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Off-Broadway Review—“Nat Turner in Jerusalem”
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 11 October 2016 03:36
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Nat Turner in Jerusalem
Written by Nathan Alan Davis; directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian
Performances through October 16, 2016
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| Rowan Vickers and Phillip James Brannon in Nat Turner in Jerusalem (photo: Joan Marcus) |
Suddenly, the Nat Turner slave rebellion is everywhere: in Nate Parker’s new film The Birth of a Nation and in Nathan Alan Davis’s play Nat Turner in Jerusalem. While Parker’s film choppily dramatizes what happened before, during and after the uprising—in which Turner and many fellow slaves butchered dozens of slave holders and their families, only to be caught and massacred themselves, with Turner arrested and thrown in prison before being hanged—Nat Turner in Jerusalem concentrates on Turner’s last night on earth in a two-hander (with three characters) that is by turns realistic, metaphysical and too obviously symbolic.
The symbolism starts with the title: Jerusalem was the Virginia town where Turner’s rebellion went to grab a cache of firearms and also were he was imprisoned and hanged, but it also conveniently alludes to the martyrdom of both Turner and his savior Jesus Christ. As Turner discusses his fate with two men—a nameless guard and his lawyer, Thomas Gray, the latter of whom publishes Turner’s confessions after his death—the dialogue is peppered with Biblical quotations, and the prisoner even convinces the atheist lawyer to kneel for a final prayer before he agrees to speak to him.
Some of this makes for convincing drama, but there are long arid stretches where Turner, for example, extols the existential beauty of the sunset or describes the spiritual rightness of his murderous rampage; as if to compensate, he is turned into a Christ-like figure by Mary Louise Geiger’s moody lighting, which throws his shadow on the wall as he holds a lamp—and voila, it looks like the Holy Grail being carried to the altar.
None of this is coincidental, obviously, but since the material itself is so strongly compelling, reducing it to mere metaphorical drama—Turner even frees himself from his chains at one point—makes Jerusalem a frustrating 90 minutes of theater that’s further burdened by a set-up where the movable wooden stage itself is placed between two sets of uncomfortable bleacher seats.
Phillip James Brannon makes Turner a charismatic figure, even when wearing his clumsily literal chains, while Rowan Vickers plays Gray and the guard with insufficient variety. Nat Turner in Jerusalem contains pertinent food for thought, but its lyrical flights are too often weighed down by thudding didacticism.
Nat Turner in Jerusalem
New York Theater Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, New York, NY
nytw.org
American Classical Orchestra Opens Season at Lincoln Center
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 27 September 2016 21:30
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Photo by William Neumann Photography
The fine musicians of the American Classical Orchestra inaugurated their 32nd season with a rewarding opening night concert at the wonderful Alice Tully Hall on September 22nd. The program was devoted to music of the early Romantic era, unusual in the period-instrument repertory, all of it new to this ensemble. (This orchestra specializes in music of the Classical period along with some works of the High Baroque.)
The estimable and appealing Thomas Crawford who led (and founded) this orchestra remarked in an enjoyable pre-concert talk that he was confident that the first work on this program—the excellent, little-known Symphony No. 10 by the rarely encountered Cipriani Potter—was receiving its New York premiere and would never be heard by the audience again. The influence of Ludwig van Beethoven was keenly felt here while the piece was admired by—as well as conducted by—Richard Wagner. The strengths of this ensemble were at their most evident in this performance, especially with respect to the conductor's splendid command over tempo.
Crawford described the next work—the resplendent set of songs, Les nuits d'été, by the visionary Hector Berlioz—as one that he cannot understand and that sounds almost random, calling it "enigmatic, inexplicable and rapturous"—he added that despite his incomprehension, he intended to program more by this composer because the texture is so different from other music they play. The superb performance was most remarkable for the stunning presence of the lovely and amazing soloist, Juilliard student Avery Amereau, whom I've been privileged to hear sing several times and whom Crawford noted with astonishment was that most uncommon creature, a contralto—indeed, on this account she was recently profiled by the New York Times.
The second half of the concert was devoted to a compelling rendition of the great Felix Mendelssohn's magisterial "Scottish" Symphony. (This was a fitting counterpart to the composer's lesser-known "Reformation" Symphony heard at Carnegie Hall the previous day, played by the Senior Concert Orchestra of New York.)
I look forward to attending the other performances by the American Classical Orchestra being presented this season.
September '16 Digital Week I
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 06 September 2016 12:30
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
A Boy Named Charlie Brown
Snoopy Come Home
(CBS)
At the height of his comic strip’s popularity—which became even more celebrated with TV specials like the classic perennial A Charlie Brown Christmas—Charles Schultz and company brought the Peanuts gang to the big screen with, for the most part, memorable results.
