Saturday, March 16, 2019 8:00 PM
Power Center
World Premiere & UMS Co-Commission
Triptych (Eyes of One on Another)
Feat. Bryce Dessner, composer — Kaneza Schaal, director — Roomful of Teeth
Thirty years after photographer and visual artist Robert Mapplethorpe’s untimely death, we still cannot turn away from the compelling emotional complexity of his influential body of work. In this new performance piece, music, poetry, and photography come together in a theatrical context, exploring the impact of the work Mapplethorpe had on the lives and careers of composer and Cincinnati native Bryce Dessner (The National) and librettist Korde Arrington Tuttle.
Their exposure to the explosive protests surrounding Mapplethorpe’s work rooted a lifelong kinship to his pivotal body of work and its power to upend our beliefs about black/white, female/male, queer/straight, art/porn, sacred/profane, classical/contemporary, low art/high art, and political/personal.
This major collaboration with director Kaneza Schaal, featuring the poetry of Tuttle, Essex Hemphill, Patti Smith, and others as well as the choral group Roomful of Teeth, revisits the formative impact of Mapplethorpe’s work, inviting the audience to simultaneously experience Dessner’s music against the most electrifying and divisive words and images the world has ever known.
Through music and large-scale projection of Mapplethorpe’s images, this unprecedented work allows an audience to peer inside Mapplethorpe’s bold, voracious view of how human beings look, touch, feel, hurt and love one another.
Triptych will contain a frank discussion of sexuality, queer identity, and race, and may include photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe depicting sexuality, sexual acts, nudity, flowers, and classical portraiture.
A world premiere co-production and co-commission of University Musical Society of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Co-produced by Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel Music and Artistic Director. Produced in Residency with and Commissioned by University Musical Society, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. TRIPTYCH was co-commissioned by BAM; Luminato Festival, Toronto, Canada; Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens, Greece; Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati, OH; Cal Performances, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA; Stanford Live, Stanford University, Stanford, CA; Adelaide Festival, Australia; John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for performance as part of DirectCurrent 2019; ArtsEmerson: World on Stage, Emerson College, Boston, MA; Texas Performing Arts, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX; Holland Festival, Amsterdam; Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; and Celebrity Series, Boston, MA; and residency development through MassMOCA, North Adams, MA.
Free Post-Performance Q&A (Mar 15 & 16)
Where does inspiration come from? What makes an artist tick? Join us for a post-performance Q&A and get a glimpse into the lives and minds of the artists who bring creativity to the stage. Must have a ticket to the performance to attend.
Artist Website
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/Thank You to Our Sponsors
PATRON SPONSOR
FUNDED IN PART BY
- The Wallace Foundation
MEDIA PARTNERS
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