Here and there in Phoenix arts

In The Next Room, or The Vibrator Play

Contrary to every review of it I’ve read, Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play, is not about Victorian mores and the treatment of women. It’s about how we – now as in the past – closet sex away and treat it, not as in integral part of our lives, but as something “in the next room” – literally in the play, figuratively in the play. The Actors Theatre production of the hit comedy, an Arizona premiere, ends its highly successful run this weekend, with last shows tonight (Nov. 13) and tomorrow.

There are many poetic moments in the script, brought out wonderfully by the production. The one that touched me most personally was when the character Mrs. Givings points out it is the “unfinished” woman, the incomplete female, who most deeply attracts a man. Exactly! (How’d she – I mean the playwright – know that?)

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The use of surtitles for Arizona Opera’s recent production of The Pirates of Penzance prompts the question, “Do we really need to see the words as well as hear then, when the words both heard and seen are…English?” It’s standard practice, I know, for operas in English to receive sub- or surtitles, the reason supposedly being that operatic singing is not conducive to being understood. But it seemed odd-nigh-ridiculous for a Gilbert and Sullivan piece, with its emphasis on the humor of Gilbert’s clever rhymes, to have the words appear above the action in advance of their being heard.

For instance, in “A Modern Major General,” the general’s famous rhyme for “strategy” appeared a good ten seconds before the singer delivered it, stepping on the joke. (Yes, I know most of us already know what the rhyme is – that’s not the point.) I’m of a mind to try to ignore the surtitles for Arizona Opera’s upcoming production of Carmen, as I imagine many who know the opera well are also inclined to do. Would that Arizona Opera’s titles were not so IMPOSING, writ large as they are. Too bad Arizona Opera hasn’t the money to do what Santa Fe Opera does: provide titles on the back of the seat in front of you, with the option of turning them off.

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The Balinese gamelan is one of the most mesmerizing aural experiences available on the globe. Our own Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) will present a rare opportunity to hear this consort of bells, chimes and gongs in concert Sunday and Monday, Nov. 14 and 15. If you haven’t taken the time to view the MIM yet, combine a visit with this concert. I guarantee you won’t soon forget it.

– Ken LaFave

 

 

Waiting hundreds of years for a premiere…

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA – coming soon to Arizona

Last weekend, listening to Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy in the form of Southwest Shakespeare’s single-shot condensation, Blood Royal, I pondered the fact these words had never before been spoken on a stage in Arizona.

Director Jared Sakren had announced prior to curtain that Blood Royal constituted the Arizona premiere of Henry VI. He then added that the company’s upcoming Antony and Cleopatra (slated for spring) would also be an Arizona premiere.

We somehow have the idea that everything “classic” has been done, that the great plays, operas and symphonies have received their exposure to all willing audiences. Not true. Not, at least, in Arizona.

George Bernard Shaw, for example, is grossly underproduced. Southwest Shakespeare recently brought us Pygmalion and Arms and the Man, and Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) once did a Candida. Saint Joan, Major Barbara, Heartbreak House – these have never been staged, so far as I can tell. Ibsen goes pretty much by the wayside as well. ATC did Ghosts about a decade back, and someone must have done A Doll’s House – right? But I can find no record of The Wild Duck or Enemy of the State having been produced here.

We’ve had an opera company for over 30 years, so all the major Mozart operas have been done, one might reasonably assume. (We’re not counting obscurities like Lucio Silla.) But no. When Arizona Opera stages Abduction from the Seraglio in the spring, it will be the Arizona premiere of that sparkling comedy. We’ll have to wait a little longer, I guess, for Idomeneo.

The list of symphonic scores never performed locally is too long to print. But it will soon be at least two scores shorter, courtesy conductor Warren Cohen’s Musica Nova group. Musica Nova’s upcoming season will include the Arizona premieres of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6 and the Violin Concerto No. 2 of Shostakovich.

We often complain we don’t get enough new art, and I would second that emotion, adding that one can’t get enough new art. But it seems we could use a lot more of the old, too.

– Ken LaFave