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At this moment, I am sitting in a nearly empty Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. Banished to the back row by my computer’s required proximity to an outlet, I have the perfect vantage point to observe those actively participating in tonight’s Giulio Cesere rehearsal and those passively waiting their turn.

On stage: Sarah Coit in the title role of Giulio Cesere, Glenn Healy as Curio, Janel Speelman as Sesto, Rehanna Thelwell as Cornelia and Luke Randall as Achilla. Here presents one unique aspect of opera that people who are unfamiliar with the art form are often confused by: why are women running around pretending to be men?

Roles in which women take on a male gender identity are commonly referred to as pants roles. Historically, there are two types of pants roles: those that were written for castrati and those that were written specifically for women who could better impersonate the vocal and physical qualities of a young boy.

In Handel’s Giulio Cesere the title role, Sesto and Tolomeo were all originally written for castrati. Since castration occurred before puberty the boy’s larynx was prevented from being transformed by the physiological events of puberty resulting in the high voice of a young boy being maintained into adulthood. In the late 18th century castration for the purpose of creating a specific voice type fell out of fashion and in 1870 Italy made the practice illegal.

Without castrati to sing the roles, mezzo-sopranos began to fill the void so that great works by Mozart, Handel and countless of other composers could still be performed.
It is with small changes like these, where the integrity of the music is not affected, that opera maintains its relevance and interest to the modern viewer.

Another example of such a change is the update which Director Robert Swedberg has presented with this work. In this production, the chorus is attending a museum gallery opening and the action of the principle characters takes place as the statues and paintings come to life.

As I sit in the back of the theater, I can see the computer screens of the chorus members as they check facebook, the screen of the lighting designer modifying, changing and fixing, and the director taking notes for the performers. This melding of the old and the new is what makes opera exciting for me – that what Handel wrote hundreds of years ago can still be relevant to teenagers on their iPhones.

For those interested Giulio Cesere will be performed at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre March 26 – 29. Tickets are $10 for students but free with a Passport to the Arts.

There’s something really freeing about seeing a movie by yourself. You have no one next to you that you feel obligated to laugh, cry, or share your popcorn with. In this way, you’re totally free to experience the movie your own way in the dark of the theater without pressure and without someone robotically asking you, “so what’d you think?” as the credits roll. So, not having seen a movie at the theater in almost a year, I decided to go on a self-date to the theater. I was between three movies: critically acclaimed Selma, critically acclaimed Still Alice, and Fifty Shades of Grey.

From pretty much the beginning I have repeatedly scoffed at the rise to fame of Fifty Shades of Grey; and though I never bothered to read it, my friends all assured me that the writing was atrocious. It wasn’t until I read this lengthy article that I decided I couldn’t really take a stance on the premise of the story until I had heard it. However, I was in no rush. So, as I raced to the theater (late of course), I told myself Fifty Shades was my last resort. At the counter I bought one ticket to Still Alice where I was informed that I had missed the first 7 minutes already. Fifty Shades was scheduled to start 10 minutes after Still Alice, so at the last minute, I ducked into the theater for Fifty Shades just as the last preview came to an end. Fast forward to the end of the movie, I was shocked and a little embarrassed that I didn’t hate it. Fast forward to now, I’m still thinking about it — usually a sign that I found a movie, dare I say it, thought provoking.

What was it about Fifty Shades of Grey that I liked? To be honest it had nothing to do with the supposedly daring sex scenes or the steamy actors, neither of which greatly impressed me. Instead, it was the pleasant surprise that the movie wasn’t really about sex at all, but rather a psychological exploration of two very interesting character types. I was fascinated by Christian’s dark past of sexual abuse and family trauma and the ways in which this impacted his relationships with women. I was also sucked into Anastasia’s battle between desire and knowing where to draw the line. Lastly, I was impressed by how the director managed to empower this “submissive” female character while still making her human — desiring of love, excitement, and danger. There was a realness in the psychology of these characters that I did not expect. In my opinion, the sex scenes were laughable, especially the first dominant/submissive experience, which looked more like a slow-motion seance than anything too erotic. I’ve seen some really well done sex scenes and this was just not one of them. So, the film that everyone had been so worked up about didn’t even end up really being about sex. Sex was more of a way to show the complexities of the characters.

