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A Sweet Time With American Ballet Theater’s "Whipped Cream"

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Monday, 24 October 2022 20:46; Written by Jack Angstreich

Jonathan Klein in Whipped Cream. Photo: Rosalie O’Connor.

At the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, on the evening of Thursday, October 20th, I had the enormous privilege to see American Ballet Theater’s splendorous production of Alexei Ratmansky’s magnificent Whipped Cream—a work that I predict will endure as a classic—the opening presentation of its all too brief fall season here.

The ballet’s libretto was written by its composer, Richard Strauss, whose complex score is a very unusual one for the repertory. Ratmansky is Artist in Residence for the company and his inventive choreography here is amongst his near best. Another reason Whipped Cream ranks as one of the finest Ballet Theater productions is the fabulous set and costume design of Mark Ryden.

whipped2 The event featured an impressive cast led delightfully by Jonathan Klein as the Boy, a role originated by the marvelous Daniil Simkin. The first act was dominated by Christine Shevchenko—who is becoming one of the most admirable ballerinas in the company—as Princess Tea Flower and her partner Calvin Royal III, who excelled as Prince Coffee, a role first performed by David Hallberg, one of the most graceful dancers in recent memory. Skylar Brandt, who has moved from strength to strength in recent seasons, was superb as Princess Praline.

The secondary cast was also exceptional. Joseph Gorak and Sung Woo Han as Prince Cocoa and Don Zucchero respectively were an especially charming duo. Roman Zhurbin was characteristically amusing in the dual character roles of the Chef and the Doctor. And dazzling too were the trio of Catherine Hurlin, Blaine Hoven and Connor Holloway as Mademoiselle Marianne Chartreuse, Ladislav Slivovitz and Boris Wutki. Notable performances in the tertiary cast were too numerous to cite while the enchanting corps de ballet was in superior form.

The second and final week at Ballet Theater this season will consist of two different mixed repertory programs, with one including Frederick Ashton’s amazing The Dream.

The Sounds of São Paulo at Carnegie Hall

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 19 October 2022 20:46; Written by Jack Angstreich

Marin Alsop and the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra. Photo by Jennifer Taylor

At Carnegie Hall, on the evening of Friday, October 14th, I had the enormous pleasure of seeing the superb musicians of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra—in their debut at this venue—under the brilliant direction of Marin Alsop, playing in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Brazil’s independence.

The concert began magnificently with a dazzling performance of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s extraordinary Scheherazade. In his exemplary notes for this program, Jack Sullivan had this to say about the piece:

The sound of the modern orchestra owes a great deal to this 1888 work and the miniatures in its immediate orbit:Capriccio espagnoland theRussian Easter Festival Overture.(Important earlier pieces, such as the hauntingAntar,were rarely performed in the West and thus made little impact.) Rimsky-Korsakov repealed the thick, square sound of the standard 19th-century orchestra, liberating the brass and percussion, inaugurating a new shimmer and transparency in the strings, and creating coloristic effects often inseparable from the themes.

He added: “Rimsky-Korsakov conceived of his piece as a riff on the tale—each movement is one of Scheherazade’s stories, and the finale recaps the themes from each one in a blazing apotheosis—but he never meant for the work to be a literal narrative.” And: “The movement titles, according to the composer, were meant as ‘hints to direct but slightly the hearer’s fancy,’ leaving an impression of ‘numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders.’”

The opening movement, “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship,” was sumptuous, while the succeeding “The Legend of the Calendar Prince” was both lyrical and dancelike. The third movement, “The Young Prince and the Young Princess,” featured march-like rhythms, and the finale was the most variegated of the sections in texture and mood, building to a rousing climax but concluding quietly.

The second half of the event—devoted to the marvelous music of the greatest Brazilian composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos—was also remarkable, starting exquisitely with a magisterial rendition of the glorious Prelúdio from Bachianas brasileiras No. 4. Sullivan comments: “Based on a hypnotic six-note theme, the Prelúdio fromBachianas brasileirasNo. 4 was originally composed for piano solo, but Villa-Lobos orchestrated it himself along with the other pieces in the set.”

