Burn This

I am catching up on all the plays and shows that we’ve seen.  It has been over a year since we’ve seen this play and to be honest, I could not remember it.  So thank goodness for Google and I found reviews of this play and it all comes back to me.

Anna is a dance-choreographer who lives in a loft in Greenwich Village with two gay men, Larry and Robbie.  The play starts with Anna and Larry grieving after hearing that Robbie died suddenly in a boating accident.

Later that evening, Barton, Robbie’s brother bulldozes and staggers into their loft, drunk.  To me, Barton is not good enough for Anna, but there is this underlying attraction for one another.  They finally get together and Barton straightens out, but I still don’t think he was good enough for her.

It was okay and not memorable.

Opera-Il Turco in Italia

The title means, “The Turk in Italy”, written by Gioachino Rossini.  It was performed for the first time in 1814 in our Bucket List Opera House, La Scala.  From what I’ve read, the Milanese turned up their noses at it. 

For this performance the costumes and setting is set in the 1950’s.  There are a lot of twists and turns as I try to keep track of who is who.  But surprisingly, no one dies at the end because if is an enjoyable Opera buffa, a comedy. 

The first scene takes place in a gypsy camp where Zaida talks about her escape from Turkey. She is in love with the Prince Selim, but false rumors about her infidelity forces her to flee to Italy.  Also in the camp is Don Geronio who wants his fortune told.  He laments about his frivolous wife, Fiorilla.

Selim arrives in Italy and meets Fiorilla who falls in love with him.  Despite the fact that she is a married woman, she invites Prince Selim to her home where there is a confrontation with Geronio. 

There is a costume party and with masks, where Fiorilla forces Selim to choose between her or Zaida.  At the end, Selim and Zaida are back together and they sail back to Turkey.  Geronio decides to punish Fiorilla by throwing her out of the house.  As she leaves to live with her parents in shame, Geronio pardons her.

It was a fun opera and like most operas, we will probably see it again and again.  The different singers, costumes and settings always make it seem new. 

33 Variations

I lost my notes on this play and I loved it.  Let’s see if I can remember the core of the play.  First, let me say that we were not looking forward to Jane Fonda’s performance because in her heyday, she looked good but lacked depth in her performances.  Well, like wine, aging has added depth.  We were so pleasantly surprised.

Jane portrays a music professor who travels to Europe to research the background of Beethoven’s composition.  First, this is an entirely different world.  In this play, people can read music compositions and immediately envision the musicality that can come out of the composition.  I struggle reading music, but I can equate this ability with reading a book and in partnership with the author, let my mind envision the characters, scenery and emotions the author is trying to convey. 

Complicating this story is that Jane’s character is suffering from a degenerative disease.  Jane’s daughter resists the travel to Europe, but this is what Jane wants to do.  So this beautiful, sophisticated, elegant genius of a woman slowly deteriorates in front of us.  It is awesomely scary and Jane does a beautiful job portraying the slow degeneration and emotionally, I struggled with the frustration she faced with a body that could not respond to her mind. 

Yet, she achieves the answer to the puzzle of the answer behind Beethoven’s variations in his composition.  I would see this again and again.  I would join Jane in her struggle and the newfound respect and love her daughter discovers in the end.

Stories by Heart

This play at the Mark Taper is a one-man show starring John Lithgow.  For this performance, Don, Lisa, Alex and Alyssa came with us.  We bought them tickets for the same show as our season seats as a Christmas present.  (I'm guessing on the date we saw this play because I don't have the tickets.  The production was from January 4 - February 13, 2011).

All Alex and Alyssa know about John Lithgow was that he portrayed The Trinity Killer on Dexter, and he scares them. We didn’t tell Alex and Alyssa who was starring in this production because we wanted to surprise them.  Also, we gave them our 2^nd row seats while we sat with Don and Lisa in the seats further back.

John is a great storyteller and it is amazing to me whenever someone can recite on and on.  Having such a memory is wondrous to me.  Both Max and I wish we could tell stories in such a manner to capture an audience’s attention. 

