Epoch Arts 1-29-2016

DREAMWORKS ANIMATION/DREAMWORKS ANIMATION LLC

‘Panda 3’ Displays the ‘Force’ in Abundance Jam-packed with profound concepts from China’s rich spiritual history.

BENJAMIN CHASTEEN/EPOCH TIMES

Renaissance Paintings Make a Splash Rarely seen works by Venetian masters unveiled to the public in honor of David Rosand.

See C3

See C8 SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES

C1 Jan. 29–Feb. 4, 2016

CONCERT on Saturday, Feb. 6.

Bringing the

Audience Into the

Orchestra

Conductor David Bernard turns Beethoven’s ‘Fifth’ inside out

By Milene Fernandez | Epoch Times Staff

N

EW YORK—Every word he speaks cascades deliberately to the next with clear articulation. David Bernard is not one to slur his words, especially when he’s conducting. “I need you to be on the edge of your seat, you need to be playing even when you are not playing,” Bernard tells the musicians of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony (PACS).

There’s electricity between the musicians. …

That’s the bestkept secret in classical music.

David Bernard

No matter how many times Beethoven’s “Fifth” has been played and heard Bernard feels that it is always amazing. But he’s also acutely aware that many people don’t feel as enthusiastic about the “Fifth,” or classical music in general, as much as he does.

“There is so much in classical music that inspires, that excites. The question is how do you deliver that, how do you bring people inside the music?” he said in a Midtown office a few days before the rehearsal. He has noticed that many of his colleagues and friends enjoy concerts in a visceral, engaged way. He pondered the difference between these avid concertgoers and passive listeners who are fine with just using headphones.

See Orchestra on C4

C2

@EpochArts

January 29–February 4, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts ALL PHOTOS BY SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS

What’s presented by Shen Yun is traditional Chinese culture.

Ms. Chen, former dance instructor in Beijing

Shen Yun Performing Arts

Shen Yun Brings China’s Diversity to Life

Yi ethnic dance.

By Leo Timm | Epoch Times Staff

B

e it the spirited hospitality of Mongolian steppe women or the masculine agility of Yi shepherds in the southern mountains, performances by the New York-based classical dance company Shen Yun Performing Arts draw from China’s rich history of 5,000 years. Shen Yun incorporates diverse traditions and heritages, including those of folk and ethnic groups.

A nation the size of Europe, China is home to dozens of distinct ethnicities and cultures, and was host to many more across the ages.

Today, 56 recognized ethnic groups reside within China.

Every year, Shen Yun’s performances include these folk and ethnic dances originating from the vast and frigid Northeast to the semi-tropical borderlands of southern China.

“You feel that it’s from China. You see they’re really using their actual Chinese origin,” said Tibor Pelsoczy, an author and classically trained dancer from Hungary, who caught a performance in Melbourne, Australia, last season. “They really, really express themselves, their ethnic [traditions].”

The authenticity audience members saw in Shen Yun was refreshing, and what they felt was a rare look into the real China.

Arlene Souza, a television producer who saw a performance in Knoxville, Tennessee, summed up what many audience members expressed that season: “I think that the spirit

Shen Yun Performing Arts Lincoln Center David H. Koch Theater Tickets Online: ShenYun.com/NYC Hotline: 800-818-2393 Running Time 2 hours, 15 minutes (one intermission) Date & Time March 2, 3, & 4 at 7:30 p.m.

March 5 at 2:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.

March 6 at 1:30 p.m.

March 9, 10, & 11 at 7:30 p.m.

March 12 at 2:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.

March 13 at 1:30 p.m.

A number of China’s 50-some minority groups are represented through ethnic and folk dances every year.

Dai ethnic dance.

of a country, their culture, should never be eradicated. A country’s culture should always bloom and grow, and it should be shared with the world.”

Capturing Regional Styles Shen Yun’s forte, classical Chinese dance, transcends regional differences with its foundation of systematic training and technical skills.

Through these techniques, Shen Yun’s dancers portray the traditional arts of the myriad communities that gradually shaped China’s rich heritage throughout the ages.

Ethnic minorities and their distinct ways of life reflect differences in local topography, climate, and religious tradition. Naturally, these factors are also deeply embedded into each ethnicity’s dance style.

For instance, the Manchurian dance, a recurring staple of Shen Yun performances, features stately and dignified female dancers. The young women don the imperial regalia of princesses and dance with gingerly steps on small soled “flower-pot shoes” in front of a backdrop evocative of Beijing’s Forbidden City.

By contrast, both male and female dancers performing in a Mongolian style assume a decidedly free and dynamic air reminiscent of a life lived with horses on the great steppes of northern Asia.

From the peasant life in central China’s Huai River valley comes the iconic “Flower Drum Lantern” dance. According to the Shen Yun

website, the Huai River valley is a melting pot for northern and southern Chinese folk traditions.

This type of dancing “can thus be both bold and unconstrained as in the north, or elegant and gentle as in the south.”

Other ethnic dances featured by Shen Yun come from the south and the west. Among these are the dances of the Yi, Qiang, Dai, and Miao (or Hmong) people, as well as those of the Li ethnicity residing on the island of Hainan.

Shen Yun’s performances, while stylized, take care to portray these diverse arts with the spirit of the original ethnicity or community.

Ms. Chen, a former dance instructor in Beijing, went to Taiwan in 2013 to attend a performance by Shen Yun. She was particularly struck by the power and authenticity of the piece “Dancing for the Gods,” which depicts a traditional Tibetan dance.

“It illustrated perfectly the characteristics of the Tibetan ethnicity, and the dance is very spirited,” Ms. Chen said. “The male dancers’ artistic level is very high in terms of technical skills, form, and bearing.”

