Paul Taylor Dance Company in Paris on PBS tonight

If you weren’t able to go to the City of Light to see Paul Taylor Dance Company perform last year at the Théâtre National de Chaillot at the Festival Les Étes de la Danse 2012 on the 50th anniversary of the company’s first appearance there in 1962, then watching this special is the next best thing.

The company performs “Brandenburgs”  and”Beloved Renegade.” The company first performed “Brandenbergs” in 1988. The piece is set to music from Johann Sebastian Bach’s (1685-1750) Brandenburg concertos #3 and #6 ((1721). As a lover of both classical music and modern dance (or at least Paul Taylor), I could watch this piece forever. Men and ladies dressed in what appears to be dark velvet with gold trim dance in elegant formations. Taylor gives us the gallantry of men as the court playful women with cool formality.

“Beloved Renegade” uses Francis Poulenc’s “Gloria” was is inspired by the works of the 19th Century American writer Walt Whitman (1819-1892), specifically a line from his “Leaves of Grass”: “I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the soul.” “Leaves of Grass” was a poetry collection that Whitman re-edited throughout his life. It was first published in 1855 and was considered a bit racy because the narrator looks with delight at the sensual pleasures of life.

• Leaves of Grass online at the Gutenberg Project

“Beloved Renegade” looks at man’s journey toward death and the man is led by the dark angel of death who is neither dark nor frightening. The dancers are dresses in light colors. The man bid farewell to all of his friends. Yet the feeling is both solemn and joyful.

Performing in “Brandenburgs” are Michael Trusnovec, Amy Young, Parisa Khobdeh, Eran Bugge, Robert Kleinendorst, James Samson, Sean Mahoney, Michael Apuzzo and Michael Novack.

For “Beloved Renegade,” Michael Trusnovec, Amy Young, Robert Kleinendorst, James Samson, Laura Halzack, Michelle Fleet, Parisa Khobdeh, Sean Mahoney, Jeffrey Smith, Eran Bugge, Francisco Graciano, Jamie Rae Walker, Michael Apuzzo, Aileen Roehl and Heather McGinley.

Costumes are by Santo Loquasto and lighting by Jennifer Tipton.

After seeing this “Great Performances” production which uses various camera angles but always keeps the dancer in mind you might consider purchasing the DVD.

Paul Taylor (born 29 July 1930) is now 82 and is one of the last living members of the second generation of modern dance. Martha Graham called him the “naughty boy” of dance and he still choreographs two new pieces of work each year according to PBS.

If you haven’t had the chance to see the Paul Taylor Company in person, don’t miss this presentation.  ”Great Performances: Paul Taylor Company in Paris” airs on Friday, 3 May 2013 at 9 p.m. (check local listings).

What would Broadway be like without Jews?

When you think of Broadway don’t you think of musicals? In this 90-minute documentary, Michael Kantor asks us what would the Broadway musical be like without the influence of Jews? “Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy” is a fascinating mix of rarely seen clips of Broadway musicals–old and new, mixed with archival materials and interviews with the descendants of some of the people who helped create this American tradition. This documentary first aired on 2 January 2013 and this is your second chance to see it today. Check local listings, but the full episode of “Great Performances” is available online.

If you love musicals, this is a must-see. Some people know Hugh Jackman as an X-Men Wolverine, but others know him as a musical star. There’s a clip of him performing as Curley in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma!”

But Kantor sets the tone by starting us out with David Hyde Pierce, informally dressed and off-stage, singing a song from the Monty Python-based musical “Spamalot.”  For those of you who aren’t familiar with that insanely hilarious musical comedy, it was “lovingly ripped off from” the 1975 “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”  The 2004 musical won three Tony Awards (Best musical, Best featured actress and Best direction) out of 14 nominations.Tim Curry was King Arthur and Hank Azaria was Sir Lancelot.

Pierce was Sir Robin in the original Broadway cast of “Spamalot,” and for this documentary he’s dressed informally and with only a piano player, he’s singing the song “You Won’t Succeed (On Broadway)?  The song comes from the second act and it’s pokes fun at the long history of Jewish contributions.

ARTHUR:
Have you heard of this “Broadway?”

ROBIN:
Yes sire…and we don’t stand a chance there.

ARTHUR:
Why not?

ROBIN:
Because…Broadway is a very special place,
filled with very special people,
people who can sing and dance, often at the same time!
They are a different people, a multi-talented people,
a people…who need people…and who are, in many ways, the
luckiest people in…the world. I’m sorry sire, but we don’t stand a chance.

ARTHUR:
But why?

ROBIN:
Well…let me put it like this.

In any great adventure,
that you don’t want to lose,
victory depends upon the people that you choose.
So, listen, Arthur darling, closely to this news:
We won’t succeed on Broadway,
If you don’t have any Jews.

You may have the finest sets,
Fill the stage with Penthouse pets,
You may have the loveliest costumes and best shoes.
You my dance and you may sing,
But I’m sorry, Arthur king,
You’ll hear no cheers,
Just lots and lots of boos.

ENSEMBLE:
Boo.

ROBIN:
You may have have butch men by the score
Whom the audience adore,
You may even have some animals from zoos,
Though you’ve Poles and Krauts instead,
You may have unleavened bread,
But I tell you, you are dead,
If you don’t have any Jews.

They won’t care if it’s witty,
or everything looks pretty,
They’ll simply say it’s shitty and refuse.
Nobody will go, sir,
If it’s not kosher then no show, sir,
Even Goyem won’t be dim enough to choose!
Put on shows that make men stare,
With lots of girls in underwear,
You may even have the finest of reviews.

CRITIC:
You’re doing great!

ROBIN:
The audience won’t care, sir,
As long as you don’t dare, sir,
To open up on Broadway
If you don’t have any Jews.

You may have dramatic lighting,
Or lots of horrid fighting,
You may even have some white men sing the blues!
Your knights might be nice boys,
But sadly we’re all goys,
And that noise that you call singing you must lose.

So, despite your pretty lights,
and naughty girls in nasty tights,
and the most impressive scenery you use…
You may have dancing mana-mano,
You may bring on a piano,
But they will not give a damn-o
If you don’t have any Jews!

You may fill your play with gays,
Have Nigerian girls in stays,

GIRLS:
You may even have some schizas making stews!

ROBIN:
You haven’t got a clue,
If you don’t have a Jew,
All of your investments you are going to lose!

There’s a very small percentile,
Who enjoys a dancing gentile,
I’m sad to be the one with this bad news!
But never mind your swordplay,
You just won’t succeed on Broadway,
You just won’t succeed on Broadway,
If you don’t have any Jews!

Arthur, can you hear me?

To get along on Broadway,
To sing a song on Broadway,
To hit the top on Broadway and not lose,
I tell you, Arthur king,
There is one essential thing…
There simply must be, simply must be Jews.

There simply must be,
Arthur trust me,
Simply must be Jews.

