Western Theater and a Culturist Lesson
John Press
February 10, 2008
Culturist Lessons from Great Western Art
Yesterday was amazing. I got free tickets to go see the final rehearsal of the opera Lucia di Lammermoor at New York´s Lincoln Center. Then, after my daily stay in the library´s basement, I went to a discussion group on Aeschylus' ancient Greek play, the Oresteia. When there I got a call and free tickets to go see A Chorus Line on Broadway. Wow!!
I tried hard to think of what the common culturist lesson was in these three pieces. They are very different from eachother. Lucia di Lammermoor depicts an over-the-top struggle of love against an arranged marriage and includes a famous "mad scene" before bodies populate the stage. A Chorus Line focuses on the lives of much more believable individuals who are struggling to get work in a – you guessed it – chorus line. And the Oresteia concerns the birth of justice in a dilemma in which someone must avenge their father´s murder, but this means killing their mother as she killed the father. Finding a commonality between all of these was hard.
Perhaps the culturist lesson is that the concerns of these Western art pieces are increasingly petty. The Greek play, the Oresteia, concerns huge issues, fate, the death of the age of the Gods, the Birth of justice, male versus female bases of society. The opera had huge love, and the Chorus Line was just about average individuals. But, saying this is a progression or a declension is hard. The opera had unsurpassed music and virtuosity, but its theme was trite. No one falls in love and kills themselves like that. I learned more from the lowbrow musical. Its all down hill from Greek plays in terms of philosophical depth. But the musical about the common man speaks to me. One could not say progress or declension is a theme across the ages of Western theater.
Morality was another angle I considered in my search for a culturist lesson. In the Orestia, Orestes, must revenge his fathers death. But his father killed his sister so that the Trojan War would go well. In avenging his father by killing his mother Orestes was also trapped in a lose – lose situation. A strong sense of duty motivates the characters. In the opera Lucia di Lammermoor, characters rebel out of selfish love and the Chorus Line folk only think of their own passion when it comes to job choice. This could be seen as a moral declension. But, then again, our being able to do what makes sense to us is a virtue. If there is a commonality in all of these pieces, it is people raging against their situations and trying to live according to truths – be they individual or duty centered. From a long Western perspective, the individualistic passionate dancers are not less representative than the murdering Greek´s or the opera´s characters.
Pride. The culturist meaning I came up with is pride in Western artistic accomplishments. We have a long and variegated history of theater in the West. We actually invented theater. These are enigmatic, entertaining, and inspiring pieces. Other cultures have their ritual prayers and stereotypical crafts – gotta love those – but our artistic striving from the Greeks to Broadway have their own type of merit. These are consciously contrived expressions of the individual vision with high levels of artistic mastery. Those who say the Western tradition is just about materialism and acquisition, should know about the Western creation of the individual and enshrinement of his conscience in theater. They should know that we Westerners are proud of the material wealth our capitalists and scientists have brought to the world. But if anyone still has doubts about Western greatness after considering those contributions to the world they should go see some fabulous Western theater ASAP!!!
Yesterday was amazing. I got free tickets to go see the final rehearsal of the opera Lucia di Lammermoor at New York´s Lincoln Center. Then, after my daily stay in the library´s basement, I went to a discussion group on Aeschylus' ancient Greek play, the Oresteia. When there I got a call and free tickets to go see A Chorus Line on Broadway. Wow!!
I tried hard to think of what the common culturist lesson was in these three pieces. They are very different from eachother. Lucia di Lammermoor depicts an over-the-top struggle of love against an arranged marriage and includes a famous "mad scene" before bodies populate the stage. A Chorus Line focuses on the lives of much more believable individuals who are struggling to get work in a – you guessed it – chorus line. And the Oresteia concerns the birth of justice in a dilemma in which someone must avenge their father´s murder, but this means killing their mother as she killed the father. Finding a commonality between all of these was hard.
Perhaps the culturist lesson is that the concerns of these Western art pieces are increasingly petty. The Greek play, the Oresteia, concerns huge issues, fate, the death of the age of the Gods, the Birth of justice, male versus female bases of society. The opera had huge love, and the Chorus Line was just about average individuals. But, saying this is a progression or a declension is hard. The opera had unsurpassed music and virtuosity, but its theme was trite. No one falls in love and kills themselves like that. I learned more from the lowbrow musical. Its all down hill from Greek plays in terms of philosophical depth. But the musical about the common man speaks to me. One could not say progress or declension is a theme across the ages of Western theater.
Morality was another angle I considered in my search for a culturist lesson. In the Orestia, Orestes, must revenge his fathers death. But his father killed his sister so that the Trojan War would go well. In avenging his father by killing his mother Orestes was also trapped in a lose – lose situation. A strong sense of duty motivates the characters. In the opera Lucia di Lammermoor, characters rebel out of selfish love and the Chorus Line folk only think of their own passion when it comes to job choice. This could be seen as a moral declension. But, then again, our being able to do what makes sense to us is a virtue. If there is a commonality in all of these pieces, it is people raging against their situations and trying to live according to truths – be they individual or duty centered. From a long Western perspective, the individualistic passionate dancers are not less representative than the murdering Greek´s or the opera´s characters.
Pride. The culturist meaning I came up with is pride in Western artistic accomplishments. We have a long and variegated history of theater in the West. We actually invented theater. These are enigmatic, entertaining, and inspiring pieces. Other cultures have their ritual prayers and stereotypical crafts – gotta love those – but our artistic striving from the Greeks to Broadway have their own type of merit. These are consciously contrived expressions of the individual vision with high levels of artistic mastery. Those who say the Western tradition is just about materialism and acquisition, should know about the Western creation of the individual and enshrinement of his conscience in theater. They should know that we Westerners are proud of the material wealth our capitalists and scientists have brought to the world. But if anyone still has doubts about Western greatness after considering those contributions to the world they should go see some fabulous Western theater ASAP!!!
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