Ms. Chen noted that unlike other performing arts groups, Shen Yun presents authentic classical Chinese dance, while other companies often make modifications to cater to the audience’s tastes. “They are often the combination of modern dance, jazz dance, ballet, etc.,” she said. “What’s presented by Shen Yun is traditional Chinese culture, with classical features.”

Shen Yun’s performances include folk and ethnic dances originating from the vast and frigid Northeast to the semitropical borderlands of southern China.

C3

@EpochArts

January 29–February 4, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts DREAMWORKS ANIMATION/DREAMWORKS ANIMATION LLC

DREAMWORKS ANIMATION/DREAMWORKS ANIMATION LLC

EXPERT ADVICE

On Color Combinations Of Mats And Framing Styles

JOHN RUSSO/DREAMWORKS ANIMATION LLC

(Top right) The fearsome and power-hungry warrior Kai, voiced by J.K. Simmons, in “Kung Fu Panda 3.”

(L–R) Po (voiced by Jack Black) and his long-lost panda father Li (voiced by Bryan Cranston) in “Kung Fu Panda 3.”

Film Review

‘Kung Fu Panda 3’

By Mark Jackson | Epoch Times Staff

‘Kung Fu Panda 3’

W

Director Alessandro Carloni, Jennifer Yuh

hen “Kung Fu Panda 3” opens in China, it’ll feature something new—reanimated cartoon-mouths, that make Mandarin movements.

Why’s that interesting? Well, “Panda 3” was co-produced with Oriental Dreamworks, behind which is Shanghai Alliance Investment money. Which means Chinese Communist Party (CCP) money.

Meaning possible CCP “artistic” influence.

Can one therefore observe communist ideology bleeding into this, our third “American” Panda (which is quite excellent, by the way)? Perhaps in the slightly overabundant use of Communist-red? As in red drums, umbrellas, lampshades, ribbons, and candles? I’d like to say yes, but, truthfully—no, not really.

But Isn’t It Ironic …

The irony here, however, is that—firstly— the CCP’s bloody-red genocidal history and atheist–materialist ideology largely destroyed China’s rich, 5,000-year spiritual history.

And now—the CCP is funding a USAoriginated Panda movie, loaded with depictions of things that rank among precommunist China’s most sacred—that the CCP tried purging in the first place.

Such as? Well, hard on the heels of “Star Wars,” “Panda 3” displays the “Force” in abundance. It’s furthermore jampacked with profound concepts such as chi (qi) energy, kung fu masters meditating for 30 years in mountain caves, Buddha paradises, Taos, yin and yang, third eye vision, law of loss and gain, healing energy, supernormal abilities of precognition. And on and on.

Since these are all fantastic things for children (and adults) to come in contact with, I highly recommend the movie, while Chairman Mao spins in his grave.

The Story The movie opens smack-dab in the spirit world, which is represented as a sort of asteroid field, with the occasional ancient temple or monastery drifting about.

There, giant Galapagos tortoise kung fu master Oogway (voiced by Randall Duk Kim), fights the green-eyed, double-daggers-on-chains-whiplashing, demon-bull, Kai (voiced by “Whiplash’s” J.K. Simmons).

Master Oogway probably achieved spiritual enlightenment hundreds of millions of years ago, and Kai was his former student, whom he defeated 500 years earlier.

Down through the ages though, Kai the bull vanquished many, many masters and stole their qi (life force, also known as “etheric” energy), and bottled the qi up in little jade amulets he hangs on his belt, like scalps, and can then use as additional channels to his third eye (sort of like the old, “You’re my eyes and ears.”—he sees what they see). He can dispatch them, like jade zombies, to fight his battles remotely.

Got all that? So after beating Oogway, Kai returns to the human world, to use this accumulated qi-power to do bad deeds.

Let it be noted—Master Oogway, practicing “wuwei” (nonaction), is quite unconcerned about the loss, as he has the supernormal power of precognition, and knows that a shifu (teacher/master) more powerful than himself will rectify the situation at a future date.

Dragon Warrior!

The inimitable Jack Black again voices our hero, Po the panda, who’s now reached

Starring Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, James Hong, Kate Hudson, J.K. Simmons Running Time 1 hour, 35 minutes Rated PG Release Date Jan. 29

the multiple-black-belt level of Dragon Warrior! Ski-doosh!

Kai’s killing spree comes at a particularly bad time—Po’s just met biological panda-pop, Li (Bryan Cranston), who’s been on a pilgrimage to the Valley of Peace, to find his long-lost son—oh, happy reunion!

Which of course raises some jealousy goose-hackles in Po’s adoptive goosedad, Mr. Ping (James Hong). But Po, like the ugly duckling he is (or in this case, ugly gosling) finally recognizing his swan, er, panda-ness, finally feels a bigbelly belongingness!

The ‘Force’—is gong.

Simplistically speaking.

Roots Since Kai the bull’s successfully using qi to create havoc, Po the panda’s now got to rise to the level of qi-usage to counter him. It’s revealed that the panda clan knows how to heal using qi-power. So Po must discover his roots, and return home to the mountain abode of the lost panda clan! There’d been, as we know from “Panda 2,” a panda genocide.

Po has to return to his true self to access the qi power, represented here by owning his panda roots. This is the culmination of Po’s “Hero’s Journey;” he brings the “gold” he won on his journey (becoming a kung fu master), and returns it to the village compound.

Which means teaching kung fu to his panda brethren, and taking (hilariously) into account—bear talents, such as massive eating, hibernating (sleeping late), rolling, and hugging stuff with cracking great bear-hugs.

Bring It On! Finally, the Panda clan’s in shape, and ready for the showdown with the big bad bull, who, meantime, has succeeded in taking down all Po’s furry and feathered fighter friends—Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), Viper (Lucy Liu), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), and Crane (David Cross). They’re all little green pendants now, hanging on the Bull’s belt!

