The Politics of Art & Authenticity

http://app1.kuhf.org/_images/content/photos/Carmen-image.jpg

I have never been to the opera and last night was my first experience of such an event. I was truly shocked at how much I enjoyed Carmen for all of its spectacular singing, dancing and wit.  This is a pretty big admission since I like to consider myself a guy who generally only enjoys football and action movies. Carmen proved to be the exception to that rule. I particularly loved how the orchestra would mimic the flow of the banter between the characters. This made the fight scenes even more suspenseful and it over dramatizing even the most basic conversations. I found that to be extremely amusing especially because I like to sing-talk myself. My siblings and parents usually make fun of me for singing about my daily activities. After going to the opera I realized that I should be laughing at them. Since  I found myself sitting in a theatre packed with thousands of people, all of whom came to watch performers sing and dramatize their conversations.  I consider my night at the opera a huge success. Not only because I was able to see such an amazing performance, but because I found it extremely satisfying to watch what I had perviously thought to be a weird quirk of mine transformed into an art form.

The opera has always been something I knew about, but I never actually imagined myself going to one; it was the type of show which only fancy, upper-class folks could enjoy. I was wrong though, and I have to say I had a great first time. Joining the throngs of people entering the opera house, I felt like I was part of the New York upper-class culture. A stereotypical typical night out: dinner and the opera. I savored the experience.

Metropolitan Opera House

I love how opera combines many different forms of art: drama, dance, and music. One of my favorite parts was the orchestra. From way up high in the uppermost balcony, I was fascinated as I  watched the musicians play their respective instruments, all so synchronised down to the millisecond. I think the music accompaniment to the acting is so vital because it greatly intensifies the feeling and emotion towards the acts.

About “Carmen” specifically, I was frustrated by her character. I found her to be so stubborn and foolish, and I really disliked her haughtiness. It was as if she could dictate her wishes to the world, and she was indifferent to her surroundings. Her downfall was completely her own fault! I wished she would change, and then the outcome would have been so different.

The Metropolitan Opera is great way for anyone to spend a night. And don’t worry, the Met Opera seats so many people, there will surely be room for you to join!

When I first entered the magnificent Met building I fell in love with the snowflake light fixtures. Did anyone else notice how they look like snowflakes? It really felt like I had entered a magical world that was a time capsule of olden-day entertainment.  Though I had to climb several flights of stairs to reach my seat, the acoustics were as amazing as promised. I’m pretty sure everyone could hear me trying to surreptitiously open the wrapper of my snack. Though I can’t say for sure that I would pay to come again, it was one of those experiences that I’m happy to have had at least once in my lifetime.

The opera itself, Carmen, though it has a breathtaking orchestra, has a plot which left me feeling glad about the title character’s demise. Why does she think it’s okay to jerk people around like that? Though I don’t condone murder, I can see why Don Jose was ticked off at her. The whole time she pretends to love him, but at the same time encourages him to leave her. Make up your mind, woman! If she plans to make every man crazy about her, she has to expect that one might literally go crazy.

Walking up Broadway towards 64th street, I was thinking about how soon I could be home in my bed. But then I saw it: the fountain, the lights, the people- and I felt that thought waft away. The MET enveloped me with class, elegance, and culture. This was the first time I attended such a beautiful play, and I assure you it wont be my last.

For the the first time, I understood why it is important to do things with cultural significance. The reason is that it is the only way to truly be a part of the culture you are trying to join, to really be involved and play a part. I went to the Opera, and I witnessed New York at its finest. And it witnessed me, too. And I loved it. If you love me, I may love you. If I love you, watch out!

Opera is definitely one of my favorite forms of art.  I believe this is thanks to cartoons I watched as a child, such as “Rabbit of Seville” and “What’s Opera, Doc?” from the Looney Tunes series and, especially, “What’s Opera, Arnold?” from the Hey Arnold series.  These episodes made operas seem interesting, dumbing down the story lines for even a child to understand and enjoy.  “What’s Opera, Arnold?” is possibly the sole reason why I consider Carmen the best and most exciting opera.  The Hey Arnold episode mainly took from the storyline of Carmen with smaller pieces from other operas such as Wagner’s Ring Cycle and Pagliacci.  The episode starts with the students uninterested in the opera and when it begins they fall asleep and dream. They dream about themselves reenacting the opera Carmen, going through it with new lyrics to some of the more famous songs.  The episode not only attempted to widen the horizons for children but also explained the opera in a child friendly manner.

