Saïat Nova’s Love Song

I sigh not, while thou art my soul! Fair one, thou art to me

A golden cup, with water filled of immortality.

I sit me down, that over me may fall thy shadow, sweet;

Thou art a gold-embroidered tent to shield me from the heat.

First hear my fault, and, if thou wilt, then slay this erring man;

Thou hast all power; to me thou art the Sultan and the Khan.

Thy waist is like a cypress-tree, sugar thy tongue, in sooth;

Thy lip is candy, and thy skin like Frankish satin smooth.

Thy teeth are pearls and diamonds, the gates of dulcet tones;

Thine eyes are gold-enamelled cups adorned with precious stones;

Thou art a rare and priceless gem, most wonderful to see;

A ruby rich of Mt. Bedakhsh, my love, thou art to me.

How can I bear this misery, unless my heart were stone?

My tears are blood because of thee, my reason is o’erthrown.

A young vine in the garden fresh thou art to me, my fair,

Enshrined in greenness, and set round with roses everywhere.

I, like the love-lorn nightingale, would hover over thee.

A landscape of delight and love, my queen, thou art to me!

Lo, I am drunken with thy love! I wake, but my heart sleeps.

The world is sated with the world; my heart its hunger keeps.

What shall I praise thee by, when naught is left on earth, save thee?

Thou art a deer, a Pegasus sprung from the fiery sea!

Speak but one word, to say thou art Saïat Nova’s* love,

And then what matters aught to me, in earth or heaven above?

Thy rays have filled the world; thou art a shield that fronts the sun.

Thou dost exhale the perfume sweet of clove and cinnamon,

Of violet, rose, and marjoram; to me, with love grown pale,

Thou art a red flower of the field, a lily of the vale!

___________________
*An Armenian minstrel often weaves his name into the last stanza of his song, in order that he may be known as its composer. The same peculiarity appears in the next poem.

～“Love Song” by Sayat-Nova, translated into English by Alice Stone Blackwell

Sergei Parajanov's muse, Georgian actress Sofiko Chiaureli, in his 1968 film The Colour of Pomegranates.

藍曬情人：Cyanotype of a Lover

“I can’t really remember the days. The light of the sun blurred and annihilated all color. But the nights, I remember them. The blue was more distant than the sky, beyond all depths, covering the bounds of the world. The sky, for me, was the stretch of pure brilliance crossing the blue, that cold coalescence beyond all color. Sometimes, it was in Vinh Long, when my mother was sad she’d order the gig and we’d drive out into the country to see the night as it was in the dry season. I had that good fortune―those nights, that mother. The light fell from the sky in cataracts of pure transparency, in torrents of silence and immobility. The air was blue, you could hold it in your hand. Blue. The sky was the continual throbbing of the brilliance of the light. The night lit up everything, all the country on either bank of the river as far as the eye could reach. Every night was different, each one had a name as long as it lasted. Their sound was that of the dogs, the country dogs baying at mystery. They answered one another from village to village, until the time and space of the night were utterly consumed.”

― Marguerite Duras, L’Amant (translated by Barbara Bray)

Les Noces de Pierrette (The Marriage of Pierrette), by Pablo Picasso, 1905.

Painted in 1905, ‘Les Noces de Pierrette’ is considered as a Blue Period masterpiece―it is by no means Pablo Picasso’s most famous painting, although it does have a notorious history. The painting depicts a group of well-to-do families socialising at a wedding, however the figures are rendered with blank, emotionless faces and hollow eye-sockets. It was created during a critical period in Picasso’s life (his friend and fellow artist Carlos Casagemas had just committed suicide, and the famous painter was facing destitution). Deeply depressed, Picasso spent several months in isolation, developing the piece from sketches―using deep hues of blue to create an oppressively gloomy mood. When he finally emerged from his study, Picasso was said to be bitter and violent―aggressively refusing to let any family or friends see his work. After some weeks, his mistress Fernande Olivier was able to sneak into his study and finally observe the painting. What she saw was so traumatic that the couple separated shortly afterwards. Reportedly, a hysterical Olivier spent the remainder of her life in the care of her mother and sister.

Picasso then spent a further six months trying to salvage his canvas―painting over certain ‘offending’ elements, and removing one figure entirely. In a 1949 interview, the artist briefly mentioned the painting, commenting that “I don’t talk about it.  It’s not mine”.

