Saturday, November 18, 2006

Kazhakhstani film

After buying more stuff at Macy's and at H & M, Svet took me to dinner at Philadelphia Cheesesteak Factory (good, but really messy) and then to the movie theatre there at Tyson's Corner to see Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Svet somehow managed to buy us two children's tickets on the ticket computer, and the ticket taker guy noticed it when we went in. Then we had to wait for some manager to come down so Svet could pay the price differential, which took forever.

The movie was very, very crude and absolutely outrageous. It was also shockingly hilarious. You know, I was at that Gay Pride parade in D.C. (I was closely scanning the screen to see if I'd been captured on film). And I've been in a fraternity (though not in South Carolina...our guys weren't fat slobs like that), I've been to yard sales, I've been to rodeos, I've been to Pentecostal church services, and I've even known Southern ladies who teach Gracious Living and who throw proper dinner parties....I don't see why all those people are suing.....I mean, their portrayals were really pretty accurate as to every day reality in the South. From the movie criticism standpoint, it went pretty well, but they didn't know how to bring it to a good conclusion. The story arc, as it were, was rather lacking. Consequently, I'm not going to be nominating it for any Oscars.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Musical research

Researchers at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne are conducting an investigation on listening to music. To help them out and take a quick little test, go to:

http://www.delosis.com/listening/home.html

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Mirren's The Queen

Twenty-five years ago a small group of my friends got together very early one morning, donned morning suits and our lady friends donned hats and gloves, and gathered at my apartment at 4 a.m. for a special festive English breakfast, complete with champagne. We huddled around the television to watch the nuptial ceremonies of the Lady Diana Spencer and HRH the Prince of Wales, reveling in the processions, the dress, the cathedral, the music, and all of the pageantry that only the British can do. One of my friends was there in St. Paul's Cathedral, too, where she was part of the choir.

Nine years ago, I was one of those people glued to the television set when the news of an automobile crash in a Parisian tunnel hit CNN, soon to hear the tragic news of the Princess's death. I joined with my good friend Lord Darlow in grieving the loss of his cousin and in cursing the press and paparazzi for their contributions to this terrible event. Naturally, the following weekend I arose early in the morning once again to watch the funeral processions and the state funeral from Westminster Abbey. Certainly, I was a Diana fan, and I'm also a confirmed monarchist.

It was with this background that I was dragged into the E Street Theater Sunday night to watch the new motion picture, The Queen.

The critics have been praising this film and the studio has been promoting the usual Oscar hype for the movie's star, Dame Helen Mirren. I'm not a regular movie-goer, so the trailers I had seen for the film were very limited; thus, I was not exactly sure of the content of the movie, not knowing if it was a biography of Her Majesty or a modern portrayal.

As it turns out, the movie is a historical docudrama of sorts recounting the days between the death of the Princess and the funeral, attempting to show the Queen's and the royal family's reaction and response to the events of the day, as well as the continuing political machinations of then-new prime minister, Tony Blair. Woven in and out of the movie was news footage featuring the late Princess, the French papparazzi, her wedding, and her funeral. What concerns me about the movie is that it portrays the featured events as literal fact. Now, I've certainly not researched the matter, but I'm not aware of diaries, recordings, or reports from the involved parties as to exactly what was thought, done, and said during those days; I suspect that a great deal of artistic license was taken.

Dame Helen appears in practically all of the movie. She appears rather dour and at times almost petulant. In portraying the Queen's strong sense of duty and royal decorum, she makes the Queen appear distant and unsympathetic, even in those scenes designed to elicit sympathy. Interestingly, Dame Helen previously played Elizabeth I in last year's television drama of the same name and Queen Charlotte in The Madness of King George.

Counterbalancing the Queen in the story is the newly elected Tony Blair, played by Micheal Sheen, who seems rather an opportunistic, shallow, out-of-his-league boy married to a bitter and anti-monarchist wife. Alex Jennings plays the Prince of Wales, and the movie makes him out to be quite the spineless, indecisive whimp. Filling out the cast are James Cromwell as a blustering, grumpy Duke of Edinburgh and Sylvia Sims as an essentially inconsequential Queen Mother.

