this week in music

DAVID BROZA WITH SPECIAL GUEST MIRA AWAD

David Broza brings his mission of peace, love, and understanding to the Highline Ballroom on January 14

Highline Ballroom
431 West 16th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Tuesday, January 14, $25-$45, 8:00
212-414-5994
www.highlineballroom.com
www.davidbroza.net

“Don’t want to preach to no one tonight / Just want to tell my tale,” Israeli folk legend David Broza sings on “One to Three,” the opening track of his new album, East Jerusalem / West Jerusalem (S-Curve, January 14, 2014). Broza, who was raised in Israel, Spain, and England, has a rather simple goal: helping bring peace and love to the war-torn Middle East, as displayed in such previous songs as “Yihieh Tov (It Will Be Good).” For the new record, Broza brought together a diverse group of international musicians, who gathered for eight days in Palestinian composer Said Murad’s East Jerusalem studio, where they recorded a mix of covers and originals, live and without overdubs, including the first songs Broza has ever written in English. Produced by Steve Earle and Steve Greenberg, the album features collaborations with Wyclef Jean on the title song, Arab-Israeli singer Mira Awad on the gorgeous duet “Ramallah — Tel Aviv,” Palestinian hip-hop due G-Town, Hadag Nachash frontman Shaanan Streett, and Earle on “Peace Ain’t Nothing But a Word,” and the Jerusalem Youth Chorus on Cat Stevens’s “Where Do the Children Play” and Nick Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny ’bout) Peace Love & Understanding.” Broza’s cover of Elvis Costello’s “Everyday I Write the Book” is a sly comment on how the Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs follow different holy tomes, while he references “the holy book” again in “The Lion’s Den,” an adaptation of a poem written by Judea Pearl about his son, slain journalist Daniel Pearl.

Although some of the music and lyrics, which often evoke such other singer-activists as Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, and George Harrison, occasionally border on the treacly, Broza boldly makes his point as clear as possible; he also covers Timmy Thomas’s “Why Can’t We All Live Together” as well as Pink Floyd’s “Mother.” He chose the latter as a message to Roger Waters, who has been outspoken in his support of the Palestinians and public demands for an Israeli boycott. “Regardless of his views on the issue of Israel and Palestine, Roger Waters has written one of the most anti-boycott, boundary-breaking songs ever in ‘Mother,’” Broza recently said. “So yes, not only have I recorded this extraordinary song, but I have recorded it in East Jerusalem using Israeli and Palestinian musicians. . . . Instead of shutting down communication, come to my country and engage in the open exchange of ideas that will make change happen.” The album’s centerpiece is “Key to the Memory,” with lyrics by Broza, Middle Eastern music by Murad, and verses sung in alternating Arabic, English, and Hebrew by Broza and Awad. “May the wind in your eyes / be the carrier of love / May the pain in your heart / turn into the will to survive,” they sing in three languages. Broza will be celebrating the release of East Jerusalem / West Jerusalem and sharing his dream of peaceful coexistence on January 14 at the Highline Ballroom, where he will be joined by Awad and other contributors to the record.

AMERICAN REALNESS 2014

Adrienne Truscott moves from her day job at the Kitchen to live performance at Abrons Arts Center in …TOO FREEDOM…

Abrons Arts Center and other venues
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
January 9-19, $20
212-598-0400
www.americanrealness.com
www.abronsartscenter.org

January in New York City is a veritable feast of live performance festivals, including PS 122’s Coil, the Public’s Under the Radar, Here’s Prototype, and Winter Jazzfest. Over at Abrons Art Center, American Realness will be celebrating its fifth anniversary with seventeen new movement-based shows and encore presentations as well as several off-site events. Tina Satter’s House of Dance (also part of Coil) follows a tense tap-dance competition. Ishmael Houston-Jones and Emily Wexler team up for the world premiere of 13 Love Songs: dot dot dot, which involves deconstructing romantic lyrics by Bryan Adams, Mary J. Blige, Ja Rule, Stephen Merritt, Nina Simone, Madonna, and others. Miguel Gutierrez explores gay sex and lost love in the intimate myendlesslove. Eleanor Bauer combines text, music, and movement in Midday and Eternity (The Time Piece); she’ll also lead the “Dancing, not the Dancer” class and host the anything goes Bauer Hour on January 19. Choreographer Juliana F. May and dancers Benjamin Asriel, Talya Epstein, and Kayvon Pourazar explore the physical and emotional naked body in Commentary=not thing. The Kitchen house manager Adrienne Truscott delves into day jobs and artistic creativity in . . . Too Freedom . . . , which also features Neal Medlyn, Gillian Walsh, Laura Sheedy, and Mickey Mahar. Lucy Sexton (the Factress), Anne Iobst (the Naked Lady), Scott Heron, and DANCENOISE join forces for Prodigal Heroes: An Evening of Legendary New York. Moriah Evans and Sarah Beth Percival play with human-connection tropes in Out of and Into (8/8): Stuff. Medlyn’s King concludes his seven-part foray into iconic stars, this time taking on Michael Jackson. And Melinda Ring’s Forgetful Snow and Roseanne Spradlin’s Indelible Disappearance — A Thought not a Title will be presented together for free on January 12.

