We have been sent further information on Frédéric Chaslin's Wuthering Heights opera. This article comes from the October 2008 issue of La Scena Musicale. WUTHERING HEIGHTS: THE GENESIS OF A NEW OPERACategories: Music, Opera, Wuthering Heights
French conductor/composer Frederic Chaslin has written a “cross-over opera”, Wuthering Heights, based on Emily Brontë’s eminent novel. The internationally ranked, Paris-born Chaslin is a frequent guest at major opera houses including Paris, Berlin, Munich, and the Met, working with singers like Rolando Villazón, Anna Netrebko and Natalie Dessay. In November, Chaslin will be in Montreal to conduct The Pearl Fishers. The new opera project is the brainchild of librettist Paula Heil Fisher, a noted American theatre and film writer/producer. Fisher has a particular affinity with the Brontë novel, and in Chaslin she has found the ideal collaborator. I was one of five international journalists invited to Valencia,Spain to cover the recording of this new opera which took place in mid-September.
As critics, we are used to the “finished product”, but rarely do we have the opportunity to witness the genesis of a new work. I attended the recording sessions and the press conference. The singers were uniformly excellent, led by American tenor Andrew Richards as Heathcliff and the beautiful Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko as Catherine. An interesting Canadian connection involves bass Wolfgang Rauball as Earnshaw. An exploration geologist, Rauball had a contract with New York City Opera years ago, but decided to leave the opera world when he struck gold! As befitting of a major recording project, the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valencia and the London Philharmonia Chorus were engaged for the recording. It was fascinating to see the project continuing to evolve during the recording sessions. Unlike other works based on the Brontë novel, this version deals with two generations and is thus truer to the original. At press time, the ending has yet to be finalized, and plans for a premiere will be announced in the near future. (JKS)
A couple of months ago we posted about a new opera based on Wuthering Heights with music by Frédéric Chaslin and libretto by P.H. Fisher. We listened to the overture as it was played on the opening gala concert of the new Oslo Opera House directed by the composer himself (May, 3). Now we have a whole MySpace website full of very interesting details:Wuthering Heights is an opera composed by Maestro Frédéric Chaslin, on a libretto by P.H. Fisher based on Emily Bronte's novel. The composition started on May 2007 and the samples you can listen to are part of a rehearsal piano recording session in preparation for a complete orchestral recording that will be made in September 08' with the same soloists. You can send your feedback to the composer, fc@chaslin.com or www.chaslin.com and to the librettist, www.millennialarts.com
The afore-mentioned samples are: Act as If. Performed by Andrew Richards (in the picture), tenor.Also with the presence of Wolfgang Rauball (bass-baritone), Rod Gilfry (baritone), Constance Hauman (soprano).
Vocalise. Performed by Olga Peretyatko (in the picture), soprano.
Heathcliff's curse. (A. Richards)
Young Cathy Aria. (O. Peretyatko)
Love Duet. (A. Richards & O. Peretyatko)
Dying Duet (A. Richards & O. Peretyatko).
The librettist's scrapbook of images used for inspiration, set to composer's "Overture to Wuthering Heights" (recorded in live rehearsal session)Categories: Music, Opera, Wuthering Heights
The Orchestra of Opera NorthMore information in The Yorkshire Post and The Huddersfield Daily Examiner.
Huddersfield Town Hall
Thurs 22 Sept, 7.30pm
French Maestro, Frédéric Chaslin, and our resident Orchestra launch the season in spectacular style in a programme full of Gallic romance and virtuosity – with a Yorkshire twist! Saint-Saëns’ ever-popular Organ Symphony is perfect vehicle to showcase Huddersfield’s magnificent Father Willis instrument and after the wonderful colours of Debussy and Ravel, we celebrate one of the great love stories with the World Première of Maestro Chaslin’s own Gypsy Dance from his opera Wuthering Heights.
Debussy – Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Ravel – Piano Concerto in G
Frédéric Chaslin – Wuthering Heights: Gypsy Dance (World Première)
Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 ‘Organ’
Director/Soloist: Frédéric Chaslin
Organ: Joseph Cullen
Cooper's FieldEDIT: Unfortunately, it seems that tonight's show has been cancelled.
Cardiff Gates
Open 18.30, Film Starts 20.30
Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd September
Cooper's Field lies within Bute Park, a popular green haven at the heart of the city. Sited next to the River Taff, the park was originally created as the private garden to nearby Cardiff Castle. Internationally recognised for its Grade 1 listed, historically designed landscape, scheduled ancient monument and arboretum, the park is rich with archaeological and wildlife interest.
Playbill has a lengthy, interesting article on the Wuthering Heights opera version in the works by Frédéric Chaslin (music) and Paula Heil Fisher (libretto): Chaslin is looking to make a major mark as composer as he nears completion of his opera, Wuthering Heights, large parts of which he recorded Mid-September in Valencia, Spain. Chaslin, often composing on stolen weekends at his houseboat on the Seine, is looking to increase his composition time and is in the process of thinning his future appearances. “Look at (Lorin) Maazel and his first opera, 1984, which I rather liked,” he argued. “Now that he is in his 70s, did he wait too long to start? I’m now in my mid-40s and when do I start getting serious? Now I am in the process of trimming my future schedule to give me more time to compose.”Categories: Music, Opera, Wuthering Heights
His new opera is unapologetically neo-romantic. He is on record with his belief that Twentieth Century classical music went off the rails into serialism and dense atonality. Even though he was, for a time, associated with Pierre Boulez (another composer/conductor) and the Paris contemporary music group Ensemble Intercontemporain, his book, ”Music in Every Sense,” takes modern music to task. “Music should always engage the audience,” he emphasized to me. The music for Wuthering Heights is so accessible that there was some debate at the inception of the project on whether to frame it as a “musical.” After most all has been committed to paper, he clearly sees it as operatic in every sense and the scope and drama of what was heard clearly support that view.
He has found a passionate advocate of the Emily Bronte novel in his librettist. Paula Heil Fisher is a writer, Broadway producer of musicals, filmmaker and head of Millennial Arts Productions who is developing this particular project. Clearly devoted to the classic novel of love and revenge she describes reading the novel as a child – one of her first novels – and the strong impact it had. She sees the author in all of the strong characters, an oblique protest against the limited power for women of Bronte’s time.
In the almost two hours of of music recorded in the spectacular Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Chaslin found a “responsive, eager” house orchestra, the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valencia[na]. Built with the help of Lorin Maazel, finishing his last season as conductor of the New York Philharmonic and Valencia’s current musical director, the top young talent (the average age is around 30) was selected from auditions around the world. This orchestra, only two years old, has already established itself as one of the more important in Europe.
