/performing arts/

th Century music.... What's your opinion?
Best century ever for music, based on all counts.

>Are super modern stagings of opera cancer?
no they're fine

>Does so-called "performance art" have a place among the traditional performing arts?
Don't know what that means 2bh

>Don't know what that means 2bh
No one is, really
youtube.com/watch?v=2-_VmAzicFs

>On the idea of staying tonal while using serial methods, how do you like Berg?
Berg was interesting, though I haven't really delved into his music too much. The Second Viennese School was fairly interesting in general. Tbh I'm a classical music pleb, sorry

Does anyone else love ballet but live in an area that's starved for professional productions? I am so envious of people who live in New York or even Houston, who have access to great companies that have annual seasons. We're lucky if we get a single professional ballet company touring show in Michigan each year, and no I will not count the Ballet Met Columbus Nutcracker because it's technically painful to watch.

We got the ABT 'Sleeping Beauty' Pepita reconstruction this year and it was astounding. Next year we're only getting some odd jazz-based Cinderella show that is mostly not ballet and I have no desire to see it based on the clips I've seen.

Hey, I'm looking to start taking ballet lessons. Do you have any recommendations about how many classes I should take/what kind of studio I should start taking lessons at?

Yes, I know it's light operetta. But this is sublime.

youtube.com/watch?v=rP2qJXT3olM

This was my father's favourite piece of music.

We played it at his memorial service.

youtube.com/watch?v=5PYt2HlBuyI

Assuming you're an adult: find a studio that offers classes to adults. They are somewhat uncommon, but not impossible to find.

The first type of class you should be taking is a workshop class that will teach you the basics. Workshop classes can vary in length from studio to studio, and they may even offer sequential workshops--like Beginner I & II, then Beginner Extended I & II, etc. In my opinion, if you haven't danced before, each workshop classs should be 6-8 sessions. If they do offer sequential workshops, go for it!

After workshopping, you can look towards beginner classes. They might be drop-in classes or registered depending on the studio. From there... practice, work, practice! I would also recommend checking out tutorials and videos on youtube, but only after you've taken workshop-style classes to make sure that your technique is proper from an actual teacher.

I couldn't find any workshops in my area, but there is a studio with a Beginner I class starting this week that says it's for students with "little to no dance training" Maybe I'll start with that?

Just another question, if you're a guy who started dancing as an adult (or you know people who are), are you aware if they're kind of treated in a weird way? I know the question seems kind of strange, but I've noticed this thing that happens in places like ballroom dancing and swing societies where people are for no reason really angry about men who don't know how to dance showing up and trying to learn.

Performing arts arent humanities or history though.

"Classical artwork" is not limited to painting and sculpture, retard.

I'd say try the Beginner I class. If you feel it's too advanced, I would talk to the studio and see if they offer anything that is more about the fundamentals or can recommend someone that does.

In general, yes, if you start dancing as an adult you may be treated in a standoffish way. It's basically elitism that runs in every type of group--you're the outsider coming in at a certain age with no experience, when they've been doing it for years and have more notches in their belt, and have already carved out their place in a group.

With ballet it's a bit trickier because there's this idea of "why are you even bothering? you'll never be a professional!" among people who have been dancing since their single digits, which is why it's best to find studios who welcome adult beginners. You shouldn't come across that attitude in the beginner classes because you're all starting out, and the teacher should approach the class in a positive way.

I'd recommend checking out this short documentary: youtube.com/watch?v=VtuGVjmmmAs

Performing arts are a humanity.

youtube.com/watch?v=ucVYRaVxGko

This is the based Au fond du temple saint

>no they're fine
Then what do you think about the Regietheater productions at the Bayreuther festspiele?

Do you think that the festival should be for allowing new artists to interpret Wagner on their own terms, or do you think that it should be about preserving his highly detailed original vision for the work? (obviously, it's become the former, but if you had your druthers)

idk man, but I've always loved this Wagner production for sheer goofiness.

youtube.com/watch?v=9wOE4yMnyOc

>I could fap to this

>why are you even bothering? you'll never be a professional!
What a goofy attitude. I have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to be a professional ballerina, dancing classical ballet at least. Modern or Baroque dance, I can understand it a little more.