The painting currently resides in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, where historians are using technology to view Les Noces’ lower layers.

(*text via Where Sleep is Irrelevant) 

“It has been my face. It’s got older still, of course, but less, comparatively, than it would otherwise have done. It’s scored with deep, dry wrinkles, the skin is cracked. But my face hasn’t collapsed, as some with fine features have done. It’s kept the same contours, but its substance has been laid waste. I have a face laid waste.”

“I’ve known you for years. Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young, but I want to tell you I think you’re more beautiful now than then. Rather than your face as a young woman, I prefer your face as it is now. Ravaged.”

“Very early in my life it was too late.”

― Marguerite Duras, The Lover (translated by Barbara Bray)

Piazzolla's Saudades for Oblivion: emotional soundscapes of his poetry...

"I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another… then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."

― James Joyce, closing line of Ulysses

“I loved her enough to forget myself, my self pitying despairs, and be content that something she thought happy was going to happen.”

― Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's

"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."

― James Joyce, closing line of 'The Dead' from Dubliners


〝醉生夢死不過是她跟我開的一個玩笑。有些事情你越想忘記，就會記得越牢。當有些事情你無法得到時，你唯一能做的，就是不要忘記。＂ 
"Living a befuddled and intoxicated life is merely a joke she made with me. The harder you try to forget about some things, the harder you remember them. When there’s something you can never get, the only thing you can do is not to forget."

― from the film Ashes of Time directed by Wong Kar-Wai


＂你知不知道有一種鳥沒有腳的？他的一生只能在天上飛來飛去。一輩子只能落地一次，那就是他死的時候。＂
"Do you know there’s a kind of bird without legs? All its life it only flies in the sky. All its life only one time it lands on earth – that is the time it dies."

(...also Wong Kar-Wai, forgot which film it is from...)

La Mélancolie (detail), by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1532
*image via Wikipedia

One of the beautiful Piazzolla songs used in Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together, a film about longing, time, memories, love, loss, chance, and "the end of the world"...

Wong, in regards to the interpretation of the film said: "In this film, some audiences will say that the title seems to be very cynical, because it is about two persons living together, and at the end, they are just separate. But to me, happy together can apply to two persons or apply to a person and his past, and I think sometimes when a person is at peace with himself and his past, I think it is the beginning of a relationship which can be happy, and also he can be more open to more possibilities in the future with other people." (via)




Santiago Cimadevilla performing Astor Piazzolla's "Oblivion." With the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra (Latvia), conductor Imants Resnis. Live performance in Liepaja, December 2007.

Romeo, his Juliet, and their Sonnet; 周慕雲, 蘇麗貞, Mr Zhou, Mrs Su, and melodies of their love restraint (from 花樣年華 "In the Mood for Love")

The significance which is in

unity

is an eternal wonder.

~Rabindranath Tagore

+++

On "first love," and "love at first sight"...

It is when David Copperfield first laid his eyes on the ever lovely Dora Spenlow (to quote Peony, "Dora is a favourite child of nature. She is a thing of light, and airiness, and joy")... Love at first sight does exist. And this initial Swan Lake pas de deux (this particular rendition by Svetlana Zakharova and Roberto Bolle, still the most perfect classical ballet partnership today, for me), when Prince Siegfried first cast his gaze upon Princess Odette, illustrates 'love at first sight' to me perfectly. That is how I fell in love with Svetlana... Swan Lake remains to be one of my favourite classical ballets (and perhaps my absolute number one, that is if someone puts a gun to my head and asks...) -- in addition to the unparalleled beauty in the interaction and union of its music and movement, it is the complex analyses and portrayals of human psychology, so intrinsic to the understanding, appreciation and interpretation of this ballet, that truly and forever captures and mesmerises me. Why Odette is so hesitant, and with such internal/eternal sorrow, is that she already possesses the full knowledge that her love, Siegfried, would later betray her and break his promise, falling for the bewitching black swan Odille. And yet her longing for him cannot be more evident and heartrending in the later pas de deux (the dialogue/singing between the violin and the cello kills me, every time, as well as how the dancers finish their last movement with that final musical phrase, see also here), following their first encounter.



