--at the ballet.

International gush-and-gosh awards: To CBS for treating Horowitz in Moscow as a socio-politico-sporting event (about par for television when it comes to the arts); and to the oh-so-humble Horowitz for turning his modest pilgrimage into a big-profit personal bonanza.

Local gush-and-gosh awards: To the televisionary newspersons who cannot control their push-button awe and slushpump prose whenever a culture story beckons, especially the breathless anchorette who recently reported that “American Ballet Theatre was on its toes for the ‘Nutcracker’ Suite” (sic).

Garbled-priorities award: To KCET, which congratulates itself ad nauseam for its service to the arts, belies its non-commercial status with endlessly insulting fund-raising pitches, and preempts the upcoming Met “Fledermaus” from New Year’s Eve prime time in order to accommodate something called the Zasu Pitts Memorial Orchestra.

Most infamous last words: The public benediction from a Music Center bigwig at the last concert before Roger Wagner was eased out as director of his Master Chorale--”We don’t intend to let him go, ever, ever, ever. . . .”

Most bizarre and most egocentric demonstration of podium athletics, terpsichorean bravura, musical bump and aesthetic grind: Leonard Bernstein’s overwrought performance of the Tchaikovsky “Pathetique” with the New York Philharmonic at Royce Hall, UCLA.

Ugly-duckling-as-Swan-Queen award: To the Kirov, for its inexplicable championing of a shouldn’t-be-prima ballerina named Galina Mezentseva.

Year’s most myopic bush-league audience: The Music Center crowd that exited virtually en masse rather than endure the modernistic agonies of--are you ready?--Elisabeth Soederstroem singing the final scene from Richard Strauss’ “Capriccio.”

Year’s most enthusiastic bush-league audience: The Orange County crowd that applauds automatically between every movement of every symphony while the conductor begs for silence.

Chutzpah-ueber-Alles award: To the authorities who deemed Madelyn Renee, an obscure Pavarotti protegee, an appropriate substitute for Dame Joan Sutherland at a $250-per-seat would-be extravaganza at the Bowl.

It’s-good-enough-for-Los-Angeles award: To American Ballet Theatre for sending us a tacky bargain-basement version of its elaborate production of “Don Quixote.”

Who-needs-it? awards: To the minimally talented but suddenly chic composers who crank out Xeroxed arpeggios masquerading as mind-bending compositions; to the Philharmonic gurus who think Los Angeles repeatedly deserves the likes of Paavo Berglund and Sir Charles Groves on the podium; to the Hollywood Bowl management, for celebrating rote mediocrity in excelsis .

More who-needs-it? awards: To the supertitled opera companies that want audiences to read first--look, listen and think (if at all) later; to the opera company north of here that permitted its “Onegin” stars to drop their characterizations in mid-scene in order to milk applause; to the PBS officials who clogged the aerial arteries with a supersilly Wagner biography starring a nearly dead Richard Burton.

CURIOUS AND CURIOUSER

Year’s most burning, longest-lingering Philharmonic questions: Can Andre Previn conduct the standard Romantic repertory persuasively? Can he build effective programs? Can he enforce orchestral discipline? Can art and conspicuous picnicking coexist at Cahuenga Pass?

Year’s most burning, longest-lingering non-Philharmonic questions: How long can the leaderless Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra survive with a parade of less-than-stellar guest conductors? Can the Glendale Symphony survive with a parade of less-than-stellar guest conductors and a pop-vs.-classical identity crisis? Can the Joffrey sustain audience interest and a solid performing base while recycling, mixing and matching so many of its familiar miniballets? Is there an audience in Los Angeles for a season of serious choral music at the Pavilion? What is the overextended Placido Domingo’s real role with the Music Center Opera? Why can’t we have a live orchestra in the pit, as New York does, for fancy dance programs at UCLA?

Too-bad-they-ain’t-what-they-used-to-be awards: To Andres Segovia, Rudolf Nureyev, Isaac Stern, Sherrill Milnes, Yehudi Menuhin, Rudolf Serkin, the infernal “Nutcracker.”

Set-your-sights-low award: To the Orange County chieftains who, possibly by default, made the Pacific Symphony under Keith Clark the resident orchestra at the new Performing Arts Center.

