[note: many, if not most, of these links may no longer be working, but such is the nature of the digital. hopefully, the url and context are enough to help you find any further information you want. if not, feel free to contact me, and i’ll try to help.]
noviembre 2014
¡hola, difus@s!
the year may well have peaked in october, not simply in volume (cf., last month’s full listing) but also in quality. i can’t recall another month in which so much of what i saw (and i was particularly assiduous) was so, so good. for the sake of time (and attention), i won’t try and cover it all, but a few of the highlights definitely deserve some discussion.
peter sellars’ production of bach’s st. matthew passion at the park avenue armory was transcendent. several critics noted his insistence on describing the performance as a “ritualization,” and, while that might sound like aesthetic pretense, it gets at precisely what made the experience so extraordinary. “ritual” implies a alternate, perhaps pre-modern relationship to time, not a remembering that marks a distance between “then” and “now” but a collapsing of that very temporal distinction. sellars’ success in evoking so fully this sense of ritual owed as much to the incredible musical performance as to the ingenious staging, which kept dissolving the distances between musicians and singers, audience and performers, the ancient (religious) text and the modern (secular) public. the effect was nothing short of transformative. as espen hammer has written (and the entire essay is relevant here): “experiences like this, which explode the empty repetition of standard clock time, offer glimpses of a different and deeply intriguing type of temporality that has the power to invest our lives with greater meaning, possibility and excitement than a life merely measured on a grid could ever provide.”
both ghost quartet (with a remarkably similar, equally moving, and even more intimate staging) at bushwick starr and 600 highwaymen’s employee of the month also offered profound meditations on time. the former was a brilliant song cycle—exceptionally designed (the lighting, in particular, was phenomenal), and stunningly performed—that ended with one of the most gentle, generous gestures i’ve ever seen in theater. the latter was a heart-rending story—made all the more so by the child cast (a trenchant directorial decision—that left me reaching for marilynne robinson’s housekeeping as a means of making the show last a little longer (“when did i become so unlike other people? … or it was when my mother left me waiting for her, and established in me the habit of waiting and expectation which makes any present moment most significant for what it does not contain.”).
ivo van hove’s angels in america did, in fact, send me running to strand to purchase a print copy of the play. embarrassed as i am to admit it, i hadn’t read or seen (in any form) either part of angels in america, so i can’t appreciate fully what a radical departure van hove’s staging was. however, i loved the spareness of the production and the commitment of the actors (many of whom i’d seen years before in roman tragedies and cries and whispers). even more spare, though, was beckett’s not i (also at BAM), in which all we could see was a woman’s mouth, floating in complete darkness and spewing a delirious, 10-minute monologue. “riveting” would be an egregious understatement.
BAM also delivered one of the fall’s best dance events, pina bausch’s kontakhof, which was the earliest work of hers i’ve seen. the sensibility is, in many ways, much darker than her later travelogues (e.g., bamboo blues and nefes), but its unflinching exploration of sexual (and, more broadly, interpersonal) politics is tempered by her characteristic compassion (in its etymological sense of “shared pain”). another icon of modern dance, steve paxton’s selected works at dia:beacon was revelatory, a show of remarkable range and rigor. though much younger a choreographer, kyle abraham’s when the wolves came in, probing the civil rights histories of the US and south africa, was as fully realized and mature a work as both bausch’s and paxton’s (and glenn ligon’s set piece was incredible)—far more noteworthy than the millepied and peck pieces (both terribly uneven and conceptually vacuous) performed by l.a. dance project (whose program was saved by william forsythe’s quintett).
among october’s other riches were claire chase’s density 2036: part ii (eye- and ear-opening!), robert wilson and rufus wainwright’s shakespeare’s sonnets (so much better than wilson’s collaborations with abramovic and gaga), bootycandy (hilarious, affecting, and worth a much longer run), brooklyn bred 2: dynasty handbag (whom i hope to see again soon), the restoration of hiroshima, mon amour (finally!), and the death of klinghoffer (the protests of which were, frankly, more politically problematic than the work itself). while november’s offerings aren’t quite as extensive, they’re still quite good:
film: i was a bit remiss with cinema last month, so i’ll be binging on the derek jarman and rainer fassbender retrospectives at BAM and the film society at lincoln center. i’m also looking forward to jean-luc godard’s good-bye to language. sam green’s the measure of all things at the kitchen also looks promising.
theater + performance: i’m very much looking forward geoff sobelle’s the object lesson at BAM, which was quite well reviewed at this summer’s edinburgh festival (i even heard two guys at the eagle—of all places!—comparing festival notes and commenting on how they should have seen it), as well as the invisible hand at new york theatre workshop.
dance: batsheva dance company consistently delivers, so sadeh21 at BAM is the top of my dance list. jaro viarksy’s animalinside at abrons sounds intense, in a good way (and i’m a huge fan of dance as a means for exploring male identity). hilary eaton’s i am with you could very well be the employee of the year complement i’m so craving.
music: any performance of stockhausen gets my attention, so i’m already set to see his originale at the kitchen this week. ditto for the JACK quartet, who will be performing at the morgan library and museum (where i first saw them years ago) later this month. john zorn’s cobra celebrates its 30th anniversary at roulette, and william kentridge lends his touch to schubert’s winterreise. also of note, sasha frere-jones and sister sylvester present the fall: a performative screening at the park avenue armory.
art: crass as it may sound, my top priorities this month are the auction previews at sotheby’s, christie’s, and phillip’s since much of this work won’t be on public display otherwise (at least not for a while). i still haven’t seen the museum shows i mentioned last month, so those remain on the to-do list. of the gallery shows on view, hans haacke and rudolf stingel at paul cooper and greer lankton at participant are ones i don’t want to miss.
more, as always, is below…and, if i’m missing anything, let me know!
abrazos,
p
noviembre / november
-6: the cabinet of dr. caligari (film)
-9: soledad barrio & noche flamenca (dance)
-9: sister sylvester: the maids' the maids (theater)
-13: good-bye to language (film)
-11: queer pagan punk: the films of derek jarman (film)
-16: smoke (theater)
-16: father comes home from the wars (parts 1, 2 & 3) (theater)
-24: pool (no water) (theater)
4-7: sally silvers: actual size (dance)
5-8: the object lesson (theater)
6-15: ronald k. brown / evidence, a dance company: one shot (dance)
7-8: karlheinz stockhausen’s originale (music, performance)
7-26: fassbender: romantic anarchist (part 2) (film)
11: winterreise (music)
12: naxos presents: the danish string quartet (music)
12: under construction series: sasha frere-jones (music, film)
12-15: sadeh21 (dance)
13: late night rose (music)
13-15: jaro viarsky: animalinside (dance)
13-15: hilary easton: i am with you (dance)
13-16: oxbow (dance)
15: new york polyphony: celebrations from the mediterranean (music)
16: the meeting* hosted by justin sayre (performance)
18: ariel quartet's beethoven cycle (music)
18-30: complexions contemporary ballet (dance)
19-22: birds with sky mirrors (dance)
19-: the invisible hand (theater)
20: jack quartet (music)
20-22: tony kushner's angels in america: part i--millenium approaches (theater)
20-23: tempest (theater)
21: nils frahm with dawn of midi (music)
21-22: sam green: the measure of all things (film, performance)
29: john zorn's cobra (music)