tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post2194985976047914971..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Nasty masculine habitsDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-84449494449461094632010-02-14T17:36:55.476+00:002010-02-14T17:36:55.476+00:00Maybe truth is one thing and art another...discuss...Maybe truth is one thing and art another...discuss. What I'd want in these circumstances would be an artistic reproduction of the essence, not necessarily in words that were ever used by the subjects. I think Alan Bennett does at least have the sympathetic hang of Auden and Britten; if only he'd given it a little more scope. Stoppard's view of the great and good just makes me cringe.<br /><br />Ultimately we have to remember that any work like this says much more about its creator, and what presses his or her buttons in the topic, than about the real life figures on whom the characters are based.<br /><br />But I agree, a wonky representation of a living person will lead a lot of sheeplike folk to conclude that this is what that person is really like.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-85608123959895511022010-02-14T15:36:55.747+00:002010-02-14T15:36:55.747+00:00But don't you see, the better the play/film, t...But don't you see, the better the play/film, the worse it is from the point of view of truth? Whether Turandot is suitably placed in a chinese restaurant is a matter of artistic judgement, and does not touch my point about the truth about reality.One can and perhaps should play about with a work of art, for good ar bad, but not with truth<br /><br /> Take The Queen, widely admired. I saw the clip of the appointment of Blair as PM on TV. It was portrade as a hostile meeting. But we know enough from real documentaries and from memoires that the meeting would have been quite different. So the population at large will have an absolutely wrong view of the relationship PM/Monarch, a vital part of the constitution. In this case those putting the film together must have known that what they were producing was a travesty - but it made a better story, so why not? That is real prostitution. Though a producer who believes that he is faithfully producing truth is almost as guilty <br /><br />Take The Representative. Will those influenced by that play - still relevant - have read the Enscyclical Mit Brennnenden Sorge which Pacelli wrote in 1937 on behalf of Pius XI ? Or his Christmas broadcast of 1942? Of course not<br /><br />I am conscious that this is a lost cause. Let me warn for the future. Rory Stewart ( Dragon School - Eton - Balliol_ Foreign Office - deputy governor of an Iraqy province - has trecked all over Afghanistan etc etc) is a rising star and a Tory Candidate. He may become a minister. And someone is planning a film about his life. If he becomes a senior minister in due course, what will people know about him? Some producer's idea of what makes a good storyDavid Damanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18409591480349323761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-73744368389831363972010-02-14T14:44:20.412+00:002010-02-14T14:44:20.412+00:00But, my dear David, how can you possibly judge if ...But, my dear David, how can you possibly judge if you won't go and SEE any of these? I mean, in another context, I can laugh at the idea of Turandot set in a Chinese restaurant, but I can also change my mind if the show is good enough (and in that instance it certainly was).<br /><br />My first requirement from such shows, which generally I don't like much, is that the subjects should speak as they might in everyday life, rather than spouting newspaper articles (as in Harwood's awful Furtwangler play. And I DIDN'T go and see his one about Strauss/Zweig).Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-35178196339299621312010-02-14T14:35:12.189+00:002010-02-14T14:35:12.189+00:00David Damant writes
How can anyone -- ANYONE --...David Damant writes<br /><br />How can anyone -- ANYONE -- of sensibility, interested in the human predicament, and in the face of so much confusion in the real world, even THINK of being involved in , or going to see, a film or a play about real events and people? It is moral and intellectual prostition. And apart from the pollution of the pursuit of truth, the practical results can be terrible - not perhaps very much in the case of Auden and Britten, but The Queen? Bloody Sunday? The Representative? Plus, though not very important, the ultimate triumph of irresponsible and careless Art over reality, Frost and Nixon. <br /><br />Does anyone care?David Damanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18409591480349323761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-84068615473581185522010-02-12T08:27:52.757+00:002010-02-12T08:27:52.757+00:00I'm glad the snow didn't present your esti...I'm glad the snow didn't present your estimable - I still think - President from holding that White House jolly.<br /><br />Debussy's orchestration is, of course, unique and refined but he doesn't have Ravel's range as far as I'm concerned.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-29795270537708741852010-02-12T08:22:50.163+00:002010-02-12T08:22:50.163+00:00At the risk of being accused of heresy, I personal...At the risk of being accused of heresy, I personally find Debussy's orchestration more interesting than Ravel's, though I am continuing to like the music of both. <br /><br />I was going to post this elsewhere, but have you yet heard Sir Charles's new Philharmonia recording of Dvorak _Seven_ and _Eight_? I downloaded the latter yesterday, and, in my opinion, it is easily the equal of his CFP recording with the LPO, if not better! The big E-Minor climax in the First Movement had my proverbial hairs standing up, and the playing and balances, with much clarity, seem _SPOT_-_ON_ throughout what I have listened to thus far, only the Second Movement remaining to be examined! Regretably the _Seventh_ is not available as a download, so will have to buy the CD if I am to hear that as well. If I do, it will be interesting to hear if he gets more bite out of his lower brass in places than he seemed to on CFP, e.g., the passage leading out of the Recapitulation into the Coda. <br /><br />Since you mentioned elsewhere a friend who lives here in our Nation's Capital, I expect you, along with others, have been hearing about the nearly-back-to-back big snowstorms we had in recent days. The Federal Government has been closed since last Friday Midday or so I think, though it is due to open two hours late today. As of when I last heard, the car of the musician who helps me with certain mundane tasks is cased in ice on an icy side street, and one wonders if it can even be extricated by next Tuesday, when hopefully we can go marketing. <br /><br />Looking forward to tomorrow, <br /><br />J. V.<br /><br />p.s. And, when I wrote of a passage leading out of a Recapitulation into a Coda in Dvorak _Seven_, I was speaking of its First Movement.JVaughanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07468133975019785693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-47796838601790612172010-02-10T15:34:28.618+00:002010-02-10T15:34:28.618+00:00Yes, it's a bizarre phenomenon since, unlike S...Yes, it's a bizarre phenomenon since, unlike Stoppard, Bennett has the ability to make his subject live. But he chooses not to - why? A psychologist could give us interesting answers.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-62839039990096187762010-02-10T15:31:23.060+00:002010-02-10T15:31:23.060+00:00So pleased to read that you had a similar experien...So pleased to read that you had a similar experience at the National. Not a moment of sincerity occurred which wasn't immediately turned on its head... it totally lacked the courage of its convictions. A real disappointment... and, for anyone who has been in a rehearsal room in the last 30 years, a flagrant misrepresentation of the theatrical industry.Gavin Plumleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08367649538228383713noreply@blogger.com