Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC Blog

Did you or your friends learn to play the recorder in elementary school? The recorder, a woodwind instrument with a thumb-hole and seven finger-holes, easily fits into a child's hand and was one of the most common wind instruments of the Renaissance era. Although it was not prominently featured during the Classical and Romantic periods, it was revived in the 20th century as part of the resurgence of the early-music movement.

The recorder will play a big part in the March 31, 2007 concert by the Norwalk Symphony. Horacio Franco, a famous recorder player, will demonstrate his virtuostic capabilities and enormous versatilities in Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto in D major ("Il Gardellino") and Lukas Foss' Renaissance Concerto. One should note that these two concertos were written for the flute. The concert will be rounded out with Henry Purcell's Suite from the Opera King Arthur and Alexander Glazunov's Suite from the Middle Ages.

For those wishing to acquaint themselves with recorder pieces, the Library has Georg Philipp Telemann's Concerti for Recorder, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Baptiste Loeillet, and Michel de La Barre's 18th-Century Recorder Sonatas, and Antonio Vivaldi's Concerti for Recorder.

Singin’ in the Rain premiered this week in 1952 to great acclaim at Radio City Music Hall. The film is highlighted by Gene Kelly’s famous twirling umbrella dance and Donald O’Connor’s amazing Make ‘Em Laugh number. It also starred nineteen year old Debbie Reynolds. (The story goes that Gene Kelly ridiculed her dancing, causing her to cry. A sympathetic Fred Astaire visiting the studio that day found her hiding and gave her encouraging advice.) The American Film Institute placed the film at the top of its 100 Years of Musicals lists.

The Encyclopedia Britannica lists Jazz Singer staring Al Jolson, released in 1927, as the first musical, not to mention the first talkie. From the beginning, musicals have been costly and time consuming to produce. So understandably Hollywood has hit some dry spells between now and then when this genre was ignored. Let’s see if the success of Dream Girls brings about a resurgence. A remake of the movie turned Broadway smash Hairspray (with John Travolta and other big names) is coming soon.

In the meantime, enjoy the fabulous lending collection available in the Westport Library audio visual department. Your choices range from the great Broadway shows brought to the screen such as Brigadoon, Oklahoma and West Side Story to cult classics like Rocky Horror Picture Show and more recent choices such as Moulin Rouge and Chicago. Come in and browse the selection or check our catalog online.

Comment and share your favorite musical(s).

As anyone who has attended a classical music concert or seen pictures of a full symphony orchestra, the violin is the smallest of the family of stringed instruments and creates the highest pitches. Its innate acoustics give it enormous versatility in producing beautiful, sustained tones and pathos similar to the human voice while simultaneously giving the player enormous potential for flashy and scintillating sound effects and dramatic techniques. Its range of more than four octaves and the ability to play chords has made it ubiquitous in all kinds of music and cultures.

The evolution of violin making reached its apex in Brescia and Cremona Italy in the seventeenth century by Antonio, Girolamo, and Nicolò Amati, Antonio Stradivari, and Andrea and Giuseppe Guarneri. The instruments by these distinguished craftsmen have been prized and sought after by generations of artists, collectors, and musicians.

In celebration of WestportREADS, the Library will be featuring John Marchese, author of The Violin Maker: Finding a Centuries-Old Tradition in a Brooklyn Workshop. He will speak about his new book and introduce Sam Zygmuntowicz, the violin maker portrayed in the book. This program will take place on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. in the McManus Room.

To learn more about the history of the violin and its creators, be sure to look at Toby Faber's Stradivari's Genius: Five Violins, One Cello and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfection, Edward Heron-Allen's Violin Making, As It Was and Is: Being a Historical, Theoretical, and Practical and Karel Jalovec's Beautiful Italian Violins. Some of the violinists in our compact disc collection include Jascha Heifetz, Itzhak Perlman, and Isaac Stern.

Have you ever wanted to be a detective and solve a mystery? The Staples Players are giving you a chance this weekend at Staples High School as they perform The Mystery of Edwin Drood. This Tony award-winning musical utilizes a play-within-a-play format based on the unfinished novel by Charles Dickens; the audience is given the opportunity to vote on the identity of the mysterious Dick Datchery, to choose the murderer of Edwin Drood, and to decide how the lovers come together at the end. After the votes are tallied, the actors perform in accordance with the audience's wishes. Thus, each performance opens the door to new challenges and possibilities.

