Unfortunately, not watching the brand-new Doctor Who Christmas Special "The Runaway Bride" straight from England (1). A few weeks ago I was directed to a website that has real-time webcasts of many television stations around the world - including both BBC1 (home of the good Doctor) and BBC2 (home of lots of arts programming and Covent Garden telecasts - the person who told me about this site was trying to get me to watch a documentary they showed on Angela Gheorghiu, which I unfortunately missed because it was on while I was at work). Unfortunately, I checked this site several days ago - and they are no longer carrying any major BBC channels, although they do have some specialized ones for weather and politics and local stuff. At least I did get last year's Christmas Special "The Christmas Invasion" on the Sci-Fi Channel and taped it, and with luck I hope to be seeing the new one this weekend at a meeting of the local fan club.
I often watch the Midnight Mass from Saint Patrick's Cathedral - mainly because they always have a soloist from the Met sing "O Holy Night" (probably the only Christmas carol I find completely irresistable - most of them I can live without unless being performed by a great singer). They've had Marcello Giordani, Ramon Vargas, Ruth Ann Swenson (she's the most common one) and Christine Goerke (2). I also admit that I've often found what Cardinal O'Connor, and now Cardinal Egan, say in their homilies is pretty interesting - I remember Egan a few years ago talking about how Joseph (and presumably Jesus), the "joiner of wood" was actually more of a construction worker than what we would think of as a carpenter , e.g someone who makes chairs and tables and shelves (3). I can't help but think of devoutly Christian Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, who uses Jesus-as-carpenter as a model for his housebuilding work. Unfortunately, I missed it this year. And I have no idea who sang "O Holy Night".
Anyway, I went to an open Jewish choral sing at the JCC, sponsored by one of my former choruses, Zamir Chorale, where we read through some choruses from Judas Maccabeus, Chichester Psalms and some Yiddish songs. Not quite one of the Avery Fisher Messiah Sing-Ins, but about 300 people showed up and we started late because extra chairs had to be set up. Although we had a fabulous boy soloist, better than many on recordings, even (I regret that I've forgotten his name), I think I'm getting sick of the Bernstein. I've already sung it twice and I'm going to sing it again in the spring. Unfortunately, it's become the "token Jewish work" for virtually every chorus. While I understand many mainstream choruses may not be familiar with the gorgeous work of Louis Lewandowski, or know that Schubert actually wrote at least one piece in Hebrew, what about the Sacred Services of Ernest Bloch and Darius Milhaud? Or excerpts from Kurt Weill's The Eternal Road, maybe the greatest "Jewish Opera" ever written? And he wrote a wonderful, jazzy setting of the Kiddush, too.
One of my standard Hanukkah rituals is to play Walter Widdop's colossal 1926 recording of "Sound an alarm" and Bryn's Terfel's "Arm, arm ye brave" every night of the holiday - this usually extends to at least the remainder of the Widdop CD (on Pearl, unfortunately out of print, especially since I lost the case and the CD itself isn't in such great condition), if not always the Terfel Handel Arias CD. To prepare for the sing-in, I bought a recording of Judas Maccabeus (McGegan: De Mey, Saffer, Spence, Thomas, Asawa). Well, at least it was cheap. I haven't heard the whole thing, but what I have heard, especially the "Sound an alarm", can best be described as WEEMPY WEEMPY WEEMPY (remember the Hefty Garbage Bag commercial?). Actually, Guy de Mey (Canadian?) has a lovely, light lyric voice and excellent coloratura, but he sounds like he's at a tea dance, not calling troops into battle. I'd cast him as Jupiter in Semele in 5 seconds flat, but not Judas. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Widdop, possibly the greatest British tenor of the 20th Century. And I wanted to buy the recording with Jan Peerce and Martina Arroyo, but it's now out of print. GRRR....
I also did the "traditional" Jewish Christmas of a movie and Chinese food. Nearly every theater in the city seemed to be sold out for the afternoon, so I went down to the Film Forum and caught a Woody Allen double bill of Play it Again, Sam (do you realize I still haven't seen all of Casablanca???) and The Purple Rose of Cairo (mixed feelings on the ending). I still want to see Dreamgirls, The Prestige, Happy Feet, and The Fountain, but the movie I'm really waiting for is Pan's Labyrinth, which has received ecstatic reviews, a 22 minute ovation at Cannes (!), a Golden Globe nomination for best Foreign Film (it's Mexico's Oscar entry, too, and I'd also be surprised, based on what little I've heard of it, if it's not up for a Best Score Oscar too - but I've never forgiven the Academy for not giving the Best Score Oscar to Star Trek - The Motion Picture in 1979), and no less than Steven King called it the greatest fantasy film since The Wizard of Oz. Very dark, violent fairytale set in post-Franco Spain - shades of Spirit of the Beehive? It must really be something, because "serious" film people tend to look down their noses at fantasy.
