Mozart's Requiem

The very first Utah Symphony concert I attended, back in college, was a performance of Mozart's Requiem.  It is has been my very favorite piece of music ever since I heard it in the movie Amadeus and I always take every opportunity that I can to hear it performed live.  Last night I was able to hear the Utah Symphony perform it once again and it was magnificent!  I find the mythology surrounding the composition of this piece to be fascinating.  The fact that Mozart died before it was complete makes one wonder whether he knew he was dying and, therefore, writing the mass for himself.  It is almost as if Mozart was wrestling with Death itself as he wrote the music that lifts the soul up to God.  I find the music to be incredibly stirring and I especially love the "Confutatis" and the "Lacrymosa" (which I performed in college when I was in the choir.)  The orchestra was joined by the Utah Symphony Chorus and the University of Utah Chamber Choir as well as soloists Joelle Harvey, Sarah Coit, Benjamin Butterfield, and Derrick Parker and they performed this piece beautifully.  I closed my eyes many times during the performance and let the music carry me away.  I was completely overcome by the end of it!  After the intermission, the orchestra continued with Symphony No. 4 by Charles Ives and this piece was epic, to say the least.  When Ives composed this symphony, he was concerned with philosophical questions about existence and it reflects both chaos and beauty.  It was sometimes cacophonous with more performers (and instruments) on the stage than I have ever seen before playing complicated melodies with different rhythms (there were even two conductors) over top of each other.  However, underneath the turmoil was peace and I especially liked the third movement.  It was definitely a never-to-be-forgotten evening at Abravanel Hall last night and I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) to tonight's performance of the same program.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at HCT

I have very fond memories of watching all of the old movie musicals, like Oklahoma, The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, at my Grandma Anderson's house. My cousins and I would sing and dance and act them out in my Grandma's living room over and over again. I love these classic musicals and I always try to see them performed live whenever I have the chance.  I was able to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at Hale Theatre last night and it was so much fun! It is a wonderful production filled with great performances, rousing musical numbers, and energetic choreography.  Adam Pontipee (Dan Frederickson) leaves his frontier home in the mountains to find a wife in the nearest town. He finds the perfect candidate in Milly (Erin Royall Carlson) but she is dismayed when she discovers that she must also care for his six brothers.  Her solution is to get them all married off so she tries to teach them how to court women ("Goin' Courtin'" is such a fun number).  Adam fears that his brothers are becoming soft and suggests that they just go get the women they want to marry and chaos ensues! Both Frederickson and Carlson have lovely voices and I especially enjoyed their renditions of "Where Were You?" and "Love Never Goes Away."  All of the brothers, Benjamin (Brock Dalgleish), Caleb (Taylor Morris), Daniel (Christopher Gallacher), Ephraim (Patrick Wendel), Frank (Brian Nelson), and Gideon (Matthew Sanguine), are incredible dancers and I absolutely loved the church social scene, especially the dance-off between the brothers and the suitors.  I am always amazed by the big song and dance numbers that are performed on such a small and intimate stage.  I also really loved the brides, my favorite is Dorcas (Amelia Rose Moore), and I was impressed that each of them seemed like individuals with distinct personalities. All of their costumes are fabulous, particularly the skirts made from quilts. The rustic set is simple but effective and I liked all of the little details such as the gingham bunting at the church social. This is a production that will appeal to fans of the movie and I highly recommend it.  Many shows are sold out so act quickly (go here for tickets) because you don't want miss out on such a nostalgic show.

Note:  Yesterday I picked my nephew up from school and spent the afternoon with him.  He asked me what I was doing in the evening and, when I told what play I was seeing, he declared it to be lame.  Perhaps it might not appeal to twelve-year-old boys!

