(Rochester City Ballet, 28 November 2008)
The beginning of the end of Hollywood musicals (and a glorious beginning of the end at that) was in the 1950s. Musical productions about staging musical productions with thrice the number of musical numbers of a 1930s movie were all the vogue. The audiences coveted musical extravaganza, and it was delivered, sometimes at a cost in terms of the richness of the plot---broadly construed. The Nutcracker displays the symptoms of a deceased genre. It is a variety show in the second act and much grimacing in the first act.
Excellent dancing, in principle, will compensate for and possibly even obliterate the shortcomings of a dead genre. Ballet dancing is difficult and careers are short. Everyone can tell if dancing is good or bad. And some of it was indeed good this evening. Yet one cannot help but to wish for the excellent, even though this means to wish for the nearly impossible.
28 November 2008
26 November 2008
Grey Gardens
(The Studio Theatre, 26 November 2008)
"One can only keep by letting go" may be the message of this musical play. Or maybe the message should be that for most people having a routine imposed by a day job is a healthy experience, which rules out living off bequests or relying on a rich spouse to support oneself. This is not necessarily the way it must be for all, but for many the acquaintances, the discipline, and the break from the stifling family air, which come with having a job, are essential. All characters, but probably the mother and the daughter in the second act, are portrayed quite sketchily. The actors do their best and do it well, but a greater input from the playwright and the director would have been appreciated.
"One can only keep by letting go" may be the message of this musical play. Or maybe the message should be that for most people having a routine imposed by a day job is a healthy experience, which rules out living off bequests or relying on a rich spouse to support oneself. This is not necessarily the way it must be for all, but for many the acquaintances, the discipline, and the break from the stifling family air, which come with having a job, are essential. All characters, but probably the mother and the daughter in the second act, are portrayed quite sketchily. The actors do their best and do it well, but a greater input from the playwright and the director would have been appreciated.
24 November 2008
8 1/2 (1963)
Several male actors make a movie about rivalry and honour. Remove all beautiful male actors but one and the movie is about loneliness. Add a beautiful actress and the picture is about the lack of understanding between sexes. Add some more beautiful actresses and the picture is about difficult choices and still the lack of understanding. Remove all beautiful actors and actresses altogether and the picture is a flop. In contrast, if a character played by a beautiful (broadly construed) male actor stays with the character played by the most beautiful actress, then the movie typically succeeds. In this sense, 8 1/2 has got at least this right, whereas other merits of the picture are debatable, which is not to say absent.
A good narrative requires certain detachment or at least a semblance of detachment. Therefore, it is hard for an artist to create a work of art about the plight of an artist. This does not stop artists from trying or indeed succeeding in doing so. Federico Fellini in 8 1/2 largely succeeds.
La Saraghina is one of the most powerful scenes in the film. It captures the essence of the movie: to live is to question.
The film is a collection of images---often Dali-like images---and musical fragments that can be taken in the order presented, or after being permuted, or absorbed only selectively. In this sense, the movie is closer to a painting rather than a novel. It is left up to the viewer if to scan the picture from left to right, from top to bottom or the other way around, from a distance or close up, with glasses on or while squinting.
A good narrative requires certain detachment or at least a semblance of detachment. Therefore, it is hard for an artist to create a work of art about the plight of an artist. This does not stop artists from trying or indeed succeeding in doing so. Federico Fellini in 8 1/2 largely succeeds.
La Saraghina is one of the most powerful scenes in the film. It captures the essence of the movie: to live is to question.
The film is a collection of images---often Dali-like images---and musical fragments that can be taken in the order presented, or after being permuted, or absorbed only selectively. In this sense, the movie is closer to a painting rather than a novel. It is left up to the viewer if to scan the picture from left to right, from top to bottom or the other way around, from a distance or close up, with glasses on or while squinting.
22 November 2008
Harvey (1950)
This is a movie about how being "oh-so-pleasant" trumps being "oh-so-clever" if one must choose between the two. This is a movie about how living with an imaginary friend is better than living with no friend at all, as long as the imaginary friend does not have a religious agenda.
