Saturday, March 27, 2010

Hamlet (Ambroise Thomas)

A fine production of a 19th-century French opera not produced at the Met since the 1890s. I was disappointed that Natalie Dessay was replaced when she fell ill; however, Marlis Petersen provided a wonderful performance equal to Simon Keenlyside's fine one.

Recommend.

Friday, March 26, 2010

The Faerie Queen (Henry Purcell)

Exquisite productions of The Faerie Queen are no easy feat. Les Arts Florissants demonstrates just how rewarding the task can be in tonight's complex tapestry of drama, music, dance, costumes and sets. The whole production--all four hours (with intermission long enough to tune two harpsichords)--was enchanting and breathtaking. At the end, I could have easily set myself back down and watched it all over again.

And if the performance itself were not enough, Christie and company closed the curtain call by singing love lyrics to the audience and cascading red paper petals onto the audience. What a wonderful experience!

I don't know if I'll ever have an experience to match this one.

Highly recommend.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

New Haven Symphony Orchestra

Crisp, fine performances of two bookends of the Romantic period: Schoenberg's Verlarte Nacht, Op. 4 (Transfigured Night) and Beethoven's Symphony #3 in Eb Major, Op. 55, "Eroica."

Highly Recommended.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Red (John Logan)

I first encountered Mark Rothko and his art when a freshman in Houston, Texas. In 1975, The Rothko Chapel (http://www.rothkochapel.org/) had been opened only 4 years, and it introduced me to a spirituality--as well as a genre of art, Abstract Expressionism--I'd never before encountered. Thereafter, I regularly visited the chapel, finding peace and consolation when religion failed me. And in a reversal of an earlier generation's experience with Rothko, I was startled when I eventually encountered his vivid and colorful canvases dating from earlier in his career.

Logan's play imagines Rothko's artistic and spiritual struggles during that color-saturated phase in the middle of his career. Alfred Molina (as Rothko) and Eddie Redmayne (as his assistant, Ken) provide pitch perfect performances, while the red and black canvases reverberate and pulse on stage.

Without doubt, this is theatre at its finest.

Highly, highly recommend. Do NOT miss.

Venus in Fur (David Ives)

David Ives' latest comedy is very, very funny. And under the direction of Walter Bobbie, actors Nina Arianda and West Bentley transform it into a side-splitting 90 minutes that never stoops to easy laughs. Arianda and Bentley's perfectly pitched performances make this a memorable theatrical event.

Highly recommend.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski)

Artful suspense flick, lovely to look at and engaging enough to keep me interested.

Recommend enthusiastically.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Baroque Cabaret

A selection of baroque love songs performed by a soprano, tenor, and bass in a cabaret setting. A wonderful way to drink a good bottle of wine with friends.

Highly recommended.

Actéon (Charpentier)

This Les Arts Florrisants production opens gloriously: the opening chorus is sung as the singers enter the sage from the auditorium's aisles. During those few minutes, we were surrounded by rich sound of baroque voices.

Highly recommended.

Dido and Aeneas (Purcell)

This was part of a marvelous Baroque triple-header performed by William Christie's Les Arts Florrissants at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Easily, Dido and Aeneas is my favorite Baroque opera, and most likely of any period. And LAF did ample justice to the work with superb vocal and instrumental performance, as well as an engaging staging. (I don't think, however, that anything will ever match LAF's stunning production of Rameau's Les Boreades.) Performances by Sonya Yoncheva (Dido), Andreas Wolf (Aeneas), and Emmanuelle de Negri (Belinda) were particularly sumptuous.

Highly recommend.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Shutter Island

Interesting suspense film that doesn't completely hold.

recommend with caveats

Sunday, March 14, 2010

The Lady with All the Answers (David Rambo)

Cute. And it certainly drew an audience that wouldn't normally come to TheatreWorks for a Sunday matinee.

Recommend.

Friday, March 12, 2010

As You Like It (Shakespeare)

What a disappointing performance. We are avid devotees of the Aquila Theatre Group, and some of our best theatrical experiences have occured when they are on stage. But not this time.

Doubling, tripling, and even quadrupling parts, they presented As You Like It with seven actors. Until the intermission, I spent too much time trying to determine who the characters were. And I know the play fairly well. I noticed that those around me, who probably were less familiar with the play, repeatedly turned to their program trying to make sense of what they saw on stage.

In short, rather than illuminating the written text, this production obfuscated it.

Caveats. Sadly.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)

We went to a 9:45 pm showing of this 144-minute film, because we were afraid it would leave the theatre before we'd have another chance to see it. Seeing this visually compelling film was worth the effort--and we had no trouble staying awake, though we'd both had had long, long days.

Shot in black and white, and set in pre-WWI rural Germany, the film relates a series of disturbing events plaguing a village. Though it might be comforting to think the events were anamolies, by the movie's end the audience is led to believe the events were merely symptoms of a moral failing endemic to not only the village but German society. As such, the film provides imaginative support for the Goldhagen's thesis (found in his book, Hitler's Willing Executioners) that ordinary Germans not only were aware of Hitler's atrocities but approved of them. What makes the film particularly powerful is the absence of any Jews. All the cruelty is internecine--parents on children, children on weaker children, husbands on wives (and lovers), landholder to peasants--frequently in the name of maintaining the status quo, but equally in an attempt to strike back against the stiffling moral order.

Of course, my quick analysis does not do justice to this deeply, richly complex film.

Highly recommend.

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