I still wouldn’t call Fifty Shades of Grey a great movie, and I still don’t think I’d be interested in reading the books, but overall I found it a very interesting exploration of the effects of psychological trauma and human attraction. What I walked into thinking would be a guilty pleasure film at the best and something to laugh at at the worst turned out to be the opposite of what I expected. I attribute a lot of this to the creative vision of the production team, so I’d like to conclude with a quote from the film’s director, Sam Taylor-Johnson:

“I felt like I had a responsibility to empower the lead character,” Taylor-Johnson said. “Anastasia had to go on a journey of sexual exploration, but, by the end, it had to be about empowerment. It is all her choice. All decisions, she’s clearly made. She is not falling prey. That’s the message I want people to walk away with. That feeling of ‘all the riches and success and charisma count for nothing, it’s under terms you cannot accept.’ In Fifty Shades, seemingly Christian has all the power and control—but actually Anastasia does.”

Dating back in historical record as far as the Catacombs of the Roman Empire, graffiti can be defined as the act of vandalizing another’s property, whether it is public or private.

 

Unlike other forms of art, graffiti is inherently illegal. Due to its illegality, graffiti artists generally operate under anonymous names. So is graffiti truly art, or merely an act a malicious transgression of property? I will consider some tropes of graffiti across history in hopes of demonstrating that it is an amorphic yet legitimate art form.

Due to its transgressive nature, graffiti is must necessarily be quite political and self-conscious – graffiti’s creators are aware they are defying the law – this reflexivity is always a part of their message.

Hence, political caricatures in Roman times

or Banksy’s contemporary work

 

Yet this leads to the question, is all graffiti automatically artistic simply due to its controversial nature? Does an ill-thought out or perverse image

 

constitute street art?

Jean Baudrillard notes graffiti’s transgressive nature marks it as a powerful means of communication because it destabilizes the message of the property it has vandalized. For example, the Catacombs or the wall pictured above no longer command as much attention as the piece that has covered them.

 

In this sense, I would argue that although all works of graffiti serve to destabilize traditional meaning, and is therefore political, only some works of graffiti make an attempt to transpose new meaning in place of what it has destroyed. Banksy’s graffiti

works to destabilize an ordinary wall, distract from typical urban signage, but also through self-aware parody of commercial signage, actively disrupt and dispute the coherence of the commercial logic the city block attempts to fabricate. The above piece makes a powerful statement about commercialization of art – we are commodifying freedom through habits of consumption rather than thinking and acting freely.

Banksy’s work is an attempt to introduce decidedly new ways of thinking, grant the “audience” of his work agency. Ultimately, the physical demonstration of agency – the ability to transgress and defy rules of law – offer the audience the same agency to think outside the bounds of what society tells us to.

Looking for a nice study break? Creators Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld (a married couple with considerable talents) bring you High Maintenance, a web series based on a character known only as “The Guy,” who delivers weed to customers in New York City on his bike. There is no extended plot between the episodes, and each stands alone as an individual entity. There is some repetition in characters, but for the most part all of the conflict and resolution happen within each episode. The plot is actually secondary to the web series’ magic; the key resides in the characters. Each episode focuses on the client, not The Guy, and we see an acutely accurate representation of different people in the city. The characters are believable, familiar, substantial, relatable and amusing. They are the unbearably annoying friends, the scrambling for rent so they turn to subletting their spare room, the overworked and anxious assistant. But each comes with an added surprise: the stay at home dad likes to cross-dress; the man who orders weed every week has a secret crush on The Guy; the amazing new girlfriend is actually homeless. As the new character information appears, so too does our interest and investment peak. These are really high quality videos with superb editing, wonderful character development, astonishing visuals of the city, and a hilarious, heart-warming main character. The ultimate allure to this series is that we grow to love and admire The Guy, a drug dealer with a clear conscious, true morals (that may or may not align with the law) and a big heart. Watch a few below and see the rest for yourselves!