Veriditas's Production of Kurt Weill's "The Tsar has his Photograph Taken" ("Der Zar lässt sich photographieren")






Time: 7:30 pm, March 17 and 18
Venue: Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, Univ. of York

Co-Directors:Mary E. Larew and Omar Shahryar
Musical Director (Orchestra conductor): Jay Crossland



The Cast:
Boy: Melanie Jones
Assistant: Chirs Palmer
Angele: Francesca Geach
Leader: Cara Curran
False Boy: Rosemary Carlton-Willis
False Assistant: Matthew Badham
False Angele: Alison Russell
Tsar: Chris Macklin
Equerry: Nick Ashby

Plot Summary:

The action of "The Tsar has his Photograph Taken" takes place in a Parisian photographer’s studio. The Tsar’s photo-shooting is arranged before a group of revolutionists take over the studio. The real photographer, Angèle, and her 2 assistants are abducted and replaced by assassins. They put a loaded gun in the camera, and whoever presses the shutter will fire it. Without any knowledge of the murderous plot, the Tsar arrives with his entourage. However, things do not go as the revolutionists have planned. The Tsar, supposedly an imperialistic dictator, has a crash on the fake Angèle. Instead of having his photo taken by this Angele, he insists that Angèle should pose for a photo first. The false photographer’s worry about her own life and the Tsar’s ignorance of the murder lead them to a farcical tango before the plot is uncovered. Finally, a photograph is taken…



The Viriditas's production of 'The Tsar Has His Photograph Taken' proved to be a delightful piece of entertainment over last weekend.

The script was well-chosen. Kurt Weill's wicked sense of humour and masterful control of narrative make the single story-line concise in size but rich in impact. Directors, Mary Larew and Omar Shahryar, successfully brought the farce on page to stage. It is definitely not easy to present an opera in Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, considering its size and architectural design. However, the directors managed to place side by side in the concert hall an orchestra and an acting space. The two-fold presentation doubled up the musical enjoyment, although sometimes actors had to compete with the orchestra to be heard.

Despite the fact that the stage was rather small and occasionally actors were plunged into darkness where no stage lightening was available. The stage design was very dynamic. Different dimensions of the theatrical space were explored. For instance, a part of audience seat was used as an escape route necessary to the plot; the chorus standing at the background conveniently served as portrait photos that are indispensable in a photographer's studio.

In terms of acting, Chris Macklin, as the Tsar, gave a successful and charismatic touch to his part. He allowed us to see a child-like lovelorn boy within an imperial dictator by presenting the 2 natures in a hilarious contrast. Alisun Russell, as false Angele, sang well but was comparatively weak in her acting especially because for most of the time she had to interact with an attention-driven counterpart: Macklin. Nevertheless, the weakness could somehow be interpreted as a reflection of the character's own hesitation and anxiety in a chaotic situation like this. Cara Curran, as the leader of the assassins, is another impressive singer whose steady singing voice was the authoritative sound that we would have firstly expected from the Tsar, a man of power. In addition, Curran's singing introduced an acoustic horizon to the opera before whom the other 3 singers (the real Angele and her 2 assistants) were heard to be struggling in the beginning of the show.

"The Tsar has his Photograph Taken" is the first (?)production of Viriditas, Mary Larew's new ensemble that is dedicated to the performance of music-drama of all range (mainly from medieval to modern). In this one-act opera, Viriditas proved itself to be a competent and capable new group.

I am looking forward to its next performance, Herod and the Slaughter of the Innocents, which will take place on 20-21 June at York's National Centre for Early Music .

* Image from Kurt Weill

Poetry about Home and Thoughts for Home

A close friend of mine is getting married.
She and her artist fiance are in search of a poem, a poem about home. They are planning to translate poetic language into decorative art to furnish their new house.

