Weblog - Archives

 

• Wolfgang Becker's Good bye, Lenin! is a sensitive and intelligent film, which offers an original, emotional but also thought-provoking view of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Another interesting film is Caroline Link's Nirgendwo in Afrika, which is far more conventional, but tells an interesting story and has beautiful images.

Finally, a review of McGegan's Agrippina has been added to the Handel page. If my budget helps me, I intend to purchase Gardiner's recording soon in order to make comparisons. I do hope Jacobs' performances in Paris with Anna Caterina Antonnacci will be released on CD or DVD.

Tuesday, December 30th 2003

• It's great to be in Rio again. My mother's CD player is not working properly and I'm disconnected from the musical world. We intend to solve that soon. Some films. Cédric Klapisch's L'Auberge Espagnol, which is really cool (visually and in terms of script); Zeffirelli's Callas Forever, which is superficial, but redeemed by Fanny Ardant's marvelous work. The rest is too shallow and flattering for a wide audience and uninteresting for those interested in Callas. On TV, a film I've seen many and many times - "Julia" with Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. Comments are unnecessary.

A review of the new Così from the Staatsoper unter den Linden has been added to the Mozart page.

Tuesday, December 23rd 2003

• I've had a bad start with Antonioni with Identificazione di una donna not long ago, but Martin Scorcese's wonderful documentary on Italian cinema made me give him a second try (sure I've seen Blow-Up, but that was ages ago and only remember the tennis playing scene). The gods may have overheard me, because Brasília's CCBB has a whole event on Antonioni and today I've seen both L'Avventura and La Notte. As soon as possible, I intend to see L'Eclisse as well. It is so silly to say that L'Avventura is probably one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen - everybodyn knows that it is an amazing series of gorgeous images of classical beauty. The sense of texture, especially contrasting textures, is superb. Also, his usage of multi-layered perspective. The elegance of composition is unparallelled. The film is famous for its mesmerising landscapes presiding over characters and their actions. It seems that the influence of landscape on people is a trait of Italian cinema - it has been so in Rossellini's Stromboli, for example. Or maybe it is a mysterious spell of Italian landscape - how many British films tell the story of uptight people who learn to relax and to wake up for life in Italy? Anyway, L'Avventura was the epicentre of polemics when it was released, because of its plot: a rich spoiled girl, Anna (Lea Massari), her fiancé, Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), and her best friend, Claudia (the stunning Monica Vitti), together with a group of rich friends, go on a private cruise through the Sicilian coast. There, Anna tells Sandro that their relationship is in a very serious crisis and, when the whole group is about to go aboard, they notice that Anna has disappeared. While investigations begin, Claudia and Sandro realise that they are actually in love. The problem is that Antonioni never bothers to explain what happens to Anna and focus on Claudia and Sandro's relationship. In my opinion, as much as he builds his images with perfect balance, Anna's disappearance is a symbol of the complete inexplicability of life. At first, this seems to be as an "invitation" of fate for Claudia and Sandro: anything can happen - their relationship as well. In the end, in a scene that Scorcese calls as a portrait of human solitude, I believe that they both realise that we are condamned never to understand - not even our own attitudes. Those overwhelming images of Italian nature opressing those characters have been showing that during the whole film.

La Notte didn't strike me as being such a masterpiece as L'Avventura. It has some memorable scenes - the nightclub is anthologic - but, in the end, it is a film not unlike many others about the challenge of boredom in relationships. In La Notte, Giovanni (Marcello Mastroianni), a writer, and his wife, Lidia (Jeanne Moreau) are a married couple rather paralysed because of routine. The death of a friend and a party where they meet the young and bright Valentina (the again stunning Monica Vitti) puts their marriage to the test, while they visit both sides of Milan, from suburban to rich bourgeoisie. Jeanne Moreau steals the whole show. Vitti is also marvelous - there is not much operating space for Mastroianni. But Moreau is the one who makes the best of Antonioni's silences. Her richness of expression fills with meaning long scenes which would be indifferent if played by other actresses. A bathtub scene is an example. She is having this bath and there is something sexy nonchalant about her. Her husband enters the bathroom. She asks for her spounge and he simply throws it at her side without even looking at her. She looks to the camera and her thoughts simply speak to the audience - there is a naked woman in a bathtub and that man doesn't even bother to look! From this point-of-view, we understand why they are bored with marriage... :-)

A final comment on movies. I've caught a glimpse of a very unusual film - Bertollucci's Prime della Revoluzione. It is so un-bertolucci-esque that I could hardly believe it was one of his old films. There is something of Antonioni-esque in the beautiful black and white photography. The romantic scenes are beautiful - a wonderful leading actress too. I hope to see it again (it was too late in the night and - I confess - I fell asleep before the end).

The Met has broadcast a performance of Halévy's La Juive on Saturday. I've listened to acts I and II. There are interesting passages - a very interesting sextett or something like that. I don't know if this is something to listen to all the time, but it is worth while listening at least once. The Met's performance - for a total non-especialist such as I am - seemed to be fine. Soile Isokoski and Elizabeth Futral gave beautiful performances of the difficult soprano parts and, although there is some overbrigthness in his voice, Eric Cutler seems to be a capable and accomplished singer. Furlanetto's voice is less beautiful than it used to be, but it is an imposing instrument and Neil Schicoff is entirely commited in the leading part.

A review of Keilberth's Arabella has been added to the Strauss page.

Sunday, December 14th 2003

• I've been re-reading Angel-Fernandes Mayo's (the Spanish Wagnerian) comments on the Wagner opera discography (and I thank my friend Joaquín once more fore the marvelous gift) and this has rekindled my passion for Wagner. It is curious that my first idea was to listen to Karajan's Walküre act III on DG. As much as I love Crespin, I found the whole thing a bit sluggish and uninteresting. However, when I shifted to his DG Siegfried, I simply couldn't stop listening to it. It is better than I remembered - Karajan kaleidoscopic conducting, Jess Thomas' highly expressive Siegfried, Gerhard Stolze far less weird than in Solti's recording, Thomas Stewart's elegant Wotan, Zoltan Kéléman's unexaggerated Alberich, Oralia Dominguez's regal Erda and Helga Dernesch's sensuous Brünnhilde - also Catherine Gayer is beguiling as the woodbird. I still have to make some comparisons and regain my "Wagnerian standards", but this has been a most fortunate rediscovery.

One more cute film this week-end (this has a geographical reason - in Brasilia, "art" films are only shown in places inaccessible to those who don't have a car, such as me). Richard Curtis' "Love actually", which is entertaining and makes you leave the theatre in high spirits. Besides, they have quite a cast, including uprising (in international scenery) Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro. In Brazil, he is already seen as a talented actor and is very famous because of his (silly) romantic leading roles in soap opera. He seems to have a good eye when he choses his movies - in Lais Bondansky's "Bicho de Sete Cabeças", he plays an adolescent who is sent to a hellish mental institution; in Hector Babenco's Carandiru, he plays a transvestite named Lady Di; and, in Walter Salles' Behind the Sun, a poor young man in the middle of a war between family feuds in Brazilian backlands. He is to appear in a remake of Tennessee Williams' "The Roman Spring of Mr. Stone" in a tiny role. I am curious to see this one. As much as I like Helen Mirren, I can't see her in a part taken by Vivian Leigh - and Olivier Martinez is no replacement for Warren Beatty.

