Category: Reviews

Integrating titles into opera design

by Michael Gurewitsch

On October 16^th, I experienced my first excursion to a live jazz performance at Garage, a nice restaurant and café located in Greenwich Village. The festivities began around 6:00 PM, as they do most Friday nights at Garage. By this time, almost every table was filled and there were barely any empty seats along the bar. As the lights dimmed around the restaurant, other lights began to shine on the performers, who that night happened to be the Evan Schwam Quartet. The members included Evan Schwam, who played tenor saxophone, Andrew Bemkey, who played piano, Corcoran Holt, who played bass, and Jeremy Carlstedt, who played drums.

From the very beginning, I could tell this performance was going to be lively and upbeat. You immediately begin to hear the drums and the saxophone and you were roused right away. The music progressed nicely over the course of the performance, with the liveliness continuing. I had brought some of my friends along to the restaurant and they also did not have any prior exposure to jazz. After watching the performance, they gained some appreciation for jazz and had a very enjoyable time.  In addition to the music, the food served was very good, although a bit on the expensive side. However, the combination of great music and food made the evening very enjoyable.

Overall, Garage is a great place to listen to quality jazz. The Evan Schwam Quartet did a magnificent job, and it no surprise that Evan Schwam is a well-known jazz musician, having even played for former President Bill Clinton back in 2006. The group’s music kept everyone happy and upbeat, and made the evening pass by in a flash.

The Fall for Dance festival is a yearly dance festival held in the New York City Center. The purpose of the Fall for Dance festival is to introduce people to dance. As someone who has had little, if any, exposure to professional dancing, I would have to say that the performance on October 3, 2009 certainly opened my eyes to the world of dance.

The night began with a performance of Le Spectre de la Rose, a ballet of a woman who has fallen asleep and dreams of dancing with the spirit of the rose that she holds in her hands. The woman awakens from her dream when the “rose” leaps out the window and out of sight. This ballet was nicely executed, as the “rose” had very precise movements. At times, he would make large leaps that made me wonder how it was possible to leap that far. The clothing of the dancers was interesting, as the woman wore a large dress and the man wore very tight, bright clothes. However, the clothing fit the situation because the woman was be returning from a ball, and that is proper clothing for a ball. In the case of the “rose,” the tight and bright clothing made him look as if he were, in fact, a rose. Overall, this was a great performance that got the crowd ready for the rest of the show.

The second performance was called Snow, and was performed by Sang Jijia. I must say that this piece was my least favorite of the night. Although the snow that was falling on the stage was fascinating, the performance was not. I felt that it was dragged on for quite a lot of time, as it appeared to me that Jijia continually repeated the same movements. In addition, I could not see Jijia for about a quarter of the time because he would at times move to the far right of the stage, which made it impossible for me to see him.

The third performance called The Dying Swan was a very short ballet that depicted the final moments in the life of a swan. Although very brief, the performance was very nice, with Diana Vishneva making very specific movements. The musicians that provided music for this piece did a wonderful job, making this performance even better.

The highlight of the night came when Alvin Ailey stepped on stage to perform Revelations. It seemed as if the entire audience had a new burst of energy once the performance began. From the start, everyone knew Alvin Ailey was going to be different from the preceding pieces. The music was upbeat and the dancers were very into the movements. It was interesting how when one piece ended, I thought the next piece could not be more interesting, but as the performance progressed, the pieces grew increasingly livelier and culminated in the final piece, Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham. The female dancers wore flamboyant yellow dresses and used stools as props. The music was lively and the dancing was powerful, very different from the preceding pieces earlier in the night.

At the end of the show, I was glad that Alvin Ailey performed last because it allowed me to leave New York City Center in a happy mood. It was nearly impossible to not be at least somewhat happy after watching a performance like that. However, I did not forget about the pieces that preceded Alvin Ailey, which were also very interesting. Nevertheless, I do not think I would have left the theater that night as happy as I did if Alvin Ailey had not performed.

