About the Other Night: The Alan Gala

The Howard Gilman Opera House transforms for The Alan Gala. Photo: Beowulf Sheehan

Brooklyn, New York—it’s a helluva town!

On Tuesday, April 4th, we celebrated the incomparable legacy of our very own "no-holds-barred, take-it-to-the-limit Chairman” Emeritus, Alan H. Fishman. After nearly 30 years of service on BAM’s Board of Trustees (14 of which he spent as chairman), the Brooklyn-bred Fishman stepped down at the end of 2016–leaving us no choice but to fête him in style.

Alan & Judith Fishman arrive. Photo: Elena Olivo

In Context: Shakespeare's Sonnets

Shakespeare's Sonnets, created by Robert Wilson and Rufus Wainwright, runs at BAM from October 7—12. Context is everything, so get even closer to the show with this curated selection of original blog pieces, articles, interviews, and videos related to the production. Once you've seen it, help us keep the conversation going by telling us what you thought below.

Queering the Scandal in Shakespeare’s Sonnets

by Ryan Tracy

Photo: Lucie Jansch

Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Upon thyself thy beauty’s legacy?
—William Shakespeare, Sonnet 4

Shakespeare’s sonnets have occasioned at least two “scandals.” The first has to do with the purported realization that two thirds of the sonnets are thought to be addressed to a young man. The second scandal appears to lie in the sheer raunchiness and adulterous innuendo of the sonnets that are attributed to a female subject, often referred to as “The Dark Lady.” Much scholarship has added scandals to these two (the scandal of the latter poems’ unabashed misogyny being an important one). While some scholars have succeeded in broadening our contemporary view of the sonnets and their scandalous past, there remain many open questions about the genders represented by and addressed in the sonnets, as well as the erotic relations that exist between speaker and his or her subjects of adoration.

One of the things at stake in debates about the gender and sexuality represented in the sonnets is the availability (or unavailability) of certain literary interpretations which consequently affect the stories we can tell with them today. Too many of the scandalous narratives surrounding the sonnets aim to reduce them to a single, anodyne Man-Loves-Woman narrative. That may sound like an age-old story, but deeper inquiry into the history of sexuality shows us that the erotic narratives told by Shakespeare and enjoyed by Elizabethans were complex, various, and triggered by different sets of values not easily translated to contemporary notions of heroic heterosexual romance.

Shakespeare Light & Dark

by Bonnie Marranca

Deja Bucin and Krista Birkner. Photo: Lucie Jansch

“Shakespeare is full of time. He is not ‘timeless,’ but ‘full of time.’ It seems ridiculous when people try to update Shakespeare. It is simply not possible.” Robert Wilson’s view of the author is reflected in the free-spiritedness of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, which he and composer Rufus Wainwright created in 2009 for the renowned Berliner Ensemble, founded by Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigle in 1949, in then East Berlin. This music-theater work features more than two dozen of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, each unfolding in its own aural and visual setting. If all the world is a stage, Wilson’s stage includes much of our world—telephone, bicycle, car, video screen, gas pump, and floating bed. Birdsong is in the air. A child’s voice.

Wilson describes his artistic process: “I first made a structure. It’s two acts with seven scenes ... Once we were in agreement with the formal structure, Rufus had complete freedom to fill in the form. The form was merely a frame. It was the frame of a building. It was a megastructure. An architectural building he and others filled in.” Wainwright has written wildly imaginative, edgy music that draws on traditions of cabaret, rock, pop, folk, classical, and early English styles, while absorbing the Brechtian manner of blurring speech and song. Shakespeare’s Sonnets is a musical work that elaborates a theatrical vision worlds apart in visual style and timbre from presentations of Shakespeare in the English-speaking theater.

In Context: Kate's Kids

Kate's Kids, Rufus and Martha Wainwright's musical tribute to their legendary mother, comes to the Howard Gilman Opera House on Wednesday, June 26. Context is everything, so get even closer to the production with this curated selection of articles, videos, and original blog pieces related to the show. Once you've seen it, help us keep the conversation going by telling us what you thought below.

Q&A with Martha and Rufus Wainwright

Rufus & Martha Wainwright. Photo: Lian Lunson

The musical world of Kate McGarrigle will be celebrated in Kate’s Kids: An Evening of Music with Rufus and Martha Wainwright, a concert with special guests including Emmylou Harris and Norah Jones, on June 26 at the Howard Gilman Opera House. On June 25, Sing Me The Songs That Say I Love You, a film tribute to McGarrigle directed by Lian Lunson, will be screened at BAM Rose Cinemas. Proceeds benefit the Kate McGarrigle Foundation. BAMbill asked the siblings a few questions.

How did your mother influence the music you create?
Martha Wainwright: In every way, really, even if in a reactionary way... Kate and Anna’s [her sister] style of music—their taste, their influences, their voices, and the chords—were what music is and was. I sound like Kate sometimes, which always makes me happy. I was purposely different than them when I started writing music because I knew I had to be.

Rufus Wainwright: She noticed that Martha and I, both at an extremely young age, showed talent, and proceeded to nurture it. In her dreams I imagine she would have liked us to be doctors or mathematicians (she had a degree in science) but having heard the little voices, she knew!

How did you decide who you wanted to participate in Kate’s Kids?
Rufus: It’s a very interesting lineup; it really spans her whole career. Emmylou Harris she worked with in the beginning, Norah Jones in middle age, and Mark Ronson she only met once or twice. It shows the expanse of her musical life.

Martha: Emmylou is our soul mother and Norah a soul sister, perfect for the family vibe that we always want to achieve and that we can’t seem to shake. Of course these two ladies are also in the film so it’s a way to connect back to the film and gel these nights together completely.

How have musicians responded to participating in this production at BAM?
Rufus: Everyone really loved my mom; even if you didn’t know her that well she left an idelible impression. Her music has that same unique effect, the songs stay with you. I imagine the musicians are pretty thrilled with such fine material.

Martha: Everyone is excited to play BAM. The room is so beautiful and it’s a big honor for everyone involved. Of course Rufus has a history with BAM and I live just down the road!

February Staff Pick: Prima Donna

This month's pick: Prima Donna (Howard Gilman Opera House, Feb 19-25)
Picked by: Joe Guttridge, Publicity Manager

1. Why Prima Donna?
Opera has never really been my thing, but New York City Opera’s productions truly do present the art form in a fresh, modern, and very “New York” way. And somehow, the tale of an aging soprano clinging to her title as “one of the world’s greatest” just never seems to get old.

2. What makes it unique?
Rufus Wainwright, singer-songwriter and recreator of Judy Garland’s legendary 1961 Carnegie Hall concert—need I say more?!? The idea of Wainwright amplified to literally operatic proportions sounds pretty unique to me.

3. You might like this if you liked:
Since this will be the US premiere production, it’s hard to say. But I’d wager that if you like Wainwright’s music and the musical Sunset Boulevard—another classic tale of an aging diva—then you will not be disappointed.

4. Guilty-pleasure reason for seeing the show:
Wainwright appeared at the production’s 2009 premiere at the Manchester International Festival dressed as Giuseppe Verdi, so here’s hoping his appearance in New York is equally dramatic!

5. Final words:
New York City Opera has overcome some huge obstacles in an effort to continue bringing its singular vision to New York audiences, and that perseverance alone deserves our attention.