Mamma Mia at the Eccles

Donna and the Dynamos are making a final visit to SLC in a production of Mamma Mia billed as the Farewell Tour.  When I saw that Mamma Mia was part of the Broadway at the Eccles 2016-2017 season, I debated about whether or not to get a ticket because I've seen it so many times.  I finally decided that it is such a fun show, you can see it over and over again and still be completely entertained.   How can you go wrong with platform boots and spandex jumpsuits?  Also, the music of Abba is so infectious that you simply can't help singing along and it is impossible to stay seated during the encore!  As predicted, I had so much fun last night.  Sophie Sheridan (Lizzie Markson) wants her father to walk her down the aisle but the only problem is that she doesn't know who he is!  When she invites Sam Carmichael (Shai Yammanee), Bill Austin (Marc Cornes), and Harry Bright (Andrew Tebo), the three likely possibilities, to her wedding without telling her mother (Betsy Padamonsky), chaos ensues!  I love all of the Abba songs in this show but my favorites are "Dancing Queen," "Lay All Your Love On Me," "Super Trouper," "Voulez-Vous," "Under Attack," and "Knowing Me, Knowing You,"  The choreography is so much fun and I especially love when the male ensemble dances wearing flippers.  All of the leads have amazing voices and this production is a great way to end the run of this spectacular show.  I dare anyone to stay seated when the leads come out on stage in colored spandex jumpsuits to sing "Dancing Queen" and "Waterloo" during the encore.  Mamma Mia has one more performance today at the Eccles Theatre (get tickets here).

Note:  I ran into Karen, my roommate in New York, at this show.  It was bound to happen sooner or later because we both see everything!  We tentatively planned to see Hamilton in Los Angeles over fall break!  She has season tickets to the Pantages Theatre and she is going to get me a ticket because we had so much fun in New York.  I can't wait!

Moana Sing-Along

I really love the movie Moana (I actually saw it twice in one day!).  It is probably my very favorite Disney animated film because it has a wonderful story filled with adventure, vibrant animation, and amazing songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda (one of which is nominated for an Academy Award).  My sister Marilyn found a special sing-along engagement and last night we took my Mom and Tashena to see it.  As you may know, I've been singing songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda at the top of my lungs in the privacy of my car for the past year so it was a change to sing his songs in public (also at the top of my lungs!).  The original movie features on-screen lyrics and during the first song, "Where You Are," people in the theater were pretty tentative but everybody eventually got braver and started singing louder and louder.  Tashena basically belted out the song "How Far I'll Go" complete with dramatic gestures.  I especially liked singing "We Know The Way"  and "Shiny" but everyone in the theater really raised the roof during "You're Welcome."  We may or may not have been a bit boisterous ("I'm just an ordinary demi-guy.")  I even heard my Mom singing!  Not only did we sing every song but we also started speaking the dialogue ("I am Moana of Motunui.  You will board my boat and sail across the sea to restore the heart of Te Fiti.").  This movie was so much fun!  Tashena told us on the drive to the theater that she wouldn't sing along and that she was going to be really embarrassed by us but we could hardly contain her in her seat.  She was laughing and giggling the whole time and she even kept singing through the lobby and parking lot!  If you are a fan of this movie, you definitely do not want to miss this!  Tickets can be purchased here.

Note:  Speaking of Academy Awards, I've seen all of the 2017 nominees for Best Picture except one (you can read my commentaries on Arrival, Manchester by the Sea, La La Land, Lion, Moonlight, Hacksaw Ridge, Fences, and Hidden Figures).  My friend enthusiastically recommended Hell or High Water but it was released when I was in Australia and it didn't have a long engagement in SLC.  I am hoping to be able to see it somehow before the big night.