John’s father passed away and in remembrance to him, John reads a favorite book that his father would read to him as a boy.  He starts to read, but then he gets up, puts the book away and enacts the story with his words and actions.  His facial expressions are so vivid and entertaining.

The stories were not that great, but he was able to pull it off due to his abilities.  I would give it a B and I’m not sure I would see it again.  I would see another performance by John Lithgow though.  I am such a fan of his.  He can be a comedian such as his alien character in 3^rd Rock from the Sun or his scary character in Dexter. 

Next to Normal

This is a hard rock musical hitting raw emotions, so different from the light-hearted and feel good Sound of Music type of musical.  The staging included a framed, 2 story quadrant so that all four major characters could sing their frustrations in their own rooms, yet to the audience, sang together as a chorus.

It takes place in modern times and Alice Ripley plays Diana, a mother who is having a nervous breakdown. It starts as she gets her family ready for the start of the day.  Her favorite child, her teenage son Gabe, is lighthearted, playful and loving.  Her teenage daughter, Natalie, is focused on her musical studies in almost a geeky way and she sees herself as the “invisible girl” because no one pays attention to her.  As the morning progresses, Diana begins to flip out as the stress of the morning begins to overcome her.  She tries to make sandwiches out of a whole loaf of bread, laying them on the table, on the chairs and across the floor.  Her husband and children look on, horrified.

Her husband Dan is such a sad character because he loves his wife so much and watches helplessly as she progresses further into a nervous breakdown.  He stands by her, but he has to make the difficult decision on her treatments, which includes shock therapy.  After months of psychotherapy and shock treatments, she resumes her life to near normalcy, but she is still fighting her demons.  Pills are also part of her treatment, which deaden her feelings.  She sings, “I miss the mountains, I miss my life, I even miss the pain because I feel nothing” or “You don’t know when you die when living like this”.

It isn’t until later in the play that we discover Gabe is actually the demon she is trying to overcome.  He died as a baby and she has never overcome that loss.  She sees him as he grows up, but to become normal again, she has to convince herself that what she sees is not real.  After taking her medication regularly, she does not see her son or if she does, she can tell that he is not real.  But because she hates how she feels when she takes the pills, she stops.  Then she begins to see her son more vividly than ever.  She tries to send her son away so that she can recover and Gabe pleads with her not to let him go.  That was a heart-wrenching scene.  Yikes…tears.  But she remains strong and reluctantly, sends him away.

Eventually, she leaves her husband and daughter so that she can concentrate on getting better.  Life goes on and they seem to get better, accepting the situation.  Maybe later when the time is right, they will be all together again.  In the last scene, Dan sees Gabe and apparently he has always seen his dead son.  They sing a painful duet as Gabe pleads to stay and Dan reluctantly acquiesces.  He knows it isn’t right, but he doesn’t want to send him away. 

I love performances that can pull emotions from the audience as they empathize with the characters.  The mother who struggles to regain her sanity, a daughter who seeks validation wanting to mean something to someone else, a father who wants to bear the pain for those he loves and even the dead son who doesn’t want to be forgotten.  My gosh, I was tapping my toes while brushing aside a tear.  For me, this heart-wrenching, hard rocking musical passed our test of, Yes, we would see this again.  For me, I’ve learned that everyone has difficulties, but over time troubles end and life goes on.  Yes, other troubles can be on the horizon, but we’ve been made stronger by those experiences. 

Opera-Rigoletto

Rigoletto is an opera that takes human frailty to the extreme.  Perhaps that is the basis for Opera anyway.  Arias and duets are sung with great emotion as the characters are swept up in the drama of rage, jealousy, despair, deceit and frivolity. 

Rigoletto the main character, is a Duke’s jester.  He entertains the Duke, but does so at the expense of other courtiers.  As a result, he makes enemies who wait to take revenge. The Duke is a philanderer who is accused by Count Monterone that he has shamed his daughter.  Rigoletto insults the Count and in turn, the Count curses Rigoletto.  Rigoletto is concerned because he also has a daughter who he has kept sheltered over the years.  The duets between Rigoletto and his daughter Gilda, are absolutely beautiful.

