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Review: Book of Longing
Monday, 4 June 2007 09:28 amI've avoided reading other folks' reviews, so this is as unadulterated as you'll get.
Philip Glass built a concert around Leonard Cohen's new(ish) book of poetry, The Book of Longing. It had its world premier in Toronto this weekend, and we saw the third and last performance of it yesterday. The performance was at the Elgin Theatre, and Philip Glass was one of the two keyboardists. The backdrop was a selection of Cohen's drawings and sketches, and one panel was a frequently changing projection of more sketches.
The good:
Leonard Cohen has an amazing lyrical sense, and some of his poetry is brilliant. Others of it is merely good; there was very little of the poetry that I didn't like. My suspicion is that the only poems I didn't like were those that felt like discarded songs. (Not "unfinished songs", but discarded, if you get the difference.)
Flipping to a random page of the Libretto they gave us; a short one I liked was:
I Enjoyed the Laughter
I enjoyed the laughter
old poets
as you welcomed me
but I won't be staying
here for long
You won't be either
- 1985
Some of the Glass pieces felt fresh, interesting, and new; other parts felt familiar and fun; others felt boring as crap. Unfortunately, dan pointed out that much of it felt exactly the same as another of his collaborations, an album with Alan Ginsburg. And indeed, when he played it for me I had to retract what I thought about freshness. So, it was partly rewarmed Glass, though it did feel fresh to me before he pointed that out! I still enjoyed the very familiar: the fun scales, the high-tempo keyboarding...
The four soloists did their work well, though as dan pointed out, there was too much choreography.
They gave us a booklet Libretto and pen light to read it by. It's a neat little book, which I'm glad to have. And I was thinking I needed a pen light at home.
The very bad:
Some fraction of the visual art was honestly bad. I don't have the problem with art being unexpectedly simple, but much of Cohen's work was digital, and some of it felt exactly like my first few sketches in photoshop: a mug with a simple gradient across the front, a badly drop-shadowed guitar, and... well, that's the bit that stands out badly for me. They set my teeth on edge.
The opulent Elgin Theatre fought with the stage arrangement, I think. Not much to be done about that, I guess.
It felt too long. This was exacerbated by the 4th from last piece, You Came to Me This Morning, which is an expansion of the song A Thousand Kisses Deep. I liked it better as a 4 minute song than a 10-minute tone/poem recitation. And by the end I was bugged that I was hoping for more Cohen Songs instead of interesting Philip Glass material.
...However, to end on a good note, the 2nd to last piece, Roshi's Very Tired, was excellent. The music was interesting and the poem was wonderful. I happened to like the choreography in this one, which involved the singers taking their shoes off and sitting down.
And the last piece was pretty good too, an irreverent bit named Merely a Prayer.
Philip Glass built a concert around Leonard Cohen's new(ish) book of poetry, The Book of Longing. It had its world premier in Toronto this weekend, and we saw the third and last performance of it yesterday. The performance was at the Elgin Theatre, and Philip Glass was one of the two keyboardists. The backdrop was a selection of Cohen's drawings and sketches, and one panel was a frequently changing projection of more sketches.
The good:
Leonard Cohen has an amazing lyrical sense, and some of his poetry is brilliant. Others of it is merely good; there was very little of the poetry that I didn't like. My suspicion is that the only poems I didn't like were those that felt like discarded songs. (Not "unfinished songs", but discarded, if you get the difference.)
Flipping to a random page of the Libretto they gave us; a short one I liked was:
I Enjoyed the Laughter
I enjoyed the laughter
old poets
as you welcomed me
but I won't be staying
here for long
You won't be either
- 1985
Some of the Glass pieces felt fresh, interesting, and new; other parts felt familiar and fun; others felt boring as crap. Unfortunately, dan pointed out that much of it felt exactly the same as another of his collaborations, an album with Alan Ginsburg. And indeed, when he played it for me I had to retract what I thought about freshness. So, it was partly rewarmed Glass, though it did feel fresh to me before he pointed that out! I still enjoyed the very familiar: the fun scales, the high-tempo keyboarding...
The four soloists did their work well, though as dan pointed out, there was too much choreography.
They gave us a booklet Libretto and pen light to read it by. It's a neat little book, which I'm glad to have. And I was thinking I needed a pen light at home.
The very bad:
Some fraction of the visual art was honestly bad. I don't have the problem with art being unexpectedly simple, but much of Cohen's work was digital, and some of it felt exactly like my first few sketches in photoshop: a mug with a simple gradient across the front, a badly drop-shadowed guitar, and... well, that's the bit that stands out badly for me. They set my teeth on edge.
The opulent Elgin Theatre fought with the stage arrangement, I think. Not much to be done about that, I guess.
It felt too long. This was exacerbated by the 4th from last piece, You Came to Me This Morning, which is an expansion of the song A Thousand Kisses Deep. I liked it better as a 4 minute song than a 10-minute tone/poem recitation. And by the end I was bugged that I was hoping for more Cohen Songs instead of interesting Philip Glass material.
...However, to end on a good note, the 2nd to last piece, Roshi's Very Tired, was excellent. The music was interesting and the poem was wonderful. I happened to like the choreography in this one, which involved the singers taking their shoes off and sitting down.
And the last piece was pretty good too, an irreverent bit named Merely a Prayer.
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