Month: November 2015 (Page 1 of 2)

Turandot was my first opera, and my experience watching it got rid of some of the preconceived notions I had about opera. I entered the Met believing that I would not like Turandot, simply because I never really liked listening to opera music and the idea of sitting through hours of people singing in a language I did not understand seemed extremely boring. However, I really enjoyed my experience watching Turandot. My favorite aspect of the opera was the set, because as Alexandra mentioned before, the set was very grand and extravagant. I especially loved the set for Turandot’s court; it was extremely bright, filled with extravagantly dressed court people, and dancing court ladies. These sets stayed true to the idea of grandeur that most of us have when we think of courts; and most of all just very aesthetically pleasing.

The orchestra was essential to setting the mood of the opera. Even when I did not pay attention to the (extremely helpful) subtitles in front of me, the music showed whether the mood on stage was grave, lighthearted, happy, etc. It also signaled shifts in mood, or helped to seamlessly transition from one mood to another in the same scene. For example, in the scene where Turandot presents Calaf with the riddles, the music signals a shift in mood as it starts out ominous, reflecting the crowd’s belief that Calaf would die, and ends more cheerfully as the crowd gains hope for Calaf’s success with the riddles.

I also liked Liu, the only likeable character for me in the opera. Her singing truly drew out emotion, since she was very good at expressing her sorrowful, one-sided love for Calaf. In the scene where Turandot and the crowd are trying to draw out Calaf’s name from her, her singing and sorrow really drew out sympathy. I did not understand her devotion to Calaf, especially since he was willing to risk his father and Liu for his love (obsession)-at-first-sight for Turandot. But Liu’s singing, along with the music that accompanied it, were so emotionally charged that I found pitying her situation.

The plot was one of the aspects of the opera I did not like–it was very predictable. There was the cold princess, the instant-love, the smitten, clever prince, and finally, the prince who eventually won over the reluctant princess. I know that this plot might not have been as cliched when it came out, but I personally did not find the plot as engaging. I also did not find most of the characters very sympathetic, other than Liu and Calaf’s father. I thought Calaf’s love was selfish and unreasonable, as he would not stop his own challenge for Turandot, even when the villagers begged him to reconsider since their own lives were at risk. His reaction to Liu being tortured was not as strong as I expected it to be–at one point, he even called out something along the lines of “You know nothing, slave!” when he feared that she would reveal his name. He valued his quest to “attain” Turandot more than human life. I found Turandot even more unsympathetic since I really did not understand her reason for beheading all her previous suitors. I guess for me, the killing of an ancestor did not seem like a valid reason to kill off every and any man who approached her.

Overall, though, I did enjoy this opera performance. The sets, the music, and Liu really made this performance stand out beautifully despite the flaws I found in the plot and characters.

I have never had the chance to attend an opera before, which is why I didn’t know what to really expect as I walked into the Met Opera House on Thursday. I just knew about the background of the performance from what Alexandra told us the day before. As I took a seat and waited for the performance to start, I couldn’t wait to see what was in store for the next few hours.

As the curtains opened, I was amazed by the set. It was very detailed and grandiose just like Alexandra told us it was going to be. The costumes of the characters were all impressive and very beautiful. They definitely did go all out in the presentation portion of the show. Everybody was clapping and with every reason to do so. I like the fact that this performance was different from all the other performances that we have attended. The music was very appealing and the singing was also great.

Apart from all the costumes and amazing sets, the music was also my favorite part. I think the music evoked and highlighted a lot of emotions. The music never failed to fit with what was going on in the plot. The orchestra did a great job in making sure the music fit the mood of the performance. I remember Alexandra telling us that in an Opera the music was an integral part and without it there would be something missing. I can definitely see why she said this. Without the music, there would be a loss of emotions. The music helps the audience to feel what can’t be felt just from the singing portion of the opera.

All of the characters did a good job with their parts, but without a doubt the character that stood out was Liu. The person playing Liu definitely embodied her character and portrayed it well. The scene in the third act where she killed herself was my favorite. As a member of the audience, I felt the emotions she was trying to convey and I think that she was dramatic but to a good extent. The performers playing Turandot and Calaf were also good, but i think that they were too simple and could have developed their characters more, like Liu, in the performance.

Overall, I enjoyed the performance and it is my favorite from all the performances we have watched before. The sets were amazing and with the music, singing, and costumes, it all came together to make a great show for everybody to watch.

