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Sat, Aug 31, 2019, 11:00 AM – Sun, Sep 1, 2019, 6:00 PM
Natacha Diels & Sam Scranton: I Love Myself Fully and Unconditionally
PERFORMANCE / MUSIC
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 31 & SEPTEMBER 1, 2019 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 2)
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Building 10A, Nolan Park, Governors Island, Manhattan
Free
http://www.harvestworks.org/aug-24-25-31-sept-1-and-2-i-love-myself-fully-and-unconditionally-by-natacha-diels/
An installation in which electronic effects subtly transform the interior of a house into . . . something else. Visitors are led on individual "guided tours", starting at five-minute intervals throughout the day and lasting about half an hour. The composers, Natacha Diels and Sam Scranton, are both very good at transforming sounds into . . . something different. They promise this piece will be optimistic and life-affirming (which is not what you usually get from either of them).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Plenty of food and drink available on Governors Island. Afterward, stop for cocktails at Dead Rabbit from the Manhattan ferry landing and The Long Island Bar from the Brooklyn.
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Thursday, August 29, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Locrian Chamber Players
MUSIC
THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019
8:00 PM
10th Floor Performance Space, Riverside Church
490 Riverside Drive, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
Free
https://www.locrian.org/
This show seems a bit dry, to tell the God's honest truth. Except — and this is a BIG exception — for a piece by Louis Andriessen, whose music is a freewheeling mix of Minimalism, Stravinsky, and jazz, along with a dollop of dry but detectable Dutch humor.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Massawa, New York City's premiere Eritrean restaurant (are there many others?), has finally reopened after a protracted renovation (are there any unprotracted restaurant renovations?).
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Wednesday, August 28, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Fred Frith & Heike Liss
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2019
7:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/Fred-Frith
Legendary British free-form (or should that be multi-form?) guitarist Fred Frith improvises while visual artist (and life partner of the guitarist) Heike Liss paints and draws over projected videos.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Summer's drawing to a close. Better make it to Lemon's on the Wythe Hotel rooftop.
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Tuesday, August 27, 2019, 9:30 PM – 10:30 PM
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Tuesday, August 27, 2019, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
-
Tuesday, August 27, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
-
Tuesday, August 27, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Monday, August 26, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Monday, August 26, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Beethoven: Late Piano Sonatas
MUSIC
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019
7:00 PM
Taka Kigawa
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20-$25 advance; $25-$30 door
https://lpr.com/lpr_events/lpr-x-taka-kigawa-august-27th-2018-2/
This List isn't usually in the business of recommending standard rep. But it's the last week of August, nothing much is doing, and this is, after all, the second-best set of instrumental music in the entire European canon (after the same composer's late string quartets). And the formidable Taka Kigawa is, after all, a New Music specialist taking a holiday. He distilled the essence of the Boulez piano sonatas — let's see what he does with these.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This will be a long show — but the new Mediterraneanish Babs stays open late.
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Monday, August 26, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Bushwick Improvised Music Series
MUSIC
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019
7:00 PM
Downstairs@Bushwick Public House
1288 Myrtle Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$10 suggested donation
https://gaucimusic.com/bushwick-series#FSContact1
Varying aggregations of interesting local improvising musicians improvise variously.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You won't lack for beverages at the Bushwick Public House venue. If you want to eat after this show ends after midnight, I'm afraid I can't help you on a Monday in Bushwick. If you want to keep drinking, you can do so enjoyably — and DANCE! — at the Bossa Nova Civic Club. For dinner before the show, this List could not recommend the homey Nigerian food at Hills Kitchen with greater, more heartfelt enthusiasm.
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Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 10:00 AM – Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 11:00 PM
Marino Formenti: NOWHERE
MUSIC
MONDAY - WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26 - 28, 2019
10:00 AM - 10:00 PM
TIME:SPANS Festival
Goethe-Institut New York Library
30 Irving Place, Gramercy, Manhattan
Free
https://timespans.org/concert/marino-formenti-nowhere/
Marino Formenti, an excellent, questing pianist, moves into the Goethe-Institut Library for two weeks (I mean, he's actually going to live there) and plays piano every day for 12 hours a day. Composers shall include, among many many others, Formenti himself, Bach, Cage, Feldman, Froberger, Louis Couperin,Brian Eno, Frescobaldi, Farid El Atrache, and Nirvana (it's like Formenti made that list up just for me!). Unlike Formenti, you can walk in and walk out as you please.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Nights and evenings, it's a pity Formenti can't go to Dear Irving Gramercy for an excellent cocktail or three — but you can! (Servicable food.) For lunch or afternoon snack, Bar Jamón will do very nicely.
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Sunday, August 25, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Sunday, August 25, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Sunday, August 25, 2019, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Francesca Caccini: La Liberazione di Ruggerio
OPERA
FRIDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 23 & 25, 2019
7:30 PM FRIDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$38-$44; $35-$38 seniors; $25 students
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4092158
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble's annual Summer series of lively performances of rare operas with eager young singers is sufficiently modest that it would seem wrong to call it one of the highlights of Summer in New York; instead, call it one of the treats. First up this Summer is a rarity of rarities: the only surviving opera of Francesca Caccini, who knew the first generation of opera composers as the Renaissance turned into the Baroque, and is the only woman we know of who composed opera that early. (If her name seems familiar, it's because, like so many Italian women artists and composers we know from this period, her father was a famous artist or composer himself: in her case, Giulio Caccini, one of the very inventors of the Baroque musical style.) None of us has heard this piece before -- but I, for one, can't wait.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After the evening show, Mediterranean-style seafood at Lamia's Fish Market. For the matinée, amazing, fabulous, stunning sandwiches at Foxface (you heard it here first).
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Saturday, August 24, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Whitney George: Princess Maleine
OPERA
SATURDAY AUGUST 24, 2019
7:30 PM
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$38-$44; $35-$38 seniors; $25 students
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4092202
Dell'Arte's very first commission, a new opera by Whitney George, a good composer (and, it might be added, an excellent conductor). It's based onMaeterlinck, putting it in the symbolist tradition of Pelléas et Méllisande andAriane et Barbe-Bleue (the latter, by Dukas, is a recent discovery of mine that I just love -- who knew that Dukas wrote such a good opera? -- and implore somebody to stage in New York at once). George has an affinity for the macabre; it'll be interesting to see what she does with this.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ko Bar: great!
