Author: Eunice Hew

When I first heard that we were going to see the opera Turnadot in the Met Opera House my interest was slightly piqued because I had never before seen an opera, and this one was at the Met. After I read the libretto, I realized that I had heard a variation of this story before, and so I was quite excited to see how the actual opera experience would play out. Alexandra’s prep the day before the opera added to this with her description of how nothing was held back for the creation of the set. And thus, going into the Met Opera House I was full of expectations.

Even before the opera started, the opulence of the space astounded me. As the curtains opened to reveal the first set I was equally stunned. Although we were all the way back and could not see every detail, there was clearly an amazing amount of work and attention given to it. With each change of set my reaction was the same: amazement. The portrayal of the interior of the Imperial Palace was especially breathtaking. When the curtains opened and lights shone upon it, there was a huge round of applause for the elaborate design. In addition to the wonderful sets, the costumes were also quite well done. Turnadot’s dresses and the people at court’s attire in particular, stood out because of their beauty. The other costumes were also great and the attention to detail was clear in every costume, such as those of the peasants. Although they had no major role and generally had the same look, I liked how each costume varied slightly from person to person and created a sense of character for each of them while still being a part of a larger group.

Another part of the opera that I enjoyed was the music from the orchestra. I remember Alexandra saying that the music in an opera is integral to the entire thing, and this was definitely true. Throughout the opera it guided and lent to the plot. It brought us closer with the emotions of the characters and the events which were happening, allowing us to further synchronize our thoughts with those portrayed. The opera singers also took part in this immersion of emotion. Their powerful voices drew the audience in to feel what they felt, to cry with them, to laugh with them, and to hope with them. They brilliantly encapsulated the thoughts and emotions of their character and showcased them through their singing. One moment in which I thought the singing especially drew the audience in was when Liu refused to speak Calaf’s name and instead chose death. Her mournful vocals as she proclaimed her final act of devotion was heart-wrenching.

Although there were all these elements of the opera which I greatly enjoyed, one which I did not was the plot, and part of its portrayal. It seemed quite silly to me how so many princes would risk their lives for a princess’ hand just because of her beauty. Surely people who were meant to lead their people would not be that foolish. Another thing was how inhumane the princess was to want all of them to die just because of the injustice her ancestor had faced. Yet another was how her icy heart was melted simply by a kiss. It was an unreal situation in general. In addition to the unrealistic plot line, I found many of the characters’ personalities to be quite shallow or self-centered. For instance, Turnadot was a princess who simply wanted to kill off as many princes as she could because of her ancestor. Calaf, also, was willing to let his father suffer his loss of a son and all of China suffer in general to possess Turnadot. The only character I truly liked in this Opera was Liu, for she had a giving personality and pure heart. It definitely frustrated me when she confessed her love to Calaf only for him to ignore it and continue to pursue Turnadot.

Overall, the opera was made decently enjoyable for me because of the set, costumes, music, and Liu. The stage elements definitely played a large role in bringing the production to life for me and transformed a mediocre storyline into much more. On a side note, I would have liked for there to be more Asian performers because this opera was set in Peking. However, I still found it to be a fine performance despite this.

I chose André Kertész’s photo “Wandering Violinist” (1921) to analyze because I was drawn to the way the child in the background was staring at the man and older child in the foreground. At first glance my eyes were drawn to the violinist’s concentrated pose and expression. His expression made me wonder what song he was playing and what he was thinking of as he played it. Then my eyes were drawn to the older child who stood next to him gazing into the distance. He seemed relatively well dressed so his lack of shoes surprised me. Even as I was looking at the violinist and the child next to him, the younger child was always in the corner of my eye. He is not as in focus as the other two, and is shockingly alone, without any parent or guardian. The way he stares at the other two made me wonder about his situation. Maybe he is related to the others, or maybe he is an orphan. As a whole, the photo also gave me a sense of being in an older time and place, conveyed through the scenery and clothes .This makes sense as the photo was taken in Abony, Hungary in 1921.

