THE ROYAL ROAD: 2015 SUNDANCE SELECTION IS A POETIC JOURNEY THROUGH CALIFORNIA AND LOVE

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

THE ROYAL ROAD: ARTFULLY INTERWOVEN THOUGHTS  CONNECT U.S./MEXICO BORDER TENSIONS WITH UNREQUITED LESBIAN LOVE

by Dwight Casimere

'Simply poetic' are the two words that best describe Jenni Olson's 2015 Sundance Selection, The Royal Road. This cinematic essay begins with a recollection, spoken in voice-over (we even get an official dictionary entry on the origin of the term), of the final scene of the Hollywood Classic "Sunset Boulevard," in which the central character begins to explain why he's been found face down in an aging Hollywood film legend's swimming pool, to intimations on California's colonial past and the conquest of Mexican territory from the Mexican-American to the Mission system created by Father Junipero Serro and the trail of blood and repression that became known as the 'Royal Road,' from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

 The director Jenni Olson in a pensive moment

 Scenes of Mission Dolores and Potrero Hill in San Francisco

Olson's meandering journey of conscience and observation is beautifully shot in 16mm film, using breathtaking panoramas and Ansel Adams-like stills of the urban and pastoral landscape that marks the road and its distinctive Mission-bell signage. Along the way, Olson reflects on a never-realized lesbian love-affair (more like a case of sheer unrequited love than anything) and the tangential relationship between the almost never written or talked about Mexican- America War, which made My Lai look like a Sunday picnic. 

Her near hypnotic voice further creates an atmospheric portrait that connects the creation of the Mission system with nostalgic shots of Mission Dolores and romantic scenes of the pineapple tree-lined Dolores Street in San Francisco and beautiful shots of Dolores Heights, Potrero Hill and the Golden Gate Bridge.

 Director Jenni Olson-The Royal Road

Cinematographer Sophia Constantinou's images (she also shots Olson's debut effort, The Joy of Life), uses the images of barren urban landscapes, unpopulated streets and buildings and wide-angled highway and railway shots to convey the vastness and emptiness of the director's own internal landscape.  It's an unusual premise, but somehow it all works, and Olson's internal monologue leaps from the screen to captivate the soul. 

The Royal Road

Written and Directed by Jenni Olson

Narrated by Jenni Olson with a voiceover cameo by Tony Kushner

Documentary

65 minutes

Opens in New York City October 30

NYC Theatrical Run Anthology Film Archives

October 30-November 5

Filmmaker Jenni Olson in person at screenings the weekend of October 30

LANG LANG DISPLAYS QUIETER ARTISTIC SIDE IN CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT

Showy piano virtuoso digs deep into emotive sides of Tchaikovsky, Bach and Chopin

by Dwight Casimere

NEW YORK--Piano megastar Lang Lang is known for his glitz at the piano, sometimes with acrobatics bordering on an Elton John or Jerry Lee Lewis. He's been billed as charismatic and exuberant. At times, it can seem annoying.

Happily, none of those  histrionics were evident in his recent masterful performance on the Perlman Stage of Carnegie Hall. Lang Lang chose a more contemplative approach in which he revealed the emotive side of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in his almost Impressionistic The Seasons, Opus 37b, Tchaikovsky being another artist best known for his more dramatic and sometimes over-the-top  compositions.

Tchaikovsky's The Seasons is a set of suites in which the months are noted with situational settings. January, for example, is "By The Fireside, June, "Barcarolle" (referring to the lovely songs sung by the gondoliers in Venice), August is "Harvest." Lang Lang painted a musical portrait of each, using varied pressures of his supple fingers to emphasize interior melodies. Some of his most impressive playing was during the quieter moments, when he almost made the silence between passages ripple with emotion.

Italian Concerto, BWV 971 by Johann Sebastian Bach similarly showed the artist's full command of his Steinway. At times technically dazzling and alternating between exacting counterpoint and fluid expressionism, the piece commanded your attention at every turn.  This is a young artist who has truly turned the corner from youthful showman to mature practitioner.

Frederic Chopin's Scherzos are challenging to present, even by the most skilled of artists. The composer's blend of dazzling technique with contrasting introspection make them difficult to perform with any degree of integrity. Performers often sacrifice one element for the other, thus losing the overall dynamics of the music. Lang Lang found the perfect balance. His arpeggios were filled with a sense of revelation, with emotion building to a grand epiphany.There were flashes of  turbulence that would suddenly descend into a whisper. The effect was breathtaking.