Young too are the leads, both of whom are ready for their close up. Long haired lanky American tenor Andrew Richards seems an ideal heartthrob as Heathcliff playing alongside the stunning young soprano, Olga Peretyatko, as Cathy. Both have already made waves on major stages, are very committed to this project and are names to note.
What chunks were heard during the two days at the recording session would certainly suggest the complete opera would likely qualify as a major event on the world’s musical calendar. The mature Cathy’s aria, the love duet with Heathcliff and the haunting music accompanying the Moor’s Chorus (with the London Philharmonia Chorus imported for the occasion) were particularly well-crafted and moving.
While the particularly lush orchestration during the arias will certainly be balanced in the recording studio, one can only wonder (as some of the singers do) how the balance will be achieved in the opera house. The reported three hours plus of music also might need some scissor application. However, walking to lunch, this critic, who has sat through uncounted new operas, was surprised to find him whistling a tune from the music. How often has that happened? I can’t remember the last time. (Frank Cadenhead)
Frédéric Chaslin's Wuthering Heights Overture will be performed again today, April 24 in Haifa, Israel:The New Haifa Symphony OrchestraThe concert is repeated again in Tel Aviv (April 28, 29). The overture for Wuthering Heights was also played recently in Bologna (Italy) by the Orchestra del Teatro Communale di Bologna:
Frederic Chaslin, Conductor and Piano
Chaslin: Wuthering Heights
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Brahms: Symphony no. 4
Sun 20:30 25/04/2010 Haifa Auditorium
Mon 20:30 26/04/2010 Haifa Auditorium
17 april 2010, Teatro ManzoneCategories: Music, Opera, Wuthering Heights
Frédéric Chaslin
Les Hauts de Hurlevent (Cime tempestose)
Ouverture dall’opera
Frédéric Chaslin's overture for his Wuthering Heights opera (with libretto by PH Fisher) is premiered today, January 12, in Paris:Orchestre ColonneEDIT: You can click here for a give away of free tickets for the concert.
directed by Frédéric Chaslin
Salle Pleyel, Paris
January 12 2010 ; 20 h
Programme
Chaslin
Ouverture de Wuthering Heights (Les hauts de Hurlevent)
Kancheli
Night Prayers for clarinet and orchestra
Rachmaninov
Symphonie nº 2
Concert No. 4
Frédéric Chaslin (France), conductor
Keren Hadar, soprano
Tchaikovsky – Fantasy-Overture "Romeo and Juliet"
Glanzberg – Songs
Legrand – Songs from "Yentl"
Chaslin – Vocalise and Aria from "Wuthering Heights"
Glanzberg - Yiddish Suite
Tchaikovsky - Nutcracker Suite
Rishon LeZion, Heichal Hatarbut - 31 December 2011 2, 3 January 2012
Tel Aviv, The Opera House – Performing Arts Center 1 January, 2012
A new update about the Chaslin & Fisher's Wuthering Heights opera. A set of youtube promotional videos has been uploaded with interviews with the singers and the composer:Meet the artists during the Valencia/London Philharmonia recording sessions in September 2008 of the Chaslin & Fisher opera based on Emily Brontë's classic novel and poetry.
Valencia orchestra (Lorin Maazel, music director) London Philharmonia chorus.
With Olga Peretyatko, Andrew Richards, Leigh Melrose, Constance Haumann, Wolfgang Rauball, conductor: Frederic Chaslin.
Regrettably, the latest in the never-ending quest for the perfect screen adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's signature classic - it's been remade more than Pride and Prejudice - is a stilted, dry, unimaginative affair designed purely to please fans but not to win over any new ones. Mia Wasikowska is the emotionally stunted heroine who must overcome the strictures of her time and assert her right to freedom from conventions that would prefer she remain socially and morally inert. As far as polite, undemanding, unadventurous, slavishly faithful book-to-film enterprises go, this Jane Eyre is hard to fault: the scenery is pretty; the costumes are pretty; Michael Fassbender (as Rochester) is pretty; even Wasikowska is pretty, though she's supposed to be a plain-looking proto-feminist. But the direction by Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre) is real by-the-numbers rote; there's scant spark to the performances or the cinematography, leaving very little to engage those who haven't already decided to love the movie before going in. Select. (Jim Schembri)News.com.au:
Director Cary Fukunara and screenwriter Moira Buffini have very skilfully truncated Brontë's hefty novel without losing any of its essential force.ABC (Brisbane) (the casting is obviously wrong, it's Rise of the Planet of the Apes):
The shifting ground beneath Jane and Rochester's rocky relationship is expertly handled by Wasikowska and Fassbender, who click on levels beyond those found in regulation costume drama.
Like its implacable heroine, this impeccable version of Jane Eyre will not rest until certain truths are dispensed, certain lies are dismissed, and certainty as a whole is achieved. (Leigh Paatsch)
The story is a little too compact at times but the exquisite performance of Australian Mia Wasikowska (Alice In Wonderland) makes this film stand out. Through her timid demeanour, she beautifully illustrates the tortured, fragile nature of her character. Those who have experienced the perils of unrequited love will know exactly how she feels.The Morton Report talks about the film and other "real housewives of Old England":
With its striking set decoration and costumes, director Cary Fukunaga has crafted a worthy adaptation of Brontë's novel. This will be enjoyed by those with a fondness for period piece romances. (Matthew Toomey)
Jane (born: 1847)Newcastle Herald (Australia):
Jane Eyre would so flop on reality TV. For starters, she's thoughtful and penniless, but what a backstory! Hated by her mean aunt and bullied by a cruel cousin, she finally meets kind friend when she's dispatched to an orphanage, only to see her best friend die young. No matter the adversity, you won't see Jane Eyre bawling in public. Director Cary Fukunaga creates a sense of place and draws understated performances by Wasikowska and Fassbender. Earlier versions paired Charlotte Gainsbourg with William Hurt, while the black and white oldie cast Orson Welles as Rochester opposite Joan Fontaine.
Cathy (born: 1847)
Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights heroine married the wrong person and we all know how painful that can be. Cathy gives birth and dies. Handsome Heathcliff, left behind, is haunted by her ghost. Kate Bush explained it best years ago when she sang “Wuthering Heights” on her The Kick Inside album. Juliette Binoche fired up the tragic chemistry with Ralph Fiennes in 1992's Wuthering Heights, while Laurence Olivier went dark as Heathcliffe (sic) opposite Merle Oberon in the 1939 melodrama. (Hugh Hart)
Handsomely filmed, elegantly acted and shrewdly re-constructed from the book using flashbacks to weave together the sprawling story, this Jane Eyre savours Brontë’s brooding undercurrent of angst while retaining its essential romantic heart.DVDVeredict says about the DVD release:
Wasikowska makes a perfect Jane, a heroine the author famously described as “plain and small”.
