Exoticism –The Music of Karol Szymanowski

Posted on July 31, 2013 by barczablog

Earlier this summer I let someone pick the play I saw, observing how it’s valuable to let someone else choose what one will see and/or hear.  We circumscribe ourselves with our menu choices, our viewing habits, our purchases, boxing ourselves in through a series of assumptions based on our past experiences with a broad class of choices, such as “pastry”, “Russian piano music” or “dance-theatre”.

Sometimes our beliefs are vitally important (for instance, to avoid food past its best-before date).  But how often are preferences a matter of life and death?  Rarely.

Today’s adventure was Exoticism—The Music of Karol Szymanowski, a new CD from Marquis Classics, pairing violinist Jerzy Kaplanek with pianist Stéphan Sylvestre.

I don’t know Szymanowski.  While I’ve heard good things about his opera King Roger –a work that’s produced rarely—I don’t know this composer’s voice.   My preamble is another way of saying that I wish I had investigated Szymanowski’s music sooner and that I feel embarrassed to admit this.  I’d like to think I am a voracious reader, listener, player, and yes, recalling the meaning of the word when it’s not just a metaphor, eater.  While I pride myself on broad musical taste (hip hop, country, classical, opera, music-theatre, operetta, contemporary church music, old-time hymn-tunes…you name it), clearly Szymanowki somehow fell through the cracks of my prejudices & choices.

As I listened to the disc I tried to understand why the composer isn’t better known.  The title of the CD is—pardon my French—weak. Is that perhaps part of the problem, that the conventional musicological wisdom has never properly appreciated the breadths of Szymanowki?  Are we listening to “Exoticism” on this CD, or romanticism…? Or something else?  I am reminded of my delight in listening to Poulenc earlier this year, another composer who doesn’t fit into any neat category.  Pigeon-holes just don’t work for any decent composer of the past hundred years.

Ah but maybe that “exotic” title choice is a reflection of how difficult it is to understand Szymanowski, how challenging to market this composer so deserving of being better known.  I feel sympathy for the person coining the name, and indeed, sympathy for anyone marketing this wonderful record.  I can’t help feeling a bit of the pride that any Pole (such as our violinist Kaplanek) must have for Szymanowski, a composer whose importance is surely about to rise, as people get to know him better.

The CD might explain my bewilderment, music of varied styles (for violin & piano):

  • Sonata in D minor Op 9
  • Nocturne and Tarentella
  • “Roxane’s Song” from King Roger, transcribed for violin & piano
  • Mythes
  • Prelude, transcribed for violin & piano

The concluding Prelude reminds me of an adventurous Chopin in its lyricism.  The Sonata sounds more genuinely 20th Century but with the boldness of an Eastern European virtuoso (thinking of Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich or Bartók).  The rhythmic vigour of the Nocturne & Tarentella suggest other slavs and their culture.  The Mythes evoke their subjects, as identified in the titles of the three movements: “La Fontaine d’Arethuse”, “Narcisse” and finally “Dryades et Pan”.  I am sure it’s no coincidence that the titles are in French, given the echoes one hears of Ravel or Debussy; but in fairness the Mythes are phenomenal jewels and in no way derivative or imitative. They’re the likely inspiration for the title “Exoticism”.

Violinist Jerzy Kaplanek

Violinist Jerzy Kaplanek is well-served by this recording, capturing his rapturous playing, wonderfully idiomatic.  I did observe that he’s treating Szymanowski as a modern, omitting the schmaltzy portmantos one gets from violinists such as Isaac Stern or David Oistrakh (that is, artists from earlier generations).  Glorious as his sound is, t times I believe the balance feels a bit too generous to the violin, considering how complex Stéphan Sylvestre’s piano part is in the Mythes, as though he were merely accompanist and not a proper collaborative pianist; but then again maybe it’s just my pianistic prejudices showing, Szymanowski’s piano writing sounding wonderfully original.

We really need to listen to more Szymanowski, a composer who—like Bartók– sometimes displays folk influences, sometimes the lure of the virtuoso impulse, sometimes something more complex and ambiguous.  And like Bartók, Szymanowki died young, when he surely had a great deal more to offer.

This new Marquis disc deserves to be heard.  I am persuaded.  I love Szymanowki, and am thrilled with the interpretations from Kaplanek & Sylvestre.

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The End, Mr Trotsky

Posted on July 28, 2013 by barczablog

I went to see This is the End, a very funny movie about the end of the world.  It’s full of famous actors I know and love:

  • Seth Rogen, of Funny People, Superbad and Knocked Up
  • James Franco, of the Spiderman franchise, several other films I never saw
  • Jonah Hill, of Superbad, Cyrus¸ Moneyball… and a few other films I loved.

They’re all playing versions of themselves.

And right smack dab at the centre of the plot of This is the End, the one actually carrying the film among all the famous funny men, is another Canadian actor (Rogen is a Canadian too), namely Jay Baruchel.  When Baruchel and Rogen arrive at Franco’s house for a party, we’re told about Baruchel as though he were somehow the peer of Franco, Hill & Rogen, the one moment that might strain credibility.

I had no idea who he was, and I’m pretty sure that was the truth for everyone else.

Many times in this film I was scared and burst out laughing in terror.  Of course I came home smiling after a very funny very scary movie.

Imagine my surprise when there he is again –Jay Baruchel—starring in a movie on TV.  But CBC happened to show The Trotsky tonight, a drily funny Canadian flick, a social comedy set in Montreal serving as a chaser to my comedy full of big names.  Baruchel plays a young man believing himself to be a reincarnation of Leon Trotsky, bouncing back and forth between moments of pathos & comedy with unerring skill.  Colm Feore does a very stylish turn as a school Principal with an uncanny resemblance to Lenin.  Saul Rubinek plays the dad to Baruchel, Genevieve Bujold is wonderful in her brief appearance, while Ben Mulroney turns up as himself on E-Talk.

It’s a funny coincidence, given that the best thing about This is the End is that each of those stars also does a version of themselves.  Franco & Rogen are hysterical playing off what we know about them, while Michael Cera does an over-the-top version of himself.

Or maybe it’s just that the SNL-flavoured style of comedy (in This is the End) clicks when making references to what we know from history or popular culture.