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Saturday, August 24, 2019, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Scenes from the Tower
OPERA
SATURDAY AUGUST 24, 2019
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$33-$37; $30-$33 seniors; $22 students
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4098313
Excerpts from three operas by three female composers: Pauline Viardot (whose reputation as a composer deserves to be a lot better than just "good for a singing star"), Thea Musgrave, and Victoria Bond.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: For the Wednesday night performance, let's say Prune, whose rambunctious New American food everyone seems to like more than I do. Saturday matinée, of course, sandwiches at the fab Foxface (you heard it here first).
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Sat, Aug 24, 2019, 11:00 AM – Sun, Aug 25, 2019, 5:00 PM
Natacha Diels & Sam Scranton: I Love Myself Fully and Unconditionally
PERFORMANCE / MUSIC
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 24 & 25, 2019 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 2)
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Building 10A, Nolan Park, Governors Island, Manhattan
Free
http://www.harvestworks.org/aug-24-25-31-sept-1-and-2-i-love-myself-fully-and-unconditionally-by-natacha-diels/
An installation in which electronic effects subtly transform the interior of a house into . . . something else. Visitors are led on individual "guided tours", starting at five-minute intervals throughout the day and lasting about half an hour. The composers, Natacha Diels and Sam Scranton, are both very good at transforming sounds into . . . something different. They promise this piece will be optimistic and life-affirming (which is not what you usually get from either of them).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Plenty of food and drink available on Governors Island. Afterward, stop for cocktails at Dead Rabbit from the Manhattan ferry landing and The Long Island Bar from the Brooklyn.
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Sat, Aug 24, 2019, 11:00 AM – Sun, Aug 25, 2019, 10:30 PM
AFROPUNK Brooklyn
MUSIC
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 24 & 25, 2019
11:00 AM - 10:30 PM
Commodore Barry Park, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$70-$160 per day; $130-$275 festival pass
https://afropunk.com/festival/brooklyn/
Aside from the usual question of how can the AFROPUNK alt-black-pop festival be so fucking great every year, this year's festival raises a real poser: how do you choose between Kamasi Washington and Death Grips (8:00 PM Sunday)? Damned if I know what I'm gonna do. Among the many other acts that make attendance manditory are Tierra Whack, FKA twigs, Toro y Moi,Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber, Santigold, Jill Scott, Leilkeli47, and Junglepussy -- along with the usual bunch of happy surprise discoveries. (There are after-shows [separate admissions] all over Brooklyn.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There are bars and food trucks and stalls onsite -- but to tell you the truth, they're always pretty disappointing. Sure to be open after the show is the reliable Walter's, for basic American bistro.
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Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Aug 24, 2019, 9:00 PM
-
Friday, August 23, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Francesca Caccini: La Liberazione di Ruggerio
OPERA
FRIDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 23 & 25, 2019
7:30 PM FRIDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$38-$44; $35-$38 seniors; $25 students
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4092158
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble's annual Summer series of lively performances of rare operas with eager young singers is sufficiently modest that it would seem wrong to call it one of the highlights of Summer in New York; instead, call it one of the treats. First up this Summer is a rarity of rarities: the only surviving opera of Francesca Caccini, who knew the first generation of opera composers as the Renaissance turned into the Baroque, and is the only woman we know of who composed opera that early. (If her name seems familiar, it's because, like so many Italian women artists and composers we know from this period, her father was a famous artist or composer himself: in her case, Giulio Caccini, one of the very inventors of the Baroque musical style.) None of us has heard this piece before -- but I, for one, can't wait.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After the evening show, Mediterranean-style seafood at Lamia's Fish Market. For the matinée, amazing, fabulous, stunning sandwiches at Foxface (you heard it here first).
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Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Aug 25, 2019, 3:00 PM
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Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Aug 25, 2019, 4:00 PM
Charlie Parker Jazz Festival
MUSIC
FRIDAY - SUNDAY, AUGUST 23 - 25, 2019
7:00 PM FRIDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
FRIDAY & SATURDAY: Marcus Garvey Park
18 Mount Morris Park West, Harlem, Manhattan
SUNDAY: Tompkins Square Park
500 East 9th Street, East Village, Manhattan
Free
https://cityparksfoundation.org/calendar/category/charlie-parker-jazz-festival/
Is it me, or does the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival seem boring this year? Is it that a generation has died out, and the programmers for whatever reason can't access the cream of the succeeding generations? Or does the festival lose its edge as jazz moves on and we get further and further from the time of Charlie Parker and the jazz community he worked in? All that aside, no series of shows featuring Maceo Parker (no relation to Charlie), Ravi Coltrane, and George Coleman is going to be worthless. (There are satellite events throughout Harlem starting on WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Uptown, Harlem Shake or Barawine, depending on whether your mood inclines you to good burgers or good wine. Downtown, maybe Odessa before the show, strictly for old times' sake (nobody's going to claim the food is very good -- but the price remains right, and you can marvel that the floor of the bathroom is no longer littered with used needles). Afterward, cocktails through the phone booth on the side of Crif Dogs in Please Don't Tell.
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Thursday, August 22, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
iT Boy / Benjamin Louis Brody / Zachary Paul
MUSIC
THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2019
8:00 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street # 103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$10
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
iT Boy and Benjamin Louis Brody both do abstract electronic music that's a lot catchier than you might expect. Zachary Paul writes for conventional string instruments -- but it comes out sounding like abstract electronic music.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: British/French Canadian charmer Chez Ma Tante: you can't not enjoy it.
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Thursday, August 22, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Whitney George: Princess Maleine
OPERA
THURSDAY AUGUST 22, 2019
7:30 PM
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$38-$44; $35-$38 seniors; $25 students
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4092202
Dell'Arte's very first commission, a new opera by Whitney George, a good composer (and, it might be added, an excellent conductor). It's based onMaeterlinck, putting it in the symbolist tradition of Pelléas et Méllisande andAriane et Barbe-Bleue (the latter, by Dukas, is a recent discovery of mine that I just love -- who knew that Dukas wrote such a good opera? -- and implore somebody to stage in New York at once). George has an affinity for the macabre; it'll be interesting to see what she does with this.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ko Bar: great!
