Utah Opera's La Traviata

Last night I was able to attend opening night for Utah Opera's production of Verdi's tragic masterpiece, La Traviata, and it was a magnificent performance!  Violetta Valery (Anya Mantanovic) is a beautiful and glamorous courtesan who lives only for pleasure.  Even though she is suffering from consumption, she hosts a lavish party at her home and encourages her guests to sing a wild drinking song.  When she grows too tired to dance, a young man named Alfredo Germont (Rafael Moras) stays behind and declares his love for her.  She resists him because she likes her simple life of pleasure.  However, when he leaves she realizes that she is in love with him.  They leave Paris and live happily together until Alfredo's father Germont (Michael Chioldi) comes to ask Violetta to leave Alfredo because their relationship is scandalizing the family and ruining his daughter's prospects for marriage.  Violetta tearfully agrees to sacrifice her love for the sake of Alfredo and returns to Paris.  She attends a masquerade ball hosted by her friend Flora (Quinn Middleman) with one of her former patrons, Baron Douphol (Christopher Holmes).  When Alfredo sees her with the Baron, he treats her with such contempt that his father tells him of her sacrifice.  Later, Alfredo begs Violetta to forgive him and she dies in his arms.  I loved everything about this production!  The music in this opera is very well known and the three leads sing their roles brilliantly.  Mantanovic is incredibly passionate as Violetta in Act 1, especially in the aria, "Sempre Libera," and tragic in Act 3 when she sings "Addio, del passato bei sogni rrdenti."  Moras has such a beautiful voice and I enjoyed his interpretation of the impetuous Alfredo.  His version of "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" is incredibly stirring.  I was also very impressed with Chioldi because his rendition of "Di Provenza il mar" gave me goosebumps!  The chorus is also outstanding, especially at the end of Act 2 when they denounce Alfredo for his treatment of Violetta ("Di donne ignobile insultatore").  As always, the sets and costumes are wonderful and I especially liked the juxtaposition between the opulence of Violetta's Paris home with the more modest villa she shares with Alfredo in the country.  Another aspect of this particular production that I enjoyed was the collaboration with the Ririe Woodbury Dance Company.  Members of this company (Dominica Greene, Nicholas Jurica, Megan McCarthy, Brian Nelson, Bashaun Williams, and Melissa Rochelle Younker) perform a waltz during Violetta's party and the gypsy and matador dances at Flora's masquerade and these dances are exquisite.  Even if you are not a big fan of opera you are sure to recognize many of the arias in La Traviata and I highly recommend seeing Utah Opera's production!  It runs at the newly renovated Capitol Theatre through October 20 (go here for tickets).

Lucy in the Sky

It seems like I have been anticipating the movie Lucy in the Sky for such a long time.  Even though it was panned at TIFF, I decided to see it anyway last night.  Astronaut Lucy Cola (Natalie Portman) has a transformative experience during a mission to space.  When she returns to Earth, she finds it difficult to adapt to ordinary life again.  Everything feels small and insignificant and she feels disconnected from her husband (Dan Stevens) and the rest of her family.  She decides that the only solution is to go back to space and begins obsessively training to be a part of the next mission.  She also begins an affair with fellow astronaut Mark Goodwin (Jon Hamm).  When a training incident grounds her and Goodwin abandons her in favor of another astronaut (Zazie Beetz), she suffers a breakdown culminating in a cross-country road trip to confront Goodwin.  This movie is a total mess and I was actually really disappointed because it has such an interesting premise.  At first it is a haunting, if jumbled, portrait of a woman going through an existential crisis and I didn't mind the overly stylized shots, the skewed perspectives, and the bewildering changes in aspect ratio (director Noah Hawley is trying so hard to be a serious artist).  However, in the third act there is a huge tonal shift with an incredibly trippy scene where Lucy floats through a hospital corridor after her grandmother has a stroke with a psychedelic version of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" playing underneath it.  After this scene the movie becomes absolutely bonkers as Lucy becomes more and more hysterical while driving to San Diego to pursue her lover.  This suggests that it is not really her experience in space but a failed relationship that causes her undoing. There are moments that are so bizarre I actually laughed out loud, especially a manic shopping trip for kidnapping supplies and an extended sequence showing Lucy running in slow motion.  It is so inconsistent that it seems like two separate movies with a meditative beginning exploring the meaning of existence and then a campy ending about a love triangle.  I was also really confused by a belabored metaphor comparing Lucy to a butterfly that gets destroyed by wasps.  This leads to a strange ending which shows Lucy working as a bee keeper three years after the incident with a final shot of her gazing at a butterfly.  What is this supposed to mean?  Ugh!  The audiences at TIFF were right about this movie and I recommend giving it a miss.

