On Sunday, a new opera by Beat Furrer, “Das grosse Feuer” (“The Great Fire”), premiered at the Zurich Opera House. Directed by Tatjana Gürbaca and based on a novel by the Argentine author Sara Gallardo, the work, also conducted by Furrer, tells the story of an Indigenous shaman named Eisejuaz, whose community and individual being […]
Category: Review
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Black Swan
Ours is an age of anti-heroes. In art and entertainment, knights in shining armor are out; we prefer tortured mobsters, spoiled scions, or people on the edge. Now, a sterling example of a romantic lead has been upstaged in his own opera once again. Lohengrin, the holy grail keeper who according to lore descends on […]
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I Saw Morton Feldman’s “For Philip Guston” Twice in One Month
I had just finished making plans to attend the Rainy Days Festival in Luxembourg at the end of November. Within the festival’s theme of “Extremes,” I was especially looking forward to a performance of Morton Feldman’s epic “For Philip Guston” by Sophie Deshayes (flutes), Pascal Meyer (piano and celeste) and Galdric Subirana (percussion). Then I […]
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Event
I. Start—quiet, holding space, a busy sold-out texture: cough, two pints drunk in perfect sync in front, mumble, breath, program scratch, sniff, distant train rumble, zip, cough, “This is like being at a wedding,” lights down. White, hooded, quickly veers. Blue, holds… Crash, conflict, laugh behind, chirrup of percussion (wish I could do shorthand). Red, […]
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On Shame
Shame effaces itself; shame points and projects; shame turns itself skin side out; shame and pride, shame and dignity, shame and self-display, shame and exhibitionism are different linings of the same glove. Shame, it might finally be said, transformational shame, is performativity. —Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Touching Feeling 1. Two things about shame. First: it is […]
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Modal Incantations
Who was Yvonne Loriod? To most, she is known as a virtuoso pianist, an inspirational teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, and the dedicatee of many pieces by Olivier Messiaen, whom she married in 1961. Few are aware that she was also a composer, which is hardly surprising as none of her works were published in […]
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Mysteries of the Military-Industrial Complex
No opera captures the American death drive quite like “Grounded.” Chosen by the Metropolitan Opera to open its 2024–25 season, composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist George Brant’s paean to the F-16 follows Jess, an Air Force fighter pilot forbidden from flying due to her pregnancy and later assigned to conduct drone strikes remotely from a […]
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A Spectator to Yourself
The reality outside the virtual reality is this: a blindingly sunny pre-fall day on Glasgow’s South Side gives way to a dark, almost bare studio in Offline (formerly Glasgow Artists’ Moving Image Studios). The room is divided into two halves, each with a square, slightly soft, and pleasingly bumpy fabric covering, and a stool for […]
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The Interpenetration of Things
Inspired by the ancient legend of Indra’s net, which depicts the Buddhist concept of interpenetration, Meredith Monk’s latest work metaphorizes the interdependency of humans with the natural world. “Indra’s Net” meditates on the earth’s vulnerability through a multimodal interplay of sound, silence, gesture, space, and time. Throughout the performance, Monk, her cohort of seven other […]
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Anti-Thematic
Ours is the age of themes. Drowning in the deluge of streaming content whose rush, flow, and surge defines what Anna Kornbluh last year termed our too-late capitalism, any and all aspirant media—entertainment, art, or otherwise—is increasingly compliant with that dictatorial imperative handed down from marketing departments on high: brand or bust. Streamlined themes get […]