~
Gregory Purnhagen (bass/baritone), far left, and Hai-Ting Chinn (mezzo-soprano), far right
perform with the Philip Glass ensemble during a screening of La Belle Et La Bête
photo by Lawrence K. Ho, Los Angeles Times
It was fifteen years ago last month, in September of 2005, that Tom & I
attended a performance like one I'd never seen before or since at the Metro in
Oakland.
It was a staging by the Oakland Opera Theater of the operatic fantasy, La Belle et la Bête, written by Philip Glass (link below).
The show actually started outside on the sidewalk with a tent that
served as a cafe in front of the Metro. The audience drifted into the
theater and took their seats. I'd shot a performance by earRotator the year before (link below).
Metro,
Oakland
photographer unknown
I discovered that almost the entire space was taken up by the set for
the opera. There was little room for the audience which was VERY small.
The cast was Lisa Marie Bolin, Roger McCracken and Angela Dean Baham, as well as acrobats, contortionists, stilt walkers and a pole climber.
La Belle et la Bête (The Beauty and the Beast) is an opera for ensemble and film, composed in 1994 by Philip Glass based on a libretto in French by the composer according to the script of the film by Jean Cocteau released in 1946.
Glass had the idea of removing the original soundtrack from Cocteau's
film, including the voices of the actors, and replacing it with his own
music and the voices of the singers. In order to perfectly match the
singing with the movements of the actors' lips on the screen, he
transcribed all the lines and meticulously located them so that the
music perfectly matched the image. Glass thus timed each word of the
film's dialogues by electronic tracking of the film and placed them
mathematically in the score, then synchronized music and film using a
computer which, in charge of sorting the delays and advances of the
spoken and sung words, recalculated the digital signals of the audio
tape on the film's digital circuit. The result of this collaboration has been posted to YouTube (link below).
La Belle et la Bête (The Beauty and the Beast) is an opera for ensemble and film, composed in 1994 by Philip Glass based on a libretto in French by the composer according to the script of the film by Jean Cocteau released in 1946. This is the second part of a trilogy in homage to the French poet after Orphée (1993) and before Les Enfants Terribles (1996). The world premiere of the work took place on 4 June 1994 in Seville, with Michael Riesman conducting.
A stage production requires three different levels: the film projected
on a large screen, the singers on a stage in front of the screen and the
musicians. It takes both precision and synchronisation on the part of
the orchestra and the singers. For this, director Charles Otte had the
idea of presenting the singers turning their backs to the audience when
they are not singing, thus being able to follow their cinematographic
doubles on the screen.
La Belle et la Bête is written for the Philip Glass Ensemble, to which strings and percussion are added; the orchestra therefore includes a flute and a piccolo flute, a clarinet and a bass clarinet, a soprano saxophone and viola, two trombones and a bass trombone, a harp, two synthesizers, strings and a percussionist.
1-01 Ouverture - 3:31
1-02 Les Sœurs - 3:47
1-03 La Demande En Mariage D'Avenant - 3:37
1-04 Le Voyage Du Père - 5:22
1-05 La Belle Et La Bête - 7:39
1-06 Le Retour Du Père - 2:18
1-07 La Belle Va Au Château - 8:12
1-08 Le Dîner - 3:43
1-09 Les Tourments De La Bête - 4:50
2-01 Promenade Dans Le Jardin - 10:10
2-02 La Saisie Des Meubles - 1:33
2-03 La Confiance De La Bête En La Belle - 4:59
2-04 Belle Retourne Chez Son Père - 1:57
2-05 Belle Raconte Son Histoire - 3:54
2-06 Le Plan - 3:32
2-07 La Passion D'Avenant - 4:06
2-08 Le Magnifique Apparaît - 3:10
2-09 Le Miroir - 4:26
2-10 Le Pavillon - 3:44
2-11 La Métamorphose - 4:10
Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Nonesuch Records
Copyright (c) – Nonesuch Records
Phonographic Copyright (p) – WEA International Inc.