She honored me with this task to search for a poem on their behalf.
I love poetry, but it is not an easy work. I found my knowledge about home and about poetry of home lacking. The first suggestion that I gave her is William Carlos Williams's "The Red Wheelbarrow",


so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.


It is a poem more than simple. It is not directly related to the idea of home, but I am so enchanted by the verb "depend" that I am intrigued to impose my interpretations of home upon the 8 lines. My imagination is invited to understand the 'dependence' here as everyone's attachment to and reliance on home. Home is the red wheel barrow, the ultimate centre for all.

But it didn't deliver the same message to my patrons. I knew that I had stretched the poem a bit too far.

Then I was thinking about John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", its later half:

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th'other do.

And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th'other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.


The metaphor for relationship between 2 lovers--compass--has long been my favorite language of poetry. A steady centre and a wandering foot generate another image of a pair of graceful Waltz dancers. The fixed foot enacts the role of home. However far the other foot roam, it is bound to go home.
But what makes a wonderer go home? It is the beloved. The beloved is the steady centre of home.

Yet, I feel that home is not just between 2 people; therefore this proposal is postponed.

I went to a concert the other day. With the University Symphony Orchestra Bibi Heal, a soprano, sang Richard Strauss's 'Vier lextzte Lieder'. The lyrics are a set of four poems by Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff: Hesse's Fruhling ('Spring'), Beim Schlafengehen ('On Going to Sleep') and September, and von Eichendorff's Im Abendrot ('At Dusk'). The poems discuss love and emotional attachment between an aged couple. The lyrics flesh out Strauss's melody through which the composer expresses a deep affection for his wife in their old age. 'At Dusk' writes,

Here both in needs and gladness
We wandered hand in hand;
Now let us pause at last
Above the silent land.

Dusk comes the vales exploring,
The darkling air grows still,
Alone two skylarks soaring
In song their dreams fulfil.

Draw close and leave them singing,
Soon will be time to sleep,
How lost our way's beginning!
This solitude, how deep.

O rest so long desired!
We sense the night's soft breath
Now we tired, how tired!
Can this perhaps be death?

(tr. Michael Hamburger; taken from the programme of the concert)

The language was as enchanting as the melody. My imagination glided on the smooth flow of music and was led to thinking about an ultimate home, grave, for the aged couple. Death is not scary at all if one is accompanied by love to the last moment of life.

Home is a feeling rather than a physical place. This is all that I can think of now. Irritatingly, my imagination about home is rigid and is rather confined to romantic love. It still awaits a moment when it can cross the limit of experience.



The image is New Home.

York International Woman's Week II

It's a small advertisement about 'York International Woman's Week' 3-11/March/2007 in York. For full programme of this event, please click, YIWW.

Following last year's "A Question of Power (I)", Sue and Ann, directors of The Real People Theatre, are giving another heart-warming show this year.


The Real People Theatre presents A Question of Power (2)
Saturday 10 March 2007, 2.00pm
Drama Studio 2, York St Johns College, Lord Mayors' Walk (wheelchair access)
Focusing on empowerment and disempowerment through the eyes of women using theatre, dance, song, story and poetry. This is an IWW collaboration including voices from different cultures and different ages. From personal to global issues - what can we do to bring about positive change? The second in a series of three annual productions for IWW with audience discussion following the show.
Tickets: £5 (£4 concession) on the door or for advance purchase telephone Sue Lister on 01904 488870.

I was very glad that I was able to take a part in the production of last year's "A Question of Power (1)" (you could read my diaries about the event written in last Feb and last March). It can be treated as a landmarked event for me in terms of how the performance allows me to know more about my writing, my expression, and my life attitude.

I would love to join the show or just to attend the event this year again if it is not for a conference in Wales on that day.

"A Question of Power (II)" promises a comfortable, relaxing, and thought-inspiring afternoon where good stories and beautiful melodies of life await you.

Men are welcome too for sure.

Image: The Shrimp Girl, by William Hogarth (c. 1745)