PERFORMING ARTS

Thursday, March 8, 2007

In Series 'Carmen'

Bizet's tragic opera "Carmen" may be one of the most compelling stories of passion ever told. When the naive Spanish soldier Don Jose falls in love with the free-spirited and irresistible Carmen, he drags them both into a whirlpool of love, violence, treachery and death. It's a daring exploration of the wilds of the human heart, and it's still intensely fascinating.

Director Nick Olcott has unfortunately set out to change all that. In a stripped-down version for the In Series (running this week at GALA Hispanic Theatre) Olcott rewrote the drama to focus on the collision of Carmen's "need for freedom" (as he puts it) with Don Jose's "need for control" and "drive to win."

Uh-oh. If that sounds like a squishy exercise in gender politics, it should. Olcott's earnest approach drains away much of the tragedy's complexity and dramatic impact, replacing it with a bland tale of "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy acts out in an inappropriate manner." There's little here to engage the adult mind; rather than a tragic lover, we get Don Jose in an extended fit of pique, and Carmen's untamable wildness has been replaced with some mild brow-furrowing over, one imagines, her "needs."

Mezzo-soprano Anamer Castrello sang the title role with warmth and real beauty, though she lacked the ferocity and sensuality to be a convincing Carmen. Peter Burroughs brought his fine light tenor to the role of Don Jose, there were excellent turns by all the supporting singers, and Alisa Bernstein and Lourdes Elias kicked in some fiery flamenco dancing. Credit for keeping the drama moving goes largely to pianist Carlos Rodriguez, who wrote the orchestral transcription and provided enthusiastic if sometimes approximate accompaniment.

-- Stephen Brookes

Clinic

Liverpool quartet Clinic has a formula and rarely tinkers with it. Tuesday night at the Black Cat that meant the art-punk group appeared in its customary surgical scrubs and masks, with top hats. Musically it meant the combo alternated between its four songwriting approaches over the last 10 years -- fuzztone guitar and organ-propelled garage rock; slow atmospheric pop with eerie melodica-playing; noisy Velvet Underground and psychedelia-derived drone; and speedy, Wire-influenced punk.

In a sometimes thrilling, sometimes underwhelming set that lasted just under an hour, these mysterious Brits let their songbook do the talking. Keyboardist Ade Blackburn, whose mask had an opening just wide enough for him to sing, led the band. The members did not move around much and offered little between-song patter, but cleverly strummed, pounded and fingered two- and three-chord rave-ups and mood pieces, mostly from Clinic's new album, "Visitations."

On the moderately paced "Harvest (Within You)," Blackburn slurred his vocals in an otherworldly manner over his own haunted-house organ swirls, the guitarist's acid-trip accents and the drummer's powerful syncopation. His often-mumbled delivery was less successful on the swift rockers. Lacking distinctive melodies, these cuts did not always succeed despite the exhilarating roller-rink keyboards and buzzing guitar grooves. But when Clinic added a little extra to the standard recipes, the songs became more vivid. Blackburn's frantic strumming as the second guitarist on "Walking With Thee," and the additional keyboard and pumping drum-machine beats on "2/4," made those two hypnotizing.

-- Steve Kiviat

Jupiter String Quartet

Is anything more daunting than starting a string quartet? The field is crowded, the competition intense, and the bar keeps rising to pitiless heights of virtuosity. But the young members of the Boston-based Jupiter String Quartet have been racking up an impressive string of prizes and displaying -- as they did Tuesday night at the Terrace Theater -- razor-edged ensemble work and imaginative depth beyond their years.

The evening opened with the fourth of Franz Joseph Haydn's Op. 20 "Sun" quartets, in D -- a quietly intelligent work full of Haydn's interplay of wit and elegant pathos. The Jupiter turned in a nuanced reading, displaying an almost organic unity in their playing.

But it was Bartok's String Quartet No. 3 that really showed what this group can do. It's a work of startling power that still sounds audacious after more than 70 years, and the Jupiter tore into it with sweep and almost feral intensity, building a controlled explosion.

It takes a major piece to follow Bartok, so the Jupiter returned after intermission with Beethoven's extraordinary Quartet in B-flat, Op. 130. After a rambling start, things quickly tightened up, and by the harrowing "Grosse Fuge" that closes the work it was clear that the Jupiter was back in full cry -- fearless, relentless and one of the most promising young quartets around.

-- Stephen Brookes

Badly Drawn Boy

Damon Gough's smooth, velvety voice and lulling pop songs made a lovely soundtrack to the 2002 Hugh Grant movie "About a Boy." Unfortunately, Gough (under his moniker Badly Drawn Boy) and his bland music were not in the background but front and center for nearly 2 1/2 hours at the 9:30 club on Tuesday night.

That direct focus highlighted the generic nature of his lyrics, from the sappy songs ("Just say you'll be loving me for an eternity," from "A Journey From A to B") to the mushy ones ("I will take you as you are / Please accept me as I am," from "Above You, Below Me") to the eye-rollingly corny ones ("Love is contagious, when it's alright / Love is alright," from "Magic in the Air"). Gough's warm, tender voice and the lush instrumentation of his four-piece backing band were almost too polished.

A few songs had moments of poignancy. The casual breeziness of "The Time of Times" was enthralling, and "One Last Dance" was sentimental without being too cliched. Most of the rest blended together. In fact, when the band played an extended instrumental interlude during Gough's mid-set smoke break, it wasn't immediately apparent that he was no longer on stage.

-- Catherine P. Lewis