LINCOLN CENTER

Metropolitan Opera
Il Trovatore - Verdi

"Anna Netrebko takes on her next new role at the Met as Leonora, the heroine who sacrifices her life for the love of the troubadour Manrico, sung by Yonghoon Lee. Dmitri Hvorostovsky is Count di Luna and Dolora Zajick sings Azucena. Marco Armiliato conducts Sir David McVicar’s Goya-inspired production.

“Ms. Netrebko sounded wonderful, singing with plush, penetrating sound and affecting character. I have seldom heard a more vocally exquisite and powerfully expressive account of the aching, and very difficult, aria ‘D’amor sull’ali rosee’... Mr. Hvorostovsky gave a gripping performance...[singing] with Verdian lyricism, dramatic subtlety and, when called for, chilling intensity... Dolora Zajick still owns [her] role... Yonghoon Lee gave a fearless and stalwart performance... Marco Armiliato drew sensitive, supple playing from the Met orchestra.”—New York Times"

Premiere: Teatro Apollo, Rome, 1853

"Verdi’s turbulent tragedy of four characters caught in a web of family ties, politics, and love is a mainstay of the operatic repertory. The score is as melodic as it is energetic, with infectious tunes that are not easily forgotten. The vigorous music accompanies a dark and disturbing tale that revels in many of the most extreme expressions of Romanticism, including violent shifts in tone, unlikely coincidences, and characters who are impelled by raw emotion rather than cool logic. The much-parodied story of the troubadour of the title, his vengeance- obsessed Gypsy mother, his devoted lover, and her evil aristocratic pursuer is self-consciously outrageous—that is, it is intended to outrage an audience’s sense of order and decorum. The librettist Cammarano’s frequent attempts to tone down the drama’s most extreme aspects only met with Verdi’s instructions to heighten them instead. The opera lives in a borderland between madness and reality, not perfectly at home in either realm. For anyone who truly immerses himself in its shadowy world, Il Trovatore provides an experience that is uniquely thrilling, even within the world of Romantic Italian opera."

Met Opera Crowd Cheers Ailing Russian Baritone

Three months after announcing he had a brain tumor, and still in the midst of treatment, the cherished Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky returned to the Metropolitan Opera on Friday evening as the Count di Luna in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.”

An ovation greeted his first entrance, loud and long enough that he broke character to smile and pat his heart in appreciation. Three hours later, the curtain calls ended with the orchestra pelting Mr. Hvorostovsky with white roses, as his co-star, the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, appeared visibly moved. Ms. Netrebko and several colleagues donned T-shirts in support of Mr. Hvorostovsky earlier this summer at a concert in Moscow.

Since his Met debut on Oct. 26, 1995, in Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades,” Mr. Hvorostovsky has sung more than 170 performances with the company, concentrating on Russian and Verdi operas but also in Mozart, Gounod and Donizetti. He was the Count di Luna when the current “Il Trovatore” production had its premiere in 2009. And when he appeared this spring in Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” our critic Anthony Tommasini wrote that he “brought velvety legato phrasing, virile sound and his distinctive smoky timbre to Rodrigo.”

Mr. Hvorostovsky was originally scheduled for 10 performances of “Il Trovatore” this season, but he announced earlier this month that he would sing the first three — including Tuesday evening and next Saturday’s matinee, to be broadcast in movie theaters worldwide live in HD — then return to London to continue medical treatment.

LECTURE

Symphony Space
One Day University

We have a day filled with interesting lectures.  They're short, interesting, and informative.

9:30 AM – 10:35 AM

Leonardo da Vinci: The Man Who Invented the Future

Bulent Atalay  /  University of Virginia

This extraordinary class is a multi-dimensional portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, unique in connecting Leonardo’s brilliance in mathematics and the sciences with his remarkable artistic talents. In many ways he was a poignantly tragic character, who, more than any other, invented the future, but did not influence it. We stand in awe of his accomplishments and at the same time feel frustrated that he did not complete more of his commissions. So many of the devices that he invented and so many of the natural laws that he discovered would not come to light until centuries later.

