Water Creatures

May I begin with "Part of Your World," sung by Ariel from "The Little Mermaid"?

Because of Ariel (and Dyesebel) I pretended to swim and lay on the sand at the beach like a mermaid. I did not realize that this was a song about coming out until my college professor pointed it out to me. I listened to Howard Ashman's lyrics with new ears. My professor was right. 

The characters in the works below have a desire to be part of another world. The water creatures in "Rusalka" and "The Lure" want to be on land. In "The Shape of Water" and "SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical," the land creatures want to be in the water world.
Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" endures in "Rusalka" and "The Lure." They are not cruelty-free. "The Lure" has savage mermaids that eat human hearts. The otherness of the water creatures create ideal vehicles for themes of intolerance. "The Shape of Water" and "SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical" feature struggles against intolerance. There's a price to pay when joining another world. Typically one loses her voice - literally and figuratively. In all four works, music bridges the separate worlds. 

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Rusalka

(1901, composed by Antonin Dvorak, libretto by Jaroslav Kvapil)(2016-2017 Season, The Met: Live in HD, dir. Mary Zimmerman)

Nymph walks on land for
Lover, then betrayed. Water,
 Moon music pervade.

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The Shape of Water

(2017, dir. Guillermo del Toro)

Del Toro makes an

Adult fairy tale, monster

Musical movie.

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The Lure

(2015, dir. Agnieszka Smoczynska)

Killer mermaids sing

And dance in Polish. Surf and

Turf cannot unite.

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SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical

(seen 2/2018, Palace Theatre, Music & Lyrics by Various, Book by Kyle Jarrow, dir. Tina Landau)

Bikini Bottom

On Broadway. Pastiche songs preach

Optimistic views.

Conchita, Bertha, and Charlotte

Women are objects of obsession for the men in the works below. In two out of three, the men die ... without consummating their "love."

None of them feel romantic. 

Luis Bunuel's film is intentionally absurd. Two actresses play the same character. Or two actresses portray different sides of the character. Or the man has prosopagnosia. On second viewing, I paid more attention to the presence of political terrorism in its story world.

"Torment" was Ingmar Bergman's first produced screenplay and stars Mai Zetterling as Bertha, a schoolboy's first love and an older man's torture toy. Bertha is a template for female Bergman protagonists to come - a complicated female role that could either be a product of his genius or misogyny (maybe both?).        

Jules Massenet's "Werther" is overwrought and mercifully short. Is it the way Jonas Kaufmann plays him or is it the way the role is written? Kaufmann goes from gloomy to desperate to dead. It's dull to sing in the same "key" for four acts. 

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That Obscure Object of Desire

(1977, dir. Luis Bunuel)

Conchita times two;

No matter who plays her, man

Only wants one thing.

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Torment

(1944, dir. Alf Sjoberg)

Life lessons valued

More than schoolwork for expelled 

Man in Bergman script.

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Werther

(1892, composed by Jules Massenet, libretto by Edouard Blau, Paul Milliet, and Georges Hartmann)

(2013-2014 Season, The Met: Live in HD, dir. Richard Eyre) 

Poet loves, pines for

Charlotte. Long drawn out death ends

Our miseries.

Pussy Power

The electric power that the women find in Naomi Alderman's "The Power" is within them all along. The young women can ignite it in the old women. The other women in the first three works also find the power within them. That power is often used for revenge, a theme that can also serve to thread the works below. In the process, they portray the women as vindictive. If the simple-minded were only exposed to these four works, they will equate feminism with killing men. It is up to the viewer to deem the female characters' actions as forgivable. Societal forces reduced these women's powers no matter the location and time period. In each, religious forces prop up the patriarchy. Sex ruins the women, but sex is a power tool they learn to use.

"Lady Macbeth"

• Time: 1865
• Locale: Rural England
• Revenge: Having an affair with her husband's land worker.
• Other Notes: Based on Nikolai Leskov's "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District." At what point did I begin to not like her? When she kills the horse or the boy?

"Insiang"

• Time: 1976
• Locale: Manila
• Revenge: Stealing her mother's lover
• Other Notes: A time for resistance yielded the second golden age of Filipino cinema. Imelda Marcos did not want the world to see "Insiang." I am looking forward to the works that will come out of these times.

"Cavalleria Rusticana"

• Time: 19th century
• Locale: Sicilian village
• Revenge: Telling the husband of the wife whom her ex left her for
• Other Notes: The brevity of this work makes it a masterpiece. The staging made me realize I escaped theatre school without reading Brecht. Santuzza disclosing Alfio's wife's affair made me think of Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You."

