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18
Oct

breaking the waves opera review

Based on Lars von Trier's landmark 1996 film, the opera, tautly led by Steven Osgood, held the crowd at the intimate Perelman Theater pretty much spellbound. It was as if Lulu was given a proper funeral. Review: ‘Breaking the Waves’ Lends Musical Heft to a von Trier Tale, Kiera Duffy in “Breaking the Waves,” Missy Mazzol. Breaking the Waves is particularly ripe for adaptation, with its baroque tale of Bess, a good presbyterian girl from a dogmatic Skye community, discovering the joy of sex and love with a roguish outsider (Jan-from-the-rigs), … What's New on BroadwayHD for October 2020? At Bess's wedding, for example, the absence of decoration other than rough boards and planks suggested the Church's unyielding, iron-clad laws. However, on another level its heavy faith-based themes and central tragic heroine make it a natural fit for the art form. It presented the audience with a tapestry full of emotional and musical colors. Illustrating every facet of her character's complicated and not-always-stable psyche, Duffy held watchers firmly in her hand while she convinced them of her character's sincerity. : Scottish Opera at the Adelaide Festival. James Darrah’s staging makes this standoff memorably stark. She reserves more dissonant passages for orchestral transitions; the use of (sometimes unconventional) percussion, was effective in creating special effects. • At King’s theatre, Edinburgh, until 24 August. Opera Philadelphia’s world premiere Breaking the Waves, based on the 1996 Lars von Trier film, opened to some acclaim, with at least one critic declaring it among the best 21st-century operas yet produced. Set For L.A.'s Public Places, International City Theatre Presents Virtual Presentation of DAISY, BWW Feature: ONLINE OPERA VIRTUAL TOUR OCT. 17-24 at Home Computer Screens, BWW Feature: ONLINE OPERA VIRTUAL TOUR SEPT. OCT. 10-17 at Home Computer Screens, BWW Review: ARIZONA OPERA STUDIO CONCERT at Home Computer Screens, BWW Review: PAREA SERIES: THE TELEPHONE at Home Computer Screens. Breaking the Waves was an unusual tale told with great clarity. Available for everyone, funded by readers. Adhering closely to the original, the opera is long, harrowing and unblinking, yet kept buoyant and absorbing by Mazzoli’s fluid score. This opera was both powerful and challenging because of its raw sexual content. The ambitious, accomplished, dramatically direct opera, a co-commission of Opera Philadelphia and Beth Morrison Projects that had its premiere here on Thursday, is grander and more impersonal — and also distinguished by its Bess, the fearless, focused soprano Kiera Duffy. https://www.operaphila.org/whats-on/digital-festival/, Sierra Madre Playhouse Relights Its Marquee On October 23, The Robey Theatre Company Presents An Evening Conversation With Sheryl Lee Ralph, Fountain Theatre's RAISE YOUR VOICE – VOTE! Mazzoli's music lived up to the hype her work has engendered: Breaking the Waves stands among the best twenty-first-century American operas yet produced. Writing for an orchestra of just 15 players, Ms. Mazzoli confidently creates a range of densities, from symphonic weightiness to agile sparseness. In the eyes of the Calvinist church elders of Skye, where the story is set, Mazzoli could well be considered “froward” – not a misprint but from old Norse and meaning “a person difficult to … It won the inaugural Best New Opera Award from the Music Critics Association of North America, and was shortlisted for "Best World Premiere" Prize at the International Opera Awards. The combination of chamber ensemble, soloists from the Orchestra of Scottish Opera conducted by Stuart Stratford together with synthesiser and electric guitar felt too thin at times, too noisy at others. How drama schools are adapting to the times. We were drawn into the fragile psyche of Bess as she was married, experiencing her first sexual happiness, and bereft with her husband’s departure. Dark and daring, “Breaking the Waves” does all this with sensitivity and style. Projections were in heavy use, shown on two large backdrops serving as a screen. Religious zealotry meets eroticism in Lars von Trier’s 1996 film Breaking the Waves. Special mention should be made of the excellent chorus of twelve male singers. SOLT and UK Theatre issue guidance for venues in Tiers 2 and 3, Full list of theatres receiving Culture Recovery Fund grants in round two, West End production of Emilia to be streamed online, Safety first: how drama schools are adapting to the coronavirus era. She now spends her time attending opera and classical music concerts in New York and in Europe. Dodo and Jan both seem strangely extraneous to the conflict most central for Ms. Mazzoli and Mr. Vavrek: that between Bess and the crowd that uses and rejects her. Wagner is her favorite opera composer. As Bess, Sydney Mancasola is mesmerising, her expressive vocals setting her apart from the more naturalistic singing of the other cast members. Supporting her as dashing husband Jan was John Moore. Nervous fragments are scattered throughout like ripples and swells atop an ocean, for an overall orchestral texture that’s moody, yet with a clean neutrality that elegantly sets off the vocal lines that soar above it, rather than competing with them. There was considerable nudity on stage, but it was not excessive; on stage violence was discreet. At the opera's end there were bells that reminded the audience of Bess's longing for them. On May 29, 2020, Opera Philadelphia presented the digital premiere of Royce Vavrek and Missy Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves, a story based on the 1996 international film of the same name directed by Lars von Trier. The first act was the strongest in its succinct and taut storytelling. Inspired by the Lars von Trier film Breaking the Waves they have created an amazing, confronting, yet mystical opera, telling the same story but with refreshingly new insights. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Breaking the Waves, King's Theatre, run ended, Sydney Mancasola as Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves rehearsals. At the core of the success of the evening was Kiera Duffy in the role of Bess.

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