Vol. 1 No. 9
Exploring trends in all the arts
IN THIS ISSUE
FILM
Oppenheimer
MUSIC
Contralto Jess Dandy
WRITING
What writers say about what they do
ARCHITECHTURE
Meyerson Symphony Hall and Fisk Organ
FILM
Review of Major Motion Picture: Oppenheimer
hard-hitting drama with intense contrasts
"Oppenheimer's story is all impossible questions. Impossible ethical dilemmas, paradox. There are no easy answers in his story. There are just difficult questions, and that's what makes the story so compelling. " -Christopher Nolan
Oppenheimer is not just a movie; it’s an experience, a journey through the depths of human brilliance and the shadows of its consequences. It’s exceptional and mesmerizing, though not perfect. Much like the atom bomb we have all grown to know and fear, it deserves serious consideration.
Within the realm of cinematic brilliance, there are few names that stand out so powerfully as Cillian Murphy and Christopher Nolan. Both, previously awarded for their roles in other films, have joined forces to create a movie worthy of the hype.
From the very first frame, Oppenheimer grips you with a transcendent and enigmatic power. Ludwig Goransson's music and Hoyte Van Hoytema's cinematography create a captivating blend of sound and visuals. The composer's melodies and crescendos bring the film to life. Goransson's score is a character, a relentless force that drives the narrative forward with unwavering intensity.
The music, much like the bomb itself, is a force of nature that reverberates through your very soul. I recommend the soundtrack, regardless of your reaction to the movie itself.
As J. Robert Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy, known for his intense manner and steely eyed staring competitions with the camera, delivers a tour de force of acting. His chilling portrayal captures the conflicted soul of a man who harnessed the power of the atom but grappled with the moral weight of his creation. Sadly, Oppenheimer was denied how and when the nuclear bomb was to be used. With a cigarette in one hand and the secrets of the universe in the other, Murphy's Oppenheimer is a mesmerizing enigma. Emily Blunt, Kenneth Branagh, Matt Damon, and the entire ensemble of actors earn an elite status among thespians.
Blunt plays Oppenheimer’s wife, Katherine. Her performance lends emotional depth as an overwhelmed mother and cynical ex-Communist. The Oppenheimer's rocky relationship plays a key role in the film. Its brooding, sordid story of love and loss draws viewers into their extraordinary circumstances. Had Oppenheimer been a TV series, it might have been possible for the script to breathe and expand.
Robert Downey Jr. also shines as a brooding and complex pseudo-villain type. Powerful characters who deepen Oppenheimer’s conflict always flank Murphy. Additional cast members portray American, German, and Jewish scientists who try valiantly not to blow up the planet. Those who relish good acting will enjoy this movie.
Nolan, the maestro of mind-bending narratives, weaves a tale that blurs the lines between history and personal angst. Oppenheimer is a feast of intrigue and betrayal, a testament to Nolan's storytelling prowess. He takes a historical event (like the development of the atomic bomb) and turns it into a thrilling, philosophical journey. This he does with style and wit, while honoring the core of the narrative. At over 3 hours, the film is well worth the investment.
Oppenheimer is a cinematic exploration of evil, a reflection on the choices we make in the pursuit of knowledge and the consequences that follow. Oppenheimer himself once said,
“In some sort of crude sense, which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.”
As well as high drama, Nolan's practical effects and breathtaking visuals help shape Oppenheimer. The film's sets are nothing short of spectacular, from the sprawling laboratories of Los Alamos to the haunting beauty of the New Mexico desert. Every frame is a work of art, a testament to the dedication and craftsmanship of Nolan's team.
Philip Kinkopf is a freelance writer in Orlando, Florida
MUSIC
Music: Contralto Jess Dandy makes her mark
A contralto is one of those rare vocalists that gets assigned roles in Handel operas and Shostakovich song cycles and appears at music festivals all over Europe. Jess Dandy, trained in the UK at Guildhall School and at Trinity College (Cambridge), is quickly making her mark on the classical music world. You may hear more about her. Still young as contraltos go, she is just beginning her career. She is a woman of faith who takes her art seriously. Her recent recording with BBC Philharmoonic of Shostakovich’s Six Verses of Marina Tsvetayeva has made a strong impression. When I first heard her it was on the album “Vivaldi Women” doing several of the Italian master’s vocal pieces. Her voice is unique, a blend of control, sparkle and rhythmic interest, along with a wide range. The recording was reviewed in Gramophone: '...The weight of history is all in the subtext but we hear it too in Jess Dandy's dark and penetrating contralto... Storgårds is very effective in fathoming the work's introspection and the transfiguration in the latter stages of 'Lorely' is numbingly beautiful...'