Weather was awful, by the way. Cold, gray, and damp. I don't think I've had a white Christmas since I was 5. Certainly not more than 3 times in my life
Oh, and I am now finally the very proud mommy of a brand spanking new DVD player - my first. My Hanukkah present to myself. Now all I actually have to do is figure out how to hook it up to my ancient TV. I think I'm going to need to hook up some extra thing (I think it's called an RF modulator) to the TV and hook the DVD player into that because I think the TV only has one output jack.
My actual DVD collection consists of: The Director's Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (also the first film I bought on VHS), The Court Jester (my all-time favorite film - I've seen it about 100 times and it still makes me laugh), Angela and Roberto's L' Elisir D'Amore, her La Traviata, and 3 of my favorite "classic" Doctor Who episodes - "The Mind Robber", "Ghost Light", and "The Curse of Fenric". Hope I can actually start watching them before New Year's, and maybe even get a Netflix subscription.
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(1) Actually, I now think of December 25th less as "Christmas" than as "Doctor Who Christmas Special Day". Massive apologies to any Christian readers :-)
(2) I was a little unhappy that Roberto Alagna, who I presume is Catholic, didn't do it the one year he was here for Christmas - 2003, right before his Met Werthers. Then again, marrying a woman who is Romanian Orthodox, and a divorcee, may have disqualified him.
(3) I've always found it very interesting that Christian (specifically Catholic) holy relics tend to be the body parts of Jesus (and the saints). Since he was a carpenter (or a construction worker), surely something he made should be holy, like a chair or a table with miraculous powers? Can anybody who is Christian/Catholic give me any idea as to why this is so?
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Recent operatic encounters at the movies
I suppose that my most recent series of "operatic encounters at the movies" began on Memorial Day, when I went to see Revenge of the Sith. As I stated in my first post, sagas like Star Wars and Star Trek and Babylon 5, with their huge scope, grand passions, and mythic depth - not to mention wonderful musical scores! - are quite rightly referred to as "space operas". More to the point for this particular post, the film actually has a scene in an opera house! Anakin Skywalker (the soon-to-be Darth Vader) meets with Chancellor Palpatine (the soon-to-be Emperor) at the Galaxies Opera House, although it seems that George Lucas is interested more in the opera house as the place where the rich and powerful gather than the state of the arts in the Republic. That might have been interesting actually - Palpatine's megalomania destroying the Republic culturally as well as politically - just like every totalitarian state that ever existed did with its arts - and unfortunately, what a few people in the US are trying to do too. It also seems to be rather common in mystery and suspense movies to have a scene in an opera or theater box to show the contrast between the quiet, sinister conspiracies and the huge, festive public space.
What Anakin and Palpatine are actually "watching" while they discuss the possibilty of eternal life, however, is not an opera - more like a huge sphere with sinuous lights moving across it. In the novelization it is described as a "Mon Calamari ballet". Interestingly enough, John Williams' score for this scene (on the soundtrack CD as "Palpatine's Teachings"), consists of choral basses singing very long notes at the bottom of their voices - a lot like some Russian choral music, but to far more sinister effect - not surprisingly considering that Palpatine is slowly but surely drawing Anakin to the dark side of the Force. Actually, I believe all three movies in the prequel trilogy have quite a bit of very good choral writing in them - it would be interesting to see if Williams could compose a full-scale choral work or even an opera. I must give the wonderful singers of London Voices and their director Terry Edwards their due.
By the way, there is a music critic in Los Angeles who I usually have a lot of respect for, Jim Svejda, who thinks Williams is a big fraud and a plagiarist - his argument is that the Star Wars main title sounds like - get this - the big fanfare at the end of Act III of Manon Lescaut! Sorry, Jim, no dice. Williams is far more thrilling and bombastic here, and I don't think they are remotely in the same key. It's no closer than many other compositions by a lot of other composers. Although I will admit that the wonderful "love theme" introduced in Attack of the Clones bears a strong resemblance to various Russian themes, namely Scheherezade and possibly the Second Polovetsian Dance from Prince Igor.
