Irrepressible Elton

Love Lies Bleeding
chor. Jean Grand-Maître  (2010)
Alberta Ballet

As much a crowd pleasing musical as ballet, the piece is bright, dynamic, and at times wonderfully and appropriately homoerotic. Based on the life of Sir Elton John, it moves briskly through 14 of his songs from Bennie and the Jets to Saturday night’s alright for fighting. The staging is constantly inventive with projections and innumerable surprises, and almost more detail than can be immediately absorbed. The dance itself is strong, imaginative, and right in the fast moving sequences.

Bolshoi inaugural

The remodelled, reconstructed State Academic Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (founded 1776) was inaugurated with a gala of opera and ballet on 28 October 2011. The event was not simulcast in Canada, unfortunately, but I often thought about it during the day. After 80 years of neglect the building was in danger of collapse. The present works, from foundation upward, took six years at a cost exceeding $700 million. The magnificent theatre and its artistic companies, opera and ballet, are world treasures.
www.bolshoi.ru

Spartacus

Spartacus
Spartak Спартак
chor. Yuri Grigorovich (1968)

Bolshoi Ballet, in Paris (2008)
with Carlos Acosta, Aleksandr Volchkov, Nina Kaptsova, Maria Allash
Decca DVD (2009)

A legacy ballet of the Soviet era, Spartacus survives as a signature piece of the Bolshoi Ballet, a work of heroic proportions and artistic demands.The courageous but hopeless struggle of slaves against their imperial Roman masters takes on allegorical life on stage. It represents an unending challenge regardless of odds.

The present choreography, dating from 1968 now classic, communicates the message on a grand scale without losing the human dimension, a progression of scenes building logically to a tragic climax.

Carlos Acosta is admirable in the 2008 performance, but so too is Aleksandr Volchkov in the demanding role of Roman tyrant, Crassus. While women have significant roles, the ballet is primarily for men. In an interview on the Decca DVD Carlos Acosta cited Spartacus as the perfect role for him, and culmination of his career.

La Esmeralda

La Esmeralda (2009 recension) was first simulcast of the Bolshoi season: bravura and virtuoso dance sans pareil with principals Maria Aleksanova and Ruslan Skvortsov, and amazing Vladislav Lantratov with Ekaterina Krysanova (Acteon and Diana sequence).

La Esmeralda Эсмеральда
chor. Jules Perrot (1844), Marius Petipa (1886, 1899), and others
recension: Yuri Burlaka, Vasily Medvedev (2009)
with Maria Aleksandrova, Ruslan Skvortsov, Ekaterina Krysanova, Denis Savin, and Vladislav Lantratov
simulcast from Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow

The White Ribbon

Das weiße Band . Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (Austria/Germany, 2009)
The White Ribbon
dir. Michael Haneke
Cannes, 2009, Palme d'Or
rating: ✬✬✬

It's a grim movie set in a north German village on the eve of WWI. It is a world of its own, with predictable progression of seasons and generations, hierarchical, and socially repressive. Yet events happen from time to time that remain unexplained.

The film certainly is gripping, even disturbing to watch but, at 145 min., long, unresolved, and ultimately unsatisfying. Years later a teacher is recounting his experiences in the village. He never got to the bottom of mysterious, violent events then, and neither does the audience now.

It's a dour tale of dirty secrets and religious repression, of hypocritical adults and scary, enigmatic children. [Martin Morrow, CBC News, 14 January 2010]

Hon. Jack Layton (NDP, Toronto-Danforth), 1950-2011

I am not sure that a state funeral is appropriate for leader of the opposition, but it is happening on Saturday, 27 August 2011. The body was taken to the foyer of the House of Commons to-day to lie in state.

My friends, love is better than anger. 
Hope is better than fear. 
Optimism is better than despair.
 So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. 
And we’ll change the world.
[last message of le bon Jack, 20 August 2011]

Certainly he was colourful, energetic, and spunky, but neverthless less than a statesman. Still, he was always a friend of gays, minorities, and underdogs, and worked to improve their condition.

