Feb. 2nd was Candlemas, and the 5th was a full moon. The 14th is Lupercalia, so it's quite a month for celebrations. Our full moon opera this month was Verdi's Falstaff, a hilarious romp through Shakespeare, with some of the fastest moving dialogue of any opera I have ever heard. The recording I have features the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein, with Dietrich Fischer Dieskau. It is a beauty, on six LP sides. Also featured at that party was a wonderful homemade blueberry cake, and a roaring wood fire. It was actually too cold to have a fire on Candlemas, but there should be another one at Lupercalia time.
In two weeks our little piano performance group will be meeting again. Since the last meeting I have revamped my practice schedule, including a hefty increase. I now have time to work on the entire first movement of Beethoven's Sonata in D+, Op 10, #1. And there is even a little time left over at the end to begin work on the 2nd movement, which is one of most incredible things he ever composed. The harpsichord will be the focus of our next meeting, weather permitting.
In movie news, there are two of Deb's choices to report on. First came A Kind of Loving, a 1962 film by John Schlesinger, and starring Alan Bates. In stark b & w, the drama follows the relationship between a young man and woman who live and work in a smokestack town in England. They initially fall in love, but then he grows bored with her. When she becomes pregnant he does marry her, however, and off they go to a grey off season seashore for their honeymoon. While their relationship might have stood a chance at being successful if they had lived alone, it turns into a nightmare when they move in with her shrewish mother. However, by the end of the film they are about to live on their own, and trying to start over again. An excellent film, suitably sombre, with excellent acting and intelligent script. In many ways a very depressing film, there is some dark humour there, too. Its honesty at depicting working class life is admirable.
Next came one of the strangest films we have ever seen, and that is saying something. From 1926 comes A Page of Madness, a silent film that takes place entirely in a Japanese mental institution of the day, and on the grounds. A janitor tries to lead his insane wife to freedom, but to what end we don't know. The film's editing is as bizarre as the subject matter, as the camera tries to get inside the head of some of the patients. There is no dialogue at all, but the music by the Alloy Orchestra is top notch! Performed by an avante garde theatre troupe, the director was a former Kabuki actor. A very unsettling film, showing on Mubi.
A Page of Madness, showing on Mubi.
I am attempting to revive my DIA landscape project here; bear with me, as the website is quite ridiculous now. I'll begin with a Chinese landscape painting, an image possibly inspired by a view from a weather balloon back in the day..... It's a painting meant for contemplation, beginning with the bottom part and gradually working one's way up to the highest temple near the top
Mapman Mike
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