This was followed by the intriguing Harmonica Concerto—nonetheless the weakest link in the program—with the impressive soloist, José Staneck, who has recorded it with this ensemble. The opening Allegro moderato, like the work as a whole, is more eccentric and modernistic and less melodious than the Prelúdio. The attractive, ensuingAndanteis more Romantic in character, while the finale is also quirky and is the most virtuosic movement, especially for its cadenza. Staneck rewarded enthusiastic applause with a charming improvisation on Scheherazade’s theme that transformed into Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “The Girl from Ipanema.”

The program closed exhilaratingly with a joyous account of the also unconventional, stunning Chôros No. 10, featuring the outstanding São Paulo Symphony Choir. Sullivan’s description is as follows:

Chôros No. 10, one of 14 compositions with the “Chôros” label, is one of Villa-Lobos’s most exuberant and original creations. It is also fervidly patriotic, an overt manifestation of his well-known characterization of himself as “very Brazilian. In my music, I let the rivers and seas of this great Brazil sing. I don’t put a gag on the tropical exuberance of her forests and skies, which I intuitively transpose to everything I write.”

He adds:

Its blazing originality was too much for the baffled audience at the 1926 Rio de Janeiro premiere conducted by the composer. A year later, after Villa-Lobos began a sojourn in Paris, a Parisian critic called it a “huge and alarming orchestral fresco … an art which we do not recognize but to which we must now give a new name.”

And:

Soaring above the dense bitonal texture, the sopranos sing a popular polka, “Rasga o coração” (“Tear the Heart Apart”) by Anacleto Medeiros, which unites, in Villa-Lobos’s words, the “Brazilian heart” and “the Brazilian land.” (Because of a long-fought copyright lawsuit, the text of the poem, by Catulo da Paixão Cearense, was replaced by a wordless vocalise, but the words have been restored in some recent performances.)

In response to a standing ovation, Alsop led the musicians in playing two fabulous encores: Clóvis Pereira and César Guerra-Peixe’s Mourão, recorded by this ensemble for an album of Brazilian dances, and an orchestration of Edu Lobo’s popular song, “Pe de Vento.”

I hope this will be the first of many local appearances of these accomplished artists.

October '22 Digital Week II

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Tuesday, 18 October 2022 21:06; Written by Kevin Filipski

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week

Hail Mary

(Cohen Film Collection/Quad Cinema)

Jean-Luc Godard’s second film from 1985—the other, Detective, is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the film noirs he grew up watching—is among the just-deceased master director’s most remarkable creations. Banned and picketed when it was first released by those who believed it sacrilegious, the film is a typically Godardian exploration of a young virgin mother, and shows how faith, beauty and art have been co-opted by the chaotic everyday existence of modern life.

Hail Mary is preceded by the short The Book of Mary, an equally stunning study of a young girl by Godard’s frequent collaborator—and life partner—Anne-Marie Mieville. This is the penultimate of four weekly screenings at Manhattan's Quad Cinema of Godard classics in memory of the great director, who died last month at age 91.

My Old School

(Magnolia Pictures)

It’s not often you can say that truth is really stranger than fiction than in this diverting documentary about Brandon Lee, whose time at a Glasgow High School in the 1990s is dissected by many classmates (including the film’s director, Jono McLeod), and includes no less than actor Alan Cumming, who lipsynchs Brandon’s responses in a recorded interview.

Just what Brandon did I won’t divulge, but the reveal is surprising enough that McLeod’s trickery—Cumming’s deadpan appearance and the animated sequences a la Daria—at times makes this intriguing character study less than the sum of its illuminating parts.

Three Tall Women

(CBC Gem/Stratfest@Home)

In Edward Albee’s last great play (which I saw at its 1994 New York premiere), that remarkable actress Martha Henry gives a colossal performance in the central role of A, a 92-year-old looking back on her life—and, amazingly, she gave her brilliant portrayal just weeks before she died, a year ago, at age 83.

Albee’s wit has rarely been so razor-sharp, and his verbal infelicities are kept to a minimum, which was not the case for many of his other post-Virginia Woolf dramas. Director Diana LeBlanc’s Stratford Festival revival also has superior acting by Lucy Peacock (as B) and Mamie Zwettler (as C), but this is a powerfully emotional memorial to one of Canada’s grand dames of the theater.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Beast

(Universal)

Jaws transplanted to the African bush, Baltasar Kormákur’s thin but tense feature clocks in at an economical 90 minutes, and the first 30 are actually a fairly clever setup for the ensuing hour of monstrous lion attacks on Idris Elba and his daughters, which unfortunately become increasingly repetitive as we go along.