It’s the grand finale—will Po succumb to getting his qi drained? Will he rescue his buddies? How will Panda qi-healing be brought to bear? You must see the movie to find out!

Filthy Lucre?

Although it does feel a little like a cynical cherry-picking mish-mash of Chi-

(Above right) Dustin Hoffman as the voice of Shifu.

na’s ancient spiritual treasures for Hollywood’s bottom line, rather than the sincere children’s bedtime story it should be—I’m probably projecting my own cynicism. Directors Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh actually do sound quite sincere and enthusiastic.

The problem is more a lack of true understanding of the concepts on display, which, jumbled together in a heap, can come across as kitschy, to connoisseurs of Eastern thought. So—knowing a thing or two about the philosophical concepts overflowing the film, I’ll clarify a few that apparently got thrown out there, willy-nilly, for public consumption, but which are a little (or a lot) twisted from their original meanings.

The Truth About Qi This “qi” of which they speak—it’s a tad misleading. In China, kung fu is actually “Gong Fu.” Same way the increasing popular practice of “Chi-Kung” is actually “Qigong.” Everybody knows a little about “qi” nowadays, but very few know about “gong.” Both are energy, but gong is by far the more powerful of the two, and that’s what’s being depicted in the film.

Mark my words: Qigong will eventually eclipse yoga the world over, in popularity.

Why is this important? It’s not really.

Just keep in mind, when Po, Tigress, et al, are flying around, dropping down out of the sky, and landing unscathed—that’s advanced-level gong energy, not qi.

And when the Gong-fu masters appear and disappear in blinding light and heat— that’s gong. The musical instrument that summons up the most comprehensive sound equivalent of that visually overwhelming experience—is called a what?

It’s called a gong. When the Panda clan sends out healing power through their hands—that’s gong. The Force of “Star Wars”—is gong. Simplistically speaking.

Practice Versus Cultivation Practice in martial arts is doing forms, “kata,” sparring, and working on the wing chun kung fu “wooden man” practice dummy. That’ll eventually rev up some qi. But gong only happens through inner cultivation. Cultivation of what?

One’s ability to function in all situations, in a truthful, compassionate, and tolerant manner. That’s what accumulates healing gong energy above all else.

Only truly advanced masters have it.

There’s a word for “master” in every language: Sensei (Japanese), Shifu (Chinese), Guru (Indian), Lama (Tibetan), Rebbe (Hebrew), and many more. You can only increase gong by having impeccably high morals. What’s a halo? Gong energy.

Which is why none of these supernormal things in the movie can normally be seen. Can’t be shown off. One must be humble. Which is why Po is powerful.

Po’s a humble panda. A slob—but very genuine and sincere. Po cultivates his inner goodness. Po is good for children.

Faust’s ‘Mephisto’ Which leads us to the final irony. The Chinese Communist Party has killed between 60 million and 80 million people during its red reign of terror.

There’s a line in Goethe’s play “Faust,” where Mephisto, the red/black devil, says, “I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good.”

By funding “Kung Fu Panda 3” and offering the world insights into the revered mysteries of China—that function as “healing qi” for children—the CCP is an example of that power, which eternally wills evil, and eternally works good—in spite of itself.

The Roman Pantheon 19th Century engraving by Domenico Amici Custom

& Archival Framing Modern & Contemporary Prints, Paintings & Photographs

Antique,

(212) 755-1516 133 East 54th Street, 2nd Floor www.PhyllisLucasGallery.com

Director: Michael Lucas Mon–Fri: 10am–5pm, Sat: 2–5pm

For our online art exhibitions search for Phyllis Lucas Gallery at: onekingslane.com % 1stdibs.com

NEW PAGODA S P E C I A LT Y I N C .

Early 19th Century Tiffany Grande Carriage Clock, strike repeater with Alarm

40 W 25th St #103, New York, NY 10010 • (212) 645-1964 facebook.com/newpagodaspecialty

The Next Art Opening You Attend, Can Be in Your Home

Show off your collection with museum quality framing and conservation.

Picture Frames & Mouldings Museum Conservation Framing Reproduction Period Mirrors

Jinpra N.Y. E-mail: Jinpra@aol.com

C4

@EpochArts

January 29–February 4, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts

Bringing the

Audience

Conductor David Bernard rehearses Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5” with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony at The DiMenna Center in Manhattan on Jan. 14.

Into the

Orchestra

Conductor David Bernard turns Beethoven’s ‘Fifth’ inside out Orchestra continued from C1 It dawned on him. “It’s that we’ve had this experience of being inside an orchestra … that gives us a perspective on this process that is beyond any kind of passive listening. We see how the music is made, we experience the music through all of our senses, and we see how the conductor works with the orchestra. There is nonverbal communication, there’s electricity between the musicians, all of this. That’s the best-kept secret in classical music today,” he said while banging lightly on the table.

If someone who hasn’t had a music-fromthe-inside experience like that, despite the wonderful acoustics of a concert venue like Carnegie Hall, “They receive only a small percentage of what is going on,” he said.

From The Inside Out As the music director of PACS, Bernard then decided to open a pathway for audiences to appreciate the live concert experience more— he decided to spread out the orchestra. In the nooks and crannies about 100 audience members will be seated between the musicians during PACS’s next performance, “Beethoven’s Fifth: FROM THE INSIDE OUT!” “It’s going to be an amazing experience, I think for all of us,” Bernard told the musicians at their first rehearsal for the performance on Feb. 6 at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music.

As a conductor you are not playing an instrument, your instrument is the orchestra.

