LINCOLN CENTER

David Koch Theater
Lincoln Center Festival

The Bolshoi Ballet - The Taming of the Shrew

Watch this trailer. The Bolshoi is good!

"The Bolshoi is “at the top of its game” (Telegraph, U.K.) in acclaimed choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot’s effervescent production of The Taming of the Shrew. Set to a tapestry of Shostakovich’s most colorful music, Shakespeare’s famously chauvinistic comedy is transformed into a battle of wits between two equally feisty individuals: stormy individualist Katharina and smug bad boy Petruchio. With their signature bravura, the Bolshoi’s incomparable dancers bring to hilarious life all of the fawning, preening, and hypocrisy that well-born Kate finds so tiresome—and that ultimately makes the rough-edged outsider Petruchio seem so appealing to her."

“Furiously funny battle of the sexes…bold and fast-witted.”– Guardian (U.K.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/arts/dance/taming-of-the-shrew-bolshoi-maillot-lincoln-center-festival.html

A New Calling Card for the Bolshoi Ballet

Vladislav Lantratov and Ekaterina Krysanova of the Bolshoi Ballet in “The Taming of the Shrew.” Alice Blangero 

PARIS — For a choreographer, few commissions come with more risk — or more prestige — than one from the Bolshoi Ballet. So it is hardly surprising that the French choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot was warned by colleagues who had worked in Moscow not to take on “The Taming of the Shrew.”

“It was a huge gamble,” Mr. Maillot, the director of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, said in a phone interview from Monaco. “Everything was in place for it to fail.”

It did exactly the opposite. A success since its 2014 premiere, “The Taming of the Shrew” has become a calling card at home and abroad for the Bolshoi. With its emphasis on unaffected acting and teamwork across the cast, the ballet, which is to have its American premiere at the Lincoln Center Festival on Wednesday, July 26, showcases the vibrant, larger-than-life spirit the company is known for, while imbuing it with an immediacy some observers have found lacking in their historical repertory.

Structural and political reasons combine to make the process of creating a new work in Russia especially unpredictable. The country’s theaters work under a repertory system, which means that productions rotate constantly: In April 2014, the first full month of rehearsals for “The Taming of the Shrew,” the Bolshoi Ballet performed 10 ballets on its two stages.

And because the Bolshoi is a symbol of Russia with deep ties, both financial and political, to the Kremlin, any major creation also faces scrutiny beyond the artistic community. This month, a new full-length ballet, “Nureyev,” was postponed just days before its world premiere. The ballet’s official reason was that more rehearsals were needed, but the delay immediately prompted accusations that the Bolshoi was giving in to government pressure about the ballet’s gay theme.

“The Taming of the Shrew” made far fewer waves, but it, too, aimed for modern dramaturgy. To sidestep the problematic gender dynamics of Shakespeare’s original plot, Mr. Maillot made Katharina, the Shrew, and Petruchio equals — equally rebellious, and equally unsuited to their milieu. “Everything was unusual, from the very beginning,” said the principal dancer Ekaterina Krysanova, who created the role of Katharina, in a Skype interview.

When the Bolshoi came calling, Mr. Maillot, 56, had not made a ballet for a company other than his own in more than 20 years. The man who convinced him to take a leap of faith was Sergei Y. Filin, the former Bolshoi principal who was appointed director of the company in 2011.

“I didn’t want to buy an existing Maillot ballet,” said Mr. Filin, who since the mid-1990s has followed the career of Mr. Maillot, whose work emphasizes vivid articulation in the neo-Classical vein and sleek visuals. “I knew that he would be able to work in dialogue with the Bolshoi’s artists, to multiply their talents. Jean-Christophe has a sense of humor. He is also able to show sex, but not in a vulgar sense.”

