A very sparse auditorium greeted Sally Pinkas for her spring concert. I heard someone say only 90 seats sold. It really seemed like the wrong venue for the show.
The first piece was a modern one by a Syrian composer Kareem Roustom. I liked the first and fifth movements in particular. The second piece was a modern sonata by Frank Bridge that I sat through – sigh.
For the second half, rugs and chairs had been set up on the stage. Sally wanted to recreate the feeling of a salon in turn of the century Manila, where there was a thriving arts culture. She invited the audience to come up and sit around her, and so I did, on the yellow sofa just to her left. This half of the program was really delightful. It was a series of short melodic pieces by Filipino composers. They are not in Spotify by the way.
Dartmouth Idol is always a fun event, and this year proved true. There were 6 strong finalist singers, with a great support from the band and backup chorus.
My favorite was Hanover local Kate Budney, veteran of many shows at Hanover High. She sang very well with her solo Turn the Beat Around, even though her video intro had no sound. For the duet, she was unfortunately paired with a much weaker Idol semi-finalist.
Eni Oyeleye is a bass, which is not your typical Idol performer. His low voice and and first song was beautiful, with a good video to go along – Seriously. But I think he clinched it with the second half with a fun mix of bass songs that had the crowd rocking. He did end up winning, which wasn’t a surprise.
A lot was made of Soomin having a classical background, but she did just fine.
The show did not have as much Walt stuff as previous years, but still too much. We don’t really need his asides during the show.
The judges were all past Idol contestants. I remembered Jimmy Ragan in particular. Judge Deby seemed completely random in her remarks.
Voting was by texting a value to a special number, so the results came in very quickly. Winner Eni, Caroline in second, and Soomin in third.
An intriguing and unpronounceable name: it actually sounds more like clicks when said by a native speaker. Before the show, there was an introduction with the director, Saodat Ismailova, talking with Ted Levin. He is involved with the Aga Khan Music Initiative, which is intended to fund music projects in developing areas like Uzbekistan. The Aga Khan is actually a person, and head of a branch of Islam. The articulate and lovely Saodat had an interesting Q&A session with Ted, talking about how the project developed. We learned that the “40 girls” story is like our equivalent of a fairy tale: everyone in the region knows about it. Around the 4th to 6th century BC, a princess led 40 girls to defend her land.
The story has been transmitted by oral tradition (like the Iliad), but the last bard who had been told the story died in 2004. Saodat ended up researching archival recordings of that bard. She felt that a 300-page story that lasted all night would be too long, so she wanted to tell the story for modern audiences. Although a filmmaker, when she met with Ted, they decided to collaborate on a film with live music.
Ted is obviously very familiar with the region, and seemed to be able to speak to her in some language that I couldn’t hear (but not English). He had organized the Hun Huur Tu (throat singers of Tuva) concert in 2004 (?), from the same neck of the world
The concert proper was in Moore theater, and was well attended. Overhead, the movie was beautiful, with stark images from the Uzbekistan/Turkmenistan region. Ancient ruins, desert cliffs, and a young woman who played the princess Gulayim.
On stage, a group of young women sang plaintive songs accompanied by twangy guitar-like instruments or the eerie stringed ghirjek. The stage was dim, and the women entered and exited with slow and stately movements. The overall effect was strikingly beautiful. The music was composed by Dimitri Yanov-Yanovsky, based in Tashkent. The lyrics for the songs were traditional, along with the instruments. Languages included Kazakh, Uzbek, Karakalpak, ….
The movie followed the story via four elements earth, air, water and fire. Not really related to the story, but part of Zoroastrianism, which takes its roots in the region. Judging by the Q&A after the show, I think the audience didn’t see how all this tied in. One question was about the battle: should there have been one in the movie? The director explained that she wanted to get the feeling of a 16-year old girl, who hadn’t had children. How would she feel about war? Everything would be intense, and she would go all out. She chose to portray this as dancing in a disco. Lost on us I guess.
At the end of the film, the musicians then recited names, 40 of course. We learned afterwards that it was a who’s who of famous women from the region, including the director of course.
The percussionist and conductor Alibek Kabdurakhmanov, one performer, Saodat and Ted came out after for a Q&A. All spoke English quite well, which was a suprise. The conductor said it was a miracle to get all the girls performing together. Even though they were from the same general region, they were from all different countries, and communication was difficult.
Sonya Yoncheva as MimiImpressively stage crowd scene in Act II
This was a reprise of the live broadcast from the Met on the previous day. I thought there would be better seating today at Spaulding, and I was right. In fact there were so few people it could have been at Loews. Maybe they were expecting a big turnout?
I hadn’t ever seen this famous opera, so I thought I should take advantage of this handy opportunity.
The things I didn’t like. As it wasn’t live, I didn’t see the need for all the blather. The whole show took about 3.5 hours, but the actual opera was maybe 2 hours. There was a 15-minute intro, and 2 half-hour intermissions. But as it was a repeat, did we need all that stuff? I really dislike interviews with the cast midstream. It detracts from the show. I did like seeing them move the set though – quite impressive.
The things I did like. The opera itself was wonderful, with a great cast, and beautiful singing. It brought tears to my eyes on many occasions. It was entirely sung, and all the characters were strong. Mimi and Rodolfo were both excellent. The staging and set were great. In fact that had been another draw, as the set was done by Franco Zeffirelli, and I learned recently that he had done the first production when then Met opened.
This is one of my favorite books, so I really wanted to see the play. It was certainly a surprise to see it staged as a 1940’s radio show, to start with, and then shifting into different times, with the same cast playing the same parts.
I’m not sure how effective that all was – especially the radio play part. There was also the recurring excerpts from On Tyranny. Absolutely appropriate, so I guess the intent was to link 1984 to 2018.
The student cast did a good job, and the production was well done with effective and sometimes jarring lighting. However it was too much of a mixed bag for me.
