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    Arts Attention

    Bring your imagination: Musiqa goes beyond the abstract

    Nancy Wozny
    Apr 2, 2010 | 5:25 pm
    • "Fingerprints" by Artists of Houston Ballet II and choreographed by StantonWelch
      Photo by Amitava Sarkar
    • Artists of Houston Ballet II in "Fingerprints"
      Photo by Amitava Sarkar
    • Another scene from "Fingerprints"
      Photo by Amitava Sarkar

    What do a D.H. Lawrence poem, a letter from Paganini, an image by French Illustrator J. J. Grandville of an apocalyptic ballet and an old folk tale have to do with music?

    Just about everything for composer Karim Al-Zand. Al-Zand's piece, Imaginary Scenes for violin and piano, is featured on the Musiqa program this Saturday at Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts.

    "Each movement is inspired by a somewhat whimsical literary source," says Al-Zand, who's an associate professor at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. "The plan is for the poem/quote/image to be projected on a scrim behind the players as a kind of backdrop for the music."

    Musiqa, a collective of five composers, (two from Rice University and three from University of Houston) are all about expanding the notion of music and the imagination. It's not usual to have some compelling visuals to accompany a work, as in the case of Al-Zand's piece. "Everything on the program is united by a narrative or descriptive thrust," says Anthony Brandt, artistic director and associate professor at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music.

    Brandt and his composer tribe, Al-Zand, Rob Smith, Pierre Jalbert, and Marcus Karl Maroney, are dedicated to making new music audience-friendly. "We place a special priority on creating interdisciplinary events. We program horizontally and include the other arts as a way to enhance not to distract," Brandt says. "We want to place music in an atmosphere that is more complete, and that is central to our identity. Music always forms the core, but is engaged with something else."

    Karlheinz Stockhausen's The Little Harlequin for solo clarinet is perfect for a Musiqa program, as the piece requires the musician to be that something extra. In Stockhausen's iconic work, the clarinetist, in full costume, plays while he dances about the stage. "The piece is exceptionally hard to pull off, and demands a certain level of virtuosity to perform," Brandt says. "It's always a huge hit with the audience and a complement to the dance to come."

    Also on the program is Rob Smith'sHot Seat for saxophone and piano, a world premiere. Smith, an award-winning composer, is an associate professor at University of Houston Moores School of Music. "Rob has written a pithy musical depiction of what it means to be on the hot seat," Brandt says. "The interplay between the saxophone and the piano is uncomfortable and agitated. It has a lot of fire, and propulsive tension."

    For that extra art form, Musiqa adds dance to the mix, specifically the young dancers of Houston Ballet II, who be dancing Stanton Welch's dynamic Fingerprints. Set to Nubian composer Hamza El Din's music, Welch's ballet combines earthy movement with classical technique in a highly spirited ballet that really shows off the versatility of his training team. " We leave our fingerprints everywhere we go It's like the butterfly that flapped its wings in chaos theory," says Welch, Houston Ballet's artistic director.

    Welch is more than happy to show off Houston Ballet II. They are stars in their own right. The company boasts three finalists including the top prize at the Prix du Lausanne.

    "I fell in love with this music when I first heard it on the Kronos Quartet Pieces of Africa album," Welch says. "But this will be the first time this music has ever been played live in Houston, and of course, a first for the Houston Ballet II dancers. Created for The Cincinnati Ballet, Fingerprints has gone on to enter the repertory of several other ballet companies across the U. S. Houston Ballet performed the first movement during the the last gala.

    Welch welcomed the opportunity to work with Musiqa, especially when plans for a collaboration at Discovery Green was rained out. He's also on board with Musiqa's inclusive and multi-disciplinary approach. "We all live in this great big city and we need to bring as much attention to the arts as possible," he says.

    Rounding out the program is Wynton Marsalis' Blue Lights on the Bayou and Hellbound Highball for string quartet, excerpts of a larger work inspired by the culture of New Orleans' social clubs. Brandt adds, "It's very accessible and the images are so clear."

    After a Musiqa evening we might jump to the conclusion that music is not so abstract after all, and in fact, is quite tethered to today's world.

    unspecified
    news/entertainment

    Movie Review

    Tom Cruise goes all out in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

    Alex Bentley
    May 22, 2025 | 3:30 pm
    Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, and Hayley Atwell in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
    Photo courtesy of
    Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, and Hayley Atwell in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

    Over the course of 30 years and eight films, the Mission: Impossible series has proven to be the most reliable of any action movie franchise. Not all of them are equally good, but with Tom Cruise in the lead as Ethan Hunt, they can be counted on for at least a couple of mind-blowing stunt sequences per film, enough to keep fans clamoring for more.

    Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning has the feel of being the last film in the series, and not just because the 62-year-old Cruise is getting up there in age. Following up closely on the events of 2023’s Dead Reckoning Part One (Part Two changed to The Final Reckoning for unknown reasons), the film has Hunt trying to stop an A.I. villain known as The Entity from taking over the world’s collective stash of nuclear weapons.

    To do so, Hunt and his cobbled-together team — Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), Grace (Hayley Atwell), and Paris (Pom Klementieff) — must hopscotch around the world, tracking villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) and trying to figure out a way to get The Entity’s source code, which is located on a sunken Russian submarine. Oh, and they also have to evade capture by a disgruntled U.S. government, led by now-President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett).

    Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie and co-written by Erik Jendresen, the film might just be the most convoluted one in the series so far. The filmmakers layer on tons of exposition, with lots of flashbacks to previous events in the series to explicate the events of the present, as well as providing unexpected connections to previous films. The plan for stopping The Entity and the references to the past are so dense that the first half of the film is relatively boring.

    Things pick up in the final 90 minutes of the three-hour film, mostly because that’s when the majority of the action takes place. More than other entries in the series, the film considers the geopolitical implications of Hunt’s actions, and he has to negotiate with a variety of high-powered people to do what he deems best. While his efforts are somewhat preposterous, even by the standards of the series, they lead to a bunch of fun sequences that provide levity among the world-changing drama.

    Ultimately, what makes the film succeed are its action scenes. Cruise has done stunts on planes/helicopters before in the series, but what he does during a biplane sequence toward the end of the film is almost beyond belief. Yes, he’s attached to the plane with harnesses that are digitally erased, but he’s still doing it hundreds of feet in the air at great bodily risk considering. While the series has always featured spectacular stunt sequences, this one deserves to be near the top of the list.

    The flashbacks to scenes from throughout the series underscore just how much Cruise has changed in the past 30 years, but also emphasize how amazing it is that he’s still willing to sacrifice his body as much as does to make these films. No other actor goes as far as he does to entertain the masses, and the events of the story even give him opportunities to show off his dramatic acting skills.

    The supporting cast is more packed than usual, and all of them enhance the film. In addition to Hunt’s team, the President has a group of advisers that includes actors like Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, and Janet McTeer. Other recognizable faces like Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso), Trammell Tillman (Severance), and Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding) show up for impactful roles.

    Whether or not this is the last film in the current incarnation of the series, The Final Reckoning has a lot to offer longtime fans, with action set pieces that remains some of the best Hollywood has to offer. The story may be completely baffling, but with Cruise and other appealing actors leading the way, there’s more than enough great entertainment to go around.

    ---

    Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning opens in theaters on May 23.

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