#Mark Omvlee

[joaquimblog]

Melin Byström (Salome)

Evgeny Nikitin (Jochanaan)

Doris Soffel (Herodies)

Lance Ryan (Herodes)

Salome DNO 207 Producció Ivo van Hove

La nova producció de Salome de Richard Strauss deguda a Ivo van Hove i en la part musical a Daniele Gatti al capdavant de la “seva” poderosa, luxosa i quasi diria que luxuriosa “nova” orquestra, la històrica Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, ha estat el darrer títol de la temporada 2016/2017 de la Dutch National Opera & Ballet-

El Canal Mezzo la va oferir el dia 27 de juny i avui protagonitza l’apunt de IFL, un apunt que ja us anuncio pletòric i feliç després d’uns quants desencisos.

Comptar en el fossat i per a una òpera post romàntica amb la Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra és ja tenir el 50% o més de l’èxit garantit i si el director sap extreu-li tots els infinits matisos, des d’un inici extremadament suau a un esclat de violenta sensualitat i horror al final. Gatti extrau or i diamants de l’orquestra  i tota la progressió dramàtica atrapa a l’oïdor sense cap mena de concessió i respir. No sé si a la sala l’orquestra tenia un volum excessiu respecte a les veus, la transmissió ho dóna a entendre, però potser és degut a una presa de so desequilibrada. El cas és que en els grans esclats orquestrals i n’hi ha molts, algunes veus queden tapades.

Gatti atorga a la seva direcció d’un gran lirisme i d’una sensualitat que és el motor indiscutible de gran part l’obra, sense defugir els esclats més violents i atonals que també té la partitura i que en ocasions tenen l’efecte de cops de puny imprevists al sotaventre enmig de les orgiàstiques i decadents grans frases melòdiques straussianes. Gatti aclapara, enlluerna i meravella, mostrant una vegada més el gran mestratge, categoria i sensibilitat musical que alguns es resisteixen a reconèixer.

Extraordinaris els grans interludis simfònics inclosa l’esperada dansa dels 7 vels, tot i que Gatti ens reservva la gran catarsi, com ha de ser, pel final.

L’estupenda soprano sueca Malin Byström debutava amb aquest rols i la veritat és que no podia sortir-ne més airosa. La seva Salome és extraordinàriament convincent en els aspectes vocals i dramàtics del rol. La figura l’acompanya, és una Salome aristocràtica, sensual, mai vulgar, quasi marmòria gràcies a una blancor corporal que contrasta de manera inquietant amb la negror de l’escenari. Vocalment la seva Salome és lírica, amb un centre prou important com per imposar-se en les parts més dramàtiques que també té la partitura, mentre que el seu  registre agut és precís, acerat, però mai feridor i utilitza les mitges veus per dotar el seu relat de la sensualitat imprescindible. És una interpretació captivadora, amb el punt necessari de feblesa jovenívola d’una adolescent, que Byström dóna amb naturalitat grpacies a un físic ideal, però sempre amb la fermesa vocal que li exigeix Strauss i que ella acompanya amb una personalitat escènica i dramàtica admirable. Admirable!

Evgeny Nikitin és un magnífic Jochanaan, amb alguna que altra fixació marca de la casa, però també exhibint la solidesa vocal que el rol requereix en les seves altisonants proclames.

Doris Soffel a menys d’un any de fer-ne 70, canta Herodies, quelcom que moltes mezzosopranos no poden fer en una edat menys avançada. L’autoritat escènica i la fermesa vocal que encara demostra, la fan admirable.

Lance Ryan amb totes les seves limitacions i defectes tècnics que tant m’han fet patir quan canta els rols wagnerians fa un Herodes excessivament caricaturesc en les inflexions vocals seguint la tradició dels tenors que interpreten el rol, si bé aquesta vegada els defectes quasi esdevenen virtut.

Boníssima línea vocal la de Peter Sonn en un Narraboth de relleu, mentre que Hanna Hipp com el patge d’Herodies no pot traspassar la majoria de vegades que intervé, la barrera sonora orquestral

Natzarens, jueus i soldats esplèndids.

La producció d’Ivo van Hove és malgrat l’excés sanguinolent del final amb tot el cos de Jochanaan sobre l’escenari empastifant-ho tot, un encert d’idees, de plasticitat i també de sobrietat teatral, amb recursos discutibles i arriscats a l’hora d’acompanyar la dansa dels vels, però sense cap mena de dubte interessants i intel·ligents.

L’acció es situa als anys 50 del segle passat (el vestit i el pentinat d’Herodies serveix de guia) Ambient d’alta burgesia i boníssim treball d’actors.

L’immens escenari despullat i negre, només amb un detall de color al bell mig del fons de l’escenari, que mostra durant la primera part l’interior del palau, són els únics elements escenogràfics a banda de la lluna que acabarà sent imponent, al costat d’unes projeccions de vídeo que serviran per mostrar mentre Salomé balla, una pas a deux mental de la filla del Tetrarca amb el profeta. L’essència de la producció és el treball teatral amb els cantants, i tots ells de manera més aviat sòbria conformen una representació notable d’una visió contemporània de la destrucció humana en un nucli familiar que ben bé podria estar signar per Douglas Sirk.

Richard Strauss SALOME

Herodes Lance Ryan Herodias Doris Soffel Salome Malin Byström Jochanaan Evgeny Nikitin Narraboth Peter Sonn Ein Page der Herodias Hanna Hipp Fünf Juden Dietmar Kerschbaum Marcel Reijans, Mark Omvlee Marcel Beekman Alexander Vassiliev Zwei Nazarener James Creswell Roger Smeets Zwei Soldaten James Platt Alexander Milev Ein Cappadocier Michael Wilmering – talentontwikkeling Ein Sklave Jeroen de Vaal

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Direcció musical: Daniele Gatti Direcció d’escena: Ivo van Hove Escenografia: Jan Versweyveld Disseny de vestuari: An D’Huys Disseny de llums: Jan Versweyveld

Dutch National Opera & Ballet, Àmsterdam 27 de juny de 2017

Avui torna Strauss a IFL i sempre que torna penso que en comparació amb altres compositors ell el sovinteja poc. Celebrem-ho perquè motius en tenim.

L’apunt el dedico a les “Abras Sisters”, ambdues, sí, tot i que una que potser s’ha desplaçat a la capital holandesa per veure-la en directe, serà una mica més feliç que l’altra. Aquí ja sabeu que mentre pugui no me n’estic de res.

DNO 2016/2017: SALOME (Byström-Nikitin-Soffel-Ryan-Soon;van Hove.Gatti) La nova producció de Salome de Richard Strauss deguda a Ivo van Hove i en la part musical a…

[un-enfant-immature]

Design may be the next entrepreneurial gold rush

Ten years ago, the vast majority of designers were working in Adobe Photoshop, a powerful tool with fine-tuned controls for almost every kind of image manipulation one could imagine. But it was a tool built for an analog world focused on photos, flyers and print magazines; there were no collaborative features, and much more importantly for designers, there were no other options.

Since then, a handful of major players have stepped up to dominate the market alongside the behemoth, including InVision, Sketch, Figma and Canva.

And with the shift in the way designers fit into organizations and the way design fits into business overall, the design ecosystem is following the same path blazed by enterprise SaaS companies in recent years. Undoubtedly, investors are ready to place their bets in design.

Seed stage design tools, low code/no code software, and/or collaboration tools are getting $10 on $40m term sheets.

Not an isolated case.

Shows their bullishness on these spaces. And some FOMO.

— Bilal Zuberi (@bznotes) August 21, 2019

But the question still remains over whether the design industry will follow in the footprints of the sales stack — with Salesforce reigning as king and hundreds of much smaller startup subjects serving at its pleasure — or if it will go the way of the marketing stack, where a lively ecosystem of smaller niche players exist under the umbrella of a handful of major, general-use players.

“Deca-billion-dollar SaaS categories aren’t born everyday,” said InVision CEO Clark Valberg . “From my perspective, the majority of investors are still trying to understand the ontology of the space, while remaining sufficiently aware of its current and future economic impact so as to eagerly secure their foothold. The space is new and important enough to create gold-rush momentum, but evolving at a speed to produce the illusion of micro-categorization, which, in many cases, will ultimately fail to pass the test of time and avoid inevitable consolidation.”

I spoke to several notable players in the design space — Sketch CEO Pieter Omvlee, InVision CEO Clark Valberg, Figma CEO Dylan Field, Adobe Product Director Mark Webster, InVision VP and former VP of Design at Twitter Mike Davidson, Sequoia General Partner Andrew Reed and FirstMark Capital General Partner Amish Jani — and asked them what the fierce competition means for the future of the ecosystem.

But let’s first back up.

Past

Sketch launched in 2010, offering the first viable alternative to Photoshop. Made for design and not photo-editing with a specific focus on UI and UX design, Sketch arrived just as the app craze was picking up serious steam.

A year later, InVision landed in the mix. Rather than focus on the tools designers used, it concentrated on the evolution of design within organizations. With designers consolidating from many specialties to overarching positions like product and user experience designers, and with the screen becoming a primary point of contact between every company and its customers, InVision filled the gap of collaboration with its focus on prototypes.

If designs could look and feel like the real thing — without the resources spent by engineering — to allow executives, product leads and others to weigh in, the time it takes to bring a product to market could be cut significantly, and InVision capitalized on this new efficiency.

In 2012, came Canva, a product that focused primarily on non-designers and folks who need to ‘design’ without all the bells and whistles professionals use. The thesis: no matter which department you work in, you still need design, whether it’s for an internal meeting, an external sales deck, or simply a side project you’re working on in your personal time. Canva, like many tech firms these days, has taken its top-of-funnel approach to the enterprise, giving businesses an opportunity to unify non-designers within the org for their various decks and materials.

In 2016, the industry felt two more big shifts. In the first, Adobe woke up, realized it still had to compete and launched Adobe XD, which allowed designers to collaborate amongst themselves and within the organization, not unlike InVision, complete with prototyping capabilities. The second shift was the introduction of a little company called Figma.

Where Sketch innovated on price, focus and usability, and where InVision helped evolve design’s position within an organization, Figma changed the game with straight-up technology. If Github is Google Drive, Figma is Google Docs. Not only does Figma allow organizations to store and share design files, it actually allows multiple designers to work in the same file at one time. Oh, and it’s all on the web.

In 2018, InVision started to move up stream with the launch of Studio, a design tool meant to take on the likes of Adobe and Sketch and, yes, Figma.

Present

When it comes to design tools in 2019, we have an embarrassment of riches, but the success of these players can’t be fully credited to the products themselves.

A shift in the way businesses think about digital presence has been underway since the early 2000s. In the not-too-distant past, not every company had a website and many that did offered a very basic site without much utility.

In short, designers were needed and valued at digital-first businesses and consumer-facing companies moving toward e-commerce, but very early-stage digital products, or incumbents in traditional industries had a free pass to focus on issues other than design. Remember the original MySpace? Here’s what Amazon looked like when it launched.

In the not-too-distant past, the aesthetic bar for internet design was very, very low. That’s no longer the case.

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/design-may-be-the-next-entrepreneurial-gold-rush/

Design may be the next entrepreneurial gold rush

Ten years ago, the vast majority of designers were working in Adobe Photoshop, a powerful tool with fine-tuned controls for almost every kind of image manipulation one could imagine. But it was a tool built for an analog world focused on photos, flyers and print magazines; there were no collaborative features, and much more importantly for designers, there were no other options.

Since then, a handful of major players have stepped up to dominate the market alongside the behemoth, including InVision, Sketch, Figma and Canva.

And with the shift in the way designers fit into organizations and the way design fits into business overall, the design ecosystem is following the same path blazed by enterprise SaaS companies in recent years. Undoubtedly, investors are ready to place their bets in design.

Seed stage design tools, low code/no code software, and/or collaboration tools are getting $10 on $40m term sheets.

Not an isolated case.

Shows their bullishness on these spaces. And some FOMO.

— Bilal Zuberi (@bznotes) August 21, 2019

But the question still remains over whether the design industry will follow in the footprints of the sales stack — with Salesforce reigning as king and hundreds of much smaller startup subjects serving at its pleasure — or if it will go the way of the marketing stack, where a lively ecosystem of smaller niche players exist under the umbrella of a handful of major, general-use players.

“Deca-billion-dollar SaaS categories aren’t born everyday,” said InVision CEO Clark Valberg. “From my perspective, the majority of investors are still trying to understand the ontology of the space, while remaining sufficiently aware of its current and future economic impact so as to eagerly secure their foothold. The space is new and important enough to create gold-rush momentum, but evolving at a speed to produce the illusion of micro-categorization, which, in many cases, will ultimately fail to pass the test of time and avoid inevitable consolidation.”

I spoke to several notable players in the design space — Sketch CEO Pieter Omvlee, InVision CEO Clark Valberg, Figma CEO Dylan Field, Adobe Product Director Mark Webster, InVision VP and former VP of Design at Twitter Mike Davidson, Sequoia General Partner Andrew Reed and FirstMark Capital General Partner Amish Jani — and asked them what the fierce competition means for the future of the ecosystem.

But let’s first back up.

Past

Sketch launched in 2010, offering the first viable alternative to Photoshop. Made for design and not photo-editing with a specific focus on UI and UX design, Sketch arrived just as the app craze was picking up serious steam.

A year later, InVision landed in the mix. Rather than focus on the tools designers used, it concentrated on the evolution of design within organizations. With designers consolidating from many specialties to overarching positions like product and user experience designers, and with the screen becoming a primary point of contact between every company and its customers, InVision filled the gap of collaboration with its focus on prototypes.

If designs could look and feel like the real thing — without the resources spent by engineering — to allow executives, product leads and others to weigh in, the time it takes to bring a product to market could be cut significantly, and InVision capitalized on this new efficiency.

In 2012, came Canva, a product that focused primarily on non-designers and folks who need to ‘design’ without all the bells and whistles professionals use. The thesis: no matter which department you work in, you still need design, whether it’s for an internal meeting, an external sales deck, or simply a side project you’re working on in your personal time. Canva, like many tech firms these days, has taken its top-of-funnel approach to the enterprise, giving businesses an opportunity to unify non-designers within the org for their various decks and materials.

In 2016, the industry felt two more big shifts. In the first, Adobe woke up, realized it still had to compete and launched Adobe XD, which allowed designers to collaborate amongst themselves and within the organization, not unlike InVision, complete with prototyping capabilities. The second shift was the introduction of a little company called Figma.

Where Sketch innovated on price, focus and usability, and where InVision helped evolve design’s position within an organization, Figma changed the game with straight-up technology. If Github is Google Drive, Figma is Google Docs. Not only does Figma allow organizations to store and share design files, it actually allows multiple designers to work in the same file at one time. Oh, and it’s all on the web.

In 2018, InVision started to move up stream with the launch of Studio, a design tool meant to take on the likes of Adobe and Sketch and, yes, Figma.

Present

When it comes to design tools in 2019, we have an embarrassment of riches, but the success of these players can’t be fully credited to the products themselves.

A shift in the way businesses think about digital presence has been underway since the early 2000s. In the not-too-distant past, not every company had a website and many that did offered a very basic site without much utility.

In short, designers were needed and valued at digital-first businesses and consumer-facing companies moving toward e-commerce, but very early-stage digital products, or incumbents in traditional industries had a free pass to focus on issues other than design. Remember the original MySpace? Here’s what Amazon looked like when it launched.

In the not-too-distant past, the aesthetic bar for internet design was very, very low. That’s no longer the case.