Other Arts?

[dirac]

Much as I like talking about old movies, I would also like to hear about other arts in Other Arts. If you've visited an exhibition a/o a museum or seen a play recently, or anything else of an artistic nature that you'd like to talk about, please tell us about it here.

[atm711]

I saw The Screwtape Letters last month in a wonderful romp of a production. I hope it travels so others can see it.

[dirac]

Thanks, atm711. I hadn't heard of this production - what is it like?

I should also clarify the language of my OP to say that "please tell us about it here" means "in this forum" and not necessarily in this particular thread. Thanks.

[atm711]

It's based on the book by C S Lewis and its about Christianity from the point of view of the Devil---I have always loved the book and it was great fun to see it enacted. I also saw a revival of Steve Martins - Picasso at the Lapin Agile---a great comedy about a meeting in a bar between Picasso and Einstein in their youth.

[bart]

atm711, Screwtape Papers as you describe it is definitely something I would love to see. I remember being fascinated by the book in college.

Probably not worth a thread of its own, but here goes: another example: the Theatre du Chatelet recently revived a 1949 Broadway musical with score by Heitor Villa-Lobos. It's called "Magdalena" and takes place in a tropical Colombian river community in which the indigenous native people combine Catholicism along with their ancient traditions.

I confess I had never even heard of this work.

Everything in the sleepy tropical town is owned by the country's comic-nasty dictator, currently enjoying the high life of Paris with his voluptuous French mistress (also a chef). The chief ("jefa") of the native population is a woman, Maria, who is devoted to the Madonna and hopes to help her people though some sort of faith-based let's-all-respect-and-love-one-another philosophy. The man she may or may not love hopes to change the world by blowing things up. Maria is full of faith; she's gutsy and a bit naive. She's also young and beautiful. Pedro is more narrowly focused and is willing to blow things up to bring about change. The story centers on how their differences -- personal as well as ideological; they are a strange kind of Beatrice and Benedict -- are resolved.

The libretto was sung in the original English by a mostly Anglophone cast. The plot and sup-plots are a hoot, but everyone is so committed and enjoying things so much that I was completely drawn into it. (The original director, of a staging in Los Angeles the year before the Broadway show, Jules Dassin, for those who recall that name) And then there's the Villa-Lobos score. Typical of the Chatelet, the production is vivid and imaginative.

Coming upon unexpected shows like this is one of the delights of travel. I hope the production is able to move to London, New York and elsewhere. It's a piece of music theater history in the fullest sense.

Here's the International Broadway Database page for the 1949 NYC production, when Maria was Dorothy Sarnoff and Petro, John Raitt:

http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=2018

[atm711]

A really impressive production staff...Jack Cole, Gwen Verdon, George Martin---and Jules Dassin. It has been a long time since I heard the name Jack Cole...it brings back memories of Sally Kamin, the owner of the famous dance bookshop on Sixth Avenue and 56 Street. Whenever she was pressed to name her favorite dancer it was always Jack Cole.

[dirac]

It's based on the book by C S Lewis and its about Christianity from the point of view of the Devil---I have always loved the book and it was great fun to see it enacted. I also saw a revival of Steve Martins - Picasso at the Lapin Agile---a great comedy about a meeting in a bar between Picasso and Einstein in their youth.

Thanks. I had heard of the book and title, although I've never read it, but didn't know it had been dramatized. I found what looks like the production website here.

Whenever she was pressed to name her favorite dancer it was always Jack Cole.

That's interesting. Cole must have been quite a dancer, I'm sure.

[kfw]

I saw The Screwtape Letters last month in a wonderful romp of a production. I hope it travels so others can see it.

I hope so too! The book is a classic. Thanks, atm711.

[kfw]

Charlottesville, Virginia isn't the big city, but there is always a lot going on here culturally and artistically. This weekend Ash-Lawn Opera, named for its former home on President James Monroe's estate just up the road form Jefferson's Monticello, begins their season. Today, in a lovely mirrored room off the lobby of the old theater where they'll put on "Don Giovanni" and "Brigadoon," they held the first of five free lunchtime recitals.

The 22-song cycle "In a Persian Garden" -- English translations from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam set to music by Liza Lehmann -- was up first, and like the other pieces today it was for an ensemble, in this case for soprano, mezzo, tenor and bass. This is poetry I know only by reputation and I wasn't sure it would engage me, but it did very quickly did. It's a meditation on the passage of time and on the inevitability of death, lasts perhaps a half an hour, and was touching throughout.

"Each morn a thousand Roses brings, you say;

Yes, -- but where leaves the Rose of yesterday!--

And this first Summer month that brings the Rose,

Shall take Jamshyd and Kaikobád away."

I was happy to see that the second piece, for soprano, mezzo, tenor and bass-baritone, and sung by a new cast of singers, was Brahms' Neue Libeslieder, Op. 65, the music for the second half of Balanchine's "Liebeslieder Walzer." Here, as for the final piece, we were provided only the English translations plus the individual song titles. At least each song does begin with the words of the title.

The final portion of the program consisted of six selections from Part-Songs, some translated form Greek sources, some from other poets, of Haydn. This featured yet another set of singers, with all eleven of today's singers (there were four different pianists) joining together for the final song, "Eloquence" by G.E. Lessing, about the loosening effect of wine on the tongue. "Eloquence" opens and closes with the words "Brothers, water makes us dumb," and the final "dumb," the final word of the final song of the recital today, was sung in a whisper. So we ended with a laugh.

I'm not competent to evaluate the singers, so all I'll say is that I thought they all had strong and pleasing voices and sang with great nuance. And they were only the company's "Young Artists," i.e. its apprentices. All and all, I thought this was a wonderful program, and these recitals, whether or not they attract new patrons, are a great gift to the community.