Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Mark Morris’s choreographic interpretation of LAYLA AND MAJNUN captivates in Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival

• By drediman
• October 30, 2017
• No Comments

Mark Morris Dance Group and Silk Road Ensemble’s “Layla and Majnun” at the Rose Theatre, courtesy of Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival.

I recently caught the closing performance of Mark Morris’s utterly captivating Layla and Majnun, which had its New York premiere this past week under the auspices of Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival (the piece had originally premiered in Berkley, California a year ago). Mr. Morris’s latest is a dance distillation of Uzeyir Hajibeyli’s 1908 Azerbaijani opera of the same name, which depicts the story of two young, doomed star-crossed lovers (sound familiar?). I say distillation because Mr. Morris’s work focuses solely on the emotional extremities of the two characters as they journey from love to sorrow to desperation to transcendent death; other characters are irrelevant.

Here, Mr. Morris and his dancers prove yet again why they are one of the preeminent physical interpreters of vocal classical music. Their past interpretations, which include Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, are gestural and choreographic masterpieces of both seemingly throw-away lightness and deep meaning, in dialogue with the music (and not simply complimenting it) to create something larger and more profound than the performance’s individual parts. These are transcendent experiences that illuminate the human experience. The hypnotic Layla and Majnun is no different. In this version of the tale, each of the exquisitely expressive Mark Morris Dance Group dancers at some point portrays either of the title characters, suggesting a refracted multiplicity of similar stories throughout the history of mankind. The effect is at once disorienting yet strangely comforting in its shared storytelling.

Musically, the experience was gorgeous, as arranged by Alim Qasimov, Johnny Gandelsman, and Colin Jacobsen. Mr. Hajibeyli’s score was played with sensitivity and playfulness (as required by the spare libretto by Muhammad Fuzuli) by the Silk Road Ensemble. As the “voices” of Layla and Majnun, Alim and Fargana Qasimova gave mesmerizing performances, sounding at once ethereal and timeless. And visually, theproduction glowed with simplicity and supreme stylishness – the striking scenic and costume designs were by Howard Hodgkin and the excellent lighting design was by James F. Ingalls.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

LAYLA AND MAJNUN
Dance/Opera
Mark Morris Dance Group and Silk Road Ensemble in Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival at the Rose Theater
1 hour, 10 minutes (without an intermission)
Closed