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Thanks for some friendly remarks about my posts
#31
Apologies. I said that I would post about most of what I am doing while in London but the other day I received some news that knocked me sideways and any thoughts of writing about what I was doing were completely blown away. However, things seem to have got back on an even keel now so, while not as detailed as I had originally intended, here's my reaction to the "Rembrandt - The Late Years" exhibition at the National Gallery:

Where on earth do I start?! Monday morning Sandra and I went to the exhibition of late Rembrandts and it's difficult to describe what an emotional experience it was for me. Believe it or not, at the end of the exhibition I came out and met up with Sandra (we had gone our separate ways in the exhibition) and I was so emotional I was almost crying. Just going in to the first room was almost overwhelming. There were no less that five self portraits on the walls and to me the room seemed to vibrate with energy emanating from them. The exhibition covered ten years of his life from 1659 to 1669. Rembrandt never flattered. His portraits are probably the most honest depiction of the physical human as well as the emotional, psychological human and he was never more honest than when he depicted himself in his many self portraits. No one I believe, has ever dug deeper in to the human soul with more mastery than Rembrandt. It is not just the depiction of the person but it is done with such assuredeness and mastery by someone who, over the years had honed his technique to such perfection that he could, with a single brush stroke create any effect that he desired.

Although almost all of the portraits in the exhibition seem to be in tones of cream and brown, they are in fact full of the most dazzling array of colours. This exhibition contains only late works but I have seen self portraits painted when he was a much younger and really quite good looking man and over the years he painted the brutal truth about the ageing process so in his late years (he died when he was only 63) he is shown with deeply wrinkled skin and a bulbous nose (probably a heart condition), his small, dark eyes peering out from under deep, furrowed brows.

Intermingled among the painting were etchings, mainly of religious subjects, smaller and less clamouring for attention that the larger oil painting, but exploration of then is richly rewarding. One can admire his astonishingly sure hand; quick strokes of the pen or whatever he was using, that were never out of place and convey in small gestures things that lesser mortals would struggle with.

There were certains painting that stood out of course and perhaps it is unfair to single them out but all the same, his "Self Portrait with two Circles" could be considered one of his best. He is shown against a plain background with the exception of two semi-circles in the background. Various theories have been put forward as to what they mean and it seems the most common theory is that Rembrandt is recalling the famous Italian artist Giotto who, to win a comission, drew a perfect circle freehand and Rembrandt is saying in his way "I am a great artist also". However, although undoutedly he was and is a great artist, the two semi-circles are not painted in one sweeping stoke but by multiple brush strokes.

The most dazzling painting known as "The Jewish Bride" shows very clearly his use of the palette knife (The first painter to do so?) where it layers colour upon colour on the sleeve of the man to create a shimmering gold threaded brocade. An absolute masterwork.

Probably my favourite portrait if is is possible to pick one out of so many absolute masterpieces, is the Portrait of Margaretha de Geer, wife of Jacob Trip. This was shown together with the portrait of her husband. Apparently it was the custom then, when husband and wife were painted together, that the wife was painted in profile always looking to the right at her husband. Her husband died a few years after his portrait was painted and his wife succeeded him as head of their business. And doesn't she look the matriach? Looking straight out of the canvas, no sideways look for her, those steely eyes bore in to you and the very masculine left hand is placed so firmly on the arm of the chair. In the not too good reproduction I have attached she is wearing a very formal head dress that is hard to distinguish against the dark background.

"An Old Woman reading" is another to linger over. The indirect light coming from the left is reflected off the book she is reading and on to her face. It's a very striking image but don't think that any reproduction can do justice to the real thing.

I had always believed that the painting of "A Woman bathing in a Stream" was in fact of Saskia, his first wife, but I found out that this is not true. It was painted after she had died. Whatever, it came as a surprise to me that it was so small. I had always imagined it to be life size. Also, it appears to be unfinished, something I had never realised before. Her shift is painted in broad, swift strokes, just the underpainting of something that was to be and her right has dissolves in to almost nothing but such is the mastery of the painter that it fools you in to believing that everything is as it should be.

Tuesday, Sandra and I accompanied by another friend, Hilary, went to see "Rembrandt", a 90 minute film made in conjunction with the National Gallery and the Rijksmuseum. It went it to some detail about Rembrandt's life and of course in to some of the painting. It was quite funny that when someone was talking about the "Self Portrait with Two Circles", I whispered to Hilary "That has so much confidence" and almost immediately the woman commentating almost repeated my words. I'm glad that she also had doubts about the meaning of the circles that some say are a reference to Giotto's drawing of a perfect circle. Paula, another friend of mine wrote to me about this particular portrait: "How can he paint FUR and make it so convincing just by scraping some brown and red paint on the canvas? Genius."

