The concert review was of the Redwood Symphony. Interesting program, but hard to find much to say about it. First time I'd reviewed one of Zoltán Kodály's best-known works, the Háry János Suite, and I'm getting another Kodály piece this weekend.
Another staged experience came my way: at my previous visit to the Hammer Theatre, I saw a poster advertising a production called The Other Mozart. Closer inspection showed that the subject was Nannerl, Wolfgang's sister. I didn't know much about Nannerl, so I decided to go, even though I had no idea whether what I'd be getting would be a concert, a play, or what.
It turned out to be a one-woman play, written by its performer, Sylvia Milo. Dressed in what was apparently intended as 18th-century underwear, but with no underskirts, Milo delivered a long monologue covering Nannerl's early life, focusing on her being alternately fêted for her keyboard talents and ignored in favor of her little brother. Lots of fast conversations in which Milo uses eccentric accents to distinguish the voices of her father, mother, and brother. In a quiet epilogue, Nannerl long outlives Wolfgang and eventually becomes the object of pilgrimages by the rising flood of Mozart fans. A huge skirt, about 18 feet across, is spread across the stage and covered with scattered manuscript pages. Occasionally Milo steps into it and pulls it on over her underwear and then takes it off again. What the meaning was behind this action, I couldn't say.
Strange piece, and while I learned a little, I didn't find it very successful or meaningful.
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