Theatre and Opera

A perplexing choreographer, James Kudelka. Last year the Brooklyn Academy of Music brought in his 2002 production for the National Ballet of Canada of "The Contract (The Pied Piper)," which was subverted by a muddled narrative. On Friday night the American Ballet Theater presented his 2004 National Ballet of Canada production of "Cinderella" at the Metropolitan Opera House. It was a choreographically enticing, visually stunning success. Maybe Mr. Kudelka is better working off an existing story — and score — than inventing or commissioning his own. The most popular "Cinderella" ballet seen in New York has been Frederick Ashton's lyrical, magical 1948 version, complete with the wicked stepsisters in pantomime drag. The Royal Ballet has brought it to the Lincoln Center Festival twice in the last decade, in different decor. One could understand why Kevin McKenzie, artistic director of Ballet Theater, wanted a fresher version. He chose well. Much has been made in advance of the way Mr. Kudelka has uncovered a darker side to a ballet in which childlike charm sometimes clashes with Prokofiev's brooding score. Not exactly, especially when compared with Maguy Marin's eerie, doll-mask version for the Lyon Opera Ballet. Yes, Cinderella looks brutalized by her pumpkin-headed keepers after she's been dragged home from the ball, near-naked and shocked. But this is still a tale with a happy ending. The stepmother (a loopy tippler in Martine van Hamel's impersonation) and the stepsisters are comic, not mean or grotesquely satirical, as in Alexei Ratmansky's version for the Kirov Ballet. And Mr. Kudelka's pas de deux in the second-act ball scene are among the most romantic I have seen. Mr. Kudelka achieves his success by listening closely to the music. In Prokofiev's score, scenes flash by in quick bursts. Mr. Kudelka manages to match mood and movement with supreme confidence; his tale unfolds as Prokofiev must have dreamed it. It helps that Ormsby Wilkins, Ballet Theater's new music director and a longtime collaborator with Mr. Kudelka at the National Ballet of Canada, conducts so surely. Mr. Kudelka hears musical echoes of the Jazz Age in the score, and so he has set his version in the 1920's. David Boechler's handsome, overarching backdrops recall Art Deco. The suburban hearth and the Fairy Godmother come from an earlier generation, more Victorian. Mr. Boechler's costumes, especially for the black-and-gray ballroom scene in the second act, are gorgeous. And Christopher Dennis's lighting design, unafraid to evoke mystery through dimness, is as evocative as everything else. None of which would matter much without some wonderful choreography and wonderful performances. Mr. Kudelka's handling of the dancers in the second act, sweeping on and off the stage in lighting both dark and bright, is superb. The Fairy Godmother comes accompanied by all manner of magical helpers, including the 12 pumpkin heads, who form circles and pop up sequentially to mark the hours. Mr. Kudelka's handling of the Prince's search for the shoe-wearer (here, a sparking toeshoe) is cleverly done, with an image of a revolving globe and ethnically attired comic characters cropping up in wooden shoes, ice skates, Japanese slippers and the like. But the romantic duets in the second act, after Cinderella's truly fairy-tale entrance in a floating, glowing pumpkin, are the best of all. The two lovers' teasing attraction, glancing off one another and postponing the inevitable, followed by technically demanding yet always fluent twirls and lifts (Fred and Ginger writ large) and capped by a real kiss, all looked captivating. Julie Kent danced beautifully, more womanly and emotional than I have ever seen her. Marcelo Gomes made a dashing swain. Erica Cornejo, a true comedienne, was a hoot as one of the stepsisters, partnered by the more reserved Carmen Corella. Isaac Stappas and Craig Salstein were two comic hired escorts; Misty Copeland, Maria Riccetto, Stella Abrera and Veronika Part embodied aspects of Cinderella's garden; and Jared Matthews, Jesus Pastor, Sascha Radetsky and Gennadi Saveliev were the Prince's dashing officers. The ballet is not perfect. There is too much mime in the first act, and Ms. Kent is not ideally girlish. Mr. Kudelka wants to humanize the story, to purge it of the politically incorrect notion that a poor girl can find fulfillment in the arms of a rich and powerful man. So the lovers wind up on equal terms (or her terms), settling down before the hearth, prepared to cultivate their (her) garden. But the changes mean a loss of a glittering fairy-tale denouement, and the last pas de deux, robbed of the tension of seduction, is slightly anticlimactic. Still, minor reservations aside, this "Cinderella" is a keeper. You have eight more chances to see it this week. But not to worry: it is likely to crop up in Ballet Theater seasons for years to come.

The Atlanta Opera will leave the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center for the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, a new complex under construction northwest of the city center.

The company announced yesterday that it would move to the John A. Williams Theatre, a 2,750-seat hall at the center, starting with the 2007-08 season.

In a statement, the company said that most of its subscribers lived closer to the Cobb Energy Centre than to the Civic Center in downtown Atlanta.

"We have worked diligently during the past 18 months to explore all options for this company, having met with city and state officials, developers and public institutions,” said Dennis Hanthorn, the company's general director since 2004. "We concluded the John A. Williams Theatre is the best option for us now to build the foundation for growth—both financially and artistically."

Atlanta Opera moved to the 4,500-seat, concrete Civic Center from the Fox Theatre, a restored movie palace, in 2003, seeking better acoustics, a larger stage, and more flexible scheduling. But according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the company's attendance has dropped sharply—and its debt has grown—since the move.

"Our research indicates that the Civic Center itself is a large part of our problem," Hanthorn said.

Music and Book by Claude-Michel Schonberg
Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer
Conception, Book and Original French Lyrics by Alain Boublil "When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!"

Around the globe, night after night, tens of thousands of people are swept away by the power, the passion and the triumph of the human spirit that is Les Misérables. Based on Victor Hugo's classic novel, it is the epic musical story of the fugitive Jean Valjean, who is pitted against the cruel and self-righteous Inspector Javert in a lifelong struggle to evade capture. The winner of over 50 international theatre awards, including eight 1987 Tony Awards, it's the one show the International Herald Tribune calls "the musical of the century." Don't miss the world's most popular musical.

 

 

Young artists from the Jiangsu Provincial Kunqu Opera Theatre will demonstrate their mastery of a classical opera genre inscribed on the World Intangible Heritage List during the theatre's production of The Peach Blossom Fan at Poly Theatre this weekend (March 17-19).

The three performances will feature two casts.

The first two nights will be performed by the young cast including the 20-year-old Shi Xiaming as Hou and 16-year-old Shan Wen as Li.

It is probably the youngest cast of Kunqu Opera performers in a public show. And the famous Kunqu Opera artists such as Shi Xiaomei, Qian Jinfang and Ke Jun will appear at the final show.

According to Ke Jun, vice-president of the Jiangsu Provincial Kunqu Opera Theatre, the company planned to have the established artists perform the play.

But director Tian strongly suggested letting the young generation have a try after she saw their daily training and rehearsals.

"Since we are working on reserving and developing Kunqu Opera, we'd better bring up more young performers," Ke told China Daily. "So after listening to director Tian's advise, all the veteran artists agreed to let their students join cast A without any hesitation."

Tian's reason is nothing more than having actors and actresses at the same age as the roles they portray.

"I believe audiences would like to see young Li and Hou. They were 16 and 20 when the story happened and now the actress Shan and actor Shi are at the same age.

"The Kunqu Opera artists in their 40s and even 50s have rich performing experience but I don't think they fit teenage roles," she said.

Tian said she was impressed by the gentle manner and sense of artistry when she first saw Shi standing in the shadow of the ancient architecture Chaotiangong, where the company is located.

"He was the Hou in my mind at first sight," Tian said.

But it's really hard for viewers to relate a 20-year-old boy who loves playing PSP games and singing Jay Chou's songs during his spare time to the scholar who falls in love with a pretty courtesan 300 years ago.

Though all the young performers have received strict training of Kunqu Opera for at least six years, the company invited history and literary professors from Nanjing University, playwrights, painters and calligraphist to give them additional classes on the historical background of the story.

Placido Domingo has canceled performances at the Metropolitan Opera through March 2 because of tracheitis. Domingo, who has been bothered by the windpipe inflammation since mid-December, canceled his opening performance in Alfano's "Cyrano de Bergerac" last Thursday. He withdrew from "Cyrano" performances Tuesday and for Saturday's matinee, which will be broadcast internationally on the radio. He also is canceling his appearances in all six performances of Saint-Saens' "Samson et Dalila" from Feb. 7-March 2. The 65-year-old tenor hopes to recover for "Cyrano" performances on March 8, 11 and 16, the Met said Tuesday. He also is conducting Verdi's "Rigoletto" at the Met throughout February. Antonio Barasorda will replace Domingo in "Cyrano," and Clifton Forbis will sing the first five "Samson" performances, with the replacement for the final "Samson" to be announced later.

