THE ARTS ONLINE - JUNE 9-15

RUTH LEON'S THEATREWISE

Good Morning and Welcome to Ruth Leon’s Theatrewise

‘Schadenfreude’ is a horrible word. It means ‘pleasure derived from another person's misfortune’. Not an experience a nice girl like me wallows in often. But, watching two of the nastiest toddlers in the world – the richest man and the most powerful – tear strips off one another, is entertainment of the highest order and, after all, I’m a theatre writer. Pass the popcorn.

Back in London where June really is the most beautiful month of the year. All the flowers are out (see my windowbox), the trees are in blossom, the light is green and golden, the sun never gets too hot, the Chelsea Flower Show is on, and the outdoor theatre in Regent’s Park is the perfect way to spend an evening. Local asparagus, tomatoes like you can never get in America and strawberries to die for. What’s not to love?

But I do keep an eye on what’s happening in the arts on the other side of the Atlantic. Friends in Washington DC were horrified as they watched their Kennedy Center being trashed by its new management. But Americans are good at ‘voting with their feet’. Since it was hi-jacked by its new “amazing chairman” (his description, not mine), subscriptions have already fallen by 36% on last year. Ticket sales for individual shows and donations have also plummeted. “Ticket buyers, subscribers, and donors have spoken with their wallets” confirmed a current staff member. Anonymously, of course, because 40 members of the Center’s staff have been fired since Trump took over as chairman.

Thank you to all of you who have subscribed to Backgrounders. I hope you enjoyed Marlene Dietrich last week. Next month’s Backgrounders, if you’d like to join us, is that very strange genius, Alfred Hitchcock.

The Tony Awards are tonight, as I write. Tomorrow I’ll find out what won, what lost, and who said what about whom on the telecast as I’m not staying up until all hours to watch it live.

Talking about watching it live, this week’s Ruth Leon’s Theatrewise has much to watch, including a production of Conor McPherson’s fine play-with-songs The Girl From the North Country, filmed live from the stage of Broadway’s Belasco Theatre.

There’s also a live performance by Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra to be cherished, and a live performance from the Met Opera of a brilliant new Tosca.

I noticed the juxtaposition of anniversaries of two great female painters this week – Artemisia Gentileschi and Mary Cassatt – 273 years apart, so I looked for films which told me about them, and both films are here to view, free.

All these are here, most of them free to watch, some to be subscribed, but worth it. Just click on the links beneath the pictures to watch it all, ‘live’.

Mary Cassatt - Artemisia Gentileschi

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Click here for Artemisia Gentileschi

Very few female painters have survived the male heirarchy of art history and come down to us with their reputations burnished and their talents finally recognised. There are only two who come to mind immediately and, coincidentally, both have anniversaries on June 14th. They died on the same day 273 years apart, Artemisia Gentileschi in 1653 and Mary Cassatt in 1926. That wasn’t all they had in common although the similarities aren’t immediately obvious.

American-born, Mary Cassatt lived much of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar Degas and exhibited with the Impressionists. Her strongest work was in creating images of the social and private lives of women, with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children.

Artemisia Gentileschi painted women too, but her women are disguised as biblical or mythical characters. including victims, suicides, and warriors. Some of her best-known subjects are Susanna and the Elders, Judith Slaying Holofernes and Judith and Her Maidservant. Even her most famous self-portrait is her representation of herself as Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

Her women are not soft, gentle or motherly, they are fierce, determined, sometimes warlike, and always believable. They assert themselves across the centuries, making us see them as real women with strength and rage.

In an era when women had few opportunities to pursue artistic training or work as professional artists, Artemisia, daughter of a successful artist, Orazio Gentileschi, and trained in his Rome workshop along with her less talented brothers, was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence.

She had an international clientele but her achievements as an artist were overshadowed for many years by the story of Agostino Tassi, a fellow painter working in her father’s studio, who raped her when she was 18. He was tried, not for rape but for violating the family honour, and Artemisia was tortured to give evidence during his trial.