Gemini Man

When I first saw the trailers for Gemini Man a few months ago, I thought the idea of a man forced to confront a younger version of himself sounded really intriguing so I saw a Thursday preview last night.  While there are quite a few problems, I actually enjoyed this movie.  Henry Brogan (Will Smith) is a highly trained government assassin who is getting older and starting to feel conflicted about what he does so he wants to retire.  However, he learns that his last assignment was a set-up to cover the tracks of a covert black ops agency run by Clay Varris (Clive Owen) known as GEMINI.  Fearing Brogan’s response, his own agency sends a team of assassins to kill him but he eludes them easily with the help of two other colleagues who remain loyal to him (Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Benedict Wong).  The three of them travel to Colombia, where Brogan believes he will be safe, but Varris sends another assassin who seems to know his every move before he makes it.  He eventually learns that this assassin is a clone created by Varris to have all of his strengths without his any of his weaknesses (like having a conscience).  This leads to an epic confrontation between Brogan, his clone, and Varris.  The action sequences in this movie are incredibly intense and inventive (I saw this in 3D+ HFR and I actually thought it was amazing but others might not like it and I've heard that the action is not as good in other formats), particularly a motorcycle chase in the streets of Cartegena, hand-to-hand combat in the catacombs of Budapest, and a wild fire fight in a warehouse in Atlanta.  I liked Smith's sincerity in this dual role (although the younger version sometimes looks a little creepy) but I especially enjoyed Winstead because she really kicks ass and Wong because he adds a bit of levity.  The dialogue in this movie is very clunky (much of it is even cringe-worthy) and the story isn't as fully realized as it could be with such an interesting premise.  However, the biggest problem for me is that the movie spends quite a bit of time trying to solve the mystery of who this secret assassin is and the big reveal is played as if it is a major plot twist.  Because of the marketing for this movie, everyone knows going in that the assassin is a younger version of the main character so the build up falls a bit flat.  It is almost laughable how long it takes Brogan to realize that this assassin looks just like him.  Still, I had a lot of fun watching it and I recommend it to fans of action movies.

The Testaments

The TV series on Hulu has made The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood extremely popular again but I remember reading it as a teenager when it was first published in 1985.  I also had the opportunity to hear Margaret Atwood speak about it at the University of Utah when I was in college. The dystopian story about the subjugation of women in the totalitarian society of Gilead affected me as no other book has before or since so I was beyond excited to learn that this month's book club selection was The Testaments, Atwood's long awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. More than anything I wanted to know the fate of Offred and this book answers that question...sort of. Offred is a powerful and integral part of the story but she is not an actual character. Instead, the narrative alternates between the perspectives of Aunt Lydia, a young girl living in Gilead named Agnes, and a young girl living in Canada named Daisy. Aunt Lydia is a villain in The Handmaid's Tale but, fifteen years after the events in that story, we learn that Lydia has been creating an illegal document recounting her life before Gilead and how she had to overcome many obstacles to become a respected judge, how she chose to accept her role as an Aunt as a means of survival, and her attempts to undermine the patriarchy. Agnes is a privileged young girl who is being prepared for marriage to a Commander. She is content with her role in society until she is allowed to read the Bible for herself and realizes that she has been lied to her entire life. Daisy has never been told that she was smuggled out of Gilead as a baby, that the people who have raised her are really members of the Resistance, and that she is now an important symbol to the people of Gilead. When she learns her identity, she decides to work for the Resistance and infiltrate Gilead society. What I loved about this book is that you never really know what any of the three main characters will ultimately do until the final resolution because the stakes are so high for them. It actually felt like a suspenseful thriller more than a manifesto. My book club last night had some great discussions about the corrupting influence of absolute power and how the oppressed will always find a way to rise. We also talked about the dangers of fundamentalism and how the narrative seems to echo many events in the world today which is truly frightening.  Finally, we discussed the important role that reading (we are a book club with members who love reading, after all) played in toppling the totalitarian regime. As a huge fan of The Handmaid's Tale I really enjoyed this sequel (I finished it in two days because it is so compelling) and I would highly recommend it.

Note:  Next month's selection is Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo.  The early reviews of this book are great so I am eager to start reading it.  Go here for more information about the Barnes & Noble Book Club and join us for a lively discussion of this selection on Nov 5.

Rambo: Last Blood

My Dad is as much of a night owl as I am and we have decided that we like going to late movies on Saturday nights (we saw Ad Astra a few weeks ago) and now we want to go as often as we can.  Last night we decided to see Rambo: Last Blood and we had such a good time.  Vietnam veteran John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is suffering from PTSD but has found a measure of peace on his father's horse ranch in Arizona and has created a surrogate family with his housekeeper Maria (Adriana Barraza) and her granddaughter Gabriela (Yvette Monreal).  Gabriela has tracked down the father who abandoned her and her mother and, against Rambo's advice, she travels to Mexico to confront him.  After her father rejects her, she goes to a club where she is drugged and kidnapped by a sex-trafficking ring run by Hugo and Victor Martinez (Sergio Peris-Mencheta and Oscar Jaenada, respectively).  Rambo travels to Mexico to save her but is unsuccessful.  He ultimately kills Victor forcing an epic confrontation with Hugo and a large group of his hitmen back at his ranch where he has booby trapped a series of elaborate underground tunnels.  This confrontation, which is the entire third act of the movie, is violent, graphic, and intense but it is strangely satisfying.  Even though they are violent, the action sequences are amazing because Rambo uses a variety of different weapons in very innovative ways and I actually wanted to cheer when a particularly despicable character meets a grisly end.  I really liked Rambo's character arc in this movie because this time around he is exacting revenge for the brutal death of a loved one and there are scenes that are filled with genuine emotion.  I also liked the fact that Rambo isn't entirely invincible in this movie.  He willingly puts himself in harm's way, and gets beaten very badly, for the sake of someone he loves and that is what makes this a fitting conclusion his story.  All of the critics hated this movie but I think fans of the franchise will enjoy it.