Hey, I like a challenge as much as the next guy. But review the
\nmusical soundtrack to a stage production I may or may not ever see,
\nstaged by a troupe whose focus has always been on creating stunning
\nvisuals? And most of the singing isn’t even in English? Waaaah! I
\nwant my AC\/DC albums back!<\/p>\n
Or not. It took me just one spin of this disc to discover that
\nthe music was not just interesting, but at times engrossing, to the
\npoint where I’ll definitely try to catch this show live if I ever
\nget the chance.<\/p>\n
The music on
\nKa<\/i> — mostly orchestral, though with extensive vocal work,
\nsome solo and some in chorus — is lush, otherworldly, and often
\nepic. It has multiethnic undercurrents, in places featuring African
\nrhythms and interesting percussion effects, but also displays quite
\na bit of variety, with the common element being a striking elegance
\nand simplicity, choices that make the overall effect that much more
\ndramatic and compelling. The album benefits from the talents of 57
\nmusicians and a choir of 40 background vocalists, led by principal
\ncomposer and arranger Rene Dup\u00e9r\u00e9.<\/p>\n
It’s easy to imagine action happening all over the stage behind
\nsurging, urgent numbers like “Pageant,” “Storm,” the
\nsteadily-accelerating “Pursuit” and the soaring “Forest.” Quieter,
\nmore contemplative numbers like “Deep” and “Shadowplay” inspire
\nvisions of towers of carefully balanced figures contorting in
\nimaginative ways.<\/p>\n
A few tracks have an almost Broadway-musical feel to them; you
\nsense that essential story points are being enacted during the
\nominous-sounding “Pursuit” and the string-heavy, billowing “Love
\nDance.” Even the dangerously Celine Dion-ish final ballad “If I
\nCould Reach Your Heart” — sung in English — is capably executed,
\nwith strong harmonies and chants giving it the fullness and texture
\nit needs to escape blandness.<\/p>\n
There is, it must be said, a certain sense of what I can only
\ndub “over-the-top-ness” about this music. It’s often epic in scale,
\nyes, but sometimes ranges beyond epic into the realm of melodrama,
\nwringing every last potential drop of emotion out of the musical
\nmoment. What made it work for this reviewer was imagining the
\nexotic, dramatic stage action that this music is meant to
\nunderscore. In that context, it seems it could be quite
\neffective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":27267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7233],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38627","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-cirque-du-soleil","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38627"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}