This photo is compositionally strong. The Rule of Thirds was used and the younger child appears where there would be a vertical line in the middle left of the frame. The man and older child take up the whole right side, also where a vertical line would appear, and have a feeling of being in motion because of the room in front of them. Likewise, the space in front of the younger child gives him space to move. There is a horizon line close to the upper imaginary horizontal line, which gives emphasis to the three people on the bottom part of the road. However, the horizon line seems to run through the younger child’s head and parts of the man and older child, slightly detracting from the focus.

I plan to frame my shots by using the Rule of Thirds, and maybe also try to use a counterpoint. Instead of having halves in my photo, thirds will make the composition more interesting. Placing my subjects on the imaginary lines will also help to draw the focus to them. Another detail to keep in mind is the spacing in front of the subjects and how much of them I want to show to focus on. I will need to give the subject enough room and place it correctly so that it does not appear too static. These details will help me take an interesting, well-composed photo.

Walking into the New York Live Arts theatre, I was immediately drawn to the sound of stomping. On the stage six blindfolded dancers stood in a circle and created a mesmerizing beat through their feet. When the lights came on they then began to form a recurring pulse through stamping, clapping, and slapping their thighs and feet. This pattern was kept up sporadically throughout the entire performance, sometimes with music playing over the sounds of this pulse. Variations in this recurring rhythm came with one dancer introducing a new sequence of moves, and then the others mimicking it. On the whole, the two or so hours long performance was comprised of variations of a basic set of stomps, claps, and slaps, with some exceptions.

One exception to the basic set of movements happened towards the beginning of the performance, when Mr. Sciarroni ended up alone on his back with his legs in the air only to have another dancer knock him down, one of several moments of humor. Following this, that dancer gave a small talk that the audience could leave at any time but could not return, and also that the performance would end when only one dancer or audience member remained. Mr. Sciarroni was the first to leave, simply walking off without fanfare. Even with some performers leaving, the others continued on. Sometimes as they moved around the stage, one would become isolated from the other, creating more comedic moments.

Throughout the performance there would be shifts of mood depending on how the dancers varied their movements and also on their interactions and expressions. At some points the dancers had stern expressions and sharp movements which adhered to the original pattern, creating a somewhat serious atmosphere. At other points, some dancers would smile and laugh as they played and joked around with one another, creating a fun atmosphere. There was a fluidity in these shifts which made the performance the more interesting to watch.

Later in the performance when other dancers decided to walk off, the remaining dancers would watch them leave but make no physical effort to stop them. This really connected back to the talk in the beginning in which the audience was told that one could leave but not return. The song “Say Something” was particularly apropos in last part of the performance when the final dancers ran off the stage. With two dancers remaining, one watched as the other left. Then on the line “I’m giving up on you,” the last dancer left, and really ended a touch of finality. After watching the entire performance, the amount of energy and effort in it all the way up to its final moments as well as the performance itself just leave an amazing impression.

In the New York Times review “In a New Work, Camille A. Brown Plays with Empowerment”, Gia Kourlas writes on the choreographer Camille A. Brown’s latest dance “Black Girl: Linguistic Play”. Kourlas begins with a thesis stating that Brown’s dance is not “the least bit diminutive.” She goes on to give an overview of the theme of the work which is the black female identity, and the medium through which it was expressed, the playground. Following this brief introduction, Kourlas briefly mentions the highlights of each section of the performance as well as the shifts of tone throughout.

In Wendy Oliver’s book Writing About Dance, she states that the model for dance criticism starts with description then goes to analysis, then interpretation, and finally evaluation. Additionally, the thesis sentence may be something that “offers an interesting insight and refers to the concert as a whole.” Kourlas beings her critique with a thesis that fulfills this in part by offering a general insight of the dance as not diminutive. Then, following Oliver’s format, the review has a brief description of the dance as a whole. However, considering the following critiques of each individual part, it seems like there should have been a longer description of the overall performance. All that is mentioned is the use of “a multilevel stage of platforms and mirrors” as well as the use of “games of childhood.” For a description, an overview of the performance would have been good.