*   *   *

And first love, in choreographer Kenneth MacMillan's ballet Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo first laid eyes on Juliet in that very masquerade ball, when she was to dance with her future husband... (starting around 2:00) "Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night." The balcony scene which follows is a complete and utter display of Romeo's romantic passion for Juliet, as well as her surrender to his love (leading to the total abandonment shown in their later pas de deux). I always get very emotional when I see this ballet performed live... with Prokofiev's genius music. Such is the wonder and essence of art.
"A arte existe porque a vida não basta." (Ferreira Gullar) Art exists because life is not enough. It is as Friedrich Nietzsche said in The Birth of Tragedy, “it is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified.”



The beautiful Prima Ballerina of Royal Ballet, Tamara Rojo, who is known for her dramatic interpretation of roles as well as fierce technical brilliance, once said in an interview, "When I'm on stage (as Juliet), I feel I'm in love with Carlos. I am in love with Carlos when we dance." Indeed, an artist needs to pour his/her heart and soul completely into the work. Be completely bare, completely immersed/devoted, and hence completely illuminating -- a total embrace. This reminds me of Nijinsky and his diaries, one of my favourite books...

The balcony scene performed by Tamara Rojo and Carlos Acosta:



And...the "legendary" Alessandra Ferri and Wayne Eagling in the balcony scene pas de deux from Kenneth Macmillan's Romeo and Juliet, one of the greatest pas de deux moments of classical ballet.




Romeo: [To a Servingman]
What lady is that, which doth
enrich the hand
Of yonder knight?

Servant:
I know not, sir.

Romeo:
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.

*   *   *

Romeo: [To Juliet]
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

Juliet:
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

Romeo:
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

Juliet:
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

Romeo:
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

Juliet:
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.

Romeo:
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.

Juliet:
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.

Romeo:
Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.

{*One of the first sonnets I ever studied as a world literature student, is this...}

An 1870 oil painting by Ford Madox Brown
depicting Romeo and Juliet's famous balcony scene.

*   *   *

Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care. But for another gives its ease, and builds a heaven in hell's despair.

~William Blake

*   *   *

To quote poet-essayist Ian Lennart Surraville's words (although these were regarding a film, I find them well suited to the notion of first love/love at first sight between Odette and Siegfried, Romeo and Juliet, and David and Nora):

"The fragile landscape of the two in love was most delicately sketched with its storytelling. Those of you who have been in love without self-dramatisation and egocentric delusions a usual Hollywood love story places would understand the exact nature of the harrowing sense of leaving and being left behind, emptiness and solitude, and demoralisation that comes with constantly remembering that inexplicably heart-bursting first moments of love. That irretrievability of what was once beautiful ... that incessant pursuit back to what is irretrievable ... and all those we end up hurting in the path toward it ..."

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, "In bed, The kiss," 1892.

*   *   *

Unlike Romeo and Juliet, who fell madly and hopelessly in love with each other against all odds, when they were only 13/14 years of age (and their almost impetuous passion, resulting in the tragic end), the protagonists in my favourite film of all time, In the Mood for Love (花樣年華), 周慕雲 Zhou Muyun and 蘇麗貞 Su Lizhen, were placed under very different circumstances.

Mr Zhou and Mrs Su were next-door neighbours. They passed each other by everyday, uttering nothing more than some polite and insignificant words to one another. It was 1960s Hong Kong, a time of social decorum, repressed and reinforced by hundreds, if not thousands of years of customs and traditions in Chinese culture. Their love for each other developed, or rather, they fell in love, due to the affair their respective spouses were having with one another, as Mr Zhou and Mrs Su discovered and confirmed the painful truth which has been secretly staring them in the face. Why were they not more pro-active in the film? You might ask. The mixture of unrequited love, of regret and irretrievable longing, and the way director Wang Kar-Wai handles these conditions of emotions, are what make this movie a true masterpiece. One feels dizzy and heartbeat quickens with this swooningly gorgeous film -- slow, sexy, utterly breathtaking and intoxicating. Imagine being on a gondola ride with the one person you are terribly, painfully in love/lust with, taking in all the sensual scenery around you and yet not able to do anything. That is another key of appreciating and feeling (with your heart, in your heart) In the Mood for Love as the cinematic gem that it truly is.