Still, the CGI that transforms stunt doubles into marauding big cats is impressively done, as Elba proves his bona fides as an action hero. The hi-def transfer looks terrific; extras include a deleted scene and on-set featurettes.

Going Places

(Cohen Film Collection)

French director Bertrand Blier would win 1978’s Best Foreign Film Oscar for Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, an aimless, coarse satire about a frigid wife who can’t respond sexually to either her husband or the stud he brings on board yet a callow teenager does the trick. But Blier made his initial splash with this 1974 comic drama, a similarly dishonest film about a pair of aimless drifters who physically and emotionally demean every woman they come across.

Despite winning performances by Gerard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere as the men and a redoubtable trio of actresses—Bridgette Fossey, Jeanne Moreau and the spectacular Miou-Miou—as their marks, Blier’s first attempt to shock middle-class audiences out of their complacency—which he would try to do to diminishing returns throughout his career—mostly falters. There’s a fine hi-def transfer; the lone extra is an engagingly informative commentary by film professor Richard Pena.

Mack & Rita

(Lionsgate)

Diane Keaton is her delightfully daffy self in Katie Aselton’s middling take on Big or 13 Going on 30, as a young woman turns 70 after undergoing a past-life regression.

There’s not much to writers Madeline Walter and Paul Welsh’s conceit, but Keaton—who not only looks smashing in her uniquely inspired Annie Hall-ish outfits but displays her still potent comic chops—is assisted by an able group of performers from Wendy Malick, Lois Smith and Loretta Devine to Elizabeth Lail, who’s likeable and winning as Keaton’s younger self to make this enjoyable. The film looks good on Blu; extras are two on-set featurettes that pointedly don’t feature Keaton.

Mark of the Vampire

(Warner Archive)

In this terse 1935 vampire flick, director Tod Browning supplies humor and thrills in equal measure, including a terrific fade-out joke featuring Bela Lugosi, and there’s an eerie atmosphere that’s nicely balanced by a light-heartedness that fits the material.

In addition to Lugosi, there are nicely observed portrayals by the likes of Lionel Barrymore. The excellent hi-def transfer accentuates the moody B&W imagery captured by cinematographer James Wong Howe; extras include an audio commentary as well as a vintage cartoon and short.

DVD Releases of the Week

Ed Sullivan’s Rock and Roll Classics

(Time-Life)

This worthwhile 10-disc set, although only skimming the surface of the riches residing in The Ed Sullivan Show’s vaults, demonstrates how valuable Ed’s Sunday night variety show was as a showcase for the best and most popular pop/rock/soul/R&B artists of the ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s.

The discs are broken down by theme: the British Invasion, Psychedelic Rock, etc., but they’re just an excuse to include performance clips—most live stage appearances but some primitive versions of what were later called music videos—by everyone from the Beatles to the Beach Boys, the Temptations to the Supremes, Vanilla Fudge to Steppenwolf, and the Rolling Stones to Herman’s Hermits. The video and audio quality isn’t great, but these clips are mainly for historical purposes anyway. Only eight discs feature Sullivan Show music clips; the ninth disc features The All Star Comedy Special, with dozens of Sullivan’s comedian guests, and the tenth comprises two episodes from the series The History of Rock’n’Roll. Interview extras include the Lovin Spoonful’s John Sebastian, the Mamas and the Papas’ Michelle Phillips and the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn.

Melrose Place—The Complete Series

(CBS/Paramount)

This evening soap opera about young people living in a West Hollywood apartment complex—executive-produced by Aaron Spelling (who did the same for Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed in the final decade of a legendary career stretching back to the ’60s)—became a hit during its initial run from 1992-99 and either jumpstarted (or reignited) the careers of such performers as Courtney Thorne-Smith, Josie Bissett and Heather Locklear.

If you’ve always wanted it, this gargantuan boxed set collects every single episode (226 in total) from all seven seasons on 54 discs, along with many extras including featurettes and audio commentaries by series creator Darren Star.