Moriah Evans and Sarah Beth Percival team up in OUT OF AND INTO (8/8): STUFF for American Realness festival

Also on the schedule are Adam Linder’s Cult to the Built on What, Michelle Boulé’s Wonder (Boulé will also lead a “Persona & Performance” class on January 17), Rebecca Patek’s ineter(a)nal f/ear, Jillian Peña’s Polly Pocket, and Dana Michel’s Yellow Towel. The festival heads to MoMA PS1 on January 10-12 for Mårten Spångberg’s four-and-a-half-hour La Substance, but in English and to MoMA’s main Midtown location on January 15-16 for Eszter Salamon’s Dance for Nothing, based on John Cage’s Lecture on Nothing. In addition, there will be art exhibits throughout Abrons (Sarah Maxfield’s “Nonlinear Lineage: Over/Heard,” Ian Douglas’s “Instant Realness,” Medlyn and Fawn Krieger’s “The POP-MEDLYN Hall of Fame,” and Ann Liv Young’s interactive “Sherry Art Fair”), and Coil, Under the Radar, Prototype, and American Realness will be copresenting free live concerts every night from January 9 to 19 in the Lounge at the Public Theater, including Invincible, Christeene, Ethan Lipton, Heather Christian & the Arbonauts, Sky-Pony, Timur and the Dime Museum, the Middle Church Jerriesse Johnson Gospel Choir, M.A.K.U. Sound System, DJ Acidophilus, and Nick Hallett, Space Palace, and Woahmone DJs.

PROTOTYPE 2014

Chamber-opera adaptation of Willa Cather’s PAUL’S CASE kicks off 2014 Prototype festival

PROTOTYPE: OPERA/THEATRE/NOW
Multiple venues
January 8-19, $15-$25
Proto Packs: $75 for five shows, $90 for seven
866-811-4111
www.prototypefestival.org

Prototype: Opera/Theatre/Now, a festival of classical and postclassical musical-theater and chamber-opera works from around the world, returns for its second year, consisting of seven performances in five venues from January 8 to 19. Presented by Beth Morrison Projects and HERE, Prototype gets under way with the New York premiere of Paul’s Case (HERE, January 8-13), composer Gregory Spears and playwright Kathryn Walat’s chamber-opera adaptation of Willa Cather’s short story. Husband and wife Lauren Worsham and Kyle Jarrow’s Sky-Pony (HERE, January 10-13) investigates the four humors of Ancient Greek medicine, the Melancholic, the Sanguine, the Phlegmatic, and the Choleric, in a multimedia performance over four nights. In Thumbprints (Baruch Performing Arts Center, January 10-18), composer Kamala Sankaram and librettist Susan Yankowitz follow a Pakistani woman’s fight for justice in the aftermath of a so-called honor crime. Composer Jonathan Berger and librettist Dan O’Brien’s Visitations (Roulette, January 11-13) consists of a pair of haunting one-act chamber operas, Theotokia, involving a man taunted by the mother of God, and The War Reporter, based on the real-life experience of journalist Paul Watson. In Du Yun’s multigenre Angel’s Bone (Trinity Church, January 12-15), a couple tries to turn a horrific situation to their advantage. In Have a Good Day! (HERE, January 15-19), composer Lina Lapelytė, librettist Vaiva Grainytė, and director Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė go inside the minds of mall cashiers. And New York-born, Moscow-raised musician Elizaveta will give a special one-night-only performance at Joe’s Pub on January 17. There will also be a series of talkbacks following specific performances, and Prototype, Coil, Under the Radar, and American Realness have joined forces to present free live concerts every night from January 9 to 19 in the Lounge at the Public Theater, including Invincible, Christeene, Ethan Lipton, Heather Christian & the Arbonauts, Sky-Pony, Timur and the Dime Museum, the Middle Church Jerriesse Johnson Gospel Choir, M.A.K.U. Sound System, DJ Acidophilus, and Nick Hallett, Space Palace, and Woahmone DJs.

