Category: Blog post

Theater in NYC: My Parsifal Conductor in Off-Broadway Production

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Theater in NYC: My Parsifal Conductor in Off-Broadway Production

An improbable Wagnerian Comedy created by Allan Leicht and directed by Robert Kalfin in limited production until November 3, 2018

Wagnerian Comedy My Parsifal Conductor YMCA West side NYC
My Parsifal Conductor / Photo credit Carol Rosegg

Musical genius Richard Wagner (Eddie Korbich) and his devoted wife Cosima (Claire Brownell) find themselves in a moral, political and musical dilemma when King Ludwig of Bavaria (Carlo Bosticco) insists that the son of a rabbi, Hermann Levi (Geoffrey Cantor), conduct the premiere of Wagner’s sacred final opera, Parsifal.  In this comedic spin on real-life events, Maestro Levi must consider his complex relationship with the Wagners.  Does Art have its “special needs,” after all?  MY PARSIFAL CONDUCTOR is the World Premiere comedy that dares to probe that question. Read More

Beyond NYC: The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Beautiful Dutchess County, NY

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Beyond NYC: The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Beautiful Dutchess County, NY

Northern European Art 1500-1700 from the collection at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College

Beyond NYC Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center Dutchess County
Cornelis Visscher, The Large Cat, ca. 1657 / Image courtesy of Vassar Art Center

The picturesque campus of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY houses an inviting and intimate Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center which serves as an art education lab for students and faculty and an exhibition venue for the public. The center is holding insightful exposés from its collection rotating the focus from American Contemporary Art to Northern European Renaissance to Abstract Impressionism. A visit to the art center organically fits in with pensive nature walks and visits to the historic sites in Hudson Valley.

The Northern European Art 1500-1700 exhibition is celebrating the career of Susan Donahue Kuretsky, Vassar College Class of 1963 and Professor of Art who taught at Vassar for forty years. The exhibition will be on view from April 27 – September 2, 2018 and the admission to the art center is free of charge.

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Art in NYC: Obsession-Nudes by Klimt, Schiele, Picasso at The Met Breuer

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Art in NYC: Obsession-Nudes by Klimt, Schiele, Picasso at The Met Breuer

Erotic watercolors, drawings and prints from The Met’s Scofield Thayer Collection on view July 3 –  October 7, 2018

Obsession Nudes Met Breuer Schiele
Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait, 1911; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982

An exhibition of about fifty works by the grand masters of the Vienna Secession movement Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele together with the early works by Pablo Picasso dives deep into artists’ obsession with male and female bodies. Bequeathed to The Met Museum in 1925 by Scofield Thayer, the collection is now coming on view for the first time. Thayer, a wealthy American publisher, and poet, collected the works in the early 1920s.

Klimt, while highly acclaimed in Austria, was mostly unknown to the American public. Schiele and Picasso were just starting to get attention and recognition in America. Thayer used some reproductions of the artworks in his avant-garde literary magazine Dial and for an exhibition at the Montross Gallery in New York in 1924. However he didn’t find much interest for them in his native Massachusetts.

His collection was assembled when Thayer was traveling between Vienna, Berlin, and Paris. It is an opening into the hidden obsession and fascination with the nude bodies, the emotions of the struggling souls and the complexity of desire.  Don’t judge; just observe and contemplate.

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Art in NYC: Giacometti at the Guggenheim Museum

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Art in NYC: Giacometti at the Guggenheim Museum

Expansive expose of Giacometti’s sculptures, paintings and drawings on view at the Guggenheim until September 12, 2018

Paintings Sculptures Giacometti Guggenheim Museum New York City Dog
Alberto Giacometti Dog (Le Chien), 1951 Bronze, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Alberto Giacometti doesn’t need an elaborate introduction. His signature figures of striding tall men and extremely elongated silhouettes of women standing on heavy pedestals are immediately recognizable and treasured. Yet with all its familiarity and accessibility, the exhibition at Guggenheim uncovers the roots of artist’s journey from Cubism in his early years to figurative compositions in his later period adding layers of depth and influences.

Guggenheim’s spiraling rotunda which houses the exhibition’s vast number of sculptures, painting, and sketches serves as a symbolic climb to the triumph of Giacometti’s life work. His search for a true representation of humanity in its stillness and action are accompanied by meticulous curatorial introductions and labels. There is a lot behind each piece of work from the tiniest figurines to the towering sculptures. Get close to the artist’s thinking and immerse yourself into the existential art of “a Certified Genius™” as the FT calls the artist. The exhibition is on view until September 12, 2018.

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Nightlife in NYC: The Midwood Miracle by Deborah Karpel at Pangea Club

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Nightlife in NYC: The Midwood Miracle by Deborah Karpel at Pangea Club

One-woman musical memoir tells a moving family story through the original compositions and traditional songs performed on Friday, September 7, 2018 at 7 pm

Nightlife NYC September Midwood Miracle Pangea Music Club
Deborah Karpel / Photo credit Albie Mitchell

Lyrical, alluring and disarming, Deborah Karpel’s performance in The Midwood Miracle is a delicious treat and a familial story at the same time. Returning to Pangea supper-club in the heart of East Village in NYC the show on Friday, September 7, 2018 at 7 pm is a lovely way to spend a night in the city enjoying the music, the singing and a welcoming ambiance of the setting.

The show performed by Deborah Karpel with Michael Lewis Smith at the piano and directed by Aimee Todoroff tells a family story about a Jewish girl growing up in coal mining Appalachia, VA. Some details of the script are fictional, some are taken from family archives. Vivid elements of life in Appalachia, where Karpel’s mother grew up, are followed by the urban tales set in Brooklyn, NY. The scenes of how the character’s parents met, their ideals and a mixup of quirky twists are wonderfully delivered by Karpel’s amazing performance and singing. The original compositions co-written by Karpel with Ted Kociolek and Rachelle Garniez are perfectly mashed along with traditional Americana, western swing, operatic arias, improvised art songs, and Yiddish songs. Come and see the miracle that could have only happened in Midwood.

For tickets click here. 

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