Our narrator is Joel Grey who managed to win and Oscar and a Tony for the same role (in “Cabaret”).  Consider Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein and their influence on Broadway. Besides stars, composers and lyricists (and their children or other relatives), Kantor consults with researchers and music critics.

Many of the composers wrote melodies inspired by Jewish traditions such as prayers (“the Jewish wail”). What brought Jewish musicians to the United States? Poverty, the chance for transformation and even, the election of Adolph Hitler to chancellor in Germany. And as a way of historic revenge, Mel Brookes talks about the ultimate victory is making Hitler look foolish as in his movie that became a musical, “The Producers.”

The clips of Nathan Lane, Barbra Streisand, Hugh Jackman, Matthew Broderick, Ethel Merman and more are priceless. Don’t miss the chance to watch this again and again. Through music, the Jewish legacy isn’t even seen as separate. It’s a part of American theater and American movie history.

“Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy” is available to stream online on PBS v ideo.

Hunky Simon Keenlyside is Prospero in ‘Tempest’ opera

I’ve seen many versions of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” but the Met’s new production of “The Tempest” which airs on PBG Great Performances at the Met on Sunday, 17 March 2013 at 12 noon (check local listings) is the first to show the aging magician as a hunk. Fans of Lepage’s style will want to see this because he’s made this “Tempest” big and grand and impeccably dressed.

Simon Keenlyside created this role for the world premiere of British composer Thomas Ades’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s final play in 2004. The London-born Keenlyside is 53 and begins the opera bare-chested with various colorful faux tattoos all over his body. The tattoos represent the spells and incantations. As a cloak, he has his old royal coat slung over one shoulder with an impressive array of medals.

Audrey Luna plays the air spirit Ariel along with a double who does the acrobatics at the beginning (handing from a chandelier). Luna does appear in what amounts to a fancy full-body suit that has been bedazzled. She is toned and ready for the demands of her airy role which requires the use of a harness.

Alan Oke as the monstrous Caliban also wears a body suit of sorts and has more of a back story which makes him more sympathetic.

Alek Shrader is Ferdinand, the shipwrecked prince and Isabel Leonard is Prospero’s daughter Miranda. They do make a lovely couple together and certainly you can feel the anguish of a father’s loss and jealousy as well as the confrontation with agining in Keenlyside’s Prospero.

Ades conducts the Met premiere of his piece and while I’m not a fan of his music, the production has the added merits of Lepage’s direction and the set designs of Jasmine Catudal and costume designer Kym Barrett. Lepage has made Prospero a 19th century impresario. As the exiled Duke of Milan Lepage’s Prospero has recreated the La Scala opera house on his little island. Yes…we’ve got an opera house within an opera house.

The court is filled with dashing men and lovely ladies. You’d want to join that party.

So take time to see this visually stunning opera. After the initial showing on Sunday, it should be available on-demand.

Shakespeare Uncovered: Looks at Henry IV and V

With this episode, the series “Shakespeare Uncovered: Henry IV and Henry V” is back on track. Our narrator/host this time is Jeremy Irons and the focal point is a new production: “The Hollow Crown.” ”Shakespeare Uncovered: Henry IV and Henry V with Jeremy Irons” debuts tonight on PBS from 10 p.m. Check local listings.

These new adaptations were part of BBC’s 2012 Cultural Olympiad: “King Richard II,” “King Henry IV, Part 1″; “King Henry IV, Part 2.” This is more exciting than previous episodes with thrilling back scene clips with Irons in and out of character (as Henry IV). Tom Hiddleston (Loki in “Thor: The Dark World” and (Magnus Martinsson in “Wallander”) plays Prince Hal and Simon Russell Beale (“MI-5″ as Home Secretary William Towers and “The American Experience” John Adams) is Falstaff. We also see portions of a stage production at the Old Globe.

“Henry IV” is about father and son. King Henry IV is uneasy about the irresponsible behavior of his son, Prince Hal, and the manner in which Henry ascended to the throne–by killing a king which denies the divine right of rule.  Prince Hal finds a surrogate father in the man of low moral substance, Falstaff.

King Henry almost finds a surrogate son, Hotspur, who is everything that King Henry wishes Prince Hal to be. Yet eventually Henry finds himself in a war with Hotspur. King Henry and his son unite to fight against Hotspur at the Battle of Shrewsbury, and Prince Hal contrasts his father’s courage to Falstaff’s cowardice.

In most productions of this play, we see Prince Hal as much older. Prince Hal is seen as an adult who is clinging too long to his boyhood instead of a boy beginning his journey into manhood.  Shakespeare makes Hotspur the same age as Prince Hal although in reality Hotspur was about 30 years older than Hal. Hal was only 16 at the time of the battle of Shrewsbury.

Shakespeare exposes the brutality of war and BBC shows us coming attractions although probably more people are excited about another installment of “Thor” as a movie than a three-play mini series of Shakespeare’s historical plays. “Shakespeare Uncovered: Henry IV and Henry V with Jeremy Irons” debuts tonight on PBS from 10 p.m. Check local listings.

Shakespeare Uncovers Richard who?

When most people think about Shakespeare and King Richard, they’ll think about Richard III. Well, why not? Richard III of England made a good villain. Richard II is best remembered because of Shakespeare’s play and is the topic of the only play the Bard wrote entirely in verse. “Shakespeare Uncovered: Richard II with Derek Jacobi” debuts tonight from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. Check local listings.

The 74-year-old Jacobi does bring a bit of controversy to the episode. He believes that Shakespeare was only a “clever opportunist”  who took credit for the Earl of Oxford who really wrote the plays. This is discussed in the program. Over all, this episode is informative yet has the least effective ending.

Every man is allowed his opinion. Jacobi was a founding member of the Royal National Theatre. He appeared in the 1989 “Henry V” (as the voice of the chorus). For Shakespeare, he was Cassio in the 1968 “Othello,” the lead in the 1978 “Richard II,” Hamlet in the 1980 “Hamlet,” himself in the 1996 “Looking for Richard,” Claudius in the 1996 “Hamlet,” and the worst Shakespeare actor ever in the 2001 episode of “Frasier” in “The Show Must Go Off.”

A weak ineffectual king, Richard II has been played as a spoilt child, a man who wallows in self-love and as a man who doesn’t quite live in reality.  Richard II was an attractive man–even his enemies conceded as much–and uncommonly tall (six feet) for that time. He was only 33 when he died (reportedly 14 February 1400).

Edward III was his grandfather. His father, Edward, the Black Prince (because he wore black armor), died before Edward III. When Edward III died, Richard II came to the throne at age 10. His uncle, John of Gaunt was an influential figure.

In Shakespeare’s play, Richard II is on the throne and stops a duel between his couin Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray, sentencing both to  exile. Mowbray forever. Henry for six years. The real Mowbray would die in Venice of the plague.