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Thursday, August 22, 2019, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
SAUCE: Caitlin Cawley / MediaQueer / Satin Bower
MUSIC
THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2019
5:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Free
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/sauce-08-22
A nice free evening with percussionist Caitlin Cawley, violin/synth duo MediaQueer, and lap steel/dulcimer duo Satin Bower.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Lemon's, on the Wythe Hotel rooftop, is just so nice.
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Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Hieroglyphic Being
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2019
10:00 PM
Public Records
233 Butler Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn
$16.50
http://publicrecords.nyc/event/hieroglyphic-being/
Chicago's Hieroglyphic Being takes Sun Ra Afrofuturism and applies it to Chicago-style post-House electronic music. And boy is it good.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This show's going on late, and there's plenty to drink in the venue. So let's talk about before this show: Oaxacan Claro keeps seeming better and better.
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Wed, Aug 21, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sat, Aug 24, 2019, 9:30 PM
Matana Roberts Residency
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, AUGUST 21 - 24, 2019
8:30 PM
The Stone at the New School
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
Avant-gutbucket conceptualist (and mean saxperson) Matana Roberts is a huge personal fave of Your Compiler. Here, she plays a series of duets. Pride of place must go to Saturday's show with the great pianist Vijay Iyer, but the other nights' duo partners -- drummer Gerald Cleaver (with a style very congruent with Roberts' own), avant-shredder/singer-songwriter Ava Mendoza, and imaginative and fluent jazz guitarist Liberty Ellman -- are hardly to be scoffed at.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The former owners who made Babu Ji problematic are just staff at the restaurant's new location (so they can still see to the food without doing the alleged stuff that reportedly got them in trouble). While the current owners bring their own issues (at least for people who go to restaurants to eat rather than to bask in plasticity), the modernish Indian food (by way of Australia) is fine.
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Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Talea Ensemble // Yarn / Wire
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2019
8:00 PM
TIME:SPANS Festival
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$20; $10 students/seniors; $70 festival pass
https://timespans.org/concert/nikel-peter-tscherkassky-films/
Canadian conductor Lorraine Vaillancourt returns with the Talea Ensemble, tonight joined by the exciting piano/percussion quartet Yarn/Wire. The all-Canadian program includes pieces by, among many others, Your Compiler's personal favorite current Canadian composer, Linda Catlin Smith, as well as his all-time personal favorite Canadian composer (and a close collaborator with Vaillancourt during his lifetime), Claude Vivier. (All they'd have to do is add some Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, and Joni Mitchell and I'd be jumping up and down waving a maple-leaf flag.) Vivier and Smith are not played often enough in these parts that one can lightly skip a chance to hear their work.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Excellent cocktails, serviceable bites at Dear Irving Hudson.
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Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Scenes from the Tower
OPERA
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 21, 2019
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$33-$37; $30-$33 seniors; $22 students
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4098313
Excerpts from three operas by three female composers: Pauline Viardot (whose reputation as a composer deserves to be a lot better than just "good for a singing star"), Thea Musgrave, and Victoria Bond.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: For the Wednesday night performance, let's say Prune, whose rambunctious New American food everyone seems to like more than I do. Saturday matinée, of course, sandwiches at the fab Foxface (you heard it here first).
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Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Whitney George: Princess Maleine
OPERA
TUESDAY AUGUST 20, 2019
7:30 PM
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$38-$44; $35-$38 seniors; $25 students
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4092202
Dell'Arte's very first commission, a new opera by Whitney George, a good composer (and, it might be added, an excellent conductor). It's based onMaeterlinck, putting it in the symbolist tradition of Pelléas et Méllisande andAriane et Barbe-Bleue (the latter, by Dukas, is a recent discovery of mine that I just love -- who knew that Dukas wrote such a good opera? -- and implore somebody to stage in New York at once). George has an affinity for the macabre; it'll be interesting to see what she does with this.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ko Bar: great!
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Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Monday, August 19, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Ben Goldberg & Ingrid Laubrock / Ryan Ferreira
MUSIC
MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2019
8:00 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
The very idea of two such interesting, accomplished musicians as clarinetist Ben Goldberg and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock collaborating on a series of improvised duets invites attendance. An opening set by guitarist Ryan Ferreira seals the deal.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Paulie Gee's for pizza: this time the full-pie restaurant, not the slice shop.
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Monday, August 19, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Scrapbook: Simon Liu / Bruce McLure
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2019
7:30 PM
Microscope Gallery
1329 Willoughby Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$10; $8 students
https://microscopegallery.com/scrapbook-liu-mcclure/
Two masters of performative expanded cinema present recent pieces.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Unserious rooftop cocktails and light snacks in pink-toned surroundings at The Ledge. You should be able to tell whether this is a place for you. (If it isn't, just go to Ops.)
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Mon, Aug 19, 2019, 10:30 AM – Wed, Aug 21, 2019, 7:30 PM
Christina Kubisch: Electrical Walks
MUSIC
MONDAY - WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19 - 21, 2019
10:30 AM - 6:30 PM
TIME:SPANS Festival
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Free
https://timespans.org/concert/christina-kubisch-electrical-walks/
This is a very big deal. Since the late '70s, the German composer/sound artist Christina Kubisch has been conducting Electrical Walks in various cities, in which the audience members are given headsets capable of picking up and amplifying the audible components of the electromagnetic waves that, unbeknownst to most of us, blanket the urban landscape (even more so now, with the advent and predominance of portable digital communications devices, than back when Kubisch started). The sounds generated from the electromagnetic waves vary as you go, as the various waves picked up by your headset change. A fascinating -- and, people who've experienced the work say, surprising musical -- aural experience ensues. Kubisch now brings the piece to New York. If you want to go free-style, wandering around at your own will, you just pick up a headset at the DiMenna Center (leaving a credit card as security toward the 'set's return) and head off (you get to use the headset for an hour). Or, Kubisch herself will guide two-hour tours starting at 2:30 and 5:30 PM (while still free, the tours require advance registration).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: China Xiang is a shockingly good Hunan restaurant -- you won't believe it's there -- down the block from Port Authority.
