Entertainment

Julia Bullock and Davone Tines, both 37, reinvent the old song recital for a new generation

Published

2 hours ago

October 9, 2024

Julia Bullock and Davone Tines, both 37, reinvent the old song recital for a new generation

The old-fashioned song (or Lieder) recital — a singer in formal attire stoically standing next to a grand piano delivering art songs in foreign languages, unamplified in a concert hall far too large for intimacy — has obviously long needed refreshing. Indeed, it has all but disappeared from American stages.

But enter Julia Bullock and Davóne Tines. Each came through town recently with a highly personal and revealing recital program of intense intimacy and theatrical originality, boldly proclaiming a new generation’s profound rebirth of the medium.

Bullock took a spectacular deep dive into a seldom-heard song cycle by Olivier Messiaen, an hour of agony and ecstasy full of obscurities about the European Tristan myth, using a French text peppered with Quechua, an indigenous South American language. Tines’ spectacular deep dive was into the magnificent 20th century Black singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson.

Bullock and Tines are names that easily pair. They are the same age. They are Juilliard trained. They both came under director Peter Sellars’ wing early, and he gave them their first major exposure, particularly when he was music director of the 2016 Ojai Music Festival. About to turn 30, they displayed such a sense of life-force that they seemed certain to become the leading singers of their generation.

And so they are. Sellars brought them to John Adams’ attention, and they starred together, with brilliant theatrical verve, in his 2018 opera, “Girls of the Golden West,” a performance of which, recorded with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was released this year on Nonesuch. Bullock’s first recital recording, “Walking in the Dark,” released on Nonesuch late in 2022, stunned the vocal world with its passion and won a Grammy. Tines now has his first Nonesuch recital recording, “Robeson,” just out, another Nonesuch knockout and obvious Grammy contender.

Bullock and Tines are also members of American Modern Opera Company, a collective of young artists in multiple fields reinventing opera. The AMOC production “Harawi” is directed by company co-founder Zack Winokur and features the company’s dancers Or Schraiber and Bobbi Jene Smith and pianist Conor Hanick. While not produced by AMOC, “Robeson” was conceived by Tines and Winokur, who commissioned it for his new summer festival on Manhattan’s Little Island in June.

The Ojai festival, where Bullock first performed as a student in 2011, was to have premiered “Harawi” in 2022, but that had to be canceled when Bullock contracted COVID-19. It has since triumphed at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence before arriving Oct. 1 at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills (in collaboration with Ojai) and in Berkeley before that. Bullock said in a post-concert panel discussion that it’s been on her mind for some 15 years.

A lot has been made of the circumstances of Messiaen’s hourlong cycle, for which he wrote his own song texts. At the end of the Second World War, the French composer, who had been held for a year in a prisoner of war camp, found his wife had had a mental breakdown and was in declining health.

Shortly after, he fell in love with a young pianist and became obsessed with the Tristan myth, in whom love and death become existentially intertwined. In “Harawi,” he began to develop a new musical language. Strange and complicated rhythm structures and overheated harmonies, along with mystic bird calls in the piano all bespeak the magic of his young love.

But it is the singer who takes this to a new level, as she leaves one world and enters a spiritual new one. She becomes a new being without leaving the old one behind.

Dancer Bobbi Jene Smith, singer Julia Bullock and dancer Or Schraiber on the Wallis stage with pianist Conor Hanick.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

Bullock embodied all the contradictions of that spirit of love and death, and Hanick, the reality. The dancers — the electric leaping of Schraiber and enveloping movements of Smith — seconded this on a stage that was bare but for a bench and striking lighting. As the dozen songs progressed, Bullock, who is a sensual dancer, absorbed grief and joy, each emotion ever more intense. Each word, whether French or Quechuan, seemed to hold double meaning, so full-bodied was her vocal production. She made “Harawi” into a beauteous yet dark landmark of singing.

“Robeson” holds equally powerful personal meaning for Tines. But the structure of his 70-minute performance, which opened the Monday Evening Concert’s 85th season at the Colburn School’s Zipper Hall last month in downtown L.A., was more awkward. Instead of a pre- or post-performance discussion, he took breaks from performing numbers that Robeson made essential listening and joined Hamza Walker, the director of the nonprofit art space the Brick (formerly LAXArt), in unpacking the program.

The subtitle of “Robeson” is, in fact, “Unpacking a Classical Americana Electro-Gospel Acid Trip.” Throughout his career, Tines, who can hold the world in his hands like no other singer I know today, had been compared to Robeson, who was said to have done the same thing. But rather than be Robeson, Tines explained, his need has been to liberate himself from the great singer.

