<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title>Simon McBurney Archives - Cultural Attaché</title> <atom:link href="https://culturalattache.co/tag/simon-mcburney/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>https://culturalattache.co/tag/simon-mcburney/</link> <description>The Guide to Arts and Culture events in and around Los Angeles</description> <lastBuildDate>Tue, 09 May 2023 22:52:47 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod> hourly </sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency> 1 </sy:updateFrequency> <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2</generator> <item> <title>The Encounter</title> <link>https://culturalattache.co/2020/05/13/the-encounter/</link> <comments>https://culturalattache.co/2020/05/13/the-encounter/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Craig Byrd]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 13 May 2020 22:17:41 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Streaming]]></category> <category><![CDATA[The Play's The Thing]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Amazon Beaming]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Complicité]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gareth Fry]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Petru Popescu]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Simon McBurney]]></category> <category><![CDATA[The Encounter]]></category> <category><![CDATA[The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://culturalattache.co/?p=9010</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>The Wallis Website<br /> <br /> May 15th - May 22nd<br /> <br /> HIGHLY RECOMMENDED</p> <p>The post <a href="https://culturalattache.co/2020/05/13/the-encounter/">The Encounter</a> appeared first on <a href="https://culturalattache.co">Cultural Attaché</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <p>In April of 2017, I experienced a one-man show at The Wallis in Beverly Hills that told a very simple story, but employed incredible audio technology to do so. Simon McBurney is the star and creator of this show which is called <em><a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="The Encounter (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.thewallis.org/encounter" target="_blank">The Encounter</a></em>.</p> <p>McBurney, his company, Complicité and The Wallis are making it possible for you to experience this remarkable show at home. But you have to do it the same way we did in the theatre – you must wear headphones.</p> <p>It is how McBurney and his sound designer Gareth Fry tell this story that requires the headphones. Trust me, you won’t understand why until you hear it for yourself. </p> <figure class="wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> <iframe title="The Encounter trailer | Complicité" width="696" height="392" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vKWv001zJ_Y?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div></figure> <p>What is the story? The less you know the better. Here is some elementary information that won’t get in the way of your experience. </p> <p><em>The Encounter</em> was inspired by the Petru Popescu novel <em>Amazon Beaming</em>. Set in 1969, the novel tells the story of Loren McIntrye, a photographer for National Geographic, who becomes lost in the Brazilian rainforest. He’s seeking to find the Mayoruna people.</p> <p>Over the course of two hours, McBurney will play out a story that, though set over 40 years go, will seem quite timely today in the way it makes you look at your place in the world and the way you interact with others on the planet. This show excites, it challenges and the technology will blow you away.</p> <p>Here’s the best part: from May 15th to May 22nd, you can watch <em>The Encounter</em> for free. But don’t forget your headphones. This show won’t work nearly as effectively if you just listen to it through speakers.</p> <p>Photo from <em>The Encounter</em> by Stavros Petropoulos/Courtesy of The Wallis</p> <p>The post <a href="https://culturalattache.co/2020/05/13/the-encounter/">The Encounter</a> appeared first on <a href="https://culturalattache.co">Cultural Attaché</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://culturalattache.co/2020/05/13/the-encounter/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Salonen Conducts “The Seven Deadly Sins”</title> <link>https://culturalattache.co/2020/02/13/salonen-conducts-the-seven-deadly-sins/</link> <comments>https://culturalattache.co/2020/02/13/salonen-conducts-the-seven-deadly-sins/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Craig Byrd]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 13 Feb 2020 15:31:21 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Classical: Metronome]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Bertolt Brecht]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Esa-Pekka Salonen]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gerald McBurney]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Kurt Weill]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Los Angeles Master Chorale]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Los Angeles Philharmonic]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Paul Hindemith]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Simon McBurney]]></category> <category><![CDATA[The Seven Deadly Sins]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Weimar