David Bernard

After each of the four movements of Beethoven’s “Fifth” Symphony, the whole audience will move from one section of the orchestra to another—a musical chairs kind of arrangement, except that nobody will be left out. So while sitting near the violas in the ferocious struggle of the first movement, by the transition from the third movement to the fourth you may be sitting by the brass, when that struggle turns into a victory (going from C minor to C major), and later when that victory turns into a giddy celebration and catharsis, you may find yourself swaying next to the violins.

The audience will be so close to the musicians that they may even hear them breathe, or they may notice “extra” sounds, like those of a clarinet key being pressed. Page turns by the musicians may sound much louder than usual. The audience will be able to sense more intimately the concentration of the musicians and they will certainly see the conductor sweat. Hopefully they won’t get stage fright or feel as though they have to respond somehow to Bernard’s conducting.

The overall sound of the orchestra is radically different from sitting in the audience seats of a traditional concert hall. “You may not hear everything the same way, but you are going to see and feel in ways that you have never experienced,” Bernard said.

“From the Inside Out” is intended to be a concert not just for listening. Bernard hopes that it will jump-start passive listeners into appreciating more deeply live classical music concerts.

Why the ‘Fifth’?

Bernard chose Beethoven’s “Fifth” for the first “Inside Out” concert because it is so familiar.

“Usually there is a resistance to the unfamiliar. What we want to show is that even with the familiar there is so much more to learn, so much more to appreciate, so much more to experience. And so when people come out of this performance we want them to say, ‘Wow, I thought I knew Beethoven’s ‘Fifth,’ but I didn’t.

Now I do,’” he said.

There are different ways to perform Beethoven’s “Fifth,” but for Bernard—in tandem with his intense gaze—it’s more about driving. “It’s always pressing forward. There’s a little bit of self-exploration in there, but ultimately you are chasing fate, or fate is chasing you. There is an intensity to life that is always there,” Bernard said.

It’s a Dance!

About 20 minutes into the rehearsal and the PACS orchestra is driving along with Bernard further along the first movement of Beethoven’s “Fifth.”

“Let’s now go back to 125. Now one thing before we get started, after the fermata [the pause] the dynamic is piano [volume is soft]. I

know I’m asking for a lot of intensity and articulation, but it still needs to be piano,” Bernard tells the musicians.

Bernard grew up immersed in music. His mother is a pianist and a soprano and his father was a committed listener. He started playing the piano when he was 4 and the clarinet when he was 9 years old. Later he played the clarinet in the Great Neck Symphony Orchestrator several years. The orchestra is semi-pro and local to Long Island. Bernard realized he had a lot more to say than what he could with only the clarinet. The first time he conducted it was Wagner’s overture to “Rienzi” with the Long Island Youth Orchestra when he was in high school. He called it a mind-blowing experience.

“As a conductor you are not playing an instrument, your instrument is the orchestra,” he said. Then he explained his creative process as a conductor, using the word “interpretation” carefully.

“It is a very complex concept when we talk about how to realize a work of art in real time. … The art in the music is not fully created until it is performed,” he said.

A great deal of that creation happens during rehearsals. The conductor has to make many decisions involving the pacing, the tempo, the phrasing, and the dynamics, and so forth to realize the composer’s intention in the performance. And that is where the artistry comes in, Bernard explained.

“There’s so much more going on that needs to be reconciled. It’s in many more dimensions.

That thought process and the execution of that vision is the responsibility of the conductor,” Bernard said. “The amount that you can put in and get out of music is infinite,” he added.

The conductor is guiding, anticipating, and leading all the while embracing the capabilities of the musicians. “Many times it’s about not getting in the way as much as it is about guiding. Guiding is an important concept because when you guide someone you are allowing those people to make their own destiny,” Bernard said.

“You put a bit of yourself into the music and it comes back at you, and how that occurs throughout a work and across performances is almost magical. … It’s a dance and that dance, especially with the result that you get over time is fantastic,” he said.

That collaborative dance between the conductor and the orchestra in realizing the artistry of a piece can become even subtler.

“It becomes more than just ‘I’m following you, you are following me.’ … You get to the point where the conductor and the orchestra almost read each other’s minds.

There is a give and take that occurs somewhere in time, somewhere ahead of time. You feel the push ahead of time. That’s a little magical,” Bernard said.

C5

@EpochArts

January 29–February 4, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts ALL PHOTOS BY SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES

The amount that you can put in and get out of music is infinite.

David Bernard

Most of the artistry gets worked into the piece during rehearsals, but the full creation occurs during the live performance. And each live performance, of course, is unique. Even if it is recorded, the experience of it is never the same as in the present moment. It’s something that cannot be experienced with streaming or through a smartphone.

10

Bernard believes that the “Inside Out” concept “could result in an evolution in the concert experience. … It has to be something beyond just listening in a two dimensional way. I think that’s key,” he said.

Park Avenue Chamber Symphony orchestra performs “Beethoven’s Fifth: FROM THE

Greatest Poems Ever Written PA R T 1 O F 10

By Evan Mantyk

I

n this series we look at the ten greatest poems originally written in the English language, one by one. It is presented from least greatest (No. 10) to greatest greatest (No. 1), and each poem is followed by a brief analysis.

The poems in the list were selected by the Society of Classical Poets to inspire and educate new poets, but they can also inspire and educate all people with their timeless wisdom and universal themes.

The works featured in this series are limited to classical poetry. What is classical poetry? It means poems that follow perennial forms, like meter and rhyme, and that are infused with a classical flavor—that is, with humanity’s quintessential quest for virtue over vice, epic over ephemeral, and beauty over baseness.

Additionally, note that long poems, such as epics and plays, and excerpts of such works were not considered for this list.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Robert Frost.

