Tori Amos and The Light Princess

NOTE: My apologies to my email subscribers who got this post in their inbox without any content earlier today!

Singer-songwriter Tori Amos, who's music is famously "fairy tale influenced" is well into development on a new musical based on a short story fairy tale by George MacDonald: "The Light Princess".

If you're not aware of the story it's a short, funny tale (with lots of puns and tongue in cheek) about a gravity-deficient princess who has trouble falling into/in anything! (She was cursed at a christening by someone who was forgotten from the invitation list- of course).

With chapter titles such as:
"Won't I Just?", "She Can't Be Ours.", "She Laughs Too Much", "Try Metaphysics" and "Try a Drop of Water", you can see there's a lot of 'levity' to this tale.

You can read the story HERE, hear the story HERE and for those interested in studying the form and metaphor of the story further there's an essay by Elmer Schenke available to read online that discusses the story called "ANTIGRAVITY: MATTER AND THE IMAGINATION IN GEORGE MACDONALD AND EARLY SCIENCE FICTION" - you can read that HERE.

But back to the musical.

From the independent.co.uk:

It figures that Amos, 45, once dubbed "Queen of the Fairies", should be attracted by a story about a princess whose lack of gravity causes her to float above the world. But as the North Carolina-born singer and pianist points out, MacDonald's fantastical allegory has substance and a malleable, enduring resonance, the princess's "lightness" being a vehicle for Amos to explore modern-day illnesses such as anorexia, and other elements of MacDonald's work lending themselves to environmental themes.

This being Amos, we can expect the work (which she hopes to complete by 2010) to be packed with feminist ideas. "The thing about the original story I wasn't crazy about is that the princess's disability gets blamed on an old hag," she says. "We're not going to deal in spells cast by old ladies; we're dealing with problems caused by power and greed, many of which start with men."

This sounds like a weighty interpretation of a story in which humor is integral to both the telling and the tale so I'm curious as to how Tori balances those elements in her version. She's working with writer Samuel Adamson on the story and has already written a few of the songs for her feminist retelling of the story.

Again, from the independent.co.uk:

Amos says some of the music in the piece is Wagnerian in approach, while one song, "Delectable Guy Pain", was partly inspired by the Shirley Bassey hit "Big Spender". There's an aria for the princess that Amos likens to a darker take on "Memory" from Cats. "Whatever you think of Andrew Lloyd Webber, he knows what he's doing with a melodic arc," she adds.

(You can read the whole of the long article, which discuss Tori's current projects and releases HERE.)

Here's Tori on adapting to the different style of working, with the people from National Theater (from spinner.com):

"It seems to be a full-time commitment," she says of the musical. "I've never written for other people before. Writing for a company and researching their characters, understanding how they speak, working closely with the playwright ... I've never experienced anything quite like it before. The collaboration process that I have when I'm making records is that the material is written and then you're working on arrangements. With 'The Light Princess,' another scene might be written or added or changed, which then will mean that a completely different set of songs have to be written for that scene. I like to work, so I don't mind how much work it takes. I'm not saying I'll never write another one. I'm enjoying it. But if you're writing a musical, you better like your collaborators. I happen to get along with them very well."

You can learn more about Tori Amos, read lyrics from her songs and see lots of lovely things HERE at her website.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this musical turns out!

A Bundle of Fairy Tale Fiction

Here are a few books that have come to my attention in the last month. They're either fairy tales retold or the authors have woven fairy tales into the mood and fabric of the stories.

Click on the titles or the covers for more information about each one.

"When Mermaids Want to Fly"
by Rohini Ramakrishnan
(A retelling of "The Little Mermaid")
"In Sleeping Beauty's Bed: Erotic Fairy Tales"
edited by Mitzi Szereto
"Rosemary and Rue"
by Seanan McGuire
"Legacy"
by Cayla Kluver
"The Spindle & Other Lesbian Fairy Tales"
by Carolyn Gage
(Many different tales retold)

Delphine
by Richard Sala
(This one is a "twisted retelling of Snow White")
The Witch's Guide to Cooking with Children
by Keith McGowan
(A grade school retelling of Hansel and Gretel)

Pixar's First Fairy Tale: "The Bear and the Bow"

NOTE: If this post looks familiar, you are not seeing things. I'm re-posting it as I felt it got buried in other news a few days ago.

Pixar are busy working on their first fairy tale titled "The Bear and the Bow".

