ARTS 25
A^2
4 ,^
Do
mi
nic
M
erc
ier
It takes real imagi-
nation to create an
opera production that
“transcends ‘OK for
lockdown’ status,” said
David Patrick Stearns
in The Philadelphia
Inquirer. But Opera
Philadelphia’s new
filmed interpretation
of a 2006 monodrama
about a combat veteran feels like an endur-
ing work of art. Available to stream and
shot in and around a trailer parked near
the site of the Battle of Brandywine, Soldier
Songs was directed and co-written by its
featured performer, the gifted young bari-
tone Johnathan McCullough. McCullough,
while singing, “has an extraordinary way
of communicating intimate emotions to
the camera without playing directly into
it.” But his theatrical vision proves even
more impressive, as his video adaptation
immerses viewers in the character’s journey
from a teen playing video games to an older
man managing trauma. Even when the
music of composer David T. Little “goes on
too long for its own good,” McCullough
“seizes upon the screen time to further illu-
minate the character’s inner world.”Soldier Songs: A new road opens for opera
Among U.S. opera
companies, Opera
Philadelphia has
become “a pace-
setter for virtual
performance,” said
Seth Colter Walls
in The New York
Times. The company
launched a streaming
service in October
to showcase mostly new productions, and
Soldier Songs, the service’s third offering,
is revelatory. Memories intersect in the
props themselves: The trailer becomes a
combat tank; a red birthday cake evokes a
battlefield wound; and McCullough’s visual
playfulness “accords with the subtlety of
the score’s blend of post-minimalist and
hard-rock influences.” Though the hour-
long work is humbler than a movie, it is
so skillfully directed that comparisons to
such famous opera adaptations as Ingmar
Bergman’s The Magic Flute are not a
stretch. Until opera fans can enjoy live
performances again, Opera Philadelphia’s
slate of short existing and forthcoming
videos “promises to be one of the best bets
going, worldwide.” $25, OperaPhila.tv,
through May 31The Kaiser of Atlantis
Masks muffle some voices in this filmed
version of an opera staged outdoors this
past fall, said The Wall Street Journal.
But the Atlanta Opera does most every-
thing else right in its adaptation of a 1943
work by a Jewish composer in a Nazi
concentration camp. The title character
is a despot who becomes so murderous
that even Death objects, and the director
“leavens the nightmarish satire with
humanity.” $20, AtlantaOpera.org
The Fall of the House of Usher
Boston’s Lyric Opera has transformed a
1987 Philip Glass opera into an “arrest-
ing” animated film, said The New Yorker.
The main drama is still derived from an
Edgar Allan Poe novella, but the vocal
performances are new, and Poe’s cursed
siblings have been dreamed up by a
Guatemalan migrant. $10, OperaBox.tv
Live in HD/The Metropolitan Opera
Throughout the Covid shutdown, free
nightly broadcasts of past productions at
the Met have been “immensely popular,”
said TimeOut.com. The institution’s Black
History Month selections include a 1978
production of Tosca featuring Shirley
Verrett (Feb. 7), and Jessye Norman in a
1989 production of Wagner’s Die Walküre
(Feb. 14). MetOpera.orgMore opera for streaming
Review of reviews: Film & Home Media
Watching Rose Glass’ “wickedly crafted”
directorial debut, fans of haute horror “might
feel like they’re having a religious experi-
ence,” said David Ehrlich in IndieWire.com.
A “divine” Morfydd Clark stars as a young
Catholic nurse in coastal England who’s tee-
tering between ecstatic religious devotion
and mental illness when she begins caring
for a regal but terminally ill former dancer.
“Soft-spoken but vibrating with serial-
killer intensity,” Maud eventually takes it
upon herself to try to save the soul of her
atheist client (an “extraordinary” Jennifer
Ehle), “but there’s no mistaking that Maud
is a horror movie unto herself.” The film
doesn’t dismiss Maud’s brand of faith, said
Matthew Monagle in AustinChronicle.com.It recognizes that people who believe that
humanity is engaged in ongoing conflict
against the devil “defy easy comprehen-
sion.” Many viewers will suspect they know
where Maud’s spiritual crisis is heading,
“but that drains it of precisely none of its
guttural power,” said Phil de Semlyen
in TimeOut.com. “I’ve seen Saint Maud
twice, and each time it found new ways to
freak me out. It will haunt your dreams.”
(In t heaters now; on demand Feb. 12) R
Other new movies
No Man’s Land
The unusual premise of this borderland
drama doesn’t redeem all its shortcomings,
“but it comes close,” said Bill Goodykoontz
in The Arizona Republic. When a boy dies
in a skirmish at the Texas-Mexico border,
a young man fleeing arrest crosses into
Mexico and discovers he’s been ignorant
about its people. Jake Allyn “gives such a
charming performance” that it’s possible to
overlook some unlikely turns and enjoy the
scenery and good intentions. (In theaters or
$7 on demand) PG-13
Cowboys
“What a pleasure to see Steve Zahn in a
leading role that fully capitalizes on the
contradictory currents coursing through
his screen persona,” said David Rooney in
HollywoodReporter.com. With his “wired
energy” and “grounded warmth,” the
underrated actor carries this gentle outlaw
Western about a bipolar father who defiesSaint Maud
++++
Clark’s zealot: A dangerous devotionhis ex (Jillian Bell) when he whisks their
11-year-old transgender son away on a trek
through Montana. “The plotting is a bit thin,”
but Cowboys movingly captures “the soulful
connection of two misunderstood outsiders.”
($12 via virtual cinemas) Not rated
Spoor
Agnieszka Holland’s new eco-feminist crime
caper has been widely celebrated, said Ben
Kenigsberg in The New York Times. “A
nature reverie wrapped around a mystery,”
the Polish award-winner features Agnieszka
Mandat as an educated loner who questions
why “Thou shalt not kill” doesn’t apply to
animals and becomes a suspect when her
town’s hunters start turning up dead. “Con-
fusingly elliptical” storytelling undercuts
the film’s impact, yet it remains “sensation-
ally atmospheric,” with a wintry setting and
orchestral score that “hit on a primal level.”
($7 on demand) Not rated
The Night
The Overlook Hotel has a worthy new suc-
cessor, said Matt Fagerholm in RogerEbert
.com. Set in Los Angeles’ Hotel Normandie,
Kourosh Ahari’s psychological thriller chron-
icles a deeply restless night for an Iranian
couple and their baby. Shahab Hosseini and
Niousha Jafarian co-star in the mostly Farsi-
language drama, and “though I could more
or less guess every twist, Ahari’s picture still
managed to unnerve me with its remarkable
evocation of Kubrickian horror.” (In theaters
or $7 on demand) Not ratedMcCullough’s damaged warrior