Jill Scott, the Mandarin Macbeth and Madagascar plus later Bomb, R. Kelly and Madagascar

Ch-check out my story today on Jill Scott. (Here's the link.) She was lovely to interview and made an interesting comment about the image of women in videogames like Tekken.

As for this last weekend, I checked out the Peking Opera version of Macbeth. I wasn't sure what to expect and only had their descriptions to go on - like the backdrop of Scotland was exchanged for the warring period of Ancient China.

But, I was thorougly impressed.

As a child, while others wanted to join the circus, I had a quirky dream of joining the Peking Opera. I have many a embarrasing photos of me striking an Opera pose. So, when I was in Beijing last summer, I caught a show. But somehow I liked this Macbeth revision much better. The costumes were brilliant.

There were changes to Macbeth however. The Opera version of Lady Macbeth was a much more sympathetic creature. This passage is completely missing:

Come you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.
Stop up th'access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th'effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts
And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers (I.v 47-55).

And her miscarriage comes at the very end before her suicide, making you feel bad for her, not hate her for being an evil mastermind.

If you check in later, I'll preview some inside info on....

1. 94.9's Bomb Veinte backstage details
2. Dreamworks' new funny movie Madagascar
3. R. Kelly's "Trapped in The Closet Part 3"