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Mon, Aug 19, 2019, 10:00 AM – Sun, Aug 25, 2019, 11:00 PM
Marino Formenti: NOWHERE
MUSIC
MONDAY - SUNDAY, AUGUST 19 - 25, 2019 (continuing through AUGUST 28)
10:00 AM - 10:00 PM
TIME:SPANS Festival
Goethe-Institut New York Library
30 Irving Place, Gramercy, Manhattan
Free
https://timespans.org/concert/marino-formenti-nowhere/
Marino Formenti, an excellent, questing pianist, moves into the Goethe-Institut Library for two weeks (I mean, he's actually going to live there) and plays piano every day for 12 hours a day. Composers shall include, among many many others, Formenti himself, Bach, Cage, Feldman, Froberger, Louis Couperin,Brian Eno, Frescobaldi, Farid El Atrache, and Nirvana (it's like Formenti made that list up just for me!). Unlike Formenti, you can walk in and walk out as you please.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Nights and evenings, it's a pity Formenti can't go to Dear Irving Gramercy for an excellent cocktail -- but you can! (Servicable food.) For lunch or afternoon snack, Bar Jamón will do very nicely.
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Sunday, August 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
After Experimental Music: Deerhoof / Bent Duo
MUSIC
SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2019
8:00 PM
TIME:SPANS Festival
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$20; $10 students/seniors; $70 festival pass
https://timespans.org/concert/after-experimental-music-deerhoof-bent-duo/
Sarah Hennies started as a rock drummer, then became a New Music percussionist, and is now a striking Post-Minimalist composer. Tonight, the piano-percussion duo Bent will play Hennies's Unsettle (which one gathers has some connection to Hennies's greatest hit, Settle). Then, Deerhoof -- an ab fab art-punk band whose drummer started out as a composer -- will play "hits of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s". What a night!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Tiki snacks and DRINKS at The Polynesian.
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Sunday, August 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Bozzini Quartet
MUSIC
MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2019
8:00 PM
TIME:SPANS Festival
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$20; $10 students/seniors; $70 festival pass
https://timespans.org/concert/bozzini-quartet-3/
This week, TIME:SPANS goes Canadian! (Or Canadian-associated.) Tonight, the Bozzini Quartet -- a really excellent New Music quartet from Montreal -- plays music by two composers residing in Canada who write the kind of music that people who insist New Music is unlistenable must not be listening to: Michael Oesterle and Ana Sokolović. A real sleeper.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good hearty Central Asian food at the rollicking Farida.
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Sunday, August 18, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Other Plastics / Luisa Muhr–C. Lavender Duo
MUSIC / DANCE / PERFORMANCE
SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2019
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Our old friends Other Plastics manipulate analog/digital feedback networks (it's more fun than it sounds). Luisa Muhr and C. Lavender combine vocals/dance and electronics/percussion.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: We're going to Bar Bolinas for a nice California-style burger.
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Sunday, August 18, 2019, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Whitney George: Princess Maleine
OPERA
FRIDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 16 & 18, 2017 (continuing through AUGUST 24)
7:30 PM FRIDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$38-$44; $35-$38 seniors; $25 students
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4092202
Dell'Arte's very first commission, a new opera by Whitney George, a good composer (and, it might be added, an excellent conductor). It's based on Maeterlinck, putting it in the symbolist tradition of Pelléas et Méllisande and Ariane et Barbe-Bleue (the latter, by Dukas, is a recent discovery of mine that I just love -- who knew that Dukas wrote such a good opera? -- and implore somebody to stage in New York at once). George has an affinity for the macabre; it'll be interesting to see what she does with this.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: For the matinée, amazing, stunning, fabulous sandwiches at Foxface (you heard it here first). For the evening show, the Ko Bar: great!
-
Saturday, August 17, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Saturday, August 17, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Francesca Caccini: La Liberazione di Ruggerio
OPERA
THURSDAY & SATURDAY, AUGUST 15 & 17, 2019 (continuing through AUGUST 25)
7:30 PM
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$38-$44; $35-$38 seniors; $25 students
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4092158
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble's annual Summer series of lively performances of rare operas with eager young singers is sufficiently modest that it would seem wrong to call it one of the highlights of Summer in New York; instead, call it one of the treats. First up this Summer is a rarity of rarities: the only surviving opera of Francesca Caccini, who knew the first generation of opera composers as the Renaissance turned into the Baroque, and is the only woman we know of who composed opera that early. (If her name seems familiar, it's because, like almost all the Italian women artists and composers we know from this period, her father was a famous artist or composer himself: in her case, Giulio Caccini, one of the very inventors of the Baroque musical style.) None of us has heard this piece before -- but I, for one, can't wait.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Mediterranean-style seafood at Lamia's Fish Market.
-
Saturday, August 17, 2019, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
SUAVE (South Asian Union Voltage Experiment)
MUSIC
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2019
6:30 PM
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
https://lpr.com/lpr_events/sauve-august-17-2019/
An astonishing all-star line-up (well, stars in certain quarters) -- among them Grey Mcmurray, Qasim Naqvi, Shahzad Ismaily, Arooj Aftab, Rafiq Bhatia, and NOIA -- get together to . . . I don't know what, but it'll involve South Asia and voltage.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Still molto excited about sorta Mediterranean newcomer Babs.
-
Saturday, August 17, 2019, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Ron Stabinsky / Shayna Dunkelman / Ava Mendoza
MUSIC
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2019
3:00 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
An all-star afternoon of solo sets (if you define "star" as "well-known in Brooklyn"). Ron Stabinsky is a pianist who ignores -- or maybe I should say obviates -- genre. Whereas Stabinsky skirts the line between jazz and classical (and plays with the Meat Puppets!), master percussionist Shayna Dunkelman elides the line between alt-pop and classical, having played splendidly in both contexts. And guitarist Ava Mendoza skirts the line between rock-based styles and experimental improv.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Grab a slice at Paulie Gee's Slice Shop.