Tines started out Robeson-esque performing “Some Enchanted Evening,” speaking Othello’s final monologue and singing African American spirituals, becoming angrier and yet also more ecstatic as he progressed. “Lift Every Voice” rose to rapture. “Let it Shine” was the thrill of a lifetime, the actual embodiment in song of an acid trip, or maybe enlightenment. Only after reaching that height could he then find the grace to to make “Old Man River,” sung as a new hymn of somber inspiration, his epilogue, the acid trip’s final, meaningful passage.

All acid trips need spiritual guides. Tines had Khari Lucas, a multi-instrumental sound artist, and jazz pianist John Bitoy. With them, he created an inspiring new sound world, finding a new man river, which freed Tines to transcend Paul Robeson without eradicating him.

Movie Reviews

Movie Review: 'White Bird' – Catholic Review

Published

56 mins ago

October 9, 2024

Press Room

Movie Review: 'White Bird' – Catholic Review

NEW YORK (OSV News) – Fans of the 2017 film “Wonder” may recognize the character of Julian Abans (Bryce Gheisar), a student on whose adjustment to a new school the opening scenes of the touching wartime drama “White Bird” (Lionsgate) focus. Julian was the bully who persecuted the facially deformed but heroic-hearted protagonist of the earlier movie.

Having been expelled for his misconduct, Julian is navigating his present environment and wavering between the proffered friendship of an outsider and the somewhat reluctant patronage offered to him by a callous member of the private academy’s elite. Opportunely, Julian’is grandmother, Sara (Helen Mirren), decides to intervene at this decisive point.

A celebrated artist visiting Julian’s native New York from Paris for a retrospective of her work, elderly Grandmere believes that Julian will profit from her own life lessons. So, in a series of flashbacks that make up the bulk of the story, she recounts to him for the first time the travails she endured as a young Jewish schoolgirl (Ariella Glaser) in occupied France.

Initially pampered at home and popular among her peers, youthful Sara is gifted but selfish and ethically neutral. Thus, although she refrains from joining in the persecution of her school’s main outcast, partially-crippled polio victim Julien Beaumier (Orlando Schwerdt), neither does she come to his defense. Instead, like most of those around her, she simply shuns him.

As the domination of her homeland progresses, however, Sara’s life and outlook change dramatically. Soon German soldiers are rounding up local Jews, both adults and children alike, and Sara is suddenly separated from her loving parents — Max (Ishai Golan) and Rose (Olivia Ross) — and forced to flee into the woods.

Desperate to stay one step ahead of her pursuers, Sara finds that the only person willing to come to her aid is Julien. Not only does he put himself at risk by helping her evade those hunting her down, he also provides her with long-term shelter in his family’s barn.

With the active help of his father (Jo Stone-Fewings) and mother (Gillian Anderson) — who eventually come to regard Sara as their adoptive daughter — Julien succeeds in concealing Sara over the weeks and months that follow. As the two youngsters mature, meanwhile, their bond of friendship is gradually transformed into a burgeoning romance.

A paean to kindliness and the power of imagination, director Marc Forster screen version of R.J. Palacio’s 2019 graphic novel — “Wonder” was also based on Palacio’s work — lacks subtlety at times. Yet, as scripted by Mark Bomback, “White Bird” effectively tugs at the heart by showcasing altruistic heroism in the face of dire evil.

The picture’s formative moral impact, moreover, outweighs its few problematic elements, making it a valuable experience for teens as well as grownups. Both age groups will find themselves rooting enthusiastically for the central pair and joining in the screenplay’s recurring slogan: “Vive l’humanite!”

The film contains mostly stylized violence with a few brief images of gore, mature themes including ethnic persecution, a single crude term and a couple of crass expressions. The OSV News classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Salem's Lot (2024) – Movie Review

Published

8 hours ago

October 9, 2024

Press Room

Salem’s Lot, 2024.

Written and Directed by Gary Dauberman.
Starring Lewis Pullman, Alfre Woodard, Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, Spencer Treat Clark, Pilou Asbæk, John Benjamin Hickey, William Sadler, Jordan Preston Carter, Nicholas Crovetti, Cade Woodward, Kellan Rhude, Debra Christofferson, Rebecca Gibel, Mike Bash, Fedna Jacquet, Avery Bederman, Liam Anderson, Marilyn Busch, Sage Rudnick, Alyana Hill, Gavin Maddox Bergman, and Alexander Ward.

SYNOPSIS:

Author Ben Mears returns to his childhood home of Jerusalem’s Lot in search of inspiration for his next book only to discover his hometown is being preyed upon by a bloodthirsty vampire.

Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot has an abundance of characters, with writer/director Gary Dauberman seemingly uninterested in positioning one group front and center in this adaptation. Instead, the film jumps between them, ranging from adults to children, often forgetting to develop any of these characters or explain who they are and what they care about. Whether this is a casualty of trying to adapt the entire novel into a 113-minute movie or just incompetent filmmaking is up for debate (I don’t think I’ve ever read the novel, and I don’t remember anything about previous adaptations), but one thing is for sure; this story is empty and lacks scares. The only portion it comes close to working is during some third-act vampire-battling that comes with clever kills, thrills, and urgency.

Taking place in Salem’s Lot (a rural Maine town as in most Stephen King works), there is a vested interest in bringing it to life, showing off as many establishments and locations as possible. In some ways, this takes away from time that could go to actual characterization, but the effort is admirable nonetheless. Among those stores is a new furniture place opened up by Barlow and his business partner Straker (Alexander Ward and Pilou Asbæk), with the former secretly being a vampire and having the other do his bidding to prepare for a takeover. Their headquarters is also an abandoned house thought to be haunted.

Meanwhile, author Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman) has returned to town for the first time since childhood, having not felt right there from a young age and looking to reclaim some of that uneasiness while getting in touch with his roots. He befriends the local school teacher Matt Burke (Bill Camp, frequently and amusingly seen rocking a Boston Red Sox jacket) while learning about the town from a potential love interest in Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh.) Their first day is taking in drive-in movie experiences that intriguingly work as an effective way for her to point out other noteworthy people in town and their personalities.

Elsewhere, a group of kids playing around occasionally get bullied. The most significant of the bunch is Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter), who is fearless and unafraid to lay a good punch on those bullies. It’s an impressive performance that makes the character’s inevitable and similar bravery in fending for survival against vampires more natural. In a town where good people are apparently a dying breed, Mark is someone to look up to and aspire to be, making the adults here look like cowards in comparison. It’s a talented and defiant performance that made one wish more of the film had centered on the kids in general, which would have lent more stakes to them getting snatched up and turned into vampires (one of the film’s only genuinely striking scenes observes such an abduction with silhouette lighting.)

Instead, the film doubles down on trying to make its human drama work, which also comes to involve Susan’s mother becoming increasingly irritated that she is considering dating an outsider rather than any of the men she suggests. The point eventually trying to be made here comes across as more unintentionally comical than sharply satirical about society. During this, there is also a search for the missing children, except the narrative here is trying to put so much in motion that the passage of time is hardly felt.

Eventually, everyone joins forces, including a doctor played by Alfre Woodard, reckoning whether or not they believe something supernatural is occurring. Soon after, they find themselves fighting vampires and trying to avoid getting turned, just like some of the children have. It all leads to a somewhat exciting sundown showdown at that drive-in theater, but that’s mostly due to the staging of the action and has nothing to do with caring about any of these characters or the story and themes, which feels like an insult to a Stephen King adaptation. None of this is helped by special effects that look straight out of early 2000s TV, not something that initially had a chance of going to theaters.

Salem’s Lot is bypassing a theatrical release to go straight to Max, which begs the question, why not flesh this out into an actual series to develop the characters? As is, it feels like a string of scenes that continuously forget about essential characters, relegating much of their progression offscreen. Whatever reason there is to get engaged in any of this is sucked out dry.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com

Entertainment

Will Kendrick Lamar spin his diss track 'Not Like Us' into Grammys gold?

Published

10 hours ago

October 9, 2024

Press Room

Will Kendrick Lamar spin his diss track 'Not Like Us' into Grammys gold?

Kendrick Lamar’s blistering diss track “Not Like Us” might contend for song of the year and record of the year at the Grammys, making for a potentially busy early February 2025 for the Compton-born L.A. stalwart.

2

Weeks the Drake-inspired “Not Like Us,” a character assassination you can really dance to, sat atop the Billboard Hot 100.

6/19

At his “The Pop Out: Ken and Friends” Juneteenth concert held at the Forum and live streamed on Prime Video, Lamar performed “Not Like Us” …

5

… times in a row.

17

Lamar’s Grammy haul thus far, including best rap album prizes for “To Pimp a Butterfly” (2016), “DAMN.” (2018) and “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers” (2023), out of …

50

… total nominations.

3+3

Lamar’s previous song of the year and record of the year nominations. He has won neither award yet. But he did win the …

2018

… Pulitzer Prize for music, for his album “DAMN.” It was the first music Pulitzer awarded to an artist outside the jazz or classical genres.

47

If Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the nation’s 47th president, Lamar deserves at least some credit since he appears on “Freedom,” the 2016 Beyoncé song featured in Harris’ campaign.