Criticultura em Portugal

Queens Row Written and directed by Richard Maxwell Starring Nazira Hanna, Soraya Nabipour, and Antonia Summer New York City Players The Kitchen, Manhattan January 18, 2020 On a snowy evening, I journeyed to the Chelsea piers to a black box theater to see a new, very contemporary play by Richard Maxwell (b. 1967), originally from Fargo ND, but now a true Manhattanite in experimental style. He is known for his blank sets, focus on unadorned actors speaking plainly, and apocalyptic visions. Queens Row definitely fell into some of these baskets. The play consists of three twenty minute monologues delivered by different women, each speaking from a slightly raised circular podium on an all-black set. There is a fourth “character”, the lighting design by Sascha van Riel , an amazing panoply of strobes, spotlights, smoke, and penetrating laser-like beams that emerged from the floor, sometimes illustrating the character’s emotions or thought, sometimes seemingly with their own ...

Wozzeck Music by Alban Berg Libretto by Berg (based on Georg Büchner’s play from 1837) Conducted by Yannick Nézat-Séguin Production by William Kentridge Starring Petter Mattei and Elza van den Heever Metropolitan Opera NYC January 16, 2020 Seeing the Metropolitan Opera’s magnificent production of Wozzeck (1922) made me regret the premature deaths of two early twentieth century composers, Gustav Mahler (dead at 51 in 1911) and Alban Berg (dead at 50 in 1935). One generation apart, these two composers were best able to use the new changes in musical language to ideal expressive effect. The atonal revolution of that era attributed to Arnold Schoenberg is sometimes described as a revolution, but it was not. Ever since the orderly progressions of keys in early Haydn and Mozart, composers had been pushing against tidy, well- organized music theory. Mozart and Beethoven began blurring the tonal order in their late works, and the romantics like Liszt and Wagner pushed it fo...

The Inheritance Written by Matthew Lopez Directed by Bob Crawley Starring Samuel H. Levine, Andrew Burnap, and Kyle Soller Ethyl Barrymore Theater, Manhattan January 8 and 12, 2019 The Inheritance , a six hour play (split in two segments) about gay men of this era and their inheritance from past gay men, took London by storm last year, praised as a worthy follow up to Angels in America , another six hour play about gay life. Angels premiered almost thirty years ago, just after the worst of the AIDS epidemic. Much has changed since then, including gay marriage, AIDS’ transformation into just another chronic disease with better prevention options, and the millennial and GenZ’s generations’ lack of fear and hatred towards GLBTQ people, now approaching bored indifference (e.g. Pete Buttigieg is one of the least-favored of the current Democratic presidential candidates among young people). So is there enough material to make another epic gay play focusing on only men? No, e...

The Mikado Music by Arthur Sullivan Words by W.S. Gilbert New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players Kaye Playhouse, Hunter College NYC January 4, 2020 The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players has been carrying the G&S torch for forty or so years now, beginning as a volunteer community group, and now staging professional productions, but still with a bit of charming amateurism that connects it to the grand tradition of bad worldwide productions of these progenitors of twentieth century musical theater. The thing is, G&S produce quite sophisticated music and words, requiring fine performers to negotiate properly, and this company seems to do that in spades, with excellent selection of principal roles, and a good, if smaller than desirable orchestra. They don’t spend much on sets, and this production of The Mikado (1885) in the Kaye Playhouse had too small a stage to allow much real choreography that often enlivens these operettas. Luckily, they do follow the traditi...

Der Freischütz Music by Weber Carl Maria von Weber Libretto by Friedrich Kind Directed by Louisa Proske and Chloe Treat Music arranged and conducted by Danial Schlosberg Heartbeat Opera The Rose Nagelberg Theater, Baruch College, Manhattan December 13, 2019 In music history, Weber’s 1821 opera Der Freischütz (The Free Shooter) has a curious history. It is considered a fundamental and influential opera, inspiring Wagner to go into his world of special effects music later in the century. Some consider it the first great German opera. Yet, other than the overture, it is rarely done in the US. After this very creative production by the local NY company Heartbeat Opera, I am puzzled why this is. The production evolved all the fantasy, magic, and spooky affect that is always talked about when reading about the opera. It just took a young creative team (below) to brush away some cobwebs and make it a great experience. The opera stems from central European folklor...