The Dressing

Three times the Dresser has had close up encounters with Emperor Qin's terra cotta warriors. The first time was at Baltimore's Walters Art Museum in March 1997. The second time occurred November 2009 in Xi'an, China, where the warriors were accidentally rediscovered in 1974 by farmers trying to dig a well. The third time was January 2010 at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC.

Dear Reader, you might be wondering now who was Qin and of what interest are warriors made of clay that would lure the Dresser out of her lair so many times.

QIN SHI HUANG: CONNECTING THE DOTS

Qin Shi Huang (pronounced chin sher hwang), née Ying Zheng (pronounced ying jung) in the year 259 BC, was the son of the king of the Qin State and the first emperor of China after he conquered neighboring states surrounding his father's kingdom. Because Qin thought big in many ways, he was always in danger from his enemies. Therefore, he was instrumental in connecting defensive walls in his empire, which became Cháng Chéng, the Great Wall of China. Connecting the dots seemed to be Qin's passion. He unified the writing of Chinese characters (Qin writing became the basis of written script now known as Simplified Chinese); standardized measuring systems, money (coins) and taxation; built an extensive network of roads; decreed that agriculture and commerce must develop together; and he abolished nepotism in his government.

Remarkably, Qin made many of these long lasting accomplishments in the eleven years he ruled the Chinese empire. He died unexpectedly at age 49. Scholars guess that elixir and pills, which he expected to make him immortal, probably contained mercury and therefore poisoned him.

Emperor Qin dealt cruelly with those who got in his way. For example, he eliminated scholars and books that advocated philosophies he did not subscribe to, including the teachings of Confucius. For a leader who seemed to eschew tradition and old ways handed down through time, the most surprising thing he did was create an army of men and horses made out of terra cotta. His purpose was that this army would see him into the afterlife and protect him from any force that would harm him. Even more surprising was that he had these pottery warriors, whose average height is six feet tall and whose weight ranges from 300 to 400 pounds, buried in pits that flank his burial mound. Moreover, he wanted these warriors kept secret.

FROM THE PITS ON UP

Because the Dresser had recently been to Xi'an China where Qin's burial mound sits undisturbed and the four pits of terra cotta warriors, horses, entertainers, and a variety of animals have been exposed, she thought the exhibition at the National Geographic Museum, which is entitled "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor," might be a pale repetition of what she had already seen. This turned out not to be the case and the Dresser was surprised to not only feel exhilarated by the NGM exhibition but to encounter other happily excited visitors who had also been to the terra cotta warrior pits in Xi'an.

In both exhibitions, visitors are offered a movie to introduce Qin and his accomplishments as well as set the scene for seeing the terra cotta figures. In Xi'an, the 15- to 20-minute movie is in a theater in the round with no seating. Visitors stand and move with the projections as the images circle the darkened theater. As they grow tired of standing in the dark, the audience wanders in and out of the theater. To the Dresser, it felt like a cutting-edge presentation, one in which the viewer became part of the film's landscape with thundering horses and armies fighting with crossbows and arrows.

However, "The Real Dragon Emperor," the free hour-long film (visitors need no tickets to gain entrance) shown on a limited schedule in the 385 seats Grosvenor Auditorium at National Geographic is hands down the better film. It is graphically beautiful as one would expect a NG production to be and it is filled with interesting details. For example, there is an interview of an archeologist who discusses Sima Qian, the father of Chinese historiography who was born about 100 years after Emperor Qin and who said there were rivers and lakes of mercury that surrounded Qin's tomb. Modern day scientists were skeptical but the archeologist interviewed by the NG filmmaker took samples around the perimeter of the tomb and learned the level of mercury was unusually high. What this means is that the toxic liquid metal will keep Qin's tomb unreachable at this time.

Continue reading "The Terra Cotta War Against Death" »

Lately the Dresser cannot get enough Chinese culture to satisfy her curious mind. One aspect of this hunger for things Chinese has manifest through the Dresser's love of dance. On November 26, 2009 at the Shaanxi Grand Opera House in Xi'an, China, the Dresser saw the Tang-Dynasty Palace Music and Dances. On January 20, 2010, she saw the Shen Yun Performing Arts show at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, DC. Both shows are based on the art of classical Chinese dance and have connections to Chinese opera.

