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Concert Review—Lea Michele at Carnegie Hall

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Friday, 10 November 2023 11:52; Written by Kevin Filipski

Lea Michele

October 30, 2023

Carnegie Hall, New York City

carnegiehall.org

Lea Michele at Carnegie Hall (photo: Richard Termine)

Lea Michele opened her first Carnegie Hall concert with a flourish, strutting and beaming as she made her way down the aisle to the stage in her sheer black dress belting out the first of many showstoppers, “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” a highlight from her recent Broadway run headlining the recent Funny Girl revival.

For the next 90 minutes, Michele treated her adoring audience to more Funny Girl numbers, other show tunes and pop tunes from the TV series Glee, all delivered with her effortlessly powerhouse voice. Her between-songs patter, though charming, was a mite excessive—I heard people grumbling afterward that she talked too much—but obviously the bigness of the moment contributed to some nerves while she spoke about her life and career.

Michele remembered being in this very hall at a young age watching other Broadway greats, hoping she would follow them one day. She obviously did—and on the journey through her early career, she resurrected “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables, her first Broadway show; followed by “Gliding” from Ragtime, which she starred in alongside Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell and her beloved Marin Mazzie.

Michele also told the story of her audition for Spring Awakening, at which she was asked to sing a pop song. The naïve 14-year-old could only think of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” prostitute Mary Magdalene’s Jesus Christ Superstar power ballad. The grownup Michele sang it winkingly, knowingly and, of course, beautifully.

For this special night, Michele’s special guests were her good friends and costars in Spring Awakening and Glee, respectively. First, Jonathan Groff joined her for a wonderful duet on “Word of Your Body” that segued into a thrilling bit of Sondheim’s “Somewhere,” then Darren Criss joined Lea for a spectacular “Suddenly Seymour” and, with Criss strumming an acoustic guitar, a touching take on Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love.”

After those dynamic duos, Michele kept the Broadway hits coming: "Papa Can You Hear Me" was followed by "Maybe This Time" and then a terrific Funny Girl medley of “I’m the Greatest Star,” “People” and “Music That Makes Me Dance.” She followed that with a boisterous “My Man,” a song the real Fanny Brice sang in concert but that wasn’t in the stage musical of Funny Girl—although Barbra Streisand sang it in the movie. Pianist and music director Steven Jamail and his taut, tight band provided strong accompaniment throughout.

For her lone encore, Michele sang a tearfully reflective "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," showcasing a voice of passionate restraint. She promised the cheering fansthat she would return to Broadway soon—which was music to everyone’s ears.

New York Philharmonic Present "Pictures at an Exhibition"

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Monday, 06 November 2023 19:30; Written by Jack Angstreich

Susanna Mälkki conducts the New York Philharmonic with Pierre-Laurent Aimard performing Ligeti Piano Concert. Photo by Chris Lee

At Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, on the evening of Saturday, November 4th, I had the exhilarating pleasure of attending a marvelous concert featuring the New York Philharmonic under the exceptionally impressive direction of the Finnish conductor, Susanna Mälkki.

The first half of the program was devoted to music by Hungarian composers, opening with a charming diversion—a performance of the immensely famous Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 of Franz Liszt, transcribed here for the cimbalom by the admirable soloist, Jenő Lisztes. Encountering this work played on this somewhat exotic instrument foregrounded its affinities with Central and Eastern European folk music but it would have been more enchanting in an orchestral version or even in its original form for the piano. Nonetheless, the audience was apparently delighted, responding with an enthusiastic ovation.

