Opera, Performance

Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi

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Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi
Cal Performances
Friday September 27, 2024 8pm
Zellerbach Hall UC Berkeley

Simply Beautiful!

The opera Harawi has many unusual aspects; many were discussed in a varied and complex discussion by scholars before the performance. Yet, no matter the complexity of language choices (Messiaen chose Andrean Harawi language traditions to use in his text), the music, the performers, the choreography and the dramatic staging succeeded beyond all intellectualization. The performers, singer, pianist, and dancers are superb.

Julia Bullock, soprano, is Cal Performances 2024/25 ‘artist in residence’. She will return Zellerbach Hall January 19, 2025 to perform with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Bullock is an amazing performer. Not only is her voice a superb instrument, but she is a resourceful actress, interacting with the two dancers on stage in emotional moving song and drama, but she was also physically active in her roll, at one instance singing from the floor … on her back!

The dancers, Bobbi Jane Smith and Or Schraiber complemented the dramatic activity with carefully chosen appropriate choreography. Smith interacted with Bullock, embracing and comforting her during some emotionally intense moments. Schraiber provided quieter support; both were dramatically effective complements to the singer. The choreographic choices were simple and effective throughout.

Conor Hanick, pianist, held center stage on the grand piano playing Messiaen’s score with great skill and expressiveness. His focus on the score and the sound centered him so that we the audience could concentrate on the dramatic action of Bullock, Smith and Schairber.

“Harawi” was a challenge to audience’s concentration and skill; listening, watching and reading the text (in French and English) shown on the screen above the performers. The translations were sometimes odd: but then the words were often in Harawi.

This performance is a production of AMOC, American Modern Opera Company which was established in 2017 with the mission of “building an sharing a body of collaborative work”. In 2022-23 AMOC reached audiences through 34 performances across 20 US venues and digital platforms.

This event, the Cal Performance first of the season was superb … and a challenge to its audience. It promises to be an exciting season at Zellerbach Hall and on the UC campus.

 

Dance

ODC Summer Dance Festival

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ODC Summer Dance Festival
Sunday, August 18, 2024 Matinee

Two Dance Events: Different Perspectives

In my long history of attending dance events, I have pleasant memories of receiving a paper program, learning something about the event and waiting, well-informed, for the curtain up, the lights down. Now, with clever assistance and cell phone, the information appears on the screen held in one’s hand. There’s always too much to read and then…the show starts.

The first event of the Sunday matinee of ODC’s Summer Dance Festival was an extended solo by Jenna Varvara. Varvara is a response to both Alexander Rodchenko’s photograph “PerformingFurniture,” which features his artistic collaborator and life partner Varvara Stepanova, and to Stepanova’s body of creative work. One of the prominent Russian Constructivist artists, Stepanova’s endeavors included textiles, visual poetry, costumes, and set designs. Soviet theater critic Konstantin Rudnitsky wrote, “The human body was perceived as a machine: man had to learn to control that machine.” It was the theatre’s function to demonstrate the fine-tuning of the human ‘mechanisms.’”

So we see the dancer encountering a variety of stage set pieces and costumes which she can successfully maneuver, climb, touch and handle along with an extensive movement vocabulary. She is very successful and deliberate in all this. Finally, reduced to her basic underwear, she rests…and begins again. Varvara îs an extremely powerful performer; her skill is excellent and well executed. But, alas, it is all too much (at least for this member of the audience). She is to be admired, applauded and remembered for this dimension and intention, but the event is too long and somehow it is not extended to the audience. It is as if she is dancing for herself and the constructive ideas.

Then, at the other extreme. Charles Slender White with “Half-Time, Full Out”. The dancers move together, much like a cheer-leading squad, breaking formation only occasionally to go behind a set piece to change costumes. The costumes also reflect the ‘team’ nature of this event; they are bright blue, red and occasionally gold …. and they all wear blue socks! Rah,Rah! The dancers are technically excellent and their ensemble ability is superb. As we accept the solo performer for her commitment and aesthetic, we stand and cheer for “Half-Time, Full Out”

Commentary

Calendar-fu and Fifth Fridays

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No matter how hard you try, you just can’t make a metric year.

We are physically stuck with the fact that the earth goes around the sun once for approximately 365.25 revolutions on its axis. On top of that, our Roman and religious predecessors, noting the subdivision of the year by lunar cycles created months and weeks that not only don’t quite work out, but have the extra burden that the month named after ME has to have more days than the month named after YOU!

So, we have calendars which are not repetitive, and the calendars of other cultures seem to have been run over by ours. Months do not start on the same day of the week from year to year (leaving out the leap year problem/correction) and various power centers would not allow days to exist which were not ‘days of the week.

But, for fun, maybe you would like to plan a repeating event. You easily can specify (in the current calendar system) the ‘First Monday’ or ‘Second Saturday’  or even ‘Third Thursday’.  But what about the ‘Fifth Friday’? That is more fun. How does that work out?

Ignoring the pathetic February, eleven months have 30 days and five have 31 days. So, each month (except February) must have two days of the week that have five instances, and five months have three such days. These do not line up well, but it appears that in a given year one day of the week will occur five times in three of the months, two days of the week will occur five times in five of the months and four days of the week will occur five times in four of the months.

In 2024, Fifth Fridays occurred four times; in March, May, August, and November, so plan ahead, avoid end-of-year rush.