Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Fellini Again

And Debussy's Clair de Lune

Projecting the opera singer with Debussy's Clair de Lune

Fellini brings back his cast of performers in "And the Ship Sails On." This time it is a troupe of opera and classical musicians. They board a ship to sail to the birth island of a deceased fellow opera diva, who asked that her ashes be scattered there.

Performance plays a large part in "And the Ship Sails On": music, opera, dance, melodrama, and finally film.

The most whimsical is the resurrection of the dead diva through a film projector, obsessively hand cranked by a deeply admiring conductor.

As her silent image (paradoxically, for this singing star) flickers in black and white on the make-shift screen of scarves strewn across a rectangular shape, the lovely, light music of Debussy's piano suite "Clair de Lune" provides the perfect sound.