7 November 2008
The Turn of the Screw
(Eastman Opera Theatre, 7 November 2008)
Remarkably for an opera, the singers take the trouble to act---and they do so well. Furthermore, it appears that as much effort has been put into directing the actors as in conducting the orchestra and rehearsing the arias. The singers stay in character throughout the performance and between the scenes. The orchestra and the actors are co-ordinated impeccably. The leading lady (Meghan Attridge, who plays the governance) is beautiful and is of the same age as her character, which, again, is doubly unusual for an opera.
Acting in this opera comes closest to a musical piece. The acting is intense and concrete, and, yet, it invites the observer to infuse it with a meaning of his choice. The plot is bursting with developments and at the same time is hollow and begs to be filled by the viewer's imagination.
The actors' task is made easier by the subject matter of the performance. Sexual tension is easy to identify with for a viewer (and the actor); so, any half-hearted hint at it will fire the viewer's imagination, and acting imperfections may go unnoticed. If there were any acting imperfections, they did go unnoticed, indeed. One exception, perhaps, is the narration from the protagonist's point of view at the beginning of the opera. The narration is done with an accent---New Jersey TOEFL---markedly different from the protagonist's accent in the remainder of the play.
There is a sparkle of madness in each character. This is the kind of madness that stems from hunger rather than satiation. Most instances of madness, perhaps, stem from hunger. Thus--- more precisely---the characters' madness stems from their intellectual poverty, their plainness.
Remarkably for an opera, the singers take the trouble to act---and they do so well. Furthermore, it appears that as much effort has been put into directing the actors as in conducting the orchestra and rehearsing the arias. The singers stay in character throughout the performance and between the scenes. The orchestra and the actors are co-ordinated impeccably. The leading lady (Meghan Attridge, who plays the governance) is beautiful and is of the same age as her character, which, again, is doubly unusual for an opera.
Acting in this opera comes closest to a musical piece. The acting is intense and concrete, and, yet, it invites the observer to infuse it with a meaning of his choice. The plot is bursting with developments and at the same time is hollow and begs to be filled by the viewer's imagination.
The actors' task is made easier by the subject matter of the performance. Sexual tension is easy to identify with for a viewer (and the actor); so, any half-hearted hint at it will fire the viewer's imagination, and acting imperfections may go unnoticed. If there were any acting imperfections, they did go unnoticed, indeed. One exception, perhaps, is the narration from the protagonist's point of view at the beginning of the opera. The narration is done with an accent---New Jersey TOEFL---markedly different from the protagonist's accent in the remainder of the play.
There is a sparkle of madness in each character. This is the kind of madness that stems from hunger rather than satiation. Most instances of madness, perhaps, stem from hunger. Thus--- more precisely---the characters' madness stems from their intellectual poverty, their plainness.
1 November 2008
Holiday (1938)
Money gives freedom and power. Being an offspring of a rich parent runs the risk of being dominated by the parent's power. Family riches can also deny the offspring freedom that stems from exercising the skills acquired in trying to find one's own way in life. Katharine Hupburn's character, Linda, is a casualty of such a family. Cary Grant's character, Johnny, is about to marry into such a family.
Linda is intense, earnest, and naive. Her zest and maturity seem incongruous at times; one anticipates her going mad unless her situation changes in a way that would allow her to put to test the ideas about life brooding in her mind at ever more frequent moments of solitude. But she never does go mad, and therein lies her strength.
Linda's father, Edward Seton, remarks that it is unAmerican not to aspire to maximize personal wealth. Linda stands for a different idea of America; it is unAmerican not to be critical, not to be curious, not to be adventurous, not to be free. The film is not an argument against a career in business. The film is an argument for making informed decisions and not being unnecessarily conformist.
Linda is intense, earnest, and naive. Her zest and maturity seem incongruous at times; one anticipates her going mad unless her situation changes in a way that would allow her to put to test the ideas about life brooding in her mind at ever more frequent moments of solitude. But she never does go mad, and therein lies her strength.
Linda's father, Edward Seton, remarks that it is unAmerican not to aspire to maximize personal wealth. Linda stands for a different idea of America; it is unAmerican not to be critical, not to be curious, not to be adventurous, not to be free. The film is not an argument against a career in business. The film is an argument for making informed decisions and not being unnecessarily conformist.
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