10. ‘The Road Not Taken’

By Robert Frost (1874–1963) Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

Analysis of the Poem This poem deals with that big, noble question, “How to make a difference in the world?” On first reading, it tells us that the choice one makes really does matter, ending: “I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.”

A closer reading reveals that the lonely choice made earlier by our traveling narrator maybe wasn’t all that significant since both roads were pretty much the same anyway (“Had warn them really about the same”), and it is only in the remembering and retelling that it made a difference. We are left to ponder if the narrator had instead traveled down “The Road Not Taken,” might it have also made a difference as well.

In a sense, “The Road Not Taken” tears apart the traditional view of individualism, which hinges on the importance of choice, as in the case of democracy in general (choosing a candidate), as well as various constitutional freedoms: choice of religion, choice of words (freedom of speech), choice of group (freedom of assembly), and choice of source of information (freedom of press).

For example, we might imagine a young man choosing between being a carpenter or a banker later seeing great significance in his choice to be a banker, but in fact there was not much in his original decision at all other than a passing fancy. In this, we see the universality of human beings: the roads leading to carpenter and banker being basically the same, and the carpenter and banker at the end of them— seeming like individuals who made significant choices—really being just part of the collective of the human race.

Then is this poem not about the question “How to make a difference in the world?” after all? No. It is still about this question. The ending is the clearest and most striking part. If nothing else, readers are left with the impression that our narrator, who commands beautiful verse, profound imagery, and time itself (“ages and ages hence”), puts value on striving to make a difference. The striving is reconstituted and

INSIDE OUT!” at the Mary Flagler Cary Hall, The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 W. 37th St., on Saturday, Feb. 6, at 5 p.m.

PACS rehearses Beethoven’s “Fifth” at The DiMenna Center on Jan. 14.

”This Is New York” is a feature series that delves into the lives of inspiring individuals in New York City. See all our TINYs here:epochtim.es/ TINY or follow @milenefernandez on Twitter.

complicated here in reflection, but our hero wants to make a difference and so should we.

That is why this is a great poem, from a basic or close-reading perspective.

to New England after three years because of the outbreak of World War I, and he served in many eminent academic positions in the ensuing years.

Robert Frost was a New England poet of the late Romantic and Modern periods. He spent his young adult years straddling both farming and teaching in rural New England. When he relocated his family to England to pursue poetry there, his career took off. They returned

To contact the Society of Classical Poets, write to Submissions@ClassicalPoets.org Evan Mantyk is president of the Society of Classical Poets and a high school English teacher in upstate New York.

SPECIALIZING IN FINE CHINESE PAINTINGS & WORKS OF ART

Chinese antiques wanted, especially painting, porcelain, jade, bronze, furniture etc.

Collections purchased.

40 W 25th St. Gallery 205 New York, NY 10010 museumofasianart@gmail.com www.TonyDaiChineseArt.com For Appointment Please Call 646-539-0523

Scholar Under Under Pine Pine Tree Tree Scholar

C6

@EpochArts

January 29–February 4, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts ALL PHOTOS BY JEREMY DANIEL

The playwright also takes gleeful potshots at liberal hypocrisy.

Theater Review

When the Right Move Is Everything

By Judd Hollander NEW YORK—A cornered foe, particularly an elderly one, can be quite dangerous, especially when all he wants is to be left alone. David Mamet brilliantly taps into this scenario in his insightful and quite relevant play “China Doll,” starring Al Pacino at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway.

Mickey Ross (Pacino) is an aging billionaire power broker. A well-known public figure, he’s had his hands in a number of political deals and elections throughout the years. Now in the twilight of life, he’s looking forward to retirement with his much younger fiancée.

He knows full well she is marrying him for his money and the material things he can offer.

Ross is first and foremost a realist.

On the eve of his departure for this new life, Ross finds it’s not that simple to just pick up and leave. It is an election year, and he finds himself becoming an issue for a gubernatorial candidate out for payback. Ross did not endorse this candidate who now seeks to paint him as a figure of wealth, privilege, and one for whom the rules of law do not apply.

Caught in an attempted tax dodge (technically legal, but stretching the boundaries when it comes to ethics), Ross finds himself facing bureaucratic challenges on several fronts. Initially, he handles these problems with customary aplomb, combining quiet reason with veiled threats.

However, when he finds that his fiancée has been drawn into his scheme to the point she’s forced to hide in a hotel under an assumed

Al Pacino plays Ross as an aging warrior.

‘China Doll’ Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre 236 W. 45th St. Tickets 212-239-6200, or ChinaDollBroadway.com Running Time 2 hours (one intermission) Closes Jan. 31

Christopher Denham stars in “China Doll.”

Much of the play consists of one-sided phone conversations in an ever-changing game of verbal acrobatics.

name, Ross takes the gloves off and shows just how dangerous he can be.

This piece is certainly timely, particularly considering what’s going on in the American presidential race. Ross is almost a stand-in for a Donald Trump type—that is, a CEO of a major conglomerate who’s used to picking up the phone whenever he has a problem and talking to someone who can make it go away, or at least turn things in his favor.

Much of the play consists of one-sided phone conversations in an ever-changing game of verbal acrobatics as Ross tries to keep control of a situation slipping away from him.

Though watching Ross battle the various situations that try to take him down, one can’t help wondering if the seemingly simple incidents that started it all—the unexpected changing of a private airplane registration number and an instrument warning light occurring in flight—are really coincidental.

While Mamet is examining Ross’s unraveling, the playwright also takes gleeful potshots at the liberal hypocrisy of the aforementioned gubernatorial contender, a so-called man of the people. As Ross says, the closest he ever got to “the people” is when he saw them wash his car.

Nor do we the people escape Mamet’s aim.

In still another comment about the political system, Ross points out that people are foolish and a lot of them vote.

