Marvelous Productions
Every now and then I run across a production that I consider either very well done, marvelous in presentation, or thought provoking. Many of these are on DVD. Some are film. Some were on stages, not to be seen again. Below are a few of those. Omission from this says nothing about my opinion of any production. Inclusion means I really liked it for various reasons. Sequence below is eclectic and random, meaning nothing.
Tommy by The Who
The first year Tommy was released for public performance, 1968, 4 colleges in the United States put on productions. The Kosmet Club of the University of Nebraska was one of those. The Who did not give any stage productions. The Kosmet Club did an over the top production. I have asked. There is no known recording of the production. They doubled the size of an all ready huge stage. They had two huge light shows (over 10 x 10 feet each) on stage. They had 40 plus dancers and singers. From the very start with the out of key and tone french horns (composed this way by The Who) this was a high energy, fast paced, whirlwind of sound, color, and dance.
I have also seen the stage production and the movie. The movie is by far the weakest of the three, but the most widely viewed.
The Flying Dutchman by Wagner as staged and produced by 6 opera companies including Omaha Opera.
The staging of this opera with its massive ship deck that rapidly turned back and forth into a bedroom was magnificent. I have no idea who the singers were, but there were very good. The entire production was truly first rate, made stunning by the set. I have seen other productions, a few dark, and this was the best I have seen.
The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan
Kevin Kline, Linda Ronstadt, Rex Smith and Patricia Routledge.
This is available on DVD (Kultur isbn: 0-7697-9642-7). It was recorded live at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater, 1980. This was early in Linda Ronstadt’s career. She could almost, but not quite do the operatic Mabel. Kevin Kline was hilarious as the pirate King. Rex Smith plays Frederic for all the comedy it’s worth. This a light hearted, funny production of the comedy as Gilbert and Sullivan intended it to be. Just sit back and enjoy the fun. Yes, I know, they wrote as a parody of another of their operettas as a jab at those who were not paying them royalties. But it was all tongue in cheek, and now much fun.
The Point by Harry Nilsson, narrated by Ringo Starr
(BMG 82876597109)
A delightful 74 minute cartoon feature about a little boy, Oblio, born in the Land of Point, who does not have a Point, and how he is banished with his dog, Arrow, to the “pointless forest” and finds his point. There are several songs by Harry Nilsson including “Me and My Arrow.” The cartooning is wonderfully light, reminiscence of the Beatles “Yellow Submarine” and entertaining. And yes, everyone, including round headed Oblio, has a point.
2001 by Stanley Kubick. Warner Brothers. Blue Ray – Isbn: 1-4198-5308-2.
Opening with a huge black obelisk falling to Earth in the time of our ancestors, the apes, and ending with the iconic Computer Hal, this wild ramp through evolution and species protection is marvelous for its sly wit and humor. Arthur C. Clarke co-wrote the screen play with Kubick of “Clock Work Orange” fame. There are even Turing Machines involved along the way. When I first say it in college, 1968, I thought it was just another empty movie without meaning. But I was wrong. The movie, the obelisks, and Hal made it into the top echelons of Science Fiction Imagery and are still referenced with reverence today.
There are two sequels, neither of which Kubick was involved in.
Yellow Submarine by the Beatles (isbn: 0-7928-4125-5)
This delightful, magical, delight to the eye cartoon, overflowing with wonderful Beatle songs from “Yellow Submarine” to “Nowhere Man” is one of the Beatle’s greatest productions. The forms and colors flowing in free space and motion are marvelous. The story is really not much, about a band (themselves as the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band) wandering about Pepperland after the Blue Meanies took over and overcoming the Blue Meanies (police). This is just fun with English humor and spoofs throughout.
The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht
(Kultur isbn: 0-7697-9078-X)
This is the story of prospectors for gold in California as told in Germany in the 1920’s. This is the origin of the great drinking song “O Whisky Bar.” This is the story of three losers who decide to not prospect, but to build a city housing and entertaining the prospectors. The results is this classic of fake hopes and empty dreams that break. This is not well known in the United States, but is sad, wonderful story well told in opera form. This production is from the 1998 Salzberg Festival. There are other productions available.
