Monthly culture: December 2019
Friday, January 3rd, 2020 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth06DEC19: Arcadi Volodos in recital, Barbican
I first heard Volodos at a Proms concert back in the 1990s, playing Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto no. 3. I was completely blown away. He's mellowed a bit with age, and the programme here -- all solo piano works -- was more sedate, but he still awes me with the range of sound, texture and contrast he can produce.
Five encores, though? Five?
07DEC19: Tutankhamun exhibition, Saatchi Gallery
I'm not great with crowds, and the first room of this nearly sent me back out again: but after that the clumps of people thinned out and I was able to look at everything. It's a well-lit exhibition, with enlarged projections of some fine detail, and (a major win) unobtrusive music. It's not too linear, either: no shuffling along in a queue to see each item. Plenty of seating, which was a relief.
instagram
Many of the artefacts haven't been outside Egypt before, and won't be again (with luck) as the new Grand Egyptian Museum is due to open soon. There were some marvellous objects here -- I was especially entranced by the backlit jewellery and some of the statuary. And plenty of human interest, including the water boy who helped discover the tomb and made a living for decades on the experience.
I would have liked slightly brighter lighting (especially as there were small hazardous children zooming around) and perhaps a little discussion of looting, colonialism etc. And at one point there were competing soundtracks: never good.
Also, no replica jewellery in the shop, which seemed shortsighted as I would certainly have gone for it.
12DEC19: Monteverdi 'Vespers' (Barts Choir, Trafalgar Baroque Ensemble), Cadogan Hall
Excellent use of the space, with soloists and small groups using the back of the gallery. For the first half we were off to one side of the auditorium, and the sound was a little muddy: better in the second half when we grabbed centre front-row seats (unaccountably vacant). I love the Vespers and this was an excellent and polished performance -- a great introduction for my companion, who was unfamiliar with the work.
15DEC19: Bill Bailey's Cutty Sark Spectacular, Cutty Sark
Bill Bailey told us he felt like the ghost of a walrus, which made me wonder about his geography because the Cutty Sark (under whose hull we were, indeed, 'trustingly' sitting) was a tea clipper and likely never saw a walrus.
instagram
The first half was musical: Fred Snow and his band (cabaret-style, familiar songs); the excellent Nina Harries (double bass and vocals), who has something of a Kate Bush vibe and introduced one song as 'written by my father for a band called Steeleye Span'; and Joe Wilkes, a chap with a guitar who played his own songs. Second half was Bill Bailey reflecting on the state of the world. I think it was Boris Johnson, our newly-reelected PM, who was described as 'this bizarre hybrid between Prince Joffrey and Shrek'; but this description might apply elsewhere too.
A pleasant evening and a splendid venue.
17DEC19: The Sixteen at Christmas, Cadogan Hall
The Sixteen's Christmas concert is becoming a bit of a tradition for me. This performance featured carols ancient and modern (my preference being for the former), with Britten's 'Ceremony of Carols' which I had not consciously listened to before this performance, and found that I liked very much. It echoes medieval styles but there are some very modern intervals in there. A particular high point was 'Balulalow'; 'Deo Gracias - Adam Lay y-bounden' had a very Orff feel.
20DEC19: The Rise of Skywalker, Odeon Luxe
I was not super-enthusiastic about this, and my expectations were met. It was an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours, but:
- too many abrupt reversals
- too many utterly stupid, or at least irrational, decisions by characters
- multiple occurrences of the explanation 'I just had a feeeeeeeeling'. No, you are supposed to have a plot.
- heavy-handed attempts to make characters more heterosexual
- truly nauseating ending
Good trailers though: Birds of Prey, Black Widow, No Time to Die and more.
26DEC19: Cats, Greenwich Picturehouse
Please note venue. This is a cinema which allows you to take in a bottle of wine. This really helped. Also I think we saw the version with the updated CGI.
Actually, not as bad as I'd expected. The cats are indeed alarming; the lead character has a single expression; the whole feline society feels like a cult with rites of passage; there is a lot of fat-shaming; there is not enough furniture-scratching; cats do not actually like milk that much ...
But the soundtrack is still good, and 'Memory' brought a tear to my eye (a lady in the next row was v distressed, too). And there was a very St Giles feel to the scenery: it felt like the fringes of Theatreland.
Me: 'this is like Catwoman's dream while concussed'
Companion: 'are all furry conventions like this?'