BEAUTY AND VARIETY

As in Chinese opera, the philosophy behind Chinese dance theater is to achieve mei or beauty. For example, this comes through graceful rounded movements, the music, the costumes, and the seamless transition from various art forms such as the combining of dance movement with acrobatics. In both the Tang-Dynasty and Shen Yun shows singing is one of the elements, though unlike Chinese opera, the performer delivering song is not delivering the song with dramatic gestures or other skills one would see in a Chinese opera.

The Tang-Dynasty show offered ten scenes while the Shen Yun show, a much longer performance, offered about twenty. What the Dresser liked about both shows was the variety. While no repetition of dance scene occurred between the two shows, both shows seemed to follow a similar formula for how to achieve this array of entertainment. The format went something like this: pageantry scenes on the front and back end of the shows, and then a mix of water sleeve dances, instrumental interludes, folk dances from various Ethnic Chinese groups, prop dances (fans, handkerchiefs, plates, lanterns, masks), folk or fairy tale ballet, and dance with martial arts.

What was surprising to the Dresser for both shows that elements of western ballet were used along with the tiny steps and feet close to the ground that characterize movements that only Chinese dancers do. Shen Yun dancers also incorporated elements of what the Dresser characterizes as Russian squat kicks. Some of the Shen Yun dancers (and most had the strength and control to exercise leaping turns that the Dresser has always associated with such Russian dancers (in their prime, of course) as Rudolph Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. However, the young Shen Yun dancers did not exude the individuality and personalities of such ballet stars. Perhaps that is not allowed in Chinese dance theater, that one dancer should attract so much attention.

While both shows had eye-catching costumes, the Shen Yun costumes were stunning in terms of colors selected and used together as well as details on the costumes (such as beads, coins, gold thread, glitter). The Dresser doesn't know how the Tang-Dynasty show costumes were made, but those for the Shen Yun show were made by hand. Often the costumes provided special effects. Those familiar with Chinese dance movement know the undulating ribbon effect of water sleeves. Water sleeves are usually a secondary white silk sleeve attached to the cuff of the primary sleeve. In the "Heavenly Maidens" scene, the Shen Yun performers not only wear exotic color combinations (dresses that are tastefully both chartreuse and salmon pink) but also wear gauzy white capes that when the dancers whirled, they disappeared. The Dresser felt like she was watching an animation of cream being whipped, a very delicious experience especially since the Dresser no longer indulges in eating such confections.

SPARENESS: PAINTED SET VERSUS VIDEO

Traditional Chinese sets in most theater arts are minimal and both theater groups achieved this spareness in different ways. While the Tang-Dynasty Show used sets that were painted with pictures of China's countryside and great cities (including the Great Wall, and the Forbidden City), the Shen Yun Show used projections that often were interactive with the performers. For example in the fairy tale scene "Splitting the Mountain," a goddess who marries a mortal is imprisoned in a cave by her brother. The live performer playing the goddess is transformed into a video figure and whisked into the cave. The brother, a live performer, interacts with the video such that a huge video boulder is sent flying across the entrance of the cave.

Continue reading "The Ars Poetica of Chinese Dance Theater" »

On January 11, 2010, the Dresser attended a dual poetry program celebration at the Folger Shakespeare Library. On the heavy end, Poet Lore was marking 120 years of publishing and on the lighter end (but certainly no less literary quality) Beltway Poetry Quarterly, at ten years old, was celebrating the print publication and launch of its anthology Full Moon on K Street: Poems About Washington, DC edited by Kim Roberts. Moderating the evening was Teri Cross Davis, the Folger Shakespeare Library Poetry Coordinator.

To represent both magazines, Kim Addonizio and Kyle Dargan, who have each been published by these publications, gave what the Dresser calls stylized readings. Dargan read his poems from his laptop computer in a relaxed approach. Addonizio read from books and paper in the traditional approach, but concluded the reading of her original poetry with a harmonica performance of two compositions. The Dresser captured her blues train riff.