It’s been a Jay Baruchel kind of day.  Based on these two outings –the small-scale Canuck ensemble piece and the big-budget film I saw (and many of you have seen, surely…!)—Baruchel deserves to be known.  He’s a special talent.

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Diva distress

Posted on July 27, 2013 by barczablog

Nothing is quite so delicious as a delicacy imperilled.  We love our rare wines, cheeses, hard to find films & DVDs.  Part of the enjoyment is in boasting of your exclusive enjoyment.

It’s summertime, when some go to see operas in Europe,  describing what they saw, and watching the body language of the envious, pretending to be indifferent (when we’re really jealous: I won’t deny it!).  Some of the enjoyment can be shared online but it’s not the same as being there.

We watch divas imperilled onstage –and often killed in the course of the opera—but nowadays there are new dangers.  There are two that I’d like to address.

One is old, while the other is new, via a couple of social media posts from artists.  Lorin Maazel and Edita Gruberova have recently sounded off.

Maazel’s piece, titled “Opera Staging Madness“ says:

The roles of both stage director and conductor are essentially custodial, bringing into play only those actions which heighten and make clearer the intentions of librettist and composer, actions which at every turn must respect and honor the librettist and the composer. To do otherwise is to pervert and despoil the work of masters. The egos of stage director and conductor (and his/her psychological problems) are never ever to come into play.

Gruberova’s piece takes a slightly different direction.  She also alludes to the pressure singers face, saying “my colleagues did not dare to take action against disfiguring costumes or wigs since they feared dismissal from the production.”

But there’s a new concern I am hearing about.  Gruberova says

In a six-week rehearsal period, the director’s ideas come into practice after two weeks in most cases. The subsequent rehearsals are very tiring for all people involved. Conductors tend to only join the ensemble rehearsals and only then does it comes out that often the scenic concept does not match with the musical concept. Four exhausting weeks of scenic rehearsals are followed by musical rehearsals which are also attended by the conductor for the first time.[my emphasis] By the opening night all participants are exhausted and are only back in perfect shape after a few performances after the opening night.

By coincidence, in the past week I have heard three separate anecdotes of singers who are being exhausted by the rehearsal process.  In one case the singer was asked to sing with his full voice for the entire rehearsal period.  Marking –where you hold back—is now frowned upon in some circles.  In another such tale, my friend –who reported the travails of another singer in Europe—advised the singer to hold firm against the pressure of the staff and to mark anyway; they did so and apparently it worked well, but the whole time the threat of dismissal/replacement hung over them.

I can’t help thinking that part of the problem is caused by directors, particularly those who come to opera from other kinds of theatre, who may resent what they interpret as a “diva” attitude, after countless shows with actors: people who are one tiny step above slave labour.  As any director will tell you –if you say no to them—“we can always find someone else to do this job for half what we’re paying you.”

I think this also explains why the comprimario parts are sometimes over-developed, because the singer who has 3 lines will comply with the demanding director, and in the process upstage everyone.

Is opera in peril? Surely it’s always in danger—because it’s expensive, because the world economy is going down the toilet, because of Regietheater, because singers are too fat, because singers aren’t fat anymore –and the danger becomes part of its allure, the precious delicacy.

We’re so accustomed to watching opera divas in distress, that we ignore their genuine calls for help.

Edita Gruberova at her Lieder recital on July 23, 2013 at the Salzburg Festival © Silvia Lelli

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Ai Weiwei Never Sorry

Posted on July 26, 2013 by barczablog

How apt that I begin writing about this film with an apology.

I went looking for Ai Weiwei Never Sorry when I heard of this film, that had been shown at TIFF.  I sought an introduction to the artist, because of course Ai Weiwei has a big show coming to AGO next month.

I found the DVD.

Spoiler alert.  I am being bad, breaking all my rules in this one.  I don’t like giving away parts of films.  You should expect that Ai Weiwei Never Sorry records both the creative & political voice of that dissident artist, a powerful film you’ll only dislike if you’re an apologist for Communist China or possibly if you hate art.   There, forewarned? Read on if you will, and don’t be surprised if I’ve given something away.

I can’t help myself.

Sorry.

*******

Cats & dogs….?

Our first images in Ai Weiwei Never Sorry, Alison Klayman’s documentary film about Chinese dissident /artist Ai Weiwei, show us cats & dogs.  I’m maybe over-sensitive because I lost my own, put down at the beginning of the week.

We see a few dogs & lots of cats.  If we judge a society –or a person—by how they treat their weakest members, as Gandhi purportedly said, how do we judge Ai Weiwei at the outset?  One of his associates gets testy with a cat that’s playing with something made of pieces of wood (perhaps a piece of art? hard to say).

Ai Weiwei gently stops him from interfering in the cat’s gentle play, saying “he’s not going to destroy it”.

The cat rolls around with the objects, while the artist rubs his ears affectionately.

We see a non-judgmental response from the human. What’s more, the destructive impulses of the animal (chewing, knocking down) seem very natural.  If this were his installation, and the cat really destroyed it (notwithstanding the first line of the film), maybe he’d like that.

Running through the film like a leit-motiv are images of Weiwei holding up his middle finger.  The Studies in Perspective give us a succession of iconic images –such as the Eiffel Tower or the White House—with a middle finger in the immediate foreground. They are studies in perspective alright, but much more than just camera angles & focal lengths. He takes a Han Dynasty urn and dispassionately lets it fall deliberately for a camera.  At one point, when he poses for a photo with some young women, one of them immediately makes a finger for the camera, as though it were his theme-song: and he jubilantly does so as well.  At another point –as Weiwei nurses injuries from a beating by a policeman—he makes a film with his collaborators, each saying “fuck you motherland” in a variety of dialects.

Weiwei seems to cherish rebellion & chaos, and not just his own.

We’re told that of the 40 odd cats in Weiwei’s home, only one knows how to open a door.  And unlike humans, that cat never closes it after going through.  I sense his enjoyment in the resistance to conformity & the roles imposed upon us.

One of the first artistic remarks we hear from Weiwei is something that may come as a surprise.  The subtitle (now that we’re functioning mostly in Mandarin rather than that opening sentence in English) says “I prefer to have other people implement my ideas”.

