Theater Experiences in Wien (Vienna)

Franz Schubert star near Musikverein, Wien

Wien (Vienna) means music and style.  In Vienna, the stars are given to composers and musicians - Schubert, Bach, Brahms, Berg, von Einem and von Karajan, etc., instead of film stars and starlets in Hollywood.

When I visited Vienna last month, my second trip to Vienna, I attended three different theatrical performances, all in renown venues, within a brief span of six nights.

Volksoper Wien

The first performance we attended was a night of three modern ballets at Volksoper.  The options then included Viennese operettas, such as Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow), a quintessential Viennese confection, but it was vetoed by my partner and we chose the ballet night instead, for its modernity and daring (see the preview video below).  It turned out to be a wonderful night of theater.  The three modern ballets were, in the order of performance and ascending scale of the pieces, Claude Debussy's "Nachmittag eines Fauns", Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" and Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana", performed by Wiener Staatsballett.

The first piece was intimate and small, with only two dancers, and the last was ambitious, set to a full orchestra, several choruses and multiple couples and corps, while the middle one was, in the middle of everything.  The first piece was lovely but just a tad underwhelming and the last one, hour long, had some muddy moments and sagging energy amongst generally very satisfying presentation and poignant choreographed dances; it was the middle piece made the strongest impact through its glorious choreography by Boris Nebyla, incredibly beautiful costume, and unflagging energy of the music.  It was one of the most satisfying theatrical pieces I have ever enjoyed.











Volksoper is the "second" or "third" opera house in Vienna.  The top one was the most exulted Wiener Staatsoper, and the other one might be "Theater an der Wien", where Beethoven's Fidelio premiered.  There were only Puccinis in those houses in the week I was in Vienna so I had to pass them over.  In 2002, I did enjoy a performance of Bellini's La Sonnambula at Wiener Staatsoper.  Standing section.  Cost 3 euros.  At that time, a guided tour of that house was 5 euros.  The house was much more grandiose and glamorous.  Formal too.  In the cafe inside the house, a server wore a name tag identifying her as Frau XXX.  Volksoper, in contrast, was a little smaller, more intimate and more down to earth.  After all, it was called "Folks' Opera".  Yet, it was in that "people's house" that my partner was made to check his quite nice-looking and almost formal black windbreaker, where in Staatsoper, a similar but more casual windbreaker cost no concern, and was also in the presence of Present Havel in Prague.  At Volksoper, My blazer was sanctioned by the usher.

For comparison, below are a group picture of Wiener Staatsoper I took during this trip:









The second performance we attended was a play in one of the most prestigious theaters in German speaking world - Burgtheater in Vienna.







The play we chose to see was Prinz Priedrich von Homburg by Heinrich von Kleist.  It was a seminal play on discipline, militarism and reason. It was a co-production with Salzburg Festival and in the title role, starred the wonderful young German actor August Diehl.  There were many young people in audience, perhaps high school students - the tickets were as low as 2.5 euros.  I didn't know if the high percentage of young people was the norm or not, or they were particularly lured by the heartthrob Diehl.







It was a sparse, modern and fiercely intelligent production, yet emotional raw and wrenching - two and half hours without intermission breezed through.  I did my homework by reading both original German texts and English translation in advance, plus listening to a radio play produced in 1950s.   







The most venerated musical venue in Vienna for symphonic performances was the Großer Saal (Great Hall), sometimes called Golden Hall, of Musikverein (Music Association).  It was the venue for annual Vienna New Year's Concert, televised all over the world.  The building was an ornate classical structure, with elaborate decorations inside the hall, centering around Apollo and nine muses gracing the golden-trimmed ceiling.







Wikipedia described the Großer Saal thus:

The Großer Musikvereinssaal, or Goldener Saal (Golden Hall), is about 49 m (161 ft) long, 19 m (62 ft) wide, and 18 m (59 ft) high. It has 1,744 seats and standing room for 300. The annual Vienna New Year's Concert is held here. Its lively acoustics are primarily based on Hansen's intuition as he could not rely on any studies on architectural acoustics. The room's rectangular shape and proportions, its boxes and sculptures allow early and numerous sound reflections. The original equipment comprised a historic pipe organ built by Friedrich Ladegast, the first organ recital was held by Anton Bruckner in 1872. The present–day organ was originally installed by the Austrian firm Rieger Orgelbau in 1907, highly esteemed by musicians such as Franz Schmidt or Marcel Dupré, and rebuilt in 2011.