After the readings/performance by Dargan and Addonizio, Jon West-bey, director of the American Poetry Museum, led Beltway founding editor Kim Roberts and Poet Lore editors Jody Bolz and E. Ethelbert Miller in a discussion about these publications and the literary scene in general.

Continue reading "Full Moon on Poetry: 120 Plus 10" »

The Dresser is not a political animal but one person two years ago moved her to stand in Washington, DC's LaFayette Square across from George Bush's White House to say, "The politics of death and taxes bring me here to grieve." That person was the South African poet Dennis Brutus, who spent time with Nelson Mandela breaking rocks at Robben Island. His crime, like Mandela's, was the audacity of fighting racism in their native land.

The occasion of the Dresser meeting the venerable Brutus was the 2008 Split This Rock poetry conference. As a keynote speaker, Dennis Brutus viscerally made real what conference organizer Sarah Browning meant by naming her conference Split This Rock. What was especially moving to the Dresser was how such a modest and giving person could stand and suffer great hardship in the name of social justice and good common sense. Without hearing him speak, the Dresser would not have attended the LaFayette rally that crisp Sunday in March. The Dresser told those assembled that she was inspired to speak because of what Dennis Brutus said at the Split This Rock conference and she saw that Mr. Brutus who was standing in front of the crowd was moved by that confession. Afterwards, she spoke with him face to face and he embraced her. He said he was hoping people would be moved to action.

On January 10, 2009, Sarah Browning and many others delivered a tribute program to Dennis Brutus who died December 26, 2009 at the age of 85. The tribute at Busboy & Poets took its name "Somehow Tenderness Survive" from the last line of the poem seen below. Among the participants were poets Kenny Carroll, Holly Bass, and Sarah Browning. Emira Woods, Foreign Policy in Focus, Institute for Policy Studies, and Briggs Bomba, Africa Action, co-hosted. The Langston Room of Busboys was so packed that people were invited to sit on the stage behind the speakers. Vincent Moloi screened "I am a Rebel," a 50-minute documentary of Brutus' life.

SOMEHOW WE SURVIVE

Somehow we survive
and tenderness, frustrated, does not wither.

Investigating searchlights rake
our naked unprotected contours;

over our heads the monolithic decalogue
of fascist prohibition glowers
and teeters for a catastrophic fall;

boots club the peeling door.

But somehow we survive
severance, deprivation, loss.

Patrols uncoil along the asphalt dark
hissing their menace to our lives,

most cruel, all our land is scarred with terror,
rendered unlovely and unlovable;
sundered are we and all our passionate surrender

but somehow tenderness survive

January 8, 2010, at Washington National Cathedral, the Folger Consort presented a courtly concert of Claudio Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers in tribute to this 400 year-old work. The main sanctuary of the Cathedral was filled with an attentive audience while the altar gave stage to ten singers and fourteen musicians. The Dresser chose this concert after getting a brief taste of the Folger Consort playing Monteverdi in their opening season concert "A Harmony of Friends: Music of Italy and China."

The Folger Consort creatively presented the 1610 Vespers, which has continued through the centuries to be a puzzle for the modern day performer in deciding what to perform. As the Folger Consort's program notes explain, vespers are comprised of five psalms and their antiphons, a hymn, and a concluding Magnificat. The 1610 Vespers is a Marian Vesper, which means the same Latin texts for the psalms, hymn, and Magnificat are used. The antiphons, which respond to the psalms, are a variable component that Monteverdi left up to the producing performers to decide, based on the feast occasion when the 1610 Vespers would be performed. Also the antiphons are traditional pieces written in the plainchant style and are not compositions by Monteverdi. According to Robert Eisenstein, the traditional plainchant antiphons do not relate well musically to Monteverdi's psalms in his 1610 Vespers and he says there is enough plainchant in the texture of the psalms. For a variety of reasons including the 17th century practice of inserting antiphon substitutes of both vocal and instrumental pieces, the Consort has inserted, after the psalms, sacred songs by Monteverdi as well as an instrumental composition by Giovanni Gabrieli which was played after the "Ave maris stella" Hymn and before the "Magnificat."

