Monthly culture: November 2019
Monday, December 9th, 2019 07:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth13NOV19: Dream of Gerontius (Elgar), Westminster Cathedral
Featuring the Parliamentary Choir, of which my friend M is a member. The Dream of Gerontius had its first performance in Westminster Cathedral in 1903, conducted by the composer. I found the ambience -- lots of gilding and mosaics on the walls, black voids in the roof where the money ran out before the gilding was complete -- especially apt for this meditation on approaching death, souls torn from their cases, et cetera. Beautiful complex music (Elgar avoided the obvious and the simple) but not exactly cheering. "How I hope none of this is true," I wrote.
15NOV19: The Aeronauts, Greenwich PictureHouse
Greenwich! Science! A female lead (Felicity Jones, very good), Eddie Redmayne not too annoying as scientist James Glaisher, and a POC secondary character (Himesh Patel as Glaisher's friend John Trim, who is treated as just another middle-class science bloke). The film is about a record-breaking balloon ascent in 1862: it's based on fact, but the balloon goes up from London rather than Wolverhampton, and Glaisher's male companion is replaced by Jones' Amelia Wren, also based on a real aeronaut and with a very interesting backstory.
I enjoyed this film immensely: it was beautifully shot -- especially the scene of the balloon rising slowly against a backdrop of clouds, with a graph showing its altitude; and of course the stars in the dark daytime sky -- and very well paced. Not recommended for those who suffer from vertigo (I don't, and still had to look away from a couple of scenes). A good depiction of the joy of science, and of the perils of early meteorology.
19NOV19: Excavating Roman Voices, Mithraeum
An evening of poetry by Dr Josephine Balmer, with performances by students from the University of Notre Dame. The poems take their inspiration from Roman writing tablets found on the Bloomberg site -- some of which were on display. Before the event we went down into the basement, into the past, and experienced an audio-visual display of the Temple of Mithras -- complete with Latin chanting -- that was really quite engaging. A thought-provoking, intriguing and educational evening.
21NOV19: Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach), English National Opera
French operetta deserves to be staged playfully, and the ENO exceeded expectations here. I spent quite a lot of the performance laughing helplessly ("Lord Jupiter, you're stupider / than a pot of pickled ham": the ghosts of bees: clouds that are also sheep or maybe the other way around, and the line 'when we're asleep / all covered in sheep' which I do not recall from the original but which should certainly have been there). Some excellent performances from Ed Lyon and Mary Bevan as Orpheus (a twit) and Eurydice (a victim); I was also very impressed by Idunnu Münch as Diana. The crowd-pleaser, though, was Alex Otterburn's Pluto, oddly reminiscent of either that bloke out of The Darkness or Dr. S. Trafford of this parish. He was gleefully sleazy -- this was definitely a production for the #MeToo era, and the Underworld in particular is a grubby, gloomy realm of tawdry neon-lit strip clubs and pervy-looking chaps in raincoats.
It's not an especially nice story, when it comes down to it: and there were a couple of scenes where I felt the unpleasantness had been pushed too far (the funeral of Eurydice's baby, for instance). Still, overall, fun and glam and full of great tunes.
The Guardian review is not positive, but does have a picture of Pluto ...
23NOV19: Blackheath Goes Gospel, Blackheath Halls
Not my typical fare, but was there in support of S who was in the choir. While neither the music or the religious aspects are my bag, I was moved by the joy, exuberance and energy of the performers.
29NOV19: Knives Out, Greenwich PictureHouse
Excellent soundtrack, stellar cast and twisty plot. I liked this because it wasn't at all what I had expected from the trailer. Lots of excellent performances, especially by Chris Evans' sweater and Daniel Craig's accent. Immense fun, though I should probably watch it when sober to confirm this.
Guardian review: they liked it
Featuring the Parliamentary Choir, of which my friend M is a member. The Dream of Gerontius had its first performance in Westminster Cathedral in 1903, conducted by the composer. I found the ambience -- lots of gilding and mosaics on the walls, black voids in the roof where the money ran out before the gilding was complete -- especially apt for this meditation on approaching death, souls torn from their cases, et cetera. Beautiful complex music (Elgar avoided the obvious and the simple) but not exactly cheering. "How I hope none of this is true," I wrote.
15NOV19: The Aeronauts, Greenwich PictureHouse
Greenwich! Science! A female lead (Felicity Jones, very good), Eddie Redmayne not too annoying as scientist James Glaisher, and a POC secondary character (Himesh Patel as Glaisher's friend John Trim, who is treated as just another middle-class science bloke). The film is about a record-breaking balloon ascent in 1862: it's based on fact, but the balloon goes up from London rather than Wolverhampton, and Glaisher's male companion is replaced by Jones' Amelia Wren, also based on a real aeronaut and with a very interesting backstory.
I enjoyed this film immensely: it was beautifully shot -- especially the scene of the balloon rising slowly against a backdrop of clouds, with a graph showing its altitude; and of course the stars in the dark daytime sky -- and very well paced. Not recommended for those who suffer from vertigo (I don't, and still had to look away from a couple of scenes). A good depiction of the joy of science, and of the perils of early meteorology.
19NOV19: Excavating Roman Voices, Mithraeum
An evening of poetry by Dr Josephine Balmer, with performances by students from the University of Notre Dame. The poems take their inspiration from Roman writing tablets found on the Bloomberg site -- some of which were on display. Before the event we went down into the basement, into the past, and experienced an audio-visual display of the Temple of Mithras -- complete with Latin chanting -- that was really quite engaging. A thought-provoking, intriguing and educational evening.
21NOV19: Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach), English National Opera
French operetta deserves to be staged playfully, and the ENO exceeded expectations here. I spent quite a lot of the performance laughing helplessly ("Lord Jupiter, you're stupider / than a pot of pickled ham": the ghosts of bees: clouds that are also sheep or maybe the other way around, and the line 'when we're asleep / all covered in sheep' which I do not recall from the original but which should certainly have been there). Some excellent performances from Ed Lyon and Mary Bevan as Orpheus (a twit) and Eurydice (a victim); I was also very impressed by Idunnu Münch as Diana. The crowd-pleaser, though, was Alex Otterburn's Pluto, oddly reminiscent of either that bloke out of The Darkness or Dr. S. Trafford of this parish. He was gleefully sleazy -- this was definitely a production for the #MeToo era, and the Underworld in particular is a grubby, gloomy realm of tawdry neon-lit strip clubs and pervy-looking chaps in raincoats.
It's not an especially nice story, when it comes down to it: and there were a couple of scenes where I felt the unpleasantness had been pushed too far (the funeral of Eurydice's baby, for instance). Still, overall, fun and glam and full of great tunes.
The Guardian review is not positive, but does have a picture of Pluto ...
23NOV19: Blackheath Goes Gospel, Blackheath Halls
Not my typical fare, but was there in support of S who was in the choir. While neither the music or the religious aspects are my bag, I was moved by the joy, exuberance and energy of the performers.
29NOV19: Knives Out, Greenwich PictureHouse
Excellent soundtrack, stellar cast and twisty plot. I liked this because it wasn't at all what I had expected from the trailer. Lots of excellent performances, especially by Chris Evans' sweater and Daniel Craig's accent. Immense fun, though I should probably watch it when sober to confirm this.
Guardian review: they liked it