UNDER THE RADAR 2014

The Public Theater and other venues
425 Lafayette St. by Astor Pl.
January 8-19, $20-$28 (UTR Packs $75 for five shows)
212-967-7555
www.undertheradarfestival.com

The tenth edition of the Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival is another diverse collection of unique and unusual international theatrical productions, roundtable discussions, and free live music, from the strange to the familiar, the offbeat to the downright impossible to describe. Among the sixteen shows, most of which take place at the Public, are 600 Highwaymen’s The Record, a dance-theater work that brings together a roomful of strangers to comment on the relationship between performer and audience; John Hodgman’s one-man piece, I Stole Your Dad, in which the Daily Show “resident expert” shares intimate, personal stories about his family and technology while baring himself onstage; psychiatrist Kuro Tanino and his Niwa Gekidan Penino company’s The Room Nobody Knows (at Japan Society), about two brothers getting ready for the older one’s birthday party; Andrew Ondrejcak’s Feast, in which a king and his court (starring Reg E. Cathey) have a farewell dinner as Babylon collapses; and the American premiere of hip-hopper Kate Tempest and Battersea Arts Centre’s Brand New Ancients (at St. Ann’s Warehouse), a multidisciplinary show about everyday life in a changing world. Also on the roster is Sacred Stories, Toshi Reagon’s thirtieth annual birthday celebration with special guests; Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man improvisation, Rodney King; a reimagining of Sekou Sundiata’s blessing the boats with Mike Ladd, Will Power, and Carl Hancock Rux; Cie. Philippe Saire’s Black Out (at La MaMa), Edgar Oliver’s Helen and Edgar, Lola Arias’s El Año en que nací / The year I was born (at La MaMa), SKaGeN’s BigMouth, tg STAN’s JDX — a public enemy, Sean Edward Lewis’s work-in-progress Frankenstein (at the Freeman Space), excerpts from ANIMALS’ The Baroness Is the Future, and Daniel Fish’s Eternal, the last three also part of the Incoming! Festival within a Festival.

Kate Tempest will rap about the state of the world in BRAND NEW ANCIENTS (photo by Christine Hardinge)

In addition, there will be numerous postshow talkbacks, a pair of workshops with Sara De Roo and Jolente De Keersmaker of tg STAN on January 10-11, four noon Culturebot conversations January 11-12 and 18-19, and Coil, Under the Radar, Prototype, and American Realness have joined forces to present free live concerts every night from January 9 to 19 in the Lounge at the Public, including Invincible, Christeene, Ethan Lipton, Heather Christian & the Arbonauts, Sky-Pony, Timur and the Dime Museum, the Middle Church Jerriesse Johnson Gospel Choir, M.A.K.U. Sound System, DJ Acidophilus, and Nick Hallett, Space Palace, and Woahmone DJs.

FALSTAFF

Alice (Angela Meade) and Sir John Falstaff (Ambrogio Maestri) set up a romantic rendezvous in first new production of FALSTAFF at the Met in nearly fifty years (photo by Ken Howard/Met Opera)

The Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center
Between West 62nd & 65th Sts. and Columbus & Amsterdam Aves.
January 6 & 11, $17 standing room – $330
212-362-6000
www.metoperafamily.org

The Met’s first new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff in nearly fifty years is a spirited, engaging version by Robert Carsen, conducted with inspired flair and panache by James Levine. Baritone Ambrogio Maestri is splendid in the boisterous title role, which Verdi and librettist Arrigo Boito adapted from Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor as well as the two Henry historical plays. In Verdi’s final opera, a rare comedy, he tells a tale of Sir John Falstaff and his extravagant lifestyle, beginning in his elegant room at the Garter Inn the morning after an all-night drunken feast with his lawyers, Bardolfo (Keith Jameson) and Pistola (Christian Van Horn), as they recover and dispute Dr. Caius’s (Carlo Bosi) claims of robbery. In need of funds, Falstaff decides to woo wealthy married matrons Alice Ford (Angela Meade) and Meg Page (Jennifer Johnson Cano) for their money, but his scheme goes awry when the two women, along with Alice’s daughter, Nannetta (Lisette Oropesa), and gossipmonger Mistress Quickly (Stephanie Blythe, in fine form), learn of his devilish plot and decide to give him a dose of his own medicine. However, their plan is complicated when Alice’s husband, Master Ford (Franco Vassallo), believes a scheduled rendezvous between Falstaff and Alice is real. Meanwhile, Nannetta secretly trysts with her true love, Fenton (Paolo Fanale), while her father wants to marry her to Dr. Caius, allowing Verdi to go from raucous to romantic in the snap of a finger. Eventually everyone ends up in the dark forest, with appropriate chaos erupting.