For this one hour and forty-five minute production, the Consort assembled musicians playing two theorbos, two violins, two violas, one violone, one cello, three trombones (one doubled on cornetto), three cornettos (two dedicated), and one organ. While the 1610 Vespers is considered a chamber music piece, the vast space of Washington National Cathedral demands a bigger sound than what a typically sized chamber group would be.

As to the playing, the Dresser considered herself fortunate to have seats up close to the players. While there was subtle mic-ing to aid the sound volume at the back of sanctuary, the Dresser cannot believe that the remote audience received the clarity of music making that she heard. She particularly admired the passionate playing by violinist Julie Andrijeski and Robert Eisenstein who stood for the entire length of the concert. (They were not, however, "on stage" the entire time.) In the playing of the "Magnificat," the Dresser also loved the echo effect Eisenstein created by moving away from Andrijeski and then turning his back. The echo effect also was used by two tenor voices in the Sacred Song "Audi coelum."

Unlike a concert that would have been mounted in Monteverdi's life (1567-1643), two sopranos--Johanna Arnold and Jolle Greenleaf--joined the group of singers. (Jolle Greenleaf, who also performed in "A Harmony of Friends: Music of Italy and China," replaced an ailing Ann Monoyios.) The Dresser guesses that the sopranos sang the parts that would have been assigned to castratis. In his book Monteverdi: Vespers (1610), John Whenham talks about this issue of men singing both male and female parts as well as others addressed by this Folger Consort production.

The Folger Consort created an impressive Monteverdi program that uplifted and restored the senses. Below is the first call and response pairing (the Latin and English translation) of Psalm 109 with the sacred song drawn from King Solomon's "Song of Songs."








DIXIT DOMINUS PSALM 109

Dixit Dominus Domino meo: Sede a dextris meis, donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum. 
The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Virgam virtutis tuae emittet Dominus ex Sion; dominare in medio inimicorum tuorum.
The LORD shall send forth the rod of thy strength from Zion; rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

Tecum principium in die virtutis tuae, in splendoribus sanctorum; ex utero ante luciferum genui te.
Thine is the foundation in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness; I have born thee from the womb before the morning star.

Juravit Dominus, et non paenitabit eum:
The LORD has sworn, and will not repent:

Tu es sacerdos in aeternum, secundum ordine Melchisedec.
Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedec.

Dominum a dextris tuis confregit in die irae suae reges.
The LORD at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.

Judicabit in nationibus, implebit ruinas; conquassabit capita in terra multuorum.
He shall judge among the nations, he will fill them with ruins; he will break the heads over populous lands.

De torrente in via bibet; propterea exaltabit caput.
He shall drink of the spring in the way; therefore shall he lift up the head.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Glory be to the Father...

NIGRA SUM SACRED SONG

Nigra sum sed formosa filia Jerusalem
I am a black and also beautiful daughter of Jerusalem

Ideo dilexit me Rex, et introduxit me in cubiculum suum
et dixit mihi:
So the King loved me and led me into his chamber and said to me:

Surge, amica mea, et veni.
Arise my love and come away.

Iam hiems transiit imber abiit et recessit, flores apparuerunt in terra nostra,
tempus putationis advenit.
now winter has passed, the rain has gone,
and flowers have appeared in our land;
the time of pruning has come

Snapshots drawn from the rehearsal and the Cathedral were taken by Mack Ramsey (trombone and cornetto).

Intelligence and balance are the operative words for Cavalia, a choreographed horse show with nimble riders, trainers cum horse whisperers (a recent Washington Post article said the main trainer Frédéric Pignon calls himself a horse listener), acrobats, aerialists, and impressive stagecraft with high tech features. On September 23, 2009, at Pentagon City in Washington, DC, the Dresser and her honey strolled into the Cavalia big top--the largest touring tent in North America--to partake of this spectacle.

