Criticultura em Portugal

The Slave Play By Jeremy O. Harris Directed by Robert O’Hara New York Theater Workshop, Manhattan January 6, 2019 This new play about race relations relies on shock effect to make its main point. Spoiler: I will now divulge the shock, which is the main thing to talk about here. The play opens with three lurid sexual couplings, each a mixed-race couple in the antebellum South. A “big house” lady rapes a dignified articulate handsome black butler. A white male share cropper is seduced by black male over-slave. And a randy white overseer rapes a beautiful black woman slave. This extended prelude is done with lurid lighting, (mostly) convincing southern accents, and partial nudity. And a dildo. At the end of this orgy (oddly ended by one guy calling out “Starbucks”) all the characters are summoned to the “big house”, where part two of the play commences.   It turns out this was all a role-playing exercise for some contemporary mixed-race couples (two straight, one...

My Fair Lady Music by Frederick Loewe Words by Alan Jay Lerner Directed by Bartlett Sher Starring Laura Benanti, Harry Hadden-Paton, and Danny Burstein Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan January 9, 2019 Clueless, The Musical Written by Amy Heckerling Directed by Kristin Hanggi Starring Dove Cameron January 8, 2019 Not just every popular play, book, or movie can become a musical. Two recent examples of this were on full display in Manhattan. First for the good. The Bartlett Sher production of My Fair Lady was brilliant, exciting, and thought provoking, remarkable for an old chestnut from the 1950s. The story of how Henry Higgins turns Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a lady started with the Greek myth Pygmalion, where, the sculptor, dissatisfied with women, creates his own perfect sculpture of one, who then comes to life (courtesy of Athena) and becomes his wife. George Bernard Shaw later turned this into his play about class and women’s rights Pygm...

Candide Music by Leonard Bernstein Book/Lyrics by Lillian Hellman, Hugh Wheeler, Stephen Sondheim, John Mauceri (and others) Starring Paul Curievici and Meechot Marrero Directed by Barrie Kosky Conducted by Jordan de Souza Berlin Comic Opera (Komische Opera Berlin), Unter der Linden December 9, 2018 What to make of Candide , Bernstein’s 1956 operetta/opera? It has seemingly received more rewrites than professional performances, but remains a staple of US college opera and musical theater troupes. It’s based on the Voltaire 30-scene novella of 1759 that details a young rake’s progress across the globe, all written with the apparent point of Voltaire’s disproving Leibnitz’ doctrine of optimism. This doctrine attempted to rationalize evil in the world. It stated that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and that since God is omniscient, he obviously has chosen the best possible world for us, with evil intentionally present as a contrast to good, so we recogn...

The Nutcracker Music by Peter Tchaikovsky Choreography by George Balanchine New York City Ballet Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, Manhattan December 16, 2018 Ballets Trocadero de Monte Carlo Joyce Theater, Manhattan December 30, 2018 Capernaum (Chaos) Written and Directed by Nadine Labaki What makes good holiday entertainment? Well, some upbeat stuff, warmth, and a happy ending help. A few tears are excellent. But a little depth and intellectual stimulation, at least for this critic, make these emotions even more poignant. For example, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is a US holiday staple, a feel-good treat like It’s a Wonderful Life, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Chinese take-out food, and Messiah. But it was not always so. The ballet was rarely performed before the 1950s, always in the shadow of Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty , in spite of its superior score, perhaps the best thing Tchaikovsky ever wrote. All that change after the masterful George...

NDR Elbphilharmonie Sakari Oramo, conducting Magnus Lindberg: Accused Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D major , Op. 43 Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg December 6, 2018 Berlin Statskapelle Daniel Barenboim, conducting Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor , op. 68 Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major , op. 73 Berlin Philharmonie December 8, 2018 Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Andris Nelsons, conducting Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor (Resurrection)                             Berlin Philharmonie December 10, 2018 My recent trip to Hamburg and Berlin immersed me in classical music. Besides the three formal orchestra concerts (plus one operetta) I saw, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, and Schumann flowed from nearly every corner, whether at Christmas markets or inside malls, including an excellent high school orchestra playing the Beethove...