Republic: Germany 1918 - 1933]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://culturalattache.co/?p=7941</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Walt Disney Concert Hall<br /> <br /> February 13th - February 16th</p> <p>The post <a href="https://culturalattache.co/2020/02/13/salonen-conducts-the-seven-deadly-sins/">Salonen Conducts “The Seven Deadly Sins”</a> appeared first on <a href="https://culturalattache.co">Cultural Attaché</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s <em>Weimar Republic: Germany 1918 – 1933</em> series continues this weekend with <a href="https://www.laphil.com/events/performances/713/2020-02-13/weimar-nightfall-the-seven-deadly-sins" target="_blank" rel="noopener">four performances</a> of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s <em>The Seven Deadly Sins</em>. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts.</p> <p>The concerts open with <em>Murderer, Hope of Women</em>, a one-act opera by Paul Hindemith. The libretto is taken from a play of the same name by Oskar Kokoschka. It takes places in the ancient past and depicts a confrontation between a man with his warriors and a woman with hers. Violence, flirtation and carnage ensue.</p> <p>The next work is <em>The Berlin Requiem</em> by Weill and Brecht. This work was written in 1928 while the composer was taking a break from writing their opera, <em>The Rise and Fall of The City of Mahagonny</em>. The <em>Requiem</em> was written for orchestra and male voices to be heard on the radio. Issues with the censors postponed the performance by a year.</p> <p>Of the work Weill said, “It is an attempt to express what the city-dweller of our time has to say about the idea of death.”</p> <p><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/M1tMLXQpHUE" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>Anchoring each concert is <em>The Seven Deadly Sins</em>, the last collaboration between Weill and Brecht. The work is a ballet that employs the use of orchestra and five singers (soprano, two tenors, baritone and bass).</p> <p>As you would imagine, it is centered around the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins: Sloth, Pride, Anger, Gluttony, Lust, Covetousness (aka Avarice) and Envy.</p> <p>This is not going to be a small concert. In addition to the already listed needs for soloists, Simon McBurney is the Director of the concert and his brother Gerald McBurney serves as Music Consultant and Dramaturge. The Los Angeles Master Chorale, eight actors and a phalanx of video, lighting and sound designers along with a choreographer are employed for what will be a unique presentation of this material.</p> <p>Note that this concert is performed without an intermission.</p> <p>For tickets for Thursday go <a href="https://my.laphil.com/en/syos/performance/4026" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p> <p>For tickets for Friday go <a href="https://my.laphil.com/en/syos/performance/3946" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p> <p>For tickets for Saturday go <a href="https://my.laphil.com/en/syos/performance/3984" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p> <p>For tickets for Sunday go <a href="https://my.laphil.com/en/syos/performance/4012" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p> <p>Photo of Kurt Weill courtesy of the Kurt Weill Foundation</p> <p>The post <a href="https://culturalattache.co/2020/02/13/salonen-conducts-the-seven-deadly-sins/">Salonen Conducts “The Seven Deadly Sins”</a> appeared first on <a href="https://culturalattache.co">Cultural Attaché</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://culturalattache.co/2020/02/13/salonen-conducts-the-seven-deadly-sins/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>The Emerson String Quartet & Shostakovich’s Dream</title> <link>https://culturalattache.co/2019/05/10/the-emerson-string-quartet-shostakovichs-dream/</link> <comments>https://culturalattache.co/2019/05/10/the-emerson-string-quartet-shostakovichs-dream/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Craig Byrd]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 10 May 2019 16:15:04 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Classical: Metronome]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category> <category><![CDATA[What's Hot]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Anton Chekhov]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Dmitri Shostakovich]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Emerson String Quartet]]></category> <category><![CDATA[James Glossman]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Josef Stalin]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Linda Setzer]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Msitslav Rostropovich]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Philip Setzer]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Samueli Theatre]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Segerstrom Center for the Arts]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Shostakovich and the Black Monk]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Simon McBurney]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://culturalattache.co/?p=5453</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>"The last thing I would try to do would be to finish an opera for Shostakovich, but in a sense we're trying to finish a story he couldn't."