UMS Concert Program, October 18, 1975: Martha Graham Dance Company -- Martha Graham

Concert: Second
Complete Series: 3959
Ann Arbor, Michigan

The University Musical Society
The University of Michigan
Martha Graham Dance Company
MARTHA GRAHAM, Artistic Director
YURIKO KIMURA ROBERT POWELL
JANET EILBER TIM WENGERD MARIO DELAMO ELISA MONTE DIANA HART SUSAN McGUIRE AVIND HARRUM JESSICA CHAO
ROSS PARKES DIANE GRAY
PEGGY LYMAN DANIEL MALONEY PETER SPARLING LUCINDA MITCHELL BONNIE ODA HOMSEY DAVID CHASE HENRY YU
Saturday Evening, October 18, 1975, at 8:00
Power Center for the Performing Arts
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Robert Powell, Ross Parkes, Associate Artistic Directors
Isamu Noguchi, Set Designer Jean Rosenthal, Lighting Designer
This performance is part of a halfweek dance residency, receiving support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Michigan Council for the Arts, and the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund. In collaboration with the University's Dance Program of the School of Music, a second residency will be held with the three performances of the Pennsylvania Ballet on March 29, 30, and 31.
Second Program
Fifth Annual Choice Series, Power Center
Complete Programs .1959.
PROGRAM
EL PENITENTE
Music by Louis Horst Choreography by Martha Graham
Set by Arch Lauterer Lighting by Jean Rosenthal
The Penitentes of the Southwest are a sect which believes in purification from sin through severe penance. Even today, in Old and New Mexico, they practice ancient rites, including the crucifixion. The dance bears no factual relationship to these practices but is presented as a story told after the manner of the old mystery plays. The three figures enter, assume their characters and perform as a group of players. The festival dance at the end is a version of a popular dance of celebration with no ritualistic content.
Penitent .................................................. Mario Delamo
Christ Figure ............................................... Tim Wengerd
Mary as: .................................................... Diana Hart
Virgin
Magdalen
Mother
INTERMISSION
ERRAND INTO THE MAZE
Music by GianCarlo Menotti Choreography by Martha Graham
Set by Isamu Noguchi Lighting by Jean Rosenthal
This is an errand into the maze of the heart's darkness in order to face and do battle with the Creature of Fear. There is the accomplishment of the errand, the instant of triumph, and the emergence from the dark.
YURIKO KlMURA
Tim Wengerd
INTERMISSION
DIVERSION OF ANGELS
Music by Norman Deixo Joio Choreography by Martha Graham
Lighting by Jean Rosenthai.
"The city seemed to stand in Eden or to be built in Heaven . . . The dust and stones of the streets were as precious as gold . . . Eternity was manifested in the light of day and something infinite beyond everything appeared which talked with my expectation and moved my desire . . . The Men! Immortal Cherubim! And young men glittering, and sparkling angels, and maids seraphic pieces of life and beauty. Boys and girls, tumbling in the streets and playing, were moving jewels, I knew not that they were born or should die ... The streets were mine, the temple was mine, their clothes and gold and silver were mine, and so were the sun and moon and stars, and all the world was mine, and I the only spectator and enjoyer of it."
Thomas Traherne
"Diversion Of Angels" is a lyric ballet about the loveliness of youth, the pleasure and playful?ness, quick joy and quick sadness of being in love for the first time. It tells no story, but like a lyric poem, simply explores its theme.
White Couple .......................... Phggy Lyman and Daniel Maloney
Red Couple.............................. Susan McGuire and Ross Parkes
Yellow Couple ............................. Elisa Monte and Tim Wf.ngerd
Chorus ........................... Lucinda Mitchell, Bonnie Oda Homsey,
Diana Hart, Jessica Chao, Henry Yu
INTERMISSION
NIGHT JOURNEY
Mtisic by William Schuman Choreography by Martha Graham
Set by Isamu Xoguchi Lighting by Jean Rosenthal
"And loudly o'er the bed she walked where she
In twofold wedlock, hapless, had brought forth
Husband from a husband, children from a child
We could not know the moment of her death
which followed soon."
Oedipus was the son of King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jocasta. At his birth an oracle prophesied that he would murder his father and so he was abandoned on a desolate mountainside. He was found there and protected by a Corinthian shepherd and grew to manhood as the adopted son of the King of Corinth. Once again an oracle predicted that Oedipus would slay his father and marry his mother. Thinking the King of Corinth his true father, he fled the city and in his wanderings met, quarreled with and finally killed a stranger who was King Laius of Thebes.