He invented entire fields of science hundreds of years before they were reinvented by future scientists: geology, physics, aeronautics, hydrodynamics, meteorology, physiology and more. Leonardo invented robotics a full five centuries before our age, when this technology has become an integral part of modern manufacturing. And he produced only a dozen paintings in his entire life, yet two of them are among the most famous works in the history of art.

10:50 AM – 11:55 AM

Einstein: The Man Behind the Math

Matthew Stanley  /  New York University

Einstein’s name is synonymous with genius. His wild-haired, thoughtful-eyed face has become an icon of modern science. His ideas changed the way we see the universe, the meaning of truth, and the very limits of human knowledge. This course will examine how Einstein’s youthful philosophical questioning led to a revolution in science. We will discuss his creation of special and general relativity, and particularly how these epochal theories emerged from his seemingly simple questions about how we experience the world. His preference for easily-visualizable thought experiments means we will be able to engage deeply with the science with very little mathematics. Einstein also pioneered quantum mechanics, only to reject its strange consequences and eventually devote his life to overturning it through a unified field theory.

Einstein’s elevation to worldwide fame was closely tied to political and social developments such as World War I, Zionism, and the rise of the Nazis. As he became an incarnation of genius, people sought out his views on everything from world peace to the nature of God – and his opinions often had surprising links to his scientific work. The picture of Einstein we end up with is a figure somehow both revolutionary and deeply traditional, emblematic of the modern age and also profoundly uncomfortable with it.

12:10 PM – 1:15 PM

Your Creative Brain: How to Maximize Imagination, Creativity and Innovation

Shelley Carson  /  Harvard University

This fascinating presentation reveals why creativity isn't something only scientists and artists enjoy; in fact, all of us use our creative brains every day at home, work and play. Each of us has the ability to increase our mental functioning and creativity by learning to move flexibly among several brain states. The trick is in understanding networks that connect our brain’s “hot spots” for creative thought, and then developing the ability to “turn on” these networks. Each of us is stronger in some areas than others – some are great at brainstorming but weak in follow-through. Others experience creative block because they’re too critical or inhibited. And some people squelch their imaginations when they’re feeling low, rather than recognize that there is creative potential in a negative mood.

Professor Carson will discuss the latest findings in neuroscience using brain imaging and neuropsychological testing. She'll lead the class through a variety of entertaining exercises, quizzes and problem sets designed to help us identify and temper our own most effective brainsets – and strengthen those that are lower-performing.

Eight Books that Changed the World

Joseph Luzzi / Bard College

September 26, 2015

2:00 PM – 4:15 PM

What 8 books can change your life, the ones you would want to take to your "desert island"? This presentation will unveil the mysteries of the Bible, Homer's Odyssey, Dante's Divine Comedy, and Shakespeare's Hamlet then closer to today Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and Joseph Heller's Catch 22. We will explore the creative processes behind these masterpieces as we trace their impact and develop reading skills to release their remarkable riches.

LINCOLN CENTER

David Koch Theater
New York City Ballet

Swan Lake - Tchaikovsky

We're back to the ballet!
It felt good to be back in Lincoln Center last night for the opening of the Philharmonic's season.  It'll be good to return to the Koch Theater, one of our favorites, for the NYCB.
This season is going to be our best so far.  We're excited!

A stunning and powerfully romantic tragedy, Swan Lake was last performed in 2013 to sold-out houses. This seminal ballet is shaped by Tschaikovsky’s heartbreakingly beautiful score and the central role of Odette/Odile, an interpretation that is both technically and emotionally demanding. 

 

 


In 1996 the Royal Danish Ballet presented Peter Martins’ new full-length version of Swan Lake, the last of the enduring 19th-century Russian ballets. Although it was also the last of the famed Tschaikovsky-Petipa classics, Swan Lake was actually the composer's first ballet score. It was commissioned in 1875 by the Moscow Imperial Theater, now the Bolshoi Theatre. Tschaikovsky, who thought that ballet was "the most innocent, the most moral of the arts," suggested the libretto. Years earlier, as a family entertainment, he had composed a short ballet based on a German fairy tale about a wicked sorcerer who turns young girls into birds.