Apparently writer and director, Brenda Chapman*, loves Grimm's fairy tales and Hans Christian Andersen's tales. Her story is a combination of her love for those tales and a reflection on raising her daughter. (source: Wikipedia)

The "Bear and the Bow" takes place in "a rugged and mythic Scotland", where Merida, a member of the royal family, decides to give up her family name for her dream of becoming an archer. Merida makes reckless choices, preferring to run wild through the Scottish highlands than put on a dress and behave herself at court, resulting in peril for her father's kingdom and her mother's life. "Merida struggles with the unpredictable forces of nature, magic and a dark, ancient curse to set things right." (quotes from slashfilm.com)The characters made public so far are Princess Merida - whose hair is constantly tangled (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), King Fergus (Billy Connolly), Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), a witch - who prefers to be called a wise woman - baddie (Julie Walters), a fifteen foot bear and Merida's younger triplet brothers.

Here's Reese Witherspoon on her character Merida(from pixarplanet.com):

"I get offered a lot of animated movies… [then] Pixar came along with [a] great character. A girl from royalty who would rather be a great archer? And she has a Scottish accent? Who could turn that down? You always go for the great character to play, even if she’s animated."

And here's a very interesting report from empireonline.com:

Though it's tempting to roll one's eyes at yet another female lead character that's a princess -- especially coming from Disney-owned Pixar now -- the movie is already displaying a refreshing change of pace by reportedly focusing more on the princess' relationship with her mother than the quest to find a prince. Even the inclusion of a non-evil queen is a big step for animated features which, often based upon Grimm's fairytales, overwhelmingly feature evil stepmothers and the like.

[Once Upon A Blog's FTNH: How interesting! This sounds like a long overdue updating of the independent/rebellious princess genre that doesn't rely on a romantic plot - there has yet to be mention of a prince, other than Merida's younger brothers, at any point, though that bear is looking a little suspicious to me. Reports are that the story does, indeed center more on Merida's relationship with her mother, so I'll reserve judgment on the bear! ;) ]

While only early concept art was shown at the event, Empire Online reports that it was indeed gorgeous. See what else they had to say by clicking over to the source.

(Source for quoted text: latinoreview.com )

The tone of the film is reported to be a mix of fantasy, humor and exciting adventure in a rich and mythically lush tale. I'm really looking forward to finding out more about this film.

"The Bear and the Bow" is scheduled for a Christmas 2011 release. NOTE: *Brenda Chapman was one of three directors on "The Prince of Egypt" for Dreamworks and was involved in story/development in varying capacities on Disney's "The Little Mermaid" (story trainee), "Beauty & the Beast" (key story artist), "The Lion King" (head of story) as well as for "The Rescuers Downunder" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame".

Miwa Yanagi's Fairy Tale Masks

WARNING: These pictures and ideas are not for everyone. There are disturbing images and suggestions of the 'gruesome nature behind fairy tales' in this artist's work. I am posting what I consider to be the least disturbing of her photographs from the exhibit titled "Fairy Tale".

Despite my warning above, I do think the approach this artist takes is unique and relevant to the study of fairy tales. I'm posting what I consider to be the least disturbing of the set and including some quotes from an article so you can investigate further at your own discretion. The article does NOT include any unsettling images so if the topic interests you, yet you don't wish to see more pics I recommend just clicking HERE.

So what is it all about?

Artist Miwa Yanagi* has been delving into fairy tales to show the feminine role in all its forms (or, due to the use of masks, 'guises' may be a more appropriate term) while simultaneously bucking the traditional Japanese conventions of portraying bijinga (beautiful women pictures - the article linked to discusses this in detail). She combines theatrical techniques in her photographic presentations by way of staging, masks, exaggeration, costumes and metaphoric representation of literary aspects. Currently Yanagi has a number of exhibitions on display. The images shown in this post are from her work titled "Fairy Tale".NOTE: One of my favorite images (not included here in case some find it disturbing) is of a little girl cradling her 'grandmother' in the middle of a cut-open wolf corpse. Although quite a tender scene, there is, of course, some gore shown, albeit not human.

From The Japan Times online:

In the "Fairy Tale" series, Yanagi gives visual form to the tales of the Brothers Grimm and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novella "The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother," which becomes Yanagi's image "Erendira" ...

... Rather than merely illustrating stories, however, Yanagi deviates from the texts, combining the supposed villainy of the old women in the tales with the innocence of the youthful girls. In "Snow White" (2004) the heroine dons an aged mask of wrinkles before a mirror and hands an apple to her reflected image, suggesting that there is some sort of complicity between the youth and the old woman. In another work, "Cinderella" (2005), further visual interventions occur. Here, a Balthus-like juvenile eroticism is given to Cinderella, around whom gather the three sisters, only one of whom may truly be "ugly," as she hides behind a wrinkled mask.

You can read the rest of the article HERE and see the rest of the eerie pictures from her "Fairy Tale" photo work HERE.

Yanagi's photography is on display at the National Museum of Art, Osaka until September 23rd.

*Miwa Yanagi is considered primarily to be a photographer, though her work encompasses many artistic disciplines.

Goldilocks Goes Into the Woods for 'W'

As promised, today I'm posting the 'W' shoot from 2007 by the same photographers (Mert & Marcus) who shot the September '09 Vogue "Into the Woods" spread (though that one is Red Riding Hood themed).

I don't think I've seen a whole fashion spread that plays with the Goldilocks theme before.

You can see that post HERE.

I'm not sure whether the model is a victim of fashion or of those poor 'de-furred' creatures enacting their revenge. Is it just me, or is there a lot of implied violence and death? (And I don't just mean of those poor animals, even though all that fur is, I understand, sadly not at all faux.) There seems to be less cohesive narrative to this shoot but then that wasn't the point.

(You can click on the pics to see a larger version.)

Um - OK, so maybe it's not just me, thinking this might come off as a tad controversial... it's pretty clear this girl didn't just take a nap in the woods.So did Goldilocks (or the original silver haired old lady*) ever make it back home? In one piece? We may never know...

The model for this shoot was Doutzen Kroes.

NOTE: The fact that this tale originally had an elderly main character and was, at least at one point, specifically changed to a young girl because it was thought there weren't enough tales with young people in them, is fascinating to me. Now days, with tale protagonists being mostly young girls and boys (or young men and women) the opposite would be true. It's quite hard to find tales with older main characters! There is only one volume I know of that's made an effort to collect these and I highly recommend it: "Gray Heroes: Elder Tales from Around the World" by Jane Yolen

The Science of Fairy Tales (Series) - The Little Mermaid's Voice

Ever wondered just how the Little Mermaid would have sounded, if you'd had the chance to hear her before she lost her voice? Well, there's a new underwater opera that may give us a good idea, beyond scientific sound experiments and singing whales.

The opera, which debuted and performed in May at the Queer Up North festival in Manchester, starred LA Soprano Juliana Snapper. She played a post-human creature surviving in a largely aquatic post-apocalyptic landscape, singing underwater, literally, using a technique she's perfected, for much of the performance.

How, you ask?

Here's her answer, quoted from TimesOnline:

“It’s not that different from singing operatically on land,” claims Snapper... “It uses the same basic process of compressing the air, creating a stream of soundwaves and allowing that to go into the water, with a little bit more care because at the end of the phrase you don’t want to pull any water in.” And how do you not do that? “You monkey with your throat a little bit. Underwater you really want to be able to shut that door.”

The pressure changes are the worst, “especially within the first 30ft or so. The oxygen in your lungs has compressed, so you can be down at the bottom and taking in air, but if I don’t sing on the way up with a lungful of air, then the lungs will burst because as the air decompresses, it gets bigger, so it will pop the balloon.”

OK, so I'm sure there's a whole slew of anatomical differences that would change the way this works for a mermaid. I'm guessing whales would have a better understanding of how to compress and decompress your lungs without damaging them as you sink and rise, yet even aquatic mammals require air to live while, traditionally, mermaids don't so either way we're not getting the whole story on how this would work.

But how about the sound? What would the singing really sound like?

Those of you in my generation would have grown up hearing the news from National Geographic that whale songs had been recorded for the very first time. I still remember the floppy little record my father got as part of the magazine. We played it over and over, marveling at how eerily beautiful these underwater songs were. You can hear some for yourself HERE.

But a mermaid is no whale. They're traditionally much closer to humans in size and vocal capacity. So do we have any idea of how a mermaid would sound underwater?

Again from Juliana's interview with TimesOnline:

Sound behaves quite differently in water than in air — Snapper describes the “airless” sound of a voice filtered through water as “like a humming and mewling”. The bubbles she produces have their own character. “The vocal melody is complicated by the percussive sound of the bubbles. If the bubbles are smaller or larger, then the percussive sounds will come more or less rapidly and they all have pitches attached to them. Sometimes you have a kind of second melody over the voice.” But does it sound like singing? “It does. I think it sounds like singing.”

You can read the whole article about the opera and Juliana's process HERE.

We'll return to The Little Mermaid in a future Science of Fairy Tales post, to discuss scientific possibilities behind another part of the story.

NOTE: Illustrations are by Jeannie Harbour and Gennady Spirin. Click on the images to be taken to more information and works. Photos are of Juliana Snapper in underwater vocal performance. To be taken to her website, click on the images.

Fairy Tale Fights - The Academic Version

The Story of the Three Bears by H.J. Ford from the Green Fairy Book

(Many thanks to Heidi from SurLaLune for finding the artist! I knew that style looked familiar... :D )

Less than a week ago Once Upon A Blog published notice of an anthropological study, said to prove the ancient origin of fairy tales. (You can read that post HERE).

It would seem Dr. Tehrani's announcement and his talk at the British Science Fair last week have stirred up an old, yet apparently still hot, debate in the academic ring of fairy tale studies.

In one corner we have the oral traditionalists; in the other: the literary-origin camp.

Heavy weights from both camps have already weighed in and traded some verbal fisticuffs.

Representing the literary-origin advocates we have the highly respected Ruth Bottigheimer:
(Quotes from The Star)

"Tehrani has bought into the newest wave of biology-based understanding of literature, taking evolutionary genetics as his model. But his views are based on slippery assumptions that can't be verified and that have no legs in the real world.

Of course, all narratives have ancient origins: Aesops's fables date back to the sixth century B.C. But "modern revisionists distinguish between different kinds of traditional tales" – folk stories differ from fairy tales – "and understand that they have histories of different lengths."

Elements of a narrative told here and there over time do not a "fairy tale" make."

! (exclamation punch, er, point added by the Fairy Tale News Hound)

Dark Fairytale - Battle by Ken Wong

Keeping his cool with a smooth 'bob-and-weave' response, we have Donald Haase (also highly respected):

"Yes, there is debate in the field over dating. Fairy tales are in the thick of the culture wars."

The editor of Marvels & Tales, a twice-yearly journal of fairy tale studies, says Tehrani is right to conclude that a form of Red Riding Hood exists in many varied cultures. What's news, however, is that the story may date back further than 2,600 years: "It's intriguing, it's plausible, but tracing the ancestry of fairy tales can be very difficult. I want to see his evidence."

Arguably the most well known and respected fairy tale authority, Jack Zipes, also firmly (and famously) in the oral-traditionalists corner, doesn't hesitate to respond, or to pull his punch:

"All our storytelling originated thousands of years ago, centuries before the print editions of fairy tales," he says. "Anyone who says they arrive only with print is just stupid. People have similar experiences around the world and always have had."

Ouch.

But this is just the warm up. They're all waiting eagerly for the paper to be published before winding up for the knock-out.

If you're interested in getting up to speed you can read the original news post HERE (which links to the original Telegraph UK article) and the one I'm quoting today HERE.

I'm planning on getting a ringside seat for the next round if I can. In the meantime, this is just begging for an editorial cartoon.

Ultimate Disney "Princess and the Frog" Preview & Party Event

Disney is having a 'preview event' for their feature animated movie "The Princess and the Frog". While the movie is due in theaters on December 11th, event ticket holders will be able to see the whole movie ahead of time. The event runs from November 25th till December 13th, multiple times a day, at either the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City or the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California.

There are a host of other activities too:

• all the Disney princesses will be in the same place at the same time (this is a first), including the newest, Tiana (from the feature being promoted)
• there are photo ops in special Princess and the Frog sets
• Disney animators will be on hand to teach guests how to draw the characters
• Princess and the Frog themed games and more
• Burbank visitors will also get the chance to tour the studio lot (an opportunity which doesn't happen much these days)

Full details can be found HERE.

Tickets for both locations can be found HERE.

Vogue Goes Rouge (as in Red Riding) for September Issue

Fairy tale fashion shoots remain popular, as is evidenced by Vogue's "Into the Woods" Red Riding Hood spread for the September '09 issue. (Personally, I love to see how the photos - consciously or unconsciously - highlight aspects of the fairy tales on which they're based.)

Fashion watchers have noted the similarities to a shoot done in 2007 by the same photographers, Mert & Marcus: girl in the woods, in autumn, pursued by 'wild' animal (and also titled "Into the Woods"). There are similarities - enough that the photographers may wish to try a different approach for their next few gigs - but all in all they're both beautiful shoots and have their own unique fairy tale aspects.

(You can click on the images to view a larger version)

For today, enjoy another/new look at our other favorite little girl in the wood, Red Riding, played by Natalia Vodianova. The fashion colors are almost exclusively reds with touches of gray and black so I'm guessing the suggestion is this Red is a little wolfish all by herself.I'll post the 'W' spread, which features fur and is Goldilocks themed, complete with teddy bears, in a few (3) days.

As a little bonus, Vogue's Grace Coddington, styled the Prada window on 5th Avenue (New York) in Red Riding Hood fashion to reflect the current spread. If you're in New York, you can go see it right now (and there's a good possibility you'll see the store mannequins bearing wolf heads while the LRRH window stays intact).

Lovely Graphic Design for 2 (Unused) Fairy Tale Covers

Here are a couple of fairy tale book covers I found recently by graphic designer Oleksandra Korobova (a.k.a. l-e-s-k-a on deviantArt).

I just love these!

They were to be part of a series but as far as I can find, have not ever been used. Such a shame! They would have had me picking up the books in an instant.

You can find more of her art and photography HERE.