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.

There’s nothing quite like the splendor of the Met, yet I didn’t know what to expect of the opera. I was hoping for the best but prepared for the worst. Despite Alexandra’s prep for us, I wasn’t sure what to expect; I only expected big and impressive and perhaps slightly controversial. And I think that to that extent, it delivered.

My absolute favorite aspect of the opera was the music. Having experience as both a solo violin player and a violinist in a huge orchestra, I was captivated and swept up by the music. The orchestra was fantastic, and the music fit the mood and plot so well. It’s grand and expansive but also detailed. I enjoyed the Asian influences in certain themes or parts of the score. In particular, one of Turandot’s themes (I think it was her theme) started out sounding exactly like a very famous Chinese folk song, Mo Li Hua. I couldn’t get the actual melody out of my head every time it started playing, but I’m glad he included such a well-known Chinese melody into the opera.

I also really enjoyed the sets. Just as Alexandra told us, they were really all-out, and I chuckled a bit when people clapped the first time the curtains rose on the Imperial Palace interior. The costumes and sets were definitely gorgeous. You could almost feel their grandeur, even from our seats near the top.

But I was rather unimpressed by the plot. I’ll give it to him that it was written a while back, and Alexandra had prepared me a little bit, but it just bothered me the entire time the way Romeo and Juliet does. I really only liked Liu and didn’t find the other story lines very compelling. There were so many cliches, and so much of it was just too dramatic or just treated the female characters terribly. I think the cast did a great job with their given character arcs, but only Liu really stood out to me. Not only were her vocals powerful, but I think she captured her character’s emotions best. I found it ridiculous that Calaf just stood by when she confessed her love and said she was willing to die. And Turandot’s character just grated at me but particularly how she just “thawed” (as I believe they put it) at the end. It seemed too forced and fake. Just like with Romeo and Juliet, there was no love, and the idea that either of the two women were for Calaf to win or possess is just terrible on every level. In some ways, I almost wish I hadn’t read along with most of the lyrics because I probably would have enjoyed it more without reading them and had just listened to the singing.

While on the subject of the vocals, again, Liu was my favorite by far, but I was impressed by Calaf’s as well. Of course, there’s the famous solo that was made famous by Pavarotti that I hummed along to. I do think his microphone was turned a bit low at parts so that the orchestra totally overwhelmed his voice, at least for us sitting up so high. I thought Turandot was great but not as impressive as I was expecting. I’m not sure if it was because it was the actress’ debut or because I just kept comparing her with Liu.

The last bit is the controversial bit that Alexandra mentioned briefly. Obviously, as an Asian, I waited until after the performance to discuss the Chinese aspects but I definitely couldn’t not think about it. The unnecessary satirization of aspects of the culture is disappointing, regardless of the time the opera was created. From the fact that almost every time we saw the every day people they were hunched or huddled or just cowering or bowing to the scenes where they were crawling around looking like monkeys to the role of the Three Masks and Ping/Pang/Pong to the improper use of the fans at times (although I will admit I loved the little acrobatic bit at the very beginning of the opera) to the obvious stereotypes to the names that were most not very Chinese at all and to everything else in between, I was just really upset by the portrayal of Chinese people and our culture. Yes, I enjoyed the obvious Asian influences in the sets and the score, and at least there’s an opera set in China at all, but regardless. And I know that Alexandra briefly mentioned it, but a few of us were talking about the actors portraying the characters after the performance. On the one hand, I can understand that there may not be many professional Asian opera singers that could do any of the roles justice (and I am glad there was at least one Chinese singer), and I don’t mind them dressing up as Chinese (though grossly stereotyped and sometimes done incorrectly) because I understand the need to look Chinese, but on the other hand, it is still upsetting to see such little representation. I’m curious about how many Asians were involved in the dancing, particularly in the Imperial Palace, as opposed to other races/ethnicities. The choreography wasn’t so difficult that they couldn’t have gotten professional Chinese dancers to do those portions, and I don’t think they were singing at all. It could have been that the majority of them were in fact Asian, but it was hard to tell from where we were sitting. I just hope representation was much better there.

I’d say that overall, I enjoyed the opera, but there were disappointing aspects, though nothing I shouldn’t have expected given Alexandra’s preparation for us and having read the libretto and the other background information. I still love the music, and that was definitely the strongest aspect in my opinion. There were strong performances throughout and by many of the main characters at some point during the performance. I think this fell somewhere either between “will you still love me tomorrow?” and “The View from Nowhere” or just slightly behind “The View from Nowhere” in the context of all our performances this semester.

