Monday, December 31, 2007

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Charlie Wilson's War

Disturbing depiction of ways decisions are made in Washington. Tightly plotted film that avoids making the obvious connections to the mess in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Strong acting by Tom Hanks and Phillip Seymour Hoffman; well directed by Mike Nichols.

Friday, December 28, 2007

The Savages

Excellent examination of family dymanics in the face of dysfunction and dementia. A coda perhaps wraps up the film a bit too sanguinely. Or perhaps it objectifies the film's earlier distinction between plot and narrative, by asking us to recognize that the preceeding two hours have simply been unadulterated narrative, which the coda translates into a plot.
Great performances by Laura Linney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Juno

Great film, though not without its questionable message regarding teen pregnancy.

Loved the soundtrack.

Highly recommend.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Starting Out in the Evening

Zero Hour (Tea Alagic)

An excellent play written and directed by a Yale grad student about the Balkan wars.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Peter and Jerry, Edward Albee

The second act of this play began as Zoo Story, a one-act Albee wrote early in his career. In the 90s, he added a prequel act to make it more about a man and his marriage rather than a random encounter between two men. The play raises all the usual Albee questions about relationships and sanity.
Kathleen Turner, whom we saw recently in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, was in the row behind us.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

No Country for Old Men

This is one of the most blood chilling movies I've dared see in a long time. As usual, Tommy Lee Jones captures a sheriff in 1980's West Texas with dead-on accuracy. And the villain was as evil as my imagination will allow. The Coens manage to evoke the spirit of the time and place, which for me, added to the movie's menace.

I must say, however, that McCarthy's book is more horrifying still. While I could sit through the movie, I couldn't endure the book. The violence took too long to get through.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Cymbeline, Shakespare

I'm Not There, Todd Haynes

Bob Dylan times six.

I resisted seeing this movie because I'm more than indifferent to Bob Dylan--I find him terribly irritating and difficult to stand in large doses. Nevertheless, I saw the film because (1) I generally like the work of Todd Haynes, and (2) M. said that he'd fill in the interpretive gaps, if necessary.

By and large, I found the film self-sufficient. Despite its intense intertextuality, it doesn't require much knowledge--not even any admiration of Dylan in order to enjoy and appreciate the film. As most know, Hanyes created 6 characters (played by Cate Blanchett, Ben Whishaw, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, and Marcus Carl Franklin) to represent the multiple roles Dylan has projected to the world since he abandoned Bob Zimmerman. From the pre-adolescent black actor playing the Woodie Guthrie wanna be, to the uberhip Jude, we see the performance of the persona called Bob Dylan.

Recommend.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck

Very good detective/police drama.

Recommend.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

The Prairie Home Companion

Saturday, 1 December 2007, 5:45 pm
New York City, Town Hall

For years, we've been promising ourselves to grab an live taping of PHC when it makes its annual stay in NYC. This year, a friend and fellow PHC enthusiast, snatched tickets as soon as they went on sale and invited us to go with her.

In addition to the regular cast, Inge Sweeringen, Joe Ely (from Lubbock, Texas!), and Joel Guzman performed. Ely, backed by Guzman's accordian, performed several ballads--much better suited for this than providing two-step tunes at Cold Water Country thirty years ago. Sweeringen's jazz renditions and scat-singing were in the Ella Fitzgerald tradition.

My favorite comedy sketch was the parody, "Sounds of Sickness," probably because I've been suffering from a head cold for over a week. Interesting to watch him extemporous the "Lake Woobegone" tales.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Iphigenie en Tauride, Christoph Willibald Gluck