I also saw Clint Eastwood's Mystic River on Saturday. I dont know - I haven't disliked it, but I don't know if I actually liked it. With that material, they could have made a great film, but the result is kind of matter-of-fact in my opinion. Tim Robbins is really great, but Sean Penn - who is said to be a favourite for next Academy Awards - is repeating the kind of performance he has commited to some of his movies. I don't know - it could be better. Finally, today I've seen Joseph Losey's "The Romantic Englishwoman". I was curious about it, for the other Losey film I can think of is the Don Giovanni with Kiri te Kanawa. Considering it is a 1975 film, it looks amazingly beautiful for a colour movie (yes, I am not exactly an enthusiast of the chromatic orgy usually called '70's style'). A good initial situation, a great cast (Glenda Jackson, Michael Caine and particularly Helmut Berger), but I must say that some of those 70's movies puzzle me. Sometimes I cannot tell if some turns of the script are mere sloppiness or Antonioni-like enigma. Anyway, I prefered this one to Antonioni's Identificazione di une donna (but it seems this is not Antonioni's best) because of the dialogues. Losey's film has great intelligent dialogues, while Identificazione... is too reticent, to say the least. (The comparison has to do with the fact that I saw both movies in the same theatre - the Cine Brasília - a wonderful old-fashioned theatre with a huge hall, a huge screen, pop-corn carts and turnstiles... )

Ah, Olivier has added a review of Plasson's Carmen to his discography.

Sunday, December 7th 2003

• My friend Davide wrote me saying I have been neglecting this weblog - but the truth is I have been short of time to do anything worth while telling. The fact is that my present professional situation means that I have lots of homework to do. And I have a problem with homework - I take like 100 times longer to do anything at home compared to the time I'd take to do it in the office. It is a huge waste of time, I know. But, anyway, some cute little films this week-end - Danièle Thompson's "Decalage horaire" with Juliette Binoche, Jean Reno and Sergi Lopez. A charming tribute to those American films of the early 60's - and Binoche's character is entirely inspired by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's (the hair-do is not accidental...). The other film is P.J. Hogan "Unconditional Love", which is even less pretentious. Don't expect too much and there will be room for good laughs and high spirits .

Side comment. Since I had to wait for 90 min for the film to start, I've stopped at a newsstand and finally bought Schnitzler's Traumnovelle (for 4 US$). I know it is a short book but the fact that I read it 90 min did surprise me. I haven't done something like that for ages! I have to confess that reading - at last! - the book only proves that Kubrick did misfire in Eyes Wide Shut. That film could NEVER be set in the USA and should have other actors. The richness of what goes in the mind of these characters could only be graphically described by the likes of an Isabelle Huppert. I don't know - I found the film disappointing before I read the book. Now that I've read this jewel of literary work - I found the film a complete failure.

Also, a broadcast on Rai 3. A Turandot from Genoa. I was amazed by Nicola Martinucci - his voice sounds really fresh and - I have to confess - the spontaneity of his tenor only exposes the weakness of almost everyone else in the tenore di forza Fach. Norah Ansellem has beautiful pianissimi, but her tone is so tense! Maybe I am wrong, but since Barbara Hendricks recorded this role for Karajan, lyric sopranos have been more and more usual in this part, which actually demands for a voice with some spinto potential, such as Renata Tebaldi or Mirella Freni. I was curious about Andrea Gruber (as a matter of fact, I've listened only to the end of the scene of the enigmas), since I like German sopranos in the title role. My first surprise is that I could have mistaken her voice for an Italian soprano's - I don't know, the kind of vibrato and phrasing. It is not a beautiful nor flexible voice, but she did really really better than Frances Ginzer, Gabriele Schnaut and Alessandra Marc, who sound foreign and desperate in the part. I was told that Audrey Stottler is the best Turandot around these days (and that her Färberin at the Met was sensational). Now I'm curious to hear her.

On Gramophone magazine December issue CD, some unusual stuff. First of all, Lorraine Hunt singing Bach. The reviewers were frantic about it. Judging from Cantata no.82 Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod, I found it nice, but good old Klaus Mertens is miles ahead in my opinion. I would need to listen to the whole disc - especially since she sings Mein Herz schwimmt in Blut, a favourite of mine. The second nice surprise was to find Alice Coote, Covent Garden's recent Orlando in Handel's opera, singing Urlicht. Her voice is definitely beautiful and her performance is good, a bit generalised, but vocally perfect. I still think she should try to concentrate on mezzo rather than contralto repertoire, but...

Finally, I need recommendations for Hugo Wolf. I dislike Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in this repertoire, to start with. One of those days, I found a 1959 song recital with Leontyne Price in my collection (someone gave it to me ages ago) and - to my surprise - it is delightful. She sang three Wolf songs with complete artlessness abandon and that tropical flower-like voice of hers and it was delightful. Schwarzkopf sounded bizarre in comparison. As to Fischer-Dieskau, as much as I admire him, his singing rarely goes to my heart. I have the Mörike/Göthe Lieder recital by Arleen Augér. It is beautiful, but her voice can get a bit edgy when singing forte and this disturbs me a little. I was disappointed to find that Lucia Popp has only 5 Lieder by Wolf recorded in a pirate disc. It was in Gramophone that I've read that there is a live recital with Irmgard Seefried which is lovely. I am tempted by Isokoski/Skovhus on the Italian Songbook and there are Bernarda Fink and Stephen Genz for the Eichendorff - but the Mörike are my favourites. Anyway, if you have some ideas, please write!

Sunday, November 20th 2003

• This have been a good year for Arthur Miller in Brazilian stages. In less than one year, it is the second time I've seen one of his plays (the first one was "The Crucible"). Yesterday, it was "Death of a Salesman" - a true masterpiece of XXth century theatrical literature. It was a beautiful performance, despite director Felipe Hirsch's staging - which (in all plays!) concentrates on good looks and coolness. The sceneries are certainly beautiful in its Japanese design back-to-basics style, but it made me think of Roland Barthe's théâtre de la bourgeosie with its unnecessary effects. The production - with some famous names in Brazilian TV - centers around Marco Nanini, a great actor who is not fit for the part of Willy Loman. I don't know - he looks too "detached" and there is a certain freshness in his voice that definitely doesn't go with the exhausted Loman. Maybe it is because I've seen some scenes with Jack Lemmon on TV, but his performance left me (for the first time with this artist) cold. The truth is that Juliana Carneiro da Cunha, as Linda Loman, offered a performance of such stratospheric levels that the performance was all about her. An artist of unbridled energy and emotionality coupled with thorough technique, she simply makes the temperature rise when she is on stage. Hers was a performancer I will never forget. I can only wonder how marvellous her Clytemnestre in Paris with the Théâtre du Soleil must have been.

Sunday, November 23rd 2003

• More Lieder: Christian Elsner´s Die Schöne Müllerin has disappointed me. His voice has developed to overbig size. It seems he should think now of Freischütz and Lohengrin, not Schubert. Another disappointment is Hans-Peter Blochwitz´s Lieder disc on Phillips. The voice is tense, the interpretation is dull and the pianist is far from creative. Araiza´s Schöne Müllerin badly needs remastering - there is no low harmonics there, which is a pity, because Araiza is in rich voice and sings imaginatively throughout. Irwin Gage is a bit dull, though. I was surprised by the fact that few singers do catch the mood of Schubert´s Im Frühling, with its bittersweet atmosphere, the nostalgic half-smile. Only Cheryl Studer goes to the heart of the matter. Gundula Janowitz has a beautiful performance on DG, but Elly Ameling and Blochwitz make it too sprightly to my taste. Anyway, Kubelik´s German Requiem on Audite is the great news these days. A marvellously spacious recording with heavenly orchestral playing and exquisite choral singing.