The actress adopts a minimalist approach. Her pale skin, tight-lipped frown, watchful stare and severely parted hair, together with mostly drab outfits, make for muted emotion.
There is simple elegance in her method although, as invigorating as her exchanges with Fassbender are, Wasikowska’s portrayal is in danger of appearing inert at times.
This means the erotic potential of that initial fireside exchange never flames as vividly as you would hope.
Fassbender, the German-born Irish actor last seen levitating submarines in X-Men: First Class, makes a captivating heartbreaker, swinging with ease between menace, vulnerability and melancholy.
Director Cary Joji Fukunaga (in his second feature after the engrossing Sin Nombre) makes the most of marvellous backdrops and settings.
And his interior scenes chill just so, as creaking floorboards and howling wind outside bring the goosebumps.
This Jane Eyre is not a radical re-do or a provocative re-think, rather a well-appointed revival. (James Joyce)
The DVD is solid, Universal providing a standard def presentation that honors the film's classy look. There's a decent amount of bonus features too, most prominently a commentary with Fukunaga. It's an acceptable track, answering many of the questions you'd want a filmmaker to assess when they tackle such a weighty adaptation. A few deleted scenes don't really expand on the movie at large, but a set of featurettes included are definitely worth a peek. I could've done without the one which masturbates over the movie's unremarkable soundtrack, but on the whole these are appropriate bedfellows for the superior commentary. (...) Jane Eyre is competent and perfectly watchable, though far from one of 2011's best films. (Daniel Kelly)The Christian Science Monitor, Lafayette Journal & Courier and the South Philly Review recommend the DVD. The film is also mentioned in the St George & Sutherland Shire Leader and reviewed on Cinema Autopsy and Nocturnal Book Reviews.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 / 12 noonThe Santa Fe Reporter says:
Location: St. Francis Auditorium, Santa Fe
Program: MOZART Quintet for Piano & Winds, K.452CHASLIN “Gypsy Dance” from the opera Wuthering Heights
POULENC Sextet for Piano & Winds
Artists: Frédéric Chaslin, Bart Feller, Gabrielle Finck, Robert Ingliss, Todd Levy, Theodore Soluri
The middle work was Chaslin alone, in every sense, as he soloed in the “Gypsy Dance” from his opera “Wuthering Heights,” a technically challenging, engaging piece, exceptionally well played. (Sarah Bryan Miller)
With the composer at the piano, Chaslin’s exuberant “Gypsy Dance” from his 2010 opera, Wuthering Heights, recalled every many-splendored Hungarian rhapsody you’ve ever heard. (John Stege)Whatsonstage is excited about the upcoming premiere in Salford of the play We Are Three Sisters by Blake Morrison:
Northern Broadsides are touring the UK in the Autumn with Blake Morrison’s play We are Three Sisters which arrives at the Lowry next month.You can check this preview video on YouTube:
Against the backdrop of a dark, remote northern town, three remarkable young women live their lives brightly. Haworth 1840s; in a gloomy parsonage where there are neither curtains nor comforts, Charlotte, Anne and Emily Brontë light up their world with outspoken wit, aspirations, dreams and ideas. And throughout their confined lives intensely lived…. they write.
Anyone who has read a Brontë novel cannot fail to be stirred by their overwhelming humanity, charged emotion and brooding, prescient unease with the status quo.
Interviews with the creators and cast of the forthcoming Northern Broadsides production "We Are Three Sisters", following the read-through at the Brontë Sisters home in Haworth. Music by Conrad Nelson.bIn a recurring reference, Australian Stage mentions the Brontës as one of the inspirations of Chekhov's Three Sisters (which is one of the main references of We Are Three Sisters):
Inspired by the plight of the Brontë sisters, Anton Chekhov’s play Three Sisters is about the decay of the privileged class and the search for significance.(Stephen Davenport)Foyles reviews Nom de plume by Carmela Ciuraru:
That [Anne] Rice deliberately dropped her male sounding name [Howard] for something distinctly more feminine tells how far the literary world has come since Ellis, Acton and Currier Bell, aka Emily, Anne and Charlotte Brontë thought up their pen names merely in order to be published. Of course they are now known by their actual names, unlike perhaps the most famous female-male pseudonym - George Eliot. Although writing in the Victorian era when female novelists were accepted, Mary Ann Evans chose to stick to her pen name as she felt she was more likely to be taken seriously as a male writer. (Rachel)Women24 looks for the hottest fiction couples:
From Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, to Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester, and Scarlett and Rhett from Gone with the Wind… These romantic reads (regardless of whether or not they're contemporary or classics) have proven that it's all about the characters, not just the story. (Tammy February)Tomorrow's Prom is devoted to film music and The Telegraph highlights the pieces by Bernard Herrmann:
Excerpts from these and two other great Herrmann scores will be heard in the film music Prom tomorrow. It’s the tiniest fraction of Herrmann’s vast output, which also includes dozens of “classical” works, including an opera based on Wuthering Heights. (Herrmann was a fanatical enthusiast for all things English.) (Ivan Hewett)A teacher in the Connecticut Post talks about some of her students:
Or Sudie Simmons, Yale University, who wanted to supplement our curriculum and asked which novel would supply a more suitable heroine-as-role-model: Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights? Seriously? Oh, gentle reader, Jane Eyre, hands down. Sudie loved it. (Julie Roneson)City Island Trailer posts about Jane Eyre 1944; Charabistouilles... (in French) reviews Wuthering Heights; Novelreader16 reviews Jane Eyre on YouTube.
The composer, conductor and pianist Frédéric Chaslin has written to BrontëBlog announcing the world premiere recording of Cathy's Vocalise from his opera Wuthering Heights. It is included on the latest CD by no other than one of the most celebrated sopranos today, Diana Damrau:Diana DamrauThe last track of the album is Cathy's Vocalise. You can listen to it (courtesy of Mr. Chaslin) here.
Forever
Unforgettable Songs from Vienna, Broadway and Hollywood
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by David Charles Abell
With Rolando Villazón
The soprano Diana Damrau stars in the operas of Mozart, Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti and Strauss, but Forever is the ‘soundtrack of her life’ in the form of much-loved numbers from operetta, musicals and the movies – including Die Fledermaus, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, The Phantom of the Opera and The Little Mermaid. “This music shows a side of me that many people don’t know yet,” she says. “These tunes are great art, because they are associated with unforgettable moments in everyone’s lives.”
An historic house with Bronte connections has landed a fifth successive top award.The Telegraph & Argus also publishes further information concerning the recent release of William Grimshaw: Living the Christian Life by Paul & Faith Cook.