-
Saturday, August 17, 2019, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Les Boulangers
MUSIC
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2019
2:00 PM
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
LaMama
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$22-$25; $18-$22 seniors; $15 students
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4098500
Nadia Boulanger you probably know: the legendary Parisian composition teacher who formed the sensibility of a generation of 20th Century American symphonists (and Quincy Jones) -- and who also composed a little. Her sister Lili you might not know -- which is a pity, as Lili Boulanger was a superb composer whose works would be played all the time if she were born with Y chromosomes. This recital features songs by both of them, as well as other female composers, including such worthy usual constituents of unjustly-neglected-female-composer song programs as Clara Schumann (she's really beginning to look rather major, isn't she?), Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, and Alma Mahler.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Mid-day in the East Village, stunning sandwich shop Foxface remains your prime choice (you heard it here first).
-
Friday, August 16, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
After Experimental Music: Okkyung Lee
MUSIC
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2019
8:00 PM
TIME:SPANS Festival
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$20; $10 students/seniors; $70 festival pass
https://timespans.org/concert/after-experimental-music-okkyung-lee/
Okkyung Lee, the world's noisiest cellist, premieres a new piece for a vocal/cello/harp/drums ensemble. And when the vocalists are Ganavya Doraiswamy and Sara Serpa, you take notice.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go to the bar at TAK Room. Have an excellent cocktail. Order some delicious throwback food. Stare at the check in mute disbelief.
-
Fri, Aug 16, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 9:00 PM
-
Friday, August 16, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Shots / Melkings / Remnants
MUSIC
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2019
8:00 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street # 103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$12
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
Sounds: it's all about sounds. Shots present seemingly random sounds and let you draw the connections -- and somehow, you do. Melkings use invented instruments and found objects to create sonic combinations that are perhaps more evidently purposive. Remnants explores the sonic possibilities of tape.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Mediterraneanish food with Japanesish inflections in an extremely stylish room at Madre.
-
Friday, August 16, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Whitney George: Princess Maleine
OPERA
FRIDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 16 & 18, 2017 (continuing through AUGUST 24)
7:30 PM FRIDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$38-$44; $35-$38 seniors; $25 students
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4092202
Dell'Arte's very first commission, a new opera by Whitney George, a good composer (and, it might be added, an excellent conductor). It's based on Maeterlinck, putting it in the symbolist tradition of Pelléas et Méllisande and Ariane et Barbe-Bleue (the latter, by Dukas, is a recent discovery of mine that I just love -- who knew that Dukas wrote such a good opera? -- and implore somebody to stage in New York at once). George has an affinity for the macabre; it'll be interesting to see what she does with this.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: For the matinée, amazing, stunning, fabulous sandwiches at Foxface (you heard it here first). For the evening show, the Ko Bar: great!
-
Friday, August 16, 2019, 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM
Taylor Ho Bynum 9-Tette
MUSIC
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2019
7:30 & 9:30 PM
The Jazz Gallery
1160 Broadway, 5th Floor, NoMad, Manhattan
$25-$35
https://jazzgallery.nyc/shows/
Taylor Ho Bynum is a jazz cornetist/composer with an intriguingly abstract style. And he always puts together great bands. This one, featuring a slew of thought-provoking favorites, is no exception.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I predict that the highly publicized breakup of its owner/operators will have no effect whatsoever on the stratospheric quality of the drink and food at The NoMad Bar. On the other hand, if their fabulous beverage director were ever to depart . . . .
-
Fri, Aug 16, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Aug 18, 2019, 3:00 PM
-
Friday, August 16, 2019, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
-
Thursday, August 15, 2019, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
-
Thursday, August 15, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
After Experimental Music: Two Tables: Olivia Block / Raven Chacon
MUSIC
THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 2019
8:00 PM
TIME:SPANS Festival
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$20; $10 students/seniors; $70 festival pass
https://timespans.org/concert/after-experimental-music-olivia-block-raven-chacon/
Olivia Block composes for conventional forces, does found-sound constructions, and improvises on piano, organ, and electronics. Tonight, I'm betting on electronics. Raven Chacon writes chamber music and electronic noise music. Tonight, I'm betting on noise. It's worth noting that this TIME:SPANS After Experimental Music sub-series is co-curated by musicologist Benjamin Piekut, whose Experimentalism Otherwise is one of the best books on music I've read and something I recommend to all of you very highly.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Il Punto is yet another pretty good Italian restaurant in this neighborhood.
-
Thursday, August 15, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Francesca Caccini: La Liberazione di Ruggerio
OPERA
THURSDAY & SATURDAY, AUGUST 15 & 17, 2019 (continuing through AUGUST 25)
7:30 PM
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$38-$44; $35-$38 seniors; $25 students
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4092158
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble's annual Summer series of lively performances of rare operas with eager young singers is sufficiently modest that it would seem wrong to call it one of the highlights of Summer in New York; instead, call it one of the treats. First up this Summer is a rarity of rarities: the only surviving opera of Francesca Caccini, who knew the first generation of opera composers as the Renaissance turned into the Baroque, and is the only woman we know of who composed opera that early. (If her name seems familiar, it's because, like almost all the Italian women artists and composers we know from this period, her father was a famous artist or composer himself: in her case, Giulio Caccini, one of the very inventors of the Baroque musical style.) None of us has heard this piece before -- but I, for one, can't wait.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Mediterranean-style seafood at Lamia's Fish Market.
-
Wednesday, August 14, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
-
Wednesday, August 14, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Wed, Aug 14, 2019, 8:00 PM – Thu, Aug 15, 2019, 9:00 PM
-
Wednesday, August 14, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Wed, Aug 14, 2019, 10:00 AM – Sun, Aug 18, 2019, 11:00 PM
Marino Formenti: NOWHERE
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, AUGUST 14 - 18, 2019 (continuing through AUGUST 28)
10:00 AM - 10:00 PM
TIME:SPANS Festival
Goethe-Institut New York Library
30 Irving Place, Gramercy, Manhattan
Free
https://timespans.org/concert/marino-formenti-nowhere/
Marino Formenti, an excellent, questing pianist, moves into the Goethe-Institut library for two weeks (I mean, he's actually going to live there) and plays piano every day for 12 hours a day. Composers will include, among many many others, Formenti himself, Bach, Cage, Feldman, Froberger, Louis Couperin, Brian Eno, Frescobaldi, Farid El Atrache, and Nirvana (it's like Formenti made that list up just for me!). Unlike Formenti, you can walk in and walk out as you please.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Nights and evenings, it's a pity Formenti can't go to Dear Irving Gramercy for an excellent cocktail -- but you can! (Servicable food.) (Yes, this is Dear Irving Day here at The List.) For lunch or afternoon snack, Bar Jamón will do very nicely.
