Leonard Bernstein worked on Candide, his musical version of Voltaire’s novella, for many years, revising and adding to the score. Lyrics were contributed by such luminaries as Lilian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Richard Wilbur and Stephen Sondheim. The new DVD from Deutsche Grammophon presents what was a famous video, of the concert version Bernstein conducted in London in 1989, the final year of his life. The cast is stellar — Jerry Hadley as the hero, Christa Ludwig as the Old Lady, the young Della Jones as Paquette, and Nicolai Gedda in a variety of small roles. Bernstein, as well as conducting, contributes spoken introductions and incidental comments.
Wonderful though Hadley always is, the most striking soloist here is June Anderson as Cunegonde. Candide is a sort of musical, much influenced by Gilbert and Sullivan, but Cunegonde’s Glitter and Be Gay (no pun intended) is pure opera. As for seeing Christa Ludwig, a great Wagnerian, dancing with castanets in I Am Easily Assimilated, to say it’s memorable is an understatement.
I wish it could be said that modern people didn’t need to be persuaded that official ideologies have to be disproved. Voltaire in Candide thought differently, and so did Bernstein, once considered a subversive by the US authorities. One of the virtues of this DVD is that the booklet tells you which librettist wrote the words to each number. West Side Story may be Bernstein’s most popular work, but Candide is his most intelligent.
Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele (1868, revised 1875) isn’t a well-known work today, but the 1989 San Francisco Opera production, new out on DVD from Well Go USA, is sensational. The first two scenes scour scenic motifs from Mexican Catholicism, Brazilian carnivals and Andalusian Good Fridays to produce a visual orgy of sensual piety. Invention then flags somewhat (though the Witches’ Sabbath is also fun) and the first scene is resurrected for the finale.
Boito wrote the librettos for Verdi’s last two operas, Otello and Falstaff, but he couldn’t write tunes the way Verdi so effortlessly could. Even so, the music of Mefistofele is satisfactory for dramatic purposes, and here it is given a compelling performance under conductor Maurizio Arena. The leading soloists are spectacular, especially Samuel Ramey in the title role. It’s rare to find a singer so strong, and also so striking as an actor. The San Francisco audience goes crazy over him, as well they might. But Dennis O’Neill as Faust and Gabriela Benackova as Marguerite and Helen are both wonderful too. This DVD is all in all a highly recommendable product.
Handel’s Julius Caesar is given an enormously enjoyable performance in the classic English National Opera production dating from 1984. At last available on DVD from Well Go, it could hardly be improved on. Good though the Italian-language Sydney Opera House production was [it was reviewed in Taipei Times December 22, 2005], this English-language one is better. The opera, incidentally, was performed in both languages in London in Handel’s lifetime.
Janet Baker leads the cast as a masterful Caesar, with Valerie Masterson as Cleopatra, Sarah Walker as Cornelia, Della Jones as Sextus, counter-tenor James Bowman as Ptolemy, and John Tomlinson as a menacing Achillas. Baker, already 52 when this video was made (though she looks 25), sustains her part magnificently. Her long aria How Silently, How Slyly, with its hunting imagery and solo horn accompaniment, is unendingly pleasing. In the central section the horn is replaced by tripping violins, if anything even more wonderfully, and just before the end voice and horn go off together on a sort of crazed private journey. This is the music I want to hear when I’m dying.
But Valerie Masterson is also superb as Cleopatra (disguised as the servant Lydia). On her aria Lamenting, Complaining Caesar is made to comment “Great Jove in his heaven has no melody to equal such peerless singing.” You can’t but agree — unless it’s Janet Baker’s own.
“No characters, no tunes,” said the poet W.H. Auden in dismissing Janacek’s operas. In one sense this is true, but the secret to enjoying them is to listen to the orchestra — it, not the vocal lines, contains the music’s beauty. Janacek anticipates Philip Glass (who also turned to opera) and, when given performances that balance spectacle, rhythm and brilliance of sound, his often bizarre creations readily spring to life.
Sexuality in nature is the theme of The Cunning Little Vixen (1924), and it’s consistently delightful in a 1995 production from the Theatre Musical de Paris — Chatelet. It’s child-like, but at the same time warns us all of the folly of ever completely growing up. Thomas Allen and Eva Jenis lead the cast, the majority of whom are young dancers. The pictorial quality is innocent, vivid and funny, like the comic-strip where Janacek first discovered his story. Guilt-free sex, including group sex, forms this production’s unexpected theme, especially in its dances. An anti-puritan belief in the innocent beauty of nature and life is the opera’s real message. Sex overcomes death, and life goes on for ever.
— BRADLEY WINTERTON
Japan is celebrated for its exceptional levels of customer service. But the behavior of a growing number of customers and clients leaves a lot to be desired. The rise of the abusive consumer has prompted authorities in Tokyo to introduce the country’s first ordinance — a locally approved regulation — to protect service industry staff from kasuhara — the Japanese abbreviated form of “customer harassment.” While the Tokyo ordinance, which will go into effect in April, does not carry penalties, experts hope the move will highlight a growing social problem and, perhaps, encourage people to think twice before taking out their frustrations
There is perhaps no better way to soak up the last of Taipei’s balmy evenings than dining al fresco at La Piada with a sundowner Aperol Spritz and a luxuriant plate of charcuterie. La Piada (義式薄餅) is the brainchild of Milano native William Di Nardo. Tucked into an unassuming apartment complex, fairy lights and wining diners lead the way to this charming slice of laid-back Mediterranean deli culture. Taipei is entirely saturated with Italian cuisine, but La Piada offers something otherwise unseen on the island. Piadina Romagnola: a northern Italian street food classic. These handheld flatbreads are stuffed with cold
From a Brooklyn studio that looks like a cross between a ransacked Toys R Us and a serial killer’s lair, the artist David Henry Nobody Jr is planning the first survey of his career. Held by a headless dummy strung by its heels from the ceiling are a set of photographs from the turn of the century of a then 30-year-old Nobody with the former president of the US. The snapshots are all signed by Donald Trump in gold pen (Nobody supplied the pen). They will be a central piece of the New York artist’s upcoming survey in New York. This
In the tourism desert that is most of Changhua County, at least one place stands out as a remarkable exception: one of Taiwan’s earliest Han Chinese settlements, Lukang. Packed with temples and restored buildings showcasing different eras in Taiwan’s settlement history, the downtown area is best explored on foot. As you make your way through winding narrow alleys where even Taiwanese scooters seldom pass, you are sure to come across surprise after surprise. The old Taisugar railway station is a good jumping-off point for a walking tour of downtown Lukang. Though the interior is not open to the public, the exterior
RSS