Saturday, April 20, 2024
It's been 30 years since photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) and choreographer Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) died from AIDS. The June-long celebration of civil rights and respect is also a reminder that while there are now ways of controlling the disease, there remains no cure. Two recent performances were timely reminders that both left indelible marks on art and society. Triptych (Eyes of One on Another). New York premiere. BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, June 6-8, 2019. In 1989 when the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. caved to pressure from politicians and the Religious Right and cancelled the travelling Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment exhibit, protesters aimed a high-power scenic projector and
Author: Patricia Contino
NY Philharmonic Ends Its Season with David Lang’s ‘prisoner of the state’
The New York Philharmonic began the 2018-2019 season in light and ended in darkness with the world premiere of David Lang's opera prisoner of the state. The NYP commission, conducted by Music Director Jaap van Zweden, performed June 6-8 as part of the orchestra's Music of Conscience series, explored the long tendrils of totalitarianism - and an opera born out of hate is brilliant. prisoner of the state is a meditation on Beethoven's only opera Fidelio (1805), whose titled character infiltrates where her wrongfully incarcerated husband is held and saves him from execution. Written during the Napoleonic wars, Beethoven never hid his passion for freedom. Lang removes
A Positive Russian Influence: Ballet
As the Romanovs's bewilderingly indifference to the political and socioeconomic upheavals leading to the Russian Revolution worsened, ballet at home and abroad flourished. French-born Marius Petipa (1818–1910) was Chief Choreographer of Saint Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater where he set the premieres of Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker among others. Artists dissatisfied with his autocratic yet groundbreaking vision joined impresario Serge Diaghilev in his Paris-based Ballets Russes. The two aesthetics share a legacy of brilliant choreographers (Ballets Russes had Michael Fokine, Nijinsky, his sister Bronislava, Leonid Massine and George Balanchine) and enduring influence. New York had pleasing reminders of this lofty dance heritage when American Ballet Theatre opened their
Remembrance: New York City Opera and The Museum of Jewish Heritage
Apologies for the delayed review of New York City Opera's world premiere of Ted Rosenthal's Dear Erich. The sold-out performances were January 9-13, 2019 at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Before finally reporting on Rosenthal's loving tribute to his father and the grandmother he never met, I wanted to visit the Museum. An opportunity presented itself with the exhibit Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away, on view now through January 3, 2020. Displayed are 700 artifacts and materials on loan from over 20 institutions and private collections, including the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The Museum'
New York Opera Fest: LOTNY’s ‘Owen Wingrave’ by Benjamin Britten
The Metropolitan Opera season is over and summer festivals featuring opera (Bard, Caramoor, Mostly Mozart, not to mention Saratoga Springs and Tanglewood for long weekends) are months away, the New York Opera Fest takes place all over town through June 30. The schedule features operas from its Baroque origins through the present. On May 9-11 at the GK ArtsCenter , little opera theatre of NY (LOTNY) presented the NY premiere of Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave, written for television in 1971. Yes, opera was part of pre-cable television, and Britten wasn't the hard sell the Met now treats his as. Based on a short short by
‘Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie’ at Ars Nova Greenwich House
A show that's sold old since previews is pretty much reviewer-proof, but, if possible, try to catch Mrs. Murray's Menagerie at Ars Nova at Greenwich House (27 Barrow Street, NYC). Created by The Mad Ones and Phillip James Brannon, Brad Heberlee, Carmen M. Herlihy and January LaVoy, the 90-minute send-up ends its run on May 11. Mrs. Murray's Menagerie is a fictitious 1970s children's television show - an idea already loaded with potential. Rather than do the show, the script and director Lila Neugebauer bring it to life with songs and guest appearances by its heavily licensed and franchise puppet cast members. (Not
Merce Cunningham Centennial Celebration
Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) April 16 marked the centennial of choreographer Merce Cunningham's birth. His artistic legacy is that his modern dances, many set to music by his creative and life partner John Cage, will forever be modern. Following Cunningham's directive, his company disbanded after his death at 90 - but not the teaching, training, archiving and performing spanning 70+ years. The Merce Cunningham Trust's world-wide celebration included a definitive program April 17-21 at the Joyce of three classics performed by three companies. The Merce Cunningham Trust defines the Cunningham Technique as "a rigorous form of training designed to create strength and flexibility of both the body and
‘The Cradle Will Rock’ at Classic Stage Company
And some of the best people in town. Now I know what the dirty foreigners feel like. What is this, Russia? We don’t have to listen to talk like that. You’ve only got to hint whatever’s fit to print; If something’s wrong with it, why then we’ll print to fit. For whichever side will pay the best. The above vitriol is not from the president's Twitter account, Fox News or sticky bitter corners of the Internet and AM radio. They were written in 1937 by Marc Blitzstein for The Cradle Will Rock. His 90-minutes of persuasive theatre in protest as musical wearing a big red heart on
Ballet Hispánico at the Joyce
"We did it!" was heard behind the curtain following Ballet Hispánico's world premiere of Edwaard Liang's El Viaje (The Journey). And yes, they sure did in a creatively diverse program at The Joyce through Sunday, March 31. All three ballets explored community. Notes accompanying El Viaje describe it as an "exploration of identity and the ghosts of a former life." The ghost is a woman (Melissa Verdicia) in red - the great dance color signifying uniqueness, magic or sensuality. Here, she is an exile from China and/or Cuba (hence red). She moves away and occasionally joins male and female dancers dressed in pale colors. It's apparent she
‘Chimpanzee’ at HERE
Our primate friends and relatives have been taking it on their pronounced chins lately. The orange orangutan resemblance to the president was raucously noted in Adam McKay's brilliantly biting Vice, and Bubbles the chimp's BFF Michael Jackson was openly accused of being a predator in HBO's documentary Leaving Neverland. Then there is the nameless solitary female chimpanzee caged in her own show at HERE. Directed, created and designed by Nick Lehane, Chimpanzee is on exhibit through May 5 at the Dorothy B. Williams Theater. For those who are familiar with or new to HERE's Dream Music Puppetry program, Chimpanzee personifies what they do best: use the inanimate