Oakwell Hall in Birstall, which has English Civil War and Bronte links, is celebrating winning a prestigious excellence award, recognising the education programmes it runs for visitors.
One of the bygone visitors to have enjoyed Oakwell Hall, built by John Batt in 1583, was Charlotte Bronte who was there in the 19th Century when it was a girls’ boarding school.
She was so impressed she featured it as ‘Fieldhead’ – the home of the heroine in her novel Shirley.
Winning the Sandford Award again puts the Elizabethan manor house in an elite group with only 12 other sites in the United Kingdom to have achieved similar status including Beaulieu in Hampshire and Harewood House in Leeds.
Judges said Oakwell Hall deserved the award because the museum “continued to excite the imagination and interest of successive generations of visitors of all ages”.
The judges praised the hall’s dedicated education team for helping give youngsters an excellent insight into Tudor and Stuart times.
Judge Christine Chadwick said: “The children clearly enjoyed the activities and through observing and talking to them I felt they were gaining useful insight into the lives of both rich and poor in Tudor times and were making connections between objects used now and in the past.”
Oakwell Hall received its first Sandford Award in 1988 and this latest one was presented to staff by the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry KBE at a ceremony at Hampton Court Palace, London.
Councillor Liz Smaje, Kirklees Council cabinet member for leisure and neighbourhood services, said: “To receive a fifth successive Sandford Award is a tremendous achievement and a fitting tribute to the effort and dedication of the staff at Oakwell and the museum’s education team who continue to strive to give all visitors an unforgettable experience.” (Kathie Griffiths)
Especially at a time when much contemporary music requires informed listeners prepared to make a considerable effort to understand and engage, it is easy to assume that being complex – even arcane – is a prerequisite of great art.Tonight (South Africa) reviews a recent performance by the South African a capella group Not the Midnight Mass. They performed an a capella version of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights (that was included in their 1992 album Midnight Mass-Live:
One contemporary composer, who has argued against such a view is Frederic Chaslin. In his book, Music in Every Sense, he writes that much of contemporary music does not engage the audience because it is insufficiently accessible. He has been working on his own accessible opera, based on Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights -- not in a garret but in a houseboat on the Seine. Chaslin is also a pianist and a conductor. (Arlene Judith Klozko)
Old Mass-heads will enjoy their renditions of Hallelujah and Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights cuddling up next to the Rolling Stones' Start Me Up. (Zane Henry)EDIT (12/01/09): We read on Tonight:
The Coming of Age runs until January 24 at the Theatre on the Bay (Camps Bay). The a cappella group includes covers of Wuthering Heights, Georgia, the Hallelujah chorus and some original works as well. Tel: 021-438-3300.Another a capella rendition of the Kate Bush's hit was released some years ago by the Swedish group The Sweptaways.
The London Free Press (Canada) announces the nominations to the Brickenden Theatre Awards. The Theatre Nemesis production of Wuthering Heighs has an Outstanding Costumes nomination.I t will surprise no readers of Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran to learn that the author is still transfixed by narratives. In that unlikely bestseller, the former literature professor, who walked away from her post at the University of Tehran in protest of the Khomeini regime's dictum that all female teachers wear a veil, described how the students in her breakaway classics seminar were given powerful lessons in the democratic spirit by books. In Nabokov and Flaubert and Austen and the Brontes, Nafisi's students found not only confirmation of the soaring human spirit, but of their own plight as well. Reading fiction became an exercise in resistance, an affirmation of art's inherent revolt. (Geoff Pevere)
Caucasian woman, 50s, with ruffled blonde hair, wearing heavy winter coat, Baffin winter boots, carrying a bright floral purse.Cupcake Chronicles talks about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 1996, One Girl and her books briefly posts about Lynn Reid Banks's The Dark Quartet, Art Comments reviews briefly Sam Taylor-Wood Yes I No exhibition
'Wuthering Heights' (originally from Kate Bush) covered by Claire Joseph on piano.2. The Brazilian soprano Vânia Mello:
Recorded on January 2011.
Video credits : SoHappyTeam
Vânia Mello em Wuthering Heights, composição de Kate Bush sobre a obra intitulada no Brasil "O morro dos Ventos Uivantes" de Emily Brontë.
Gypsy Dance from Wuthering HeightsCategories: Music, Opera, Wuthering Heights
Composed in Tokyo, November 2010 and performed by Frédéric Chaslin, this is the piano solo version of the original orchestra dance for the opera "Wuthering Heights" by F. Chaslin on the libretto by P.H Fisher, recorded in New York, Jan 2011
In the early years of the advertising agency he had set up in New York in 1948, David Ogilvy affected a full-length flowing black cape with a scarlet lining. A young employee thought he looked like Heathcliff coming off the moors.This MetroDaily West News reader is quite influenced by the first episode of Wuthering Heights 2009. She starts her letter to the paper like this:
Sunday night I got stuck watching Wuthering Heights on TV - with all of the shifting, frustrating questions about whether Heathcliff was a son or a servant - class and racial lines crossing when all were so 'neatly' drawn back then. (Carol Oakley)Actress Elisabeth Moss discloses a Brontëite past to the New York Post:
"I was always sort of an avid reader," she tells The Post's Barbara Hoffman. "I was one of those kids with a big imagination, always carrying a book around. I went through all the customary girls books - Nancy Drew, Laura Ingalls Wilder, stuff like that, before I graduated to Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte." (Barbara Hoffman)The Spanish newspaper Las Provincias announces the replacement of Lorin Maazel by Frédéric Chaslin in the musical direction of the upcoming performances of Charles Gounod's Faust at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in València. Recently Mr Chaslin directed a recording of his opera Wuthering Heights (libretto by P.H. Fisher) with the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana:
Fuentes del Palau de les Arts confirmaron ayer esta noticia y explicaron que, dada la cercanía del estreno, han buscado un sustituto que intentará estar a la altura de Maazel. Se trata del maestro francés Frédéric Chaslin, que ya visitó Valencia el pasado mes de septiembre para realizar una grabación, junto a la Orquesta de la Comunitat, de la ópera basada en la novela Cumbres borrascosas de Emily Bronte. (Mikel Labastida) (Google translation)El Norte (México) publishes an article by Rosaura Barahona about Jane Eyre. It begins like this:
En 1847, Charlotte Brontë publicó "Jane Eyre", la historia de una niña huérfana que al crecer se convierte en institutriz. La novela, inofensiva como muchas otras, fue prohibida en su momento. Currer Bell, quien escribió el prefacio de una de las ediciones, dice: "Expresado ya mi agradecimiento, aludiré ahora a otra clase de personas a quienes no debo pasar por alto. Hablo de esas personas timoratas o o propicias a la censura, que ponen en duda la tendencia de libros como 'Jane Eyre', a cuyos ojos resulta equivocado cuanto se aparte de lo que ellos piensan; cuyos oídos encuentran en toda protesta contra la intolerancia -una de las hermanastras del crimen- un insulto contra la piedad, esta auténtica expresión de Dios en la tierra. (Google translation)We don't know about the rest of the article (is just for subscribers) but stating that Jane Eyre was forbidden doesn't give very much credibility to the piece.
