Tag Archives: wade thompson drill hall

DE MATERIE (THE MATTER)

Heiner Goebbels’s adaptation of Louis Andriessen’s DE MATERIE is an audio and visual wonder — complete with sheep and light-up zeppelins (photo by Stephanie Berger)

Park Ave. Armory, Wade Thompson Drill Hall
643 Park Ave. between 66th & 67th Sts.
March 22–30, $85-$195
212-933-5812
www.armoryonpark.org

Regardless of how well prepared you think you are for Heiner Goebbels’s awesomely strange spectacle De Materie, you’re not; get ready to be confused, amazed, bewildered, delighted, mesmerized, and frustrated, often all at the same time. Goebbels’s awe-inspiring version of Dutch new music composer Louis Andriessen’s four-part masterwork, initially presented at the 2014 Ruhrtriennale at a former power plant in Germany, is making its North American stage premiere this month in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall at the Park Avenue Armory, where it fits like a glove. The nearly two-hour work is divided into four very different sections that explore freedom and innovation through the age-old philosophical battle between matter and spirit. De Materie is constructed like an architectural magnum opus of experimental music, dance, art, theater, opera, and science, with many memorable parts that come together to form an ever-greater whole . . . or not, as tenor Pascal Charbonneau explains, intoning passages from Dutch physicist Gorlaeus’s Idea physicae. A small choir sings “Plakkaat van Verlatinghe,” the Act of Abjuration declaring Dutch independence from Spain, and later adds sections from a 1690 primer on shipbuilding (“Aeloude and hedendaegsche Scheepsbouw en Bestier”) by Nicolaas Witsen. Subtitles are projected onto glowing zeppelins, walls, and tents in which silhouettes mysteriously gather.

DE MATERIE features music, dance, theater, art, spoken word, philosophy, mysticism, and even boogie-woogie (photo by Wonge Bergmann)

Thirteenth-century devotional mystic poet Hadewijch (soprano Evgeniya Sotnikova) sings of corporeal love with God as black-covered figures on benches behind her change position every time the lights go off and then on again. Piet Mondrian’s 1927 “Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue” is brought to life with swinging pendulums as Gauthier Dedieu and Niklas Taffner dance the boogie-woogie and the theory of the line is discussed through texts by mathematician and theosophist M. H. J. Schoenmaekers. Madame Curie (Catherine Milliken) reads from her Nobel Prize acceptance speech and the diary she kept following the death of her husband. And one hundred sheep from Pennsylvania bleat from the back of the hall, although no translation is provided. The dramatic, varied score is performed with vigor by the fifty-plus members of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and ChorWerk Ruhr, conducted by Peter Rundel. The sets and lighting by Klaus Grünberg and sound design by Norbert Ommer are mind-blowing; the fab costumes are by Florence von Gerkan, with choreography by Florian Bilbao. So, when put together, what’s it all about? In his director’s note in the program, Goebbels, who previously presented Stifters Dinge at the armory in December 2009, writes, “Our visual solutions for this piece — tents in the first act, benches in the second, the pendulum in the third, and the sheep in the fourth act — aren’t symbols for something that needs to be deciphered or understood. They all are what they are: tents, benches, pendulum, and sheep — and zeppelins. But what you feel or imagine about them — that is your business alone. Just don’t underestimate the sheep.” Actually, you shouldn’t underestimate any of this equally dazzling and head-scratching adaptation of one of the great new-music compositions of the twentieth-century.

