Terry Teachout's Blog, page 221

TT: The snare of perfectionism

In today's Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column I reflect on the problem of perfectionism in the arts. Here's an excerpt.

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Twenty-six years after his death, Orson Welles is back in the news. "Chimes at Midnight," the 1965 film version of Shakespeare's history plays that occupied him throughout his middle age, will be shown in England next month in what is being billed as a "brand-new, never-seen-before restoration." The reason why it had to be restored is that "Chimes at Midnight" was made independently and on the cheap, for by 1965 Welles had so antagonized the Hollywood establishment that no major studio would have anything to do with him. As a result, "Chimes at Midnight" was shot, edited and dubbed under sub-standard conditions, and the prints that have circulated since the film's original release are all of low quality.

Welles' long-standing difficulties with Hollywood are the stuff of legend. At bottom, though, they amount to this: He was a fanatical, impractical perfectionist who was willing to spend any amount of time and money on his films. But it was always other people's money, and the moguls who put up the money in Hollywood did so in order to make still more money. After Welles made "Citizen Kane" in 1941, it was clear that he was neither interested in making box-office smashes nor willing to tolerate the relentless assembly-line discipline of the American film industry. Hence he spent most of the rest of his life wandering in the wilderness of underfunded independent film production, unable to fully realize any of his creative dreams.

Is it fair to say that Welles' perfectionism laid him low? Every great artist, after all, strives for perfection. In fact, that's part of what makes them great: They're never entirely satisfied with anything that they do....

Alas, that kind of suffering goes with the territory. The trick, as every artist knows, is not to let it interfere with getting things done. The wisest artists are the ones who finish a new work, walk away and move on to the next project. Whenever a colleague pointed out a "mistake" in one of Dmitri Shostakovich's compositions, he invariably responded, "Oh, I'll fix that in my next piece."

The road to malignant perfectionism, by contrast, starts with chronic indecision. Jerome Robbins, whose inability to make up his mind was legendary throughout the world of dance, was known for choreographing multiple versions of a variation, then waiting until the last possible minute to decide which one to use. Beyond a certain point, this kind of perfectionism is all but impossible to distinguish from unprofessionalism, and Orson Welles reached that point early in his career....

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Read the whole thing here .

Orson Welles talks about Chimes at Midnight and the character of Falstaff in a BBC interview:

TT: Almanac

"For, in certain moods, no man can weigh this world, without throwing in something, somehow like Original Sin, to strike the even balance."

Herman Melville, "Hawthorne and the Mosses"

TT: So you want to see a show?

Here's my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.

BROADWAY:

• Anything Goes (musical, G/PG-13, mildly adult subject matter that will be unintelligible to children, closes Jan. 8, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (musical, G/PG-13, perfectly fine for children whose parents aren't actively prudish, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Master Class (drama, G/PG-13, not suitable for children, extended through Sept. 4, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• As You Like It (Shakespeare, G/PG-13, closes Aug. 14, reviewed here)

• Avenue Q (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

IN WASHINGTON, D.C.:

• Oklahoma! (musical, G, remounting of 2010 production, suitable for children, closes Oct. 2, original run reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN CAPE MAY, N.J.:

• The Understudy (comedy, PG-13, closes July 30, reviewed here)

CLOSING SATURDAY IN CAPE MAY, N.J.:

• He and She (drama, G, not suitable for small children, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:

• Play Dead (theatrical spook show, PG-13, utterly unsuitable for easily frightened children or adults, reviewed here)

TT: Almanac

"There should be no such profession as criticism. Musicologists, of course, are quite different, and this is a sadly neglected profession in this country--but there should definitely be no regular critics. To go through life living off other people's work clearly has too degrading an effect."

Benjamin Britten, "Variations on a Critical Theme"

TT: Snapshot

Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten perform Schubert's "Mein," from Die schöne Müllerin:



(This is the latest in a weekly series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Wednesday.)

TT: Almanac

"I think greatness happens accidentally--that sometimes one can write a little tiny piece for children or for brass band or something like that, and it may quite easily turn out to be much more important for posterity--if one can worry about posterity--than anyone's symphonies in B flat minor. I think Schoenberg himself said that you can't save the world with every Adagio."

Benjamin Britten (interview, CBC, Nov. 21, 1961)

TT: Almanac

"Music demands more from a listener than simply the possession of a tape-machine or a transistor radio. It demands some preparation, some effort, a journey to a special place, saving up for a ticket, some homework on the programme perhaps, some clarification of the ears and sharpening of the instincts. It demands as much effort on the listener's part as the other two corners of the triangle, this holy triangle of composer, performer and listener."