"The Power"

• Time: The near future
• Locale: Various countries
• Revenge: Electrocuting men
• Other Notes: Speaking of golden ages, this will be the next great TV series. Alderman's frame for the story - the reader is perusing a manuscript written by a man - yields one of the most satisfying last lines I've read in a long time.

Lady Macbeth

(2016, dir. William Oldroyd)

Corraled wife takes sex

From patriarchy. Pugh makes

One root, maybe hate?

Insiang

(1976, dir. Lino Brocka)

Mom's lover moves in,

Puts moves on daughter. #Metoo

In Marcos era.

Cavalleria Rusticana

(1890, composed by Pietro Mascagni, libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci)

(2017-2018 Season, Metropolitan Opera House, dir. David McVicar)

Outcast outs ex-love's

Affair. Brechtian McVicar

Lets score be the star.

The Power (2016)

 by Naomi Alderman

Women gain power

To shock. Will they wield it like

Men? Captures zeitgeist.

"Nabucco" to "Aida" - via Egitto

Exploring the 2016-2017 Met Opera season ... Decided to look at Verdi's "Nabucco" and "Aida" together. In the process, discovered Rossini's Moses operas and that all four share DNA strands.

THE WORKS

"Nabucco" premiered in 1841.

"Abigail" steals crown,

Thunderstruck king converted;

Lear-light Verdi work.

Program notes cite Rossini's "Mose in Egitto" as a major influence on the work.

"Mose in Egitto" premiered in 1818.

Vick updates Moses

to Syria, migrant crisis.

Sacred score sublime.

Rossini later transformed the work to:

"Moise et Pharaon," which premiered in Paris in 1827.

Revised in French

By Rossini, the music 

More meditative.

30 years after "Nabucco," "Aida" marched on the opera stage.

Verdi triangles

Abound. Slave's love conflicts with

Patriotic love.

COMMON TRAITS

Besides being composed by Italians, the works possess other traits in common.

SETTING 

They are set in the Middle East. One can argue that Egyptomania courses through these works, culminating in the Cairo Opera House premiere of "Aida."

• Mose in Egitto: Egypt
• Moise et Pharaon: Egypt
• Nabucco: Jerusalem / Babylon
• Aida: Egypt

NARRATIVES OF OPPRESSION

They feature choruses of subjugated populations, something Italian audiences can easily identify with having been subjects of foreign powers. To think there were three Italian Wars of Independence. Third time's the charm.

• Mose in Egitto: Hebrews
• Moise et Pharaon: Hebrews
• Nabucco: Jews / Israelites
• Aida: Nubians

ANTHEMS

They feature anthems, songs that serve to unite a group of people. 
Moses and the Hebrews sing a prayer to a God that unites them. The Israelites in "Nabucco" also sing of their plight, another call to God. Aida's farewell to her country is a patriot's sacrifice, all the more moving post-Risorgemento because its unification was hard-fought. Anthems stir audiences' emotions more than romantic duets. 
Perhaps because more people can probably say they know what loving a country means than what falling in love with someone means.


Mose in Egitto: "Dal tuo stellato soglio" 

Moise et Pharaon: "Dal tuo stellato soglio," en francais. 

Nabucco: "Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate"

Aida: "O Patria Mia" 

OTHER NOTES

ACTS OF GOD

There are acts of God featured in the 3 earlier works.

• Mose in Egitto: The plagues and the parting of the Red Sea
• Moise et Pharaon: As above.
• Nabucco: Nabucco thunderstruck.
• Aida: There are no acts of God in "Aida" because Verdi concerns himself more with human actions.

VERDI'S MATURATION

Verdi sharpened "Nabucco" to "Aida" in the same way that Rossini refashioned his "Moses" to "Moise." The latter works are also more suited to the French Opera tradition. They made room for ballet.

Verdi refined the love triangle in "Nabucco" between Abigaille, Ismaele, and Fenena to "Aida's" love triangle between Amneris, Radames, and Aida. The latter work has a more solid base. Amid the spectacle, no one loses sight of the smaller pyramid. In "Aida," each of the lead roles are three-dimensional. I dare you to hate Amneris at the end. She merits the mantel of tragic heroine as much as Aida. 

To use the buzzword of the moment, I admire Verdi for his grit. He worked until he got better. "Aida" was his best "Nabucco." And to illustrate, listen to the marches from his two works. Which one best suits its narrative? There's a reason why many have walked to the "Aida" march, suitable or not - for me, it was grade school graduation.