DE MATERIE

Heiner Goebbels’s multidisciplinary reimagining of Louis Andriessen’s DE MATERIE runs at the Park Avenue Armory March 22-30 (photo by Wonge Bergmann)

Park Ave. Armory, Wade Thompson Drill Hall
643 Park Ave. between 66th & 67th Sts.
March 22–30, $85-$195
212-933-5812
www.armoryonpark.org

Dutch composer Louis Andriessen’s four-part magnum opus, De Materie, makes its North American stage debut this month at the Park Avenue Armory, in a wildly inventive production directed by Heiner Goebbels, whose Stifters Dinge had its U.S. premiere at the armory in December 2009. Andriessen’s visionary work weaves in dance, spoken text, choral singing, jazz, science, philosophy, poetry, Renaissance music, and more, with Goebbels adding, among other things, one hundred sheep. Among those being referenced in the piece, which explores the relationship between matter and spirit, are Madame Curie, Piet Mondrian, Hadewijch, David Gorlaeus, and the De Stijl art movement. The work will be performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), conducted by Peter Rundel, with the ChorWerk Ruhr, more than two dozen actors and dancers, and others; tenor Pascal Charbonneau is Gorlaeus, soprano Evgeniya Sotnikova is Hadewijch, and Catherine Milliken is Madame Curie. The stage and lighting design is by Klaus Grünberg, with costumes by Florence von Gerkan, sound by Norbert Ommer, and choreography by Florian Bilbao. “This highly imaginative collaboration asks us to appreciate the inherent connections between all manner of innovation throughout society — from the discovery of radioactivity to the creation of a work of art,” new Park Avenue Armory artistic director Pierre Audi said in a statement. In addition to the six performances, there will be four special programs to shed more light on this monumental undertaking. On March 23 at 8:00 ($60), Andriessen will team up with pianist Jason Moran for “Improvisations: Louis Andriessen and Jason Moran,” an exploration of how jazz is used in De Materie while discussing improvisation in general. On March 24 at 6:00 ($15), WNYC’s John Schaefer will host “De Materie: Matter & Spirit,” a conversation with Goebbels, Columbia music professor and musician and composer George E. Lewis, and composer Missy Mazzoli. On March 25 at 6:00 ($15), Schaefer will moderate “Four Different Ways: Celebrating Louis Andriessen,” with Bang on a Can cofounder Julia Wolfe, electronic experimental musician and composer Nathan Michel, and Princeton music professor Donnacha Dennehy. And finally, on March 26 at 6:00 ($15), Audi will lead an artist talk with Goebbels, Rundel, and Andriessen.

GOLDBERG: IGOR LEVIT & MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ

Marina Abramović, Urs Schönebaum, and Igor Levit collaborate on a whole new way to experience live music (photo by James Ewing)

Park Ave. Armory, Wade Thompson Drill Hall
643 Park Ave. between 66th & 67th Sts.
December 7-19, $65
212-933-5812
armoryonpark.org

In many ways, Marina Abramović’s latest work, “Goldberg,” is a combination and the culmination of the ideas explored in her past half-decade of shows, this time focusing on the creation of a bold new way to experience live music. In 2010, the Serbian-born, New York–based performance artist spent 736½ hours in MoMA’s Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium sitting in a chair and locking eyes with individual museumgoers for extended periods of time as the highlight of her widely hailed participatory career retrospective “The Artist Is Present.” In December 2013, she examined her life and death in Robert Wilson’s visual spectacle The Life and Death of Marina Abramović at the Park Avenue Armory. And in last fall’s “Generator,” Abramović had visitors wear blindfolds and noise-canceling headphones as they moved across an empty space at Sean Kelly Gallery, occasionally making contact with others as well as the artist, who was often present, taking part in the show. For “Goldberg,” ticket holders arrive at the Park Avenue Armory and are asked to place all electronic devices (and coats and bags) in a locker, then are given a pair of noise-canceling headphones as they enter the fifty-five-thousand-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall. At the center of the vast space are circular rows of white-cloth lounge chairs; people can sit anywhere, as it is general admission seating. The chairs are purposely set up a small distance away from one another to allow each person an individual, private experience. You are not meant to move your chairs together and chatter away (as the trio in front of me did) but instead relax, take in the atmosphere, and begin to focus on the performance at hand. Four screens have been set up on the four sides of the hall, blasting blazing white light, as if a visual white noise that is changing your perspective. Urs Schönebaum’s lighting design also includes a narrow band of light running around all four walls. At the far west end, pianist Igor Levit, who made his North American recital debut in March 2014 in the armory’s Board of Officers Room, sits at a Steinway grand piano. Soon a gong sounds, signaling everyone to put on their headphones. Over the course of the next fifteen minutes or so (exact time is not of the essence here), Levit and the piano slowly move to the center of the arrangement of chairs. Another gong sounds, the screens go blank, headphones are removed, and the Nizhny Novgorod–born pianist starts playing J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations as the piano makes one intensely slow revolution and he performs the gorgeous 1742 aria with thirty variations.