THE HORSE: GOD'S GIFT TO MAN

The show, developed by Normand Latourelle a former Cirque du Soleil founder, began with a quiz projected on the curtains closing off the massive staging area. How many horses are involved with this show? 64. How many are stallions? 28. How many are mares? Zero. The Dresser's honey who owned and showed horses in the 1980s, whispered to her that it would take only one mare to cause a mutiny, even some of the 36 geldings (neutered males) would remember the allure of a mare in heat. Thus the show progressed with a tight shot of equine coupling (for the inexperienced eye, the image might have seemed all design void of reality) followed by the birth of a long-legged foal and then the first live horse--barely a yearling and the youngest member of the Cavalia stable--entered the arena unbridled and alone.

Several quotes such as "The horse is God's gift to man," an Arabian Proverb, were projected on the backdrop curtains and little by little, the audience learned how well loved the Cavalia horses are and how much these magnificent animals, many of them with long flowing manes and tails, are willing to do for their trainers. Pignon, with his own mane of flowing hair, ran joyfully with the herd. Predominately the horse prowess involves the discipline of dressage. While the Dresser's main squeeze was worried that Cavalia might be the equivalent of River Dance, even the chorus line effect of the show segment entitled "Carrousel," where eight mounted horses side step with absolute precision or are led through their paces including the high-level move known as the flying change, did not break the poetic mood that carries through the entire show.

NO BONDS OR BOUNDARIES

Threaded through the fluid paces of horses galloping, prancing, and even lying down as if they were household dogs are projected images of antiquities such as the Chinese terracotta soldiers with an accompanying terracotta horse. Yes, there are a few elements of the Wild West complete with lasso twirling and trick riding. There is also a daredevil episode of Roman riding involving four men riding four pairs of horses--each man standing with one leg on the back of one horse and the other leg on the back of the other horse.

Live musicians play an original music score by Michel Cusson, a Canadian composer known for his jazz compositions. The Dresser particularly took note and enjoyment of the music set for the cello and the bolero piece played for "Carrousel."

Continue reading "Cavalia: An Equine Love Affair" »

The Dresser did it again. In daylight hours, she sneaked out to see a movie and to hear the director producer speak. Aviva Kempner's Yoohoo, Mrs. Goldberg saw its limited premiere July 10, 2009, and that included what the Dresser would call a rave review from The New York Times. However, the Dresser having heard the excitement about this film from friends of her Ladies Lottery Club, decided just before the film closed in Washington, DC, to see it. What particularly drew her to this one hour and 32-minute documentary about Gertrude Berg and the character she created--a large-hearted Jewish mama living with her family in a Bronx tenement--was how the actress-creator of this first-ever television sitcom called "The Goldbergs" stood up to the Joseph McCarthy-inspired anti-Communist witch hunt.

AS THE MARKET FELL, THE GOLDBERGS ROSE

The original 15-minute show started on radio one month after the 1929 stock market crash as "The Rise of the Goldbergs." While Gertrude Berg's program was about Jewish family life as interpreted by Molly Goldberg, who had that old world Yiddish way of speaking English, the show transcended its ethnicity and was popular among viewers of all religions and beliefs. Molly dispensed practical wisdom and was known for offering comfort, especially in the dark days of the Great Depression.

UP AGAINST THE RED CHANNEL

In 1949, the show moved to television and Molly's husband Jake was played by Philip Loeb, an actor who became active in the Theatre Guild and Actors Equity Association. According to Ms. Kempner's film, he supported rights for working actors and civil rights for all Americans. For example, he helped actors get pay for time they spent in rehearsals. Although he had never been a member of the Communist Party, he was accused before the House Committee on Un-American Activities by director Elia Kazan and actor Lee J. Cobb. By September 1950 in Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television, Loeb was named as a Communist sympathizer.

General Foods, the sponsor of "The Goldbergs," demanded that Loeb be fired. Gertrude Berg refused and General Foods backed off. But, several months later, the show was cancelled. Ever resourceful, Berg had heard that Cardinal Spellman was helping rectify these situations and asked for his support. However, his condition was that she convert to Catholicism, which was not tenable for a woman of such principles.