The program we enjoyed was performed by Wiener Symphoniker, conducted by Vladimir Fedosejev, Dirigent, with Edgar Krapp as organ soloist.  The pieces they performed were:

• Werner Egk: Französische Suite nach Rameau für großes Orchester
• Alexandre Guilmant: Symphonie für Orgel und Orchester Nr. 1 d - Moll, op. 42
  -------- Pause ----------
• Modest Petrowitsch Mussorgskij: "Bilder einer Ausstellung" für Orchester bearbeitet von Maurice Ravel
  Encore:
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Ouverture Nr. 3 D - Dur, BWV 1068 - 2. Satz (Air)

It was glorious performance in a glorious hall.  I enjoyed the Egk and Mussorgky pieces very much.  Guilmant's organ symphony was not very engaging but it did allow the organ to go full blast and it was very impressive indeed.  For that experience's sake, I was glad for its inclusion.

The Wiener Symphoniker was a great symphonic orchestra, though overshadowed by the higher-profiled Wiener Philharmoniker.  Unfortunately, Wiener Philharmoniker was not performing both time I was in Vienna.  Therefore, a return to Vienna is a must.

We enjoyed the concert with our hosting friends, who were inspired and attempted to subscribe to the Wiener Philharmoniker's concerts but was told that they ought to wait for 13 years.  

Indeed, Vienna does mean music.

Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst: 
- Gondolas in Venice, Italy
- Teatro La Fenice di Venezia (La Fenice Theatre in Venice)
- Boy With Frog Sculpture and Punta della Dogana, Venice
- Bus Ride From Graz, Austria to Venice, Italy
- Magnificent Churches in Vienna
- Christopher Wheeldon's Brilliant Cinderella at San Francisco Ballet
- Theater Experiences in Wien (Vienna)

Label: Austria, Austria and Italy Trip 2012

Funny Theater, Not Textbook - David Henry Hwang's Chinglish at Berkeley Repertory Theatre

David Henry Hwang's Chinglish at Berkeley Repertory Theatre (BRT) is generating great buzz and has attracted many new audience from Asian American community.

Last Friday, I attended the performance at BRT with anticipation and a little trepidation, particularly after viewing an introduction trailer on BRT's website (below).  I was resolved to approach it as a play, other than a cultural reference to the home country I left twenty years before.

Chinglish! at Berkeley Rep from Berkeley Repertory Theatre on Vimeo.

BRT informed us on its website that David Henry Hwang "is back with a canny comedy of cross-cultural errors. In Chinglish, an American businessman heads to Asia to score a lucrative contract for his family's firm—but the deal isn't the only thing getting lost in translation when he collides with a Communist minister, a bumbling consultant and a suspiciously sexy bureaucrat. Two-time Obie-winner Leigh Silverman returns to Berkeley Rep to stage the twists in a terrific play she took to Broadway. Love is on the line, and laughter fills the ledger in Chinglish."

After the two-hour long performance, both my expectations were met.  There were some observations I'd like to share.

First, it was a wonderful night at theater, particularly the crisp and funny first act.  The second act was somewhat bogged down by turgid romanticism, lethargic pace and sentimentality.  The marvelous scenery and crisp direction was the highlight of the night.  All the lithe actors all gave their considerably best.  That said, it needed a bold editor and it would have been a much better play if the second half had been at least halved. 

Second, people like me, a native Chinese speaker having broad life experiences in both China and America, were not the targeted audience.  I was actually bogged down by my Chinese knowledge to enjoy the play as well as people who didn't speak Chinese.  For example, when the protagonist tried to learn some Chinese phrases, his rapid-fire mispronunciations were simply meaningless gibberish to me, yet the projected English translation made them amazingly funny and elicited much laughter, which signified to me that those "funny" moments were not genuine but manufactured.

Third, it could be called a farce, a comedy, a romantic drama, a sitcom, etc., but not a cultural reference.  It did not successfully open the window to China.  Rather, it opened the shutter, and revealed a trompe-l'œil, albeit a marvelously funny one.

