Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812

14 Reasons I Love Dave Malloy's Opera based on War and Peace.

Phillipa Soo as Natasha in NATASHA PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812, Photo By Chad Batka

1. You get perogies and vodka.
   
   
2. Dave uses bass clarinet, english horn, and gut rumbling club music all in the same piece.
   
   
3. One scene inside of the opera is a hilarious parody of an opera.
   
   
4. A bunch of the actors, and almost all of the musicians, are also composers.
   
   
5. At one point two female singers in a tense situation sing the lyric “constraaaaaaained” a half step away from each other, and it is beautiful.
   
   
6. One of the actors passed me a tiny folded paper during the show that had “you are hawt” scrawled on it. (Data suggests this was part of the show, and not an impulsive appraisal of my hawtness).
   
   
7. Dave's melodies pour from the piece so effortlessly. I waited for something to be repetitive or predictable but each musical moment is an ingenious transformation and/or departure from the previous.
   
   
8. The opening number is a cumulative song
   
   
9. Mimi Lien created a magical Russian Cabaret.
   
   
10. I'm incredibly impressed that Dave could tell such a complicated story using no spoken dialogue, without the exposition ever feeling forced. This makes me hopeful about the potential of song to tell big stories in an authentic and light-hearted way. It cleverly triangulates musical theater and operatic tropes so it can make use of them, without ever being subsumed by them.
    
    
11. Every one of the actors approach singing differently. I love this. I like shows that have a few classically trained singers and a bunch of singers that are using their voices with folk, blues, rock, and experimental sensibilities. The sonic patchwork is what makes the piece feel current and authentic. Our culture is so heterogeneous that when a large group of performers stand up and sing according to a single musical orthodoxy, the product can feel institutional, dated or even corporate. This is the experience I have, though not always an unpleasant one, at many Broadway shows and big budget operas. Comet on the other hand feels homemade. It may not feel as homemade in its current commercial incarnation than it did at Ars Nova, but that leads to my next point.
    
    
12. I love seeing a commercial production of a truly downtown piece or performance. Rachel Chavkin and Dave have kept the core of the work intact even though there are now many more costumes and chandeliers. To quote the brilliant Taylor Mac, “The avant-garde IS commercial!” It is inspiring to see commercial backing for a work as quirky, honest and courageous as Comet.
    
    
13. The waitstaff are all actually Russian (or have convincing accents), and I think this actually adds a lot to the experience.
    
    
14. It's in a damn TENT!
    
    Go see for yourself.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

The Fancy

The Fancy opened for The Lisps last week at Rock Shop. They have killer basson and viola arrangements. Video below:

Not your Grandaddy's Rock Band.

Volcano the Bear (w/ No Neck Blues Band. The Psychic Elves)
Friday November 17th, 2006 at Hint House (No Neck's Loft space in Harlem)

This was a brilliant show and here are some reasons.
1.

2. I hear you asking: "Why is Volcano the Bear so much better than nearly every other band in the world?"
3. maybe because they are brutally original, and uncompromisingly bizarre.
4. The show began with Aaron and Dan throwing cymbals on the ground and the growling and whining of Laurence's tape decks. The whole show in my head is this chopped up collage of wild gestures and gags. some highlights:
5. aaron walking around furiously with a microphone in his mouth, laws' hitting aaron's adam's apple like an amplified throat whammy bar,
6. Aaron walking into the audience with his weird clarinet mouthpiece chanter tube thing.
7. Dan's kazooing and playing piano like hand drums
7.1 Dan/Aaron clarinet duet
8. Laurence's tape hacking and fader/tapespeed play that created a completely surreal sense of postdigital decay. Like the floor the music stood on was rapidly deteriorating.
9. Aaron's stadiumrock/tribal/"animal from the muppet babies" drumming
10. now in retrospect it all reminded me of a play i saw in Finland once. I couldn't understand a single word but the men were always thrashing about in fits of anger and emotion, grabbing each other and fighting. In a completely exaggerated way...like pro wrestling. It turned into a dance, that was deeply masculine but terribly entertaining.
11. Volcano the Bear is like watching your three best friends, The demure/sensitive one, the alpha/performative one and the zany/eccentric one, all battle it out for your wonderment. They pose and posture, dance and wrestle, yell, touch gently, sing, honk, and bang. And then they all telepathically revert into these pre-literate post-rock super-british "manthems," which steal your heart away on a gentle caveman kabuki rollercoaster.
12. VtB isn't highbrow, it's pure entertainment but these are things you have to leave at home: conventional song structure, expectations for normal instruments, hopes for a sound world that is consistently soothing/familiar and...well...most of what you expect when you think about "entertainment." But once you leave all those things behind and sit on the floor while Aaron stomps through the audience squawking a clarinet mouthpiece into a big piece of bamboo, I'm sure you'll agree that was worth it.

They're on tour in the States..don't miss:

Nov 20 2006 9:00P	AS220, Providence	Providence, Rhode Island
Nov 21 2006 9:00P	611 Florida Ave NW w/ Charalambides	Washington DC,
Nov 22 2006 9:00P	Nightlight, Chapel Hill, NC	Chapel Hill, North Carolina

VtB myspace
VtB Website