Some of the cinematography was beautiful, especially in those scenes shot in the gorgeous Scottish Highland. The set designs and most especially the costumes were all fabulous.

The whole storyline of the real life public reaction to Diana's death has always puzzled me. The royal family's and the Spencer family's initial response to the death was, I think, the correct thing to do. They wanted it to be a private family matter for a person who had been hounded by the press and public during her marriage. And, the death of a royal divorcée—a former HRH, as they called it—had no precedent in public royal mourning. It certainly seemed to me that the tasteful, dignified thing was to have private family rites and not a grand public event. And yet the public had this illogical, unexpected outpouring of public grief, holding candlelight vigils outside the royal castles, bringing tens of thousands of floral offerings to lay outside the gates, and depositing all kinds of memorabilia in memory of a dead divorcée. This demonstration of grief has set the precedent for all kinds of public displays for common people all over the world. Yet, whether it was the Princess of Wales, a rock star, or some person whose death made the news, I cannot see why the public should be emoting as though the never-met deceased were their dearest and closest family member.

The movie explored this public reaction, and alluded somewhat to the insidious role of the 24-hour news media and the tabloid press in fueling the evolution of public opinion and behavior. That, perhaps, is the one redeeming value of this movie.

Anglophiles and Diana fans will all no doubt want to see this movie. Others probably will find it a bit sleepy. But as for Academy Awards? I dunno. Perhaps. But it will depend upon the competition and whether or not any truly good movies are released in 2006.

EStreet
Matt's Kody Pose with the shiraz at the theater

Monday, November 13, 2006

An afternoon on the Mall

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Alas. Sunday it rained all day. After three days of gorgeous, unseasonably warm days, the cold front moved through yesterday and we had constant mist and drizzle with the occasional outright downpour. Ordinarily, fall rain isn't a problem. But, yesterday was the day of Washington National Opera's annual simulcast on the Mall, this year of Madama Butterfly. Alas.

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As you can see, attendance was down a little bit this year.

Last year during the simulcast of Porgy and Bess, there were probably between 12,000 and 15,000 people there for the performance, sitting on the grass, picnicking, and otherwise enjoying what was then a beautiful, sunny, fall afternoon. This year, though, between the rain, temperatures in the 40s, and a cold, piercing wind, there were maybe only 12 to 15 people there for the performance. Such a shame. The opera spent a lot of money getting the screen set up, arranging for what amounted to private port-a-potties for each attendee, security, publicity, and so forth. I just hope they continue the tradition next year!

So, Matt and Robert not being the outdoorsy, hearty types willing to endure harsh weather and adversity like Jon and me (LOL), we opted for an indoor activity, and headed to the Sackler Gallery for the afternoon. The Sackler Gallery, along with the next-door Freer Gallery, is the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art. We went particularly to see their current exhibition, "In the Beginning: Bibles before the Year 1000." And, yesterday afternoon, there was a special lecture demonstration related to the exhibit called "The Aleppo Codex: Chanting the Hebrew Scriptures," featuring a cantor from Baltimore who spent more time discussing notational esoterica than he did chanting. Following the lecture, we went to the Bible exhibit, which was in a really dark, ticket-only-for-admission gallery. Many of the books and page fragments were quite pretty. Of course, the early things in Aramaic, Arabic, Hebrew, and Greek I couldn't read; I was chagrinned, though, that I really couldn't read the Latin books and pages because I couldn't read the handwriting!

After we left the Sackler, we walked down towards the Capitol where the opera simulcast was taking place and stood in the rain long enough to hear the Humming Chorus and the end of act two. Then the guys were getting peckish from lack of food, so we popped into the National Museum of the American Indian and headed to Mitsisam, their cafeteria specializing in American Indian foods from across the continent.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Anthem and incense

During All Saints Day's solemn high mass at St. Paul's K Street, I videoed the anthem during the offertory and planned to post it here for you all to see in my post that night. For some reason, I couldn't get it to play once I uploaded it to my computer, and neither Ryan nor Jean could fix the file, either, but finally Svet came to our rescue and "zipped" the video on my camera's memory card and pulled it off that way; now it works. Thanks, Svet!