1 December 2007, 1:30 matinee
Metropolitan Opera, New York City

Featuring Susan Graham as Iphigenie and Placido Domingo as Orestes, this was only the second Metropolitan Opera production of Gluck's senuous 1779 opera. (The first was in 1917!)
The opera is full of beautiful arias and choruses. I thought the highpoint was the final chorus followed by the reconciliation scene.
Beside the lovely music, the staging was particularly effective. I especially liked the split-screen effect that helped keep the two narrative strands parallel, even as the characters were ignorant of each other's movements. The most striking image occured in the final scene, when the priestesses lined the sacrificial alter with flower petals as they sang praises to "Diana, Chaste Daughter of Leto." A (daring?) moment occurs after Iphigenie has learned Orestes' identify; quietly mourning for the death of her mother (at Orestes' hands), it is momentarily unclear whether she will actually reconcile with Orestes. The reconciliation becomes evident only only once she drops her mother's green scarf then embraces Orestes.
This particular production make wonderful use of a smart, 10-person ballet troupe.
All the all, the production fit the opera: simple but opulent.

Prairie Home Companion

After listening to PHC for years on the radio, it was great fun to see the show live at Town Hall in NYC.

Recommend, with enthusiasm.

Friday, November 30, 2007

The Darjeeling Limited. Wes Anderson, director

Not overly complex tale of three brothers who feel underloved by their mother and who cling to their grief after the death of their father. Through the extravagent orchestrations and manipulations of the oldest brother (Francis, played by Luke Wilson)--whom we come to discover is not unlike his mother (played by Angelica Huston)--the brothers travel by train through India in search of the mother whose become a nun at the base of the Himalayas. In the process, they "work through" their own hang ups and bond.

Visually, this movie was like watching an old Bob Hope and Bing Crosby travel farce--except I never laughed. At first I thought the timing was off; however, I now think that it had to do with the underlying meanspiritedness of each of the main characters. Hijinks that would have happened to more naive characters might have seemed less forced and therefore a funnier. Here, they are not. Same for what are supposed to be touching moments.

Very interesting soundtrack. Visual interest.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Hamlet, Shakespeare

Wooster Group reenacts Richard Burton's 1964 Hamlet with a video of that performance as a backdrop. Interesting but not revealing.

Recommend with caveats.

Die Zauberflote (Mozart)

Julie Taymor production with Joseph Kaiser (Tamino), Diana Damrau (Pamina), and Anna-Kristiina Kaappola (Queen of the Night).

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Sidney Lumet

A great movie with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke. In the same dark crime-gone-awry vein as A Simple Plan (or even Fargo).

High recommend.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Sarah Vowell

Droll reading of her very funny essays.

Recommend.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Wall Street Chamber Players

Turina. Piano Quartet in A minor, Op 67
Dvorak. String Quarter in G major, Op 106
Brahms. Piano Trio No 2 in C major, Op 87

At Letha & Jack Sandweiss home.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Charles Ives Program

Trio for Violin, Violoncell, and Piano.
Performed by Adrian Slywotzky (violin), Katherine Kayaian (cello), and Stephen Porter (piano)

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Whirling Dervishes

What was once fascinating was tedious.

Caveats.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Lust, Caution

Ang Lee film of great interest

Wall Street Chamber Players

Beethoven. Piano Trio in G Major, Op 1, No 2
Harbison. November 19, 1828 for Piano, Violin, Viola & Cello
Mendelssohn, Piano Trio No 1 in D minor, Op 49

At Phyllis & Joe Crowley's home.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Wall Street Chamber Players

Ludwig Van Beethoven, Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello in G Major, Op 1, no 2
John Harbison, November 19, 1828
Felix Mendelssohn, Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello in D minor, Op 49

Highly Recommend

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Monday, September 10, 2007

King Lear (Shakespeare)

Royal Shakespeare Company.
Directed by Trevor Nunn
Ian McKellan as Lear

Friday, August 17, 2007

The Physicists, Friedrich Durrenmatt

This is a farcical who-dun-it cum meditation on madness. It questions the moral responsibility of science, asking us to address who imposes moral restriction on knowledge, especially when science is in the service of governmental policies. In the end, the play and its premise devolves into an either/or argument. The paradox of the physicist's position in society at the end reminds us of the inherent insanity of those who break paradigms.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