Arnold’s teacher summarizes, “I bet by the time we finish with this field trip I’ll make an opera lover of you yet…and this is what we’ll be seeing today, the classic tale of power and faithless love, the opera Carmen.  The story centers around the heroine Carmen the beautiful gypsy who flirts with the young Spanish officer Don Jose.  Don Jose is…uh…how would you say…charmed by Carmen and let’s her escape arrest for, uh, how should I put this?  Uh…causing harm to another girl.  But Carmen forgets all about Don Jose the minute she sets her gypsy eyes on the torero Escamillo.”

Entering the Met always fills me with a feeling of excitement.  It is much like the feeling I get when riding a roller coaster.  It doesn’t matter where I’m sitting because I know I’ll get the same experience wherever I am thanks to the way the Met is built.

The character I dislike and who annoys me the most is Micaela.  Her songs are all so long and drawn out and her soprano voice does not stand out.  Her voice seems average compared to everyone else’s however I suppose this suits her character.  Micaela is a staid character who never left home.  She is the country girl who Don Jose should have married had he followed the status quo.  I feel that if she had not been there to constantly remind Don Jose of his family then his relationship with Carmen may have lasted just a bit longer.  When the bugles played he might not have been so tempted to retreat scared he might shame his family name.

What I liked most was the ending where they compared Carmen’s death to the death of the bull.  I thought it was interesting how they rotated the stage to show Carmen, dead in the soon to be deceased Don Jose’s arms, and Escamillo with the dead bull beside him, the silent audience as if in mourning for the bull, and the red background to show the bloodshed.

I was less impressed with this version of Carmen than the first time I viewed it.  The opera I saw last night seemed to portray the leading female as weak.  This Carmen was on her back, on the floor, and being pushed and dragged down more times than the first time I saw the opera.  This Carmen also pushed the men around a lot more.  I also feel there was no real chemistry in this cast.  In fact I feel as if some of the opera singers were slightly rushing through some of their parts.  The first time I saw it, during Carmen’s Habanera there’s one note that was prolonged as if being stressed forcing the audience to not only hear something truly amazing but also to convey Carmen’s true emotions.  This time the singer went straight through the song without stressing or prolonging any words that should have been.

The set design had a lot of detail.  The way in which the stage continued rotating to show the different places made transitioning to the next scene easier.  The costume designs were also very interesting.  My favorites include Escamillo’s final outfit before the bullfight and the dress Carmen was killed in.

At the Met I found that the sounds of the orchestra seemed to reach the top of the theatre better than the voices of the singers.  I found the intros to the acts very fascinating in that they set the tone for what would happen in the act.  My favorite song above all others in this opera is the one that Escamillo sang, the Toreador Song.  This song was noteworthy due to the fact that it revealed how much Carmen’s voice truly stands out when compared to the others.  In this song all one mainly hears is the baritone Escamillo.  Then at the end Mercedes and Frasquita sing “l’amour” and at the very end, after two minutes of not hearing her voice, Carmen sings “l’amour”.  It is at this point that the viewers are able to truly tell Carmen’s voice apart from the others.

All throughout the opera I continued to remember everything Carmen music has been used in.  I thought of the opening of “Up!”, “Bad News Bears”,  “Babe”, and many commercials.  I believe this is the best opera to start off with considering it is used in so many different television works.  I cannot wait until I see my next opera.

source:

http://blogs.sacbee.com/ticket/ED-AK764_carmen_G_20100104134720%5B1%5D.jpg

Now that I’ve seen the Opera at the Met, I truly feel like I’m in New York.

Running from the cab, pass the beautiful fountains and the lights, walking up the red carpeted staircase all dressed up and in heels, I felt everything was so surreal. Those chandeliers… Oh how dangerously beautiful they were. I could never get bored just looking at those.

http://www.yatzer.com/Dazzling-Restoration-at-the-Metropolitan-Opera

http://www.flickr.com/photos/301202/3434698832/sizes/m/in/photostream/

As for the performance, their voices were so rich and so fit for their roles (especially, Carmen and Don José) I was literally drawn into the scene just with their voices. It was sort of unfortunate that we couldn’t really see the details of the performance because we were  so far away, I guess it was actually better to sit in the family circle for it allowed us to see every aspects of the theater. From the rest of the audience seats, the orchestra pit to the back of the stage, (oh, I almost forgot to mention the ‘golden ceiling’) it was really refreshing to have a whole view. I actually realized that the orchestra was facing the stage rather than the audience, watching the orchestra’s seating arrangements and that the singers/actors start acting from the back of the stage.

