Latest news with #PeterSellars
New York Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
In a New Opera, Violence Against Women Is Not Just the Stuff of Fables
A bejeweled doe hides in the forest to protect itself. One day, the doe sees a drowning man who calls out for help. At great risk, the doe saves him. He promises not to reveal the animal's whereabouts but — enticed by a bounty from the king — he betrays the doe, and a brutal fate is suggested. The story of 'The Nine Jewelled Deer,' a new opera that premiered last Sunday at the cultural center Luma Arles, in a co-production with the Aix-en-Provence Festival, is based on an ancient Jataka fable of India, exploring the Buddha's incarnations in both human and animal forms. It has had a decidedly modern rebirth. That tale piqued the interest of half a dozen luminaries in the literary, visual and performing arts, including the author Lauren Groff, the painter Julie Mehretu and the director Peter Sellars, inspiring them to join forces to produce a nonlinear, highly metaphorical adaptation. Their version explores acts of betrayal and exploitation — of the earth, and especially of women. In some cases, its creators said in interviews, it is based on their own experiences and the experiences of women they know. Sellars, known for his avant-garde and socially engaged opera and theater productions, is the sole man among the core creative team. At the heart of the production is Ganavya Doraiswamy, a New York-born musician and performer who blends improvisational jazz with Indian storytelling traditions. Sivan Eldar composed the score and serves as musical director. Groff, the three-time National Book Award finalist and best-selling author, wrote the libretto with Doraiswamy and served as a kind of amanuensis, not just to the writing but to the people involved. Co-starring onstage with Doraiswamy is Aruna Sairam, a renowned ambassador of Indian vocal tradition, particularly South Indian Carnatic music, known for its devotional qualities. Mehretu, who had worked with Sellars on several operas as well — also based on ancient Buddhist stories, she said — contributed her characteristically abstract paintings that form the foundation of the production design. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
How to Experience Opera's Most Interesting Festival From Afar
Every summer, opera moves from the city to the country. Stars pack their bags for idyllic destinations, and their most dedicated, deep-pocketed fans follow. It's festival season, and perhaps the most interesting one is in Aix-en-Provence, France. At the Aix Festival, directors take risks on classics, and new works are unveiled in spots as old-fashioned as a Baroque theater and as unlikely as a monolithic stadium off the highway. Audience members come from around the world, often laid back in linens and sandals, expecting an operatic adventure worth traveling for. This year's Aix Festival, which continues through July 21, has been somberly tinted by the death of its general director, Pierre Audi, in early May. He had commissioned two productions that premiered during the opening weekend: an intimate, charged reimagining of Britten's 'Billy Budd' by the director Ted Huffman and the composer Oliver Leith; and the world premiere of 'The Nine Jewelled Deer,' a long but frequently beautiful collaboration among the composer Sivan Eldar, the director Peter Sellars, the artist Julie Mehretu and the author Lauren Groff. It's too soon to know whether those shows will travel and take root. But other festival productions already have plans to be broadcast and streamed online, or even to be revived at other opera houses. Below are ways to experience them for yourself. (Some media may be restricted in certain countries.) 'Don Giovanni' The festival opened on July 4 with a new production of Mozart's 'Don Giovanni,' directed by Robert Icke in his opera debut and conducted by Simon Rattle, leading the lush Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Icke is known for his intelligent, liberal adaptations of theater classics, and he was similarly bold, if sometimes overflowing with ideas, in taking on one of the most difficult operas in the canon. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Peter Sellars Is Still Living His Life Through Art
Peter Sellars watched the rehearsal and wept in the dark. It was a recent afternoon at Purchase College, north of New York City, and an ensemble was going over a soft yet cataclysmic passage in Matthew Aucoin's 'Music for New Bodies.' A group of singers was almost wailing the word 'down,' over and over, as an instrumental undertow seemed to stretch time into a yawning void. The music made plain the terror in the text — Jorie Graham's poetry of cancer treatments and climate change — and the cheeks of Sellars, the production's director and one of the most revered figures in the performing arts, grew wet with tears. Among his collaborators, Sellars is cherished for this openness with his feelings. He wraps anyone and everyone in a bear hug. He releases sudden honks of laughter. He cries. 'He allows himself to be impacted,' said the soprano Julia Bullock, 'and releases his emotions very easily.' 'Music for New Bodies' arrives at David Geffen Hall on Thursday as part of the American Modern Opera Company's summer residency at Lincoln Center. Sellars's production is in the pared-down, nearly ritualistic style for which he's become known. With barely any set or props, the singers and instrumentalists are the focus, onstage together under moody lighting, in shifting formations that have the charged drama of Baroque paintings. 'I made the staging, but staging is too fancy a word,' he said in an interview. 'It's just — you can see the music.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Times
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Antony and Cleopatra review — Shakespeare meets Hollywood at the Met
When the new Metropolitan Opera House opened in 1966, Samuel Barber's lavish Antony and Cleopatra was a flop. A new attempt at adapting Shakespeare's play into operatic form might seem foolhardy, but the composer John Adams has never shied away from a challenge. Over the years, his collaborations with the director Peter Sellars have taken on pressing political issues, from the Cold War diplomacy of Nixon in China to Oppenheimer's bomb in Doctor Atomic. Antony and Cleopatra is Adams's first opera without Sellars, and shorn of Sellars' eccentrically brilliant way with text and stage, runs the risk of becoming a conventional grand opera. A co-commission from Met, San Francisco, and Barcelona, it has been tightened up dramatically since its premiere in 2022. Yet much