Igor Levit gives a performance for the ages at the Park Avenue Armory (photo by James Ewing)

In a 2010 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Abramović said, “We always project into the future or reflect in the past, but we are so little in the present.” With “Goldberg,” she and Levit are practically forcing the audience to be present, to be in the moment. Removing nearly all distractions — without cell phones, watches, cameras, bags, or even a program (which are distributed on the way out) — Abramović and Schönebaum are making this experience all about the music, and what music it is, an absolutely dazzling performance by Levit, a rising star in the classical world. The twenty-eight-year-old plays the Goldberg Variations without sheet music, his hands making love to the keys, crossing each other and descending from above as he lifts his elbows with lovely flourishes. As he plays, his body sways in all directions, giving a physical quality to the music even as the three collaborators have conceived of this piece as a kind of celebration of immateriality. It’s also as if the concert is being performed just for you; when fully reclined in the chair, you cannot easily shift your body to look at the people next to you or, of course, behind you; instead, your head is positioned to face Levit only, and there is really no reason to look anywhere else. Aside from an occasional snore — the seats are rather cozy, and what would a classical concert be without at least some snoozing — the only thing to be heard is the glorious music, which has a palpable energy all its own. “To play this work, to love it and to listen to it is an experience second to none,” Levit says in the program. “Every aspect of human nature can be relived. At the end words cannot describe it. We shouldn’t discuss this work. We should and indeed can experience it. What a pleasure!” We can’t explain it any better than that. On opening night, Abramović was hanging out in the halls of the armory before the show, greeting friends and expressing her nervousness. At the end of the performance, Levit ran into the audience and gave Abramović a great big hug, filled with what appeared to be both relief and release. Thus, the artist was indeed present, and so was the audience. Now, if we can only apply Abramović’s method to film and theater…. (On December 13 at 5:00, Levit and Abramović will take part in a discussion moderated by outgoing armory artistic director Alex Poots. And you can listen to Levit’s performance of the Goldberg Variations at home on his latest album, Bach, Beethoven, Rzewski [Sony Classical, October 2015, $24.99], which also includes Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and Frederic Rzewski’s “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!”)

LAURIE ANDERSON WITH MOHAMMED EL GHARANI: HABEAS CORPUS

Laurie Anderson’s latest project is a dazzling immersive installation at Park Avenue Armory (photo by James Ewing)

Park Ave. Armory
643 Park Ave. between 66th & 67th Sts.
October 2-4, installation viewing $15 (12 noon – 7:00), concerts $45 (8:00)
212-933-5812
www.armoryonpark.org
habeas corpus slideshow

With “Habeas Corpus,” multimedia artist Laurie Anderson has taken a very serious topic, the seven-year incarceration of an innocent fourteen-year-old in Guantanamo, and turned it into a stunning celebration of freedom and the indomitability of the human spirit. In 2001, Mohammed el Gharani, a Chadian raised in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in Karachi while praying in a mosque a few days after September 11. He spent the next seven years being tortured in prison until lawyer Clive Stafford Smith and his Reprieve organization finally got him a trial, and U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon granted his writ of habeas corpus and ordered his release in 2009. Anderson and el Gharani have collaborated on “Habeas Corpus,” an immersive audiovisual installation at Park Avenue Armory, but it’s about a lot more than just el Gharani’s grueling personal journey. “It’s a work about words, story, place,” Anderson said at a preview earlier this week. She pointedly noted that it asks the question “Where is America?” Near the back of the vast Wade Thompson Drill Hall, Anderson has built a sculpture that approximates the Lincoln Memorial, a giant white chair on which she has sculpted el Gharani’s body, as if his ghost is sitting there (while evoking the twelfth president, who delivered the Emancipation Proclamation). From October 2 to 4, a full-color el Gharani will be remotely projected onto the work from a studio in West Africa, where he lives; he is unable to be in New York in person because his imprisonment at Guantanamo bars his entry to the United States, despite his innocence. An amiable man who Anderson says “would make a great talk show host,” el Gharani will sit motionless in the chair every day from 12 noon to 7:00, projected live, but he will take a break once an hour, when prerecorded stories he tells about his time at Guantanamo will be shown, dealing with torture as well as developing close, important friendships.