Alice (Angela Meade) and Sir John Falstaff (Ambrogio Maestri) have a rather comedic tryst in Robert Carsen’s colorful production of FALSTAFF at the Met (photo by Ken Howard/Met Opera)

Carsen, who directed Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Met in 1997 and whose new production of Boito’s Mefistofele will arrive in 2015, moves the bawdy tale to 1950s England, allowing costumer Brigitte Reiffenstuel and set designer Paul Steinberg to have a ball, particularly in a slapstick scene in act II when Ford interrupts Falstaff’s assignation with Alice in a brightly colored kitchen with Formica counters, a sparkling alternative to the austere elegance of the men’s lounge at the Garter. The very different sets, along with Falstaff’s poverty and the Fords’ wealth, also bring to mind the growing separation between the rich and the poor in postwar Britain. Things go off the rails in the forest finale in Windsor Great Park — what’s with the moving table and the headpieces? — but not enough to detract from the jolly enjoyment offered by the previous two hours plus. Maestri, who at the Met has sung Dr. Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore, Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana, and Amonasro in Aida, seems born to play Falstaff, taking delight in every belly rub, alcoholic imbibement, blustery pronouncement, and extravagant costume. Levine, who recently returned to the Met following a two-year absence because of a spinal cord injury, conducts with an infectious glee from his specially designed motorized wheelchair. The supporting cast, highlighted by Blythe, Meade, and Vassallo, keep pace with Maestri and Levine, resulting in a Falstaff to remember.

NYC WINTER JAZZFEST 2014

Bobby Previte’s “TERMINALS” will kick off the 2014 NYC Winter Jazzfest with special guests at le Poisson Rouge

Multiple venues
January 7-11, $10-$45
One-day marathon $35, two-day marathon $55, Full Festival Pass $95
www.winterjazzfest.com

NYC Winter Jazzfest is celebrating its tenth anniversary this month with more than one hundred acts comprising more than four hundred musicians playing ten downtown venues. Things kick off January 7 at le Poisson Rouge with Bobby Previte’s TERMINALS feat. So Percussion, John Medeski, and Nels Cline, followed by the Blue Note Records 75th Anniversary Concert on January 8 at the Town Hall with Robert Glasper & Jason Moran with special guests Ravi Coltrane, Bilal, Eric Harland, and Alan Hampton and a SummerStage Showcase on January 9 at le Poisson Rouge with Revive Big Band, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Bilal, and the Wallace Roney Orchestra performing Wayne Shorter’s “Universe,” “Twin Dragon,” and “Legend.” January 10 & 11 boasts ten-hour marathons at nine clubs, with such Friday highlights as Keren Ann (le Poisson Rouge, 7:15), the Mary Halvorson Septet (Judson Church, 10:00), the Roy Hargrove Quintet (le Poisson Rouge, 11:00), the Burnt Sugar Arkestra Review with Melvin Van Peebles, Vernon Reid, and Rebellum (the Bitter End, 11:15), and 3rd Eye 4tet: McPherson, Waits, Burton, Hurt (Zinc Bar, 11:30), and such Saturday hot stuff as Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society (Subculture, 6:00), Slavic Soul Party! Plays Ellington: The Far East Suite (Bowery Electric, 7:45), Henry Threadgill’s “Ensemble Double-Up” in Remembrance of Lawrence Butch Morris (Judson Church, 8:00 & 10:00), Elliott Sharp’s Orchestra Carbon (NYU Law, 11:45), Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog with Mary Halvorson (Judson Church, 11:45), the Matthew Shipp Trio (Judson Church, 1:00), and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (le Poisson Rouge, 1:30).

FIRST SATURDAY: ART ON THE EDGE

Screening of HEAVY METAL IN BAGHDAD is part of free First Saturday program at Brooklyn Museum

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, January 4, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum kicks off its 2014 monthly free First Saturdays program with a diverse collection of events centered around the theme “Art on the Edge.” The evening will include pop-up gallery talks, the Visual AIDS discussion “What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Museum: Art, AIDS, Activism, and the Institution,” an arts workshop with Pioneer Works on innovation and collaboration and another in which participants can make a mosaic tile inspired by the exhibition “Connecting Cultures: A World in Brooklyn,” a Center for Urban Pedagogy talk on unique design, Purring Tiger performing excerpts from the multimedia dance work Mizaru, a screening of Suroosh Alvi’s 2007 documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad, live music by Dendê and Band, Idgy Dean, and ScienZe (aka Jamal Monsanto) + the EllaVators, and a book club talk led by Barbara Browning about her dance novel, I’m Trying to Reach You. In addition, the galleries will be open late, giving visitors plenty of opportunity to check out “Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey,” “War / Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath,” “Twice Militant: Lorraine Hansberry’s Letters to ‘The Ladder,’” “Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt,” “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas,” “The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk,” and other exhibits.