Thursday, November 6th 2003

• I have just arrived from Matrix - the Revolution. Although my friends were disappointed, I believe it is better than part II. It is also clear that the film could have had a more dignified ending if it the series had been concluded in the first film. Anyway, I had the impression that part of the disappointment had to do with the fact that the film does not bring a revelation about post-modern world. I don't know - I think post-modernism is something related to Aesthetics - I really see no application of it in Morals or any other branch of Philosophy. So I really wasn't expecting for any revelation, particularly not coming from a blockbuster movie. I do think that the third film in the series is really ingenious with its mix of Christianism and Computers - a half-man half-program messiah who brings forth a new covenant based on the fact that the system can deal with everything but the impredictable - and that is why man is necessary. The "cute" detail is that man can do the impredictable because love is completely unreasonable. The funny comments related, though, to theory of international relations: if we analyse the whole thing through balance of powers, the machines were far more powerful and only decide to keep man because a) they need their energy; b) they can provide new solutions to old problems.

One of those days, Olivier and I, while browsing through amazon.com, tried to find a good idea for Mozart's Requiem. As the samples were limited, we chose to analyse the recordings through the Dies Irae and the Tuba Mirum. Most period performances were really disappointing. The Savall was quite impressive, but the Harnoncourt let me down on the shabby Tuba mirum. Gardiner is too light, but Norrington, despite some noisy trumpets, had wonderful understanding of tempi. The Boston Baroque recording was a surprise to me - a light orchestra which can cause a great deal of effect through tempi and phrasing - some will say it is too fast, though. Most new "traditional" performances were disappointing too - Solti and Abbado too shallow. On the other hand, Bernstein has a powerful Dies Irae (a favourite in the comparison), but a soporiphic Tuba mirum. Colin Davis was a pleasant surprise (I have this recording somewhere and it is good to know that I have it). The Schreier is already a reference for me - with its wonderful clarity, choral singing, orchestral player and celestial Margaret Price and Francisco Araiza. Olivier tried to convince me about the Walter. Sure, it is quite amazing for its age, but it shows its age now and then, especially the recording. Anyway, we cannot reach a faithful opinion listening through Real Player, but maybe you could share with us some ideas about the discography.

Wednesday, November 5th 2003

• I think my words will really fail me this time - it is impossible to describe the quasi-religious experience that Riccardo Muti's broadcast of Beethoven's Fidelio from 2003 has brought about. I had listened to his 1999 broadcast, which was without a shadow of doubt an excellent performance. But the new one is simply the best Fidelio I have ever heard - and it is so above everything I have heard in this music that I can hardly believe that someone can actually conduct this work the way Muti does. Sometimes I simply had the impression that he is using a different version, since there were so many hidden beauties in this score that has been left unnoticed by every other conductor. Böhm's DG recording has been my reference for tempi, but Muti proves that sometimes going a bit faster or slower can really make miracles in clarity and structural understanding. I do think Muti develops from Böhm's example of stylistic propriety, but he really goes beyond that - a Classical performance of unbridled power. And La Scala's orchestra is in very good shape. If I really had to be picky, I would point out that the single moment that could raise doubts is the slow pace for Florestan's aria, beautifully as the orchestra sounds. The cast could be described as a strong one, but for the serious blemish in the the title role. Although her voice has never been fit for this role, Waltraud Meier has kept it in her repertoire. It sounds shrewish and the top notes are difficult for her. All in all, she is really in better shape than in 1999. The lovely Laura Aikin is again Marzelline and Mathias Klink is a far more ingratiating Jacquino than Endrik Wottrich. I begin to realise that Robert Dean Smith is really the real thing in the Heldentenor repertoire around these days. He sings his difficult part with amazing ease and richness of tone, not to mention good taste. Eike Wim Schulte's high forceful baritone works beautifully for Pizarro and Hans Tschammer is a reliable Rocco. Only Ildar Abdrazakov is a bit woolly as Fernando. A major event for Beethovenians. Maybe La Scala should consider releasing this performance - maybe on DVD, since it is a Werner Herzog production.

RAI 3 has broadcast today a performance of Händel's Orlando from the Covent Garden. According to what I understood, it is the first time that an authentic instruments band has played in the Royal Opera House since that a traditional symphonic orchestras has established itself as a reference. As it is, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is the best thing in the performance, offering rich sounds throughout under the direct and stylistic conducting of Harry Bickett. As Angelica, Barbara Bonney is a bit worn and uncomfortable with the tessitura. She has also given her aria di bravura from act I up. As Dorinda, Camila Tilling shows an appealing voice with an unusually strong register for a lyric soprano, but is not entirely comfortable with high notes as well. Both sopranos could sing more graciously - but they make good use of recitatives. As Orlando, Alice Coote has the all the elements for a great performance, but it seems that either her technique is irregular or she has not really discovered her actual Fach yet. Anyway, she is probably the most interesting member of the cast. It is the first time I hear the part of Medoro sung by a countertenor and the exceptional Bejun Mehta seizes the opportunity to offer a beautiful performance. On the other hand, Jonathan Lemalu is not in the right repertoire - his voice lacks poise and he slips through passagework.

A review of Mehta's video of Die Entführung aus dem Serail has been added to the Mozart discography.

Saturday, November 1st

 

• The brothers Cohen's "Intolerable Cruel" is a delightful film, a classic comedy - in the sense of Ernst Lubitsch - with sophisticated humour and wonderful performances. Zeta-Jones and Clooney establish wonderful partnership, the plot is charming, I've really enjoyed it from the opening credits to the very end. On TV, a wonderful documentary about Jeanne Moreau was the other highlight of the week. It was one of the most moving documentaries about an actor or an actress I have ever seen. Moreau herself is a wonderful personality and has been involved in so many important artistic entreprises - and speaks about all that with such spiritual richness. It was particular enlightening to listen to her ideas and impressions on her films with Louis Malle, her brief friendship with Ingmar Bergman and - most of all - a documentary she made about Lilian Gish. Also, during the shooting of this documentary, she was shooting a film which seemed to be directed by produced Ismail Merchant. I don't recall having heard about this film. I wonder if it was actually finished and/or released. After the documentary, the cable TV channel showed a great film with Moreau directed by Jacques Rémy where she plays the part of a compulsive gambler - a mesmerizing movie in which she is simply stunning.

Interesting experiences today on the amazon.de site. I have heard the samples of a disc I simply have to buy - although it seems to be available only in Germany... :-( I'm really not in my Verdian days, but this Macht des Schicksals (yes, La Forza del Destino in German) simply got me hooked. For the first time of my life - and I'm almost ashamed to say that - I had fun listening to the Rataplan! This certainly has to do with the fabulous Staatskappelle Dresden, the impressive Saxonian choir and a MARVELLOUS sensuous-toned Grace Bumbry as Leonora, an exciting feminine Preziosilla in Helga Dernesh, a youth-toned Nicolai Gedda as Alvaro and a highly expressive Hermann Prey as Carlo. I am so FRUSTRATED I couldn't order that disc (shipping costs from Germany are really high when you order from those shops on-line). This made me check some stuff about Bumbry and I discovered a disc where she sings Lieder and soprano arias. I am seriously tempted... I just love the sound of her voice. She is one of my really favourite mezzo-sopranos and that Carmen she sings for Karajan is the sound of seduction.

