Filed under: 10 Art Events, Art and Web Design, Graphic Design, Vocal Ensemble
I was part of the vocal ensemble concert that took place December 7, 2010 in CSUSM Arts Building.
This particular song was from the musical called “Rent” and written by Jonathan Larson. The musical deals with issues of diversity and aids during the early 90′s.
Other songs performed were Imagine/Because (John Lennon), Da Pacem, The Nightindale, Lullaby (originally performed by Josh Groban, and Africa (Toto).
Filed under: Film, Music, Opinion, Vocal Ensemble | Tags: AIDS, HIV, Jonathan Larson, rent
As part of the vocal ensemble we will be singing Seasons of Love which is a song composed by Jonathan Larson for a Broadway musical called Rent. Larson died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm the night before the premiere of his work. It premiered in New York on April 29, 1996. Rent is based on the opera “La Bohème” by Puccini, the musical focuses on a period in the life of a group of young artists and musicians that try to survive in the city of New York in the early 90′s, under the blackness AIDS disease.
Being a christian I had some uncomfortable moments watching this film. However that does not mean the story is bad or not relevant. In fact it is so relevant that the musical has been a success on Broadway. It was by the end of the 1980′s that people started getting the disease and in the 1990′s that people started diagnosed with VIH and dying of AIDS. We saw Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington and Antonio Banderas star in Philadelphia a movie about the disease and the stigma that comes with it. Many famous people also died of the disease and many others are still battling with it. The life the characters live lead them to tragic endings however they pose the question with the beginning song Seasons of Love, how do you measure love? Most of the characters seem to be searching for something meaningful while living day to day not caring enough about the consequences. I don’t think the characters in this film had a positive closure or found what they were looking for. Instead the viewer is left with the task to make his or her own conclusions.
Would I recommend my friends to go see this musical/movie? Yes and no, no because if it made me uncomfortable and I could not imagine how would it make them. Yes, because I do believe we should show love and compassion and sometimes we forget to put faces to the people that represent to us issues we disagree with. My conclusion is that by us learning what people have to go through, walking their shoes and putting a face drug addiction, homosexuality, AIDS, etc., we think different about them and instead of thinking about the issue they represent to many we think of the person and who the person is. Do you know someone with AIDS, with a drug addiction or that is a homosexual? Even though we might not agree with what some people do, is it hard to show love?
