The Sun Play
When pianist, composer, bandleader, proto-Afrofuturist, and philosopher, Herman “Sonny” Blount died in 1993 his Arkestra essentially became a repertory band. Three years earlier the bandleader had suffered a stroke, which limited his mobility and energy, but he continued composing and performing at a prolific rate. As someone lucky enough to have seen numerous concerts by the band before his stroke and several afterwards, the difference was notable.
A Raisin in the Sun portrays a few weeks in the life of the Youngers, an African-American family living on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s. When the play opens, the Youngers are about to receive an.
Created by Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner. With John Lithgow, Jane Curtin, Kristen Johnston, French Stewart. A group of aliens are sent to Earth, disguised as a human family, to experience and report life on the third planet from the sun. Beyond the Sun is a technology-tree, space-exploration and colonization game for 2-4 players which plays in about 90 minutes. A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, as well as the first with a Black director, Mr. 10 Hansberry noted that her play introduced details of Black life to the overwhelmingly white Broadway audiences, while director Richards observed that it was the first play to which large. Angels & Demons At Play: Swirling By The Sun Ra Arkestra Peter Margasak, October 29th, 2020 09:06 The first new album in decades from the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra is a welcome addition to the group’s legacy, finds Peter Margasak.
The Arkestra’s long-time vocalist June Tyson passed away in 1992, further sapping the band’s ebullient vitality, yet under Sun Ra they still remained one of the greatest live groups I’ve ever seen. Tenor saxophonist John Gilmore took the reins until he joined Ra in the celestial afterlife two years later, and, indeed, the Arkestra increasingly felt like a ghost band in more ways than one. Alto saxophonist Marshall Allen, now a perky 96, was the next man up, and he’s continued to lead the Arkestra ever since.
Swirling is the first new studio album from the once insanely fertile Arkestra in two decades, and apart from Allen’s title composition, the material has been in the group’s songbook for decades. Spoiled by encounters with the Arkestra under Ra’s leadership, I nonetheless enjoyed seeing the band live over the years, but something changed in 2012 when vocalist Tara Middleton, wife of the inventive Arkestra guitarist Dave Hotep, came aboard. As colourful and entertaining as the group remained, with Allen’s ecstatic flurries, fits of literal acrobatics by fellow alto saxophonist Knoel Scott, and joyful parades through the audiences that still flocked to see them, the Arkestra lacked the magnetic, charismatic focal point that Ra and Tyson once provided. Middleton, who cuts a striking presence amid the sequined membership and doubles as a violinist, is also a sublimely gifted singer, and she quickly became an anchor of the band’s performances. The rest of the Arkestra continued their performative stunts, but Middleton’s dynamic presence cohered the sideshow antics back into the focused circus of yore.
The unceasing deluge of Sun Ra reissues and archival digs since his death speaks to the undiminished appeal, prescience, and variety of the work the Arkestra created together. The band has thrived as a live attraction despite adding little to its repertoire, but it has developed its own distinctive wrinkles of the vintage sound, so it’s been overdue to record the band’s current iteration. The deaths of baritone saxophonist Danny Ray Thompson and conga player Stanley “Atakatune” Morgan since the album was recorded between April-June 2018 only makes this documentation more valuable.
While Swirling doesn’t offer any substantial retrenchment of the Arkestra’s singular melding of big band tradition, free jazz, and sonic experimentation, it’s nonetheless a superb portrait of where Allen has taken the band, with his skilful arrangements of both familiar and more obscure tunes from the old book, and performances that are spirited, deeply pleasing, and evidence of renewed vigour. The band includes plenty of seasoned vets like French hornist Vincent Chancey, bassist Tyler Mitchell, and trumpeter Michael Ray.
No group in jazz history has embodied the communal spirit like the Arkestra. Most of its members have spent time living in the group's residential headquarters in Philly’s Germantown neighbourhood – the Arkestra’s base for over four decades – and they’ve bought in to the band’s collective spirit, and its hard-core fans are the closest thing jazz has to Deadheads. In a way, the new album is a gift to the faithful and new adherents, beautifully conveying the vibe and orchestral depth of the Arkestra’s recent live shows.
Allen’s arrangements tilt towards the horns rather than piano that structured the tunes during Ra’s leadership, and that recasts classics like ‘Angels and Demons at Play’ and ‘Lights on a Satellite’ with a sonic profile that toggles between lush, gauzy, and spectral. The group’s current pianist Farid Barron, who, incongruously, was once a member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, acquits himself beautifully, particularly on the title track, even though he solos only a few times throughout the album’s epic ninety-minute duration. But his involvement underlines the fact that despite the Arkestra’s celebrated idiosyncrasies and frequent flouting of orthodoxy, its musicians have always been seriously skilled players firmly grounded in the full diapason of jazz history.
