Carl Rosa Opera: The Pirates of Penzance

Saw a fantastic production of The Pirates of Penzance.

I like Musical and Gilbert and Sullivan is great fun - I know this has been out of fashion for some time but maybe it's on its way back!?

This production was fantastic, the costumes, the make-up, great comic timing, the orchestra and most of all the singing!

I think I first saw Gilbert and Sullivan aged 15, as an amateur production done at the local all girls private school (my mother taught physics their). I remember being really impressed - I think they teamed up with local boys private school. This was elite schooling at it best, teenagers doing something quite remarkable.

Today's production was cracking again - I was really impressed with the Carl Rosa Opera company! Mabel (lead soprano) trilled beautifully, a soaring wonderful voice. Samuel was sung by a well-rounded and deeply comfortable voice.

This is sung nearly perfectly by a very talented ensemble, complemented by some excellent individual performers, including two members of the original cast of Phantom of the Opera. Everyone sang well with brilliantly clear diction too, something so very necessary in getting across the full humour and cleverness of the lyrics. Rosie Ashe as pirate wench Ruth was superb, dexterously handling her exposition-heavy lyrics yet still hitting all the right comedic notes; Barry Clark’s Major General and Bruce Graham’s Police Sergeant were both nicely bumptious and Katy Batho impressed with a piercingly clear voice, hitting those top notes with a beautiful sound.

http://www.thepublicreviews.com/pirates-of-penzance-theatre-royal-brighton/

Music Hall - a most capacious form of performance

The following usage of capacious had me reaching for my dictionary:

It [Music Hall] was a most capacious form of performance - people would come up and perform a turn... acting, comedy, song...

I like the idea of free space it conveys!

It also makes me think of one favourite books - Tipping The Velvet by Sarah Waters. This is a wonderful tale of closeted Victorian society. I love the lesbian and gay characters, it is shocking in parts and deeply romantic too.

capacious |kəˈpā sh əs|

adjective

having a lot of space inside; roomy : she rummaged in her capacious handbag.

DERIVATIVES

capaciously |kəˈpeɪʃəsli| adverb

capaciousness |kəˈpeɪʃəsnəs| noun

ORIGIN early 17th cent.: from Latin capax, capac- ‘capable’ + -ious .

Behind Van Gogh - letters and sketchs

The Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy is fantastic. The focus on his sketches and drawings, gave me a feeling for the private life of this brilliant talent. Even as a small boy when I was generally bored by my parents terminally long trips around various Europe's finest art galleries and museums, I loved the Van Gogh's and could loose myself in these paintings for long periods. I didn't realise who hard he worked as an artists - years of hard study and solid technical training, like Picasso he has done some beautiful line drawings. His style and unique technical skills clearly developed over many years.

Anyway the highlight of this exhibit was his sketches and his letters, which gives masses of colourful background into his life, what he read, what he thought, his passions...

It is also just nice to see the rough sketches behind some of his most famous painting.

Mon cher Theo,

Merci de ta lettre et du billet de 50 fr. qu’elle contenait. Merci de m’avoir encore écrit sur le tableau de ces artistes Hollandais.1

J’ai fait mettre le gaz dans l’atelier et dans la cuisine, ce qui me coûte 25 francs d’installation.2 Si Gauguin et moi travaillons une quinzaine tous les soirs ne les regagnerons nous pas? Seulement comme d’ailleurs G. peut maintenant venir de jour en jour j’aurai absolument absolument encore besoin de 50 francs au moins...

http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let709/letter.html

Juarez Machado : a bit outré!?

I like the art of Juarez Machado, provactive, stylish and definitely sexy. The following text has an interesting use of english in french ("elle est trop hard" which roughly equates to the English expressing "a bit outré")

JUAREZ MACHADO ET LA FERIA DE BEZIERS

lundi 27 juillet 2009  Actu  Alerter la modération

Les autorités muncipales de Béziers ont refusé la proposition du Galeriste Pierre Pastre qui leur proposait pour affiche de la Féria de Beziers cette superbe oeuvre du célèbre peintre brésilien Juarez Machado. Motif invoqué : elle est trop hard. Chacun appréciera.et au besoin rira, car l'affiche acceptée au lieu et place, due à  l'imagination de Jean Nouvel a du être placardisée au lieu d'être affichée, le publiciste ayant utilisé sans son accord l'image du rugbyman Chaval qui a fort mal pris la chose. Résultat : Toutes les affiches ont du être détruites devant huissier? Qui de quatre palettes de tee shirts qui ont fini déchiquetés, broyés, compactés et de 50.000 programmes officiels qui ont du être pilonnés. Quant à la toile de Machado, elle a trouvé acheteur pour...un bon prix.

