In Havana, Namibia or Daguestan

Let's open with one of those news items that show how universal the Brontës have become. We read in The Economist about Cuba:

In the hallway of his home in Havana’s crumbling old town, Evys Díaz repairs shoes, while his brother Héctor cuts hair. A neighbour runs a café out of an open window. Mr Díaz, a Brontë enthusiast who rushes upstairs to fetch a postcard of Haworth, admits that he has worked privately for several years.

The Minnesota Daily also joins its fellow Minnesota critics and takes the easy path reviewing Bernard Herrmann's Wuthering Heights:

The operatic adaptation’s drastically condensed narrative still gave conductor Michael Christie plenty of opportunities to play with the bell curve of moods.
To accentuate the misery of an English winter or the otherworldly bliss of the oft-metioned moors in springtime, the production includes a screen projection fronting, which drops down during the interludes.
The screen is filled with seasonal imagery while the cast performs behind in varied levels of clarity. The result is powerful. When Heathcliff, played by baritone Lee Poulis, throws open the estate’s snow covered doors in a fit of madness, it feels like an actual burst of cold air is on the way.
While the grandiosity of the score and stage appropriately matches its subject matter, Lucille Fletcher’s libretto slightly dampens the emotional highs and lows of the performance.
Although many of the verses during the fits of despair are brutally passionate, the more obligatory dialogue feels exactly like that — an obligation. With a vast collection of crescendos and bursts of high notes, the characters’ boiling points are often never realized.
Hermann’s penchant for high-tension scores seems to have suit him for such an interpretation, but there are only only fragments of catharsis here. (...)
The cast and orchestra admirably attempt to stir up a similar form of emotional fervor that Brontë’s original work initially carried. But the work just has too many built-in flaws.
Hermann’s limited approach to a more demanding medium undercuts a tragedy that it should intensify. (Andrew Penkalski)

Do we detect in the last phrase the unequivocal stench of pedantry?

The Islington Tribune reviews the Shared Experience revival of Polly Teale's Brontë:

Staged simply against a dark background of a decaying wall with a minimal table and a couple of chairs, lighting, sound and costumes make it strong in atmosphere. (...)
The complexity of its structure makes this play demanding but it provides new insight into these sisters and makes good theatre.
Why, one wonders, has Arts Council England removed 100 per cent of the funding of Shared Experience, the company that produced it, and one with a fine track record? At the curtain call director Nancy Meckler appealed for audience support against this cruel cut. (Howard Loxton)

The Telegraph & Argus announces a Brontë-related walk next month:

A walk around Gomersal next month will celebrate the life of Mary Taylor, close friend of Charlotte Bronte.(...)
The three-mile walk starts at Red House car park in Oxford Road at 2.30pm on Sunday, May 15, taking in places Mary knew, including her later Gomersal home High Royd, now Gomersal Lodge hotel.
The walk ends with refreshments and a private viewing of Red House, finishing at 5.30pm. The event costs £7. Booking is essential with Helen’s Heritage Walks on (01274) 532425.

Jane Eyre 2011 reviews:

Baltimore Messenger:

Mostly satisfying adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë novel with Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre and Michael Fassbender as Edward Rochester. If the story's emotional nuances are not as powerfully rendered as one could imagine, you do feel immersed in that story thanks to the beautifully photographed moors. Grade: B

Seven Days (Vermont) (4 out of 5 stars):

For a Victorian tale, this Jane Eyre is pretty sexy — purists may say too sexy, considering the dearth of premarital kissing and nuzzling in the book. The filmmakers don’t go too far with these liberties, however. They do tone down the novel’s gothic elements — a somewhat disappointing choice, but an understandable one. Rather than creeping us out with the mystery of screams from the attic, this Jane Eyre focuses on the real-life conflicts that make those howls seem like manifestations of Jane’s own buried passions. (Margot Harrison)

The Morning Call awaits the premiere in Bethlehem, PA; Digital Content Producer talks about Modus FX's visual effects in Jane Eyre; _jollyholiday posts some icons inspired by the film; The Toronto Star thinks that this movie is part of a new trend in Hollywood:

Last year’s Oscar-winning Winter’s Bone — in which Lawrence excelled in a demanding role as a teen defending her family against brutal backwoods thugs — and the new Jane Eyre, starring Mia Wasikowska as the battling heroine of Charlotte Brontë’s novel, both give credence to the self-evident notion that Hollywood, at last, has found a new niche for female actors. (Greg Quill)

The GW Hatchet reviews the soundtrack by Dario Marianelli:

His most recent endeavor, for Cary Fukunaga's film "Jane Eyre," does not disappoint. The haunting violin solos and sweeping background instrumentals capture the elegance and emotion of the film's storyline. The first track, "Wandering Jane," begins slowly with light vocals, but as the soundtrack continues, the vocals disappear and are replaced by a strong and moving violin. "A Game of Badminton" sounds very similar to the score for "Pride & Prejudice," a theme which continues into the next few tracks until it ultimately evolves into deeper, more dramatic instrumentals. This album captures the emotion and action of the film, and is certainly enjoyable for fans of instrumental scores who have yet to even see the film. (Kelsey Grashoff)

On blogs: No Charge Bookbunch, Freak in the corner, Outside of a Dog, Tahleen's Mixed Up Files, Daedalus Notes.

The Telegraph & Argus reports some of the Easter activities in the Bradford area:

An Easter trail will be running every day until Easter Monday at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth, where the dressing-up box will be out for adults and children to try bonnets, dresses, top hats and tailcoats. (James Rush)

Russia. Beyond the Headlines shows that in some parts of the world things are not so different from the Brontës' time:

Alisa Ganieva, who won the Debut prize with her novel 'Salam, Dalgat', comes from Dagestan and talks about the tensions for young Dagestanis between west and east: ‘they go to clubs, they take drugs, but they are also trying to be good muslims’, she says, but adds that ‘Islamic garments are currently more about fashion than faith’. She writes under a male pseudonym, Gulla Khirachev. Like Charlotte Brontë or George Eliot, this decision is partly a response to ‘the male-dominated nature of society in my republic’. (Phoebe Taplin)

The Houston Press talks about presidential wives:

The position of First Lady is often a thankless one. A surprising number of presidential wives, usually citing health, were all but recluses during their husbands' administrations, brooding out of sight like something out of Jane Eyre. (Richard Connelly)

Metro New York gives a (lame) excuse to not finish Wuthering Heights:

"Wuthering Heights" — "Heathcliff just isn't a believable character."

The Namibian (Namibia) quotes Charlotte Brontë; a local Town Council candidate and Brontëite in the Gilbert Republic; Codswallop is publishing a sort of prequel of Wide Sargasso Sea: Money Must Be Funny; PTPassatempos (Portugal) gives away a copy of the novel; Jane Austen Portugal reviews Jane Eyre 1996 in Portuguese; readingthroughcollege reviews Wuthering Heights; Film daze does the same with the 1939 adaptation; All that Bites is not Cold is reading Jane Eyre and Thoughts from Coach Monroe's Wife, surgabukuku (in Indonesian) and Between The Lines review it; Abigail's Ateliers posts about her Mrs Rochester gown.

Several blogs join in the celebrations of Charlotte Brontë's 195th birthday: Historical Romance UK, Anneographies, Efemérides Literarias (in Spanish), The Fabulous Birthday Blog, Le Blog des Expos de Caroline Kiminou (in French), on eastwing, Jennifer Dunn publishes an illustration (on the right), 1001 Libros (in Spanish)...

Categories: Brontëana, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Opera, References, Theatre, Wuthering Heights