The Unknown Monet

The Clark Museum, Williamstown Mass

Blue/Orange, Joe Penhall

Featuring great, persuasive acting, the play explores the problem of interpretation and transmission of ideas, especially when those ideas are expressed by individuals not "trained" in the presupposition and jargon of the field from which those ideas are associated.
At the same time the play is about a slick-talking, manipulative bureaucrat, it also manipulates postmodern concepts to keep the audience's floor unstable. Here, language is not for seeking an understanding of the work and its ambiguity, but about gaining and maintaining control. The goal is power not truth. Thus, characters make truthful statements, even truthful arguments, that are not at the service of truth. By asking such questions as "How should we understand mental illness?" "How can mental health professionals talk to patients?" "How do we distinguish between patient and professional?"--the play becomes a fascinating examination of important postmodern concerns: the intersection of ethnocentricity with racism, and cultural/mental/intellectual norms.

The Autumn Garden, Lillian Hellman

This oddly titled work is daring for questioning contemporaneous mores regarding homosexuality and female purity. The virtual rape becomes as devasting in its social consequences as a physical rape.

Recommend.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Sunshine

Bad sci-fi

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Bacchae (Euripedes)

Outstanding interpretation of Greek original

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Mongolia: Dance, Music and Ballad

Fantastic muscial and cultural experience.

Divinas Palabras (Ramon del Valle-Inclan)

Centro Dramatico National production
Quarrel that develops between family members for a hydrocephalic dwarf good for begging.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Into the Little Hill (George Bejamin & Martin Crimp)

A lyric tale for two voices and ensemble (2006), preceded by Viola, Viola for two violas (1997) and Three Minatures for solo violin (2002).
Interesting music performed by excellent musicians.

This jewel of a narrative is based on the traditional tale of the Pied Piper, who brings music (to a town concerned about a rat infestation) with promises that he will rid the town of their problem. When the strange stranger is denied financial compensation for completing the task, he lures the children away.

Now there are many ways to consider this as an allegory, particularly appealing is the relationship between arts and politics in twenty-first century USA. Politicians want the arts to shape students to concervative values; however, because the arts are actually starved in our schools, the younger generation is denied an intellectually grounded education in the arts, and it turns to a more seductive, maybe even baser but certainly more rebelious form of the arts. Musically, not such a simple allegory: very spare. In works more vertically dense (but not overly so), the ear can hear/apprehend a lucious texture. In works more horizontally dense, that is more melodic, the ear can hear the melody. This work seemed spare in both ways, requiring an ear both better trained than the average ear and a mind curious enough to listen attendtively and repeatedly.

Highly recommend.

Monday, July 23, 2007

De Monstruos y Prodigios: La Historia de los Castrati (Jorge Kuri)

Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes

The Full Monteverdi

I Fagiolini's unusual performance of Claudio Monteverdi's Il quarto libro de madrigali (Fourth Book of Madrigals).
Wow!
After 35 minutes sitting at cabaret-style tables drinking wine and eating cheese/fruit, a voice to my right began to sing, soon followed by six to eight others who were engaged with another at the table. It was like overhearing a very intimate conversation between a couple. I first thought that the guy to my right was embarrassed to be seated next to a singer, but it was soon clear that he was (as were the other 'partners') part of the performance.
There were no pauses between madrigals, but the music moved straight from one to the next. The ensemble relayed the music from one couple to the next, with each couple in different points entering the lover's quarrel.
The difficult of the music was compounded by the performers' movement and the distance which they were spread. Divided into pairs, they sung/acted the madrigals. Their virtuosity was demonstrated in their ability to overcome problems of tuning and coherence magnified by the space and spacing.
The venue provided good acoustics and fabulous views of midtown Manhattan.
Thus presented dramatic, it is easy to recognize how Monteverdi was the originator of Western opera. It would have been good, however, to have possessed translations in order to understand more fully the arc of the poetic narrative.