Mohammed el Gharani takes a moment while recalling his time at Guantanamo (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Upon entering the hall, visitors step into a dark world lit by the glow of el Gharani in the chair as well as swirling lights emanating from a disco ball that causes immediate disorientation. Balance becomes precarious as you teeter toward the sculpture of el Gharani and the chair. But there’s also something exhilarating about it as you forge ahead through the loss of equilibrium. (Long strips of cardboard are provided if you need to take a seat or lie down, and you very well might have to.) Meanwhile, a droning guitar feedback score composed by Anderson’s late husband, Lou Reed, is played by his guitar tech, Stewart Hurwood, on a platform near the front that appears to be moving but is not, presenting yet another illusion, and nearby some of el Gharani’s words flash by on a wall like a ticker tape of memory and crackly snippets of military radio transmissions emanate from covered speakers. It all makes for a dizzying yet thrilling experience that delves into the nature of torture, identity, surveillance, borders, technology, personal responsibility, fighting injustice, and the very future of civilization. Make sure to allow yourself a few hours when you come to the armory in order to really absorb “Habeas Corpus”; walk around it (very carefully), contemplate its multiple meanings, meditate on its messages, and just enjoy the sheer spectacle of it. If you’re lucky, you might get a chance to walk right up to el Gharani and smile or wave at him, and he’ll smile and wave back; he’s been loving the direct interaction with the public. Also, look out for the cellist who occasionally wanders through the crowd, and that violin you hear just might be Anderson playing live, improvising with the cellist and Hurwood. Each night, Anderson will be joined by Syrian musician Omar Souleyman, Pakistani American performer Shahzad Ismaily, the Oakland-based Merrill Garbus (aka tUnE-yArDs), Hurwood, and surprise guests for what Anderson promises will be “a great dance party.” In addition, in the Mary Divver Room, el Gharani shares some of his stories in a short documentary, talking about his friend Shaker Aamer, the construction of Camp 5, how he taught himself English, and imploring Obama to keep his promise and close Guantanamo. He tells his tales very directly, not seeking sympathy or complaining about what happened to him but instead hopeful there will be positive change in the world. And Anderson’s “From the Air,” a monologue about her dog, Lolabelle, and 9/11, plays in the Colonel’s Room, projected onto miniature sculptures of chairs on which tiny versions of Anderson and her dog sit; the text (which is not the lyrics from her 1982 song of the same name) is also part of her new seventy-five-minute film, Heart of a Dog, which will screen at the New York Film Festival on October 8, with Anderson at the Walter Reade Theater to discuss the work.

WAYNE McGREGOR, OLAFUR ELIASSON, AND JAMIE xx: TREE OF CODES

Wayne McGregor’s movement, Jamie xx’s music, and Olafur Eliasson’s visual concept come together to reimagine Jonathan Safran Foer’s TREE OF CODES, which reimagines Bruno Schulz’s STREET OF CROCODILES (photo by Stephanie Berger)

Park Ave. Armory
643 Park Ave. between 66th & 67th Sts.
Through September 21, $30-$90
212-933-5812
armoryonpark.org

