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Lincoln Center Festival 2010
What to see and hear from July 7-25
Blind Boys of Alabama (Photo: LincolnCenter.org)
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The ambition of the Lincoln Center Festival, held from July 7-25, is remarkable enough. But when you see the lists of performers, that’s when you really becomes impressed. Over the festival’s 18 days, there will be 45 performances in theater, music, dance, and opera, including 10 premieres.
Nigel Redden, the festival’s director, says, “[The] Lincoln Center Festival began with the idea of expanding the possibilities presented at Lincoln Center and bringing to audiences something that they could not see elsewhere. This is a challenging goal in a city as culturally rich as New York, and the result has been an eclectic mix of artists and productions representing over 50 countries.”
Here are five performances I’m looking forward to:
Theater
The Demons (July 10, 11 a.m., July 11, 11 a.m.)
Peter Stein’s 12-hour adaption of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s epic (then again, aren’t they all?) might end up being the highlight of the entire festival. Even if you think you know everything about Nikolai Vsevolodovich Starvogin and the rest of the book’s Russian revolutionaries, I doubt you’ve seen anything quite like this—especially not on Governors Island, the location of the performance. This is the show’s North American premiere and it’ll be in Italian with English subtitles.
A Disappearing Number (July 15-16, 8 p.m.; July 17, 2 and 8 p.m.; July 18, 3 p.m.)
The British experimental theatre company Complicite has a history of creating works that seek “what is most alive, integrating text, music, image and action to create surprising, disruptive theatre.” And considering their entry in the Festival is all about surprise, they certainly stand by their aim. A Disappearing Number, written and directed by Simon McBurney, examines the unlikely collaboration between two of mathematics’s greatest minds, Srinivasa Ramanujan and G.H. Hardy, juxtaposed against a modern-day romance.
Music
The Blind Boys of Alabama (July 12, 8 p.m.; July 14, 8 p.m.; July 16, p.m.)
What haven’t the Blind Boys accomplished? They’ve been together for 71 years (some of the original members are still in the group, including vocalist Jimmy Carter); inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame; won a Lifetime Achievement Award at last year’s Grammys; performed for Barack Obama; sang the theme song, “Way Down in the Hole,” for The Wire‘s first season; and have worked with Sam Cooke, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Solomon Burke, Prince, Tom Petty and many others musical greats. And after next week, they can cross off “curate, perform and host three separate events at Lincoln Center with special guests Yo La Tengo, Ralph Stanley, Yim Yames and many more” from the list. Clearly, they’re very specific.
Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra (July 14, 8 p.m.)
Time Out London describes this group as a “rowdy, genre-straddling Balkan gypsy-punk-rock ten-piece Orchestra.” I can safely safe that I’ve never heard anything that sounds like that. But now I’m intrigued, especially considering Kusturica & Co. were inspired by the Clash and the Sex Pistols. If you want to hear a mix of political satire and, well, seemingly every genre of music there is, you know where to be July 14.
Dance
Fondly Do We Hope…Fervently Do We Pray (July 15-17, 8 p.m.)
Bill T. Jones’ new work of dance theater revolves around the life of one of history’s greatest figures: Abraham Lincoln. But instead of focusing on Lincoln: Historical Figure, Jones looks at Lincoln: The Man. The performance will include visual art and an original score, performed live. And no, I don’t think Lincoln dances with the hat on.
For a full list of performances, ticket information and venue locations, please visit Lincoln Center Festival’s website.