Thursday, October 30th 2003

• More investigation on Lieder recordings. First of all, it was a delightful surprise to discover a disc released by CPO with Winterreise arranged for voice and string quartett. Not only the writing fits beautifully the strings, but also Christian Elsner's full tenor is used with utmost musicianship and sensitivity. I am glad to hear he sings Die schöne Müllerin in the Naxos edition. It is, however, Roman Trekel who sings Winterreise for Naxos. His voice is not the most glamourous around, but he uses it with dramatic imagination - and pianist Ulrich Eisenlohr offers a powerful performance. I was not entirely convinced that Christa Ludwig would be a good idea for this song cycle. Judging from some old EMI recordings, I did not have the idea that she is a great Schubertian (while acknowledging the great Wolffian and Brahmsian she is). However, in the DG recording with James Levine, a sensitive accompanist, she offers an austere and elegant performance. It is the opposite of Brigitte Fassbaender's exuberant and sensuous performance with the creative Aribert Reimann at the piano. However, truth be said, Thomas Quasthoff and the highly intelligent Charles Spencer offered the most solid performance in that "comparison session". His is a major voice in its prime in the service of an authentic talent for declamation. For example, in Wasserflut, he was the only to endure the climaxes without any hint of strain.

Another occasion for comparison was Frauenliebe und Leben. I thought Anne Sofie von Otter a bit superficial. On the other hand, Jessye Norman offers an amazing vocal nature. In the first song, the very sound of her voice shows her infatuation, but Fassbaender simply exposed both her "rivals" with the directness and utter authenticity of her performance. Even so, Bernarda Fink's is still a miraculous performance. It could be used as an example of what great artistry is.

Friday, October 24th 2003

• Laetitia Colombani's À la folie... pas du tout seems to be a member of the new generation of French movies that can prove to Hollywood that they can produce better films for the American audiences than the ones produced in American studios. They certainly can - all the technical aspects are impressive and the film is unusually beautiful for its genre. However, it struck me as being nothing but a technical display, especially in what concerns the script, which is above all ingenious. One can impassively watch the sequence of sophisticatedly designed scenes about a clockwork-like rhetoric game and then go to a restaurant. I don't deny that I found it entertaining, but I would exchange it for an Eric Rohmer movie anytime - you know, films about PEOPLE, something that the French can do really well.

On the other hand, Brazilian cinema seems to be finding its own voice these days. Cláudio Assis' Amarelo Manga is a high dive into the turmoil of passion, frustration and death in the low reaches of South American society. The un-narcisistic poetry of images and the splendid cast make the director's point without resorting to gloominess (surprisingly as it may sound) - and I think this is a common feature of the recent Brazilian production. Instead of trying to look good in the screens, Brazilian movies are revealing all the skeletons in the cupboard without self-piety and also keeping the high spirits characteristic of Brazil. A side comment: I would have wished that Amarelo Manga's soundtrack had the same impact of the images. It sounded too much TV series melancholia

Speaking of music, a good surprise was Michael Volle's Schwanegesang and other Lieder in Naxos complete Schubert edition. His rich and clean voice and outstanding musicianship, aided by Ulrich Eisenlohr perceptive piano playing makes it a good advertisement for Naxos.

Finally, Olivier has just written a compelling review of Gardiner's performances of Les Troyens in Paris with the fabulous Anna Caterina Antonnacci. You may read it in his page.

Saturday, October 18th 2003

• Burr Steers' Igby goes down could be listed as one of those American films portraying people without perspectives which were so characteristic of alternative cinema in the 90's. You know, the characters always view bonds with society with suspicion and generally are stoned all the time, take an aggressive attitude but are usually emotionally frustrated. For example, Roger Avary's The Rules of Attraction could be described thus. However, differently from Avary's film, Igby has a great cast and its cinematography is creative and poetic, but never narcistic. It still lacks this touchstone of European movies, which is the masterly portrayal of how people FEEL instead of what people DO. For example, Igby and his brother's family situation is (as often in American movies) revealed with explanatory scenes which explain nothing, while the actual and present relation between mother and sons is shown en passant, a bit as a charicature. The result is that Igby's predications leave us a bit cold and his volte-face is not the culmination of a process but rather an insertion which is completely unorganic to the film.

Also, a review of Harnoncourt's Don Giovanni from Zürich has been added to the discography.

Sunday, October 12th 2003

• Those have been busy days, but not too busy for the movies. Peyton Reed's Down with Love is a charming recreation of the Doris Day/Rock Hudson movies (they even have Tony Randall in the cast!), albeit the XXIst century perspective is also there. The production design and the photography are impressive and the soundtrack is excellent. Ewan McGregor not only works well as the glamourous leading guy, but also has true feeling for comedy. Although one could think of two or three actresses more scrumptious than Renée Zellweger, she is 100% inside the atmosphere and ends on offering an entirely satisfying performance. They both sing and dance in an extra videoclip in the end of the movie. Really entertaining. Gary Gray's The Italian Job, a re-make, is also true enterainment. As a fan of "burglary movies", I've really had a great time with this one. The run-away sequence in Venice is simply fantastic. Some say the characters lack depth, but who cares?! Finally, Roger Avary's The Rules of Attraction is pure technical display (the sequence describing Victor's staying in Europe is a tour de force). Some say that the characters also lack depth, but I guess this is an intentional point. But the screenplay also lacks depth - and then there are too many shallow things in one movie...
Also, the discography of Zauberflötte has been retouched - the reviews of both Solti recordings have been rewritten.

Saturday, October 11th 2003

• I was going to post only to tell that a fresh review from Paris by Olivier on a new staging of R. Strauss' s Salome with Karita Mattila has just been published on his page, but have just decided to take profit of the occasion to express my dissatisfaction with Harnoncourt's recording of Haydn's Armida. It has too many rough moments which add nothing to expressive potential of this work. Antal Dorati still has the edge on him on almost every aspect. Cecilia Bartoli also has many rough moments, but knows when she has to produce pleasing sounds and is expressive enough, but Jessye Norman is simply an universe ahead of her in every aspect. Patricia Petibon was in a bad day vocally speaking and Oliver Widmer should not be allowed to sing a role recorded by Samuel Ramey. Markus Schäfer sings a decent second tenor role, but Anthony Rolfe-Johnson was far more inspiring for Dorati. As for Cristoph Prégardien, I do prefer his beautiful voice and expressive manners to Claes Ahnsjö's less than ingratiating tone and abrupt manners, but the role still requires a more "heroic" voice than his.

Saturday September 27th 2003

• I have to re-phrase my comment on Lynne Dawson in Norrington's German requiem. Daniel and I have been listening further into the discography of Brahm's requiem and I would say that, although Dawson's voice is nothing to die for, she really does what she has to do (and that is already something to be proud of in that difficult solo). Anyway, Abbado's recording offers the best of all worlds - it is moving, beautifully conducted, the orchestra is marvellous, the choir is miraculous, Cheryl Studer is impressive and Andreas Schmidt is in very good voice - far better than for Giulini. Daniel has also succeeded into converting me into a fan of Emil Gilels - we listened to Beethoven's 4th concerto conducted by Georg Szell and all I can say it is that I have seen the alpha and the omega of pianism. Another endearing piece of listening was César Franck's violin sonata (which has a special place in my heart since it was the "soundtrack" for our staging of Strindberg's Miss Julie") with Itzhak Perlman and Martha Argerich recorded live from the heart to the heart - a fabulous performance in which the sparkle of life is shining bright (I am in cheap poetic mood today...). We have also listened to some Lieder. First of all, Thomas Quasthoff's Schumann disc, where the heroic and noble aspects are inspiredly seen to, but not the sensuous atmosphere of Dein Bildnis wunderselig (from Liederkeis op.39). On the other hand, Gérard Souzay provides wide tonal range and verbal sensitivity in his performance of this Lied, but also responds in the grand manner to the impressive Die beide Grenadiere (a song new to me - I have always been a Schubertian - and Schumann is still westmoreland for me). More Lieder - now Brahms - a charming performance of Von ewiger Liebe with Anne Sofie von Otter, but a lifetime with Jessye Norman's superpowerful performance of this song may be an obstacle. Jessye Norman was also mentioned (but not listened to, since I had forgotten her CDs at home) when we listened to F-D's Erlkönig - an old EMI performance which ruined by complete lack of spontaneity and a later DG performance which is quite nice. Anyway, I still have a preference for Jessye Norman's "fright story told by one's nurse"-like performance, but nothing compares to Sarah Walker's, where Graham Johnson does some AMAZING piano playing.

