cultureweek continues
Feb. 17th, 2007 12:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyI just slept for 12 hours straight. It was really wonderful, and I needed it, and I resolve to go swimming more often.
Anyway, a few of you seem interested in my opinion of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, though I can't imagine why. In short, it is getting hyped all over the place, and—it actually deserves that hype. I'd never heard or seen it before, and it is pretty much made out of win.
The story spares no one, savaging bourgeoisie and workers, cops and priests alike, reserving sympathy only for the titular character, a triple murderer. Katerina's choices, such that they exist, are between poverty, prison, and murder; she marries the rich Zinovy for economic reasons and becomes a hostage in her own home to a sexless marriage and servitude to Zinovy's father, Boris. Her desperation drives her to murder, the literal overthrow of her male oppressors.
At the same time, Shostakovich is a grim realist—the usual outcome of oppression is not resistance, but more oppression. Zinovy's male workers pick on the only people lower in social status than themselves: female workers. Katerina ultimately turns not on her straying lover, Sergey, but on his new fling. It's a bleak satire, and utterly brutal.
The staging was perfect, although it was a bit jarring that they decided to set it in Stalinist Russia, with everyone crossing themselves and such. But it made for some great aesthetics, especially in the scene at the police station with Uncle Joe on the wall. Hee! The Izmailov house was high above the main action, cramped and inaccessible, mirroring Katerina's isolation.
And the music—in the 30s, it was avant-garde; today it'd be pomo irony. Which segues neatly into the best thing about the new opera house: Its acoustics are brilliant. You can hear every note played by the huge-ass orchestra.
I mentioned that I am a bit conflicted over the new opera house. It's ugly on the outside and lovely on the inside. There isn't a bad seat in the house (my friend R. was up in one of the higher rows, and he said that you could still see and hear everything), but there are also 1,000 fewer seats. I hear that there's no plan to scrap the cheap under-29 tickets, but since they have no problem filling the place, I'm worried that the COC will abandon its younger, poorer fans.
Opera may not be a terribly populist art form, but the COC has been one of the most savvy cultural institutions in the city. In the push to make everything in Toronto "world class," the arts have become increasingly elitist and mediocre. Ten years ago, there was a proliferation of small theatre companies and experimental productions. Now, there are fewer companies and fewer productions that take any sort of risk. There's a revival of some of the more inventive works and interest in artists who were pushing the boundaries a decade or so ago (most notably, Buddies in Bad Times' entire season this year is Daniel MacIvor plays), but no one seems to be interested in nurturing struggling young artists of today, or in making theatre accessible to the PWYC crowd.
The COC has been one of the big exceptions to this. They can't sustain themselves forever on an audience that's going to die off, and they haven't been able to pull in a huge tourist crowd. So they've been hitting the high schools and universities, with great success. My only worry is that as they become increasingly "world class," they'll lose sight of how important it is to make the arts as accessible as possible to a broad audience.
That means the kids in jeans as well as the old people struggling with the Slowest. Elevators. Ever.
Threepenny Opera tonight!
Anyway, a few of you seem interested in my opinion of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, though I can't imagine why. In short, it is getting hyped all over the place, and—it actually deserves that hype. I'd never heard or seen it before, and it is pretty much made out of win.
The story spares no one, savaging bourgeoisie and workers, cops and priests alike, reserving sympathy only for the titular character, a triple murderer. Katerina's choices, such that they exist, are between poverty, prison, and murder; she marries the rich Zinovy for economic reasons and becomes a hostage in her own home to a sexless marriage and servitude to Zinovy's father, Boris. Her desperation drives her to murder, the literal overthrow of her male oppressors.
Shostakovich himself saw Katerina as the "tragic portrayal of the destiny of a talented, smart and outstanding woman, dying in the nightmarish atmosphere of pre-Revolutionary Russia.
"I feel empathy for her," the composer added. "She is surrounded by monsters." – from a Guardian article.
At the same time, Shostakovich is a grim realist—the usual outcome of oppression is not resistance, but more oppression. Zinovy's male workers pick on the only people lower in social status than themselves: female workers. Katerina ultimately turns not on her straying lover, Sergey, but on his new fling. It's a bleak satire, and utterly brutal.
The staging was perfect, although it was a bit jarring that they decided to set it in Stalinist Russia, with everyone crossing themselves and such. But it made for some great aesthetics, especially in the scene at the police station with Uncle Joe on the wall. Hee! The Izmailov house was high above the main action, cramped and inaccessible, mirroring Katerina's isolation.
And the music—in the 30s, it was avant-garde; today it'd be pomo irony. Which segues neatly into the best thing about the new opera house: Its acoustics are brilliant. You can hear every note played by the huge-ass orchestra.
I mentioned that I am a bit conflicted over the new opera house. It's ugly on the outside and lovely on the inside. There isn't a bad seat in the house (my friend R. was up in one of the higher rows, and he said that you could still see and hear everything), but there are also 1,000 fewer seats. I hear that there's no plan to scrap the cheap under-29 tickets, but since they have no problem filling the place, I'm worried that the COC will abandon its younger, poorer fans.
Opera may not be a terribly populist art form, but the COC has been one of the most savvy cultural institutions in the city. In the push to make everything in Toronto "world class," the arts have become increasingly elitist and mediocre. Ten years ago, there was a proliferation of small theatre companies and experimental productions. Now, there are fewer companies and fewer productions that take any sort of risk. There's a revival of some of the more inventive works and interest in artists who were pushing the boundaries a decade or so ago (most notably, Buddies in Bad Times' entire season this year is Daniel MacIvor plays), but no one seems to be interested in nurturing struggling young artists of today, or in making theatre accessible to the PWYC crowd.
The COC has been one of the big exceptions to this. They can't sustain themselves forever on an audience that's going to die off, and they haven't been able to pull in a huge tourist crowd. So they've been hitting the high schools and universities, with great success. My only worry is that as they become increasingly "world class," they'll lose sight of how important it is to make the arts as accessible as possible to a broad audience.
That means the kids in jeans as well as the old people struggling with the Slowest. Elevators. Ever.
Threepenny Opera tonight!
