Author Archive: Peter Jakobsen
The Curse of Rigoletto
The Long Goodbye
Rigoletto, by Giuseppe Verdi: Opera National de Paris (April / May 2016) (filmed by François Roussillon) This production, in terms of staging, is something pretty rare indeed: an unqualified disaster. Pardon the bigotry, but only a a progressive German director like Claus Guth (witnessed at the outset, describing the work as “very curious”) could manage this melange of bubble-gum psychology and single entendre. Here are the most depressing sets that ever existed: a gigantic grey egg carton and some moving stairs to accentuate mental trajectories, or serve for a couple of dance numbers. And the doppelgängers! Rigoletto (a somewhat stupefied…
Continue Reading →Perfect Day
Songs in Our Heart # 14 Perfect Day (Lou Reed) (Written by Lou Reed; released November 1972) [Depending on your mood, this is either sweet or suicidal, but still full of thick, throbbing, emotion.]
Continue Reading →Nothing Compares 2 U
Songs in Our Heart # 13 Nothing Compares 2 U (Sinéad O’Connor version) (Written by Prince; released January 1990) [Nothing Compares to it. Although Prince‘s original is good, too.]
Continue Reading →I See Red
Songs in Our Heart # 12 I See Red (Split Enz) (Written by Tim Finn; released March 1979) [The musical equivalent of a stroke. Frenzied and fabulous.]
Continue Reading →Vale Peter Shaffer
Playwright Peter Shaffer (15 May, 1926 to 6 June, 2016) has shuffled off the stage. Whilst his best known play was Amadeus, he also wrought, to interesting and arresting advantage, Five Finger Exercise, The Royal Hunt of the Sun (featuring the immortal stage direction in Scene VIII, “the men climb the Andes”) and Equus. These were all rather vulgarised in film treatments, except Equus, which was superbly done in 1977. Shaffer liked to set the devout and the earthy in opposition to each other (e.g., sun-worshipper vs gold worshipper; genius vs proficient mediocrity) and his stylish settings accentuated this conflict. Here’s a cute little monologue from Equus that…
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