*Now, my favourite scene from the movie, when Mr Zhou whispers his secrets, which we viewers shall never know, into the hole of an old tree at Angkor Wat, and seals it with mud and grass so that they will never escape, and hopefully, the tree will share the burden...
This motif is referenced throughout in Wang's later film 2046, a sort of a poetic-oneiric, and even science fiction-like(!) continuation of the story of Zhou Muyun and Su Lizhen, where Mr Zhou, a writer, who can never seem to stop writing (and hallucinating) about his story with, and his yearning for the elusive Mrs Su who forever haunts his memories and his dreams.


他一直沒有回頭
他彷彿坐上一串很長很長的列車
在茫茫夜色中開往朦朧的未來

那些消逝了的歲月，彷彿隔著一塊 
積著灰塵的玻璃，看得到，抓不著。 
他一直在懷念著過去的一切。如果他 
能衝破那塊積著灰塵的玻璃，
他會走回早已消逝的歲月。

"Whom would it not remain for---that
longed-after, 
mildly disillusioning presence, which the solitary heart
so painfully meets. Is it any less difficult for lovers?
But they keep on using each other to hide their own fate.
Don't you know yet? Fling the emptiness out of your arms
into the spaces we breathe; perhaps the birds
will feel the expanded air with more passionate flying.
(...)
Isn't it time that we lovingly 
freed ourselves from the beloved and, quivering, endured: 
as the arrow endures the bowstring's tension, so that 
gathered in the snap of release it can be more than
itself. For there is no place where we can remain.
(...)
and then in the startled space which a youth as lovely as a
god
had suddenly left forever, the Void felt for the first time
that harmony which now enraptures and comforts and helps 
us."

~Rainer Maria Rilke, from 'The First Elegy,' Duino Elegies, 
translated into English by Stephen Mitchell

*   *   *

Hic ego qui iaceo tenerorum lusor amorum
    Ingenio perii, Naso poeta, meo. 
At tibi qui transis, ne sit grave, quisquis amasti, 
    Dicere: Nasonis molliter ossa cubent. 

Here I lie, who played with tender loves, 
       Naso the poet, killed by my own talent. 
O passerby, if you've ever been in love, let it not be too much for you to say: 
       May the bones of Naso lie gently. 

(Ovid, Tristia 3.3.73–76)

*   *   *

Leaving you with one last quotation, on time, eternity, the art of love and the art of waiting. Also from Mr. Surraville, in response to Jacob's love story in Genesis (I guess you just have to read the Bible now, kids!):

A true love's gaze always carries an inevitable sense of eternity that transcends all the temporary things of this world.

Wim Wenders’ “Pina”

I finally had a chance to watch Wim Wenders’ documentary film “Pina,” a tribute to the legendary German dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch, and a personal close friend of Wenders’. It is perhaps the best dance documentary I have ever seen.

To paraphrase Pina Bausch herself, “The aim of dance is to evoke certain things, certain emotions. Even literature can only evoke things...”

Pina, a prophet, a dreamer, and above all, a brave lover. She constantly asked her dancers this question, “What are you longing for? Where does all this yearning come from?” And this continues to be pursued in all her pieces. For me, what makes Pina Bausch’s work extraordinary is the co-existence and co-dependence of spirituality and ardour/love of life, always intensely interwoven but beautifully liberated from each other. It is utterly not of this world, and yet all about this world, all about this life. Beauty, sorrow, joy, loneliness, humour, strength... These are but some of the essential hues which paint her all-encompassing canvases of dance, but beyond dance—transcendent.

May this heartrendingly but humorously moving film by Wim Wenders bring freedom, weightlessness, and a sense of sacredness to Pina—all the qualities in her inexplicably wonderful work and being.

To Pina with Love ♥ 
(Pina Bausch, 1967, by Walter Vogel)

“Never let go of the fiery sadness called desire—” 
(Patti Smith)

*For more on this film, please see here and here.

亙古的貴妃醉酒臥魚之美 Forever enthralled by the drunken princess...