Mr. Filin requested a Shakespeare-inspired ballet in for the 450th anniversary of the playwright’s birth (2014), and offered to give Mr. Maillot time to get to know the Bolshoi’s artists. He invited Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo to perform in Moscow, and in return, a group of Russian dancers shared the stage with Mr. Maillot’s company for a special performance of “LAC,” his version of “Swan Lake.” Mr. Maillot said: “That’s Sergei’s intelligence: He built this close relationship for three years, before we even started the creation.”

But the project’s fate was almost derailed by an event that shocked the world: the acid attack on Mr. Filin in front of his home in January 2013, a little over a year before rehearsals were to begin. Another choreographer, Wayne McGregor, backed out of a scheduled commission, and Mr. Maillot seriously considered following suit. But Mr. Filin told Mr. Maillot that if he dropped out, the people responsible for the attack would take credit. “It’s so important to reply not through words,” Mr. Filin remembered saying, in a Skype interview, “but through actions.”

Sergei Y. Filin in 2014. Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post, via Getty Images 

“After Sergei’s accident,” Mr. Maillot said, “I think the Bolshoi really needed to come together around a project.” “The Taming of the Shrew,” a creation led by outsiders, was just the right fit.

Its creation, though, was far from easy. Mr. Maillot and his team ran into communication issues early on: The Bolshoi’s dancers spoke limited English, and a translator had to be brought in. Because of the Bolshoi’s busy repertory, it was also routine for a dancer to miss a rehearsal, to leave early or to save energy by marking the steps — that is, not dance full out in the studio — to the dismay of Mr. Maillot, who limits Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo’s performances to devote uninterrupted time to making new works.

Mr. Filin intervened to improve discipline, and the pieces began to fall into place for “The Taming of the Shrew.” Mr. Maillot said he believed his choice of a Russian composer — he put together a patchwork Shostakovich score, using pieces from his film and symphonic work — played a part in bridging the cultural gap. The chemistry between Mr. Maillot and the bright generation of soloists he found in Moscow did the rest.

“He was able to attract everybody to himself, and he took his inspiration from the artists,” Ms. Krysanova said. “He wasn’t pushing his own ideas on us.”

Besides the lead couple, “The Taming of the Shrew” includes significant roles — and moments of classical virtuosity — tailored to the talents of the refined and inquisitive Olga Smirnova (as Katherina’s sister, Bianca), as well as Semyon Chudin, Vyacheslav Lopatin and Igor Tsvirko (Bianca’s motley suitors), among others.

“The performers’ individuality is what guides me when I choreograph,” Mr. Maillot said. “Working with these dancers, who combined such technique, history and freshness, because they were all quite young, was an exceptional breath of fresh air for me. We fed off each other.”

Mr. Maillot and his assistant and longtime muse, Bernice Coppieters, worked to weave into the choreography believable reactions and a lively sense of back-and-forth between characters. Here, the “taming” Petruchio subjects Katharina to in Shakespeare’s play becomes a series of erotically charged games — around an imaginary fire, or a cup of tea — through which their intimacy blooms.

To achieve the naturalness he had in mind, Mr. Maillot also zeroed in on the dancers’ ingrained habits so he could peel them away. That includes the way that the Bolshoi’s men pace about the stage with a macho swagger shaped, in part, by the repertory of the company’s Soviet-era director Yuri Grigorovich. “I had to try every day to liberate myself,” Vladislav Lantratov, who created the role of Petruchio, said in a Skype interview. “And then, at a certain point, we all had a breakthrough.”

Both he and Ms. Krysanova said that they cherish roles they see as bearing their imprint — and that the production has changed the way they approach the rest of their repertory. Mr. Lantratov, who has plenty of space in the choreography to play with Petruchio’s boorish behavior, added with a laugh: “Where else can I allow myself to behave like that?”

Between Mr. Maillot and the Bolshoi, the dialogue has continued beyond “The Taming of the Shrew.” Several principals have performed with his company in Monaco, and Mr. Maillot is tentatively scheduled to stage another production in Moscow during the 2018-19 season.

