Criticultura em Portugal

Oklahoma! Music by Richard Rodgers Lyrics and Book by Arthur Hammerstein II Arrangements by Daniel Kluger Directed by Daniel Fish Starring Damon Daunno, Rebecca Naomi Jones, and Patrick Vaill Circle in the Square Theater, Manhattan September 4, 2019 This innovative production of the musical theater classic Oklahoma! won the Tony Award in 2018. I agree with all the plaudits, based on the recent performance I saw on Broadway in the intimate Circle in the Square Theater (perhaps 300 seats total). There was a notable and successful rethinking of the show both musically and dramatically. The most obvious change to the original is the replacement of the lush Richard Rodgers orchestrations with a small country/bluegrass band (keyboards, cello, bass, violin, electric guitar, banjo, and percussion). Since I am a big fan of the plush sound of the original, I worried about how I would respond. I really enjoyed it, once my ear adjusted. While not all of the show’s numbers are “

Tristan and Isolde Music and libretto by Richard Wagner Directed by Katharina Wagner Conducted by Christian Thielemann Starring Stefan Vinke and Petra Lang Festspielhaus, Bayreuth Germany August 23, 2019 My second opera at this year’s Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany was Tristan und Isolde . The performance received an exceptional orchestral performance led by Festival musical director Christian Thielemann and some excellent singing, especially by Stefan Vinke as Tristan and Christa Mayer as Brangäne. Unfortunately, a pedestrian, and often silly production by the composer’s great grandchild Katharina Wagner, undid the excellent musical effect and created a mediocre, long (6 hour with intermissions) evening. After lots of family infighting, Ms. Wagner has now settled in as the overall director of the festival. She should stick to that, and not direct operas, from what I saw. Like the other modernist Wagnerian opera Parsifal, Tristan makes an extraordinary us

Douglas Written and performed by Hannah Gadsby  While much of the audience responds to the 90 minute Douglas as it would any stand-up comedy act, it is not so easily classified as such. You get this sensation on arrival. You’re told that the performance is 1 hour 45 minutes (really long for comedy) and that the theater is cellphone-free. At the request of the artist, all cellphones are locked up in a little pouch (which you keep) so cannot then be accessed until a special magnet is applied to the lock on exit (there are side exits for cell phone emergencies). The stage has the prototypical comic’s stool and microphone, but also a curious ceramic dog (actually made out of crayons, we are later told)—this is the dog Douglas of the title, but rarely mentioned in the act. Ms. Gadsby enters the stage without ceremony, dressed in shlumpfy clothes, and starts talking without much introduction. She spends the first 10 minutes precisely outlining what she will do during the show, rather l

Parsifal Music and libretto by Richard Wagner Directed by Uwe Eric Laufenberg Conducted by Semyon Bychkov Starring Andreas Schager, Günther Grössbock, and Elena Pankratova Festspielhaus Bayreuth, Germany August 22, 2019 This was my second trip to the revered Wagner festival in Bayreuth, Germany. Each summer since the late 1800’s this small Bavarian city has hosted productions of Wagner’s operas, with some pauses for wars and for some post WWII de-nazification (Wagner’s widow Cosima was a big Hitler fan). Initially ultratraditional (think Brunhilde with helmet and breastplates), the festival productions entered an abstract/symbolic phase after WW2, intended to de-link it from its conservative Nazi/nationalist past. More recently the festival has favored directors’ creativity in re-interpreting the Wagnerian canon. This was terrific when I first attended six years ago, with an extraordinary  Parsifal  done as an allegory of German history (complete with collapsing swastikas on stage) a

Little Gem Written by Elaine Murphy Directed by Marc Atkinson Borrull Starring Marsha Mason, Brenda Meaney, and Lauren O’Leary Irish Repertory Theater, Manhattan July 19, 2019 Little Gem (2008) is a three-actor play about the interacting lives of three generations of Irish women. We hear about their challenging lives in an evolving era where abortion, divorce, and profanity are options that might not existed for Irish women a generation ago. The play is very challenging for the actors, with mostly long, exposed monologues. During these, the other two actors are often offstage or in the shadows. True interactions between the characters are uncommon and become almost a special effect. The monologues are a mixture of narration of current events (an unexpected pregnancy, a new boyfriend, death of a family member) with selective use of retrospection and past history. Most of the latter comes from the juiciest role of Kay, a 60-ish woman caring for her ill husband but yearning for he