The Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces MetLiveArts 2019–20 Season

"MetLiveArts  is an extraordinarily successful and impactful program at The Met. It expands and galvanizes the possibilities of The Met, creates unique experiences for our visitors  and activates the Museum's collection and galleries in entirely new ways" said Max Hollein, Director of The Met. "Expect the unexpected when discovering that the entire Museum is a stage and a platform for outstanding artistic productions."

 

The 2019–20 season also includes a performance by the New York-based Black Rock Coalitioncelebrating black pioneers in the rock and roll canon; a creative culinary evening at The Met Cloisters hosted by chef and writer Yotam Ottolenghi that will delve into the exhibition The Colmar Treasure: A Medieval Jewish Legacy and the history of the flourishing Jewish community of Colmar's wine region through a sumptuous feast; and a Met debut performance by musician Rhiannon Giddens at The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing in a concert that traces the movement and impact of instruments, sounds, and musical language through various regions and cultures.

 

"Each season we ask artists to look anew at the collection and special exhibitions, to challenge themselves and the audience, and to create unprecedented and often genre-bending work," said Limor Tomer, General Manager for Live Arts. "The 2019–20 season includes some of the most exploratory and innovative performances staged at The Met, bringing rare and unusual opportunities for audiences and Museum visitors to have a shared and meaningful experience alongside these artists."

 

Performances will be both ticketed and free with Museum admission, and Bring the Kids for $1 tickets are available for almost every performance.

 

 

Reflecting on his performance installation for The Met, Indian artist Nikhil Chopra said: "The Metropolitan Museum of Art epitomizes the definition of a museum. Its collection of objects spans history across time, space, and cultures—some living and some long dead. I am compelled to think about my body along with the millions of other bodies that visit the Museum as consumers of the objects we look at and then containers of these memories—what they evoke in the present as well as what they stood for in the past. I'll use this opportunity to think through my body—past, present, and future—and its rituals and processes in the form of a weeklong performance art installation."

 

Lands, Waters, Skies 
Thursday, September 12–Friday, September 20, Museum hours, various galleries

 

At the heart of Nikhil Chopra's durational performances is the contemplative act of drawing. Lands, Waters, and Skies is a live performance by Chopra, created for The Met's galleries. For eight consecutive days, he will transform into various personae using costumes, makeup, wigs, and masks; make a large-scale drawing on fabric mounted in the galleries; and interact with The Met collection. Akin to a nomadic traveler, Chopra will move through the Museum, following an itinerary of his own making that will query the Museum's own organizational principles and logic.

 

Free with Museum admission.

 

 

 

In this explosive and joyful celebration of rock's black roots, the Black Rock Coalition

(with special guests Nona Hendryx, Vernon Reid, and others) creates a sonic timeline honoring the black pioneers who ushered rock and roll into the American collective consciousness. Founded in 1985 by guitarist Vernon Reid, journalist Greg Tate, and producer Konda Mason, the Black Rock Coalition is a collective assembled to provide exposure for black artists who defy convention, and is dedicated to the complete creative freedom of black artists.

 

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll, on view at The Met Fifth Avenue through October 1, 2019.

 

Tickets start at $40.

 

 

With Gabriel Kreuther, Michelin-starred chef and winner of the James Beard Award for "Best Chef New York City"

 

Now considered the capital of Alsatian wine, Colmar had a flourishing Jewish community that played a leading role in the region's wine business. The community was decimated by the Black Plague and the persecution of Jews that followed, but a cache of valuable decorative objects from that time—discovered hidden in the wall of a confectioner's shop—has shed light on the opulent culture of Colmar's Jews. Celebrated chef and author Yotam Ottolenghi, with a menu created by Alsatian-born chef Gabriel Kreuther, explores the deep Jewish roots of Colmar through the region's wine and cuisine in a magical evening of conversation, food, and wine.

 

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Colmar Treasure: A Medieval Jewish Legacy, on view at The Met Cloisters through January 12, 2020.

 

Tickets start at $190.

 

 

"Rhiannon Giddens emerges as a peerless and powerful voice in roots music." —Pitchfork

 

"Hope comes back to life in Giddens' music." —National Public Radio

 

Rhiannon Giddens makes her MetLiveArts debut with her latest ambitious project there is no Other, conceived and performed with Francesco Turrisi. This performance is both a condemnation of "othering" and a celebration of the spreading of ideas, connectivity, and shared experience. Tracing the movement of instruments, sounds, and musical language back and forth from Africa, the Arab world, Europe, and the Americas, there is no Other illuminates the cultural flourishing that happens when ideas flow freely between peoples and lands. The Temple of Dendur provides a stunning context for Giddens's virtuosity and raw emotional musicality.

 

Ticket start at $75.

 

 

The wondrous Estonian a cappella ensemble performs timeless compositions ranging from runic songs and folk hymns to the contemporary classics of Arvo Pärt. In the intimate and magical Fuentidueña Chapel, these unusual voices create a sonic environment that is both ethereal and deeply human.

 

Ticket start at $65.

 

 

Suffering, remorse, and guilt are pervasive in Gesualdo's life and work. The music of this complex man is so full of shocking dissonances that it has taken nearly 400 years to begin to comprehend his singular musical language. Les Arts Florissants, the unrivaled Baroque period ensemble, will be making its Met Cloisters debut with this all-vocal program.

 

Tickets start at $65.

 

 

In celebration of the exhibition In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met (on view at The Met Fifth Avenue through October 4, 2020), which brings together some of the Museum's greatest Dutch paintings of the 17th century, this performance highlights the dazzling Dutch and Flemish repertoire of the early Baroque. Paul O'Dette—one of the most revered lutenists alive today—performs an intimate and rare concert in the galleries.

 

Free with Museum admission.

 

 

The exceptional viol ensemble Sonnambula returns to The Met after a triumphant yearlong residency. Their program highlights the exquisite music created and performed in the early-modern Low Countries that was influential throughout Europe.

 

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met, on view at The Met Fifth Avenue through October 4, 2020.

 

Free with Museum admission.

 

 

Schola Antiqua

Michael Alan Anderson, artistic director

 

Chicago-based early music ensemble Schola Antiqua surveys the sound world of Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519). This program is presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I (on view at The Met Fifth Avenue October 7, 2019–January 5, 2020), which features Maximilian's own sumptuous armors and highlights his patronage of the greatest European armorers of his age, as well as emphasizes the emperor's dynastic ambitions and the ideals of chivalry at the imperial court. The wide-ranging program offers luxuriant vocal music by composers in service to the emperor, along with poignant work commemorating his death in 1519. Schola Antiqua also explores the breathtaking sound of extremely low voices, which played no small role in Maximilian I's musical experience.           

 

Tickets start at $65.

 

 

The "first lady of Celtic music," Moya Brennan is joined by Dublin-based Irish harp virtuoso Cormac De Barra, two-time All-Ireland fiddle champion Patrick Mangan, and other special guests for a thrilling and moving holiday program created especially for The Met.

 

Ticket start at $75.

 

               

"This German artist brings a depth of intelligence, a sense of history, a political and social awareness, a knowing irony to her material few can match. She is the benchmark for singers." —West Australian Review

 

When Ute Lemper takes the stage, we are instantly transported to that fleeting moment of wild experimentation that was born of the short-lived progressive culture that bloomed in pre-war Germany. Songs by Weill, Brecht, Hollander, Spoliansky, and others will receive the signature sexy and acerbic interpretation that is Ms. Lemper's signature style.  

 

Tickets start at $75.

 

 

Aisslinn Nosky, violin

 

The Handel + Haydn Society returns to The Met for a special holiday concert featuring festive music by Vivaldi, Charpentier, Biber, Telemann, and others. For this very special occasion, The Met brings its family of Stradivarius instruments out of their cases to let them sing once again in the hands of the virtuosi of the Handel + Haydn Society.

 

Tickets start at $75.

 

 

The multi-Grammy-winning ensemble The Crossing returns to The Met for a presentation of David Lang's haunting seasonal favorite, The Little Match Girl Passion, paired this year with a new work by composer Edie Hill, whose most recent composition for choir was named a "masterpiece" by the Chicago Tribune.

 

Tickets start at $65.

 

 

An opera by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson

Louisa Proske, director

Daniela Candillari, conductor

Soprano Felicia Moore as Susan B. Anthony

 

Marking the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote, The Mother of Us All (1947) is a historic collaboration between The Met, the New York Philharmonic, and The Juilliard School. Hailed as "the best of all American operas" by revered critic Andrew Porter, the fully staged production will be performed in The Met's magnificent American Wing sculpture gallery, the Charles Engelhard Court.

Composed by Virgil Thomson with libretto by Gertrude Stein, The Mother of Us All embodies a range of contradictions that, since the opera's premiere at Columbia University in 1947, have only become deeper with time. The gaining of women's suffrage was a great victory, but it was also a gateway to broader struggles over civil rights for women, African-Americans, and other racial and sexual minorities.

 

Tickets start at $105.

Presented as part of Project 19, the New York Philharmonic's multi-season initiative marking the centennial of the 19th Amendment.

 

 

In February 2020, The Met reopens its British Galleries. The renovated galleries will feature a reconsideration of the complex narratives that drove British art and design from 1500 to 1900. Within this time period, the 18th century is pivotal to the understanding of many of our existing cultural and market forces, including the emergence of global trade and the retail culture and the interconnectedness of colonialism, slave labor, and philanthropy. To understand the profound global, financial, economic, and cultural shifts that took place in the 18th century, MetLiveArts takes a deep look at George Frideric Handel, whose life took him from the culturally restrictive European mainland to the more progressive London. Handel's oeuvre, which is rooted in notions of patriotism, religious freedom, social tolerance, and the colonialism-slavery-philanthropy cycle, will be explored through arias, choruses, and songs from Handel's wide-ranging output.

 

Tickets start at $65.

 

 

The Guarneri Quartet has been a major influence on multiple generations of string quartets. Founded at Marlboro Music School and Festival in 1964, the quartet performed, recorded, taught, and toured for 45 years, and for much of that time was in residence at The Met. To honor and celebrate the Quartet's colossal legacy and impact, The Met is presenting two events: an evening of music and talk, followed by a daylong marathon performance by many of the Quartet's colleagues and former students. The Saturday marathon will include performances by the American, Maxwell, Borromeo, Orion, Shanghai, Zora, and Shanghai Quartets (among others), and repertoire will range from Mozart to Danielpour, with a heavy dose of Beethoven.

 

Tickets start at $65; $95 for the series.

 

Sight and Sound Series: Leon Botstein and The Orchestra Now
Sundays at 2 p.m., The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Tickets start at $30; $75 for the series.

 

 

Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519), known since the 19th century as "the last knight," was passionate about armor and the trappings and ideals of knighthood. This romantic tradition inspired Cervantes's tales of Don Quixote, which in turn inspired Strauss's "fantastic variations on a theme of knightly character"—a thrilling and moving musical realization of Quixote's chivalric journey.

 

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I, on view at The Met Fifth Avenue October 7, 2019–January 5, 2020.

 

 

Composer Arthur Honegger and painter Félix Vallotton were both Swiss nationals who spent the larger part of their careers in Paris, where they became part of the avant-garde scene in music (Les Six) and art (Les Nabis). Both explored the intersection between tradition and modernism, and Honegger's first symphony mirrors the magnetism of Paris in the 1920s.

 

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Félix Vallotton: Painter of Disquiet, on view at The Met Fifth Avenue October 29, 2019–January 26, 2020.

 

 

Musicians, like their contemporaries in art and science, were mesmerized by the rapid and dazzling advancements in science and technology during the second half of the 18th century. While Mozart poked fun at this fascination in Così fan tutte, Haydn drew inspiration from the fabulous advances in horology in Vienna and London—thus the delightful "Clock" symphony.

 

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Making Marvels: Science and Splendor at the Courts of Europe, on view at The Met Fifth Avenue November 25, 2019–March 1, 2020.

 

 

About MetLiveArts
The groundbreaking live arts series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art explores contemporary performance through the lens of the Museum's exhibitions and unparalleled gallery spaces with singular performances and talks. MetLiveArts invites artists, performers, curators, and thought leaders to explore and collaborate within The Met, leading with new commissions, world premieres, and site-specific durational performances that have been named some of the most "memorable" and "best of" performances in New York City by The New York Times, New Yorker, and Broadway World.

 

Nikhi Chopra's residency is made possible by the Bagri Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Chester Dale Endowment and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Feast of Colmar with Yotam Ottolenghi is made possible with a gift from Sarah Billinghurst Solomon, in honor of Howard Solomon, David & Sarah Long Solomon, Andrew & John Habich Solomon and their families.

 

Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi: there is no Other is made possible in part by The Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation.

 

Sounding the Dutch Baroque: Paul O'Dette and Sounding the Dutch Baroque: Sonnambula are made possible by the Robert Lehman Foundation.

 

The exhibition is made possible by the Michel David-Weill Fund.

Additional support is provided by the David Berg Foundation.

 

The exhibition is made possible by Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder.

 

Additional support is provided by Kathleen and Laird Landmann and Marica and

Jan Vilcek.

 

The exhibition is made possible by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.

 

The exhibition is made possible by the HATA Foundation Fund. 

 

The exhibition is made possible by the John Pritzker Family Fund, the Estate of Ralph L. Riehle, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, Diane Carol Brandt, the Paul L. Wattis Foundation, Kenneth and Anna Zankel, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

It is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

 

The exhibition is made possible by the Janice H. Levin Fund, The Florence Gould Foundation, and the Robert Lehman Foundation.