For Mr. Filin, who was replaced as director by Makhar K. Vaziev in 2015 and is now responsible for nurturing young choreographers at the Bolshoi, the ballet he commissioned remains a source of pride — and proof that this Russian company is capable of renewal. “We accomplished many things, but I think that even if we had only been able to do ‘The Taming of the Shrew,’ it would already have been good enough,” he said. “Jean-Christophe used the abilities of the dancers to the maximum.”

LINCOLN CENTER

David Geffen Hall
Mostly Mozart Festival

Beethoven & Schubert

Mozart - Masonic Funeral Music in C minor
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major
Schubert - Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major

Maestro Edward Gardner’s “powerful, impassioned conducting” (Seattle Times) finds its match in the “irrepressibly charismatic” pianist Jeremy Denk (New York Times) in a program that moves from dark to light. Mozart’s austere work, composed for his fellow Freemasons, and Beethoven’s supremely lyrical concerto give way to a sunlit Schubert finale.

LINCOLN CENTER

Mostly Mozart Festival
The Singing Heart

"This year’s festival opens with an exuberant evening of symphony and song, pairing Mozart’s delightful “Haffner” symphony with a colorful collection of folk songs and spirituals from the same era. Together they offer a rare portrait of humanity in the time of Mozart. The program concludes with Beethoven’s deeply hopeful Choral Fantasy."

Mozart - Kyrie, K.90
Mozart - Symphony No. 35 in D major ("Haffner") 
Traditional and indigenous songs: Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal; Três Cantos Nativos dos Indios Kraó; Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel; Ah vous dirai-je, maman
Beethoven - Fantasia for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra ("Choral Fantasy")

“A superb ensemble of young voices largely representative of the city's mix of cultures and socio-economic levels.”– Choir and Organ (U.K.) on the Young People's Chorus of New York City

“Unquestionably a phenomenon.”– New York Times on Kit Armstrong

"This evening’s program, The Singing Heart, celebrates the new sense of optimism that emerged in the 18th century. Whereas philosophers and theologians had previously portrayed mankind as in decline, the scientists, political theorists, and artists of the Enlightenment began to envision a society capable of previously unimagined progress. A valuable freedom from conventional modes of thought was found—rather surprisingly—in the child. Youth ceased to be regarded as a mere prelude to adulthood; instead, writ- ers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed children could intuit possi- bilities that escape fully integrated members of society. In tonight’s program, this enormous potential is heard not only in the music of a prodigy such as Mozart (who composed the Kyrie, K.90, while a teenager), but also in the voices of youth united in song. The move- ments of Mozart’s “Haffner” Symphony are spread across the course of the concert, a common practice in his time.

The 18th century also began to recognize “folk song” and to treat it as having an integrity of its own, even if it did not employ the sophis- ticated procedures of Europe’s highly trained composers. The folk songs featured this evening come from three continents, and their origins (like much art that belongs to oral tradition) are now obscure, but their preservation is largely due to the respectful attitude that first emerged in the age of Mozart and Beethoven. The symphonic and choral works that make up The Singing Heart mirror the univer- sal qualities of folk music and evoke its youthful and optimistic spirit."

PERFORMANCE

David Koch theater
New York City Ballet

The trailer for this event...

Fifty years after its premiere at Lincoln Center, three of the world’s most celebrated ballet companies come together for a once-in-a-lifetime presentation of George Balanchine’s masterpiece, Jewels. For five performances on the same stage where it was premiered, the Paris Opera Ballet embodies Emeralds. New York City Ballet and the Bolshoi alternate Rubies and Diamonds, illuminating the different facets of Balanchine’s masterpiece like the sun catching on one of its namesake gems.

