This cracks me up. Especially the ending.
http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=4950
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Impressions of Amelia
Last Saturday I went to closing night of Amelia at Seattle Opera. I also went to opening night on May 8th and I noticed vast differences between the two performances. I don't know if it was anything different in what was done onstage so much as it was my feelings and interpretations of the work.
My impressions from opening night were:
1. The music was VERY modern - much more than I would have anticipated. I did find beautiful parts, but overall it seemed very dissonant.
2. There was always A LOT going on onstage. The first scene has young Amelia with her father, Dodge. Then at the same time you have Amanda (Amelia's mother) interacting with the men who have come to tell her that Dodge is missing in action. Then the flier (Amelia Earhart) shows up in the scene as well. Then in the second scene you have Amelia and Paul (her husband) in the bedroom along with Icarus and Daedalus. Then when Paul leaves to go to work, Amelia's mother shows up (as a vision). In the third scene you have Amelia, Amanda, the Vietnamese couple and the interpreter all interacting, while at the same time the scene of Dodge's capture plays out. In the last scene, you have Amelia in a coma with Paul and Helen (her aunt) trying to wake her, while in the same hospital room you have the Young Boy dying with his father at his bedside. Then the vision of Dodge shows up and interacts with Amelia, even though she is supposed to be in a coma. Then the flier appears again and remains onstage until the very end when Amelia gives birth. All this is a lot to take in the first time around. I felt like I was being bombarded. That, and I was sitting in the front row and found it very difficult to focus on everything that was going on.
During the second performance I felt like I was able to wrap my head around it a little more. I felt like I understood some of the deeper meaning of the characters and suddenly the music and singing seemed much more beautiful to me.
The opening scene with Amelia and Dodge was just gorgeous. You could instantly tell that there was a strong bond between the young girl and her father and it set the theme for the rest of the opera. Bill Burden's voice can never do wrong by me. It gives me chills, it's so beautiful.
The second scene takes place years later when Amelia is pregnant. She has dreams about the mythological Daedalus and Icarus. When she awakes, she questions Paul about his top secret work and fears that he's designing an airplane for war. She feels like she needs to know exactly what happened to her father, even though she had made a trip to Vietnam previously to find out. You can sense the tension between the two in this scene, but you can also tell that Paul is trying someone not to blow his top for fear of upsetting Amelia in her fragile state. After Paul leaves, Amelia's mother appears as a vision and the emotional scene where she tells Amelia that her father is missing is re-enacted.
Turn back 10 years and Amelia and her mother are in Vietnam after receiving a letter from a Vietnamese couple stating that they have information about Dodge. They communicate through an interpreter as the gruesome scene of his capture are re-enacted. The couple's daughter is shot because Dodge refused to divulge any information about his mission and just before Dodge is dragged away by the Vietnamese soldiers, he hands the couple a photo of Amelia and a letter than he had written to her and her mother. The couple had kept the photo of Amelia, which they show to her, but explain that they had burned the letter because they were angry.
I have to say, I wasn't sure how the Vietnamese language would sound when sung, but it is actually quite beautiful and musical in and of itself.
This scene was extremely harrowing and difficult to watch, but very effective. The backdrop of the Vietnamese country side at the beginning is very beautiful, but quickly turns dark once the action unfolds, complete with fierce yelling in Vietnamese and gunfire (courtesy of my friend Karl). :) When Bill Burden gets dragged offstage feet first, screaming and writhing in pain, you can't help but cringe and understand that his fate is sealed.
Act 2 opens in Paul's office. Amelia confronts him about his plane once again and wonders what the point is in bringing a child into the world. She becomes angry over her father's disappearance and the scene comes to a dramatic close when she falls to the floor unconscious. Kate Lindsey really shined in this scene. She was so dramatic and the singing was extremely difficult.