We then hear from one of the artists working for him, Li Zhanyang who made “Zodiac” (i wonder, is this the same as what can be seen in Nathan Philips Square…? i will have to go see…):

“I’m just his hands.” (laughing) “I’m like an assassin,  He tells me ‘Here’s some money, go kill this person.’
I wouldn’t ask him:
‘why do you want him killed?’
…That’s silly. You just get it done. We’re just hired assassins.”

A critic in the film points out that Weiwei has surpassed the role of artist, that he’s more than just an artist.

Indeed.  Weiwei became famous at the time of the Beijing Olympics, designing the birds-nest shape of the stadium, even though he would eventually make a bold repudiation of the event as a “fake-smile” to the world.  His art & his politics are usually inextricably connected & intertwined, the stadium being a singular anomaly.  Looking online one finds many explanations, but the one that works best for me is the statement he offers that at one time the stadium symbolized freedom.

That makes perfect sense to me.

Weiwei was still able to function in China because this early act of dissent was only broadcast abroad, and not in his own country.  His responses to the Sichuan earthquake, particularly the deaths of school children in shoddily built schools, were another matter entirely, on his blog and on film.  With the help of many volunteers he documented the names & birthdays of children killed in such schools.

In shedding light on the lies told by the government he ripped the cover off their fakery, the false pretense of modernisation and openness that had at one time led people to be optimistic about China.  Having used his blog as a medium for dissent on the first anniversary of the disaster, the authorities shut down his blog, and put surveillance cameras in his studio.

With blogging denied to him Weiwei turned to Twitter.

No wonder that he was arrested.  The official charge was tax evasion, although no one doubts that taxes were simply being used as a tactical form of harassment.

Some of the film goes into the past.

We see his father, poet Al Qing, who had been something of a critic, even though he’d been a loyal communist.  And we hear of the brutal treatment he received for the crime of being an intellectual, an artist.  For at least seventeen years (I’ve seen higher numbers in other reports) the family was exiled, roughly when Ai was just a one year old baby.  This experience only served to harden him, not unlike Nelson Mandela’s incarceration.

We watch segments from Weiwei’s own films, responding to events surrounding the earthquake.  After having been lulled by the illusory friendliness of China, I am still jolted by the thuggery on display, a flashback to Soviet-styled repression and police brutality.

It’s not so much about his stature as an artist, so much as his stature as a human being.  Any art he creates gains weight from the gravitas of his positions in opposition to the Communists.  I want to hear what he has to say, and I believe I’m not the only one.

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Cinema, video & DVDs, Politics, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Tickets for Ai Weiwei and David Bowie at the AGO

Posted on July 24, 2013 by barczablog

“Press releases and announcements” are presented verbatim without comment.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JULY 24, 2013
Tickets for Ai Weiwei: According to What? at the AGO go on sale Saturday, July 27

First block of tickets for David Bowie is to be released in special combo package on same day

TORONTO—Heralded as the “the most powerful figure in contemporary art today” by ArtReview, Ai Weiwei makes his Toronto exhibition debut at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) on Aug. 17, 2013. Comprising more than 40 large scale works of art including sculptures, photographs and video and audio installations, Ai Weiwei: According to What? blends the artist’s activism with traditional Chinese materials and symbols to present a compelling vision of his everyday world and his ongoing fight for freedom of expression in the face of Chinese government censorship. Tickets for the exhibition, which runs to Oct. 27, 2013, go on sale on July 27, 2013.

Timed-entry tickets for Ai Weiwei: According to What? are $16.50 for youth ages 17 and under, $21.50 for seniors and $25 for adults. Admission is FREE for AGO members and for children ages five and under.

Also, beginning on July 27 ticket buyers will be offered a special opportunity to upgrade to a combo package that includes early access to the first block of tickets for the highly anticipated exhibition David Bowie is, which starts its world tour at the AGO on Sept. 25, 2013 after finishing a successful run at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Combo tickets—which offer timed-entry access to any time slot for Ai Weiwei: According to What? and the first month of David Bowie is—are $31.50 for youth ages 17 and under, $36.50 for seniors and $40 for adults.

Single tickets for Ai Weiwei: According to What? and combo tickets can be booked in person, by phone at (416) 979-6655 or online by visiting ago.net/aiweiwei. Single tickets for David Bowie is go on sale on Aug. 23, but early purchase via the combo package is encouraged as quantities are limited for high-demand time slots. AGO members can book single tickets for David Bowie is on July 27, 2013. For more information on becoming an AGO member, please visit ago.net/membership.

Ai Weiwei: According to What? is curated by Mami Kataoka, the chief curator of the Mori Art Museum (MAM) in Tokyo. A specialist in Asian contemporary art, Kataoka first presented this exhibition in Toyko in 2009. “Ai Weiwei is best known as a dissident artist whose works give insight to not only his political criticisms but also his fierce commitment to Chinese traditional culture,” said Kataoka. “His art transcends borders and compels viewers to examine issues of fundamental human conditions, values and freedoms.”

The installation of the exhibition will be overseen by Kitty Scott, the AGO’s curator of modern and contermporary art. “As the only Canadian stop on a hugely successful North American tour, the AGO’s presentation of Ai Weiwei: According to What? offers a rare opportunity for Canadians and visitors to be transfixed and transformed by the exceptional talents of one of the most prolific and provocative contemporary artists in the world,” said Scott. “Toronto is the perfect destination for this exhibition; the positive reception of Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads in Nathan Phillips Square has shown that our city is eager to experience more of Ai Weiwei’s groundbreaking art.”

Ai, who is under constant surveillance at his home in Beijing, has been unable to leave China since the government confiscated his passport in 2011. As a political activist and champion of freedom of expression, Ai has been publicly critical of the Chinese government’s reported human rights violations.

Chronicling his work from the mid-1990s to the present, Ai Weiwei: According to What? presents works that are in turns solemn, contemplative, humourous and witty.

The exhibition at the AGO follows a successful run at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. and at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. After its run at the AGO, Ai Weiwei: According to What? will be presented at Miami’s Pérez Art Museum and the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

As part of the City of Toronto’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, a new edition of Ai’s Forever Bicycles (2013) sculpture will be installed at Nathan Phillips Square as part of this year’s celebrations on Oct. 5, 2013. This complex and abstract sculpture, consisting of 3,144 bicycles, is curated by Ami Barak. Further details will be announced by the City of Toronto later this summer.