Thursday, September 25th 2003

• Just to tell that I have updated the review of Kuijken's Così Fan Tutte on the Mozart page. Also, I have listened to Norrington's deutches Requiem and I have to confess that my memory played a trick on me. It is a BEAUTIFUL recording, certainly the most expressive among the period performance ones, the choir is wonderful, Olaf Bär is in great shape, the orchestra is excellent - only Lynne Dawson is disappointing.
Yesterday, I took the opportunity to another visit to the movie festival in order too see Godard's Le Mepris. I have never liked Godard, but a friend of mine said this was one of his favourite movies. It certainly is the best I've seen from him. It is a rather unsettling movie, which correlates tragedy and cinema, since tragedy has to do with human attempt of defying the circumstances, while cinema is the attempt to make things exactly as one wishes them to be. It is a nice idea, Brigitte Bardot spends is almost always naked, Fritz Lang plays himself, the opening credits are replaced by a narrator saying who does what, there are wonderful images of Capri, but coherence and balance are sorely lacking. It could be an infinitely better movie, given the forces involved. As it is, it is only interesting.

Sunday, September 21st 2003

• Today under the invitation of my friend Daniel, I had the opportunity of browse through some recordings of Brahms' German Requiem. Our starting point was Klemperer's EMI recording which is very forceful, but neither Elisabeth Schwarzkopf nor Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau were in their best shape. Moreover, the recorded sound leaves something to be desired. Rudolf Kempe - also on EMI - has better recorded sound and a wonderful choir. His performance is thoroughly phrased, with imaginative use of dynamics - and F-D is in better voice. Elisabeth Grümmer is certainly stylish and creamy-toned, but the flutter in her vocal production can be disturbing. Karajan deserves a whole chapter. His recording with Gundula Janowitz and Eberhard Wächter for DG should be avoided. It is unclear, unorganic and both soloists are below their reputations. On the other hand, his mono recording with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Hans Hotter finds both soloists in good voice and has a choir that has great conviction even if it is decidedly below standard. Recorded live at the Felsenreitschule, the performance with Lisa della Casa and Fischer-Dieskau has great spiritual concentration, what makes one oversee the many tiny imperfections. There is also the video from Vienna, which is beautiful but not really dramatic. Kathleen Battle and José Van Dam are soloists with exquisite voices and entirely aware of the atmosphere of the work. More recent recordings have a poor entry with Sinopoli's shabby performance with poor recorded sound. Although she was not pure-voiced as before, Lucia Popp still finds the right tone and accent for her solo. Giulini's Vienna recording, on the other hand, is thoroughly and exquisitely played and has a perfect vocalist in Barbara Bonney, but the overall effect is a bit cold. The same cannot DEFINITELY be said of Maazel's recording, which is a choral and orchestral tour de force with the highly expressive soloists Ileana Cotrubas and Hermann Prey. The "period performances" are both beautiful sounding. Gardiner has the great Monteverdi Choir and Charlotte Margiono is in heavenly voice, but they could be singing Rossini and nobody would notice the difference. Herreweghe, despite the lightness of ambience, is more concerned and Gerald Finley is a reference in the baritone solo. I still have to look for my Norrington recording and see what I think about it now. I didn't use to be enthusiastic. Anyway, I'm sure there are many other interesting recordings, but those were the ones we could listen tonight. I'm open to suggestions.

Wednesday, September 17th 2003

• It is very difficult to resist a movie festival and I was no exception to the rule, especially because the FIC (Brasilia's international festival) is particularly well organised: the choice of movies is varied, interesting and they have enough reprises so that you can see everything you want without wenting nuts. Yesterday I could see two nice and contrasted films. The first one is Barmak's Oussama, an Afghan film, the first made after the fall (?) of the Talibans. It has a very colourful and unsettling beginning but then develops into more conventional story-telling. The plot has something of a cruel fairy-tale and the comparison is not at random - the main character's grandmother tells that somehow. Some reviewers accused the film of being cold because it is too didactic. I agree that it is somehow uninvolving - at least emotionally - maybe because you already know - through newspaper-reading - what is going to be the end of it. There is no redemption in the story, nothing to show that the story of that particular girl has something else. She is only a victim like the others and the exceptional event she happened to take part in (the fact that she was dressed as a boy because there was no man in the family and they needed someone to work, since women are not allowed to go out alone) had no effect whatsoever among those people. Maybe that was the intentional point - that those people are not ready to see things with other eyes under any circumstance.

The other movie is James Ivory's Le Divorce, a feast for the eyes with a wonderful cast and a charming story of culture clash around the divorce of a Franco-American couple with no sides being taken. I haven't read any review but I imagine that some reviewers will consider that it is superficial in its étude des moeurs - but I think that this genre is supposed to make you laugh - not ponder - while social conventions are being scrutinised in the story. And that is exactly what happens here - all characters are deliciously ambiguous and the script expertly takes profit of each event to make a point out of their reactions and attitudes.

Saturday, September 13th 2003

• More Strauss. I've finally could check a bit more of Der Rosenkavalier in Mike Richter's CD-Rom (from now on, the CD-Rom): a complete recording with Carlos Kleiber, in great shape, from 1984. The Marschallin (Judith Beckmann) has good intentions, but the voice is impossible for the role, Fassbaender was in good voice, but - recorded with no sonic make-up - Barbara Bonney lacks tone for Sophie. Only her pianissimi are magnificent. Also, Hans Sotin is in beautiful voice and has some sense of humour as Ochs, but he does not have the low register. Today I've listened to Ariadne's Prologue from 199-something conducted with animation by Horst Stein. Nobody was in great voice - Ann Murray too vibrant as the Komponist, Christine Schäfer a bit nervous with Zerbinetta, Hermann Prey a bit off-focus as the Musikmeister...

Yesterday I saw a weird film on TV - "Household saints" with Tracey Ullman and Vincent d'Onofrio. It starts as the usual comedy with Italian-American people with some touch of magic alrealism and - in the second half of the film - it becomes a story about religious obsession or a story about a contemporary saint. I don't know - it is so poorly developed and, as you have been watching a comedy so far, you expect the next laugh. I was not going to mention I've seen it, but I found it so ludicrous that I thought I should say something about it.

Finally I've just arrived from the theatre: two coreographies with the Grupo Corpo, probably Brazil's best contemporary dance company. Their work generally is highly intelligent, deeply moving and utterly perfect. I've greatly enjoyed the first one, Benguelê, but the second one left me a bit cold, maybe because the whole idea was based on irreverence and lacked the 100% aesthetic experience of the previous work.