More remarkable was the ensemble’s superb account of Béla Bartók’s splendid Romanian Folk Dances, BB 76, which vary across a range of moods and styles—plaintive, ebullient, lyrical, and so forth—although, surprisingly, these exquisite pieces are maybe equally haunting when presented on the piano. The renowned virtuoso—surely one of the greatest of our time—Pierre-Laurent Aimard, then entered the stage to perform the perplexing Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by the celebrated avant-gardist, György Ligeti, whose centennial is being celebrated this year. I am not really competent to evaluate the merits of this intractable score but the initial movement, marked Vivace molto ritmico e preciso, is vigorous and arresting while the ensuing Lento is enigmatic, meditative, and eccentric, becoming highly dramatic. The scherzo that follows—with a tempo of Vivace cantabile—is not especially playful in tone despite its genre. The penultimate movement—Allegro risoluto, molto ritmico—is forbidding in its inaccessibility while thePresto luminousfinale is ludic if also inscrutable.

The summit of the evening, however, was achieved in the event’s second half—a stunning realization of Maurice Ravel’s brilliant orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky magnificent Pictures at an Exhibition. The “Gnomus” episode—the first of the “pictures”—is uncanny and arresting and the succeeding “Il Vecchio Castelo” is elegiac and mysterious. The “Tuileries” section is brief but effervescent and the “Bydlo” movement—“Polish Ox-Cart”—is strangely ominous. It precedes the jocular “Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks” and the solemn “Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle.” Next is the lively “The Marketplace at Limoges” and the lugubrious, portentous “Catacombs: Roman Burial Place.” Eerie but serene was “With the Dead in a Dead Language” while “The Hut on Chicken Feet: Baba-Yaga” was exciting, sinister and dynamic. The panoply concludes thrillingly with the majestic and triumphant “The Great Gate of Kiev.” The artists deservedly received abundant applause, closing a memorable concert.

A New Live Production, “Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors,” Reveals A High Camp Side to this Story of The Undead Count

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Friday, 03 November 2023 15:20; Written by Brad Balfour

What: Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors
Writers: by Gordon Greenberg, Steve Rosen
Director: Gordon Greenberg
Cast: Jordan Boatman, Arnie Burton, James Daly, Ellen Harvey, Andrew Keenan-Bolger
Where: New World Stages — Stage 5
340 West 50th Street
Run: Through January 7th, 2024

One thing you can count on every Halloween is an appearance of Dracula or, at least, some form of a vampire added to the mix. That could mean a re-run of the many classic films with the undead count such as Universal’s original version of “Dracula” (with Bela Lugosi) or Hammer’s “The Horror of Dracula” (with Christopher Lee). But this scary season doesn't necessarily require an appearance of the original bloodsucker himself. It could include some resurrection of his character in a movie, play or live visual presentation in some Haunted House.

In 1897, when Irish author Bram Stoker published his long-wrought novel “Dracula” for just six shillings, he didn’t realize that he’d created one of the most iconic figures of all time. Though this story of an aristocratic, undead mastermind was popular in its day, little did Stoker know that his blood-drinking, soulless monster of the night would become the source of countless permutations, reinterpretations, and re-examinations of this creature and its implications. There’s even aBram Stoker Festival in Dublin whichcelebrates the Gothic, the supernatural, the after-dark and Victorian as well as the Count himself.

drac poster Of course, along with Stoker’s horror classic, the inevitable humorous satires, parodies, and various send ups cropped up. From a tale of the ageless Count needing to leave his ancient homeland to resettle in England to tap fresh blood, the original gothic narrative has often been revised with sometimes hilarious results.

Now, through “Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors,” this battle with the master of the undead receives an outlandish rethink. Enabled by a compact, five-person cast — Jordan Boatman, Arnie Burton, James Daly, Ellen Harvey, and Andrew Keenan-Bolger — this rapid-fire comedic reimagining of this archetypal tale garners guffaws and lots of snickering.

Taking off from the original’s classic characters, they’re transformed into these versions: sweet Lucy Westfeldt, vampire hunter Jean Van Helsing, insect consumer Percy Renfield, and behavioral psychiatrist Wallace Westfeldt among others. Here they find themselves in a faux British country estate which doubles as a free-range mental asylum. With its cast of slapstick, quick change comics who switch roles with the aplomb of fast handed pickpockets, this “Dracula” not only makes you scream, it does it with laughter. The show also exposes a fundamental ridiculousness that illustrates just how resilient the original concept is: it can take jabs even at its core of terror and still retain a certain majestic-ness.