(I realize this review might be a little scattered in thought, but I had many thoughts that could have gone together. I hope that overall it was easy to understand and that I wasn’t too repetitive.)

Jessica Sun

I completely agree with Eli’s critique of this performance. I shared his feelings of annoyance and discomfort with the performance, not because it was beyond my intellectual capacity but because it felt like a bad turn of deja vu. I too was looking forward to a dance performance. I was prepared for some type of post modern dance piece, being that this performance was prefaced as something “Ralph doesn’t usually do” I was anticipating some form of non-conventional dance, even something reminiscent of contact improvisation was a possibility in my mind. But as Eli said the grand majority of this performance was not dance.
Despite the fact that Janine Durning is a dancer, we all agreed that “Inging” was a performance art piece, not a dance. Much like “Inging,” “Scaffold Room” did cover a wide range of seemingly unrelated topics, from trips to outer space, to anal sex, to surviving Hurricane Sandy in Manhattan. But where I feel the pieces differ was the purpose of their non linear topics. Janine spoke in an unscripted, unpredictable, and completely vulnerable fashion. She did not know what was going to come out, only that it was exactly what she was at that moment and in that way she shared an incredibly intimate part of her soul. “Scaffold Room” was scripted and the changes in subject were frequent and cyclical. She repeated and transcended topics as she pleased but many of them felt disingenuous. I didn’t feel emotionally connected to either of the women and I think that where Janine endeared us with her stream of consciousness, Lemon’s actresses confused and disenfranchised us further than if they had carried a more logical train of thought. I also think that the women in “Scaffold Room” were primarily actors, who did a decent amount of singing, and had very little dance influence in their performances.
Again, I do not believe I am mentally incapable of understanding the content of “Scaffold Room,” but instead of feeling engaged and trying to decipher if their was meaning behind her frequent costume, topic, and demeanor changes, I felt bored and confused. The video of her crying against a brick wall that was played in the beginning of the show, and the men’s dance routine at the end held my attention far more than anything the women did in the middle. Unfortunately, those two elements that I was able to connect with were never referenced, or tied into the center of the performance, which left me even more confused.
I agree with Eli’s point that just because a choreographer creates a piece it is not necessarily a dance. I am neither experienced nor totally comfortable with dance as an art form, and I took this class in hopes of educating and enriching myself into the wide variety of dance styles and cultures there are here in New York City. Living in the melting pot of global culture and history I figured this class would be the perfect opportunity for me to get to experience styles and periods of dance I never had before. As my classmates in Blog A have said I feel like we have seen very many, very similar performance pieces, and very few dance performances. I appreciate performance art as a style that requires dance elements to be successful, but as we wind closer to the end of the semester I am disappointed to realize the likelihood of me getting to see a ballet, salsa, musical theatre, African, or improvisational dance piece in New York City is slim to none. Maybe if “Scaffold Room” was the first as opposed to the fourth performance art piece we have seen as a class, I might have been more engaged and appreciative of what it had to offer us. But as it stands I was mostly just confused, frustrated, and disappointed with the exception of the two excerpts I enjoyed at the beginning and end.

Ralph Lemon’s production, Scaffold Room, had me leaving the theatre in a terrible mood with a splitting headache. This avant-garde performance art piece was not what I had expected it to be. After hearing it was”sexually explicit” and “not what Lemon used to do”, I googled the piece and read a little bit about the piece. Many pages used the term “lecture-performance-musical” to describe Scaffold Room. The performance, in my opinion, accurately represented the phrase.

The show began with the squeaking of a mattress atop the scaffold room. The first performer jumped on the mattress as videos were projected on screens in the set. As the performance continued, the woman in the room spoke, sang, moved around the space and proceeded to change your clothing as well as put on a wig. As she spoke and sang I felt as if not only I but everyone one around me was uncomfortable with the vulgar and explicit language. The projection panels were moved around the performance to create different defined spaces. It is difficult for me to discuss this piece because while watching the performance I tried hard to forget what was going on around me. As the second woman took the stage and began her section of the piece, I became annoyed the performance. The length and vulgarity of the piece seemed unbearable to me. At the moment which the high-pitched screaming blasted through the performance space, my exhaustion intensified. After what seemed like five minutes, the painful screaming finally stopped. This piece concluded with the men dancing to an electronic remix of a song. This was the only section of the performance that I enjoyed, however with a splitting headache, it was difficult to fully appreciate it. Because of the lack of within the piece, it is difficult to call Scaffold Room a dance performance. Like Jeanine Durning’s -inging, Scaffold Room would be considered a performance art piece instead. Just because they have been created by choreographers does not mean that they have to be dance performances. While it is understandable that we saw Jeanine Durning’s piece for your theatre aspect of the class, I am unsure as to why Ralph Lemon’s piece was incorporated into our curriculum when we could have seen another type of dance being performed.