Doing this as your job would be fantastic:
youtube.com/watch?v=FOZ6KnVPvIU

What are some visually interesting moments you can recall from a performing arts production you've seen?

Lately I keep thinking back to the suicide scene in a local production of Madama Butterfly, pic not related but I can't find any for the production I saw. They had Butterfly change into a white robe on stage, which was still covered in white flower petals from the earlier scene. She picked up the sword, unsheathed it, and dragged it across her neck--as she did red flower petals came spurting out like blood. I'm assuming the petals were inside the sword's handle and there's a button on the blade or handle that triggered them. In any case, the effect was memorable as hell.

well... that is not the picture I meant to use at all. That's Titanic: the Musical. Here's Madama Butterfly.

This moment during Einstein on the Beach absolutely changed my life. It was the single most amazing moment I've ever witnessed in a work of art.

I have no fucking idea how to express it.

youtube.com/watch?v=fliydMwcdFM

this counts right?

and, actually, the image I posted accidentally was a really eerie visual from that production of Titanic: the Musical. In this production the back platform was used to represent the boat deck at this point in time, and as Mr. Andrews is singing about his vision of the ship sinking, the back platform very slowly starts tilting up (as if we're looking at the ship head-on) while the darkened silhouettes of the passengers struggling and sliding and being hit by various objects played below. Eventually the platform was pulled back completely, to where Mr. Andrews was holding on the railing, dangling from it. At the end of the song, he drops, and it goes black immediately.

So much more effective than all of the big bombastic versions of the show I've seen over the years.

could you explain what happened?

Um, I can only give sort of a technical description. It's during the Bed section.

A lighting element, about 60 feet long, lays on the bottom of the stage. It begins rotating upwards until it is perfectly vertical, then is lifted up until it disappears completely above the stage, leaving the auditorium completely black.

There's a video of it, but it's hard to understand how goddamn big this thing is and how awesome the moment is just watching it:
vimeo.com/86194413

Is this board where all the theatrefriends went? I'm so glad we're still alive

The final scene from the Rhin production of Dialogues des Carmelites is one of my favorite things to watch.

youtube.com/watch?v=e2ubBODy4N0

Their faces when the guillotine blade noise comes in add such a startling element to an already intense scene, which grows dimmer and dimmer as each voice dies.

huh, interesting. Yeah, it's hard to capture the magnitude of it without being able to visualize the size of the piece.

Does professional wrestling count?

Anybody else in here majoring in performing arts?
Going for my BA in musical theatre

Its always nice to see a performing arts thread, if anyone's wants a certain cast recording of a show (mostly musicals) I got a pretty big collect of a little over 1000 different shows, here's what I already uploaded

pastebin.com/ehWCCpa1

I (OP) did a year of conservatory for composition, and another 2 years at an art school. Are you on the East Coast?

Yup studying in south Florida

Oh, so that's kind of far removed from the big cities then. How is studying art and not being able to go to gigantic professional productions?

Funny enough we have a shit ton of theatres down here its just alot more regional. We get a good amount of shows down here I think this season has Something Rotten coming

Bumping with the best Musical Theatre waifu

I-is dank minimalism allowed here?

youtube.com/watch?v=hy3W-3HPMWg

I've thought a little more about the way men are treated in ballroom and swing.

I'm going to go ahead and guess that it's just frustrating, because a new guy can't really do anything, but you can still shove a new girl around. It's just easier to get started learning the roles as a woman, and leading is a lot harder.

I'm hoping that will be less of a problem in ballet, since everyone will be useless at the start.

I don't really have hopes for this show, but Betsy Wolfe has been cast as Elsa in the upcoming Broadway production of Frozen. She's currently slated to sing at an upcoming Little Mermaid concert, along with Darren Criss--god I hope this doesn't mean Criss is being considered for any Frozen roles.