As its title hints, the Fall for Dance Festival intends to engender excitement about dance across a spectrum of techniques and periods. It aims to yank the audience by the collars of their souls onto the stage. On October 3, 2009 the performers at New York City Center accomplished this to various degrees. Some tugged, some seized the viewers.
If they did not overwhelm the crowd, the first three pieces, Fokine’s Le Spectre de la Rose and Dying Swan and Sang Jijia’s Snow, did show off talent and tension.
Spectre not only highlighted the control and strength of the male dancer, but also reminded the audience of Spectre’s role in the history of ballet – it was among the first to feature the male dancer as the centerpiece. Yet Spectre also moved forward the art with another unusual trait – it placed the female character in the position of power as the dreamer, and the male as the object of the dream. The dancer Saturday night was romantic as a rose, but seemed to flow through the movements with too sweet and innocent a posture, even, and perhaps especially, for the dream of a young woman back from her first ball.
An extremely brief performance, Dying Swan pairs well opposite Spectre as an example of agonizing death expressed in ballet with as much elegance as youthful romance. The solo was performed poignantly with the broken, harsh movements of arms as wings above the small, controlled movement of the legs. As a swan nestling to sleep, the ballerina’s positioning of her body so recalled the image in nature that the movement spoke as clearly as the title.
Snow, the other solo, approached the stage with a much grander use of space, time, and movement. A more modern piece, Snow sets the dance on a large, empty black stage with artificial snow falling from beginning to end, accompanied by fairly repetitive music. Jijia wore simple, all black clothing and utilized the entire stage, including back corners quite invisible to some students on the far left and right of the theater. His movements were often circular, sweeping, and abruptly broken, and built to frantic tension as the snow began to fall more heavily. His control of himself, and his ability to move limbs as though he wished they wouldn’t, seemed to give a plausible view of some universal human struggle. The lack of landmarks of forward movement may have detracted from Snow’s ability to connect with the audience, but the dance still pried a few jaws gently open in wonder as it concluded, the only sound left the snow falling on the stage.
The titan of the evening, Alvin Ailey’s classic Revelations took stage last. It ground out all the man and music power necessary to trip the audience into pure awe at dance. A staple of the company’s work for about four decades, Revelations still translates with fresh potency on stage. Its many dancers do not neglect it with the disrespect sometimes rusted onto repeated classics. Its movements, sounds, colors, meanings transcend time and race at the same time that they address them quite specifically. Parts of “Wade in the Water” and earlier, “I’ve Been Buked” seem to echo the wing-like stretching and faltering of Dying Swan, but rise with the burden of slavery, and of all mankind, weighting the arms, such that the audience cannot help wonder at such strength. The duet in “Fix Me Jesus” has less romance but vastly more trust than Spectre’s pair. The pastor’s heavenward raising of his partner, and their mutual control and balance, touches the viewer with more force than the leap of impersonal idealized love in Spectre. The jumps and crouches and broken sweeps of the trio of men in “Sinner Man” also reflect some movements of Snow, but in their couple minutes on stage bring more frustration and struggle than all the chaos Jijia leaves in the snow.
By the end of the night, the audience’s soul had certainly fallen for dance, crashed again and again with the rhythm of “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham.”

My first encounter with the annual Fall for Dance festival was surprisingly pleasurable, to say the least. The performance was put together by twenty dance companies and consisted of four performing groups.

The first piece was an Australian ballet called “Le Spectre de la rose.” Initially performed in 1911, the piece depicted a girl dancing with a “spirit of the rose” in her dream. The costumes demanded more of my attention than the movements; the girl was wearing a gorgeous, poufy dress and the male spirit was wearing a tight, rose-like outfit. Although the girl’s dress was pretty, it hid much of her feet and consequently made her look as if she was barely dancing. The spirit’s wide leaps and turns complimented his bright clothes. Collectively, the couple managed to reveal the story line; the girl was in a flowing, dream-like state and the spirit took charge of her dream.

The second dance, called “Snow,” premiered in Taiwan during 2007. During Sang Jijia’s performance, I discovered that the curators of the festival had not bothered to make sure that the entire stage was visible from all parts of the auditorium. I was sitting on the far right, and I was therefore only able to view half of the performance. Occasionally, I was able to see parts of Jijia’s flailing arms and legs, but not his entire body. The half that I managed to glimpse was barely impressive; although powerful at first, both the falling and the background music grew repetitious and mundane.

As much as I disliked “Snow,” “The Dying Swan” made up for it twenty times over. Originally danced in St. Petersburg in 1907, this Russian ballet planted a new, deep respect for classical dance inside of me. Firstly, there were actual musicians on stage with Diana Vishneva, the ballerina.  These musicians played beautifully, complimenting the dancer’s movements with their expressions. Vishneva wore a gorgeous dress, which, unlike the dress in “Le Spectre de la Rose,” actually showed off her feet. She stayed on her toes for the entire performance, creating tiny and truly swan-like movements.

Alvin Ailey, the main performing group, rounded off the festival with an unforgettable line-up. Originally performed in NYC during 1960, “Revelations” was split into three sections: “Pilgrim of Sorrow,” “Take Me To The Water,” and “Move, Members, Move”. The last section was best engraved into my memory; the women wore cheerful, old-fashioned, yellow dresses and the men wore old-fashioned suits. The women used chairs as an aid throughout the performance, which added symmetry to their already dazzling, organized appearance. Together, they clapped, waved, and spun with unheard-of vigor. If that wasn’t enough, they tricked their audience at the end of their performance, repeating their last song. They made the crowd part of their show and, consequently, received a much-deserved standing ovation.

The four performing groups were drastically different, and I enjoyed the chance to view such variety in a short amount of time. The sequence of performances was well planned, and, aside from the technical carelessness displayed during “Snow,” it was a fabulous introduction to dance. I strongly recommend the festival to my fellow dance novices.

