The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, February 12, 2016 — 5
Petrus and Qiu bring
the East to the West
By MERIN MCDIVITT
For the Daily
Juliet Petrus is comfortable
and at home in her cozy Chi-
cago apartment. Yet the posters
on her wall,
1960s socialist
art accompa-
nied by bright
red
Chinese
characters,
hint
at
the
exotic
expe-
riences
that
have
shaped
her career.
Opera sing-
er Petrus and
her accompa-
nying pianist Lydia Qiu will be
performing at Britton Recital
Hall on Friday, Feb. 12, and at
the Detroit Opera House for a
Valentine’s Day Concert on Sun-
day, Feb. 14. The performance,
entitled “A Great Distance,” will
feature Chinese art song off
their recent album of the same
name.
The genre, unknown to most
Western listeners, even those
knowledgeable
about
opera,
blends European classical opera
with Chinese lyrics, which are
taken from ancient Chinese
poems and set to music. The
style was originally created by
Chinese composers educated in
Europe during the early 20th
Century who wanted to breathe
new life into old forms. But dur-
ing and after the Communist
Revolution, foreign forms of
expression were frowned upon,
if not banned. This period of
musical history remains fas-
cinating for Petrus, as those
brightly-hued posters suggest.
As China has opened up to the
West in recent decades, a hun-
ger for European and American
artistic traditions has taken the
country by storm.
“There’s so much emphasis
these days in China on being
‘Western’ as in dressing or
looking Western, listening to
Western music and watching
Western TV,” Petrus said in an
interview with the Michigan
Daily.
This
desire
for
Western
expression led to the collabora-
tive forces that drew both Qiu
and Petrus to China and then
eventually together.
After training at the Uni-
versity of Michigan School of
Music, Theatre and Dance, both
Petrus and Qiu found their way
into the Chinese music scene.
For Qiu, it was relatively simple:
as a Chinese national, her inter-
est in both Eastern and Western
classical music pulled her in
both directions, working with
Chinese students at times and
spending the majority of her
time as a faculty member at the
University.
For Petrus, the route had
a few more twists and turns.
After performing as a Western
opera singer throughout the
United States, she enrolled in
a brand new program called “I
Sing Beijing,” which sent clas-
sically trained American sing-
ers to China for free intensive
language, cultural and music
training. She fell in love with
the country that welcomed her
with open arms.
“Initially, it was the audi-
ences in China that hooked me.
There’s a great appreciation for
Westerns who take the time to
sing or speak Chinese,” Petrus
said. “But these days, it’s truly
about giving back a part of the
musical culture.”
As Petrus’s Chinese perfor-
mances became more and more
popular, she wanted to raise
awareness of overlooked forms
of expression in the country’s
vast musical repertoire. Chinese
art song, a form often relegated
to music conservatories, seemed
like just the thing.
“There is so much Chinese art
song that is beautiful and under-
performed or unnoticed,” she
said. “In a way, it seems like a
Westerner shining light on this
helps to bring validity to these
songs.”
As a beloved Western per-
former, she was able to bring
attention to the form more than
even a Chinese national alone
could.
Petrus and Qiu knew each
other slightly from their time at
the University, and now seemed
like the perfect time to com-
bine their talents. The result-
ing album, “A Great Distance,”
bridges great musical traditions
from two continents. It has been
well received in China, where
many opera teachers now use it
as a way to show their students
the true artistry that the genre
is capable of.
“Being that we come from
very different backgrounds,”
Petrus said, “I believe that we
both bring a very different point
of view to the music and push
each other to look at songs with
fresh eyes.”
After their United States tour
is complete, the two women will
return to China for another visit.
They perform at conservatories
and concert halls throughout
the country, and hold work-
shops and master classes for the
many aspiring singers thirsty
for new musical styles.
Helping
young
students
reach their dreams is a rich and
rewarding process for both per-
formers.
“As much as I love to per-
form, I also love working with
young Chinese singers,” Petrus
explained. “I have been so
impressed with the levels of
singers at many of the conser-
vatories we’ve visited. I always
look forward to going back and
working with more students.”
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
Album of the Year:
Give it to Kendrick
By WILL GREENBERG
Daily Arts Writer
Kendrick Lamar does not need
an Album of the Year Grammy win
— let’s start with that. The Gram-
mys, however, need to give him the
award.
For Lamar, who has a near
record-tying 11 nominations for
his earth-shattering To Pimp A
Butterfly, this one award means
nothing to his legacy as an artist.
His work will, and already does,
speak for itself when it comes time
to evaluate his career.
Not to mention, plenty of crit-
ics disregard the Grammys for
rewarding only pop stars, rarely
recognizing music with complex-
ity or boundary-pushing imagina-
tion. But that could change if they
give To Pimp A Butterfly the win
for Album of the Year. It would
mean Grammy voters reward
pure artistry — which is the way it
should be.
Lamar has already suffered
a high-profile Grammy snub. In
2014, his wildly popular, but still
thoughtfully crafted, good kid,
m.A.A.d city lost Best Rap Album
to Macklemore’s debut LP. Most
of the hip-hop world, including
Macklemore himself, thought
Kendrick deserved the win: the
voters made a mistake. If they’re
smart, they won’t do it again —
especially when there is so much
to gain.
To Pimp A Butterfly (TPAB)
is the album to beat for the rap
world. There has never been any-
thing like it and rappers will be
hard pressed to compete with it
moving forward. Lamar’s mas-
terpiece achieved the crown for
two reasons that the Grammys
should note: it perfectly fits the
platform of an “album,” and it
was a huge risk.
A brief point needs to be made
that TPAB is not exceptional
because of its racial timeliness or
commentary. Yes, Lamar makes
exquisite observations about race
in
America
(“Institutionalized
manipulation and lies / Recip-
rocation of freedom only live in
your eyes” on “The Blacker the
Berry”), but far too many critics
praise TPAB for its political timeli-
ness amid the discussion of police
discrimination,
basically
giv-
ing him credit for addressing the
topic at all. Let’s not kid ourselves:
there have been plenty of rappers
that took on the topic long before
Lamar was even recording (see
Rakim, Nas, or Tupac, to name
a few) and while racial inequal-
ity might be back in the spotlight
it’s by no means a new issue (see
American history).
Being Black comprises a signifi-
cant part of who Kendrick Lamar
is, so of course the topic will per-
vade every corner of his writing
— and it does. But simply taking on
the topic isn’t what makes Lamar
or TPAB stand out. What’s more
significant is Lamar himself — his
identity.
To Pimp A Butterfly is like a
tour through the highs and lows
of Black American life, and Lamar
is the tour guide. The music pro-
vides the scene — sometimes
resilient, jazzy and celebratory
like in “Alright;” sometimes bit-
ing, ominous, and overwhelming
like in “Wesley’s Theory” or “How
Much a Dollar Cost.” All the while,
Lamar’s rapping explores the dis-
cord with his first-hand, anecdotal
account of a conscientious Ameri-
can’s life.
What makes TPAB a complete
album is that it takes all 16 tracks
for Lamar to walk us through
it all. You can’t sum up Lamar’s
feelings on life as a young, Black
man in the US with just one song.
He explores the complexity of his
newfound fame, sometimes own-
ing his accomplishments like in
“King Kunta,” but also his regrets
and untreatable guilt in songs like
‘u.’ The album is a character study,
becoming more universal as it
becomes more personal. Lamar
mostly discusses his life as a suc-
cessful recording artist, which is
not something most of his audi-
ence will directly relate to. But
nearly everyone can connect with
the insecurity or regret that comes
with pursuing a goal, or reaching a
new point in life. Lamar achieves
relatability by actually sharing
more specifics about his emotional
path.
Now, what makes TPAB quint-
essential art is that it is not just
about Lamar’s emotions, but it is
his emotions. It’s the difference
between third person and first
person. Taylor Swift, a hot con-
tender for the Album of the Year,
can talk about life and its com-
plexity, and many argue she has
plenty to say, but with To Pimp
A Butterfly, we are experiencing
Kendrick Lamar in real time. The
way he blends music with his con-
fessional, poignant rap feels genu-
ine and intimate — the work itself
is his identity. Kendrick Lamar
exemplifies what an artist should
be: a human who experiences life
through his craft.
Acknowledging
this
alone
would be a step in the right direc-
tion for the Grammys voters, but
it’s not the only important point:
Lamar also took a huge risk with
To Pimp A Butterfly.
Coming off the wildly success-
ful, wildly popular, club-worthy
m.A.A.d city, TPAB is an enormous
leap. There’s not a large market for
an album of jazz-laden funk, with
an unpredictable musical gumbo
of other genres and styles — or
at least not before TPAB. This is
the album Lamar always wanted
to make and it’s an uninhibited
expression of his artistry. The
Grammys not only should reward
artists that attempt to push the
boundaries of their genre in this
way, but it must reward them
when they do so and succeed.
Again, this should mean very
little to Lamar. He could go 10
for 11 or 0 for 11 and he’d still be
widely regarded as the best in the
game, but giving To Pimp A But-
terfly the night’s most prestigious
honor would be a sign from the
higher-ups in the music world that
they respect and encourage great
music from real artists. The night
is theirs to blow.
FILM REVIEW
‘Pride and Prejudice
and Zombies’ is a lot
By LAUREN WOOD
Daily Arts Writer
The inside of this movie the-
ater smells like socks and stale
popcorn, except I don’t know
that
because
I’m not here.
Instead,
I’m
fully
present
in a zombified
Regency-era
England, and
I’m
getting
scared of what
might be mov-
ing around me
in the dark.
On the misty,
grey
moors
outside of London proper, zom-
bies are known to spring out of
the woods at any passing car-
riage, hungry for the human
brains that will complete their
transformation into the undead.
Like many girls their age, the
Bennet sisters have completed
their combat training in China,
but now are entering into an
equally difficult battle — try-
ing to find suitable husbands
amongst those still living.
“Pride and Prejudice and
Zombies,” based on the parody
novel by Seth Grahame-Smith,
rewrites Jane Austen’s origi-
nal novel with an underlying
narrative of war between Eng-
lish society and the zombies
that have arisen following the
Black Plague. The film does not
let this literary basis fall to the
side, opening with the iconi-
cally mutated line, “It is a truth
universally acknowledged that
a zombie in possession of brains
must be in want of more brains.”
Gimmicky and gaudy, yes,
but completely engrossing and
fun nonetheless. The rest of the
film upholds this strange cross-
over, taking itself just seriously
enough to pull its audience in
but not so seriously that it fails
to indulge in the utterly ridicu-
lous. The sets and costuming are
elaborate, drawing out the gran-
deur of Bingely’s famed estate
with candlelit dances and gilded
parlor rooms and the Bennet
sisters’ beauty in multihued silk
gowns complete with match-
ing dagger sheaths and flint-
lock muskets. These displays of
splendor are complemented with
equally gory scenes of zombie
violence. In one scene the sisters
fight in slow-motion through a
ball overrun with the undead,
cutting down decaying legs, slit-
ting black-blooded throats and
stomping in the skulls of every-
thing that crosses them.
This dramatized focus on vio-
lence and extravagance trickles
into the romantic plotline of the
film as well, where Elizabeth
(Lily James, “Downton Abbey”)
and Darcy (Sam Riley, “Malefi-
cent”) are caught verbally spar-
ring so precisely in the original
Austen book; here their words
are accented by expert physical
sparring as well. Their hatred
for one another is undercut only
by their respect for the others’
skills as a warrior, and their
unfolding love story holds true
to the original theme of the book.
Where the film indulges visually
and physically, it does the same
romantically,
and
although
their love story is cheesily over-
dramatized at points, with both
characters drawn to the point
of ridiculousness, anything less
would be overshadowed by the
rest of the film.
The weird mash-up of the
film’s
premise
works
when
considering the tone of repres-
sion and denial already pres-
ent in Regency England. While
it may seem strange that the
society is still focusing on balls
and engagements in the face of
complete annihilation, it would
also be strange to accept any-
thing less from the strict social
parameters of the time, where
any discomfort is ignored for the
sake of civility. The only time
this careful balance between
civil and gory seems to fall to
the wayside is in the character-
ization of Lady Catherine (Lena
Headey, “Game of Thrones”),
whose strangeness the film
could do without. In the book,
Darcy’s aunt is an imposingly
proper figure in society, and
here is rewritten as masculine
zombie-hunter
extraordinaire
who diverges from the careful
construction of the other char-
acters.
Watching “PPZ” in the the-
ater, there is an equal mixture
of screaming and laughing. For
much of the film, I had a hard
time closing my gaping mouth
or looking away as brains flew
across the screen or the leads
kissed amid a burning town.
After studying film for what
will in April have been a full
four years, I’ve come to accept
that movies can be deemed
“good” for any number of rea-
sons, a huge one being simply
that they’re fun to watch. “Pride
and Prejudice and Zombies” is
exactly this, and in a way holds
everything a strange, indulgent
and massively dramatized hor-
ror film should. With a hoard of
brain eating zombies, impres-
sively choreographed combat
scenes, a pink wedding finale
and a theater full of giggling
girls cheering on the heroine to
smash in the skull of the crea-
tures around her, the fun of
the movie dissolves most of the
faults to be found.
A
n introverted thespian.
It seems strange doesn’t
it? Most thespians (you
would think) are loud and out-
going people. At least that’s
what I’ve
assumed the
stereotype
to be.
But after
observing
the dynamic
between
what people
bring to the
stage and
how they
behave off of
it, I realize
the phenomenon of the intro-
verted thespian is growing —
and it’s an interesting one.
The first step towards under-
standing this is to dismantle
the established stereotype. I
don’t think that just because
an actor feels comfortable tak-
ing on a role and performing in
front of hundreds of people, that
he or she behaves that way all
the time. The same holds for a
person who is extroverted at all
times and would never dream of
performing in front of people.
One factor doesn’t make the
other true — abandon this ste-
reotype.
In high school, the hours I
spent in drama club gave me a
lot of time to analyze the thes-
pian stereotype. They were loud,
extroverted people, no doubt.
I was among them. But more
times than not, the people who
stood out onstage were the ones
who I didn’t see as extroverted.
Onstage, their introverted
qualities disappeared. They were
entirely different.
The second point of under-
standing is this: taking on a new
role literally means adopting
traits and qualities that an actor
doesn’t actually possess. When I
watch an actor play a character,
I often think they act the same
way off the stage. That’s probably
a sign of a good actor, not neces-
sarily an indication of their real
personality.
We can all look at Kristen
Chenoweth and say yeah, she fits
the part of Glinda in “Wicked”
perfectly. She’s outgoing, ener-
getic and lively, everything
you need for the role. When I
watch her in interviews or play-
ing other roles, her demeanor
screams Glinda.
Someone else may play that
part onstage with an equal
amounts of energy and charisma,
just as the role calls for. But I
would not be surprised if that
actress is nothing at all like the
gregarious and charismatic Che-
noweth.
But the calm and reserved
actress preparing for her time
onstage might just have some-
thing to offer.
My older sister Gabriel, for
example, is an actress. Two
words I would use to describe
her? Calm and gentle. She is
levelheaded and in a group,
she’s rarely the one to demand
the attention or provide the
excessive noise. She leaves that
task to those in her company.
Most of the time, people would
assume the thespians are the
people around her who can’t
shut up. She proves them wrong,
of course.
Onstage, Gabriel shines.
She plays such a vast range of
characters, stretching from a
young, innocent child to a grown,
mature adult. You would never
guess she’s the quiet one. That
she’s the thespian. And an intro-
verted one at that.
That’s the point of acting.
Becoming a character entirely
apart from who one really is.
That isn’t to say that resembling
the character the actor plays is
a bad thing, oftentimes that’s a
pleasure to watch.
But to fall into the assump-
tion that a successful thespian,
or a believable one, has to be
extroverted — is false. A wise
actor aims for the audience to
simply believe the character
that he or she takes on. It takes
an incredible amount of time
to study the physical and emo-
tional traits of a character and
portray them as natural.
I think the best response an
actor could ever get from their
work is: “Wow, that was you up
there? I’ve never seen you behave
anything like that before.”
Yes. Exactly. That’s a job well
done for the thespian embody-
ing a character whose traits are
drastically different than what
the actor views as inherent quali-
ties.
The actors who study their
roles and think, “Nope, I don’t
behave anything like this in
real life,” are often the ones
who make you believe their
character the most. They have
spent long hours reversing their
natural tendencies to become
an incredibly different per-
son onstage — and the result
deserves our praise.
Kadian is not an introverted
e-mailer. To get in touch with her,
send a note to bkadian@umich.edu
COMMUNITY CULTURE COLUMN
Understanding the
introvert thespian
BAILEY
KADIAN
A Great
Distance
Friday Feb.
12, 7:30 p.m.
Britton
Recital Hall
Free
B+
Pride and
Prejudice
and
Zombies
Rave & Quality 16
Lionsgate
EVENT PREVIEW