Septimus and Clarissa (Ellen McLaughlin)

We are long-time fans of Red Bull Theatre, which partnered in the production of this play, and Carly Flint, who interned with Ripe Time as assistant director. Conceived as an "In the Raw" presentation, the play and its production were still very much in the development stage. As the title indicates, the play dramatizes Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Because the novel is written as a stream-of-consciousness from the perspective of a third-person narrator, dramatization is more difficult than simply converting dialogue from the character's minds to their mouths. And yet this is the tactic chosen by McLaughlin. Thus characters relate (in third-person) information about themselves (and others), but seldom in terms of a dialogue. This makes it difficult for the audience to associate any actor with any character. Ultimately, this strategy drains the play of any drama, and the production becomes a reading of the novel with parts randomly (or what seems randomly) exchanged from one actor to another.

In all fairness to the playwright and to the director (Rachel Dickstein), these techniques do capture much of what it's like to read Mrs. Dalloway for the first time. But the production provided no insight into the novel, the only justification I know for translating from genre to the next.

Space Panorama (Andrew Dawson)

Chautauqua!

It helped that we had front row seats and that the queen of fun--Jean Breny--went with us.

Recommend.

Comme Toujours Here I Stand (Big Dance Theater)

Perhaps if I'd seen the film on which it was based, Cleo from 5 to 7, I would have been able to follow and thus appreciate this production. I haven't, I didn't, and I don't. Mike had, did, and does.

Recommend with caveats.

The Palestrina Choir

Interesting music performed by a men and boys choir affiliated with St Mary's Pro-Cathedra, Dublin. The boy choristers were fairly weak; they were very young, and I suspect the excitement of trans-Atlantic travel and the heat of Battell Chapel did not help. The men, however, were excellent, and their performances of Thomas Tallis, Tomas Luis de Victoria, and Giovannii Palestrian were very good.

Recommend.

Four Nations Ensemble

The Rouse Effect: The Next Generation

Back in 1980, when I had slender ties to the composition department at University of North Texas' music school, I attended a What-can-I-do-with-my-degree workshop. The takeaway answer was "Go West, young composers. Write for Hollywood's film industry." As distasteful as that was to some in the room, it was prescient advice. Not only has that industry provided many composers with a good income, but it has also been the primary conduit through which Americans have been exposed to innovative, contemporary music. For example, choose Philip Glass on Pandora.com, and you'll primarily hear excerpts from his score for The Hours. Producers must judge the music serves their purposes well; otherwise, they would eschew these innovative compositions. And yet, I'm certain that a poll of the American public would reveal that a significant majority does not like contemporary 'art' music.

The attendance at the non-popular music events at Arts and Ideas bears out these observatiosn out in several ways. These are the events most challenged to produce audiences, and yet I often think find myself thinking that I'm listening to a film score, music film audiences regularly listen to with nary a complaint. With this in mind, I shouldn't have been (though I was) surprised when discussion with the three composers at tonight's performance encouraged this association between their music and storytelling.

Tonight's wonderful, wonderful evening of chamber music featured works by three of Christopher Rouse's former students: Michael Torke, Marc Mellits, and Kevin Puts. All four composers were in the audience (which was seated cabaret-style in Longwharf's Stage II), and between pieces, they provided some background and one or two elements to listen for. Though Torke did mention that "Yellow Pages" goes through the harmonic circle of 5ths using the same notes, the predominant guidance was much more programmatic: "optimistic sound of my youth," "cycle of life and death doesn't depend on humans," and "the power to transcend during times of tragedy and personal crises." I mention this not to complain about the music or the composer's elucidations, but to wonder aloud why this music, which suits the American populace so well in the background to a film, is so quickly dismissed and ignored when the moving images and popcorn are absent.

