How We Play

In our family, we have always valued the arts. I grew up dancing, acting, singing, playing music on both piano and flute, going to live concerts and performances, and visiting museums. During her studies at Teachers College, my mother took courses with the renowned educational philosopher

Maureen, me, and Maxine

Maxine Greene, and they became lifelong friends. It seems appropriate to quote Maxine who repeatedly reminds us in her work that “we do not engage with artworks to find copies of an objectively existent world but to experience the artworks’ capacity to enable us to see more, to discover nuances and shapes and sounds inaccessible without them.” (p. 102 in Releasing the Imagination, 1995).

New York is a unique hub of creativity, and when I think about the privileges I have enjoyed, the concerts, shows, exhibitions, performances of all kinds that I have seen, it seems I have had more than enough riches for one lifetime.  I resolved years ago that I would never turn down an offer to attend a concert, or go on a creatively-minded outing because these experiences continue to enrich  and surprise me with their gifts. Here in Rome the first performance we attended was at the Teatro Olimpico, next door to where we first stayed when we arrived and hadn’t yet moved into our apartment. The Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio was performing their version of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, with a woman in the lead role. I first learned of the Orchestra when they formed in 2002 and a documentary about them was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival. They sought to create a musical group from residents of Rome’s Esquilino neighborhood with its rich ethnic mix, to bring those multinational musicians and their talents out of sociocultural marginalized contexts, and create something exuberant and new. In 2007, they began work on Mozart’s Magic Flute, through 2009, and more recently, in 2014, performed their interpretation of Bizet’s Carmen. Under the leadership of founders Mario Tronco and Agostino Ferrente, they have toured the world giving more than 800 performances to enthusiastic fans. (You can get a quick sense of the opening number from the video linked here). 

I got tickets for center orchestra seats for a 6pm show on Sunday, November 12^th, when my sister was going to be visiting us. The stage used minimal sets as musicians occupied a group of scaffolded platforms, and one side of the stage was taken up by a large screen with video projections. Cuban trumpet player Omar Lopez Valle was sick, and his understudy was announced from the stage before the show began. The androgynous Don Giovanni, expertly played by opera singer Petra Magoni, swaggered in and out of a white leather Chesterfield armchair that evoked both the past and contemporary times. The trio of other female performers, Simona Boo, Hersi Matmuja, and Mama Marjas used similar dresses and mic stands to great effect when singing back-up style circa 1970s, but they also sparkled in duets and solos that highlighted their musical ranges. Zerlina and Masetto’s

Mama Marjas as Zerlina and Houcine Ataa as Masetto
(photo courtesy Mama Marjas' Facebook site)

wedding scene had a pumped up party vibe, singing “dai balliamo e cantiamo e godiamo” until Don Giovanni intervenes with the famous “la ci darem la mano” and off she goes, unable to resist. The dramatic and dark tensions in Mozart’s opera were given less prominence than moments of tenderness and regret, but the light comedic touches were irresistible, especially the full company, minus Don Giovanni, singing “tutto, tutto, gia' si sa” at the end of the first act. A finale following Don Giovanni’s descent into hell gave us a pumping 1977 Donna Summer anthem I Feel Love, giving new meaning to the lyrics “fallin’ free.” I so loved this production, I bought more tickets for the last performance and went with two friends, so that I could see Omar Lopez Valle as Leporello. It is a testament to the enduring art form of opera that such a wacky and wild production could be so entertaining and musically satisfying, while straying a good deal from the original material.

Opportunities for engaging with music are particularly important for those suffering from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. One need only think of stories from Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia, or the riveting 2014 documentary hit at Sundance, Alive Inside. The groundbreaking work of my friend Anne Basting of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in her organization Time Slips suggests that creativity and imagination provide ways to meaningfully connect with a loved one suffering from memory loss. She has developed a program to engage communities in storytelling as theater, shifting the focus from one of loss to one of creative engagement. A 2016 MacArthur Fellow Anne has recently critiqued the Alzheimer’s Association for a depressing advertising campaign that she argues is “stealing hope” with a slogan that suggests Alzheimer’s steals one's imagination.

It doesn’t have to be that way. We intentionally play to engage our imagination. We went to see a Picasso exhibit that included video of theater sets and costumes he designed that are playful. We went to a concert of the King’s Singers at Rome’s Auditorium, and appreciated the exquisite musicality of six men singing in elaborate harmonies, taking us through centuries of a cappella music. (You can catch them on this Gold World Tour around the world). Their mission to “spread the joy of ensemble singing” is hard to resist as they take you on a musical journey that manages to be both sacred and playful, catching you in a wave of musical pleasure.

So, go play.