Friday, September 12th 2003

 

• It has been great now that I am able to listen to Mike Richter's Strauss CD-Rom (my old computer had troubles with "modern" stuff like that...). Since yesterday I have been listening to the Rosenkavalier performances available in the disc. I've started with Kleiber's 1973 performance, but I have to confess that the 1978 available on LD (with Gwyneth Jones as the Marschallin) is really better. Although Kleiber's view is quite similar to what we hear in the official recordings, the ensemble is less perfect than otherwise. Lucia Popp is in great shape as Sophie and this is the best performance I have heard from Fassbaender as Octavian (still a role not entirely fit to her voice). The remaining soloists are below standard. Karl Ridderbusch's temperament is not the right one for Ochs, he sounds unnatural and, on trying to make his voice less noble, he ends on sounding off-focus. Furthermore, the role is too low for him. However, Claire Watson is the chief offender. Not only is this the worst performance I have heard from her, but probably also the most misguided impersonation of the Marschallin ever produced by a major (in the sense of "singing in the world's most important opera houses") singer. She sings her part in a twittery voice with very little legato, poor intonation (probably for "expressive" reasons) and is unbearably artifficial. You could say Schwarzkopf is fussy, but she doesn't sound like a dumb-blond soubrette as Watson does. I can't understand how Carlos Kleiber could allow someone to disfigure such a beautiful character as she did in that performance.

Jiri Kout's performance seems to be a more interesting performance. He conducts it in a passionate manner and draws amazing sounds from the Bavarian Opera Orchestra. It is a pity that he fell in the trap of sentimentalising the big emotional moments. If my memory does not fail me, the broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera some 14 years later showed him in better control of this score. His cast is far from lovely - Jungwirth, Fassbaender and Donath too old for their roles and not in their best voices. The redeeming piece of casting is Lucia Popp's Marschallin. Although it seems that she would still mature her ideas on the role, it was already an admirable performance - vocally perfect, her voice still pure enough but already rich enough for this woman still young but already mature; her subtle characterisation made entirely into musical terms with no charicature involved; her Lieder singer verbal accuity and the sense of theatre of someone who had been an actress. It is a pity that the trio is ruined by Kout's poor control on her soloists and some nervousness in the orchestra. It is a tricky passage and it only works if the conductor makes clear who is taking the leading line in every moment, since the main "melody" is continuously shifting from one singer to the other and it might be confusing if the three of them are left unaware of that.

Monday, September 8th 2003

• With the October issue of Gramophone magazine, the sample CD comes featuring a performance from Latvian soprano Inessa Galante of Verdi's Otello Ave Maria, which is the finest I have ever heard since Régine Crespin's and her final floated pianissimo alone is capable of awakening deep emotion. On his review, Alan Blythe expresses his puzzlement with the fact that Galante is seldom heard with the best orchestras and conductors, while almost no-one else sounds so right in the Italian lyric spinto repertoire. I can certainly agree that, with her warm flexible creamy voice, she is far more impressive a Verdian than Barbara Frittoli and Cristina Gallardo-Domas - not to mention Renée Fleming and Angela Gheorghiu (but that is no hard accomplishment). More than that - she sounds as a singer whose technique is entirely at the service of her aims, a voice completely mastered by its owner. Out of curiosity, I've checked at the internet some excerpts. A beautiful Sempre Libera and a stylish Casta Diva were predictable, but I would not dream of finding Tornami a vagheggiar or Olympia's Les oiseaux dans la charmille, both sung with fluent technique if not entirely idiomatically. My intuition is: she should have chosen another artistic name. If I had to guess the job of someone named like that, I'd say "drag queen" :-)

I've also taken profit of the week-end to further exploration of Mike Richter's Richard Strauss CD-ROM. I've just listened to Stein's Capriccio with Lucia Popp. As with the recording published by Orfeo (same cast, but Tomowa-Sintow taking the leading role), it is a fluent incandescent performance. Although it is supposed that Countess Madeleine never chooses for either music or poetry, I think R. Strauss failed that idea. Although Capriccio has a charming text and some interesting parts for singers, the real juice of this score is in the ORCHESTRA. Give me any time a Capriccio with an orchestra recorded with pride of place, such as this one. Although it is a pleasure to listen to Lucia Popp's 100% musical and varied Countess (even if the final scene is a bit heavy for her), the kaleidoscope of orchestral sound will always be the raison d'être of this work, and those who claim that this is a boring opera certainly are not conscious of that.

Sunday, September 7th 2003

• This week cable TV proved it worths every striven for penny I pay for it. I've seen three really interesting films I had never heard about before. The first of them is Bernard Rapp's A Matter of Taste, a curious story with Bernard Gireaudeau - a kind of psychologic fairy tale involving psychologic thriller (more psychologic than thrilling) and food (it is a French film after all). Although there is something predictable about the whole thing, beautiful images, a nice cast and some imaginative situations really bring it to life. The second film is an endearing/narcisistic documentary called "Stanley and Us", about a group of Italian guys who were supposed to make a documentary on Kubrick (in a very wild hit-or-miss manner) but cannot resist Italian no. 1 sport - speaking about themselves. It is most enlightening and the fact that they could interview not only the élite of movie making, but members of the technical crew is really educational. The third of them is Arnaud Desplechin's Esther Kahn - a fascinating film about a Jewish girl of poor background that decides to become an actress and ends on one of the first performances of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler in England. The film is a passionate portrait of the development of the soul of an artist, from spiritual hunger to spiritual generosity. I strongly recommend it, despite a not entirely charismatic leading actress (if you have seen Sophie Marceau in Marquise you'll know what I mean).

Speaking of spiritual generosity, I have some words (again!) about Lucia Popp, this most inspiring of sopranos. I was browsing through Mike Richter's "The Operas of Richard Strauss" and checked on the Arabella from Munich. It is simply a fabulous performance: Sawallisch offers heavenly and transparent orchestral playing, Peter Seiffert and Julie Kaufmann are impressive Matteo and Zdenka - and there is this 100% music and 100% emotion performance of the title role. Popp's unique warm and bright round tone that shifts with no effort at all to floating soaring sounds, plus her mastery of tone colouring and sheer sense of theatre - all that makes for a memorable Straussian experience. I urge the Bayerische Staatsoper to be generous enough in order to publish this wonderful night at the opera which is an evidence of why the beautiful theatre in Munich is certainly one of the most important of the world.

Friday, September 5th 2003

 

• This has definitely been a week-end of surprises. First of all, because of Johnny Depp there I was surrounded by teenagers for Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean. It is amazing what a good cast and complete shamelessness can do - I found it delicious :-) I had been in doubt whether I should attend the production of La Bohème in the Teatro Nacional, but then I decided it was my duty as a new inhabitant of Brasília to take part in its musical life. I have to say I had some fun. The atmosphere at the Teatro Nacional is unlike any opera house I have ever been. It is completely artless. Although it is a big modern architecture building, it still has an off-off Broadway thing about it which is quite disarming. The soloists were nothing to die for (one would rather live and wait for something better next time), but they were generally good actors, the production was simple but charming and efficient in its unpretentious way - but the main interest is the marvellous acoustics of the Sala Villa-Lobos, warm and immediate as few opera houses in the world. You really don't need a great orchestra (ok, you always need a great orchestra...) in a place where the instrumental timbres are so rich, woodwind are so prominent, strings sound do lush and the whole orchestral sound blends so naturally with singers' voices. Conductor Silvio Viegas is also reliable, offering a Straussian view of Puccini's work.