NDP leadership gaffe

I find it preposterous that the NDP would choose a recent member of the Bloc Québécois, still currently enrolled in separatist Québec Solidaire, to be the interim party leader. Nycole Turmel (Hull-Aylmer) may be federalist now but the past is entirely relevant. She was in the Bloc for four years, until January 2011, yet says she was always federalist.

I detest this level of political opportunism, and question the judgment of the NDP in this important matter.

Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands), Green Party leader, sees no problem with Turmel's affiliations, perhaps because of her own tergiversations. That finishes her in my eyes.

South Africa: unbalanced lives in transition

Disgrace (Australia, 2008)
dir. Steve Jacobs
rating: ★★★★

With focus on a libido-driven academic egotist the film ventures into racially ambiguous, troubled post-apartheid South Africa. It is a disturbing, brutal, and frank story about intersecting lives unbalanced.

Manic Swan

Black Swan (USA, 2010)
dir. Darren Aranofsky
rating: ✶✶✶

A relentless film about an artist's descent into hallucination, self-mutilation, and madness with scenes of bulimia, hysteria, lesbian fantasmes, it is a horrible imposition on the viewer and distortion of the ballet world. I hate this film that bizarrely hijacks a great classic ballet.

Mayoral farce in Toronto

Toronto’s 64th mayor, Rob Ford, was inaugurated on 7 December 2010 in an eccentric, even bizarre event without precedent in the Council chambers. The mayor’s chain of office, symbol of his authority, was presented to him not by a personage such as Chief Justice or Lieutenant Governor of the province, but rather by flamboyant tv commentator, CBC’s Don Cherry of Hockey Night in Canada, noted for bigotry and unabashed redneck sentiment.

Attired in ludicrous pink Cherry took the occasion to praise his mayoral protégé and to lash out at people he would marginalize, pinkos, left-wing weirdos, and bike riders.

“Bring on the clowns”, commented Councillor Pam McConnell (Centre Rosedale, ward 28).

When the mayor inaugurates his term by turning the podium over to a mean poseur "dripping sarcasm and hatred in all his soul",✶ what does that presage for the city?
✶ see: Jack Todd, Montreal Gazette, 13 December 2010

Boris Godunov

Boris Godunov
Modest Petrovich Musorgsky
1872 version, with scenes from 1869 original
Metropolitan Opera, New York
cinema broadcast in HD live, 23 October 2010
cond. Valery Gergiev
production Stephen Wadsworth
with René Pape (Boris Godunov)

I am far from being an opera buff, and found the four hours of performance a bit of an ordeal despite the wonderful voice and acting presence of bass René Pape in the title role. I was most impressed, if not moved, by the death scene of the hallucinating Tsar, and the poignant closing lament for Russia of the Holy Fool (yurodivy, sung by tenor Andrey Popov).

If the libretto was more historically accurate the opera would have lost its main premise. It is doubtful that Boris, then regent, murdered the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Dmitri.

Out of Context — for Pina

Out of Context — for Pina
dir. Alain Platel (2010)
les ballets C de la B
Fleck Dance Theatre
Harbourfront, Toronto
16 October 2010

A highly intricate and ultimately brilliant piece, it flows through many transitions, with movements and sounds ranging from spastic and animal to more normal and casual, but with constant surprises. With six men and three women mostly in skivvies, sometimes covered with blankets, there are many levels of relationships, but mostly they are individuals in an uncertain continuum.

