Renoir’s The Umbrellas - National Gallery Click here to watch Join us for a rainy day in Paris as National Gallery Educator, Belle Smith, introduces us to The Umbrellas (about 1881–6) by the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919). It was presented at an Impressionist exhibition in New York in 1886. Immerse yourself in the crowd beneath their brollies. Observe how their hands and feet intertwine in the composition of bright oranges, blues and greens. What do you think the expressions of the young woman and little girl, looking out at us from the picture, are saying? And why do you think there are two different styles of women’s clothes in the picture, alert as Renoir was to women’s fashions of the day? This film is part of the National Gallery's 'National Treasures' series. As part of the Gallery's Bicentenary celebrations, they are examining 12 loaned paintings from partner venues throughout the UK, providing expert commentary on them. The Imaginary Invalid – Red Bull Theater. Click here to watch Originally, Le Malade Imaginaire, (variously translated as The Imaginary Invalid or The Hypochondriac) was a three-act comedie-ballet bythe French playwright Molière with dance sequences and musical interludes by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. It premiered on 10 February 1673 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris. Its premiere was something of a shambles and could be said to have been literally the death of its author because Molière had fallen out with the powerful court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully, with whom he had pioneered the comedie-ballet form a decade earlier, and had opted for the collaboration with Charpentier. Le Malade Imaginaire was Molière's last work. He collapsed during his fourth performance in the leading role of Argan on 17 February and died soon after. This is an online simulcast of a reading of Moliere’s Le Malade Imaginaire, perhaps the most classic of all French farces, produced by the Red Bull Theater in partnership with the French Institute Alliance Française. The cast for the reading is very starry with a lot of big Broadway names. It includes Annaleigh Ashford, currently starring in Sweeney Todd on Broadway, Jordan Boatman, Will Brill, Arnie Burton, Kelley Curran, Mark Linn-Baker, Lorenzo Pisoni and John Yi. The Red Bull Theater is a New York institution. Named for the rowdy Jacobean playhouse that illegally performed plays in England during the years of Puritan rule, it was the first London theater to reopen after the Restoration. This bold spirit is central to its New York identity. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as their cornerstone, Red Bull Theater is New York City’s destination for dynamic performances of great plays that stand the test of time. Following the simulcast on Monday Feb 19 at 7:30pm ET, the recording will be available On-Demand from Feb 20 until Feb 25. $30 Remembering Jacqueline du Pre Click here to watch When I was very young, 5 or 6 years old, the little girl next door would sometimes come over to play. More often, she was at home playing something else, a big piece of wood I later learned to call a cello. I called her Jackie, her husband would nickname her Smiley, and she grew up smiling in a world that loved her. Over the years our paths crossed occasionally and we were always glad to see one another when we did. We lived in different countries but I always thought there would be time for us to renew our childhood friendship later, when life wasn’t such a personal and professional scramble. But Jacqueline du Pre died in 1987 when she was only 42, when she was already recognised as one of the world’s greatest musicians, Her time had run out far too soon. The documentarian Christopher Nupen, who specialised in making music films which were more about the musicians than the music, chronicled her time with a number of documentaries about her and her friends when she and her friends were the young musicians who set the tempo of the international music world. Medici has a number of these fine films including this documentary which shines a light into her world. This film remembers Jacqueline du Pré as she was, full of joy, with an exceptional collection of archive material taken from Christopher Nupen's collection. We see her with her husband, Daniel Barenboim, her friends Zubin Mehta, Itzhak Perlman, William Pleeth, singing along with her cello, playing Clementi on the piano at home with Barenboim, teaching, rehearsing with John Barbirolli and much more. Becomes A Woman – Mint Theater Click here to watch The playwright Betty Smith was much better known for her bestselling novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, than for this unpublished and unproduced 1930 drama. Becomes A Woman is a great discovery by a company which is famous for them, the Mint Theater. The Wall Street Journal’s critic, the late Terry Teachout, wrote, “Of all the countless Off-Broadway troupes with which the side streets of Manhattan are dotted, none has a more distinctive mission—or a higher artistic batting average—than the Mint Theater Company, which finds and produces worthwhile plays from the past that have been lost or forgotten. If that sounds dull to you, don’t be fooled: I’ve never seen a production there that was a sliver less than superb.” In 2013, Mint committed to recording all its productions, investing in creating professionally shot and edited full length archival videos on the principle that many of their discoveries might never be seen again. When the pandemic hit the theaters in 2020, Mint finally had the opportunity to find out if there was a national and international audience for their discoveries. Unions representing the performers, directors and designers were eager to cooperate and PPP loans helped to pay those salaries. They now know that most of their streaming audience have never seen any of their productions live and never will. But they are able to keep up with this innovative little company’s productions online. Part of the appeal is the price. What could be better than free? Becomes a Woman is the story of Francie, a 19-year-old living with her family in Brooklyn and working at a five and dime store as a singer at the sheet music counter. Her co-workers describe her as “afraid of her family, afraid of the boss, afraid to make a date.” But as Francie becomes a woman, she discovers a hidden reserve of courage that surprises everyone, even herself. This world premiere of Becomes a Woman by Betty Smith, directed by Britt Berke is the Mint’s latest venture and it is available to stream On Demand Feb 19 to Mar 17.
0 Comments
|
AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|