One of the central plot points of Batman Begins is that the young Bruce Wayne, ambushed by a bat colony while hiding in a well, becomes absolutely terrified of bats - which is why to face his fear, he takes on the form of a bat as an adult crimefighter. While still a child, he is taken by his parents to a production of Mefistofele, and we see the Witches Sabbath scene. When Bruce sees the black-clad demons in this scene descending from the flies on ropes, he instantly sees them as bats. Unlike what some people on Opera-L have said, this is not a "regietheater" production that actually presents the demons as bats (actually, that's not a bad idea), but a "traditional" production that just hits Bruce where it happens to hurt most. It's as if I were to see a person costumed in black with a lot of fringes as a tarantula. Bruce recoils in terror and he and his parents leave, and his father comforts him by saying "A little opera goes a long way". Understandable under the circumstances, perhaps, but I was a little annoyed by the way this seemed to reinforce the stereotype of opera being only for very rich people who go primarily to show off just how rich they are, even though the elder Waynes are clearly wonderful people. The Gotham Opera House (I presume that's what it was called) is much smaller and somewhat seedier looking than its real life New York counterpart - certainly the area outside the house where Bruce's parents are murdered is! I'd be interested to know if the production team actually filmed this in one of the smaller European theaters or if they built a set. By the way, they used the classic recording of the opera with Norman Treigle conducted by Julius Rudel, which was lip-synched to by actors - Patrick Pond, Poppy Tierney and Rory Campbell as Mefistofele, Marguerite, and Faust respectively.
But that's not the only connection to opera that this film has. Unlike a lot of moviegoers, I almost always stay through the end of the credits (and some of these are long - Return of The King had almost 10 minutes worth!), mostly to enjoy the music but also some movies have twists or jokes either during or after. I was quite surprised that listed in the special effects crew as a digital compositor was a gentleman named - Giuseppe Tagliavini! Now I wonder if he could be related to Ferruccio Tagliavini, one of my favorite lyric tenors, or perhaps to the lesser known Franco Tagliavini. I'm not sure whether either of these gentlemen had children. Even if Tagliavini is a common name, it occurred to me that in addition to being a tenor Ferruccio was also a licensed electrical engineer (in fact, that's what he wanted to do with his life and his father forced him to be a singer; according to Robert Merrill, he was able to use his engineering skills to earn a fortune in the construction business), and that's a skill or an interest that might be passed down to a son (or a nephew). I'm not sure exactly what a digital compositor does - I presume it probably has something to do with computer animation - but it sounds like it needs a good mix of both artistic and technical skills.
One of my very favorite places in New York City is probably the best revival/art house movie theater around, Film Forum. They recently had a series called "Hollywood Before The Code", basically films made before about 1934 when the Hays Code that forbade anything remotely sexual or "immoral" from being put into the movies. Although what's in these movies is extraordinarily tame by modern standards, they still had a good deal of sexual innuendo (even - gasp! - homosexuality) and dealt with other things that were extremely scandalous at the time, such as adultery, unwed motherhood, and abortion. The first of these movies of interest here is the 1931 version of An American Tragedy. As many readers of this blog will no doubt know, the Metropolitan Opera is presenting the world premiere of Tobias Picker's opera based on the novel. Although there is no operatic music in the film, it might offer a clue to how this 800-page novel (which I will read prior to seeing the opera) will be adapted - a great deal of material in the book will have to be cut. It focuses on the central story of Clyde Griffeths' romance with and murder of Roberta Alden and his subsequent trial, without going too much into Clyde's background and life before he starts his "rise to the top" and life in his uncle's shirt factory. I will also try to see the 1951 film adaption of this book, A Place in the Sun, before I see the opera.
Several weeks after An American Tragedy, Film Forum presented a double bill of A Farewell to Arms and Morocco as part of the same series - the former deals with sex out of wedlock and pregnancy, the latter is famous (infamous?) as the film where the tuxedoed, top-hatted Marlene Dietrich kisses a female nightclub patron - again, not nearly as tittilating as I expected. The films have both a very young Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou in common. Since A Farewell to Arms takes place mostly in Italy, it was appropriate that we should here some opera - one of the soldiers is a tenor who sings "Vesti la giubba" and "La donna e mobile". I thought the tenor sang rather well, although his comrades dismissed his ability. Later in the film, a tenor, presumably the same character, is listening along with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes to some street puppeteers putting on Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Rosina/Figaro duet taken at double-speed, and lamenting that this opera was his debut and he would never be able to sing again. Unfortunately, I don't think this actor/tenor was identified in the credits. It also wasn't much of a shock to hear the Liebestod in the scene where Helen Hayes' character is dying. But the big suprise was in Morocco - early in the film we hear a muezzin - that is, the man who calls the Muslim faithful to prayer - not reciting, but actually singing the adhan (said call to prayer) in a gorgeous tenor voice. The melody actually reminded me of a lot of Jewish music, particularly that of Moroccan (obviously!) or Arabic origin. Indeed, the tenor sounded a lot like one of the great cantors like Moshe or David Koussevitzky. Unfortunately, I could find no credit for the singer or this particular music on IMDB.
