23 February 2012

More Naked Performances

Benjamin Britten - Death in Venice Barcelona 2008
My extensive page on Death In Venice
The sound on this clip is not synchronised properly but is beautiful none the less. I pray there will be a DVD release one day for this beautiful production.
Direcció Musical. Sebastian Weigle
Direcció d'Escena. Willy Decker.
Direcció del cor. José Luís Basso.
Orquestra Simfònica i Cor del Gran Teatre del Liceu.
Gustav von Aschenbach. Hans Schöpflin.
The traveller. Scott Hendricks.
Apol.lo's voice. Carlos Mena.
Tadzio. Uli Kirsch.

Monterverdi -Il Ritorno D'Ulisse in Patria
Conducted by William Christie available on DVD
Sarah Small's Tableau Vivant at Skylight One Hanson









Rigoletto at The Royal Opera House Covent Garden
Un Peu De Tendresse Bordel De Merde! Canadian
The Giant
A play by Sir Antony Sher

Play Description. A powerful, witty and moving play exploring the dark interplay between passion and creativity .

It's Florence, 1501, where a vast block of Carrara marble known as Il Gigante becomes the centre of conflict between two great artists when Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo compete for a prestigious commission to carve a statue of David
The result is one of the most iconic works of the Renaissance - but who was the model?
In the play it is the young stonemason Vito played with extensive nudity by Stephen Hagan
'The Giant' is available to buy  in hardcopy.

Sir Antony Sher and theatre director Greg Doran married the first day it became legal.
Human Installations II III I 
performance on the body, gender and sacrifice.

Photographs 
borrowed from http://trystatemagazine.blogspot.com.au/

Not confirmed if these are ballet, but they are certainly balletic.
Edges are Always Colder
Performance Artist Jon John
Omar Ebrahim in Ligeti's Nouvelles Adventures
with the Opera Factory in the 90's presumably.
King Roger
Paris Opera 2009 with naked screen of the beautiful Joe Dallesandro.
Juan
Music by Mozart, film by Kasper Holten nudity by  Christopher Maltman
Sexy abridged film version of Don Giovanni - Available on DVD/BluRay
Desnudos Barraca Teatro

http://www.barracateatro.com/desnudos
Taras Burnashev
Taras Burnashev is an independent choreographer based in Moscow. After graduating the Class of Expressive Body Movements (tutor –Gennady Abramov) in the School of Dramatic Art (head – Anatoly Vassilev) he became a member of the troupe of the School. In 1999 Taras Burnashev founded dance theatre “PO.V.S.TANZE and participated in its performances both as a dancer and choreographer. In 2006. Taras Burnashev founded " Ohne Zucker Dance Project" existing at present. Performance “Luftmangel” was nominated for a National Theatre Award Golden Mask 
in the year 2008.


More such videos etc on the following pages.

As You Like It

I just had a great night at the new La Boite production of  William Shakespeare's "As You Like It". Inventive, active and exciting, this production shone with a great wrestling match, impressive acting, involved authentic audience participation and a surprise lifting set that glittered with colour, fairy lights and lanterns. The large cast also included some graduating acting students along with the seasoned actors strutting their stuff. Full of sexual confusion, cross-dressing, some sexy players and much appreciated humour and music, it was a full night that thrilled the large crowd. The physical stage presence of Thomas Larkin (the hair) is heroically impressive.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice
In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,
His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide,
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.


Director David Berthold 
Designer Renée Mulder
Lighting Designer David Walters
Composer and Sound Designer Guy Webster
Assistant Directors Heather Fairbairn and Steven Mitchell Wright
Cast 
Luke Cadden (Oliver), Helen Cassidy (Celia), Helen Howard (Rosalind), Thomas Larkin (Orlando), Kathryn Marquet(Phoebe), Dominic Nimo (Silvius), Bryan Probets (Touchstone), Hayden Spencer (Duke Frederick/Corin/Audrey), Trevor Stuart (Jaques/Adam) and Kate Wilson (Duke Senior).
and students/actors from QUT and Southbank Institute of Technology: Thomas Carney, Hanna Galbraith, Thomas Hutchins, Jordan Kadell, Lucy-Ann Langkilde, Jerome Meyer, Alec Snow and Mahala Wallace.

La Boite Theatre Company Brisbane Queensland
La Boite Web Site
La Boite Theatre Company on Facebook

21 February 2012

John Cleese Live.