Ci dessous  l'oeuvre de Juarez Machado

http://blog.francetv.fr/MOTAMOT/index.php/2009/07/27/133687-juarez-machado-et-la-feria-de-beziers

It is an amusing story too!

outré |oōˈtrā|

adjective

unusual and startling : in 1975 the suggestion was considered outré—today it is orthodox.

ORIGIN French, literally ‘exceeded,’ past participle of outrer (see outrage ).

gay icons: Noel Coward

I understand why people might persceive Noel Coward as outdated - but he is a gay icon for me

This graphic captures the joy of Coward's world for me!!

Noel Coward’s Outdated Defiance

by James Kirchick

First published in The Washington Times, June 12, 2009

Noel Coward's "Design for Living" — now in revival by the Shakespeare Theatre Company — shocked audiences when it premiered on Broadway in 1933. It's not hard to see why.

The play, about a polyandrous relationship between two men and a woman, makes no apologies for its liberationist view of sex and relationships and could hardly be more direct in its sympathetic presentation of gay attachment. "Design for Living" was considered so risque that Coward had to wait until 1939 before staging a production in London for fear of offending British censors.

Seen today, the play shocks, but for an altogether different reason: Its message is so outdated that it's bewildering why any theater would put it on except for its curatorial interest as a period artifact.

http://www.indegayforum.org/news/show/31850.html

Margaret Atwood's new novel - a polemical work

Margeret Atword was on Front Row talking about her new futurist novel, a polemical work, an attack on the anti-evironmental movement ... I liked the ideas of St Diane Fossey or St Al Gore.

Some interesting ideas.. a harder future world where everyone has to be vegetarian ...

The Year of the Flood is Margaret Atwood's novel to be released on September 22, 2009 in the United States, and September 7, 2009, in the United Kingdom.^[1]The novel has also been listed with the title God's Gardeners,^[2] though Atwood herself has said that this is not the final intended title. The novel has been mentioned in numerous newspaper review articles looking forward to notable fiction of 2009.^[3][4]

The book focuses on a group called God's Gardeners, a small community of survivors of the same environmental catastrophe depicted in Atwood's earlier novelOryx and Crake. The earlier novel contained several brief references to the group. It answers some of the questions of Oryx and Crake and reveals who the three real human figures are who appear at the end of the earlier book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Year_of_the_Flood

I like and respect enormously Margaret Atwood as extremely intelligent, enoromously well read and a truely great writer. Her novel Alias Grace is vivid and insightful, portraying the harsh life of Canada in the 1840s.

The story is about the notorious 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery in Upper Canada. Two servants of the Kinnear household, Grace Marks and James McDermott, were convicted of the crime. McDermott was hanged and Marks was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Although the novel is based on factual events, Atwood constructs a narrative with a fictional doctor, Simon Jordan, who researches the case. Although ostensibly conducting research into criminal behaviour, he slowly becomes personally involved in the story of Grace Marks and seeks to reconcile the mild mannered woman he sees with the murder of which she has been convicted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alias_Grace

I have also read one of her short novels, re-telling greek myth in "The Penelopiad"

