The Red Shoes and DUMBO

Ah, The Red Shoes with the Kneehigh Theater at St. Ann's Warehouse. 

I couldn't resist reading the original story by Hans Christian Anderson last night after seeing this production and, of course, the old movie with Moira Shearer.  The movie rather fudged a few things, and I was surprised in tonight's performance by the character of the butcher in the play among other things, but it's all there in the original story.  There is a girl who is orphaned, an old woman who takes her in, a preacher and a preacher's wife, shoes that stick, endless dancing and, what I had not remembered, a butcher who cuts off her feet and a final reformation and penance with a trip directly to heaven.  It's the good girl part and the direct trip to heaven that many of us have trouble with today.

For it's hard not to read the story as a cautionary tale for uppity women, girls who dare to go after excitement and fun and are punished severely for their temerity.

And The Red Shoes at Saint Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn was superb, one of those marvelously theatrical evenings full of cleverness and theater magaic by the Kneehigh Theatre company from Cornwall (England).  With a cast of five playing nine roles and two musicians probably playing more than nine instruments--I didn't count, but there was a lot of musical equipment sitting around them, clever scenery and business, it is a highly recommeded evening.  A small example of the magic: the play opens with four of the performers entering dressed in men's underwear and with nearly shaved heads.  One of them is a woman.  Not only a woman but a seemingly plain one with great charm-- it takes time to work that out.

DUMBO for those who may not know, stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.  It is also pretty much under the Brooklyn bridge.  The streets roar above you when a train passes, and they twist around enormous bridge supports.  The neighborhood is partly industrial, partly artsy with lots of galleries and restaurants, the Bargmusic barge and River Cafe which is a destination restaurant--not for seven o'clock curtains but a favorite for occasions with lovely views of Manhattan and superb food.  It also has Grimaldi's Pizza which always seems to have people lined up trying to get in.

We ate at 66 Water Street--small menu, good food, two televisions tuned to the same game, but one television got everything three or four seconds after the other.  Interesting effect.  We have also eaten at Pete's Downtoen which is functional and has good food, Five Front, the best of the current lot and Miso around the corner from St. Ann's and serving Asian food and also good.

Thanksgiving

A Thanksgiving thought or two--Sometimes it's hard to feel thankful because you have so much to be thankful for--children and grandchildren, health, the comforts of our daily lives, blue skies, music and theater, friends, that we have each other--how do you say I am Thankful for just one thing or two.  But to be honest I wanted to see if I could upload an image. .

Why I Write as I Do

My hope is to be newsy and interesting. 

When I read a book or movie review, what I really want to know is whether or not the reviewer liked what they heard or saw.  I find the reviews and blogs I read to be not much help.  I want to find someone who reads the way I read or at least, has a point of view that I can relate to and sense whether or not the work would interest me.  I have no claim to critical qualifications, but I will tell you whether I enjoyed, really enjoyed or did not like a work and over time, you can decide what that means for you--assuming anyone reads this.

Complexions Dance Company

One of the nice things about the Joyce theater is that parking is always available and the local restaurants are good.  I am especially fond of Rocking Horse (classy Mexican) and Gascogne (cozy French) but there are lots of other choices available. 

Complexions is a contemporary ballet company so moves were sometime classic and sometimes not.  Music was from very diverse sources--spirituals, chants, Debussy, the Rolling Stones and others.  They were always interesting and sometimes frustrating.  Very often dancers were doing moves that did not seem to relate, they didn't form lines or patterns and were separated so that even when three men were doing something and three women were doing something the men's moves did not seem like the women's and you had to shift your vision to know whether they were doing the same movements or not--and often they weren't.  The rest of the audience, however, was wildly enthusiastic. I was intrigued but not entirely satisfied.

Intermezzo

Richard Wagner's idea of fun is not exactly mine.  Apparently his wife truly was difficult, and he truly did love her.  The opera he wrote shows the demanding wife and the loyal, loving, charming husband--this is his version all the way and supposedly based on an actual incident.  Intermezzo is his opera of domestic confusion and discord--and also, an opera with no arias--good music but not compelling, not soaring,  and I am curious as to whether I would enjoy just listening to the music without the visuals.  New York City Opera (NYCO) has a  very clever production.  The costumes, the set, all the production values were superb, and they are key in work of this type. Production is the difference between diverting and barely tolerable.    Scene changes are handled by the "servants."  The acting is fine.  Most of the voices are fine to my ear, but Mary Dunleavy, who play Christine (the wife), had a voice that was clear, expressive, usually lovely but at times I did not love it.

NYCO, like all opera companies, wants to develop a younger audience.  After the performance your ticket got you into the fourth ring cocktail bar for free drinks and much, -much more popular-music.  We old folks did not go, but they made a lot of noise up there.

Book-The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford tells of a young Chinese boy at the outbreak of WW II.  Lots of ethnic detail, culture clash, thwarted love, reconciliation and prejudice.  He has a domineering father who will not allow him to speak Chinese after the age of twelve although the parents speak only Chinese.  There are a lot of historical bits which apparently are accurate.  There actually were buttons that read, "I am Chinese" and for good reason, of course.  It is an easy read.  My book group seemed to divide between those who found it moving, and those who found it a little too much.  It is the quintessential middle brow novel--makes you feel like a better person for having read it and wraps everything up with a happy ending.  It is more thematic than the typical genre novel without stretching for the hard truths.

RT Our Children

The Every Child Matters Education Fund has published a study of what we as a nation are doing about children called Homeland Insecurity.  They report that funding for children's programs has declined over the last decade.  We now rank #20 out of 21 wealthy countries in child well-being--that not in money spent but in how our children are doing.  In addition wide gaps exist within the states so that children in the poorest states
 "are three time as likely to die before their fourteenth birthday, five time as likely to be without health insurance, eight times as likely to be incarcerated, and thirteen time as likely to die from child abuse" as children in more fortunate states.