The overflow audience was well armed with bouquets of flowers that were showered upon the artist as he raised his arms, almost as if in triumph. It was a grand  gesture which appropriately punctuated  his impactful performance.

"THE GIN GAME" UNITES JAMES EARL JONES, CICELY TYSON IN POWERFUL PLAY

PULITZER PRIZE WINNING DRAMA A PERFECT VEHICLE FOR TONY-AWARD WINNING DUO

by Dwight Casimere

NEW YORK---A unique opportunity to see two legends of the stage and screen on the same stage is "THE GIN GAME" NOW THROUGH JANUARY 10 on Broadway at the Golden Theatre. Starring James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by D.L. Coburn pits the 84 year old Jones and 90 year old Tyson as the mis-matched odd couple who find themselves thrown together in a dilapidated nursing home in God-knows-where. The two Tony Award-winning actors (Jones for The Great White Hope, Tyson for The Trip To Bountiful) are in top form as the sparring oldsters who meet over a begrudging game of Gin Rummy.

Jones, as the irascible Weller Martin lures newcomer Fonsia Dorsey, played with coy deftness by Cicely Tyson, into learning the finer points of the age-old game of Gin Rummy. The game turns out be a type of Rorschach Test for the human psyche of the two actors. We quickly learn that Martin/Jones is a poor loser and somewhat of a bully who, we later learn, was just a poor a loser in his personal life as he is at playing his beloved Gin Rummy, which he claims to be a master at. Fonsia/tyson, in her unassuming way, picks up the game right away and starts winning every hand. Martin gets more frustrated as the play unfolds and the ugly demons of his personality start to surface as Fonsia pricks away at his fragile ego by continuing the win.

By the play's mid-point, the friction between the two is so palpable, you could literally cut the bad air between them with a knife. Even though the plot is somewhat thin, the extraordinary acting skills of Tyson and Jones send this performance into the stratosphere, making it an electrifying experience. Credit Director Leonard Foglia with orchestrating the skillful pacing of this parlor drama.

The sets and costumes by Riccardo Hernandez excellently convey the throw-away, haphazard environment of the nursing home, which outwardly reflects the sociological positioning of the main characters as two elderly people, literally cast away by society like so much used and discarded furniture. Indeed. the card table which the Martin/Jones character uses to 'school' Fonsia is something he found behind the trash bins.

Tyson's character is not so fragile as one would initially believe. She challenges Martin and nearly pushes him over the emotional edge. There's a lingering feeling that there's much more to this play and the dramatic scenario it posits. Perhaps that's another play, yet to be written. Suffice  to say that the opportunity to see two such enduring legends on the same stage is not to be missed! For tickets and showtimes, visit telecharge.com

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC PRESENTS GREAT AFRICAN AMERICAN SINGERS AND THEIR LEGACY

"IN THEIR FOOTSTEPS" A TRIBUTE TO MARIAN ANDERSON, BETTY ALLEN, GEORGE SHIRLEY AND WILLIAM WARFIELD
Curated by New York Philharmonic The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-In-Residence
Eric Owens

Reviewed by Dwight Casimere

 Eric Owens backstage at the Metropolitan Opera House and (below) as Alberich in Wagner's Das Rheingold

NEW YORK--"In Their Footsteps: Great African American Singers And Their Legacy" was a celebration by the New York Philharmonic of the legendary voices of artists of color from the last century; Marian Anderson, Betty Allen, William Warfield and George Shirley, who was in the audience to receive thunderous adulation.

 Curated by esteemed Metropolitan Opera Baritone and the Philharmonic's The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-In-Residence Eric Owens, the concert not only celebrated the voices of the past, but gave attendees an opportunity to hear some of the greatest black voices currently gracing concert stages and opera houses around the globe.

African American artists are no strangers to the New York Philharmonic Stage and its newly named David Geffen Hall. Marian Anderson appeared with the orchestra on multiple occasions before her historic debut at The Metropolitan Opera in 1955. William Warfield similarly, was a frequent and beloved figure on both stages. Yet, there is no denying, there is still much work to be done.

The concert featured a stellar cast of singers in repertory linked to each of the named legends. Most notable was the Philharmonic's long overdue debut of selections from Scott Joplin's opera "Treemonisha", an overture that masterfully blended classical motifs with ragtime, which was conducted with exhuberance by Conductor Thomas Wilkins in his New York Philharmonic debut.