Amazingly, the choreographer of the 1877 Moscow premiere (not Petipa) was not inspired by Tschaikovsky's glorious music, the conductor didn't like the score either, and the ballerina declared it too difficult to dance to and substituted her favorite music and choreography from other ballets. The composer blamed himself for the failure and would not write another ballet score for 12 years. When he resumed, it was to compose The Sleeping Beauty in 1890 and The Nutcracker in 1892. Tschaikovsky died the following year. As a memorial, the Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg mounted a production of just the first lakeside scene, Tschaikovsky's second act, where the Prince meets the Swan Queen. Czar Nicholas II was so impressed by the new choreography of Petipa's assistant Lev Ivanov that he ordered the entire ballet be produced, with Petipa staging the first and third acts. It is this 1885 St. Petersburg production with the dual role of Odette and Odile that is the basis for the classic ballet we see today.

While retaining the well-known set pieces from the traditional version by Petipa and Ivanov, Mr. Martins has imbued his production of Swan Lake with the speed and clarity that New York City Ballet is known for. The lakeside scenes are based on the choreography of Balanchine's one-act version. For the divertissements of the "Black Swan" scene, Martins has created a sensuous Russian dance intended as an homage to the exoticism of the early 20th-century Russian artist Leon Bakst. Martins has also set a pas de quatre for three ballerinas and a danseur with complex step combinations and intricate partnering unheard of in the 19th century.

For this production Martins invited Denmark's leading artist, Per Kirkeby, to design the scenery and décor. Kirkeby's paintings, sculpture, and graphic art have been exhibited at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, the Venice Biennale, New York's Museum of Modern Art, Prague's National Gallery, the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, London's Barbican Center, and the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, as well as numerous galleries throughout the world, including the Michael Werner Gallery in New York. Kirkeby is also a writer, geologist, filmmaker, and performance artist who has published more than 60 books of poetry, novels, and essays. Kirkeby's costumes for New York City Ballet's Swan Lake are based on the original costumes he designed in collaboration with Kirsten Lund Nielsen for the Royal Danish Ballet production. The evocative lighting design is by Mark Stanley.

Review: ‘Swan Lake’ Features an Authoritative Sara Mearns

Sara Mearns, leading the first of four casts of “Swan Lake” and opening New York City Ballet’s four-week fall season at the David H. Koch Theater on Tuesday, has moved light years beyond the melodramatic clichés with which this ballet is usually saddled. The foolish “Black Swan” notion of this ballet makes Odette the good, passive victim and Odile the actively evil demon, while Prince Siegfried looks like a moron for thinking one could be the other. Ms. Mearns, however, interpreting the double role with completely authoritative individuality, makes both heroines arrestingly multilayered. Her Odette reveals a capacity for voluptuous passion within doomed captivity; her Odile is extraordinarily cool, enigmatic, even poignant, notwithstanding sweeping brilliance.

Peter Martins’s 1996 production takes Tchaikovsky’s score at a generally fast tempo. Ms. Mearns, never rushed by this, creates marvelous dynamic variety within it, often finding time to phrase with seeming slowness, while rising to its briskest passages as if riding the full power of a wave. Though she stumbled toward the end of Odile’s fouetté turns on Tuesday, nothing interrupted the dramatic impetus of her performance. Her partner as Prince Siegfried was Tyler Angle; his dancing is elegant, his acting gallant, relatively lightweight and without any of the specificity that makes Ms. Mearns’s performance important moment by moment.

Under Daniel Capps, who conducts all eight of these “Swan Lake” performances, there was good orchestral playing; one strikingly fine oboe solo stood out. Occasionally, Mr. Capps suddenly slowed the pulse of a dance, apparently to accommodate a dancer, as during the ballroom solo for Mr. Angle; the effect was clumsy.

These performances of “Swan Lake” are dedicated to the memory of Albert Evans, ballet master, teacher and former principal of City Ballet; his death in June stunned and grieved many. But I wish that the company honored his memory by not casting solely black dancers in the role of the villain Rotbart; though Silas Farley delivered the role’s theatrics incisively on Tuesday, he has long been ready for something more rewarding.

