Opening January 9 at Shakespeare & Company: Theresa Rebeck's Bad Dates, directed by Adrianne Krstansky, with Elizabeth Aspenlieder, Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, January 9 - March 8, 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm.
The Berkshire Theatre Festival Announces its 2009 Summer Season: Broadway by the Year®, created/written/hosted by Scott Siegel with an All-Star Cast; The Einstein Project by Paul D’Andrea and Jon Klein, directed by Eric Hill; The Prisoner of Second Avenue by Neil Simon, directed by Warner Shook; Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Anders Cato and James Leverett, directed by Anders Cato. In the Unicorn Theatre: Faith Healer by Brian Friel, directed by Eric Hill; The Wiz Lyrics and Music by Charlie Smalls, directed by Ralph Petillo; Sick by Zayd Dohrn; Red Remembers by Andrew Gerhart, directed by John Rando.
The Inside and Out: Bennington in Autumn, photographs by Jack Isselhardt, runs through the end of 2008 at the Bean and Leaf Cafe, 139 Main St., Bennington, Vt. Info: 802-688-6196, or jacki673@comcast.net
Algorithmic Art at Greylock Arts. Works by Larry Alice, Richard Harrington, Daniel Hirschman, Tristan Perich, Sean Riley, Jeremy Rotsztain, Daniel Shiffman, and Demetrie Tyler. Open Saturdays 1 – 4 p.m. and by appointment. Call 413.241.8692 or e-mail info@greylockarts.net
Latest on the Artsblog/Commentary: On Man's Quest for Meaning
Michael Miller
December 19, 2008
I remember fondly the innocent times when the British tabloids faithfully provided a bracing dose of spleen for their readers over their breakfast fry-ups. Usually this took the form of a sensational report about an abused dog or a tortured cat. Times have changed, and I don't know who to blame for evolution in British consciousness—Fergie and Di and their scandals? Margaret Thatcher? The Internet? No matter. Spleen is alive and well in British journalism, in examples of a much higher order than cats and dogs, and in publications with reputations far above the tabloids. The Daily Telegraph, followed by a tabloid, The Mail, ran a tear-provoking story about the wholesale slaughter of words by the editors of the Oxford Junior Dictionary, perhaps more of an orderly mass execution, given the authority of the University Press, than a martyrdom of the ten thousand. Words associated with the nature, the countryside, animals, vegetables, flowers, fish, the nobility, royalty, folkloric creatures like elves and goblins, Christmas, and the Christian religion. Vineeta Gupta, the head of children's dictionaries at Oxford University Press, was quoted: "When you look back at older versions of dictionaries, there were lots of examples of flowers for instance. That was because many children lived in semi-rural environments and saw the seasons. Nowadays, the environment has changed. We are also much more multicultural. People don't go to Church as often as before. Our understanding of religion is within multiculturalism, which is why some words such as "Pentecost" or "Whitsun" would have been in 20 years ago but not now."
The crass utilitarianism of Ms. Gupta's premise is shocking in itself. Are we to believe that children have no use for words related to things which are not contained within their immediate sphere of experience? If the children should by some chance find themselves in the countryside is their experience to be an adventure in vocabulary like Ali G.'s? (Although Ali may not be able to follow the gardner in Richard II, he has cleverly developed his own vocabulary for describing the British Isles, borrowing terminology from female anatomy.) Are we to assume that their teachers will never expose them to a poem about the country? Both "horse chestnut" and "conker" are out. Is the time-honored children's game extinct, replaced by MP3 Players and chatrooms? Are food words to be restricted to what they will find on McDonald’s menu, where spinach and cauliflower are not mentioned by name, and oats, mint, beetroot, turnips, and walnuts are not served. However, bacon plays a prominent role in McDonald’s cuisine, and that word is out, as are dukes and duchesses, elves and goblins, vicars, bishops, monks and nuns, saints and the devil himself. If piglet is out, that rules out Winnie the Pooh and Beatrix Potter, where readers encounter a certain Pigling Bland. With stoats and weasels, out goes The Wind in the Willows. So does Christmas, with carols, holly, mistletoe, and crackers. In their place come voicemail, database, bullet point, celebrity, bungee jumping, committee, compulsory, interdependent, biodegradable, emotion, dyslexic, classify, and chronological. And I thought they'd stopped teaching dates in school! Perhaps only here in the US. [For the Artsblog,click here.]