 Last nigh I spent just over two hours having an evening with John Cleese. Once back in 1993 I was attending a play in London and Mr Cleese was standing tall in the foyer as part of an audience. I am sure as I looked across the heads of the audience, which also included Marissa Berenson, he caught sight of me staring and immediately bobbed down out of sight. Perhaps I give myself too much credit but the bob was pure Python. I can not recall which evening it was. Either Diana Rigg or Stephen Berkoff.
 On this recent occasion I got to be entertained by and laugh with the genius himself. The sold out hall laughed and applauded non stop as he regaled us with anecdotes of his family, his home town, his career and friends interspersed with background and reliving of some of his greatest sketches. It was special to laugh in the company of another 2,000 people to some of my favourite lines and scenes. He is now a fabulous 72.


A stunning, hilarious, true and moving moment shown last night.
Cleese's Memorial Eulogy for his friend and collaborator Graham Chapman.

20 February 2012

Salvador Dali


Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali I Domenech was born on 11 th. May 1904 in the small town of Figueres, Spain, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. His father was a wealthy notary, and he spent his childhood in Figueres and at their summer home in the coastal village of Cadaques where his parents built his first studio. As an adult, he made his home with his wife Gala in nearby Port Lligat. Dali attended the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. He had his first one-man show in Barcelona in 1925. He became internationally known when three of his paintings, were shown in the third annual Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1928.

Dali and the gay poet Frederico Garcia Lorca first met while they were both attending art school. The two artistic powerhouses formed both an intimate and artistic passion for one another.
For a good article on their relationship go to http://downtownlalife.tripod.com/id589.html
     1929 Dali held his first show in Paris. He also joined the surrealists, led by former Dadaist Andre Breton. That year, Dali met Gala Eluard when she visited him in Cadaques with her husband, poet Paul Eluard. She became Dali's lover, muse, business manager, and greatest inspiration. They eventually married on the 8th. August 1958 six years after the death of her first husband.
Dali became a leader of the surrealist movement. His painting, The Persistance of Memory, with the melting watches is still one of the best-known pieces of art in the world. As the war approached, Dali clashed with the surrealists and was expelled from the surrealist group in 1934, however he continued to exhibit works internationally throughout the decade. By 1940, Dali was moving into a new style known as his classic period, exhibiting a preoccupation with science and religion.
They left Europe during World War II, spending 1940-48 in the United States. The Museum of Modern Art in New York gave Dali his first major retrospective exhibit in 1941. This was followed in 1942 by the publication of Dali's autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvador Dali.
As Dali moved away from Surrealism and into his classic period, he began a series of 19 large canvases, many concerning scientific, historical or religious themes. Among the best known of these works areThe Hallucinogenic Toreador The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and The Sacrament of the Last Supper. In 1965 he published his book "Diary of a Genius." In 1974, Dali designed and opened the Teatro Museo in Figueres in, Spain. This was followed by retrospectives in Paris and London.
He worked with Louis Bunuel, The Marx Brothers, and also worked on a 6 minute Disney film (just recently completed in 2003) and had audiences with several Popes
On June 10th 1982 Gala died in Port Lligat at age eighty eight. Dali became a member of the nobility when King Juan Carlos, made him Marquis of Pubol and he moved into the Castle at Pubol, which was given to Gala as a gift. Dali's health began to fail and he painted his last painting "The Swallows Tail" in 1983. He was burned in a fire at home in 1984. Two years later, a pace-maker was implanted. Much of this part of his life was spent in seclusion in Pubol and his apartment at Torre Galatea, adjacent to the Teatro Museo. 
Salvador Dali died on January 23, 1989 in Figueres from heart failure with respiratory complications. He is interred in a crypt at the lower level of the Teartro-Museo Dali, leaving his estate to the Kingdom of Spain and the Independent Region Of Catalonia.
Two great DVD's I have on Dali.
One beautiful box set of his films
and my big gold Dali book
A video of some paintings



Unearthed Photos of Me

Found while visiting my Mother for my birthday. She celebrates it, I try to ignore it.
 I am sure this protected boy above explains a lot as to who I am today. But that football below certainly didn't get to me.

 
 Father back in the late nineteen twenties I assume.
 and Mother in early fifties.
More of the same on page 'Me and Why This Blog"
A couple from my Facebook page of me around the world
 
An ancient photograph I just unearthed of myself, my mother looking rather glamorous and my father, not at his best. A rare photo of me that I do not hate. Most go in the bin. I think perhaps I was still at school when this was taken. It elicited compliments on my Facebook page so I thought I would spread it further. Wish I still had that thick hair.
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