To my mind, these works did not require either visuals or narratives to be enjoyed. Highly complex (within the limits imposed by small chamber works), they exuded a vibrant energy. In part, this energy was the result of the performers, Real Quiet--Felix Fan (cello), Andrew Russo (piano), and Danny Tunick (percussion)--plus Benjamin Jacobson (violin), Andrew Bulbrook (violin), Tara O'Connor (flute), Michael Byerly (clarinet), and Ji Hye Jung (percussion). The performances by the ensemble Real Quiet were extraordinary because the musicians obviously love and enjoy these pieces. And particularly notable was the performance of Ji Hye Jung on the marimbas. Being privy to her grace and athleticism is worth the price of the ticket.

Even the musicians alternatively tossing and dropping the music sheets to the floor added to the drama of the performance.

What an evening!

Highly recommended.

06/25/2010: This was the highlight of 2010 Arts and Ideas New Haven.

Christopher Rouse: Transfiguration (Calder Quartet)

This concert featured five works by Christopher Rouse: two percussion pieces performed by The Yale Percussion Group, as well as a septet and two quartets performed by the Calder Quartet (and supplemented by three other players for the septet.
1. Ku-Ka-Ilimoku (for four percussionists)
2. String Quartet #2
3. Compline (for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet)
4. String Quartet #3
5. Ogoun Badagris (for five percussionists)

The two percussion works were energetic and surprisingly varied and subtle, to the point of being spine tingling. The performers obviously were having a great deal of fun.

The Quartet #2 and "Compline" had a satisfying arc. Beginning with electronic sonorities (though produced on string and wind instruments), the quartet 'modulated' into an organ-like chorale that was heartbreakingly lovely and fragile. Similarly, "Compline" opened with reversed sonorities but moved toward more traditional timbres and sonorities; its final section was beautiful and poignant.

Quartet #3, a world premier of a Calder Quartet commission, was built on rhythmic rather than tonal complexity. Though it seemed to start with disintegration and reverse to integration, it didn't get to the beautiful part of the arc.

Recommend

Moby Dick (Gare St. Lazare Players Ireland)

Conor Lovett returned to the A&I Festival with another superb dramatization. This time, he retold the core narrative of Melville's Moby Dick (adapted by Lovett and Judy Hegearty Lovet) through the persona of Ishmael. Accompanied only by Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh (solo fiddle), Lovett brings to life Melville's dense narrative of madness and whales. With his initial "Call me Ishmael" and continuing to the first interlude once the Pequod sets sail, Lovett's narration brings out the comic aspect of Ishmael's melancholic, hesitant tale.

The audience remained entranced throughout, and it found especially moving the horrifying scene when Ahab refused to help search for the young son of the Rachel's captain.

Of course, choices had to be made, and many choice moments--such as Ahab's Sermon to the Sharks--were omitted. Nevertheless, Lovett's rendition allowed us to hear Melville's words in ways easy to miss when read silently.

Highly recommend.

Khmeropedies I & II

Interesting and often evocative union of classical Cambodian dance, music, and sensibilities, with contemporary western ones. It ended up telling and showing us more about Cambodian perceptions of the West (and desires about how it wants to be seen by the West) than about its traditional culture.

Recommend.

Susurrus (David Leddy)

A few years ago, Arts & Ideas featured, "Cell," a participatory performance piece that Mike and I thought was a fantastic experience. When this year's A&I included another work "for an audience of one," we were eager to try it. Though very different from "Cell," Susurrus" (by David Leddy and produced by Fire Exit) did not disappoint.
We went to the Conservatory at Edgerton Park, where we each given an ipod, headphones, a map and instructions for listening to a four-voice play in eight parts as we moved from one station to the next. The afternoon was warm, sunny, and clear: perfect for strolling through the park.
The drama wove together remembrances of a the premier production of Benjamin Britten's "Midsummer Night's Dream," recollections of adult children of opera singers, discourses on bird anatomy, and revelations of pedophilia and incest. As we walked from one station to the next, we heard music, ranging from some swinging Frank Sinatra to a luscious rendition of Dido's "Remember Me" (Janet Baker singing Purcell's Dido and Aeneas).

