Criticultura em Portugal

A Long Day’s Journey into Night By Eugene O’Neill Directed by Sir Richard Eyre Starring Lesley Manville, Jeremy Irons, and Matthew Beard Brooklyn Academy of Music May 20, 2018 This performance of O’Neill’s last play puts a cap on my one-year Eugene O’Neill marathon, beginning with the early expressionist plays The Hairy Ape and The Emperor Jones , then the experimental, stream-of-consciousness Strange Interlude , the neoclassically tragedy Mourning Becomes Elektra , and finally his move into realism with The Iceman Cometh and A Long Day’s Journey into Night . What is fascinating about all of these is that none is a great play in a traditional sense. They are all too long, too odd, too discursive, or too unfocused to rise to, say Death of a Salesman ’s level. (Well, maybe Iceman …stay tuned for an update at the end of this review). None is particularly entertaining. But they are all profound explorations of who we are in the world, all are written with poetic, elevate...

The Firebird Music by Igor Stravinsky Choreography by Alex Ratmansky American Ballet Theater Metropolitan Opera House, Manhattan May 24, 2018 Afte-Rite Music by Igor Stravinsky Choreography by Wayne McGregor American Ballet Theater Metropolitan Opera House, Manhattan May 24, 2018 After playing mindless French-Russian ballet scores for two weeks, the ABT orchestra finally got a workout with six performances of Stravinsky, playing two major scores each evening. They earned their money, playing well, but without the laser-like precision a professional symphony would give these scores (brass entrances were splattered at times). Both scores were choreographed by notable contemporary choreographers. Alex Ratmansky ( Firebird ) is the resident choreographer at ABT; he was born in Russia and has had an international career as a dancer, then choreographer. His Firebird premiered in 2012. The ballet is yet another documentation of male promiscuity. The young Iva...

The Seagull Play by Anton Chekhov Directed by Michael Mayer Starring Annette Bening Director Michael Mayer is known for his Broadway adaptations of Spring Awakening (2006) and American Idiot (2010), and his Colin Farrell film At Home at the End of the World (2004). After these hyperkinetic efforts, The Seagull (written in 1895) would seem an odd choice. Chekhov’s characters, stuck in their bourgeois vanity and triviality, tend to implode rather than explode. Mayer’s version toys around with the play a bit, avoiding the critique of just filming a classic play. Most notably, he plays the start of Act 4 twice, first at the very beginning of the film, thus presenting the rest of the play as a flashback leading up to the climactic events. This was OK, but the exact repeat, disorienting at first, went on a little long, diluting some energy. The film is mostly notable for shining light on the wonderful Annette Bening, whose turn as the aging actress Irina Arkadina was domin...

Giselle : A Romantic Ballet in Two Acts Music by Adolphe Adam Choreography after Marius Petipa Staged by Kevin McKenzie Starring Natalia Osipova and Kevin Hallberg The American Ballet Theater Metropolitan Opera House, New York May 18, 2018 This performance of Giselle was a prototype NYC Big Event. Since it featured the current World’s Best Ballerina Natalia Osipova in her only NYC appearance this season, current and ex-ballerinas were in the audience, tickets sold out, and elderly ex-dancers were dressed in their arty best attire. The performance was wonderful, exemplifying the best of the romantic tradition, and Osipova lived up to her billing. What does it mean to be The Best ___ in the World, and is it possible to know who that is? In individual sports with quantitative competitions (swimming, archery), sure. In qualitative sports like figure skating, there are regular adjudicated competitions. In team sports like basketball, it is possible to reach consensu...

Stefan Janciw, violin and Jeremy Denk, piano Town Hall, Manhattan April 22, 2018 Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Mariss Jansons, conductor Mahler: Symphony No. 7 in Carnegie Hall May 5, 2018 Austrian Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) and American Charles Ives (1874-1954) each wrote fascinating music that bridges older traditions to the emerging twentieth century. While their music sounds very different, they share a common fascination with using the sounds of the real world in their music, and in overlapping multiple tunes in innovative ways.  Mahler is quoted as saying “The symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything.”, while Ives opined “The fabric of existence weaves itself whole”. Mahler said once that he used “common” quotations in his music as a way of portraying the subconscious (this was the era of Freud); when a mother hears an organ-grinder playing outside after the death of her child that song may become forevermore associated with...