The three-part, evening-length work traces Balanchine’s life and loves. Emeralds, set to Fauré, evokes the mystery and grace of France. Fueled by Stravinsky, Rubies crackles with jazz-inflected wit and sass, channeling the mid-century audacity of Manhattan. And breathtaking from the moment the lights go up, Diamonds conjures the grandeur of Imperial Russia, set to Tchaikovsky’s lush Third Symphony.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/arts/dance/balanchine-jewels-lincoln-center-festival-city-ballet-bolshoi-paris-opera-ballet.html

Review: Balanchine Jewels from Paris, Moscow and New York

Teresa Reichlen and fellow members of New York City Ballet performing in “Rubies” on Thursday night. Andrea Mohin/The New York Times 

Green! Red! White! On Thursday night after the Lincoln Center Festival’s international production of George Balanchine’s “Jewels,” it was exhilarating to behold the dancers of “Emeralds” (Paris Opera Ballet), “Rubies” (New York City Ballet) and “Diamonds” (Bolshoi Ballet from Moscow) assemble in three bright stripes, on the stage of the David H. Koch Theater where, 50 years ago (it was then the New York State Theater), “Jewels” had its premiere.

The separate jewel colors met to make the stage like some tricolor flag. More relevant to Balanchine (1904-83), these companies represent the three countries most vital to his long career. He learned to dance and to make ballets in Russia, where he lived until 1924; he reached an early maturity in France, in particular working under the aegis of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes; and New York is where he, with Lincoln Kirstein, founded the School of American Ballet, in 1933, and City Ballet, in 1948.

“Emeralds,” to Fauré music, has long been seen as French. “Rubies,” to Stravinsky, is quintessentially New York — its speed, density and jazzy modernity characterize this city rather than this nation. And “Diamonds,” to Tchaikovsky, suggests, first, Russia’s vast rural landscapes and, finally, its grand imperial cities. As a rule, it’s better to watch a single troupe demonstrate the diversity required to dance all three, and companies now do so from St. Petersburg in Russia to Seattle. But big anniversaries deserve big treats.

From the Bolshoi, Olga Smirnova and Semyon Chudin in “Diamonds.” Andrea Mohin/The New York Times 

Debates on these troupes’ individual merits in “Jewels” will continue until Sunday: the Bolshoi and City Ballet are taking turns dancing “Rubies” and “Diamonds,” while the Parisians and the Bolshoi offer changes of casts. On Thursday, the illustrious performance by the Bolshoi’s Olga Smirnova in the “Diamonds” prima ballerina role was just what festivals should be about, while City Ballet’s three lead dancers for “Rubies” — Megan Fairchild, Joaquin de Luz, Teresa Reichlen — exemplified what the home team can do best.

You can see how the Bolshoi and City Ballet styles are related: long phrases, luxurious texture, expansive physicality, calmly off-balance emphasis. The Paris style, marvelously chic, proves far less right for Balanchine, above all in the women’s clipped phrasing and anti-musical dynamics (dwelling archly on transitions, flicking lightly through important linear points). “Emeralds,” although Gallic, does not suggest Paris anyway: It seems to belong in some Fontainebleau-like forest glade, whereas these dancers emanate big-city polish.

Ms. Smirnova, still young, first danced the “Diamonds” role in 2012, near the start of her career. The refined arc of her raised arms; the elegance with which she holds and turns her head; the plucked, lucid emphasis of her arched feet are all riveting. She marvelously leads the role from chivalrous Romantic mystery to brightly classical celebration. Her partner, Semyon Chudin, has gained immensely in assurance since New York’s last Bolshoi season three years ago.

In “Rubies,” Ms. Reichlen’s gleaming, sly, huge-scaled performance of the soloist role has long seemed definitive, while Mr. de Luz’s charmingly assertive style is effective. The surprise was Ms. Fairchild. As in other recent performances, she has suddenly bloomed into a marvelously free personality: adult, decisive, engagingly robust, merrily witty.