I also enjoyed the dance performance in between the acts. The light, and the dance all harmonized to fully portray what the acts are going to be about. And what I particularly found interesting was that the red light through the ripped curtains formed a shape of a dagger  and that the dancers were dancing on it seemed to foreshadow the peril of the relationship and the two lover’s tragic demise.

Lastly, I remember a child falling down only to be picked up by one of the adult performer and dropping his or her flag during the beginning of act 4,  I don’t know whether it was intentional or not but after having had the conversation with the professor that the children should have been sent home after act 1, I couldn’t stop smiling yet at the same time felt bad for the children for it was so late during the night and they should have been so tired by then.

As I came home, I almost passed out right away. As I woke up in the morning, I could not help myself from thinking that it all was a dream but then was able to realize that everything was, in fact, real as I found the pamphlet and the ticket lying on my desk.

As always I am amazed when I go to the Metropolitan Opera.  Just the beauty and atmosphere of Lincoln Center make me feel as if I’m in another world.  As the chandeliers are raised and the lights are dimmed, my heart starts pounding and my eyes are glued to the stage.  I love hearing the orchestra, but I am sitting in anticipation for the curtain to rise and the performance to begin.  The performance of Carmen was breathtaking, and I especially loved the tenor who played Don Jose.  His voice was very pure and his vibrato resonated throughout the entire theatre.  There were times when I had the chills from hearing the notes he was hitting.  My favorite Act had to be the third, when Don Jose leaves Carmen.  Their voices expressed so much emotion and I could just feel the pain that Don Jose was feeling when he didn’t want to leave Carmen.  It basically broke my heart.  Overall my experience at the opera was extraordinary, and I was glad that I was able to share the night with my IDC class.

Don’t we look snazzy!

The Waiting Room documents 24 hours of a public hospital in Oakland, California. It shifts from case to case filming the story of the patient and the staff working in the hospital. Rather than trying to directly pinpoint what to criticize, the film tries to convey the real atmosphere of the public hospitals.

http://www.smmirror.com/articles/News/West-Coast-Premiere-Of-The-Waiting-Room-Tonight-In-Santa-Monica/35616

First, having mostly exposed to the hospital images portrayed in shows like “House” and “Grey’s Anatomy,”  I have to admit I’ve had a major culture shock when I saw this film. First of all, I was appalled by the ineffective system. It’s not like I was not aware of this but seeing the actual procedure of who gets in first and who waits all my moral standards were about to collapse. How the man with a bullet moving inside his body had to wait so many hours while a constant junkie was in the surgery room, taking time and resources from other people who did not deliberately had their health. How this man who needed imminent surgery being tossed around from staff to staff explaining every single detail to receive the surgery, how people were categorized into numbers and processed as if they were malfunctioning machineries waiting to get fixed everything seemed to not make any sense.

At the same time, I was astonished by some staff like the lovely women who threw jokes and ensuring comments at the patients, the doctor who, in such urgent and stressful situation, tried his best to stick to do whats best for the patient, and the social worker who tried to take care of the aftermath of the patients. Honestly, who would want to work in such a place where dire situation continues day after day and gives no time to even have a decent meal? I grew more respect for the people working in the public hospitals as I watched more of the film.

The film, in general, was almost painful to watch. But at the same time, I was touched by the drama and slight bit of humanity left in the workers and patients. Throughout the screening I thought about was how I was lucky to be born in a society where I don’t have to wait nor pay much to see my doctor. (check, Korean Health Care System) I was just so thankful to not have been in that situation but on one hand I also was afraid that this might be my situation one day and became interested in searching more about this field.

This is a link to a similar but more satirical film released in 2007.
http://www.moviefone.com/movie/sicko/26778/main

Jun Robles Lana‘s feature film debut, Bwakaw, is a delightfully simple dramedy filled with heart and thoughtfulness. While it hardly deviates from a straightforward, predictable – and sometimes cliche – plot, Bwakaw has left me with a question I hope this critique will help answer. Though it’s the dog, Bwakaw, that gives the film its title, it’s the story of Rene, portrayed by Eddie Garcia, that assumes the role of main character. A lone, older man, Rene is a living corpse, mindlessly working at a job he’s already retired from, and passing each day fully aware that he’s doing to die eventually. He’s not afraid of death, and the film sees Rene treat this inevitability as a long-awaited event. As he learns to appreciate life after a series of increasingly devastating loses, my question arises: By the film’s end, when Rene becomes the most alive we can assume he’s ever been, has he finally come to fear death? After living so long waiting to die, as paradoxical as that is, I believe that Rene learns what really drives liveliness: a fear of death, and a desire to fight to stay alive.

