Saturday, November 02, 2024

"Carnival of the Animals"

Stanford Live presents
Carnival of the Animals
A SOZO Production
Bing Concert Hall, Stanford
October 27th, 2024

Making my way to Stanford last weekend for SOZO Production’s Carnival of the Animals, I didn’t know what to expect. On purpose, I had read very little about the show, but I was privy to a few details. First, it was a response to the hideous January 6, 2021 insurrection. Second, it was an interdisciplinary experience performed by legendary artists. And last, the musical source material was Camille Saint-Saëns’ 1886 fantasia, Carnival of the Animals. My curiosity stemmed from the fact that as a classical trained musician, I know that Saint-Saëns famously regarded his fourteen-chapter suite as rather light fare - a fun, entertaining, even whimsical, composition. How was that going to work as a frame or container for such serious and downright frightening subject matter?

Saying it worked is indeed an understatement. What transpired over one hour at Bing Concert Hall was a powerful, post-modern, political concerto of movement, music and spoken word. Episodes of dance and evocative text would take the stage, and then the work would return to two pianists and two string players for its musical ritornello. Created and written by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, choreographed by Francesca Harper and performed by Bamuthi Joseph and Wendy Whelan, the piece asked its audience to consider January 6th as a carnival of animals. To think about that horrific day through a lens of tents, creatures, jungles and zoos. The performance was miraculous. And it completely succeeded in re-contextualizing Saint-Saëns for me. With layers, textures and shocking audio clips from that day, the music completely transformed into something haunting, sinister and at times, nefarious. The score was an active cast member, a living organism, rather than a static entity written over one hundred years ago. If you have the opportunity to see this SOZO Production, go. Immediately. 

With poetic spoken word that pierced the consciousness and soul, Bamuthi Joseph was utterly transcendent. Vulnerable, real, even occasionally humorous, it was impossible not to be affected and changed by his words. The phrase ‘that’s a lie’ kept returning throughout the script, jokingly at first, but in due course, somber and penetrating. 

Carnival of the Animals
Photo Jamie Lyons

Whelan’s movement phrases evoked the natural world at every turn – avian arms, double attitude gazelle leaps, a protruding gestural beak. Much of her gait featured coordinating, rather than oppositional motion, common of many different animals. And there was one choreographic chapter that deserves special mention. Midway through Carnival of the Animals, Whelan changed into a long, black, floor-length gown. With all the aspects of a funeral dirge, she cycled through the space, mesmerizing the viewer with equal parts specificity and grief. A mourning dance for everything that died on that day.


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