Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Excalibur A Bloody Brilliant Review

I remember when “Excalibur” opened in April 1981. I was 14 years-old, a sensitive kid, and its R-rating made me nervous that there might be arm-loppings.

There were arm-loppings. And violent death. And gore.

But the tension only enhanced the film’s gravitas, with its weighty armor and weighty themes, and its brooding Wagnerian soundtrack was promptly assimilated into the underscore of my tragic-heroic teens. I would get up in the middle of the night if I saw the movie was going to be shown on HBO and greet the new day with grim determination.

It is with the weight of the world upon me that I will rouse myself from my torpor for yet another year of Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. At long last, Roy (from the French “Roi,” for “King,” not incidentally) has granted me my request to discuss this extraordinarily rich film.

Director John Boorman took his share of liberties with the discursive source material, conflating elements mostly from Sir Thomas Malory’s medieval epic “Le Morte d’Arthur” (“The Death of Arthur”), but to this day, no film better captures the true spirit of the Arthurian legends. Boorman blends mystery and mysticism as seductively as the dragon’s breath that accompanies the Charm of Making.

And what a cast! For a time, every time I rewatched “Excalibur,” somebody else got famous: Patrick Stewart, Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson, and Ciaran Hinds join Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren, and a scene-stealing Nicol Williamson (who eschews Merlin’s pointy hat for a glimmering skull-cap).

I always think of “Excalibur” this time of year, with the blossoms falling from the trees, because of the memorable sequence, in which a wasting Arthur is revived (“The king and the land are one!”) and once more he leads his knights into battle.

A relic from the days when men were men, devouring game with their hands, growling like animals at even the most unthreatening of challenges, and never pausing to remove their armor while in the act of love, “Excalibur” is both hilarious, in a Monty Python sort of way, and very, very grave. This is King Arthur for people who roll their eyes at “Camelot” and “The Sword in the Stone.”

I hope you’ll join us for our Fifth Season opener – a ponderous discussion of “Excalibur” – on the next “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.” Arm-loppings will abound in the comments section as I swill Guinness from my grail, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Sunday evening at 7:00 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

April 21, 2024
Remembering Sir Andrew Davis: Champion of English Music

It is with sadness that I learn of the death of Sir Andrew Davis.

Although Davis had a vast repertoire spanning all eras, he was always a great champion of English music, including the works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. At the time of his death, he was, in fact, president of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society.

I was lucky enough to have seen him in concert several times. Most memorably, he introduced and oversaw Olivier Messiaen’s reckless epic erotic mindblower, the “Turangalîla Symphony,” in Philadelphia. (What could be more erotic than the ondes Martenot?)

On a later visit, he brought more heavy-breathing – this time literally, as there is actual breathing in the score – in the form of Sir Michael Tippet’s Symphony No. 4.

Both works are rarely done – “Turangalîla,” a 20th century classic, because of its scale, and the Tippett, well, because it’s Tippett. (“Turangalîla” is programmed from time to time, but I never would have guessed that I would hear the Tippett a second time, years later, performed by the New Jersey Symphony!)

Over the course of his career, Davis served as principal conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (1975-1988), the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (2013-2019), and Lyric Opera Chicago (2002-2021), and chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1989-2000) and the Glyndebourne Festival Opera (1988-2000). He was a regular presence at the BBC Proms.

He conducted Vaughan Williams’ Fifth Symphony in Baltimore last year, but sadly I was already overbooked that weekend (with, among other things, another performance of Vaughan Williams’ Fifth Symphony!).

Davis died yesterday in Chicago at the age of 80. He had been living with leukemia. His wife, American soprano Gianni Rolandi, predeceased him in 2021.

R.I.P.

Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 5

Elgar, “The Dream of Gerontius”

Walton, “Belshazzar’s Feast”

From Messiaen’s “Turangalîla Symphony,” “Joy of the Blood of the Stars”

Andrew Davis interviewed

PHOTO: At the Last Night of the Proms in 2000

April 21, 2024
Macbeth, Emperor Jones & Lost Music

This week on “The Lost Chord,” I indulge my inner English major with a program inspired by two plays that explore the relationship of power and corruption – Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and Eugene O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones.”

The impulse grew out of my recollection of the rarely-heard ballet by Heitor Villa-Lobos, which originally aired on television in 1957. However, since the score was never published, it was believed lost for decades until rediscovered by the conductor Jan Wagner (who is Venezuelan, despite his Teutonic name). Wagner will conduct the Odense Symphony Orchestra, a Nordic band, in a surprisingly idiomatic performance.

Also on the program will be a half-remembered relic of American musical history, an aria from Louis Gruenberg’s opera, “The Emperor Jones,” sung by baritone Lawrence Tibbett, recorded in 1933.

“The Emperor Jones,” written in 1920, could be a potentially sensitive subject in a more politically correct era. No doubt about it, O’Neill’s tragedy is a product of its time, with plenty of minstrel show dialect, and the uncomfortable use of the N-word.

Already in 1924, Sidney Gilpin, the actor who created Brutus Jones, hedged at playing the character in its first revival, unless O’Neill first changed what he perceived as some of the more offensive passages. O’Neill stood his ground, and Gilpin’s replacement, Paul Robeson, went on to international stardom.

It’s easy to write-off “The Emperor Jones” as an embarrassing relic. Yet there have been some high-profile stagings over the past few years which demonstrate that the play still has much to tell us.

Jones is a former railroad porter and convict, who kills a guard in his escape from prison, and through bluff and bravado establishes himself as emperor of a Caribbean island. He maintains his power through cruelty and exploitation. However, he overplays his hand, and the situation quickly erodes. As his subjects rise up against him, Jones retreats into the jungle and descends into primal fear, haunted by images of his victims.