The following paragraphs introduced different sections of the performance, along with brief analysis of each. However, there was not much of interpretation by Kourlas beside that of the tone shifts. In addition, the evaluation is practically non-existent in this review aside from that which is stated in the thesis. Kourlas does not explicitly follow through on her initial statement, although she does somewhat back it up through her descriptions of the parts of the performance. Throughout the review, third person voice is used which creates the atmosphere of a more professional critique and also slightly removes the critic from the action. Overall, Kourlas’ review on Brown’s dance is an effective and concise one.

The definition of artwork has changed drastically since its conception. With each new art movement, new characteristics become imbued into what is collectively considered art. One of the most famous paintings today is Leonardo di Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”, which revolutionized portrait painting during the Italian Renaissance in several ways such as the technique of sfumato and the presence of a fictional landscape in the background. Several centuries later during the movement of Dadaism, another artist again altered what people considered art with his use of ready-made pieces; Marcel Duchamp. With the belief that it was an artist’s decision to call something art that would make it so, he created “L.H.O.O.Q.”, a postcard reproduction of “Mona Lisa” with the addition of a mustache and goatee. While di Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and Duchamp’s “L.H.O.O.Q.” are almost identical in appearance, they differ greatly in intention such that “Mona Lisa” was a portrait that showcased new techniques while “L.H.O.O.Q.” was a parody meant to repose the question of what art is.

Walking into the MoMA, one is already filled with the assumption that what is featured throughout the building will be art. Berger writes that, “The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe” (8). As a result, even exhibits that would otherwise seem like just everyday objects were viewed through a critical lens. According to Berger, this means that many learnt assumptions about art such as those concerning beauty, truth, genius, civilization, form, status, and taste come into play. One exhibit from the Dada movement was a shovel that hung from the ceiling. If it had not been in a museum, a shovel would be all it was seen as but, because it was in the MoMA, it was art. With this label of being art by Marcel Duchamp, the shovel suddenly gained all the assumptions that come with the label.

Barnet writes that, in order to get to the meaning of a work, one must interpret “the subject matter, the material and form, the sociohistoric context, and perhaps the artist’s intentions” (55). First the work itself must be analyzed. What details does the artist intentionally place for the the viewer to interpret? The colors, title, and artist all lend to the larger picture of the meaning of the work. Then the time of its conception and the circumstances in which it were made add on to its image, and may even change some original assumptions. These kinds of background information allow the viewer to see what movement was going on at the time and create some kind of individual interpretation of the work. Barnet’s writing encourages the reader to question everything there is about the piece of art in order to fully appreciate and interpret it.

A single work of art has multiple interpretations. There is the intended meaning given by the artist, and then there are the assumed meanings given by audiences from different places and times. Once the time period or movement of the artwork is seen, the viewer may even try to create meaning by viewing the piece from the standpoint of when it was created. Berger additionally writes that different meaning is created in the viewing of authentic works of art as well as the presence of reproductions of a work. The point that is made is that there are many ways to analyze a work of art as well as many factors, personal and otherwise, that will play into how it is analyzed. The accumulation of all this becomes a unique interpretation for each person.

Going into the performance I had no clue what to expect. How exactly would the Overview Effect be conveyed through dance? At the start of the performance there was a pulsing noise which made me expect a dance which would follow the beat. However, once Jocelyn started dancing her movements were erratic and I could not make sense of them. Then when Julian joined her the randomness of their movements seemed to increase. Both of them did different things, expressed different things with their entire bodies, and did not seem to follow any structure. The only commonalities I could see were the strangeness of and energy in the movements. However, as the performance progressed, there came a moment of silence in which the dancers stopped together and stared at a point. There was a sense of awe in them in this moment and it seemed almost as if they had gone up in space and were looking down at Earth.

When Julian began to make strange grunting noises and kicked around some beach balls I had no clue what to think. Then when he started to circle around with Jocelyn, I thought that maybe they were relearning or reworking their understanding of the world and they were somewhat like children. The chanting of countries followed by words like harmony, followed by physical contact between the dancers really demonstrated the changes in mentality a person would experience. Overall, the performance and following talk were amazing. Although there were some parts I did not understand, the piece as a whole was impressive and expressive. I was especially impressed when I learned during the Q&A session that everything was choreographed and not even the most chaotic-seeming movements were improvised. Seeing this performance was definitely a great experience for me.