When John Gaunt dies, Richard II takes his money and land although the play states this rightfully belonged to Bolingbroke. This angers other members of the nobility who then help Henry Bolingbroke to return to England. Although Bolingbroke at first only wants his inheritance, he takes the throne as well, imprisoning Richard in the castle of Pomfret. Now king, Henry mentions that the still-living Richard is a cause of “living fear” and this results in the an ambitious nobleman murdering the king.

The main theme is over the divine anointment of kings and just what that means, first to Richard II and his concept of what his rights were and the guidance of God or if God just readily supported any of his actions and then to Bolingbroke who must worry about what his usurping of the throne means. Bolingbroke is seen an a more effective statesman while Richard II may have believed no one could topple him. Richard II is compared to despotic rulers such as Saddam Hussein and to Western leaders such as Maggie Thatcher who lost touch with her people and her party.

Like the more famous Richard III, there are a few mysteries. Richard III was the last English king to die in battle, but his burial place is unknown. The exact nature of Richard II’s death isn’t clear. He may have been murdered or he may have starved to death.

“Richard II” is also part of a three-play look into history by Shakespeare so stay tuned for the segment on “Henry IV” with Jeremy Irons.

PBS American Masters: ‘Inventing David Geffen’

I’m not sure we want to know this, but maybe it doesn’t matter. It started with a lie. In PBS “American Masters” episode “Inventing David Geffen,” we learn that Geffen’s career started with a lie.

Geffen never graduated from college, but he had a real drive to become a somebody. Born in Brooklyn, Geffen ended up at Santa Monica College, but didn’t stay long. He briefly attended Brooklyn College and the University of Texas at Austin.

Yet to work at the famed William Morris Agency, he need to have a college degree. He lied on his application and then found the college letter that indicated he hadn’t received a degree and changed the wording to confirm his deception. And that was just to keep the job he had in the mail room. At WMA, he met Elliot Roberts who would eventually become his partner.

Geffen was soon on the move from there, representing musicians such as Laura Nyro and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Geffen had an ear for music but he didn’t stop there. He went on to found Asylum Records, Geffen Records and then Geffen Pictures. He co-founded DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Along the way, he was behind the production of the 1983 movie “Risky Business” and the 1999 “American Beauty.”

The interviews include: Irving Azoff, Jackson Browne, Cher, David Crosby, Clive Davis, Barry Diller, Maureen Dowd, Rahm Emanuel, Nora Ephron, Tom Hanks, Don Henley, Arianna Huffington, Jimmy Iovine, Elton John, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Calvin Klein, Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, Mike Nichols, Yoko Ono, Frank Rich, Steven Spielberg, Jann Wenner, and Neil Young.  But most of all, it’s the wonder boy grown old, Geffen himself.

Geffen is frank about his homosexuality, his successes and failures and other mistakes.  Director Susan Lacy does an admirable job of mixing current-day interviews with photos and videos from the past and painting a picture of each era and each venture the Geffen jumped into. According to Geffen, “I’ve always though that each person invented himself…that we are each a figment of our own imagination. And some people have a greater imagination. And some people have a greater ability to imagine than others.”

His climb to fortune may have started with a lie and we should thus take some of what is said with a grain of salt. If you’re thinking of following that path, remember that in the Internet age, checking up on individuals can be easier and consider the recent fall of Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson (as well as Kenneth E. Lonchar, Robert Irvine, George O’Leary, John Davy, Sandra Baldwin, Laura Callahan and Ronald Zarrella).

For Geffen, he took risks at the right time and with was willing to work hard to make up for what he didn’t have and, for the most part, he trusted the right people.

No matter how it began, it’s a fascinating story. “Inventing David Geffen” premieres on PBS tonight, Nov. 20, 2012 but will be available on-demand on the PBS website thereafter.

Great Performances at the Met: The Ring Cycle

If you were, as I was, deeply disappointed by the Los Angeles version of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, this next week, beginning on 10 September 2012, is the time to begin your own Ring festival. Dress up, plan a great meal ahead (perhaps some hearty German food) and set aside some major time to watch five videos: one about the making of Robert Lepage’s Der Ring des Nibelungen and four of the actual operas.

Wagner’s Dream

As an introduction, PBS will broadcast the documentary, “Wagner’s Dream” on September 10, 2012.  Usually, I’d say skip the preface. Don’t you usually do this when reading a good book? If you really like the book or perhaps at the end , you might read the preface. But in this case, I believe you’ll want to understand what was behind Lepage’s staging. While the set itself seems remarkably simple, sometimes simple is hard. In this case, it was an incredible feat of engineering and technological teamwork. After watching the full cycle, I went back and watched the documentary.

The documentary also stopped me from thinking of Andy Serkis’ Gollum saying “my precious”  and “We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious.”  Or even of the “The Big Bang Theory” episode about the ring. But “Lord of the Ring” fans, don’t let me stop you from dressing up and watching this tale about the original ring.

Great Performances at the Met: “Wagner’s Dream” will broadcast on September 10, 2012. Check local listings.

 Wagner’s Dream

A documentary by Susan Froemke
Air date: September 10, 2012
The stakes could not be higher as visionary director Robert Lepage, some of the world’s greatest operatic artists, and the Metropolitan Opera tackle Wagner’s Ring cycle. An intimate look at the enormous theatrical and musical challenges of staging opera’s most monumental work, the film chronicles the quest to fulfill Wagner’s dream of a perfect Ring.

Great Performances at the Met: “Das Rheingold” will air on PBS on 10 September 2012. The original performances was recorded on 9 October, 2010, but held back for broadcast until the full cycle had been filmed. Check local listings.

Das Rheingold

“Das Rheingold” (The Rhine Gold)  was one of the most highly anticipated openings in the Met’s history and required years of planning. All the whispers and rumors about technology had Wagner buffs worried. Conductor James Levine, who had been the Met’s conductor for the last 40 years, had not conducted anywhere for half a year due to his back surgery.  The taping took place during the October 9, 2010 performance and will air for the first time on PBS on September 11, 2012. Check local listings.

If you’ve watched the documentary, you understand that all four operas will have only one set which is affectionately or infamously called the “machine,” which is a 45-ton mechanism with 24 planks on a crossbar that can rise and fall together and individually. Think of an over-sized child’s toy.

The blue horizon and the subtle undulating of the horizon line opens the opera. The Rhinemaidens appear (Lisette Oropesa, Jenifer Johnson and Tamara Mumford) dangling from cables as they swim on a place where they can rest. The “machine” becomes a platform on which the Rhinemaidens rest as well as a screen for a movie of stones that move and tumble.

The Rhinemaidens are mermaids and like all mermaids they tease men and lead them to their destruction. The man this time is the dwarf Alberich played with power and authority by bass-baritone Eric Owens with a majestic main of dreadlocks. The Rhinemaidens mock Alberich when he attempts to woo them. Really, you’d woo three sisters at once at the same time in the same place? You don’t think that means trouble?

