Late to the party

It took me a long time to start this blog this summer. Now this week, I discovered the power of Facebook. I know most of you will laugh because it's so last millennium's news. I got interested after the Microsoft announcement of the company's investment in Facebook and wondered what the fuss was about.

Facebook may not be directly related to the arts but I can see it can be a very useful tool for arts organizations to promote their local activities. Exactly how remains to be explored.

La vie, l’amour, la mort

Qu’est on fait après la mort de son mari? Comment on recommence sa vie quand son mariage a échoué? Quelle sont les choses les plus importantes dans les dernières mois de sa vie?

Ce sont les questions que le réalisateur François Ozon a exploré dans ses films “Sous le sable”, “Cinq fois deux” et “Le temps qui reste.”

Dans le film “Sous le sable”, Marie Drillon a eu environ 40 ans. Le mari de Marie s’est noyé quand ils étaient en vacances. La police n’a pas trouvée le corps de Monsieur Drillon. Après sa mort, Marie a continué sa vie à Paris mais elle n’a pas accepté la réalité.

On voit comment Marie s’est débattu pour se garder la mémoire de son mari. Elle parlait comme, si elle partageait encore sa vie avec Monsieur Drillon. Elle faisait l’amour mais elle ne tombait pas amoureuse. Finalement deux ans plus tard, la police a trouvée un corps avec une montre identique à la description faite par Marie. Elle n’a pas accepté la nouvelle. Dans la dernière scène, Marie a pleurée pour la première fois, sur la plage où elle a perdu son mari. On n’est pas sûr qu’est elle aura faite.

"Cinq fois deux" raconte l’échec du mariage de Marion et Gilles. Dans la première scène, ils sont tous les deux chez un avocat pour leur divorce. Ils ne savaient plus quoi faire. Le chronologie de l’histoire est inversée. Quand on voit les noces de Marion et Gilles, on comprend bien les problèmes du mariage mais l’échec est comme une mort naturelle. Il n’y a pas de solution ni pour d’un, ni pour l’autre.

C’est comme le maladie de Romain dans Le temps qui reste. Romain était un jeune photographe de mode. Il a appris qu’il a eu une tumeur maligne et qu’il n’a que quelques mois de vivre. Contrairement à Marie dans "Sous le Sable", il a accepté sa mort. Il se souvient de son enfance et le bon temps passé avec son ami. Il a demandé pardon à sa soeur et à son ami, il rend visite à sa grand mère pour la dernière fois et avant de partir, il veut réaliser des choses importantes pour lui - il a trouvé la paix.

The Dame, the Diz and the Dangerous

I received a link from a friend to a British online talk show Culture Clash presented by 18 Doughty Street. http://doughty.gdbtv.com/player.php

The show perked my interest, in part, because the former partner of my friend Damian Thompson, a journalist for the Daily Telegraph, was on the panel, and also because the discussion was about the popular exhibition First Emperor in the British Museum.

The panel members included:

Peter Whittle, The New Culture Forum, moderator
Dame Jessica Rawson, Merton College, Oxford, history advisor to the exhibition
Munira Mirza, founder Manifesto Club
Igor Toronyi-Lalic, contributing editor, Catholic Herald
Damian Thompson, Leader Writer, Daily Telegraph

The moderator explained that the panel was to explore why the exhibition was popular and what it could tell visitors about China.

The half hour show turned out to be a poorly led dialogue by a moderator who admitted on air that he was no expert in Chinese culture or history. However, from a media study perspective, the show was a brilliant case study of the danger of our pundit-driven media culture.

The panelists were successful individuals in their own fields. Peter Whittle is a veteran journalist who has written for The Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph and LA Times.

Professor Dame Jessica Rawson is a scholar who has dedicated 35 years of her career studying Chinese art and history. She has written a number of books and papers on Chinese art, archaeology and rituals.

Damian Thompson, a historian by education, holds a Ph.D in sociology of religion. He has written three religion related books and airs his comments often on cultural, religious and political issues in the British media. He was also the former editor of The Catholic Herald.

Munira Mirza is a Ph.D student at the University of Kent and arts consultant for the London East Research Institute. Like Mr. Thompson, she also has made a name for herself as a pundit through her work for the Manifesto Club and her BBC Radio Four appearances.