LUCY VERSUS MOLLY

By the time her show got back on the air in 1952 without Philip Loeb, Lucille Ball's "I Love Lucy" which premiered in October 1951, had taken over her viewers. So "The Goldbergs," a prime-time show with twenty years of unwavering public support, got pushed aside. Now, few people know about the show and its creator Gertrude Berg, who in 1949 had won the first Emmy for lead actress in a comedy show. What cinched the death of the show was when the venue moved from the tenement where Molly leaned out of the window and talked to all her neighbors to the sterile suburbs where Molly had to wait for people to knock on her door.

Continue reading "Aviva Kempner's Woman of Principle: Gertrude Berg" »

The prevailing belief in the general public is that new classical music is, at best, challenging to listen and, at worse, painful. On September 13, 2009, the Dresser had the pleasure of attending Verge Ensemble's 2009-2010 opening season concert at the Corcoran Gallery Art in Washington, DC. Verge, formerly known as the Contemporary Music Forum, presented six works, one of which was a world premiere and three, Washington, DC, premieres. The overall concert was predominately tonal and listener friendly.

Opening the concert was Harvey Sollberger's "Sunflowers," which he wrote in 1976. Flautist David Whiteside and vibraphonist Barry Dove entered the stage each carrying a wine bottle planted with a single sunflower. Indeed this gesture, which seemed straight out of the 1960's love-and-peace movement, set the tone for the Verge concert. As this piece opened, the flute wove a mysterious and languorous melody with accents from the vibraphone. When the piece heated up, occasional jazz rhythms were introduced and the flautist hummed into his instrument. A short and shrill passage on the piccolo briefly changed the prevailing calm. The Dresser guesses that to experience Sollberger playing "Sunflowers" (he is an accomplished flautist noted for exploring new performing techniques) would add another dimension to this piece.

"Birds in Warped Time II" (1980) by Somei Satoh organically followed "Sunflowers" with its wavering, oriental inflection that transitioned into something sounding like a gypsy serenade. The performances by violinist James Stern and pianist Audrey Andrist was both passionate and technically inspired.

What particularly drew the Dresser to this concert was the opportunity to hear a composition by Paul Moravec, who recently premiered his first opera The Letter. The third piece offered in the Verge program was Moravec's "Passacaglia" (2005) for piano, violin, and cello. This composition is a rich brocade of rapid fingering on the piano, passionate intonations from the cello, and dialectic responses from the violin. Violinist James Stern, cellist Steve Honigberg, and pianist Audrey Andrist played "Passacaglia" with precision and mounting verve until the close, which sounded like a whistling wind but resolved into a satisfying close. If the concert had ended at this point, the Dresser would have been totally satisfied.

The second half of the concert brought the world premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff's "Six Miniatures for Violin and Percussion" (2008), the DC premiere of Kristin Kuster's "Perpetual Noon" (2008), and Robert Gibson's "A Sound Within" (1982). Robert Gibson who was a member of the Contemporary Music Forum from 1987 to 2000 and who is professor and director of the School of Music at the University of Maryland, College Park, stood up and introduced his piece saying that words often inspire his compositions. "A Sound Within" took its lead from a poem by Yosano Akiko (1878-1942):

Amidst the notes
of my koto is another
deep mysterious tone,
a sound that comes from
with my own breast.
(translation by Kenneth Rexroth. Copyright © 1974, 1976 by Kenneth Rexroth)

Continue reading "Verge Ensemble: The Pleasure of Listening" »

Earlier this summer, the Dresser sneaked off in the middle of the day with a friend to her local nonprofit movie house (Washington, DC's Avalon Theatre) to see Julie & Julia starring Meryl Streep. One of the Dresser's literary colleagues thought this was utterly decadent and perhaps the outing was because the Dresser has taken so long to write her thoughts about seeing the dual stories of Julia Child and Julie Powell who took one whole year to cook her way through Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and simultaneously blog about the results. The movie, which premiered August 7, is now drifting down the pop chart, such that after the weekend of August 28-30, the box office ranking was the 6th most popularly seen film. However, the Dresser has noticed that both My Life In France, by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme and Julie & Julia, by Julie Powell continue to top the best-selling book list of major American newspapers like The New York Times.

