by Steven Pisano

Photo by Steven Pisano

On Sunday evening, the good citizens of Bleecker Street were invaded by common street thugs, con artists, beggars, murderers, and whores from New Jersey. They hob-nobbed with criminal intent in a dark underground club. Liquor flowed freely at a bar in the back. The police were called, and the charming gangleader was sent to jail. But at the end of the night, the Village was safe again, and the riffraff had fled back across the river.

No, this wasn't an episode of The Sopranos. It was Rutgers Opera's production of The Threepenny Opera at Le Poisson Rouge. Unfortunately, this performance of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's classic musical had less the "pearly white" bite of a shark and more the toothless nuzzle of a teddy bear. Old Macheath, babe, shouldn't have kept his jackknife out of sight. 

To be fair, this one-off production was staged not by professional singers, but by students at The Rutgers Opera Institute, established in 2011. But even in a friendly full-house seemingly packed with family and other familiars, there was scarce laughing at the satire, little shock at the moral debauchery, and only polite applause for the performances.

I'm starting to think that - unconditional hero-worship aside - composers are the most generous artists we have. I mean, would you let a complete stranger into your apartment? Apparently, that's no big deal for ten composers, who have allowed cameras from WQXR into their living quarters - most of which double as their work studios - over the past year-and-a-half to film segments for the ongoing video series Q2 Spaces. Suffice to say, these guys keep much cleaner house than Beethoven ever did, but what's really of interest is how each space reflects its owner's personality: Meredith Monk's pet turtle (Neutron), Timo Andres' tie rack, Tristan Perich's bins filled with cables and circuits. Now, if they can just get into John Adams' pad up in the Berkeley hills...

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Two days after joining in the standing ovation for John Adams during curtain calls at the final performance of The Death of Klinghoffer at The Met, it was strange, to say the least, to be stitting less than five feet from him last night at SubCulture. (He was, conspicuously, wearing the same plaid jacket and shirt.) Adams, who was there to host the NY Phil's first CONTACT! new music concert of the season, made it clear from the outset that he wasn't supposed to be the center of attention, either as a composer or conductor. Rather, he was merely asked to curate and serve as the evening's host. 

This was the first opportunity I'd had to attend CONTACT! since it moved to SubCulture last season - how has that not happened already? - and the small, intimate room is a big improvement over Symphony Space and the Met's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, both of which feel a bit big and sterile for this sort of music. With carte blanche to do whatever he wished, Adams chose to highlight the music of some of his favorite young composers, all of whom have also appeared on the LA Phil's Green Umbrella new music series, where Adams serves as Creative Chair. 

"Back when I was in my 30's," Adams told us in his casual, incisive opening remarks, "it was still the Bad Old Days in American music, where everything was supposed to be written according to the principals of Serialism and 12 Tone music. Things have really opened up now, and I don't think there's been a better time for music in this country."