Press release

Met Museum Presents
November 2012

Performances & Talks Include:
* The Peony Pavilion, the Legendary Chinese Opera, in a New Version by Tan Dun and Zhang Jun – Live HD Transmission Event, and Webcast
* Chanticleer Kicks Off Holiday Concerts
* ETHEL String Quartet at the Balcony Bar – Free with Museum Admission
o “Washington Crossing the Delaware” – A Series of Talks by Met Curators and Conservators Continues
o “A New Arab World?” with Fareed Zakaria
o “The Legacy of David Roentgen” with Viscount Linley
o Gallery Tours Led by Choreographers Bill T. Jones and Miguel Gutierrez


Performances

Tuesday, November 27, 2012, at 6:30 & 8:30 p.m. in the Medieval Sculpture Hall
Sunday, December 2, 2012, at 6:30 & 8:30 p.m. in the Medieval Sculpture Hall

Chanticleer – Holiday Concert
The renowned vocal ensemble celebrates the mystery and wonder of Christmas with traditional carols, medieval and Renaissance sacred works, and new holiday music.
Concerts in the Medieval Sculpture Hall are presented in front of the Museum’s Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche. The exhibition of the crèche is made possible by gifts to The Christmas Tree Fund and the Loretta Hines Howard Fund.
On a 10-country tour in early 2012, Chanticleer returned to some of Europe’s most renowned concert halls, including the Musikverein (Vienna), Bela Bartok Concert Hall (Budapest), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), and Philharmonic Hall (Vilnius). The season also included Chanticleer's performance on the soundtrack of the 10th-anniversary release by Microsoft of its legendary video game HALO, the ensemble's first live film score performance, and a return visit to six California missions with more newly discovered music of the period. www.chanticleer.org
Tickets: $70


Friday, November 30, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
The Peony Pavilion, Version by Tan Dun and Huang Doudou
Performed by Zhang Jun and the Shanghai Zhang Jun Art Center Company
In The Astor Court
High-Definition Simulcast of the Performance (Ticketed) to Also be Webcast Live

With the aim of animating Metropolitan Museum galleries in new ways, Met Museum Presents offers the 16th-century kunqu opera masterpiece The Peony Pavilion, in a 70-minute version developed and directed by celebrated composer Tan Dun with choreography by Huang Doudou, one of China's most prominent dancers. The performances by Zhang Jun and the Shanghai Zhang Jun Art Center Company will take place in the Met's Astor Court, the courtyard modeled on a 17th-century garden.
The five performances of the opera in The Astor Court (Nov. 30—Dec. 2) are sold out, but tickets are available for a live, high-definition simulcast of the first of the performances, on Friday, November 30, in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. Following the simulcast, the company will come to the auditorium for a brief onstage presentation.
This performance (not including the post-event presentation) will also be webcast live; see the event page for more information.
The Peony Pavilion is made possible by the US–China Cultural Institute, China International Cultural Association, China – United States Exchange Foundation, and an anonymous donor.
The Peony Pavilion is one of the most important works of classical Chinese opera. A sweeping love story with subplots involving feudalism, the work in its original form consisted of fifty-five acts that take more than twenty hours to perform. This version is directed by Zhang Jun, one of China's most respected kunqu performers, and remains faithful to the core plot focusing on the love story between the heroine and hero—Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei—and the Peony Pavilion where their love began.
The performances accompany the exhibition Chinese Gardens: Pavilions, Studios, Retreats, on view August 18, 2012?January 6, 2013.
Tickets: $15



Every Friday and Saturday, 5:00— 8:00 p.m. on the Balcony Bar – Free with admission
ETHEL
ETHEL, the acclaimed string quartet that Pitchfork.com described as “a necessary jet of cold water in the contemporary classical scene” began as resident ensemble at the Metropolitan Museum’s Balcony Bar in October. Marking the first time that a prominent musical group has been featured in that venue, ETHEL will perform there each Friday and Saturday night on a regular basis, sometimes with friends and collaborators, throughout the year. The quartet will also select musical groups from ETHEL’s expansive list of notable colleagues to perform when the group is on the road. This new programming initiative will provide a variety of musical experiences to Met audiences delivered by a range of ensemble types and compositions. The Balcony Bar serves appetizers and cocktails on the second-floor balcony overlooking the Great Hall. Three sets of performances between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. will take place each Friday and Saturday.
Free with Museum admission

Talks

Thursday, November 1, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Great Artists Play Politics: Goya, Degas, and Picasso
The Dreyfus Affair: Zola, Degas, and Anti-Semitism in French Political Life

Jerrilynn D. Dodds, Dean, Sarah Lawrence College
Some of the most powerful paintings of the past two centuries were created in direct response to contemporary political crises. These works were animated by the urgency of the political dialogue of their times. But the same artistic intensity that grew from a particular political climate of the past can make a painting transcend its historical moment. In this three-part series (Oct. 25, Nov. 1, Nov. 15), Jerrilynn D. Dodds talks about how a masterwork can bear potent witness to its political dialogue centuries later, with uncanny connections to the politics of our own times.
This series is supported by the Mrs. Joseph H. King Fund.
Tickets: $25 (Series: $60)



Friday, November 2, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Iterations of Washington Crossing the Delaware
Ian Alteveer, Assistant Curator, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art
Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Curator, American Wing

Carrie Rebora Barratt, Metropolitan Museum Associate Director for Collections and Administration and American art scholar, hosts the concluding program of a four-part series of talks with Museum curators and conservators about Washington Crossing the Delaware, the renowned Emanuel Leutze painting that is a centerpiece of the New American Wing Galleries for Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts.
Ian Alteveer and Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser illustrate the artistic and popular responses to the painting: appropriations of imagery from Larry Rivers in 1953 to Homer Simpson as Washington.
This series is made possible by the Clara Lloyd-Smith Weber Fund.
Tickets: $25 (Series: $80)

Wednesday, November 7, 2012,a t 11:00 a.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Fraternité: French Artists from Revolution to Romanticism
Girodet, Delacroix, and the Stirrings of Romanticism
Kathryn Calley Galitz, Associate Museum Educator
The Revolution of 1789 transformed French art. Neoclassicism, embodied in the paintings of Jacques-Louis David, became the style of the day. In this concluding program of a series of six lectures, Kathryn Calley Galitz explores the rise of Neoclassicism, culminating with its embrace by Emperor Napoleon. The fall of the Empire in 1814 paved the way for the emerging Romantic aesthetic.
This series is supported by the Mrs. Donald Oenslager Fund.
Tickets: $25 (Series: $120)

Wednesday, November 7, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
A New Arab World? A Conversation with Fareed Zakaria
New galleries at the Met offer an epic view of 14 centuries of the art and culture of the Islamic world. Writer and journalist Fareed Zakaria utilizes his deep experience with the region to create a context for the cultural and historical narratives explored in the new galleries. Following his talk, Mr. Zakaria will engage in a conversation with Navina Najat Haidar, Curator in the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Islamic Art.
Fareed Zakaria is host of CNN’s flagship International Affairs program, Editor at Large of TIME, a Washington Post columnist, and a New York Times bestselling author.
This event is presented in celebration of the first anniversary of the opening of the New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia.
Tickets: $25



Thursday, November 8, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. in the Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall
Met Salon Series
Sex, Death, and Salvation: Iconography and Symbolism of the “Aiming Crossbowman”

Dirk Breiding, Assistant Curator, Arms and Armor
A powerful weapon aimed straight at you is an image employed by the visual arts for almost six centuries. Today, it is still considered so powerful that there are certain industry regulations banning its commercial use. This lecture by Dirk Breiding traces the history and changing symbolism of this fascinating subject, from late medieval drawings, paintings, and prints to modern and contemporary photography and film.
Tickets: $27 (includes refreshments)

Friday, November 9, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Beginnings
Walker Evans, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helen Levitt

Jeff L. Rosenheim, Curator in Charge, Department of Photographs
In the world of art, certain names conjure up iconic images, and major works have instant recognition. This series of two lectures (Nov. 9, Nov. 16) by Jeff L. Rosenheim examines the first photographs by six modern masters of the medium: how did the artists launch their careers, what did they do with the camera? Might the seeds of their achievement be visible in their earliest work?
Tickets: $25 (Series: $40)

Thursday, November 15, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
The Legacy of David Roentgen
with Viscount Linley (Chairman, Christie’s, UK) and Charles Cator (Deputy Chairman, Christie’s International)

David Roentgen (1743–1807) was known throughout Europe for his inventive and ingenious mechanical furniture, which found favor in the courts of France and Russia through the patronage of Marie Antoinette and Catherine the Great respectively. He was also famed for pioneering a new method of marquetry, created to give the impression of pietra dura. To mark the occasion of an extensive exhibition of Roentgen’s work, Lord Linley will share personal insights into Roentgen’s influence on his own furniture designs and his enduring influence on furniture makers today, while Charles Cator examines the collectors' market for Roentgen from when he was first “rediscovered” in the 19th century to the status in which he is held today.
This event is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens on view at the Metropolitan Museum October 30, 2012—January 27, 2013.
The exhibition is made possible by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.
Tickets: $25



Thursday, November 15, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Great Artists Play Politics: Goya, Degas, and Picasso
Politics of the Spanish Civil War from Picasso’s Guernica to Capa’s Falling Soldier
Jerrilynn D. Dodds, Dean, Sarah Lawrence College
Some of the most powerful paintings of the past two centuries were created in direct response to contemporary political crises. These works were animated by the urgency of the political dialogue of their times. But the same artistic intensity that grew from a particular political climate of the past can make a painting transcend its historical moment. In the concluding talk of this three-part series (Oct. 25, Nov. 1, Nov. 15), Jerrilynn D. Dodds talks about how a masterwork can bear potent witness to its political dialogue centuries later, with uncanny connections to the politics of our own times.
This series is supported by the Mrs. Joseph H. King Fund.
Tickets: $25 (Series: $60)

Friday, November 16, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Beginnings

Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, William Eggleston
Jeff L. Rosenheim, Curator in Charge, Department of Photographs
In the world of art, certain names conjure up iconic images, and major works have instant recognition. This series of two lectures (Nov. 9, Nov. 16) by Jeff L. Rosenheim examines the first photographs by six modern masters of the medium: how did the artists launch their careers? What did they do with the camera? Might the seeds of their achievement be visible in their earliest work?
Tickets: $25 (Series: $40)

Monday, November 26, 2012, at 11:00 a.m.
Gallery Tour of the American Paintings Galleries
with Bill T. Jones and Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser

Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Bill T. Jones and Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Curator in the American Wing, trace the expanding definitions of American art and the Museum’s roots as an institution founded in the aftermath of the American Civil War, through works of art in the Museum’s new American paintings galleries.
Luncheon with Mr. Jones and the curator follows the tour.
Tickets: $350 (Limited Availability)



Tuesday, November 27, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
George Bellows, Master Realist
Bellows and New York

H. Barbara Weinberg, Alice Pratt Brown Curator, Department of American Paintings and Sculpture
By the time George Bellows died at age 42, he was deemed one of the greatest artists America had yet produced. Between 1905 and 1925, he enlisted a vigorous realist style to portray New York City’s sites and characters; Maine’s rugged coast; the atrocities of World War I; friends and family; and other distinctive subjects. Bellows’ paintings, drawings, and prints are intensely American and yet linked to European works that he studied at home in America—at the Metropolitan Museum, for example—rather than by going abroad. These two lectures (Nov. 27, Dec 4) by H. Barbara Weinberg explore Bellows’s accomplishments in the context of his time and in relation to those of his contemporaries.
This series is made possible by the Clara Lloyd-Smith Weber Fund.
This lecture is offered in conjunction with the exhibition George Bellows, on view November 15, 2012—February 18, 2013.
The exhibition is made possible by The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation.
The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Tickets: $25 (Series: $40)

Thursday, November 29, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
A Conversation with Tan Dun: A New Peony Pavilion in an Old Context
World-renowned composer Tan Dun will discuss his vision for restaging the classic Kunqu opera The Peony Pavilion in the Metropolitan’s Astor Court Chinese Scholar Garden. Joining him for an onstage conversation on the eve of the first of the Peony Pavilion performances will be Maxwell K. Hearn, the Met’s Douglas Dillon Curator in Charge of Asian Art, who organized the complementary exhibition Chinese Gardens: Pavilions, Studios, Retreats, on view August 18, 2012?January 6, 2013.
This program is made possible by the C.F. Roe Slade Foundation.
Tickets: $25



Thursday, November 29, 2012, at 6:00 p.m.
Gallery Tour of Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years
with Miguel Gutierrez and Ian Alteveer
The work of choreographer and dancer Miguel Gutierrez, like Andy Warhol’s, “tackle(s) subject matter simultaneously personal and political, cerebral and emotional” (Los Angeles Times). Gutierrez will offer his personal reflections on the Regarding Warhol exhibition on a tour he will lead with Ian Alteveer, Assistant Curator in the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Modern and Contemporary Art.
Miguel Gutierrez creates solo and group pieces with a variety of artists under the name Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People. The New York premiere of Gutierrez’s And lose the name of action is part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival 2012. www.miguelgutierrez.org
Cocktails with Mr. Gutierrez and Mr. Alteveer follow the tour.
This event is part of Warhol Today, a series of concerts, talks, and tours extending Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years, an exhibition exploring Andy Warhol’s dominating influence not only in the visual realm but also in performance, media, and pop culture. The exhibition is on view September 18—December 31, 2012.
The exhibition is made possible by Morgan Stanley.
Additional support is provided by the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund and The Daniel and Estrellita Brodsky Foundation.
Concert and Lectures programs are made possible by Campbell Soup Company.
The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and
the Humanities.
Tickets: $200 (Limited Availability)

* For tickets, visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets or call 212-570-3949.
* Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open Tuesday-Saturday 10-4:30 and Sunday noon-5:00.
* Tickets include admission to the Museum on day of performance.
* 30 & Under Rush: $15 tickets for ticket buyers 30 years and younger, with proof of age, the day of the event (subject to availability). For more information, visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets, call 212-570-3949, or visit the box office.
* Bring the Kids!: $1 tickets for children (ages 7-16) when accompanied by an adult with a full-price ticket (subject to availability). For more information, visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets, call 212-570-3949, or visit the box office. 





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