Posts Tagged ‘Brooklyn Academy of Music’
The Bridge Project’s Richard III, by William Shakespeare, with Kevin Spacey, at BAM…with a backward look at the Donmar Warehouse King Lear
This production of Shakespeare’s Richard III has reached BAM after a sold-out run at the Old Vic and a tour which included Epidavros, Istanbul, Naples, Sydney, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, and San Francisco, among others. This reminded me of the sort of thing the British Council does, but of course this Shakespearian globe-trotting was a private enterprise, funded largely by Bank of America and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. And course the whole point of the production’s parent organization, The Bridge Project, was to combine British and American casts. Perhaps there should be an organization beyond the British Council to cultivate, study, and promote the global English language, as it used on the streets and in literature around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Nigeria, Guyana, and others. And the way English is behaving in the physical and cyber-world today, it may need some international body to encourage it in good manners, kicking it under the table, when it starts to monopolize the conversation.
John Hurt in Krapp’s Last Tape from the Gate Theatre, Dublin, at BAM
It occasionally strikes me, to my own bemusement, that walking along a street on an average day, I might have in my pockets as many as three devices capable of recording pictures, even moving pictures, and perhaps two for recording sound. Modern technology has given ordinary people—anyone—an unprecedented ability to make precise literal records of what can be heard and seen at any given time and place. Using a device smaller than my hand I can create a seamless journal of sound, text, still images, and movies, if I choose, but I refrain. I rarely put these capabilities to use—only if there is something extraordinary…like the bizarre Australian accent of a tour guide on the Palatine last year, as he spun absurdities to his rapt crowd. (I wasn’t fast enough…) I am wary of these literal records. Are they the death of memory? Even during my undergraduate years, when the goings-on had every appearance of memorable times, I eschewed keeping a diary, taking notes, or even taking pictures. If I ever wrote about those times, I wanted to write from memory, with all its confusions and conflations, believing that someone else would be keeping an accurate chronicle of events to rescue me, if I needed it.
Lully and Quinault’s Atys: Christie and Villégier’s Historic Production of Les Arts Florissants Revived at BAM for its 150th Anniversary
The Brooklyn Academy of Music, chose to open their 150th anniversary celebrations with a more recent, but no less historically significant commemoration, and typical of the innovative, constantly exciting work BAM has been doing since the 1960s. This was nothing less than a “recreation,” as the program calls it, of Jean-Marie Villégier’s watershed production of Lully’s Atys, with music by Les Arts Florissants, conducted by William Christie. This production, organized by the Paris Opera to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Lully’s death, went through 70 performances between its premiere in December 1986 in Prato, and its second revival in 1992, closing finally at BAM after its second run there.
Belvoir’s Production of Gogol’s “The Diary of a Madman,” with Geoffrey Rush, comes to BAM
“The Diary of a Madman” by Nikolai Gogol Adapted by David Holman with Neil Armfield & Geoffrey Rush Belvoir Directed by Neil Armfield Set design by Catherine Martin Costume design by Tess Schofield Lighting design by Mark Shelton Sound design by Paul Charlier Music by Alan John (after Mussorgsky) With Aksentii Poprishchin – Geoffrey Rush [...]
Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Bridge Project at BAM
The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare A Bridge Project production at BAM, directed by Sam Mendes Simon Russell Beale – Leontes, King of Sicily Michael Braun – Dion, Lord of Sicilia/Florizel Morven Christie – Perdita/Mamillius Sinéad Cusack – Paulina, wife to Antigonus Richard Easton – Old Shepherd/Time Rebecca Hall – Hermione Josh Hamilton – [...]
