The upcoming San Juan Symphony Family Concert has to be the best musical buy in town. For $5 you get to hear a full symphony orchestra play a storytelling work that spans millennia.
“Tyrannosaurus Sue!” is a suite for orchestra that came about as a result of a remarkable real-world discovery, a bidding war among museums and a leap of imagination.
If you go
WHAT: San Juan Symphony Family Concert: Tyrannosaurus Sue! Thomas Heuser, conductor and narrator.
WHEN: 4 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, Durango; and Henderson Performance Hall, 4601 College Blvd., Farmington.
TICKETS: $5.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.sanjuansymphony.org, call 382-9753, 247-7657 or (505) 566-3430.
If you come from Chicago, you know that one of the largest, most complete and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons is the pride of the Field Museum. The skeleton is affectionately known as “Sue.” She was discovered in 1990 by paleontologist Sue Hendrickson while hiking in South Dakota’s Cheyenne River Reservation. Immediately, the massive skeleton sparked world attention. A decade-long custody battle ensued, and Chicago’s Natural History Museum won with an $8.4 million bid.
Those are the historical bits of this story, because Chicagoans took their time to choose a nickname, and a musical tribute came a decade later. As a tribute to the woman who discovered the skeleton, the name “Sue” won – with a caution: Even though the sex of a T. rex cannot be determined by fossilized remains, Sue became the chosen name. It stuck.
The Field Museum website tells us that Sue was a very big girl: 42 feet long from nose to tail, about 13 feet high. It’s estimated she weighed about 9 tons. Her largest tooth is a foot long.
Sue’s skeleton suggests she died in old age, 28 years in T. rex terms. Life expectancy seems to have been around 30 years. Apparently, dinosaurs, like trees, can be dated by ring patterns in bones. Sue’s bones also reveal several calamities. In the musical tribute to her, you can hear all that drama. Check out the Field Museum’s website and YouTube entries. Or, better yet, attend the SJS concert.
American composer Bruce Adolphe specializes in original works for family audiences with interactive elements. Originally inspired by Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts, Adolphe has created many different works he has hosted at Lincoln Center, where he is resident lecturer and director of family programs.
In the 1990s, when the Tyrannosaurus rex discovery swept the country, Adolphe was captivated. He composed “A Crustaceous Concerto” with a narrator in mind and various instrumental voices telling Sue’s story. Unlike other works that introduce children to the voices of a symphony orchestra, Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” or Camille Saint-Seáns’ “Carnival of the Animals,” Adolphe’s concerto is a biography. The emphasis is on growing up, making mistakes and facing life’s difficulties.
“Tyrannosaurus Sue!” had its premiere in 2000 when The Chicago Chamber Musicians performed at the Field Museum for the opening of Sue’s exhibition.
A narrator guides the audience through Sue’s life. Music Director Thomas Heuser, an engaging storyteller if there ever was one, will briefly outline each of the seven sections: infancy, adolescence, the tumultuous teenage years when Sue competes for food with other prehistoric creatures, and finally, her old age.
A trombone voices Sue’s persona. In the three competitive sections, a clarinet, bassoon and French horn will voice the antagonists. In Section Six, the composer quietly alludes to the age of extinction. It’s a beautiful tone poem with shadows and hope for the future. Section Seven, “The Dawning of a New World,” introduces the miraculous age of human beings.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