AGO extends invitation to Chinese-speaking community members
The AGO is undertaking several initiatives this summer to draw attention to Ai’s ongoing campaign for greater freedom of expression within China. Working with Toronto artist Gein Wong, the Gallery invites members of the GTA who speak a Chinese dialect to participate in Say Their Names, Remember, a live reading of the names of the thousands of schoolchildren who perished in the devastating earthquake in China’s Sichuan province on May 12, 2008. This initiative was inspired by Ai’s powerful artworks Remembrance (2010) and Names of the Student Earthquake Victims Found by the Citizens’ Investigation (2008-11). Those who wish to participate in a reading of the names on Aug. 18, 2013, can register at www.ago.net/aiweiwei-names.

**

ABOUT AI WEIWEI
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957, Beijing) has been the recipient of numerous grants, honours and awards, most recently in 2012 the inaugural Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent of the Human Rights Foundation; the International Center of Photography Cornell Capa Award; an honourary fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects; an Honourary Degree from Pratt Institute; and a foreign membership in the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. Other honours over the past five years include a Chinese Contemporary Art Award for Lifetime Achievement; an International Architecture Award for Tsai Residence; Das Glas der Vernunft (The Prism of Reason), Kassel Citizen Award; The Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation Award for Courage; the Skowhegan Medal for Multidisciplinary Art; Wallpaper Design Award Best New Private House for Tsai Residence; and a Wall Street Journal Innovators Award (Art). Ai Weiwei is consistently included in top artist and human rights lists, including GQ Men of the Year in 2009 (Germany); the ArtReview Power 100, rank 43 in 2009; the ArtReview Power 100, rank 13 in 2010; the ArtReview Power 100, rank one in 2011; Foreign Policy Top Global Thinkers of 2011, rank 18; and runner up in Time’s Person of the Year in 2011. Ai Weiwei helped establish Beijing East Village in 1993, co-founded the China Art Archives & Warehouse in 1997 and founded the architecture studio FAKE Design in 2003. He studied at the Beijing Film Academy, Parsons School of Design and Art Students League of New York; upon returning to China he collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Ai Weiwei: According to What? was organized by the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo and the Art Gallery of Ontario. It is curated by the Mori Art Museum’s chief curator, Mami Kataoka.

Leadership gifts in support of the exhibition from Emmanuelle Gattuso and Allan Slaight and the Hal Jackman Foundation. Additional generous support from The Delaney Family Foundation; Donner Canadian Foundation; Partners in Art; and Francis and Eleanor Shen.

Assistance from media partner The Globe and Mail. Contemporary programming at the AGO is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

The installation of Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads was made possible in part by AW Asia, New York.

ABOUT DAVID BOWIE IS
This fall the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) offers North America its first chance to take an exciting odyssey through the world of pioneering artist David Bowie—musician, performer and style icon—in the acclaimed exhibition David Bowie is, direct from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (V&A). Spanning five decades and featuring more than 300 objects from the David Bowie Archive, the multi-media show exposes the groundbreaking artist’s collaborations in the fields of fashion, sound, theatre, art and film. David Bowie is opens on Sept. 25, 2013, and runs to Nov. 27, 2013, giving Toronto two full months to experience it. The AGO is the exhibition’s first stop on its world tour. Acclaimed by the New York Times as “united in sound and vision in a way rarely seen in a museum,” David Bowie is marks the first international exhibition devoted to the British-born musician and performer (born David Robert Jones in 1947), who has sold more than 140 million albums throughout his genre-defying career. Organized thematically, the show immerses visitors in a spectacular and interactive trip through Bowie’s numerous personae and legendary performances, with particular attention paid to his artistic influences. His experiments with surrealism, German expressionism, music hall, mime and Japanese kabuki performance are all explored in an explosion of colour, light and sound.

David Bowie is was organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. www.vam.ac.uk

Sound experience by Sennheiser.

Leadership gifts in support of the exhibition from Emmanuelle Gattuso and Allan Slaight; Maxine Granovsky Gluskin and Ira Gluskin; and Robert and Cheryl McEwen.

Assistance from government partner: Government of Ontario.

ABOUT THE AGO
With a collection of more than 80,000 works of art, the Art Gallery of Ontario is among the most distinguished art museums in North America. From the vast body of Group of Seven and signature Canadian works to the African art gallery, from the cutting-edge contemporary art to Peter Paul Rubens’ masterpiece The Massacre of The Innocents, the AGO offers an incredible art experience with each visit. In 2002 Kenneth Thomson’s generous gift of 2,000 remarkable works of Canadian and European art inspired Transformation AGO, an innovative architectural expansion by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry that in 2008 resulted in one of the most critically acclaimed architectural achievements in North America. Highlights include Galleria Italia, a gleaming showcase of wood and glass running the length of an entire city block, and the often-photographed spiral staircase, beckoning visitors to explore. The AGO has an active membership program offering great value, and the AGO’s Weston Family Learning Centre offers engaging art and creative programs for children, families, youth and adults. Visit ago.net to find out more about upcoming special exhibitions, to learn about eating and shopping at the AGO, to register for programs and to buy tickets or memberships.

Aug. 17, 2013 – Oct. 27, 2013: Ai Weiwei: According to What?

Sept. 25, 2013 – Nov. 27, 2013: David Bowie is

Nov. 30, 2013 – March 2, 2014: The Great Upheaval: Modern Masterpieces from the Guggenheim Collection

Contemporary programming at the AGO is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

The Art Gallery of Ontario is funded in part by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Additional operating support is received from the City of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts and generous contributions from AGO members, donors and private-sector partners.

Posted in Press Releases and Announcements | 2 Comments

Cat music

Posted on July 23, 2013 by barczablog

I’ve written about cats before in this space.  At one time there were two cats in my house, Tara & Scarlett.  They had been born feral but rescued, fixed and raised for years in our home.

Then one day Tara somehow ran through an open door.  I had hoped to see her again when I wrote about her leaving, first in context with the hopeful season of Advent, and then in trying to make sense of her life.  But I’ve given up on any hope of seeing her again.

And two became one.  Scarlett was our sole feline for the years since, contented, chubby, well-fed and yes, actually becoming enormous.  And she got sick, so that she had to be euthanized today.

As I drove home today, having heard the doctor’s verdict through the phone & knowing of the inevitable trip to the vet,  I was listening to Gabriel Fauré, who is already on my mind as one of the composers in Toronto Summer Music (for instance, the concert from last week).