Alberich is not a good-looking guy either and Owens makes him disgustingly lustful. Lust and greed aren’t so far apart. When he learns from the Rhinemaidens that the golden glow is the magical Rhine gold that their father has charged them to protect. Whoever takes the gold can make a magic ring and rule the world, but he must renounce love. That’s pretty much the meaning of love and lust but we’re in a pre-Christian world where the seven deadly sins haven’t been codified. Alberich steals the gold and leaves the Rhinemaidens screaming melodically. Wagner doesn’t show us the father and we’re not sure who he is, but he doesn’t figure in this opera at all so let’s move on to the gods.

The one-eyed Wotan is portrayed by the bass-baritone Bryn Terfel. In a breastplate with long brown shoulder length hair, his one-eyedness is given the Veronica Lake treatment–hair veiling one eye. On Lake it looked sultry, on Terfel’s Wotan it looks rough in a bull looking up from under his shag of hair sort of way. Fricka and Wotan have a new castle, but the mortgage was Fricka’s sister Freia. Wotan had the giants Fasolt and Fafner (Franz-Josef Selig and Hans-Peter König) build the castle in exchange for his wife Fricka’s (mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe) sister,  Freia (Wendy Bryn Harmer), the goddess of youth, beauty and feminine love. Doesn’t that make Wotan sound like a pimp?

Fricka is concerned and the sturdy mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe matches Terfel’s brutish tones with seductive and sensuous pleas. Selling your sister-in-law doesn’t usually lead to martial bliss. Freia is not happy with this either, but Wotan has sent Loge to find something more valuable than Freia. Here again, love and lust come into the picture. Instead of love and a ring, this is love or the ring. Fafner wants the magic gold.

Life in dwarfland is dark misery. Alberich as enslaved all the dwarves including his brother Mime using the power of the ring he has made. Forced by Alberich, Mime has created the Tarnhelm, a magic helmet which changes the wearer into a shapeshifter who can transport himself anywhere (does this sound like a superhero or what?). In this Ring Cycle, the helmet is more like a mesh scarf or veil–something of a disappointment I admit.

Loge (tenor Richard Croft is crafty but not slimy and evil like Loki in “The Avengers”) will fool Alberich and Freia will be saved, but when you bait and switch to buy your house, can the future be bright? The dark dwarf world is below the “machine” while Valhalla is above. Used as a backdrop, the “machine” is a dark black shadow against which we see the glow of the gold as the enslaved dwarves work.

In the end, when the gods enter Valhalla walking straight up and there is indeed a rainbow. We see the gods as if directly overhead and they walk up the middle of the “machine.” This required body doubles for the gods, using acrobats who begin lying down on their backs below our sightline and then walking straight up a wall.

Terfel brings out the brute in his Wotan. He’s commanding rather than majestic. Wendy Bryn Harmer as Freia is understandably upset and Harmer shows her emotional hysteria. How would you feel if you were offers to two loathsome brothers. Note that the gods were clothes that glimmer while the giants have furry that are like mountain men’s interpretation of Seattle grunge. Think chic couture crowd versus hillbillies–none as charming as Buddy Ebsen’s Jed Clampett either.

Loge knows that this kind of wheeling dealing will lead to the end of the gods, but first there must be love.

 Das Rheingold

Performance date: October 9, 2010
Air date: September 11, 2012 (Check local listings.)
Two unparalleled artists join forces to create a groundbreaking new Ring for the Met: Maestro James Levine and director Robert Lepage.  Recorded last season but held for broadcast in 2012, the cycle launches with Das Rheingold, the prologue to Wagner’s epic drama.  “The Ring is not just a story or a series of operas, it’s a cosmos,” says Lepage, who brings cutting-edge technology and his own visionary imagination to the world’s greatest theatrical journey.  Bryn Terfel stars as Wotan, with Stephanie Blythe as Fricka, Wendy Bryn Harmer as Freia, and Patricia Bardon as Erda.

 Die Walküre

“Die Walkure” introduces us the Brunhilde who will bring the end to the gods through her love for a man who has not yet been born. This performance was originally filmed on 14 May 2011, but will air on PBS “Great Performances at the Met: Die Walkure” on 12 September 2012. Check local listings.

It’s a dark and stormy night so the creaking and groaning of the machine, might have fit right in. Director Robert Lepage makes sure we see and hear the threatening weather. A stranger, Siegmund ( tenor Jonas Kaufmann) seeks shelter in the unhappy home of Hunding. Hunding is out, but his unhappy wife Sieglinde (Eva-Maria Westbroek)  is there and offers Siegmund shelter. He would go because he claims he’s cursed by misfortune, but she entreats him to stay. What harm can he bring to a “house where ill luck lives.”

Things can get worse. Hunding (bass Hans-Peter König) returns and Siegmund tells his tale of woe. Siegmund and his father returned home one day only to find his mother dead and his twin sister gone. His father and he searched for her. When he found a girl being forced into marriage, he fought with her relatives, but the bride was killed and his weapons broken.

Hunding was one of the men pursuing Siegmund and tells Siegmund that he will grant him the customary hospitality, but in the morning, they will battle.

Sieglinde drugs her husband and tells Siegmund that she was forced into marrying Hunding, but during the wedding a strange old man appeared and put a sword into the trunk of a tree that is in the middle of the room. No one has been able to remove the sword.

Siegmund removes the sword which he names “Nothung” and although the two realize they are brother and sister, they declare their love for each other. Kaufman’s brooding Siegmund brightens with hope and Kaufman and Westbroek look like they could be sister and brother as well as a good-looking couple together. Westbroek aptly suggests a woman who has poignantly survived a brutish marriage and is tentatively grasping at hope.

Siegmund and Sieglinde  may know who their mother is, but not their father. Wotan, disguised as their supposed father, bedded their mother. Wotan (bass-baritone Bryn Terfel), watching over the events, asks his Valkyrie daughter Brunnhilde (Deborah Voigt) to protect Siegmund against Hunding.

However, Fricka (mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe ) appears sitting on a throne and as the guardian of wedlock, demands that Siegmund and Sieglinde be punished for adultery and incest. The subtext here is that Wotan should also be punished for his adultery and that doesn’t just mean the sins of the father Wotan visiting Siegmund and Sieglinde. Bryn Terfel’s Wotan blusters but seems to feel annoyance rather than guilt over his own transgressions.  After Fricka leaves, Wotan bitterly commands Brunnhilde to give Hunding victory.

Siegmund and Sieglinde are on the run when Brunhilde approaches Siegmund. The Valkyries  are warrior maidens who are supposed to gather the souls of fallen heroes. The heroes will form an army against Alberich, but should Alberich have the ring, he will defeat Valhalla’s army. Brunhilde, the offspring of Wotan with the earth goddess Erda, is moved by Siegmund’s love for Sieglinde and promises him victory.

When Siegmund does meet with Hunding, he almost wins, but an angry Wotan appears and breaks Nothung. Hunding kills the weaponless Siegmund. Brunhilde gathers up the pieces of Nothung and flees with Sieglinde instead of Siegmund.