De pequeña me impactaban las películas en que había personajes que tuvieran mi edad. Recuerdo perfectamente «Jane Eyre», donde Elizabeth Taylor hacía el personaje de una niña que podía tener mi edad en ese momento, y que moría de una neumonía. (Julio Bravo) (Google translation)BDZoom traces a profile (in French) of the comic artist Noël Gloesner remembering his Jane Eyre comic adaptation in 1980 (on the right):
[A]daptations de classiques comme celles réalisées par Monique Amiel dans Djin pour « Sissi » (de 1977 à 1978), pour le «Jane Eyre» de Charlotte Brontë en 1980 (après une autre version due à Alain d’Orange en 1974), ou pour le « Mauprat » de George Sand en 1981 : trois belles biographies pour faire rêver les petites filles en fleur que le Triomphe a également réédité récemment en albums. (Gilles Ratier and Laurent Turpin) (Google translation)Finally, My Universal Quest posts a ravishing review of Wuthering Heights.
Orquesta Estable Teatro ColónCategories: Music, Opera, Wuthering Heights
Concierto No. 1
Director y solista: Frédéric Chaslin
Ludwig van Beethoven: Concierto para piano Nro 5
Frédéric Chaslin: Gypsy dance
Héctor Berlioz: Sinfonía fantástica
30.04.2011 | 20:30 hs.
Your favourite hero of fiction?Variety talks about Goldcrest Finance and Andrea Arnold's future Wuthering Heights:
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. It is the emotional depth of Jane's/Charlotte's passion that, even after 164 years, rises from the pages to touch readers' souls.
Goldcrest Finance, a joint venture with former Merrill Lynch banker Adam Kulick, started in 2006 backing Hollywood slates from the likes of Paramount, Summit and DreamWorks. But it has since switched its focus to investing equity into Brit indie pics including Andrea Arnold's "Wuthering Heights" and Margaret Thatcher biopic "The Iron Lady." (Adam Dawtrey)The Daily Crimson reviews the latest Stevie Nicks album. Discussing the Wide Sargasso Sea song:
Wide Sargasso Sea tells the story of two people who fall in love. They keep their distance because they do not trust each other. However, they still will make love. The song starts off with the first verse having an acoustic feel, then electric guitar kicks in catching your eat and makes you keep listening. The song is one of the most descriptive on the whole album. You can’t help but picture these two people when listening. (Joe Tiner)Somehow we don't think that baseball player Blake Griffin could be a Brontëite... but Jewcy has some hopes:
Who knows, maybe this will actually ignite more players to speak their minds, and we’ll find out Blake Griffin loves Jane Eyre or Jose Reyes is a self-proclaimed expert on The Stone Roses? (Alex Eidman)The National (UAE) talks about Schönberg & Nixon's new dance play Cleopatra, but mentions their previous work: Wuthering Heights.
Nixon and Schönberg's first collaboration was Wuthering Heights, originally intended for another dance company.The Spencer Daily Reporter offers (obvious) advice for novel writers:
"I was quite new to the job and the chief executive said he had been sent this CD of a score for Wuthering Heights by Schönberg," Nixon says. "At first I was a little bit... I said, 'Well, who's that?' And he said, 'He is just the composer of Les Misèrables (sic) and Miss Saigon.' I thought, 'Oh my God!' Les Misèrables (sic, again) was my absolute favourite musical. So I listened to it and it was really beautiful music." (John Kelleher)
Romance novel heroines usually have trendy names, or names with unusual spelling. Is your hero the strong type? Then don't call him Percy! Does your heroine live in the period of the Brontë sisters? Avoid naming her Madison or Zoey. (Jean Tennant)The Boston Herald recommends Jane Eyre 2011 this Mother's Day:
This Mother’s Day take your mom to see “Jane Eyre.” A rare 2011 arthouse hit, the film, based on the classic 1847 romance novel by Charlotte Brontë, features Mia Wasikowska (“The Kids Are All Right”) and Michael Fassbender (“Inglourious Basterds”) as poor governess Jane Eyre and dashing, but gloomy master Rochester, respectively. The film, directed by Cary Fukunaga (“Sin Nombre”) may not be quite as wonderful or as atmospheric as the 1943 version with Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine and a 10-year-old Elizabeth Taylor, but it’s very good and your mother will love it. (James Verniere)Pointer Press reviews the film:
Cary Fukunaga’s film was enthralling, deserving a 4 out of 5 stars. The script was written well, and the actors brought the movie to life. The director changed it up a bit, starting the first few minutes of the movie taking place in the middle of the story; which keeps the audience puzzled and engaged. For those who are interested in seeing it, I would recommend reading the book first. The story is one that catches your attention, showing that you don’t have to be beautiful or rich to find love. (Amanda Meek)And El Nuevo Día (Puerto Rico) has a very weird review. The film is quite good despite the story not being nice (!):
El filme presenta un reto particular para un crítico de cine. La dirección es más que acertada, la cinematografía exquisita y las actuaciones de primera, pero la trama dicta que esta cinta sea una experiencia cinematográfica melancólica y opresiva. (...)Side2 announces the Norwegian release of the film next June 24th.
En su esfuerzo por ambientar y capturar todos los detalles de esta historia, la producción ha creado un filme que sofoca la pasión memorable de Jane Eyre con melodrama y melancolía. (Juanma Fernández-París) (Translation)
She is certainly deeply in love with English literature. I meet her having just attended a screening of the new movie version of Jane Eyre, and [Tahmima] Anam interrogates me keenly about it. Is the Rochester appropriate? Is the Jane too pretty? Nineteenth-century novels are deeply popular in the subcontinent, the restrictions of Victorian Englishwomen echoing those of many in traditional societies now. “People can relate to Jane Eyre’s story so much even now in Bangladesh,” she says. (Janice Turner)How to mention Jane Eyre in an article about slashed skirts? Lisa Armstrong has the answer in The Times:
Same goes for a woman trying to come over like Jane Eyre in a slashed skirt.The Racy Writer interviews the author Hazel Osmond:
How did the idea of Who’s Afraid of Mr Wolfe? come about?Clarín (Argentina) reviews the performance of Frédéric Chaslin's Gypsy Dance (from his Wuthering Heights opera) by the Orquesta Estable del Teatro Colón:
I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of people who are hiding things. It probably comes from reading Jane Eyre when I was a girl. I have a thing about wolves too, especially lone ones.
