Interludes

THE STATE OF THE ARTS – March 11, 2015

• By drediman
• March 11, 2015
• No Comments

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• However frustrated I was while watching the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Handel’s Semele at BAM, I still cannot get this Zhang Huan-directed and designed production out of my head a week later. It’s certainly not the simply adequate musicianship on display that got under my skin. I attribute it to Zhang’s bold production, which he sets in a mammoth re-constructed Buddhist temple. His staging dares the viewer to reflect on the notion of life imitating art in a very literal, visceral, and thought-provoking way.
• Bathsheba Doran’s The Mystery of Love and Sex, currently playing at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater, is one of the most exquisite plays I’ve seen all season. Much like her previous play Kin, her latest has an even more uncanny and perceptive ability to convey the unpredictability, delicacy, and ultimately, the preciousness, of life. The cast and Sam Gold’s direction are all pitch-perfect.
• Last week, I raved about two towering performances being given at the Metropolitan Opera (Peter Mattei as Don Giovanni and Joyce DiDonato as La Donna del Lago). Well, I’ve got two more extraordinary vocal and dramatic performances to add to the list: Soprano Diana Damrau and tenor Vittorio Grigolo are currently setting the large Met stage ablaze in Massenet’s Manon. Although both have had the tendency to over-act in the past, their gutsy, emotive approach works brilliantly for this sensitively-scored opera. I also loved the off-kilter Belle Epoque-inspired staging; Toulouse-Lautrec would have been proud.
• Beth Henley’s Abundance is now being given a searing, simply-staged revival over at the Beckett Theatre in Theatre Row, courtesy of TACT. Kudos to the committed and skilled quintet of actors, particularly Kelly McAndrew and Tracy Middendorf who play the two heroines at the heart of the play.
• The silly, joyful new superhero musical Brooklynite is putting a smile on a lot of people’s faces down at the Vineyard Theatre. Although I myself found the show (the bubbly score is by newcomer Peter Lerman; the smart direction is by veteran Michael Mayer) a little overlong and overstuffed for its slight, sweet stature, there is much to savor here, especially the enthusiastic storytelling and zestfully game cast.