Tag Archives: Mozart

May 08

Beating the Villain is Half the Fun in “Domme and Giovanni”

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Stefanos Koroneos, Stage Director & Projections Designer.

Presented by White Snake Projects
Composed by Ryan Oldham
Libretto by Liz Abram-Oldham and Cerise Lim Jacobs
Stage Directed by Stefanos Koroneos
Music Directed by Tianhui Ng
Donna Anna: Carami Hilaire (soprano)
Don Giovanni: Andrew Simpson (bass-baritone)
Donna Elivira: Pascale Spinney (mezzo-soprano)
Leporello: Kyle Oliver (baritone)
Jazz/Rock Band: David McGrory (keyboard/accordion), Dan J. Pelletier (percussion), 
Gillian Dana (bass), and John Tyler Ken (guitar)

May 5 -6, 2024
La Voile
1627 Beacon Street
Brookline, MA, 02445

Review by Gillian Daniels

BROOKLINE, Mass. – White Snake Projects, as part of their Opera Through the Looking Glass series, reframes Mozart’s Don Giovanni as an opera of cathartic, female-driven revenge. Donna Anna (Carami Hilaire, soprano), a professional dominatrix with a vendetta, and Donna Elvira (Pascale Spinney, mezzo-soprano), a self-serious FBI agent convinced she’s starring in an ‘80’s cop show, are working to bring down the titular Don Giovanni (Andrew Simpson, bass-baritone) from the beginning. 

There is no suggestion that Giovanni is supernaturally charming, just manipulative and cruel. He’s a mafia don, a crime boss who spills blood as gleefully as he demands a whipping from a hired sex worker. Not so much titillating as a campy, though there is indeed a striptease courtesy of Simpson, his relationship with Donna Anna is enthusiastic and more complex than even he realizes. Continue reading →

Dec 21

A Bougie Meh: “Imagine Van Gogh”

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Queen Geek’s own photo from the event.

Imagine Van Gogh
The original immersive exhibition in Image Totale© 
Annabelle Mauger & Julien Baron, Artistic Directors and creators
Curated by Androula Michael
Scenography by Annabelle Mauger & Julien Baron
Animation and effects by Julien Baron & Donatien Zébi
Translations by Sarah Jackson
Musical research by Gérard Thouret

December 21, 2021 to March 19, 2022.
December 2021 – March 2022
Open Daily 10 am – 9 pm
SoWa Power Station
550 Harrison Ave
Boston, MA
Info for Boston Attendees

Review by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — I tried not to have expectations entering Imagine Van Gogh. 

Without intending to, I expected Imagine Van Gogh to be like Yayoi Kusama’s “Love Is Calling” which ran at the ICA. Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms is immersive and kaleidoscopic. Imagine Van Gogh is also immersive. Van Gogh’s paintings are magnified and set to the music of classical artists Saint-Saëns, Mozart, Bach, Delibes and Satie. It makes Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings accessible to an audience that can pay the ticket price. Continue reading →

Sep 12

Squirrel Depravity and Much More: the Boston Comedy Arts Festival

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Presented by ImprovBoston
40 Prospect St
Cambridge, MA
IB on Facebook

BCAF FRI 6:30PM: Studio Theater feat. Nancy: Home is Where the Songs Is, Kennedy O’Reily and Matt Geiler

(Cambridge, MA) On Friday evening, I was treated to “Solo/Duo Musical Comedy” at ImprovBoston. It was 90 minutes of awkward and joyful laughter. Drink in hand, it’s one of the best ways to begin or end a night. This performance is one of many featured in the Boston Comedy Arts Festival going on now in Cambridge. Continue reading →

Jun 17

The Future is the Present and It’s Dystopian: READER

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Photo found on the Flat Earth Facebook page.

Photo found on the Flat Earth Facebook page.

Presented by Flat Earth Theatre
By Ariel Dorfman
Directed by Jake Scaltreto

June 13 – 21, 2014
Arsenal Center for the Arts
Watertown, MA
Flat Earth on Facebook

Trigger Warning: Some light cursing, conservative politics, implied torture

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Watertown) If dystopian science fiction is any indication, our future is bleak. In the future, rich people are very rich and the poor are very poor. The politicians are corrupted,  we have no global resources, and the ecosystem has gone to pot. The good news is that there is always an hero to save us… eventually. The future sounds a lot like the present.

Not unlike Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film Brazil, Dorfman’s Reader is a story within a story set in a future where all potentially unpleasant emotional elements of life have been stripped away. Violence and sexiness are routinely scrubbed from all media sources. The government occupies all spaces. There is no true freedom of expression. Daniel (the handsome Robin Gabrielli) is a suave yet dirty government censor who discovers that the most recent novel to cross his desk parallels his own life. In this novel, Daniel is Don Alfonso an unscrupulous censor working on film scripts. He is rightly paranoid and begins a short-lived journey towards redemption. Continue reading →