About ten years ago I went to see Elsinore, the one-man Hamlet conceived and directed by CSA approved theatre/media arts genius Robert Lepage. Despite abundant technical wizardry and the considerable talents of actor Peter Darling, the frenetic toing and froing, and flipping of personas left the lingering impression of bedroom farce rather than The Bard. Begging the question: A one man Hamlet…what's the point? In the Bob Brozman Orchestra, Bob plays with… well, himself. L'orchestre, c'est Bob. A polyglot of all things stringed, with an illustrious reputation as a collaborator, on this occasion Brozman uses the magic of the overdub to perform most of the many parts on Lumiere himself. Lest I suffer the slings and arrows of fellow resophonic konaheads like Steve Dawson and Doug Cox, I will say that Lumiere, is a considerably more coherent achievement than Elsinore. There are some lovely moments on the record – mostly where Brozman has exercised some constraint and limited himself to less than six instruments – and he really is convincing in a wide variety of roles/styles. However, I confess to having been too aware of the man behind the curtain to lose myself completely in the illusion.
Sunday, 9 September, 2007
Bob Brozman Orchestra - Lumiere (Riverboat)
About ten years ago I went to see Elsinore, the one-man Hamlet conceived and directed by CSA approved theatre/media arts genius Robert Lepage. Despite abundant technical wizardry and the considerable talents of actor Peter Darling, the frenetic toing and froing, and flipping of personas left the lingering impression of bedroom farce rather than The Bard. Begging the question: A one man Hamlet…what's the point? In the Bob Brozman Orchestra, Bob plays with… well, himself. L'orchestre, c'est Bob. A polyglot of all things stringed, with an illustrious reputation as a collaborator, on this occasion Brozman uses the magic of the overdub to perform most of the many parts on Lumiere himself. Lest I suffer the slings and arrows of fellow resophonic konaheads like Steve Dawson and Doug Cox, I will say that Lumiere, is a considerably more coherent achievement than Elsinore. There are some lovely moments on the record – mostly where Brozman has exercised some constraint and limited himself to less than six instruments – and he really is convincing in a wide variety of roles/styles. However, I confess to having been too aware of the man behind the curtain to lose myself completely in the illusion.
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