Posts Tagged ‘music’
The Black Madonna Celebrated
by Nancy Cohen-koan
The Black Madonna is an icon of worship that can be traced back to pagan, pre – Christian times. She represents devotion to the Earth Mother, the African Goddess and to a time when people understood God to be female as well as Black. She is still revered in Italy and in New York there were no less than three churches that held worship for the Black Madonna in the East Village.
I.J. Isola, writing for the W.P.A. n 1936, noted: “The New York Black Madonna is credited by believers, with possessing the miraculous curative powers of the original (Sicily and other parts of Italy, Ethiopia, etc.), as is attested by the many votive offerings at her shrine.” Apparently, she could cure many of the parts of the body including arms, legs and breasts. Since pre-Christian times she has been the protector of gays, transgender and LGBTQ+ people, known as Femminielli in the Neapolitan Culture and Galli in Rome(where they were priests of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, or Magna Mater
Alessandra Belloni, a native Roman, studied in New York and realized that her true calling was honoring the Black Madonna through her love of Italian folk music. She learned the ancient tammorriata tradition of the Earth goddess and for 35 years has traveled the globe performing and doing research in this ancient form of empowerment. Along with her partner and fellow musician John T. La Barbera, they create a musical dance installation, as much art as sacred healing. I Giullari di Piazza, founded in 1980, specializes in medieval pilgrimage songs, Southern Italian tarantellas and devotional chants with ritual drumming. This concert celebrates the 45th anniversary of the group’s founding and features selections from its original opera, “Voyage of the Black Madonna,” which was a watershed creation for the company.
I was familiar with Alessandra before the show after watching a PBS program about buying houses in Italy, PBS series “Dream of Italy. She has a devoted following there and by the looks of the audience at St. John the Divine last Friday, one here as well. I saw many women signing up for her goddess -type classes; she infuses spirit and beauty and recognition of the female spirit. What could be bad?
In Alessandra’s show Mystic Rhythms & Sacred Chants for Seven Black Madonnas from Italy to Spain, she and her glorious troupe explore the different incarnations of the Black Madonna with ancient music, dance and stilt performance. It is a festive experience that recalls medieval street theatre, intoxicating and beautiful.
Her voice is deep and soulful and her percussion skills amazing… for this occasion, Giovannangelo de Gennaro from Puglia brought his magnificent voice… a voice perfectly suited for the wonderful acoustics of the chapel in St. John the Divine.
Graceful dancers performed wearing elaborate costumes… characters ranging from virginal maidens to the goddess who can control snakes…dancing with a real one. The Sun God on stilts moved through them, transporting all of us to another time where nature was revered and female power honored.
John la Barbera introduced a song which is based on pre-Christian notations of a melody found in Greece. He expanded on the tune and it was beautiful not only for his arrangement, but the knowledge that its origins are so ancient and yet feels so contemporary.
This magical show is a shoe in for Earth Day performances and must be included in environmental events that remind us of the power of nature and our requirement to love her and be grateful for her bounteous gifts.
Other musicians include: Mara Gerety (vocals & violin), Christa Patton(harp, oboe & recorder) and dancers, Francesco Silvano, Amaraand Mark Mindek (stilt dancer in the role of the Poet Virgil).
The troupe spends part of their time in New Jersey and Alessandra will be offering classes to the fortunate in New Jersey.
As for me, I’m dreaming to buy a place in Puglia and stay as close to the world that honors such a beautiful tradition.
For more information and future performance dates: http://www.alessandrabelloni.com
all photos by N. Cohen-koan
Theater for every taste, Yiddish /Wongo-ish..It’s all Fun
Talk about diversity. New York is certainly the land of plenty. Just this week alone, I spent time in an Irish/Yiddish world and the next day was transported by intergalactic forces to the Planet Wongo. All this for a subway token.
The Bespoke Overcoat
Wolf Mankowitz, British/Jewish polyglot is being represented by New Yiddish Rep at the Cell Theatre on West 23rd Street. In two one-act plays “2 by Wolf,” we get a sampling from the prolific pen of Mankowitz. “The Irish Hebrew Lesson” perhaps the only tri-lingual play of its kind written in English, Irish and Yiddish, is followed by “The Bespoke Overcoat,” performed in a Yiddish. (Supertitles are used in the latter play.) The director is Romanian Moshe Yassur, who has had a long career as actor/director here and in Israel.
The Irish Hebrew Lesson pits a religious Jew with a penchant for languages next to a young Irish rebel, hoping to rid Ireland of the British as St. did with the snakes. The rebel is too young to realize the fragility of life and so the older man takes the opportunity to protect the boy and himself by teaching him a little Hebrew and a little philosophy. That the rebel shares the same anti-Semitic joke that the interrogating English soldiers do is just another reminder of the how the pecking order of prejudice works.
