【筆記HKAF2008】劇場裏的巴赫
(Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 10:42pm)
《Fragments》
Texts: Samuel Beckett
Director: Peter Brook
17.2.2008 20:15 HKCC Studio Theatre CC12
連年在HKAF 選看劇場作品，越看越不明白劇場的意義何在。終於，今晚遇上了令我迷上的名字：Samuel Beckett。
在短短一小時裏，五齣精要的小品散發攝人的力量。對白文本或是發人深省的言簡意賅，或是滔滔不絕的修辭漸進，皆刻畫了人生的幽喑和掙扎；奇妙的是，在看似壓倒性的命運決定論中，Beckett 卻容許人們稍稍抽離自問：「其實命運中還有選擇罷？」《Rough for Theatre I》的那一句「I’m not unhappy enough」，真是美得不得了......
再好的文本，也不能缺少劇場人員把它實現化。Peter Brook 和三位演員的功力，還有精簡的導具和適切的燈光，各方面的心思都教人敬佩。我尤其喜歡 Kathryn Hunter 在《Rockaby》的獨腳戲......
這是被我濫用的 jargon：我找到了劇場裏的巴赫。
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看過劇場，竟想起那日夜都離不開「存在主義」的SD同學，OMG......
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【筆記HKAF2008】第一次看Pina Bausch
(Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 12:16pm)
《Vollmond》
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
29.2.2008 19:30 HKCC Grand Theatre Stall O22
中場休息時，拿起白酒，放下執著；然後，這當然是一齣好作品。
所謂「月滿」，既不純粹，也不抽象；朋友驚訝於它的舞台效果，我則困擾於它的敘事片段。想通了，其實自己那 ”absolute” 的追求有點無聊。
舞台上，是男女間千樣百態的角力，也是情愛根本的悲涼。身體揮發情緒的極端，化為為武器自傷傷人；舞台上既散亂又嚴密的關係，抽離看，猶如小說，更像現實。
水，舞台上是盡是水的痕跡；流動、灑下、撞擊，形態萬化的水，溫柔的，暴烈的，直穿舞者心臟。水，是甜是酸也是苦，到最後，其實是痛。
看到最後，十二位舞者，濕透了，喘著氣謝幕；作為觀眾，也很心痛。
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越是執著，越是看不到好東西。希望昨夜帶來改變。
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【筆記HKAF2008】on Andr赔s Schiff Piano Recital
(Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 11:57pm)
Andr赔s Schiff Piano Recital
1.3.2008 20:00 HKCH Concert Hall Stall M23
Programme:
Schumann Papillons, Op.2
Beethoven Sonata No.17 in D minor, Op, 31/2 ”Tempest”
Schumann Fantasie in C major, Op.17
Beethoven Sonata No.21 in C major, Op. 53 ”Waldstein”
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We never listen to a composer’s work; we even don’t listen to a performer’s interpretation. What we can hear, is our own comprehension upon the performer’s interpretation. Here, I’ve to confess that I don’t have the professional, trained, ears for piano repertoire. Even worse, I don’t have any recordings of Andr赔s Schiff, and seemingly I’ve never heard any recordings of the two Schumann’s pieces (a real shame!) Therefore, what I’ve perceived, and what I’ve conceived, could be simply nonsense.
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The recital started in the full-housed, a-little-bit-hot concert hall of the nice HKCH. That’s where we had the Schumann’s Papillons: the tone was sophisticatedly balanced and refrained, and the pace seemed to be just spontaneous. A totally new piece to me, I did expect something more delightful from the music --the atmosphere you may imagine as if a little girl having fun on the keyboard; no, it wasn’t that delightful. Rather, I did enjoy the rounded tone beautifying phrase of this or that. It’s not eloquent, but I found a sort of not-too-much warmness.
So here came the Tempest. My friend, K, told me about his disappointment upon the lack of coherence in the music. Well, I do very much agree about his point of coherence, but I do enjoy such interpretation. I gave up the detached, ”structuralist’s” approach to appreciate the performance; rather, I made myself ”being within”, let myself ”flow” along the pace. Schiff’s very (or, over) spatial reading could trigger lots of imagination, the beautified ”magic moments” (K’s words) were together a sequence of emotional drives. Giving up the structure, I enjoyed the, although blended, aura. (The fact was that... I was almost driven to weep...) I had almost the same feeling for Schumann’s Fantasie in C, too.
After the intermission, after my talk with K, I was, unfortunately, detached. Beethoven’s Waldstein became, to my untrained ears, an inescapable cycle of dragging and struggling. Being in C major, maybe I had such an unconscious urge to have something joyful, elegantly and shiningly joyful. No. I was detached, and the music was not coherent at all. I was completely puzzled... There should be something worth for appreciation, something the detached me could not comprehend.
