Recent Culture [Electra, Berlioz, Necropolis, Interstellar]
Saturday, November 8th, 2014 11:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthGosh, this paid-employment lark (plus an ev0l commute) doesn't leave me much time to be Me ... but job is good and so will money be. And being back in London (kinda sorta) is Fab.
So!
Electra [Old Vic, 28-Oct-14]
In the round, with ensuing hilarity as we attempted to find our 'stage dress circle' seats (the signage was carefully concealed behind a curtain). This was an awesome production: Kristin Scott Thomas was a bitter, witty, manic Electra, hoarse-voiced and broken and despairing, seldom still. The first deity she calls on is Persephone.
It's an achronistic -- is that the right word for timelessness? -- production, in which stammering shell-shocked Orestes, in his WW1 officers' garb, seemed out of place. I was also struck by the cruelty of his pretended death. But then he suffers in turn, watching Electra lose hope and sanity and not recognising her as his sister. (The only drawback of our seats was that we couldn't see Electra's face when she realised Orestes was alive.)
Much is made of Electra being outside the house: a woman's place, et cetera, but there's an implicit moral wrongness. But of course the house is her mother's domain, and Electra hates (and yet still loves) her mother...
I liked Liz White as Electra's sister Crysothemis ("you are a woman, not a man: do you not know that? ... if you battle you will be eaten without salt", which seems unpleasantly specific) and will look out for her again.
And ouch: the chorus at the end, "Children of Atreus, your suffering has ended". I know there are different versions of the myth, but in the version I'm most familiar with, it's only just begun.
Beethoven Coriolan overture, Liszt Piano Concerto #2, Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique [conductor Tugan Sokhiev, piano Khatia Buniatishvili: Royal Festival Hall, 30-Oct-14]
I wasn't impressed with the Beethoven: it felt mechanical at first, and slightly off-time, though warmed up towards the end. Luckily it was immediately followed by Liszt's Piano Concerto #2: Khatia Buniatishvili (who reminded me in looks and manner of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ms_cataclysm) was suitably passionate and cool by turns, very good at the big dramatic gestures but also capable of restraint and reflection. Plenty of games with dynamics and tempo here, and some jazzy bits that reminded me of Brahms. And there's a lovely dialogue between cello and piano that I hadn't noticed before.
A pause for wine, then Symphonie Fantastique, which is. Sokhiev seemed a lot more comfortable with this than with the Beethoven (or maybe he'd just warmed up). The relentless hammering of bass and percussion (some of the latter were on the loose) reminded me of migraines. And hurrah, not a single person applauded after the Marche au Supplice -- though quite a few twitched and jittered at the final chord of that movement.
Necropolis [Waterloo Station, 31-Oct-14]Halloween experience run by Zombie Apocalypse, this started off in one of the corridors leading to Waterloo underground station. We presented ourselves at a metal door and were ushered in by a muttering Victorian gent.
I'd been a little trepidatious about this event, which could have been anything from a dry history talk -- unlikely -- to a cheesy ghost train. In the event it was a theatrical experience: we were led from room to room in the bowels of the underground, encountering a Golden Dawn acolyte; a mad shouty doctor who made us smell nasty things (and the C17 plague doctor who appeared while his back was turned); WPC Watson who was investigating a child-murdering baby farmer (and the cries of the murdered children); a WW1 soldier (in WW2 uniform, or so it seemed to me) who appeared 'from nowhere' to describe the horrors of gas warfare; a stroppy Tube worker (not a real one); and a nastily claustrophobic maze with -- yep -- zombies.
It was surprisingly educational, definitely scary (note to self: never be at the front of the group), and a satisfactory way of avoiding trick-or-treaters.
Interstellar [Curzon Victoria, 07-Nov-14]I haven't finished thinking about this yet ... I liked it much more than I'd expected, and I would very much like it to win a Hugo next year. I have heard rumours that the science is flawed, but I didn't spot the flaws (due to my lack of knowledge, no doubt) -- which sets it apart from Gravity.
Actually, it's all about gravity, and time, and love. And father-daughter relationships (thanks, Mr Nolan, you made me cry again); and climate change; and what it means to be human; and what it might mean in the future to be human; and the monstrous lies that sometimes must be told. There are robots, who are as well-realised and strongly characterised as Tony Stark's JARVIS. There is a fabulous, and restrained, soundtrack by Hans Zimmer: heavy on the organ chords which shook the cinema, but also featuring long periods without background music. There is Michael Caine. There are Christopher Nolan's children, who are a bit older now than they were in Inception. (Is the top still spinning?)
Visually Interstellar is stunning: black holes, mountainous waves, 5-dimensional space [this scene completely blew me away and simultaneously reminded me of nightmares]. It is a beautiful film, with a strong cast and an intelligent plot. Not sure whether it passes the Bechdel test but it certainly has two central female characters, neither of whom are there as romantic interests of the male lead.
I am pretty ignorant when it comes to cinematic references, but I spotted nods to 2001, echoes of Inception (curved landscapes, time distortion, weird gravity), and possibly a reference to Captain America: The First Avenger. (No, it was not Sergeant Barnes.)