-
Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 9:30 PM
Ben Goldberg Residency
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, AUGUST 13 - 17, 2019
8:30 PM
The Stone at the New School
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
Clarinetist Ben Goldberg started out playing (modern) klezmer, so of course I love him. Then he went into exploratory jazz. In usual Stone residency fashion, this week of concerts broadly canvasses Goldberg's current concerns. Any night will do.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Maybe the Instagram neo–Red Sauce palace Don Angie will be less slammed, less of an impossible entry, now that it's August. Or maybe it'll be jam-packed with tourist know-nothings instead of the usual local douchebag know-nothings that crowd the place the rest of the year. As always, though, there'll be good food to be had, if you ignore the surrounding scene.
-
Tuesday, August 13, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Ensemble Nikel
MUSIC
TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2019
8:00 PM
TIME:SPANS Festival
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$20; $10 students/seniors; $70 festival pass
https://timespans.org/concert/nikel/
Tel Aviv's ace new music ensemble presents a mixed program of composers who have one important thing in common: concern with sound in itself, leading to the creation of unique, fascinating sonorities. Enno Poppe, Mark Barden, Chaya Czernowin, Oliver Thurley, Stefan Prins.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Everyone agrees that, say what you will about Hudson Yards, José Andrés's (with an assist from the Adrià brothers) Mercado Little Spain is pretty great.
-
Tuesday, August 13, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Monday, August 12, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Monday, August 12, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Scrapbook: Morrison Gong & J. (Jialing) Shih / M. Lamar
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2019
7:30 PM
Microscope Gallery
1329 Willoughby Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$10; $8 students
https://microscopegallery.com/gong-shih-lamar/
A dynamite program of performative cinema. Multimedia artists Morrison Gong and J. (Jialing) Shih team up for The Phoenix Lament, exploring personal emancipation from such social constructs as family shame, as well the trope of female madness in Eastern and Western literature. Countertenor/performance artist/metalhead/force of nature M. Lamar premieres a new sound and video opera, The Lynching Suite, whose subject you can guess.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Southern-style cocktails and Cajun-style food at Heavy Woods.
-
Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 8:30 PM
Halley Feiffer: Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow
THEATER
MONDAY - SATURDAY, AUGUST 12 - 17, 2019
7:30 PM MONDAY - SATURDAY
2:30 PM WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY
MCC Theater
511 West 52nd Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$64-$84; $30 rush tickets under 30 years/65 years and over; $30 people residing between West 34th & 59th Streets and 8th & 10th Avenues
https://mcctheater.org/tix/moscow-moscow-moscow-moscow-moscow-moscow/
A reimagined update of Chekhov's Three Sisters that takes the comedy in the seriocomedy and runs with it. Former Rookies will want to know that Tavi Gevinson plays Irina. (SPOILER ALERT: THEY CHANGED THE ENDING!)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Excellent cheese, excellent snacks, excellent sweets, EXCELLENT wine at Casellula. For the matinées, go to longtime (albeit peripatetic) Theater District standby Mont Blanc 52 for utterly charming Swiss (have the Emince de Veau).
-
Monday, August 12, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Monday, August 12, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Karyn Levitt: On Hollywood and Weimar
MUSIC
MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2019
7:00 PM
Triad Theater
158 West 72nd Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$25
http://www.triadnyc.com/event/0c3c2464982007159839d7e05c30c88e
Singer Karyn Levitt, an expert on the music of Weimar Germany, explores the (enormous) impact that European émigrée composers had on Hollywood movie music. It's no small bonus that her accompanist is no less a stylish, fluent pianist than Jed Distler.
MAKE A NOTE OF IT: The show has a two-drink minimum, so I'm not going to send you out carousing afterward. As I'm sure most of the composers would have agreed, however, a visit to the classic deli Fine & Schapiro couldn't hurt.
-
Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 10:30 AM – Sun, Aug 18, 2019, 7:30 PM
Christina Kubisch: Electrical Walks
MUSIC
MONDAY - SUNDAY, AUGUST 12 - 18, 2019 (continuing through AUGUST 21)
10:30 AM - 6:30 PM
TIME:SPANS Festival
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Free
https://timespans.org/concert/christina-kubisch-electrical-walks/
This is a very big deal. Since the late '70s, the German composer/sound artist Christina Kubisch has been conducting Electrical Walks in various cities, in which the audience members are given headsets capable of picking up and amplifying the audible components of the electromagnetic waves that, unbeknownst to most of us, blanket the urban landscape (even more so now, with the advent and predominance of portable digital communications devices, than back when Kubisch started). The sounds generated from the electromagnetic waves vary as you go, as the various waves picked up by your headset change. A fascinating -- and, people who've experienced the work say, surprising musical -- aural experience ensues. Kubisch now brings the piece to New York. If you want to go free-style, wandering around at your own will, you just pick up a headset at the DiMenna Center (leaving a credit card as security toward the 'set's return) and head off (you get to use the headset for an hour). Or, on weekdays, Kubisch herself will guide two-hour tours starting at 2:30 and 5:30 PM (while still free, the tours require advance registration).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: China Xiang is a shockingly good Hunan restaurant -- you won't believe it's there -- down the block from Port Authority.
-
Sunday, August 11, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Chaya Czernowin: HIDDEN
MUSIC
SUNDAY, AUGUST 11, 2019
8:00 PM
JACK Quartet & IRCAM
TIME:SPANS Festival
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$20; $10 students/seniors; $70 festival pass
https://timespans.org/concert/jack-ircam-czernowin-hidden/
Chaya Czernowin creates complex sonic landscapes, but with a genuine feel for deep beauty. More conservative listeners might wonder when the music is going to start -- but those with more open minds will revel in the often gorgeous sonorities. Czernowin certainly couldn't ask for better interpreters of this piece for string quartet and electronics.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Everyone agrees that, say what you will about Hudson Yards, José Andrés's (with an assist from the Adrià brothers) Mercado Little Spain is pretty great.
