Highlights: 30th Anniversary
July 29, 2011
Some Death, Some Struggle, Some Strain, Yet So Much Still Is Joyful
By: Alastair Macaulay for The New York Times
PHOTO: MMDG in Gloria, one of three works presented at the Prospect Park Bandshell on Thursday as part of the “Celebrate Brooklyn!” festival © Andrea Mohin/The New York Times
REVIEW: CELEBRATE BROOKLYN! 2011
“Gloria,” though its music is about worship, is more about the psychopathology of religion, concentrating on the human rather than the divine, the imperfect rather than the ideal. This last work above all demonstrates that Mr. Morris is one of the great artists of our time.
None of these works have been seen in New York for many years; I was among the many watching “Resurrection” and “Lucky Charms” for the first time. Many of us hope for a big Mark Morris retrospective season one day that will give us an overview of how the maker of “Gloria” has proceeded over the past 30 years.
But regardless of when or whether that may happen, it will be good to go from this Brooklyn open-air performance of older works to the Mostly Mozart season in August, when the Mark Morris Dance Group performs “Socrates” and “Festival Dance,” his finest works of the last two years, and presents the New York premiere of his latest, “Renard.”