Soprano Laquita Mitchell dazzled as the soloist in the 1910  aria, "The Sacred Tree."
Mitchell, in her New York Philharmonic Debut, is no stranger to opera lovers. She was hailed by the New York Times for her portrayal of Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata in NewYork City Opera's 2012 season. She can also be seen on San Francisco Opera's DVD of her performance as Bess in Porgy and Bess, which opened their 2014 season.

 Soprano Laquita Mitchell with Eric Owens in the title roles in San Francisco Opera's Porgy and Bess

All of the singers have significant pedigree anda long list of operatic and symphonic triumphs with major orchestras and opera companies around the world.

 Besides being the Philharmonic's artist-in-residence, Eric Owens has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera in Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" as Alberich in the opera Das Rheingold in the 2010 season. He will appear as Orest opposite legendary Mezzo Soprano Waltraud Meyer in Richard Strauss's Elektra April 14-May 7, 2016 at the Met.

A two-time Grammy Winner (Best Opera 2012-Wagner's Der Ring, Deutsche Gramophone, 2011-Adams: Doctor Atomic, with the Met),   Owens is also the 2003 winner of the Marian Anderson Award and took First Prize in the Placido Domingo Operalia Competition.

Owens, who gave his own pre-curtain 'artist indisposed' speech, due to a bronchial condition, none-the-less sang brilliantly, reprising his own triumphs, and those of baritones past, in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in a scintillating duet with Laquita Williams in "I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'" and "Bess You Is My Woman Now." He later channeled the late, great William Warfield in the show-stopping "Ol Man River"  from Jerome Kern's Show Boat.

Tenor Russell Thomas gave a commanding reading of the emotive lecture "Wrong Is Never Right" and soared in  "Ingemisco" from Verdi's Requiem.

All of the singers gave stand-out performances, with each one eclipsing the previous.
Janai Brugger, the 2013 Placid Domingo Competition winner, gave a shimmering rendition of Bach's "Ave Maria."

The entire cast came together in a celebratory rendition of a selection from Aaron Copland; "Simple Gifts" from Old American Songs, historically premiered by William Warfield in 1955 at the Philharmonic, and later  famously recorded in by him in 1958. The orchestra concluded  with  Wilkins conducting a rousing Selection from Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite.

The Dorothy Maynor Singers of the Harlem School of the Arts made an impressive showing in their New York Philharmonic Debut.


It was a wholly satisfying evening that made one yearn for more representation of these great artists on the world's major musical stages.

Thursday at Chicago Film Festival Profiles Personal Sacrifice for Dining Excellence, Abuse of Women in Palestine

Thursday October 22 lineup includes DOC Milano 2015, For Grace about Chicago super chef Curtis Duffy, and Degraded, a dramatic look at the turmoil in Palestine and its effect on women


by Dwight Casimere

Chef Curtis Duffy in the Documentary/Food film FOR GRACE, screening at Chicago Film Festival


The 51st Chicago International Film Festival continues with a Thursday, October 22 lineup that reprises some of the memorable titles of its opening week, such as Motley's Law (2:30pm)  and A Very Ordinary Citizen (4pm), but profiles the struggles of Michelin-starred Chicago Chef Curtis Duffy and his struggles to open his dream restaurant in FOR GRACE, screening at noon at the AMC River East 21. As seen through the cinematic eyes of Chicago Tribune James Beard nominated food critic Kevin Pang and filmmaker Mark Helenowski, the film documents the struggles of Duffy to perserver in the demanding world of haut cuisine restaurants against the backdrop of a troubled life. Plagued by personal demons in high school that led to him taking refuge in the kitchen, Duffy lost his wife and children and a huge chunk of his emotional stability and self-esteem to pursue his dream. Pang and Helenowski use their camera to probe deep below the emotional layers of a complex individual with more stamina and can-do spirit than he probably has lucky chances. It all adds up to a celebration of not only the art of cuisine, but a triumph of the human spirit against all offs. Screening at AMC River East 21 at 3:30pm with a repeat Monday, October 26 at 5:30pm.

The famed opera house La Scala is depicted in the Architecture Documentary  Milano 2015

The screening day begins at Noon with the Architecture Documentary Milano 2015. From producer  Cristiana Mainardi and a team of directors, incuding Roberto Bolle, Silvio Soldini, Walter Voltroni, Cristina Capotondi, Lionello Carri and Giorgio Divitto, the film is a sort of visual cinematic fresco that looks at the architectural, cultural and spiritual soul of the great architectural, artistic and industrial city of Mlan through the images of its fantastic building, its art and its people. The camera creates a collage of images from the highest skyscrapers in Milan, to the excellence of its theaters and the great opera house, La Scale, to the cloistered walls of a nunnery to the streets of Milan and the lingering faces of its habitués to the pristine countryside of Lambardi. The six directors combine their images and sensibilities to weave a varied portrait of an historic city and its variegated people. 103 minutes. In Italian with English subtitles. It screen Thursday, October 22 at noon.