Rotbart, with his flamboyant orange flames-of-hell cloak, epitomizes all that’s most obviously silly (a lot) about Mr. Martins’s production and Per Kirkeby’s designs. You can’t believe that the men who shaped the production take this character seriously, so why should you? Color schemes throughout are terrible in conception and execution. It’s bad enough that all the first scene’s corps women are dressed in green, but why are some in more garish shades than others? Why is the garden pas de trois danced by two women in unbecoming mixtures of white, green and brown, and a man (Benno) in scarlet slashed with blue? And the bare-midriff Russian dance looks grotesque.

Bringing young talent to light will be an important part of this week’s performances. The four casts include no fewer than 39 role debuts (though 10 of these are as the princesses whom Siegfried ignores).

I also admire the way that City Ballet, unlike most companies today, doesn’t treat “Swan Lake” as a vehicle for two star principals alone. Seven other principals were on view on Tuesday (at the Royal Ballet in the 1970s, I sometimes saw 11 principals in this ballet’s supporting roles); and the company as a whole made the best case for this staging I’ve seen. I was even persuaded for the first time that the final scene can work without the immolation of the two principals. As with Racine’s play “Bérénice,” the necessity for the two lovers to separate forever is tragedy enough.

Mr. Martins’s talent is bizarrely uneven. The few steps he gives to the 16 children in the opening garden scene’s waltz are among the freshest moments here; the School of American Ballet performers were all bloom and grace. But his additional choreography for adults — especially for solo women — all looks like thankless obstacle courses. Nonetheless, Brittany Pollack (in the pas de trois) and Tiler Peck and Joaquin de Luz (in the ballroom pas de quatre) found a constant supply of wit and color. Though they couldn’t make their solos interesting, they certainly made themselves look distinguished.

Daniel Ulbricht’s performance as the Jester (a terrible part — “Swan Lake” should be a Jester-free zone) used to be all tiresomely intrusive perkiness. Now, with no loss of spot-on timing, he’s toned down its excesses. (In June, this dancer’s debut as Oberon in George Balanchine’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was an important indication that he wants to move beyond the glib flash that used to characterize too many of his performances.) Gwyneth Muller is finding different shades within the Queen’s mime gestures. The female corps de ballet danced with power and passion. But, thanks to Mr. Martins, this “Swan Lake” is less than the sum of its parts.

LINCOLN CENTER

David Geffen Hall
New York Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert - Conductor
Lang Lang - Piano

Greig - Piano Concerto
Beethoven - Symphony No. 7

This is Opening Night for the New York Philharmonic's season.  We remain amazed at their sound.  Regardless of what they're playing, the sound in just magnificent.

Interestingly, Carolyn and last heard the Greig Piano Concerto many years ago in Bass Hall in Ft. Worth at which time Van Cliburn was the artist.  Emanuel Ax had been scheduled to play but became sick and Van Cliburn, on a moment's notice, performed the piece.

He was long, tall, lanky and played wonderfully.

Tonight we will hear the world's currently most desired pianist perform.  Then to finish with Beethoven's 7th...

"The New York Philharmonic's 174th season begins with a drum roll … then comes the famous opening chords of Grieg’s Piano Concerto. Join Music Director Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic as they open the season in style with Lang Lang, with his “charismatic stage presence, passionate playing and astounding technique” (The New York Times). The celebratory evening concludes with Beethoven's joyful Seventh Symphony."

Carolyn and I got there early because all reports are that moving around the city is tough with the United Nations and the Pope being here.  We got to see most of the "dignitaries."

For the Philharmonic’s Opening Night, a New Name and a Big Gift

The opening of the New York Philharmonic’s 174th season on Thursday felt like the start of a new chapter, as the orchestra played for the first time in the newly rechristened David Geffen Hall and announced that it was getting the largest individual donation in its history: a $25 million gift from Oscar S. Schafer, the chairman of its board, and his wife, Didi.

The gift provided an extra fanfare to begin the season, and signaled that the Philharmonic was addressing the biggest challenges it has faced in decades, including raising its share of the costs to renovate its hall; shoring up its finances; and finding a new music director to succeed Alan Gilbert when he steps down in 2017.