CD Releases of the Week

Michael Tippett—The Midsummer Marriage

(BBC)

English composer Michael Tippett (1905-98) composed several operas over a long and eclectic career but never equaled by the musical and dramatic invention of this, his first opera (although the harsh spareness of his second, the tragic King Priam, comes close).

First premiered at Covent Garden in 1955, Tippett’s mystical romance—kind of an abstract Midsummer Night’s Dream—has a surfeit of psychological acuity rare in an operatic work despite Tippett’s own convoluted libretto, but it’s the musical aspect that puts this into rarefied air. This new recording, recorded last year in London’s Royal Festival Hall, is adroitly conducted by Edward Gardner, gorgeously played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and splendidly sung by the London Philharmonic and English National Opera choruses as well as the soloists led by the inimitable leads Robert Murray and Rachel Nicholls.

Ellen Taafe Zwilich—Cello Concerto & Other Works

(Delos)

Ellen Taafe Zwilich writes music of bountiful imagination, and this disc of several orchestral works cements her reputation as among our very best contemporary composers. The newest work on this excellent recording, Zwilich’s 2020 cello concerto, was premiered during lockdown and is a remarkably vital achievement, buoyed by brilliant soloist Zuill Bailey.

The other pieces are equally vigorous, highlighted by the delightful Peanuts Gallery (1996), a subtly colored workout for pianist Elizabeth Dorman and the Santa Rosa Symphony (led by conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong) in six tongue-in-cheek movements mirroring Charles Schultz’s beloved characters: Schroeder, Linus, Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Peppermint Patty and Marcie.

October '22 Digital Week I

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 12 October 2022 13:55; Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Sex and Lucia

(Music Box Films)

Spanish director Julio Medem’s overtly symbolic and surreal films dive headlong into physical and emotional relationships, and his 2001 feature—which follows the title heroine navigating a world of intense love, heartbreaking sorrow and sexual pleasure—is, along with his preceding Lovers of the Arctic Circle, his most erotic expression of his own type of romantic melodrama.

Anchoring the two-hour, slightly overlong and repetitious film is Paz Vega, unforgettably vivacious as the charming young woman at its center. The film looks fine on Blu; extras are vintage interviews and on-set featurette along with a new video essay.

Dexter/Dexter: New Blood—The Complete Series

(CBS/Paramount)

Television’s most complicated serial killer drama, Dexter, which drew to a close in 2013 after its eighth season, returned with a reboot/sequel of sorts, Dexter: New Blood, in which everyone’s favorite murderer settles in a small New York State town.

Both the original and the reboot have skimpy plotting and motivation, but the performances help hide the flaws, led by Michael C. Hall’s conflicted antihero and the always winning Jennifer Carpenter as his beloved sister. This massive boxed set contains all 106 episodes of both series, and the hi-def images look terrific.

Star Trek: Picard—Complete 2nd Season

(CBS/Paramount)

In the second season of the latest Star Trek series about the now-retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek—The Next Generation, Patrick Stewart gives his usual imposing performance as the former leader who must deal with both his fraility as he ages and the future of the universe.

The time-travel aspect—Picard has been injected into an alternate reality, set in Los Angeles in 2024—is cleverly done and there’s a welcome weight toward character study rather than action, but at times during the season’s 10 episodes, the stories move a bit too slowly. There’s a first-rate hi-def transfer; extras include featurettes, deleted scenes and a gag reel.

4K Releases of the Week

Night of the Living Dead

(Criterion)

George Romero’s frightening 1968 debut is still the greatest zombie movie, and what’s amazing fifty-four years later is how relevant it still is as an indictment of American society literally tearing itself apart; its grainy look and shoestring budget makes it even scarier than far more gory films, like Romero’s own sequels.

The Criterion Collection’s excellent new release features the film in glorious UHD, where the black and white visuals are more vivid than ever, along with two Blu-rays containing the film and many extras, including commentaries, dailies, vintage and more recent featurettes and interviews and even a workprint cut of the film, Night of Anubis.

DC League of Superpets

(Warner Bros)

In this supremely entertaining animated feature, Superman’s own superdog, Krypto, joins forces with a motley crew of animals from the shelter whose own new superpowers are still uncontrollable as they attempt to rescue the entire Justice League.