I met Charis Wilson last summer at her friend Don’s house in Northern California. Charis, 94, wore black pants and a purple sweater and sat sprightly in a wheelchair. Her short hair was straight, smart, and delicate. She wore a purple headband and two bright blue hair combs. I immediately recognized her luminous face from Edward Weston’s photographs, taken over 70 years ago.
Although for many of my friends there is never a reason needed, nothing at this end of the year holiday season seems more festive than champagne, at least in the alcoholic beverage realm. Oh yes, there's eggnog, but how much of that can you really drink without feeling sated, and, besides, it's terrible with smoked salmon or foie gras. Whereas a good bottle of champagne can see you right through an entire celebratory feast.
Music
Valery Gergiev as a Force of Nature: his Mahler Recordings on LSO Live
Huntley Dent
December 28, 2008
Journalists call Valery Gergiev a force of nature in a common-or-garden way all the time, referring to his unflagging energy, which is remarkable even in the hyperactive circle of international conductors. When he signed up to become principal conductor of the London Symphony starting in 2006, Gergiev already led the Mariinsky, or Kirov, Orchestra and managed the vast forces of the opera, ballet, and symphony housed in the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. He ran the White Nights Festival in that city and another festival in Rotterdam, where he works with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Additionally he was chief guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and logged about twice as many engagements, all told, as any other major conductor in the world. It is commonplace for him to appear as a guest conductor in two cities in the same twenty-four hours if need be.
A Co-production of the Atlantic Theater Company and Druid (Galway)
Linda Gross Theater, New York, December 9, 2008 -February 1, 2009
Kate - Marie Mullen
Eileen - Dearbhla Molloy
JohnnyPateenMike - David Pearse
Billy - Aaron Monaghan
Bartley - Laurence Kinlan
Helen - Kerry Condon
BabbyBobby - Andrew Connolly
Mammy - Patricia O'Connell
Doctor - John C. Vennema
Ilya Khodosh
December 23, 2008
The 2006 Broadway production of Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore remains one of the most deliriously thrilling spectacles I've ever seen, and one that I'll probably never forget. I felt plunged into an utterly amoral theatrical universe, and the grotesque violence and humor and sophisticated irony combined to generate the kind of electric bliss that I can only imagine must have been felt at the original productions of Sweeney Todd and The Threepenny Opera. Compared to Lieutenant and to McDonagh's acclaimed The Pillowman,The Cripple of Inishmaan, currently revived at the Atlantic Theater Company in a production by Galway's Druid Theatre, feels like a minor, less ambitious, tamer play by the Anglo-Irish master. Nonetheless, there is plenty to savor in the nuances and rhythms of McDonagh's hilarious dialogue, which sounds like the whimsy of J. M. Synge filtered through the savage wit of David Mamet.
Russell Sherman Live at the Angel Orensanz Center. Avie Records DVD AV 2152
Michael Miller
December 11, 2008
Williams has had an exceptionally strong recital program this fall, from its Messaïen tributes, medieval and renaissance music,and Ani Kavafian and Mihae Lee early on to the splendid Brahms violin sonatas of Williams' own Joanna Kurkowicz and Doris Stevenson (soon to be reviewed) and, in November, the great Russell Sherman. I'm used to driving to Peterborough or Boston to hear him play, and it would be a great thing to be able to rejoice in the convenience of hearing him at home, if it weren't for the unfortunate combination of Chapin Hall's acoustics and the Williams Bösendorfer. I've never heard any musicians, especially pianists, realize their potential under these circumstances. However, one undeniable advantage was the opportunity to talk with Mr. Sherman during his visit, which included a master class the following day.