Fourth, characterization versus caricaturization.  I wholeheartedly agreed that dealing with Chinese people, particularly those opaque, pompous and often corrupt petty officials was an ordeal, tortuous and painful.  However, such difficulties were not as presented by the play.  The play did a good job in creating a sense of helplessness, just not true, if that was important to you.  This, together with the stilted Chinese dialogue, anachronistic clothes and accessories, misrepresentation of political and judicial working order, the styles of the interaction amongst Chinese people themselves confined to different hierarchical orders, demonstrated that the playwright didn't have a firm grasp of current Chinese culture.  I learned that this play would go to Hong Kong, though not mainland China.  I had to wonder if audience in mainland China would feel insulted or not.  I tried not to be bothered by this.  However, watching the play did give me a sense of what it must be like watching The Beverly Hillbillies in West Virginia.

Finally, I would recommend this play, though hardly a must see, with a caveat - see it as an artistic creation, not as reality show.

Mark Rothko and "Red" at Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Last week, I saw the wonderful production of John Logan's award winning play, "Red", at Berkeley Repertory Theatre's, and was deeply impressed and moved by the presentation of the struggle of the great Latvian-American (sometimes referred to as Russian-American) abstract painter Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz (Latvia (Dvinsk, [now Daugavpils], Latvia, September 25, 1903 - February 25, 1970, New York City, New York), while interacting, scolding, tutoring his young assistant.  Berkeley Rep's website described the play as such:

At the height of his fame, Mark Rothko struggles in his studio to finish a major series of murals. The brilliant master wrestles with his new apprentice in a battle of wits over a bucket of paint.

The play  was very intense and witty and there were many things to savor.

First, I was most impressed by the philosophy behind Rothko's approach to art.  He insisted on that a person had to be civilized to become an artist.  That mantra was definitely a rebuke to our era when every trivial object, every thoughtless person could style himself as an artist.  His disdain for the pop art scene, though too severe, was not without merit.  Capturing zeitgeist was not unimportant, but true art needs to build beyond the mere reflection.

The depiction of Rothko's struggle - a great man's tussling with mundane life and to secure and preserve his posterity, his relevancy - was also well managed though a bit conveniently constructed.

Another main theme of the play - invented by the playwright - respect but bury the fathers, gave the play an air of a Greek tragedy.  Speaking of tragedy, I was not very convince by the device in the form of the assistant's family tragedy; however, it didn't bother me and both actors, being so immersed in their challenging roles, ensured that even as a device, it was integral facade of the play.

There was a very physical scene, when Rothko and his assistant primed a huge canvas, to the beats of the energetic symphonic music.  Paints spattered everywhere and I felt that at that moment, I was feeling the pulse of a great artist.  It was very gratifying to see his painting process, even though it was only the initial step.  If his energetic action here could be seen as joyous, when he faced more advanced canvas, at times, he was obviously struggling and that was precisely why his works were moving.  He wanted to present some ideas, some visions, instead of doing it for his own pleasure and meditation.

Though the actors were very physically active, the supremacy of the play was the words, which made this play an oasis after a spate of over-produced, hyper-kinetic productions.  It was through words, uttered with great intensity and clarity, that we peeped into the innermost of Rothko.

Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I have been able to see Rothko's works many times, in Oakland Museum of California, Berkeley Art Museum, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).

Below are a series of pictures I took at SFMOMA, in front of Rothko's "No. 14, 1960", 1960, Oil on Canvas, 114 1/2 in. x 105 5/8 in. (290.83 cm x 268.29 cm).  It is deceptively simply yet rich with sub-contents.  Its palette is delightful.  It's both monumental huge and invitingly intimate, even a child loved it:







Below are a couple of images from this play's Tony-winning New York City run:

Illusion versus Reality, From Bake Sale in Berkeley to Molière at Oregon Shakespeare Festival

The contrasts between illusions and realities are too stark to believe, yet, due to people's follies, they can often surpass the widest imaginations.

The Americans, who don't want the government to tax the super-rich more, because they had imaged that they belong to that most exclusive club, or that their grandsons might join it one day, while suffering the ever greater income inequality, is the prime example of that folly.

Last Tuesday, 26 September 2011, two such events took place in my immediate sphere, one in the place I live, Berkeley, California, and the other, on the stage of Angus Bowmer Theatre, Ashland, Oregon, as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2011, which I was visiting for the first time.

The former was a widely reported "bake sale" on the campus of University of California, Berkeley, - "Increase Diversity Bake Sale" hosted by the Berkeley College Republicans, who claimed that the minorities pay smaller share of tuition and fees to the university, and to the society, while white men shoulder the biggest burden.  In regardless if this sale was a racist, or sexist, event, their argument was full of holes.

The easiest argument is that the inequality between male and female workers - not just the costs but their income as well.  Let's look at the chart below (source: Wikepedia):


In every ethnic group in the US, men make way more than women.  This is not due to the nature of the jobs men or women hold.  For same jobs, men make more than their female counterparts.  In 2009, women's median weekly earnings were lower than men's median weekly earnings in all industries:


Therefore, the $0.25 off for all women did not reflect reality.  Instead, someone argued, white men need to pay way less than $2.00 to reflect the reality that their wealth-expense ratio was way greater than any other groups mentioned in this Bake Sale:


image source: L.A. Times

If the right-wing Republican student groups had their skewed illusions, so did the left.  On the same day of the Bake Sale, I arrived in Ashland, Oregon for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  That night, I attended a performance of a new adaptation of Molière's "Imaginary Invalid" (Le Malade imaginaire) at the Angus Bowmer Theatre.


Angus Bowmer Theatre

The play was heavily re-written and many contemporary references were thrown in.  The adapters, Oded Gross and Tracy Young, with the latter as director as well, changed Molière's naughtily humorous comédie-ballet into a grossed-out farcical musical.  Not entirely inappropriate.  However, the new version significantly changed one of the daughters (Louison) of the protagonist, from a healthy ten year old to an old maid with a hemp and pigeon-toed.  The adapters and director also gave another character, young Thomas Diaforious, a large belly and so they could heap endless humiliating jokes upon these two helpless characters, and every time they were ruthlessly laughed at, the audience roared with approvals.  I, however, winced every time.

In case my readers mistake the Festival and the audience for adherents of social Darwinism, I need to point out that they took great pride in their progressiveness - the adaptation made many references to the health care reform and pined for a public option, in ways not entirely inappropriate but utterly gratuitous, and the audience gave such references most hearty cheers and applauds.

Therefore, emerged the great divide of the illusion and the reality.  In reality, the creative team of this play, and the audience, behaved as the most heartless and cruel gang; yet, they congratulated themselves as the most compassionate.  It was beyond sickening.

In the next night, I saw Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part II, in which Sir John Falstaff and the gaggle of other tavern dwellers were laughed at constantly.  But, they were laughed at because of their "bad" deeds, and their being "bad" persons; which here, in the updated Molière, poor Louison and the Thomas, were laughed at purely for their physical deformity which did not grow out of their fault at all.  Through Thomas's mouth, we learned that he was not even a glutton, like Falstaff, rather he absorbed fat in an abnormal rate.

I am not a prude.  I am not allergic to comedy and farce.  I enjoy great farces as much as grand tragedies like Julius Caesar, which I saw three days later and was deeply moved and excited by it, and I will discuss it later, and appreciate the difficulties in staging a comedy.  I am also familiar with the idiom of commedia dell'arte, and can tolerate some crude jokes, like the endless body function jokes employed here to wring laughter out the guileless audience.  But laughing at weak characters' physical weakness really made me nauseated.

In the end, I was deeply offended by the heartless and the crassness of the production team and detested this update very much, in contrast to the uproarious approvals from the majority audience members who gave it an enthusiastic standing ovation.

There are two well-known hunchbacks in literature - Verdi's Rigoletto in the eponymous opera (based on Victor Hugo's Le roi s'amuse) and Quasimodo in Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris.  Rigoletto was a twisted character, but Verdi did not dwell on his physical deformity, rather, it was the deformity of his soul Verdi concentrated upon.  Being compassionate, Verdi presented Rigoletto as a passionate and selfless father, thus redeemed him from condemnation.  Hugo did not shy away from describing Quasimodo's ugliness but he used this physical monstrosity to offset his inner kindness.  Here, the adapters (not Molière), invented the physical deformities so as to invite the audience to laugh at them for no other reason other than being deformed.  Progressive?  No.  Regressive for sure.

On the OSF's official website, it stated such about the play, "set in the 1960s, this satiric comedy will be best enjoyed by playgoers 13 and up who can handle the potty humor, yucky medical remedies, and a few instances of suggestive gesture, innuendo and costuming."

I think it would be most sensible to require playgoers to be also 15 and below to enjoy the potty humor, yucky medical remedies, and a few instances of suggestive gesture, innuendo and costuming.

