“Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim” at the Guggenheim
Douglas Wheeler’s “PSAD Synthetic Desert III” at the Guggenheim
Agnès Varda at Blum & Poe
Robert Morris at Castelli
Forrest Bess and Joan Snyder at Franklin Parrasch Gallery
Sterling Ruby at Gagosian
Allan McCollum at Petzel
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Film
The Quad Cinema is re-opening April 14 with some interesting films and series. The series Four Play will feature films with four (4) in the title, including Rivette’s The Gang of Four, Verhoeven’s The Fourth Man, and others by Rohmer, Bava, and Fassbinder. Also showing: Four Weddings and a Funeral. There will be a Lina Wertmüller retrospective, and another series called First Encounters with screenings hosted by various well-knowns like Sandra Bernhard, who will introduce Fassbinder’s Lola. See the full lineup of films here. A schedule has not been posted yet.
New Werner Herzog, Queen of the Desert, starring Nicole Kidman, has been panned and has only 8% on Rotten Tomatoes. At IFC starting April 7.
Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World, the Grand Prix 2016 winner at Cannes, at IFC, Sunday, April 9, 5:00
Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, a documentary about Jane Jacob’s showdown with Robert Moses in the 1960’s at IFC starting April 21.
Jodorowsky’s El Topo, April 28-29, at IFC (I’m out of town).
Rivette’s Out 1 is (still) on Netflix.
There are several Werner Herzog documentaries on Netflix right now, and two that you might not have seen are Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, about fur trappers, and Into the Inferno, about volcanoes, those who study them, and their effect on the cultures that live near them. Both are astonishing (I really was astonished, that’s not an exaggeration), but I really loved Into the Inferno because of its many images of magma, one of my favorite things on this earth. As a child I spent lots of time imagining magma—and it is still how I want to die. R.T. also has a cameo:
Dance
Scottish Ballet at Joyce Theater, April 11-16
Christopher Bruce: Ten Poems,
Christopher Hampson: Sinfonietta Giocosa
Bryan Arias: Motion of Displacement
Titicut Follies: The Ballet, inspired by the documentary “Titicut Follies,” about a Bridgewater, Massachusetts prison for the criminally insane, will be performed at the Skirball Center for the Arts by the James Sewell Ballet, April 28-30. I’m out of town or I would maybe go see this, maybe! Read an article about it here.
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Music
On Saturday, April 8, the Handel & Haydn Society will perform Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 in the Temple of Dendur. This is the most amazing piece of music you will ever hear.
Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, at the Met, already a highlight of the season, will be a hot ticket now since Renee Fleming has announce her retirement. I will definitely be gaming for rush seats. There are still a lot of orchestra level seats available for later shows, so I am not worried…yet.
Philip Glass’s “opera” La Belle et la Bête, a work which replaces all the sound and dialogue of the Cocteau film, will be performed alongside the a showing of the film on April 20, but tickets are $55. Luckily I found this fantastic video someone made on YouTube:
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Calendar
Saturday, April 8
Verdi: La Traviata, 1:00, Met Opera
Handel & Haydn Society Harry Christophers, conductor Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610 Metropolitan Museum of Art 7:00, $65
Lars Vogt, pianist
Bach: Goldberg Variations
Alice Tully Hall
5:00, $45^
Antoine Tamestit, violist
Music by Biber, Ligeti, Bach, Telemann, Reger
The Frick Collection
5:00, $45^
Monday, April 10
Argento Ensemble; Michel Galante, conductor
Music by Tristan Murail, Georg Freidrich Haas, Ryan Beppel and Wagner
St. Peter’s Church
12:30, FREE ($15 suggested)
Jupiter Quartet; Aaron Wunsch, pianist
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 12, Op. 127
Janacek: String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters”
Pierre Jalbert: Piano Quintet
Advent Lutheran Church
7:30, FREE
Tuesday, April 11
TENET and Daniel Hyde, organ Holy Week Musical Meditations: Selections from Carlos Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories Saint Thomas Church 7:00, FREE
Wednesday, April 12
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin, 7:30, Met Opera
Thursday, April 13
Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier, 7:00, Met Oper
Takács Quartet
Beethoven: String Quartets including “Rasumovsky”
Alice Tully Hall
7:30, $45^
Friday, April 14
Verdi: La Traviata, 8:00, Met Opera
Saturday, April 15
Verdi: Aida, 12:30, Met Opera
Pomerium
Music by Du Fay, Ludwig Senfl, Robert White, Monteverdi, Gesualdo, de Lassus, Byrd
The Cloisters
1:00 and 3:00, $40
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin, 8:00, Met Opera
Monday, April 17
Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier, 7:00, Met Opera
Tuesday, April 18
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin, 7:30, Met Opera
Wednesday, April 19
Nordic Affect Ensemble performs music by Icelandic composers
Valgeir Sigurosson, Ulfur Hansson, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Hildur Guonadottir, Kristin Pora Haraldsdottir, Johann Johannsson, Maria Huld Marken Sigfusdottir
National Sawdust
7:00, $35
Verdi: Rigoletto, 7:30, Met Opera
Clara Schumann, Artist and Muse
Stephanie Chase, violin; Sophie Shao, cello; Todd Crow, piano
Music by Clara Schumann, Brahms, and Schumann
Italian Academy
7:30, $45
Thursday, April 20
East Coast Chamber Orchestra Music by Suk, Lutoslawski, André Caplet (Conte fantastique), and Christopher Theofanidis (A Thousand Cranes) St. Bartholomew’s Church 7:30, $35
Verdi: Aida, 7:30, Met Opera
Philip Glass Ensemble plays Philip Glass’s La Belle et La Bete set to the Cocteau film, played silently, with sung dialogue.
8 p.m. Town Hall, $55
Friday, April 21
Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier, 7:00, Met Opera
Spektral Quartet; Claire Chase, flutist
Music by George Lewis (String Quartet), Anthony Chueng (Real Book of Fake Tunes), Katherine Young, and Samuel Adams
National Sawdust
7:00, $35
Janacek: Kaya Kabanova, 7:30, Juilliard Opera
Cantata Profana, “When Words Fail”
Music by Renna Esmail, Tonia Ko, Shostakovich, Handel, Beethoven, Schumann
Baruch Performing Arts Center
8:00, $35
Saturday, April 22
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin, 1:00, Met Opera
Emanuel Ax, pianist
Schubert: Four Impromptus, D. 935
Chopin: Impromptus, Op. 29; Op. 36; Op. 51
Samuel Adams: Impromptu No. 2
Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 58
Carnegie Hall
8:00
Verdi: Rigoletto, 8:30, Met Opera
Sunday, April 23
Janacek: Kaya Kabanova, 2:00, Juilliard Opera
New York Philharmonic Ensembles
Paganini: Duetto Concertante No. 2 for Violin and Bassoon
Persichetti: Serenade No. 6 for Trombone, Viola, and Cello
Busch: Piano Quintet
Brahms: String Quintet No. 1
Merkin Concert Hall
3:00, $36
Monday, April 24
Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier, 7:00, Met Opera
Anthony Marwood, violinist
Les Violins du Roy
Strauss: Capriccio Sextet
Mozart: String Quintet, K. 516
Enescu: String Octet
Sheen Center
7:30, $27^
Ensemble FIRE; Momenta Quartet
Huang Ruo: Wind Blows
Huang Ruo: Red Rain
Huang Ruo: String Quartet No. 2: The Flag Project
Huang Ruo: Drama Theatre No. 3: Written on the Wind
Roulette
8:00, $20
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