WHETHER WHIPPING LIONS OR EGGS

What the Dresser adored about Nora Ephron's film is that not only did it make her chuckle and admire how fantastic Meryl Streep was as the whacky top chef who brought French cooking to Americans, but it absolutely put the Dresser back in touch with one incident after another that involves how much the Dresser enjoys eating artfully prepared food and the pursuit of cooking. Whether Meryl Streep is beating lions (as Karen Blixen in Out of Africa) or eggs, she has the ability to absorb the character she is portraying such that the viewer can get lost in the story and isn't pulled up short by the fact that Streep is playing the part.

As Julia Child, Streep was able to modulate her voice to achieve those zany resonances that Julia made as she was executing her televised cooking errors and entertaining the American viewing audience. Yes, the Dresser said errors because half the reason the Dresser watched what Julia did on TV was to see what one could learn from her mistakes and, of course, to be entertained. Seeing Streep as Julia cooking on TV while Julie Powell watched in her living room was a wild ride for the Dresser. The Dresser instantly thought about a particular televised demonstration where Julia Child made a caramelized dome that went over some desert. The dome took at least 15 or 20 minutes of the show to make and once it was finished, Julia stood over it for a few minutes saying some odd thing and then wham, she broke it up over the desert (was it a pie and what did the dome add in eating pleasure?). The Dresser actually found the film scene where Streep-cum-Child is on TV sloppily flipping an omelet to be tame by comparison to personal memories.

THE BLUE RIBBON OF COOKING

The Dresser had another set of flashbacks in seeing the ebullient Julia start her cooking lessons at the Cordon Bleu. The film scene where Julia enters the cooking school's kitchen that is populated only by men seemed to be a triumph for all women in general and so that also gave the Dresser waves of emotional reaction.Photo by Jonathan Wenk, Columbia Pictures

When the Dresser first got her copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, she was newly out of college, had just gotten married, and her then-husband and she had a mutual high school friend named Ken who was learning to cook from an unusually tall Parisian woman named Vivien. (The scene in the movie where Julia's feet hang off the short mattress made the Dresser think of the svelte Vivien.) In a few years, Ken threw over his doctorate degree in operations research, moved to Juneau, and opened a successful French restaurant with some barbarian who had the key to the city and who could get a liquor license. Did the Dresser, who also learned Vivien's cooking secrets, feel jealous? No way! The Dresser's grandfather owned a restaurant in which he employed accomplished European chefs and she knew how much trouble service-oriented jobs are.

Around 1999, the Dresser had a dancer friend named Dennis who went on sabbatical from his government job so that he could attend the Cordon Bleu to see if he wanted to make a career change. Dennis informed the Dresser that she could attend a cooking demonstration at the Cordon Bleu in Paris and so she did. Well, while she knew that Julia Child loved all things buttered (that scene in the movie where Julie Powell opens her 'frig to a mountain of butter was enough to turn anyone's arteries to stone), going to the Cordon Bleu completely convinced the Dresser that Cordon Bleu cooking will not only make a person fat, but will also make them quickly dead. However, it was not butter that made the demonstration so appalling, but other animal fat and blood used in cooking some chicken dish that really made her pass on the taste offering.

Continue reading "A Blue Ribbon for Julie & Julia" »

New opera is always an adventure with risk. Sometimes the critic best serves a new piece by staying silent. This situation happened for the Dresser recently when she traveled to New York City to see a new opera by a composer whose work she had experienced before and, while the first opera was not particularly her favorite cuppa, it showed well. Not so for the second.

At Santa Fe Opera, The Letter by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Terry Teachout premiered Saturday, July 25, 2009. The Dresser has been keen to see it, but other trips and commitments have gotten in the way. By Monday, July 27, not so enthusiastic reviews of The Letter started to surface. Here's what Teachout had to say in his AboutLastNight blog on July 28, 2009:

"Needless to say, not everybody liked The Letter as much as the first-nighters who cheered us to the echo. My old colleagues at the Washington Post, for instance, published a scorched-earth pan on Monday, the thrust of which was that Paul and I should take up another line of work. I can't say I enjoyed reading it, but I believe I can stand the heat. I ought to be able to: after all, I've been dishing it out for most of my professional life!"

