We're in the full thick of winter now and it's COLD, the days are still short and it's too miserable outside to do anything. I've been taking in some performing arts events this past week to get through the boredom of the winter doldrums:
Macbeth
I took in a performance of The National Arts Centre's production of Macbeth. I studied Macbeth in Grade 11 English Lit but this is the first time I've seen a live-stage version (if you don't count MacHomer a one-man version of Macbeth done with the Simpson's characters). I'd been to other NAC productions of Shakespearean plays before (Othello, Hamlet and Love's Labour's Lost) but I found them lacking. If you have a play like Hamlet that's been staged thousands of times you really need to give it a fresh point of view to make it relevant to contemporary audiences otherwise it's just a costume pageant.
The Macbeth director understood that, he transposed the setting of the play to World War II era Europe and made really effective use of the symbols of that era; air raid sirens, bombs, scratchy radio broadcasts and he appropriated Nazi/fascist iconography to underscore the ruthless tyranny of the Macbeths' ascent to power. I thought setting the play in WWII was a brilliant choice since it allows the audience to draw modern parallels to the story plus Second World War imagery still invokes a visceral reaction in today's audiences.
Another interesting choice the director made was casting children in the role of the Witches ("Double double toil and trouble"), it made for a creepy effect in addition to underlining war's toll on the innocent.
I also loved how he staged the final act, the siege of Dunsinane castle by MacDuff and Malcolm's troupes. He had actors in World War II combat gear crawling around the stage like in a trench battle then, once inside the castle they were ducking around corners like the door-to-door combat of the Italian campaign. And then for the final showdown between Macbeth and MacDuff; a good old-fashioned Shakespearean sword fight. It made for some great theatre.
I also liked the production design, at the back of the stage they had this semi-transparent frosted-glass divider and when performers stood behind it they could be lit to give a ghostly aura which was a simple but really cool-looking effect.
The East Village Opera Company
Last weekend I went to a concert by EVOC, a band that does Rock-arrangements of operatic arias. It was a special concert being recorded for CBC Radio and they were trying out a bunch of stuff from their upcoming album.
I love this band they have some really original ideas for the arrangements and they totally rock.
For the second encore they performed one of my favourite songs of theirs; When I am Laid in Earth (Dido's Lament) from the opera Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell. Dido, Queen of Carthage sings this aria at the end of the opera after her lover Aeneas has left her and she decides to commit suicide. She pleads to be remembered for the way she lived her life and not how she chooses to end it. The EVOC arrangement puts another melody, a lullaby for a child, in counterpoint and it gives this amazing sense of drama. It starts off subtly with Indian tablas and then builds to the electric guitar crescendo. I love it!
Carmen, The Passion
Tonight I attended a performance of Carmen, The Passion by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. It's an adaptation that takes one of the most famous operas and transforms the story for dance.
The ballet featured an original score. I was unsure about that decision since the Bizet score is so iconic but I enjoyed the original composition, it featured a lot more authentic Andalusian stylings and references plus setting the ballet to an original score really helps the viewer focus on the story.
The staging was minimal; the set consisted of some scaffolds and projection screens. Unfortunately, the projections looked like cheap Winamp visualizations. I understand they were used to fill in the negative space overhead but they didn't add anything to the scene and since I was close enough that the dancers filled my field of view I just found the projections distracting.
The dancers were good, I always marvel at the training and discipline it takes to dance ballet. When I saw the RWB's performance of Dracula a couple seasons ago I thought that production lacked some of the passion, gothic darkness and sensuality that the Dracula story allows. Their Carmen however was passionate and full of sexual energy, it was hot!