WRITING
What Writers Say About What They Do
We [Christians] should not abandon music because of the superstitions of pagans if there is anything we can take from it that might help us understand the Holy Scriptures … Nor is there any reason we should refuse to study literature because it is said that Mercury discovered it. That the pagans have dedicated temples to Justice and Virtue and prefer to worship in the form of stone things which ought to be carried in the heart is no reason we should abandon justice and virtue. On the contrary, let everyone who is a good and true Christian understand that truth belongs to his Master, wherever it is found. –Augustine, in Howie, 350-351
I have heard it said that belief in Christian dogma is a hindrance to the writer, but I myself have found nothing further from the truth. Actually, it frees the story-teller to observe.
—FLANNERY O’CONNOR, Mystery and Manners
Prose: words in their best order; poetry: the best words in the best order.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
ARCHITECHTURE
Meyerson Symphony Hall and Fisk Organ Dallas, Texas
An organ in a symphony hall, you ask? What could they have been thinking? The whole idea a hall that houses an orchestra as good as Dallas Symphony can balance the budget with such a ‘beast’ installed invites critics to question its wisdom. Why would anyone want to complicate the architecture and fuss with a pipe organ? In the case of Meyerson there was enough support and the determination. The hall’s 1992 opening included the promise that within a few years there would be a pipe organ in the back of the stage, matching the grandeur of the interior and piercing the reverberant acoustics with a razor-like richness that only Boston’s Fisk Organ Company could provide. It remains after 30 years one of, if not the only, satisfactory installation of an organ in an American concert hall.
Where do such halls get the funds, and hire the experts, to make the pipe organ a realistic
presence? It all comes with the local community’s willingness, and hall’s leadership’s familiarity with the organ’s power and partnership in pieces like Saint-Saens’ ‘Organ’ Symphony No. 3. It helps as well to have an active organ community, a public that knows how an organ sounds, and an architect who is wise and patient with pipe organ builders. The Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas has for decades been a force for pipe organ training. It doesn’t hurt that Texas possesses some of the wealthiest donors on the planet, who are looking for ways to support projects like an organ in a concert hall. We need to give credit also to Fisk Organ Company for boldly advancing its organ installations throughout the world. Some of its other projects have done almost as well as Meyerson, but none had as much total reception and enthusiastic response from the musical public.
Jonathan Ambrosino writes about concert hall organs:
In a music hall or public auditorium, the concert organ was essentially a one-person orchestra, in which a single artist could offer a program that was mostly about entertainment. Organs in proper symphony halls might not have been all that different in their tonal content, but they were seen as simply another instrument of the orchestra, one the robust scores of the time increasingly included.
A Boston-area organ expert and consultant, Ambrosino spoke glowingly about the Boston Symphony Hall’s famous Skinner organ which was built around 1950 and survived to the present with a few tweaks. But Meyerson’s Fisk organ excels in all the ways an organ has to function in such a setting. He goes on to be optimistic about the place of organs appearing in American symphony halls:
In 2015, a new reality is emerging for what concert organs can actually accomplish for organ culture. The 2000s saw great optimism, as many instruments had been installed, restored, or were en route: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Madison, Nashville, Orange County, Philadelphia, Seattle. Some halls got built without the organs as planned (Omaha, Miami, Charlotte), while others (Atlanta) never got built at all. In all this, it seemed the very public face of these new organs, outside of churches, might help garner new audiences.
We are in an era when budgets trump artistic values, and many times the dollars win. Like most items whose expense abruptly forces potential owners to reconsider, an organ in a concert hall (instead of a cathedral or parish church) is extravagant and unnecessary. On the other hand, when have you ever found an organ that successfully fulfills its mission, that did not at some point endure criticism from the bean-counters? Beauty routinely faces withering scrutiny, and most of the time it wins. Thankfully, that happened in Dallas. Will it happen in other cities, too?
Terry Yount
Mere Beauty Journal
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