They went in to some detail about the etchings and Rembrandt's use of dry point about which I knew nothing. Fascinating that he used dry point like no one else had done at that time so he was an innovator in so many ways.

The Curator of Dutch and Flemish painting at the Gallery said that her aim was that at the end, people would come out of the last room, fall on the floor and cry. Well, I didn't fall on the floor and I didn't give a public demonstration of my emotions but I had great difficulty in talking to Sandra at that moment because I was welling up inside. I can't remember any exhibition that has ever had that effect on me. I was impressed to the extent that I have insisted on paying the air fare for a friend to fly over from Spain for two nights just to see it. He couldn't pay the fare himself since very high winds have ruined his avocado crop. He's the only friend I have in Spain who has sufficient knowledge of art and the enthusiasm to appreciate the exhibition.


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"You can be young without money but you can't be old without money"
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
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#32
Lastly the painting of "Woman Bathing in a Stream"


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"You can be young without money but you can't be old without money"
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
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#33
So far I have managed to see only one of the films on my wish list: "Mr Turner" about the life of W. M. Turner the famous British artist. I was very disappointed. It is too long, too slow, disjointed and even the performance by Timothy Spall I didn't enjoy. I didn't expect a romanticised Hollywood version of his life but then I didn't expect such an unsympathetic portrayal either. Did he really have to growl and grunt and scowl quite so much right throughout the film? I don't think anyone could go through life without smiling at least once.
"You can be young without money but you can't be old without money"
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
Reply

#34
Londoner, you definitely are one of the great posters on this site. I enjoy your jokes, corny as some may sometimes be. I also enjoy the other stuff you post. Enjoy your very busy schedule.
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#35
I am at a point when I am almost suffering cultural overload and there is still yet more to come!

This evening Sandra and I and another friend went to see "The Scottsboro Boys":

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/oc...ick-london

I had no idea what it was about before we got to the theatre so it took time for me to realise exactly what was happening on stage that was a mixture of joy and tragedy as you will be able to see from the review above. Some brilliant singing and dancing from the small group of black actors, about 14 men and one single women. For me the really most uncomfortable and almost embarrasing part was when they blacked up; blacks blacking up as black minstrels as in the old black and white minstrel shows when whites blacked up and pretended to be blacks and this at a time when racial discrimination was rife . It made me squirm in my seat.




Still to come I have "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" and "Urinetown".
"You can be young without money but you can't be old without money"
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
Reply

#36
Just found some clips from the show but first, here's a little history:








"You can be young without money but you can't be old without money"
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
Reply

#37
John Adams' opera/oratorio was, to say the least, intellectually challenging. I love Adams' music but I found Peter Sellars staging almost incomprehensible. The "set" was a bare stage with some large cardboard boxes and a back projection that changed from just a hand to an arm and a hand and sometimes a torso and then there were some chain link fences on either side topped by barbed wire. Photo attached. In spite of the fact that this was English National Opera where everything is performed in English, I could hardly understand a word! There wasn't a great deal of movement on the stage. Groups of singers came on and sang and then moved offstage. There was one figure who was supposed to the Angel Gabriel who "danced"; lots of hand and arm movements and occasionally jumped up and down a bit. Really all rather confusing. He added absolutely nothing to the performance as far as I was concerned and if anything he was a bit of a distraction.

Apparently though, some of the audience was enthralled by him.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/no...are_btn_tw



I enjoyed the music and some of the singing, especially the three countertenors who were "seraphims" but my eyesight was playing up and unless I closed one eye, I could see four! I know that the music is available on CD so I might seek that out but I wouldn't want to sit through the Peter Sellars performance again. You can see a couple of reviews here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entert...77245.html

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/ma...ary-review

I think that Peter Sellars production was making some political point about a mixture of the Arab Spring, the treatment of the Palestinians by the Jews etc. Since politics is not one of my favourite subjects it's one of the reasons I didn't enjoy the staging so much. You can get a little idea of the production from this:



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"You can be young without money but you can't be old without money"
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
Reply

#38



For those who don't already know, this film is about how Alan Turning, a mathematical genius who also happened to be gay, together with his team, cracked the German "Enigma" code that many believe shortened WWII by at least two years and saved probably up to 4 million lives.

The film is based on a book but exactly how much is fact and how much is invented I am not completely sure. Benedict Cumberbatch, an actor who I don't usually warm to, is extremely good in portraying an extremely complex and socially inept character who doesn't suffer fools gladly and it 100% sure of his own capabilities. Keira Knightly is less well cast as the female interest and I am not even sure whether there was ever a female cryptologist at Bletchly Park where the team worked.

There has been rumours that Benedict Cumberbatch might be considered for an Oscar nomination but as good as his performance is, I personally don't think that it quite reaches that level. The screenplay includes some slightly too modern language and one far too modern joke but overall it is a extremely good and absorbing film worth anyone's time and money.