High recommend.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Hokaibo (Heisei Nakamura-za)

This performance featured one of only two comic Kabuki and starred Nakamura Kanzaburo XVIII in the lead role. Wonderful and colorful sets and costumes were the backdrop to a drama that depended on physical humor and sexual double-entendres (that weren't always apparent in the English synopsis broadcast through the headsets). The morality of the play was rather dubious, and the rogue character ends up murdered (though he comes back to haunt his somewhat innocent nemesis).
The narrative occupied the first two acts performed before the intermission. After the intermission, the performance accorded more closely with my conceptions of kabuki: traditional Japanese music and dance.
Though predominantly performed in Japanese, the Kanzaburo frequently dropped into English, speaking directly to the audience. This gracious gesture, however, was not necessary for the large number Japanese speakers in the audience, who obviously were able to understand the jokes not apparent via the English synopsis.

So Percussion and Matmos. Lincoln Center Festival. 21 July 2007

This was a fantastic evening of very exciting music. Among the highlights:
"Aluminum Song" was played entirely with items made of aluminum. Its tempo was based on rhythmic period that began when a can of Bud Light was popped open, continued while it was drunk (actually 'chugged'), and then ended once the can was tore into two pieces after being repeatedly bent in half.
The first segment of "Water Song" was structured by the time it took to empty a bucket of water with a coffee cup. That was the only full-fledged water sound. All other 'water-sounds' were instrumental ones traditionally associated with water.
They closed with a selections from a longer work that proposed to translate Verdi's "Aida" into electronic media. The first two segments were difficult to relate to the opera, though I suspect the new piece borrowed rhythmic (rather than melodic) elements. The final segment employed the grand march from the opera and featured manipulated videos from a 1950s-looking movie (maybe either the Elizabeth Taylor "Cleopatra" or "Ben Hur"?). (The longer work is the result of a commision from the city of Verona Italy.)
Though some of the pieces were probably more fun and exciting to perform than they were to listen to, it was a very worthwhile evening.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Broken English. Zoe R Cassavetes, director

This small film traces the distraught lovelife of a 30-something New Yorker, Nora Wilder. Threaded against a series of single encounters with various men, her affair with a younger Frenchman helps her begin to drop her fears.
Very good acting by Parker Posey (Nora Wilder) and Drea XXX (her friend, Audrey).
I'm a bit tired of the over-indulged narrative of the unhappy, bored NY single woman failing to find happiness in all the wrong places while having all the means to live without many worries.

Wagner's The Ring Cycle. Kirov Opera at NYC's Lincoln. 16-19 July 2007

With a group of six other opera enthusiasts, we attended The Kirov Opera's performance of Wagner's The Ring Cycle this week at Lincoln Center. Though I'm pleased to have seen a production of the entire cycle, I am sorely disappointed with the quality of the production the Kirov Opera brought to New York. Not surprisingly, the music was wonderfully performed. Opera, however, is not solely a listening experience but also a spectacle that should delight the eyes as well. For this reason, this production falls short of the grand opera long associated with Lincoln Center.

I do not claim any expertise regarding either opera in general or Wagnerian opera in particular. I do, however, absorb lots of theatre every year, and I expect that my experience in the theatre should be better than listening to a recording or reading a text. With this in mind I want to discuss three aspects of the experience: (1) the drama as written by Wagner, (2) the musical performances, and (3) the production values.

(1) Wagner created an series of complex characters whose motivations are not consistent. More on this later.

(2) The musical values were of a high caliber. I especially appreciated the performances of XXX (Brunnhilde in Die Walkure), XXX (Sieglinde in Die Walkure), XXX (Wotan in Siegfried), and XXX (Siegfried in Gotterdamerung).

(3) I'll assume that I don't know enough about Russian folklore to understand the little ET-like stones or the Transformer-like giants or the ICU-patient dragon or the goldish lattice-ball Rhinegold. And I simply mention my disappointment with the fire encircling the dreaming Brunnhilde and my puzzlement that Siegfried's pyre is just a dirt-pile. I'll also pass over a couple of questions about costumes: why did Brunnhilde have to look so ghastly Goth and why doesn't Siegfried ever progress from little-boy overalls? The greatest weaknesses of the production values lies primarily in the quality of sets. Granted, sets are all about deceiving the eye: making fiberglass and paper look like walls of stone and forests of trees. And much of this deception rests of the shoulders of the lighting director. In this case, too much of the lighting was focused on creating dazzling moods and too little on making us believe that large totems were made of stone rather than fiberglass.

All in all, I'm glad we made the effort to attend this operatic marathon. I do wish, however, that our efforts were more richly repaid.

Bodies: The Exhibition

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Book of Longing

Musical setting by Philip Glass based on Poetry and Images of Leonard Cohen

Book of Longing

1. "Prologue--I Can't Make the Hills" LC voice over with music

2. "I Came Down from the Mountain" Images added. Male vocal

3. "A Sip of WIne" Female vocal solo plus 3 for 'chorus'

Interlude: solo cello

4. "Want to Fly" female vocal solo

5. "The Light Came Through the Window"

6. "Puppet Time" faster tempo, more energy, all 4 vocals, images of LC in Nazi/German uniforms

7. "G-D Opened My Eyes" female images

8. "You Go Your Way" LC Voice over with no music

9. "I Was Doing Something"

10. "Not a Jew" LC voice over with no music

Interlude: oboe solo with image that says 'Life is a drug that stopped working'

11. "How Much I Love You" male/tenor solo

12. "Babylon" [See notes for more]

Interlude: Violin solo [instrumental solos include some of the Glass trademarks but also feel like traditional/Romantic lyrical lines; moments of bravura and cres...]

13. "I Enjoyed the Laughter" LC voice over with no music

14. "The Morning I Woke Up Again" images with WOW-red background. [Note: female images all nude: adored yet objectified]

[Many images include the traditional red stamp of Chinese arat but LC uses a star of David instead]

15. "I Want to Love You Now"

[Often unclear who LC's "you" is, even when he tries to distinguish between "You" and "you" in previous song: woman, women, God, spirit, world, listener.

16. "Don't Have the Proof" LC Voice Over in silence

Interlude: Saxophone solo

17. "The Night of Santiago" [cello has turned back around]

18. "Mother Mother" image of woman was face only

19. "You Came to Me This Morning" Highly choreographed with movement of singers and some musicians, including Phillip Glass; singers sit in chair and stand: part of choreography. included a short violin "cascade"; lush harmonies; simple vocal lines

Interlude: Bass solo with glass in swivel chair facing the attractive young female bassist dressed in red dress, with breasts embracing the bass; high register; loveliest bass line I've ever heard; musician leaning over the instrument in order to paly high notes; highly sensual image;

20. "I Am Not Able" LC voice over with "My heavenly seat" visual image that looks like the chair that Glass was sitting in in #19.

21."Roshi's Very TIred"

22. "Epilogue--Merely a Prayer" images: series of self-images. Beautiful closing.

Fables de la Fontaine

Comedie-Francaise

Friday, July 13, 2007

Gemelos

Compania Teatro Cinema

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Fables de La Fontaine

An adaptation of La Fontaine's Fables by Comedie-Francaise.

Visually interesting but difficult to follow because the supertitles were so out of line with the audience's sight line.

Recommend with Caveats.

Monday, July 2, 2007

La Vie en Rose

Edith Piaf bioflick

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Giselle

State Ballet of Georgia

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Monday, March 26, 2007

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Sunday, March 18, 2007

La Boheme (Puccini)

Yale Opera production.

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Friday, March 2, 2007

The Lives of Others

Wonderful German film.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Friday, February 9, 2007

Kronos Quartet

Franghiz Ali-Zadeh. Mugam Sayagi
Sigur Ros. Flugufrelsarinn (The Fly Freer)
John Adams. Three Selections from John's Book of Alleged Dances
Dan Visconti. Love Bleeds Radiant
Osvaldo Golijov. Last Andalusian Sky
Ram Narayan. Raga Mishra Bhairavi
Derek Charke. Cercle du Nord III

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Letters from Iwo Jima

Superb, especially when seen alongside Flag of Our Fathers

Monday, January 29, 2007

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