Mr. Schafer — a financier who with his wife has sponsored the Philharmonic’s free concerts in city parks since 2007 and who became its chairman this year — said he hoped his gift would inspire donations from fellow board members and others.

“I’m trying to set the standard that it’s an important obligation of the board, and not only the board but people in and around New York — because it is the New York Philharmonic,” Mr. Schafer, the founder of the Rivulet Capital investment firm, said in a telephone interview. “The New York Philharmonic is revered throughout the world, but sometimes is taken for granted in New York.”

Coming on top of the $100 million gift that David Geffen, the entertainment mogul, made this year toward renovation, Mr. Schafer’s donation suggested that the long-delayed project was finally taking shape. The renovation is expected to cost more than $500 million, with the remaining expenses to be shared by Lincoln Center and the Philharmonic.

Change was in the air as patrons gathered for the Philharmonic’s gala opening-night concert, which featured Lang Lang playing Grieg’s Piano Concerto and Mr. Gilbert leading the orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

The evening began with a ceremony to rename the hall for Mr. Geffen in recognition of his donation. It is the building’s third name: It opened in 1962 as Philharmonic Hall and became Avery Fisher Hall in 1973 after Mr. Fisher, the founder of the Fisher electronics company, donated $10.5 million toward an earlier renovation. But the hall has long been considered outdated, acoustically challenged and a bit lacking in glamour — faults that the coming renovation will aim to rectify.

It was a star-studded event, with George Lucas, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Martin and others looking on as Mr. Geffen pulled a golden rope that removed a red velvet curtain and revealed a new sign outside the building that read “David Geffen Hall.”

Jed Bernstein, the president of Lincoln Center, thanked Mr. Geffen for his generosity and proclaimed, “David Geffen Hall is now open.”

The Philharmonic’s fund-raising goals go beyond the renovation project. In addition to raising its share of the hall’s construction costs — estimated to be roughly $160 million, or 40 percent of the $400 million remaining after Mr. Geffen’s donation — it is also working to raise $200 million to double its endowment, as well as the reserves it must raise each year to cover operating expenses.

Mr. Schafer said $20 million of his gift would be divided between the endowment campaign and the renovation project, and that $5 million would continue to support the free parks concerts.

Mr. Schafer, who grew up in a family in which Frank Sinatra was played more often than Franz Liszt, attributed his love of classical music in part to hearing a recording of Beethoven’s “Archduke” trio featuring the pianist Alfred Cortot, the violinist Jacques Thibaud and the cellist Pablo Casals during an introductory music class at Harvard. “I cried,” he said.

He added that, while he looked forward to many things this season, including a Rachmaninoff festival and the second NY Phil Biennial of new music, he was especially excited by the prospect of a renovated hall with “world-class acoustics meeting the world-class orchestra.”

“We’re going to create a wow factor,” he said.

THEATER

Theater for a New Audience
Isolde - Richard Maxwell

“CRITIC’S PICK: SMASHING…A tale of a romantic triangle where well-heeled people of artistic temperament pursue discreetly dangerous love lives.” – Ben Brantley.

“CRITIC’S PICK: FIVE STARS…The quartet works at an incredible, precise pitch.”

– Helen Shaw, Time Out New York. 

Richard Maxwell’s ‘Isolde’ Explores Primal Instincts

“RIVETING…Inspired.” – Trish Deitch, The New Yorker

“Richard Maxwell is one of the more adventurous theatre artists that this country has produced in decades.” – Hilton Als, The New Yorker

“CRITIC’S PICK: FOUR STARS…Beguiling, hypnotic, beautiful.” – David Cote, Time Out New York

“A stark and unsettling tale of memory, infidelity, and architecture…A must-see for the adventurous theatergoer: mysterious…a structure built with gorgeous severity.” – David Cote, NY1

“Richard Maxwell’s new play is about myth, memory, and a house that never gets built…with characteristically clean lines and meditative pacing.” – Miriam Felton-Dansky, The Village Voice. Click here to read the full review, which appeared in The Village Voice on April 16, 2014, during the run at Abrons Arts Center.

