Goings-On Mar 24. Part II
12 events in Paris
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Making a story about Paris while being in Paris works very well, unless I run really late on sending it out. We all know how amazing the ‘city of love’ is, so instead of any further gushing, let’s jump straight to the major news - Simon Stone’s La Traviata is insane, divine, gorgeous, beautiful, and many other adjectives of that nature. I’ve already mentioned it twice in January and February editions, but ever since I saw it myself three days ago, I have to do it again. There are 4 performances left and I’m not sure the show will remain in the repertoire. The tickets are sold out, however I found mine here quite easily. I’m practically begging you to see it if you happen to be in Paris until February 25th. The American soprano Nadine Sierra is mind-blowing. She earned twenty minutes of standing ovations and deserved even more.
It’s the second opera staged by Stone to have left me shaking for the next 24 hours at least. I’m very close to announce him my favorite director, listing him along Jonathan Safran Foer and Dries van Noten (my admiration for them is so great that I almost pray for the health of these two guys).
The second part of March’s Goings-On is dedicated to Paris and features 5 exhibitions, 6 ballets and 2 theater performances. Some of them I’ve already seen, others are selling out quickly, attending some shows would require a literal miracle, and some will have other showings later this year.
March 1-2 / Ballet / Sadeh21 by Ohad Naharin / Palais Garnier
The first 15 minutes were boring. It felt like attending a gaga dance class performed in uncomfortable fancy clothes under the Chagall painted ceiling. After those 15 minutes, however, you start enjoying the process, and it keeps you till the end. Sadeh21 premiered with Batsheva’s dancers during The Israel Festival in Jerusalem in 2011. This performance was staged with the ensemble of Paris Opera Ballet and for me it is a mix of Ohad’s performance in Three and Jerome Robinson - I liked them both and I enjoyed Sadeh21 as well.
Until March 2 / Exhibition / Iconic Avedon / Gagosian Gallery
According to Instagram (a very trustworthy source), all the American and European elites came to Paris to make it to this show. The exhibition marks the centenary of Avedon’s birth.
“It’s not the way I look,” Harold Brodkey remarked about his portrait by Avedon, “but the way I am.”
Until March 3 / Exhibition / Critical Mass, Anthony Gormley / Musée Rodin
This is such an obvious duet and it has never crossed my mind until I’ve read about this exhibition.
Key works from across Gormley’s career will enter into dialogue with Rodin’s own sculptures, inviting visitors to reflect on the two sculptors and their shared investment in asking what the body offers sculpture as a subject, object and reflexive tool.
March 5-28 / Theater / Berenice by Romeo Castellucci feat. Isabelle Huppert/ Théâtre de La Ville
The show premiers at the end of February in the South of France and will tour all across Europe until the end of 2024. We don’t know much about it, since nobody has ever seen it. However, according to this essay it is a solo performance with an incredible team behind it, including Isabelle Huppert as Berenice and costume designer Iris Van Herpen.
March 6-8 / Ballet / Nomad by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui / Chaillot
March 8-10/ Ballet / FASE, FOUR MOVEMENTS to the music of Steve Reich by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Centquatre-Paris
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Rosas Dance Company are living classics - the same can be said about FASE, its very first performance, premiered in 1982. Both music and dance shift through different phases by gradually accumulating tiny variations: movements that are at first perfectly synchronized, begin slipping and sliding, resulting in an ingenious play of continuously changing forms and patterns.
March 21-23 / Ballet / Love Chapter 2 by Sharon Eyal / Theatre du Rond Point
It clicked with me at last why Sharon Eyal’s company is called LEV. Lev means ‘heart’ in hebrew. And I should say that the pulsating movements Sharon brings to the stage can only be likened to a heartbeat. It’s entirely possible that I’ve come up with this connection whole cloth. Makes a lot of sense to me though. I attended almost every single one of Sharon’s productions - my favorites so far have been Jackie and Autodanch, but this one is also amazing. I should warn you that Eyal has become very popular, especially in France. So hurry up to get your tickets, and enjoy a universe full of fascinating emotion and fresh air. Oh, I love her so much.
