GALLERY

Mana Contemporary
Studio 573

www.monroehodder.com

Monroe & Fred Hodder are two artists that are neighbors in our building.  

We've learned that large buildings suitable for open space and division into multiple artist studios are scattered throughout the New York area.  This particular show is in Jersey City.

Today there were six exhibitions openings, live performances, and 70+ open artist studios.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



LINCOLN CENTER

Metropolitan Opera
Cosi Fan Tutte
Mozart

This is a treat!  Top of the world!

Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti (Thus Do They All, or The School for Lovers) K. 588, is an Italian-language opera buffain two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte, who also wrote Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni.

Although it is commonly held that Così fan tutte was written and composed at the suggestion of the Emperor Joseph II, recent research does not support this idea. There is evidence that Mozart's contemporary Antonio Salieri tried to set the libretto but left it unfinished. In 1994, John Rice uncovered two terzetti by Salieri in the Austrian National Library.

The title, Così fan tutte, literally means "Thus do all [women]", but is often rendered as "Women are like that". The words are sung by the three men in act 2, scene 3, just before the finale. Da Ponte had used the line "Così fan tutte le belle" earlier in Le nozze di Figaro (in act 1, scene 7).

According to William Mann, Mozart disliked prima donna Adriana Ferrarese del Bene, da Ponte's arrogant mistress for whom the role of Fiordiligi had been created. Knowing her idiosyncratic tendency to drop her chin on low notes and throw back her head on high ones, Mozart filled her showpiece aria Come scoglio with constant leaps from low to high and high to low in order to make Ferrarese's head "bob like a chicken" onstage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Klw9u0yrfU

The subject matter did not offend Viennese sensibilities of the time, but throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries it was considered risqué. The opera was rarely performed, and when it did appear it was presented in one of several bowdlerised forms.

After World War II, it regained its place in the standard operatic repertoire. It is frequently performed and appears 14th on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSiM0045Po4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqHFi_GY_Jw

THEATER

Signature Theater
The Old Friends
Horton Foote

In this World Premiere play by Signature Legacy Playwright Horton Foote, matriarch Mamie Borden and the remaining members of two longtime Texas farming families await a visit from Mamie's son Hugo and his wife Sybil. When Sybil arrives with alarming news, old friends on opposing sides must confront the issues surrounding legacy, loyalty, and the meaning of happiness that have hounded them for generations.

JUILLIARD

Paul Hall
Matti Raekallio

BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata in E Major, Op. 109
BRAHMS Three Intermezzi, Op. 117
RAUTAVAARA Piano Sonata No. 2, "The Fire Sermon"
WAGNER-LISZT Tannhäuser Overture

CONCERT

Beacon Theater
Tedeschi Trucks Band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2burpTQSDMA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ubH7dLJJiE

Tedeschi Trucks Band, the 11-piece ensemble led by husband-wife team Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, have proven themselves one of the hottest, most uplifting acts on the road today. Formed in 2010 when Derek and Susan decided to set aside their successful solo careers and join forces, Tedeschi Trucks Band has since been touring the globe - and accruing fans and accolades in the process. Fronted by Trucks' signature slide-guitar sound and Tedeschi's pliant, honey-to-husky voice, TTB -- as their fans know them -- delivers a hearty roots-rich musical mix with the power to renew faith in live music. Their joyful, spontaneous energy, and overflowing musical talent, have helped Tedeschi Trucks Band reach pinnacles of accomplishment that most bands spend a career trying to reach.

THEATER

The Pearl
You Never Can Tell
George Barnard Shaw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91W-jb7B8TY

It’s the turn of the 20th century and a world famous author and her grown children have returned to England after 18 years abroad. But when her missing husband (who may also be the missing father) appears out of the blue, this fascinating troupe faces love, family, money, sex, social and political issues, wome n’s rights—and the dangers of dentists in love. Shaw’s whimsical wit whirls us into a world where sweeping change has unexpected comic consequences.

LECTURE

New York City Public Library
Robert Armitage

http://www.nypl.org/blog/2013/05/06/edith-wharton-writing-life

http://www.nypl.org/node/181

Carolyn's degree and working career was as a librarian.  She remains an avid "reader" today.

She has been reading works by Edith Wharton and noticed this lecture at the New York Public Library.

The library is immediately adjacent to Bryant Park and just a 10 block walk up 6th Avenue from our apartment.

THEATER

Pearl Theater
Directing Shakespeare

"At the beginning of one of New York’s busiest Shakespearean seasons, we sit down with two directors doing the Bard on Broadway. Three-time Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien, who will be directing Ethan Hawke in Macbeth at LCT, and David Leveaux, whose production of Romeo and Juliet with Orlando Bloom will be set to open at the Richard Rogers Theater, share the challenges and rewards of bringing Shakespeare to the Broadway stage."

There are about twenty major theater productions of Shakespeare in New York this season.  Interestingly, they all must sell tickets, draw an audience, and turn a profit.  That means that Shakespeare still has it!

We are going to see as many as we're able.

MUSEUM

The Hispanic Society of America

http://www.hispanicsociety.org

We rode the 1 train from our apartment to the 157th Street stop.  The museum is in Washington Heights.

 

 

 

 



LECTURE

Socrates in the City
Union League Club

http://www.socratesinthecity.com

Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design

Dr. Stephen C. Meyer

The writer Tom Wolfe, sat literally three feet behind Carolyn during the lecture.

Meyer earned his Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University for a dissertation on the history of origin of life biology and the methodology of the historical sciences.  

Meyer is the author of the New York Times best seller, Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design (HarperOne, 2013). In his first book on intelligent design, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design ( HarperOne, 2009) Meyer examined only the mystery of the origin of life. In Darwin’s Doubt, he expanded the scope of the case for ID to the whole sweep of life’s history.  Meyer’s research goes to the very source of the mystery of life: its origin, and more specifically the origin of biological information. His research and writings in the field represent the cutting edge of the argument for design.

Stephen C. Meyer is director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and a founder both of the intelligent design movement and of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, intelligent design’s primary intellectual and scientific headquarters. Dr. Meyer is a Cambridge University-trained philosopher of science, the author of peer-reviewed publications in technical, scientific, philosophical and other books and journals.

He has also authored numerous technical articles as well as editorials in magazines and newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Houston Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, First Things, and National Review.

CONEY ISLAND

Today I performed an AAAHC survey in the Russian Community near Coney Island and Brighton Beach.

The facility I surveyed was in a neighborhood of primarily Russian immigrants.  I was told that there are 400,000 Russians living in the Brighton Beach, Coney Island, Sheepshead Bay area.  All of the employees of the organization were bilingual in English and Russian.

Lunch was ethnic and consisted of egg plant, rice, and lamb chopped into one inch cubes, bones and all.  Tasty!