Benjamin Britten, On Receiving the First Aspen Award

TT: Pops in a box

Satchmo: Louis Armstrong, the Ambassador of Jazz , out on August 9 from Universal, is an elaborately packaged box set that contains seven CDs' worth of classic Armstrong recordings, three bonus discs, a two-hundred-page hardcover book, and various other souvenir-type items. According to Russ Titelman, the producer, Satchmo purports to be "the definitive version of the Armstrong legacy." This is, of course, nonsense. Still, it's certainly possible, at least in theory, to convey a reasonably complete sense of what Armstrong was all about within the compass of a seven-disc set.

Does Satchmo get the job done? I haven't seen it yet, and nobody at Universal asked for my advice, but I have seen a complete track listing, and I can tell you that of the thirty "key recordings by Louis Armstrong" listed in the appendix to Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong , twenty-seven will be included on Satchmo. That's a damned good batting average--which figures, since Armstrong scholar - blogger Ricky Riccardi was mainly responsible for selecting the tracks.

For me, the only jaw-dropping omission was "Beau Koo Jack," though it's certainly not one of Armstrong's most famous recordings, nor is it included in my appendix. In addition, there's nothing from the justly celebrated album that Armstrong made with Duke Ellington in 1962. (Alas, Universal doesn't control the rights to that album.) Otherwise, virtually all of the really important sides are present and accounted for, and plenty more besides.

I don't know who's going to buy Satchmo, nor do I think there's much point in purchasing such a megadeluxe package when you can acquire all of Armstrong's greatest recordings separately at very reasonable prices (or download them from iTunes). Still, my preliminary impression is that if you're interested, this set appears to be an excellent piece of work.

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Here's a promotional video for Satchmo, which includes a tour of the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens. It's worth watching:

TT: Almanac

"All of us--the public, critics, and composers themselves--spend far too much time worrying about whether a work is a shattering masterpiece. Let us not be so self-conscious. Maybe in thirty years' time very few works that are well known today will still be played, but does that matter so much? Surely out of the works that are written some good will come, even if it is not now; and these will lead on to people who are better than ourselves."

Benjamin Britten, interviewed by Edmund Tracey (Sadler's Wells Magazine, Autumn 1966)

TT: A stage for all seasons

In today's Wall Street Journal I review the Royal Shakespeare Company's Lincoln Center Festival staging of As You Like It and another production in Cape May, New Jersey, Cape May Stage's version of Theresa Rebeck's The Understudy . Here's an excerpt.

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The real star of the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of "As You Like It" is the stage. In order to perform five Shakespeare plays as part of this summer's Lincoln Center Festival, the RSC has built a replica of the 965-seat Elizabethan-style open-stage auditorium of its Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon and installed it inside the Park Avenue Armory. That's quite a trick--but it's not a stunt. The 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall is one of the biggest unobstructed interior spaces in Manhattan, and the only such place where it's feasible to mount a six-week repertory season. What's more, the hall is large enough to be naturally resonant. You can hear the actors reveling in the acoustic "bloom" that envelops their voices--and because the audience is wrapped around three sides of the stage, the sight lines are perfect....

As for the production itself, it's solidly made and frequently inspired, though the first half is straightforward to the point of occasional baldness. Michael Boyd, the company's artistic director, has eschewed high concepts and given us a more or less traditional "As You Like It," the theatrical equivalent of a warm, crusty loaf spread with the very best butter....

If you live in New York and don't see shows elsewhere, then the RSC's visit is by definition a big deal. But while "As You Like It" is really, really good, all you have to do to see something just as good is get out of town--or live somewhere else....

When I first saw "The Understudy," I was struck by how the frenetic zaniness of the first half suddenly gave way to an unexpectedly serious group portrait of disappointment and disillusion. Even though both halves worked, they didn't seem to fit together. But this production, ably directed by Roy Steinberg and very well acted by G.R. Johnson, Luke Darnell and Kristen Calgaro, makes a different impression, perhaps because Mr. Steinberg's cast plays the first half of "The Understudy" more for truth than for laughs. While the Cape May Stage version isn't as obviously funny as the Roundabout Theatre Company's 2009 production, the transition to the second half of the play is smooth and seamless, resulting in a show that makes better emotional sense....

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Read the whole thing here .