Because he was gay and homosexuality was illegal at that time, he was convicted of gross indecency and given the choice of either two years in prison of hormonal treatment that was in effect, chemical castration. He chose the latter because he said, in prison, he would be unable to work.

The film ends on Turing's suicide and the film give the impression that was definitely the case; that he committed suicide by eating a cyanide spiked apple. That was the judge's verdict at the inquest. However, not everyone is convinced of that. When his body was found, there was a half eaten apple by his bedside but also his notes where he had listed all the things he had intended to do the following day. His death might well have been an accident. He used cyanide in his work and could possibly have accidentally contaminated the apple.
"You can be young without money but you can't be old without money"
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
Reply

#39
An unfortunately apt name for a highly successful musical. "Urinetown" premiered in the USA in 2001 and only arrived in the UK some years after.

"Greg Kotis conceived the original idea for URINETOWN after encountering a pay-per-use toilet whilst travelling in Europe. He began writing the award-winning Book shortly after, joining with Mark Hollmann, composer and lyricist. URINETOWN was nominated for 10 Tony awards, winning for best book, score and direction.

URINETOWN is a social and political satire set in a fictional future where a terrible 20-year drought has crippled the city’s water supplies. Water is so scarce that the government enforces a ban on all private toilets in an effort to control water consumption.

The citizens must now use the public, pay-per-use amenities owned and operated by Urine Good Company (UGC) - a private malevolent corporation run by the corrupt Caldwell B. Cladwell. Citizens who try to circumvent the peeing-fee by relieving themselves in the bushes risk being taken away to “Urinetown”, a mysterious place where many have been sent but no one ever returns".

The oppressed masses huddle in line at the poorest, filthiest urinal in town, Public Amenity #9, which is run by the rigid, harshly authoritarian Penelope Pennywise and her assistant, dashing young rebel Bobby Strong. With fee increases in the pipeline, the poor rise up under the leadership of Bobby to fight the tyrannical regime for the right to make the public amenities free for all to use.

URINETOWN is a hilarious and resonating tale of greed, corruption, love, and revolution in a time when water is worth its weight in gold
.

The action of the musical takes place mainly in the enormous sewers of an unamed city. It has a couple of really standout musical numbers one of which is an hilarious mock gospel song sung with considerable gusto by the "rebels". Being a Monday when we saw it, the theatre wasn't full but the mainly young audience made up for lack of numbers by the enthusiasm of their applause. It has an unusual ending that I won't give away here in case anyone reading this has a chance of seeing it.
"You can be young without money but you can't be old without money"
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
Reply

#40
Last night was the end of my cultural marathon, for the moment at least. Since I arrived in London on the 25th of November I have seen no less than two concerts, five theatrical performances, one opera and three exhibitions (one of them twice) and that's not bad in two weeks!

The last theater we saw was "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night".

‘Curious Incident’ is a tragedy about a family torn apart by the pressures of looking after their son Christopher Boone, a mathematical genius who suffers from "behavioural problems", presumeably autism and/orAsperger's. The bumblingly selfless dad Ed and agonised mum Judy, who is driven to put her own wellbeing before that of the child who will never love her in the way she loves him.

The staging is brilliantly innovative and highly inventive, the huge mathematical grid set flaring with life at every turn: maps, cities, trains, constellations and at the same time reflecting the wondrous, strange workings of Christopher’s mind

The play starts off with Christopher finding a neighbour's dog dead, killed with a garden fork. His mind tells him that this is a crime, a crime that has to be solved because the perpetrator should be punished. His father tells him that his mother has died in hospital to cover up the fact that she has in fact left him for another man. Christopher finds this out when he discovers a stash of letters written to him by his mother but that his father had hidden from him. This revelation leads him to undertake a perilous and ill advised journey (for someone woh has been sheltered most of his life) to find his mother. It is during this journey that the set most ingeniouslly changes in to a Tube (Metro) station and in to the train itself.

Christopher is not reconciled to his father who confesses to him that it was he who killed the dog when his affair with his neighbour goes badly wrong. Christopher insists on returning to his home town to be able to sit his exam. for which he gains straight "A"s. There is a vituoso performance by the actor who plays Christopher who, as an extra after the play ends, comes on stage and explains in detail how he passed his exam. by explaining in great detail a highly complex mathematical formula.

The genius of the production is that the tragedy is bound up in so much charm (the appearance of a puppy that his father gives him to try to make up prompts "oohs" and "ahaas" from the audience), whimsy, good humour and virtuoso staging that you only occasionally feel blue as Christopher.

You can get a little idea of the staging from here:


"You can be young without money but you can't be old without money"
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
Reply



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