Best summary:
"In a dystopic alternate reality London, a self-appointed philosopher-queen (Judi Dench) pits a secret society of entertainers against itself to determine who alone is granted access to the radical life extension technology she controls by fiat"
30DEC19: The Moon, National Maritime Museum
Art, artefacts and ephemera. The initial display, with lunar calendars and models dating back millennia, could have been clearer, and this was also where the exhibition was most crowded and the lighting least good -- captioning hard to read unless you stood at the correct angle.
Later on it became less crowded and more interesting: artworks (some more relevant than others: just because a painting has the moon in it doesn't make it relevant) and early maps, daguerrotypes and magic-lantern slides.
I liked the photo from 'Journey of the Private Moon' (Leonid Tishkov) and 'Cadmium-Vermillion Eclipse' (El Anatsui) -- pictures via the link above -- as well as the images showing how one might see a rabbit, an old woman, a man etc in the Moon.
Highlights: a video of the moon's surface, light and dark in different phases, from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter; the fax machine (belonging to the Daily Express) which Jodrell Bank scientists used to decode signals from the Soviet probe Luna 9 in 1966; a video compilation of footage from the moon's surface. I also learnt about the Zambian space programme, 1964 (could have done with more than a photo and a caption here) and discovered that out of 270 'goodwill' gifts of moon rock from the Nixon administration to the nations of the world, 180 are now unaccounted for.
On music: the LRO video had a Debussy soundtrack ('Clair de Lune', of course) which was audible throughout the exhibition and occasionally overlaid other media.
31DEC19: The Ocean at the End of the Lane, National Theatre
Based on, but not slavishly faithful to, Neil Gaiman's novel of the same name. The major changes are that the nameless protagonist is 12, not 7; the protagonist's mother is not around; and there are no cats. I suspect these amendments made it easier to stage -- though this is an expansive, complex production with monsters, an ocean, puppets, and some nastily convincing doppelgangers.
instagram
It is a dark production, sometimes brutal and sometimes terrifying: the choreography is astonishing, bringing to life the hunger birds and the flea, and the euphoric ocean interlude. The Hempstockwoman women are superbly acted, especially Josie Walker as Old Mrs Hempstock; Jade Croot is an appealingly bratty younger sister. I didn't think the male roles (Samuel Blenkin as the boy, Justin Salinger as his dad) were quite as strong as the women.
Very highly recommended, and a great end to the year!
I first heard Volodos at a Proms concert back in the 1990s, playing Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto no. 3. I was completely blown away. He's mellowed a bit with age, and the programme here -- all solo piano works -- was more sedate, but he still awes me with the range of sound, texture and contrast he can produce.
Five encores, though? Five?
07DEC19: Tutankhamun exhibition, Saatchi Gallery
I'm not great with crowds, and the first room of this nearly sent me back out again: but after that the clumps of people thinned out and I was able to look at everything. It's a well-lit exhibition, with enlarged projections of some fine detail, and (a major win) unobtrusive music. It's not too linear, either: no shuffling along in a queue to see each item. Plenty of seating, which was a relief.
Many of the artefacts haven't been outside Egypt before, and won't be again (with luck) as the new Grand Egyptian Museum is due to open soon. There were some marvellous objects here -- I was especially entranced by the backlit jewellery and some of the statuary. And plenty of human interest, including the water boy who helped discover the tomb and made a living for decades on the experience.
I would have liked slightly brighter lighting (especially as there were small hazardous children zooming around) and perhaps a little discussion of looting, colonialism etc. And at one point there were competing soundtracks: never good.
Also, no replica jewellery in the shop, which seemed shortsighted as I would certainly have gone for it.
12DEC19: Monteverdi 'Vespers' (Barts Choir, Trafalgar Baroque Ensemble), Cadogan Hall
Excellent use of the space, with soloists and small groups using the back of the gallery. For the first half we were off to one side of the auditorium, and the sound was a little muddy: better in the second half when we grabbed centre front-row seats (unaccountably vacant). I love the Vespers and this was an excellent and polished performance -- a great introduction for my companion, who was unfamiliar with the work.
15DEC19: Bill Bailey's Cutty Sark Spectacular, Cutty Sark
Bill Bailey told us he felt like the ghost of a walrus, which made me wonder about his geography because the Cutty Sark (under whose hull we were, indeed, 'trustingly' sitting) was a tea clipper and likely never saw a walrus.