Frog King

Image source: Wikipedia

Reading Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part II, I was struck by a line in Act 1, "Past and to come seems best, things present worst."  Since I read multiple books simultaneously, just as I work on multiple canvases, I just read the reference to the Frog King story in Goethe's Reineke Fuchs (Reynard the Fox).  Goethe's version of the Frog King was a truncated reference only.  For the full version, I employed my memory of childhood fables my father used to read me, such as Aesop and Krylov, both wrote "The Frogs who Begged for a Tsar or a King".

Image source: Wikipedia

It was said that in the peaceful realm of frogs, the inhabitants became bored and concerned that they ought to have a ruler.  They prayed to the god for such a ruler.  God couldn't endure their croaking therefore consented.  God sent them a piece of log and the frogs became ecstatic and started to worship the log as their ruler.  However, it didn't last long.  Soon, they became emboldened in front of the immobile king/tsar and ever so obliging ruler.  They even climbed atop of their king/tsar.  They were dissatisfied again with this do-nothing ruler.  Once again, they appealed to God.  God agreed again; but this time, he sent them a stork as their king/tsar, who hated and ate the frogs at will.  The frogs had to live in constant fear ever since.

Quite uncannily, these two references closely mirror today's reality.  For quite a while, we craved for a ruler who would give us some directions and a purpose of life.  As if our prayers had been answered, out of nowhere, came Barak Obama, striking right poses, as if ready to lead us out of wildness.  However, almost three later, we discovered, that he is but a piece of useless log.

Therefore, we croak aloud again; this time, seeking someone who would act.  Just be aware what we are wishing for.  If we had a Republican president, I guarantee, that he or she would become the merciless stork to us helpless frogs.

Pity.

Schadenfreude? Maybe, Maybe Not - On Musical "Spider-man"

The most expensive musical on Broadway, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark has suffered much delays and cast injuries lately.  People shifted focus from its production cost of $65 million to the disaster surrounding the musical.

Schadenfreude?  Maybe.  Maybe Not.  

The musical's creators are nothing but ambitious in their attempt to stage living theatrical work standing up to comparison to 3-D movies.  At 3'58" of the interview video below, Julie Taymor (book and direction) talked about sets, actions, dance etc., but almost nothing about drama.  As for characterization, she mentioned in passing that there will be a love interest.  The creators talked about their technical accomplishments with greatest enthusiasm but touched upon character, drama and music only perfunctorily.  We learned the design of the costume, the pop-up set and flying spider-man over the head of the audience.  What about the music?  Except that there would be a rock band, we learned nothing.  This musical was constructed to shock and awe, rather than to touch and move the audience.



Productions of this scale not only siphon limited resources away from other worthy efforts, they also cultivate an audience who think anything short of an extravaganza might not be of any good.  Instead of concentration on dramatic truth, profundity of language, and beauty of music, they lead people into exterior glitter only.  Over the years, I have grown extremely weary of over-produced theatrical works.

Living theater has quite different characteristics and validity from those of motion pictures.  With the advance of filming techniques, it will be increasingly difficult and extremely foolish to compete with movies on their turf.  Instead, theater should focus on what they do best.  The effort of such spectacle has also taken a strong foothold in opera world.  The Metropolitan Opera's new Ring cycle, produced by Robert Lepage of Cirque du Soleil fame, was such a sad example.  Tons of money and time were devoted to make the stage as eye catching as possible while psychological discovery and characterization were almost completely neglected.  According to New York Post, "although critics of Met general manager Peter Gelb say costs for the four 'Ring' operas will top $40 million, Met representatives insist the tab will be about $17 million, only slightly above the $4 million per-production average."  The audience was again impressed but hardly moved.  A much more human scale production would have served the drama of gods (with faults mirroring our humanity) much better.

Fifteen Authors Influenced Me Most and Watching Shakespeare in China

Recently, several friends tagged me on Facebook with their list of fifteen authors, or so, including poets and playwrights, who have influenced them.  I was invited to list my list of 15 or so authors, including poets and playwrights, who have influenced me and will always stick with me. 

My list, in alphabetically order, is below:

1. Honoré de Balzac 
2. Yǔ Cáo (Chinese playwright)
3. Anton Chekhov
4. Jean Cocteau
5. Fyodor Dostoevsky
6. Friedrich Dürrenmatt
7. Euripides
8. Carlo Goldoni
9. Henrik Ibsen
10. Aleksandr Pushkin
11. Rainer Maria Rilke
12. Jean-Paul Sartre
13. Friedrich von Schiller
14. W. G. Sebald
15. William Shakespeare

Interestingly,  ten out of my fifteen authors are playwrights.  I guess I did grow up with many theater going experiences, which is evident on my video presentation of my theatrical paintings.