At least she's a qt.

I'm sure Disney will sink a lot of money into it. I wonder if they'll keep Olaf? I can't see them deviating too much from the film since the target audience will be kids for this one.

I'm more excited for the new adaptation of Anastasia, though I'm worried it will fall into the same trap as the recent version of Hunchback of Notre Dame--taking a property associated with a family film and making it too dark for general audiences.

Who playes Anna?

Not cast yet.

Bump

Does anyone care about the Pulitzer prize? How did you guys like Anthracite Fields?

youtube.com/watch?v=DxeLU9nyia4

What are the essential operas? Essential ballet? Essential musical theater? Essential plays?

Cyrano de Beregac

I think it would be ideal if we had both.

I've seen productions of Shakespeare with modern settings that have been absolutely fantastic (Throne of Blood is a great film adapted from Macbeth) I'd also love to see one of those autistic ones with Shakesperean pronounciation and cross-dressing actors or whatever.

In mucsic for example, there are two great renditions from Carmina Burana, one is a modern reconstruction attempting to accurate with lyrics, melody and instrumentation, though interpretation is obviously up to the performers as the info we have is very scarce.

youtube.com/watch?v=aPZ-Cflb38Q

And then there is carl orff's version which is entirely contemporary to him, using only lyrics, which is still great

youtube.com/watch?v=QEllLECo4OM
Pic unrelated

For Musical theatre you have classical and contemporary

For Classical there is

West Side Story
Oklahoma
Show Boat
Sound of Music
King & I
Annie
Guys & Dolls

For Contemporary

Les Miserables
Chicago
Chorus Line
Rent
Phantom of the Opera
Next to Normal
Sweeney Todd
Hair
Jesus Christ Superstar

>be obsessed with Miss Saigon for almost 2 decades
>finally see Madama Butterfly live
>get to appreciate the various musical motifs from Madama Butterfly which were woven into Miss Saigon

Neat.

I made this list of basic gotta watch operas for another thread. It is by no means a comprehensive guide to opera, but if you've seen all of them you have a pretty good introduction to opera imo:

Baroque opera:
L'Orfeo -Monteverdi (Italian)
Rinaldo - Handel (English)

Classical Opera:
Alceste - Gluck (Italian or French)
The Magic Flute - Mozart (German)

Romantic (pre-1850ish) opera:
Fidelio - Beethoven (Italian)
Lucia di Lammermoor - Donizetti (Italian)
Faust - Gounod

Opera (Post-1850ish)
A Puccini Opera (pick a plot that sounds good, my rec: La fanciulla del West)
A Verdi Opera (pick a plot that sounds good, my rec: Macbeth)
A Wagner opera (My rec: The entire Ring Cycle, or just Siegfried)
Salome - Strauss (German)

Modern (early)
Lulu - Berg (German)
Pelleas et Melisande - Debussy (French)
Bluebeard's Castle (Hungarian)
Oedipus Rex - Stravinsky (Latin)

Modern (later) (this is just bonus points)
John Adams - Nixon in China (English)
Phillip Glass - Einstein on the Beach (math)
Peter Maxwell Davies - 9 Songs for a mad king (English)

Close calls that didn't make the list in roughly chronological order:
Dido and Aeneas (Purcell), Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck), The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), Don Giovanni (Mozart), William Tell (Rossini), The Barber of Seville (Rossini), Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), The Elixir of Love (Donizetti), Carmen (Bizet), The Pearl Fishers (Bizet), pretty much any other opera by Verdi, Pucinni or Wagner, Ein Deutsches Requiem (Brahms) and Verdi's Requiem (which are technically not operas, but still considered operatic works), Der Fledermaus (J Strauss II), Elektra (R Strauss), BORIS GODUNOV (Mussorgsky, highly recommended), The Snow Maiden (Rimsky-Korsakov), The Nose (Shostakovich), The Rake's Progress (Stravinsky), Moses und Aaron (Schoenberg), Wozzeck (Berg) Le Grand Macabre (Ligeti), Doctor Atomic (Adams)

These are just a few essentials I can name off the top of my head. The operatic repertoire is YUUUUGE, so to speak.