1969’s low-key Boy is like a charming—if occasionally rambling and overlong—TV episode, while 1972’s Snoopy shows off the strip’s beloved beagle in an often bittersweet narrative. The films look good enough on Blu-ray, at least.
(Warner Archive)
Long before the bloated and overwrought (but, sadly, Oscar-winning) The Revenant, an earlier era of “survival” films featured Sydney Pollack’s Jeremiah Johnson (1972) starring Robert Redford and this atmospheric 1971 entry starring Richard Harris as the physically and emotionally wounded protagonist.
Although there’s not much action by today’s standards, Harris gives as intense a performance as Leonardo DiCaprio as the protagonist left for dead by his fellow explorers, and director Richard C. Sarafian keeps the drama understated and naturalistic, even with an attacking bear (you didn’t think The Revenant was in any way original, did you?) that further wounds Harris. There’s a solid hi-def transfer, with muted colors and sharp imagery.
The Ones Below
(Magnet)
This standard-issue Rosemary’s Baby rip-off is afflicted with the usual problem of this kind of would-be thriller: its characters act so stupidly that one can’t have much sympathy when bad things begin happening.
It’s stylishly directed by David Farr (who also wrote the flimsily-motivated script), and Clemence Poesy is disturbingly effective as a new mother gone off the rails by her neighbors, but by its end—which is nonsensical—the movie prefers cheap twists over psychologically plausibility. There’s a first-rate hi-def transfer; extras comprise several featurettes.
(Eagle Rock)
It’s difficult to say whom this release is for: are hardcore Styx fans pining for an eight-song performance, barely lasting 50 minutes, interspersed with a half-hour’s worth of alternately entertaining and self-serving interviews with band members and crew?
The band sounds as tight as ever—and Tommy Shaw’s voice hasn’t aged a bit on tunes like “Crystal Ball”—but why, in 2016, are rock fans still getting chopped-up and heavily-edited, instead of full-length, concert films? The hi-def video and audio are rocking; extras are interviews.
What Happened, Miss Simone?
(Eagle Rock)
Nina Simone was a true original—her singing style and stage presence were unquestionably unique—but the details of her career and her life as an icon and a civil-rights activist is at the center of Liz Garbus’s always fascinating documentary.
The footage of her performing is electrifying—especially glimpses of her during her “eclipse” in Europe—but it’s only one aspect of her legacy, as the many interviews with family, colleagues and admirers shows. The film has a solid Blu-ray transfer; extras comprise additional interviews.
CSI: Cyber—Complete 2nd (Final) Season
Limitless—Complete 1st Season
Lucifer—Complete 1st Season
(CBS)
CSI: Cyber never caught on with viewers—the rare CSI franchise to fail—despite what producers thought would be sure-fire casting of Oscar winner Patricia Arquette and Emmy winner Ted Danson: the final season is watchable but underwhelming.
The first seasons of new dramas Limitless and Lucifer had trouble keeping their balance with offbeat plots butting heads with the strictures of hour-long network TV drama series, the former’s pill making its protagonist the world’s smartest man, while the latter transplants the devil from Hades to Los Angeles—the City of Angels, get it? CSI and Lucifer extras include featurettes, a gag reel and deleted scenes.
Moby Dick
(Warner Archive)
Clocking in at only 78 minutes, it’s obvious that this 1930 version of “the great white whale” tale has little to do with Herman Melville’s massive novel: furthermore, John Barrymore’s Ahab, lovesick over a young woman in New Bedford, Mass., returns to the sea to kill the giant leviathan who bit off his leg before returning to land and his woman, has nothing on Melville’s great antagonist.
To cement things, there isn’t even any character named Ishmael in the movie, which makes this for Barrymore completists only.
(Warner Bros)
As if they hadn’t fought enough demons, specters, werewolves and other creatures of the night over the previous ten seasons, Dean and Sam Winchester—brothers and hunters ofSupernatural—have not encountered an enemy like the one that arrives to confront them in their 11th season: The Darkness.
It’s a clever ploy to reboot a show that was on its way to becoming stale and repetitive, and the 23 episodes gain dramatic traction from it. Extras are five featurettes, deleted scenes, gag reel and commentaries.
Wrapping Up the Mostly Mozart Festival
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 01 September 2016 15:02
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Mark Morris and dance troupe, photo by Stephanie Berger
The third week of this year's Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center featured some excellent music at David Geffen Hall on the evening of Wednesday, August 10th, repeating the program of the night before.
