Amy Winehouse – Other Voices Click here for tickets I had never seen this Arena documentary about the late lamented Amy Winehouse who never managed to pull herself out of a life lived badly among people who exploited her until she died much too young before her extraordinary talent had barely had the chance to show what it could do. This is a rarely-seen Amy Winehouse concert, plus extended interviews with the singer and archival footage of Winehouse’s greatest musical influences. In 2006, a young Amy Winehouse accepted an invitation to perform in Ireland's annual Other Voices festival. She made her way to Dingle's St James's church to play a short set for a small audience that left a big impact on a small town. Everyone in attendance remembers ‘The Day She Came to Dingle.’ Watch her full performance interspersed with intimate, extended interviews with Other Voices presenter John Kelly, in which Amy talks about her musical influences, career aspirations, and her life before fame. This is a gentle and fascinating portrait of one of music’s most extraordinary talents. Amy Winehouse was the real thing, not my judgment, but that of the great performers such as Tony Bennett who all wanted to work with her. She was a singer who showed her soul and then tragically lost herself. Met Museum – Textile Conservation Click here to watch The Metropolitan Museum in New York has a special department for the conservation of textiles – rugs, carpets, tapestries, etc – with a staff of meticulous experts from all over the world. These conservationists are scientists, historians, technicians, needlewomen, dyers, cleaners, and all manner of educators in the science, art, and exhibition techniques of textile conservation. This short film just skims the surface of the fascinating work they do behind the scenes at the Museum. You will never look at what’s beneath your feet in the same way again. Juan – (Don Giovanni) Click here for tickets Until recently, Kasper Holten was Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, before turning down an extension to his contract and returning to Denmark with his family. Before that, he was artistic director of the Royal Danish Opera. His work there included a highly acclaimed production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, "The Copenhagen Ring", which won the Gramaphone Award in 2009 for Best DVD. Now he has turned his attention from the opera stage to the world of movies and his first effort has combined his passion for opera with his interest in contemporary film. It’s hardly surprising that his debut feature film would be a retelling of Mozart’s Don Giovanni in a contemporary setting. What is surprising is that the movie itself is quite a shock, particularly for lovers of Don Giovanni. Now titled Juan, and starring Christopher Maltman, who is on the screen throughout, the movie retells Mozart's classical masterpiece as a story of the modern man's escape from himself and his demons. In this version Don Giovanni has become Juan, a famous artist and notorious playboy, with the ability to be what any woman dreams of. He turns his own life into a megalomanic work of art, playing the game of seduction, driven by a manic restlessness that pushes him forward through an endless stream of conquests, betrayals, sex and eventually murder, with death lurking as the only possible outcome. An outstanding cast including Mikhail Petrenko, Maria Bengtsson, Elizabeth Futral, Katija Dragojevic, Eric Halfvarson, Peter Lodahl and Ludvig Lindström tries hard to fit into the director’s vision, apparently inspired by movies such as Traffic and The Bourne Trilogy. Sung in English, Da Ponte’s original libretto has been bowdlerised in a execrable new translation by the leading man, baritone Christopher Maltman, and dramaturg Henrik Engelbrecht. Maltman is a well-known Don in many opera houses around the world and is surely completely familiar with Da Ponte’s original text but translation is a delicate job, requiring both understanding of language and a writer’s grasp of context and speech. Neither is on show here. Despite their accurate use of scatological English, it is blindingly obvious that neither of these translaters has English as a first language and consequently, the singers, who are actually singing live, appear to be singing in a foreign language wih English words. Every scene and detail has been adapted to make full use of the visual vocabulary of modern cinema, while at the same time attempting to maintain the live experience of an opera performance. The Concerto Copenhagen is conducted by Lars Ulrich Mortensen. PERFORMANCES TO KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF Much Ado About Nothing - Public Theater Click here to watch I loved this Much Ado About Nothing when I saw it for the first time on stage at the Public Theater in New York in 1972 and I love it still. I think it holds up very well even though we’ve seen many film, stage and television adaptations since, most notably perhaps the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson movie from 1993. This is the CBS-TV television production of Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival’s Broadway staging of Shakespeare’s rollicking comedy. It is brassy, bouncy and all-round entertaining. Featuring Sam Waterston and the Tony nominated performances of Kathleen Widdoes and Barnard Hughes, Papp’s turn-of-the-century version has Teddy Roosevelt roughriders and bicycle-riding women suffragettes, but remains faithful to Shakespeare's classic play. Beatrice and Benedick are still sparring partners fighting their merry war of words, the evil Don Jon continues conspiring to break up the wedding of Hero and Claudio, and it’s once again up to Dogberry to save the day. Critically acclaimed and enormously popular with audiences, this production of Much Ado About Nothing originated at the open-air Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, transferred to Broadway and was the first successful Shakespeare to play without a major star in Broadway history. This CBS broadcast was seen by twenty million people, more than had ever seen it in its entire history since its premiere in 1598 (or maybe 1612). Sam Waterston was Benedick, Kathleen Widdoes, who was nominated for a Tony for this performance, was Beatrice, Barnard Hughes, also Tony-nominated, is a wonderfully irascible Dogberry, April Shawnham and Douglass Watson were a winsome Hero and Claudio. Sheer bliss, even after all this time. Another from my Greatest Dances On Film file My Sister Eileen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE0AvrTjDD0 This is from the 1955 movie of My Sister Eileen. The dancers are Tommy Rall and, believe it or not, Bob Fosse, then known as Robert Fosse. The film starred Betty Garrett and Janet Leigh and a very young Jack Lemmon.
1 Comment
|
AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|