The second play is about labor, money and the need to stay warm; as well as the need for dignity, even after death. A tailor negotiates with a poor man to make him a new, warm coat, but (at least as I understood), he only truly offers after he has heard the man died. That it takes a ghost to readdress charity makes sense…you don’t know what you’ve lost till it’s gone. The ghost suffers like all poor but in the end (or in the afterlife) takes his retribution from the greedy employer while the tailor relies on his schnapps to make sense of his own life.
Both plays are beautifully acted by Menachem Fox, Stuart Cullen, Lev Herskovitz, Ilan Kwittken, Shane Baker and Fergal O’Hanlon. Mr. Baker was also the translator.
http://www.NewYiddishRep.org. Show runs till July 2.
WONGO TIME
From Yiddishkeit to Wongolite…composer Dave Ogrin has taken his wonderful Wild Women of Planet Wongo which originally was presented in a classic theatrical setting and moved it to the outer galaxy of Bushwick for a cosmic immersive experience in space. With the feel of a 60’s B movie, two astronauts, delivering CheesyMoon Crater Chips to hungry space stations, find themselves after three long years on a planet in habited only by women. Though hesitant at first, the captain finally joins his crewmate in tasting the delicacies of the Wongo Flesh, in his case, the Queen. But sex isn’t the only thing the Wongettes have in mind…they are also starved –and have very different plans for their male guests.
It’s great fun to interact with the Amazonian Wongo girls and drink Wongotini’s made fresh at the Brooklyn Fireproof bar. The book by Steve Mackes, lyrics by Ben Budick, Steve Mackes, and Dave Ogrin is witty, sexy and very feel good. (The Wongotinis help with that, too). The cast of young singer dancers is joyful and lovingly directed by David Rigano. Musical director is Rachel Dean with choreography by Juson Williams.
The show runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday until July 4, with a Wongo dance party after the late show on weekends. If you can’t get to Joshua Tree this summer to make contact with the aliens, I’d happily settle for Bushwick and Wongo World.
Swiss in New York Yah
Dieter Meier, known as the Godfather of techno pop along with collaborator Boris Blank, kept Le Poisson Rouge jumping Sunday night, though the uber polite Swiss obeyed the New York cabaret laws and didn’t dance. Dieter’s new project “Out of Chaos” starts with madness…the wailing violin, video images bouncing off the back screens aided by the alchemical zap of electro punk pioneer T.Raumschmiere.
Meier, strolling out in a red velvet jacket and shades, looked like he could play the regal vampire Tom Hiddleston’s uncle in Jim Jarmush’s Only Lovers Left Alive. Dieter Meier, the legendary voice behind the Swiss electronic pop pioneers Yello, renowned for the ’80s underground hits “Oh Yeah” (featured in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Simpsons) is a true Renaissance artist, making films and writing books; in 2013 he was the subject of a solo exhibition, Dieter Meier and the Yellow Years, at The Watermill Center in Long Island. His music is a combination of Brecht, Weill and Leonard Cohen. Though raised in a banking family, he has redeemed himself by being a poker player, an activist and now runs an organic sheep farm with the decidedly Swiss viticulture in Argentina.
His presence in New York is due to the generosity of Zürich Meets New York: A Festival of Swiss Ingenuity, a week of events highlighting the contemporary relevance of visionary movements and ideas born in Zurich and their impact on American culture. It is all building up to the 100th anniversary of the Dada movement and Zurich’s role as a 21st century hub for artist and scientific innovation.
One of nice surprises of this festiva.l besides falling in love with Dieter. was sitting next to a real live Nobel Prize Winner… Kurt Wüthrich, the 2002 winner for chemistry. Never happened at Starbucks.
A music sample: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ym1blr908hodjov/gH7hWppnk1
At another Swiss Fest event, Elizabeth Bronfen, Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Zurich, talked about her latest book.Night Passages maps the cultural history of the night in literature and films. She was joined on the New York Film Academy stage by Anastas Michos, cinematographer of Freedomland and Mona Lisa Smiles. Unfortunately it was hard to hear her some of her serious thoughts but Michos was enlightening, sharing the artists’ approach to shooting darkness and delivering the right look for a scene. He, analyzed the film clips of Taxi Driver along with his own Freedomland and Untraceable. Moderator Ben Cohen could use a new adjective to substitute for his exhausted ‘fantastic’, though he did mention that his new film with penis in the title is soon to (ouch) come.
For a list of events, ZHNY.eventbrite.com.
notjustaboutsex 