An interesting and mildly engaging piece. With all the hype and writeups we had heard before we saw this piece, along with the sold-out crowd, I had expected something much more substantive.
It was mostly interesting to watch, but didn't really say anything and the dancing wasn't very innovative. Not all that different from many other middle-of-the-road performances we've seen by others. It did have some nice live music accompanying.
This show will be available to watch online in January when OtBTV premieres. Here's a 2-minute excerpt.
Showing posts with label T++. Show all posts
Showing posts with label T++. Show all posts
Monday, November 9, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
A downer of a play about a very dysfunctional family.
The script is lively with complex interplay of dialogue and a few moments of painfully good timing.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Balanchine's Slaughter on Tenth Avenue
We saw this as part of an evening of short works at PNB's Broadway Festival.
Balanchine originally choreographed this piece for the 1936 Rogers and Hart musical On Your Toes. In 1967 he made a ballet with new choreography but with the same general concept for the New York City Ballet.
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue is a ballet-within-a-ballet, which itself tells a story of a strip joint and a customer who falls in love with the boss' girl. In the larger ballet, a jealous premier danseur has hired a mobster to kill his rival during the premiere of Slaughter. PNB made use of the lower boxes and enacting the mob setup outside the curtain to set the story up.
They also showed a bit of a movie version of Slaughter on a giant movie screen before the beginning of the performance, which was interesting for historical perspective.
The performance itself was catchy and fun.
Balanchine originally choreographed this piece for the 1936 Rogers and Hart musical On Your Toes. In 1967 he made a ballet with new choreography but with the same general concept for the New York City Ballet.
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue is a ballet-within-a-ballet, which itself tells a story of a strip joint and a customer who falls in love with the boss' girl. In the larger ballet, a jealous premier danseur has hired a mobster to kill his rival during the premiere of Slaughter. PNB made use of the lower boxes and enacting the mob setup outside the curtain to set the story up.
They also showed a bit of a movie version of Slaughter on a giant movie screen before the beginning of the performance, which was interesting for historical perspective.
The performance itself was catchy and fun.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1
We saw this piece guest-conducted by JoAnn Falletta with the SSO. The piano soloist was Nikolai Luganski.
This 3-movement concerto was originally composed in 1891 and revised in 1917. It was originally performed while Rachmaninov was still a student at the Moscow Conservatory. He was dissatisfied with the original, but was pleased with his final 1917 revision. It never attained the popularity of his other Concertos, and remains the least known of his works for piano and orchestra.
The piano part was somewhat interesting, obviously required alot of skill, and seemed to move some of the audience members sitting near us. However, it didn't do much for me and I ended up being pretty bored by the end. I liked the energetic first movement the best of the three movements.
There was a fair amount of woodwinds, but hardly any percussion to speak of.
This 3-movement concerto was originally composed in 1891 and revised in 1917. It was originally performed while Rachmaninov was still a student at the Moscow Conservatory. He was dissatisfied with the original, but was pleased with his final 1917 revision. It never attained the popularity of his other Concertos, and remains the least known of his works for piano and orchestra.
The piano part was somewhat interesting, obviously required alot of skill, and seemed to move some of the audience members sitting near us. However, it didn't do much for me and I ended up being pretty bored by the end. I liked the energetic first movement the best of the three movements.
There was a fair amount of woodwinds, but hardly any percussion to speak of.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Chelfitsch: Five Days in March
Chelfitsh is an alternative theater group from Japan. The narrative of Five Days in March is a simple story of what was going on in lives of several 20-ish Japanese people during the US invasion of Iraq. The invasion is a backdrop to tales of coupling, music and protests. The script is Japanese with projected supertitles in English.
The key part of the performance is the theatricality of it. The performers dress and talk naturalisticaly and the set is almost completely bare. The store is told in repeating cycles with overlapping performers voicing the first-person narratives of the characters. The actors gesture and walk in partially movements repeated in cycles. Hard to describe in words: a performer drops his arm in a casual style, then lifts it and drops it again and again while talking.
I liked the show. The story was humorous and mildly titillating enough to hold interest. It was confusing to follow due to the changing performers and repeating narrative. This confusion surprisingly became enjoyable as it combined with the physical movement of the performers.
After the show I realized it reminded me of minimalistic theater movements I learned about in college. I had never seen such a show live and it seems like Chelfitsch is a contemporary follower of that. I enjoyed how Five Days in March focused strongly on movement and language and the memory of that stayed with me afterwards.
The key part of the performance is the theatricality of it. The performers dress and talk naturalisticaly and the set is almost completely bare. The store is told in repeating cycles with overlapping performers voicing the first-person narratives of the characters. The actors gesture and walk in partially movements repeated in cycles. Hard to describe in words: a performer drops his arm in a casual style, then lifts it and drops it again and again while talking.
I liked the show. The story was humorous and mildly titillating enough to hold interest. It was confusing to follow due to the changing performers and repeating narrative. This confusion surprisingly became enjoyable as it combined with the physical movement of the performers.
After the show I realized it reminded me of minimalistic theater movements I learned about in college. I had never seen such a show live and it seems like Chelfitsch is a contemporary follower of that. I enjoyed how Five Days in March focused strongly on movement and language and the memory of that stayed with me afterwards.
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