</p> <p>The post <a href="https://culturalattache.co/2019/05/10/the-emerson-string-quartet-shostakovichs-dream/">The Emerson String Quartet & Shostakovich’s Dream</a> appeared first on <a href="https://culturalattache.co">Cultural Attaché</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>We all have dream projects we hope one day to realize. For Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich that dream was to make an opera from Anton Chekhov’s shorty story <em>The Black Monk</em>, which was published in 1894. He wasn’t able to do that because after Stalin came down heavily on the composer after his opera <i>Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District</i>, any plans of doing another opera were thwarted.</p> <p><figure id="attachment_5455" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5455" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-5455" src="https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Emerson-Quartet-Jürgen-Frank-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Emerson-Quartet-Jürgen-Frank-300x169.jpg 300w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Emerson-Quartet-Jürgen-Frank-768x432.jpg 768w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Emerson-Quartet-Jürgen-Frank-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Emerson-Quartet-Jürgen-Frank-696x392.jpg 696w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Emerson-Quartet-Jürgen-Frank-1068x601.jpg 1068w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Emerson-Quartet-Jürgen-Frank-747x420.jpg 747w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Emerson-Quartet-Jürgen-Frank.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-5455" class="wp-caption-text">Emerson String Quartet (L-R) Eugene Drucker, Larry Dutton, Philip Setzer & Paul Watkins (Photo by Jürgen Frank)</figcaption></figure></p> <p>Enter The Emerson Quartet. Particularly violinist Philip Setzer. He and co-creator James Glossman decided to pair <em>The Black Monk</em> with Shostakovich’s 14th String Quartet to create a new theatre piece.</p> <p><em>Shostakovich and The Black Monk</em> combines text, acting, performance by the Quartet and visuals to tell the story of both the oppression by the Stalinist government and the story Chekhov had originally written.</p> <p>The show has its West Coast Premiere on Tuesday at the Samueli Theatre at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.</p> <p><figure id="attachment_5456" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5456" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-5456" src="https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Philip-Setzer-Jürgen-Frank-300x169.jpg" alt="Philip Setzer co-created "Shostakovich and the Black Monk"" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Philip-Setzer-Jürgen-Frank-300x169.jpg 300w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Philip-Setzer-Jürgen-Frank-768x432.jpg 768w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Philip-Setzer-Jürgen-Frank-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Philip-Setzer-Jürgen-Frank-696x392.jpg 696w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Philip-Setzer-Jürgen-Frank-1068x601.jpg 1068w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Philip-Setzer-Jürgen-Frank-747x420.jpg 747w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Philip-Setzer-Jürgen-Frank.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-5456" class="wp-caption-text">Philip Setzer (Photo by Jürgen Frank)</figcaption></figure></p> <p>I recently spoke by phone with Setzer about this work and the Emerson String Quartet’s amazing relationship with the work of Shostakovich.</p> <p>The Emerson String Quartet did a previous theatre work, <em>The Noise of Time</em>, that also used Shostakovich’s life and work. What makes him so inspirational for your as an artist?</p> <p><strong>I guess there are several reasons. For of all I love the music. As I was playing the quartets, I began to feel more and more when we were on stage that these </strong><b>quartets had a dramatic sense to them that began to feel more and more like I was in a play with four characters.</b></p> <p><figure id="attachment_5457" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5457" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-5457" src="https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Shostakovich-The-Black-Monk-at-Tanglewood-Hillary-Scott-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Shostakovich-The-Black-Monk-at-Tanglewood-Hillary-Scott-300x169.jpg 300w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Shostakovich-The-Black-Monk-at-Tanglewood-Hillary-Scott-768x432.jpg 768w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Shostakovich-The-Black-Monk-at-Tanglewood-Hillary-Scott-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Shostakovich-The-Black-Monk-at-Tanglewood-Hillary-Scott-696x392.jpg 696w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Shostakovich-The-Black-Monk-at-Tanglewood-Hillary-Scott-1068x601.jpg 1068w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Shostakovich-The-Black-Monk-at-Tanglewood-Hillary-Scott-747x420.jpg 747w, https://culturalattache.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Shostakovich-The-Black-Monk-at-Tanglewood-Hillary-Scott.