《貴妃醉酒》的身段一向是我在京劇中很喜愛的折子。之前幸運地找到大師梅蘭芳頗為完整的演出，包括唱腔、銜杯、臥魚、醉步、扇舞等等梅派改良後之美學精髓，很可惜目前只剩下片段。我該去找出DVD好好欣賞... 這裡選的是不同演員詮釋的貴妃醉酒，其中亦有梅派戲劇大師梅蘭芳及其子梅派傳人梅葆玖等精彩演出。貴妃醉酒不愧為京劇中經典之作...



【楊玉環】（唱四平調）

海島冰輪初轉騰，見玉兔，玉兔又早東昇。
那冰輪離海島，乾坤分外明。
皓月當空，恰便似嫦娥離月宮，奴似嫦娥離月宮。
好一似嫦娥下九重，清清冷落在廣寒宮，啊在廣寒宮。
玉石橋斜倚把欄杆靠，鴛鴦來戲水，
金色鯉魚在水面朝，啊在水面朝。
長空雁雁兒飛，雁兒飛哎呀雁兒呀，
雁兒並飛騰聞奴的聲音落花蔭。
這景色撩人欲醉，不覺來到百花亭。

Yang Guifei by Takaku Aigai

一代名伶梅蘭芳於中國抗日時蓄鬍, 拒絕為日軍演出

Photo of Mei Lanfang taken during the Sino-Japanese War

梅蘭芳演譯楊玉環

Mei Lanfang as Yang Guei-Fei in "The Drunken Concubine"

青年時期的梅蘭芳 Young Mei Lanfang

張國榮於霸王別姬片中的角色程蝶衣飾演楊玉環

Leslie Cheung as Yang Guei-Fei in Farewell My Concubine

Forever Enthralled is another film about Peking (Beijing) Opera by the critically acclaimed Chinese director Chen Kaige (best known for Farewell My Concubine). This time the film centres around the life of my Mr. Poetic Oneirism, the legendary Chinese opera artist Mei Lanfang. *Click here for a higher-resolution version, with subtitles in simplified Chinese (unfortunately no English at this time).




齊白石與梅蘭芳的書畫師生情

梅蘭芳先生之所以成為中國京劇史上成就最為輝煌的表演藝術大師，是與他在藝術上的勤學苦練、虛心求教分不開的。他向齊白石學畫，並與齊建立了終生友誼就是一例。

1932年，梅蘭芳來北京演出，齊白石觀看完他的演出，佩服得五體投地。恰巧，梅蘭芳一直想向齊白石學畫，通過熟人向齊白石說了想法。齊白石聽說後，立即安排時間見梅蘭芳。

這年9月的一天，齊白石來到了北京廬草園梅宅。二人握手坐定後，齊白石關切地問到：“聽說你最近習畫很用功，看過你的畫，尤其是最近畫的佛像，比以前進步了。”梅蘭芳不好意思，忙答道：“對于繪畫，我是門外漢，笨人一個，雖然拜過很多老師，但都畫不好。我喜歡您老的草蟲、遊魚、蝦米，就像活的一樣，但比活的更美。今天我誠心請您老一畫，我在旁邊學習學習，看看您的筆下功夫，我這就替您磨墨。”說罷，梅蘭芳起身捧出文房四寶，在書桌上磨起墨來。齊白石像個孩童似的打趣道：“讓你這名角給我磨墨，山人委實不敢當。不過，我給你畫蟲草，你回頭唱一段給我聽，怎麼樣？”

“那現成。”梅蘭芳不假思索道：“一會兒我的琴師來了，我準唱。”待磨好墨後，他又鋪開上乘宣紙。齊白石頷首含笑，挽上衣袖，從筆筒裏挑出兩只畫筆，蘸了一些墨，凝神默想片刻。突然，他俯下筆。須臾間，一個毫發畢現、蠢蠢欲動的小蟲便躍然紙上。齊白石下筆極快且準確，梅蘭芳但見“惜墨如金”的齊白石在畫成魚鳥蟲草後，筆池裏的水始終是清的。

琴師到了，梅蘭芳唱了一段《貴妃醉酒》。又一次，梅蘭芳再三邀請師翁到綴玉軒作畫，想讓師翁親自面教。齊白石欣然前往。見面後，梅蘭芳要求觀看作草蟲圖，齊白石答應了。梅蘭芳連忙磨墨理紙。齊白石畫完兩幅草蟲圖後，作詩一首相贈：