Igor Toronyi-Lalic, is 25-years old, a friend of Mr. Thompson (according to Thompson’s blog) and a freelance arts journalist.

The composition of this panel presented a problem. Only Professor Rawson was a Chinese scholar on the program who had the breadth and depth of knowledge to discuss the relevance of the terracotta army of China’s first emperor. Unfortunately, unlike Thompson, Toronyi-Lalic or the moderator, Professor Rawson does not work in the media professionally. Despite her calm, intelligent answers to some painfully ignorant questions and comments, she was put in a defensive position within minutes of the program.

When Toronyi-Lalic dismissed the exhibition as media hype and claimed that the terracotta figures had little artistic values compared to Greek sculptures, Rawson explained to her colleagues that one has to better understand the artistic and historical context of these figures to appreciate their value. She defended the administrative skills and the achievements of the First Emperor to explain why she claimed the discovery of the terracotta army to be the most important in the 20th century.

The importance of any achievement of course is relative and has to be put in the appropriate context. Professor Rawson’s mistake was making such a high claim on camera, leaving herself vulnerable to be the prey of Thompson, who quickly dismissed her claim as self-serving because she is an academic. Such a cheap shot is simply hypocritical, especially coming from Thompson, when as a self-established media pundit, his opinion is his only currency and he would do anything to inflate the value of his opinion over others.

In face of a moderator who failed to lead and two commentators who did not have the expertise to contribute to a meaningful dialogue, Thompson turned the interview to his advantage, addressing well rehearsed topics that he was comfortable with. On this blog, he reiterated the attack against Professor Rawson:

...if we were to follow Dame Jessica’s advice and ditch our "Western" artistic criteria when judging Chinese artifacts, we might soon end up ditching our "Western" critique of China’s human rights record. Which is precisely what Beijing hopes will happen.

This argument is simply nonsense when any Chinese school children and anyone who has rudimentary knowledge of Chinese history, would understand the First Emperor was no Gandhi. In fact, the ambition and achievements of the emperor which were so clearly illustrated by the terracotta army, provide us with a lot of insight into the Chinese culture. This cultural sensitivity is crucial for the West to work better and closer with the current Chinese government on pressing issues such as human rights, the environment and economic expansion.

Despite the uncouth bullying that Professor experienced in the studio, she left the audience with one piece of sound advice - learning takes effort.

Anyone can be a pundit but it takes years of hard work and training to be an expert.

Stars and music

What makes an outstanding performer a star? Let's be clear there is a distinct difference between a star and a celebrity. Celebrities are pure products of publicity and marketing. They shine and fade as quickly as this year's patent shoes on the runway. A star has talent that can endure the test of time. Of course their stardom is also built upon signficant marketing investment but their achievements are cherished long after their recording companies, agent and marketing manager have shifted their focus onto the next big talent.

Unfortunately, in our celebrity-crazed culture, many people consume stars like they consume any global brands. A case in point, when Mutter played Brahm's violin concerto with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra last Friday, the hall was full and the audience cheered her warmly. After the intermission, the rows in the auditorium were punctured by empty seats. The people who left clearly decided Mutter was the only reason to attend the concert that evening.

Such attitude was very unfortunate because as it turned out, the orchestra gave a much more brilliant performance on their own, as if they were liberated from the shadow of an international star. People seem to forget a star does not necessarily guarantee a good show. In the case of last Friday's concert, Mutter's performance was exquisite. Every line, every turn of phrase and even every pause was thoughtful, masterful and personal. Yet even a genius could not establish rapport with a 100 musicians in a matter of hours, which was typically how much rehearsal time an international artist would have on tour.

On their own, the orchestra delivered a bold, robust and engaging Picture at Exhibition. One could feel their love for the music and their exhilarating enthusiam from across the hall. Those who stayed for only the first half of the show saw their star and missed the music.

Farewell Maestro Bradshaw

The St. James's Cathedral bells were tolling this morning, as they always do, when I was on my way to work. The difference was I noticed the unusual crowd outside the Cathedral lawn, all in formal attire. Then I remembered it was Maestro Bradshaw's funeral today. Instead of paying my tribute publicly, I have chosen to do so privately and hopefully share my sentiment beyond the church doors.