A super voice cast, led by Dwyane Johnson, Kate McKinnon, Kevin Hart, Vanessa Bayer and Natasha Lyonne, and imaginative touches from director Jared Stern and his crack animation team make this fun for the whole family. The film bright colors look eye-poppingly good in UHD; the accompanying Blu-ray disc includes several featurettes, interviews and deleted scenes.

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week

Battleground

(Abramorama)

This enraging documentary is mainly an evenhanded exploration of both asides of the abortion debate, but director Cynthia Lowen shows the anti-choice forces in far more depth, as the women leaders of several anti-choice organizations are seen as ragingly hypocritical, making the most ridiculous defenses of their positions time and time again, but that’s the unfortunate effect of the “one-issue” dogma.

The worst offender may be Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of the ironically named Susan B. Anthony List, who twists herself into a pretzel defending Donald Trump even after the January 6 attempted insurrection. Why Lowen sees fit to give her the last word is mindboggling.

Dead for a Dollar

(Quiver Distribution)

Veteran Walter Hill returns with a spry if familiar western whose narrative twists—the woman who runs away from her rich husband is given her own agency, from living with her Black lover to wielding a gun of her own—make this satisfying enough. Hill’s an old pro at violent encounters, which are craftily handled, even if the ending is a disappointing shoot-’em-up.

Still, it’s forcefully acted by Rachel Brosnahan as the woman, Christoph Waltz as a bounty hunter (far better—and much less hammy—than in his two Oscar-winning portrayals for Quentin Tarantino) and Willem Dafoe as a feisty outlaw.

Hinterland

(Film Movement)

For his first film in 15 years, Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky has made a strange, puzzling but compelling murder mystery reminiscent of the expressionistic classic M and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari that was shot on soundstages with green screens, giving the whole film an intentionally disorienting look and feel matching the point of view of Peter, the protagonist (played at a fever-pitch by Murathan Muslu).

There’s something amiss in the actual story and accompanying romance, which remain secondary to the onscreen stylishness, but Liv Lisa Fries as Theresa, a forensic doctor Peter falls for, provides the film with a detectable beating heart.

Some Like It Rare

(Brainstorm Media)

The clever if blunt English title pretty much sums up the juvenile humor in this one-note black comedy about a butcher and his wife who, after accidentally discovering that the meat of vegans (cue hilarity!) is especially tasty, become serial killers to keep their stock of what they call “Iranian pork” for their satisfied customers.

Writer-director Fabrice Éboué, who stars as the butcher, acts better than he directs or writes, but he did have the good sense to cast the great Marina Foïs as his wife: she brings intelligence and subtlety to a part and a subject that don’t call for it, making it all seem more daring and funny than it is.

CD Releases of the Week

Ludwig van Beethoven—Complete Piano Concertos

(BIS)

In a crowded pool of complete Beethoven piano concerto recordings, young Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang makes an impressive splash with his traversal of one of the most imposing cycles in the entire repertoire.

With French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann leading the Philadelphia Orchestra, Zhang deftly handles Beethoven’s fiendish runs and cadenzas throughout these five imposing works. Most memorable are the 3rd and 4th concertos, which have the most balance between urgency and delicacy. Only the fifth concerto, the towering “Emperor,” feels less than fully-formed in this performance.

George Walker—Orchestral Works

(Cleveland Orchestra)

Throughout an extraordinary career that ended with his death four years ago at age 96, American composer George Walker kept to his path, composing works ranging from solo pieces to orchestral works, the latter being the focus of this wide-ranging survey courtesy by the excellent Cleveland Orchestra and its music director, Franz Welser-Möst. Walker is best known for his lovely and evocative Lyric for Strings, which has taken on a new life recently, but the works included here are equally passionate.

Antiphonys (1968) mirrors the chaotic rumblings of its era through percussion-driven rhythms, while the 1995 Pulitzer Prize-winning vocal work Lilacs sets fragments of Walt Whitman’s famous eulogy for Abraham Lincoln to emotionally direct music. Rounding out this laudable recording are precise performances of Walker’s 4th and 5th sinfonias. As usual for Cleveland, the recording is housed in a deluxe album including a 44-page booklet with informative and contextualizing essays.

Reviews

A Sweet Time With American Ballet Theater’s "Whipped Cream"

The Sounds of São Paulo at Carnegie Hall

October '22 Digital Week II

October '22 Digital Week I

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