Something to think about.

Soul Leaves Her Body

Soul Leaver Her Body, is based on a Chinese legend of a woman whose soul leaves her body after a lover promises to return and doesn't. This production at the Here Theater--a combination of dance, image and acting--takes place in both ancient and contemporary times in the China of the Mongols and in Hong Kong..  Here is one of those black box theaters where you are extremely close to the performers.  The play, or piece--it's debatable that it's a play--is compelling without being terribly clear.  I have nothing profound to say about this--the images remian clear a week after seeing it, but the themes are totally muddy.

A Rainy Day in New York, Met Rehearsal, Master class, A Quiet Place

After a run of gorgeous weather, New York was deluged, traffic was barely moving, and a trip that in the best of times takes forty-five minutes took over two hours.  We were late, but so,we were told, was everyone else.  We slipped into a box to observe the working rehearsal of Cosi fan Tutti at the Metropolitan Opera.  It is undeniably a thrill to sit in an almost empty opera house with all the tables and staff on the main floor and people huddling and correcting and hear glorious voices singing shimmering notes.  Mozart did write magnificent notes.  They spent a lot of time getting the lights set, and scenes would suddenly shift with a sunset going from mauve to puce to fuchsia and the sky from electric blue to sky.  I really liked the electric blue.   William Christie was the conductor--his Met debut--although he is a famous conductor and far past the age for such things.   He worked the orchestra and singers relentlessly going over points--I have never seen a conductor redo this many phrases or go over and over bits like this, and I have never before seen a singer question the conductor.  They are all fine musicians and it will be interesting to see the reviews.

Lunch and rehearsal over we clambered down to List Hall to watch Stephen Wadsworth lead a master class of singers in the Lindemann  Program or at Julliard.  These students have been working with him for some time. He had each make a statement about the situation of the character they were singing about starting with the words, "This is a person who" and then developing it to "I am----"  They identified parts of their body  which tended to tighten up and worked to relax them.  Each was given three or four random actions to perform as they sang in character while maintaining a body released of tension.  Body, mind and heart must maintain character.  Fascinating.

Stephen Wadsworth in addition to mentoring young artists directed this year's production of Boris Godunov.  He also wrote the libretto for A Quiet Place, Leonard Bernstein's opera of his family life which we saw in the evening..  It is Bernstein in dissonant mode.  His childhood was not happy, nor was his parent's marriage. Even in a clangy modern score, he managed to write at least three lovely songs which could stand on their own.  Did I love it?  Well, I liked it a lot, can imagine seeing it again (but not next week) and wonder if I could listen to it on CD.  I don't think so.  But a friend wondered about the music as a symphony.  There is enough there to make it worth another listen, and it is difficult enough to challenge.  Which may explain why it has taken so long see it produced. 

Penelope

Sunday evening we traipsed to Brooklyn to St. Ann's Warehouse, which is not a warehouse but a theater complex, to see the play Penelope in which the title character appears but never speaks or interacts with the other characters.  She is, as so often in plays written by males, a projection of the men's needs and fantasies.  Themes of competition and the importance of love emerge as well as some terrffic acting on the part of the four men acting as her suitors and awaiting the return of Ulysses who, of course, will slay them upon his return. By the way, the whole thing takes place at the bottom of a swimming pool. Great play?  Not really, but great theater and an entertaining evening.

A Fall Saturday in New York

Big Bambu was closing on Sunday, and, determined to see it a second time, we arrived at the Museum at 8:30 to join the line for tickets when the doors opened at 9:30.  Saturday was cold but at least it was fall cold and not winter cold.  The line was friendly, and by ten we had our tickets for eleven-thirty.  Just time enough to warm up with tea before going out on the roof.
Big Bambu is a project of the Starn brothers, twins born in New Jersey and with a studio near Beacon, who wanted to create a sort of living work.  It would start, grow, change constantly and then be removed.  It would represent both chaos and design, spontaneity and structure.The structural elements, bamboo and mountain climbing ropes and knots, would be elements in the design.  It would also legally constitute a building rising forty feet above the top of the museum and having to meet the NYC building codes.  It is by far the most ambitious project the Met has done on its roof space which is annually turned over to a living sculptor to create a temporary exhibition. 

Groups are led on a walk inside the sculpture by docent.  We go up an uneven walkway with handrails to the "living room" where the crew installed their cup-holders, a cooler, and a wind-chime (not planned as part ot the structure).   Unplanned also were the wisteria vines climbing up from the roof and Pale Male, the famous hawk who came to roost while we were there.Then in smaller groups we went to the highest point gaze across the park to the reservoir and over at the "wave" more or less formed by the bamboo.  Waves are a frequent element in the Start brothers oeuvre.

It has some the delight of The Gates, Christos project of a few years ago, and like the Gates, it is now gone at least as an experience.  It will take them two months to actually remove the whole thing.  However, if you can get to Detroit, there is hope to have another project there.

After our climb on the bamboo, we hiked up to the Guggenheim for a lovely lunch at the restaurant (we needed to sit) and for Chaos and Classicism, the current show.  Focused on the period after WW I and before WWI and the art of France, Italy and Germany, it reflects the yearning for permanent values and peace after WW I especially in France which suffered most of the fighting.  Picasso is quoted as saying, "Art does not evolve by itself, the ideas of people change, and with them their mode of expression." It contains work of Leger, Matisse, Picasso, and Otto Dix among a great many others and became at the end of the period, the art of the Nazis who insisted on representational art..  The show is very worthwhile and very crowded.