Coming soon: David Caruso as Mozart, William Petersen as Beethoven, Gary Sinise as Schonberg.
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director Marin Alsop figured out a way to combine her interest in CSI TV shows with the BSO's Beethoven-filled season, resulting in a program that fuses medical diagnoses, theatrical impersonation, slide projections and, oh yeah, some music, too.
The idea is to probe into the lingering mysteries of the composer's tragic deafness and questions about the cause or causes of his death, bringing the iconic genius and his longtime suffering closer to home. Part I of CSI: Beethoven, given last night at Meyehoff Symphony Hall (Part II is tonight), certainly revealed plenty of thoughtful planning, not to mention dashes of welcome humor.
File under, wtf
(in the image above: Untitled (Christ's Last Day) VI, 2007, by Julian Schnabel, @ Gagosian Gallery L.A.)