The Art of Acting Review

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(More customer reviews)This great book has a quick and enthusiastic Introduction by former student Marlon Brando, and then consists solely oftranscripts ofcogent and thought-provoking lectures ofthe legendary and revered acting teacher Stella Adler (1901-1992).Howard Kissel has compiled, or possibly combined, tapes in order to come up with these "classes," or chapters.
Adler was an eloquent and reverentialphilosopher of acting, a teacher and acting coach extraordinaire of Brando, de Niro, Warren Beatty, Harvey Keitel, Candice Bergen, and many more. As a young, serious actress she had traveled to Paris, in order to study with Konstantin Stanislavsky, founder of "Method" acting. She was his only American student. She brought his philosophy back to the US, but added her own considerable beliefs to it.She cautions students: "Don't read his book, because it makes absolutely no sense. He came from a culture entirely alien to yours, and you won't understand it."
The twenty-two classes are seemingly presented verbatim. Each 'class' forms a chapter, and has a named subject as its organizing principle.("Acting is Doing," "Developing the Imagination," Building a Vocabulary of Actions," "Understanding the Text," Dressing the Part," "Instant and Inner Justifications," etc.) Each class is clear, thoughtful and thought-provoking, and wonderfully stimulating. Adler focuses on meaning and the soul of the thing - at all times. In addition, she is delightfully concrete, so you are never lost in well-meaning platitudes.
Right off the bat, you are educated as to why acting is not a cousin to, for example,fashion modeling. Adler is blunt, and supports her assertions. Acting has nothing to do with being "discovered," it is not about fame or celebrity.She bemoans the loss of the theater companies of mid-century, and the opportunities they provided to actors, who are now left to 'go it alone.'
To Adler acting is a labor of intelligence and will and love, a "profession that is over 2000 years old"and one that requires boundless energy and a sort of selfish (but not narcissistic) ambition first, and then "critical seeing, self-awareness, discipline, and self-control" - for starters. She talks about the importance to an actor of the use of one's imagination, the disciplined willingness to actually do the research -in order to care deeply and conscientiously about the play. She asserts, "A great disservice was done to American actors when they were persuaded that they had to experience *themselves* on the stage instead of experiencing the play. Your experience is not the same as Hamlet's - unless you too are a royal prince of Denmark. The truth of the character isn't found in you but in the circumstances of the royal position... [to play the role] your past indecision on who to take to the prom won't suffice."
This book is stimulating, uplifting, thought-provoking, and deep. You do not have to be interested in 'doing' acting in order to enjoy her wisdom. Worth reading, and rereading.

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Performance Practices in Classical Piano Music (Book & DVD) (Alfred Masterwork Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)I received only the DVD.I don't know if I was supposed to receive a book or not.He spends a long time talking about tempo markings and what character each tempo marking indicates.You could learn this from a simple music dictionary.He mentions finger pedaling, which interested me a lot, but he only touches on the subject and gives absolutely no systematic treatment of it whatsoever.Nor does he give any systematic guidelines for foot pedaling.Ornaments are not mentioned.Neither are most score markings, including slurs and articulations.For much of the DVD he simply navigates through a few pieces, telling us superficial details about them as though we had never seen them before.It felt like an impromptu piano lesson.I would have liked to have seen him put more effort into actually helping the viewer become a better teacher and performer.He arranges for an expert dancer to take the stage to show dance influence.She comes out and does the gigue in silence.No music.Then he plays a minuet for a few seconds while she does the minuet.And I do mean *seconds.*And that is all we get.So much more could have been done.It felt like an opportunity wasted.Overall, Hinson's treatment of subjects in this DVD is just really, really superficial and disorganized.His performances of the musical examples are so insensitive they will make any high level musician wince.I sincerely wish I could put so little effort into something and manage to get it published.Wait, no I don't.

I don't know what the price of this item will be by the time the next customer reads this.My advice would be to purchase it if it's cheap and plan to skim it once, but don't go out of your way if you're looking for something excellent.This isn't it.

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Compositions by Haydn, Clementi, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert are featured in this intriguing lecture on performance practices of the Classical era. Musical characteristics, period keyboard instruments, Italian terms and more are all discussed. Dance in

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Great Singers on Great Singing: A Famous Opera Star Interviews 40 Famous Opera Singers on the Technique of Singing (Limelight) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a mezzo soprano with more than 40 years of performance experience and I learned new things when I read this book. It's not for beginners as the technical references would be confusing. But for the experienced singer who always wants to learn and improve there is a wealth of information. On the first read through I just examined what the mezzos had to say...a good way to get info quickly for your particular voice type...then I sat down and read it all. This will be a permanent part of my music library.

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Jerome Hines has interviewed 40 singers, a speech therapist, and a throat specialist to provide this invaluable collection of advice for all singers. This collection includes the commentary of Licia Albanese, Franco Corelli, Placido Domingo, Nicolai Gedda, Marilyn Horne, Sherrill Milnes, Birgit Nilsson, Luciano Pavarotti, Rose Ponselle, Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland and many others. "Probably the best book on the subject." Publishers Weekly

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