Thursday, November 13, 1997
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 5
The opera "Les Enfants Terribles" combines singing and dancing to tell the story of a brother and sister in love. The opera is an adaptation of a Jean Coteau novel. It will be performed at 8 tonight at the Lied Center. Contributed photo
'Enfants' is an opera of dance
By Rachelle Detweiler
By Rachelle Detweiler
rdetweiler@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The world portrayed in "Les Enfants Terribiles," is a distorted reality formed by a brother and a sister fatally entangled in their love.
The 8 p.m. performance tonight at the Lied Center is an adaptation of Jean Cocteau's novel, which was written during his stay in a sanitarium. The work served as a substitute hallucinogen while he tried to shake his opium addiction.
"The fantasy gives the actions and the performance a greater scope to work with," said Hal Cazalet, performance narrator.
Composer Philip Glass and modern-dance choreographer Susan Marshall reworked the novel and enhanced each character's split personality through multiple dancers.
Because each personality trait is conveyed through a different dancer, the work offers a complex view of each character's emotions, Cazalet said.
"What's fascinating about this show is it took 15 performances for us to figure out what was going on," Cazalet said.
He said that with each performance, the work had evolved to a level where the dancers developed their own scope for their character's personality.
The multiple dancers form a more complex view of the character's personality, said dancer Susan Blankensop.
"It was fun to play off of the other person's part of the personality," Blankensop said. "Each person has an overall dynamic they can play with. It gives a certain type of freedom."
Coordinating the multiple personalities of the dancers took four to five months of rehearsal. The singers joined the rehearsals after the dancers became familiar with their parts. The singers act as the dancers' voices, Cazalet said.
All singing will be in French, with English subtitles projected onto the stage. Cazalet said that throughout the performance, fake snow would fall from above the stage and into a trough below.
He said the performance gained a rich texture when both the dancers and the singers worked as a group. Neither aspect of the performance dominate the show. Cazalet said.
"We didn't want it to be an opera about singing," Cazalet said. "We wanted it to be an opera about dancing."
Vaginal Contraceptive Spermicide Inserts
REGENCY ENTERPRISES PRODUCED BY AGNON MILCHAN / POLAR PRODUCTION JON AMIEL BILL MURRAY PETER GALLAGHER "THE MAN WHO ANEW TOO LITTLE" JOANNE WHALLEY RICHARD WILSON
MUSIC BY CHRIS YOUNG PAMELA POWER PRODUCTION JIM CLAY PRODUCTION ROBERT STEVENS ELISEBATH RODRONEW JOR COAPACIDOLI, JR. PRODUCTION ROBERT FARMARROD罗德弗·菲农ROD罗德弗·菲农ROD罗德弗·菲农
SCREENPLAY BY ROBERT FARMARROD罗德弗·菲农ROD罗德弗·菲农
MARK TARLLOV PRODUCTION JON AMIEL AGNON MILCHAN MICHAEL NATMANSON MARK TARLLOV PRODUCTION JON AMIEL
MARK TARLLOV PRODUCTION
www.newregency.com/theman
Soundtrack available on www.thewoman.co.uk
Packaged together for Double Protection CarePlus™ gives you 2 simple-to-use methods to help prevent HIV (AIDS), sexually transmitted diseases (STD's), and Pregnancy, when used together, each time you have sex. Now available at leading stores. For more information: 1-800-899-SELF
He's on a mission so secret, even he doesn't know about it.
BILL MURRAY IS the Man who Knew too Little
OPENS NOVEMBER 14TH EVERYWHERE!