Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 1

Even though listening to music in the comfort of one's private space has its advantages, going to concerts is great from at least two perspectives: enjoying good music and getting more involved into what is going on, through sympathy, as one cannot remain indifferent to the visual spectacle that makes one react mostly the same as the interprets.

Tension, relaxation, enjoyment, fun might be experienced and emphasized when you also have the view of the finger-tips' strikes on the piano keyboards, the well-shaped muscles of the cello or the violin players' arms, the jumps and the steps on the floor of the conductor.

By comparison, it is like watching a movie. For instance, while one watches a dramatical scene and hears certain sounds that goes along with it, such as drowning or being on the verge of drowning, as a spectator, one feels like not being able to breath as in the images, while the moments are stressed by the music.

The Fourth Sister (II)

The photos were taken from TNB's site

The Fourth Sister

One of my favorites actors at the moment is Marius Manole, an actor of great and rare talent from my point of view, an actor that shifts his physiognomy and mood naturally, with deep eyes, a touching voice transmitting a variety of emotions that allows him to interpret diverse roles.

Marius Manole along with Tania Popa, Mihai Calin, Mircea Albulescu and other actors, under the guidance of Alexandru Colpacci, succeeded to make Janusz Glowack's "The Fourth Sister" a play to remember and its subjects to be questioned.

This play has the advantage of approaching interesting subjects such as (but not only) social reality, political life, living in the past, living dangerously and unconscious till the point of risking others' life (dear ones or not, if for such persons there are strong feelings for family or friends more than for themselves), doing wrong and regretting when the effects are to be seen, dreaming to escape reality and, not the last, placing people and feelings above the material.

One reality of every day life was visible on this play: people talking but, actually, did not communicating. The dialog was, in fact, each one's monologue, rarely coming on the same "ground" as a subject and connection.

The good part of this play was the way it makes fun of such things. People should learn taking things easier and laugh more often of unsuccessful actions / bad events in their life. Obsessions and fixations leads to no good and tragedies. The music chosen (some fragments were Nirvana's songs), the succession of lines and light made some subjects to be more emphasized.

Well, if you are curious, just take your time to see the play at Romanian National Theater in Bucharest. I am sure you'll agree it worths it.

Fantastic Symphony by Berlioz (II)

(the photos were taken from Romanian National Opera site)

Fantastic Symphony by Berlioz

Episodes in the Life of an Artist (Fantastic Symphony) is Berlioz' work composed when he was only on his twenties.

The symphony was written to express all Berlioz contradictory feelings related to being in love. In order to express himself by music as his letters for the loved one failed him, Berlioz breaks the classical pattern of orchestra symphonic music of his time. His work is known as a fine example of programmatic music where passion, beauty, harmony alternate with tenebrous, consuming and uncertainty.

If you combine the music with dancing, you see a spectacle that delights your hearing, eyes and heart. This is what one can enjoy at Romanian National Opera in Bucharest and even more. The show has its sad part as well as its fun moments. The search, the loneliness, the fuss, the social spectacle as well the rigid forms of work are well placed on stage.

At first sight, it could have been better if the continuous line of music and dance were not fragmented by words. Still, unexpected moments, breaks (desired or not) the harmonic course of certain things that are present in every day life, therefore, such alternations of dance, words and music made a complex that reflects  reality in all its aspects - good and not that good.

As in real life experience everything is filtrated by one's subjective perception, what better metaphor can be used in order to reflect deformed reality than the "mirror" one? You can see what you want but it might be not what you notice!

Yet, you may, indeed, see Razvan Mazilu, Bianca Fota, Dan Puric (if you are lucky) and Romanian National Opera's ballet.