From Paris Opera Ballet, from left, Sae Eun Park, Marc Moreau and Hannah O’Neill in “Emeralds.” Andrea Mohin/The New York Times 

Nobody worked harder than Balanchine to establish plotless pure-dance choreography as theatrically engrossing. He was also, in several works, ballet’s greatest dramatist — there is no contradiction here, for drama pervades his non-narrative work. “Jewels,” often described as the first full-length abstract ballet, yields more rewards if you see it as containing multiple stories, situations and worlds. Its three parts, though dissimilar, are connected. In each, dancers repeatedly move from a bent-forward position — with arms together pointing like a unicorn’s horn — to an expansively arched-back open gesture. Each has a pas de deux in which the ballerina seems like a magical wild beast whom her partner keeps at arm’s length.

The European companies, though they keep the basic color schemes and jeweled emphasis, have brought their own costumes — by Christian Lacroix (“Emeralds”) and Elena Zaitseva (“Diamonds”). Since City Ballet maintains the original costumes by Karinska, locals are likely to object to these alternative versions. (The blue-cyan Lacroix couture feels especially wrong.)

Yet the visitors may look with similar distaste at City Ballet’s three décors (made by Peter Harvey in 2004, coarser in emphasis than his 1967 originals, which now look marvelous with the Mariinsky of St. Petersburg). I suspect close scrutiny will show that the Paris Opera and Bolshoi perform “Emeralds” and “Diamonds” in texts slightly different from those currently used by City Ballet.

“Jewels” has long been a perfect introduction to ballet’s poetry; but only this century has it taken off in international repertory. At the climax of Thursday’s bows, the three companies were joined onstage by their artistic directors: Aurélie Dupont (Paris Opera), Peter Martins (City Ballet), and Makhar Vaziev (Bolshoi) — an entente cordiale before our eyes.

PERFORMANCE

The International Accordion Festival
The Lawn at Bryant Park

“‘Accordion wizards’ from around the planet try to impress one another and rock the park” - TimeOut New York

“No one else has hosted as diverse a range of events this summer as Bryant Park, but [Accordion Festival] might be the most eclectic” - Metro New York

“Offering accordionists an opportunity to change the stodgy image of their instrument” - The New York Times

Accordions Around the World is a weekly series featuring over 100 accordionists as well as bandoneon, bayan, concertina, and harmonium-players of different musical genres. Audiences have an opportunity to hear music from all over the world and to experience the wide range of this often overlooked and little-known instrument. 

The five-hour Friday finale of Accordions Around the World.

5 bands, each featuring an accordionist, play music from throughout the world:

5pm - Bil Afrah Project (Reinterpretation of the legendary Lebanese album)

6pm - Sunnyside Social Club (New Orleans-inspired cabaret punk blues)

7pm - Felipe Hostins’ Osnelda (Lively Brazilian Forró)

8pm - Zlatni Balkan Zvuk (High-energy Balkan wedding music)

9pm - Gregorio Uribe (A special Colombian Independence Day celebration)


The evening is hosted by “certified free spirit” (The New Yorker) Rachelle Garniez, whose story-songs have been described as “romantic, rhapsodic and casually hilarious” (The New York Times).

Experience the wide range of this often-overlooked and little-known instrument. Produced with Ariana’s List.

Food and drink curated by Hester Street Fair available for purchase.

http://nypost.com/2017/07/20/if-you-hate-accordions-dont-go-to-bryant-park-on-friday/

If you hate accordions, don’t go to Bryant Park on Friday

“Weird Al” Yankovic isn’t all that weird: Plenty of other people share his passion for the accordion.

They’ll be squeezing into Bryant Park on Friday for a free, five-hour-long festival featuring an instrument derided, at least in these parts, as a noisy contraption fit only for polkas. (Or, as a Gary Larson cartoon portrayed it: “Welcome to heaven … here’s your harp. Welcome to hell … here’s your accordion.”)

The instrument deserves more respect, says Ariana Hellerman, curator of all things accordion in the European-accented park behind the New York Public Library.

‘We’re trying to dissolve the notion that the accordion is only about polka — it’s deeper than that.’

“We’re trying to dissolve the notion that the accordion is only about polka — it’s deeper than that,” says Hellerman, 36, who doesn’t play the instrument herself but has amassed a roster of 400 people who do.