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Everyone has his/her rationale of artistic acceptance, and everyone has his/her bottom-line. Having different rationales, I understand why ones would object to Schiff’s Beethoven rendering. I’m usually quite open to pianists’ interpretation, and one may say that it’s my ignorance that grants me such an naive openness. Still, I DO have bottom-line.
There were three encores, two Bach and one Schubert.
Regretfully, I DISLIKE the Bach so much...
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I’m looking forwards to the concert reviews from my pianist friends! ;-D
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【筆記HKAF2008】MacGregor plays Messiaen
(Saturday, March 8, 2008 at 11:37pm)
Joanna MacGregor plays Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jesus
9.3.2008 20:00 HKCH Concert Hall Stall E22
I’m at the same time too excited, too exhausted, and too busy that cannot say much... Yes. I enjoyed the concert very much, putting those noisy (and shameful) audiences at the back aside...
Messiaen’s masterpiece is religiously illustrative, but the non-religious me unintentionally illustrated something else in my mind: firstly the colour strokes of Jackson Pollock, and secondly the magical city of Petra. (Oh, sorry for my appropriation...) No matter what the audiences had in their minds, Messiaen’s Vingt regards is simply eloquently contemplative.
I cannot judge the the quality of MacGregor’s playing; well, it’s Messiaen, and I’m, again, ignorance upon pianism. All I can say is that the experiences of listening the piece from live concert and from (Yvonne Loriod’s) recordings are totally different things. Recordings provide an intimate space for ones to swim through Messiaen’s fantastic colours; MacGregor’s live concert stunningly, and forcefully, surpassed one’s own conscious, and manifested the colours inside his/her heart...
The encore, an extremely complicated and difficult transcription of a Piazzolla’s tango, was such a life-long-impressive showcase of virtuosity and conquest...
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【筆記HKAF2008】Rigoletto / Teatro Regio di Parma
(Monday, March 10, 2008 at 2:26am)
Verdi’s Rigoletto / Teatro Regio di Parma
10.3.2008 19:30 HKCC Grand Theatre Circle L24
(A short-and-quick note)
It’s my third time to watch an opera live, and the first production that I really fell in love with. The voice of Soprano Elena Mosuc (Gilda) was so sweet, and so beautiful that made ones heartbroken. (Yes, it’s my first time to really enamoured of a vocalist’s artistry.) And, the mastery of set & costume designs simply countered to the perfunctoriness of the ”minimal design” of Don Giovanni staged two years ago...
Friends know that opera is never my cup of tea; I simply don’t quite adapt to such a ”multi-media”, or ”multi-dimensional”, or even ”multi-grammatical”, art-form. However, a good production would inspire ones, and bring changes of thought... I’m wholeheartedly looking forwards to the staging of Handel’s and Shostakovich’s works next year!
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The text, or story, of Rigoletto, seems to be a convenient choice for all those interested at cultural studies to look into. Gender roles and relations, classes differentiation and hierarchy, ethnics/moralities and social rules, power, discourse...
However, the fundamental questions in my mind:
What is love? Do fates exist?
(We don’t need the answers like ”love is discursive or relativistic or institutionalized or... sometimes, theory can’t explain.)
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【筆記HKAF2008】Orpheus and Eurydice
(Sunday, March 16, 2008 at 1:51am )
Ode to Joy L.I.V.E. - Orpheus and Eurydice
Compahnie Marie Chouinard
15.3.2008 20:00 HKAPA Lyric Theatre Circle A21
Subjectively, the dance production doesn’t quite conform to my personal taste of ”beauty of abstractiveness”; rather it’s a great piece of intensive symbolism.
Starting with the verbal and bodies’ re/presentation of the Greek myth of Orpheus’ losing Eurydice, the whole piece may be regarded as the non-sequential manifestation of the ”rite of passage” (sorry for using anthropological jargon) between Eurydice’s death and her transcendence/ corruption into underworld/afterworld/hell/heaven. (Hey, don’t you think these terms are all ambiguous?) Sex is the symbol of alienation/assimilation; the rite of passage leads to the ultimate Satanic/Heavenly joy.
Bodily symbols of the characters of the Greek myth, together with the behavioral symbols of all sorts of sentiments, are, as the same time, juxtaposed and interwoven on-stage. It doesn’t mean to be chaotic; instead, the choreographer has the extreme talents to arrange everything on-stage to maintain spatial balance, and to make use of organized sounds (= music, in Varese’s term) to control/symbolize the notion of time. I’d regard the every sounding of the shakuhachi-like instrument to be a period of non-time... Simply inspiring! Narratively, instead of unstructured, it seems more like to be coherently poly-structured.
I’m used to dislike any associated narration or” literary-ness” upon dance production (not to mention music), but Compahnie Marie Chouinard wonderfully display how effective and convincing a choreographic work to be itself a piece of text.
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