Author Archives: alvinz

Don Giovanni

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I believe Don Giovanni was more of a serious opera rather than a comedic one. However, it may just be that the director of this specific production interpreted Mozart’s Don Giovanni as opera seria. Although the main tale of Don Giovanni offers a serious lesson to be learned, upon reading libretto, I felt as if Don Giovanni was comedy. I received a totally different feeling from the libretto than watching the live performance. I believe much of the seriousness of Don Giovanni relies upon the interpretations of the director and actors. In the performance we viewed, there were moments of dark setting, ominous music, and somber singing. In the text of the libretto, it is impossible to indicate these serious elements. Although the Don Giovanni we attended was resoundingly serious, some comedic content did make its way into the opera. To me, these were the keen moments where the opera shined. Much of the comedic relief took the form of Leporello’s peculiar relationship with Don Giovanni.

Social class is undoubtedly a vital motif in Don Giovanni, but class differences were much more noticeable in the live production than the text of the libretto. Much of the class differences can be seen in the differences in attire. Peasants such as Zerlina and Massetto wore clothes that were more homely than aristocrats such as Don Ottavio and Donna Anna. Characters of the upper social class also carried themselves with an air of elitism. This is especially evident in the scenes with master Don Giovanni and servant Leporello. The libretto did not reflect social class in the same ways the productions did, mainly because only so much can be inferred from the text.

Music definitely enhanced the story. I believe that had the opera been without music, it would be far more difficult to follow the plot of Don Giovanni. The music added cues that helped make it clear which scenes were meant to be sad, serious, escalating, or deescalating. For example, the scene where Giovanni is dragged down into hell is set to deep, low music. Many of the relationships between characters were also reflected in the sound of the music. Scenes with Don Giovanni and Leporello were often set to high pitched music to reflect the lighthearted and jocular nature of the scenes. I believe music helped communicate the story better because the singing in the opera was in an unfamiliar language. Whereas Italian may only be understood by certain individuals, the sound of music is universal. You can tell the mood of scenes of the opera by listening to the music alone.

I will admit that I found opera not as engaging as the more contemporary performances we attended throughout the semester. However, this did not surprise me because opera is more traditional and lacks the activity of modern dance and the like. The opera we viewed also had prolonged moments of downtime where the only thing happening on stage was repetitive singing. These moments were uneventful to say the least.

 

House/Divided

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It is clear that the Builder’s Association attempted to create a play where media have a pivotal role in the storytelling. They sought to present the plights of Americans during the Dust Bowl in the context of the modern economic slump. The presence of media was very evident in “House/Divided”. Images and live video feed of the performer was often projected onto the stage throughout the performance. Media was used in other interesting ways as well. In the performance, narration of The Grapes of Wrath was provided in the form of prerecorded voice audio. The actors also had to actively spin the reel for the narration to play. Although these dynamic forms of media were put alongside the live acting in order to enhance the performance, the play did not completely succeed in this respect.

As Auslander suggests, media can be used to improve the experience of live performance if used correctly. However, in the case of “House/Divided”, media only served to distort the already confusing plot of the play. Although media was used in surprising and interesting ways, it still took away from the performance. I do not necessarily agree with Phelan’s view that media should be kept separate from performances, but in this case, he is right. The premise of the play was seemingly nonintuitive and hard to follow as it jumped back and forth from the past to the present. The addition of media only added to this confusion, and as a result, I was lost. I would have understood “House/Divided” better if it had been presented in a more traditional fashion, free of media.

 

Caretaker Study

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For the subject of both my realistic and abstract caretaker studies, I chose my sister, Mary. As the eldest of three children, she has frequently been given responsibility of my other sister and I. In my upbringing, she has taken the role of the mature big sister. She is the one who offers criticism and counsel at every turn in my life.

For the realistic pose of my sister, I sought to portray the expression she gives me when I do something wrong. When I disappoint her, she will put her hands on her hips, tilt her head, and raise her eyebrow , as if to say, “Really, Alvin?” She gives me this expression almost on a daily basis, so I believe to put it in her realistic pose would embody her perfectly. The class was pretty much spot on in guessing the pose was of a female scolding a child.

The abstract pose was also of my sister, but it represented another side of her. In the pose, I tilted my feet slightly inward, clasped my hands together with a finger over my mouth, and tilted my head downward. This pose was meant to be an abstraction of my sister’s sometimes shy and sheepish nature. Although she is very comfortable around me because we grew up in the same house, she tends to be somewhat timid around others. She will not say whats really on her mind around strangers. Rather, she’ll reserve those emotions for the family and close friends.

Snapshot Day

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Finding an interesting scene to capture for Snapshot Day proved more difficult than I had anticipated. Although there were dozens instances I could have captured throughout the day, none of those scenes were particularly striking to me. I did not want an image to display the grandeur of New York City and its bright lights, instead I sought to capture a photograph that would embody the rugged and gritty nature of the city. I found exactly what I had in mind while walking along the East River waterfront late in the evening.

I took a photograph of a stretch of the Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive. I specifically chose this portion of the street because it shows the unpolished side of the city. The photograph is not beautiful in the traditional sense, as it portrays an aging, rusty overpass. However, the seemingly uninviting, industrial background in the image is very different from the dimly lit foreground. In the foreground of the image lies one of the many stone plazas of Stuyvesant Cove Park.  I believe the contrasting sides to the image make this photograph especially compelling.

