When one encounters "Fall River Legend" by Morton Gould, the title alone likely conjures pastoral images with autumnal tints, a New England countryside on perfect fall afternoon. What many don't realize is that the ballet (created, with Gould, by the great choreographer Agnes DeMille) actually tells the infamous story of the grisly events that took place in Fall River, Massachusetts on August 4, 1892, when Lizzie Borden brutally murdered her father and stepmother with an axe—and, subsequently, her notorious acquittal—all of which made her a national sensation and the subject of numerous books, poems, theatrical events and, later, films, and in 1948 would inspire the afore-mentioned ballet written for the American Ballet Theatre, now considered a masterpiece of the medium. (The ballet actually changes history and issues her a "guilty" verdict, partly as Gould claimed that he could not write "acquittal music" and thus suggested the alternate ending.) We'll hear the ballet Fall River Legend on Thursday afternoon's Classical Music with Foley Schuler (who, by the way, is distantly related to both Borden and the father she murdered—more on that on Thursday's program.)
Thursday also marks a significant landmark in film history—and one with local implications—with the first-ever screening in Japan, forty years after its release, of the film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. Released in 1985, this Japanese co-production is widely considered to be the masterpiece of the acclaimed Grand Rapids, Michigan-born filmmaker Paul Schrader, and is his fascinating exploration of Japan's greatest post-war writer, Yukio Mishima. In it, Schrader brilliantly interweaves episodes from Mishima's life with highly stylized cinematic dramatizations of segments drawn from three of his books, culminating with the sensational events of Mishima's final day, when, after raising his own private army, the author attempted to take over the Japanese Ministry of Defense and deliver a speech before committing the formalized ritual suicide known in Japan as seppuku. When this film screens this week on Thursday, October 30 at the Tokyo International Film Festival, it will be the first time in its 40 year history that the film will be shown in Japan (as Schrader tells us, it's a simple matter of those, led by the author's widow, who had blocked its release in Japan, having all now passed away.)
One of the essential components that makes Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters so compelling is the remarkable score by Phillip Glass, whose hypnotic music for the film would become the basis for the composer's String Quartet No. 3. In honor of the film's 40th anniversary this year and its much-belated Japanese premiere this week (and the upcoming 55th anniversary of the tragic events of November 25, 1970), we'll hear that music performed by the ensemble (also heard on the soundtrack as well), the Kronos Quartet Thursday afternoon.
You can hear Foley Schuler's musical selections—and stories behind the music—every weekday afternoon from 1 until 4 pm on blue Lake Public Radio.