Gilda adores her father and obeys him by staying home, leaving only to go to church.  But at church, the Duke spots her and tries to win her heart.  Of course she falls hopelessly in love with him. 

In the meantime, the courtiers spy on Rigoletto and see him with Gilda.  They think Gilda is his lover and they kidnap her, taking her to the Duke.  Rigoletto discovers what they have done and he rushes back to the palace.  Gilda flings herself on her father, confessing her shame by the kidnapping and liaison with the Duke.  

Rigoletto takes Gilda home to dress her in men’s clothes so that she can escape the shame of Mantua.  He then hires an assassin to kill the Duke for shaming his daughter.  During a dark and stormy night at an inn, Gilda overhears the assassin’s plot.  To save her love, she pretends to be the Duke and is killed instead.  When Rigoletto returns to the inn, he is overwhelmed with grief when he discovers the body of his daughter.  In the background he hears the dang Duke singing.  The curse!

I thought the singing and the bright costumes were beautiful.  But I couldn’t identify with the characters to become emotional.  Rigoletto was mean to others and a bit twisted that he control his daughter’s life so much that she didn’t know any better and fell for the Duke who didn’t deserve her sacrifice.

Would we see it again?  Of course, of course.  It is a Verdi classic and the music transcends the characters’ frailties. 

George Gagnidze plays Rigoletto, Sarah Coburn plays Gilda and Gianluca Terranova plays the Duke.  All well done.  

Opera-Lohengrin

The first Wagner Opera we attended was Siegfried.  It was okay.  Partial to Italian or French operas, we wanted to expand our horizons so to speak and attend another Wagner opera.

First, let me give you a brief synopsis on the opera, then recap what we actually saw.  Lohengrin is a fantasy, fairy tale story about romance and miracles.  King Henry arrives in Brabent to expel Hungarians from his realm, but also judge accusations about the disappearance of the young Duke Gottfried.  Count Telramund is the Duke’s guardian and accuses the Duke’s sister, Elsa of murdering her brother.  Elsa proclaims her innocence and trusts in God to send her a knight to champion her innocence.  On the river, a knight in shining armour appears on a boat drawn by a swan, to accept the challenge.  One thing he asks is that she never asks him his name.  He challenges Count Telramund and defeats him.  The knight then asks Elsa to marry him, but again, she is not to ask him ever, for his name. 

Ortrud is a witch and companion to Count Telramund who are both exiled while wedding preparations for the knight and Elsa are underway.  Ortrud casts suspicions in Elsa’s mind about the knight’s secretive manner.  During their wedding night, Elsa is begging for the knight’s name, when Telramund and 4 henchmen try to assassinate the knight.  During the fight, Telramund is killed.  Saddened by the events, the knight decides to reveal himself to Elsa and the King.  He is Lohengrin the Knight of the Holy Grail.   He has to return to his duties but wanted to stay long enough to marry Elsa. 

Ortrud then appears saying that she cursed young Duke Gottfried, turning him into a swan.  Lohengrin prays and the swan turns back into the Duke.  A dove leads Lohengrin back to his castle.  As he departs, Elsa is so distraught, she collapses and dies. 

So how does this compare to what we saw?  Instead of taking place in the time of knights and castles, the opera is set during World War I.  The set is a bombed out building used as a field hospital.  In a tent, we can see backlit shadows of a doctor sawing the leg from a wounded soldier who eventually dies.  The scene progresses and Elsa is asking for a champion to help proclaim her innocence.  The dead soldier from behind the tent, raises from the dead.  He comes out and in place of his amputated leg is a prosthetic, shaped like a knight’s armour.  At the end of the opera when he supposed to float back to his castle, he instead walks back to the tent, lays down and dies.  Elsa still dies too.

I preferred the romantic, fairy tale version. It best fits the original intent of the opera with fantasy and magic.  The version we saw was doubly tragic.  It was long, but we did find the opera to be more enjoyable than Siegfried.  We also discovered surprisingly, the most well known aria from this opera is the Bridal Chorus, most commonly played at today’s weddings.