When the scalawag barber of Seville hits the stage singing one of the greatest baritone arias in the opera repertory with gusto, the action begins. As he explains in his popular tune, Figaro can do anything. He brags that he is a jack-of-all-trades and the best factotum matchmaker. The plot of Rossini's most popular opera, "The Barber of Seville," was a spoof of the aristocracy of his time. That was not a wise pastime in the late 18th century before the French royals lost their heads over their domineering ways. The libretto for "The Barber of Seville" is based on the rebel plays by Beaumarchais, a literary hero of the French Revolution. Under extreme pressure, the 24-year-old Rossini composed the score in 15 days. It premiered in Rome in 1816 to a jeering reception but rapidly became one of the most popular in the standard repertory. The play on which "The Barber of Seville" is based was a popular theater piece dating from 1775 seeking social reform by the French aristocracy. The subversive implications were thinly masked by a farce in the style of opera comique. The cover-up is a young lord in disguise wooing a girl while clowning around with comedia dell' arte characters, a popular entertainment for the people's theater of the day. San Diego Opera will open its 2006 season with Rossini's "Barber" on Saturday, Jan. 28, marking the company's sixth production of this classic during the company's 46-year history. Today's audience can relate the erotic but subtle innuendos to current sitcoms. Sexual dalliances also amused opera audiences two centuries ago. In brief, Figaro the ambitious barber serves his master, the count, and other social worthies of Seville while plotting a secret rendezvous between his lord and a sheltered beauty kept in check by an aging libertine. There's plenty of horseplay with mistaken identities and flirtations devised by the barber to keep pace with the lively music. Rossini is famous for his "patter songs" that challenge vocal resources with fast and furious vocal dialogue. Figaro's entrance aria, "Largo Al Factotum," is the joy or despair of many baritones. The audience can keep up with the fun by viewing the English translations in super titles flashed above the stage. SDO is fortunate to cast a young tenor, Lawrence Brownlee, as the desperate lover, Count Almaviva. He comes here after his La Scala debut but before his Metropolitan Opera appearance and teams up with Covent Garden's Christopher Maltman as Figaro and Ferruccio Furlanetto in his first-ever comic role as the dippy cleric, Don Basilio. Local audiences know the Italian bass as a more dramatic Verdian artist since his debut here in 1985. Furlanetto sings in the United States only at the Met Opera and his seven appearances in San Diego.

For a guy born 250 years ago, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart still gets around. Celebrate his birthday with the Asheville Lyric Opera's production of "The Magic Flute," at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday at Diana Wortham Theatre at Pack Place on Pack Square. (828)257-4530 Or enjoy a free multiartist Mozart concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Thomas Auditorium at Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock. Stick around for cake afterwards. Listen to selections form Mozart on the radio today on WCQS from 9:00a.m.-3:00p.m. and tonight on NPR's SymphonyCast, hosted by Korva Coleman.

Ned Rorem’s opera “Our Town” will have its professional premiere on July 1 at the Lake George Opera, the company said Wednesday.

Based on the Thorton Wilder book, the opera has a libretto by J.D. McClatchy. Mark Flint will conduct.

The opera will have its world premiere Feb. 24 in a student production at the Indiana University Opera Theater.

The production at Lake George’s Spa Little Theater will be directed by Nelson Sheeley and the set designer is Garrett Wilson.

The Lake George summer season also includes Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” and a double bill of Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” and Cimarosa’s “Il Maestro di Cappella.”

The Sydney Opera House is on a short-list of global landmarks being considered for selection as 'the New 7 Wonders of the World.'

The iconic Sydney building is one of 21 "official finalist candidates" in line for the honour.

Other sites nominated include The Acropolis, Colosseum, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Giza, the Christ Redeemer in Rio, China's Great Wall and Moscow's Kremlin.

The New 7 Wonders of the World campaign was launched in 2000. An international panel of leading architectural experts has decided the nominations.

A final year of public voting via the internet, live events and an international television series will be held before the winners are announced on January 1 2007.

The international telephone voting numbers are:
+372 7070271
+372 54111732
+44 870 062 3748

If you still want to meet those dancing feet, tonight is your chance as the Broadway Theatre League presents a second night of 42nd Street at the Forum Theatre in Binghamton.

This musical is such a classic it's hard to believe it took 47 years for it to make the leap from the silver screen to Broadway, which it did in 1980. In the years since, the story of the girl who gets plucked from the chorus to take the lead and become a star has become a perennial favorite (and for all you cynics out there, it does happen — just ask Sutton Foster, star of Thoroughly Modern Millie, who got the lead role and a Tony Award for it, as well).

For tap dancing fans, this show is an absolute must-see. The ensemble numbers are terrific high-energy, toe-tapping rhapsodies; and when combined with the glittering costumes and sets, are everything you would expect from an old-school Broadway show.

