MIE
images from MIE / review
Drawing on inspirations ranging from Japanese Kabuki to Lynchean cinema, the production of MiE may be compared to the theatre of Robert Wilson (The Black Rider, Einstein on the Beach), Steve Reich (The Cave) or Laurie Anderson (O Superman). The November performances will feature special artist Alasdair Malloy, a world-renowned glass-harmonica specialist who has recorded for the Icelandic artist Björk. Ellan Parry, winner of the 2005 Jocelyn Herbert Award for stage design, will do the scenography and costume design and Kristina Hjelm will play with the magic of lighting for MiE. Emily Wilkins will be conducting the musicians and mimes through the lands of glass and water.
The audience of MiE will certainly enjoy an extraordinary theatre experience. The show works on different levels and it is possible for children and adults alike to enjoy it. It brings contemporary music and orchestral sounds to children in a new and exciting way. MiE also gives the general public an alternative to opera, musicals and contemporary classical concerts by treating contemporary music material in an original and modern way.
In addition, 2006 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, inventor of the glass harmonica, which is one of the main featured instruments of MiE.
All six performances were sold out which was a fantastic result for a
premiere of a contemporary music work!! Apologies to all the people I
know who couldn't get any tickets. Hopefully the world of MiE will
return sometime in the near future - perhaps in a slightly larger
venue?
As soon as the film of the show has been edited, I will put up parts
of it here to view/hear/experience. There are already some photos here
taken by Julius in the dress rehearsal as well as some of the music
from the Saturday matinee. More photos can be found on
www.flickr.com/photos/juliusgb . Soon there will also be some photos
from the actual performances.
If you were at one of the shows and you would like to leave a comment,
please do so on www.myspace.com/miebycatherinekontz
Previews and Reviews still to come.....
'MIE was the best thing I have been to for years. I would really have
liked to have seen it a couple more times. There was so much, so many
interacting threads, mass, group and individual cameos I would have
liked to ponder on and enjoy again.'(audience member)
'the best evocation of the British in Love since Brief Encounter and
Stoppard's the Real Thing' (audience member/performer)
DVD Review: Catherine Kontz - MiE
Catherine Kontz (composer/director),
Emily Wilkins (cond.), Alasdair Malloy (glass harmonica), Riccardo Arena (animation), mimes, acrobats, wizard, chamber orchestra. Filmed by David Reid & Jonathan Watts.
Catherine Kontz: MiE (DVD0701)
Length: 75'00"
Musical performance is intrinsically a theatrical experience, but for many composers the model for combining music and theatre is still – for good or ill – opera. Yet opera carries with it a whole raft of expectations to be fulfilled or subverted, not the least of which is the relationship between voice, text and music. Contemporary music theatre without voices occupies a shadowy area between or overlapping a number of categories. MiE acknowledges a debt to several genres of theatre and music, but remains very much its own curious thing.
The piece is made up of twenty-six scenes which tell the story of MiE and Mr O (played by a number of mime artists). However, the word 'story' should be understood loosely – less as a linear narrative than as a series of character portraits. Nothing as such happens in the story of the characters (who also include The Wizard and The Acrobat), in fact the action seems often more concerned with preparation for action.
The scenes isolate characteristic behaviour or a particular moment in a life for examination. Stylised movement and lighting is the key to the performance, much as it is in the more overtly symbolic realms of Indonesian shadow puppetry and Kabuki theatre. Gestures are obsessively repeated and magnified through the use of shadow and projected animation.
But what of the music? Well, the musicians are not hidden away in a pit but are visibly present throughout (possibly due to limited theatre space, but they seem a part of the total theatrical conception) acting like a white-suited landscape to contrast with the mimes. The music does not support the visual action as such but acts as a parallel stream, establishing a subconsciously symbiotic relationship between sound and visual action. The soundworld exists somewhere between an experimental, sometimes ethereal world of recorders, glass harmonica, analogue electronics, and the Wizard's water-based sounds, and a more hieratic, strident brass and percussion-led sound reminiscent of Messiaen and Birtwistle.
In the absence of a linear plot, and with a whimsical cast of mind, it is possible that a piece like this could simply drift away, however, each scene has some family resemblance to another be it in terms of orchestration, lighting or movement, and so as a totality the piece has a cumulative effect that amounts to a mysteriously satisfying effect.
This DVD film of the event (sold out over a six night run) is very well handled, with the use of subtle video effects in certain sections which serve the piece well.
The sheer effort of mounting a large-scale, independent event like this deserves hearty applause for Kontz and her collaborators, but the piece too is well worth exploring and bodes well for future developments.
by Stephen Chase