So, at long last, here is the Choir of St. Paul's Episcopal Church singing Edgar Bainton's "And I Saw a New Heaven." Forgive the cinematography; this was a "surreptitious" recording on my little point-and-click digital camera primarily to capture the sound, not to be a pretty picture. An added plus to the video is you get to watch the incensation of the altar in the traditional high church style.

About three minutes in to the video, the tenors introduce a new melodic theme whilst singing the words, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes," that continues through the end of the anthem; I've long thought this was one of the most hauntingly beautiful melodies in the post-Anglican Revival musical literature.

Sunday, November 5, 2006

Kennedy Center concert

The National Symphony Orchestra was in fine form Friday night under the baton of guest conductor and internationally-acclaimed violinist Pinchas Zukerman, performing in the Concert Hall of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts here in Washington.

Opening with the Prélude to Richard Wagner's opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, they displayed a wonderful richness of tone and some of the finest playing I think I've heard them do in the past few years. The strings bowed in unison, the woodwinds were always together (and there are some challenging solo spotlights for the winds as an ensemble in this prelude), and the brass was right on cue and didn't have any unfortunate splatty entrances. As expected for a Wagner work, the usual orchestra was augmented; they had a huge, inspiring sound. This has always been one of my favorite classical pieces, and I love the grandiosity and nobility of the music.

Zuckerman's wife, Amanda Forsyth, appeared in the second selection as the featured cello soloist in Max Bruch's Kol nidrei, Adagio on Hebrew Melodies for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 47. There was actually very little for the orchestra to do in this piece, with the vast majority being solo cello. Forsyth plays a 1699 vintage Carlo Giuseppe Testore instrument that was wonderfully expressive in the upper registers and lush in the middle range, but a little raspy, I thought, in the lowest ranges. The Bruch only lasted about ten minutes, and I would have liked to have had more time to hear Forsyth's playing.

Equally entertaining as listening to the music was observing what the 38-year-old blonde South African was wearing. She emerged carrying her cello clad in a tightly form-fitting long fire engine red dress with a high neckline, tight long sleeves, gathered fabric crossed in front at the waist, and a fish tail flair at the bottom. She accessorized with metallic silver shoes with four-inch spike heels and lots of diamond jewelry. She had great big stones for her drop earrings that really caught the light. She was also wearing quite a large wedding ring on her right hand (string players wear their rings on that hand to avoid damaging their instruments) and had a diamond tennis bracelet on that arm. She also wore a thin silver headband across the top of her head that had something on it that caught the light now and then, but it didn't look like it would have been a row of diamonds, so I don't know what that was.

The third work in the first half of the concert was Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219, with Zuckerman as both conductor and featured soloist. The concerto is a fairly short work with only three movements. He performed admirably, particularly on the cadenzas at the end of each movement. What particularly displayed his renowned artistry, though, were those pianissimo passages he played, spellbinding the audience.

In fairness, I should comment upon his attire as well. He wore a black tail coat with black trousers. Instead of wearing a white bow tie and a white piqué waistcoat, however, he chose to wear a wide black cummerbund and he had this rather unusual white shirt designed to be worn without a tie that had rather stylized collar points and what almost looked like a fold-over lapel. And, since I last saw him in 2000 (his daughter and I sang the world premiere of an opera by Jean-Michel Damase), his hair has gone fully silver.

After the interval, the orchestra played Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36. Twas four movements, but only lasted about half an hour.

It was quite an enjoyable evening, and the NSO played excellently. This was a perfect example of what I've said for years, and that's that the NSO doesn't play well for their music director, Leonard Slatkin, and they only do well with respected guest conductors like Zuckerman. I kept looking for something to mention that was off key or not together or something all night long, and about the only thing I could note was that during a rather raucous section of the Beethoven, some of the bass players were slapping their strings a little bit with their bows and I could hear the slap.