TIFF Bell Lightbox

TIFF Bell Lightbox (downtown Toronto) is a cinema complex well worth visiting for out-of-the-way and culturally interesting productions. I just saw Museum Hours  — not much of a film, but a nice tour of Vienna's great Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Museum Hours (Austria/USA, 2013)

dir. Jem Cohen

rating: ✶✶

Photography

Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto  (2005)

I have started to post some of my best photos, whether from prints, slides, or digital, to two sites. The most select are going to  http://www.behance.net/lewis927  which is related to Adobe Critical Cloud and Photoshop.  More extensive, with numerous personal photos added, is  http://photo.net/photos/bel_ami . I deleted my file at flickr.com when a new format there invaded my computer to pull out photos I had not chosen, to my dismay! Purely family photos, not necessarily by me, are at  http://lewis27.ca/family2 .

I welcome feedback always.

bel.ami@lewis27.ca

Lily Pond, Oklahoma City  (2004)

Prince George of Cambridge

Birth of a Prince

On Parliament Hill, Ottawa, the Peace Tower was illuminated to mark the birth of HRH Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge, on 22 July 2013. At noon on the 23rd a royal salute of 21 guns was fired by the 30th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery. In London 41 and 62 gun royal salutes were fired while bells pealed at Westminster Abbey.

Edvard Munch (1863-1944)

To mark the 150th anniversary of the great artist's birth, there is currently an exhibition of his work in two museums and the university's great hall in Oslo. I greatly enjoyed a cinema tour that gave me considerable insight into his troubled but courageous life, the range of his work, and his distinct, still powerful expressionist style.

Lac-Mégantic

Disaster at Lac-Mégantic, QC

The runaway train that devastated the town of Lac-Mégantic in the Eastern Townships of Quebec in the early hours of 6 July 2013 consisted of 5 locomotives, a buffer car, and 72 tank cars carrying 113,000 L each of crude oil. It was operated by a single engineer who parked it for the night in nearby Nantes, on the main line of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, then left it unattended! Federal regulations currently permit that.

Centre of town was devastated by massive explosions and fire— a large number of houses, businesses, and anyone caught in or around them were wiped out in an instant. Few injured arrived at hospital — the people were dead.

As of now 42 bodies have been recovered, with only 22 identified. Missing in all are 47 persons.

21 July 2013

summer solstice 2013

Stonehenge

summer solstice

21 June 2013 at 0504 UT, 0104 EDT

first moonrise after summer solstice

National Ballet of Canada / mixed programme

National Ballet of Canada

mixed programme

22 June 2013

The evening was a packed climax to the company's ambitious season with four varied works. No. 24, chor. Guillaume Côté (2010), was an intense powerful duo danced by Aleksandar Antonijević and Greta Hodgkinson. Pur ti miro, chor. Jorma Elo (2010), was a less than successful hybrid. The Man in Black, chor. James Kudelka (2010), skilfully recreated feelings of the North American West. Theme and Variations, chor. George Balanchine  (1947), with Guillaume Côté and Heather Ogden, was a beautiful reaffirmation of grand Russian style.

Pur ti miro

chor. Jorma Elo  (2010)

pur ti miro = I adore you

I was puzzled by the comings and goings of dancers in situations that are explosive and spastic, yet occasionally pretty. The piece is neither neo-classic nor really modern, and left me uncomfortable.

The Man in Black

chor. James Kudelka  (2010)

music of Johnny Cash

with Piotr Stanczyk, McGee Maddox, Jonathan Renna, and Stephanie Hutchison

This is country music and dance of the North American West. The sentiments are simple and basic, and familiar. I got to appreciate McGee Maddox who seemed in his element.

No. 24

chor. Guillaume Côté  (2010)

Niccolò Paganini , Caprice No. 24 in A minor  (from 24 Caprices, ca 1805-1807)

with Aleksandar Antonijević and Greta Hodgkinson

The movement is as complicated and difficult as the capriccio itself. The dancers are intense and focused in their constant interaction. The piece is short and powerful, and was the standout of the evening. Aleksandar Antonijević looked wonderful, superb partner for an emotive Greta Hodgkinson.

Theme and Variations

chor. George Balanchine  (1947)

with Guillaume Côté and Heather Ogden

It is a beautiful reaffirmation of the grand Russian style, and great way to end an ambitious season. The principals moved with ease and charm through virtuoso choreography that celebrated imperial grandeur and beauty.