The Dresser notes: so far, no word from The New York Times, the major arbiter of what is worthwhile in the world of classical music. And maybe there won't be a Times review.

FROM THE DC FRINGE

Recently, the Dresser attended two operatic productions of the Capital Fringe Festival. On July 18, 2009, she saw the Opera Alterna production of Magnum Opus by Michael Oberhauser and on July 19, by composer Douglas Boyce based on a libretto drawn from Federico Garcia Lorca by Jodi Kanter. Neither opera took the top of the Dresser's head off, but each had some commendable aspects.

First, one should understand a bit about the sponsoring group and festival. A nonprofit group named Capital Fringe supports the Capital Fringe Festival. The festival began in the summer of 2005 in Washington, DC. It takes its lead from the Fringe movement that began in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1947. The idea is to promote and support artists who may not have other outlets. Capital Fringe encourages artists to self-produce in their annual July festival of the performing arts. So, in fact, Fringe offerings are often workshops as opposed to premieres. Artists can enjoy the opportunity to try out their new works in usually less than adequate theatrical venues but without fear of being slammed by the critics.

That said, both Magnum Opus and The Girl Who Waters the Basil were not artists flying solo. Opus was produced by the DC-based Opera Alterna that has ties to Catholic University (as does the composer who wrote this opera for his CUA master's degree) and Girl was mounted with the help of a grant by George Washington University (the composer is a professor there). Opus was enjoying its second production (according to Anne Midgette's review in the Washington Post, Oberhauser premiered Opus in February 2009 at Catholic University) and Girl, its first, but from the program notes, one could ascertain that Girl was being workshopped.

Both operas deal with sexual attraction--young man pursuing young woman. In Opus, the story revolves around a singer named Claire who is married to a blocked playwright named Robert but she is being pursued by a composer named John. The framework of the Opus story is a modern-day telling of the love triangle between Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. In The Girl Who Waters the Basil, a prince falls in love with a peasant girl who spurns him after he initially disguises himself as a peddler and trades grapes for her kisses. When she refuses to see him, he becomes so love sick that he cannot leave his bed.

Musically, both operas are tonal. Opus takes it lead from the music of the real life Robert Schumann and at times, Oberhauser's music seems more derivative than original.
Robert (Tad Czyzewski) being seduced by the Greek Muse Melpomene (Daniele Lorio). Photo by Nickie Brock


Nevertheless, Oberhauser has created some beautiful ensembles like "We will whisper to you," an exchange between Robert (sung by Tad Czyzewski) and Schumann's muses Melpomene (sung by Daniele Lorio) and Polyhymnia (sung by Tricia Lepofsky). Boyce's music for Girl exhibits more dissonance and vocal demands than Opus but also tends toward numbing repetition.

What made Girl particularly impressive was the talent that came together for this 40-minute "pocket opera" that was initiated in mid March of this year. Playing the prince was tenor Robert Baker, who has sung more than 300 performances with Washington National Opera. In the role of the Shoemaker: world-class soloist baritone James Shaffran (over 40 appearances with Washington National Opera) and in the role of the Shoemaker's daughter: coloratura soprano Rebecca Ocampo. While opera, particularly in the old world tradition, has tended to put the best singers on stage instead of the most visually appropriate, the Dresser found that it was hard to pretend that Robert Baker was suppose to be a young man. The Dresser kept thinking that Cory Davis who played the prince's page looked more age appropriate to be wooing the girl watering the basil.
(L to R) Rebecca Ocampo (Irene), Robert Baker (The Prince), and Cory Davis (The Page) in The Girl Who Water the Basil and the Inquisitive Prince, 2009, Capital Fringe Festival (photo by Douglas Boyce)

BE CAREFUL WHO YOU INVITE

It's no secret that the Dresser (a.k.a. the Steiny Road Poet) admired Michael Oberhauser's student compositions and agreed to help him write a libretto for what turned out to be Magnum Opus. However in the end, the composer decided to write the libretto himself and consequently took a hit for that in Midgette's review. Was Opus, despite its premiere (the Dresser suspects this was the master's degree production and should that production be called a premiere?), ready for a prime time review in a major newspaper?

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