En el medio, interpretaron Gipsy Dance, una danza orquestal que forma parte de la ópera Cumbres borrascosas , basado en la novela homónima de Emily Brontë, que el mismo Chaslin compuso en 2009.La Vanguardia (Spain) interviews the author and film director, Jordi Esteva who chooses Emily Brontë and Jean Rhys among his favourite writers. Robadonne Magazine (Italy) recommends a visit to Yorkshire and seems to believe that Brontë country is an actual toponym:
En perfecto castellano, el compositor contó al público que Gipsy Dance fue inicialmente concebida como una pieza para piano solo, en Tokio, poco antes de que se desencadenara el tsunami que afectó dramáticamente a Japón. “Es la primera vez que se toca (en su versión orquestal) y quiero dedicársela a mis amigos japoneses”, dijo.
Con una estética estrechamente ligada a las bandas de sonido para películas -Chaslin reconoce que escribió Cumbres Borrascosas usando por completo el vocabulario musical de las películas-, esta obra tipifica un cambio de enfoque estilístico en su carrera: el deseo de llegar a un público más amplio. Luego de haberse dedicado a componer y dirigir obras de vanguardia cuando oficiaba de asistente de Barenboim y Boulez, volcó sus provocativos cuestionamientos en el libro Music in Every Sense publicado en 2009. Entre otras cosas, además de referirse a Boulez como un “gendarme” que emplea tácticas de “terror” hacia otros compositores, propone rehabilitar el género operístico valiéndose de las técnicas que Hollywood emplea en sus filmes. (Laura Novoa) (Translation)
Nello Yorkshire ritroverete le verdi e rigogliose colline celebrate dalle sorelle Brontë nei loro famosi romanzi, tra i quali Cime tempestose e Jane Eyre, e da cui prende il nome anche la Contea che si trova poco più a sud. (Translation)La Gaceta Mercantil (Argentina) publishes an article about Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and another one about... James Tully's The Crimes of Charlotte Brontë (a bizarre resurrection of a novel which we thought was buried and forgotten).
Paysages désolés, nichés entre ceux d'Emily Brontë et ceux de Henry James, âmes torturées, trahisons amoureuses, confusion des sentiments... Un moment de lecture fort, pour roman d'amour sombre, sensuel, magnifique. (Marine De Tilly) (Translation)A local Brontëite in Lakeland The Ledger. The Daily Telegraph (Australia) also carries a poignant story with a Wuthering Heights reference; Associated Content posts an article about the use of settings in Jane Eyre: A Woman Trapped by the World Around Her; A Literary Odyssey posts about Wide Sargasso Sea; Reading Tales reviews The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë by Syrie James. Finally, the Brontë Parsonage Blog announces the upcoming visit to the Parsonage of the writer Blake Morrison, part of the Contemporary Arts Programme.
Via Kultiversum (Germany) we have discovered this curious production of Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville in Switzerland (at the Wasserschloss Hallwyl - Production: Regina Army / Sets: Andrea Marion Menziger) which has quite a few Brontë surprises in the settings, as you can see in the picture:Seit 2003 wird das Wasserschloss Hallwyl im Kanton Aargau alle drei Jahre zur Kulisse einer Operninszenierung. Diesmal stehen für den «Barbiere di Siviglia» Bücher auf der Bühne, zwei, drei, vier Meter hoch: Brontës «Jane Eyre» und «The Professor», Austens «Sense and Sensibility», dazu als abgründiger Einschub die «Medea» des Euripides (Reclam-Ausgabe). (Translation)Curiously it was Rossini's opera that Charlotte (and Anne) Brontë went to see in July 1848 accompanied by her publisher George Smith at the old Covent Garden in London.
[Joyce] Idema [ SFO's director of press and public relations ] rejects any rumors that Chaslin is leaving because the Santa Fe Opera refused to produce Wuthering Heights."As a matter of fact, he was quite clear about that," Idema says. "I once said to him, 'Maybe we should do your opera.' He said, 'No, no, no! Not while I’m conductor.'...That had nothing to do with [his departure]." (Alexa Schirtzinger)Brad Bevet on Rope of Silicon is not too thrilled about the US premiere of Wuthering Heights 2011:
Also getting a limited release is Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights (...) From what I've gathered about both, neither seem to be my alley. Arnold's adaptation of Brontë sounds very minimalist and esoteric[.]This article on Cool Age (India) is a good example of modern Luddites:
What happened to the good old reading habits? People now have access to ebooks, and kindle readers and the good old ink on paper is dying! Arundhati Sharma from Sri Venkateswara College argues that the books these days are highly priced, tough to find compared to the easily available ebooks. I grudgingly admit that the points she made are valid but nothing compares to curling up with a tattered copy of an old classic and letting the sweet smell transport you to Brontë moors! (Vernika Awal)USA Today remembers something quite obvious that, however, needs to be remembered:
In the romance world, the plot is an eternal trope - hello Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre (fortune adjusted for inflation) - in the same way mystery writers and their fans never tire of plots revolving around crazed serial killers with determined detectives hot on the trail. (Deirdre Donahue)The New Zealand Herald talks about Kate Sylvester's new collection:
Kate Sylvester, whose show is tomorrow night, wanted to move her collection's initial idea along. The original romantic notion of Jane Eyre running off with her lover to live happily ever after in the South of France had yielded a pretty Victorian-inspired look, developed in conjunction with her long-time stylist, Karen Inderbitzen-Waller, who explains: "We've adapted the look. We've done the look-book, the campaign, a little film on it, and now this." This is a more dishevelled look, reflecting that the show is an evening event in a bar, rather than pitched at trade buyers.We are still laughing after reading this review on SFX of the James Bond movie The Living Daylights (1987) with Timothy Dalton (who has been both Rochester and Heathcliff in Jane Eyre 1983 and Wuthering Heights 1970 respectively) playing Bond:
Yes, there are moments when he plays it like Heathcliff confronted by a particularly confounding tax return[.] (Nick Setchfield)This writer at The Rochester Post-Bulletin reminisces about her school years:
Mr. Dyrud, my 12th-grade literature teacher, was so enthusiastic about Emily Brontë’s "Wuthering Heights" — diagraming the novel’s plot on the board with wild, chalk-dusty swipes of his arm — that I’d go to bed early at night just to curl up with the next chapter. (Jennifer Koski)
Bohaterka przetrwa te próby i doczeka się nagrody, jednak nad jej historią, mimo pokrzepiającego happy endu, unosi się aura smutku. Nie ma tu wielkich namiętności, jest precyzyjnie i nie bez ironii sportretowana codzienność wczesnowiktoriańskiej prowincji oraz niewesołe, a miejscami drapieżne studium charakterów – widać, że Anne Brontë, która sama była przez kilka lat guwernantką, szkicowała je z natury... (...)Pasje i fascynacje mola książkowego...nie tylko literackie... and Zakurzona Pólka (in Polish) also review Agnes Grey.
Postać Helen Huntingdon wykracza poza konwencje epoki: młoda kobieta wypowiada wojnę obowiązującym regułom, decyduje się uciec od męża, zabierając ze sobą synka, by uchronić go przed deprawacją. Jest to zresztą jedyna droga w świecie, w którym małżeństwo oznacza dla kobiety „zaprzedanie się w niewolę” (to cytat!). Wagi symbolu nabiera scena, w której Arthur na oczach bezsilnej żony demonstracyjnie pali w kominku jej przybory malarskie i szkice... I choć Helen pozostaje do końca postacią nieznośnie wręcz szlachetną, a jej cnota doczeka się ziemskiej nagrody, w chwili ukazania się powieść Anne Brontë wywołała u wielu zgorszenie. Dziś nadal warta jest lektury, podobnie jak dzieła dwóch sławniejszych sióstr. (Translation)
Una cámara sobria, unas iluminaciones matizadas, un tono intimista y unos decorados sin excesivos barroquismos, ayudan a degustar 'Jane Eyre' sin complejos. Asimismo, la creación de una atmósfera gótica contribuye al éxito de la empresa, sensible y nada folletinesca. Porque la elegante ironía de su máximo responsable, la ternura con que contempla a sus protagonistas y la conmovedora forma con que estos son encarnados por la actriz australiana, de ascendencia polaca, Mia Wasikowska (la pudimos ver en 'Alicia en el país de las maravillas') y el actor irlandés, de ascendencia alemana, Michael Fassbender (al que ahora mismo podemos admirar en 'Prometheus') convierten a la película en una notable reflexión sobre la dificultad de amar y ser amado. (Antón Merikaetxebarria) (Translate)Artezblai discusses music in the stage:
Actualmente en la creación de cine y teatro está plenamente asumido que la música resulta crucial cuando se trata de tocar el lado emotivo del espectador. Tanto que incluso no habiendo música en sentido estricto, muchos creadores utilizan los sonidos con la delicadeza con la que se compone una banda sonora. En cine un ejemplo admirable es la última película de Andrea Arnold, una versión contemporánea de "Cumbres borrascosas", cuya música está hecha de vientos de montaña y de las respiraciones de los personajes. (Borja Ruiz) (Translation)Rattling On... posts pictures of a visit to Haworth; Silver Pencils has read Jane Eyre; ShelbyLee is daydreaming... reviews now Jane Eyre 1983; poetictouch2012 uploads to YouTube a reading of Fall, Leaves, Fall.
It will be next Friday, June 18, at the Mariinsky Theatre in Moscow, Russia, as part of a Gala Concert with no other than Valery Gergiev conducting the Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky TheatreXVIII Music Festival Stars of the White NightsCategories: Music, Opera, Wuthering Heights
Natalie Dessay gala concert (soprano)
18 June, 18:00 PM
Concert Hall
Maurice Ravel. Vocalise
Frédéric Chaslin. Vocalise (from Wuthering Heights)
Reinhold Glière. Vocalise
Jules Massenet. Scène I from the act III of the opera Manon
Giuseppe Verdi. Violetta's aria E Strano from the act I of the opera La Traviata
Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre
Conductor: Valery Gergiev
They rallied to give a lustrous and sensual account of Debussy’s L’après midi d’un faune, and did their best with the stodgily orchestrated and unengaging neo-romantic Gypsy Dance from Chaslin’s own opera Wuthering Heights. (Chris Robbins)Neo-romantic it is, as to stodgily we don't know as we haven't heard the orchestrated version but unengaging we assure you it is not.
[C]ostume dramas never seem to go out of fashion and one of the most famous is the brooding romanticism in Jane Eyre, penned by Charlotte Brontë.The Dumfries Standard reviews the film:
There is a rawness to the landscape and the grim walls of Thornfield Hall that sends a chill across the film.Worksop Guardian:
Mia Wasikowska was an insipid Alice thanks to Tim Burton but here the Australian actress shows far more depth of character in her restrained but convincing performance as the abused, introverted but stoical heroine.
Michael Fassbender is a rugged Rochester and there is the familiar delight of Judi Dench as Mrs Fairfax with strong support from Jamie Bell as the frustrated St John Rivers who proclaims love for Jane but is cruelly spurned.
This Jane is no pushover.
It’s rare for a film to hold my complete attention for two hours but this one did. Both Wasikowska and Fassbender held the screen magnificently and I didn’t want the story to end.And HeyYouGuys.co.uk:
Even if period dramas aren’t normally your thing, I would recommend going to see it because this love story remains as powerful today as it was when Brontë wrote it. (Helen Johnston)
Director Cary Fukunaga ensured the film remained true to the novel and time period, sticking faithfully to Brontë’s plot, including almost every key literary moment so fans of the novel felt that the symbolism and power of the original were kept intact. For a modern cinematic audience, however, this is not enough, and Fukunaga uses subtle camera techniques that keep Jane Eyre up to date and fresh for today’s audience. In particular the scene in which Jane discovers the secret door leading to Bertha’s chamber, with its extreme close ups and dramatic contrast between dark and light the shot was reminiscent of modern horror films. Using conventions such as these, Fukunaga manages to give an audience unfamiliar with Brontë’s work a sense of familiarity, making this Victorian plot accessible to all. (Guest)The Italian release of the movie is next week and Paperblog has posts with reviews, reading groups and giveaways. Everyeye, Primissima and Il Giornale di Vicenza also publish reviews. The Polish release will be in October 14 and Plejada, dziennik, eMuzyka, students.pl, onet, Deon, Łódź - Gazeta talk about it. Kvällstidningen Expressen (Sweden) has an article about the film and the other previous adaptations, including the Swedish theatrical version premiered last year.
That night in my bedroom, I could hear long skirts rustle across the floor near the end of my bed – I was, at 10, terrified.Sabotage Times has something to say about Wuthering Heights 2011 and the Brontë cult (including the Haworth graveyard, clampers, Japanese tourists and Top Withens):
Such acute imagination should be expected when you have read Jane Eyre and are in the first few chapters of Wuthering Heights. Even before I left primary school, my head was filled with the dark and passionate love portrayed in the Brontes’ novels. (...) On the day of my visit, there was a great deal of activity as the hall prepared to receive guests to watch a premiere of the new Jane Eyre film. For the third time, Haddon Hall will be Thornfield where the unusual love affair of Jane and Mr Rochester will be acted out for our insatiable love of this classic tale.
