Chevalier

Yesterday I finally had the opportunity to see Chevalier, one of my most anticipated movies of the year, and I absolutely loved it!  It tells the true story of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.), the son of a slave and a plantation owner who rose and fell from prominence in 18th century France.  He is brought to Paris as a child by his father to encourage his musical abilities but also as a way for his father to abandon him with the admonition that he must be better than everyone else in order to survive.  He emerges as a champion fencer and brilliant violinist and composer who attracts the patronage of Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton).  He begins writing an opera in pursuit of an appointment as the next conductor of the Paris Opera.  However, a slight to established opera star Marie-Madeleine Guimard (Minnie Driver) and an affair with his leading lady Marie-Josephine de Montalembert (Samara Weaving) cause the aristocracy to turn against him and Marie Antoinette to renounce him.  He realizes that things must change and begins to support the call for revolution espoused by his friend the Duke of Orleans (Alex Fitzalan) at great personal cost.  This is, essentially, a fairly conventional biopic but the story is both compelling and incredibly moving, especially the final act, and I found myself wanting to know more about Joseph Bologne and his music (much of which was lost and is only now being rediscovered).  Harrison gives a passionate performance which highlights both Bologne's confidence (the opening sequence when he challenges Mozart to a violin-off is worth the price of admission alone) and vulnerability (in the scene where he sees his mother for the first time in years he expresses more emotion with just a look than most actors do with pages of dialogue).  Boynton and Weaving are also outstanding.  The costumes and sets are gorgeous (I am a sucker for period dramas) and the music is sublime.  I love it whenever a forgotten historical figure is highlighted so I highly recommend this!

Sibelius' Symphony No. 5

Last night's Utah Symphony was so much fun because, not only did the program feature Sibelius (one of my favorite composers), but I was able to meet up with my friend Angela and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  When I was on a tour of Scandinavia several years ago I kept seeing statues of a man all around Helsinki so I decided to ask our bus driver who it was (we had bonded over a Finnish hockey player named Teemu Selanne who played briefly for the Colorado Avalanche).  He said it was Jean Sibelius and, when I didn't recognize the name, he was shocked and appalled that I didn't know about Finland's national treasure so he played Finlandia for me.  I absolutely loved it and, when the Utah Symphony programmed it the following season, I made sure to get a ticket and I always try to see it every time it is performed.  The orchestra began with this piece last night and I found it just as stirring as the first time I heard it!  This piece was composed to rouse Finnish patriotism against Russian control and it features epic themes by the brass, woodwinds, and timpani and ends as a hymn of triumph.  Next the orchestra was joined by Emmanuel Pahud for the U.S. premiere of a flute concerto called Lux Stellarum by Erkki-Sven Tüür (the front man of one of Estonia's most popular rock bands).  This piece is incredibly cool because it is meant to evoke the expansive nature of space.  The flute represents falling stars and the rest of the orchestra represents the explosion of faraway galaxies.  I really enjoyed themes played by the brass, because they reminded me of whispers, and the themes played by the piano, because they sounded like wind.  The use of lots of different percussion instruments (my favorites were the gong and chimes) sounded to me like the ripples of energy through space.  The themes by the solo flute are incredibly ethereal and I loved watching Pahud play because he moved his body with the music almost as if he was dancing with his flute!  He received a boisterous standing ovation which is really impressive because Utah Symphony audiences sometimes have a tepid response to more modern pieces!  After the intermission, the concert concluded with Symphony No. 5 by Sibelius.  This piece was commissioned by the Finnish government in 1915 to commemorate the composer's fiftieth birthday and it is incredibly majestic.  I loved the themes played by the horns and echoed by the woodwinds during the first movement because it is meant to depict a sunrise and also the so-called "swan's song" in the final movement played first by the horns and then the trumpets because it mimics the sound of sixteen swans taking flight at once.  The six chords separated by silence that end the piece are incredibly dramatic!  This was another wonderful concert in a season full of brilliant performances and I highly recommend getting a ticket for tonight's concert featuring the same program (go here for tickets).

Renfield

I thought the trailer for Renfield looked like a lot of fun so I spontaneously decided to see it yesterday afternoon.  It is definitely enjoyable but there are a lot of flaws that keep it from being great.  Count Dracula (Nicolas Cage), along with his familiar R.M. Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), relocates to New Orleans so that he can recuperate from a close call with some vampire hunters.  When Renfield is out searching for victims for Dracula to feed on, he runs afoul of the Lobo crime family, led by Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and her ne'er-do-well son Teddy (Ben Schwartz), and comes in contact with Rebecca Quincy, a police officer with a grudge against the Lobos.  Renfield decides to help Rebecca with her investigation and tries to free himself from Dracula's clutches with the help of a support group but mayhem ensues when the Lobos join forces with Dracula!  Cage is completely unhinged, in the best possible way, as Dracula and seems to be channeling the ghost of Bela Lugosi!  He is the best part of the movie and I wish that he was in it more!  I also enjoyed Hoult as an awkward and sniveling fop, especially whenever he interacts with Cage's Dracula.  The over the top action set pieces are incredibly gory, with decapitations and amputations that spew more blood than could possibly be found in a human body, but they are really campy and made me laugh out loud several times.  The references to vampire mythology, such as needing to be invited in and an aversion to sunlight, are also highly amusing.  However, my biggest problem is the inconsistent tone because this could have been so much better if it had fully committed to the comedy.  Instead, there is an unnecessarily dramatic subplot about a corrupt police force in league with the crime family that killed Quincy's father, himself a police officer, and her attempts to get justice for him.  Awkwafina's Quincy is, essentially, the straight man which is such a waste because she is a great comedic actress.  Awkwafina and Hoult have very little chemistry and their scenes together are surprisingly bland.  This is entertaining but it doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be so a lot of its potential is squandered.  I would recommend waiting to watch this when it is available to stream.