Eli McClain

I entered mainstage area for Scaffold Room not quite knowing what to expect, and I left it not quite knowing what I just saw but nevertheless sure that I did not enjoy it. Had I known what those 90 minutes held in store for me, I am not sure I would have had the willpower to sit through it.
But let me stop myself from being too dour right off of the bat- let me talk about something I did like. The two performers, whether or not I was able to follow what they were doing, were obviously very passionate about this performance, and very skilled as well. The stage presence that the first woman had when she was performing in the Amy Winehouse wig was undeniable; the way that the second woman danced around the space was energetic and certainly eye-catching. Every movement they made seemed deliberate and calculated, even a moment that should be as simple as stripping off ones pants or jumping on a bed. In addition, the impromptu dance session with the three men at the very end was fun to watch (the most fun I had in the entire duration, I might add). Despite not understanding the point of them and their routine, it was still entertaining to see them dance. With a background in technical theater, I was very impressed with the technical aspects of Scaffold Room. The projection of the videos as part of the multimedia aspect was well done, not taking away from the performer standing in front of us all but instead coexisting with her. The eponymous scaffold room itself was excellently crafted, if I do say so myself; the scaffold room was the only type of backdrop or set piece needed for the performance. At the very least, all that can be said.
Unfortunately, there is little else that I can praise about this performance. Aside from the three men dancing at the end, whose presence seemed to make no sense in relation to the rest of the performance, Scaffold Room was not a pleasant experience. It left me uncomfortable, and not due to it raising any unpleasant truths or serious questions to think about. It made me uncomfortable because it was hard to identify or follow along with any ideas within it aside from Hurricane Sandy, anal sex, and some man named Peter within the narrative. The piece either confused or bored me, depending upon which exact moment in time it was- and I know I wasn’t alone. Upon the occasional glance around the audience, I saw many people looking baffled or asleep in their chairs, only to be woken up by what had to be about two minutes of someone screaming.
This piece was either over my head, or just genuinely unpleasant. Giving it the benefit of the doubt, I’m going to assume it was the latter. I did not understand nor did I enjoy Scaffold Room. I am sure someone out there enjoyed it, but maybe it was just not my cup of scaffolding.

Mary Yanez

I honestly have no idea what to say. Mostly because I had not a single idea of what was going on.

Did that art installation have anything in the beginning have anything to do with it? There were books on gay sex and carved wooden figures and t shirts. I don’t know. What was the point?

Then the actual performance was in this interesting room. A pitch black room with a metal frame cube at one end and a white screen beside it. It was a really interesting stage. There were three distinct parts of the performance it seemed, with one woman each for the first two and three men dancing in the last. Actually there were a lot of interesting elements. Such as utilizing the top of the cube for the mattress and breaking the wall of the back, the moving of the screen, the moment when they decided to hand out chairs instead of setting them in the beginning, and the usage of wigs in the performances of the women. I liked how the moved the stage from the ‘front’ of the room to the ‘back’ of the room too. What I don’t get is how anything fit together. Was there any meaning at all in the performance? I guess I could find some meaning in how they were all African American performers, but I don’t know what that means. I suppose anal sex was mentioned a lot too. Was it too shock the audience or something? Rebel against societal conventions of what was acceptable in conversation???? But in that case all the other stuff should have been shocking too. But mostly it just didn’t make sense!!!!!

As as you can see by my usage of punctuation marks, I am really frustrated at this performance. Why?????????????? That’s my question for this performance. Am I missing some cultural references???? Is there some underlying meaning? Was it meant to shock the audience? Mostly I was really bored and sleepy. If that was the point, surely there were less intensive ways to go about it. I want to try and analyze this but mostly I can’t make any sense of it. If that was the intention, then good job. This was worse than the last one with the endless folk dancing, I didn’t think it possible.

Jessica Ng