The Wednesday, March 14, 2007 Westport News had a featured article about the Staples Players upcoming production; it was quite remarkable to read about Rupert Holmes, who wrote the book, lyrics, and music for this show the next day in the New York Times. The New York Times summarized Holmes' illustrious accomplishments and career and expounded on his writing the book and additional lyrics to the new John Kander and Fred Ebb musical Curtains.

Feel free to come to the Library for the book or compact disc of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Two directors, born on different continents, 15 years apart, would seem to share little in common. But, each does celebrate a significant birthday during the later part of March and both made their mark at an early age with recognition for their honest, sometime controversial approach to an exploration of human emotions and relationships.

Italian born director Bernardo Bertolucci just celebrated his 65th. He was born into a family with a love of the arts and literature. His father taught literature and was also a film critic. As a child, Bernardo accompanied him to films. He appeared to be following in his father’s foot steps, receiving literary honors at an early age and attending the University of Rome. But, he left school to pursue film studies independently, making his directing debut in 1961 with La Commare Secca (The Grim Reaper). This film won recognition, but was not commercially successfully. With the release of Il Conformista (The Conformist) he first began to receive world wide recognition. His next film Prima della Rivoluzione (Before the Revolution) won him recognition at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival. But as The New York Times All Movie Guide notes, he is best known in this country "for sweeping epics (The Last Emperor) and for helping to bring eroticism into general release with Last Tango in Paris.”

American Spike (Shelton) Lee reached the half century mark on March 20th. Lee has been quoted as saying his mother nicknamed him “Spike” because he was a tough baby. Born in Atlanta to a literature teacher and Jazz musician father he moved to Brooklyn as a small child. Following in the family tradition of his father and grandfather, Lee graduated from Morehouse University and then went on to get his graduate degree from NYU’s well known Tisch School of Arts graduate film program. Like Bertolucci, he showed early promise, winning a student film award and praise for his early releases. But it was his comedy about an unapologetic young woman pursuing three relationships at once, She’s Gotta Have It, that first garnered Lee international recognition. The film earned the young director the Award of the Youth at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival and the New Generation Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival. His list of accolades and accomplishments has grown with the years including two Oscar nominations. Last year, his powerful documentary series about the devastation in New Orleans, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts brought human faces to the suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The sounds of classical music are heard throughout the WestportREADS 2007 book The Soloist since the main character and his student are accomplished cellists. In keeping with the tone and tenor of the book, the Library proudly presents a concert featuring cellist Eliot T. Bailen and flutist Susan Rotholz.

Eliot Bailen is the principal cello and associate director of the New York Chamber Ensemble, co-principal cello and soloist with Orchestra New England, and assistant-principal cello of the Stamford Symphony. Additionally, he acts as the principal chair of the Westfield Symphony Orchestra, Teatro Grattacielo Orchestra, Garrett Lakes Arts Festival Orchestra, and New Choral Society. Mr. Bailen, an avid chamber music player, is the Founder and Artistic director of the critically acclaimed Sherman Chamber Ensemble in Sherman, CT, a member of the "Modern Works" cello quartet in New York City and a regular guest artist with the Saratoga Chamber Players and the Sebago-Long Lake Chamber Music Festival. Like our protagonist, he teaches cello and chamber music at Columbia University and has served on the faculties of S.U.N.Y.-Purchase and the 92nd Street YMHA in New York City.

In 1981, flutist Susan Rotholz made her New York debut as a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Award and has appeared as soloist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Ensemble, New England Bach Festival, Greenwich Symphony, Cape May Festival Orchestra, Gotham City Orchestra, Brandenberg Ensemble, Jupiter Symphony, Solisti New York, Westmoreland Symphony, Bay Atlantic Symphony and the New York String Orchestra. Ms. Rotholz has been principal flutist of the New England Bach Festival, the New York Chamber Ensemble, and the Greenwich Symphony and has served as principal flute with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony, American Ballet Theater, the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the Stamford Symphony. Her recent accomplishments include the PBS broadcast performance of Steven Sondheim's Passions for Live from Lincoln Center and the 2006 Encore! performances at New York's City Center.

Before attending this performance, be sure to whet your appetite with musical selections from the Library's collection. Try Pablo Casals' The Best of His Acoustic & Electric Recordings (1915-1928), Jacqueline Du Pre's Impressions, Yo-Yo Ma's The New York Album, James Galway's Flute Concertos and Eugenia Zukerman's Flute Concertos.

