{"id":638,"date":"2004-12-09T04:04:15","date_gmt":"2004-12-09T04:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-09-28T12:08:54","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T12:08:54","slug":"my_city_is_here_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=638","title":{"rendered":"My City Is Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have I mentioned how much I love living in L.A.?<\/p>\n

TG and I were reading the paper last week when they mentioned a ‘concert performance’ of Wagner’s “Tristan & Isolde” at the Disney Hall, with video from Bill Viola<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’ve been a fan of Viola’s video art for years, and last year we saw his show at the Getty – ‘The Passions<\/a>.’ It seemed nicely in synch with Wagner.<\/p>\n

And yes, I know that when I talk about and criticize the Romanticism that prefers death to mundane life, I’m definitely talking about Wagner. Sometime I have to do something on the politics of art…<\/p>\n

But we saw the article, and grabbed two tickets to Friday’s performance of Act One.<\/p>\n

We’re fond of Disney Hall for our own reasons (we got married there) and have been to a few concerts there this year. <\/p>\n

But this was the doozy, the champeen, the winnah.<\/p>\n

Damn.It was amazing; I don’t think I’ve heard an orchestra play Wagner better; the singers were amazing, and the video backdrop was interesting, until the very end when it became transcendental. In case you think it’s the rube in me saying this, here’s the review<\/a>:<\/p>\n

So the journey that began over the weekend had all the promise of a glorified workshop at premium prices. The singers were not the stars (Ben Heppner and Waltraud Meier) who will appear in Paris. There was little attempt at staging. Viola’s videos had to compete with the Disney Hall architecture, which does not make screens easily visible to all, and with bleeding illumination from orchestra stands and spotlighted singers. It was Salonen’s first time with the score, Viola’s entrance into the world of opera.<\/p>\n

\nBut “Tristan” \u2014 the once famously unsingable opera about a love so potent it can be realized only by the removal of all obstacles, those of the physical world, those of life itself \u2014 stretches to the breaking point everyone who confronts it. Any performance that doesn’t try too much fails before it starts.<\/p>\n

\nThe Philharmonic tried too much. Everything that should have worked, worked. Everything that shouldn’t have worked, worked. If the “Tristan Project” is not the greatest moment in the orchestra’s history, I can’t imagine what was.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After we stood to applaud, TG and I just sat in our seats in awe.<\/p>\n

I know that High Art is a bit of a boondoggle in this society; that edifices like Disney Hall are in part responsible for the decline of our cities.<\/p>\n

But somehow – there’s a part of me that thinks that when they’re done right – when the hall works<\/b> and the music isn’t mediocre – they become boons instead.<\/p>\n

The concerts will be held this weekend as well (I’ll be gone, TG threatens to go, and I hope she does).<\/p>\n

The fully staged opera, directed by Peter Sellars, will premiere in April of next year in Paris. <\/p>\n

I’m going to start saving my money now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have I mentioned how much I love living in L.A.? TG and I were reading the paper last week when they mentioned a ‘concert performance’ of Wagner’s “Tristan & Isolde” at the Disney Hall, with video from Bill Viola. I’ve been a fan of Viola’s video art for years, and last year we saw his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}