There is a strange tradition in Ottawa and I cannot explain it.
At the National Arts Centre a standing ovation is given for every show, you can fart on stage, you will get a standing ovation. Why? No one can explain it. Presently we have as Concert master and Chief Conductor Pinchas Zukerman, he is a good, knowledgeable musician with a life of musical knowledge under his belt. No discussion on those points, however he has been with the NAC Orchestra for several years and I get the feeling now that he is just coasting along, cold fish school of conducting. It has also been announced that he will retire in 2 years time. He gets rapturous applause every time he is on stage, why?
The musical programs every year are very safe, basically it is a program of wide appeal so it can be sold quickly, a little Mozart, Beethoven, Handel at Christmas, Bach and maybe some Brahms and voilà, no need to go further, you will get a standing ovation every time. Why? well in part because the public in Ottawa does not make any demands and is easily satisfied. We get soloist, think of Lang Lang, who plays here regularly. For piano soloist Rachmaninoff is good, lots of hammering on the keyboard, looks complicated and its noisy music, who will bury who, orchestra vs soloist. The last soloist to play such a piece missed a few notes and at one point was out of sink with the orchestra, but that did not appear to phase anyone. It is all delivered as if it was some government program presented in the usual safe prescribe formula. Standing ovation!
The program for the evening will start with the orchestra playing a piece then an intermission while the piano is wheeled into place, the soloist comes on stage does his shtick gets said standing ovation and leaves. Orchestra returns plays a piece gets standing ovation, end of program. God forbid there should be an encore or something original. I was told once and I tend to believe it, that the musical program had to end at a certain time every night because otherwise the NAC would have to pay overtime to the musicians and there is no money, so you are home safe and in bed, snug as a bug by 11pm.
Tonight we went to the ballet, the Alonzo King, Lines Ballet of San Francisco was presenting two pieces, one entitled Resin and the other Shéhérazade (2009). What is important to notice in this title is the year (2009) in brackets. Many in the audience, including myself, thought this would be the classic ballet by Michel Fokine, WRONG!
Alonzo King presented a new choreography with music composed for it by Zakir Hussain. The programme spoke of Persian, Indian influences on original instruments. The music of the piece Resin was quite beautiful by itself. For Sheherazade not the same thing at all, it should have been called Bollywood in Thailand.
The Lines Ballet has good dancers, but it was far more acrobatics and gymnastics reminiscent of Le Cirque du Soleil. The dancers also all looked like Gym rats and not dancers, very muscular, sporting beards and furry torso. Sorry but if you intend in presenting a ballet which is completely new in choreography and music do not try to tell the public that it is like the old classic everyone knows.
I became concerned when I read the program, words like ''cutting edge'', ''exceptional'', ''transformative'', ''luminescent'', appeared everywhere, the program told us that the dancers were ''exquisite'', the troupe de ballet alludes to what is visible in the phenomenal world. As for the director Alonzo King, we are told ''he is a renowned visionary''. The music of Rimsky-Korsakov had been ''re-interpreted'', really using 2 bars of the entire score on Thai instruments is not re-interpretation, Rimsky-Korsakov would be right to sue Alonzo for this act of vandalism. We were no longer in St-Petersburg more like a Phuhket show for all inclusive package tour, trying to pass itself off as high art to the unsuspecting tourist.
In the program, as if to make it more palatable, readers were told that this work was first done in celebration of Les ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. It had that flavour of a work created on commission, the creator puts something together for the patrons who are footing the bill. No patron will dare criticize given the amount of money they put into this production, so as not to look foolish, in this case (scandal plague) Princess Caroline of Monaco.
In the end they got a standing ovation, however I did notice not everyone was applauding and many had left quickly at intermission.
I thought I would like once to see an honest audience reaction. We did hear giggling during the performance when it got somewhat ludicrous, no story line, no costumes, no sets, just dancers going through the motions with Asiatic scented music. After five minutes it all looked very repetitive.