Lana puts a comical spin on the bare facts of dying, and I often found myself laughing the hardest in scenes where the topic of death is in the forefront; Lana makes death a tangible reality, no doubt as a way for us to see it the way Rene does. I know that I think of death as a mysterious, mystical, frightening act of unparalleled proportions, but Rene sees it as just another facet of life. He has a will that he constantly changes based on who’s going to be around after he dies, and all his possessions are already packed away and labeled to make the distributing easier . Rene’s stripped death of its importance, and the way Lana incorporates humor in these “should be heavy and deep” scenes – such as when Rene’s neighbors find him “dead” in his coffin after he goes to test it out – could become a motif in his later work; he’s morphing the typical reaction to death.

I saw Rene start to subtly change as he began to find himself more alone in his already secluded life. Though he remained gruff and standoffish for most of the film, Rene’s attachment towards Bwakaw – whom he takes everywhere, and his continued devotion to visiting Alicia, the woman he technically used as a beard for his closeted sexuality, shows that Rene is a caring individual hardened by the fact that he’s remained closed off to the world at large. All these other characters supposedly fear death, and they all engage in behavior that makes it obvious that they have things to live for, unlike Rene. Then things turn bleak for, well, almost all of them. A woman Rene works with dies after he throws her a surprise party before her heart surgery, he almost loses his best friend because of his grumpy attitude. Alicia, dealing with some sort of Alzheimer’s, tells Rene never to visit her again in one of her last moments of clarity – so in theory she’s dead now too. Towards the end of the film, he loses the trust and friendship of a cab driver who befriended him in a time of need because he began to love him. Because Rene has locked himself away from the world, waiting to die, he loses the people that could free him from that mindset, and he luckily starts to realize that.

Life and death juxtaposed; then switched.

Like I said, the film makes its plot very obvious, so Bwakaw’s fate is easily figured out, but the symbolism behind Bwakaw is what makes her part in the story crucial to Rene’s development. We learn that Bwakaw was a stray dog that Rene adopted, so right off the bat there’s a relationship built off of two “outcasts.” Rene truly loves this dog, and when he admits that Bwakaw is “the only woman he’s ever brought to bed,” the gentle humor underscores the deep bond they’ve formed. Bwakaw is a symbol of life, but also the tether that keeps Rene from actually living. He fights for life, but that’s for Bwakaw, not himself. Yes, Bwakaw dies, but it’s Rene’s realization that in her death, that he can find a will to live, and Lana uses to drive home a message of living life to its fullest.

So, I wonder: As the film leaves Rene alive and healthy, what’s he thinking? He’s lost the ones he holds dear to his heart, but it’s now that he finds a reason to live. As I write my thoughts down now, I’m understanding how Lana plays with this irony, and I hope he continues this theme. Lana’s strive for action over dialogue peaks in the ending of the film, as it did in the beginning – with extended shots of Rene alone, but now you can tell he’s changed. He’s woken up and found a will to live, but has he been shocked enough to fear death after being exposed to so much of it? I think that’s what Lana’s trying to say: fearing death is what keeps us happy and alive.

Photo Credit

Jun Robles Lana was able to direct a movie with serious issues while putting a comedic spin to it.

http://www.tempo.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/29_09_2012_008_004_007-236×300.jpg

“Bwakaw”‘s main character was a grumpy old man, Rene. He acts as a Debbie-downer towards everything. Dealing with his loneliness and finally accepting the fact that he was gay at a very old age was a serious issue in this film. Rene kept his personal materials in boxes with names of the people who would inherit that box. It seemed like he was just waiting for his death. He constantly visited the priest to update his last will and testament. He had already purchased a funeral casket preparing for his death. It was funny how he wanted to know what it was like in the casket and ended up sleeping in it. His neighbor, his best friend and his best friend’s lover were panicking as they saw him sleeping in the casket and he scared the bejesus out of them when he woke up. The cross-dresser, Tracy, was the comic relief in most situations. My favorite scene was when Rene hit Tracy with a hair dryer and Tracy completely overreacted. She was jumping up and down crying.

There was another serious moment that was turned into a humorous scene, but I actually felt guilty laughing. One of Rene’s friends gets a heart attack from a surprise going away party he threw for her and her face stayed in this terrified expression. So in her wake Rene’s friend, Zaldy, tried to make her look as good as possible, which didn’t turn out so well.