Monday, September 1st 2003

• Although Handel is one of my very favourite composers, I have to confess I have never been really fond of the Messiah. My first recording was on tape and had two great female soloists, Felicity Palmer singing the soprano solos, and Helen Watts singing the ones for alto. But I found nonetheless the music too pompous and ultimately uninteresting. Then I have developed the idea that I needed an iconoclastic recording, especially with non-British or American forces. So I bought Harnoncourt's with an Austrian orchestra, a Swedish choir and international soloists. I remember I had some fun with it, but the tenor and the bass were awful, the soprano nothing exceptional - only Marjana Lipovsek stood out as a great alto soloist. Also, Harnoncourt lacked some aesthetic sense. Here we come to Minkowski. I have spent the week listening to his Handel recordings and thought his Messiah could be something interesting. Then I read some furious reviews hating each recorded bit of music in that recording - in other words, the recording seemed to be irresistible! My intuition was right - for the first time, I find Messiah vintage Handel. The above-mentioned furious reviewers consider the whole thing unpolished and unreasonably fast. I think that Minkowski found the tempi that make this music make sense. Sometimes, the texture of Messiah is not particularly rich - and a faster tempo does help to enhance it. In the accompanying booklet, Minkowski explains that this recording is a soundtrack for a film and the fact that they had to record it under the cinematographic demands made it different. Many detractors of this recording says that the conductor is actually acknowledging for the "lack of perfection" of the recording. I understood it under a completely different light: the rhythm of movie-making brought an idea of excitement to the music-makers and that would not be achieved in conventional "recording studio" atmosphere. This recording sure has some raw energy - and that is the great thing of it. I have never warmed to recordings of sacred music with a reverent impersonal note. This one is full of life and that is my idea of religion should be about - about life, joy and well-being. I find the team of soloists very pleasant too. The ill-humoured reviewers complained about Lynne Dawson, but she seems the same here: not really rich of voice, but utterly stylish. Nicole Heaston is wonderfully creamy and pure toned but sensuous enough, as many American sopranos are. Magdalena Kozena sings beautifully her two solos, and Charlotte Hellekant brings a controversial note on her slooooow and inteeeeense He was despised. John Mark Ainsley is a fabulous tenor soloist and, although none of the basses are exceptional vocalists, they are pleasant enough. The absence of two numbers and some minor imperfections are of small consequence in a recording who brings the sparkle of life back to an oratorion often made to sound routine.

Sunday, August 31st 2003

• Those have been busy days and there is not much to tell here. The favourite item on my CD-player has been Graun's Cesare e Cleopatra - I cannot help marvelling at the nobility and theatricality of Graun's invention. And René Jacobs has a wonderful team: Janet Williams' silvery and sexy soprano, the panache of Iris Vermillion's Cesare, a Lynne Dawson fully connected and the richness of tone and stylishness of Robert Gambill.

I am a great admirer of Oscar Wilde's plays, although I recognise that it is really difficult to find the right atmosphere for some of them which have a more serious note (such as A Woman of no Importance). That is not the case of the Importance of Being Earnest, where timing is everything. The staging by the Grupo Tapa has certainly seen to this aspect and the uneven cast responds in a satisfying manner throughout. I had read bad reviews, especially because of some actors with less glamourous background (this includes participation in reality shows), but they have not in any sense spoilt the fun - Barbara Paz, in the role of Cecily, indeed has a healthier voice than many soi-disant "theatre actresses". My only concern is - why the sceneries have to be so ugly (as they have been in their staging of Shaw's Major Barbara)? Those frumpy tissues and carpets hanging all over the place have nothing British or elegant about them. Their withdrawal would be most welcome.

Two films and some metalanguage this week-end. The first of them was Truffaut's "La Nuit Américaine", which I had not previously seen. It certainly is not my favourite film by Truffaut - it is some how too "cute". Maybe it has become too 70's for this century, but, charming as it can be, I somehow found it too shallow for the director of "Deux anglaises et le continent". Anyway, it is certainly endearing to find Nathalie Baye (and to discover that age had a wonderful effect on her!) as the assistant director.

The other film is Guel Arraes "Lisbela e o Prisioneiro" (I don't know if it has been released outside Brazil). I have seen the stage production by the same director in Rio twice. In order to make the whole thing more marketable, some famous actors were invited to take the leading roles, while the leading actors at the theatres were shifted to secondary roles. The play itself is about cinema and its "half-bred" quality is the most interesting aspect of it. Translated to a film, the theatricality still remains in the style of acting chosen by the director, but the relation to theatre is lost and has been replaced by a metalinguistic approach where the "film-inside-the-film" and the self-reference as being a film itself is much explored. All that is cleverly done, but an insistence on easy humour is overdone, what makes the play less obvious than the film. Anyway - it is a beautiful production, thoroughly taken care of. I must mention that Virginia Cavendish, who used to take the leading role in the play, has certainly convinced me of her talents, stealing the show in the second female part (and she was also really more interesting as Lisbela both times I saw her on stage).

Last thing: I had mentioned in a previous post that Julianne Moore's costumes made her look fat in Far from Heaven. Well, I have to apologise to the costume stylist - it seems that Moore was actually pregnant during the shooting of the film.

Sunday, August 24th 2003

• First of all, the review of MacKerras' Idomeneo has been published in the Mozart page. Yesterday I visited a wonderful art exhibition. Those of you who are not Brazilian probably don't know Maurício de Souza, the creactor of Mônica and her friends, probably the most popular national cartoon characters. For this exhibition, Souza has re-painted the most famous pictures in History of Art with his own characters adapting his style (and using sophisticated humour) to the style of every painter. The Monet and the Van Gogh parodies were great, but Boticelli's Birth of Venus is probably my favourite. It is a pity that they did not sell large posters - I would have bought one!
Also, later at night, on TV I saw a documentary about the aborted production of Terry Gilliam's film on Don Quixote. It is a pity that the film had to be abandoned - because it would be really interesting. I could also sympathise with the assistant director, because I had "performed" this very part in a production which went apart such as that one. However, we could make compromises (my golden rule is - always have plan B for everything) and the play did reach the stages.

Sunday, August 19th 2003

• I owe you apologies - I'm settling down in my new home and has neglected a bit my homepage. I'm about to write a review on MacKerras' recording of Mozart's Idomeneo. Yesterday I saw Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending. It's definitely below Allen's standard, but Téa Leoni was really nice and the ending is worth the whole film :-)

Saturday, August 9th 2003

• Olivier's review of Kubelik's studio recording of Parsifal has been added to the Wagner discography.

Monday, July 28th 2003

• Just to tell that the review of René Jacobs' recording of Rinaldo has been rewritten.

Friday, July 25th 2003

• A review of Fabio Biondi's Norma has been added to the Bel Canto page.

Wednesday, July 23th 2003

• Two films this week-end. First, Eric Rohmer's L'Anglaise et le Duc. Although I was sure I had enjoyed it, I couldn't make my mind about what I think of it. To start with, I don't know if the idea of using a digital technique to insert actors into paintings was after all more pleasing and convincing than the usual "historical" settings, something that the French have always excelled in. As it is, it looks as if someone has filmed a play on VHS. As for the story, I've certainly enjoyed to witness the French Revolution through the eyes of a well-intentioned monarchist. My friend Maria Rosa thought that the film was a bit cold - I would agree with her if it was not for the fact that Rohmer has succeeded in keeping an atmosphere of suspense during the whole film. I've enjoyed Lucy Russel's acting immensely. If I were going to be picky, I would say that her acting is too French for a British character, even one who had adopted French as homeland. But she excelled in a difficult role and dealt with her really talkative role with a jeweller's skill. On the other hand, I found Jean-Claude Dreyfus unsufferably affected. His acting looked really overtheatrical to my eyes and sometimes it could be described as "comic".