A scene from the France/Palestine drama DEGRADE which is a World Cinema presentation

The piece de resistance of  Thursday's screenings is the France/Palestine chamber drama DEGRADE from directors Tarzan and Arab Nasser. The film takes place entirely in the cramped quarters of a beauty shop in the war-torn Gaza Strip. "Fried Green Tomatoes" it is not! The story features a panoply of Arab women trapped inside the beauty salon, attempting to go about their weekly beautification rituals while the vagaries of the political conflict outside are waged in varying degrees of danger. The ironies within are only overshadowed by the atrocities that occur without. Yet, the women continue their interpersonal banter, recounting failed affairs, miscarriages, loves lost, even illicit affairs. It's amazing how we westerners consider those in the Middle East so different, yet, to hear the stories of these women, except for the suicide bombs and gunfire outside (unless you're in Englewood or the West Side of Chicago), this slice-of-life drama could have happened anywhere. There's a ton of incongruous thoughts, actions and characters, which melds comedy with tragedy. Like the arduous resistance leader, hunted by Hamas, who sits outside the beauty shop attempting to woo its owner, a pet lion on a chain in tow, which he occasionally use to menace the women to get their attention. There's also the pregnant woman, constantly experiencing labor pains, whose set to deliver at any minute, while the war rages outside.

Then there's the drug addicted house wife, whose having an affair and encouraging the devout, prayerful woman-in-a-burka sitting next to her to try some artificial heroine. Another pair of women are getting all dolled up for either their weddings, or a date on the sly with a new beau. (It probably won't happen though. All the roads are closed by the constant combat outside.) Yet, they continue to get gussied up, even after the lights and power go out multiple times and the gunfire outside rages on with varying degrees of mounting personal danger.

If you're a devotee of foreign films and film festivals, you'll instantly recognize foreign film icon Hiam Abbass, a bit older, but still captivatingly beautiful! This film takes you right to the barricades of the Gaza Strip, with all its ironies, absurdities, comedy and tragedy, where you'll leave your heart. DEGRADE screens Thursday October 22 r 6:15pm, Friday October 23 at 8:30pm and Friday, October 28 at 12:30pm.

MET LIVE HD "OTELLO" IN ENCORE PERFORMANCE IN THEATRES WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 21 AT 6:30PM LOCAL TIME

Met Season Opening production sheds new light on the plight of Shakespeare's fallen Moor in Verdi opera

by Dwight Casimere
Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

NEW YORK--The Met Live HD performance of Giuseppe Verdi's OTELLO occurred several week's after the Season Opening Gala Performance of Broadway Tony Award winning director Bartlett Sher's black face-less production, so the controversy over the choice had died down. Therefore, audiences at this week's Live HD performance could simply sit back, relax and enjoy one of the finest renditions of the live cinema-for-opera medium, directed by veteran television Live Cinema Director Gary Halvorson (tv's Two and Half Men, ABC Sports). 

Having seen the production both live at the Met and in the movie theatre, it became apparent how readily Shakespeare's drama lends itself to the medium of Live Cinema.  Set to operatic libretto and orchestration by Guiseppe Verdi, with a set designed by Es Devlin, Costumes by Catherine Zuber, and production design by Luke Halls,  the production seemed to sparkle with renewed vitality when viewed through the dozen or so lenses of Halvorson's cameras and his team of directors. They employed camera angles from every corner of the opera house, from the raptors, to behind stage and used cameras on runners,  like those used to follow runners during the Olympics,  which Halvorson revealed in an interview in a film segment shown during the intermission about his behind-the-scenes camera work.

Met baritone Eric Owens was the superb backstage host and interviewer. His pre-broadcast comments set up the ensuing action  with insightful commentary and he had a brilliant command of the Russian, Serbian and Italian languages in introducing the singers and their characters in the production. His questions during the backstage interviews were well thought out and allowed the singers to elucidate their personal thoughts on the elements of the production. Its notable that the capacity movie-theatre audience listened with rapt attention to all of the backstage commentary and stayed on to watch the behind-the-scenes video on Gary Halverson and his crew's elaborate preparations and execution of  Met Live HD productions.