Like Cassatt, Gentileschi had to leave home to achieve independent recognition for her art, Cassatt to Paris, Gentileschi to Florence and Naples.

Explore Mary Cassatt’s life and work, from her contributions to the French Impressionist movement to her bold experimentation in painting, pastels, and printmaking, in this film, The Radical Art of Mary Cassatt. Through interviews with experts, archival footage and photography, and unpublished letters from the artist, step into the revolutionary world of Cassatt.

Here too is Artemisia Gentileschi in 8 Paintings, a film which was made to accompany the Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition at the National Gallery in 2020.
Letizia Treves, my favourite curator, tells the story of Artemisia's life through her paintings.

The Girl From The North Country

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Following its world premiere in 2017, The Girl from the North Country is returning to The Old Vic Theatre in London this summer. Coincidentally, the New York production of this unusual hit musical has just been released online.

It’s 1934 and, with life on a knife edge, the community of Duluth are battling their way through the Great Depression. Inside a failing guesthouse, owner Nick (Jay O. Sanders) battles foreclosure while caring for his wife (Emmy winner Mare Winningham) as dementia erodes her memory and their son (Colton Ryan) numbs his pain with bourbon.

Amidst the dust and the hardship, a group of wayward travellers find each other — experiencing love, loss, life and everything in between, in a local tavern filled with music, hope and soul.

With a company of 23 actors and musicians, award-winning playwright Conor McPherson's production beautifully weaves 21 Bob Dylan songs into this groundbreaking musical and transforms Dylan's lyrics into raw dialogue: "Like a Rolling Stone" emerges as a barroom confession, "Duquesne Whistle" as a rail rider's ballad. Simon Hale's Tony-winning arrangements reveal new depth in these familiar songs. The show was filmed live at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway.

Tosca – Metropolitan Opera

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Yesterday, online, I saw a picture of a young woman so brimming with happiness that I had to smile with her. The setting was a hospital and the young woman, dressed in a track suit, was proudly holding a small baby carrier in each hand, containing the tiniest set of newborn twins.

Click here to see Lise with her babies

Then, this morning, screening for this week’s Ruth Leon’s Theatrewise, the same young woman reduced me to tears with her exquisite performance of Tosca, now available from Met Opera on Demand.

Her name is Lise Davidson and I beg you to experience this performance for yourself. I saw Maria Callas and I saw Shirley Verrett and I promise you, this young woman is right up there with the greatest Toscas of all time.

David McVicar’s production also features tenor Freddie De Tommaso as Tosca’s revolutionary lover, Cavaradossi, and powerhouse baritone Quinn Kelsey as the sadistic chief of police Scarpia. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Puccini’s electrifying score.

If you click on the link you’ll be able to watch a taster, Davidson’s Vissi d’Arte, one of the toughest tests of any soprano. Enjoy your babies, Lise, but come back soon.

Ella Fitzgerald & Frank Sinatra

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The immortal Ella Fitgerald died on Jun 15th, 1996, 29 years ago this week. Frank Sinatra died two years later, on May 14th 1998. But the truly great never die, so long as we can still see and hear them and as long as anyone who ever saw either of them is around to tell the tale.

Frank Sinatra said of her, “Ella Fitzgerald is the only performer with whom I’ve ever worked who made me nervous. Because I try to work up to what she does. You know, try to pull myself up to that height, because I believe she is the greatest popular singer in the world, barring none—male or female.”

Who am I to agree? But I do.

Here they are together, Frank and Ella at their best, having the time of their lives with “The Lady Is A Tramp”. One critic called this, “One of the greatest live performances of the 20th century.”

I agree with that, too. See what you think.

Ruth Leon’s Theatrewise remains free to all so come back next week for lots more arts online. I’m considering both Ella and Frank for future Backgrounders so if you subscribe you can choose who’ll be featured.

Have a wonderful June week and eat lots of local tomatoes and strawberries and asparagus because they’ll be gone soon.

Love from Ruth