Monkey: Journey to the West, an extraordinary music theater work based on the classic 16th-century Chinese folktale Journey to the West, conceived and directed by Chen Shi-Zheng, opens the Festival. The composer is Damon Albarn, lead singer of Blur; the designer/animator is Jamie Hewlett, who, with Albarn, created the virtual band, Gorillaz. It will have 27 performances.
Karlheinz Stockhausen's Michaels Reise Um Die Erde (Michael's Journey Around the World) will have its U.S. premiere at the Festival. Taken from a section of the composer's epic seven-opera cycle, Licht, it features members of the German contemporary music ensemble musikFabrik, in a staging directed by Carlus Padrissa of the avant-garde Catalan theater troupe, La Fura dels Baus.
Other theater highlights include: Shun-kin, directed by Simon McBurney, in a collaboration between Complicite and Tokyo's Setagaya Public Theater; Murmurs from the French director-actor team of Victoria Thierrée Chaplin and Aurélia Thierrée; and Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a production from Paris' Théâtre de l'Atelier, directed by John Malkovich.
In addition to Michaels Reise, the music presentations at Lincoln Center Festival 2013 are: The Blind, an a capella opera by the prolific Russian-born, New York-based composer, Lera Auerbach, in a new staging by John La Bouchardière. Matsukaze (Wind in the Pines), a one-act opera by Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa, directed by Chen Shi-Zheng; Zorn@60 two concerts, featuring a variety of artists, performing his compositions for vocal quintet and his cycle of string quartets; Sinéad O'Connor: The Gospel Sessions, the Irish singer/songwriter's intimate exploration of American soul gospel music; and Hanggai Band, a Mongolian folk/urban rock group from Beijing.
Programs, artists and ticket prices are subject to change.
The complete Lincoln Center Festival 2013 press release is here!