The final encounter was in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where Mr. Tagliavini once again showed up in the credits. And on my way into the Food Emporium on 68th Street and Broadway, where I purchased a big chocolate bar to be consumed during the film, I almost bumped into Veronica Villaroel - quite literally!
Incidentally, according to his entry on IMDB, Mr. Tagliavini started his career with a lot of Italian films and has been featured not only in Batman Begins and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but in Troy, Alexander, and Kingdom of Heaven, and is also working on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!
Last minute addition: I just found out the soundtrack album for Wong Kar-wai's new film 2046 features Angela Gheorghiu singing "Casta Diva" - presumably taken from her CD of the same name. I don't know if this film is quite my cup of tea, despite rave reviews and the presence of two actresses I adore, Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi. Both ladies, however, will be starring in the upcoming Memoirs of a Geisha. Maybe if we are lucky, that film's soundtrack might have Angela singing "Un bel di"?
What Anakin and Palpatine are actually "watching" while they discuss the possibilty of eternal life, however, is not an opera - more like a huge sphere with sinuous lights moving across it. In the novelization it is described as a "Mon Calamari ballet". Interestingly enough, John Williams' score for this scene (on the soundtrack CD as "Palpatine's Teachings"), consists of choral basses singing very long notes at the bottom of their voices - a lot like some Russian choral music, but to far more sinister effect - not surprisingly considering that Palpatine is slowly but surely drawing Anakin to the dark side of the Force. Actually, I believe all three movies in the prequel trilogy have quite a bit of very good choral writing in them - it would be interesting to see if Williams could compose a full-scale choral work or even an opera. I must give the wonderful singers of London Voices and their director Terry Edwards their due.
By the way, there is a music critic in Los Angeles who I usually have a lot of respect for, Jim Svejda, who thinks Williams is a big fraud and a plagiarist - his argument is that the Star Wars main title sounds like - get this - the big fanfare at the end of Act III of Manon Lescaut! Sorry, Jim, no dice. Williams is far more thrilling and bombastic here, and I don't think they are remotely in the same key. It's no closer than many other compositions by a lot of other composers. Although I will admit that the wonderful "love theme" introduced in Attack of the Clones bears a strong resemblance to various Russian themes, namely Scheherezade and possibly the Second Polovetsian Dance from Prince Igor.
One of the central plot points of Batman Begins is that the young Bruce Wayne, ambushed by a bat colony while hiding in a well, becomes absolutely terrified of bats - which is why to face his fear, he takes on the form of a bat as an adult crimefighter. While still a child, he is taken by his parents to a production of Mefistofele, and we see the Witches Sabbath scene. When Bruce sees the black-clad demons in this scene descending from the flies on ropes, he instantly sees them as bats. Unlike what some people on Opera-L have said, this is not a "regietheater" production that actually presents the demons as bats (actually, that's not a bad idea), but a "traditional" production that just hits Bruce where it happens to hurt most. It's as if I were to see a person costumed in black with a lot of fringes as a tarantula. Bruce recoils in terror and he and his parents leave, and his father comforts him by saying "A little opera goes a long way". Understandable under the circumstances, perhaps, but I was a little annoyed by the way this seemed to reinforce the stereotype of opera being only for very rich people who go primarily to show off just how rich they are, even though the elder Waynes are clearly wonderful people. The Gotham Opera House (I presume that's what it was called) is much smaller and somewhat seedier looking than its real life New York counterpart - certainly the area outside the house where Bruce's parents are murdered is! I'd be interested to know if the production team actually filmed this in one of the smaller European theaters or if they built a set. By the way, they used the classic recording of the opera with Norman Treigle conducted by Julius Rudel, which was lip-synched to by actors - Patrick Pond, Poppy Tierney and Rory Campbell as Mefistofele, Marguerite, and Faust respectively.