Like many opera lovers in Toronto, I witnessed Maestro Bradshaw's achievements in the past decade, so much so that my partner and I decided to show our support by hosting our wedding at the Canadian Opera Company (COC) headquarters garden and subsequently became the company's supporting members. We met Mr. Bradshaw at several member and fundraising events and I had expressed in person my appreciation of his gifts and contributions to Toronto, including his leadership to bring us a new production of the Ring Cycle and to build a world-class opera house for the company.

In my note to the COC the morning when I learned about his sudden death, I said how Mr. Bradshaw taught his audiences to think, see and listen for themselves. I can still remember when I saw the COC for the first time in 1997, performing Madama Butterfly, I had my reservations. The show was a revival at the Hummingbird Centre and I left the theatre thinking, this was at best adequate.

Then the following year, I saw Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex and after that Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle and Schoenberg's Erwartung and I was hooked. Over the years, my musical appreciation ability grew with the company's expanded artistic achievement. By the time I saw the company's new production of La Traviata, which received abundant poor press reviews, I had formed my independent opinion. The production was the first La Traviata that made me weep. If one could look beyond the S&M scenes and the postmodern pastiche design, one would feel the pain of a woman who sacrificed herself for an ideal.

The Maestro may be a consummate politician but he never needed a stunt to win his audiences. By giving Toronto the Ring, the opera house and even the most seemingly controversial productions, he showed what it meant to believe, to take a stance and to deliver.

And for once, the press got it right in their obituaries. He was a superhero in the opera world, and beyond. Let's hope the COC, its audiences and our city will extend his legacy and learn from his courage to provoke, inspire and create.

Five senses of France - Voir chapitre 2

Got some photos organized at last. France 2007

Five senses of France - Gouter chapitre 1

Few people believe me when I say you don't need to remortgage your home to eat well in Paris. Certainly there are enough Michelin restaurants and new upscale brasseries to burn a hole in your wallet but often the best gems can be found in some hidden back alleys or areas outside the manicured first four arrondissements.

During my week long stay in Paris, I managed to try a wide variety of places, from the perfectly old fashioned Benoit (now owned by Alan Ducesse) to the innovative (Gaya in St Germaine) to a hole in the wall (a Vietnamese joint just outside Oberkampf in the 11th arrondissement). My verdict? Sometimes a dive can be as pleasant as a haut cuisine restaurant.

An old family friend used to say either you go to a restaurant for the food or the decor. With due respect to the dead, I disagree. On Gaya's web site, the chef Pierre Gagnaire http://www.pierre-gagnaire.com/ expresses his mission to satisfy the five senses of his customers. And that he does. From the decor to the open kitchen, Gaya is clearly a restaurant theatre. Unlike a traditional bistro, Gaya makes you feel relaxed. The first amuse boche is nothing more than fresh radish, followed by some tiny boiled shrimps, while you ponder over wine and real food. My limited French wasn't good enough to understand the different species of fish, so I picked a Dourard, thinking it was Dory. It turned out to be a roasted seabream served on a bed of couscous flavored with minced sardines. So while nothing fussy was done to the gorgeous sea fish, it was complemented by a startling side dish.

George may seem like a tourist trap since it is perched on the top of the Pompidou Centre, except the food is actually as good as the view. With the building rules, there arent' many places in Paris where you can dine with the city under your feet. At evening,a few friends from Toronto happened to be in town for the first time and I thought it was the ideal place to start their holiday. I didn't expect to find Peking Duck on the menu. Joy to globalization!

Five senses: Seeing Paris

Last week I took a mental vacation in Potterville. Now that I have exhausted the final magical moment of Potter's saga, I'm back to my own Never Never Land in cyberspace.

My vacation in France completely indulged all my five senses, experiences that cannot be completely captured by a snapshot or a souvenir.

Voir: The natural grace of the River Seine, the grand public squares and monuments and the charm of the prewar residential buildings with elaborate railings and onings all invite one to slow down one's pace and set one's imagination free. Having visited the major tourist attractions in my previous visits, this summer I had a chance to really make acquaintance with Paris.

