Orpheus Chamber Orchestra announces five outdoor concerts in New York and New Jersey in September and October 2020. Small chamber groups composed of Orpheus members will perform live for limited audiences using marked seating to ensure social distancing with masks required.
Executive Director Alexander Scheirle says, “It’s been such a long spring and summer not being able to do what we love and do best: making music! We are so grateful to have this opportunity to present our musicians in these outdoor chamber music settings. We will be able to perform for you live, keeping musicians and audience socially distanced in a safe and scenic environment.”
Recognized as one of the greatest artists of our time, Gerhard Richter succeeds in combining the detailed pictorial approach with the haze caused by the fog of time. His celebrated blurred figurative paintings, large scale abstract compositions, and monumental glass sculptures are the treasures of the art museums all around the world. Originally scheduled to be on view at the Met Breuerfrom March 4 – July 5, 2020, the exhibition includes a range of artworks from the artist’s early experiments with the pictorial depictions based on the old photographs, the glass sculptures, and the most recent cycle House of Cards (5 Panes) (2020). Some of the works will be more familiar to the art lovers, while others like the cycles Cage (2009) and Birkenau (2014) are shown in the United States for the first time.
Well known for his effort to reconcile through art the historical past with personal memories, Richter is uniquely qualified to remind the viewers about the horror of war, the danger of manipulation through the isolated messages or images taken out of context, and the inconsistencies in the recollection of the past events. To accentuate the point of a fleeting chance of memory, his technique of smudging the clear image reminds us of the distortion brought on by the time.
The technique can be seen as a way to represent the perspective of time similar to the perspective of distance and space. It creates the fourth dimension (time) for otherwise ordinary snapshots. As the objects positioned far away are depicted proportionally smaller and with less visible details, the memories about the events from the past are covered in haze and come out with blurred outlines. One can still see the object, yet as years go by, the exact image loses its significance and is replaced by the vague outline.
While the Metropolitan Museum of Art has temporarily closed, you can visit it online from anywhere
A magnificent exhibition of works by the 17th-century Dutch masters titled “In Praise of Painting” can be viewed online
Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn), Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, 1653. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Met Museum collection of Dutch paintings is highly praised by scholars and extremely popular with the visitors. The “In Praise of Painting ” exhibition, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Met Museum founding, uses the occasion to showcase the treasures by Rembrandt, Vermeer, and others thematically and to highlight various aspects of the 17th-century Dutch society in all its complexity. The selection comes from the Benjamin Altman’s bequest, the Robert Lehman collection, and the Jack and Belle Linsky Collection. Thoughtfully organized by the curators around nine themes from portraiture to landscape and domestic scenes, the exhibition unites prominent works and allows for striking comparisons and keen amplification of the historical details.
The viewers are invited in for a closer look at people, their homes, land and the pastime when the Netherland was experiencing rapid changes brought in by the technological advancements and economic growth after the end of the Thirty Years war. The works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Steen and the rest of their famous contemporaries bring us closer to people living in the distant fast-changing times not that much dissimilar to our own. Societal mores, etiquette and hierarchy were turning in response to industrial progress and diversification at the time of the Dutch Golden Age. Luckily for us, it gave the world great artworks of unprecedented depth and potency. Savor the art in all its greatness.
Giacomo Puccini’s final masterpiece in Franco Zeffirelli’s opulent production by the MetOpera
Stream from anywhere on Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Oksana Dyka in the title role of Puccini’s “Turandot.” Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera
Puccini’s Turandot, a grand spectacle of timeless music, rich decorations, dramatic arias, and dazzling performers is a crown-jewel in the Metropolitan Operarepertoire.
The legendary story about the cold and proud Chinese princess claiming her superiority over every contender for her heart is lavishly staged in this historic Franco Zeffirelli‘s production from 1987.
In its Week 18 of the free streaming, the MetOpera features the recording made on November 7, 2009. The cast includes soprano Maria Guleghina in the title role, tenor Marcello Giordani as Prince Calaf, soprano Marina Poplavskaya as Liu, and Samuel Ramey as Timur. Rich orchestration, the inclusion of the uncommon musical instruments in the score, innovative use of the chorus, and ballet are all parts of this grand spectacle of pride, revenge, and love. The free stream is available from 7.30pm for 23 hours.