The first half was musical: Fred Snow and his band (cabaret-style, familiar songs); the excellent Nina Harries (double bass and vocals), who has something of a Kate Bush vibe and introduced one song as 'written by my father for a band called Steeleye Span'; and Joe Wilkes, a chap with a guitar who played his own songs. Second half was Bill Bailey reflecting on the state of the world. I think it was Boris Johnson, our newly-reelected PM, who was described as 'this bizarre hybrid between Prince Joffrey and Shrek'; but this description might apply elsewhere too.
A pleasant evening and a splendid venue.
17DEC19: The Sixteen at Christmas, Cadogan Hall
The Sixteen's Christmas concert is becoming a bit of a tradition for me. This performance featured carols ancient and modern (my preference being for the former), with Britten's 'Ceremony of Carols' which I had not consciously listened to before this performance, and found that I liked very much. It echoes medieval styles but there are some very modern intervals in there. A particular high point was 'Balulalow'; 'Deo Gracias - Adam Lay y-bounden' had a very Orff feel.
20DEC19: The Rise of Skywalker, Odeon Luxe
I was not super-enthusiastic about this, and my expectations were met. It was an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours, but:
- too many abrupt reversals
- too many utterly stupid, or at least irrational, decisions by characters
- multiple occurrences of the explanation 'I just had a feeeeeeeeling'. No, you are supposed to have a plot.
- heavy-handed attempts to make characters more heterosexual
- truly nauseating ending
Good trailers though: Birds of Prey, Black Widow, No Time to Die and more.
26DEC19: Cats, Greenwich Picturehouse
Please note venue. This is a cinema which allows you to take in a bottle of wine. This really helped. Also I think we saw the version with the updated CGI.
Actually, not as bad as I'd expected. The cats are indeed alarming; the lead character has a single expression; the whole feline society feels like a cult with rites of passage; there is a lot of fat-shaming; there is not enough furniture-scratching; cats do not actually like milk that much ...
But the soundtrack is still good, and 'Memory' brought a tear to my eye (a lady in the next row was v distressed, too). And there was a very St Giles feel to the scenery: it felt like the fringes of Theatreland.
Me: 'this is like Catwoman's dream while concussed'
Companion: 'are all furry conventions like this?'
Best summary:
"In a dystopic alternate reality London, a self-appointed philosopher-queen (Judi Dench) pits a secret society of entertainers against itself to determine who alone is granted access to the radical life extension technology she controls by fiat"
30DEC19: The Moon, National Maritime Museum
Art, artefacts and ephemera. The initial display, with lunar calendars and models dating back millennia, could have been clearer, and this was also where the exhibition was most crowded and the lighting least good -- captioning hard to read unless you stood at the correct angle.
Later on it became less crowded and more interesting: artworks (some more relevant than others: just because a painting has the moon in it doesn't make it relevant) and early maps, daguerrotypes and magic-lantern slides.
I liked the photo from 'Journey of the Private Moon' (Leonid Tishkov) and 'Cadmium-Vermillion Eclipse' (El Anatsui) -- pictures via the link above -- as well as the images showing how one might see a rabbit, an old woman, a man etc in the Moon.
Highlights: a video of the moon's surface, light and dark in different phases, from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter; the fax machine (belonging to the Daily Express) which Jodrell Bank scientists used to decode signals from the Soviet probe Luna 9 in 1966; a video compilation of footage from the moon's surface. I also learnt about the Zambian space programme, 1964 (could have done with more than a photo and a caption here) and discovered that out of 270 'goodwill' gifts of moon rock from the Nixon administration to the nations of the world, 180 are now unaccounted for.
On music: the LRO video had a Debussy soundtrack ('Clair de Lune', of course) which was audible throughout the exhibition and occasionally overlaid other media.
31DEC19: The Ocean at the End of the Lane, National Theatre
Based on, but not slavishly faithful to, Neil Gaiman's novel of the same name. The major changes are that the nameless protagonist is 12, not 7; the protagonist's mother is not around; and there are no cats. I suspect these amendments made it easier to stage -- though this is an expansive, complex production with monsters, an ocean, puppets, and some nastily convincing doppelgangers.
It is a dark production, sometimes brutal and sometimes terrifying: the choreography is astonishing, bringing to life the hunger birds and the flea, and the euphoric ocean interlude. The Hempstock
Very highly recommended, and a great end to the year!