Choreographer Wayne McGregor, composer Jamie xx, and artist Olafur Eliasson have created quite an audiovisual spectacle with Tree of Codes, their sparkling adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2010 book of the same name, which used die cuts to repurpose Bruno Schulz’s Street of Crocodiles. As ticket holders enter the vast Wade Thompson Drill Hall, they encounter large screens to the north and south on which their elongated silhouettes are projected in different colors, reminiscent of Nam June Paik’s “Three Camera Participation / Participation TV,” welcoming them to the show while letting them know they are part of it. The performance itself takes place in the center of the vast Wade Thompson Drill Hall, the audience sitting in rising rows on the east side. Over the course of seventy-five dazzling minutes, various mirrored, translucent, and transparent walls descend from above, altering the perception of the highly athletic dancers, who move about virtually nonstop in an impressive array of solos, duets, and trios, set to a multilayered score that ranges from choral singing to soul, from pulsating dance beats to indie pop, sometimes all at the same time. Just as Safran Foer cut into Schulz’s story, Eliasson’s props cut into themselves, altering space and time, with refracted sections, orbiting circles, and spotlights that wander over the audience, and Jamie xx’s diverse score does the same to itself, coming up with new sounds as the music forms a kind of aural palimpsest. The dancers, meanwhile — consisting of Jérémie Bélingard, Julien Meyzindi, Sébastien Bertaud, Lydie Vareilhes, Lucie Fenwick, and the extraordinary Marie-Agnès Gillot from the Paris Opera Ballet and Louis McMiller, Daniela Neugebauer, Anna Nowak, James Pett, Fukiko Takase, and Jessica Wright from Company Wayne McGregor — are reflected multiple times in the mirrors, or fade away in ghostly images. At times, dancers in front of a see-through partition interact with dancers on the other side as if they are physically together; at other times, they appear to be dancing with multiple versions of themselves. The experience changes depending on where you sit, as the reflections and colors shift based on your angle of vision — and you might even get to see yourself in the background mirror as the spotlight hits you. It never gets very deep, but you can’t stop immersing yourself in its splendor. The performance actually begins with some cool but gimmicky Pilobolus-like moments, but don’t let that worry you. It quickly evolves into a beautifully rendered treat.

tears become . . . streams become . . .

Performance installation transforms the Park Avenue Armory into a multisensory experience (photo by James Ewing)

Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Ave. at 67th St.
Installation: December 11 – January 4, $15, times vary
Performances: December 9-21, $90, 7:00 or 8:00
212-933-5812
www.armoryonpark.org

As you enter the cavernous Wade Thompson Drill Hall in the Park Avenue Armory to experience Douglas Gordon and Hélène Grimaud’s absolutely wonderful “tears become . . . streams become . . . ,” you encounter a long rectangular space in front of you, several inches below floor level, with two pianos standing on it and groups of chairs on all four sides. Slowly, water begins seeping into the central area. You take your seat and become mesmerized as water continues coming up through the seams of more than eight hundred dark panels of cement-bonded particle board and spreads across the thirty-three thousand square foot space, filling in ever-dampening circles in extremely satisfying individual narratives. Then the French-born, Switzerland-based Grimaud, seated at the larger of the Steinway grands, begins playing water-inspired works by Debussy, Ravel, Liszt, and others as the lighting turns the floor into a breathtaking reflecting pool, the arched ceiling echoed below in such a way that you feel like you can fall right into its spacious depths, as if the pool below is as vast and open as the space above. The large semicircular vaults of the west entrance and the east wall become complete circles with the reflection, the whole entity resembling a kind of submarine; meanwhile, little gurgles of water occasionally pop up on the surface, making quick sounds and small ripples. In addition, occasional currents create shimmers that add an enticingly surreal quality to the proceedings. At the press preview on December 8, the Turner Prize–winning Gordon sat on the piano bench next to Grimaud, occasionally standing up and determinedly waving his hands and arms, signaling the lighting personnel as if conducting an orchestra. One of the most accomplished classical pianists in the world, Grimaud has synesthesia, a sensory condition that causes her to visualize music as colors, which is ironic given the piece’s decidedly monochromatic appearance; also ironic is that Gordon says he is not a very good swimmer — and in his 2012 installation “The End of Civilisation,” he burned a piano onscreen. (Gordon and Grimaud each has a thing for wolves as well.) Doused in magic and mystery, “tears become . . . streams become . . . ” is yet another major triumph for the armory, which has been presenting many of the city’s most dazzling and innovative performance installations since opening as an arts institution in 2007.

Lights and music lead to reflective moments in “tears become . . . streams become . . . ” (photo by James Ewing)

Grimaud will be performing a one-hour program live December 9-21 ($90); there will be an Artist Talk on December 10 ($15) with Gordon and Grimaud, moderated by armory artistic director Alex Poots, who brought the two together for this very special commission, and Family Day takes place Sunday, December 13, from 10:00 am to 12 noon, specifically for families with children ages six to twelve. The must-see “tears become . . . streams become . . . ” — a title Gordon came up with from a memory of having seen a young boy playing the piano with one hand while wiping away tears with the other — will be open afternoons and some evenings December 11 through January 4 ($15, stay as long as you want), during which times a computerized piano will play Grimaud’s music, but the lighting, which is so integral to the piece, will not change. “A field is endless — it goes on, and on, and on, and on,” Gordon states about the project. “And as the water collects, the space it inhabits will never be the same again.” Indeed, after immersing yourself in “tears become . . . streams become . . . ,” you will never see the armory — or hear Debussy, Ravel, and Liszt — quite the same way again.

MACBETH

Kenneth Branagh makes his rousing New York City stage debut in immersive production of MACBETH (photo by Johan Persson)

Park Avenue Armory
Wade Thompson Drill Hall
643 Park Ave. between 66th & 67th Sts.
May 31 – June 22
www.armoryonpark.org

Kenneth Branagh took care of a lot of firsts in the thrilling immersive production of Macbeth that just concluded its sold-out run at the Park Avenue Armory. Branagh makes his New York stage debut with the Scottish Play; it is also the first time he has appeared in Macbeth and marks his return to Shakespeare after a ten-year absence. Commissioned by the armory and the Manchester International Festival, this Macbeth was first presented in England in a deconsecrated church, but its impressive scope was further expanded for the armory production. Upon picking up tickets, each audience member also receives a wristband and clan designation, gathering in one of the rooms in the armory, then marching in unison into the Wade Thompson Drill Hall, which has been transformed into a dark and mysterious heath littered with tumbleweeds, rocks, and slowly moving figures in brown cloaks. The audience is seated by clan in two sets of bleachers separated by a narrow path of dirt: At one end of the path is an altar decorated with numerous candles and altarpieces of the adult and baby Jesus, Mary, and a saint, while on the other end is a Stonehenge-like arrangement of large stones.

Audience members are immediately put into the mood in thrilling version of the Scottish Play at the Park Ave. Armory (photo by Stephanie Berger)

The play, directed by Branagh and eight-time Tony nominee Rob Ashford (Thoroughly Modern Millie, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying), begins with a breathtaking battle scene in the rain, which turns the dirt into mud as Macbeth and Banquo (Jimmy Yuill) lead King Duncan’s (John Shrapnel) army to victory. Following the fight, the Weird Sisters (Charlie Cameron, Laura Elsworthy, and Anjana Vasan), seemingly floating in the rock formation, make their prediction of Macbeth’s rise to the throne, and soon he and Lady Macbeth (Alex Kingston, in her New York City stage debut) are plotting their way to the top, with only Macduff (Richard Coyle) and Malcolm (Alexander Vlahos) in their way. A thoroughly convincing Branagh digs deep into Macbeth’s psyche, pulling out a wide range of intense emotions that give added depth to a familiar character, while Kingston plays Lady Macbeth with a mature, thoughtful vulnerability. The supporting cast, particularly Yuill, Shrapnel, Coyle, and Tom Godwin as the wretched porter, is outstanding as well, but they almost get swallowed up in the awe-inspiring stagecraft, highlighted by Christopher Oram’s terrific set — which often evokes a hellish pit of doom — Neil Austin’s divine lighting, and Christopher Shutt’s haunting sound design. The gripping two-hour intermissionless show feels right at home at the armory, which has its own military history, one that Branagh’s Macbeth is now a part of in its own unique way.