Copyright (c) – WEA International Inc.
Produced For – Euphorbia Productions Ltd.
Recorded At – The Looking Glass Studios
Mixed At – The Looking Glass Studios
Made By – WEA Manufacturing Inc.
Pressed By – Specialty Records Corporation
Credits:
Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Richard Peck
Baritone Vocals – Gregory Purnhagen, John Kuether, Zheng Zhou
Bassoon – Charles McCracken*
Cello – Beverly Lauridsen, Semyon Fridman, Seymour Barab
Conductor, Directed By [Music Director], Keyboards, Mixed By – Michael Riesman
Engineer – Anne Pope, Rich Costey
Engineer [Assistant] – Amanda Riesman, Dave Porter, James Law, Leonardo Heiblum
Flute, Piccolo Flute, Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet – Andrew Sterman
French Horn – Sharon Moe
Keyboards – Eleanor Sandresky, Philip Glass
Liner Notes [Interview] – Jonathan Cott
Mezzo-soprano Vocals – Janice Felty
Other [French Language Consulant] – Lisa M. Glaeser
Other [Vocal Coach] – Alan Johnson
Performer – The Philip Glass Ensemble
Producer – Kurt Munkacsi
Producer [Theatrical Production] – Jedediah Wheeler
Soprano Saxophone, Flute – Jon Gibson (2)
Soprano Vocals – Ana Maria Martinez, Hallie Neill
Synthesizer [Programming Assistance] – John Witte, MacDonald Quayle*
Synthesizer [Sound Design] – Michael Riesman
Trombone [Tenor] – James Pugh*
Tuba, Bass Trombone – Alan Raph
Viola – Alfred Brown, John Dexter (3), Stephanie Fricker*
Violin – Jan Mullen, Jenny Koo, Karen Karlsrud, Linda Quan, Regis Iandiorio, Sanford Allen, Sergiu Schwartz, Tim Baker*
Notes:
An opera for ensemble and film. Music by Philip Glass. Based on the film by Jean Cocteau.
Produced for Euphorbia Productions Ltd., New York.
Recorded and mixed at The Looking Glass Studios, New York.
Music preparation: Lisa Bielawa, Peter Foley, Ken Willians.
Production coordinator: Sharon Ainsberg. Production assistants: Warren Fischer, Leonardo Heiblum, Amanda Riesman. Intern: Svjetlana Bukvic.
Graphic design: John Gall.
Photographs on La Belle Et La Bête, a film by Jean Cocteau, by G. R. Aldo.
Packaged in a double CD case that is housed in a cardboard slip case and accompanied by a 146 page booklet with opera text in English, French & German.
℗ & © 1995 Nonesuch Records for the United States and
℗ & © 1995 WEA International Inc. for the world outside the United States
Barcode and Other Identifiers
Barcode (Scanned): 075597934724
Barcode (Text): 0 7559-79347-2 4
Matrix / Runout (Disc 1): [Specialty 'S' Logo] 2 79347-2.1 SRC##01 M1S1
Matrix / Runout (Disc 2): [Specialty 'S' Logo] 2 79347-2.2 SRC**01 M1S1
Label: Nonesuch – 79347-2
Format: 2 × CD
Country: US
Released: 07 Apr 1995
Genre: Electronic
Style: Modern Classical, Minimal
Viewfinder link:
Tom White
Net links:
East Bay Times ~ Oakland show not ordinary opera
LA Times ~ Philip Glass transforms opera, film with La Belle et la Bête
Oakland Metro
YouTube links:
Jean Cocteau & Philip Glass ~ La Belle et la Bete
Philip Glass ~
Net links:
East Bay Times ~ Oakland show not ordinary opera
LA Times ~ Philip Glass transforms opera, film with La Belle et la Bête
Oakland Metro
YouTube links:
Jean Cocteau & Philip Glass ~ La Belle et la Bete
Philip Glass ~
La Belle et la Bête (documentary)
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