Nickell’s Bag

Following up on last week’s roundup of the CDs that most occupied my mind in the last decade, I thought I’d take a stab at cataloging the most memorable performances I’ve witnessed here in Missoula over the past ten years.

More to come in the next couple of days….would love to hear your own most memorable experiences!

Few things reflect the character and aspirations of a community more eloquently than its artistic events. In that sense, the first decade of this new millennium has firmly established Missoula as the cultural capital of the Northern Rockies.

What other town in Montana, after all, can boast of having hosted sell-out concerts by likes of the Rolling Stones, Elton John (twice in a year), Pearl Jam, Sting, R.E.M., 50 Cent, and Bob Dylan? Where else could one find a thriving, nationally recognized touring theatre company (Montana Rep); an original, homegrown theatrical production that earned acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic (“I’m Sorry and I’m Sorry,” by the Candidatos); and a summer choral festival that brought singers from around the world – not once, not twice, but four times in the decade? And what town five times our size can say that it birthed two new professional theatre companies and a new professional opera company at the same time that the rest of America suffered its most catastrophic economic downturn in several generations?

To call it a banner decade for Missoula performing arts is an understatement.

It’d be impossible to catalogue – much less compare – the best of those events. But here are a few local events that won’t disappear from my own memory for a long time.

Missoula Symphony Orchestra, University Theatre, April, 2007 – This decade has seen a remarkable transformation at Missoula’s professional orchestra, with the appointment Darko Butorac as the ensemble’s new artistic director. The young, gregarious, and gifted conductor has energized the orchestra, producing concerts of old music that consistently feel shockingly fresh. But for me, one concert stands out, for reasons as much personal as musical: the orchestra’s performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, on April 21, 2007.

It was, to be sure, a towering performance, with the orchestra rising to the music’s many challenges and culminating in “a breathtaking final climax that seemed to play out in glacial motion,” as I wrote in the Missoulian afterward (click here for the full review). During the performance, my wife gripped my arm tight throughout. It wasn’t until afterward that I learned why: She had gone into labor. My son, Julian, was born the next morning.

You think I’ll ever forget that night? No way.

**

Montana Actors’ Theatre, “Rocky Horror Show” at the Wilma Theatre, Halloween, 2009 – Ten years ago, there was no Montana Rep Missoula. There was no Montana Actors’ Theatre (not in Missoula, anyway). No Candidatos, no When In Rome Productions. This decade has seen a proliferation – not to mention an improvement – in local theatre.

It’s thus somehow fitting that the most daring and biggest event in modern local theatre was saved for the waning moments of the aughts. When I first heard that Montana Actors’ Theatre was planning to do “The Rocky Horror Show” at the Wilma, I quietly doubted that this town would come out and support such an expensive production in the numbers necessary to justify the five-figure expense. Man, was I wrong.

The two-night, four-performance run was packed to the gills with dancing, shouting, laughing audiences. And the show was simply spectacular, with an array of local talent and a glitzy production that equaled anything you’d find in a city ten times our size. Missed it? Here’s my full review.

**

Tomorrow: David Boone and Nickel Creek at the Wilma…In the meantime, Vote for your own favorite performances via the SpeakUpMissoula.com poll below, or leave a comment!

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