When she meets with the other Valkyries, during the “Ride of the Valkyries,” (each woman warrior is riding an individual see-sawing planks of the “machine,” ) the others are astounded that Brunnhilde has a living woman. Wotan catches up with his disobedient daughter, but Brunnhilde delays him as Sieglinde escape. Sieglinde is pregnant with Siegmund’s child who will be Siegfried.

Wotan must punish Brunnhilde’s disobedience although she was, as she reminds him, acting on his true wishes. Wotan takes away Brunnhilde’s immortality and puts her into a deep sleep. Loge surround her by a ring of fire and only a truly brave man, one who knows no fear, can enter and awaken her.

Using a body double, director Robert Lepage puts Brunnhilde on planks in the middle of the “machine” that are perpendicular to the stage, giving us an aerial view of Brunhilde from directly above and surrounds her by yellow, red and orange lights.

Although filmed from a May 14, 2011 performance, September 12, 2012 is its premiere on TV. Check local listings.

Die Walküre
Performance date: May 14, 2011
Air date: September 12, 2012
A stellar cast comes together for this second installment of Robert Lepage’s new production of the Ring cycle, conducted by James Levine.  Bryn Terfel is Wotan, lord of the Gods, and Deborah Voigt adds the part of Brünnhilde to her extensive Wagnerian repertoire at the Met.  Jonas Kaufmann and Eva-Maria Westbroek star as the twins, Siegmund and Sieglinde, and Stephanie Blythe is Fricka.

Siegfried

The Met’s production of “Siegfried” survived the withdrawal of both the conductor James Levine and the original tenor signed up for the titular role, Gary Lehman due to illness. The Met’s principal conductor Fabio Luisi (no not THAT Fabio) and Paris, Texas tenor Jay Hunter Morris were brought into this production as replacements. The performance seen here is from November 5, 2011, but will first air on PBS on September 13, 2012. Check local listings. 

In less than a week, Morris learned all the blocking for this production which is staged on Carl Fillion’s incredible 24-plank machine. That kind of fearlessness certainly also colored his portrayal of the young, somewhat dense demigod Siegfried. Siegfried doesn’t know who his parents are, but was raised by the calculating dwarf Mime (tenor Gerhard Siegel).

The world we find Siegfried in is more sensuous and there’s plenty of slithery things in the woods where he lives with his faux father. The 3D technology here gives a cinematic quality to the opera, projected at various angles on to the great “machine.”  There is also, of course, beauty in the forest–the trees and and greenery and birds. But beauty is not where Mime lives.

Mime needs Siegfried to get that gold ring and treasures from Fafner who is now a great serpent. But Fafner can only be defeated by someone who knows no fear. Mime needs to make a great sword for Siegfried to use, but Siegfried breaks every sword Mime has made. Mime complains about Siegfried’s ingratitude in an attempt to give the boy a guilt trip, but this only works to make Siegfried realize why he returns to this dwarf whom he despises: He wants to learn about his parents.

Mime tells Siegfried how he took in a woman who died giving childbirth, bringing nothing else with her but the fragments the sword Nothung.  Siegfried demands that Mime reforge that sword and leaves.

Did your mother tell you to beware of strangers. Mime’s apparently didn’t. When Wotan in the guise of a wanderer comes to Mime’s forge, Mime asks him three riddles that if he doesn’t answer, Mime will have the wanderer’s head. After answering the riddles, the wanderer asks riddles of his own, but Mime can’t answer them. Wotan gives Mime the answers: that the sword that can kill Fafner is Nothung and it can only be forged by one who knows no fear. We know that’s not Mime, but instead of taking his head, Wotan warns that the person who makes that sword will also take Mime’s head. Here bass-baritone Bryn Terfel as Wotan doesn’t seems motivated by the love for his grandson Siegfried. He’s a man decisively acting to insure Alberich won’t enter Valhalla.

With that Mime endeavors to teach Siegfried fear AND makes a plan to kill him. By attempting to change his fate, Mime actually sets the path to his death. Siegfried will eventually learn fear, but he will also learn about love when he meets Brunnhilde.

The New York Times critic declared the Fafner serpent “too cute,” but he didn’t get to see the tap-dancing alligator with top hat of the Los Angeles production. The Met’s serpent is a puppet with scales, glassy eyes and fangs.

Director Robert Lepage seems to have some new and wonderful surprise planned for each opera and here it’s the serpent and the 3D imagery. Etienne Boucher’s lighting design is a character in itself in Lepage’s production from the glow of the sun to the different aspects of the forest (video image artist is Pedro Pires). The performance seen here is from November 5, 2011, but will first air on PBS on September 13, 2012. Check local listings. 

Siegfried
Performance date: November 5, 2011
Air date: September 13, 2012
In part three of The Ring, Wagner’s cosmic vision focuses on his hero’s early conquests, while Robert Lepage’s revolutionary stage machine transforms itself from bewitched forest to mountaintop love nest.  Jay Hunter Morris sings the title role and Deborah Voigt’s Brünnhilde is his prize.  Bryn Terfel is the Wanderer.

Götterdämmerung

If you loved the matchup between  Jay Hunter Morris’ Siegfried and Deborah Voigt as Brunnhilde, you’ll want to see how their doomed love affair plays out and ultimately brings the end of the time of the gods. This taping is from the performance date February 11, 2012 and will first be aired on September 14, 2012. Check local listings. 

The previous installment “Siegfried” had troubled history of last-minute replacements of both the conductor and the title character due to illness, but Morris and Voigt have a wonderful, playful chemistry. Voight doesn’t hit all her notes with as much clarity and authority as one would want, but beautifully expresses the joyous favorite daughter meeting with her father Wotan in “Die Walkure,” and the goddess touched and curious about human love but willfully rebelling against her father’s orders as opposed to his true heartfelt wishes.  In “Siegfried,” she becomes a mortal woman and falls in love with the innocent Siegfried. In “Gotterdammerung” she transforms from a tender lover to a firebrand when she has been betrayed by the bewitched Siegfried.

Yet when you really think about it, they are both innocents. Brunnhilde doesn’t know what’s it’s like to be a mortal and certainly not a woman in the brutal world where it seems women are regularly forced into marriage. Our hero Siegfried cares neither for the gold nor the ring. He gives it to his beloved Brunnhilde and with love comes fear.

What brings our hero down though is treachery and the greed of others.  Siegfried leaves Brunnhilde and that might have been his mistake. He takes her shield and her horse Grane (a wonderful piece of puppetry that when you first see it you can easily believe it’s a real horse).

In the Hall of the Gibichungs, the betrayal begins. Hagen (bass Hans-Peter König), the half-brother of the lord of the land, Gunther (bass-baritone Iain Paterson), advises Gunther to take Brunnhilde as his bride and then tells his half-sister Gutrune (Wendy Bryn Harmer ), that she should take Siegfried. That small detail about Siegfried and Brunnhilde is easily handled by erasing Siegfried’s memory with a magic potion he has given Gutrune. Under the spell of the potion, Siegfried still has Tarnhelm and uses it to disguise himself as Gunther and then “wins” Brunnhilde for Gunther, taking back the ring.