The other film was Todd Haynes' Far from Heaven. My previous experience with this director was Poison, a film of which my stomach still has strong memories :-) Everybody had told me that the re-creation of the atmosphere of the 50's is perfect. But Lia really caught the special feature of the film - that it actually does not try to show the 50's under a new light or approach, but it IS a film of the 50's, something very close from what Mark Robson's Peyton Place could have been if the audiences were less conservative back in 1957. I only wonder why the costume designer wanted to make Julianne Moore to look as if she were fat...

Tuesday, July 22nd 2003

• I've been away again during the week and was unable to post here. Nothing particularly interesting to tell, beside some movies. First of all, two animation movies - Pixar's Finding Nemo and the Japanese film Spirited Away. I am inclined to believe that one is expected to prefer the latter instead of the former, but that was not my case. I have no experience with Japanese animation films and felt completely foreign and ultimately indifferent to what was going on the screen - especially because the design applied to the characters seemed entirely inexpressive to my eyes. On the other hand, I found Nemo endearing from the start. Sure it is a bit sentimental, but the readily communicative characters, the impressive computer animation and the chaming dialogues (I had so fun in the scene where the two fishes are trying to speak to the whale - all the children in the theatre felt inspired to do some whale talk too - it was really cute...). The other film was Spike Lee's The 25th Hour. Although all those references to Sep. 11th seemed irrelevant to the plot, the film (which has a great cast, headed by the fabulous Edward Norton) nicely builds up emotional tension until a great confrontation scene and a final "mad scene" (as in a Donizetti opera). Finally, I could see on TV Fred Schepisi's Six Degree of Separation, which has a fascinating plot and beautiful performances from Donald Sutherland, Will Smith and, above all, Stockard Channing.

I was just talking with Lia about a Chekhov short-story which is a favourite of mine. I had read it ages ago and could never find it again. Today I had the brilliant obvious idea of searching it on google. Do take a look on it.

Saturday, July 19th 2003

• This has been a theatrical week-end. Yesterday I saw the new play by Domingos Oliveira, who could be called Rio's Woody Allen. The new play, Complicações, is very funny and I had a great time. Today I saw Edward Albee's "The Play about the Baby". I have the impression that, for the Brazilian audience, the play could seem just another American work about rites of passage, but the form impressed me more than the content. Although I could find interest in the rather Hofmannsthal-ian idea that you have to pay the price of innocence to become a parent (i.e., an adult), the structure of the play is so interesting, some scenes are presented in this difficult locus where innovation and communication join - I found it altogether irresistible, despite a somewhat disappointing final half hour. Great part of my satisfaction has to do with Ewerton de Castro's superlative acting as the Man, and Marilia Gabriela is also really nice as the Woman. The remaining actors are not up to their roles, but - in a good-mood-day perspective - that could be taken as a dramatic point. Anyway, more theatre tomorrow: a new staging of Euripedes' Medea.

Reviews of Hogwood's and Christie's Orlando have been added to the Handel page. Also, today I've been listening to a disc of Handel cantatas and duets with Emma Kirkby and Judith Nelson. I have to confess I found the recordings of these duets have more light and grace than the correspondent ones in Emmanuelle Haim's new disc.

Saturday, July 13th 2002

• These days I could check a bit more of Eric Rohmer's Contes des Quatres Saisons. Yesterday I saw the Winter tale and, today, I saw the Summer tale. I have to confess that I had the impression that the first hour of the Winter film could have been half an hour shorter, but, anyway, the characters are so endearing, the dialogues so intelligent (even in a story which could be described as sentimental) and the actors so good that I found it really pleasing. If the idea was to tell a story with plenty of emotional warmth for the winter film, Rohmer did succeed in doing that. On the other hand, the Summer film is entirely light-hearted, with seductive images of Bretagne, witty dialogues, an interesting plot and a charming cast, especially Amanda Langlet in the role of Margot, the kind of girl anyone would like to date.

Handel's Orlando has been an obsession these days too. I am delighted with William Christie's recording. Because of it, I couldn't resist buying Emanuelle Haim's recording of the Arcadian Duets. I have to confess I am a bit disappointed. When you have in mind the trio for two sopranos and alto from Orlando, some of these duos sound a bit cold. Also, the reviewer from Gramophone had pointed out the duet with Véronique Gens and Natalie Dessay. As much as I liked them, Patricia Petibon and Marjana Mijanovic are simply unforgettable. Brian Azawa sings bautifully too in the duet with Juanita Lascarro (who is better here than in Christie's Alcina), but I would have preferred Petibon and Mijanovic in all the duets where soprano and alto are involved.
Finally, a review of Minkowski's Entführung aus dem Serail DVD has been added to the Mozart page.

Wednesday, July 9th 2003

• Those have been busy days. William Christie's recording of Orlando is on my CD-player all the time. A review will follow, but I still have to listen again to the Hogwood recording before I write anything. Meanwhile, reviews of the Karajan and the Suitner recordings of Hänsel und Gretel have been added to the discography.

Today I've been to the theatre: a new production of Chekov's Uncle Vanya, a favourite of mine. The staging has been set in the manor which belonged to the Italian mezzo soprano Gabriela Besanzoni here in Rio. This is the first big mistake. The place is huge and the actors had to shout their texts. The second big mistake is a completely misguided direction and the third big mistake is a cast completely unaware of what is going on, with the exception of the veteran actors and the actress who plays the role of Sonia. Maybe last year (or was it this year?) I saw a far less glamourous production of a group from São Paulo called Ágora, which now seems to me a theatrical paradise in comparison. In their modest staging with non-famous actors, they were able to find the right atmosphere and the cast was not only in the right stylistic universe but also far closer to the truth in those characters, especially the beautiful actress playing the role of Elena, whose name I cannot remember.

Sunday, July 6th 2003

• The discography of Hänsel und Gretel has been updated, since a review of Runnicles' recording has been added.

Thursday, July 3rd 2003

• First of all, I must apologise for the long absence. As a matter of fact, I've been away the whole month. It seems my new job will mean that I have to move from Rio to Brasilia, where I was until now. Although I had no CD-player there, I could actually go to the opera. It was Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. The conductor was Silvio Barbato, who is the main conductor here in Rio. He did offer a decent piece of work and the orchestra's shortcomings were made less disturbing because of the musicians' obvious commitment. He also had a good cast. Orfeo and Amor were sung by artists from Brasilia. The mezzo Luiza Francesconi was particularly delightful, offering a rich dark and flexible voice and soprano Lys Nardoto has a bright naturally incisive tone coupled with a charming low register and a Kathleen Battle-like sexiness. As Euridice, the Japanese soprano Eiko Senda was a bit miscast, because she seemed to be trying to behave in a style not entirely familiar to her.

I also took my time in Brasilia to see some movies. The worst of all was Ang Lee's Hulk. This is going to be forever a bad spot in someone's career, even for someone like Ang Lee. Anyway, the best of all was Alexander Sokurow's Russian Arc. Of course, as much as those hibrids such as an answe- machine/alarm clock/radio never work entirely well, the film is too ambitious to be either entirely entertaining or educational, but, frankly, who cares? It is simply feast for the eyes. The very complexity involved in having tons of actors, a two-hour camera take and richest costumes and the heavenly halls of the palace of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg (not to mention a more than special appearence of Maestro Gergiev and his Mariinsky orchestra) - all that makes for a must see. It is a kind of aesthetic duty!

Tuesday, July 1st 2003

 

 

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