Oedipus traveled on to Thebes, solved the riddle of the Sphinx, and finally became King and married the Queen, Jocasta. He reigned nobly until a plague ravaged Thebes and the oracle declared that only the banishment of the murderer of Laius would save the city. Finally, the terrible truth of Oedipus' fate was brought to light by the seer Tiresius. Jocasta took her own life; Oedipus blinded himself and wandered the earth in misery.
In "Xight Journey," Martha Graham's dramatization of this myth, it is not Oedipus but Jocasta who is the protagonist. The action turns upon that instant of Jocasta's death when she relives her destiny, sees with double insight the triumphal entry of Oedipus, their meeting, courtship, marriage, their years of intimacy which were darkly crossed by the blind seer Tiresias until at last the truth burst from him.
The chorus of women who know the truth before the seer speaks it, vainly try to divert the prophecy from its crucial conclusion.
Jocasta ..................................................... Diane Gray
Tiresias, the Seer ........................................ Daniel Maloney
Oedipus .................................................... Ross Parkes
Leader of the Chorus......................................... Elisa Monte
Chorus................................Lucinda Mitchell, Susan McGuire,
Diana Hart, Bonnie Oda Homsey, Jessica Chao
COMING EVENTS
Tokyo String Quartet........Wednesday, October 22
Moscow State Symphony........Saturday, October 25
Alexander Dimitriev, Conductor; Valerie Klimov, Violinist
Mussorgsky: A Night on Bald Mountain; Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major;
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9 in Eflat major
Burmese National Dance Theater......Sunday, October 26
Mario Escudero, Flamenco Guitarist..... Saturday, November 1
Lhamo Folk Opera of Tibet....... Sunday, November 2
Fiesta Folklorico, Mexico....... Monday, November 3
Scottish National Orchestra...... Saturday, November 8
Alexander Gibson, Conductor; Michael Davis, Violinist
MacCunn: "The Land of the Mountain and the Flood"; Iain Hamilton: Violin Concerto
No. 1; Sibelius: Symphony 2
Michael Lorimer, Guitarist........Friday, November 14
17th and 18th century works; William Bolcom: "Seasons" (world premiere) "World of Jelly Roll Morton".....Wednesday, November 19
Los Angeles Philharmonic.......Thursday, November 20
Zubin Mehta, Conductor; Samuel Mayes, Cellist
Haydn: Symphony No. 22 ("The Philosopher"); Dvorak: Cello Concerto; Wagner: Dawn
and Siegfried's Rhine Journey, Siegfried's Funeral March, from GdUerddmmerung, Prelude
to Die Meistersinger Pablo Casals Trio..........Sunday, November 23
Mozart: Trio in C major, K. 548; Leon Kirchner: Trio (1954); Brahms: Trio in C major,
Op. 87
Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.....Monday, November 24
Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Conductor; Viktoria Postnikova, Pianist
KarlBirger Blomdahl: Symphony No. 3 ("Facetter") ; Prokofieff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in
C major; Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Handel's "Messiah"........Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
December 5, 6, and 7 Puccini's La Bohhne, Canadian Opera Company . . Saturday, January 10
Detroit Symphony Orchestra.......Sunday, January 11
Aldo Ceccato, Conductor; Gina Bachauer, Pianist
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3; and Symphony No. 3 ("The Eroica")
Beaux Arts Trio...........Friday, January 16
Prague Madrigal Antiqua........Sunday, January 25
Christopher Parkening, Guitarist......Friday, January 30
The Romeros, Guitarists.........Monday, February 9
Luciano Pavarotti, Tenor........Sunday, February 15
Ljubljana Dancers, Yugoslavia......Sunday, February 22
P.D.Q. Bach...........Thursday, February 26
Special Benefit Concert........Saturday, February 28
Royal Tahitian Dancers .... .... Monday, March 1
Ensemble Nipponia..........Thursday, March 4
Prague Chamber Orchestra........Friday, March 19
Preservation Hall Jazz Band.......Saturday, March 20
Berlin String Quartet.........Monday, March 22
Beethoven. Quartet in Eflat, Op. 74 ("The Harp"); Schubert: Quartet in A minor, Op. 29 Detroit Symphony Orchestra........Friday, March 26
Aldo Ceccaio, Conductor; The University Choral Union; Karen Aliman, soprano; Beverly
Wolff, contralto; Seth McCoy, tenor; Simon Estes, bass
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor ("Choral")
Pennsylvania Ballet.......Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
March 29, 30, and 31
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 Phones: 6653717, 7642538