We are mostly at home these days with just the regular outings to the supermarket, cheese shop, and this week Costco. After many months of this, plus lots of reading and TV viewing, we are now beginning to sign up for and watch cultural offerings online. A few weeks ago, it was two interviews in The New Yorker Festival. This week, the ballet.
ONLINE CULTURE
Sarasota Ballet: Digital Program 1
Rather than in-person performances, the Sarasota Ballet is recording and offering short programs for online streaming. These feature only a few dancers at a time and were made with all of the CDC guidelines in place. The “ticket,” i.e. online link, for this show was $35 and arrived via e-mail. My technologically adept Chief Penguin was able to hook up my iPad to throw the image up on our large TV screen.
This year the ballet is celebrating its 30th anniversary. They are known for presenting the works of noted British choreographer, Sir Frederick Ashton, and have performed at the Kennedy Center in D.C, and the Joyce Theater in New York. Just an hour long, this program concentrates on Ashton’s wide variety of styles. There were seven short pieces ranging from an ethereal threesome, all in white, in Erik Satie’s Monotones II, to scenes from Meditation from Thais (music by Offenbach), The Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky), and the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet. It ended with a lively series of ballroom dances in Façade (composer William Walton).
We had 5 days in which to view the program and ended up enjoying it with our pre-dinner wine and munchies. The video quality was excellent and overall it was an enjoyable experience, one I’m sure we’ll repeat!
DRAMA ON THE SCREEN
VILLAGE GOSSIP
The Trouble with Maggie Cole (PBS)
Set in the fictional village of Thurlbury and filmed in Devon and Cornwall, Thurlbury looks picturesque and idyllic. But, when Maggie gives a radio interview and unloads all she knows about the trials and tribulations of her neighbors, it goes viral. And suddenly, she’s persona non grata.
Self-important and nosy, Maggie runs the small gift shop at the historic keep and dubs herself a local historian. Her long-suffering and ever supportive husband Peter is the headmaster at the local school. Her son Jamie is in real estate and his wife Becka is forthright and, in the most amusing way, takes no guff from her mother-in-law. Maggie’s best friend Jill invites a noted mystery author to her class at school.
When the townspeople’s secrets end up in the local paper, Maggie sets out on a mission to apologize to everyone she has offended. The Trouble with Maggie Cole is a 6-part series that is alternately funny, wacky, and serious. It is a British series, and something about it seemed to me so very British in its approach. You might not love Maggie, but it is intriguing to watch how secrets revealed lead to both positive and negative outcomes.
FORBIDDEN LOVE
Secreto Bien Guardado (Netflix)
One viewer called this a fairy tale; I might say it’s a bonbon. The times are serious, but the story is romantic. Seventeen-year-old Amalia, vacationing with her parents and sisters in Argentina in 1940, meets Martin, a young German lawyer. Both are immediately attracted to each other. She is Jewish and he’s a Nazi and complications follow. Over eight episodes (all less than 30 minutes) and several years, we follow the obstacles they face and their respective fates. I found this an absorbing diversion for my treadmill watching.
CRIMES ON THE WATER
High Seas (Alta Mar) (Netflix)
There’s a profusion of Spanish series now on Netflix, some of them Netflix originals. High Seas is a stylish production set on a cruise ship headed from Spain to Brazil in the late 1940’s. Fernando, part owner of the ship and his fiancée, Carolina, and her sister Eva, a budding author, are all sailing. Carolina’s wedding is to take place during the voyage. She is focused on that, but Eva is more interested in solving the mysteries.
Also on board are their Uncle Petra; Luisa, a stowaway; Fernando’s sister Natalia and her husband; and Clara, a beautiful lounge singer. Captain Aguirre is on his last voyage and deeply mourning the death of his wife. First Officer Nicholas is handsome and more like a son than staff to the captain. The ship is luxurious, but there are troubled waters ahead with murders, disappearances, and storms to be navigated.
Like a soap opera at times, but with plenty of puzzles, it is never dull! There are three seasons and I have just completed Season 1.
Note: Header image is of Sarasota Ballet dancers in Monotones II from ft.com