>ballet
There's a balletfag who will hopefully come back. I don't know too much, but what I think of essential ballet are basically the pieces originally choreographed by one of: Petipa, Njinski, Diaghilev, or Balanchine.

I'll take a crack at some essential ballet. If someone wants some recommendations for specific productions for any of these, just let me know!

>Fairy Tales

The Sleeping Beauty
Cinderella
The Little Mermaid (Neumeier)

>Tragic Romances

Giselle
La Sylphide
Swan Lake
Onegin

>Literature/Classic Adaptations

Romeo and Juliet
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Peter Pan (Milwaukee Ballet)
Madama Butterfly (Stanton Welch)
The Nutcracker

>I Don't Know What to Call These

Firebird
Coppélia

>Unusual/Bizarre (ok, not really essential, just recommendations)

The Lesson
The Green Table: Danse Macabre in Eight Scenes
La Sonnambula/The Sleepwalker
Dracula
Anastasia (Macmillan, 1 act version is best)
Edward Scissorhands (Matthew Bourne)

I believe it is. It's a very physically-taxing performance art, and I think it is truly unfortunate that it is so under-recognized as it is.

As an art, I mean. Professional Wrestling is certainly popular, but it's seen by many as puerile entertainment.

>The Little Mermaid
What an awesome subject for ballet. Is there a good video of it on the Youtubes?

TFW all art is a manifestation of the cultural logic of the power elite.

Unfortunately not. It was professionally filmed and is available on DVD or streaming for slightly cheaper. I prefer the DVD because of the special features which has interviews with the core cast members and provides more insight into the story (like I would have never gotten Hans Christian Anderson's role if I hadn't watched those special features)

there is a trailer for the dvd but it's not much: youtube.com/watch?v=k27lDDj07Z4

bump

speaking of ballet, does anyone else have an inherent dislike for modern tutus? I miss stuff like this being the norm. I get why the designs changed but yech.

>20th Century music.... What's your opinion?

Some merits, 21th century's is also good, if you look at the right soundcloud

>Are super modern stagings of opera cancer?
hmmm....
we did some, mixed old and the new... please goggle "matah ati solo" and tell me what you think

>Does so-called "performance art" have a place among the traditional performing arts?
well, when you are pooping on stage then well, i'd rather be not paying money.

...

I agree thoroughly. imo the more modern tutus are comic looking, if only because of how they're used in popular media. I don't really like romantic tutus either but I find these slightly shorter streamlined variants pleasing.

I think that costume should try not to distort line and figure at all, but I understand with older ballet there were different aesthetic values.

Not exactly my favourite, but one of the more unique used of ballet was that the fucking Chinese recreated the Communist Perspective of the Chinese Civil War in Song and Ballet.

Titled "The East is Red." You can watch the whole thing here.
youtube.com/watch?v=LQaK3tL6qIE

Not even the Soviets are this communist.

pro wrestling is the greatest modern performance art.

>matah ati solo
Could you tell me more about what I'm watching? Is this Indonesian classical music?

Oh my god, thank you for linking this. I found this late one night on YouTube, and could not for the life of me find it again. Thanks for the painting, too. I'd buy a print of that t b h.

I think your image is really the best of both worlds. It doesn't look silly like 'pancake' style tutus, which honestly pull me out of narrative ballet because of their appearance. But they're not so long that they cut off the knees, and in motion they flow perfectly.

Speaking of your pic related, I was so shocked by the costumes in the new ABT Sleeping Beauty because god damn, they were sumptuous. They were mostly based on the Léon Bakst designs for the infamous Ballets Russes production in the 20s.

Yeah, I really liked those costumes. They even look like they might look good up close. The only problem I had was with the Bluebird. He looked like a giant blueberry.

They are really really beautiful up close.

I didn't mind the Bluebird costume personally. Thank god they restored Princess Florine as a human, at least.

is Rent good or just a meme?