-
Sunday, August 11, 2019, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
-
Sat, Aug 10, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Aug 11, 2019, 3:00 PM
Francesca Caccini: La Liberazione di Ruggerio
OPERA
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 10 & 11, 2019 (continuing through AUGUST 25)
7:30 PM SATURDAY
2:00 PM SUDAY
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$38-$44; $35-$38 seniors; $25 students
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4092158
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble's annual Summer series of lively performances of rare operas with eager young performers is sufficiently modest that it would seem wrong to call it one of the highlights of Summer in New York; instead, call it one of the treats. First up this Summer is a rarity of rarities: the only surviving opera of Francesca Caccini, who knew the first generation of opera composers as the Renaissance turned into the Baroque, and is the only woman we know of who composed opera that early. (If her name seems familiar, it's because, like almost all the Italian women artists and composers we know from this period, her father was a famous artist or composer himself: in her case, Giulio Caccini, one of the very inventors of the Baroque musical style.) None of us has heard this piece before -- but I, for one, can't wait.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Mediterranean-style seafood at Lamia's Fish Market.
-
Saturday, August 10, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Klaus Lang: bright darkness
MUSIC
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2019
7:00 PM
Ensemble Nikel
TIME:SPANS Festival
Wagner Park
16 Battery Place, Battery Park City, Manhattan
Free
https://timespans.org/concert/nikel-klaus-lang-bright-darkness/
TIME:SPANS is an annual summertime New Music festival put on by the Earle Brown Music Foundation -- a worthy institution perpetuating the mission and memory of a great composer. The festival focuses on the gnarlier kind of New Music -- and is none the worse for it. This year's festival kicks off with a free performance by Tel Aviv's questing Ensemble Nikel -- a longtime festival favorite -- playing a piece by pure sound–explorer Klaus Lang (which should work just great outdoors).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You would never expect an Italian restaurant in Wagner Park to be any good. But somehow, Gigino is.
-
Saturday, August 10, 2019, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Kim Brandt: Untitled (Green-Wood)
DANCE
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2019
6:00 PM
Graveyard Shifts
Green-Wood Cemetery
500 25th Street, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$25
https://pioneerworks.org/programs/graveyard-shift-kim-brandt/
You've got to give choreographer/dancer Kim Brandt this: she doesn't care if her movements and choreographic structures look like anything anybody's done before. Here, in a circular landscape, the performers will build and destroy temporal structures in a rumination on circles, spheres, spirals, and loops.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Luigi's: some of the best slice pizza in Brooklyn (by which I mean the world).
-
Saturday, August 10, 2019, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
-
Saturday, August 10, 2019, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Sauce: Second Seasons / Caitlin Cawley feat. Richard Inkyu Kim
MUSIC
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2019
11:00 AM
National Sawdust
80 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Free
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/sauce-08-10
A nice mid-day show. Second Seasons turns field recordings into lush abstract soundscapes. Up-and-coming percussionist Caitlin Cawley will free-improvise with violist Richard Inkyu Kim.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There'll be Caribbean/African/Asian food (and presumably something to drink) on sale onsite.
-
Sat, Aug 10, 2019, 10:30 AM – Sun, Aug 11, 2019, 6:30 PM
Christina Kubisch: Electrical Walks
MUSIC
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 10 & 11, 2019 (continuing through AUGUST 21)
10:30 AM - 6:30 PM
TIME:SPANS Festival
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Free
https://timespans.org/concert/christina-kubisch-electrical-walks/
This is a very big deal. Since the late '70s, the German composer/sound artist Christina Kubisch has been conducting Electrical Walks in various cities, in which the audience members are given headsets capable of picking up and amplifying the audible components of the electromagnetic waves that, unbeknownst to most of us, blanket the urban landscape (even more so now, with the advent and predominance of portable digital communications devices, than back when Kubisch started). The sounds generated from the electromagnetic waves vary as you go, as the various waves picked up by your headset change. A fascinating -- and, people who've experienced the work say, surprising musical -- aural experience ensues. Kubisch now brings the piece to New York. If you want to go free-style, wandering around at your own will, you just pick up a headset at the DiMenna Center (leaving a credit card as security toward the 'set's return) and head off (you get to use the headset for an hour). Or, Kubisch herself will guide two-hour tours starting every day at 2:30 and 5:30 PM (while still free, the tours require advance registration).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: China Xiang is a shockingly good Hunan restaurant -- you won't believe it's there -- down the block from Port Authority.
-
Fri, Aug 9, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Aug 10, 2019, 8:30 PM
Manuel Valera's New Cuban Express Big Band
MUSIC
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, AUGUST 9 & 10, 2019
7:30 & 9:30 PM
The Jazz Gallery
1160 Broadway, 5th Floor, NoMad, Manhattan
$25-$35
https://jazzgallery.nyc/shows/
Manuel Valera's smoking hot New Cuban Express small ensemble plays some of the best, most exciting Cuban jazz in ages. Now he's expanded it into a big band. They'll be feeling the heat all the way in Montauk.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I predict that the highly publicized breakup of its owner/operators will have no effect whatsoever on the stratospheric quality of the drink and food at The NoMad Bar. On the other hand, if their fabulous beverage director were ever to depart . . . .
-
Thu, Aug 8, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Aug 10, 2019, 8:30 PM
Yang Liping Contemporary Dance: Under Siege
DANCE
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, AUGUST 8 - 10, 2019
7:30 PM
Mostly Mozart Festival
David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$65-$120
http://www.lincolncenter.org/mostly-mozart-festival/show/under-siege
Yang Liping, who took Yunnan folk dance into the realm of high art, stages a spectacular representation of the historic battle that established the Han Dynasty. Unlike this production, though, I doubt the China of 200 B.C. featured strong hip-hop elements. Acrobatics, sure. This will be something.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Can I resist sending you to the Upper West Side branch of Han Dynasty after this show? No, I cannot.