飛塵十丈暗燕京，綴玉軒中氣獨清。難得善才看作畫，殷勤磨就墨三升。

梅蘭芳捧詩吟誦，敬禮謝師。從此兩人建立了深厚的友誼，梅蘭芳尊稱齊白石為“老師”。不久，在一位“大官家”的家宴上，二人同被邀請，赴宴那天，齊白石不慎丟了帖子，他身穿深褐色布袍，雖洗得整潔乾凈，但已發白陳舊。如此裝束在滿屋達官顯貴的綾羅綢緞間，實在不起眼。加上他又一時沒找著相熟之人，只能獨坐一隅。偏偏門子不識相，走上前又盤問了幾句。齊白石大窘，悔不該來。這時梅蘭芳進來見到了孤零零的老人，獨自坐在一邊，忙甩開眾人，快步走上前，恭恭敬敬地喚道：“老師。”然後，親自攙扶著他，走上前排。大家一陣詫異，竊竊私語：“這個怪老頭是誰？”

梅蘭芳將頭一搖，自豪的答道：“這是名畫家齊白石，也是我的老師。”

齊白石認為梅蘭芳在關鍵時刻為他“圓了面子”，因此對梅蘭芳十分感激。回家後，精心畫就了一幅《雪中送炭圖》，配詩一首，送給梅蘭芳。詩雲：

曾見先朝享太平，布衣蔬食動公卿。而今淪落長安市，幸有梅郎識姓名。

梅蘭芳收到畫，讀過詩，感慨良久。提筆給齊白石回了一首詩：

師傳畫藝情誼深，學生怎能忘師恩。世態炎涼雖如此，吾敬我師是本分。 

(此文轉載自新華網, 2007年8月30日)

*Read more about 齊白石 (Qi Bai-Shi) here {in English} and here {in Chinese}. Master Qi is one of my parents' favourite artists, and I shall certainly write a separate blog post on him in the future. Or more appropriately perhaps, on the inspiration his life and his art have given me.

Farewell

I am overwhelmed with indescribable emotions again, after watching this short video clip of the film that "rocked my world" a long time ago... "霸王別姬" (Farewell My Concubine).

I think I fell in love with Leslie Cheung after watching "Farewell My Concubine," another one of my favourite cinematic treasures and probably the first film I felt so strongly about. My love affair with Chinese opera (both Beijing Opera and Kunqu) also started around that time. Since then I constantly dream of Chinese opera, like a stylised and quiet painting depicting exquisite landscapes decorated with tiny delicate jewels, presenting a mixture of its music, singing, movements, costumes, make-up, lyrics, a kaleidoscope of colours and beautiful narratives.

I still remember going to the cinema with my dad when "Farewell My Concubine" was first released - I was 13. I felt as if I was never going to be the same afterwards, and that I was so filled with something inexplicable that I could not allow anything else to enter my psyche for a while. Perhaps one of the definitions of a truly great film is that it gives the viewer a life-transforming, and sometimes out-of-body, experience.

Below is this beautiful video with Leslie Cheung singing the movie theme song, accompanied by some of the most gorgeous, intoxicating, as well as heartbreaking scenes from the film. I really must re-watch this gem one of these days.

張國榮, 著實地傾國傾城...


Ah, looking at Leslie now just makes me want to cry...

張國榮於霸王別姬片中詮釋名旦程蝶衣演繹白蛇傳之白素貞

Bai Su-Zhen of The Legend of the White Serpent, as interpreted by Leslie Cheung in Farewell My Concubine

 

張國榮於霸王別姬片中詮釋名旦程蝶衣演繹牡丹亭之杜麗娘

Du Li-Niang of The Peony Pavilion, as rendered by Leslie Cheung in Farewell My Concubine

You can see the complete film (at the moment) here.

梅蘭芳的遊園驚夢: My Mr. Poetic Oneirism

《遊園驚夢》中，梅蘭芳扮杜麗娘，言慧珠扮春香

《遊園驚夢》上

梅蘭芳在《遊園驚夢》中扮杜麗娘

《遊園驚夢》下

《遊園驚夢》中，梅蘭芳扮杜麗娘，俞振飛扮柳夢梅

More precious & beautiful photos of Mei Lanfang here (he is, after all, my Mr. Poetic Oneirism).

