Stage Roundup: May 2009
Ah, the rites of spring! Star-crossed love down the pub (see Romeo and Juliet at Block 8); musically-inclined meet-cutes at The Bookworm (see Basically Beethoven, May 14); Mimi and Carmen dying tragically young at the Egg (courtesy of the NCPA Opera Festival); and the Rite of Spring itself. Yes, French-Algerian choreographer – and one-time boxer – Heddy Maalem has joined with the Sichuan Modern Dance Group to bring the ballet to Beijing.
People over at the Music section of this magazine may think they are the only ones who know how to have fun in May, what with the plethora of festivals around town. But we here at Stage know that only we have the staying power to really make the season sing.
Take Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. It had them rioting (literally) in the streets when it premiered back in Paris with Nijinsky and the Ballets Russes in 1913 – and here we are almost 100 years later, lining up again to be amazed. We no doubt will be more demure in our appreciation than the Parisians; however, bearing in mind the acclaim and controversy that greeted Maalem when his African-inspired choreography premiered in 2005, Rite of Spring has firmed as the most hotly anticipated offering of the Croisements Festival. Maalem is in Chengdu right now, working with the Sichuan dancers for some weeks prior to the new production’s premiere there. We’re told that it will include a projection designed by Chinese video artist – and Sichuan Art Academy alumna – Chen Qiulin. Inevitably, the themes of “earth, death and rebirth” recognized within the Rite of Spring have added to the poignancy of its production in Sichuan just one year after the earthquake that hit that province so hard.
Meanwhile, let it not be thought that those of a classical bent don’t know how to party. Last month came surprising news of how George Frideric Handel, most often celebrated as the composer of the Messiah, may have met his demise (250 years ago last month). According to Handel scholar David Hunter, the composer ate and drank himself to death. Back in the day, apparently, lead contamination of wine, beer, cider, rum, gin, and – don’t you be smug, teetotalers – water was quite common. Hunter’s theory goes that Handel was such a prodigious eater and imbiber that he finally died of lead poisoning. Which will teach classical buffs a lesson: Never celebrate the anniversary of someone’s death. It just encourages someone to come along and spoil it with a depressing theory. Book a date to celebrate the 350th anniversary of his birth in 2035.