Apart from meandering around Jardin du Luxembourg, getting a glimpse of the concert hall in La Cité and discovering the little waterfalls in Parc des Buttes Chaumont, I saw two exceptional exhibitions: the retrospective of Pierre et Gilles at Jeu de Paume and Airs de Paris at Pomidou Centre.

Camp is an accurate but probably not adequate description of the works by this painter/photographer couple. Their detailed, highly processed and staged images are not just eye candy. Many of them are overt political statement, as you can see above. Others are simply disturbing, violent but never overtly gruesome.

The title Airs de Paris is a tribute to Marcel Duchamp's installation of the same title first show in Paris. The installation is a collection of tiny black beads suspended from the ceiling, creating a nonchalant and poetic touch. This exhibition includes select artists reponses to modern Paris and the modern world. One of the most memorable installations was by Louise Bourgeois with the same light touches of Duchamp.

La Belle France

As much as I thought I was addicted to my mac computer, France had to be the best Betty Ford clinic for computer addicts like me. I didn't see or touch a computer screen for two weeks when I was on vacation in Paris and Provence and I didn't miss a minute of it.

Of course now paradoxically my faithful mac will hopefully cure for my post vacation depression. If I can't sit lazily in the lush and quiet Jardin du Luxembourg thinking about nothing, or catch up with my friend in cafes in Marais, then at least I can savour some treasured moments here in my cyberspace.

Paris encourages one to explore, to "flâner." The ancient architecture, the manicured gardens, not to mention the countless boutiques, cafes, bars in meandering narrow lanes, are bound to yield charming and memorable moments for anyone who cares to look, smell, listen and taste this bountiful city. Unlike the grid system in North America, which is efficient but predictable, Paris seems to promise nothing and offers everything.

Season finale

My singing performance season ended this week. It has been a remarkable year for the choir and a great learning experience for me as a singer.

In February, we presented Oratorio Terezin in Carnegie Hall, New York. Canadian composer Ruth Fazal came across a book of poems written by children in Terezin, the half-way house camp in Czech Republic for the Jews during the holocaust before their deportation to Auschwitz. In 2003, Oratorio Terezin was born, in memory of the talent and courage of the victims.

Our performance in New York was the American premiere of the piece and it was a true honour to pay tribute to the music and to the history in one of the most gracious music halls in North America.

In April, we presented several beautiiful but rarely performed choral pieces by Brahms - Schicksalslied, op.54 (Song of Destiny) and Nänie, op. 82. as well as the Alto Rhapsody with soloist Susan Platts. We also sang Mendelssohn's Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise), a very popular piece in its epoch, and often regarded as inspired by Beethoven's Symphony no. 9. The concert arguably was one of our best in my three years with the choir. One could feel the concentration, the passion and the discipline shared by 150 of us on stage, responding to the most subtle gesture of the maestro Noel Edison.

Fellow choir members often say our singing commitment is like a second job. Well, it is and the reward we get every year - the friendship in the choir, the training and discipline and the sheer joy of music making - makes many of us go back for more.

Famine Remembrance

Tonight, I'll be performing with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir in a fund raising concert to support the Ireland Park Foundation. The Foundation is setting up a new memorial park in Toronto in honour of the Irish people who escaped the plague and came to Canada to help build this country.

President Mary McAleese will be the guest of honour this evening and we'll present Famine Remembrance, a modern oratorio by Patrick Cassidy.

Serenade to Music

I know summer is here when our Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is getting ready for the Proms. Our choir collaborates with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra every year on this concert, along with Handel's Messiah during the Christmas season.

Bramwell Tovey returns this year to raise his baton tomorrow at the Roy Thomson Hall. The concert is a tribute to the Proms summer festival in London England. In Toronto, we present three performances, all British and Canadian music, starting tomorrow. We'll begin the concert with Vaughan William's Serenade to Music. What a great piece to set the tone for an evening of fine music making.

So happy Tovey is bringing back We'll gather Lilacs and other unabashed tear jerkers! Visit TSO.ca for info and tickets.

