John Zorn, Donald Byrd and Pam Tanowitz

What I saw last night. John Zorn, Donald Byrd and Pam Tanowitz at the Guggenheim Museum. Works & Process shows are usually pretty iffy. They have a talk in the middle and it all seems artificial. Still Femina had some good moments set to all over the place music typical of Zorn’s radio play soundtracks. Screams, Door buzzers etc. The first piece was to solo piano work that was too cacophonous to work well at least in the dance I saw.

Elements: live music, panel
Titles: “fay ce que vouldras” “Femina”
Cover:

Robert Wilson

What I saw last night.  Robert Wilson at the Peter B. Lewis Theater at the Guggenheim museum. Part of the Works & Process program although it seemed to be done. Had some moments but mostly I was not excited.

Elements: planks of wood, spoken narration, film
Title: “Kool –Dancing in My Mind” by Suzushi Hanayagi, Robert Wilson, Carla Blank, Johan Bokaer. Music David Byrne

New Feature! The cover of the program.
Program:

Meredith Monk

What I saw last night. Meredith Monk at the Guggenheim Museum. The Guggenheim is always photogenic and lends it self well to performances. The endless lines to get in to these events are more frustrating than most. A lot of elderly blue bloods were not easily adapting arthritic knees to being seated on the floor of the Guggenheim while craning their necks in every direction to try and fathom what is occurring around them. There was much relief in the crowd when they were allowed to proceed up the ramps to watch the performance unfold in a new manner beneath them.

Elements: eclectic instrument, singing, costumes (I’ll stop there)
Title: Meredith Monk “Ascension Variations”