This CD begins with Masques et Bergamasques, a favourite that alway reminds me of Domenico Pietropaolo, a scholar who has written & taught extensively about Commedia dell’Arte, and who had spoken so eloquently Saturday at Luella Massey’s funeral.  I was thinking of Domenico & what he might have said about the Belle Époque, their (mis-) understandings and misconceptions of CdA.  Verlaine’s fêtes galantes inspired both Debussy & Fauré.

And then serendipity brought me to of all things Fauré’s Dolly Suite, the Belle Époque’s answer to Cats.  How appropriate! Yet it was my own good luck, nothing more, that brought me to those tracks on the CD.  Speaking of what was shared by both Fauré and Debussy –such as Pelléas et Mélisande, or poems of Verlaine—their greatest love in common was, not surprisingly, a woman.  Emma Bardac was Fauré’s mistress before she found her way to Debussy’s side, and furnishes the curious answer to a nerdy trivia question.

“Can you name the woman who was lover of two different composers, each writing brilliant music dedicated to one of her daughters?”

And the compositions?

Before Bardac’s little Chou-Chou inspired the Children’s Corner suite by Debussy, her Dolly (the nickname of her girl) inspired several remarkable pieces from Fauré: the compositions now known as the Dolly suite.  Dolly is the little girl, while the feline association is perhaps a small part of this suite.  That didn’t stop me (perhaps erroneously, from the assumptions made skimming record jackets) from projecting & associating the whole thing with cats, when the feline is only a small part of Dolly suite.  No matter.

Partial as I am to Debussy, Fauré’s Dolly is just a little more sympathetic to the mind of the child, a little more universal, and a little less obstinately brilliant than Children’s Corner.  Debussy, who never suffers fools gladly, is not inclusive.

And so, as I drove along thinking of my cat’s imminent demise, I had the good luck to stumble upon Fauré’s invocations of feline cuteness.

If what I saw in Wikipedia is accurate (where the sequence of these compositions corresponds to chronology, as Dolly grows & matures), there is a subtext to the suite in the growing maturity of the child.  Fauré employs a technique I also saw in his Masques et Bergamasques (mentioned above), where a suite begins in innocence leading to a more complex ending suggesting the passage of time, growing sophistication & the nostalgia of mature retrospection. I’ll speak in detail of the Masques et Bergamasques–a suite i love dearly– another time.

Dolly suite has six movements, each of which appeared in a different year.

  • Berceuse is a cradle song, the most innocent piece in the suite (NB a suite originally for four-hands piano, but later orchestrated)
  • Mi-a-ou seems like a playful invocation of a cat, full of energy, syncopated and a bit unpredictable.
  • Le jardin de Dolly (OR Dolly’s garden) is a stunning piece, full of simplicity but also nostalgia & sentiment (presented here in an orchestrated version) 
  • Kitty-valse is another clever piece, transparent & shimmering with energy.  I may be projecting “cat” into this piece if –as some suggest—the music has more to do with Bardac’s pet dog than any cat.  It won’t stop me from enjoying the associations i’ve made with the music (presented here in a computerized version).
  • Tendresse is a glimpse of something more adult & sophisticated, complex & poignant. 
  • Le pas espagnol is an extroverted conclusion to the suite, after the introspection & vulnerability of the previous piece, perhaps a tonic to too much sentiment & too many tears. I can’t help remembering Nietzsche’s comments about Carmen as a tonic to too much Wagner. 

catsLater, I held my cat while she was injected.  I think she looked me in the eye in her last moments, although it’s really hard to know.

I’m keeping her ashes.

Posted in Animals, domestic & wild, Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The Geneology of Minimalism

Posted on July 21, 2013 by barczablog

A one word headline might be more minimalistic than this pretentious sounding title.  A friend cited Nietzsche’s Geneology of Morals, and it stayed in my head like a verbal ear-worm I suppose.  Or I could have emulated Darwin, to call it The Descent of Minimalism but I don’t want to sound positivistic. This is speculation, not science.

I’m writing about a movement in music of the past century or so in anticipation of a concert at Toronto Summer Music.  In his recent interview Douglas McNabney said

I am particularly proud that we were able to manage to produce the concert with Katia and Marielle Labèque on August 1st entitled The Minimalist Dream House project.

Katia et Marielle Labèque (photo by Brigitte Lacombe): click on photo and then click “The Labèques’ Minimalist Dream House” for more information

Given that TSM’s program centres on “La Belle Époque” some may not see the connection.  Indeed, I was disappointed to see a reviewer who couldn’t see why Rachmaninoff’s 1893 Trio élégiaque should have been programmed even though its use of parallel harmonies & modulations resembled something a young Debussy might have written.  I see McNabney’s programming as creative and imaginative, but as with any art, we only get out what we put in. So perhaps in fear of that sort of negativity, and recalling the brutal literal-mindedness of some critics I want to offer my imaginative services, to attempt to help make the connection vis a vis La Belle Époque and minimalism.  The ambitious link McNabney and the Labèques are putting forward is the most exciting idea I’ve seen in a long time.  Would we call this “speculative programming”, wherein a hypothesis is put forward in music? What a lovely concept, whatever you think of the hypothesis.

I don’t pretend to know what the Labèques are actually playing.  I will simply make some connections, hoping they’re helpful.  I think it’s a very good hypothesis –connecting La Belle Époque and minimalism—and an idea whose time has come.

Let me simply put forward a series of compositions, as if to suggest a family relationship –as per the title—between composers & their ideas.

ONE: Erik Satie is not in my opinion a minimalist.  One might think of his quietly meditative piano music –such as his “Gymnopédies”—as prototypes for what came after.  I won’t quarrel with that.  I’d be more inclined to look at an obscure composition of his, a massive piece intended for an occult celebration, called Le Fils des Étoiles, or “the Son of the Stars”.  There are two aspects to this music that seem germane to minimalism:
1) Satie is known to have had metaphysical interests.  The spiritual aspect of
music is one I shall speak to later in this discussion, but please file that away in your mind.
2) Satie creates harmonic effects with no requirement of resolution, tonal ambiguities that are very advanced for 1891.  While Debussy would do much more with this concept, Satie was doing it first, and likely influenced Debussy (who was one of his best friends). At many points in this composition, the effect of the music is completely in the moment.