The use of Halvorson's cameras heightened the drama, especially in the early scenes when the singers are paired off in simultaneous exchanges where key points are made concerning the plot in parenthetic vocal statements. The camera was able to zero in on each of the paired singers, so that you could keep up with the action and the unfolding of Iago's devious plot. A sweeping slow pan of the chorus, meanwhile, made what was otherwise a very static stage setting on the Met stage, appear more mobile and visual join the cinematic setting. 

Aleksandrs Antonenko, with his stentorian voice and robust demeanor, could not have made for a more commanding Otello. His voice literally rang forth above all the others in the ensembles and his acting capabilities seemed light years above the somewhat wooden performance he gave on Opening Night. The fact that he was not in darkened makeup was of little concern, as one got deeper into the layers of the character as it unfolded in his superb portrayal. To tell you the truth, the time I saw Placido Domingo play the role some years ago, I found the getup distracting. Antonenko's appearance, in fact, is not too unlike that of many Moors I observed during my trip to Morocco a few years ago. If he were to walk down a street in Marrakech, he'd blend right in!

On with the rest of the production. The beauteous Sonya Yoncheva gave an intuitive portrayal of Desdemona. As she revealed in her backstage interview with Owens, she wanted to portray her character as a strong woman, who is firm in her conviction that she is innocent of the claims of infidelity engineered by Iago (Zeljko Lucic, in a deliciously villainous performance), and foolishly believed by the vainglorious Otello. Her Ave Maria

The unraveling of Otello's mental state is perfectly built up over the course of the opera as it swells toward its tragic conclusion. Conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin was masterful in his handling of Verdi's lush, multi-layered score. In other less-skilled hands, the music could have crushed the production under the sheer weight of its complexity. In Nezet-Seguin's capable hands, it was at times dark and forbidding, with flashes of light, that underscored the needless tragedy created by Iago's cunning, feeding on Otello's fragile, twisted ego. His (Iago's)  rueful declaration to the Cypriot's cry, praising the "Lion of Venice' as he stands over an Otello, crumpled by the weight of his encroaching insanity, "Behold The Lion!" is one of the high points of the operatic drama.

If you were already at the original MET LIVE HD cinema cast, it wouldn't hurt to see it again. I certainly plan to. Verdi's Otello, MET LIVE HD, Wednesday, October 21, 6:30 pm local time. Check local theatre listings. Visit metopera.org or fathomevents.com

   

The Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin leads an inspired program of Grieg, Bartok and Sibelius

Reviewed by Dwight Casimere


                                       

NEW YORK--The Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin is one busy young conductor. Besides leading performances of Verdi's Otello at the Metropolitan Opera, which recently concluded performances, he joined his 'home team' across town for the orchestra's first appearance of the season at Carnegie Hall. In every way, the performance bristled with excitement and suspense.

First, the suspense part. Orchestra members had just signed a new contract the day prior to the concert, which averted the possibility of a strike and cancellation of the concert. Nezet-Seguin himself has renewed his commitment to the orchestra with a deal that has him at the podium through the 2021-2022 season. So much for the behind-the-scenes cliff-hangers. The real drama unfolded on the stage of the Isaac Stern Auditorium with a thrilling program of Edward Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Bela Bartok's heroic Violin Concerto No. 2 with Philadelphia Orchestra favorite and Grammy-winner Gil Shaham as soloist and Jean Sibelius's stirring Symphony No. 5 in E-flat as the conclusion. It was an exciting evening of great, inventive music at every turn.

Nezet-Seguin is a conductor who finds the rhythmic heart of a piece and isn't afraid to break out in a sort of balletic dance at the podium to emphasize his point. He marshaled the full force of the orchestra's legendary brass section to give the "In The Hall of the Mountain King" section all of the pre-Halloween atmosphere it is famous for.

Gil Shaham used the full power of his interpretive skills to imbue Bartok's moody Violin Concerto with a sense of controlled passion. The music spans the breadth of human emotions and Shaham's playing expressed them with lucidity.

Sibelius's Symphony No. 5 is an almost impressionistic tone poem. Nezet-Seguin utilized all of the orchestra's superb soloists and section leaders to great advantage. He gave the piece a  luster that allowed each of its shifting themes to shine in the shimmering light. He built a dramatic tension throughout that showcased that famous "Philadelphia Sound."

The Philadelphia Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall for three additional programs this season. Visit carnegiehall.org for details.