There is some phenomenal singing in this show, which is a good thing because the songs, many of which became standards long before they got to Broadway, certainly deserve some fine singing. Particularly good are Natalie Buster, as Dorothy Brock, and Maureen Veronica Illmensee as Maggie Jones. Although her vicious portrayal of Brock made it tough to find the character sympathetic, Buster's voice rippled over the audience like velvet, and from a seriously low register, too. She gets some of the best music in the show, including I Only Have Eyes For You, You're Getting to be a Habit With Me, About A Quarter to Nine and the Act One Finale version of the title song. Jones is a fabulously big woman with an equally fabulous voice that at times resembles the late great Ethel Merman around the vibrato. Her high-energy rendition of the Shadow Waltz earned her immediate applause. When David Grant, who plays the role of director Julian Marsh, sings Lullaby of Broadway, it makes me wonder why I don't go to New York more. As soon-to-be-star Peggy Sawyer, Melody Davi's singing suffered slightly by comparison to Buster, but her dancing was great and she showed the audience Peggy's transformation from cute wind-up doll to leg-swinging lead. Playing a much smaller role than the others but doing a superb job with it was Randi Kaye, who played the role of Peggy's fellow chorus mate, Annie. Sometimes people just light up the stage and that's what she did and it got her noticed.

The British Comedy Awards have renamed one of its annual accolades in tribute to the late Ronnie Barker.

The Writer of the Year Award will now be known as the Ronnie Barker Writer of the Year Award and will be presented at the ceremony by former comedy partner Ronnie Corbett. David Jason, who co-starred with Barker in Open All Hours, will introduce a selection of film clips in honour of the 76-year-old star, who died in October.

Barker’s widow Joy said: “I know Ronnie would have been delighted. Throughout his career he thought writers were so important and were to be encouraged.”

Writers’ Guild of Great Britain chairman David Nobbs, who was also one of the first writers on the Two Ronnies. The show, fronted by Jonathan Ross, will be broadcast on ITV1 on December 14.

Peter Stein’s production of David Harrower’s Blackbird will transfer to the Albery Theatre in the West End in February 2006.

The play, which stars Roger Allam and Jodhi May, opens on February 7 with press night on February 13 and will run until May 13.

Blackbird, commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival, where it received its world premiere earlier this year, has set designs by Ferdinand Wögerbauer, lighting designs by Japhy Weideman, costume designs by Moidele Bickel, music composed by Arturo Annecchino with sound by Ferdinando Nicci.

It is presented in the West End by MJE Productions. MJE reunites Michael Edwards and Carole Winter who previously produced Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men directed by Harold Pinter, in the West End.

Step back from a timeless setting of quiet, red-carpeted hallways that vibrate with remembered sounds of chattering children at a matinee into a spacious auditorium encircled with golden carved theatre boxes and rich draperies. Hear the tempo changes of the Mighty Barton theatre organ, join the lively applause as the curtain comes down on another hit show. Designed in 1915 by Chicago architects C.W. and George Rapp, the Al. Ringling Theatre has been an ornate fixture in downtown Baraboo for over 80 years. The Theatre is one of the first examples of palatial design applied to the moving picture theatre in this country, and is the earliest structure that can be accurately called a "movie palace," as noted by the Theatre Historical Society of America.

The "Prettiest Playhouse in America" had a distinguished opening night in November 1915, and has been in continuous operation ever since. Ringling Circus brother, Al. Ringling, built the Theatre for approximately $100,000, as a gift to the people of the community he loved. From the start, the Theatre featured live performances from vaudeville to grand opera and starred the likes of Lionel Barrymore and Mary Pickford. First-run films were known to debut in Baraboo before they reached Madison and larger cities.

Plush and gilded, the Theatre is an original. and remains so to this day. The look and feel of the Theatre has not changed in its lifetime; no alterations or remodeling have been done to interfere with its original appearance. Movies still flicker across the big screen, and local theatre and perforinance groups take their turns on the stage every season. Hundreds of thousands of people have experienced the magic of the Al. Ringling Theatre.

In 1976, the Theatre was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and through the successful efforts of the community-based Al. Ringling Theatre Friends (ART Friends), the Theatre was purchased from private owners in 1989.

With the Al. Ringling Restoration Fund, ART Friends brings the curtain up on one of the most important performances in the Theatre's history. This fund drive is the chance to preserve the elegant beauty of a historic jewel and to create a unique cultural facility; a vital centerpiece for community events.

Restoration of the Al. Ringling Theatre is a community effort with community benefits. A successful multi-million dollar campaign will support plans to historically preserve and upgrade the Theatre, while the acquisition of adjacent property lays a new foundation to expand programming and operations.