TWO: Claude Debussy is really where it begins in my opinion.  Debussy had heard gamelan music at the great Parisian exposition, music that would show him the same sort of thing his friend Satie was attempting, only better: music without any requirement of resolution or harmonic progression, music in the moment.

The two compositions that seem most pertinent to minimalism –and which sound very minimalistic in places—are the first two of his orchestral Nocturnes.  “Nuages” (clouds) is largely a series of patterns in eighth notes without any real melodic material; but it’s not Philip Glass, it’s Debussy.    This is such daring writing because there’s so little there, and yes, a fabulous invocation of its subject matter.

The next in the series, “Fêtes”, is as vibrant and energetic as “Nuages” is languid and, well, cloudy.   “Fêtes” may seem like an odd one to invoke as minimalist music.  There’s lots there.  But then again, what actually did Debussy give us? Mostly it’s energetic eighth notes, often as though it were accompaniment without any melody, resembling an abstract or even a Jackson Pollock.  If we’re to think of painting and figure-ground relationships, both of these nocturnes are all background-landscape with nothing in the foreground.

THREE: Bernard Herrmann? I mention him next, leaping ahead several decades because of his affinity –and let’s face it, imitation—of important composers. I love this guy, but his film scores are full of clear borrowings.  Herrmann’s not stealing, though, but being inter-textual: because his borrowings are referential and meaningful.  For example, when –after the opening credits—Herrmann paints the skyscape in Psycho he does so using something so similar to “Nuages” as to be a clear reference.  It’s not a happy place, as we’re to discover, a place of frustration, so the harmonies are skewed, as though the clouds were dripping with unhappiness & sexual frustration.

I wrote about Herrmann & Psycho before in detail.

But I can’t help hearing echoes of the second nocturne in Herrmann as well.  Think of all that energy, then listen to the opening credit music for North By Northwest. 

FOUR: After zipping from Debussy (late in the 1890s) to Herrmann (c. 1960) I’d like to backtrack a bit to pick up some Canadian content.  I wrote a bit about Colin McPhee, who’s recorded by Esprit Orchestra,  an under-rated composer whose influence is perhaps not as large as it could be.  But the Labèques have McPhee’s photo on their website promoting “The Minimalist Dream House project”; he’s the one in front of a British flag.  McPhee emulates some of those sounds Debussy heard in the 1890s, a bit of a throwback, but still worthy of mention.   Listening to that I already want to call it minimalism! …but he comes before anyone was using the word.

FIVE: Okay, since we reached 1960 with Herrmann, let’s jump another 20+ years to one of my favourite minimalist compositions, from Akhnaten by Philip Glass.

SIX: And now let’s incorporate another aspect of minimalism.  We’re thinking of music that isn’t driven to resolve –like Glass or McPhee or Herrmann or indeed, Debussy & Satie—but also that is reverent and even spiritual.  Recall the metaphysical aspect that Satie invoked.  If you go to a massage or aromatherapy session, the music you hear, invoking the “new age” is normally minimalist music.  It’s ambient, tranquil, and allows you to meditate readily.  What it does not do is insist that you decode its complexities.

Here’s a lovely example from Brian Eno, his Music for Airports.

I leave it to you to make conclusions & connections.  What minimalism does is leave space for the mind to create meanings & associations. In film scores composers such as Herrmann recognized that the older style scores –thinking of Steiner & Korngold for example—were full of thematic material that competed with the film.  From the beginning, Herrmann gets out of the way, as you can hear in his moody score for Citizen Kane.

Less is more.

Posted in Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Under the radar

Posted on July 20, 2013 by barczablog

At Luella Massey’s funeral service today, Professor Domenico Pietropaolo spoke of a dream near & dear to both of their hearts.

Pietropaolo is a former Director of the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, and is now Principal of St Michael’s College at the University of Toronto.

Massey & Pietropaolo had hoped to create an archive of the prompt books (click here for more about the prompt book) for all the shows created at the Centre in the almost 40 years of its existence: a time when Massey had saved prompt books for countless shows presented at the Centre.  Pietropaolo reminded us in his eulogy that prompt books are an important resource for scholars, even though they don’t get the same kind of respect as the printed texts.

Are prompt books the Rodney Dangerfield of theatre scholarship?

Perhaps at one time, but the times they are a-changin’.  When I first took a course at the Drama Centre, the discipline was almost exclusively focused on drama in books.  As I understood it, Ryerson had the theatre school –where you went if you wanted to work as an actor or theatre practitioner—whereas students at the Drama Centre understood their school (which also had an active theatre) as a place to study the nature of drama & its theories.  Pardon me if i oversimplify, because even then the focus had begun to change, in the world at large and at the Centre.  At one time they didn’t want to allow opera or ballet to be included within the framework of “drama” which i suppose was understood as Shakespeare or Moliere, but not Wagner or Stravinsky; but i said “at one time”, because of course the boundaries are all changing. Drama & theatre & performance aren’t even limited merely to the stage anymore.

And decades later, they’ve changed the name of the place.  It’s now Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, a shift away from a pure emphasis upon drama on the printed page. One still studies the theories, but they’re including Theatre & Performance Studies in recognition that it’s not just the book, and never was, come to think of it. A play-script is only a beginning, especially from those centuries when we had little or no secondary text to tell us what else to put on the stage besides the personages & their words.

The prompt book is really a sum of all the many details that go into a performance, not just the lines of the actors.  While the words coming out of the mouths of the stars have garnered the lion’s share of attention, there’s so much more to it than that. That’s really what I was thinking when I spoke of what’s “under the radar”, because stage managers and technical staff in the wings & backstage don’t get the kind of attention actors & playwrights receive.

Thank goodness for media such as video & film, where the scholar now has the ability to study the complete work.  The disparity between a screenplay and a film is so huge –especially from my perspective as a composer & musician, just to speak of one of the many disciplines comprising the finished work—one can’t mistake the screenplay for the film.  A video or film of a live theatre performance contains different information than a prompt book, of course, but in each case they point to the many dimensions of a performance that aren’t in the original text.

