View: Next message | Previous message Next in topic | Previous in topic Next by same author | Previous by same author Previous page (April 1999, week 4) | Back to main OPERA-L page Join or leave OPERA-L Reply | Post a new message Search Options: Ê Chronologically | Most recent first Proportional font | Non-proportional font ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 00:22:44 +0000 Reply-To: "H.E.Elsom" Sender: Discussion of opera and related issues From: "H.E.Elsom" Subject: The man who mistook his wife for a hat, Bridewell, 25Apr99 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Dr S Stephen Crook Dr P James Meek Mrs P Moira Young Junior doctor Michael Gilroy Director Carol Metcalfe Music director David Gibson I'd always thought of Michael Nyman as John Adams very manque, based on the bits of his film music I'd heard. The man who mistook his wife for a hat is certainly has lyrical minimalist music somewhat similar to Adams' 1980s operas, but it enacts the connection between being human and music in a fascinating and moving way. The action follows closely Oliver Sacks' account of the case with the same title. Dr P and his wife visit Dr S because Dr P seems to be having problems with his vision. Dr S performs a mechanical medical examination, using suitable musical figures, while Mrs P describes in more flowing and emotional music the effect of Dr P's problem on his life as a music teacher and on their life. Dr P has a third kind of musical language, less mechanical than Dr S's and apparently less expressive than Mrs P's. Dr S is intrigued, and visits Dr P at home. He asks him to sing Ich grolle nicht, which he does without reading the music accompanied by Mrs P on the piano. Introduced by a brief mention of Schumann in the first scene, this straightforward performance brings together the musical idioms used so far, and prepares the way for Dr S's insight into Dr P's condition. Through some unknown physical damage, he does not have a body image as other people do -- he has body music. This turns out to be the purpose of his wordless or mildly surreal singing as he does thing, as is illustrated when he is interrupted while drinking his tea and can resume only by smelling the tea and resuming his song to the words "tea from China, doubly savoured" (that is, from the country China and from the china cup). This brief opera, slightly under an hour long, is delightful not only because of the sympathetic and interesting subject, but also because it seems in a strange way to do what all opera should do, to present music that embodies emotion, literary. Nyman interweaves and merges rhythmic and melodic form and emotion in the music and the parallel ideas in the plot. This economically gets the texture of being human, at least in a literate modern, urban environment, as Adams' operas get the texture of historical events and Glass' music can get the texture of nature, as in Koyanaaqatsi. The production was held together by a fine peformance by James Meek, who managed to combine clinical observation with a singer's manner. His performance of Ich grolle nicht was electrical, and very moving as Dr S joined in, acknowledging that he and Dr P were in a way peers. Moira Young was expressive as Mrs P, and combined concern with slightly uptight propriety. Stephen Crook was a bit unfocussed as Dr S, but developed from smooth arrogance to insight effectively. The Bridewell Theatre is a strange, assymetrical converted swimming bath with iron pillars and girders. The main drawback of this performance was that the space still has the echo associated with swimming baths and it wasn't always easy to hear the words or follow what was going on. But the synopsis available is lucid, and it's well worth seeing for Meek and Young's performances, and for the work itself. The curtain raiser, Tom Stoppard's After Magritte was a clever choice, since it is a lighter riff on the paradoxes of form and ambiguity (and modern art) that The man who deals with... Dystin Johnson was funny as Thelma, and Brenda Dowsett was very surreal as Mother, with the tuba. But the whole thing, in a less than incisive overall performance, seemed like a pretentious rework of the Goon show, though it still had quite a few good moments and lines. ("Don't use language" always comes in handy.) Regards, Helen H.E. Elsom he@helsom.demon.co.uk http://www.helsom.demon.co.uk/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main OPERA-L page ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Powered by LISTSERV(R)] Back to the [CataList - online list search] LISTSERV home page at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU.