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ettadunham · 5 years

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A Buffy rewatch 6x16 Hell’s Bells

aka the cycle of abuse

Welcome to this dailyish (weekly? bi-weekly?) text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and go on an impromptu rant about it for an hour. Is it about one hyperspecific thing or twenty observations? 10 or 3k words? You don’t know! I don’t know!!! In this house we don’t know things.

And in today’s episode my hot take is that I feel for Xander. Well, it’s not as much of a hot take, as it is taking a stance on a topic of contention, I guess, but there, you have it. I’m sympathetic.

Okay, so maybe “me feel bad” really isn’t a hot take, but I find that Xander’s choice at the end of Hell’s Bells can still be a bit of a hot topic for many fans on multiple levels. Not only do people criticize Xander as a character for it, but the storyline and writing itself.

Which I do get. While we were told throughout the season that Xander has his fears and doubts about this wedding, those weren’t nearly as prominent or well-established as Buffy’s depression or Willow’s issues with power and addiction. By which I mean that they didn’t seem so severe that would naturally lead to this outcome – mostly because we haven’t really explored what’s at the heart of those fears.

But that’s also my next point. While there may not have been as much focus on the source of most of Xander’s trauma this season, it’s been all over the series from the get go.

Xander had a horrible home life. Sometimes the references to this might not seem quite as obvious, since Xander’s learned to cope with it through humor; but other times, it’s painful in its rawness.

For me the best episode to pair with Hell’s Bells for that matter is Restless. I mentioned before that the dream sequences there are particularly illuminating when it comes to Willow and Xander’s characters for me. And in the latter’s case, this is the episode where that truly pays off.

Remember, in Restless by the end of his dream, Xander’s fears manifested in a looming shadowy figure breaking down his basement’s door to rip his heart out. A threat that was revealed to be his own father.

Think about that act itself. It’s not just that in a world full of demons and monsters Xander’s most afraid of his own father. That’s already pretty fucked up. It’s also that in that vision of his fears manifesting, what his father does is to rip his heart out. The symbol of his ability to love and care for his friends and the family he made for himself.

And make no mistake, that is what defines Xander the most. That’s the person who he wants to be. I criticize Xander from time to time for being emotional, for acting on his feelings without thought – something that he admittedly does here as well. But that’s just as much his strength as it is his weakness.

With all his flaws and insecurities, at his core, Xander’s just all heart.

So, is it any wonder that what he’s afraid of the most is losing that? And the pain he’d cause to his loved ones as a result?

The vision of the future Xander’s shown is fake, but it’s one that’s clearly concocted of his own worst nightmares. And the last moment of that paints a terrifying picture of the cycle of abuse as Vision!Xander is just about to hit Vision!Anya.

This episode, more than any that came before makes it crystal clear that Xander’s father is a piece of garbage of a human being, with the rest of his family being different levels of awful. And the psychological scars that were left from growing up in that environment run deep. They were also left unexamined in regards to Xander’s impending marriage, so it’s no wonder that exposing them so violently shook Xander up this much.

Was it right for him to leave Anya at the altar? Of course not. It was bad, hurtful and irrational. This idea that marriage is something you can’t undo and could be a mistake that lasts forever is very Catholic of the show – but I mostly chalk it up to Xander’s tendency to act on his emotions that he couldn’t think past that, and remember that divorce exists.

Truly a miraculous invention in our society.

So, yeah. My two cents on Xander in Hell’s Bells is that he was obviously wrong, but I feel strongly and deeply for him just as well. We all face moments in our lives where we’re paralyzed by our fears, unable to make the right choice even when we know what that would be.

(I am much less forgiving on how he handles himself in the aftermath of that, but that’ll be a discussion for another day.)

It sucks nevertheless, and my heart breaks for Anya. In a way, this is her own past mistakes coming back to haunt her; except that the demon-guy doesn’t really what matters. Rather it’s what he exposed in Xander, and the pain Xander’s actions caused Anya.

It’s also worth noting that D’Hoffryn only now offered back Anya’s old job after he refused her back when she lost her powers. Vengeance demons can only be created through pain. Channeling and directing that pain onto others is what fuels them, but Anya’s spent a millennium already detached from the original source of her anger at that point. D’Hoffryn waited for her to go back to that place of darkness before taking her back, for Anya to feel desperate to escape her pain once again.

On a lighter note, we get some nice comedy out of the wedding party, like Dawn bonding with a demon kid about embarrassing relatives, or Buffy still being the worst liar in history. Buffy and Spike also share another nice moment of honesty, and while Xander and Anya’s relationship is breaking down, Tara and Willow are starting to reconnect.

Working relationships in the Buffyverse basically follow the laws of thermodynamics. Everything tends towards entropy, and when one relationship is going well, it inevitably means that another one is falling apart concurrently. That’s just basic conservation theory.

Entropy is coming for us all, guys. Sooner than you might think even…

#buffy rewatch 2k19 #btvs talk #btvs

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themanicgalaxy · 3 years

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SPN 5X16 Dark Side of the Moon

KITTY IS SNUGGLING MY INJURED FOOT

BABY

oo samulet time

gun being pointed at them...?

DEAN KNOWS THEM?

ah hunters

I keep forgetting they started the apocalypse

...sam got shot?

ooo they're getting street cred "knowing Dean Winchester's on our ass" nicenice

"when I come back" ope

is that fucking knocking on heaven's door

oh OH IT'S HEAVEN SCENES

OH DEAN'S HEAVEN IS HIM AND HIS BROTHER AND THE FUCKING FIREWORKS

AND TAKING CARE OF HIS LITTLE BROTHER

aw baby Sam looks so happy

fuck me

oh the PTSD got to him

HE"S THE RADIO!

CAS THE RADIO!!!

oh he thinks he's dreaming at first ouch

"I'm dead" "condolences" CAS OH MY GOD

"how am i in heaven" ouch

oh the SKYYY IS SO COOL

boy them being the same age but being placed in their younger selves is Unsettling sometimes

why do yall hate sam so much oh my god

they're so confused

they're BOTH "you I get but me" OH MY GOD

Dean stop covering up your feelings

"we had thanksgiving every year" aw Dean

"I can't return to heaven" cAS? THAT FEELS IMPORTANT?

the two road asphalt road that leads you to Eden is so fucking cool though

either god doesn't want to be found, or heaven doesn't want to be leaved

this is NEAT

oh god and Dean being the only one of the two that remember home

"It wasn't perfect till after she died" oh my GOD

He mythologized mary oh my GOD I HATE THIS

DEAN WAS LIKE THREE OR FOUR

AND HE COMFORTS HIS GODDAMN MOM I HATE THIS

"how long you've been cleaning up dad's messes" OUCHHH

oo and they have to find the road

Dean's are all tinged with regret and responsibility

and Sam's are escape

the half smile and the implied "dad beat me up" jesus CHRIST

nooo I LOVE BONES

oh Sam tried to not think about it

"night you ditched us for stanford" oh dear lord

and Sam got...none of the fun family stuff

estranged fucking siblings oh this HURTS ME

~running from an angel. on foot. in heaven.~ LMAOOO

listen he's fun when he's smug smug villains are fun

AS H!

OH M Y GOD IT'S THE GODDAMN ROADHOUSE

ah everyone's heaven, o that's kinda neat tho

"disneyland but without all the antisemitism" AHAHA

soulmates...why was that awkward

he's just vibing in other people's heaven's i love this

anD HE'S FLUENT IN ENOCHIAN

again

"you boys die more than anyone I've ever met" oh my FUCKING CHRIST I LOVE THAT

Ellen and Jo :(

PAMELA!

*smacks him for getting her killed*

"we got ash killed too" "I'm cool with it" "he's cool with it" oh my god

heh Pamela's having fun in Heaven too

HEAVEN'S LONELY! IT'S NICE BUT IT'S LONELY

DEAN's FUCKING CONFUSED STARE WAS SO FUNNY THOUGH

he's so shook it's very funny

"I'm sure I'll see you again soon" AHAHA

ah yes the wink I see you've composed yourself

"I never loved you" oh jesus

that's the thing he's sensitive about

huh that sounds like something Sam would say huh :(

"everybody leaves you Dean" oh you BET he's noticed

this is very strange

"she's quite the milf" what the hell

what the Hell

I appreciate how he got assigned the winchesters and he fucking failed

in your defense, they're very stubborn

"he may be strong ... but I'm petty" LMAO

ah the garden

sup joshua

"cleveland botanical gardens"

AW A FIELD TRIP

"he knows, he doesn't think it's his problem" uh

...you can't find god

yep God's a deadbeat

...so Sam's the main character? guys...guys give him dialogue oh my god

"I'm rooting for you but I can't help"

this time you have to remember

boy that is a lot of beer

oh good now Cas gets to be existential too!

instantly "you son of a bitch"

here dean take ur amulet back

Sam tries the pep talk

it's a tough crowd

OH NOO THE SAMULET

wrap up

1. Sam. Sam's heaven is escaping, getting away from an overbearing family. I think he doesn't have a good sense of self because he hasn't been allowed to develop one, really, and he wants it. Also that makes him hard to make a main character, but that means the writers don't like him

how the fuck did you set up a main character and then hate him because you're projecting on your secondary protagonist so hard, how did you do that

HE'S THE ANTICHRIST HOW DID YOU-

2. Dean. ok. So. Dean's things centered around family, but importantly, they were all bittersweet. "dad would never let us" "dad still loves you" Dean has Very Severe Daddy Issues, as we know, and it's clear that they're everywhere. But due to the responsibility, it was a lot better when they lived in a stable goddamn house, so I think that's what he ended up mythologizing. also very clear abandonment issues, as he got blamed for everything due to stepping up as the oldest both in an absent dad, and dead mom scenario. as little of a personality that Sam was allowed to develop, Dean is still in this kind of panicked survival mode, and he really has no idea what the fuck he's doing. or so I think. he hates himself because he made himself to be what others wanted/needed.

I can't believe that implied abuse line was this early and they still tried to martyr John like...

3. Ash! Pamela! I liked that Ash keeps greeting the winchesters, I love Pamela being there, i liked the whole like...they vibe in heaven, but Ash, with knowing Heaven stuff and Smart Person stuff and hunter stuff, figured out how to jump, i love everyone's little slice of heaven. Listen, recognizing recurring characters is nice

4. THE VIBE. Ok...asphalt road to the garden. Several different heavens? the angels having complete dominion and them basically quietly fighting over it? Cas only being able to talk either on radio or TV because he's a wavelength? GOOD SHIT

HELL EVEN THE GARDEN BEING WHATEVER THE PERSON THINKS IT IS IS COOL

5. Needledrop: this one was so fun. knocking on heaven's door to introduce the fact that they're now in heaven. I thought that was fun.

6. Cas/faith. Like...God as an explicit Deadbeat, as the "it's not my problem, Dean sympathizing with Cas because of it, throwing away the amulet at the end.

Dean's the faithless man and Cas is the angel, but they have no more faith anymore. They have been disappointed once again, and it's Pretty Big, and bringing yourself up is hard.

also this episode had some genuinely funny moments

#Art encompasses all human life #but the only things worth anything is suffering #pawswatchesspn #5x16 Dark Side of the Moon #listen I can't be the only one that thinks that while hbo supernatural would have been like #possibly actually good tv #stuff that's R can sometimes ignore the fun/funny/levity parts in their pacing #and make it a slog #Listen this is totally brought to you by english class constantly batting me over the head with #but like...being forced to add some levity #or think of creative workaround to something traumatic #like I think it helps in some cases #in case I didn't make it clear #I loved this shit #dream sequences humor and Trauma Exploration #literally what's not to love

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canvaswolfdoll · 6 years

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CanvasWatches: Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan

Not going to do a Summer 2018 write up because I only lasted through one anime, and Chio’s School Road had… issues I don’t feel like discussing.

Also, haven’t had time to continue the Digimon Rewatch (which is exclusive to the Patreon until I finish season one).

Doesn’t mean I’ve been slacking! Netflix’s most recent license camping for it’s tedious binge watch format is Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan, which was a delight to watch! Go watch it, right now! Do it!

Anyways, time for my… whatever this thing is... on it.

Hisone is a woman who joined the airforce because, near as I can tell, she didn’t have any other ideas for what to put on her school’s career plan worksheet that shows up in every anime, and she saw a fighter plane soar by.

There’s… worse motivations, I guess?

Anyways, while working a desk job, she’s invited to an interview at a far away hangar.

She goes to the hangar and is promptly eaten by a dragon.

But it’s okay! The dragon just wanted to eat her old flip phone! And the crew got her thrown up pretty quick! And now they want her to pilot the dragon.

By getting swallowed and controlling the thing but prodding its soft innards.

Anime

So, Dragons are a thing that exist, and the world governments have been helping hiding them because… that’s the deal they made? Anyways, Japan hides their dragons as fighter planes, and has their air force manage them.

Because we need to explain this bizarre premise somehow.

Dragons are selective about who they will swallow and not digest, and Hisone is one of those lucky few. So she’s a D-Pilot now, which is probably a promotion from her ill-defined desk job.

Also, now she has to put up with Nao Kaizaki, initially the only member of Gifu Base’s D-Pi program, and a woman who couldn’t get the dragon to swallow her, so her position is more theoretical.

Kaizaki is introduced exhibiting the mannerisms of your typical High School Thug boy character, so you know she’ll be interesting.[1]

Hisone’s superior officer, Remi Kakiyasu, was also once a candidate for dragon piloting who couldn’t get the dragon to accept her. So the entire program is kind of low on practical experience.

Then there’s the woman selling yogurt who is clearly important, but it’ll take a few episodes for yogurt woman to reveal her purpose.

So Kaizaki and Kakiyasu train Hisone up as she comes to grips with her new responsibilities.

Hisone finds a plaque embedded in the dragon to learn his name is Masotan.

And so, the title is complete.

Then three more pilots fly in in episode 4, and the main plot starts to meander in a direction.

Let’s meet the other three team members!

Elle Hoshino: Enlisted to become the first female fighter pilot, and is displeased to have been placed on the OTF (Organic Transformed Flier) program instead. So her dragon, F-2/Norma, refuses to leave it’s plane form to please its partner. Eventually Elle comes around and loosens up. She’s fine.

Mayumi Hitomi: A matronly shaped pilot. She’s soft-hearted and soft spoken. Flies a large, goofy looking dragon named Futomomo. She’s fine.

Lilico Kinutsugai: Winner of the Canvas’s ‘Wait, I want more’ award, Lilico is a shut-in with a wry sense of humor and love of manga. Her dragon is the samurai-looking Akemi. Lilico is also apparently asexual, something I wish they’d given space to explore a little more.

She could’ve been my favorite pilot,[2] but the show didn’t commit enough.

So the pilots are placed through a couple adventures to become friends as the creepy Iboshi (some vaguely defined government guy) watches and plots.

Iboshi is the closest thing the series has to a villain, despite it being more of a Man vs. Nature affair. He possesses a callous disregard for the people of the D-Pi program, focused on the looming Ritual the D-Pi are needed for.

This cold-naturedness made me dislike him, but also allows the series to run relationship drama in a really interesting direction.

Because, guess what? If the D-Pi fall in love, the dragons will instinctively reject them. And they need the D-Pi to keep the Dragons healthy, and also escort a giant dragon to ensure it doesn’t destroy Japan in its wake! Oh dear. This frames the ‘will-they, won’t-they’ of Hisone and Haruto of the maintenance team into an major conflict with dramatic consequences and justifies a dumb ‘misunderstanding’ plot with one of the other D-Pi.

This shows builds a very grounded, mature, and compelling view on romance, and I am super game for it. And super down to sing its praises.

I’ve found that the sweet spot for making me care about a romance plot isn’t tsundere antics, or fear, or dumb misunderstandings, because there’s nothing I crave in my media more than emotional honesty.

No, the slow burn I crave is sheer ignorance. It takes several episodes for Hisone to understand she may have feelings for Haruto beyond friendship, then more for her to actually accept and admit her feelings to herself, then the fantasy takes over to prevent a tedious ‘Oh, will you two just talk’ subplot, because Hisone can no longer do her job lest she get digested by her dragon! So the conflict of “How does Hisone deal with her feelings” becomes augmented to “How does Hisone do her freaking job now!?”

The answer, seemingly, is just have a level head on the topic: Mayumi Hitomi also has plenty of ship teases with another character, but never is at risk of being eaten. It doesn’t get examined, because Hitomi’s ability to just kind of… casually acknowledge it and not let the Doki-Dokis mess up her stride doesn’t draw attention.

And because Hitomi’s resolution to the conflict eventually comes down to “I don’t want to abandon anyone ever” means her love for Haruto[4] is just added to the pile of things Hitomi is just anxiously passionate about, in equal measures to her love of flying Masoton, and that seems to work out.

Which, I guess means the secret to flying the dragon’s isn’t a creepy expectation of a pure heart, Iboshi, but emotional maturity.

Which brings us to the jerky, playboy wannabe breaking Elle’s heart. Like a monster.

Take note, writers: this is the first time ‘I broke your heart to protect/save you!’ has ever been successfully executed without one or both parties catching a case of the stupids! Watch this and learn!

So, early in the series, we meet Yutaka Zaito, a wannabe womanizer who has no success, but maintains his illusion of charisma nevertheless. Then he meets Elle, whose serious attitude and cold shoulder grabs his attention, and he suddenly abandons his swarm and tries to, gently, ingratiate himself to Elle, who gradually warms up to him.

It’s nice.

But then the whole ‘Dragon digests those with unsteady hearts’ plot point happens, and Elle is in a position where she can’t even fly her dragon, sending her ambitions even further away. And she hasn’t realized it’s Zaito causing her heart flutters.

But Zaito, upon learning the situation, does understand. And knows that it’s either him or Elle’s career.

So, he turns up the creep, approaches Elle, and proposes a friends-with-benefits arrangement, claiming not to want a serious relationship, and subtly mocks Elle’s dragon rejection. This breaks Elle’s heart, of course, but resolves the matter. She can fly Norma again, and Zaito is left to bite his tongue and let his crush pursue her best life.

The sequence is well executed. It’s a misunderstanding perpetuated intentionally, knowingly, and selflessly by one party, and exists for reasons beyond ‘Neh, let’s have some dumb romance drama now’. Zaito knows what he’s giving up, but still breaks Elle’s heart because she legitimately needs him to so she can pursue her dreams. There’s no other timely way.

On the other end, the show introduces Natsume,[5] a childhood friend of Haruto, who comes in to be Hisone’s rival!

Except Hisone is too oblivious and all-loving to care, and Haruto is straight disinterested in Natsume. And Natsume is a shallow Tsundere and lacks any appealing characterization. They could’ve given her role to Nao, who desperately needs something to do in the later half of the series, or, better yet, just have Haruto be the human sacrifice.

“But you need a girl for the sacrificial beauty role!”

Okay.

Make Haruto a girl.

“Are you proposing the show suddenly swerve into Yuri?”

I mean, Yogurt lady’s backstory is literally a Tragic WWII-era Yuri love story.[6]

Sada Hinomoto shows up selling yogurt and being charming and mysterious so you know there’s something deeper going on.

Turns out, she’s the last D-Pi from the last time they did the ritual, so she actually has proper experience to teach the new kids, and, oh yeah, she hates Iboshi, resents the entire procedure, and carries a lot of trauma from when her friend Yae was chosen to be the human sacrifice last time, and though the show doesn’t spell it out, the intimate blocking and their schemes to flee to Paris paints a super clear picture about what that relationship was about and, gosh dangit, is she one cool grandma.

All she wants to to get back to the giant dragon to find closure with what happened to Yae and force an alternate solution.

Fortunately, Hisone is just the sort of loveable goofball to find an alternate to the Giant Dragon’s bedtime snack!

So there’s another reason why Hisone’s love interest should’ve been a girl.[8]

Now, practically this could’ve been accomplished a couple of ways: gender flip Haruto, cut Haruto and use Nao, pr combine characters. Point is, no matter how you do it, this hypothetical female love interest is now the human sacrifice for Mitatsu-sama.

With this change, there is a new parallel drawn between Hisone and Hinomoto,[9] further underlines Hisone’s tendency toward heartfelt dedication to unconventional methods, and Hisone’s desire for saving the sacrifice changes from an impersonal “Human sacrifices are wrong”[10] to “Human sacrifices are wrong, and also screw you I love that girl!”

And if that girl had Tsundere tendencies (like Nao or Natsume), that’d make the pairing even cuter.

Also, points for the entire D-Pi team unambiguously disbelieving Hisone’s ambiguous fate at the end. It’s fun to see such trope-awareness.[11]

In conclusion: Dragon Pilot is super adorable and sincere, the premise is quintessential anime, and it’s just fun. Sure, most of the characters deserve more depth and exploration, but that’s always my complaint and it’s only a 12-episode series. Plus, it very good at portraying mature characters without stooping into immature means.

And it’s really cementing my love of BONES as a studio.[12] I need to put more effort into seeking out their work.

So go watch it.

Thanks for reading my review! These do tend towards inconsistent release, but they’re fun to do. Consider checking out my other reviews, essays, and the rarer original work. I’m also nearing the end of my Muffin Comics experiment, so catch those while you can! If you really like what I’m outputting, I’ve got a Patreon, set on a monthly schedule so you know what you’re committing to.[13]

Next time: a Netflix Original of a magical tone! (And hopefully more Digimon)

Kataal kataal

[1] At least, that’s the hope. Gets dashed once the other D-Pi arrive on base and Kaizaki slips out of the spotlight. [2] The title goes to Hisone herself.[3] [3] Anyone else have troubles saying the main character/romantic lead are their favorite? Like it’s too easy an answer or something? Because I do. [4] All these H names are raising the hackles of my Mug Rule… [5] Presumably so they can localize Harvest Moon games. [6] Which means we were this close to a Yuri anime not about assaulting high schoolers and creepy family dynamics,[7] but one about Dragons pretending to be a spitfire and historical context and and light-hearted comedy and I honestly would trade this show for that and I love Hisone & Maston! [7] Citrus did not sit well with Canvas. [8] Canvas’s full tilt idea, by the way, is to combine Haruto, Nao, and Natsume. Condense characters and keep them all relevant longer. [9] Way too many H names. [10] Not that Hisone being a goofy all-loving hero isn’t super endearing. [11] Though it’d be nice to know what Hisone and Masoton were doing. Had Hisone ejected out of the dragon at any point during the… months(?) long time jump? [12] Wolf’s Rain notwithstanding. [13] Not going to lie, nothing deflects me from lending support quicker than a ‘Per Update’ schedule.

#CanvasWatches #dragon pilot #anime #CanvasReviews

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londontheatre · 7 years

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AIDA

Aida is a timeless story of duty, love and betrayal amid the clash of war. This is opera on a grand scale, in which ENO’s award-winning Chorus and Orchestra will demonstrate their full power.

Following his recent Akhnaten for ENO, Improbable’s Olivier Award-winning director Phelim McDermott stages this distinctive new production. Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts Verdi’s score which contrasts swaggering military marches with tender lyricism.

Sharing the title role are two sopranos – Latonia Moore and Morenike Fadayomi – both of whom are making their ENO debuts. As Radames, we welcome back the popular ENO artist Gwyn Hughes Jones.

AIDA Booking Period 28 September – 2 December 2017 Running Time: To be confirmed Age Recommendation: No under 5s

The Barber Of Seville

Jonathan Miller’s classic production of The Barber of Seville is a feast of frivolous fun. Enjoy Figaro’s mischievous escapades as he assists Count Almaviva in prising the beautiful Rosina away from her lecherous guardian, Dr Bartolo. Rossini’s comic masterpiece fizzes with memorable melodies in an entertaining production that unites the theatrical worlds of Italian commedia dell’arte and Whitehall farce. Making his role debut as Dr Bartolo is Alan Opie, a long-standing and much-loved ENO artist. Former ENO Harewood Artist Sarah Tynan sings Rosina, while baritone Morgan Pearse and tenor Eleazar Rodriguez reprise their highly acclaimed roles as the barber Figaro and Count Almaviva respectively. British conductor Hilary Griffiths makes his ENO debut.

THE BARBER OF SEVILLE Booking Period: 5 – 30 October 2017 Running time: To be confirmed Age Recommendation: No under 5s

Rodelinda

Rodelinda is a dramatic tale of power, anguish and love. When Grimoaldo takes Bertarido’s throne, Bertarido flees abroad, leaving behind his grieving wife Rodelinda. The usurper tries to force Rodelinda to love him, but when the exiled king returns in disguise, everyone is put to the test.

One of Handel’s finest operas, Rodelinda is filled with intense drama told through ravishingly beautiful music. Award-winning director Richard Jones brings his distinctive theatrical imagination to this production, which sets Handel’s bitter political drama in Fascist Italy.

Heading the cast is Rebecca Evans, whose performance of the title role in 2014 was hailed as ?perfection’ (Daily Telegraph). Also returning for this first revival is Susan Bickley and Baroque-specialist conductor Christian Curnyn. Tim Mead, regarded as one of the UK’s finest countertenors, adds Bertarido to his roster of ENO roles.

RODELINDA Booking Period: 26 October – 15 November 2017 Running Time: To be confirmed Age Recommendation: No under 5s

Marnie

Marnie is a compelling psychological thriller set in England during the late 1950s. A young woman makes her way through life by embezzling from her employers, before she moves on and changes her identity. When her current boss Mark Rutland catches her red-handed, he blackmails her into a loveless marriage. Marnie is left with no choice but to confront the hidden trauma from her past.

Following Two Boys in 2011, this is composer Nico Muhly’s second world premiere for ENO. With a libretto by Nicholas Wright, Marnie is based on Winston Graham’s novel and inspired by the screenplay. It examines the cost of freedom, the limitations of forgiveness and the impossibility of escaping the past, in music that is direct and powerful.

Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer makes his UK opera debut, collaborating with ENO Music Director Martyn Brabbins. Grammy Award-winning mezzo Sasha Cooke sings the title role, while acclaimed bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch sings Mark Rutland. They are joined by ENO favourite Lesley Garrett.

London Coliseum, Various dates Saturday 18th November to 3rd December 2017

Amore / Svetlana Zakharova

The three faces of Amore presented by the sublime Svetlana Zakharova in her brand new triple bill are passion, ambiguity and playfulness. She is joined on stage by top Bolshoi male artists, including Mikhail Lobukhin, Denis Rodkin and Denis Savin. Live music will be provided by the Orchestra of English National Opera under the direction of Pavel Sorokin.

The evening opens with Yuri Possokhov’s masterpiece Francesca da Rimini. Set to Tchaikovsky’s symphonic poem, it tells the story of the tragic lovers from Dante’s Inferno condemned to eternal punishment.

Rain before it falls, choreographed by Patrick de Bana is a ballet which concerns the struggle with the choice between darkness and light. It is set to classical sounds by Bach and Respighi decorated with modern electronic music tapestry by Pina-Quintana.

The third piece features Svetlana Zakharova supported by five male dancers. Set to Mozart’s Symphony No.40, Strokes Through the Tail is a humorous piece choreographed by Marguerite Donlon, providing the perfect ending to the evening. Part of the fun is costumes by fashion designer Igor Chapurin who also created the costumes for the unforgettable Francesca.

AMORE / SVETLANA ZAKHAROVA Booking Period: 20 – 25 November 2017 Running Time: To be confirmed

Men In Motion

MEN IN MOTION Award-winning dancers Matthew Ball, Irek Mukhamedov, Daniel Proietto and Edward Watson are among those joining dancer and producer Ivan Putrov in a new production of his thrilling and illuminating exploration of the changing role of the male dancer over the last century. Men in Motion pays homage to the great dancers and choreographers of the past and showcases some of the most exciting artists at work today.

Booking Period 22 & 23 November 2017 7.30pm. Age restrictions: Under 5s will not be admitted.

Nutcracker

Over 100 dancers and musicians bring Nutcracker to life.

On a sparkling Christmas Eve in a frost-dusted Edwardian London, Clara and her enchanted Nutcracker doll discover a magical world, where she battles with the Mouse King and meets a handsome stranger. As the air grows colder, Clara and her valiant Nutcracker take a hot air balloon ride across London to the glistening Land of Snow where her adventure really begins.

From the sound of the orchestra tuning up, to the final bows and cheers, a trip to English National Ballet’s Nutcracker is an unforgettable Christmas treat.

NUTCRACKER Booking Period: 13 December 2017 – 6 January 2018 Running Time: To be confirmed Children under 5 are not allowed in the auditiorium except at family-friendly performances (only available via venue) Schools Matinees: 15th December 2.30pm and 4th January 2.30pm

Song Of The Earth/La Sylphide

Inspired by Mahler’s haunting song cycle Das Lied von der Erde, MacMillan brings music, poetry and choreography together to capture the fragility of life, and its constant renewal. Three central figures portray the bittersweet reality of love, loss, and mortality: a Woman, a Man and an enigmatic Messenger.

First performed in 1965, Song of the Earth was a point of departure for MacMillan’s choreography, surprising and captivating audiences and critics. English National Ballet is honoured to add this revered MacMillan work to its repertoire.

La Sylphide On the morning of his wedding to his sweet fiancée Effy, James awakens from a dream to see a mysterious and tantalising Sylphide before him. His obsession with her sets off a fateful sequence of events where joy turns to sorrow, love to betrayal and infatuation to tragedy.

August Bournonville’s classic Romantic ballet is devotedly recreated by Eva Kloborg and Frank Andersen in this captivating production, and is accompanied by an enchanting score, played live by English National Ballet Philharmonic.

SONG OF THE EARTH/LA SYLPHIDE Booking Period: 9-13 January 2018 Age Restriction: Children under 5 will not be allowed in the auditorium, except for at Family-Friendly performances.

Le Jeune Homme Et La Mort/La Sylphide

English National Ballet returns with a double bill featuring Roland Petit’s Le Jeune Homme et la Mort and Frank Andersen’s recreation of the beloved classic La Sylphide.

Le Jeune Homme et la Mort

Last performed by English National Ballet in 2013, Roland Petit’s Le Jeune Homme et la Mort follows a young man hopelessly in love with a cruel and faithless mistress. He waits desperately for her, but when she finally arrives, she torments him. Distraught and confused, the young man succumbs to his despair. Performed to Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, with a libretto by Jean Cocteau, Petit’s ballet is a searing display of unrequited love and its tragic consequences.

La Sylphide

On the morning of his wedding to his sweet fiancée Effy, James awakens from a dream to see a mysterious and tantalising Sylphide before him. His obsession with her sets off a fateful sequence of events where joy turns to sorrow, love to betrayal and infatuation to tragedy.

LE JEUNE HOMME ET LA MORT/LA SYLPHIDE Booking Period: 16-20 January 2018 Age Restriction: 5+ Schools Matinee: 18th January 2018 2.30pm

Satyagraha

Satyagraha is composer Philip Glass’s meditation on Gandhi’s early years in South Africa, tracing the progress of his concept of non-violent protest as a positive force for change.

First staged in 2007, Phelim McDermott’s highly acclaimed, spectacularly theatrical production is a visual feast. Glass’s use of repetitive musical structures – ?minimalism’- creates a mesmerising soundscape, quite unlike traditional operas.

Following the Olivier Award-winning run of Akhnaten in 2016, McDermott is reunited with Glass-specialist conductor Karen Kamensek. Distinguished British tenor Toby Spence sings Gandhi for the first time, and is joined by sopranos Charlotte Beament (Miss Schelesen) and Anna-Clare Monk (Mrs Naidoo).

SATYAGRAHA Booking Period: 1 – 27 February 2018 Running Time: To be confirmed Age Recommendation: No under 5s

Iolanthe

Iolanthe is a brilliantly funny, satirical fantasy, revealing a typically Gilbert & Sullivan topsy-turvy worldview. Phyllis and Strephon wish to marry, but as Phyllis is a ward of court she requires the Lord Chancellor’s permission. The Lord Chancellor, however, wants her for himself.

Matched by Sullivan’s ever-melodious score, Gilbert not only targets peers of the realm, but also offers thinly disguised portraits of Queen Victoria, John Brown (her personal servant and ?close companion’), Lord Randolph Churchill (reformist Tory) and William Gladstone (Liberal PM of the day).

Cal McCrystal (One Man, Two Guvnors) directs a production that embraces the chaotic physical comedy and irreverence that are his hallmarks. Outstanding young mezzo-soprano and ENO Harewood Artist Samantha Price leads a cast of ENO favourites, including Andrew Shore as the Lord Chancellor.

IOLANTE Booking Period: 13 February – 7 April 2018 Running Time: To be confirmed Age Recommendation: No under 5s

A Midsummer Nights Dream

Based on Shakespeare’s popular comedy, Britten’s opera follows the consequences of a falling-out between the fairy-king Oberon and his queen, Tytania. Mistaken identities, confused lovers and alarming transformations are the result.

Returning to ENO, Robert Carsen’s production explores the blurred relationships between reality and dreams, the natural and supernatural, and sexual desire.

From the sliding string chords of the magic wood to the rustics’ well-intentioned entertainment, Britten’s ear for beguiling orchestration and melodic invention will enchant and entice you.

Leading the cast as Oberon and Tytania are counter-tenor Christopher Ainslie and soprano Soraya Mafi. The roles of the lovers are taken by a quartet of rising stars – Eleanor Dennis as Helena, Clare Presland as Hermia, David Webb as Lysander, and Matthew Durkan as Demetrius. Young British conductor Alexander Soddy makes his ENO debut.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Booking Period: 1 March – 15 March 2018 Running Time: To be confirmed Age Recommendation: No under 5s

La Traviata

La traviata tells the story of the tragic love between the courtesan Violetta and the romantic Alfredo Germont. Played out against the hypocrisy of upper-class fashionable society, Alfredo and Violetta’s love threatens to shame his family. When his father directly appeals to Violetta to relinquish her one chance of happiness, Violetta submits and her act of self-sacrifice leads to her paying the ultimate price.

In his debut production as ENO Artistic Director, Daniel Kramer directs a production which contrasts spectacular party scenes with tender, intimate moments. Verdi’s masterpiece features one of the most iconic, romantic and tragic scores of all time.

Singing Violetta is outstanding young soprano, Claudia Boyle. She is joined by rising tenor Lukhanyo Moyake as Alfredo, in his UK debut. Conductor Leo McFall makes his ENO debut in a production that showcases the award-winning ENO Chorus and Orchestra.

Various dates Friday 16th March 2018 to Friday 13th April 2018

The Marriage Of Figaro

As the day of Figaro and Susanna’s wedding arrives, it becomes clear that their master, Count Almaviva, is hell-bent on seducing Susanna before the ceremony can take place. Susanna and Figaro conspire with the forsaken Countess to outwit her husband and teach him a lesson in fidelity. But when the teenage Cherubino involves himself in their plans, relationships become severely strained through a series of ever-more confusing twists and turns.

Mozart’s masterpiece reveals much about the human condition through consummate wit, grace and joyous musical invention. ENO Music Director Martyn Brabbins conducts this second revival of Director Fiona Shaw’s critically acclaimed production.

The cast includes Lucy Crowe, as the despondent Countess, and bass-baritone Ashley Riches, as the philandering Count. ENO Harewood Artist Rhian Lois is the ever-resourceful Susanna, alongside Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans as Figaro, while Harewood Artist Katie Coventry sings her first Cherubino.

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO Booking Period: 29 March – 14 April 2018 Running time: To be confirmed Age Recommendation: No under 5s

Kiss Me, Kate

Opera North’s award-winning production of Cole Porter’s Broadway comedy classic comes to London for the very first time.