-
Thu, Aug 8, 2019, 6:00 PM – Sun, Aug 11, 2019, 2:00 PM
Risa Puno: The Privilege of Escape
PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, AUGUST 8 - 11, 2019
6:00 PM THURSDAY
7:15 PM FRIDAY
1:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Onassis USA
645 Fifth Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
Free (by registration)
http://creativetime.org/the-privilege-of-escape/
Installation artist Risa Puno puts the audience in a series of "escape rooms" that they can only get out of by solving a series of puzzles. But over the course of the event, the rules start subtly changing, revealing (SPOILER ALERT) truths about social inequality. Another event whose entire run sold out virtually as soon as it was announced; as usual, look for cancellations.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Let's keep the social inequality thing going. Evenings, the wealthy or profligate can go to the new highly-seasonal French / Japanese fusion place, Shun. Those of more modest means -- or greater frugality -- can go to the Bar Room at The Modern (which remains open during the closure of MoMA, in which it's housed). Lunch, the blow-out crowd can go to The Grand Salon at the Baccarat Hotel. Everyone else can go to the Halal Guys cart.
-
Wednesday, August 7, 2019, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Brooklyn Rider
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019
10:00 PM
A Little Night Music, Mostly Mozart Festival
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
165 West 65th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$50
http://www.lincolncenter.org/mostly-mozart-festival/show/late-night-brooklyn-rider
Brooklyn's favorite string quartet plays a nice program of pieces by Philip Glass (whom they play incredibly well) (they're playing Glass's most recent string quartet, BTW -- which I have to tell you I just loved when it premiered last year), the eloquent Indian-inflected composer Reena Esmail, Rider's own Colin Jacobsen, and, um, Mozart.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Best bet is still a Cadillac Burger and Martini at P.J. Clarke's.
-
Wednesday, August 7, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Wed, Aug 7, 2019, 11:30 AM – Sat, Aug 10, 2019, 7:30 PM
Halley Feiffer: Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, AUGUST 7 - 10, 2019 (continuing through AUGUST 17)
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
2:30 PM WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY
MCC Theater
511 West 52nd Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$64-$84; $30 rush tickets under 30 years/65 years and over; $30 people residing between West 34th & 59th Streets and 8th & 10th Avenues
https://mcctheater.org/tix/moscow-moscow-moscow-moscow-moscow-moscow/
A reimagined update of Chekhov's Three Sisters that takes the comedy in the seriocomedy and runs with it. Former Rookies will want to know that Tavi Gevinson plays Irina. (SPOILER ALERT: THEY CHANGED THE ENDING!)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Excellent cheese, excellent snacks, excellent sweets, EXCELLENT wine at Casellula. For the Sunday matinée, go to longtime (albeit peripatetic) Theater District standby Mont Blanc 52 for utterly charming Swiss (have the Emince de Veau).
-
Tuesday, August 6, 2019, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
-
Tue, Aug 6, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sat, Aug 10, 2019, 9:30 PM
Ingrid Laubrock Residency
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, AUGUST 6 - 10, 2019
8:30 PM
The Stone at the New School
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
A real ornament of the Brooklyn jazz scene, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock has a mind like a very original steel trap and a sound like an avant-garde Lester Young. If I had to choose among this very strong set of shows, I'd probably pick the Anti-House 4 on Tuesday, a quartet with guitarist Mary Halvorson, pianist Kris Davis, and Laubrock's partner, the great drummer Tom Rainey -- all sharp and original thinkers like Laubrock. But really, every show looks great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good, stylish Middle Eastern at Kubeh.
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Tue, Aug 6, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Aug 11, 2019, 8:30 PM
Jackie Sibblies Drury: Fairview
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, AUGUST 6 - 11, 2019
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SUNDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Theater for a New Audience
262 Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$55-$115; $20 students & 30 and under
https://www.tfana.org/current-season/fairview/overview
Most people who saw Fairview (SPOILER ALERT: DON'T READ THAT LINKED REVIEW IF YOU'RE PLANNING TO SEE IT) during its run at Soho Rep. thought it was the best theater they saw last year (the Pulitzer Prize Committee certainly agreed). Now there's another chance. A canny, biting, laugh-till-you-think-about-it exposition of racism, stereotyping, and enforced social stultification. The only question is how well the famous (and, as has emerged in the months since the initial run, extremely influential) ending will translate to this much bigger theater.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There's now a Bolivian Llama Party in the Gotham Market at the Ashland!
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Tuesday, August 6, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Tuesday, August 6, 2019, 7:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra: Pasión -- A Concert of Spanish & South American Music
MUSIC
TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2019
7:00 PM
Naumburg Orchestral Concerts
Temple Emanu-El
1 East 65th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Free (with ticket)
https://naumburgconcerts.org/concert/fifth-concert/
An attractive concert of Spanish and South American music. The Spanish part consists of nice pieces by two composers who were on the wrong side in the Spanish Civil War: the string orchestra version of Turina's gorgeous La Oración del Torero (the original version for lute quartet is more piquant -- but good luck hearing that), and an infrequently performed piece by the always appealing but rarely consequential Rodrigo. From South America, there are beguiling older pieces by Villa-Lobos from Brazil and Ponce from Mexico. Gabriela Lena Frank -- born in the U.S.A. but half Peruvian -- contributes two parts of her wonderful Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout. And the Argentine stuff is all Nuevo Tango: a new piece for bandoneon and orchestra by New York's undisputed leading bandoneonist, JP Jofre; and -- while Jofre's got his bandoneon out -- the arguable greatest hit of onetime New Yorker Astor Piazzolla, his haunting elegy for his father, Adiós Nonino.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After last week's outburst, I will (at a reader's suggestion) try to be more helpful and once again direct you down East 65th Street to old reliable bistro Sel et Poivre.
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Monday, August 5, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Scrapbook: Zoe Beloff / Jeanne Liotta
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2019
7:30 PM
Microscope Gallery
1329 Willoughby Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$10; $8 students
https://microscopegallery.com/scrapbook-beloff-liotta/
Two film performance pieces, one -- about the Lower East Side -- using a stereo slide projector, a hand-cranked movie projector, and a 78 RPM gramophone; the other -- more illusively and abstractly poetic in subject matter -- using 16 mm film, everyday objects, and sound.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I recently went to Ops Pizza for the first time in a while. God I love that place.