“Highly compelling…Dreamy, stinging, and comic.” – Jacob Horn, Curtain Up

New York City Players’

"Isolde is a new American play about memory, identity, the ephemeral, and infidelity, written and directed by Richard Maxwell, “one of the few truly original experimental theater auteurs.” (Ben Brantley, The New York Times)  In the play, inspired by the legend of Tristan and Isolde, the marriage of Patrick and Isolde appears to be happy. Patrick is the owner of a successful construction company and Isolde is a star actress. But Isolde finds herself increasingly unable to remember her lines. When she decides to build her dream house, her husband is eager to help. But the project is jeopardized by Massimo, an award-winning architect whom Isolde hires."

Richard Maxwell looks at the world with X-ray eyes

Watching the plays of this rigorously inventive auteur, we are encouraged to see the plasterboard behind the wallpaper, the skin under the greasepaint and the skulls beneath the skin. Or in the case of “Isolde,” his smashing new work at the Abrons Arts Center, the beams and blueprints — and light and air — that go into the imagining of something as substantial and transitory as a dream house. Or, come to think of it, a play.

 As a director and dramatist, Mr. Maxwell has applied his unnerving vision to many of the popular fictions with which we entertain and explain ourselves: the spy story, the crime caper, the medieval saga and even the western. But with “Isolde,” he has touched down in a world where I somehow never expected to find him.

This tale of a romantic triangle takes place, more or less, in a drawing room, the kind where well-heeled people of artistic temperament pursue discreetly dangerous love lives. As the backdrops for dramas by writers like W. Somerset Maugham and S. N. Behrman, such rooms figured prominently on Broadway during the first half of the 20th century.

Perhaps you’ve seen their like in black-and-white screen adaptations starring Bette Davis and Claude Rains, or Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone, in which concert pianists and heiresses suffer nobly in evening clothes. Sarah Ruhl summoned just such a milieu this season in the play within the play in her “Stage Kiss,” seen at Playwrights Horizons.

But what Ms. Ruhl gave us was a lovingly satirical variation on a hoary anachronism. Mr. Maxwell doesn’t do satire, which isn’t to say he isn’t funny. Instead, he uses an artificial form to explore primal instincts. Since its title character is an actress, you could say that “Isolde” is more directly about the theater than anything Mr. Maxwell has done before.

But those expecting a cozy, high-style soiree of a play should be warned: As the name of this work promises, Mr. Maxwell’s drawing room is big enough to accommodate the mythic passions of Teutonic opera. You will indeed hear strains from Wagner’s “Liebestod” aria before the evening ends.

Of course, that comes after a priceless scene set to the Bob Seger song “Night Moves,” heard from a cellphone. High, low and midrange culture inhabit the same altitude for Mr. Maxwell, whose wonderful “Neutral Hero” (2012) suggested a cross between Homer’s “Odyssey” and Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” Part of Mr. Maxwell’s point is that all forms of artistic expression stem from the same, inescapably human source.

Our heroine, Isolde (Tory Vazquez), belongs to that breed of commanding actress who inspires religious worship and mad passions. She is also a sensitive plant, prone to neurotic ramblings and cursed by an inability to remember her lines, or even what she’s just said in real life. She is fortunate in having a sturdy, steady husband in Patrick (Jim Fletcher), a building contractor who indulges her caprices and fondly refers to her as “my little short-circuit angel actress.”

Since Isolde’s most recent whim is to have the perfect vacation home, the couple enlist a celebrated architect, Massimo (Gary Wilmes), who talks a great game but never seems to get down to building. This is partly because Massimo soon begins a liaison with Isolde and can’t think of anything else.

Patrick, who is more comfortable with a man’s man like his friend Uncle Jerry (Brian Mendes), appears to object less to the affair than to Massimo’s dubious work ethic and high-flown rhetoric. And as in many of the romantic tragicomedies of long ago, “Isolde” forces its heroine to choose between the pragmatist and the fantasist, between reality and escape.