Much has been made of Pacino not knowing his lines and supposedly relying on teleprompters hidden on stage, yet the actor gives a fantastic performance. Every pause he makes when delivering his dialogue

(L–R) Carson (Christopher Denham) is learning from his boss, billionaire Mickey Ross (Al Pacino).

comes off as carefully calculated before ramming home the next line or bit of business for maximum effect.

The actor plays Ross as an aging warrior, one brimming with scars of experience gained from a lifetime of brinkmanship. There’s even a Shakespearean reference tossed in, where Ross muses about an aging king. The ruler will not be able to rid himself of the numerous burdens he carries until he gives up the trappings of power. Though if he does, he will no longer be king.

Of the old school, Ross prizes loyalty—in contrast to younger generations, who seem more apt to bend whichever way the wind is blowing.

The younger generation here is represented

by Ross’s assistant and right-hand man, Carson (Christopher Denham). Denham is very good as Carson. Part gofer, part yes man, quite knowledgeable and eager to learn, he’s someone Ross trusts implicitly. He’s privy to such knowledge as why Ross would receive a gift from a company he’s doing business with.

At the same time, Carson, while outwardly loyal to Ross, also takes care to look out for himself. He will not cross certain boundaries, such as sacrificing his legal deniability.

Seemingly simplistic, yet containing numerous layers, “China Doll” offers a hard look at someone who tries to walk away from the game he’s played for so long, only to learn those still playing are not yet ready to let him go.

Judd Hollander is a member of the Drama Desk and reviewer for StageBuzz.com

Book Review

A Wise and Daring History of Ancient Rome

By Chelsea Scarnegie The story of Rome is as abundant and expansive as the entire region of Europe. It would take endless books, excursions, and personal research to get a taste of what life was like in the constantly changing landscape of the Roman Empire. The average reader would surely shy away from this ancient world if he or she had no reason to visit it. After all, how could a 2,000-year-old empire be relevant in the age of smartphones and computers?

To tell Rome’s story in a way that is timely and comprehensible, one would need a guide like classicist Mary Beard—wise and incredibly daring. She tackles the daunting task of telling Rome’s story in her new book “SPQR,” the title referring to the motto of the Roman Empire— Senatus Populusque Romanus.

In spite of her deep fascination with ancient Rome, Beard is careful not to turn “SPQR” into a mere love story that sings this ancient empire’s praises.

She acts as a critic who shares Rome’s accomplishments as well as its shortcomings. For example, the “Cloaca Maxima,” or “Great Drain” is perhaps the most famous attempt at an early sewage system. Regardless of its renown, Beard mentions that many of the forced laborers were so tired from working that they killed themselves. These small but important details prove vital to our understanding of the Roman Empire as a whole.

The greatest strength of “SPQR” is its subtle humor. Rather than write a dry, fact-infused book that would surely be overlooked by the average reader, Beard has constructed a guide that is as witty as it is informative. On the com-

The greatest strength of ‘SPQR’ is its subtle humor.

LIVERIGHT PUBLISHING CORPORATION

‘SPQR’ Author Mary Beard Publisher Liveright Publishing Corporation Pages 606 Price $35

edies of Plautus and Terence, Beard writes, “The ‘happy ending’ to some of their rape stories can appall modern readers: ‘Good news— the rapist was her fiancé all along,’ to summarize the dénouement of one.”

She brings her skepticism of the grandeur of Rome into photographs and sketches that would otherwise appear straightforward. A drawing of Augustus’s Forum shows the effort that Augustus put into overshadowing the old forum, but the sketch proves to be “certainly unreliable in detail.” Similarly, the columns of Hadrian’s Panthenon were of Egyptian granite, which came from only one spot on earth—2,500 miles from Rome—and signified the extent of the Roman reach.

But for all of ancient Rome’s flaws, Beard does not want her audience to dismiss the once great civilization. Rather, her purpose is to bring the reader to a happy medium between admiration and skepticism. As she writes in the introduction: “There is much in the classical world— both Roman and Greek—to engage our interest and demand our attention. Our world would be immeasurably the poorer if we did not continue to interact with theirs.”

She wants us to question everything that we’ve ever been taught about Rome and its people. “Is it legitimate to eliminate ‘terrorists’ outside the due process of law? How far should civil rights be sacrificed in the interests of homeland security?” she wonders. These questions are just as relevant today as they were 2,000 years ago.

And when learning about ancient Rome, there is much to question. In those days, not all babies were lovingly raised; many girls were thrown into a trash pile directly after birth.

Only half of the lucky babies survived to age 10. This meant that a woman had to give birth to about six babies in order to maintain Rome’s population.

“How did these patterns of birth and death affect the emotional life within the family?”

Beard asks. She looks to evidence such as the epitaph on a tombstone for her answer: “My little doll, my dear Mania, lies buried here. For just a few years was I able to give my love to her.”

In the story of Spartacus, he and his 50 slave gladiators, wielding kitchen tools as weapons, spent two years successfully fighting off Roman armies. A tale like this is treated as legend, and as such, not many people ponder the plausibility of this underdog story. Beard, however, thinks a bit deeper. “What explains that success?” she wonders.

Perhaps a book at 544 pages is too overwhelming a read for the amateur classical reader. As a scholarly book, however, half of the fun is forging your own path and asking your own questions. The book does not have to be taken as strictly chronological. Are you interested in pirates? “SPQR” has its share of pirate tales. Would you like to learn about the bar culture of ancient Rome and what sorts of games were played?

It would be a disservice to Beard not to fall in love with Roman civilization on your own time and in your own way—even if that means jumping from page 334 to page 505. For to read “SPQR” is to have your own adventure, to ask your own questions, and to be touched by whichever aspects of ancient Rome speak to you.

Chelsea Scarnegie lives and writes in the Chicago area.

