ORCHESTRATING A REVIVAL

By MICHAEL WALSH/WASHINGTON

The city of Washington may be the epitome of political sophistication, but the capital has never quite shed its reputation as a cultural cow town. The opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1971 was supposed to change that. It gave the city an imposing performance space to rival New York City's best and the hope that greater visibility would soon follow. But bricks and mortar can do only so much. The Kennedy Center, which houses an opera house, a concert hall and theaters, did score some coups, including a dazzling visit by the Berlin Opera in 1975 and a now legendary Fidelio conducted by Leonard Bernstein in 1979. Still, the also-ran image persisted; not even the appointment of the respected cellist Mstislav Rostropovich to head the National Symphony Orchestra in 1977 gave the town's homegrown musical institutions a wider visibility.

Now Washington is trying a new approach: star power. This season, two of the classical world's most renowned musicians have been recruited to revive the city's symphony and opera. Leonard Slatkin, the internationally acclaimed conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, has been named to lead the 66-year-old National Symphony, while Placido Domingo, one-third of the international franchise known as the Three Tenors, has become the new artistic director of the 41-year-old Washington Opera. "To have two such major names take up residence raises the level substantially," says Richard Hancock, executive director of the National Symphony. "Clearly it is an exciting time for Washington."

And for the maestros too. After 17 years as music director in St. Louis, during which he transformed a regional orchestra into one of the finest in the country and established himself as a leading proponent of American music, Slatkin, 52, has gained the bully pulpit he has long both desired and deserved. As for the 56-year-old Domingo, an able conductor and pianist, the move to Washington offers an opportunity to prepare for the future as his singing career winds down over the next seven or eight years. Both men have moved quickly to reinvigorate their companies and to reach out to new audiences, particularly children.

Slatkin, a baseball fan since childhood whose greatest sacrifice in moving to Washington has been giving up his St. Louis Cardinals season tickets, pointedly devoted his entire opening concert to music by such American composers as Bernstein, Howard Hanson and the Washington-born jazz icon Duke Ellington. "Because you are called the National Symphony," he says, "you have an obligation, not just out of a sense of duty but out of real love, to present the music of your own country. We should be thinking of our own repertoire in the same way that the Austrians view Mozart and the Germans look at Brahms."

This play-American attitude is precisely why he was hired. "When we sought a music director for the orchestra, we specifically wanted an American who loved American music, who would support American artists and American composers and musicians," says Lawrence J. Wilker, president of the Kennedy Center. "We think that it is very appropriate having the pre-eminent American conductor be our music director here at the nation's capital of the performing arts."

But Slatkin will need more than patriotism to transform his new orchestra into the national standard-bearer both he and Wilker envision. The Kennedy Center concert hall's acoustics are extremely poor, and the orchestra's playing is not much better. The most recent program that Slatkin conducted underscored both problems. A joyless, hurried reading of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto featured the prodigy violinist Sarah Chang, 16, who cluelessly bowled her way through the war-horse, leaving Slatkin and the orchestra to catch up as best they could. The Brahms Fourth Symphony was better, benefiting from the sturdy, muscular interpretation that the new maestro favors, but it still lacked the refinement that marks the playing of a truly great orchestra. Slatkin is aware of the challenges: taking advantage of both attrition and friendly persuasion, he has already named five new principals, with more changes on the way. "In a couple of years," he says optimistically, "we'll have the players we need."

Slatkin is equally committed to being an active spokesman for the arts in the capital. He acts as host of a weekly show on the local classical radio station, has taken the orchestra to area churches and, most unusual for a big-name conductor, has been handling many of the children's concert's himself rather than assigning them to an assistant. "I think it is crucial that the message to the young people comes from the person in charge of the organization," he says. Privately, he is lobbying Hillary Rodham Clinton on behalf of all American cultural institutions. "She's very interested in the arts," he says. "And so is the President--more than you think."

Born in Spain and raised in Mexico, Domingo is conservative and internationalist in his outlook, and his agenda for the Washington Opera reflects his more conventional programming taste. In addition to the standard Italian and French fare the company has traditionally presented, he plans a foray into the German repertoire with new productions of Richard Strauss's operas as well as Wagner's Ring cycle, the calling card of major opera companies worldwide. "We chose him because he is a consummate musician," says Patricia L. Mossel, the company's executive director. "He knows voices. He is a very fine pianist. He knows the singers firsthand, having sung with them. What better person to cast and choose repertoire?"

The new director will continue his busy singing career, but he insists that he will be more than just a figurehead and that his outside connections can be an advantage for the company. "I know some of the people are giving money for productions because I am there," says Domingo, who last week was appearing in Vienna. "And I will take responsibility at any moment that it is required, even if it is a problem with unions or rediscussing contracts, so that I can add whatever I have learned in this business."

A priority for both men is improving the performing environment for their companies. Later this month, the Kennedy Center concert hall will close for extensive acoustic renovations, to reopen in the fall. As for the opera, it plans to move out of the Kennedy Center entirely. Thanks to an $18 million gift from Mrs. Eugene B. Casey, chairman of the board, the company has acquired the old Woodward & Lothrop department store in downtown Washington. After some political wrangling, including a videotaped deposition from Domingo, the city approved a zoning variance so that the store could be converted into an opera house. Scheduled to open in 2001, it will cost more than $100 million. "I hope that our opera house will rival the world's top houses," says city council member Charlene Drew Jarvis, who chairs the economic-development committee. "Paris has nothing on us for the future."

Just as in politics, the air in Washington these days is filled with talk of bi-partisan cooperation, and no one would be surprised to see Domingo, who has thus far largely limited his conducting to opera, waving a baton in front of the National Symphony. Indeed, Slatkin has already agreed to conduct an as yet to be determined opera with Domingo's company next fall. "We will have many collaborations," notes Domingo, "with Leonard coming to the opera and me going to the orchestra. I hope that at the end of the Slatkin-Domingo era, something special has happened that we can be proud of. We are conscious that we have to deliver, and we will." That's exactly what Washingtonians have long been waiting to hear.

--With reporting by Daniel S. Levy/Washington

With reporting by DANIEL S. LEVY/WASHINGTON