this week in music

ALL U2: A BENEFIT CONCERT FOR BC/EFA

Maxine Linehan will host All U2 benefit concert at Birdland on March 16

Who: Jessica Phillips, Elizabeth Stanley, Bob Stillman, Jeremy Morse, Brian Charles Rooney, Ryan Silverman, Lauren Fox, Scott Coulter, Carole J. Bufford, Tiffany Gray, Eric Yves Garcia, Brad Simmons, and host Maxine Linehan
What: Broadway at Birdland Concert Series: All U2
Where: Birdland Jazz Club, 415 West 44th St., 212-581-3080
When: Monday, March 16, $35-$75 (plus $10 food or drink minimum), 9:30
Why: On St. Patrick’s Eve, Birdland will host an evening of the songs of U2, performed by an all-star lineup of Broadway and nightclub newcomers and veterans, with proceeds benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The show is produced by Scott “Broadway by the Year” Siegel and Linehan, with musical direction by Ryan Shirar and Andrew Koss.

HAGIGAH IVRIT

Who: Assaf Gavron, Shira Averbuch, Yuval Hamevulbal, Roy Noy, Tal Mosseri, the Power Girls (Tuti and Naama), Rabbi Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Mesiba Ivrit, Reuven (Ruby) Namdar, and more
What: Hagigah Ivrit (חגיגה עברית)
Where: JCC in Manhattan, B’nai Jeshurun, Israeli-American Council (IAC), Symphony Space, the Highline Ballroom, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Park Avenue Synagogue, Yeshiva University Museum, and other locations
When: March 14-30
Why: The first-ever North American cultural festival celebrating the Hebrew language features a book talk with Assaf Gavron, author of The Hilltop; an interactive educational performance of Peter and the Wolf; the Festifun2 musical production with Israeli child stars; a talk by Rabbi Eliezer Ben-Yehuda on “The Importance of the Hebrew Tongue to the Rebirth of the People in Their Land — and the Continued Existence of Judaism in the Future”; a dance party with live music; Hebrew classes for beginners; Shabbat dinner; a Passover family workshop; a conversation with Sapir Prize for Literature winner Ruby Namdar; a screening of Sharon Maymon and Tal Granit’s The Farewell Party; and other special and ongoing events.

SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION

Pianist Seymour Bernstein speaks with director Ethan Hawke at Steinway & Sons on Sixth Ave. (photo courtesy of Ramsey Fendall)

SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION (Ethan Hawke, 2014)
IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at Third St., 212-924-7771
Lincoln Plaza Cinema, 1886 Broadway between 62nd & 63rd Sts., 212-757-2280
Opens Friday, March 13
www.ifcfilms.com

No, with Seymour: An Introduction, Ethan Hawke hasn’t managed the nearly impossible, filming an adaptation of the J. D. Salinger story about a young man who commits suicide. Instead, Hawke uses the title for his beautifully touching, life-affirming portrait of octogenarian composer and musician Seymour Bernstein. An extraordinary pianist, the Newark-born Bernstein started playing when he was three, began giving lessons when he was fifteen, and, when he turned fifty, decided to stop performing recitals despite great critical success, in order to concentrate on teaching and composing and to avoid his stage fright and the negative aspects of commercial fame. After meeting at a dinner party, Hawke and Bernstein hit it off and agreed to collaborate on the project, which was filmed over the course of two years. Hawke, in his first documentary and third feature as director (following Chelsea Walls and The Hottest State), shows Bernstein holding master classes in auditoriums, teaching in his cramped New York City apartment, talking in a café with former student and current New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, and selecting just the right piano for a recital Hawke convinces him to give at the Steinway & Sons showroom on West Fifty-Seventh St.; in addition, Hawke speaks with such other Bernstein friends as writer and scholar Andrew Harvey, pianist and lecturer Joseph Smith, and musician and songwriter Kimball Gallagher.

Documentary focuses on master pianist and composer Seymour Bernstein’s love of life and music (photo courtesy of Ramsey Fendall)

Seymour: An Introduction depicts Bernstein as a truly gentle, generous soul who always looks for the positive in people and situations, a perpetual smile on his face. The film focuses on his relationship with the piano more so than his personal life; although he discusses his childhood and his time in the military, he never mentions companions or family outside of his parents. For Bernstein and Hawke, it’s all about the music. “When I was around the age of fifteen, I remember that I became aware that when my practicing went well, everything else in life seemed to be harmonized by that. When my practicing didn’t go well, I was out of sorts with people, with my parents,” Bernstein says near the beginning of the documentary. “So I concluded that the real essence of who we are resides in our talent, in whatever talent there is.” And Bernstein’s talent is extraordinary, a joy to behold, as is his love of life. The endlessly charming and inspiring Seymour: An Introduction opens March 13 at Lincoln Plaza and the IFC Center; the now eighty-seven-year-old Bernstein will be at IFC to talk about the film at the 6:15 and 8:15 shows on Friday night and will be joined by Hawke at the 6:15 and 8:15 shows on Saturday and the 4:15 and 6:15 screenings on Sunday.

CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY: SEMELE

Zhang Huan has transported a 17-ton, 450-year-old Ming Dynasty temple as setting for SEMELE (photo by Jack Vartoogian / Frontrowphotos)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Peter Jay Sharp Building
230 Lafayette Ave.
March 4, 6, 8, 10, $35-$170
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.coc.ca

When Belgium’s Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie and China’s KT Wong Foundation approached Shanghai-based visual and performance artist Zhang Huan to make his directorial debut in a production of composer George Frideric Handel and librettist William Congreve’s Semele, they were clearly seeking something different, a unique interpretation of the Baroque opera by John Eccles, based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses. And Zhang certainly delivers, bringing his complex sensibility to this mythical tale of love gone wrong. Semele takes place in and around a 17-ton, 450-year-old Ming Dynasty ancestral family temple that Zhang had previously purchased in a small village near Shanghai, then disassembled, transported, and reconstructed for the three-hour work, which is being performed by the Canadian Opera Company at BAM March 4-10. The fascinating details behind the history of the temple, including recent poverty, infidelity, and murder that relate to the Greek myth from which the opera is adapted, are communicated through a short black-and-white film that opens the program. Then Zhang dives into the tragic narrative of Semele (soprano Jane Archibald), the daughter of Cadmus, the king of Thebes (bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen), who has been promised to Prince Athamas (countertenor Lawrence Zazzo) but is actually beloved by the god Jupiter (tenor Colin Ainsworth). That infuriates Juno, Jupiter’s wife (contralto Hilary Summers), who solicits the help of Somnus, the god of sleep (Ketelsen), and her messenger, Iris (soprano Katherine Whyte), to trick Semele and send her to her mortal doom. But not surprisingly, Zhang — who once covered his body with raw meat and walked to the Whitney Museum — brings it all together in surprising ways, using creative staging, gorgeous costumes (by fashion designer Han Feng), unusual props, and fire, breathing compelling life into this exciting production while combining Eastern and Western elements.

Somnus looks down from above in Zhang Huan’s visually dazzling production of SEMELE (photo by Jack Vartoogian / Frontrowphotos)

In the program notes, Zhang explains, “The fact that the roots of pain introduced in a Western opera can reappear in the East in the fate of a single peasant family in the countryside makes us continually ponder the redemptive qualities of humanity. . . . The human race has to continuously and eternally develop as it regresses.” Zhang explores that concept by incorporating into the opera a pair of sumo wrestlers (Americus Abesamis and Byamba Ulambayar), a huge blow-up god, two actors portraying a donkey showing off an enormous phallus, a twisting dragon, a chorus of men and women dressed as Buddhist monks, a Tibetan singer (Amchok Gompo Dhondup), characters that ascend and descend on wires, an orgy, nudity, and a shimmering magic mirror. (And it doesn’t take too much imagination to see the temple pillars as phallic objects either.) Handel’s score is beautifully conducted by Christopher Moulds, leading the COC Orchestra; the cast, singing in English (with English surtitles), features standout performances by Ainsorth, Whyte, and particularly Archibald in the title role, who dazzles in a late aria. In merging Eastern and Western philosophies, Zhang has infused this Greek myth with the four noble truths — aging, arising, cessation, and the path — while also relating it to modern-day China, resulting in a wholly satisfying, nontraditional, extremely entertaining multimedia experience.

FIRST SATURDAY: WOMEN CHANGEMAKERS

Curator tour of “Judith Scott: Bound Unbound” is part of free First Saturday program at Brooklyn Museum (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Curator tour of “Judith Scott — Bound and Unbound” is part of free First Saturdays program at Brooklyn Museum (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, March 7, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum celebrates women in the March edition of its free First Saturdays program. “Women Changemakers” will feature live performances by Alissia & the Funketeers, Princess Nokia, and the DJ duo JSMN and MeLo-X; a curator talk by Catherine Morris about the exhibition “Judith Scott — Bound and Unbound”; a Colored Girls Hustle mix tape workshop; a sketch class in which participants will draw from a live woman model; a book club talk with Dao X Tran, author of 101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed U.S. History; screenings of Julianna Brannum’s LaDonna Harris: Indian 101 and Rahwa Asmerom’s Didn’t I Ask for Tea?; a healing space with tarot readings, herbalism, acupressure, and more led by Harriet’s Apothecary; and a discussion with Tavi Gevinson about her online Rookie magazine and the print companion Rookie Yearbook Three. In addition, you can check out such exhibitions as “Revolution! Works from the Black Arts Movement,” “Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic,” “The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago,” and “Chitra Ganesh: Eyes of Time.”

