The Arts Fuse Newsletter, July 24
Coming Attractions, A Special Mahler Recording, Floating Art in Fort Point Channel, Making Friends with Vincent Van Gogh, and "The Nature of Love."
From The Editor's Desk:
Back from a busily relaxing time in Paris, Bordeaux, and Berlin. Don’t worry, no ‘my summer vacation’ ruminations will be offered. But I did find a theatrical model for American stages that — during this time of political crisis — are interested in doing more than mount productions that placate, pacify, or change the subject.
July is a slow month for theater productions in France and Germany. But in Berlin I visited The Small Grosz Museum, a renovated gas station dedicated to displaying the savagely satiric pictures of artist George Grosz -- best known for exposing in his art Germany’s moral decay during the period between World War I and Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. A special exhibit offered a lesson for theaters who want to confront (rather than ignore) issues such as war and looming autocracy. Entitled What Times are These? – Grosz, Brecht, & Piscator, the show contains a sampling of the drawings Grosz contributed to a 1927 multimedia production of Bertolt Brecht’s adaptation of Jaroslav Hašek’s epic comic novel The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik in the Theater am Nollendorfplatz. Ferociously anti-war, pitilessly scathing, the deliciously acidic exhibition is chockablock with grotesquely caricatured takedowns of the monied, military, religious, and governmental powers that were. The Schweik production turned out to be successful. Take note, purveyors of innocuous entertainment.
Grosz’s drawing above, of Christ in a gas mask, was made for the Schweik production. Authorities deemed it, as well as other images in the show, blasphemous. A series of trials took place at a time of increasing censorship; the legal proceedings generated attention around the world. An artist pursuing good trouble. Today, democracy finds itself under authoritarian threat — time for all hands on deck, right? Not on Boston’s complacent and compliant stages. As its lead up to the crucial election, the American Repertory Theater is presenting Romeo and Juliet. A Lyric Stage Company production of the ‘60s warhorse Hello Dolly! is set for next spring. Ironically, the musical may hit the boards at the time that Trump, if he is elected, will kick off his promised mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. Hello Dolly! Goodbye Immigrants!
—Bill Marx, Editor-in-Chief
Coming Attractions Through August 5 — What Will Light Your Fire
Compiled by Arts Fuse Editor
Our expert critics supply a guide to film, dance, visual art, theater, author readings, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.
Classical Music Album Reviews: Rattle conducts Mahler and “Vienna: Joyful Apocalypse”
By Jonathan Blumhofer
Sir Simon Rattle’s latest traversal of Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony is something special; Pianist Aurélien Pontier’s stylish disc is a celebration of the music of fin de siècle Vienna.
Opera Album Review: Meyerbeer’s Disturbing Look at a Demagogue, “Le Prophète” (1849) — at Bard Summer Festival and on a New Recording
By Ralph P. Locke
Long one of the most-performed French operas, Le Prophète, thanks to some splendid performances, feels as vivid and relevant as ever.
Visual Art/Design Commentary: Floating Art in Fort Point Channel — See Worthy Public Art With a Conscience
By Mark Favermann
Almost immediately, this now quarter-century-old program proved to be a wonderful merger of art and environment, creativity and nature.
Book Review: Going Beyond the Great Van Gogh Hagiography Machine
By Allen Michie
Émile Bernard, to his credit, spends much of his life redeeming rather than demeaning his friend.
Film Review: “The Nature of Love” — Revamping the Rom-Com
By Steve Erickson
Director Monia Chokri finds a language for communicating Sophia’s desire without putting her body on display.
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Editor-in-Chief
Bill Marx
wmarx103@gmail.com