This being a Maxwell play, the lines aren’t quite that clear cut. We hear that Patrick and Isolde live in luxury, and we have no reason to doubt it. Yet what we see onstage (the set is by Sascha van Riel) is skeletal: a few plywood walls, a platform and several chairs. And, oh yes, a drinks trolley. That’s crucial, as is the immense curtain that can be expanded to display a sylvan lakescape, against which a latter-day Tristan and Isolde might pursue their passion.

The dialogue matches the feeling of a world that is provisional, that might be rolled offstage in a twinkling. Isolde speaks of the feeling of disappearing as she gets older, and in the play’s climactic scene, she announces simply, “I don’t exist.”

Massimo talks largely in abstractions and poses annoying rhetorical questions like: “What is a wall? What is a ceiling?” Patrick, in contrast, is all about graphs and specs and lumber. But Mr. Fletcher’s shrewd, laconic performance suggests that Patrick doesn’t have that much faith in the solidity of material structures.

Mr. Maxwell’s early work, like “House” and “Caveman,” was notable for its starkness of speech and affectless acting style. Like his “Neutral Hero,” “Isolde” is in a more lyrical vein, and the performances tremble on the brink of full, naturalistic emotion.

The cast members are all highly disciplined veterans of New York experimental theater. (Ms. Vazquez, Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Wilmes memorably embodied another triangle in “Gatz,” the Elevator Repair Service’s inspired retelling of “The Great Gatsby.”) And here they make us aware of the inadequacy of everyday speech, the layers within one loud, orgasmic scream and the eloquence of longing within a silence.

The roles that Mr. Maxwell has drawn for them partake equally of the sensibilities of Patrick and Massimo, mixing precisely grounded moments of character definition (watch Mr. Fletcher’s Patrick trying on what he calls “a fat man’s jacket”) and sequences in which identity becomes weightless. All these characters are specifically who they are, but they’re also archetypes, whose ilk have walked the earth for centuries and presumably always will.

Mr. Maxwell nails his male characters, compassionately but firmly; he knows their games and their weaknesses. Isolde is allowed to retain a sense of mystery, even to herself. And if Mr. Maxwell pokes gentle fun at her, he also respects this fading beauty as the embodiment of an ephemeral art.

When she describes the process of acting onstage, in a monologue delivered with an angry poetry by Ms. Vazquez, Isolde speaks of all the floating memories that feed into a specific moment that captures an audience.

“How subtle is the gift of memory?” she asks. “How precious?” And finally, how insubstantial. As Mr. Maxwell reminds us, that’s a large part of the melancholy beauty that makes theater itself so precious.

ADIRONDACKS & BERKSHIRES

We're off for 6 days in the Adirondacks, the Berkshires, and then on to Hartford, Connecticut.

We touched all the required points for a visit to Saratoga Springs and ventured up to Lake George.

Yaddo Gardens...

Getting ready to take a cruise on Lake George...

Cruising Lake George...

On to Fort Ticonderoga, America's Fort.

The history of Fort Ticonderoga...

The history of Fort Ticonderoga is deeply tied to the geography and lakes that extend between Quebec and New York City.  We sailed the 32 miles of Lake Charles.  The southern portion of Lake Charles is a 12 mile portage to the Hudson River and, thereby, New York City.  The northern portion of Lake Charles is a 4 mile portage to Lake Champlain and, thereby, Quebec.

"Lake Champlain, which forms part of the border between New York and Vermont, and the Hudson River together formed an important travel route that was used by Indians before the arrival of European colonists. The route was relatively free of obstacles to navigation, with only a few portages. One strategically important place on the route lies at a narrows near the southern end of Lake Champlain, where Ticonderoga Creek, known in Colonial times as the La Chute River, enters the lake, carrying water from Lake George. Although the site provides commanding views of the southern extent of Lake Champlain, Mount Defiance, at 853 ft (260 m), and two other hills (Mount Hope and Mount Independence) overlook the area."

We're now in Lake Placid, New York.  The leaves are just beginning to change.

Whiteface Mountain was the Olympic mountain for skiing in 1934 and 1980. 

In that I was in the mountains of Colorado just one week ago, I can say with certainty that the forests and flora of the Adirondacks are much thicker than found in Colorado.  The forests of northern New York are lush.

