Musings upon Mandy Patinkin
On a totally different note to my previous post, lets look at something positive and life affirming.... Mandy Patinkin YAY! If you dont know who he is then do yourself a favour and watch Princess Bride: he plays a revenge obsessed drunken Spaniard in it and has one of the most memorable immortal lines of ANY movie EVER!
Angela, Bruce and I went to see him perform last night and then went to his masterclass today.
In one word: WOW! In three: What a Man!
He struck me with his presence. He is genuine. He is real. He is deeply human. He is, in that sense, an anti politician (the most successful of whom are subhuman) being also very life affirming.
The performance last night was quite outstanding. It was in the main theatre at the Festival Centre and he walked on carrying 2 buckets of flowers (an 18 yr tradition) and placed them at either side of the proscenium arch and proceeded for the next 2 hrs to captivate the capacity audience with a plethora of songs that highlighted his incredibly versatile and elastic voice.
It was just him and his accompanist (playing an upright!) surrounded by a whimsically and very minimally propped set: a piece of scaffolding here, a stage ladder there. A few floor lights, rigging...etc. But ofourse his personality and voice filled the stage and auditorium. Oh yes! It was a bit odd that the piano was not miked but he was wearing a head mike. With the lamar artificial acoustic system was that necessary? Still I got used to it quickly enough.
His voice has a wonderful range in pitch and dynamic and also in tonal quality and texture. He can get so many colours and characters out of it. Ofcourse his diction is flawless.
The ratio of Sondheim (a hero of mine and his)to that Andrew Lloyd fellow (I think he did Cats or something like that) was (according to a very knowledgeable friend of mine there) around 12 to one! YAYNESS!!!
Oh yeah I met a few friends from way back. Rhoda and Craig. I was doing uni choir with them in the early 90s and they left for the lure of other states long ago and are now back (and have been for the last few years!) They have been married for around 13 yrs or so and have three kids. WOW! But it was great to see them again.
We went to the Cocktail Nightclub: La Boheme after to catch up. They make great sours there.
Today at the Masterclass Mandy was closer to us which was nice. I was in the table next to Ange and Bruce but I didnt mind as I was surrounded by attractive women at mine with whom I made it my duty to get to know better :)...sigh life is hard sometimes.
There were 4 singers who were selected to sing for Mandy and us and then he commented on them bracketed by question and answer sessions.
Again I was blown away by his sense of self. He was SO real! SO INTEGRAL! I admire him for this more than anything else.
All four singers were young, attractive and VERY talented. 2 guys and 2 girls.
The first singer was female and showed poise and confidence and sang almost flawlessly with great diction and interpretation. My only criticism was that her voice was a touch harsh sometimes. A pleasure to see and hear. Mandy had nothing to say to her except that he loved it. the second was a very suave man who also seemed very poised and sang his song sitting down save for a bit of action in the middle bit which Mandy queried him upon vis: why did you do that? did you NEED to get up and cross the stage? Only do what must be done. Otherwise you are acting. You are lying to the audience. Thats not what you do here....less is more. It all made good sense. The 3rd was a woman who blew me away with her choice of song and her witty performance...yes after watching her I desired her BIGTIME!!!! She was just my type :). It was a song about auditioning. Very complicated and very funny with heaps of self referential and inner voice monologue going on. She got the audience laughing with her and it was a joy to watch. Then Mandy goes to town on her! And this was amazing to see and hear what he said.
He told her in essence to find her motivation, her core. To bare her soul NOT to hide it behind her wonderful performance. He went into detail and offered witty anecdotes and then made her sing it again without the window dressing but unadorned. I was terrified for her. But she did it. Her body language was SO different. She looked terrified but she went on and did it before us all. It was a powerful moment. I loved her then...and I dont even know her name. I just know that she is Jewish like Mandy is. The last singer sang his own piece. He wrote the music and lyrics. He was passionate and note perfect but the music was boring and the lyrics pedestrian (think mainstream pop). I was not terribly interested in his performance. But Mandy got him to accompany himself rather than sing to another accompanist and you know what? He did sound a tad more interesting then. Mandy then went on to say that to accompany himself was this individual's gift and that he should watch Peter Allen who did similarly. I found this amusing as I find Allen about as interesting as this kid's performance. No denying that he was immensely successful and popular though.
All in all a marvelous two days of culture with a wonderful human being.
His motivating factor btw is to bring light out of the darkness. Oddly enough that resonates somewhat with me. Still I am even more motivated to explore my own Modus Operandi now :).