Romeo and Juliet a ballet from Compagnia Aterfallentto (DVD Video. Cat No. NTSC 101 399)
This an Italian interpretation, danced in Germany, of the classic star crossed lovers motif. The music is a “musical montage” based on Sergei Prokokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet.” The details of the familiar Shakespeare are not here. Right up front the notes indicate that even the entire Prokofiev ballet score is not here. But, that said, the 101 minutes are outstanding, well presented dance with 9 couples dancing the love, agony, distress, passion, and death of the star crossed lovers.
The dancing is strong, sensual, emotional. The set is minimalistic. The costumes are simple and brief. The music is well played,leading the dancers but not obscuring them. The Romeo and Juliet motif comes through clearly. The photography is exceptional and intimate and brings out the passions and emotions of the dancers.
This is a very body celebratory production. While no genitalia, buttocks or female breasts are uncovered, the rest of all 9 male and 9 female bodies are photographically explored extremely close up. This is an European production so there is not the American body phobia. Also, every mole, black head and skin blemish is right up front and exposed. Many of the men proudly bear chest and abdominal hair. All the dancers sweat and breath heavy. There are many excellent closeup of faces. Many shots are of dance technic showing a limb moving slowly. I liked the style of the photography, but do understand that many would be put off by such body celebration. Actually the intimate photography adds to the beauty, intimacy and emotions of the production, displaying the male and female human forms in sensuous wonder.
Josephs Legende A ballet by John Neumeier, Music from Richard Strauss.
(Deutsche Grammaphone 004400734315)
With amazing choreography and marvelous dancing this is the Joseph Legend from the Bible (long form) told with amazing grace and beauty. All four of the major dancers are graceful and strong in this amazing ballet. (Jamison, Haigen, Musil and Wiolhelm).
The Wiz With Diana Ross and Michael Jackson (Mo town Production isbn: 0783233493)
This is the story of Dorothy in the Land of Oz retold with moral for the Black Community. The songs are excellent and strong. The dancing is a whirlwind of color and movement. The staging is New York updated and sparkled with magic. Sit back, relax and let the magic of the Motown Oz wash over you.
Caravaggio Choreography by Mauro Bigonzetti (isbn: 978-3-941311-39-8)
This is the story of the painter Cavavaggio from the 1500’s. Many of his iconic paintings are reproduced by the dancers. His life of rowdy belligerence, nonconforming, brawling and other criminal acts is well told. I had to look up the painter, see pictures of his paintings, and read his sordid life story, but once I know what it was about, it came through well in the dancing. The lead Vladlimir Malakhov is 40 as he dances this. I would have placed him more at 22. The dancing is strong and good. The music by Bruno Moretti, based on Monteverdi, flows well. Overall with is a strong production well worth seeing if you are into ballet.
The Tempest An opera by Thomas Ades, based on the play by Shakespeare
Deutsche Grammophon BOO19028-09 (044007349328)
Thomas Ades “The Tempest” is the mystical, spirit filled, good vs evil side of Shakespeare’s Play. Nearly all of the mistaken identities and comedy are left out except for two characters who provide comic relief. The use of a soprano as one of the two men suggesting cross dressing of one of the comic relief characters is the only bow to that side of Shakespeare’s play. The opera concentrates on the interactions of Prospero, Miranda, Ferdinand, Caliban, and Ariel. The King of Naples grieves heavily and well for his supposedly lost son, Ferdinand. Sebastian comes across well as the not so popular, nor gifted, scheming second son.
The singing is superb, in an obviously very difficult score. The harmonic jumps and the strange accents both Prospero and Arial make are well done and suit their characters. It just is not easy to listen to. Miranda and Ferdinand sing several lovely love duets. Isabel Leonard as Miranda does a great job of contrasting her character to that of Simon Keenlyside, her father, Propero. Alek Schrader portrays the exceedingly handsome, ethical, popular prince very well. Alek even manages to sing well tied in a Crucifixion posture. John del Carlo as the bass Gonzalo is fantastic, and his summary aria in the last act is one of the opera’s highlights. Even the chorus gets into the acting with their surprise at being clean and well dressed after the storm, the despair and fatigue after wandering the island, and their surprise and marveling at the sudden appearance of “provisions,” an elaborately set supper, candelabras and all, worthy of any palace.