A prompt book comprised of playtext and the many marginal notes from stage management –blocking, sounds cues, lighting cues, and more—is an unwieldy thing as far as archiving is concerned.  They can be big heavy things to lift.  For most of history they’ve been analog documents, although I am intrigued at the prospect of increasing digitalization.  I would assume that in the realm of musical theatre for example, where MIDI rules, that the notation & recording of information for stage management has progressed far beyond the realm of penciled notes on a script, that the prompt book isn’t just on paper anymore.  With the ongoing convergence of digital media, this too should be expected, first on laptops and then maybe on smart-phones (and whatever comes after these ubiquitous devices). As with so many of the topics I write about in this space, I have to confess I am not up on what’s newest in the practice of the discipline. But I would think that—as everything becomes more and more digital, and therefore inter-connected –digital prompt books will become more and more accessible, and therefore be a more central part of scholarship & research.

Hm, as a kind of final thought I googled “digital prompt book” and saw some intriguing things come up.  Not everyone is digital yet, but I would assume –given the advantages—that this is where it must be going.

I only wish I could have asked Luella about it. I’m sure her opinions & comments would have been entertaining.

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Personal ruminations & essays, University life | 2 Comments

10 Questions for Melissa Hood

Posted on July 20, 2013 by barczablog

Melissa Hood isn’t gun shy, even if she’s at the heart of “gun shy theatre”, the team responsible for Stop Kiss, one of the best shows at the Fringe Festival in 2013 held over next week as part of Best of Fringe.

Hood is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Actors Conservatory and co-creator of the Pangnirtung Youth Performance Project in the Eastern Canadian Arctic.  Stage work includes the one-woman show Jewel by Joan MacLeod.  Film and TV credits include:  Murdoch Mysteries, The Listener, Alphas, the award-winning web series My Pal Satan, and the feature film The Fishing Trip (TIFF).

Upcoming:  Melissa plays ‘Caprice’ in Shaftesbury’s romantic comedy feature Dirty Singles.

Melissa Hood as Callie in Stop Kiss by Diana Son. Photo by Shaun Benson.

On the occasion of Stop Kiss in Best of Fringe, I ask Melissa Hood ten questions: five about her, and five more about her work in Stop Kiss.

1) Are you more like your father or your mother?

That’s a tough one – I’m a physical composite of both of my parents and the spitting image of my grandmother on my mother’s side.  We’re a tall bony lot with old-fashioned features.  As for personality, I’m definitely the wildcard of the family and really can’t say where I got the artist gene.  We all agree it must have skipped a generation, or ten.  I’m quite different than my parents, but have been told by friends of the family that I betray myself on-stage, revealing recognizable mannerisms of both. I would say I’m more like my dad in terms of temperament, but I have my mother’s sensitivity to others and to details. My mother says I have picked up questionable habits from both sides!

2) What is the best thing or worst thing about being an actor?

The best thing about being an actor is getting to work on a new character.  Every job is a new challenge so there’s always new territory to explore and reveal.  I recently had the opportunity to work on Shaftsbury’s new romantic comedy feature film “Dirty Singles.”  It was great because I got to play a character – Caprice Van Wicken – who is more fierce and complex than your average female character.  When I first read the script, I got really excited to play this immaculately dressed, quick-witted and ballsy female character, who is essentially “the player of all players.” It’s fun to play powerful women and to find their vulnerability.  In the film, Caprice is a lawyer who gets what she wants most of the time, but rarely risks breaking her heart.  She’s a dangerous and feisty character, but underneath the cool exterior she has a heart of gold and is looking for love like everyone else. This film should be coming out soon.  I will keep you posted.

3) Who do you like to listen to or watch?

Tatiana Maslany of Orphan Black (photo: Steve Wilkie for BBC AMERICA)

Right now I’m catching up on BBC America’s “Orphan Black.”  I studied in LA with Tatiana Maslany a couple years ago and am just blown away by this show and her work.  It’s a dream role and she is doing such excellent work.  It’s inspiring and encouraging to see Canadian actors getting major opportunities in film and television.  There’s a lot of unknown talent here in Toronto. I’m so happy when I see hard-working actors getting the opportunities they deserve.

4) What ability or skill do you wish you had, that you don’t have?

I wish I were a more proficient musician.  I’ve always played a little guitar and love singing, but envy those who can pick up a fiddle, a mandolin, or any instrument and create music on the spot.  It’s such a beautiful form of communication, a true practice of being in the moment.  I often catch myself quietly bearing witness to musicians and secretly wish I could join in the conversation.

But as they say, it’s never too late to learn.

5) When you’re just relaxing and not working what is your favourite thing to do?

Go out on the land.  I spent many summers working with Inuit on Baffin Island in Nunavut and have a lot of experience in the “bush.”  My favourite thing to do is jump in a lake, hike on the tundra, or go boating out on the Cumberland Sound.