My home city, Shenyang, has been an industry center for more than a century.  It is the capital city of Liaoning Province, one of the three Manchurian provinces in northeast China.  At one time, one third of the national products were produced in Liaoning Province alone, before its decline like the rust-belt in the US and its rebirth as a IT, commerce, finance and transportation center, though with a much reduced national importance.

In my previous entry, Growing Up In Cultural Desert, I mentioned a prestigious troupe lost their theater to a discotheque.  It was a sad event for a few otherwise largely unnoticed.  Fortunately, the troupe didn't disband and continued to play in other theaters, and later moved to another permanent home.

It was through this very troupe, Liaoning People's Art Theater, I had my first live Shakespeare experience.  In 1986, when China staged the first Shakespeare Festival in Beijing and Shanghai, this theater participated with its first production of King Lear starring Li Moran, who had been a national icon due to his 1962 film performance of a tragic naval hero in Naval Battle of 1894, as King Lear.  Their performance was met with great acclaim in Beijing and returned to further perform for Shenyang audience under the commandment of Cultural Ministry, second ever such command performance in the People's Republic of China.

In 1950s, they had attempted to stage this play but aborted the effort.  The theater was steeped in Stanislavski's system and their adherence to this method proved too cumbersome for such gargantuan play.  Only after many modern theater experiments flourished in 1980s in China, the theater was able to come back to King Lear with a new approach and struck the right balance between verisimilitude and stylization.

It was a devastating performance and I still remember vividly how Mr. Li's resonant deep bass rolled out like thunder in the theater and how his giant body bent down like broken doll.  Though the costumes were traditional, the staging was modern, succinct and fluid.  Other successful elements were the sets and the lighting.  There was no curtain, a novelty in China at the time.  Dominating the stage, floor to ceiling, was a giant sculpture of a crown, formed with massive beams, which slowly disintegrate with the progression of the play and matched the psychology of the characters perfectly, and also provided locales such as castles, forests, and ruins at various stages.  Near the very end of the play, the heartbroken Lear, and fell on the body of murdered Cordelia, who was wrapped up in a white gown, which merged with Lear's white mane and became the focal point of the stage and through absolute stillness they conveyed an unbearable sadness and resignation.  Then the bier they rested upon started to roll upstage in a solemn and endlessly long procession, inching towards the unlit rear area of the stage whose enormous depth astonished me.  Her white gown and his white mane became dimmer and dimmer and eventually was swallowed up by complete darkness.

Before watching this seminal performance, I also saw many televised performances of that Shakespeare festivals from Beijing and Shanghai, including Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Taming the Shrew, etc.  Some were good, some were insufferably bad, particularly those free adaptations, which managed to lose the gravity and resonance of true Shakespearean plays without gaining much through their "immediate appeals to local audiences".  Those performances seemed to me somewhat gimmicky.  Most novelties of that festival were the adaptations into folk operas, including but not limited to Peking Opera -- almost every region has its own version of folk opera, some more lyrical and some more declamatory.  Most of those free adaptations moved the time and locales to China, à la Kurosawa, which seems utterly superfluous, because the humanity within Shakespearean plays, if not the English verses, were truly universal. 

The crowning production of that festival definitely was that King Lear by my home troupe and I will always treasure that memory, full of dramatic truth and emotional honesty from that much exulted large cast.


Limelight © Matthew Felix Sun


>> My Path, Part IV: My First Devastation and Cynicism
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Paintings As Pivotal Elements

Resurrection

I just finished reading novel Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner as my book group's assignment.  This book had one passage centered on four main charactors' reactions to Piero della Francesca's Resurrection in Arrezzo.  Stegner wrote "that gloomy, stricken face permitted no forgetful high spirits.  It was not the face of a god reclaiming his suspended immortality, but the face of a man who until a moment ago had been thoroughly and horribly dead, and still had the smell of the death in his clothes and the terror of death in his mind.  If resurrection had taken place, it had not yet been comprehended."  It was not only a precise description of the masterpiece, but it also illuminated the characters of the novel through their reactions to this lingering horror.  It was a pivotal moment in the novel for readers to understand the characters fully.

