Explosive Starts

Explosive Starts, originally uploaded by Mario De Leo.

HAIKU

Deep, dark, quiet night.
Pop! - Silence - Urchin of light!
Ooze dye upon black.

...vender el cuerpo...

Candy Skull, originally uploaded by Mario De Leo.

…vender el cuerpo…


[Se dice que en la mente la idea vive fácilmente, pero en la acción el cuerpo se resiste.]

Los hombres han decidido no quedarse atrás en la tradicional profesión que se ejerce por mujeres, travestis y transexuales en Avenida Tlalpan, dándole un innovador giro a la frase "vender el cuerpo".

Conduzca su automóvil y busque ingresar a la Avenida. En las esquinas busque al vendedor de cuerpos de su preferencia. A cambio de unas monedas, él interpondrá el arca de su alma entre su vehículo y los que circulan sobre Tlalpan en el carril de extrema derecha. Permitiéndole a usted ingresar con facilidad a la congestionada vía. (Las calles Álvaro Gálvez, San Antonio, Erasmo Castellanos en la colonia Multifamiliar Tlalpan son las más solicitadas).

La nula cultura vial, el desempleo y la falta de planeación (entre otras causas) han dado un vuelco a actividades de milenaria tradición.

Nyman Operas

Tikal Panoramic, originally uploaded by Mario De Leo.

Nyman Operas


Completely different from his usual works, Nyman's operas are hard to like at first listening, but offer the most rewarding operatic experience I've ever heard if you take the time and musical liberty to listen.


It was with great delight that in 2005 ~ 2006 I started listening to music by Michael Nyman. The first natural purchase was THE ESSENTIAL MICHAEL NYMAN BAND, which took me by surprise: baroque and classical music were cleverly mixed with modern compositional techniques and innovative instrumentation.

Being completely delighted, disc after disc soon followed: THE VERY BEST OF MICHAEL NYMAN and purchases of soundtracks from different movies (especially those by Peter Greenaway). The musical structure is simple: a musical repetitive base is added upon with additional tunes and instrumentation. CHASING SHEEP IS BEST LEFT TO SHEPERDS is a basic example of this:





Afterwards, by a pair of friends in Spain, I was presented to his extremely bizarre concertos: DOUBLE CONCERTO FOR SAXOPHONE, CONCERTO FOR HARPSICHORD AND STRINGS, CONCERTO FOR TROMBONE AND ORCHESTRA). Who in his sane mind, would wanna play these extremely elaborate pieces? Musical times are extremely complex, tempos just go rampant in some parts and texture (& resonance) overcome hearing capacity. Yet, they work, and extremely well. My personal favorite is the CONCERTO FOR HARPSICHORD & STRINGS, its convoluted, dense and dissonant, and strangely enough pleases every fiber of my body. Example of the SAXOPHONE CONCERTO:





At the same time, I was presented with THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT, Nyman's first finished opera. "What a waste", I thought. So many promising beautiful tunes that could be further explored,developed and built upon (like those in Greenaway's movies), cut when they were just becoming interesting. That CD went directly to the shelf.


Then, to my attention came his masterpieces, what I will call his "theme" compositions. Without a symphony appearing in his catalogue, Nyman explores music related with a single theme in these compositions. Mainly: AFTER EXTRA TIME, EXIT NO EXIT, MGV, THE FINAL SCORE, ACTS OF BEAUTY, THE FALL OF ICARUS … The works are monumental. They start easily and are expanded in fantastic ways: exploring, playing, extending, destroying, mixing and building upon several (but characteristic of each work) musical passages. MGV is probably the best example:





After running out of available Nyman recordings (and going through some terrible compositional fiascos as ZOO CAPRICES, STRONG ON OAKS…), I turned my attention to his operas (and works I had shelved). I found FACING GOYA somewhere on the internet (good thing, for its out of print and a headache to find). I listened to it once and had completely fallen in love. Why? It had the same horrible patchy musical passages as THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE… First, I can only attribute my liking to a more "robust" listening of Nyman's work. Secondly, the libretto is simply brilliant. Third, and most importantly, "patchy" passages are probably the best thing: one is able to hear lots and lots of beautiful music that changes every few minutes into something completely different and stunning. GOYA is probably the best opera out there (yes Vivaldi, move over).


Not everything is sweet in Nyman's operas. Going through all that have been recorded, one has to carefully select.
THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT is fun and entertaining (& real) clinical case, with diminished instrumentation but great musical passages.
NOISES, SOUNDS & SWEET AIRS, based on Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST is an extraordinary way to get into Nyman's way to compose opera. Going musically from here to there, many surprises await.
MAN & BOY: DADA has a terrible premise, the life of a german Dada artist in the UK and his personal involvement with a child & his mother sounds beyond boredom. Nyman does make an interesting case of it by making several puns to Dada(ism), but the music is at its softest here.
LOVE COUNTS is sooo cliché, it came out in 2005 - same year as the movie CINDERELLA MAN, and it feels it is the opera to the movie. Yet, the music is much better than MAN & BOY.


Example of NOISES, SOUNDS & SWEET AIRS:




Contrary to what it may sound like, Nyman's operas are a blessing. Taking unexpected musical turns everywhere, they bring us one after another extraordinary musical passages. A treasure to hear, behold and cherish.