“I’m, like, the accordion queen of New York,” the East Village resident says with a laugh. “What’s interesting is that it’s played in so many cultures.”

Five years ago she was living and blogging about culture in Colombia when she discovered the accordion-dominated folk music called Vallenato. Her posts caught the attention of the Bryant Park Corporation, whose chief, Dan Biederman, became entranced by the accordion music he once heard in the French Alps. Hoping to replicate the experience in Bryant Park, he hired a lone accordionist to make the rounds — “but it wasn’t really exciting,” he tells The Post.

Enter Hellerman and her magic Rolodex. In the last five years she’s helmed the “Accordions Around the World” series, with hundreds of squeezebox players (and the people who enjoy them) descending on Bryant Park. The program culminates at Friday’s Accordion Festival with five bands introduced by Rachelle Garniez, an East Village musician who discovered an affinity for the instrument late in life:

“I started playing it as a joke when I was 22, sort of hipsterish ironic performance art,” Garniez, 52, tells The Post. “But the joke backfired … I held it in my arms and it became like a baby.” That said, she adds that “When my home was broken into years ago, [the thieves] took my accordion out of its case, filled the case with pennies they found in the house, and took the case. They left the accordion!”

RECITAL

Silent Movies
Comic Americans: Chaplin & Lloyd

Summer Silent Movie Night! - Comic Americans Double Feature

Take a comic stroll into the past and enjoy the unique experience of a silent movie double feature with an improvised score by world renowned organist, Peter Krasinski on Thursday, July 20 at 7:30pm. Hear the fabulous Marble pipe organ in unexpected and creative ways as you watch Charlie Chaplin’s short film, The Floorwalker, and Harold Lloyd’s Speedy, which was filmed in New York in the 1920s. Join us in Marble’s air conditioned Sanctuary.

 

THEATER

Theater for a New Audience
Measure for Measure - William Shakespeare

“★★★★…Astute…playful…with no shortage of compassion…
a haunting exploration of what can happen when morality becomes law…
In an age of outrage, this revelatory Measure for Measure is a cry for hope and reconciliation.”
– Diane Snyder, Time Out New York, Critic’s Pick

“Gorgeous…This Measure for Measure soars just as it should into that uniquely Shakespearean plane where absolutely opposing philosophies are given equally compelling expression.” – Jesse Green, The New York Times

“Simon Godwin directs a stellar cast in an electrifying, high-energy staging.” – Lore Croghan, Brooklyn Daily Eagle

“A taut and illuminating production…Jonathan Cake glides through his role as the Duke with giddy charm while Thomas Jay Ryan’s Angelo smoothly shifts from rigid zealot to man smitten with Isabella…Cara Ricketts’ virtuous Isabella never breaks. It’s a poised and formidable performance.” – Nicole Serratore, The Stage



Simon Godwin, Associate Director, London’s National Theatre, stages Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare’s dark comedy about justice, faith, power, sex, and family. Jonathan Cake, Cara Ricketts, and Thomas Jay Ryan lead a company of 12 actors in a high-stakes conflict of clashing ideologies–a diverse world in which incompatible values collide.

Godwin sets this urgent play in a modern city becoming increasingly authoritarian. The production engages audiences directly with the play’s clashing arguments. Audience members will enter the theatre through hallways transformed into Mistress Overdone’s brothel; some will visit a café where Mariana sings; and twelve will sit around the stage as a jury.

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Please note: Measure for Measure contains sexually explicit content which some may find inappropriate for those under 16 years of age.

For this production, the audience will enter the house via a backstage route within the Polonsky Shakespeare Center. Patrons are encouraged to come early to allow time for this element of the production. Please arrive by 1:30pm for matinee performances and 7:00pm for evening performances.


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SPECIAL EVENTS

TFANA TALKS:
Join us for our free post-show conversations with artists and scholars that will take place after the
Saturday matinee performances on July 1 and July 8.


Interview regarding play...

Another interview...