The novella recaps Penelope’s life in hindsight from 21st century Hades; she recalls her family life in Sparta, her marriage to Odysseus, her dealing with suitors during his absence, and the aftermath of Odysseus' return. The relationship with her parents was challenging: her father became overly affectionate after attempting to murder her, and her mother was absent-minded and negligent. At fifteen, Penelope married Odysseus, who had rigged the contest that decided which suitor would marry her. Penelope was happy with him, even though he was mocked behind his back by Helen and some maids for his short stature and lesser developed home, Ithaca. The couple broke with tradition by moving to the husband’s kingdom. In Ithaca, neither Odysseus’ mother Anticleia, nor his nurseEurycleia, liked Penelope but eventually Eurycleia helped Penelope settle into her new role and became friendly, but often patronising. Shortly after the birth of their son, Telemachus, Odysseus was called to war, leaving Penelope to run the kingdom and raise Telemachus alone. News of the war and rumours of Odysseus’ journey back sporadically reached Ithaca and with the growing possibility that Odysseus was not returning an increasing number of suitors moved in to court Penelope. Convinced the suitors were more interested in controlling her kingdom than loving her, she stalled them. The suitors pressured her by consuming and wasting much of the kingdom's resources. She feared violence if she outright denied their offer of marriage so she announced she would make her decision on which to marry once she finished her father-in-law’s shroud. She enlisted twelve maids to help her unravel the shroud at night and spy on the suitors. Odysseus eventually returned but in disguise. Penelope recognised him immediately and instructed her maids not to reveal his identity. After the suitors were massacred, Odysseus instructed Telemachus to execute the maids who he believed were in league with them. Twelve were hanged while Penelope slept. Afterwards, Penelope and Odysseus told each other stories of their time apart, but on the issue of the maids Penelope remained silent to avoid the appearance of sympathy for those already judged and condemned as traitors.^[3]

A liitle about Margaret Atwood:

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, CC, O.Ont, FRSC (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian author, poet, critic, feminist and social campaigner. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Prince of Asturias award for Literature, has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, winning once, and has been a finalist for the Governor General's Award seven times, winning twice.^[1] While she may be best known for her work as a novelist, she is also an award winning poet, having published 15 books of poetry to date.^[2][3] Many of her poems have been inspired by myths, and fairy tales, which were an interest of hers from an early age.^[4] Atwood has also published short stories inTamarack Review, Alphabet, Harper's, CBC Anthology, Ms., Saturday Night, Playboy, and many other magazines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood

polemical adjective

of, relating to, or involving strongly critical, controversial, or disputatious writing or speech : a polemical essay.

polemic essays from the Vietnam era critical, hostile, bitter, polemic, virulent, vitriolic, venomous, caustic, trenchant, cutting, acerbic, sardonic, sarcastic, scathing, sharp, incisive, devastating.

Much Ado About Nothing

I am a really fan of modern film adaptions of classic stories.

I don't know why these work so well:

1) Am I intrgued by these famous stoires and history

2) Do the actors and director get into these classic roles, there must be loads of old films, books and other re-interpretations

3) A heart these are great stories, have depth, timeless characters and plots ...


The BBC's adaption of Shakespeare's "Romantic Comedy":

When Wessex Tonight newsreader Keith has a heart attack, station boss Leonard (Martin Jarvis) knows the perfect replacement - suave ladies' man Benedick (Damian Lewis). The only trouble is, his other on-screen star Beatrice (Sarah Parish) can't stand him, thanks to an unhappy love affair between the two years ago.

Meanwhile, Leonard's beautiful daughter Hero (Billie Piper) is making waves as a weathergirl, not least with dashing young sports reporter Claude (Tom Ellis). The two become an item, with Leonard's blessing. But creepy editor Don Reid (Derek Riddell) developed a huge crush on her after the pair slept together once, and just can't leave her alone.

At a fancy dress party arranged to celebrate Benedick's arrival, Benedick and Claude both dress as knights in armour. This leads to Beatrice telling Benedick exactly what she thinks of him, believing him to be Claude! Elsewhere, Don overhears Hero admit that she only slept with him because she felt sorry for him. The party is rounded off when Claude proposes to Hero.

Regarding actor's commitment to roles, I liked this:

Researching for the role, Billie visited a real-life weathergirl.

"She showed me some footage of her when she first started and that was really beneficial. There are certain ways to hold and present yourself and there's also a rhythm in the way news reporters speak – you have to get hold of that intonation. And then I just watched daytime TV solidly for about a week!"

Oh yes and she look's fantastic in a White Monoroe dress - almost as good as the original?

Why do I love religious art?

I adore spiritual song and art. I now record Aled Jones on Sunday morning, the singing is great and the program is full of a form of Christianity where they play down the more difficult aspects of their faith. One of my favourite books at the moment, is a book of religious art with accompanying biblical stories in French "Le Nouveau Testament" par Stefano Zuffi. All the art work is so chamring and beautiful with classic stories and icons to boot!