Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Streaming Diary: Manual Cinema kicks off its retrospective, and the Met and Royal Ballet stream classic productions of DER ROSENKAVALIER and THE SLEEPING BEAUTY, respectively

• By drediman
• August 3, 2020
• No Comments

Last week, I streamed an eclectic bunch of performances. Here are my thoughts.

Manual Cinema begins its online retrospective with “Lula Del Ray”.

THEATER

First up was the streaming of the original 1957 broadcast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s filmed-live-for-television version of Cinderella (RECOMMENDED) starring a young Julie Andrews (on break from My Fair Lady on Broadway) in the title role. The musical made its way to the small screen two subsequent times – in 1965 starring Lesley Ann Warren (Cinderella) and Celeste Holm (Fairy Godmother), and then in 1997 featuring Brandy (Cinderella) and Whitney Houston (Fairy Godmother) – before landing on Broadway in 2013 in expanded form as a full-fledged, two-act musical led by Laura Osnes and Santino Fontana. In some ways, it’s refreshing to harken back to the simpler, more innocent times of the initial 1957 incarnation. Indeed, this Cinderella is as sweet and straightforward a retelling of the classic fairy tale as you’re likely to come across (Douglas Carter Beane’s heavily revised book for the Broadway edition upped the girl power aspect of the story). Indeed, it has no further agenda than to charm its way into our hearts, primarily by way of Ms. Andrews’ saccharine but never too sweet performance and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s top-tier score. Contributing much-needed character into the project were the delicious comic performances by Kaye Ballard and Alice Ghostley as the title heroine’s wicked step-sisters.

I’ve been a big fan of Manual Cinema since first catching their production of Ada/Ava just about five years ago. This year, the company is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and to commemorate the landmark event, the unique Chicago collective – which specializes in the live implementation of cinematic techniques – is presenting a month-long retrospective of its accomplished body of work. Things got underway last week with Lula Del Ray (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), a soulful modern-day “Wizard of Oz” riff which I had caught previously during its brief run at the 2017 Under Under the Radar festival. Revisiting the work, I was reminded of what generally makes Manual Cinema – namely, its inspired ability to play theatrical and cinematic traditions against each other. Before your very eyes, wordless, meticulously laid-out stories are conjured through scrappy (the handmade aesthetic of it all only adds to the enchantment) yet sophisticated cinematic techniques by an impressively synchronized and resourceful team of physical actors, shadow puppeteers, and live musicians. More importantly, these rich experiences take us on a journey that’s more than merely aesthetic. Manual Cinema’s works typically pack in emotional punches that unexpectedly come out of left field, and Lula Del Ray is no exception. The online retrospective continues in the next few weeks with The End of TV, No Blue Memories, and Frankenstein.

Renée Fleming and Susan Graham in a 2010 performance of Richard Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier” at the Metropolitan Opera.

OPERA

This past week, it was a huge treat to revisit American opera divas Renée Fleming and Susan Graham in two of their signature roles – the Marschallin and Octavian, respectively – in a 2010 Metropolitan Opera performance of Der Rosenkavalier (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). As I’ve indicated on other occasions, Richard Strauss’s gorgeous opera was my very first opera, which I initially saw more than two decades ago at the Royal Opera, starring none other than the duo of Ms. Fleming and Ms. Graham.  Reliving that experience got me choked up and not completely for sentimental reasons. The opera itself is a masterpiece, an uncannily perfect combination of Mozartian spirit and Straussian romanticism. As for Ms. Fleming and Ms Graham, they were breathtaking, giving vocal and dramatic performances of remarkable naturalism, subtlety, and charisma, which is not a simple feat to pull off on the Met’s mammoth stage. And as much as I love David McVicar’s current Met production, a part of me does miss Nathaniel Merrill’s highly traditional previous staging.

In another throwback performance, I caught Finnish soprano Karita Mattila – a notable operatic diva in her own right – take on the iconic tile role of Tosca (RECOMMENDED). The 2009 run of Puccini’s famous opera unveiled the late Luc Bondy’s controversial production to New York audiences. I had a milder response than many to the chilly, austere production, which stripped the opera pretty much completely of its period detail (hallmarks of the Met’s previous and subsequent stagings by Franco Zeffirelli and David McVicar, respectively). Theoretically, Mr. Bondy’s approach would allow the performances to take center stage and define the opera. And boy do they in this maiden cast. Like her portrayal of the Biblical seductress in Salome (see my thoughts on that performance here), Ms. Mattila tears into the role with ferocious abandon. Although the intensity she brings to her performance undoubtedly makes for thrilling theater, it perhaps comes at the consequence of beautiful music making. On the contrary, passionate Argentinean tenor Marcelo Alvarez brought exquisite vocal fullness to his performance. As the villainous Scarpia, Georgian baritone George Ganidze nicely matched the severity of Mr. Bondy’s production.

Fumi Kaneko leads a 2020 performance of The Royal Ballet’s production of “The Sleeping Beauty”.

DANCE

The Royal Ballet’s staging of The Sleeping Beauty (RECOMMENDED) is one of the crown jewels in the company’s repertoire. Indeed, the ballet was basically responsible for cementing the storied company’s reputation as a premiere international dance troupe shortly after World War II. Ballet enthusiasts consider the work to be the ideal representation of classical story ballet, and the Royal Ballet’s production – which was revamped in 2006 – is one of the finer iterations of this beloved work. This Sleeping Beauty, which augments Marius Petipa’s iconic original choreography with contributions by Frederick Ashton, Anthony Dowell, and Christopher Wheeldon, unfolds in a stately manner that largely avoids the cartoonish kitsch of other productions I’ve seen. The webcast I streamed (which was captured just earlier this year) was technically sound if not quite the magical experience I was hoping it would be. Leading the way as Princess Aurora was Fumi Kaneko, whose lightness and rock solid technique was a joy to watch (her Rose Adagio was particularly breathtaking). As her Prince, Federico Bonelli was appropriately handsome and regal, as well as in possession of refined firepower. All-in-all, however, the performance was a tad on the bland side, lacking in the personality and chemistry departments from Ms. Kaneko and Mr. Bonelli (I suspect the performance’s spectacular Act III Bluebird and Princess Florine, Matthew Ball and Yasmine Naghdi, would have fared better in the leading roles). That being said, the Royal Ballet production was sumptuous and classy enough to overcome any of my slight misgivings.

Lastly, I caught Ballet Hispanico’s 20-minute ballet Homebound/Alaala (RECOMMENDED), which enjoyed its world premiere last year at the Joyce Theater. Ballet Hispanico is one of the country’s premiere Latino dance troupes, as exemplified by its company of admirably-trained dancers and growing collection of culturally-conscious dance works that straddle the worlds of modern dance, classical ballet, and folk dancing traditions. Although Homebound/Alaala has been billed as an exploration of “the intersection of Latino and Asian cultures”, the piece is largely inspired by the Filipino culture. Set to a set of Tagalog folk songs, Fil-Am choreographer Bennyroyce Royon refreshingly eschews using traditional Filipino folk dancing in favor of more free-flowing, associative choreography. Being of Filipino descent myself, I was especially intrigued by the project and admired its theatricality, variety, and ambitious visual vocabulary (over the course of the dance, the company was in the constant process of rearranging blocks around the stage, as if to signify the the people’s inspiring sense of community, resilience, and improvisatory/migratory nature) in its pursuit to capture the essence of the Filipino people.