One of the joys of Arkestra performances was the way in which its original material blended with standards in a manner evincing a non-hierarchical holism. Ra, after all, worked with big band pioneer Fletcher Henderson in the late-1940s. In fact, ‘Queer Notions’, which is featured here, was recorded by Henderson’s band back in 1933, with Coleman Hawkins on tenor. While the Arkestra had periods of intense experimentation, the group would also devote itself to classic big band verities throughout its entire run, so those that complain about those conventions turning up here are missing the point.
Allen plays lots of his trusty EVI (electric valve instrument) here, making it sound better than I ever remember hearing it, and although no synthesizers are listed in the credits, electronic squiggles and swoops snake through many of the brassy tunes, with an analog squelchiness that feels surprisingly fresh within the chattering, conversational horn accents and dissonant harmonies that consistently reject conventional big band charts. Middleton turns up on almost every track, sometimes joining group chants, as on ‘Rocket No. 9’, taking the lead as on a remarkable version of ‘Astro Black’, where her voice is only complemented by slaloming electronics, or belting out the blues on the exuberant ‘Space Loneliness’. She’s absent on the album’s sole misstep, a new version of the 1974 novelty single ‘Unmask the Batman’, originally an amusing trifle that used the superhero’s TV show theme as a point of departure, with avuncular off-the-cuff lyrics from Sam Bankhead, while here the trademark lick cycles to nowhere.
While Strut has previously released some terrific collections that function as valuable primers for Sun Ra’s omniverse, Swirling does a pretty nice job as an introduction to newbies even if it lacks the atmospheric crackle of the original material. But I’m happy this album exists, if only to demonstrate the Arkestra’s ongoing merit, adding a new layer of nuance and delight to its vaunted and accruing legacy.
The Royal Hunt of the Sun is a 1964 play by Peter Shaffer that dramatizes the relation of two worlds entering in a conflict by portraying two characters: AtahuallpaInca and Francisco Pizarro.
Performance history[edit]
Premiere[edit]
The Royal Hunt of the Sun was first presented at the Chichester Festival by the National Theatre and subsequently at the Old Vic in July 1964. It was directed by John Dexter and designed by Michael Annals with music composed by Marc Wilkinson and movement by Claude Chagrin.
The cast was led by Robert Stephens as Atahuallpa and Colin Blakely as Francisco Pizarro and included Oliver Cotton, Graham Crowden, Paul Curran, Michael Gambon, Edward Hardwicke, Anthony Hopkins, Derek Jacobi, Robert Lang, John McEnery, Edward Petherbridge, Louise Purnell and Christopher Timothy.
Where Do The Suns Play
The production was a critical and commercial success. In addition to its run at the Old Vic, it played at the Queen's Theatre, London, and toured to Aberdeen, Glasgow, Stratford, Leeds, Oxford and Nottingham.
Broadway[edit]
The first Broadway performance took place at the ANTA Playhouse on 26 October 1965. The production by the Theatre Guild was the same as the original London production. In the cast were Christopher Plummer as Pizarro, David Carradine as Atahualpa, John Vernon as de Soto, Robert Aberdeen as the First Inca Indian Chieftain, and George Rose as Old Martin. The lighting design by Martin Aronstein marked the first time exposed lighting was used as an integral part of the design of a Broadway production.[1] The play ran for 261 performances.
Australia[edit]
The Sun Origin: Post-apocalyptic Action Shooter - Google Play
The play was staged as part of the fourth Adelaide Festival of Arts in 1966.[2] It was directed by John Tasker,[3][4] designed by Wendy Dickson, with choreography by Margaret Barr.[5]
Film version[edit]
The play was filmed on location by the now defunct National General Pictures studio in 1969, with Robert Shaw as Pizarro, Christopher Plummer switching roles to play Atahualpa, Nigel Davenport as Hernando De Soto, and Leonard Whiting, in his first role after Romeo and Juliet, as Young Martin (Old Martin was omitted from the film). The screen version has been released on DVD.
2006 revival[edit]
The play was revived by the National at the Olivier Theatre in April 2006 in a production directed by Trevor Nunn, designed by Anthony Ward with the original music by Marc Wilkinson and choreography by Anthony Van Laast. Leading the cast were Alun Armstrong as Pizarro and Paterson Joseph as Atahualpa.