But that's not the only connection to opera that this film has. Unlike a lot of moviegoers, I almost always stay through the end of the credits (and some of these are long - Return of The King had almost 10 minutes worth!), mostly to enjoy the music but also some movies have twists or jokes either during or after. I was quite surprised that listed in the special effects crew as a digital compositor was a gentleman named - Giuseppe Tagliavini! Now I wonder if he could be related to Ferruccio Tagliavini, one of my favorite lyric tenors, or perhaps to the lesser known Franco Tagliavini. I'm not sure whether either of these gentlemen had children. Even if Tagliavini is a common name, it occurred to me that in addition to being a tenor Ferruccio was also a licensed electrical engineer (in fact, that's what he wanted to do with his life and his father forced him to be a singer; according to Robert Merrill, he was able to use his engineering skills to earn a fortune in the construction business), and that's a skill or an interest that might be passed down to a son (or a nephew). I'm not sure exactly what a digital compositor does - I presume it probably has something to do with computer animation - but it sounds like it needs a good mix of both artistic and technical skills.
One of my very favorite places in New York City is probably the best revival/art house movie theater around, Film Forum. They recently had a series called "Hollywood Before The Code", basically films made before about 1934 when the Hays Code that forbade anything remotely sexual or "immoral" from being put into the movies. Although what's in these movies is extraordinarily tame by modern standards, they still had a good deal of sexual innuendo (even - gasp! - homosexuality) and dealt with other things that were extremely scandalous at the time, such as adultery, unwed motherhood, and abortion. The first of these movies of interest here is the 1931 version of An American Tragedy. As many readers of this blog will no doubt know, the Metropolitan Opera is presenting the world premiere of Tobias Picker's opera based on the novel. Although there is no operatic music in the film, it might offer a clue to how this 800-page novel (which I will read prior to seeing the opera) will be adapted - a great deal of material in the book will have to be cut. It focuses on the central story of Clyde Griffeths' romance with and murder of Roberta Alden and his subsequent trial, without going too much into Clyde's background and life before he starts his "rise to the top" and life in his uncle's shirt factory. I will also try to see the 1951 film adaption of this book, A Place in the Sun, before I see the opera.
Several weeks after An American Tragedy, Film Forum presented a double bill of A Farewell to Arms and Morocco as part of the same series - the former deals with sex out of wedlock and pregnancy, the latter is famous (infamous?) as the film where the tuxedoed, top-hatted Marlene Dietrich kisses a female nightclub patron - again, not nearly as tittilating as I expected. The films have both a very young Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou in common. Since A Farewell to Arms takes place mostly in Italy, it was appropriate that we should here some opera - one of the soldiers is a tenor who sings "Vesti la giubba" and "La donna e mobile". I thought the tenor sang rather well, although his comrades dismissed his ability. Later in the film, a tenor, presumably the same character, is listening along with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes to some street puppeteers putting on Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Rosina/Figaro duet taken at double-speed, and lamenting that this opera was his debut and he would never be able to sing again. Unfortunately, I don't think this actor/tenor was identified in the credits. It also wasn't much of a shock to hear the Liebestod in the scene where Helen Hayes' character is dying. But the big suprise was in Morocco - early in the film we hear a muezzin - that is, the man who calls the Muslim faithful to prayer - not reciting, but actually singing the adhan (said call to prayer) in a gorgeous tenor voice. The melody actually reminded me of a lot of Jewish music, particularly that of Moroccan (obviously!) or Arabic origin. Indeed, the tenor sounded a lot like one of the great cantors like Moshe or David Koussevitzky. Unfortunately, I could find no credit for the singer or this particular music on IMDB.
The final encounter was in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where Mr. Tagliavini once again showed up in the credits. And on my way into the Food Emporium on 68th Street and Broadway, where I purchased a big chocolate bar to be consumed during the film, I almost bumped into Veronica Villaroel - quite literally!
Incidentally, according to his entry on IMDB, Mr. Tagliavini started his career with a lot of Italian films and has been featured not only in Batman Begins and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but in Troy, Alexander, and Kingdom of Heaven, and is also working on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!
Last minute addition: I just found out the soundtrack album for Wong Kar-wai's new film 2046 features Angela Gheorghiu singing "Casta Diva" - presumably taken from her CD of the same name. I don't know if this film is quite my cup of tea, despite rave reviews and the presence of two actresses I adore, Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi. Both ladies, however, will be starring in the upcoming Memoirs of a Geisha. Maybe if we are lucky, that film's soundtrack might have Angela singing "Un bel di"?
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