《遊園驚夢》是梅蘭芳學出的昆曲代表劇目。此劇是《牡丹亭》中的一環。劇情是：杜麗娘背父母及塾師與春香至後花園春遊，見斷井頹垣，陡起傷春之感。遊倦歸房，夢中與書生柳夢梅至後園相會，園中花神皆出護翼，二人訂情而別，杜母恰至喚醒麗娘，見其恍惚，囑勿常遊園，麗娘卻心向夢境不已。梅蘭芳在劇中飾杜麗娘。在唱念做工方面都有許多突出的地方，不僅表現出杜麗娘的溫婉、嫻雅貞靜的性格，還把這位深鎖幽閨的少女心靈深處的寂寞、惆悵、徬徨的心情恰如其分地表露出來，演得層次分明，不同凡響。是梅蘭芳下功夫最大，演出場次最多的一出戲。早在1918年演出時，由姜妙香配演柳夢梅，至1933年在上海演出時又得與昆曲名家俞振飛合作，由俞飾柳夢梅，均相得益彰。此後梅與俞合演多年，並博取眾家精華，不斷對此劇進行錘煉和提昇，遂臻化境。堪稱中國戲曲藝苑中的奇葩。1915年12月梅蘭芳應邀在北京電影製片廠，將此劇搬上銀幕，當時領導非常重視。組成優秀攝製組拍攝。仍請梅蘭芳和俞振飛分飾杜麗娘及柳夢梅，梅的弟子言慧珠飾丫環春香。歷時兩月，梅蘭芳和全組工作人員，以極大的熱情，圓滿完成了符合電影藝術和時代思想要求的拍攝任務。

*文字轉載自梅蘭芳紀念館: 戲曲知識

關於梅蘭芳之延伸閱讀... (More about Mei Lanfang...)

Dolls

*Lucia Lacarra as Swanhilde in the ballet Coppélia




Coppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann (The Sandman), and Die Puppe (The Doll). The ballet premiered on 25 May 1870 at the Théâtre Impérial de l´Opéra, with Giuseppina Bozzacchi in the principal role of Swanhilde. Its first flush of success was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War and the siege of Paris, but eventually it became the most-performed ballet at the Opera Garnier.

The team of Saint-Léon and Nuittier had a previous success with the ballet La Source (1860), for which Délibes had composed the music jointly with Ludwig Minkus.

Giuseppina Bozzacchi as Swanhilde in the Saint-Léon/Delibes "Coppélia," Act I, Scene 2. Paris, 1870.

The story of Coppélia concerns a mysterious and faintly diabolical inventor, Doctor Coppélius who has made a life-size dancing doll. It is so lifelike that Franz, a village swain, is infatuated with it, and sets aside his true heart's desire, Swanhilde, who in Act II shows him his folly by dressing as the doll and pretending to come to life. The festive wedding-day divertissements in the village square that occupy Act III are often deleted in modern danced versions, though one of the entrées was the first csárdás presented on a ballet stage. If Mary Shelley's Frankenstein represents the dark side of the theme of scientist as creator of life, then Coppélia is the light side. If Giselle is a tragedy set in a peasant village, then Coppélia is a comedy in the same setting.

Giuseppina Bozzacchi as Swanhilde in the Saint-Léon/Delibes "Coppélia," Act I, Scene 2. Paris, 1870.

(Text and images via Wikipedia)

*Also, from Takeshi "Beat" Kitano's ravishing and heartrending 2002 film Dolls... (I literally had to hold my tears while watching its premiere at the Renoir Cinema in London...)

Hands

In celebration of my infatuation with hands, I have compiled some photographs which I find infinitely beautiful and mesmerising. As a pianist and lover of Chinese opera, hands are to me the most sensual, mysterious and magical part of a human body. They are also the most “narrative.”

Stephen Deutch: Potter's Hands, Vintage Gravure

Rudolf Koppitz (1884-1936), Hand Studie, ca. 1920, Bromoil print (image via)

my hands

吻。

The tree from whose flower

This perfume comes

Is unknowable.

～Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

A sculpture at the Musée Rodin, Paris, France. (*via)

Pierre Choumoff, The Hand of God in bronze at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
La Main de Dieu [by Rodin], c.1915, silver gelatin print (c.1915)

“When the spirit flows from the hands, it is called 'labour.' From nothing, the hands start to create wonderful works of art. The hands are the exit of the spirit. The movement of the hands embodies human longings and human beings are formed by the work of the hands. The hands create forms that never existed before, and this art of creation is uniquely human. That is, human hands carve an image of the individual out of vacant space. Humans recognise the level of their own spirit by looking at what they have created with their hands. That is, the hands enable the spirit to emerge as works of art, and it will reflect what is in your heart. As a result, what is in your heart shows in your work, and the hands will reflect what level you are, sometimes joyfully, sometimes sadly.” 

～Late Master in Japanese embroidery, Iwao Saito

  

“Female hands” Anna Penagini, by Emilio Sommariva, 1935

Takamatsu Jiro, Shadow No. 1413 (*image via)

“From within this giant junkyard where all things are corroding and crumbling, what will capture us, pull us up, flush us out, rescue us from our bloated languidity, will never be these things themselves. It can only and always be found in the faint light of the world to come, in possibility, or probability, indeterminacy, lack, and all the others that only ‘are' in absence.” ～Takamatsu Jiro, 1964

How To Sleep: With forearm tensed, model shows relaxed way of dropping hand, 

by Gjon Mili, New York, 1943

How To Sleep: With forearm tensed model shows tense way of dropping hand, 

by Gjon Mili, New York, 1943

梅蘭芳手指尖上的傾國傾城 {via}

Hand Gestures of the Legendary Peking Opera Master Mei Lanfang 

(Mr. "Poetic Oneirism")

梅蘭芳手指尖上的傾國傾城 {via}

Hand Gestures of the Legendary Peking Opera Master Mei Lanfang 

(Mr. "Poetic Oneirism")

“蘭花指”之擺手式

Hand Gesture "Orchid Fingers" in Chinese Opera

Mei Lanfang's Hand Gestuality in Beijing (Peking) Opera

Book Negs, Casals, by Gjon Mili

Hand of Bassist Red Callender During Filming of Jammin' the Blues, by Gjon Mili

Pianist Clara Haskil's Hands {unknown image source}

Josef Hofmann's Hands in Action, by Gjon Mili, 1940

Film Still from "Late Spring" directed by Ozu Yasujiro

Hand of cellist Gregor Piatigorsky whilst playing Schubert

{film still via YouTube}

Jam Session: Hand of unident, bass player on the strings during jam session at photographer Gjon Mili's studio, by Gjon Mili, New York, 1943

Deborah Turbeville

The Graceful Hands of Ballerina Tilly Losch, by E. O. Hoppe, 1928 {via}

Close-up of woman's graceful hands (old print), by E. O. Hoppe, 

United Kingdom, 1925

Close-up of woman's graceful hands (old print), by E. O. Hoppe, 

United Kingdom, 1925

Sinuous and sensitive hands of artist Blair Leighton, by E. O. Hoppe, 

United Kingdom, 1920

Close-up of a woman's graceful hands with ring and necklace in foreground (old print), by E. O. Hoppe, United Kingdom, 1925

Tango {unknown image source}

Stroboscopic image of the hands of Russian conductor Efram Kurtz whilst conducting, by Gjon Mili

The Baton, by Gjon Mili

中國戲曲之手勢“蘭花指”

Various Hand Gestures of "Orchid Fingers" in Chinese Opera

Hands of Bresson: a visual essay on the tactile world of Robert Bresson created for the Criterion Collection, by kogonada. Music: Schubert, Piano Sonata No. 20, D. 959 (Au Hasard Balthazar).

Nicolas de Largillière (1656 – 1746), Portrait of a Woman, 1696 (detail)

Good Luck to My Friend, via coeXist

Svetlana Zakharova's hands in "La Fille du Pharaon"

The Grand coda from La Fille du Pharaon:

Kim Yu-Na's hands in "Bond Girl," 2009

*Also watch Kim Yu-Na in her stunning long programme Scheherezade (2009 Figure Skating World Championships), a magical firebird on ice.


*All Gjon Mili and E. O. Hoppe images via the LIFE photo archive hosted by Google
**Thank you Photography Influences and Couleurs for introductions to Gjon Mili's How to Sleep photo and E. O. Hoppe's Close-up of woman's graceful hands respectively.