2020 Tokyo[edit]
The play was performed at the Parco Theatre in March 2020[6] in a production directed by Will Tuckett, with original score by Paul Englishby, designed by Colin Richmond, with projection design by Douglas O'Connell, and Lighting by Satoshi Sato. Leading the cast were Ken Watanabe as Pizarro and Hio Miyazawa as Atahualpa.The production was recorded and broadcast on WOWOW television Japan, June 27 2020[7]
Opera[edit]
An opera based on the play, with music and libretto by British composer Iain Hamilton, was premièred by ENO at the London Coliseum in 1977.[8]
Synopsis[edit]
The play begins in Spain, where Pizarro recruits 167 men for an expedition to Peru. He is accompanied by his second-in-command Hernando de Soto, and Vincente de Valverde, a Catholic priest determined to spread the shining light of Christianity. It is narrated or commented upon by Old Martin, a jaded man in his mid-fifties. Young Martin – another character in the play – is his younger counterpart, integrated with the time-frame in which the expedition commences. At the beginning of the voyage he is obsessed with chivalry, glory and honour, but becomes increasingly disillusioned throughout, as Pizarro's crisis of faith also unravels.
The Spanish invade Peru, hungry for gold. After many weeks, they climb a mountain to reach the abode of Atahualpa, the king of Incas and also the son of the Sun god. The Spaniards massacre 3,000 Incas and take Atahualpa captive. Instead of killing him, Pizarro makes a deal with Atahualpa whereby, if he fills an entire room with objects made from gold in two months, Atahualpa will be set free and will not harm Pizarro. As the room fills up, Pizarro and Atahualpa become increasingly close. Pizarro, who suffers constant pain from an old wound, has a crisis of faith. He reveals to Martin that he used to dream of the Sun God as a child. When the room is finally filled, Pizarro asks Atahualpa to swear to leave his men unharmed, but the king refuses. The Spaniards urge Pizarro to have Atahualpa executed, and the beginnings of a mutiny against Pizarro stir. Atahualpa tells Pizarro to allow his men to kill him, because, as the son of the Sun, he will revive the morning after anybody kills him. Pizarro agrees to do this, and is inducted into the Incan religion by Atahualpa personally. Atahualpa is decreed to burn at the stake, and Pizarro has this changed to strangling (since Atahualpa's body is required intact for the rebirth to work) if Atahualpa agrees to be baptised. He does so, and is strangled. Pizarro waits until dawn with the body, but it does not re-awake, leading him to hold the body and weep while Old Martin narrates the end of the story.
Production notes[edit]
The expedition is predominantly in the name of gold, religion and belief; all Incas being heathens who must be brought before God. The play critically studies these two themes throughout the discovery of Atahualpa – the Inca Sun God – and massacre of the Incas themselves.
Music is a key element to this play, more so than any other by Peter Shaffer. He wanted strange and disturbing sounds produced on primitive instruments such as saws, reed pipes, drums (tablas and bongos) and cymbals to create the aural world of 16th Century Peru. Shaffer was so impressed with Marc Wilkinson's score for The Royal Hunt of the Sun, which he has described as 'perhaps the best score for a play to be written since Grieg embellished Peer Gynt',[9] that he now considers it integral to the play.[10]
The staging is relatively simple: an upper and lower part to the stage making up the ground plan. The main attribute is the image of the sun, which presents a creative challenge for all who undertake this mammoth production. There have been numerous suns over the years, but when the play was first staged it was a large metal contraption, with huge 'petals' that opened up and outwards. Visuals are of the essence with this play, especially the lavish Inca costumes.
Although the play is performed on an open platform stage with little scenery, the film version opened it up considerably.
References[edit]
- ^'Martin Aronstein, 65; Noted Theatrical Lighting Designer – Los Angeles Times'. Los Angeles Times. 8 June 2002. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
- ^'The Royal Hunt of the Sun'. AusStage – The Australian Live Performance Database. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ^Leask, Margaret (2012). ''Tasker, John Howard (1933–1988)''. Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 18. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ^Covell, Roger (17 March 1966). 'Play of pageantry in a bulging city'. The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, NSW, Australia. p. 15. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ^Atkinson, Ann; Knight, Linsay; McPhee, Margaret (1996). The Dictionary of Performing Arts in Australia: Opera, Music, Dance. Allen & Unwin. p. 28. ISBN9781863738989. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ^Official website, in Japanese
- ^'WOWOW TIME TABLE: June 2020'(PDF).
- ^'Welcome to Presser Online'. Presser.com. Archived from the original on 9 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
- ^Shaffer, Peter. The Collected Plays. Harmony Books, 1982: p. x
- ^'National Theatre Archive: The Lord Chamberlain and The Royal Hunt of the Sun'. Royal National Theatre.
External links[edit]
- The Royal Hunt of the Sun at IMDb