Hagen’s father is Alberich (bass-baritone Eric Owens). You remember him. He’s the one who stole the gold from the Rhinemaidens (Erin Morley, Jennifer Johnson Cano and Tamara Mumford) and made the ring, but he also cursed the ring when he lost it to the giants. Alberich pushes Hagen to bring him back the ring.  So there’s your motivation.

When the downcast Brunnhilde is forced to marry Gunther, she meets her brother-in-law, Siegfried and confronts him. To his memory, he does not know Brunnhilde and they have never been together as lovers. He denies all her claims, but Hagen knows the truth. Gunther, now a jealous husband and embarrassed lord, plots to murder Siegfried on a hunting trip. Hagen actually performs the dirty deed, but only after giving Siegfried the antidote for the original love potion. Siegfried remembers his love for Brunnhilde and dies.

Brunnhilde takes charge of Siegfried’s funeral, building a great pyre, she takes the ring and tells the Rhinemaidens to claim it after the fire has turned her and her beloved into ashes, thereby cleansing the ring of its curse. She rides into the fire and the Rhine floods the hall and Hagen, in a last attempt to claim the ring, is drowned. The flames touch Valhalla and consumes the gods and their abode.

König’s Hagen is a more two-faced bad guy than the Owens’ lusting Alberich.  His Hagen smiles and charms like a rental Santa Claus who just putting on a show for the customers. Harmer’s Gutrune isn’t so much an evil adventuress or scheming gold-digger as a star-struck young woman easily misled. Harmer has less gumption here as Gutrune than she did as the poor sold-for-a-castle Freia. Pretty, young things didn’t do well in those days–not Freia, not Seiglinde and not Gutrune. Paterson’s Gunther seems more interested in the wealth than the prize of having a former goddess as his wife.  He’s pleased for his sister, but coldly intellectual and calculating where Siegfried is joyful and honest.

Ultimately, this is about Brunnhilde and Voigt gives a blazing portrayal of a woman scorned, tragically unable to re-unite with the man who truly loved her and betrayed her unwittingly.

Carl Fillion’s 24-plank 45-tone machine is used effectively here mostly as the backdrop. It becomes the place where Siegfried and Brunnhilde cavort and flirt. Then it is the great wood-grained hall of Gunther and we see the approach of Siegfried from above on the horse Grane.  While reviews of the actual performance have complained about the creaks and groans of the machine, you don’t hear it in the Great Performances production. Perhaps this is closer to what French Canadian director Robert Lepage had in mind and technology has get to catch up.

This cinematic production of the Met’s Ring Cycle is worth purchasing. The Met Opera website offers the DVD set which includes the documentary, “Wagner’s Dream” for $135.  For now, you can watch it free on PBS (check local listings) on your TV or online.

Götterdämmerung
Performance date: February 11, 2012
Air date: September 14, 2012
With its cataclysmic climax, the Met’s new Ring cycle, directed by Robert Lepage, comes to its resolution.  Deborah Voigt stars as Brünnhilde and Jay Hunter Morris is Siegfried—the star-crossed lovers doomed by fate.

Great Performances at the Met: ‘La Traviata’

For some people,an evening out begins with love or the expectation of love and the conviviality of people one knows. In “Great Performances at the Met: La Traviata,” the room is almost empty with Violetta forlorn and waiting. In her red dress, on a stage that includes a very red sofa, she eventually is the only woman in a roomful of men. There is one man who she truly loves. Sometimes being the lady in red isn’t all fun and games, particularly if that lady is a man. You’ll have to watch this Willy Decker production under the Met principal conductor Fabio Luisi to understand what I mean.

Of course, Giuseppe Verdi’s opera with Italian libretto is based on a French novel (by Alexandre Dumas fils) by way of a 1852 play, “La dame aux Camélias.) The novel was published in 1848 and based on the real-life love of Dumas (fils), Marie Duplessis.

Marie Duplessis (née Alphonsine Rose Plessis) was born in Normandy, France in 1824 and by 12 she was being pimped by her father. What does that tell you about her home life? Who needs that kind of fatherly “love”? She moved to Paris at age 15, but while she worked in a dress shop, she learned to be a courtesan by educating herself and was the hostess of a popular salon where writers, politicians and artists gathered to socialize. She was the mistress of Dumas (fils) for part of 1844 and 1845. She was also a mistress to Hungarian composer Franze Liszt. She briefly married twice (to French aristocrat Count Edouard de Perregaux and the Swedish Count Von Stakelberg. Both were reportedly at her bedside when she died of tuberculosis at age 23 in 1847.

Dumas’ novel with Dumas as Armand Duvat and Duplessis as Marguerite Gautier appeared less than a year after her death. In Dumas’ version, the love is thwarted by the need to conform to the morality of the time: Armand’s father is afraid that Armand’s sister’s reputation and chances for marriage will suffer by the scandal of Armand’s affair with Marguerite. Marguerite sacrifices her love for Armand in order to save Armand and his family from social disgrace and pretends to have left him for another man. Only when she is dying does Armand learn the truth. In the book, Duval is telling the story to the narrator.

In the three act opera “La Traviata” (which literally means “fallen woman,” Violetta is the famous courtesan. She’s just recovered from illness and is throwing a party at her salon. Her current lover is Baron Douphol. Gastone attends the salon with his friend, a young nobleman named Alfredo. Alfredo has only adored Violetta from afar and while she was ill, he came to her home everyday.

Learning this Violetta is touched, but she says that she lives for pleasure while Alfredo lives for love.  She wonders if he is perhaps her true love and gives him a flower, bidding him to return when it is wilted.

In Act 2, Alfredo and Violetta are living together three months later in her country home outside of Paris. Yet all is not well for Violetta had to sell her horses, carriage and home in Paris to support their life. Alfredo is shocked (apparently he’s too young and aristocratic to have considered the money required to live peacefully doing nothing). He leaves for Paris, but while he’s gone, his father meets with Violetta and asks her to leave Alfredo because his daughter’s engagement and possible marriage into a good family is threatened by Violetta’s relationship with his son. When Violetta does finally agree, despite her great love for Alfredo, Alfredo believes that her old lover the Baron is responsible for Violetta’s departure.

When Alfredo confront Violetta at a party that she attends with the Baron, he insults her in a manner that even his father finds offensive–by publicly denouncing Violetta and throwing the money he has won gambling at her feet as payment for their time together.

In Act 3, the Baron and Alfredo have a duel off-stage and Violetta learns that the Baron was wounded. So touched was Alfredo’s father by his son’s devotion and Violetta’s sacrifice, that he has informed his son of the truth and he is sending Alfredo to her. But Violetta is on her death-bed.  Alfredo and Violetta are briefly re-united and she dies in his arms.