Another book using a well-known painting or drawing as pivotal element is Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, which I have not read.  According to Wikipedia, "it follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum.  The title of the novel refers to the fact that the murder victim is found in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, naked and posed like Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and a pentacle drawn on his stomach in his own blood."  Perhaps less profound but it sure is intriguing.

Two more examples I can give are operas, Die Zauberflöte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Simon Boccanegra by Giuseppe Verdi.  The former was a traditional fairy tale, or a modernistic battle of sexes, depending on one's point of view.  It started with the mother of an imprisoned princess giving the princess's portrait to a prince, who fell in love with the princess immediately as required and set out to rescue the princess.

Simone Boccanegra was a humanistic tale, with focus on father-daughter relationship.  It would be very helpful to know that Verdi lost his daughter when she was very young.  In the opera, Simon, a corsair, later Doge of Genoa, lost his daughter Maria and only recognized her many years later when she showed him a lockets with the picture of her deceased mother, whose image was in the locket Simon carried as well.  It was a little too convenient but aided by all too understanding and sublime music, the moment however was extremely touching and emotionally true.

As a painter, it is always gratifying for me to see a painting or a drawing as pivotal element in literature or stage work.  It is even more fascinating when the focal point of the work is the creating of a piece of visual art.

The Young Girl with Turban

A good example is the novel by Tracy Chevalier and ensuring movie The Girl with a Pearl Earring, which gave a very detailed and fascinating account of a period of great painter Johannes Vermeer's life of and his creation of the painting The Young Girl with Turban.  The novel and the movie were so overwhelmingly popular that even the collector of this painting, Mauritshuis Museum in The Haag, was presumably forced to change its title to The Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Another book about a painter, The Birth of Venus by Sarah Duant, published before The Girl with a Pearl Earring, read like an unsuccessful rip-off which it was not.  I dived into the book eagerly, hoping to read interesting, however fictional, account of Sandro Botticelli's creation of The Birth of Venus (in Italian: Nascita di Venere) but I was disappointed to learn that it was about an unknown woman painter who would be Venus herself.  Though the book is interesting enough with its depictions of Renaissance Florence, the missing element of the creation of a well-known work was hard to ignore and the book ultimately was less interesting.

Perseus with the Head of Medusa

Another good example, though perhaps less known than The Girl with a Pearl Earring, is an opera by Hector Berlioz, Benvenuto Cellini, which  was loosely based on the memoirs of the Florentine sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, and culminated in the forging of his immortal Perseus with the Head of Medusa in the Loggia dei Lanzi gallery on the edge of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence.

It must be a wonder to behold when the statue took its shape in front of audience's eyes, accompanied by Berlioz's stirring music.

Other artworks involving creatingpaintings include Turkish author Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red, which took place in 16th-century Istanbul. A number of narrators give testimony to what they know about the circumstances surrounding the murder of master miniaturist and illuminator of books. The stories accumulated and became more detailed as the novel progresses, giving the reader not only a nontraditional murder mystery but insight into the mores and customs of the time (from Library Journal).  The particular piece was less clear here but its very vagueness contributed to the mystery of the novel therefore it was not a disappointment that I didn't have a clear view of the central painting in the novel.

The Temptation of Anthony

Then there is another opera Mathis der Maler by Paul Hindemith on the life of medieval German painter Matthias Grünewald with characters of the opera forming tableau from his masterpiece The Temptation of Anthony.  It was a work more about the painter and his experience than his work.  It would be very illuminating as well.

Finally, there is a work which was not about the creation of visual art but almost exclusively regarded a piece of visual art, Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray which told the tale of a young man named Dorian Gray who sold his soul to ensure his portrait would age rather than himself. Dorian's wish was fulfilled, plunging him into debauched actions. The portrait served as a reminder of the effect each act has upon his soul, with each sin displayed as a disfigurement of his form, or through a sign of aging (from Wikipedia.com).  Painting here served as both a hedonistic celebration and a moralistic rebuke.

Art forms are very much intertwined and artists who are curious and interested in other artists' works often take up the challenge to describe other kind creations in the forms they are most comfortable with, therefore bless us with many fascinating works.  I would love to find more such books to read and more such stage works to watch.


Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Last Call - "The Girl With A Pearl Earring" in De Young Museum, San Francisco
- My Favorite Paintings in Mauritshuis, Den Haag, Netherlands
- "Compliments to Vermeer" - Controversial Solo Exhibition of the Renowned Chinese Painter JIN Shangyi
- Last Chance to See Terracotta Warriors in San Francisco Asian Art Museum
- Birth of Impressionism at De Young Museum, San Francisco
- Venetian Masterpieces from Vienna at De Young Museum
- My Favorite Works at De Young Museum, San Francisco
- My Favorite De Young Museum Collections

Artists in Movies, Plays and Operas

A new play - Red about painter Mark Rothko (1903-1970) was a recent hit in London and New York. Portraying artist, particularly painters and sculptors, particularly the working process, though easier than novelists, might be just as hard as portraying composers and poets.



However, there have been many successful efforts, particularly as motion pictures.

The most recent popular success was The Girl with Pearl Earring on Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), both due to the wildly popular novel it based on and the mesmerizing beauty of Vermeer's work.

Another recent effort from France Séraphine portrayed self-taught French painter Séraphine Louis, known as "Séraphine de Senlis" ("Séraphine of Senlis") (1864-1942), who painted in naïve style. The movie garnered great reviews and definitely I will seek it out.

The most original and daring work to me is Caravaggio on the life of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) by the Derek Jarmin. His film was as sensual as the works of the master.

Other recent notables on the life of artists include

- Little Ashes on painter Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) and poet Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)
- Pollock on Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)
- Vincent & Theo on Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
- Carrington about a British artist Dora Carrington (1893-1932)
- Hua Hun (Soul of Painting) depicted the strange story of a Chinese woman painter Yuliang Pan (1899-1977)
- Frida on iconic Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
- The Agony and the Ecstacy about Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564)
- Goya's Ghosts on Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746 – 1828)

One of my favorite such movies was not a bio-pic rather a documentary on the philosophy and the process of the great artist Andy Goldsworthy (born 1956): Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time

Lastly, the great German painter Matthias Grünewald or "Mathis" (as first name), "Gothart" or "Neithardt" (as surname), (c. 1470 – 1528) was created for operatic stage by composer Paul Hindemith - Mathis der Maler. The opera has not been presented as frequently as it should be but as least the melodic symphony Mathis der Maler is well known. Other painters in operas are the Tosca's lover Cavaradossi, Marcello in Puccini's La bohème and the Painter in Berg's Lulu.

Majestic "Phèdre" from National Theatre of London

Two days after viewing the telecast of Phèdre from National Theatre of London, I am still in a dazed state by the incredible play and its pitch-perfect performance, except for a less than noble and tragic Theseus, and the occasionally too nimble camera works. Many details replayed in my mind vividly – a meaningful gesture, a well-executed body movement, a most poetic line and its precise and spontaneous delivery, a delightful lighting and new angle of scenery. It was the theater art in the highest order. This play, seen in cinema, was the best movie theater experience of mine in many years. The performance and production was also one of my best theater going experiences, along with an exulted list including King Lear, Savage Land, Desire Under the Elm in Shenyang, China, Hecuba in London, Oresteia (last 10-15 minutes excluded), The Miser, Figaro, Finn in the Underworld, The Secret In The Wings, Argonautika (Berkeley Repertory Theater), Saint Joan (Aurora Theater), Medea, The Tea House, and The Servant to Two Masters (Cal Performances) in Berkeley, California.

The play was not over produced therefore the audience could savor the poetry of Racine, instead of being distracted by extraneous efforts, which often than were unnecessary. As Phèdre, Helen Mirren was simply majestic, in this guilt-ridden, death-seeking pitiable woman/monster. When Phèdre perished, a new goddess was born. I cannot express my gratitude enough to National Theatre for bringing this performance to me, since traveling to London for a seat might not be available is just too cost prohibitive. Many thanks to Peter Gelb, the general manager of Metropolitan Opera, who ushered in these theater-cinema alliances all over the world. Bravo!

There are three more plays from National Theatre for simulcasting in cinemas in this pioneer season. The $25.50 per seat was really paltry offering we can provide to the highest pursuit of human kind – art.

For a cost of $0, there will be a free simulcast performance in the upcoming season – San Francisco Opera is bringing Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore, in a much-praised new production, to AT&T Park, Saturday, September 19, 2009. The cast includes a quartet of most sought-after singers and will be led by SF Opera’s new music director Nicola Luisotti. If you want to sample a new art form, Il Trovatore is a very good introduction. Do give yourself a treat and sign-up for a seat early.