Through its compact 90-minute show, elements of goth, camp, and variant sexuality are thrown into a gender-bending, quick-change romp. With all the wacky characters, a pansexual Gen-Z Count Dracula tops the list of existentially challenged characters.

As a buddy of iconic gay Victorian author Oscar Wilde, the actual Stoker was believed to be a closeted gay man in a repressive England, so his novel was rife with suggestive sexuality and gender reversals. Director/co-writers Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen’s send-up of this novel is meant to be viewed through a very contemporary lens.

Just as the book transcended other Gothic horror of its day, this comedy rises above being simple holiday fare. Make your way to the Westside’s New World Stages for a comedic jab at the jugular.

For more information, visit www.DraculaComedy.com

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Perform Russian Romantic Classics

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Thursday, 02 November 2023 16:50; Written by Jack Angstreich

Soprano Erika Baikoff (L) and pianist Gilles Vonsattel. Photo by Tristan Cook.

At Alice Tully Hall, on Sunday, October 29th, I had the immense privilege to attend a superb concert—presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center—devoted to Russian Romantic music and centered upon that of Sergei Rachmaninoff whose sesquicentennial is being celebrated this year.

The program began beautifully with an admirable account of Anton Rubinstein’s lovely, lyrical “Romance” from Soirées à Saint-Petersbourg for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 44, No. 1, from 1860, which like the Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky piece that followed it, is an epitome of Romanticism—it formed the basis for the composer’s marvelous song setting of Alexander Pushkin’s “Night.” It was performed by the remarkable young violinist Benjamin Beilman along with cellist Clive Greensmith and pianist Gilles Vonsattel.

Even more memorable was a fabulous rendition of Tchaikovsky’s magnificent Souvenir d’un lieu cher (Memory of a dear place) for Violin and Piano, Op. 42, from 1878, played by Beilman and Vonsattel. The opening Méditation movement is also song-like and characteristically plaintive, while the ensuing Scherzo is propulsive, virtuosic and sprightly, with a contrasting Trio that is especially enchanting. In thefinale,entitled Mélodie, a sentiment of longing can be discerned but there is nonetheless a joyousness throughout it.

Vonsattel returned to accompany the extraordinary young soprano, Erika Baikoff—who looked gorgeous in a stunning silver and white gown—for an exquisite set of songs. They started with Mily Balakirev’s fine “The Goldfish’s Song” from 1860, which is set to a text from the poem Mtsyri by the major nineteenth-century Russian writer, Mikhail Lermontov. Also excellent was Modest Mussorgsky’s “Where are you little star?” originally composed in 1857 but heard here in its 1860s revision. More theatrical was Rachmaninoff’s Pushkin setting, “Arion,” Op. 34, No. 5, from 1912, described as “an allegory of the 1825 Decembrist revolt.” Their version of Mikhail Glinka’s “The Lark,” the tenth song from his 1840 cycle,A Farewell to Saint Petersburg,was simply glorious. Also terrific was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “It wasn't the wind, blowing from up high”—from his 1897In Spring, Op. 43, No. 2—set to a poem by Aleksei Tolstoy. They finished strongly with Rachmaninoff’s 1896 “These Summer Nights,” Op. 14, No. 5.

The second half of the program was also impressive, consisting of a superior realization of the same composer’s imposing Trio élégiaque in D minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 9—originally written in 1893 and revised in 1917—an hommage to Tchaikovsky with the dedication, “I memory of a great artist,” and modeled on the latter’s Op. 50 trio. The initial Moderato is lugubrious but with powerful, dramatic outbursts; the closing section has a dreamy quality. The middle movement, a theme-and-variations, canvasses a diverse array of moods, and the finale has an Allegro risoluto introduction of exceptional intensity with much of this emotionalism sustained across the length of the movement, concluding with an unforgettable pianissimo chord.

The musicians received deserved and enthusiastic applause.

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