Well, that or a trip to New York City.  I’m equal parts city-girl.  I love going to NYC to catch the latest piece of theatre.  Last year I saw “Jerusalem” with Mark Rylance (a personal hero of mine) and “Death of a Salesman” with Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Not bad, if you like amazing theatre.

~~~~~~~

Five More Questions concerning participation in Stop Kiss:

1) How does playing a part like Callie challenge you?

The role of Callie challenged me in a number of ways.  Technically, she goes back and forth in time throughout the play, so there is a need to understand her arc and emotional growth throughout the show.  At first, I remember thinking I should play Sara, I’m a lot like Sara.  But the more I explored the play, the more I realized what a great challenge it would be for me to find myself in Callie. To me, Callie is someone who has it all together on the outside, but who is afraid of taking risks.  Although she may seem like it at the top of the show, I don’t think she’s a shallow person at all.  I think she’s someone who has been hurt in the past and has learned to fill her life with distractions in order to keep herself safe and secure.

Throughout the play Sara challenges Callie to confront her own patterns of avoidance and fight for what she wants in life.  I can identity with this as an actor who is fighting to have the career that I want and who has had to face a lot of fears in order to get to where I am now.

Some people have asked me about playing a character that discovers her sexual identity.  For me, the play is not so much about sexuality as it is about personal identity and empowerment. For me, there’s nothing challenging or different about playing a lesbian vs. a straight character. The play itself resists labels and boxes.  What it demands, is that the actors bring and reveal what they know about falling in love.  In the process of falling in love, my character has to confront her own internalized homophobia at times and fight to validate her own experience of love outside the box of how other people choose to identify her. And it’s a beautiful thing in the play, and in life I think, when we discover that we are the only ones who can validate our own relationships and our own experiences.

Kate Ziegler (left) and Melissa Hood (right) as Sara and Callie in Stop Kiss by Diana Son. Photo by Shaun Benson

2) What do you love about the play?

The writing.  Diana Son has created these two believable female characters.  She has written them in a way that is both natural and specific but also leaves their interpretation open to any given actor.  I can imagine a lot of different women playing these roles and bringing unique qualities to them. Callie and Sara’s relationship is central to the piece and it has been a joy to explore the relationship and find that chemistry that seems to be resonating with our audience.  I can count myself lucky to have found Kate Ziegler to play Sara because she’s a truly gifted actress and we had a great experience working on these characters together with our director, Shaun Benson.

Diana Son also does a beautiful job of balancing drama and comedy.

It wasn’t until we got in front of an audience that I realized how many funny moments are so nicely woven into a play that also deals with very intense dramatic material.  Some of my favourite moments happen early on between Sara and Callie as they are getting to know each other and realize they have great chemistry.  There’s a wonderful initial bonding moment when Sara says that she hates jazz and the sound of saxophones.  It’s this lovely moment when the two women realize they have something specific and unexpected in common and that they share the same sense of humour. Diana really does all the characters a great service by writing such detailed and believable dialogue.

3) Do you have a favourite moment?

My favourite moment (spoiler alert) is when Callie says “Lately I feel like there’s something…worth…winning.”  It’s a turning point for her and the moment in the play when she stands up for herself and stops “swerving” or avoiding confrontation.  It’s a moment that I can personally identify with as an actor.  The moment you decide to be ambitious and really go for what you want.  Produce a play.  Open your heart.  Risk failure.  That kind of stuff.

Director Shaun Benson

We were really lucky to work on a rehearsal process with Shaun that allowed for new moments to happen each night.  Shaun didn’t want our performances to feel bound by blocking.  I think as a cast we have really enjoyed knowing that each show will be a little different and that new moments will be created each night depending on how we are playing off of one another in the moment.

4) How do you relate to Stop Kiss as a modern woman?

To me, Stop Kiss is a kind of modern love story that de-categorizes love while also bringing out universal and relate-able themes about identity, commitment, courage and risk.
As both a producer and actor, the experience of doing this particular play has been empowering for a lot of reasons.  While I was at the Canadian Film Centre in 2012, I had the opportunity to study with Larry Moss, a teacher who challenged me to commit to myself and take more chances.  When I put my name in the Fringe lottery, I knew I was challenging myself to put something out there and from the moment my name was drawn to the moment we opened, I have been on a learning curve and have had to make a lot of decisions. The first thing I had to choose was a company name. I chose gun shy theatre because it suited my feelings at the time about doing theatre again.  Choosing the right play was the next really important thing.  I wanted to find a great script, 90 minutes or less, that had never been staged in Toronto.  And ideally, a great script with great roles for women.
When we first read Stop Kiss it resonated with me on a lot of different levels.  It’s a very special play with great female roles.  I also soon discovered there are a lot of parallels between Callie’s journey and my own experience of producing the play.  I think the overall experience has been so rewarding because I got to assemble a wonderful team of people to help produce and make it happen and because the audience related to the story just like we did.

5) Is there a teacher, actor, director or an influence that you especially admire?

Director Jeff Nichols.  I’m in love with his last two films, “Mud” and “Take Shelter.”  They are the kind of movies that I’ve always wanted to act in.  I think he’s a masterful storyteller.  He sets his films so beautifully within a given landscape.  They feel like recognizable genre films at first, but they delve into very deep universal themes.  Jeff also manages to get these powerful natural performances out of his actors.  He is definitely on the top of my wish list of directors to work with.

~~~~~~~

Stop Kiss is presented July 26, 28 & 30th as part of Best of Fringe at the Studio Theatre in the Toronto Centre for the Arts.  Click for tickets.

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The Misanthrope

Posted on July 19, 2013 by barczablog

One of the great joys of classical theatre is to be able to revisit works that one knows: or thinks that one knows.  A good play always has something new to show you.

Case in point tonight, seeing the opening of Guild Festival Theatre’s production of Molière’s The Misanthrope.

This is the third season for GFT under the leadership of Sten Eirik, an astute Artistic Director.  They began with Chekhov in 2011, followed by Aristophanes in 2012 and now? Molière. In a time of fiscal restraint, the company seems to be growing, helped by partnerships with the community & supportive politicians.

It’s a pleasure seeing how Eirik uses the outdoor amphitheatre space to advantage, a space of wonderful classical resonances due to its stunning stone backdrop salvaged from an old Toronto bank.  Many moments were simply perfect due to the magical setting.  At one point we watch two lovers playing hide and seek in a semi-lit playing area, illuminated by the moon above, serenaded by cicadas and bird-song. We’d begun near sunset, watching in twilight and finally darkness in this unique location. Eirik’s understanding of the Molière was very clearly delineated in this reading.  We began with a very slow, even pompous encounter between Alceste (Bruce Beaton) & Philinte (Rick Persich).  The character types are self-consistent, as we shall see, and therein lies the wonderful tension that energizes the work and this production, in the meeting of these extremes..

Oronte (Ryan Egan) arrives, one of the most delicious fops I’ve seen in awhile, and as far away from Beaton’s seriousness as you can get.  I would have burst out laughing in Beaton’s place, but he was always gravely deadpan in the face of Egan’s pretentious poses & faces.

Wonderful as Beaton & especially Egan (who had me roaring throughout) were, the two female leads were as good or better.  The scene between Célimène (Sochi Fried) and Arsinoe (Tina Sterling) was hair-raising, and considering this was opening night, wonderfully precise in the timing of their exchanges.  Fried & Sterling seemed most comfortable with the language –a witty translation in couplets by Richard Wilbur— in their deliciously acid exchanges.

The additional delightfully attired foppery supplied by Clitandre (Andrew Pimento) & Acaste (John Chou) pushed us happily into several moments of wild laughter.  The other somewhat serious person present, Célimène’s cousin Eliante (Leslie DosRemedios) had several beautiful moments, so much so that one might have wished her part were larger.

Guild Festival Theatre’s production of The Misanthrope continues until August 11th.

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments