Review: Timur Bekbosunov rises above the 'Collapse' at REDCAT Timur and the Dime Museum's 'Collapse; A Post Ecological Requiem' Now that we've got 3-D printers, shall we make a singer? I want Al Jolson for the base material, useful for wholehearted expression derived from curious cultural transgression (but obviously without the blackface). Add a tad of Ethel Merman to enhance that in-your-face quality. For technique and theatricality, of course, Callas. This may be the ingredient hardest to obtain, but you can never have too much Maria Callas. Nor can you have too much Cathy Berberian, who not only blended opera and pop but took new music to new vocal heights developing extended vocal techn
Timur and the Dime Museum are getting to be regulars on the REDCAT stage: Their star turns, cameos and original presentations embody the edgy, witty, musical-theater experimentation that the venue champions. Fitting, then, that the world premiere of COLLAPSE happens at REDCAT. Featuring the operatic, post-punk, cabaret, torch-song tenor and hypnotic theatrics of frontman Timur Bekbosunov, the Dime Museum backs him with an aural array of samples/accordion/keys, guitar, bass and drums. As always, they're more than just a band; they are onstage characters in the passion play. COLLAPSE is a haunting and hyperbolic song cycle, which functions as a requiem for the environment, a lament for humanit
THEATER “Collapse” @ REDCAT (Downtown) It’s impossible to classify the music of Timur and the Dime Museum in just one word. Led by the soaring vocals of classically trained tenor Timur Bekbosunov, the fivesome meld their haunting melodies with the stagecraft of post-punk cabaret in this operatic song cycle composed as a requiem mass. Their performance is set to video projections by artist Jesse Gilbert, with costumes designed by Victor Wilde of the Bohemian Society. Don’t miss this world-premiere event on either Thursday, Friday or Saturday night.
Composed by the band’s music director Daniel Corral, Collapse is a dark, satirical look at environmental problems that have haunted Corral into creative action. The Alaska native said he was largely inspired by the impacts of climate change he’s seen in his home state, where he believes the equilibrium between progress and conservation is more apparent than in a city like Los Angeles. “It can be difficult to talk about global warming in an impressive and profound way without it becoming cheesy or spent,” Bekbosunov said. “But Daniel has found a way of speaking about these human and global catastrophes in a clean, interesting and sardonic way.” The band met in 2007 while its members were stud
Kazakh-American Timur Bekbosunov and his band, Timur and the Dime Museum, will be premiering their new collaborative production, “Collapse,” described as a sardonic, post-ecological requiem for the planet, at Los Angeles’ Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theatre (REDCAT), from March 27-29. The multimedia requiem was composed by Daniel Corral and produced by Beth Morrison Projects. The interactive show tells different stories through a four-piece band and Bekbosunov’s tenor. Bekbosunov plays Moloch, a God of human sacrifice, and global environmental degradation is embodied, lamented and repeated. Corral has re-imagined the traditional requiem as a band-driven song cycle in which each aria describe