Spoleto 2009
Thanks to some fine folks we’re going to see the following this weekend:
Louise, Gustave Charpentier’s ode to freedom and tempestuous young love
Bohemian Paris serves as both the setting and the inspiration for Louise, Gustave Charpentier’s ode to freedom and tempestuous young love. Often referred to as the French version of La bohème, the story poignantly illuminates the age-old conflict between romantic love and filial loyalty. With more than 30 colorful characters, the opera offers notably beautiful music (foreshadowing the impressionism of Debussy) and lavish sentiment as well as an undercurrent of danger.
Multi-disciplinary solo Japanese artist Hiroaki Umeda creates entire environments with dramatic strobe-like lighting, crackling digital soundscapes and, of course, his commanding presence as a performer. Highly contemporary, Umeda’s movement style draws upon an eclectic training in ballet, hip-hop and butoh to embody the extremes of modern life in Japan in ways that are at once subtle and shocking, serene and violent.
