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Orchestra of Exiles – Bronislaw Huberman Click here for tickets This week, when we remember those who died in the Holocaust in Europe, comes this excellent documentary about those who didn’t die, thanks to the efforts of one man. The great violinist Bronislaw Huberman, seeing that the Nazis were decimating German orchestras by denying Jewish musicians work, decided to put his fame and commitment towards saving as many as possible by forming a new orchestra in Palestine. Giving up his own career for the duration, he combed Eastern Europe, gathering the best Jewish musicians from Poland, Germany, Austria, and Holland, and fighting to get them certificates that would allow them to leave Europe and come to the desert land where there was nothing but sand and the possibility of making music again. This land became Israel and this orchestra became the Israel Philharmonic, still one of the world’s great orchestras. There are interviews with many who were there at the start and with today’s international stars, all still associated with the IPO – Pinchas Zukerman, Itzchak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Joshua Bell (who now plays Huberman’s Stradivarius), and many others - and there is music playing throughout. It’s such a heart-warming story of adversity and triumph against the background of one of the darkest periods in our history. This week and always, remember the Holocaust and remember too those, who like Huberman, shone a light into the darkness. The Sound of Silence – Wuauquikuna Click here to watch Not silent, but lovely all the same. Pan pipes in beautiful surroundings. Very consoling. Very calming. Wuauquikuna is a Native American band from Equador. It was founded by brothers: Luis and Fabian (Rumy) Salazar. Their instruments are mainly from the Americas and from other parts of the world, including the Quena, quenacho, Chinese flute, zampoñas, rondador, panflute, toyos. I've never heard of many of these but they sure sound beautiful. William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet Click here for tickets This is a very strange ballet film. Ballet, yes, but also poetry, song, digital photography and documentary. One of the most famous television actors of the television era – Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, William Shatner – made a record called Has Been out of his reminiscences and philosophical musings, which he turned into song lyrics. The record was heard on the radio by the choreographer Margo Sappington who decided to make a ballet from it. She took it to the Milwaukee Ballet who mounted what became this performance on their company dancers. The resulting work includes interviews with Shatner, now a sprightly 90 years old, with Sappington, with writer/director/composer Ben Folds, and other artists who collectively made William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet. This artistic collaboration was a labour of love for many people with an unusual collective vision, but especially a clearly committed and sincere Shatner himself. Does it work? See what you think? The Tempest – Royal Shakespeare Company (Act One, Scene Two) Click here for tickets There is much experimentation currently happening throughout the theatre world on the ways technology can be married to live performance. Some new ways of seeing are at such an early stage that they are not yet ready for public display. Some require specialised equipment to be able to see it which excludes universal use. Some Virtual Reality can be used with very small groups or just in workshops. All are very expensive. But some experiments are already being used by mainstream theatres to wonderful effect. Gregory Doran’s 2017 production of The Tempest for the Royal Shakespeare Company had an Ariel who manifested apparently in thin air before appearing in corporeal form on-stage a little later. This is a technique known as ‘motion capture technology’ but I call it magic. Here is Act 1 Scene Two of that production. Prospero is, of course, Simon Russell Beale. The voice behind the Ariel’s apparition is actor Mark Quartley. I believe we will be seeing much more of this fascinating technique in the theatre. The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny – Weill/Brecht Click here for tickets I’ve always admired this opera which was composed in the late 1920s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, as a satire on capitalism and the inexorable industrialization of a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money. Twenty scenes tell the story of a city lost in the desert and run by thugs; in Mahagonny food, sex, gambling, and violence rule supreme. Are they lampooning America? Or maybe the Weimar Berlin of the ‘20s with its rampant prostitution, unstable government, political corruption, and economic crises? Were they criticising their own world? Could have been either, both, or neither. In any case, the corruption they highlighted sounds familiar, or is that too cynical even for me? Both Weill and Brecht were intrinsically left-wing Weimar artists, central to the artistic world that flourished at that time although they fell out in 1930 (when Mahogonny premiered) because Brecht’s politics were too extreme for Weill to be comfortable with him any longer. This opera is, in places, a hard watch, being, like all of Brecht’s work, somewhat heavy-handed and humourless, despite its deft handling of the political issues which would come to the fore in the ‘30s. The music is sublime, the last flowering of Kurt Weill’s ‘serious classical’ compositions before he fled from Nazi Germany to France and then to the United States where the less complicated political and theatrical world of American musicals beckoned. The Price of Love – Michele Brourman Click here to watch Here’s one for those of you who love your animals and suffer when their shorter lifespans means that you will inevitably lose them after years of companionship. It’s a song from the most loving animal-lover among my friends. The great singer-songwriter Michele Brourman has recently lost a much-loved pet and, unlike the rest of us who grieve our furry friends without an outlet for our sadness, Michele knows exactly what to do. She has written a song. She is still sad to lose her beloved Buttercup after living together happily for so many years but that, she will tell you, and sing you, is the price of love.
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
March 2024
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