this week in music

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.

COUNTRY BRUNCHIN’: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Javier Bardem is coiffed to kill in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

COEN BROTHERS — BEFORE FARGO: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2007)
Nitehawk Cinema
136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.
Saturday, January 4, and Sunday, January 5, 11:30 am
718-384-3980
www.nitehawkcinema.com

Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a gripping thriller dominated by the mesmerizing performance of Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh, a psychopathic killer who believes in chance. When Llewelyn Moss (an outstanding Josh Brolin) accidentally stumbles upon the site of a drug deal gone terribly wrong, he walks away with a satchel of cash and the dream of making a better life for him and his wife (Kelly MacDonald). He also knows that there will be a lot of people looking for him — and the two million bucks he has absconded with. On his trail are the Mexican dealers who were ripped off, bounty hunter Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson), and the cool, calm Chigurh, who leaves a bloody path of violence in his wake. Meanwhile, Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) philosophizes on the sorry state of the modern world as he follows the proceedings with an almost Zen-like precision. Though it struggles to reach its conclusion, No Country for Old Men is an intense noir Western, an epic meditation on chance in which the flip of a coin can be the difference between life and a horrible death. Nominated for eight Oscars and winner of four — for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Bardem), Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay — No Country for Old Men is screening January 4-5 at 11:30 am as part of Nitehawk Cinema’s “Country Brunchin’” and “Coen Brothers Before Fargo” series and will be preceded by a live performance by NYC band Tatters & Rags. Yes, the Nitehawk knows that No Country for Old Men actually came after Fargo, which is part of the month-long festival along with Miller’s Crossing, Raising Arizona, Blood Simple, and The Hudsucker Proxy.

COIL 2014

Multiple venues
January 3 – February 1, $15-$20
212-352-2101
www.ps122.org

PS122’s East Village home might be under renovation, but that isn’t stopping the organization from presenting the ninth annual incarnation of its winter performance festival, Coil. This year’s festivities comprise nine cutting-edge works in various disciplines, with tickets for all shows only $20, so there’s no reason not to check out at least one of these unique, unusual productions. Reid Farrington stages the ultimate heavyweight match in the world premiere of Tyson vs. Ali at the 3LD Art & Technology Center (January 3-19), in which live action and multiple screens pit Mike Tyson against Muhammad Ali. Mac Wellman’s Muazzez at the Chocolate Factory (January 7-17), from “A Chronicle of the Madness of Small Worlds,” transports the audience, and actor Steve Mellor, into outer space. Heather Kravas’s a quartet at the Kitchen (January 8-12) consists of four dancers performing four dances in four parts each. Director Phil Soltanoff, systems designer Rob Ramirez, and writer Joe Diebes boldly go where no one has gone before in An Evening with William Shatner Asterisk at the New Ohio Theatre (January 9-12), creating a hybrid work highlighted by humans interacting with video clips of words spoken by Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek but strung into new thoughts and statements. Tina Satter’s highly stylized House of Dance at Abrons Arts Center (January 9-13) investigates a tap-dance contest and the relationship between a teacher and his student. The performance series CATCH 60 celebrates its tenth anniversary with the one-night-only CATCH Takes the Decade at the Invisible Dog Art Center (January 11), with works by Cynthia Hopkins, Molly Lieber & Eleanor Smith, Anna Sperber, Ivy Baldwin, and others. Okwui Okpokwasili’s solo Bronx Gothic at Danspace Project (January 14 – February 1) is a song-and-movement-based coming-of-age story about two eleven-year-old girls. All three parts of Jeremy Xido’s solo piece The Angola Project will take place at the Invisible Dog (January 14-17). And family tragedy lies at the center of Brokentalkers’ Have I No Mouth at Baryshnikov Arts Center (January 14-26), with company director Feidlim Cannon and his mother trying to put things back together. In addition, the Red + White Party will get folks mingling as SPIN New York on January 12 ($30 and up) with Elevator Repair Service, and the SPAN conversation series will be held at NYU on January 18.

RINGO STARR’S SHEA STADIUM DRUM KIT

Ringo Starr’s drums are on view at Bloomingdale’s, along with George Harrison and John Lennon guitars (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Bloomingdale’s
1000 Third Ave. at 59th St.
Through December, free
212-705-2098
www.ringosbeatlekits.com
www.bloomingdales.com

Fifty years ago this February, four mop-topped Liverpudlians landed in New York City and changed the world when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. In honor of that event, as well as the release of new Beatles merchandise, Bloomingdale’s is displaying Ringo Starr’s Shea Stadium drum kit, consisting of the Ludwig 22-inch bass Richard Starkey played at Shea on August 15, 1965; floor and rack toms from the Fab Four’s 1964 and 1966 tours, which stopped at the home of the Mets on August 23, 1966; a Jazz Festival snare drum from Ringo’s second Oyster Black Pearl kit, used by Paul McCartney on Macca’s solo debut and various early Wings tunes and purchased at Manny’s Music Store on February 9, 1964; and Ringo’s original bass drum travel case. The display, inside a Plexiglas case in the men’s department next to Magnolia Bakery at the Third Ave. entrance, also includes a new model of George Harrison’s Signature Duo Jet Guitar, which the Quiet Beatle used on “Please Please Me” and appears on the cover of his 1987 album, Cloud Nine, as well as a John Lennon electric model. The memorabilia will be moving shortly to Los Angeles, but a whole lot more paraphernalia will be heading this way in February when Beatles Fest comes to town.