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“I could fill a book, I think, with a more or less imaginary account of how I came to apprehend London, how first in one aspect and then in another it grew in my mind.” H.G. Wells, Tono-Bungay, 1909
[Image: Anonymous 1500s etching of Scarpino and other Commedia characters]
“The cab stopped at the Soane Museum, which Laura Wing had always wanted to see, a compatriot having once told her that it was one of the most curious things in London and one of the least known. … The heterogeneous objects collected by the late Sir John Soane are arranged in a fine old dwelling-house, and the place gives one the impression of a sort of Saturday afternoon of one's youth — a long, rummaging visit, under indulgent care, to some eccentric and rather alarming old travelled person. Our young friends wandered from room to room and thought everything queer and some few objects interesting; Mr Wendover said it would be a very good place to find a thing you couldn't find anywhere else — it illustrated the prudent virtue of keeping. They took note of the sarcophagi and pagodas, the artless old maps and medals. They admired the fine Hogarths; there were uncanny, unexpected objects that Laura edged away from, that she would have preferred not to be in the room with.” Henry James, A London Life, 1888
“She had, I believe, the usual allowance of rather vain motives: she wished to be looked at, she wished to be married, she wished to be thought original.” Henry James, The Author of Beltraffio, 1884
[Image: Sargent, Repose, 1911]
Favorite juxtaposition: Sheila de Bretteville’s 1975 Women in Design poster next to the Architectural Association’s 1973 California USA featuring the iconic image of Marilyn with her skirt blowing up. Who’s speaking? About which L.A.? You could go on and on ….
Other delights: Alison Knowles’s 1971 House of Dust! The sample glass panel for the PDC! The Charles Moore model for an 100%-mirror Best Products façade! And Leonard Koren’s 1973 accordion-fold booklet 17 Beautiful Men Taking a Shower!
Act 2 of Tosca is an Everest of musical theater. Adolfo Hohenstein’s 1899 poster (above) expresses it exactly: melodrama at its most outrageous and harrowing with love, injustice, and oppression leading to rebellion and revenge. The scene combines showstopping tunes (“Vissi d’arte”), a personification of totalitarianism worthy of Kafka and Orwell (Baron Scarpia), a sympathetic personification of a wronged and enraged Everywoman (Tosca), all accompanied by her lover’s cries from the interrogation chamber. It remains topical, unfortunately for us.
Unfortunately John Caird’s production sleepwalked through all this, omitting everything except the showstopping tunes. You can coast pretty far on the music—and the orchestra under Plácido Domingo resonated richly—but the voices of the principals were loud rather than lovely. And Caird apparently neglected to inform the principals that they were undertaking a theatrical presentation. Their gestures and actions were uniformly awkward and unmeaning. It was a trip back to the bad old days.
With opera productions the problem often stems from misguided creativity: a directorial concept (Flying Dutchman as Dr. Who), or visual design (fishpond in Tatyana’s bedroom). This Tosca, however, had no ideas whatsoever. The director let the performers flop about on stage at random, and Bunny Christie’s sets and costumes were flat and unattractive without being very functional. It was bad, but Dorothy Chandler was packed, and the audience loudly applauded and cheered throughout. Better luck next season.