Wednesday, October 22, 1997
Show establishes new genre of art
OPERA Enigmatic and original, ‘Les Enfants’ combines opera,
ballet
By Cheryl Klein
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Modern dance set to opera music based on a 1920s novel inspired
by ancient Greek tragedies – it might prompt some to call the
cultural mishmash that is "Les Enfants Terribles" an enigma.
But they don’t know Philip Glass. After decades of making music
history, the composer is not content with just one genre. Perhaps
he realizes that the true future of any art form lies in
integrating it with other art forms. So when he set out to make the
third chapter in his trilogy of operatic works based on Jean
Cocteau’s films, he consulted choreographer Susan Marshall.
"With Susan Marshall, I had a brilliant collaborator and we sat
together and we studied the film," Glass says. "We made an outline
of the scenes and we decided where the music , the dance and where
the singing would go."
The product is "Les Enfants Terribles: Children of the Game,"
which takes the stage this weekend at the Wiltern Theatre. At the
center of the story are Paul and Lise, a brother and sister who
create a fantasy world so vivid even they cannot escape. The work
opens with a snowball fight in Paris, but the wintry hostility is
no more indicative of what’s to come than is the children’s
game.
"Les Enfants" combines innocence and darkness to create a
surreal atmosphere, reminiscent of artistic trends at the time
Cocteau wrote the novel, which he later adapted for the screen. The
juxtaposition of modern dance and more traditional-sounding opera
adds to the offbeat aura of the work. To the creators, this equals
a job well done.
"What I want to do is not act out what the singers are singing,"
Susan Marshall said during the early stages of the work, "because
if we get to that point, it’s belittling the dance."
Marshall worked with preliminary compositions, improvising with
the show’s dancers to translate Cocteau’s film into the language of
dance. For example, there’s a rough urgency to their movements as
two dancers carry a third, swanlike, offstage.
Add this to the oversize beds of Paul and Lise’s room. The bars
of the foot board cast shadows on the performers, caging them in
their own fantasy. Now add their silky pajamas and anguished
expressions. The game becomes increasingly bizarre when Paul falls
in love with Agathe, setting Lise writhing with jealously.
"It’s not incestuous, as you might think," Glass says of Paul
and Lise’s relationship. He dispels the theory before anyone else
can voice it, shrouding the work deeper in ambiguity. "It’s a
make-believe world cut off from the world around them."
But Glass has never been a fan of concrete definitions, though
he is quick to explain what he is not.
He is not a minimalist, contrary to popular belief.
"That would be me 25 years ago, but if you saw me today, you
probably wouldn’t say that," Glass says. "(My music) is very tonal,
it is very narrative and it is very lyrical. But that’s not quite
the same a reductive, repetitive piece."
"Les Enfants" is not about his childhood.
"My god. I’m from Baltimore, Maryland. I had a very ordinary
childhood."
And dance opera is not a genre – yet.
"There is no real genre. We’re making it up. That’s what’s so
interesting about it," Glass says. "It takes a few minutes to take
it in, to see what’s happening, because it’s not anything you may
have seen before."
But again, ambiguity surfaces. Indeed, "Les Enfants" doesn’t
fall easily into the archetypal categories of ballet or opera, but
it certainly draws from the classics. It dates back as far as
Aristotle’s definition of a tragedy, which inspired many of
Shakespeare’s works, which inspired both Cocteau and Glass.
"One thing I appreciate about Cocteau is he seems to be so
classical that way," Glass says, pointing out that Cocteau worked
from ancient Greek folklore.
"What resonates most in this work is the sense of a tragic
flaw," Marshall explained.
Glass calls Paul and Lise’s spiral toward destruction
Shakespearean in structure. "The audience is watching and they see
the sister trying to interfere with the relationship between the
other two people through deception and lying and so forth. It
creates a result that leads to this great tragedy.
"The inevitableness…makes it fascinating. We can watch
‘Macbeth’ and tell what’s going to happen, but there’s nothing we
can do to prevent it," Glass says.
Glass’s influences spill over into the 19th and 20th centuries
as well. He nonchalantly cites Bach, Verdi and Charlie Parker as
musical inspirations, but seems equally fascinated by artists in
other media. He’s worked with dance pioneers Twyla Tharp, Jerome
Robbins and the Alvin Ailey company. He’s composed chamber music,
film scores and, of course, opera.
"Opera’s making a big comeback," Glass says. "People like seeing
a combination of dance and music and singing and image. It’s
something that people have always liked and it’s coming back very
strongly now."
What exactly constitutes "image" can be vague. But to Glass,
it’s another challenge to expand the boundaries of theater. In
"Orphee," his first work based on Cocteau’s films, Glass composed a
libretto that complemented the scenario of the original. He
followed with "La Belle et la Bete," projecting the film onto a
screen and performing the opera in front of it. And in "Les
Enfants," he rounded up dancers who could sing and singers who
could move to create what the New York Times called "the future of
dance opera."
So what lies in Glass’s future? The composer will move from
terrible children to monsters when he uses two 70 mm cameras to
create a 3D image on stage at Royce Hall this spring. "Monsters of
Grace," as the work is titled, will be another opera hybrid. Opera,
computer images and 3D glasses in a 1920s Los Angeles concert hall
built to look like an Italian renaissance cathedral. Some might
have trouble waiting until the April opening. After all, they know
Philip Glass.
OPERA: "Les Enfants Terribles: Children of the Game" plays
Friday and Saturday at the Wiltern Theatre at 8 p.m. A 7 p.m.
CenterStage Lecture with Glass will precede each performance.
Tickets are $40, $37, $32 or $13 with UCLA ID. Call 825-2101 for
more information.UCLA Center for the Performing Arts
"Les Enfants Terribles" is a dance opera based on Jean Cocteau’s
film.