SEMELE

Chinese visual and performance artist makes his directorial debut with Canadian Opera Company production of SEMELE (photo by Michael Cooper)

Who: Zhang Huan and the Canadian Opera Company
What: Semele
Where: BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Peter Jay Sharp Building, 230 Lafayette Ave., 718-636-4100
When: March 4-10, $35-$170
Why: Chinese visual and performance artist Zhang Huan brings a distinctly Chinese look and feel to the Canadian Opera Company’s multimedia production of George Frideric Handel and William Congreve’s Semele, the Greek myth about the love affair between the god Jupiter and the mortal Semele, which does not make Jupiter’s wife, Juno, very happy. In his directorial debut, Zhang, who works in Shanghai and New York City, re-creates an authentic 17-ton, 450-year-old Ming Dynasty temple as part of the set, while also incorporating a Chinese dragon and sumo wrestlers. The opera is conducted by Christopher Moulds, with costumes by fashion designer Han Feng, and lighting by Willem Laarman based on Wolfgang Göbbel’s original design; coloratura soprano Jane Archibald plays Semele, with Colin Ainsworth as Jupiter and Hilary Summers as Juni/Ino. The three-hour opera will be performed March 4, 6, 8, and 10; Neil Kutner and Paul Bartlett will lead the master class “Semele: Behind the Scenes” on March 8 at 10:00 am at BAM Fisher ($45).

CULTUREMART 2015

Sara and Reid Farrington go behind the scenes of the making of a classic in CASABLANCABOX (photo by Sara and Reid Farrington)

HERE
145 Sixth Ave. at Dominick St.
March 4-14, $15
212-352-3101
www.here.org

HERE’s annual winter performance festival, now in its fourteenth year, highlights cutting-edge works-in-progress from a wide-ranging group of artists who are either current or former participants in the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP), which commissions hybrid presentations in order “to not only grow innovative artistic work, but also [to] give artists the awareness and skills — in areas such as audience relations, budgeting, grantwriting, and touring — they need to continue to grow their careers.” This year features a dozen multidisciplinary workshop performances, beginning March 4-5 with sound designer Christina Campanella and composer Jim Dawson’s Lighthouse 40° N, 73° W, a continuous geographic audio installation in which the audience listens in on headphones to a twenty-five-minute loop, and Sara and Reid Farrington’s CasablancaBox, in which the husband-and-wife duo combine live actors and film clips that go behind the scenes of the making of the 1942 movie; Farrington has previously reimagined such films as The Passion of Joan of Arc, Rope, and multiple versions of A Christmas Carol in his unique, mesmerizing style. On March 6-7 at 7:00, Paul Pinto’s Thomas Paine in Violence explores the American patriot during the last days of his life and the start of his afterlife, with music performed by vocalist Joan La Barbara and the ensemble Ne(x)tworks. On March 7-8 at 8:30, Sean Donovan and Sebastián Calderón Bentin turn to Alain Renais’s Last Year at Marienbad and Luis Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel for Abbadon, in which a social gathering delves into the nature of class structure; Abbadon is on a shared bill with Amanda Szeglowski/cakeface’s Stairway to Stardom, a piece of dance theater that takes its inspiration from the public access amateur talent television show of the same name.

Hai-Ting Chinn’s SCIENCE FAIR takes viewers on a multimedia operatic journey (photo by Benjamin Heller)

On March 9-10, you can see a double feature of Hai-Ting Chinn’s multimedia opera, Science Fair, with music by Matthew Schickele and live piano by Erika Switzer, and The Emperor and the Queen’s Parisian Weekend, with music by Kamala Sankaram and a libretto by Pete McCabe, directed by HERE cofounder Tim Maner. March 10-11 pairs Matt Marks and Paul Peers’s Mata Hari, an opera-theater piece about the last days of the renowned WWI spy, with Nick Brooke’s Psychic Driving, which immerses the audience in surveillance and CIA brainwashing. From March 12 to 14, Jessica Scott’s Ship of Fools uses music, puppets, and movement to examine particular women throughout history while looking at who is in control of the future; it’s on a shared bill with Robin Frohardt’s Fitzcardboardaldo, a cinematic cardboard tribute to Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, along with The Corrugation of Dreams, an homage to Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams, about the making of the Herzog film. CULTUREMART concludes March 13-14 with HERE artistic director Kristin Marting and Robert Lyons’s Idiot, an exploration of Dostoevsky protagonist Prince Myshkin using text, video, and dance. The festival also includes a trio of post-performance talks, “Continue the Conversation,” with “Soundscapes” on March 6 after the 7:00 Lighthouse show, “Variants of Video Integration” on March 8 following the 8:30 show, and “Playing with Operatic Form” on March 10 after the 8:30 show. Tickets for all productions are $15 except for Lighthouse 40° N, 73° W, for which admission is $5; a $60 OFF-OFFten Club membership allows you to see all shows for $5 each and also comes with four tickets to be used anytime during the season in addition to four glasses of wine from the café.