It's good, but unpolished due to the writer dying and the creative team not wanting to alter his work even though that's what would have happened during normal previews.

though the older I get, the more I feel like Javert. Get a job, Mark and Roger.

Look for the part where They are Balleting a firefight. Comedy Gold.

There's also another one: The Red Detachment of Women. Which was based off an all-female Cadre Battalion during the Chinese Civil War.

It's pretty cringeworthy though its more ballet than "The East is Red."

Honestly I feel like Miss Siagon is the composers best work even better then Les Miserables

Speaking of China: has anyone else ever been duped into seeing Shen Yun?

It was the most bizarre thing I've ever experienced in my life. I had heard things here and there about it being propaganda for some cult religion but hooooly shit, I was not prepared.

If you've seen the commercials, those dances are pretty much the extent of the talent involved. And there are a lot of them. And they are all the same: women dressed in vaguely fantasy historical gowns with big flowing sleeves, usually holding something like a spinning fan or ribbons and of course, the twirling, twirling, twirling! There were maybe 2 dances which were interesting, one which involved drums and another that involved bowls, but that's about it.

But sprinkled in with the generic Vaguely Ancient Chinese Dresses there were multiple "dances" where they were telling really blatant propaganda stories about their religion. Some were about the religion being persecuted (which are true but then they continue with) which end in magical religious visions cowing the eeeeevil atheist red guards who stamped around like constipated apes until they quivered in fear from the magic of Falun Gong. I was sitting near some of the people that worked on the show and they were sobbing during these dances, it reminded me of those North Korean videos of people crying for Kim Jon Il. The final dance ended with someone holding a banner that said 'FALUN GONG IS THE REAL RELIGION' or something like that.

There were also two god awful songs, which I can only describe as legitimate torture. Screechy off key sopranos singing in Mandarin or Cantonese, with lyrics like: "Atheism is the devil's lie" "Homosexuality is an abomination unto mankind," "Mixing races is not natural"

Same here.

I don't care for most of the changes they made for the revival (softening Chris and Ellen, plus pointless lyrical changes) but I'm excited for if/when? they air the revival in theaters sometime in the near future.

After i saw the Manila recording with Lea I stopped caring about the revival since it didn't have Lea or the Engineer

It has Jon Jon Briones, though. And that's enough. He is a fucking gift.

youtu.be/J9bn42GDyKM?t=96

He's good but he's no Pryce

You know what I dislike. "MODERN REIIMAGINING" of Pre-Modern plays. Especially historicals.

There's a place and a way where such a juxtaposition works (i.e. Baz Luhrmann's Rome & Juliet. Though that is a movie. Still) but shitloads of theater productions use it so much that it loses meaning and just yells plain laziness instead of OMG RELEVANT JUXTAPOSITION TO MODERN ISSUES.

Who goes to those sort of spectacle ?

>He likes Romeo+Juliet
That's a 10/10 opinion, son.

From the audience when I went, it was mostly people who saw the gazillion trailers or posters or advertisements and believed it was a cultural dance show based on Chinese history. About 50% Chinese or Chinese-American people. The marketing for the show is really good at making you think it's one of those, well, cultural dance shows... but it's not.

Pretty much agree. It's why the current revival of The Crucible on Broadway is atrocious. The show is already a metaphor for modern issues, you don't need to set it in modern day.

Which is better classical or contemporary

Neither

I want to get into opera. What are good romantic plays that I should listen to? Something with emotion, with passion. Something that will bring tears to my eyes.

Well, there's a big list of important opera earlier in the thread. Many of those have very sad endings (tragedies) I think the typical tearjerker opera is La Boheme though.

Cliche but, Madama Butterfly

>every time I listen to Un Bel Di, Vedremo
>h-he's not going to come back, Butterfly ;_;

You mean this?

Those are ballets, what I replied to were operas.

Ballets are all dancing, no singing or talking. Operas have singing and sometimes a little bit of ballet.

Nvm, is it this?