Mark Morris — L'Allegro

L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato

chor. Mark Morris (1988)

Mark Morris Dance Group

with Tafelmusik and Chamber Choir

at Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto

presented by Luminato Festival

21 June 2013

The cast of 24 moves lightly through many variations and constant entrances and exits, forming dynamic patterns to reflect exactly the flow of George Frideric Handel's music, with clever use of lighting, scrims, and colour. Handel's 1740 piece, not quite an oratorio, is an impressive pastoral ode after poems of John Milton, with orchestra, choir, and four soloists. The dance, though at times repetitious, is interesting, playful, and fun. The audience gave a standing ovation.

Carmen

Carmen

chor. Davide Bombano  (2006, 2009)

National Ballet of Canada

with Greta Hodgkinson (Carmen), Piotr Stanczyk (Don José), Jiří Jelinek (Escamillo)

on 8 June 2013 (evening)

Carmen is a standing colourful favourite of opera, perhaps less so as ballet, though still familiar. This version is much darker and almost mythic, entirely premised on passions and sex, ultimately in tragedy. A band of thieves provides at times some intense movement on stage while occasionally projections on screen distract. When Escamillo as minotaur appears he is accompanied by a surprise, and certainly amusing drag chorus of four tall guys wielding huge fans. The piece overall is highly dramatic and powerful, and to-night performed exceptionally well.

Boris Eifman's Rodin

Rodin

Роден

chor. Boris Eifman  (2011)

Eifman Ballet of St Petersburg

Труппа театра балета Бориса Эйфмана

Toronto, 23 - 25 May 2013

Sony Centre for the Performing Arts

The highly emotive work, with a large cast, focuses on the creative and amorous lives of sculptors Auguste Rodin and the much younger Camille Claudel. It is complicated by the presence of a loving and jealous wife, and Claudel's descent into madness. 

Choreographer Eifman brilliantly captures the intensity of their creative work as they transform stone into powerful contemporary statuary. Individual tableaux are amazing. There is wonderful movement of a corps of workers in the foundry and in other scenes. I enjoyed the can-can episode in a Paris nightclub, and something more rural with happy peasants and the trampling of grapes — but their relevance to the main story is somewhat puzzling. 

Quality of dance throughout the evening was outstanding — I attended on the 24th. It was overall a powerful and at times fascinating performance, but Eifman's choreography with many flashbacks sometimes left me confused.

Bolshoi's "Romeo & Juliet"

Romeo & Juliet

chor. Yuri Grigorovich  (2010)

Bolshoi Ballet

with Anna Nikulina (Juliet), Aleksandr Volchkov (Romeo), Mikhail Lobukhin (Tybald)

The performance was powerful and emotive, with astonishing moments from a choreographic version that focuses on character and inner meaning. Mikhail Lobukhin was a virtuoso Tybalt, but I was underwhelmed by the two lovers.

simulcast from Moscow, 12 May 2013

last of the season

Willem Alexander

HM Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicated on 30 April 2013, and was succeeded by her son Willem Alexander. The same day he took the solemn oath of office at a session of the States General — regalia were on display. In the Netherlands there is no coronation, and the king never in fact wears the crown.

Assemblée Internationale 2013

 28 April - 4 May 2013

 It's been an amazing week bringing together students and teachers from 18 leading ballet schools in 11 countries to interact in classes, colloquia, and performances. There were two evenings of programmes by the various academies to show something of their interests and special qualities. Some was classic but most was modern, even avant-garde. These evenings were entitled Ballet: Traditionally Timeless.  Then there was an intense programme of mostly student works, blending students from different schools — it was entitled Choreography: Fast Forward. The second part was a remarkable feat, live streaming of Stream, choreographed by Shaun Amyôt and Michael Schumacher. Using state of the art technology with the help of Ryerson University, it simultaneously brought together casts in Toronto and Amsterdam, seamlessly transcending space and time.

Participants:

Canada's National Ballet School, organizing

Royal Winnipeg Ballet School

École supérieure de ballet du Québec

Houston Ballet's Ben Stevenson Academy

Julliard School

San Francisco Ballet School

Escuela Nacional Cubana de Ballet

Australian Ballet School

New Zealand School of Dance

Royal Ballet School

Schule des Hamburg Balletts

John Cranko Schule

Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden

Nationale Balletacademie, Amsterdam

Codarts, Rotterdam

Det Kongelige Teaters Balletskole, Copenhagen

École de Danse de l'Opéra National de Paris

EESA/CPD de l'Institut del Teatre, Barcelona

      Earthborn

       chor. Robert Binet (2013)

Édouard Manet (1832-1883)

Manet: Portraying Life

Royal Academy of Arts, London

cinema rebroadcast of exhibition tour, 28 April 2013

remarkable assembly of Manet's portraiture

many experts had trivial comments, but overall coverage of the show was excellent

                                       Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe  (1862)

Lewis Carroll's Alice

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

chor. Christopher Wheeldon  (2011)

Royal Ballet

with Sarah Lamb (Alice), Federico Bonelli (Knave of Hearts), Edward Watson (Lewis Carroll, White Rabbit), Steven McRae (Mad Hatter) 

I enjoyed the cinema broadcast from London of the clever and amusing ballet (co-production with the National Ballet of Canada). The British company did not dance better than ours, but they had artists to admire. The Queen of Hearts (Zenaida Yanowsky) was perfect in the grotesque role. Federico Bonelli was as accomplished as he was handsome. The casting could hardly have been better.

