city opera is the new mgmt.

I had a rather cultural weekend. My eyes and ears were exposed to both Tyler Perry's Meet The Browns and New York City Opera's production of Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly. And while Angela Bassett didn't kick her triflin' baby father in the balls, I did get to witness Cio-Cio San laying the beat-down on her maid Suzuki and Goro the matchmaker...shortly before she committed ritual suicide. And to think that some people call the opera boring!

Once you get through the background and lame dudes singing in Act I, Butterfly makes it rain flowers! And as Kanye West said that "A little rain never hurt no strippers", I say that a little rain never hurt no Cio-Cio. In fact, as the swirling petals mingled with the music, I wanted to believe just as much as Cio-Cio that Pinkerton was coming home. I felt myself on stage frolicking about in my three-year old bridal garments and dressing my son Sorrow in an American-flag robe that The New York Times would call silly. I felt it all. The hope. The desperation. The waiting...

And then the morning after. Not only did my triflin' baby father leave me for three years to go nuzzle up with some white chick, but now they want to go all Rumplestiltskin and steal my baby! I can't go for their guilt-free exotification and enjoyment of my mixed-race child. Sure. You can take away my baby, but I'm going to take away my life. This Butterfly ain't gonna fly no more!

Now that's what I call catharsis-- the type of catharsis that Angela Bassett just can't deliver. There may be a possibility that you too can indulge in the Cio-Cio experience...but I've been told that Candide presents your best chances of pretending to be cultured and classy like me. Upcoming performances:

• Madama Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini: Running until April 6th (details)
• Falstaff, Giuseppe Verdi: Running until April 5th (details)
• Tosca, Giacomo Puccini: Running until April 5th (details)
• Candide, Leonard Bernstein: April 8-April 20 (details)
  

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But City Opera aren't the only folks throwing a party! Now that I can let go of my college memories and let MGMT get popular, I feel a need to notify you faithful readers (all two of you?) that they'll be performing in NYC on April 8th at the closing night party of the Gen Art Film Festival. Check the deets, check two rare older tracks recorded before I was legal below, and then check them performing LIVE on April 8th.

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dl: MGMT - Just Becuz (YSI)
dl: MGMT - Kids (Afterschool Extended Dance Megamix) (YSI)
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- BUY IT - SITE IT - SPACE IT - WIK IT - HYPE IT -

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BLOGGER NOTE: Though I missed my opportunity to catch the "deeply moving" performance of Shu-Ying Li as Cio-Cio, I did get to send my friend this ultra-creepy video directly from the New York State Theater.

city opera is the new crystal castles.

I had the pleasure of attending the final New York City Opera performance of King Arthur, directed and choreographed by Mark Morris. If you're familiar with Mr. Morris (I'm totally uncultured and wasn't at all until Saturday), you could gather that this wasn't a "traditional" performance. John Dryden's libretto was entirely omitted, leaving nothing but the Henry Purcell score. As a result, the typically four hour-long production lasted less than half the amount of time.

If you expected a plot, you were out of luck. There were no actual "characters", no actual story. It can easily be explained by this quote from Morris himself-- "The setting is the stage. The time is now. The performers are themselves." And by easily, I mean that I probably need to do more explaining. Morris organized King Arthur as a pageant, a trail of tiny numbers that would be quite disorienting if you weren't familiar with the original story. There was a sense of something missing at times, but the sense didn't get any stronger than when you realized that one seemingly important element was completely absent-- the title character. King Arthur himself was represented by a large prop crown.

Not weird enough for you? Well maybe you'd get a kick out of the simulated sex on stage, which provoked one audience member to yelp out a hearty "BOO". Or maybe you'd prefer the random presence of a giraffe, duck, cheetah, and flamingo? When asked about their presence, Morris replied, "They're there for no reason whatsoever". I admittedly love this quote, but leaned towards liking the idea of the production a lot more than the actual experience of watching it. I enjoyed it... but had I entered the theater knowing what to expect, I think I would have been able to separate myself from my expectations attached to the idea of "opera".

The upcoming productions by City Opera shouldn't bring up such issues as this. If you'd like to pretend to be cultured and classy like me, I strongly recommend visiting their site for more details and to purchase tickets! Upcoming productions include:

• Madama Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini: March 6-April 6 (details)
• Falstaff, Giuseppe Verdi: March 19-April 6 (details)
• Tosca, Giacomo Puccini: March 22-April 5 (details)
• Candide, Leonard Bernstein: April 8-April 20 (details)
  

And for no other reason than the fact that they were included in the title of this post, I present a remix of Crystal Castles by LingLing, featuring vocals by ITMS!! fave gidgetsparks. It's a repeat, but a goodie.

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dl: CRYSTAL CASTLES f/ GIDGETSPARKS - Air War (LingLing remix) (YSI)
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BLOGGER NOTE: The above doodle is a stylization of a photograph of Mhairi Lawson appearing on the playbill for this production of King Arthur.