'62 Center for Dance and Theatre, CentreStage, Williams College
Friday, November 21st
11:00 a.m. - Workshop with Obie Award winner John Clancy
7:30 p.m. - Portrait Gallery, Four Student Performances:
Leungo Donald Molosi as Seretse Khama in "Seretse Khama: Blue, Black and Blue"
Meredith Nelson as Britney Spears in "You Want a Piece of Me?"
Andrei Baiu as Oliver in "Oliver Reed"
Lexie Hunt as Sylvia Plath in "Integration"
Saturday, November 22nd
2:00 p.m. - "The Event," written and directed by John Clancy, with Matt Olberg
3:30 p.m. - "A Fire as Bright as Heaven," Tim Collins
6:00 p.m. - "Male Gaze," Kymbali Craig
7:30 p.m. - Portrait Gallery
8:30 p.m. – Closing Ceremony
Michael Miller
December 19, 2008
Omar Sangare's Dialogue One Theatre Festival is one of the high points of the academic year at Williams. Dedicated to the demanding art of solo theater, it gives locals an opportunity to see some of the best professionals from around the world, as well as some exceptionally successful undergraduate efforts. Williams drama students benefit from contact with the visitors. In fact this year John Clancy, an Obie Award winner and founding director of the New York Fringe Festival, taught a workshop at the college. Now in its second year, the festival attracted visitors from out of town and filled the '62 Center's CentreStage close to capacity. It is traditional in solo theater festivals and fringe festivals to subject the performances to a committee of judges, who present awards in various categories.
Valery Gergiev
Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Avery Fisher Hall
Sergey Prokofiev, Film Music: Ivan the Terrible
Alexander Nevsky
Michael Miller
December 19, 2008
The film score, Ivan the Terrible, is where I began my infatuation with Sergei Sergeyevich. I believe it's his best work for a variety of reasons. After a couple of viewings, one realizes how deftly the music enhances the action & manipulates our emotions. I had to investigate the composer. After that, I fell passionately & hopelessly in love with the music, like something out of a Russian novel. I am so glad Maestro Gergiev included it in the November series, paired with Alexander Nevsky, a decent recording of which I couldn't locate. What was an unexpected surprise about the program was that "Ivan" was performed before the Alexander Nevsky. I listened closely to both and think I know why the outspoken conductor put Ivan before Nevsky. (More on that later.) But you can imagine how high my expectations were for Ivan. Despite a couple of disappointments, Gergiev made it a delightful event, something not to have missed.
The Autostrada del Sole, the A1, which runs from Milan to Naples, was begun in 1956 and inaugurated in 1964 by Aldo Moro. It created fast motor links among Italy's major cities and helped to revive Italy’s postwar economy. The Umbrian town of Giove is an hour north of Rome and reachable from the A1's Attigliano exit. (In Italy exits aren't numbered, but kilometers from Milan and Naples are: thus Attigliano is 479 kilometers from Milan and 274 kilometers from Naples.) Giove is visible from the highway, just to the east. Looking west are the towns of Mugano and Bomarzo. At this point the autostrada, and also the railway line, follow the course of the Tiber, and it is the Tiber that roughly divides the regions of Umbria and Lazio.
Food & Drink
Good Reds for under $16
Gerldine Ramer
December 19, 2008
Perhaps you're in the throes of the annual frenzied ritual of Christmas shopping. Whether you're feeling a pinch in the wallet, or only have time for a quick supper before you dash back out to the mall, you may still want a glass of wine to go with that quick supper or, beginning the day after Christmas, that turkey sandwich. And it's not going to be Gevrey-Chambertin. This seems like a good time to look at some red wines for those on a budget.