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-5457" class="wp-caption-text">“Shostakovich and The Black Monk” at Tanglewood (Photo by Hillary Scott)</figcaption></figure></p> <p><strong>As I met my wife, Linda </strong>(who plays Irinia Shostakovich in <em>The Black Monk</em>)<strong>, she was a huge Chekhov fan. We would go whenever there was a production of his plays. Then when we were working on <em>The Noise of Time</em></strong> <strong>with Simon McBurney, his brother is one of the leading experts of Shostakovich’s music and life. He mentioned to me about <em>The Black Monk</em>, the story Shostakovich had planned to make another opera. I became interested and started looking into that.</strong></p> <p>Do we know why Shostakovich was obsessed with <em>The Black Monk</em>?</p> <p><strong>We know he loved Chekhov. I think he saw the symbolism, as it were, of the main character becoming recognized as a man of great intellect and great genius. This creative positive energy he has is fueled by this vision of this Black Monk that keeps talking to him and encouraging him. The Black Monk is both the figure of death and his muse. That’s the part of it that intrigued Shostakovich. This gray area between death and muse.</strong></p> <p>Did he begin any work on his opera?</p> <p><strong>He never wrote the opera, but he did plan it out. <em>Lady MacBeth</em></strong> <strong>was successful, but then stalin saw it. Then there was an article in <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Pravda</span> calling it “muddle, not music,” which is part of our show. We know Act 2, Scene 3 was going to be the scene where he loses his sanity. Then the Black Monk music. He didn’t sketch out the music, but he makes an arrangement of the <em>Angel’s Serenade</em> by Braga, an Italian song about a girl who hears voices calling to her. You can see why Shostakovich liked it.</strong></p> <p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ap121CfuYcU" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p><strong>I am 100%, well you can’t really be 100% sure, but 95% sure a lot of the music in his head ended up in the last two string quartets. The 14th Quartet has this Italian serenade music which I think is his alluding to the Braga and scenes in the Chekhov story. There’s this swirling music in the last quartet where the violin has this very fast passage that comes back with the cello and then all four play the same music. If those passages aren’t the Black Monk, then it’s a very strange coincidence. The last thing I would try to do would be to finish an opera for Shostakovich, but in a sense we’re trying to finish a story he couldn’t.</strong></p> <p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Y6jg4OQcM4g" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>The Emerson String Quartet won two Grammy Awards for your recordings of Shostakovich’s String Quartets. What is it about the combination of your ensemble and this music that resonates within the four of you and by extension listeners?</p> <p><strong>I think we all love the music.We were also inspired by working with</strong> (cellist/conductor)<strong> Mstislav Rostropovich and recording Schubert with him. The whole time I was asking him one question after another. It was at that point I was becoming obsessed with Shostakovich’s music. I was asking, “What was he like? What did he say about this?” Through Rostropovich I saw Shostakovich as a real human being. Then we started looking at everything for <em>The Noise of Time </em>and reading all the letters, I felt like I knew him as a person. </strong></p> <p><strong>The Borodin Quartet brought his music to the United States. I don’t want to say we were the first, but we were one of the first American quartets to say, “This is really great </strong><b>music. This is great art.” To have an American quartet present it with his kind commitment we honestly felt, that’s part of what made it moving.</b></p> <p>In <em>The Black Monk</em>, Chekhov says “Doctors and kind relations will succeed in stupefying mankind, in making mediocrity pass for genius and in bringing civilization to ruin.” Was that a cautionary line that we’ve paid attention to or have we succumbed as a society to precisely that idea?</p> <p><strong>I think we have succumbed and we’re teetering on the edge of that. That’s partly the message of this production. That is certainly what Chekhov was talking about. It is a cautionary tale. It’s a ghost story. And Shostakovich saw that and that’s what he liked about it. </strong></p> <p><strong>You never want to say you are making art to make a statement. But if you are making art for art’s sake, which we all should, but if there are layers of messages underneath it, it makes it more interesting and resonates in our time. We will always have these same questions. But it seems even more important at this time we’re living in.</strong></p> <p>For tickets go <a href="https://www.scfta.org/events/2019/emerson-string-quartet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p> <p>Main Photo: <em>Shostakovich at the Black Monk</em> in performance at Tanglewood. Photo by Hillary Scott</p> <p>The post <a href="https://culturalattache.co/2019/05/10/the-emerson-string-quartet-shostakovichs-dream/">The Emerson String Quartet & Shostakovich’s Dream</a> appeared first on <a href="https://culturalattache.co">Cultural Attaché</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://culturalattache.co/2019/05/10/the-emerson-string-quartet-shostakovichs-dream/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> </channel> </rss>