Vermeer - Rijksmuseum Click here to watch I wanted so badly to go to Amsterdam to see the current Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum but by the time I got myself together to buy tickets it was sold out. I’ve been kicking myself ever since. It’s still sold out and there won’t be any further ticket availability to see it live. Then my friend Julia told me about this wonderful film, made by the Rijksmuseum, probably to assuage the distress of idiots like me who didn't get to see it because we asked too late. Narrated by Stephen Fry, it is an informative and inclusive guide to the exhibition. No, it’s not the same as being there and seeing the paintings in person but it does give insight and knowledge that we couldn’t get without years of study. Every painting in the exhibition is lovingly and intelligently introduced and its particular elements and talking points analysed. Nearly all the 34 known and authenticated Vermeer paintings have been gathered under the welcoming roof of the Rijksmuseum from both public and private collections worldwide at enormous effort and expense, enough to guarantee that there will never be another exhibition like this one. Modern ballet: an amorous supercut – Medici TV Click here to subscribe I know I’m a bit late for Valentine's Day, but I just came across this compilation of swoon-worthy ballet moments from Le Parc to Swan Lake, A Midsummer Night's Dream to Juliette & Romeo. Here is a chance to spend quality time with some of the most graceful and gifted dancers in the ballet firmament, choreographed by legends of the stage including Angelin Preljocaj, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Mats Ek, Thierry Malandain, and a bunch of other luminaries. Not only passionate and captivating but often very sexy. Medici.tv has some great programmes but you have to subscribe to access them. The Annual subscription is £99 but the first year is only £49.50 and, to my mind, is worth it. The Hours – Metropolitan Opera Click here to subscribe The Hours has been the big hit of the Metropolitan Opera’s season and it is now available to stream on Met Opera on Demand. This world-premiere production stars sopranos Renée Fleming and Kelli O’Hara and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato as three women from different eras whose lives are connected through Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway. The Hours is Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Kevin Puts and librettist Greg Pierce’s adaptation from Michael Cunningham’s novel and the Oscar-winning film it inspired. The conductor is Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the director is Phelim McDermott whose breathtaking staging came in for universal critical praise. Subscription to The Met On Demand can be monthly ($14.99) or annually ($149.99 which gives you two months free) and with it you get unrestricted access to the Met’s unrivalled library of videos. Tell Me On A Sunday – Marti Webb BBC Four – BBC iPlayer The original televised version of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black's Tell Me on a Sunday, starring Marti Webb as a young English woman in America, was rebroadcast this week on BBC-TV. Introduced by a very young Andrew Lloyd Webber, the cycle of love songs is now available to stream via the BBC's iPlayer. Marti Webb, who was starring in the title role of the original London production of Evita when the 43-minute Tell Me on a Sunday premiered, is backed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Harry Rabinowitz. Marti Webb is a history of the modern English musical theatre having starred in many, if not most, of the musicals which have emerged from Britain since Half A Sixpence and Stop The World, followed by Cats and Evita. Tell Me on a Sunday was written for her by Lloyd Webber and Don Black and she has performed it throughout the world, both on its own as a stand-alone song cycle and as half of the hugely successful Song and Dance which combined Tell Me On A Sunday with Andrew Lloyd Webber's Variations, composed for his cellist brother, Julian. Still performing, she recently completed a long tour in La Cage Aux Folles and she continues to perform in musicals and cabaret. Musicians on this television recording include Rod Argent, John Mole, Barbara Thompson, and Jon Hiseman. The song cycle also features the recorded spoken voice of the late Elaine Stritch. Groups of Guys – Jacob’s Pillow Click here to watch When Ted Shawn, the founder of Jacob’s Pillow, began his career in the early 20th century, it was a generally accepted premise that “men don’t dance” and he set out to disprove this assumption with his company of male dancers. Groups of Guys is a fascinating collection of performances from the Jacob's Pillow video library demonstrating, in this selection of some 14 different companies of male dancers, how wrong that assumption was. These performances, a multiplicity of examples, have been collected to commemorate the very first all-male performance by Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers, which happened in Boston exactly 90 years ago this month. Not surprisingly, it was entitled Men Dancers. Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra Macdonald – Ragtime
Click here to watch Click here to watch This week in New York, the original cast members of perhaps the greatest musical of the late 20th century, Ragtime came together for a once-in-a-generation concert of that great Aarons and Flaherty score. Marin Mazzie was sadly missing, of course, replaced in the cast by her friend and Met Opera soprano Kelli O’Hara, and playwright Terrence McNally who wrote the show’s book, adapted from E.L. Doctorow’s great novel about nothing less than the history of America, died shortly before the concert. But nearly everyone from that first cast and backstage crew was there, singing with their hearts, reminding us, if reminder was needed, that this show, Ragtime, had it all. This 25th Anniversary concert raised more than $1 million for the Entertainment Community Fund. Here's is my favourite song from that show, sung by original cast members, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra Macdonald, in the iconic scene that set them both on the road to stardom. I’ve given you two links to this song, both from that same year, 1998, when the show opened. The first link was shot from the stage during the show, so somewhat fuzzy, the second was shot just before the show opened, as part of the Kennedy Center Honors which that year honoured the great singer Jessye Norman and is therefore better shot and recorded. The one I like best, inevitably, is the raw live show footage but they’re both wonderful. See what you think.
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
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