Music & Recordings
The Mahler Ninth: Standing on Beethoven’s Shoulders - a Survey of Recordings
Huntley Dent
December 12, 2008
I doubt that anyone was fooled by Sir Isaac Newton’s show of false modesty when he wrote to a rival, “If I have seen a little further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Classical music has proceeded the same way, through a series of giants, but Newton had the benefit over Mahler that his achievement could be measured mathematically. Mahler’s depended on pure subjectivity, for how else is music ultimately judged but intuitively? A few fervent acolytes heard the Mahler Ninth and immediately recognized a masterpiece, but for every Berg, Schoenberg, and Bruno Walter (who premiered the work in Vienna in 1912), there were legions of scoffers. Could either side have imagined that Mahler’s last completed symphony would be the only work of the twentieth century to seriously challenge the Beethoven Ninth as a universal human testament?
Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective
A collaboration between Yale University Art Gallery, MASS MoCA, and the Williams College Museum of Art
Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA; 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. closed Tuesday and Christmas: details.
Richard Harrington
December 11, 2008
With the chronological retrospective exhibition of the wall drawings of Sol Lewitt, Mass MoCA has duly taken its place on the stage as a magnet for contemporary art.
Mr. Lewitt was one of the core group of New York’s Minimal art movement that included Donald Judd, Frank Stella, Kenneth Noland and others.
“The will to a system is a lack of integrity”
Friedrich Nietzsche
This observation, which was a central axiom of Abstract Expressionism, doesn’t account for the fact that the material realization of any artwork is intrinsically programmatic―be it an Altamira cave painting or a Bach fugue.
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
October 12, 2008 - January 4, 2009
Michael Miller
December 1, 2008
As the supply of old master drawings on the market dwindles, so do exhibitions of them, but if the exhibitions are fewer, their quality remains almost as strong as ever. The Uffizi continued its distinguished tradition at the Morgan Library this past winter, and now the Clark offers a fascinating and very beautiful layered exhibition consisting of sheets from different periods in the formation of its own collection interleaved with one of the most original and appealing of present-day private collections, the Italian drawings of Robert Loper, whose gifts include, in addition to expertise in the nooks and byways of Italian art of the sixteenth through the eighteenth century, fine taste, and a keen sense of fun.
Photography
Nude and Naked a photography exhibition at the Brill Gallery
Studio 109, Eclipse Mill, 243 Union St., North Adams, MA 01247-0786, 800.294.2811 p/f, 845.661.3593 cell, email: info@brillgallery109.com
All works are for sale. All works discussed here can be seen on the Brill Gallery web site: click here.
Michael Miller
December 8, 2008
One of the most absorbing and challenging exhibitions in the Northern Berkshires this year has been Nude & Naked at the Brill Gallery in the Eclipse Mill in North Adams. Densely hung in a dynamic arrangement, the prints, of many different sizes, ranging from Roy Volkmann's enormous "Seraph" (41 x 45 in.) to Lucien Clergue's intimate abstractions, which at 8 x 10 in. seem like miniatures, do more than present a series of beautiful or provocative examples of this classic genre, it poses an extended visual argument about how the ten photographers in the exhibition see the nude and about how we see it, that is, anyone who makes the decision to enter the Brill Gallery and spend an hour or so with these images. (Looking at oneself in the mirror in another thing altogether). Some are beautiful; some are ugly.
First of New Chamber Opera Series: two one-act operas
at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall on November 29, 2008, 8 pm
Venus and Adonis, a Masque by John Blow (1649-1710)
Actéon, a Pastorale by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)
Michael Miller
December 5, 2008
This past Friday and Saturday I attended two operatic performances, one at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the other at Boston's New England Conservatory, which began decorously enough, but both ended in an uproar one might have expected to find at a major prize fight. Both audiences were absolutely thrilled by what they saw and heard. I didn't count the curtain calls, but the audience's response to Tristan und Isolde under Daniel Barenboim conjured up legendary evenings of many years past, and the baroque and early music enthusiasts who packed Jordan Hall to attend the Boston Early Music Festival's first annual production of baroque chamber operas was no less uninhibited in their cheers, whoops, and clapping, expressing their well-deserved appreciation of a brilliant start to an important new series. Although my account of Tristan will appear separately below, I wish to present them together, because of what they tell us about opera and its current state.