The staging and costumes are marvelous, imaginative, and clearly indicate the nature of the characters. Ferdinand in all white is every bit the hero. Caliban in a see through black outfit, and Prospero, shirtless with lots of weird tattoos, are obviously the villains. Ariel in a tight body suit of pale purple ruffles is as other worldly as possible. The island is portrayed as mystical and makes a good backdrop, used very effectively in several different ways through the opera.
The orchestra does very well, leading the singers without overpowering them. The composer, Thomas Ades, conducted. He could have been a bit more formal, but the unshaven look with a loose tshirt looking shirt under a black coat is in vogue for conductors.
The production, by Robert LePage, is very well done. Characters keep crawling out of prompting boxes and from under the raised portions of the stage. The scene of Ferdinand being pulled by his arms through the middle of the floor of the stage is very effective. The only scene I did not like was Sebastian backing off stage talking about dying. While he is feeling lost and has lost his heritage, It is not made clear to the audience what happened to him. The dvd quality is good. The camera work is good with appropriate closeups of the characters.
Overall, this is a production well worth seeing and having in one’s library of modern opera.
Sleeping Beauty: A Gothic romance– Matthew Bourne ballet
Leopold Films. 044007350645 BOO 19031-09 Deutsche Grammophon)
The entire production is luscious. The dancing is superb. The music is beautiful, and matches the dancing very well. The costumes are elaborate and heavy and decadent, not always allowing the dancers to show their art, but beautiful. The change in costumes and setting from 1891 to over a century later is very well done, even to the use of cellphones and their cameras. The heavy costumes can be forgiven as the over all effect is one of beauty and grace. The entire production is well thought out, well choreographed in a wonderful mixture of traditional ballet and modern dance.
The story is well told and comes through loud and clear, not always true in ballet. There are many nuances of the story that are explicitly brought out. e.g. Watch the uses of the bedroom window and its shutter. The lovers (David North and Hannah Vassallo) are wonderful with each other. Adam Maskell as both Carabosse, the dark fairy and her son Caradoc is wonderfully evil in both roles, and the character dies a well deserved death. The concept of the little doll for both the infant Aurora and in the surprise ending is marvelous. Count Lilac (Christopher Marney – Assistant choreographer) is well portrayed and danced in an unusual over the top, decadent fashion.
Beautiful. A new setting of an old tale. Bourne triumphs again. The production is billed as a gothic romance, and such it is, with all the trappings. Sit back and enjoy a wonderful performance.
The dvd was very good quality, with both picture and sound well reproduced.
Swan Lake – Matthew Bourne Production.
BBC Atlantic (15899-2 isbn: 7-0630-15899-22)
The famous old tale is told in a entirely new setting and choreography by Matthew Bourne. The staging is near minimal, using the old traditional sets from the British ballet company. The music is Tchaikovsky’s. The imagination is Borne’s. This is nothing like the traditional ballet done on point with lots of ladies in tutu’s. The tale is dark. The dancing darker. All the swans are male. From the opening scene, with the lead swan peering evilly in a window to the closing scene where the lead swan and the hero walk off into the darkness, we are exposed to strong dancing, wonderful music, and a strong, dark story.
The Magic Flute by Mozart – Jun Kaneko’s production at Opera Omaha and Kansas City Opera
Once again, the Omaha Opera Company has joined with other companies, this time San Francisco and Washington National and Kansas City and others to make a stunning production. Jun Kaneko is a Japanese artist, living and working in Omaha. This is his third opera production. He states he listened to nothing but the music by Mozart for three months and designed the staging around the music. The result is a magnificent near minimalist stage, but wonderful light shows that as the Omaha World Herald put it, “Mozart on acid, a visual hurdy-gurdy that veers toward a Lewis Carroll – like trip ‘Through the Looking Glass’.”
The costumes are a mixture of ancient Japan and Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.” The lights on the backdrops are ever changing patterns of color, plaids, swirls. The lyrics were updated and in English, well sung. The orchestra played well.
I liked it so much we traveled to Kansas City to see it a second time.
Agrippina by George Frederic Handel
Director: James Darrah. Conductor: Stephen Stubbs. Opera Omaha
World Premier of Production
This opera included the most bizarre, twisted, abusive sexuality I have even seen. The many sex scenes (all completely clothed) were well done and appropriate for the plot. The two female characters were constantly either seducing the men, or plotting to exploit the men.