What-are-we-going-to-do-with-it? award: To the Orange County chieftains, who don’t seem to have a coherent policy regarding what should be booked into their shiny new arts emporium and who don’t seem to mind a lot of dark nights.

That’s show-biz award: To the Opera Pacific management in Orange County, for a vulgar and misleading ad campaign that pretended “West Side Story” (“hot!”) and “Porgy and Bess” (“cool!”) promised profound cultural enrichment.

Poor Puccini awards: To the San Diego Opera, for its tired old “Tosca”; and to the San Francisco Opera, for its tired new “Boheme.”

Headline of the year: From the New York Times, Oct. 26: “DEFUNCT RESTROOM WILL BECOME AN ARTS CENTER.” Vice versa would have been worse.

You-call-this-a-ballet? award: To the great Mikhail Baryshnikov for clowning, miming, prancing, smirking, hamming and posing but never really dancing in David Gordon’s “Murder.”

All-American-yokel award: To the Kirov sponsors, who never deemed it worthwhile to spell certain key dancers’ names correctly, and who often provided disinformation in program magazines, announcements and television credits.

Was-this-move-necessary? award: To the new leader of the Master Chorale, for changing 60% of the personnel before venturing so much as an introductory downbeat.

Year’s most overrated commodities: Christopher Hogwood, Pierre Boulez’s “Repons,” the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royce Hall acoustics, Ghena Dimitrova, Alexander Toradze, Peter Martins’ “Songs of the Auvergne,” Vladimir Ashkenazy as conductor.

Year’s most underrated commodities: The Long Beach Opera, the Pasadena Symphony under Jorge Mester, Daniel Lewis (still an orchestral prophet with limited local honor), Cesare Siepi (still a golden-age basso), Sheri Greenawald and Francisco Araiza in the San Francisco “Manon.”

Yes-but-do-you-have-anything-new-to-say? awards: To Zubin Mehta, Itzhak Perlman, Luciano Pavarotti, Jean-Pierre Rampal, the Monday Evening Concerts, Martin Bernheimer.

MILESTONES

What-is-so-rare-as-bad-opera-in-June? award: To Terence McEwen, for offering dinky seasons of summer opera in San Francisco, then canceling the potentially valuable project and blaming the fiasco on the public.

Quiet-please-culture-ailing award: To San Diego, for canceling the current Symphony season (and maybe more).

Most thankless farewell: The final, casual, see-you-later-maybe concerts of Gerard Schwarz, outgoing music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

One-last-arabesque award: To Natalia Makarova, for announcing her retirement, then returning to American Ballet Theatre, then saying her presumed adieu to Los Angeles on her toes in an unworthy Broadway musical.

Ave atque vale: Pierre Fournier, Lucia Chase, Frank Miller, Christopher Isherwood, Claire Watson, Herbert W. Armstrong, Edmund Rubbra, Joseph Duell, William Dollar, Donald Grobe, Nikhil Banerjee, Guy Fraser Harrison, Philip J. Lang, Secondo Proto, David Hicks, Virgil Akins, George Cehanovsky, Erik Bruhn, Kenneth Schon, Constantine Callinicos, Sascha Gorodnitzki, William Justus, Charles Ward, John Bubbles, William Dansby, Benny Goodman, Philip Kahgan, Robert Helpmann, Kate Smith, Maurice Durufle, Nina Morgana, Alan Jay Lerner, Thomas Michalak, Claire Motte, Zamie Zamora (Zamarina Zamarkova), Kenn Duncan, Douglas McCleary, Peter Weinberg, Felix Salzer, Magda Tagliaferro, Winthrop Sargeant, Gene Cook, Ronald Bates, Karin Lopez-Cobos, Elisabeth Gruemmer, Rudolf Schock, Osbert Lancaster, David Dushkin, Ronald Bentley, Patricia Welting, Michael Newton, Lloyd Walser, Arthur Grumiaux, David Rubinoff, Pauline Grant, Lili Kraus, Dorothy Alexander, Peter Fonseca, Arthur Conrad, Carlton Johnson, Carlos Ramirez, Martha Beerman, Serge Lifar, Eleanor Lauer, Leo Damiani, Martin Sokol, Celius Dougherty, James Fassett.