The next scene has Amelia lying in a hospital bed with Paul by her side. She has been unconscious for three days. In the same room, a boy lays dying after a fall, with his father by his side (the same father/son that sang the roles of Daedalus and Icarus). Paul goes to take a break and Amelia's aunt, Helen arrives. The boy has hallucinations that he is flying and has to be restrained by the hospital staff. Dodge reappears and converses with Amelia about death and her pregnancy. She tells him that he is scared and he assures her that "the risk is worth the love". During this time, the Flier also reappears and sings of the mystery of whether she is alive or dead and assures herself that the journey was worth the risk. As Dodge leaves, he places a letter on Amelia's bed. Paul comes back and the boy goes into cardiac arrest and dies. Paul finds the letter that Dodge left. It is the letter he wrote to Amelia and Amanda before being shot down. Paul breaks down into tears. This is the scene where Nathan really made the most out of his character and came to life. It was one of the most touching operatic scenes I've ever witnessed and made me all teary. Amelia wakes up and, against doctor's orders, decides against having a C-section and goes into labor. There is a long section in this scene where about 12 people (all the main cast and the hospital staff) break into a cappella.. I was most impressed that so many people could stay on pitch and keep tempo without the orchestra. Amazing! As Amelia's baby is born, the dead boy's father walks slowly towards the hospital exit. The parallel here between birth and death is beautifully displayed and is deeply moving.
Between each scene (during the set changes) there were orchestral interludes with seemed to musically foreshadow the action that was coming. The first time I saw the opera, these musical bits seemed a bit long and overbearing. On the second listen, however, they seemed to flow a lot more and made a lot more sense to me.
All of the singers (no matter how small the role) were amazing. They would have to be in order to pull something like this off. The same goes with the orchestra. It was obvious that a lot of painstaking effort was taken to make sure every aspect was as realistic as they could possibly get. Having worked with Stephen Wadsworth onstage before, his stage directing was instantly recognizable to me. He also wrote the story, which really impressed me.
This is the third contemporary opera I have seen, An American Tragedy and The End of the Affair being the other two. While I wouldn't say that this was my favorite of the three, I think it was a lot more bold. The story was 100% original, so I think it made more of an impression on me and challenged me. Would I see it a third time- absolutely!
My impressions from opening night were:
1. The music was VERY modern - much more than I would have anticipated. I did find beautiful parts, but overall it seemed very dissonant.
2. There was always A LOT going on onstage. The first scene has young Amelia with her father, Dodge. Then at the same time you have Amanda (Amelia's mother) interacting with the men who have come to tell her that Dodge is missing in action. Then the flier (Amelia Earhart) shows up in the scene as well. Then in the second scene you have Amelia and Paul (her husband) in the bedroom along with Icarus and Daedalus. Then when Paul leaves to go to work, Amelia's mother shows up (as a vision). In the third scene you have Amelia, Amanda, the Vietnamese couple and the interpreter all interacting, while at the same time the scene of Dodge's capture plays out. In the last scene, you have Amelia in a coma with Paul and Helen (her aunt) trying to wake her, while in the same hospital room you have the Young Boy dying with his father at his bedside. Then the vision of Dodge shows up and interacts with Amelia, even though she is supposed to be in a coma. Then the flier appears again and remains onstage until the very end when Amelia gives birth. All this is a lot to take in the first time around. I felt like I was being bombarded. That, and I was sitting in the front row and found it very difficult to focus on everything that was going on.
During the second performance I felt like I was able to wrap my head around it a little more. I felt like I understood some of the deeper meaning of the characters and suddenly the music and singing seemed much more beautiful to me.
The opening scene with Amelia and Dodge was just gorgeous. You could instantly tell that there was a strong bond between the young girl and her father and it set the theme for the rest of the opera. Bill Burden's voice can never do wrong by me. It gives me chills, it's so beautiful.