Highly recommend.

Philip Glass, Works for Solo Piano

You might call this Philip Glass by Philip Glass unplugged. In the past, when we've heard Glass perform, it's involved one of his ensembles and a long bank of electronic equipment. Tonight's performance featured Glass on solo piano in the fairly intimate quarters of Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Hall.

I would guess that he isn't the best performer of his work. Before he embarked on the first piece, Etudes, he mentioned that he's learned only about 1/2 of them. And throughout the pieces, I thought I heard not only stumbles and hesitation but also wrong notes.

I don't know the titles of all the works he performed because it was difficult to hear him. But of the works, I enjoyed "Four Metamorphoses" best, especially #3. And "Wichita Vortex Sutra" was a lively work featuring a voiceover of Alan Ginsburg reading his antiwar poem.

• Etudes
• Four Metamorphoses (#4, #3, & #2)
• (Unknown)
  
• Wichita Vortex Sutra
• Encore, short piece that sounded like an improvisation on Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"

Recommend.

Dance (Lucinda Childs)

New Haven's 15th Annual International Festival of Arts and Ideas opened with this sublime performance of Dance, a 1979 multi-media collaboration between choreographer Lucinda Childs, Composer Philip Glass, and artist/filmmaker Sol LeWitt. I was not surprised at all by the delicate interplay between Glass' music and Childs' choreography; however, I was profoundly moved by how much LeWitt's film added to the performance. Projected on a scrim at the front of the stage where dancers performed live, the film featured performances of Dance shot over 30 years ago. It seemed to me that LeWitt must have shot the dancers at a slow film speed, for their movements did not have the illusion of fluidity, rather they seemed to be broken into their constituent parts, thereby mimicking/commenting on both Glass's compositional style and Child's choreography. Oftentimes, the film placed the two-dimensional dancers at the top of the scrim, making them appear to be floating over the live dancers.
Simply labeled Dance I, Dance II, and Dance III, the three dances provided a wonderful visual introduction, even instruction for understanding, minimalism.

Highly recommend.

All in the Timing (David Ives)

Until I saw Ives' Venus in Fur this past March, I was unaware of this comic genius. All in the Timing is an early collection of six one-acts. Each examines how events depend upon fragile links to other events. To work, the plays require sharp direction and precision. And, by and large, the Connecticut Repertory Theatre, delivered.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell)

Back in 1998, Mike got a call from a former student then working at an off-Broadway theatre, the Jane Street Theatre, raving about its current production, a new rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Not knowing much about it but eager to follow up on the student's recommendation, we bought 4 tickets and took the kids (12 and 10). I think the box office manager was a bit startled when we showed up with two pre-teens, but what the hey. They were precocious, this was New York, why not?

It was a great evening. The subject matter was a mature, needless to say, but the kids loved the music and the spectacle. Such vamp was not a regular part of their cultural diet. The theatre itself was classic off-Broadway: small, grimy, and full of youthful energy. John Cameron Mitchell played/sang Hedwig. Mike had introduced us to the 'real thing.' (And for that reason, I never felt the urge to the see the 2001 movie version.)

Thus, I was delighted to revisit that experience at the Yale Cabaret's production. Presented in a similarly small, underground venue, the Cabaret's Hedwig captured much of the same vibration of the original a dozen years ago. It didn't pack the same energy, and I thought the pacing was a bit off. But hey, it was opening night, and things should pick up.

Recommend.

The Secret in Their Eyes (Juan José Campanella)

I like a good thriller, and The Secret in Their Eyes is definitely an excellent one. It explores the lifelong, life-alerting repercussions of a young wife's brutal murder, the investigation, and the subsequent perversion of justice. Campanella's complex plot unfolds gradually, in ever opening circles of new information (none of which feels as though it were withheld gratuitously).

The camera work and editing can be breath-taking. In particular, be ready to have your socks knocked off during the chase at the soccer stadium.

Highly recommend.