C7

@EpochArts

January 29–February 4, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts KEN HOWARD/METROPOLITAN OPERA

Maria Stuarda

Jan. 29–Feb. 20 Metropolitan Opera

The second chapter of soprano Sondra Radvanovsky’s quest to sing all three Donizetti Tudor queen operas in the same season has her playing the doomed Mary, Queen of Scots. Sir David McVicar’s stunning production turns on the dramatic confrontation between Mary and her arch nemesis, Queen Elizabeth—compellingly portrayed by soprano Elza van den Heever. Riccardo Frizza conducts. From $32. MetOpera.org

THINGS TO DO COMMUNITY EVENTS ONGOING IN MANHATTAN

VISUAL ARTS NEW IN MANHATTAN A New Look at a van Eyck Masterpiece Through April 24 Metropolitan Museum of Art This focus exhibition will present the findings of a recent study of Jan van Eyck's "Crucifixion" and "Last Judgment" paintings (ca. 1440–41).

These paintings and their frames have undergone technical investigations in an effort to solve longstanding mysteries about them. $12–$25 suggested.

METMuseum.org The Power of Prints: The Legacy of William M. Ivins and A. Hyatt Mayor Through May 22 Metropolitan Museum of Art This exhibition commemorates the centenary of the Department of Prints at The Metropolitan Museum of Art by celebrating the astounding legacy of its founding curator, William Mills Ivins, and his brilliant protégé A. Hyatt Mayor.

Together, during their combined fifty-year tenure, Ivins and Mayor amassed a collection of many hundreds of thousands of prints that is both encyclopedic in its scope and studied in its many areas of focus. $12– $25 suggested.

METMuseum.org

ENDING IN MANHATTAN Tenth Anniversary: Master Drawings in New York Through Jan. 30 Various locations

Winter Antiques Show Through Jan. 31 Park Avenue Armory, Park Avenue at 67th Street The Winter Antiques Show marks its 62nd year as the most prestigious antiques show in America, featuring the “best of the best” from antiquities through the 1960s from over 70 exhibitors. One-third of the Show's exhibitors are specialists in Americana, with the rest featuring English, European, and Asian fine and decorative arts. $25.

WinterAntiquesShow.com

PERFORMING ARTS ONGOING IN MANHATTAN Cavalleria Rusticana/ Pagliacci Through Feb. 26 Metropolitan Opera Opera’s indomitable double bill returns in Sir David McVicar’s searing production from the 2014– 15 season. Tenor Yonghoon Lee and mezzo-soprano Violeta Urmana star in Cavalleria Rusticana, the tragedy of ancient codes and illicit love, Sicilian style.

From $25. MetOpera.org

MUSIC NEW IN MANHATTAN Festival Chamber Music Concert Series Jan. 29 at 8 p.m.

Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall Festival Chamber Music, now in its 24th season, presents the third concert of its 2015-2016 fiveconcert series. The musicians speak informally about the music and the composers before each piece on the program. $45.

CarnegieHall.org

American Contemporary Music Ensemble Jan. 30 at 8 p.m.

Saint Vitus Bar, 1120 Manhattan Ave., Brooklyn The American Contemporary Music Ensemble, performs string trios by Italian avant-garde composer Giacinto Scelsi and metal guitarist and composer Mick Barr (of Krallice). $12.

SaintVitusBar.com Curtis Symphony Orchestra Feb. 1 at 8 p.m.

Stern Auditorium/ Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall Seattle Symphony Music Director Ludovic Morlot debuts with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.

Busoni’s solemn Berceuse élégiaque is followed by Berio’s Sinfonia, a dizzying collage of sounds and styles presented with singers from the Curtis Opera Theatre.

Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, “Titan,” provides a heroic conclusion. $12.50–$25.

CarnegieHall.org Daniel Röhn: The Kreisler Story Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m.

Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall This date marks the birthday of both Fritz Kreisler and Jascha Heifetz, violinists who performed over 300 concerts at Carnegie Hall. $35–$45. CarnegieHall.org Te Deum Feb. 5 at 8 p.m.

Stern Hall at Carnegie Hall The New York Choral Society and NYChoral Orchestra under the baton of Music Director David Hayes will perform celebrated Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s 1985 composition "Te Deum" in conjunction with Beethoven’s "Mass in C." CarnegieHall.org A Festival for New Songs Feb. 4, 11, & 18 at 7 p.m.

America's National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Ave. (at 29th Street) NYFOS Next looks to the future, opening a forum for the next generation of song composers and interpreters. $20. NYFOS.org

ONGOING IN MANHATTAN Spiral Music Wednesdays

Dear Readers If you have an event to suggest, please send details to NYC_Arts@ EpochTimes.com in the format you see here.

Super Pet Expo NJ Convention & Exposition Center 97 Sunfield Ave., Edison, N.J. Feb. 5, 3–8 p.m.; Feb. 6, 10 a.m–7 p.m.; Feb. 8, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Super Pet Expo will again unite pet owners and animal lovers at the premier shopping extravaganza and animal entertainment destination. No other consumer pet events attract so many affluent pet owners eager to shop for all type of pet products not traditionally

found in pet stores. In addition, an educational and inspiring experience with various pets and wildlife is presented through exceptional exhibits. Each show features 150+ vendors of unique pet products and services. Tens of thousands of pet owners attend each show many with their leashed pets with them. $13 for adults, $8 for children, free for children under 3.

SuperPetExpo.com COURTESY OF SUPER PET EXPO

New York & The Nation Ongoing The Robert H. and Clarice Smith New York Gallery of American History, 170 Central Park West Explore the story of New York and America in the Robert H. and Clarice Smith New York Gallery of American History. $20 adults, $12 students, $15 seniors. NYHistory.org

Visitors will enjoy 29 separate world class exhibitions of drawings, pastel and oil sketches, and pen and ink artworks by masters of the 16th to 20th centuries, many newly discovered or on view for the first time.

