July 07, 2007
What a Sombre Hero
Despite an ongoing emphasis on work matters lately -- as hinted at by my last post -- there have also been a bunch of cultural outings of one kind or another. Last Friday, for example, we saw a production of Into the Woods in an oubliette beneath Covent Garden, which was almost entirely splendid; and Max put in an appearance too. Then, to continue the Sondheim theme, Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel led a semi-staged concert version of Sweeney Todd at the RFH, which was considerably less delightful. Terfel is a fine singer but a bit of a ham, and the whole thing had the feel of a somewhat amateurish vanity performance thrown together on the basis of his renown. I still enjoyed it a lot -- it's a fantastic piece -- but the event was sadly overstated and under-rehearsed. My father, having just been at an audience with Sondheim himself in Sydney, informs me that a film version is in production, helmed by Tim Burton with Johnny Depp in the title role. The mind fair boggles, frankly, but I very much look forward to finding out what kind of dogs' breakfast they make of it. This was followed last night by Philippe Decouflé's Sombrero at Sadler's Wells, a thoroughly entertaining, if somewhat gimmicky, piece involving a lot of interaction between live dancers and video projections of themselves, with many echoes of Decouflé's earlier Shazam! There is no doubt Sombrero is technically brilliant, and I had a great time. I'd recommend it to anyone, but Ian was underwhelmed -- as usual with Decouflé, whose Codex was a formative dance experience for him, setting a standard that is unlikely ever to be equalled. For me, a similar high water mark is L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato by Mark Morris, and this afternoon brought that choreographer's Mozart Dances to the Barbican. This is a jolly fine piece, perhaps a bit vacuously pretty in places in an all-too New York stylee, but also with passages of severe beauty. Of the three acts, each to a Mozart piano piece, the predominantly-masculine middle one was strongest, despite being sometimes overly programmatic -- there were definitely moments where I was thinking "do you really need to repeat this six times? We got it after three!" Altogether, this is Morris's best work in years, but given some of the bollocks he's produced lately -- King Arthur being the most obviously worthless -- that may not be the recommendation it ought to be. Mozart Dances is certainly no L'Allegro, nor even probably a Dido and Aeneas, but it's still a pretty decent showing from a choreographer who's had few enough of those lately. As such it should definitely be applauded.Posted by matt at July 7, 2007 11:59 PM
Comments
Ah, we were at different performances of Mozart Dances, then (although I think Adam Mars Jones was sitting next to us when I went, presumably in your place), and I didn't make it to Decouflé at all. Glad, selfishly speaking, to hear ST was a letdown; after the chamber version at Trafalgar Studios and the probably never-toppable Adrian Lester/Julia McKenzie/Cheek by Jowl National production way back, I was reluctant to have my memories spoilt. Can Depp sing?
Did you see the recent C de la B thing at the QEH? Half-expected to run into you there, but nope.
Posted by: Max at July 8, 2007 02:00 PM
I certainly did, and reported on it a few posts back. Likewise sort of expected you there, but the odds don't always fall that way.
Disagree about the NT Sweeney -- it was fine, but hardly unsurpassable. I reckon the Opera North version six months or so before Trafalgar was far better.
Depp sang in Cry Baby, I think, and started out as a would-be rock star. I'm more concerned about Helena Bonham-Carter as Mrs Lovett. And, for fuck's sake, Sacha Baron Cohen as Pirelli!
Posted by: matt at July 8, 2007 09:59 PM
I think the place the NT Sweeney holds in my heart is more to do with love of the aforementioned performers than a real comparison between productions. Besides, I haven't seen it often.
I liked Import/Export very much while they stuck to the wildly masochistic extravagances at the start, but yes, the moment we got another fucking monologue to the audience I began to get irritable. I think there should be a total ban on dancers speaking for five years.
Much as SBC annoys me I can actually sort of see him as Pirelli. But the leads are both a bit young, in appearance if not fact, no?
Posted by: Max at July 10, 2007 09:46 AM
Apologies for non-HTML tags above. Too much time on bulletin boards.
Posted by: Max at July 10, 2007 09:47 AM
Bulletin boards? How old school ;) Fixed, anyway.
Posted by: matt at July 10, 2007 10:19 AM
The production I saw in '79 with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou wasn't half bad.
Posted by: robin at July 13, 2007 03:35 AM
True enough. I saw its West End transfer, which starred Sheila Hancock and Dennis Quilley, twice -- an early start as a Sondheim queen, this must've been about 1980. Also own the Broadway cast on both vinyl and CD, and have watched the vid once or twice too. (Sounds obsessive, I guess, but this was over many years.) Opera North compared pretty well; Bryn Terfel not so much.
Posted by: matt at July 14, 2007 12:08 AM
hey matthew-
so glad you liked 'mozart dances'; mark had been less-than-inspired for a couple of years. i'm seeing it again in new york in a month or so, and they're taping it for broadcast, a night after i see it. i hope it's a fine taping.
i agree that the middle part was the highlight, but i thought the first concerto was also very strong, especially in how it used lauren grant, the little blond spitfire. i love her.
the whole piece was so much better than i was hoping for; i believe it will end up ranking very high in morris' life's work, which is not short on quality.
i've been having a bit of a sondheim freakout (again!). the 'company' production on broadway which just closed, with raul esparza, blew me away, and i really loved the john doyle-patti lupone-michael cerveris 'sweeney todd' last year, too. your chocolate factory 'sunday' (my all-time favorite sondheim) is coming to new york next year and i just bought the cast album, which is very detailed, with more dialog and more articulate arrangements than the original. the new 'company' cast album is also delicious, a nice complement to the 1971 original.
as for the movie, i'm not so worried about the singing as i am about tim burton's musicality. i'm so sick of movie musicals directed by people who don't truly care about the form. i hope burton does.
cheers from new york,
patrick
Posted by: patrick in ny at July 17, 2007 04:05 AM
Re TB's musicality: do those calypso numbers in Beetlejuice count?
Posted by: robin at July 17, 2007 12:58 PM
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