I have never had the pleasure of viewing a live jazz performance. The closest I got to them were depictions of big bands in movies and TV shows that borrowed them for “prom night” segments. But those didn’t prepare me for the performance that the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra gave on October 7th.

The night was in tribute to the work of Count Basie, one of the most prominent leaders in the genre of jazz. While listening to his music I felt myself sinking into my chair and becoming relaxed in the laid-back melodies and steady rhythms of the band. I was amazed at how in sync they were as a unit; no note or tune felt like it shouldn’t have been played.

I can’t say that I had a favorite song, but I did find myself appreciating the songs’ attention to details: the silence of the band for a few moments while a clarinet played or the harmony of two trumpets. Each song had its own intricate styling, and while it sometimes sounded like improvisation it never felt out of place.

What I liked most (and least expected) about the performance was the amount of solos. I’m used to musicals and dance numbers that usually only allow a select few of its members to shine in the limelight while the rest of the company (and the music they perform to) fall in the background. But the orchestra gave the musicians a chance to showcase their abilities, and it was a great opportunity to actually hear the Juilliard students’ passion and dedication to their preferred instrument of choice.

Overall, my night with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra was one that cannot be duplicated. I appreciated the enthusiasm of the conductor, the students, and the legend Frank Wess (though he needed support to get on stage, his energetic saxophone-playing had me questioning his age [87?? Really??]). I’ve come to respect and appreciate the genre of jazz even more than I already did.

Of course people are calling this year’s edition of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) a grand retelling of a classic for this generation, but a better observation would be a comparison to films such as the Pierce Brosnan era Bond series or any of George Lucas’ flashy, showy works. Like these movies, the most recent edition of Figaro is so over-the-top, albeit through singing and orchestral flourishes, that every ten or so minutes you find yourself watching a spectacle instead of a scene.

For one thing, this season’s cast is phenomenal. Emma Bell and Isabel Leonard blow their parts, Countess Almaviva and Cherubino, respectively, out of any sort of realist water that could be holding them. They make these characters come alive (see Bell’s Act III aria “Dove sono.”) Also admirable is Denmark’s Bo Skovhus, who plays the often campy role of Count Almaviva in a straightforward fashion that lends itself incredibly well to the innate comedy in the character.

But the most striking thing is the set design. For any newcomer to the Met, or opera in general, the way that the sets pop from the stage will intrigue their mind, while the lighting and mood direction will woo their soul (I needn’t even mention the mind-obliterating set change between scenes III and IV.) It is these mammoth artworks that tie the ostentatious festival together and make it memorable.

All in all, Le Nizzi di Figaro will be one of your favorite productions of the year, even if you don’t like sitting through three and a half hours of opera. It is a treat and an extravaganza whose sum is truly greater than its (pretty great) parts.

To say that I was excited to go to the last night of the Fall for Dance Festival would be an understatement. In reality I was ecstatic, especially for the Alvin Ailey performance of “Revelations” (a piece that I’ve only read about until now). I was familiar with Ailey’s work, having previously seen “Episodes”, “Blue Suites”, and “Memoria”. But “Revelations”, along with the other performances of the night, was like nothing I had ever seen before.

The night started with The Australian Ballet’s “Le Spectre de la Rose”. It was a lovely pas de deux, filled with strong leg extensions and great partnering work. Although the woman’s eyes were downcast as if she was dreaming about her flower, I could see the trusting bond between her and her partner every time they went into a lift. But the star of the routine was the male playing the flower. This might be because he had more solo work than her, but every time he went into a series of turns and leaps my eyes were drawn. He had great stage presence, and his ever-present smile made him enjoyable to watch.

The next dance, “Snow” performed by Sang Jijia, is hard to write about due to my seat in the theater. Half of his performance was obscured because I was sitting near the outermost-right of the balcony. But what I did get to see was great; Jijia’s sharp moves and flexed feet were in contrast to the softly falling snow serving as his backdrop. He managed to utilize every part of the space given to him, including the stage floor. I also found the lines his feet would make in the snow a great accompanying visual to his performance.

Diana Vishneva’s performance of “The Dying Swan” was as sad as it was beautiful. While her feet were in quick successive motion to bring her around the stage, her arms were as slow as if she were underwater. And her face was devastating; even after performance her expression was melancholy. I was impressed by her dancing, but melancholy due to the tone of her performance.

But I was quickly cheered by the emergence of the bright costumes and spiritual music that was “Revelations”. While I won’t talk about any of the individual pieces within the performance, I will say that each one was just as astounding as the last. The amount of strength, precision, balance, and stage presence each of the Ailey dancers (male AND female) possessed was remarkable, and the music that accompanied them reflected it. They played well to the audience; by the last number, half of the venue was on their feet clapping along to the music. It was a great performance to end the night. I felt uplifted and moved, and I look forward to attending one of their shows in the future.