Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Streaming Diary: Week 2 of Manual Cinema’s retrospective, ROH’s Bryn Terfel-led “Dutchman”, and Robbie Fairchild beguiles in a short dance film

• By drediman
• August 9, 2020
• No Comments

Here are my thoughts on the latest set of streaming adventures. Enjoy!

Manual Cinema’s “The End of TV”.

THEATER

Manual Cinema‘s 10th anniversary retrospective continued last week with The End of TV (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which tells the initially concurrent, eventually interweaving stories of two women in a Rust Belt city – one an aging, TV-addicted woman with onset dementia (strong shades of Ellen Burstyn’s heartbreaking and unforgettable performance in Requiem for a Dream); the other a recently laid-off factory worker looking to find stability and a renewed sense of identity in her life. Suffice to say, as economic casualties of a declining community, both characters find themselves uprooted and increasingly lost in the modern world (the “screenplay” is credited to Kyle Vegter and Ben Kauffman). The piece uses the Chicago collective’s unique blend of puppetry and live music in service of wordless, handcrafted cinematic storytelling. Unlike most Manual Cinema creations, music – the soulful Sufjan Stevens-like song cycle is by Ben Kauffman and Kyle Vegter – plays a more central role in The End of TV, which gives the whole affair more of a music video vibe. As with their other offerings, the work has been meticulously directed/storyboarded (kudos to Julia Miller), giving audiences a rich array of filmic perspectives and no shortage of stylish storytelling. Manual Cinema’s look-back continues next week with No Blue Memories.

Bryn Terfel in the Royal Opera’s production of Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman”.

OPERA

In terms of opera, I streamed the Royal Opera’s staging of Richard Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer (otherwise known as “The Flying Dutchman”) (RECOMMENDED). The 2015 performance was led by opera star Bryn Terfel, who was supposed to have headlined earlier this year the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of the opera by François Girard, who had previously scored big with a stunning Parsifal (the Met’s uneven staging of Dutchman was my last opera to attend in person before COVID-19 put a halt to live performances; you can find my thoughts on it here). Thanks to YouTube, Mr. Terfel’s performance as the opera’s titular supernatural seaman in Wagner’s early masterpiece has been made accessible, and the celebrated Welsh bass-baritone does not disappoint. A deeply passionate and intelligent performer, Mr. Terfel digs deep into the role, bringing commanding gravitas with his unstintingly committed characterization and stenorian voice. Soprano Adrianne Pieczonka made for an ideal Senta, the Dutchman’s dreamy but tragic love interest. Conductor Andris Nelsons’s robust reading of the score brought much needed color to Chris Shipman’s otherwise oppressive, stripped-down staging.

Robbie Fairchild in “In This Life — An Exploration of Grief in Five Acts”.

DANCE

Lastly, I was able to catch last week’s unveiling of In This Life — An Exploration of Grief in Five Acts (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), a short “dance film” starring Robbie Fairchild. Co-created by Bat-Sheva Guez and Mr. Fairchild, the compact piece plays out like a fever dream consumed with the notion of human grief and loss. Although it all unfolds within a 12-minute span, the emotional expanse of In This Life is immense. The film’s surreal progression follows Mr. Fairchild from his New York high rise apartment (Act 1: “Denial”), to a church (Act 2: “Anger”), to an oceanic landscape (Act 3: “Bargaining”), to a restaurant (Act 4: “Depression”), and finally to a netherworld with only projections of himself (Act 5: “Acceptance”). Despite the film’s intended dreamlike vagueness and thematic downbeat-ness, the former New York City Ballet principal anchors the film and beguiles with his boyish energy and open-hearted persona (after leaving City Ballet, the charismatic performer has continued to expand his artistic horizons). The sharp, emotive choreography is from a hodgepodge of talents – Warren Craft, James Alsop, Andrea Miller, Christopher Wheeldon, and Mr. Fairchild himself. I’ve continued to be fascinated by the intersection of dance and film; this Matthew Barney-like foray further evolves the hybrid form into a category all its own.