Nelson uses the family brunch setting to explore the family dynamic in terms of how world events actually directly and indirectly affects individuals and the family relationships. These folks speak about ltheir losses, memories and we see the struggle by all to maintain the moral equilibrium in a fast-changing world that somehow escapes them.
Using German playwright Roland Schimmelpfenning’s version of the Idomeneus story, translated by David Tushingham, director Jonathan L. Green has utilized his 15 person ensemble to employ mostly group speak that finds from three to five to the entire cast all speaking the words of the story
Jeff Awards Equity Nominations Celebrate Outstanding 2011-2012 Productions
What a joy it was to see and hear the concert rendition of one of the greatest opera – The Magic Flute. Conductor James Conlon’s Chicago Symphony Orchestra played the melodic Mozart score with zest and bravado
The intimate space and the use of contemporary English sung most articulately by the principals made the opera work surprisingly well. Led by the rich baritone vocal chops of David Govertsen as scoundrel Don Giovanni with the soothing tenor work from Benjamin De Los Monteros as Don Ottsvio, the cast featured harmonious arias rich in emotion and verve.
The dignified older gentleman, Miguel de Cervantes, played with genuine lovableness by Jim Harms gradually yet honestly wins the souls of his cellmates as he vividly weaves the story of Don Quixote. From Harm’s powerful opening number “I, Don Quixote” we know we’re on a dream-like journey.
The vagueness of the work set in an unnamed island sometime in the 19th Century peopled with characters trying to be Victorian imperialistic representatives of some country with natives that look like white boys and girls from down the block left me asking more questions than the play answered.
Add the one-note mentality that presents the blue collar trailer park ‘trash’ as a group of stupid, simple-minded losers into a sort of “one-joke” affair that quickly wore out its welcome.
I was impressed by the creative and craft of the Mossman/Miller film. In The Wake is a memory film that utilizes the main elements that distinguish film from other art forms. The cinematography was thrilling with a fine blend of panorama shots with thrilling chase footage with telling close ups.
We meet the Miller family – four children, the mother and father with an aunt and an uncle all surviving living together in an upper middle class Connecticut house. It is the 4th of July, 1906 in a time of pure innocence in America.