On Monday, March 28, the Portland Opera held its final "Drink n' Draw" -- inviting a handful of PDX cartoonists to the Newmark Theatre to quaff beer, eat pizza, get a backstage tour, and watch a dress rehearsal of two Ravel one-act operas, "L'Heure Espagnole" and "L'Enfant et les Sortileges."
(God, I love that I live in a city where this sort of thing happens.)
I was just over a virus that spent a week staggering wino-style through my body, so I didn't draw as much as usual. But I managed to assemble low-calorie "live comics adaptations" of both (very entertaining) shows.
My drawings after the jump -- along with links to drawings by other, better cartoonists. These sketches will also be on display in the rotunda-level lobby of the Newmark Theatre during the Friday, April 1 performance of the two mini-operas -- possibly with a few artists in attendance.
So basically, Ravel's "L'Heure Espagnole" is set in the shop of a cuckold clockmaker (above right)...
... with a REALLY sexually frustrated wife....
... who has a LOT of trouble getting some extramarital relief...
...despite having a number of distracted/idiotic suitors scattered around the shop...
... hiding in various clocks.
Complications, as they say, ensue.
The second one-act mini-opera, " L’Enfant et les Sortilège," was a lot of fun to watch, but moved so fast it was kind of hard to draw. I gave it my best shot.
Basically, it went like this: A little boy (played by a woman, mezzo soprano Hannah S. Penn, above) hates doing his damn homework...
... so the kid throws a tantrum and tears a room apart. This leads to a nightmare in which...
THE KID IS MENACED BY FURNITURE
THE KID IS MENACED BY FIRE
THE KID IS MENACED BY SHEPHERDS
THE KID IS MENACED BY MOD LEATHER-BAR CATS
AND THE KID IS MENACED BY MEGACREEPY SINGING TREES (among other things I didn't manage to draw)
Oh, and there were frogs.
Thanks again to the Portland Opera's incredibly open-minded creative, administrative and PR teams for allowing us to attend all these dress rehearsals this season. It's one of the coolest experiences I've ever had as a cartoonist.
_____
DRAWINGS BY THE OTHER CARTOONISTS, &tc. :
The Portland Opera's online gallery of drawings by all the "Drink n' Draw" artists
Barry Deutsch: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
Natalie Nourigat: [ blog post ] [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Ron Chan: [ blog post ] [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ]
Jared Souza: [ 1 ]
Jonathan Case: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ]
Roberta Gregory: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ]
Sarah Oleksyk: [ 1 ]
S.W. Conser (w/ color by Adrian Wallace): [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ]
Aaron McConnell: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
Ron Randall: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ]
Photos from the evening: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ]
Great stuff! Great fun! I am the costume designer for the two operas and I love your interpretations.
Posted by: Sue Bonde | April 01, 2011 at 10:39 AM
Thanks, Sue! You guys really brought the sauce on this one. Those Frankstein-walking chairs TOTALLY FREAKED ME OUT.
Posted by: Mike Russell | April 02, 2011 at 12:55 PM