La Môme (ou La Vie en Rose à l’Amérique du Nord)

Le film « La Môme » est sorti cette fin de semaine à Toronto. Il raconte la vie de la chanteuse française le plus célèbre, Edith Piaf. Les amoureux de Piaf, ses dépendances de la drogue et l’alcool et sa mauvaise humeur sont bien connus. Le réalisateur Oliver Dahan nous présent la chanteuse absolument candide mais il nous aide de comprendre Piaf, une orpheline qui ne pouvait jamais aimer elle-même, sauf que le personnage de chanteuse ce qui le monde adoraient.

Plutôt que raconter une histoire chronologique, M Dahan utilise les chansons de Piaf populaires pour souligner les expériences de l’orpheline, la chanteuse et l’amoureuse. Par exemple, la chanson Milord n’est pas seulement une jolie mélodie de cabaret, mais un conte de la vie qu’elle a vu quand elle a passé son enfance dans la maison de prostitution de sa grand-mère.

Marion Cotillard nous présent d’abord la jeune Piaf, une musicienne de la rue, jusqu'à la vieille qui s’est détruite pars les drogues et pars un cœur cassé. L'actrice est vraiment formidable.

Piaf composait le poème « la vie en rose » après elle a été tombée d’amour pour le boxeur Marcel Cerdon. La chanson est encore populaire, je pense, c’est parce qu’elle représente la force de Piaf : sa passion et s’amour pour la musique, ses amateurs et pour Marcel, son vrai amoureux.

Housekeeping

Made some small adjustments to the blog. You can now leave your comments without a G-mail account. Do share your thoughts with me.

Visual highlights from LuminaTO - encore

Pulse Front by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Montreal-based artist, at Harbour Front Centre

More images can be found on my partner's blog: getjealous.com/jamesmiller

Visual highlights from LuminaTO

Le Grand Mobile by Xavier Veilhan in the BCE Place, designed by Santiago Calatrava

Did Luminato enlighten TO?

LuminaTO, the 10-day arts festival in Toronto, came to an end last weekend, although some of the theatre shows and exhibitions will continue for a few more weeks.

One of the major achievements of the festival was the city's success in putting arts back into the public domain and encouraged Torontonians and visitors to embrace the arts as part of our daily cultural diet. The artificial divisions between high, classical and popular culture have alienated many people from essentially quality entertainment, leaving them to binge on voyeuristic reality shows or mindless sitcoms.

If $12 million can take our collective minds away from the play-by-play of Paris Hilton's vacuous life, then it's money well spent.

Book of Longing

Leonard Cohen's Book of Longing is a collection of the Canadian poet's previously unpublished works and new poems. The collection was released in 2006 and American minimalist composer Philip Glass created a song cycle based on Cohen's text.

The collection of poems is a pot pourri of Cohen's views on love, desire, death, divinity and politics. Glass's music matches Cohen's sentiment with a wide range of colours from the cabaret style song titled A Sip of Wine to light hearted Mother Mother to the ballad You Came to Me This Morning. The composer also puts some structure to the seemingly random collection by punctuating each section with hauntingly beautiful instrumental solo passages - oboe, violin, cello and double bass.

The Canadians in the audience were familliar with Cohen's wit and certainly showed their appreciation for lines such as:

I enjoyed the laughter old poets
as you welcomed me

but I won't be staying here for long
You won't be either

For all the references to age and death, the poet's love for life and women was evident. Glass's mix of his signature arppegios and lyrical passages fittingly highlights the inevitable cycles in life and the poet's ability to create and appreciate beauty.

LuminaTO

LuminaTO is a 10-day arts festival in Toronto, in conjunction with the opening of the new wing of the Royal Ontario Museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind. The new wing is named the Michael Lee Chin Crystal, in recognition of the lead donor for the project and in acknowledgement of the design of the facade.

The design of the new wing has been a favorite topic of debate among art lovers in this city. The mixed reaction has been quite similar to the responses when the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery of London, UK, designed by Robert Venturi, was erected.

Judging from the thousands of people who attended the opening ceremony of the Michael Lee Chin Crystal tonight, it was evident that Torontonians have been wanting innovative and world-class public art and buildings for some time.

Visit www.rom.on.ca for images and more details.

A new start

This is my first attempt to establish a voice in the world of Web 2.0 to talk about the things I love - opera, classical music, literature, films, paintings, food, wine, etc.

I hope like-minded readers will also share their passion with me in this little sanctuary.