At the National Arts Centre a standing ovation is given for every show, you can fart on stage, you will get a standing ovation. Why? No one can explain it. Presently we have as Concert master and Chief Conductor Pinchas Zukerman, he is a good, knowledgeable musician with a life of musical knowledge under his belt. No discussion on those points, however he has been with the NAC Orchestra for several years and I get the feeling now that he is just coasting along, cold fish school of conducting. It has also been announced that he will retire in 2 years time. He gets rapturous applause every time he is on stage, why?
The musical programs every year are very safe, basically it is a program of wide appeal so it can be sold quickly, a little Mozart, Beethoven, Handel at Christmas, Bach and maybe some Brahms and voilà, no need to go further, you will get a standing ovation every time. Why? well in part because the public in Ottawa does not make any demands and is easily satisfied. We get soloist, think of Lang Lang, who plays here regularly. For piano soloist Rachmaninoff is good, lots of hammering on the keyboard, looks complicated and its noisy music, who will bury who, orchestra vs soloist. The last soloist to play such a piece missed a few notes and at one point was out of sink with the orchestra, but that did not appear to phase anyone. It is all delivered as if it was some government program presented in the usual safe prescribe formula. Standing ovation!
The program for the evening will start with the orchestra playing a piece then an intermission while the piano is wheeled into place, the soloist comes on stage does his shtick gets said standing ovation and leaves. Orchestra returns plays a piece gets standing ovation, end of program. God forbid there should be an encore or something original. I was told once and I tend to believe it, that the musical program had to end at a certain time every night because otherwise the NAC would have to pay overtime to the musicians and there is no money, so you are home safe and in bed, snug as a bug by 11pm.
Tonight we went to the ballet, the Alonzo King, Lines Ballet of San Francisco was presenting two pieces, one entitled Resin and the other Shéhérazade (2009). What is important to notice in this title is the year (2009) in brackets. Many in the audience, including myself, thought this would be the classic ballet by Michel Fokine, WRONG!
Alonzo King presented a new choreography with music composed for it by Zakir Hussain. The programme spoke of Persian, Indian influences on original instruments. The music of the piece Resin was quite beautiful by itself. For Sheherazade not the same thing at all, it should have been called Bollywood in Thailand.
The Lines Ballet has good dancers, but it was far more acrobatics and gymnastics reminiscent of Le Cirque du Soleil. The dancers also all looked like Gym rats and not dancers, very muscular, sporting beards and furry torso. Sorry but if you intend in presenting a ballet which is completely new in choreography and music do not try to tell the public that it is like the old classic everyone knows.
I became concerned when I read the program, words like ''cutting edge'', ''exceptional'', ''transformative'', ''luminescent'', appeared everywhere, the program told us that the dancers were ''exquisite'', the troupe de ballet alludes to what is visible in the phenomenal world. As for the director Alonzo King, we are told ''he is a renowned visionary''. The music of Rimsky-Korsakov had been ''re-interpreted'', really using 2 bars of the entire score on Thai instruments is not re-interpretation, Rimsky-Korsakov would be right to sue Alonzo for this act of vandalism. We were no longer in St-Petersburg more like a Phuhket show for all inclusive package tour, trying to pass itself off as high art to the unsuspecting tourist.
In the program, as if to make it more palatable, readers were told that this work was first done in celebration of Les ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. It had that flavour of a work created on commission, the creator puts something together for the patrons who are footing the bill. No patron will dare criticize given the amount of money they put into this production, so as not to look foolish, in this case (scandal plague) Princess Caroline of Monaco.
In the end they got a standing ovation, however I did notice not everyone was applauding and many had left quickly at intermission.
I thought I would like once to see an honest audience reaction. We did hear giggling during the performance when it got somewhat ludicrous, no story line, no costumes, no sets, just dancers going through the motions with Asiatic scented music. After five minutes it all looked very repetitive.