The full-scale Orchestra and Chorus of Opera North bring the magical sound of Broadway to the Coliseum.

Set both on and off-stage during the production of a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew, Kiss Me, Kate revolves around the tempestuous love lives of actor-manager Fred Graham and his leading lady and ex-wife, Lilli Vanessi. Throw in Fred’s current paramour Lois Lane, her gambler boyfriend Bill – and a couple of gangsters who somehow get caught up in the show – and the stage is set for a funny and farcical battle of the sexes!

A charming homage to the sparkling wit of Shakespeare and an irresistible celebration of the joy and madness of working in theatre, Cole Porter’s witty, jazz-inflected score features hit after hit, with show-stopping numbers including ‘Another Op’nin’ Another Show,’ ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare,’ ‘Always True to You in My Fashion’ and ‘Too Darn Hot.’

Bringing together performers from the worlds of both opera and the West End, with the incredible sound of the Orchestra and Chorus of Opera North the magical sound of Broadway and the golden age of MGM musicals springs back to life on the Coliseum stage.

A co-production with Welsh National Opera

Music and lyrics by Cole Porter Book by Bella and Samuel Spewack Critical Edition by David Charles Abell and Seann Alderking

KISS ME, KATE Booking Period: 20th June – 30th June 2018 Running Time: To be confirmed Age Recommendation: under 5s will not be admitted

http://ift.tt/2qQwSzQ LondonTheatre1.com

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ricardosousalemos · 8 years

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Weezer: Weezer (Blue Album)

Weezer mastermind Rivers Cuomo was such a somber kid that his second-grade teacher trained the other students to tell him, in unison, “Let me see the smile.” Childhood in Yogaville, the ashram and Integral Yoga HQ led by “Woodstock guru” Swami Satchidananda in eastern Connecticut, was isolating, devoid of much pop culture and adventure—until Cuomo heard Kiss. When a family friend brought their fifth album, 1976’s Rock and Roll Over, to the Cuomo house, it sent Rivers and younger brother Leaves launching off furniture in a way only formative music can. “I’ve pretty much based my life around that record,” he has said. With their comic-book personas and distorted riffs, Kiss cracked Cuomo’s young brain wide open and rewired it for good. He had little idea what debauchery they were singing of, but from that point on, Cuomo began having intense dreams about becoming a rock star, and he began obsessively studying the work of his songwriting heroes.

For Rivers, music offered both a coat of armor and an identity. As a pre-teen enrolled in public school for the first time, Cuomo went by a different first name and his stepfather’s last name (Kitts); his chosen moniker—Peter Kitts—was awfully close to that of Kiss drummer Peter Criss. And while Cuomo was still picked on as he made his way through puberty, he eventually found his people: the metalheads. In 1989, Cuomo moved from Connecticut with his high school band to Los Angeles, ground zero for the AquaNetted and Spandexed. There, he found himself in the midst of shifting tastes, both culturally and personally. He started working at the Sunset Boulevard Tower Records, where he was schooled on quintessentially “cool” music like the Velvet Underground, Pixies, and Sonic Youth.

Also in the mix at this time was a new band called Nirvana. When Cuomo first heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on the radio in late 1991 while washing dishes in an Italian restaurant, he was sorta pissed he didn’t write it himself. “Rivers says, ‘I should have written that,’” remembered early Weezer guitarist Jason Cropper in John D. Luerssen’s band biography, River’s Edge. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah. That’s totally true.’ Because the music he was writing was improving in quality every day.” Cuomo’s interest in Nirvana became an obsession. He’d taken notes from Brian Wilson, the Beatles, Scorpions, Yngwie Malmsteen, and, of course, Kiss. But for all his knowledge of rock history, he still cared deeply about writing anthems that spoke to his generation, even if he had trouble looking his peers in the eyes.

Weezer anthems were destined to be different. In 1994, the acts dominating the modern rock charts were pushing against something, from the British aesthetes (Depeche Mode, New Order, Morrissey) to the singular weirdos (Beck, Tori Amos, Red Hot Chili Peppers) to the disenfranchised youth (Nirvana, Green Day, Pearl Jam). With rebellion came a facade of cool, and that was something Weezer could never manage, at least not in the traditional way. Cuomo always tried a little too hard. He would become the fidgety anti-frontman with a thousand “revenge of the nerds” taglines and a Harvard degree to prove it. That dichotomy—the big-time rockstar in khakis and Buddy Holly glasses, who never seems totally comfortable in his own skin—is what launched his cult and anchored his unlikely sex appeal. And his band—drummer Patrick Wilson, bassist Matt Sharp, and guitarist Brian Bell—played along, accentuating their innate geekiness to make Weezer feel like a unified front.

By the summer of 1993, Cuomo had written a number of songs strong enough to convince the alt-rock major DGC to sign Weezer (this despite a lack of buzz around the L.A. scene) and have the Cars’ frontman Ric Ocasek produce their first album. When the group’s self-titled debut—typically known as The Blue Album—arrived in May 1994, Cobain had been dead for a month. A feeling of dread hung over the alternative rock world whose prominence was ushered in by the Seattle sound. With their wired energy, effortless power-pop-punk hooks, and Beach Boys harmonies, Weezer took the alt-rock explosion in a new direction. You couldn’t quite tell if Cuomo was mocking his song’s regressive narrators or sympathizing with them. But once you got past his defense mechanisms and sorting through the humor and cultural references, you found a portrait of a young man’s psyche, riddled with angst and insecurity. And it arrived on the wings of massive riffs and gnarled guitar solos that sounded like they were emanating from a Flying V—on every single song.

