{"id":17273,"date":"2015-04-05T14:31:21","date_gmt":"2015-04-05T21:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=17273"},"modified":"2015-04-05T21:01:38","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T04:01:38","slug":"animal-sounds-become-music-for-world-premiere-of-magical-ballet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/animal-sounds-become-music-for-world-premiere-of-magical-ballet\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal sounds become music for world premiere of magical ballet"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 5]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cBiophony\u201d dancers include (from left) Robb Beresford, Babatunji and Michael Montgomery of the Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Photo by Quinn B. Wharton.<\/p>\n

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Sound expert Bernie Krause (left) and choreographer Alonzo King do a joint interview.<\/p>\n
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Bernie Krause recording in the wild.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Bernie Krause\u2019s been my friend more than 25 years.<\/p>\n

In case you don\u2019t recognize it, that statement\u2019s a disclaimer.<\/p>\n

A necessity \u2014 because the world premiere of \u201cBiophony,\u201d an exceedingly inventive Alonzo King LINES Ballet created collaboratively with Bernie, just exhilarated me.<\/p>\n

Which I\u2019m sure would have happened had I never heard of either of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBiophony\u201d is, simultaneously, aural and visual.<\/p>\n

But my reaction was visceral.<\/p>\n

Without warning, \u201cBiophony\u201d stripped away my desire and ability to experience it intellectually.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve used the word brilliant<\/em> in reviews before. I wish I hadn\u2019t. I wish I\u2019d had the foresight to know I\u2019d need it for this three-way alliance (the third partner being English composer Richard Blackford, whose instrumentation has been tapered).<\/p>\n

The experimental 38-minute piece opens with the clear chirping of an American cricket.<\/p>\n

But the nine-movement work is performed without protracted breaks so I wasn\u2019t always sure when I was being transported to the Amazon or Tanzania or the Arctic to hear a cornucopia of baboons and orangutans and chimpanzees, geese and ducks and exotic birds, wolves and pigs and giraffes, humpback whales, frogs, bees, creaking branches, waves and rain and thunder.<\/p>\n

Even after reading the extensive program notes, I wasn\u2019t always certain what critters or environmental elements were making the sounds I was hearing.<\/p>\n

And I missed a lot.<\/p>\n

A second, third or fourth hearing could be beneficial.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0was<\/em> sure, though, that the natural sounds became incredibly melodic and worked divinely as a symphonic composition.<\/p>\n

I was also positive Alonzo\u2019s magical ballet blended perfectly with those sounds \u2014 a ballet that featured 11 dancers fashioning (on terra firma, sea and air) unconventional creature-like movements.<\/p>\n

Bernie\u2019d recorded the sounds in the wilds \u2014 jungle, tundra, wherever.<\/p>\n

Alone mostly.<\/p>\n

And in concert, so to speak, with the likes of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey.<\/p>\n

Almost \u00ad \u2014 after his first ecological recording in Muir Woods and his initial soundscape installation in 1983 for the California Academy of Sciences \u2014 5,000 hours of field recordings of 15,000 species in their natural habitats over a 50-year span.<\/p>\n

Presto!<\/p>\n

Enter \u201cBiophany,\u201d which consists of handpicked highlights from that collection \u2014 soundscapes of animals in self-contained ecosystems.<\/p>\n

A unique orchestra-chorus.<\/p>\n

In a KQED interview the day of the opening at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Alonzo said, \u201cYou want people\u2019s\u2026hearts to be opened.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were.<\/p>\n

In an Exploratorium conversation, he said of his work: \u201cI don\u2019t want it to look like choreography\u2026If it [does], it\u2019s not working.\u201d<\/p>\n

He succeeded at that, too.<\/p>\n

Alonzo\u2019s choreography is impressionistic and impressive.<\/p>\n

D<\/strong>itto the minimalist costuming (diaphanous wisps can be found hither and thither).<\/p>\n

And since the set is basically a black backdrop with tantalizing ambiance and floor mosaics designed by Axel Morgenthaler\u2019s lights, audiences can easily imagine themselves in sundry milieus.<\/p>\n

Alonzo, who\u2019s dreamed up close to 200 ballets for the troupe he founded in 1982, conspicuously let the dancers be themselves (alternately original, acrobatic and graceful).<\/p>\n

Bernie, meanwhile, mulled if audiences \u201cwould get\u201d his underlying message \u2014 \u201can elegy and eulogy\u201d for natural environs that are vanishing because of man-made intrusions.<\/p>\n

Time will be the jury.<\/p>\n

I must note, however, that ballet purists \u2014 especially those whose tastes are limited to productions like \u201cSwan Lake\u201d\u00a0 \u2014 may be unable to wrap their minds around this breakthrough effort.<\/p>\n

Is \u201cBiophony\u201d completed? Conceivably not.<\/p>\n

In an email to me, Bernie wrote, \u201cWith the curtain [going] up in five hours, I\u2019m still in the process of making changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The previous night, after grueling deliberation, he\u2019d eliminated the elephants.<\/p>\n

Bernie\u2019s normal conversation often contains heady words unfamiliar to most: Bioacoustician. Geophony. Anthropophony.<\/p>\n

No matter. We\u2019ll stay friends even if I don\u2019t fully grok his vocabulary.<\/p>\n

Our friendship can\u2019t compare, anyhow, to his with my wife, which dates 62 years to their Detroit school days together.<\/p>\n

But back to now.<\/p>\n

In a 22-minute prelude, seven members of the Philharmonia Baroque Chamber Players played short pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederic Handel while King\u2019s company feverishly blanketed and owned the stage.<\/p>\n

Bernie earlier had voiced a tongue-in-cheek fear \u201cBiophony\u201d might replicate the opening of Igor Stravinsky\u2019s \u201cThe Rite of Spring\u201d \u2014 incite tomatoes being thrown.<\/p>\n

I saw no fruit hit the stage.<\/p>\n

But I did feel whitecaps of applause as the audience \u2014 partially stunned by the brilliance of the work, partially stunned by a somewhat abrupt ending \u2014 rose to give \u201cBiophony\u201d an extended standing ovation.<\/p>\n

“Biophony\u201d will run through April 12 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. (at Third), San Francisco. Night performances, 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Matinees, 5 p.m. Sundays. Special gala performance, 6 p.m. Saturday, April 11. Tickets: $20 to $65. Information: http:\/\/www.@linesballet.org<\/a> or 1-415-978-2787.<\/em><\/p>\n

Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or check out his blog at www.vitalitypress.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 5] Bernie Krause\u2019s been my friend more than 25 years. In case you don\u2019t recognize it, that statement\u2019s a disclaimer. A necessity \u2014 because the world premiere of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"