Today’s New York Times reported the death of director Stuart Rosenberg on March 15th at his home in Beverly Hills, California. Rosenberg was widely known for his direction of Cool Hand Luke starring Paul Newman and Strother Martin. He also worked with Newman on other films including Pocket Money (1972) and The Drowning Pool (1975).

If you weren’t aware that Rosenberg cut his directing teeth in the early days of television on such shows as The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, you might be surprised to learn his most commercially successful film was the original 1979 version of Amityville Horror. 1980 found him directing another prison film, Brubaker with Robert Redford.

By the way, the library will shortly order two other Rosenberg films that we are remiss in owning. Please check our catalog next week to place a hold on The Laughing Policeman with Walter Matthau and The Pope of Greenwich Village with Eric Roberts as well as the original Amityville Horror.

According to the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, rock and roll not only refers to the popular music of the second half of the twentiethth century but may also mean the musical style of the 1950s. In 1953, Bill Haley and the Comets' song "Crazy Man Crazy" became the first rock associated work listed on the Billboard charts. Their mammoth 1955 hit "Rock Around the Clock" led to the realization that rock and roll was here to stay. Rock and roll freely borrowed from the blues, boogie-woogie, gospel, and Tin Pan Alley. With the passage of time, it encompassed other genres and techniques, thus creating new forms of musical expression and sound.

On Monday night, March 12, 2007, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame held their twenty-second annual induction ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. The 2007 inductees included Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, R.E.M., the Ronettes, Patti Smith, and Van Halen. This award recognizes the cumulative oeuvre and contributions made by the artists, producers, and writers to music and popular culture.

One of the honorees, Patti Smith, appeared and read from her poetry at the Westport Public Library on April 29, 2001 as part of the Poet's Voice series. Those wishing to either read her words or listen to her music may seek Auguries of Innocence, Coral Sea, Dream of Life, Gone Again, and Patti Smith Complete: Lyrics, Notes and Reflections. The female singing group, the Ronettes, may be heard on the soundtrack of Dirty Dancing. Van Halen is represented by the Best of Van Halen. The music of R.E.M. is available on the compact discs Best of R.E.M., Murmur, Out of Time, and Reveal.

As you may have guessed, I am an avid fan of the madcap, mellifluous, mettlesome music of Gilbert & Sullivan. The month of March brings us two opportunities to see productions of their works including the New York City Opera's The Pirates of Penzance and Fairfield County's Troopers Light Opera's Princess Ida.

The Pirates of Penzance is probably better known due to Joseph Papp's live 1980 show in New York's Central Park that starred Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt. I wonder if the New York City Opera will be more sedate as it features Tony Award nominees Marc Kudisch as the Pirate King and Mark Jacoby as Major-General Stanley.

Gilbert considered his Princess Ida a "respectful operatic perversion of the poem 'The Princess,'" by Tennyson. Although the operetta satirized the issue of women's rights which was an active political movement during that time period, Sullivan's music made up for Gilbert's Victorian bias on the status of women in society. See if you can identify Cristina Richardson of the Staples High School English Department in this production.

Gilbert & Sullivan are quite renowned for their mockery and ridicule of politicians and society in their work. The Pirate King's song is quite noteworthy for its sarcastic bite as he comments on his life's work:

"When I sally forth to seek my prey
I help myself in a royal way.
I sink a few more ships, it's true,
Than a well-bred monarch ought to do;
But many a king on a first-class throne,
If he wants to call his crown his own,
Must manage somehow to get through
More dirty work than ever I do."

For further exploration of this pair, the Library has Isaac Asimov's Asimov's Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan, Jane W. Stedman's W. S. Gilbert: A Classic Victorian & His Theatre, and Gayden Wren's A Most Ingenious Paradox: The Art of Gilbert & Sullivan.

It’s the 67th anniversary of the first FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. But movies have long been interested in the notorious and great actors have relished playing fugitive criminals. The term “public enemy” was first coined by the Chicago press. J. Edgar Hoover and the Justice Department began using it widely in referring to gangsters after the release of the popular, now classic 1931 movie Public Enemy starring James Cagney. More recently, Bonnie and Clyde traced the events leading up to the capture and killing of this gun toting couple. Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness finally trapped Al Capone (portrayed by Robert DeNiro) on a tax invasion charge in The Untouchables. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was still another event to depict.