The Blue Album’s exploration of the fragile male ego is in full swing by the record’s second track, “No One Else.” Taken at face value, this is likely the most misogynistic song Weezer has ever released. “I want a girl who will laugh for no one else,” Cuomo sings while the band rushes through the fuzzy pop-punk changes, evoking the hyperbole of masculinity. But there’s more beneath the surface. “‘No One Else’ is about the jealous-obsessive asshole in me freaking out on my girlfriend," Cuomo has said. The song acquires even more resonance in the context of its sequencing on the record. Cuomo described the following song, “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here,” as “the same asshole wondering why she's gone.” In actuality, he spends most of “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here” muttering to his ex’s wallet photograph and masturbating to her memory, getting in a joke along the way, saying she enjoyed the sex “more than ever.” It’s an absurd scene, but imagine the sentiment coming from the wrong person and it’s suddenly not so funny. Weezer were masterful at walking this line between knowing jokiness and legitimately creepy dysfunction.

This base kind of arrested development shifts back and forth between the narrator’s relationship with girls and his views on himself. If “No One Else” and “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here” are mirror twins, so are “Surf Wax America” and “In the Garage.” Given that Weezer were named after a common term for asthma sufferers, no one expected them to be out on a board riding the waves. That tension animates “Surf Wax America,” a well-crafted jumble of harmonic puzzles and barreling punk guitars where the hedonistic surfer lifestyle is both celebrated and chided for its simplistic worldview. Even while the song sneers, the ferocity of Cuomo screaming “Let’s go!” juxtaposed with the solemnness of the band’s Wilsonian harmonies make you believe, once again, in Weezer’s sincerity. Meanwhile, “In the Garage” is an homage to that happy place where no one judges you for your comic books, D&D figurines, and Kiss posters. It seems like over-the-top self-parody, but the garage was indeed a real place where early Weezer practiced and recorded when Cuomo, Sharp, and original guitarist Justin Fisher lived together in the “Amherst House” near Santa Monica. The hopeless ambition of “In the Garage” would make it the defining song of nerd-rock.

In between “Surf Wax America,” a fantasy about someone completely different, and “In the Garage,” a hyper-detailed song about himself, lies a song about his father. There are two more nakedly emotional songs on Blue, which are set off further by Cuomo’s rare embrace of laid-back guitars. Atop a bluesy jangle, “Say It Ain’t So” details the moment when Cuomo’s deepest worries are realized: He sees a beer in the fridge and, remembering how his father drank before he walked out, he senses his stepfather is doing the same. He fears now that he, too, is destined for this fate. Pinkerton, Weezer’s sophomore album, is often described as the tortured confessional to end all tortured confessionals, essentially a diary of Cuomo’s notorious Asian fetish. But “Say It Ain’t So” is just as raw, and arguably has more that its listeners can use, throwing its arms wide open to anyone who’s known the trauma of dad issues. The music is constructed perfectly, building and building until what's left of Cuomo's vulnerability comes out as a bitterly frayed "yeah-yeah," all capped by a guitar solo worthy of the Scorpions.

The desire to write a perfect song can drive some songwriters mad, as their belief in music as a vehicle for emotional expression reconciles itself with the belief that pop is a puzzle that can be solved. On Blue, Cuomo found the ideal balance, as he rarely has since. He understood the rules so well that he also knew when to break them, from Sharp’s super silly new-wave keyboard in “Buddy Holly” to the mumbled dialogue that runs through “Undone” (the band and their friends chatting were a backup plan after DGC refused to clear dialog from an old sci-fi film, “Peanuts,” and more).

The fact that “Only In Dreams” is eight glorious minutes long is Blue’s greatest example of self-indulgence gone right. It confronts the two most perilous teen-boy anxieties—talking to a girl you really like and dancing in public. It’s fiery, gorgeous, well-played, and devastatingly sad. Sharp’s trudging bassline guides the way forward for the narrator, whose fear of stepping on his crush’s toenails is temporarily silenced by the band’s total calamity. Rock’n’roll teaches us that extreme volume can quiet the voices of doubt inside our heads and numb the pain of living inside our awkward bodies. In this sense, the climaxes on “Only in Dreams,” starting around the song’s midpoint, are rock’n’roll lessons of a lifetime. But it’s the big build at the 6:45 mark that plays like a beta male transfiguration. Having re-recorded Cropper’s guitar parts in one take after essentially firing him following Blue’s 1993 recording at Electric Lady, Cuomo ends up axe-battling himself until he’s soloing like the metal gods he grew up worshipping. Wilson’s drumming—an underrated and idiosyncratic force throughout Weezer’s discography—drives home the catharsis. His cymbals crash from every angle and his tricky rolls play like percussive triple axels. By the end of the song, you’re back to reality, exhausted but ready for a fight—even if it’s just against your own doubting voices.

For all the talk about Rivers Cuomo’s anemic masculinity, The Blue Album has a unifying thread of identity that supersedes gender. An essay on the Smiths pointed out that, “Asking people about their interest in the Smiths is another way of asking this question: ‘How did you survive your teenage years?’” The same could be said of Weezer’s debut. Blue quivers with isolation if you look past the pastiche, the deflective humor, and the guitar lines that make you sit up tall. The emotion Weezer tapped into is echoed in music sometimes considered distinctly millennial due to its high levels of anxiety, from Death Cab for Cutie and Carseat Headrest to Mitski’s Puberty 2 and even Drake at his most neurotic.

For as classic as the album is considered now, Blue didn’t make the 1994 Pazz & Jop year-end critics’ poll. Back then, Weezer were considered alt opportunists or even Pavement ripoffs—a comparison that seems silly now, looking at the distinct rock strains since indebted to Cuomo. But MTV and radio airplay for “Buddy Holly” and “Undone — The Sweater Song” made Weezer huge, and The Blue Album went double-platinum within 15 months of its release. Over the next three years, as Weezer 1.0 slowly imploded (bye-bye Matt Sharp, hello rotating door of bassists), the record would sell a million more and be well on its way to canonization. By 2003, Pitchfork named it one of the best records of the 1990s; two years later, Rolling Stone heralded it as the 299th greatest album ever. And so Blue now sits in a sweet spot of commercial accessibility and critical adoration, a combination that guarantees the album will make its way into the hands of a certain kind of bespectacled teenager for decades to come—the ones who really need it. Cuomo never wrote a song as indelible as “Seems Like Teen Spirit,” but he did reach generations of rock kids, proving that coolness is optional if you study hard enough.

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