A Disappearing Number

A Disappearing Number
conceived and directed by Simon McBurney (2007)
performed by Complicite *
Theatre Royal Plymouth
cinema broadcast 14 October 2010

mathematicians Srinivasa Ramanujan and Godfrey Harold Hardy collaborate in 1914 (theme)

* Théâtre de la Complicité
(original name of the experimental company)


A Disappearing Number is a decidedly clever, imaginatively experimental, but problematical and in many ways puzzling play. I was unable to get emotionally involved in what passed for a plot, with separate but intellectually intersecting individuals. I can inherently appreciate the beauty of elegant mathematical proofs, yet that hardly makes for drama to this remote observer. The play kept harping at the significance of infinity — awesome in imagination, less so on stage. Given the origin of the one genius, a fair dollop of Indian mysticism was interjected by the end of the day. It felt gratuitous.

Pirates

Pirates of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean
Somali pirates at the moment are holding about 18 vessels and their crews hostage for ransom in what has become a lucrative, if dangerous activity in recent years, causing havoc in international shipping channels among the busiest in the world. The presence of 30 warships of NATO, the United States, and many associated countries has only slightly deterred the pirates who mostly are let go even after capture. In April 2009 the Russian destroyer Admiral Panteleev (above, top) captured 29 pirates and destroyed their mother ship. On 9 September 2010 24 U.S. Marines dramatically scaled a hijacked German cargo vessel and arrested the 9 pirates on board. Pirates have seized more than 30 vessels this year so far, however.

NYT archives 3, 9, 10 Sept 2010

The Census politicized and undermined

With minimal consultation and little notice Canada’s national government has recklessly compromised the reliability and integrity of the quinquennial census that, since Confederation and before, has been a principal source of accurate information on the demographic, economic, and social composition of the nation. Ignoring the protests and remonstrations of statisticians, historians, genealogists, professionals of all kinds, and even major provinces, the cabinet in Ottawa has removed some questions from the key long form on dubious grounds of privacy and made remaining answers voluntary. A short form of eight questions has been maintained and still compulsory for the census scheduled for May, 2011.

At a stroke the usefulness of the exercise has been badly undermined, introducing serious doubt about the reliability of voluntary returns, and making comparisons with previous data uncertain. There seems to be total incomprehension in the Conservative cabinet of what this is all about, given the scorn and scoffing of Minister of Industry Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka).

Repairing the damage as best they can will be a priority task for future government. Modern societies require more than fanciful statistics and anecdotal information to function in any sense rationally.

Arma virumque: undercurrents of violence

A dozen protesters carrying arms were observed in Phoenix, AZ where President Obama was addressing the national convention of Veterans of Foreign Wars. One was carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle (illustrated above), and all were legal under Arizona law. Some days earlier weapons were observed near a presidential event in New Hampshire, another open-carry state. The Secret Service stated that armed demonstrators had "little impact on security plans for the president". The White House has been silent.
[AP, 17 August 2009]

Nothing could contrast more sharply the difference in political culture between Canada and the United States. Personally I am aghast.

Frank Rich wrote an insightful piece about the current menace of "provocateurs with guns" in yesterday's New York Times: "The guns of August". Threats against the American president have increased 400% over those against the previous incumbent.

Afghanistan: should Canada be there?

When the Canadian government sent Canadian troops, inadequately prepared and poorly supported, into the cauldron of Afghanistan in 2002, it was no doubt to placate the United States for our non-participation in Iraq, and as a gesture of solidarity with NATO and UN. The cost in lives has been high. The result in the country of all Allied efforts has been problematical.

On 15 August 2009 a suicide bomber was able to pass various of levels of control at the most secure HQ ISAF * zone of Kabul, and detonate over 500 kg of explosive, killing 7 civilians outright, and injuring about 100 others, including some military.

Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, Commander of ISAF and US forces, was present nearby at a security briefing at the time of the incident, close to fortified embassies and government buildings, as well as the presidential palace. Taliban claimed credit. [The Observer, 16 August 2009]

* International Security Assistance Force

In an earlier blog, written in September, 2006, I wrote:
Meanwhile as casualties rise, an abundant crop of opium poppies still nourishes the [underground]narco-economy [of Afghanistan], corruption abounds at all levels of state, while Taliban, Al Qaeda ("the Base"), unlimited arms and money pass with impunity through the porous Pakistani frontier.
Not much has changed in the interval of three years.