I had certain compositional elements in mind when capturing this image. I did my best to follow the rule of thirds by placing points of interest, such as the closest street light, on the third lines. The main sources of light in this photo are the lights that line the street, which go all the way to the back of the photograph.  There is also an emphasis on lines in the image. The stone pillars of the plaza are parallel to the steel support beams of the overpass. Both sets of these sets of vertical lines help frame the street lights. The diagonal lines that are formed by the street and overpass are visually appealing because they provide a great sense of depth in the image. I was able to accomplish these diagonals by shooting at an angle. Overall I believe the photograph I took for Snapshot Day is compositionally sound.

 

Photo Analysis of “Fete Foraine”

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Fete Foraine

“Fete Foraine” is a photograph taken by André Kertész. “Fete Foraine”, which means “Carnival” in English, was taken in Paris in 1931. I was especially drawn to this photograph because it depicts an acrobat performing a spectacular feat. The image captures an acrobat doing a handstand while balancing on a stack of chairs. There is a real sense of awe in this photograph as there are dozens of spectators gazing at the peculiar sight. It is evident that Kertész took this photo with certain compositional elements in mind. The balancing acrobat is keenly placed and follows the rule of thirds. There is a tree that lies parallel to the performer and his stack of chairs. The performer’s head is also framed by a metal beam behind him. The slanting overpass provides a stark contrast of black and white color. There is also a single spectator on the overpass. This is also visually pleasing because his dark figure stands out on the white background of sky.

On snapshot day, I will be sure to implement the rule of thirds in my photograph. Placing points of interest on third lines will help make my image more visually striking. I will also try to make heavy use of lines and diagonals while taking the photo because it will create a better image. As Professor Grimaldi noted, diagonals guide viewers’ eyes across the image and will help the composition of my photograph.

 

Dance Review of “Beginning of Something”

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The ominous mood of the dance was established before the dance had actually begun. Even as the audience enter the dimly lit theater to take there seats around the dance platform they were exposed to uneasy material. The audience was greeted with a view of a naked women sitting on the stage, strumming somber chords on a guitar. This introductory image was a preview of the astonishing things to come in RoseAnne Spradlin’s “Beginning of Something”.

The lights dimmed, the small musical group began to play, and the woman who was playing the guitar, now clad in silver adornments, strode across the stage while exchanging expressionless stares with the audience. This lone dancer would eventually be joined by others who were sparsely dressed. The dancers made different movements, occasionally coming together to stride across the stage in unison, or to take turns lifting each other. Their spins and leaps were interrupted by moments of intensity. They occasionally went into fits of convulsing and jerky, violent movement. The dancers all exited the stage and returned fully clothed. Once they returned, they continued to dance across the platform. The dancers then began screaming and unclothed themselves while shaking violently, but soon redressed themselves.

RoseAnne Spradlin’s “Beginning of Something” was a startling, but entertaining dance. The spectrum of the choreography in the dance varied from graceful all the way to violent. I believe Spradlin’s dance was meant to portray self consciousness and its effect on individuals. The dance had many shifts in atmosphere that I believe represented the highs and lows we experience as we struggle to feel comfortable in our own skin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Analytic Post-Modern Dance and Paxton

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Analytic Post-Modern dance contrasts from its predecessor, Modern dance, in that it emphasizes the pure movement of dance above all else. Unlike previous movements, the Post-Modern dance movement stressed that seemingly ordinary and everyday movements should be looked at as art. Analytic Post-Modern dancers did not believe that the dances they performed should be examined for underlying meanings, rather they maintained that the choreography should be acknowledged for the pure physical movement.

Steve Paxton’s style of contact improvisation is a true embodiment of the Analytic Post-Modern dance movement. In contact improvisation, multiple dancers interact with improvised movements without music or any other cues. Dancers experiment with different movements to interact with their partners and develop a keen understanding of how the dynamics of the human body. As with Post-Modern dance, contact improvisation does not try to tell a story or evoke a specific emotional response. Instead, Steve Paxton’s contact improvisation highlights the mechanics of bodily movement.

Lisa’s Self Portrait

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Lisa’s self portrait begins with her seated behind a table with a pen on it. She begins to rapidly click the pen while continually fidgeting in the chair.  As she stirs restlessly in the chair, she starts to play with her hair, but returns to the pen. Throughout the portrait she has a anxious look on her face and her incessant pen clicking is only interrupted by an occasional biting of nails.

What really struck me about Lisa’s portrait was the minimalist approach she took for her presentation. Her props were simple, a pen and a table, yet she was still able to show her message through her facial expression and body language. The table and pen evoked a classroom-like environment in my head and as soon as she begun to click the pen I immediately recognized that her portrait was about nervousness or possibly anxiety from school. Also the silence only broken up by the sound of the pen during her presentation gave the portrait a tense feeling that contributed to the nervous atmosphere. an a I understood this because because I am guilty of the same nervous tendencies as well, save the playing with hair.

I enjoyed her portrait becauseI too am guilty of the same nervous tendencies she portrayed, save the playing with hair. The subject of her portrait is easy to relate to especially in the life of a teenage student. Overall she did a great job in showing that at times anxiety may dominate her just as it can anyone else.