Pausing on a Sunday

Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and The Art Institute of Chicago put together an unusual art-meets-life experience on an ordinary Sunday.

They removed some of the characters from a very familiar painting.

photo: Leo Burnett

Bit by bit,

Putting it together...

Piece by Piece-

Only way to make a work of art.

Every moment makes a contribution,

Every little detail plays a part.

Having just a vision's no solution,

Everything depends on execution:

Putting it together-

That's what counts!*

Some museum-goers noticed that there was something missing.

It's only new, though. for now,
And yesterday's forgotten.
Today it's all a matter of promotion,
But then —*

The event was dreamed up locally by Chicago ad agency Leo Burnett and shared globally via social media.

That is the state of the art, my friend,

That is the state of the art *

Drop by the Google Cultural Institute for a “State of the Art” view of La Grande Jatte.

*lyrics from “Putting It Together” from Sondheim’s Sunday In the Park with George.

Moon in My Window

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

Ernie sings “I Don't Want to Live on the Moon” on Sesame Street

Maurice Sendak's Mickey, In the Night Kitchen

Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are

Margaret Wise Brown & Clement Hurd's Good Night Moon

Windsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland 1905-12-03 - Tuesday

*******

Moon in my window,
As you disappear,
Come again tomorrow:
I'll be here.

Oh, moon.
Ah, moon.
Hey, moon.

 — “Moon in My Window” from Sondheim & Rodgers' Do I Hear a Waltz?

The Cure

curation (n.) 

late 14c., from Old French curacion "treatment of illness," from Latin curationem (nominative curatio), "a taking care, attention, management," especially "medical attention," noun of action from past participle stem of curare "to cure" (see cure (v.)).

When speaking of the art of curation, it is interesting to note the roots of the word.

*******

Yesterday, at Opera Club Session #1 for Richard Wagner's 1843 opera, The Flying Dutchman, we learned about the opera from Peter Susskind.  After our presentation, we looked at photos of the set for the upcoming production at SF Opera, and suddenly that ghost of a feeling appeared. This work is a pretty interesting opera to consider, especially in terms of curation.
 

Susskind will also be giving the pre-opera lectures for the upcoming production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's Showboat, and he was in the process of thinking about his way into the work to prepare audiences to encounter the 1927 musical. There are echoes across the 84 years between the two works— the artistic desire to create Gesamtkunstwerk, “total artwork,” drove both Wagner and Hammerstein to experiment with the form of musical drama. A coupling offers an interesting way to illustrate the evolution of an art form, especially when viewed in context of the attitudes and culture of their respective times and creators.

Interesting too to compare the female characters in these two works - Senta in The Flying Dutchman and Julie in Showboat - to illustrate how women in love have been depicted through both the European opera and the American musical.  

In Wagner's opera, Senta encounters only a story and a portrait, but she still falls hard for The Flying Dutchman.

Look at her!  Always before the picture! Senta, art thou to dream away thy young life, Contemplating this portrait?

GIRLS. Hum and buzz! What cheerful sound! Turn round the wheel, quick, quick, quick! Spin the golden thread around! Hum and buzz like magic trick! SENTA. Enough, now, of this spinning song It hums and buzzes in my ear; If I must join your busy throng, Then sing the song I hold so dear. The Spinning Chorus from Act II, Scene I by Richard Wagner,  English translation from the Metropolitan Opera libretto

A despondent Senta hurls herself off a cliff, in the opera's last scene.

Senta.

Be cheerful thy mind, be joyous thy heart!

Thine will I be until death shall us part!

*******

Director Francesca Zambello offered her insight on Showboat's Julie LaVerne, the secretly bi-racial supporting character who also comes to a doomed end.“Julie is the fulcrum of the show, because she brings the dramatic issue that changes everything.”  

Oh listen, sister

I love my mister man and I can't tell you why

Dere ain't no reason why I should love dat man

It must be sumpin' dat de angels done plan

When the audience hears Jerome Kern's music & Oscar Hammerstein II's lyrics from Showboat,  they know that this feeling of jubilation is short-lived. Still we can't help lovin' the display of optimism— there is both joy and pain in the blues. In the time of a segregated America, Julie loves a white man and their marriage is a crime. There is something interesting about this American twist on the age-old scenario of doomed romantic love. 

By the time Julie sings the torch song, “Bill,” the audience knows that “Misery's comin' around.” 

I used to dream that I would discover

The perfect lover someday.

I knew I'd recognize him if ever

He came 'round my way.

I always used to fancy then

He'd be one of the God-like kind of men

With a giant brain and a noble head

Like the heroes bold

In the books I've read.

But along came Bill...

*******

By the time Hammerstein's protege Stephen Sondheim writes his 1984 musical, Sunday in the Park with George, musical dramas were ready to experiment with alternative endings to doomed love affairs.  

Dot, the unhappy lover of the painter George Seurat, steps out of the fixed, framed canvas to embrace a new future. She is the one who chooses to end their relationship by leaving. 
At the end of the Second Act, the passage of time offers a whole new perspective that frames her choice in a whole new way.

Look at what you've done,
Then at what you want,
Not at where you are,
What you'll be
Look at all the things
You gave to me
Let me give to you
Something in return
I would be so pleased...

Open a New Window

Open a new window,

Open a new door,

Travel a new highway,

That's never been tried before;

Before you 

Find you're a dull fellow,

Punching the same clock,

Walking the same tight rope

As everyone on the block.

The fellow you ought to be is three dimensional,

Soaking up life down to your toes,

Whenever they say you're slightly unconventional,

Just put your thumb up to your nose.

And show 'em how to 

Dance to a new rhythm,

Whistle a new song,

Toast with a new vintage,

The fizz doesn't fizz too long.

There's only one way to make the bubbles stay,

Simply travel a new high way,

Dance to a new rhythm,

Whistle a new love song,

Toast with a new vintage,

Open a new window ev'ry day!

Angela Lansbury sings “Open a New Window,” from Jerry Herman’s 1966 musical Mame.  Rather than following instructions to enroll her nephew Patrick in an exclusive, restricted, and extremely safe, boarding school environment, Auntie Mame decides to introduce the boy to a life of adventure out in the big wide chaotic world.

Composer Jerry Herman was one of the few people who actually saw one of the nine performances of the infamous Sondheim flop, Anyone Can Whistle. “It was just a number of wonderful circumstances... Nobody had ever seen Angela Lansbury on stage, singing, dancing, playing a leading role and they didn't know whether I could do it.” Luckily for Angela Lansbury (and Broadway audiences), Herman recognized a great leading lady, and he cast Lansbury in the role of Auntie Mame.  Herman's show about a rich socialite going bust during the Great Depression was a hit, running for 1,508 performances earning Lansbury her first of five Tony awards. Now 87, with a theatrical career spanning over 70 years, Ms. Lansbury plans to return once again to Broadway this fall in Enid Bagnold's play The Chalk Garden.

Alas, we hear that the automated dialing system called to say that teachers should report for work on August 12th. Can it really be that school starts in less than a month?

News like that calls out for a witty response, a wry bon mot — 

something more Cole Porter-ish than Jerry Herman.

“Another opening, another show... Cross your fingers and hold your heart!”

“Do, do, do,what you done, done, done, once more.”

“Experiment, make it your motto day and night.”
“Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today.”

Oh well, how about we just open a new window and enjoy the overture? 
We still have a bit of time before the curtain goes up!