MasterDrawingsInNewyork. com/map

Rubin Museum, 150 W. 17th St. Spiral Music presents acoustic music every Wednesday evening at the base of the museum’s spiral staircase. Artists who specialize in music from the Himalayas and South Asia are invited to forge a connection between their music and the art in the galleries. Free.

RubinMuseum.org

C8

@EpochArts

January 29–February 4, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts BENJAMIN CHASTEEN/EPOCH TIMES

WWW.OTTONAUMANNLTD.COM

“Three Graces,” 1716, by Niccolo Bambini (1651– 1736). Oil on canvas. Otto Naumann Gallery in Manhattan.

Unveiling Works of Venetian Masters

By Kati Vereshaka | Epoch Times Staff

A Tribute to David Rosand A portion of the proceeds of sales will benefit the David Rosand Tribute Fund at Columbia University, which was formed last year following the much-loved and esteemed art historian’s death in 2014. The theme of the exhibition speaks directly to Rosand’s passion for Renaissance Venice and its artists—a subject that he made seem immediate and vividly alive.

The grandest of the shown works hangs from the ceiling of the art gallery. It is a rare Tintoretto titled “Allegory of Music,” rare because it is the only ceiling painting that the artist created for a domestic setting.

“St. Sebastian” is the only work in the show by one of the great masters of the Renaissance— Tiziano Veccellio. Called Titian (circa 1488– 1576), he was regarded even in his time as the undisputed master of Venetian painting. It is exemplary of the Venetian sensual style that favored studying the figure and understanding the relative values of color.

Titian’s “St. Sebastian” cuts a rather corpulent figure, surrounded by a mythical and ominous landscape. He is lit by enough brightness to show the saint’s earthly flesh as he contemplates the arrows of his impending death in this earthly realm.

The natural setting for such a work is, of course, a religious institution or museum, but it could be anyone’s for around $4 million.

The Later Venetians Prices for the works on show range from $40,000, for a depiction of San Girolamo

The focus is on the 1500s, the period most studied by professor Rosand.

BENJAMIN CHASTEEN/EPOCH TIMES

ake a peek at the world of the art market and it soon becomes obvious that it is dominated by contemporary art. Admittedly, the accessibility of contemporary art might have a lot to do with that. Yet now and then, collectors get first dibs at a Bellini, Tintoretto, and even Titian.

The time is now to, at least, look at more than 30 important works of the Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo periods—many never before seen publicly—on view and available for purchase as part of the exhibition In Light of Venice: Venetian Painting in Honor of David Rosand, at the Otto Naumann Gallery in Manhattan.

“The idea of this exhibition was to bring together paintings that are of the top level but that are still accessible to collectors. There are pictures that are $40,000 to $50,000—an amount for which you can’t buy a print in the contemporary market,” said co-curator Robert Simon. The show is jointly curated by Otto Naumann and Robert Simon, who both studied art history at Columbia with David Rosand and have continued their scholarly work while operating their eponymous art galleries devoted to old master paintings.

“Allegory of Music” (ceiling), by Jacopo Tintoretto (1518–1594). Oil on canvas.

Emiliani by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682–1754), to well above $10 million for Rococo period painter Bernardo Bellotto’s (1721–1780) “Architectural Capriccio with Self-Portrait.”

Bellotto became famous throughout Europe as a vedutista, or Italian urban landscape painter. With “Architectural Capriccio with Self-Portrait,” he threw down the gauntlet at critics who had him pinned as being unable to go beyond depicting real landscapes. In this daring, theatrical composition with elements of Venetian architecture, he makes himself the focal point as he ushers his critics’ eyes to behold the grandiose and totally imaginary setting, bathed in the real warmth of afternoon sunlight—the gesture made more poignant by his immaculate, white glove.

Other later Venetian paintings include significant works by Amigoni, Bambini, Guardi, and Diziani.

While the exhibition feature paintings from 14th to the 18th centuries, the focus is on the 1500s, the period most studied by professor Rosand in his many books and publications.

Other artists whose work is on show include Carpaccio, Giovanni Bellini, Palma il Vecchio, Jacopo Bassano, Palma il Giovane, the subject of Rosand’s doctoral dissertation, Bonifazio Veronese, and Paris Bordone.

Simon noted in the media statement BENJAMIN CHASTEEN/EPOCH TIMES

that with the changing focus of academic art history, support is needed to maintain the teaching of the crucial Renaissance period.

The establishment of the Rosand Professorship in the Italian Renaissance was meant to ensure that the subject will be taught in perpetuity.

Living With Traditional Art For potential private owners of the works, what will come into consideration is the effect of living with traditional art on a day-to-day basis.

Bria Koser, the Otto Naumann gallery director who has been inhabiting the same space with these works, had this to say on the subject: “Old master paintings have many layers to them. Often returning to them or living with them, they reveal themselves to you differently each time,” she said, adding, “a lot of modern art tends to be one-dimensional. It has an initial shock value, but ...” the rest was implied and perfectly understood.

It is also interesting to note that while contemporary art is created as a result of the artist’s own creative impulses, the works on show were commissioned by the patrons of the age.

In Light of Venice: Venetian Painting in Honor of David Rosand is showing at the Otto Naumann Gallery, 22 E. 80th St., Manhattan, through Feb. 12.

WWW.OTTONAUMANNLTD.COM

“Madonna in the Clouds,”

by Jacopo Amigoni (circa 1680– 1752).

Oil on canvas.

“Architectural Capriccio with Self-Portrait,” circa 1762–1765, by Bernardo Bellotto (1721–1780). Oil on canvas.