British director Andrea Arnold has broken new ground by casting an unknown black actor in the role of Heathcliff and swapping breathless clinches for gratuitous sex scenes. Coupled with the kind of language that would make Malcolm Tucker blush, it’s fair to say it might ruffle a few petticoats.The film will enter competition at the Seminci 2011 (Valladolid, Spain) (22-29 October).
Set in the rugged moorland of the Worth Valley – a place I’m proud to call home – Wuthering Heights is not an easy read and for commercial reasons many productions have shied away from some of its darker complexities. Despite some mixed reviews Arnold’s version sounds like it’s attempted to redress the balance between those that have been more withering than Wuthering. (...)
Writing under the pen name of a man – because women weren’t meant to do much other than press flowers and produce litters of sickly runts, Emily Brontë wove together a dark and complex tale that belied her age and experience. As a reclusive virgin it’s staggering to imagine her first and only novel is a “Russian Doll” of a tale with multiple narrators, time shifts and intricately incestuous plots. It even visits the clammy world of necrophilia in one memorable scene where Heathcliff desperately attempts to dig up his lover’s rotting corpse for one last roll in the heather. (Read more) (Jonathan Lorrimer)
Helen Humphreys' new novel follows a recent trend toward fashioning fiction from the lives of the celebrated.Michelle Rowe made a trip to England and publishes her experiences, including a visit to Haworth, in The Australian:
Such books as Becoming Jane Eyre, Becoming George Sand, Becoming Jane Austen and Daphne, a mosaic featuring Daphne du Maurier and the Brontë sisters, have won wide readerships. (Nancy Schiefer)
At the parsonage we see the dining room and small table around which Charlotte, Emily and Anne did much of their writing, and Charlotte's bedroom, with her wedding bonnet and veil, writing desk and contents, black evening pumps and trinket box among the items on display.The Parent Paper talks about vampires, zombies and teenagers:
We learn about the Brontës' ne'er-do-well brother Branwell, an alcoholic who died at 31, regretting that all his life he "had done nothing either great or good" (his sisters were surely a hard act to follow). Also on display is a devastating review of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre published in The Quarterly Review, which incensed the eldest Brontë sister.
For even more of a twist on classic literature, more mature teens might want to give some of the recent horror-classic mash-ups a try. Two that stand out in this fast-growing body of books is Seth Grahame-Smith’s rework of Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Jane Slayre by Sherri Browning Erwin, based on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Following the original plot of both classics, including a lot of the actual text, the new works just add the zombie and vampire elements into the story to explain the action and motives of the characters. Most readers will want to know a little about the classic work, but I’m told by readers who have not read the originals that it’s not absolutely necessary. (Pat Vasilik)CNN's Geek Out talks with Janet Lee about her Jane Austen Marvel comic adaptations:
While author Nancy Butler was in charge of spinning Austen’s wordy text into five digestible installments, Lee had to bring the world of Miss Woodhouse to life.New Statesman suggests the creation of Enemybook:
“‘Emma’ is a happier story,” she said. “For all of her faults, she’s just apple pie. We wanted to do sort of a bright, pastel, candy-tone kind of feel in the illustration. ‘Northanger [Abbey]’ is making fun of Gothic literature, so you really want it to be more Brontë-esque, on the moors with a hand-to-forehead feel.” (Ashley Strickland)
Keep enemies close to by staying up-to-date on their family holidays and favourite pastimes. Is Jane Eyre their new favourite book? Maybe you should write as your status that you hate it. Instead of a poke, why not gouge? (Androulla Harris)The Skinny describes like this a performance in the latest episode of The X-Factor:
Wendy Davis (Penfold from Dangermouse in a dress) presented a Wuthering-Heights-themed PSA on ‘buying stronger locks for laboratory doors.' (Fred Fletch)Movie Line reviews the film Dream House :
Actually, it may help to think of Dream House as a [Douglas] Sirk movie of sorts, with maybe a little Emily Brontë mixed in — it doesn’t exactly work as a thriller, and not because [Jim] Sheridan and his actors don’t try. (Stephanie Zacharek)Ria Novosti (in Spanish) talks about the feminism in Jane Eyre:
Esta novela suelen llamarla uno de los primeros textos literarios feministas del mundo. No estoy segura de que Jane Eyre de verdad fuera una feminista, pero poseía ciertas cualidades, que adoptaron las activistas de derechos de la mujer a finales del siglo XX. Era impaciente pero objetiva, franca y ferozmente independiente. Rechazaba los fastuosos regalos con los que la intentaba colmar su novio y ella quería seguir trabajando de institutriz después de la boda para ser económicamente independiente. Además, expresaba abiertamente sus convicciones que eran bastante radicales para aquel tiempo. (Svetlana Kolchik) (Translation)Fotogramas (Spain) reviews Wuthering Heights 2011:
La estupenda adaptación de Cumbres Borrascosas a cargo de la británica Andrea Arnold, un prodigio de fisicidad y naturalismo que insufla modernidad al clásico de Emily Brontë, más sensorial que nunca , romántico como siempre. (Manuel Yáñez Murillo) (Translation)Kate Walker's The Return of the Stranger is initiating a blog tour with posts on Talli Roland, Romance Book Paradise, Kylie Griffin and Lucy Monroe.
Après une projection désastreuse à Cannes en 1979, le film, qui durait trois heures, fut amputé d'un peu plus d'une heure, ce qui explique sans doute les quelques ellipses brutales et autres cassures narratives qui minent la version remontée. Tout cela ne devrait pas décourager le cinéphile de voir Les Soeurs Brontë au moins une fois, la vue étant pour le compte le seul sens réellement sollicité par cette oeuvre splendide, mais inachevée. (François Levesque) (Translation)The Guardian quotes the first paragraph of the new novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot in its review. The Brontë mention can be read in this previous post of ours; on Pajamas Media the author rediscovered Jane Eyre after skipping in high school; Otago Daily Times describes James Taylor as the Heathcliff of folk rock; Virtual Lancaster reviews We are Three Sisters; Life in the Slow Lane and daydreamers, Språkkärringen's Blog (both in Swedish) review Jane Eyre 2011; Musings of an Endless Dimension posts about Haworth and the Brontës; Pensamentos de uma Batata Transgênica posts about the history of the Portuguese translations of Jane Eyre. Ángeles Caso visits the National Portrait Gallery and the Pillar Portrait in La Vanguardia (Spain).
Unless explicitly said