The Adirondacks were once taller than the Himalayans and rockier and sharper than the American Rockies.  Erosion, the strongest force in geology, has brought them lower and has smoothed them down.

We were near the summit and it was in the 40s.

Looking down to Lake Placid.

The road up to the summit of Whiteface Mountain.

The final walk up to the summit.

The skyline of Montreal, Canada was visible on the horizon.  It is about 100 miles away.

Today we drove from Lake Placid to Amherst, Massachusetts.

Along the way we stopped at The Mount, the home of Edith Wharton, in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Edith Wharton's home, The Mount...

About Edith Wharton...

One of the finest thoughts I've ever read...

"In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways."

Quotes by Edith Wharton...

We left the Berkshire Mountains and settled in an Inn in Amherst, Massachusetts.  The following morning our final destination was home but we traveled to Hartford, Connecticut to visit Mark Twain's home.

Mark Twain's home...

The final drive back into Manhattan went very well since we were driving into Manhattan while most were driving away.  A lesson learned for us.

The next few days are going to be crazy here since The General Assembly of the United Nations is in session and the Pope's in town.  The Pope is going to observe Mass in Madison Square Garden which is just one block from our front door.  There will gridlock in the streets!  We should be all right sine we either walk or we ride the subway.  There's lots of excitement in the town right now.

THEATER

Pearl Theater
Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare

"Shakespeare’s lush tale of the ecstasies of love and loss, Midsummer tosses four lovers into the strangest, most magical night of their lives. In the woods of Athens, they dive into a world ruled by the whims of passion, play, and jealousy—and none of them come out unchanged. Directed by Bedlam Theater’s innovative Eric Tucker, five versatile actors will live out Bottom’s fantasy of playing all the roles in this celebration of the transformative and intoxicating power of love."


We enjoy The Pearl Theater, we love Eric Tucker, and Shakespeare is doing just fine.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Opens at The Pearl Theatre

The Pearl Theatre Company begins its 2015-2016 season with Bedlam Theater Artistic Director Eric Tucker's fresh take on William Shakespeare's classic A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, following a highly successful engagement of the production at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival this summer. 

MIDSUMMER kicks off the Pearl's 32nd season, which will continue in the spring with the New York Premiere of Aaron Posner's Stupid Fu**ing Bird in and a World Premiere adaptation by Mark Shanahan of George Feydeau's Le Dindon, entitled The Dingdong.
"With all its powerful performances and near-acrobatic metamorphoses, it is truly the first production of MIDSUMMER in which I felt transported as if in a dream," said Hal Brooks. "My vision is for The Pearl to be a theatre where past becomes present, where timeless stories have new voices, where new ideas join with familiar faces, where the ancient art of theatre is present and new every night. We're so proud to have MIDSUMMER lead us into this next phase of our journey."

Shakespeare's lush tale of the ecstasies of love and loss, MIDSUMMER tosses four lovers into the strangest, most magical night of their lives. In the woods of Athens, they dive into a world ruled by the whims of passion, play, and jealousy-and none of them come out unchanged. Directed by Bedlam Theater's innovative Eric Tucker, five versatile actors will live out Bottom's fantasy of playing all the roles in this celebration of the transformative and intoxicating power of love.

About Eric Tucker (Director) - Wall Street Journal Director of the Year, 2014. For HVSF: The Two gentlemen of Verona. Off- Broadway: Bedlam's Saint Joan (NYTimes Top 10 of 2014). Tina Packer's Woman of Will (The Judson), The Belle of Belfast (Cherry Lane). The Seagull and Sense and Sensibility (NYTimes Top 10 of 2014). Other: The Libertine (IRNE nomination, Best Director), Hamlet (with William Hurt, L.A.), Mate (The Actors' Gang),Macbeth (nominated Best Production and Best Director by LA Weekly), Uranium and Peaches (with Ed Asner), Pinter's Mirror, Bad Dates (Shakespeare & Company), Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet (Trinity Rep). MFA/Trinity Rep. Eric resides in New York City, where he is Artistic Director of Bedlam.

COLORADO

Five days of cooler air in Colorado.