March 27- Jul 1 / Exhibition/ Brancusi / Centre Pompidou
Personally, I’ve been waiting to see this show. The reason is simple - I’ve never seen a Brancusi’s retrospective and I always enjoy visiting his studio, which is a part of Centre Pompidou. In my opinion, he should be talked about more. He invented some very special forms and techniques in sculpture. Centre Pompidou have managed to impress me many times with their curatorial approach to survey exhibitions. Considering a special place already dedicated to Brancusi in the museum’s collection, I bet it should be impressive.
March 28-30 / Theater / My Heavely Favourite by Ivo van Hove / La Villete
It is the first time I mention Ivo van Hove in my newsletter and I’m happy that we’ve finally come to this point. Ivo van Hove is one of the leading theater and opera directors in the world. He is the head of ITA (International Theater Amsterdam), being responsible for much of what’s behind its rise. My Heavily Favourite by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld has just premiered in the Netherlands and is very close to Lolita.
Rijneveld reads the slippery slope of a forbidden relationship between an adult man and an underage girl in an idiosyncratic, beautifully written and important book. A rollercoaster of emotions: ecstasy, deep unhappiness, loneliness, guilt, jealousy, craving, nightmares and sex. I can't wait to bring this masterful book to the stage.
March 29-31 / Ballet / Benjamin Millepied and Nico Mulhy (L.A. Dance Project) / Philharmonie
Benjamin Millepied was a head of Paris Opera Ballet, but before that he had performed as a principal in New York City Ballet. He was mentored by the choreographer Jerome Robbins and has led his career in a way I highly appreciate - started as a dancer, retired ‘in-time’ (dancers retirement timing is horrifically relentless), choreographed performances at the world's best stages, trained Nataly Portman for Black Swan movie (and married her), headed a major ballet ensemble and, since the departure from the Paris Opera, has established own company L.A.Dance Project. You can take a French boy to California, but you can never take France out of him - Millepied brings the company to Paris very often, moreover he’s created a similar dance project. Tickets are already sold out, but please, don’t sleep on signing up for returns and some extra seat drops.
Until April 2 / Exhibition / Mark Rothko / Fondation Louis Vuitton
This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition is still on. It's the last month, when you can see these 155 works in the same space. The exhibit is an unprecedented event, with nothing coming close to it within or after Rothko’s lifetime, and I don’t think that there is any other institution in the world able to afford a project that is as much of a financial load as this one. Just the insurance alone would amount to 3 billion (!) euro in value. Besides the exclusive fame of this exhibition, I had a lot of discoveries. It is an explicit survey exhibition, for sure.
Until April 14 / Exhibition / Le Paris de la modernité. 1905-1925 / Petit Palais
A parisian blockbuster about Paris. Imagine the highest amount of masterpieces per square meter possible - this is what you’ll find here. I myself am very tired from modernism and my eye desires more contemporary imagery. And yet, I should admit that I enjoyed the part with the costumes and natural habitat. A well done show that should be on your list for sure.
First time I was late to send this out and feel very guilty for that, but I did so much stuff to share with you in upcoming letters, so I hope you’ll forgive me for the delay. First of all, I went through tons of galleries and collected a lot of materials on artists and designers. Most importantly, I came up with an amazing story to publish with guest authors, so if you don’t hesitate to share TJD with your friends, they can stay tuned too.
I’ve just landed in San Paulo and during my 12-hour flight I enjoyed watching Good Grief (2023) and reading Jess Row’s novel The New Earth. I was been wandering around Paris with a very nice story by Maria Konnikova The Biggest Bluff: How I learned to Pay Attention, Take Control and Master the Odds. I’ll share all immediate finds from my trip on my instagram and I hope you are as thrilled about the upcoming spring as I am.
Yours,
Miri