About that time distortion: it's two and three-quarter hours long, and I still can't decide if it felt longer or whether my sense of time was suspended. I don't think I was bored for a moment, anyway, which is a pleasant reflection on the film.
So!
Electra [Old Vic, 28-Oct-14]
In the round, with ensuing hilarity as we attempted to find our 'stage dress circle' seats (the signage was carefully concealed behind a curtain). This was an awesome production: Kristin Scott Thomas was a bitter, witty, manic Electra, hoarse-voiced and broken and despairing, seldom still. The first deity she calls on is Persephone.
It's an achronistic -- is that the right word for timelessness? -- production, in which stammering shell-shocked Orestes, in his WW1 officers' garb, seemed out of place. I was also struck by the cruelty of his pretended death. But then he suffers in turn, watching Electra lose hope and sanity and not recognising her as his sister. (The only drawback of our seats was that we couldn't see Electra's face when she realised Orestes was alive.)
Much is made of Electra being outside the house: a woman's place, et cetera, but there's an implicit moral wrongness. But of course the house is her mother's domain, and Electra hates (and yet still loves) her mother...
I liked Liz White as Electra's sister Crysothemis ("you are a woman, not a man: do you not know that? ... if you battle you will be eaten without salt", which seems unpleasantly specific) and will look out for her again.
And ouch: the chorus at the end, "Children of Atreus, your suffering has ended". I know there are different versions of the myth, but in the version I'm most familiar with, it's only just begun.
Beethoven Coriolan overture, Liszt Piano Concerto #2, Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique [conductor Tugan Sokhiev, piano Khatia Buniatishvili: Royal Festival Hall, 30-Oct-14]
I wasn't impressed with the Beethoven: it felt mechanical at first, and slightly off-time, though warmed up towards the end. Luckily it was immediately followed by Liszt's Piano Concerto #2: Khatia Buniatishvili (who reminded me in looks and manner of
ms_cataclysm) was suitably passionate and cool by turns, very good at the big dramatic gestures but also capable of restraint and reflection. Plenty of games with dynamics and tempo here, and some jazzy bits that reminded me of Brahms. And there's a lovely dialogue between cello and piano that I hadn't noticed before.A pause for wine, then Symphonie Fantastique, which is. Sokhiev seemed a lot more comfortable with this than with the Beethoven (or maybe he'd just warmed up). The relentless hammering of bass and percussion (some of the latter were on the loose) reminded me of migraines. And hurrah, not a single person applauded after the Marche au Supplice -- though quite a few twitched and jittered at the final chord of that movement.
Necropolis [Waterloo Station, 31-Oct-14]Halloween experience run by Zombie Apocalypse, this started off in one of the corridors leading to Waterloo underground station. We presented ourselves at a metal door and were ushered in by a muttering Victorian gent.
I'd been a little trepidatious about this event, which could have been anything from a dry history talk -- unlikely -- to a cheesy ghost train. In the event it was a theatrical experience: we were led from room to room in the bowels of the underground, encountering a Golden Dawn acolyte; a mad shouty doctor who made us smell nasty things (and the C17 plague doctor who appeared while his back was turned); WPC Watson who was investigating a child-murdering baby farmer (and the cries of the murdered children); a WW1 soldier (in WW2 uniform, or so it seemed to me) who appeared 'from nowhere' to describe the horrors of gas warfare; a stroppy Tube worker (not a real one); and a nastily claustrophobic maze with -- yep -- zombies.
It was surprisingly educational, definitely scary (note to self: never be at the front of the group), and a satisfactory way of avoiding trick-or-treaters.
Interstellar [Curzon Victoria, 07-Nov-14]I haven't finished thinking about this yet ... I liked it much more than I'd expected, and I would very much like it to win a Hugo next year. I have heard rumours that the science is flawed, but I didn't spot the flaws (due to my lack of knowledge, no doubt) -- which sets it apart from Gravity.
Actually, it's all about gravity, and time, and love. And father-daughter relationships (thanks, Mr Nolan, you made me cry again); and climate change; and what it means to be human; and what it might mean in the future to be human; and the monstrous lies that sometimes must be told. There are robots, who are as well-realised and strongly characterised as Tony Stark's JARVIS. There is a fabulous, and restrained, soundtrack by Hans Zimmer: heavy on the organ chords which shook the cinema, but also featuring long periods without background music. There is Michael Caine. There are Christopher Nolan's children, who are a bit older now than they were in Inception. (Is the top still spinning?)
Visually Interstellar is stunning: black holes, mountainous waves, 5-dimensional space [this scene completely blew me away and simultaneously reminded me of nightmares]. It is a beautiful film, with a strong cast and an intelligent plot. Not sure whether it passes the Bechdel test but it certainly has two central female characters, neither of whom are there as romantic interests of the male lead.
I am pretty ignorant when it comes to cinematic references, but I spotted nods to 2001, echoes of Inception (curved landscapes, time distortion, weird gravity), and possibly a reference to Captain America: The First Avenger. (No, it was not Sergeant Barnes.)
About that time distortion: it's two and three-quarter hours long, and I still can't decide if it felt longer or whether my sense of time was suspended. I don't think I was bored for a moment, anyway, which is a pleasant reflection on the film.
Londinium
Date: Tuesday, November 11th, 2014 10:02 am (UTC)XX