The second scene takes place years later when Amelia is pregnant. She has dreams about the mythological Daedalus and Icarus. When she awakes, she questions Paul about his top secret work and fears that he's designing an airplane for war. She feels like she needs to know exactly what happened to her father, even though she had made a trip to Vietnam previously to find out. You can sense the tension between the two in this scene, but you can also tell that Paul is trying someone not to blow his top for fear of upsetting Amelia in her fragile state. After Paul leaves, Amelia's mother appears as a vision and the emotional scene where she tells Amelia that her father is missing is re-enacted.
Turn back 10 years and Amelia and her mother are in Vietnam after receiving a letter from a Vietnamese couple stating that they have information about Dodge. They communicate through an interpreter as the gruesome scene of his capture are re-enacted. The couple's daughter is shot because Dodge refused to divulge any information about his mission and just before Dodge is dragged away by the Vietnamese soldiers, he hands the couple a photo of Amelia and a letter than he had written to her and her mother. The couple had kept the photo of Amelia, which they show to her, but explain that they had burned the letter because they were angry.
I have to say, I wasn't sure how the Vietnamese language would sound when sung, but it is actually quite beautiful and musical in and of itself.
This scene was extremely harrowing and difficult to watch, but very effective. The backdrop of the Vietnamese country side at the beginning is very beautiful, but quickly turns dark once the action unfolds, complete with fierce yelling in Vietnamese and gunfire (courtesy of my friend Karl). :) When Bill Burden gets dragged offstage feet first, screaming and writhing in pain, you can't help but cringe and understand that his fate is sealed.
Act 2 opens in Paul's office. Amelia confronts him about his plane once again and wonders what the point is in bringing a child into the world. She becomes angry over her father's disappearance and the scene comes to a dramatic close when she falls to the floor unconscious. Kate Lindsey really shined in this scene. She was so dramatic and the singing was extremely difficult.
The next scene has Amelia lying in a hospital bed with Paul by her side. She has been unconscious for three days. In the same room, a boy lays dying after a fall, with his father by his side (the same father/son that sang the roles of Daedalus and Icarus). Paul goes to take a break and Amelia's aunt, Helen arrives. The boy has hallucinations that he is flying and has to be restrained by the hospital staff. Dodge reappears and converses with Amelia about death and her pregnancy. She tells him that he is scared and he assures her that "the risk is worth the love". During this time, the Flier also reappears and sings of the mystery of whether she is alive or dead and assures herself that the journey was worth the risk. As Dodge leaves, he places a letter on Amelia's bed. Paul comes back and the boy goes into cardiac arrest and dies. Paul finds the letter that Dodge left. It is the letter he wrote to Amelia and Amanda before being shot down. Paul breaks down into tears. This is the scene where Nathan really made the most out of his character and came to life. It was one of the most touching operatic scenes I've ever witnessed and made me all teary. Amelia wakes up and, against doctor's orders, decides against having a C-section and goes into labor. There is a long section in this scene where about 12 people (all the main cast and the hospital staff) break into a cappella.. I was most impressed that so many people could stay on pitch and keep tempo without the orchestra. Amazing! As Amelia's baby is born, the dead boy's father walks slowly towards the hospital exit. The parallel here between birth and death is beautifully displayed and is deeply moving.
Between each scene (during the set changes) there were orchestral interludes with seemed to musically foreshadow the action that was coming. The first time I saw the opera, these musical bits seemed a bit long and overbearing. On the second listen, however, they seemed to flow a lot more and made a lot more sense to me.
All of the singers (no matter how small the role) were amazing. They would have to be in order to pull something like this off. The same goes with the orchestra. It was obvious that a lot of painstaking effort was taken to make sure every aspect was as realistic as they could possibly get. Having worked with Stephen Wadsworth onstage before, his stage directing was instantly recognizable to me. He also wrote the story, which really impressed me.
This is the third contemporary opera I have seen, An American Tragedy and The End of the Affair being the other two. While I wouldn't say that this was my favorite of the three, I think it was a lot more bold. The story was 100% original, so I think it made more of an impression on me and challenged me. Would I see it a third time- absolutely!
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