Sundance Film Festival 2017

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival is wrapping up tonight and, even though I saw fewer films than I did last year, I certainly enjoyed myself this week.  Last Saturday I saw Their Finest which stars Gemma Arterton and Sam Claflin as screenwriters who make a propaganda film about Dunkirk to boost morale at home and to persuade America to enter World War II.  Catrin Cole (Aterton) is hired to write the "slop," or women's perspective, and, at first, Tom Buckley (Claflin) is resentful but eventually the two discover romantic feelings for each other.  It is a predictable period piece but I really enjoyed it, especially the over-the-top performance of Bill Nighy as the aging but pompous actor Ambrose Hilliard and a hilarious cameo by Jeremy Irons.  Sunday night I saw Before I Fall.  Since I am a high school English teacher, I read a lot of young adult fiction and I loved Lauren Oliver's best-selling novel about a young girl who must relive the day of her death over and over until she learns an important lesson about living.  It is incredibly clever and authentic and this film is a great adaptation.  I especially enjoyed how director Ry Russo-Young was able to keep the repetition of the same day fresh and interesting and I enjoyed Zoey Deutch's portrayal of Samantha Kingston's journey.  I'm sure this film will appeal more to a younger crowd that the one at my screening.  On Wednesday I took my students to see Deidra and Laney Rob a Train.  Deidra (Ashleigh Murray), the valedictorian of her high school class, must assume the responsibility for her siblings after her mother is put in prison.  She figures out a way to rob the trains that run behind her house in order to pay the bills, enlisting the help of her sister Laney (Rachel Crow) while eluding her dead-beat Dad (David Sullivan), an over-zealous guidance counselor (Sasheer Zamata), and a bumbling railroad investigator (Tim Blake Nelson).  It is both funny and heart-warming and my students and I loved it!  Thursday night I saw Marjorie Prime, an atmospheric film about the fallibility of memory.  Set in the future, Marjorie (Lois Smith) is an 85-year-old woman struggling with memory loss who has been given a "prime," or hologram, of her dead husband Walter for companionship.  The hologram (Jon Hamm) can only learn about himself through the memories provided by Marjorie, their uptight daughter Tess (Geena Davis), and Tess's husband Jon (Tim Robbins) and each of their memories are colored by their emotions.  Eventually, after everyone has died, the holograms of Walter, Marjorie, and Tess have conversations with completely false memories. Despite the fact that the timeline was sometimes confusing, I found the film to be very powerful and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.  Friday night I saw The Hero.  Sam Elliott is Lee Hayden, an aging actor known for the Western roles he played 40 years ago and the voice-over work he now does for a barbecue sauce, who confronts mortality after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  He must deal with a resurgence in his popularity after a drug-fueled speech given at an award ceremony goes viral, an estranged ex-wife and daughter (Katharine Ross and Krysten Ritter, respectively), and a romance with a much younger woman (Laura Prepon).  The film has a common theme but it is entertaining, especially Nick Offerman's portrayal of Lee's drug dealer.  Last night I had a double-feature, beginning with A Ghost Story.  This film was a highly coveted ticket; in fact, there were more people wait-listed for this film than any other I have ever seen.  It has gotten quite a bit of buzz at the festival and I thought it was bizarre but brilliant.  Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara play C and M, a young couple in love until C is killed in a car accident.  After M identifies his body, C rises from the gurney, still shrouded in a large sheet, and follows M back to the house they shared which he haunts for decades in a series of vignettes until he can leave his life behind.  Affleck literally wears a sheet, complete with eye holes, for most of the film and, after a few snickers from the audience, he somehow becomes one of the most profoundly sympathetic characters I have ever seen.  With minimal dialogue and many of the scenes consisting of long, sustained shots with very little action, it is somehow entirely compelling.  I can't think of anyone I know who would like this film but I loved it.  It is a masterpiece.  The last film I saw, Rebel in the Rye, is easily my favorite of the festival because of the subject.  It is a standard biopic about J.D. Salinger (Nicholas Hoult) and how he came to write the classic novel, The Catcher in the Rye.  What made this film so enjoyable for me is that The Catcher in the Rye is one of my very favorite novels and there are many subtle references to it in the narrative, such as having a bartender named Ernie (writer/director Danny Strong called these references "easter eggs for the superfan" in the Q & A).  I liked all of the films I saw, for different reasons, and, as always, I loved the conversations I had with other film lovers while waiting in line.  The Sundance Film Festival is definitely a great way to start the new year!

Note:  There are quite a few films that I really wanted to see but couldn't, such as The Berlin Syndrome, Golden Exits, and The Discovery, but I am sure that my favorite art house theater will eventually screen them!