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| Calm down, it's an opera ad. Artwork by Gottfried Helnwein. |
That Risqué Opera Ad, Old School Trance Music
by Kristin Friedrich
In Richard Strauss' opera, aging aristocrat Marschallin beds the young Octavian. But Octavian's a mezzo-soprano, played by a lady in what opera calls a "trouser role." Helnwein just took the trousers out. In the ad, the women's expressions are tender and their lips mere millimeters apart.
Helnwein isn't surprised by the scuttlebutt in the normally staid opera world.
"I'm used to it," Helnwein said. "It always happens with my work. I don't intend it really, but it happens. I think it has to do with the fact that middle class people usually don't want anything to change. If it could, everything would freeze and stay the same way forever. But artists are very annoying, disturbing guys. They always want to change and mess something up.
"This is a very famous and beloved opera. Everybody likes it. In the story, there is a woman, she's 35 I think, and she has an 18-year-old lover. That's the piece, it's not my imagination. The only thing I do is look at that, and show a lady kissing another lady. Strauss is to blame, not me! It's just two girls being close."
Der Rosenkavalier plays at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion May 29-June 19, 135 N. Grand Ave., (213) 972-8001 or laopera.com.
Coinciding with the GRO's monthly artwalk, festivities unfold in the Caltrans headquarters' Broad Plaza at First and Main streets from noon to 10 p.m. There will be scaffolding with paintings, live sculpture and bands throughout the day, and projection art once the sun goes down.
"This place is like the Pentagon," says GRO member Kimba Rogers. "But the manager wanted to open it up to the community, and it's in the middle of the Row. We can't go inside, but we have a lot of freedom outside. We're gonna plug in and throw down."
There are also festivities at 6 p.m. at the M.J. Higgins space on Main Street, which, in its former life as Inshallah, was the first arrival in the designated row.
Caltrans is at 100 S. Main St., M.J. Higgins is at 244 S. Main St. Map at downtownartwalk.com.
Gabriel helped introduce world music fans to the late Qawwali master Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Pakistani singer known to put audiences in trances. Khan's two nephews, and former students, make up Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali, the Pakistani act that performs at the Japan America Theatre on May 15.
The band plays in traditional Qawwali style, sitting on the ground rather than chairs, a set-up the players believe brings them closer to God. Qawwali singers also believe the human voice is a vehicle to enlightenment, and their music goes like this: Rizwan and Muazzam lead the other singers in call-and-response patterns, repeating key phrases - ranging from modern lyrics to 800-year-old poetry from Sufi mystics - to the accompaniment of rhythmic handclapping, percussion and harmonium. The leads add vocal lines, the tempo and volume gradually increase, and unless you've run off to the loo or inserted earplugs, the piece progresses into a heightened trance-like state.
-Muazzam Qawwali performs May 15 at 6 p.m. at the Aratani/Japan America Theater, 244 S. San Pedro St., (213) 680-3700, jaccc.org or saazpromotions.com.
Gallery 727 is at 727 N. Spring St., (213) 627-9563.
Send potential side shows to kristin@downtownnews.com.
page 39, 5/9/2005
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to redistribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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