- theater

House of the Dead, Opera at the Lincoln Center

freddie — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:14:18 +0000

My first reaction to the opera was "What language are they speaking?! Why isn't it Russian?!" I was actually looking forward to understanding what was being said at the performance. I suppose romance languages are pretty popular among theatre. And even if they are speaking English, there's always an accent, probably British. But I digress. As a lot of you guys said, the background was a depressing gray and was simple yet effective. It served the purpose to show the bleakness of the prison and how it's the polar opposite of luxury.

Thoughts about The House of the Dead Opera

whitney.porter — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:29:23 +0000

By class time on Wednesday, I had only read a portion of Dostoevsky's The House of the Dead. After reading this much of the novel, I was very interested to see how the story would transfer onto stage. It was very difficult to imagine how Janacek could possibly transform this story into an opera. The performance was not at all what I had anticipated based on my prior knowledge of the opera. In class, Professor Bergman mentioned that we might find ourselves waiting for the song to start, and I caught myself doing this just a few minutes into the performance.

House of the Dead: The Opera

sarasanders — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:41:46 +0000

Meryl Streep's appearance at House of Dead did not prove to be the only thrill of the performance. Before I detail what I enjoyed, our class discussion helped me appreciate the Opera much more. Thank you, Professor Bergman! To begin, I thought the set was incredible. Arguably it was drab and captured the atmosphere of prison life, but the depth and color really inspired more in the performance. I could see how the set had the essence of a Stalinist gulag, but I felt otherwise. The set resonated to me as a futuristic interpretation of a barrack.

House of the Dead: The Novel

sarasanders — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:39:46 +0000

House of the Dead by Dostoevsky explores remorse. Observing the condition of his cell mates, Alexander Petrovich states, "I never once saw among these men the slightest sign of remorse, the least gnawing of conscience, and that the majority of them believed themselves to have done nothing wrong," (16). Petrovich's observation separates him from the other prisoners. Not only does it suggest that he alone is remorseful, but that he is morally superior.

House of the Dead Opera

maxilia — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:27:55 +0000

Firstly, I must say that this was my first experience at an opera and it was definitely not what I had expected. I guess I had imagined a stereotyped version of the opera in which a rather thick woman dominates the stage and sings until her lungs can give no more. Yet, this opera was different on various levels. To begin, the show was mostly composed of men. Next, the singing was actually not as loud as I thought it would be ( I imagined it might be a bit unbearably loud, I guess expect some superpower voice). Thirdly, the performance greatly resembled a theatrical showing.

Independent Event #2: Wintuk

Laura Abreu — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:17:19 +0000

Yesterday, I went to see Cirque Du Soleil's Wintuk at Madison Square Garden. I had very high expectations for this show, this being my fifth time seeing Cirque and having been so impressed by the quality of all their other shows. Furthermore, my and my mom had been wanting to see this show since last year, and the anticipation made me want to see it even more. In addition, the advertising for Wintuk was heavy.

Quartett

Ross Meneses — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:09:18 +0000

Tantalizingly Bizarre. Those two words sum up how i felt about Heiner Muller's Quartett. After a weeks worth of anticipatory class room discussion based on texts, I was looking forward to seeing the beast itself live on stage.

At first it was a bit jarring, and I struggled to make sense of it all between the captions and all the eccentric activity on stage.

Sex and Innocence: another stab at Quartet

sarasanders — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:19:28 +0000

After reading Jerrica's blog entry on Quartet, I decided to give the analysis of this play another shot. What particularly struck me about Jerrica's insight of the play was its attention to sexuality and innocence. Why are the two so closely correlated? Is this idea founded in religion? Why is sex an ungodly act? To say it is sinful is not sufficient. Does sex provide us with revelations about the power of man and not god? In Quartet, the text was very centered on how innocence ruined sexuality. Being innocent was being one step closer to hell.

"Cancer mon amour"

Laura Abreu — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:31:19 +0000

When I left the Harvey theater after seeing Quartett, my emotions were of a mixed miriad. I didn't really know what to think and how to possibly start dissecting the many frustrating aspects of Quartett. This was the general response form my peers as well, in face, no one knew how to interpret or understand what they had just seen. There was just no fluidity or cohesion between any of the many theatrical parts we had just seen thrown together on stage.

BAM BAM BAM

freddie — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:24:22 +0000

The performance we saw at BAM was one of the oddest shows I've ever seen. It was entertaining and interesting at some points, and mind-numbingly boring at others. Sometimes it was compelling, other times it was excruciatingly annoying. The most annoying part was definitely near the beginning when Marquise was moving in a circle and repeating the same few lines over and over and over and over... in French.