Baritone Thomas Meglioranza, accompanied by Reiko Uchida on piano, presented a worthwhile pre-concert recital of selections from Hugo Wolf's Mörike-Lieder, which are set to texts by the great 19th-century German poet, Eduard Mörike, who, it is interesting to note, wrote an esteemed book about Mozart. The singer was at his most rewarding in his upper register.
The concert proper was an all-Mozart program given by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra under the confident baton of the festival director, Louis Langrée, opening with a superb account of the rarely played Symphony No. 1, written, astonishingly, when the composer was eight years old. The wonderful soloist, Richard Goode, then took the stage for a splendid performance of the delightful Piano Concerto No. 12, playing Mozart's cadenza.
The evening achieved a satisfying closure with the magnificent Symphony No. 41, the "Jupiter" — Mozart's final opus in that genre. Langrée and the musicians delivered many especially beautiful moments throughout their realization of the work, especially coming into their own in the amazing last movement. Evidently the composer completed the work on August 10th, 1788, and to celebrate that fact, the conductor graciously led the orchestra in a repetition of the coda from the work, after a warm ovation.
More fine music could be heard at the same location on the evening of Friday the 12th, with the program repeated the following night. An enjoyable pre-concert recital featured the young musicians comprising the Lysander Piano Trio performing the lovely Piano Trio in F-sharp minor by Franz Joseph Haydn followed by Franz Liszt's exhilarating Hungarian Rhapsody No. 9, "Le carnaval de Pesth".
The concert proper consisted of three major Mozart piano concertos sensitively rendered by the Festival Orchestra, accompanying the brilliant Jeffrey Kahane, who played his own cadenzas and, amazingly, conducted from the piano. The enduringly popular No. 21 in C major — made famous for the use of the Andante on the soundtrack of the outstanding 1960s film, Elvira Madigan, directed by the late Bo Widerberg — opened the program — the glorious second movement was especially strong. Even more impressive was the reading of the somber No. 24 in C minor that ensued while Kahane and the musicians capped a memorable evening with a sterling account of the exquisite No. 22 in E-flat major.
The middle of the fourth week of the festival featured the enormously popular violinist Joshua Bell as conductor and soloist with the Festival Orchestra and, on the weekend, a closing pair of performances by the same ensemble, here led by Langrée, and expanded by the estimable Concert Chorale of New York under the solid direction of James Bagwell. The programs were devoted to two towering, unfinished choral masterpieces by Mozart, the Mass in C minor and the Requiem, the composer's swan song. The Mass was heard in an effective version completed by Langrée while the Requiem was realized in a satisfying completion by Mozart's pupils, Franz Xaver Süssmayr and Joseph Eybler, along with Langrée.
On the evening of Saturday, August 20th, both pieces were presented powerfully with an admirable slate of singers: soprano Joélle Harvey, mezzo-soprano Cecelia Hall, the handsome tenor Alek Shrader, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn. To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this festival, the enthusiastic Langrée generously led the ensemble in a repeat of the opening of the Requiem's Lacrimosa, the last notes Mozart ever composed.
The final week of this season featured a revival at the David Koch Theater of the often lovely Mozart Dances, by the gifted choreographer Mark Morris, who has had an enduring association with the festival. This 2006 work was commissioned by Lincoln Center to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth.
An entertaining, occasionally hilarious, pre-performance discussion between the choreographer and Ara Guzelimian took place at the David Rubinstein Atrium on the evening of Friday, August 26th. Here Morris stressed that he choreographs and rehearses to live music and that he "plays slow movements slow" while emphasizing the musicality of the dancers in his company. He also praised the René Jacobs recording of Così fan tutte.
Mozart Dances is set to music written during the composer's extraordinary decade in Vienna: his underrated Piano Concerto No. 11, the wonderful Sonata in D major for Two Pianos, and the magisterial, final Piano Concerto, the 27th, all beautifully performed by the outstanding Garrick Ohlsson, assisted in the Sonata by the accomplished Inon Barnatan. (The Festival Orchestra under the expert direction of Langrée sounded marvelous in the concerti.)
The dancers in this company are striking for how different their physical type is from that of New York City Ballet, whom are usually seen in this venue. They engagingly inhabited the choreographer's vision the hallmark of which is wit — or what is called "esprit" in French — surely also a nearly ubiquitous element in Mozart's music, thus rendering the pairing an inspired one. Here as elsewhere the ethos was strongly reminiscent of the remarkable Paul Taylor who, with his postmodern sensibility, seems to be what the literary critic Harold Bloom would call the "authentic precursor" of Morris. Seeing this was a satisfying conclusion to a well-executed festival.
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