Other depictions include Aileen Wuornos, the subject of the Charlize Theron’s 2003 Oscar winning performance in Monster. She was the first woman to fit the FBI’s definition of a serial killer. Jeremy Iron’s cold, calculating portrayal of Socialite Claus Von Bulow during his appeal trial in the film in Reversal of Fortune won him the Best Actor award in 1991. In an account of a bungled bank robbery, Al Pacino reminded us that he robbed a bank because “there is money there” in Dog Day Afternoon. Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen are on the run in Badlands, based on a true crime killing spree.

And then there are the adrenaline laden fictional accounts including Harrison Ford in The Fugitive. (For my money, Tommy Lee Jones as a single minded FBI agent had the most brilliant performance in that film.)

Crime may not pay. But it sure makes for some great movies. Can you name some other great performances?

The 21st century is starting off as a particularly productive, fecund period in American music as various types of music are combined and explored by composers and performers. Students in today's conservatories are coached in the classics as well as the contemporary. Today's artists may not only perform the traditional classical pieces but play in a jazz combo or a rock group. Vocalists, instrumentalists, and composers are not restricted to a particular genre but are open to new and novel challenges and ideas.

Composer Paul Moravec, the 2007 Westport Arts Center Artist in Residence, is the curator of the Composers Project, a series of lectures and concerts that feature new works in a variety of styles by modern composers and musicians.

On Friday, March 9, 2007, the Lark Quartet will perform The Soul Garden by the young composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel. Bermel is the 2006-2009 Music Alive Composer-in-Residence of the American Composers Orchestra and also the founding director of the Making Score program of the New York Youth Symphony. From his studies of ethnomusicology, he incorporates the inflections, melodies, and rhythms of diverse cultures into his musical works. He is the recipient of the Rome Prize, Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships, and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Before attending the concert, stop at the library and check out the compact discs of the Lark Quartet playing Alexander Borodin's String Quartets #1 & #2, Aaron Jay Kernis' Quartet #2, or various contemporary composers in Klap Ur Handz. The sounds of Derek Bermel's clarinet may be heard on Aaron Copland's Chamber Music of Aaron Copland.

131 years (this week) after the first telephone transmission the movies continue their love affair with the telephone. In many a scary movie, the action would dull if it wasn’t for the ringing of the phone. Hearts pound when the phone call comes in The Ring . And who can forget Drew Barrymore in a blond wig teased by a tormenting caller in the opening scene of Scream. These movies can’t hold a candle to When a Stranger Calls starring a young Carol Kane as a trapped babysitter. (No wonder she did zany roles after this!). But it hasn’t all been blood and gore. Colin Farrell teaches us it is just not a smart idea to answer a ringing phone in a New York City Phone Booth because a psycho could be on the other end; while a telephone booth becomes a place of refuge in Hitchcock's The Birds. Jodie Foster wishes Sir Anthony would forget her number in Silence of the Lambs.

Romance was in the air in one of my favorite late night oldies, Bells are Ringing with Judy Holiday. Doris and Rock fell in love (again) while sharing a party line in Pillow Talk. And sometimes the telephone is a link between success and failure, such as in Glengarry Glen Ross . Sadly, a cell phone provides the means to a last farewell in United 93.

There are so many scenes in which the telephone plays an intricate role. What is your most memorable?

Have you ever listened to a piece of music and instantly visualized a familiar scene? Have you ever looked at a painting in a museum and found yourself humming a popular tune? You may be experiencing synesthesia, "a subjective sensation (as of color) or image of a sense other than the one (as of sound) which is being stimulated." In the WestportREADS book selection The Soloist, two of the characters have the ability to see the sounds of the music they create.

As part of the celebration of WestportREADS, the Norwalk Symphony Woodwind Quintet will be performing at the library on Tuesday, March 6, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. and will be exploring this unusual concept.

Throughout history, composers have been inspired by family members, surroundings, or writings. Charles Ives paid tribute to his father's job as a band leader in the "Country Band March". Franz Joseph Haydn who was known for his longevity and huge musical output, composed his Symphonies #93-98 and #99-104 on trips to London in 1791-1792 and 1794-1795. Ludwig van Beethoven's emotions were heightened by his nature walks throughout the countryside; these feelings came through in his Symphony #6, also known as the "Pastoral Symphony". Giuseppi Verdi's operas were derived from the plays of Shakespeare including Falstaff and Macbeth.

While you ponder the numerous possibilities and potential influences on the creative mind, you are invited to come to the library to listen to and see the music at this concert.