French soprano Natalie Dessay makes her Met debut as Violetta. Dessay’s Violetta is a strong modern women making desperate decisions.  Dressed in a simple red dress, she may be the only belle at her salon, but we understand her utter loneliness. Matthew Polenzani’s Alfred dresses in a dark grey suit and white shirt with tie, as do all the men. Dmitri Hovorostovsky is his father, dresses in a double-breasted suit with a wider lapel. Yes, the dark grey or black suits aren’t entirely the same.

We are reminded of how little time Violetta has by the oversized clocks. It’s as if Rene Magritte’s suited businessmen have met in a great grey coliseum with Salvador Dali as the interior decorator.

Dessay has sung this role at the Vienna State Opera, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and the Santa Fe Opera. She’s appeared at the Met in four productions, including Bounod’s juliette in “Romeo et Juliette” in 2005.

Polenzani was in Willy Decker’s 2010 premiere of this production. He first appeared at the Met in during the 2007-2008 season.

Soprano Deborah Voigt hosts the transmission. Gary Halvorson  directs the telecast.

If you go to opera for lavish costumes and sets, you might be disappointed. But if you’re open to new visions, that bring classic stories into contemporary settings, this opera does Verdi and Dumas romantic tail justice.

In New York, THIRTEEN premiered the opera on the previous Thursday, August 23 at 9 p.m. with an encore presentation Sunday, August 26 at 12:30 p.m. THIRTEEN’s Great Performances at the Met will be broadcast today, Sunday, August 26 at 12 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).

PBS Great Performances at the Met: ‘Manon’

The PBS Great Performances at the Met production of Jules Massenet’s 1884 “Manon” has gorgeous costumes, simple but effectively stylish sets and two attractive leads whose luscious voices blend to tug our hearts over this tragic love story.

The  French libretto (Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille) is based on an Abbé Prévost novel called “L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut.” The opera takes place when Louis XV (1715-1774) was the current king. His policies would eventually make him  unpopular and the influence of his mistress Madame de Pompadour weakened the financial situation of the monarchy. His grandson, Louis XVI would marry Marie Antoinette and support the American Revolution, but die at the guillotine in 1793

The opera begins in the courtyard of an inn with the beautiful people. Coming down the stairs to the courtyard, a noble named De Brétigny who with the elderly Minister of Finance Guillot are going to an inn for dinner with three young actresses.

A coach arrives from Arras to Amiens (75 miles north of Paris).  Amiens is about 35 miles from Arras. While the townspeople gather at the arrival of a coach in the inn’s courtyard, the passengers disembark in a confused jumble, fighting over the baggage and boxes, complaining about the rough journey.

From the crowd emerges one smiling face, Manon  (soprano Anna Netrebko). She is waiting for her cousin, but first meets with the lascivious Guillot who almost salivates over the prospect of this young beautiful innocent becoming his latest conquest. Lescaut (Paulo Szot), Manon’s cousin, comes just in time to prevent Guillot from tempting Manon.

Yet Lescaut while singing about protecting Manon and warning her to be careful wears a guardsman uniform that isn’t as crisp as one would want and he quickly proves to be a lax and lazy host. Imagine telling a young girl on the way to the convent to stay in a deserted courtyard as it grows darker so that he might skips out, running up the stairs and out of sight to gamble with his associates.

Sitting on her suitcase, Manon waits until her curiosity causes her to peer into the  inn’s windows. She admires the beautiful women, the actresses who are flirting with the old lecherous Guillot. She meets Chevalier des Grieux (Piotr Beczala) who is on his way to see his beloved father, but love strikes them hard.

The two impetuously decide to run away to Paris–he emphasizes that they’ll be together. She thinks mostly of Paris. They steal away in Guillot’s carriage.

In Act 2, they are set up in a modest apartment in Paris. Des Grieux is writing a letter asking his father for permission to marry Manon. Their class differences give him little hope and they obviously haven’t been chaste. De Brétigny pretending to be a friend and fellow guardsman, comes with Lescaut to speak with des Grieux. They pretend to support des Grieux who is earnest in his attempts to convince Lescaut that his intentions are honorable.

De Brétigny informs Manon that des Grieux’s father has arranged to have his son abducted. He offers her his protection. When the two men leave, Manon waivers between being faithful to des Grieux or giving into the glamorous life  de Brétigny offers.  In her heart, even as des Grieux sings about their happy life together under humble circumstances, she’s decided to go with de Brétigny. But when des Grieux is taken away, she has no choice and does feel regret.

In Act 3, Manon now has become a much feted mistress–well-dressed and re-united with Lescaut. Guillot still flirts with young actresses, but he hasn’t forgotten the slight from Manon and des Grieux. Des Grieux’s father, Comte, speaks with de Brétigny and Manon overhears that des Grieux has entered a seminary. Manon suddenly feels compelled to see her first love again and see if he still loves her.

In Act 4, Manon and des Grieux again run away but now des Grieux feels compelled to gain riches to support the kind of luxury that Manon craves and does so by gambling with disastrous results. His father intercedes to save him, but leaves Manon to her own fate.

In Act 5, Manon is going to be deported and Lescaut and des Grieux attempt to rescue her, but there will be no happy ending for the two.

This production is elegant–from Chantal Thomas’ scenic design to Laurent Pelly’s staging and costume design–and Netrebko convincingly transforms from a fresh-faced girl becoming somewhat intoxicated with the power of her beauty to a woman wanting a bit more to a person who finally recognizes the importance of love over wealth. Beczala glows with earnest love as des Grieux. Netrebko’s Manon is not inherently evil. It’s hard to fault her when fate intercedes and she takes the easy path. Remember, it was a time when love was often not a big consideration in the marriages of the nobility and class distinctions were strict enough to eventually cause the downfall of the French aristocracy with frightening bloody rage.

Manon airs on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances at the Met Sunday, August 5 at 12 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). In New York, THIRTEEN will broadcast the opera at 12:30 p.m. that day, with a primetime encore the following Thursday, August 9 at 8:30 p.m.

‘My Reincarnation’ is about fathers, sons and responsibility

“My Reincarnation” has its TV premiere on PBS June 21, 2012 and is available on-demand from June 22 to September 20, 2012. The DVD is available through Netflix and Amazon.com.

By Jana J. Monji

My friend once subjected me and a few other classmates to a long afternoon playing a Japanese board game about reincarnation. Each player started out as a single-celled organism and after two hours, none of us had achieved the level of a mammal or even being human. The lesson? Becoming human isn’t easy and staying human isn’t either in Buddhist thought. Once you get to that level, you want to make an effort to stay there.  To a certain extent, Jennifer Fox’s engrossing documentary, “My Reincarnation,” is about how one earns one’s right to remain human as well as where does one go from there, but on a more intimate level, this documentary is about a father and son and the transmission and preservation of a spiritual and cultural tradition.