The staging was magnificent, and full of symbolism that went from suggestive of lesbian activity to suggestion of bondage, to females actually stripping two of the men to their shorts and undershirts. Even Claudius had his jacket ripped off and his shirt opened by one of the women. The evil, greedy mechanisms of Agrippina to get her son Nero to the Throne were well displayed. The mechanisms of the harlot Poppea were very evident. The confusion of the young teenage Nero, and his growing into a determined, cruel character in his own right, killing both Claudius (probably not historically accurate) and his own mother, Agrippina (also probably not historically accurate) was very well done.
The androgynous sexual role confusion was heightened by a countertenor playing the virtuous army man, Ottono, and a female mezzo-soprano playing the teenage Nero.
The 7 characters, all of whom have major roles, were very well sung and acted. The staging was simple and very effective with the background clouds reflecting the mood on stage. The pedestal bed, on stage throughout out served numerous functions from pulpit, to stage, to hideaways, to bed. The orchestra was well led, did not overpower the singers, but led them the appropriately.
The director and Conductor have worked together before, and their synergy showed. They stated in their notes they had modified the score and libretto somewhat, even bringing in, as Handel had done, entire songs, melodies and themes from other works by Handel himself. They did not shorten the work – 210 minutes including one intermission – but claim to have focused it.
The Director gave an enthusiastic, very informative pre-talk about Handel operas, early operas in general, and the themes played out in this opera. It set the stage very well. Both the director and the conductor wrote excellent notes for the program.
I did not see where this production is scheduled for future performances, but it certainly merits being performed over and over again.
My wife and I noticed the absence of the usual student groups at the Sunday Matinee. While we are not aware of Opera Omaha discouraging them, they obviously, very correctly, did. The raw sexual power and raw visceral power of the characters rendered it even more unsuitable for teenagers than Wagner’s Salome. I salute Opera Omaha for the courage in staging this well worth while performance. The plot could easily have been drawn from the ancient Greek Tragedies.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Ballet Royal Ballet (of England)
B 094780790 OA BD7090 D Opus Arte DVD
This review is from: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)
The Royal Ballet (England) at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London has created a delightfully surreal version of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Those who are looking for a camera set steady in the balcony recording steadfastly one angle and one view as from a member of the audience’s viewpoint, will hate this. Those who love only the old Romantic Style music will be disappointed. Those with open minds for new forms, new humor, new music, new approaches, burlesque, detailed story telling through dance gestures, who want music almost as a background developing the story, will love this.
The opening scene at the home of Alice’s parents, her friends, the lower class Jack, and the photographer is delightful and has the Victorian Upper Middle Class stereotypes right on. Alice’s fall through the rabbit hole is marvelous the decor of the hole changing as she descends, and then ascends back to home. Most of the scenes of Carroll’s book are present, but the biting political satire of Carroll’s England is absent (at least for this American). The scenes are played for their humor and their human side. This is exceptionally well done.
The dancing is very good. The orchestra, while in the pit, is not upfront with lots of noise, but behind, accenting, leading, suggesting, sometimes merely a descant moving the action along. This is played very well, at times almost disappearing into the story line, but never absent. The sets are imaginative and fun. The costumes are elaborate, colorful and surreal as only English costumes can be, with clashes of style even on the same character, leading to being humorous in their own right. The White Rabbit is especially effective as an “on my” type person, standing tall and frequently looking shocked. The duchess in a heavily layered dress and a very broad face is delightful. The Queen of Hearts dances well, at times a burlesque parody of both ballet and modern dance. The effect is actually very funny. Her facial expressions are marvelously well done. Sergei Polunin, an excellent dancer, with the most traditional ballet choreographing in the production, is a likable kind of guy throughout, both as Jack and the Knave of Hearts. The Cheshire Cart in multiple pieces on poles carried by at least 10 stage hands in black, barely visible, is truly a work of art and humor. The photography is marvelous. most often near stage wide, or following a character and his/her dance, or closeup for emotional displays.
While not traditional ballet, this is a very enjoyable 120 minutes of dancing fun with frequent smiles and laughs throughout.