The play not only parallels some of the themes of “Macbeth,” it also demonstrates the fragility of human reason; how easily under the influence of adrenaline, brought on by raw terror, man is undone by the animal impulses of fight or flight; the psychological impact of guilt; and an insight into tyranny which was remarkably prescient given that fascism would soon overtake Europe.

I don’t know why it never occurred to me before to juxtapose the two plays, but a quick Google search reveals that I am not the first, so there goes my dream of an honorary doctorate.

Also on the show will be selections from rarely-heard incidental music written for two productions of “Macbeth,” by William Walton (for John Gielgud) and Sir Arthur Sullivan (for Henry Irving), respectively.

Power corrupts, on “Power Plays,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times for all three of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EASTERN)

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EASTERN)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EASTERN)

Stream all three, at the times indicated, by following the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

PHOTOS: Gielgud as Macbeth (left) and Tibbett as Brutus Jones

April 20, 2024
Dreamy Gerontius

If you’re within driving distance of Princeton and aren’t holding tickets to tonight’s performance of George Antheil’s “Ballet Mécanique” in Trenton (by the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic Orchestra), you owe it to yourself to do everything in your power to try to catch the second performance of Edward Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius” by the Princeton University Orchestra and Princeton University Glee Club.

I happen to be extremely fond of Elgar, and this is always deemed to be one of his best pieces (with the “Enigma Variations,” it’s the work that really solidified his reputation as the foremost English composer of his generation); but if I’m to be honest, I’ve always found it to be kind of meh. Beyond the Demons Chorus, there really isn’t any of that Elgarian swagger (it’s the flip side of “Enigma”), and the whole bears a heavy Wagnerian stamp. But last night it was so beautiful, and came across so much better than on recordings. It’s one of those pieces that simply has to be experienced live. Do it!

The soloists were all wonderful, with tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, the Met’s “Peter Grimes,” as Gerontius, countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, a Princeton alumnus, as the Angel (unusually, as the part is usually taken by a mezzo-soprano), and bass-baritone Andrew Foster Williams, singing from balcony and platform (extending stage left to accommodate organist Eric Plutz and double basses), as the Priest and Angel of Agony.

I have no idea how Michael Pratt maintains the quality of his orchestra. First of all, the musicians are mostly dilettantes, pursuing degrees in other fields, like astrophysics, bioengineering, computer science, linguistics, sociology, philosophy, and anything else in no way related to music. Second, a substantial portion of the personnel must turn over every year as students graduate. I’ve heard the orchestra a number of times before (Mahler 3, “Ein Heldenleben,” “Daphnis and Chloe”), and they’ve always been very good, if perhaps interpretatively safe, but last night they excelled. I can’t believe anyone could have done it any better.

Princeton University Glee Club, supplying the three choirs, was transcendent. They sang with spirit and celestial joy. Their director, Gabriel Crouch, formerly a member of the King’s Singers and founder of Gallicantus, stepped up his game to conduct the massed forces of orchestra and singers. A very, very fine job he did. The concert was shamefully under-attended, with many empty seats, but those in the audience cheered like a full house.

Take it from someone who owns at least four recordings of the piece (conducted by Boult, Britten, Hickox, and Sargent): those recordings may offer some superior musicianship and insights, but none of them outstrip the “Gerontius” I experienced last night. The young musicians were strikingly committed – I caught a few of them even smiling – in this astonishingly somber, bold piece of programming for such an overly sensitive, culturally retrogressive age.

“Gerontius” is standard repertoire in the U.K. but not bound to pack houses in the U.S. Its somber nature encourages introspection and contemplation. The subject matter is no less than a speculative journey into the afterlife.

That this solemn, 90-minute work by a dead white male who was always photographed in heavy tweeds and a stuffy push-broom mustache, and who has become further weighted with the post-colonial baggage of “Empire” (he wrote a lot of ceremonial music and those “Pomp and Circumstance” marches), that this musical monument steeped in profound religious feeling, would so engage these young performers of varied backgrounds and ethnicities is a powerful rebuttal to the reductive 21st century impulse to damn anything that doesn’t perfectly blend with our own thoughts, experiences, or systems of belief. Watching those who poured their souls into it last night, and realizing they will have a role in shaping the future, gave me a rare glimmer of hope.

“The Dream of Gerontius” is a human masterpiece. Open your heart and see it.

https://music.princeton.edu/event/the-walter-l-nollner-memorial-concert-dream-of-gerontius/2024-04-20/

April 20, 2024
Shakespeare’s Birthday Celebration on KWAX Radio

‘Tis true, we knoweth not f’r c’rtain at which hour Mr. Wm. Shakespeare wast b’rn, but baptiz’d wast he on April 26, 1564. Beest t so symmetry ev’ryone loves, his birthday is commonly obs’rv’d on the anniv’rsary of his lamentable death, which did occur on April 23, 1616. The party dost start early this m’rning, on “Sweetness and Light.”

I desire you’ll joineth me f’r some lightheart’d Shakespearean inspirations by Johan Wagenaar, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Felix Mendelssohn (transcrib’d by S’rgei Rachmaninoff), Sir Thomas M’rley, and Erich Wolfgang K’rngold.

Get thy day off to a valorous starteth, this Saturday m’rning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT. Partying is such sweet s’rrow on “Sweetness and Light, ” now exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the Univ’rsity of ‘regon.

Stream t, wh’rev’r thou art, at the link.

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

April 20, 2024

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