The Color

I really appreciated watching all of these different productions over the past week in class. First off, I loved watching Topsy Turvy. I love that it both captures the "personal" lives of the characters offstage in addition to what they become when they are on stage. One stark contrast that we see in the movie especially is the use of vibrant color within the production of The Mikado. There are probably many reasons why they chose to make the color change so different in the two "worlds" of the film, but what keeps coming to mind are the many discussions that we have had about the living conditions of the Victorians. The use of coal in the cities quite literally made London filthy. The furniture, streets and life was covered in the smog and soot that came from these unsanitary living conditions. I loved that the dark undertones of the colors used in the "reality" sections of the movie were in such direct contrast to the whimsical world of the stage. The stage then takes on a whole new life with the vibrancy of the production and the color of the visual aspect of the work. In the clips of Princess Ida I also noticed a difference in the vibrancy of the productions. I loved the costuming of the singers in the production that Houston Grand performed in 2003. These costumes seemed to capture a similar vibrancy that I felt in the movie that we watched this week. Maybe it is just my own personal opinion, but it seems that the silly whimsical nature of G&S satire seems to be even more highlighted by the visual vibrancy this type of production and costume provides. As much as I enjoyed the Canadian joke that occurred in "This Helmet I Suppose" in the International G&S festival in Buxton, England, the costuming seemed washed out (quite literally with the women's chorus in white). This washed out affect I think takes away from the pointed specificity of G&S. For my own personal taste, and if I ever am on the production side of a G&S performance one day, I would hope that I can capture the energy in the sarcasm within the visual effect of the opera. I think that the jokes breathe a whole new vivaciousness in full "Technicolor." I also wonder with the improvement of the HD broadcast and such if we will then be able to see some of these new productions in a similar vibrant and captivating way.

things are better in threes

I thought it was interesting that the trio "I am a Maiden" from Princess Ida was set for trio male voices. I guess I was most surprised so see another "maiden" song for trio because of the trio that we just saw in the production of The Mikado. I would assume that the trio of maids from school is not really a coincidence. Again like the "maidens" of the Princess Ida the maids from Mikado also poke fun at what it is to be expected in their daily duties and how life is for a maiden from day to day. Again all of the responsibilities of these maidens seem to be trite and superficial. It is interesting after learning about the libretto that Princess Ida's revolves around a princess who is teaching the superiority of women to men at her women's university thus satirizing women's education that it seems to be the same stab at women's education in The Mikado. As this being my own first exposure to Princess Ida I also thought it was an interesting choice for both of the performances to include the "maidens" dancing about in a silly manner on the stage with the "graduation" regalia look. The plot really binds the director to this choice when it comes to staging so it began to make more sense to me for the strange choice. The men are supposed to be dressed up as maidens in order to scoff at their sister's college for women adding to the battle of the sexes. Again the plot is then making it "appropriate" that they would be acting ridiculous as "maidens." Although this is mildly offensive in one way, it is still done hilariously because in all honestly the men (as they point out themselves) know that their disguises are silly and will not fool anyone. Bringing in the concept of which sex is the "sillier" one of the two and adding to the overall hilarious satire of the opera. I wonder if the appearance of the three comic characters are a stab at grand opera. For instance, it brings to mind the three comic roles of Turandot, Ping, Pang and Pong. The concept of a comedic trio seems to resound throughout the times and even making its way into the 20th century with the hilarious Marx brothers.

"Bare"-ing it all

The tableaux vivant was a shocking art form to learn about in this week's reading. I guess I have been living under a rock, because I really had no idea that people used to recreate portraits and statues of pieces of art trying to completely be "authentic" down to the costume, or lack there of. I was too surprised that this practice was something that came from the aristocracy and upper class society. I assumed that practices like this might have originated from the lower class and assumed that it would be another opportunity to exploit women, but this was not the case at all. The tableaux vivant seemed to truly be an art. It took skill and talent to recreate these works of art effectively and in a way that is "authentic." In the chapter we see the description of the famous tableaux artist, La Milo. Her performances were regarded so highly and reviews express that her name is synonymous with art. Again this whole practice seemed strange to me. Especially the glowing reviews of its practice. It does make me reconsider my own biases in this situation. When I think about a practice posing nude, it seems outrageous to me. It is probably because I would feel exploited or uncomfortable in my own skin if I was to be in this position. But, as we discussed in class there seem to be a difference of opinion about posing in the buff. Some women embrace the liberating feeling of having their body be the spectacle. Others may feel similar to me and may not enjoy their line of work. Either way, the performance practice has definitely trickled down into our society today and has influenced art of the 20th century and beyond.

"The Novel"... why not?

I appreciated this week's chapter's approach to looking at the music hall in terms of how it is represented in the literature of the time. We saw this tactic earlier in the semester when we explored the book Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. Eliot had used this book as a vehicle to poke fun at Victorian society. In this chapter we also see the author of the novel using the book as a vehicle to forward their own opinion of the topic of the society. Walter Besant takes an optimistic approach to women working in the music hall. This view is starkly contrasted by the attitude of Hall Craine's novel The Christian. Besant create a condition for the main character, Dorothy necessitate her working in the music hall. He also comments on her own talent at performing which again "excuses" her line of work. He also uses Dorothy as a vehicle for his own exploration of the music hall in his article "At the Music Hall" which he signed "Dorothy Wallis."By using Dorothy's name, he is able to give an "insider" view of the music hall. Drastically contrasted from Besant's optimistic view of the music hall we have Craine who openly "punishes" women for working in the music hall. We see the character of Glory Quayle leave her "respectable" job as a nurse to become a music hall performer. Faulk says, "[Glory's] success in the West End represents the growing commercial and popular success of women stars. But Caine also uses Glory to represent the moral decay of the West End; she eventually signifies all that resists the ministrations of Storm's philanthropic project." At the end of the story Storm, the minister, literally tries to kill Glory. This act is basically excused by his attempt to clean up the West End and all it stands for. Glory then serves as an icon of all that has gone wrong with society and the music hall. It is interesting that both of these drastically different viewpoints are expressed though the literature of the time. "Fiction" is then a mask that these authors can hide behind while providing social commentary and satire.