Richard Wagner, Tristan und Isolde Metropolitan Opera Company, November 28, 2008
Michael Miller
December 5, 2008
Last season's disastrous series of Tristan performances, of which I reviewed the March 14 evening, was bad enough to leave one with the feeling that its useful days in the mainstream repertory were coming to a close. Nothing seemed to work that night. The most physically adequate of today's Tristans, unable to pull out of an extended illness due to misdiagnosis by his New York doctors, had to cancel. Deborah Voight's shrill and unpleasant Isolde came to a premature halt because of a stomach ailment, we are told. Amidst the chaos, even Dieter Dorn and Jürgen Rose's elegant minimal production was beginning to wear out its welcome. Only the great Matti Salminen seemed unfazed. However, I must emphasize that the contributions of the replacements, Gary Lehman as Tristan and Janice Baird as Isolde were highly creditable, considering that Mr. Lehman was singing the role for the first time in public, and that Ms. Baird, who has sung Isolde numerous times in France to high acclaim, had virtually no preparation. I also got the impression that these fine singers would have projected better in a smaller house.
Performed in collaboration with Charin and Peace of the Reyum Art School in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Renée Dumouchel
November 21, 2008
Eiko and Koma have remarked, “We often take our inspiration from nature, which has its own sense of time and a grotesqueness that in our eyes can be beautiful.” I can’t think of a more perfect way to describe the visual assault that is an Eiko and Koma performance—complex, hyperbolic and deeply oxymoronic. Their true genius is an uncanny ability to simultaneously offend and captivate, perplex and create common ground, manipulating time and space to blur the lines between.
Behind Stephen Hough’s astonishing recital in Troy, there are significant connections with two others I recently heard in Boston, both with the American pianist Jeremy Denk. In one of these Mr. Denk collaborated with the great cellist Stephen Isserlis (review forthcoming), with whom Stephen Hough often plays and with whom he has made several recordings. Mr. Denk’s ensuing solo recital consisted of a striking, revelatory juxtaposition of Ives’ “Concord” Sonata and Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier.”For one thing, it is striking how different Mr. Hough’s pianism is from Mr. Denk’s, a sign of Mr. Isserlis’ great range, if he can be compatible with both of them, and for the other, Hough’s carefully “curated” program was no less enlightening than Denk’s. What’s more, both pianists write their own program notes, and much else. A prolific recording artist, Mr. Hough is also a composer, a poet, and theologian, having written what seems to be a very interesting book, The Bible As Prayer: A Handbook for Lectio Divina, the traditional Roman Catholic discipline of reading Scripture. He has won numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship.
What we heard, then, in the beautifully balanced, atmospheric acoustic of the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, was playing of intellectual rigor and carefully considered consistency, balanced by a sensual ear for the many colors of the piano.
Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective
A collaboration between Yale University Art Gallery, MASS MoCA, and the Williams College Museum of Art
Michael Miller
November 18, 2008
This is intended as no more than a preliminary reflection on the retrospective installations which just opened at Mass MoCA and the Williams College Museum of Art—a first impression gathered when the galleries were full of people, some of whom I see all the time and others not in years. Amidst all the champagne, the personalities, and the excitement, the wall drawings still made their presence felt, rather powerfully, I thought. His measured forms and resonating colors were able to make their Platonic statement above all that mundane human static.
