Sharpenicity

                                     This  was my Moby Dick Moment! BACKGROUND: Washington National Opera premiered on the east coat the new American opera Moby Dick, February 22 to March 8.  Written by composer Jake Heggie and featuring an English-  language libretto by Gene Scheer based on Herman Melville’s 19th-century literary classic.    I have never read Moby Dick, so I was literally thrown into an ocean on this one:  Where to begin before I went to show? As an aside, most reviews tell you about what the reviewer  saw but first I want to show you what I saw and heard (something that is the miracle of the web that we can not do in print) so I am posting the selections the Kennedy Center put on line.  Watch and Listen WNO Commentary: Moby Dick 1 of 7: Introduction and Prelude: Before dawn, on the deck of the Pequod (audio onl...

La Vie en Rose , the In Series collaboration with The Washington Ballet Studio Company,  is not your usual song and dance show.  Evoking Parisian life through the musical palette of modern French cabaret chansons and belle epoque art-songs, the work is imaginative, emotional and energetic.   The singers walk and move among the ballet dancers.  While this is not unusual in itself, it is conceptually  different from musicals where singers and dancers share a stage but are clearly distinct.   In La Vie en Rose , one might say the singers and dancers move together to the same tune. They breathe together.  What one sees is how the body  of the dancer and the voice of the singer are expressing the meaning of the song simultaneously.    The coordination of two separate arts in this highly creative staging is not simply keeping to the same beat of the music.  What the singers and dancers share is their breaths in what mig...

May the farce be with you. Constellation Theatre Company again lives up to its name by reaching  up into the universe of possibilities to mount Moliere’s Scapin as adapted by Bill Irwin and Mark O’Donnell. A trip in outer space would have less bumps than the rambunctious trip that the shrewd scheming servant Scapin leads his characters from exposition to coincidences to the inevitable chase finale. The razzling cast is led by Michael Glenn who as Scapin is the first zani, with the versatile  Bradley Foster Smith as the second zani.  The two servants will through a series of skits succeed in uniting people  as well as involving the audience in a parody of the theater, all at the expense of the pocketbooks and prides of their pompous masters. The ensemble cast --Megan Dominy and Ashley Ivey, Nora Achrati, Vanessa Bradchulis, Manu Kumasi, and Carlos Saldaña --are convincing actors especially as they move on a fantasy set created by  A.J. Guban, ...

THREE IN DC Love in Afghanistan at Arena Stage Measure for Measure at Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet at the Folger Was Roya reading Shakespeare in Kabul?  The lead female in Love in Afghanistan seems an obvious  worthy successor to Shakespeare’s Isabelle in Measure for Measure. A risk taker, one focused on the noblest purposes in life, a woman who a man whether the king of the hip hop world or an Italian Prince would crystal clear know was his life mate.  A woman in short phrase, unlike the rest of women, worthy to stand and speak as equal in mind and spirit. And--here comes the plot spoiler--both walk away from all that love and praise of which so many aspire. Roya rejects a spectacular engagement  ring which promises a glamourous life, as well  as  her long hoped for an American visa. In MfM, what Isabella does at the end when the Prince proposes a union is unwritten and usually staged with ambiguity.  In the Shakespeare  Theater pr...

After you see  36 Views, you will wonder how many art works  in museums are frauds but you will have no doubt that the Constellation production is the real thing! .Do not be deceived by the lush images and evocative poetry. There is no one without guilt in this story.    Behind the beautiful world of art, there lurks intricate layers of  deceitful dealings by artists, art foragers, dealers, curators and scholars, fueled by cravings for money, love, sex  and recognition. Taking its title from Katsushita Hokusa’s 36  images of Mt. Fuji,  Naiom Iizuka’s play is constructed in 36 intersecting scenes of a complex plot.  Constellation director Allison Arkell Stockman and company explore intersections of commerce and connoisseurship,  with a fine cast  led by Jim Jorgensen, with Sue Jin Song, include Megan Dominy, Ashley Ivey, Tuyet Thi Pham and David Paglin.   Special kudos to Kendra Rai for costume design and Aaron Fisher for...

Winner Take All ( A Rock Opera) is the story of two (possibly teen) lovers -- Catie (Anna Eilinsfeld ) and Ricky (Jared Zirilli), who get entangled in the cosmic musical battle between the bands of heaven and hell. Trent Armand Kendall is the Narrator - someone between God and a Sunday preacher - who keeps the story moving. Jacquelyn Graham is Sally, the archangel who encompasses all the glories of soul and jazz. Her two angels are Ivory (charming Darren Lorenzo) and Chardonnay (sassy Kyle Lamar Mitchell). The Devil is star of course. Brian Charles Rooney can do things with his voice and his charm that are a match for his role. The two Devilettes: Zakiya Young as Scarlett and Kat Nejat as Beaujolais are, of course, irresistible. Winner is in every sense an opera, not a musical. The songs move the story along with only the briefest dialogue between sets. The characters might at first all seem stock from the everlasting character prop shop--but they are cleverly...