Canadian casualties in the campaign to date: 127
Coalition casualties: 1315

Foreign military presence in Afghanistan: 88,000 (about 41 countries)
NATO presence: 32.000
incl. Canada 2,500
US presence (Operation Enduring Freedom): 56,000
Afghan National Army: 90,000

Parliament prorogued

Facing certain defeat in the House of Commons on Monday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper attended Governor General Michaëlle Jean at Rideau Hall on Thursday morning, 4 December 2008 and requested prorogation of Parliament, which she granted until 26 January. His minority government thus obtained a reprieve and some breathing space, but the country was left in a precarious situation at a time of major economic crisis worldwide. The PM's manoeuvre has no precedent in Canadian parliamentary practice.

A potential coalition of opposition parties, with majority votes in the Commons, was left in limbo, furious. The nation can expect a bombardment of vicious propaganda in coming weeks as parties justify their position, and dig in their heels. The coalition may fracture long before it can come into existence. In truth, it has been deeply flawed and illusionary from inception.


Had the Governor General been courageous and refused prorogation, a ragtag combo of Liberals and NDP, with dubious Bloquiste support, would have attempted some response to the fast deteriorating economic condition of the country. Meanwhile, a bad constitutional precedent has been set.

If Her Excellency had either refused prorogation or taken the request under advisement, a furor would have erupted not unlike the fuss and rant in 1926 when Lord Byng of Vimy did not acquiesce to the prime minister of the day. In Canadian fashion she chose discretion rather than assertion. Nevertheless reserve powers of the royal prerogative remain, intact and dormant until some future crisis.

Arts in Canada under attack

The Conservative government’s strong dislike of arts and culture is increasingly evident in proposed legislation that would establish subjective tests for media to receive public subsidies, and most recently in $45 million of cuts to various arts programmes, particularly those that promote Canadian culture abroad.

Liberal candidate Justin Trudeau (Montreal Papineau) and NDP leader Jack Layton have been vocal in making the cuts an issue in the election campaign, as have many cultural organizations across the country.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper can scarcely conceal his contempt for what he calls a “niche issue” promoted by well-heeled intellectual élitists, evidently of little interest to ordinary Canadians.

It is not an issue that is going to go away. As an economic activity culture represents a value as high as $85 billion in Canada. Nothing is more potent a factor in Canadian identity forged over centuries across a vast continent. It includes a myriad of activities, national and regional, ethnic and aboriginal, on-stage, in museums, schools and universities, in print, on-air and on-line. Some is commercially viable, but most requires a boost in this country more than most, given the small diverse population spread unevenly across a huge land. Philanthropy can help, but assured public subsidies remain essential for the continued healthy existence of the arts in Canada.

graphic: The Red Maple (1914), by A.Y. Jackson (of the Group of Seven)

After Beijing

I watched the final closing spectacle of the Games, astonished and somewhat perplexed. No doubt the totalitarian host country surpassed itself in the quality of the event. I am distressed by unspoken political overtones. However, the athletes experienced wonderful conditions over the seventeen days of the XXIX Olympiad, and they deserve the best.

Canada’s 18 medals equal the number obtained in Barcelona 1992, less than the 22 in Atlanta 1996. The haul was 3 gold, 9 silver, and 6 bronze. The country’s support of its élite athletes is trivial, even pitiful compared to programmes in Commonwealth countries like Australia and Great Britain.

I watched quite a bit of the Olympics over the past two weeks, as much in awe of the disappointments and failures as of the successes.

In fairness, Canada's excellent standing in winter sports should be remembered. At the XX Olympic Winter Games in Turin in 2006 Canada ranked fifth with 24 medals (7 gold, 10 silver, 7 bronze). Vancouver is the venue for the XXI Games in 2010.