La Damnation de Faust is especially tempting material for any director eager to experiment with dramaturgy or design. Since there is no established stage tradition and the work has proven inherently intractable on the stage, audiences are more inclined to approach it with an open mind. Fewer patrons will walk out in disgust, like our own Huntley Dent at Robert Lepage’s production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at Covent Garden this past summer. Unlike the Rake, Berlioz’ thoroughly French, intensely personal, even eccentric treatment of Nerval’s translation is almost a tabula rasa for that renowned theatrical jack-of-all-trades. The new production at the Met, which first saw light in Japan in 1999, is, typically for Lepage, the fruit of long-term collaborative work through his production company, Ex Machina of Québec City. Peter Gelb saw the production in evolved form at the Bastille, and approached Lepage to bring to the Met, offering him additional funds to realize the digital components of the production in the most advanced possible way. Cutting-edge technology is, in fact, the trademark of Ex Machina’s multimedia approach to theater, not to mention the strapping young aerobats who dance—if that is the word for it—suspended from the rafters by cables. I noticed that The Big Apple Circus was already open next door. What we saw on the stage of the Met Friday evening made their efforts look like pretty tame stuff. My only reservation is that Robert Lepage and his associates may have done the same for Berlioz’ opéra de concert.
Gregory Burke’s Black Watch, the sensation of the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival (see Lucas Miller’s review of the Scottish revival of the play from April 19th), has returned to Brooklyn’s St. Ann’s Warehouse this fall after its highly successful (and all too brief) appearance last season. The current run has already been extended to December 21st. You should hurry and get your tickets.
The show is a fascinating one for U.S. audiences. While it can certainly be classified as an Iraq War play, it deals with that conflict in a manner both familiar and foreign. On one level it tells a story reminiscent of earlier war plays (and films): we get to know a group of soldiers, with its traditions, internal conflicts, motley recruits, surly but decent higher-ups. A considerable part of the action is taken up by inaction: reading mail, filling time, one-upping each other, watching American bombing runs. While no Americans appear in the play, they are very much a presence.
A friend called me the other evening, she was enjoying a glass of wine and wanted to know if there was a Bordeaux grape. I was momentarily taken aback as I perhaps wrongly assume that most wine drinkers know the three main grape varieities that go into red Bordeaux: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and cabernet franc. But when she mentioned it was a white Bordeaux, a whole new avenue of consideration opened up. My first thought was how long it had been since I deliberately sought out a white Bordeaux. Next, that it might surprise some wine lovers to know that they're produced from sauvignon blanc, semillon, and, in some cases, a small amount of muscadelle. After concluding our conversation, I realized my interest had been piqued. I'd have to start looking for some of these wines to try.
Mild und leise. Plenty of otherwise gentle people lose their grip on civility when Wagner’s name is mentioned. I was standing in line at the post office explaining to a friend why I thought Wagner was greater than Bach. I felt that we were in a safely uncivilized location, but no. The woman in front of us turned around and said, “I totally disagree with everything you’re saying.” I had been foolish. The cult of Wagner, which swept half of Europe in his lifetime (the other half being divided between Brahms and various conservatives with rocks in their ears), went underground after World War II.
It is only too obvious that the worldwide economic collapse will affect all sectors of the global economy and therefore most aspects of our lives. Most arts organizations are already well along in addressing this murky, complex, and constantly shifting situation have announced cuts ranging from the relatively minor to cancelled or postponed performances, exhibitions, and building projects. Their managers know that things will be different in three months or six months, and probably not for the better. The crisis, however, is less apparent in concert halls, theaters, and galleries, which are full of enthusiastic, if somehow indefinably chastened people. In Boston and New York City in particular, houses have been full, and at the Metropolitan Opera the mood seems almost exuberant. The crowds who recently gathered at Sanders Theater for Hespèrion XXI, at Symphony Hall for Brahms, at Emmanuel Church for Russell Sherman, or at the Met for Robert Lepage all seemed very happy to be there. If the plentiful audience who converged on Lincoln Center on Wednesday to see Peter Sellars’ dramatization of György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments was appreciably less upbeat, it was because they were the sort of people who enjoy entertainments which contain lines like “Slept, woke, slept, woke, miserable life.” What their engagement lacked in jollity shone forth in its intensity. All of these diverse assemblies were buoyed up by one thing, the anticipation of an experience beyond the average and the normal, perhaps even the transcendent.
the traditional Roman Catholic discipline of reading Scripture. He has won numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship.