Scheherazade.2 — Dramatic Symphony for Violin and Orchestra (2014) by John Adams New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall; conducted by Alan Gilbert; soloist Leila Josefowicz World premiere: Thursday, March 26, 2015 Insights at the Atrium — Artist and Muse: John Adams and Leila Josefowicz David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center Monday, March 23, 2015 John Adams isn’t sure if his latest composition can be played by a man. Scheherazade.2, described as a “dramatic symphony for violin and orchestra,” emerged from a collaboration with the violinist Leila Josefowicz, and after seeing her play it, it’s certainly difficult to imagine the same work essayed by a male soloist. In a talk ahead of the world premiere, Carol Oja, the New York Philharmonic’s Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence, suggested to Adams that he had written “a feminist concerto.” And while he confessed that he never had a coherent “libretto” for the piece in his head, he did concede that she’s “like Isolde or Elektra. I can’t think of a concerto that’s that dramatically specific.” (To note, he rejects “concerto,” preferring the Berliozian construction “dramatic symphony”.) In Scheherazade.2,  the line between actor and violinist blurs. To perform it, Josefowicz prepared much as an opera singer would. She memorized the work, internalized it, began thinking of it […]

Soho Rep’s An Octoroon written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Sarah Benson Theatre for a New Audience, Brooklyn, New York City running till Sunday, March 29 The fact that the Oxford English Dictionary‘s first citation for “mashup” is from Dion Boucicault’s play The Octoroon (1859) is highly significant in the context of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins‘ Obie Award-winning remix An Octoroon. There’s hip-hop, mixed media, a jarring blend of idioms, even a mischievous Br’er Rabbit figure wandering about in scene changes. Now enjoying its final week at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn, An Octoroon is an assault on polite taste, a thrillingly audacious work of theater, and a very funny, postmodern take on a text that in any case cannot be played straight in the twenty-first century. Boucicault’s play, as reimagined by Jacobs-Jenkins, is a total mashup. It’s also an eloquent dissertation on the difficulties of talking meaningfully about race in the United States. A man enters at the start of the play dressed only in white underwear. “Hi everyone,” he says, “I’m a black playwright.” What follows explodes this apparently simple statement. This is BJJ (Austin Smith), a sort of avatar for the playwright, standing in relation to the real Jacobs-Jenkins like Woody Allen’s characters do to Woody. “I can’t even wipe my ass,” he complains, “without being accused […]

Totentanz for Mezzo-Soprano, Baritone, and Orchestra (2013) by Thomas Adès New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall, conducted by Thomas Adès A medieval frieze destroyed during the Second World War is the source material for Thomas Adès‘s new work, Totentanz, which received its U.S. premiere last week. Conducting the New York Philharmonic was the composer himself. Entering briskly, almost athletically at the start of the program — play began while the audience was still shushing itself — he led the orchestra in bright renditions of Beethoven’s first symphony and the overture from Berlioz’s lesser-spotted opera Les Francs-juges. In the second half, though, that athleticism came into its own. With its vastly expanded workforce — the percussion section alone called for bamboo canes, anvils, snake rattles, a referee’s whistle, and, according to the program note, bones — Totentanz asks of its conductor a near-martial level of control and brute strength. As the New York Times remarked, this was “a real musical event.” An event and also a spectacle. The scene is judgment day. Death, newly arrived on Earth, invites humanity, from the Pope on high to a lowly baby, to join him in his danse macabre. In playing this lurching dance, the musicians become almost like actors. The frenzied sawing of the violins, and the hammering and scraping and […]