Arts & Events

What a preposterous, prolonged, pretentious pile-up of portentous poppycock! Interstellar, Christopher Nolan's latest movie, is visually spellbinding, resolutely inconsistent, exasperatingly illogical, and ultimately unsatisfying. Here is the plot in an astronautshell: The Earth is a goner but a heroic pilot and Intergalactic Escape Hatch will save humanity. Wormholes and technology to the rescue! -more-

"A character is a ghost that remains in the theater after you turn out the lights." -more-

Last weekend saw a very rich musical program at the First Congregational Church, with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Julian Wachner conducting, playing Bach, Handel and Telemann, with countertenor Andreas Scholl singing arias from Handel's Giulio Cesara and Rodelinda as well as the Bach Cantata No. 170, "Vernügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust." -more-

Cal Performances brought from Paris a production of Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author staged by Théâtre de la Ville-Paris under the direction of Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota. Opening on Friday, November 7, in Zellerbach Hall, this French-language production (with English supertitles) brought to life – and I mean this in several senses of the words – this extraordinary adventure in modern theatre. Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, which incited a riot when first performed in Rome in 1921, is now credited with revolutionizing the theatre as it had been handed down from classical times, and inaugurating a modern, challengingly different notion of theatre. -more-

On hearing Mozart’s opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, Emperor Joseph of Austria memorably told Mozart, “Too many notes.” Well, someone who heard Gioachino Rossini’s opera La Cenerentola/Cinderella might well have said to Rossini, “Too many crescendos.” The crescendo, let it be said, is Rossini’s favorite trick. And he does it well. Rossini begins a theme softly and slowly, then gradually builds up the volume and rhythm to the point where all the singers plus the full orchestra are at full speed and maximum sound to close in a rousing climax. The problem is, however, that in Cenerentola nearly every musical number is given the crescendo treatment. Thus, every musical number begins to sound like every other musical number. Enough already. Too much of a good thing gets awfully tedious. -more-

--This weekend, Cal Performances is featuring two performances of an acclaimed production from the Barbizon in London of Benjamin Britten's opera 'Curlew River--a Parable for Church Performance,' based on the spare forms of medieval Japanese Noh theater and its tragic play 'Sumidagawa,' about a madwoman both acting out madness and consumed with grief at a ferry crossing, classical Japanese Gagaku rhythms and Medieval European Christian Mystery Plays. Noted Britten interpreter Ian Bostridge performs the Madwoman, the music and chorus supplied by the Britten Sinfonia and Britten Sinfonia Voices. Friday at 8, Saturday at 2, Zellerbach Hall, UC campus near Telegraph Avenue & Bancroft Way.$30-$90 (discounts available). calperformnces.org; 642-9988. -more-

--"I think it was Tolstoy who said that all great stories start with either a man going on a journey or a stranger coming to town ... " -more-

Just as the Pacific Film Archive opens the latest installment in their ongoing Jean-Luc Godard retrospective--and 'Prenom Carmen'--1983, script by Anne-Marie Mieville, featuring Maruschka Detmers, plays Saturday night at 6:30), the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael will be presenting the West Coast exclusive premiere of Godard's latest: 'Goodbye to Language' in 3-D, through next Thursday, at the Center in downtown San Rafael, just off Highway 101. -more-