Iron Lady

Margaret Thatcher  (1925-2013)

Rt Hon. Margaret Hilda Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS

Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven

Her ceremonial funeral on 17 April 2013 is a notch below state funeral, a grandiose public occasion with military honours, attended by the Queen, and estimated to cost ₤10 million at a time of national austerity and intensive cost-cutting.

Praise from admirers has been effusive while, on the opposite, pop charts in the UK have seen the resurgence of a ditty from the 1939 musical, The Wizard of Oz:  "Ding Dong! The witch is dead".

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1979-1992, she was the first woman in that post. Relentlessly conservative, she was an admirer of economist Friedrich von Hayek, the opposite in values to John Maynard Keynes. She moved to privatize state enterprises and to remove controls in the financial sector. An enemy of unions, she left the mining industry in shambles. She did what she could to dismantle the welfare state. Famously she withdrew public funding of milk for children in the schools.

When in 1982 Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands, the UK sent a naval task force that in 74 days restored British sovereignty. Argentina lost 649 military personnel in that expedition, Britain 255, along with 3 islanders. The patriotic British public was happy. It remains to be seen what Argentine representative, if any, will attend the funeral this week.*

Since her time the important financial sector of the City has been in serious speculative trouble. High unemployment in the country has become endemic. British industry remains in deep decline. National ties of the United Kingdom have weakened with periodic unrest in Northern Ireland, and with evident separatism and local nationalism in Scotland and Wales. Class divisions in Britain are sharper than ever.

It was Russians who gave Lady Thatcher her most apt soubriquet, long surviving the cold war — iron lady.

* none did

                        

Football as dance

A dance tribute to the art of football

chor. Jo Strømgren  (1997, 2009)

Jo Strømgren Kompani  (Oslo)

Harbourfront, World Stage, Toronto

12 April 2013

I was expecting a team, but there are at most only four dancers on stage (one a boyishly cute girl). The piece has all the gestures and attributes of soccer from the mystique of the ball, opposition,  aggressions, coach, and referee. It is at times quite ingenious as individualities gradually express themselves, with even homoerotic moments. A collective shower à poil is a fitting end to an hour of clever mayhem.

rating: ✶✶✶✶ (of 5)

Gerhard Richter (German, 1932 - )

Gerhard Richter Painting  (Germany, 2011)

dir. Corinna Belz

rating:  ✭✭✭✭

Netflix

The documentary on this monumental German artist (born 1932) is skilful and very

interesting. It mostly shows him at work, with occasional commentary, and his succinct

views. My total ignorance of him is a surprise. His techniques are amazing though the abstract results mostly do not blow me away.

Toronto pandemonium

The Prime Minister, not often seen in Toronto, was recently on the tarmac at Pearson along with some other dignitaries, to take delivery of two visiting giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). Two Canadian zoos will be hosting them for the next ten years at a steep annual cost. The PM, peering into the one travel container, said some words about Sino-Canadian friendship. The Chinese Ambassador thought the reception for the bears was more impressive than what he got. The Mayor of Toronto, himself a bear, had no comment but seemed supportive. FedEx delivered the pandas to the Toronto Zoo with police escort. The pair, who may eventually breed, were headed for 30 days of quarantine.

[25 March 2013]

The annual fee to China for panda research will be paid by the federal government, but the local zoo will have heavy costs to house, feed, and care for the animals. Increased attendance at higher admission is expected to more than cover the outlay, as well in general to improve the zoo's local profile.

ZOO (Brussels)

Like me more like me

chor. Thomas Hauert  (2011)

ZOO (Brussels)

Brussels/Toronto Project with TDT

Two men come at each other in diverse and highly original ways with specific body  language, varieties of movement, occasional sounds, clothing changes, surprising drag, and partial undress. They appear to be lovers more in conflict and intense dialogue than anything else. The piece is avant-garde and always interesting but not, for me at least, homoerotic. I felt sympathy for each man's individuality but could not really relate well by the exhausted end. 

The choreographer, who also performs, is a Swiss who created his own company, ZOO.  He has had lots of experience on the lively Belgian dance scene, including with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Rosas.

3 April 2013

Toronto, Winchester St. Theatre