Some recent Culture
Friday, March 6th, 2015 08:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth1. The Indian Queen -- Purcell (sort of), ENO, 28 Feb 2015
Purcell's half-an-opera has been wrenched by Peter Sellars from the Dryden play it accompanies, reimagined, reenvisaged and really not my thing. I love Purcell for his triumphant choral pieces and wit: I found neither here. The leads were excellent; the art was interesting; the music wasn't offensive, if not as lively as I'd hoped. But the parts didn't fit together, and I was often at a loss as to what the heck was going on. (Especially after a bathroom break, when -- prevented from returning to Our Box -- I had to sit at the back where I couldn't see the surtitles.) The Indian Queen is a mashup of Mayan creation myth, colonial oppression narrative, romance (some of the novel excerpts read aloud were quite ... explicit: I do not wish to hear the word 'thrust' in this context), pastede-on-yay bits of poetry, non-linear sequence.
Guardian review here
article from New York Times about Madrid reception here
Mary Beard liked it more than I did
2. Jupiter Ascending (3D), Odeon, 01 March 2015
In contrast this was immense fun. Yes, pure space opera, with waaaaay too many chase / fight scenes and Sean Bean being quite hammy. And it's rather ... disjointed, or possibly just overambitiously trying to shove too many genres / moods into 2 hours. But it has an interesting female protagonist with agency (she even makes the first move in the inevitable romantic liaison); an excellent soundtrack that I liked much more than most Marvel soundtracks; some splendid scenes ('worth the price of admission,' said my companion early on, as Jupiter's moons -- the planet's, not Jupiter Jones' -- whirled across the screen); some delightfully dastardly villains; plenty of daft not-actually-science; a genetically-modified soldier who's effectively a werewolf; and several outstanding performances, including Eddie Redmayne and Maria Doyle Kennedy.
Oh, and it has Terry Gilliam in it.
Guardian review: 'absolute nonsense'. Yes, and your point is ...? That review does end with the marvellous line 'delivered with a “petite-mort” look on his face that suggests he is being fellated by eternity itself.'
Purcell's half-an-opera has been wrenched by Peter Sellars from the Dryden play it accompanies, reimagined, reenvisaged and really not my thing. I love Purcell for his triumphant choral pieces and wit: I found neither here. The leads were excellent; the art was interesting; the music wasn't offensive, if not as lively as I'd hoped. But the parts didn't fit together, and I was often at a loss as to what the heck was going on. (Especially after a bathroom break, when -- prevented from returning to Our Box -- I had to sit at the back where I couldn't see the surtitles.) The Indian Queen is a mashup of Mayan creation myth, colonial oppression narrative, romance (some of the novel excerpts read aloud were quite ... explicit: I do not wish to hear the word 'thrust' in this context), pastede-on-yay bits of poetry, non-linear sequence.
Guardian review here
article from New York Times about Madrid reception here
Mary Beard liked it more than I did
2. Jupiter Ascending (3D), Odeon, 01 March 2015
In contrast this was immense fun. Yes, pure space opera, with waaaaay too many chase / fight scenes and Sean Bean being quite hammy. And it's rather ... disjointed, or possibly just overambitiously trying to shove too many genres / moods into 2 hours. But it has an interesting female protagonist with agency (she even makes the first move in the inevitable romantic liaison); an excellent soundtrack that I liked much more than most Marvel soundtracks; some splendid scenes ('worth the price of admission,' said my companion early on, as Jupiter's moons -- the planet's, not Jupiter Jones' -- whirled across the screen); some delightfully dastardly villains; plenty of daft not-actually-science; a genetically-modified soldier who's effectively a werewolf; and several outstanding performances, including Eddie Redmayne and Maria Doyle Kennedy.
Oh, and it has Terry Gilliam in it.
Guardian review: 'absolute nonsense'. Yes, and your point is ...? That review does end with the marvellous line 'delivered with a “petite-mort” look on his face that suggests he is being fellated by eternity itself.'