What IS politically correct?

This past winter I was in my first production of Madame Butterfly. I was so excited when we began staging because the director pointed out that I, along with nine other chorus members would be the "Geisha." I knew that this would mean that I would get to wear a kimono and very amazing makeup that was common practice of the geisha. Some of the other women of the chorus were made into relatives of Butterfly. When we had our first meeting with the make up crew, we learned how to put on a "Geisha face." The make up was complete with white foundation to make the porcelain skin that was the trademark of a geisha. After this demonstration, she had a different meeting with the "family members" who had different makeup with a different hue of foundation to make them appear more "ethnic." The color of the make up is best described as a golden brown that gave almost a yellow appearance to the performers. The color was really unbecoming on them and looked almost ridiculous. But the color, coupled with the black eyeliner that was applied to make the eyes look flat and longer was truly stereotyping what a Japanese person would look like. Practices such as black face, and yellow face were popular during the Victorian era. Kift discusses this issue during the character section of the chapter. Since the Victorian era, it seems that blacking out ones face has fallen out of favor and has become a social taboo in our culture, but why is it still acceptable to stereotype and comment on other cultures in the name of art? It is no different whether the singers were wearing the "yellow face" for the production of Butterfly then if they had been wearing "black face" for a production of Porgy and Bess and yet one seems to still be tolerated in our culture and one is completely incomprehensible. Is it because of the history that black people have had in our nation? Didn't we too make other groups of people suffer such as the Japanese in the work camps of World War II? Shouldn't we be mutually sensitive to everyone's culture? Does the story of Madame Butterfly face the possibility of not being told well if the makeup isn't "racially accurate"?

What ever happened to the music hall?

I thought it was very interesting this week to consider the music hall and where it's position is now in our society. Like always finding parallels to today's culture and what echoes of Victorian life we still see today is fascinating to me. As we discussed in class with the help of the temperance movement, and the fact that it was able to influence the goings on of the music hall, it changed the floor plan of the music hall. In the Kift article it was shown that the floor plan changed once the bars were removed from the hall from the standard table layout that invited people to socialize, drink and not necessarily be too concerned with the performance to benches that were positioned towards the stage that would then encourage people to pay attention to the show instead of just socializing. It is interesting to observe the influence of the cinema or maybe the reverse affect of the new floor plan to maybe inspire the cinema. In the early movie theater we see many similarities to the music hall. There was still some form of entertainment through the use of musicians playing the soundtrack and all of the sound for the film. Again as we discussed in class, there were also sometimes variety show type acts that would occur when reels would be changed or there would be a break in the production. I wonder if the temperance movement had not carried so much influence if we would not have seen the same tradition of the music hall carry over to America. Kift also blamed some of the demise of the music hall on other influences that were imported from America. The growing popularity of the dance the "Charleston" and Ragtime music attracted people to the dance hall instead of the music hall. Although I do believe that the "dance hall" we see during the big band era in America also echoes the traditions of the original music hall. In these dance halls we see people attending the performance not necessarily to see the band that is playing as much as to socialize, dance, and eat. Although the atmosphere may be similar, the music being played does not really follow suit to the variety acts of the music hall stage.

Vaughan Williams and Opera?

I have to say, prior to this week I really didn't even know that Vaughan Williams had written any operas. It was really nice to become acquainted with some of his work in this way. After listening to some of the operas I have to say the music is very beautiful and really easy to listen to. Quite a contrast to what we see coming out of some other countries in Europe at this time... Not that either is better, it is just interesting to see the difference in what was being performed in other parts of the world. It also made me think about what Vaughan Williams himself said about a genius. Maybe if Vaughan Williams had come earlier he too could have established a different and maybe more lasting tradition of British music. Anyway about the operas, I really appreciated the format of the article comparing these two operas in particular. Although the time between the release of Hugh the Drover and Sir John in Love was a short five years, there was really a significant change in the approach to composition that is apparent in these works. As I said in class when I was reading about Hugh the Drover I was thinking to myself that a more integrated use of folk song something that would propel the motion of the drama would make more sense and then when Saylor described Sir John in Love, it seemed to fit the bill. I really think that by using folk elements and making it a part of the characters by using diegetic music allows a flexibility and an overall more effective approach into integrating folk song into the traditions of English music. I was also happy that we discussed the appearance of the French chanson in the opera, Sir John in Love. I thought that it was funny that this happened when I read the article thinking, "Wouldn't it undermine his own efforts to establish English folk song in 'serious art' to establish a sound of England? But considering the long lasting opinion of both the French of the English and the English of the French it makes the appearance of the chanson laughable as far as the character is concerned. It adds a whole new level of insincerity to the character. Overall I loved considering these works and hope to learn more about his operas. They definitely seem worth it.