Muse at the Vivint Arena

I am a huge fan of the band Muse and every time I've seen them live the show has been a sound and light extravaganza.  Last night's concert at the Vivint Arena, my first of 2023, was no exception and I had so much fun!  They began with "Will of the People" and played quite a few more songs from their latest album of the same name, including "Compliance," which is my favorite from the album, "Verona," "We Are F***ing F***ed," "Won't Stand Down," and "You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween."  They also played the hits and some more obscure tracks, such as "Hysteria," "Interlude," "Time Is Running Out," a really sultry rendition of "Madness," "Plug In Baby," an instrumental version of "The Dark Side," "Thought Contagion," "Resistance," a rocking performance of "Uprising" that got everyone in Vivint Arena up and dancing, "Psycho," and "Supermassive Black Hole."  They ended their main set, as they often do, with "Starlight," which is my favorite Muse song, and I loved it!  For the encore they played "Kill or Be Killed," from the new album, and an epic version of "Knights of Cydonia" with a really cool harmonica intro.  Songs were accompanied by incredibly theatrical lights, lasers, visuals, pyrotechnics, streamers, confetti, and large animatronic figures looming over the stage.  The stage itself was made of clear panels with colored lights shining from below with a runway extending into the crowd and a smaller stage at the end of it.  It was really cool.  Matt Bellamy was a bit more subdued with his attire than usual (although an LED light-up jacket did make an appearance late in the proceedings) but definitely not with all of his antics.  He spent most of his time running and jumping around the stage and shredding on the runway!  Like every other Muse show I've seen this was a complete spectacle and I loved every minute of it (I think I will be on a high from it for days).

Note:  The opening acts were Highly Suspect and Evanescence.  I was not familiar with Highly Suspect but I was beyond excited for Evanescence because I love them and had never seen them before.  They played for over an hour and I especially loved "Going Under," "Call Me When You're Sober," "Imaginary," "My Immortal," and "Bring Me to Life."

What the Constitution Means to Me at PTC

Last night I went to see What The Constitution Means to Me at PTC and it is one of the most thought-provoking pieces that I have seen in a long time. It is a play written by Heidi Schreck, who performed the lead role during its run on Broadway, about her experiences as a 15-year-old student participating in an American Legion Oratorical Contest about the Constitution as a way to earn scholarship money for college. In this production the role of Heidi is played by Laura Jordan and the first part of the performance is the recreation of the speech that Heidi gave as a 15-year-old in the competition with a Legionnaire (Ben Cherry) acting as the moderator.  In her speech she specifically discusses the Ninth Amendment, which pertains to unenumerated rights such as the right to travel, the right to vote, the right to keep personal matters private, and the right to make important decisions about one's health care or body, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which pertains to equal protection under the law.  During the second part of the performance Heidi continues as her present self and relates anecdotes drawn from her own experiences, and those of the women in her family, relating to abortion, sexual assault, domestic violence, and immigration while Cherry portrays a character named Mike, based on one of Heidi's friends, who speaks about his sexuality. The point they both make, with several relevant Supreme Court cases, is that the Constitution does not protect the rights of women, racial minorities, immigrants, or those who are LGTBQ.  They argue that it wasn't designed to do so because the writers of the Constitution were mostly concerned with negative rights, or those which would not limit the freedoms of white male landowners. I found this discussion to be fascinating and I was completely riveted! The third and final part of the performance involves a parliamentary debate between Jordan (as herself) and a local student (last night's student was Naomi Cova) about whether or not the Constitution should be abolished. This debate is unique to each performance (last night Jordan argued that the Constitution should be abolished and Cova argued that it should be kept) and audience participation is encouraged. As someone who participated in debate all through high school I absolutely loved this! When Jordan had everyone in the audience who was not a straight white cisgendered male raise their hands (it was the majority), it was incredibly powerful to see how many of us are not protected and it really swayed my opinion.  However, I also found many of the arguments put forward by Cova, namely that more people need to participate in government to make changes from within, to be noteworthy as well. A member of the audience was selected at random to declare a winner and she voted to abolish. I was really impressed with Jordan because, even though these are not her stories, her delivery is spontaneous and authentic as if she is having a conversation with each member of the audience and the simple production design (sets, costumes, and lighting) keeps the focus on that dialogue. I do concede that one's enjoyment of this play will probably be directly related to the degree to which one agrees with Schreck's thesis but I also believe seeing it is a worthwhile experience that is ultimately very hopeful.  It runs at PTC through April 22 (go here for tickets).

Note:  As I previously mentioned I was on my high school debate team and I actually participated in an American Legion Oratorical Contest my senior year. I won at my school level (and received a huge trophy) but didn't move on past the state level.