“My Reincarnation” is the kind of documentary that took shape over two decades of observing its subjects without a particular theme in mind. In 1985, the 28-year-old Fox decided to take time off from filmmaking. Over the next four years, she worked as Dzogchen teacher Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche’s secretary. Although she went back to making documentaries such as the 1987 “Beirut: The Last Home Movie” which won the Grand Jury Prize and Cinematography Award at Sundance, she returned sporadically to film Norbu, and in doing so, also captured the maturing and transformation of Yeshi, Norbu’s oldest child.

Japanese Buddhism has given Americans a handy term for using intuition and becoming one with an activity as in the zen of anything. Zen Buddhism actually originated in China as Chan and Zen is the Japanese pronunciation.  Yet Buddhism originated in India and only came to Japan in 552.  Buddhism came to Tibet in 173  and eventually divided into four main schools: Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug. Nyingma is the oldest of the four, beginning in the eighth century. In Japan and Tibet as well as other Asian countries there were holy wars fueled by rivalry between the original native religion and Buddhism, and later, between different schools of Buddhism.

Tibetan Buddhist Lama Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal unified various warring kingdoms into a single nation state of Bhutan in the 1630s and attempted to establish a separate cultural identity for the Bhutanese, apart from Tibet. Although Bhutan was dominated by Kagyu sects under Shabdrung there was religious tolerance to the extent that the Nyingma sect was allowed to continue practicing and in 1627 when the Portuguese Jesuit priests were his guests, he offered to support their teaching (although they decided to push on to Tibet).

Gelug was founded in the late 1300s and rose to be the dominant school in Tibet during the 16^th century.  In his 14^th incarnation, the current Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso is the high lama of the Gelug or “Yellow Hat” school of Tibetan Buddhism.  He is also believed to be the reincarnation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

After winning a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, he was the subject of Martin Scorsese’s 1997 biopic “Kundun,” For most Americans, he is the face of Tibetan Buddhism.

Two other movies in the 1990s dealt Tibet. Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1993 “Little Buddha” provided moviegoers with a glimpse of Tibetan Buddhism with its fictional story that used real Tibetan Buddhist religious leaders such as the late Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen (Gelug) as an actor and Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche (Sakya) as the movie’s consultant. The story was about an American boy who is found to the reincarnation of a Buddhist teacher.

The 1997 Brad Pitt movie, “Seven Years in Tibet” was based on the true experiences of Austrian adventurer Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufschnaiter who were in Tibet between 1944 and 1951. Harrer taught the Dalai Lama English and geography and remained friends with him after they both fled Tibet.

In exile, commonalities often outweigh differences and this might be the case with Tibetan Buddhism. The title of Chögyal signifies that Namkhai Norbu is recognized as the mindstream emanation of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyel.  Namkhai Norbu is Tibetan for Jewel of the Sky. In the documentary, you’ll also hear the term rinpoche used, which means “precious one” and the term refers to Tibetan lamas and respected teachers, especially reincarnated lamas.

Recognized as the mindstream emanation of a famous Dzogchen teacher at age 2 and then as the mindstream emanation of Shabrung at 5, Norbu was taken from his family to live and learn in a monastery. The experience must not have been pleasant because in the documentary Yeshi recalls that when he was bad, Norbu threatened to send Yeshi to a monastery.

Norbu was in Sikkim, India, when the current Dalai Lama fled Tibet for India, and the Communist Chinese cracked down against the Tibetan anti-Chinese uprising in 1959. Professor Giuseppe Tucci invited him to teach in Rome. In 1962, Norbu moved to Naples where he taught Tibetan studies until 1992.

Instead of becoming a monk, Norbu met and married an Italian woman and had a son, Yeshi, and a daughter.  He also began teaching Dzogchen. Dzogchen is the natural condition of the mind according to Tibetan Buddhism and means “great perfection.” It is the central teaching of the Nyingma school and is supposed to be the highest path to enlightenment. Not all Tibetan schools of Buddhism agree with the teachings Dzogchen, but the Dalai Lama who appears in the documentary has supported Norbu’s efforts.

Although the Dalai Lama has created controversy by stepping into an internal dispute between two sects of Kagyu, and for his relationship with the CIA, he and Norbu both work to preserve the Tibetan culture.  Norbu comments, “I must save my culture and Dzogchen teachings.”

Such a spiritual and cultural crusade has its price. Yeshi, who along with Norbu narrate this film, remembers that he used to see his father about once a year for three or four days and explained that Norbu “doesn’t understand the concept of being a father and son.”  His father, he complains, treats me like the son of a master and “not like father and son of an Italian family.” When his father was home, “it was like a happening,” and there were always many people visiting them.

Yeshi was recognized as the reincarnation of his father’s uncle, Khyentse, who died in a Communist Chinese prison. Raised learning both about Buddhism from his father and Catholicism from Italian nuns, the young 18-year-old Yeshi in 1989 rejects notions of reincarnation and even his Tibetan heritage.  He tells Fox, “I don’t want this responsibility mostly. I’m afraid of it. “

One revealing moment we see the pained look in Norbu’s face when he asks his son, “Do you know what it means in Tibetan?” and the callous Yeshi replies, “I don’t care.”

Yet as time passes, Yeshi finds a corporate job, he marries and has children. The stress from his work takes its toll and he decompresses in the manner his father taught, through Buddhism. As a father, he begins to understand his father. Without the hierarchy of the traditional Tibetan institutions and monasteries, Yeshi also sees the potential problems in the organizational structure of his father’s Dzogchen teachings and is able to bring corporate structure in an attempt prevent splintering into different schools and the alienation resulting from increased distance between student and teacher.

The  protagonists of “Little Buddha” and the “Seven Years in Tibet” were outsiders looking at Tibet, and “Kundun” was less a portrait of a man, but more of what Roger Ebert called “an act of devotion.” Ebert complained, “there is rarely the sense that a living, breathing and (dare I say?) fallible human inhabits the body of the Dalai Lama.”

As Norbu advises, “Everything is an illusion, just a dream” and we must open our eyes and see our true selves. Fox shows us the true selves of Norbu and Yeshi.

With “My Reincarnation,” we see Tibet from the eyes of the exile Norbu and then from the viewpoint of a man who is both outsider and insider, his son Yeshi.  Fox’s access into the private lives of Norbu and Yeshi allows us to see their disappointments, their moments of joyful tenderness, their simplicity while performing mundane tasks, and their frailty when facing obstacles.

In Buddhism, those who attain enlightenment can chose not to enter nirvana and instead, act as bodhisattvas and help others along the path.  Being the reincarnation of a great teacher carries a heavy responsibility. Now 73, Norbu’s time on earth is drawing to an end and the continuity of  both his knowledge of Dzogchen as well as his understanding of Tibetan culture will depend upon Yeshi. Fox’s “My Reincarnation” records a personal story of Tibet and a father and son and their faith in Buddha and each other.  Being human is an honor and it isn’t easy.