Today’s “Fab 5” / Selected NYCity Events – TUESDAY, NOV. 19, 2013

Shanghai Ballet: The Butterfly Lovers
For more than three decades, the Shanghai Ballet has been dazzling audiences around the world with its unique repertoire of folk-infused Chinese ballet and classical Western masterworks. The Butterfly Lovers is a poignant love story that dates to the Tang Dynasty. The Butterfly Lovers, often considered the Chinese equivalent to Romeo & Juliet, is an audience favorite and features elegant choreography, graceful dancers, magnificent costumes, and a touching story of love and loss.

Since its founding, many young dancers of the company have won total of 27 medals in various international dance competitions, and they also achieved good results in nationwide competitions.

The Shanghai Ballet is active in cooperation and cultural exchange with the artists and companies both abroad and at home. The company not only tours nationwide but also has visited many countries and regions, including Japan, Korea, France, Canada, Indonesia, New Zealand, Spain, Singapore and Australia to name a few.
BMCC TRIBECA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER,  199 Chambers St
At 7:30PM / $25-$35
212-220-1459 / Website

David Sedaris (Tuesday and Wednesday)
Fans will have two opportunities to see and hear the writer and humorist whose latest book, “Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls,” was released in the spring. He will appear on Tuesday with the actress and writer Lena Dunham (“Girls”) and on Wednesday in a solo performance.
Carnegie Hall, Isaac Stern Auditorium
At 8 p.m. / $39.50 to $65.
(212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org

KANYE WEST
“The hip-hop giant’s tours are always major events, and not always for the right reasons. This one, to support his acclaimed album “Yeezus” (his darkest and most strident release yet), has already been marked by equipment snafus, cancellations, controversy regarding his use of Confederate-flag imagery on his clothing, and a brief break during which he turned the tabloid world on its ear by renting out a baseball stadium to propose to Kim Kardashian. Expect the unexpected. “ (NewYorker mag)
Barclays Center, 620 Atlantic Avenue, at Flatbush Avenue
At 7:30PM / $49.50 to $199.50.
(917) 618-6700 / barclayscenter.com

Thalia Book Club: Anjelica Huston, A Story Lately Told:
Coming of Age in Ireland, London and New York
The Academy Award-winning actress and director reads from and discusses her new memoir with Michael Mayer (Smash; Spring Awakening). She recounts her enchanted childhood on an Irish estate, where her father entertained friends like Carson McCullers and Brando, and her years as a model and actress living at the Chelsea Hotel in the 1970s.
Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway
At 7:30PM / $45,  A copy of A Story Lately Told is included in the ticket price.
212-864-5400 / Website

Jane Monheit (through Nov. 24)
“Once dismissed in some circles as a chanteuse manqué, Ms. Monheit has evolved into an excellent interpreter of the standard songbook — and a fine jazz singer besides, especially when applying the pristine sensuality of her voice to songs of cozy reverie. She appears with her working band, featuring Michael Kanan on piano, Neal Miner on bass and Rick Montalbano, her husband, on drums.” (Chinen-NYT)
Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, Greenwich Village,
At 8 and 10:30 p.m. / $35 cover at tables, $20 at the bar, with a $5 minimum.
(212) 475-8592, bluenote.net

Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change. ==========================================================================================

What’s on View:
Special Exhibitions @ 3 Museum Mile / Fifth Ave. Museums:

“Legends of the Dead Ball Era” (1900-1919) (through Dec. 1)
“Eighteenth Century Pastels” (through Dec. 29)
“Julia Margaret Cameron” (through Jan. 5, 2014)
“Medieval Treasures From Hildesheim” (through Jan. 5, 2014)
“Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800″ (through Jan. 5, 2014)
‘Balthus: Cats and Girls — Paintings and Provocations’ (through Jan. 12, 2014)
“Brush Writing in the Arts of Japan” (through Jan. 12, 2014)
“Venetian Glass by Carlo Scarpa, The Venini Co., 1932–1947” (through March 2, 2014)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Ave, at 82nd St.
(212) 535-7710 / metmuseum.org

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Special Mention: Metropolitan’s northern branch at the Cloisters
Janet Cardiff / The Forty Part Motet (through Dec 8)
The Forty Part Motet (2001), a sound installation by Janet Cardiff, is the first presentation of contemporary art at The Cloisters. Regarded as the artist’s masterwork, and consisting of forty high-fidelity speakers positioned on stands in a large oval configuration throughout the Fuentidueña Chapel, the fourteen-minute work, with a three-minute spoken interlude, continuously plays an eleven-minute reworking of the forty-part motet Spem in alium numquam habui (1556?/1573?) by Tudor composer Thomas Tallis.

Visitors are encouraged to walk among the loudspeakers and hear the individual unaccompanied voices—bass, baritone, alto, tenor, and child soprano—one part per speaker—as well as the polyphonic choral effect of the combined singers in an immersive experience. The Forty Part Motet is most often presented in a neutral gallery setting, but in this case the setting is the Cloisters’ Fuentidueña Chapel, which features the late twelfth-century apse from the church of San Martín at Fuentidueña, near Segovia, Spain, on permanent loan from the Spanish Government. Set within a churchlike gallery space, and with superb acoustics, it has for more than fifty years proved a fine venue for concerts of early music.
Worth the trip to far northern Manhattan.
subway: #1 to 59th St., transfer and “take the A train” to 190th St.,
walk about ½ mile N to the Cloisters.
This is a beautiful location, esp. in the fall, overlooking the Hudson Palisades.
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‘Robert Motherwell: Early Collages’ (through Jan. 5, 2014)
‘Christopher Wool’ (through Jan. 22, 2014)
“Kandinsky in Paris, 1934–1944“ (through Apr. 23, 2014)

Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th St.
(212) 423-3500 / guggenheim.org.

‘Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting From the Mauritshuis’ (through Jan. 19, 2014)
Frick Collection, 1 East 70th St., at Fifth Ave.
admission is by timed tickets.
288-0700 / frick.org

========================================================== Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Ten museums can be found along this section of Fifth Avenue:

• 110th Street – Museum for African Art

• 105th Street – El Museo del Barrio

• 103rd Street – Museum of the City of New York

• 92nd Street – The Jewish Museum

• 91st Street –  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

• 89th Street – National Academy Museum

• 88th Street – Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

• 86th Street – Neue Galerie New York

• 83rd Street – Goethe-Institut

Last, but certainly not least, America’s premier museum
• 82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Additionally, though technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 70th St. and the The Morgan Library & Museum on Madison Ave and 37th St are also located near Fifth Ave. Now plan your own museum crawl. ==========================================================

What’s on View: Top Photography Exhibitions
(NYCity / Manhattan’s WestSide)   

Museum of Modern Art 11 West 53rd Street / 212-708-9400
XL: 19NewAcquisitions in Photography (through Dec. 31)
Walker Evans: American Photographs (through Jan. 26, 2014) 

Metropolitan Museum of Art 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street) / 212-535-7710
Julia Margaret Cameron (through Jan. 5, 2014)
Everyday Ephiphanies: Photography and Daily Life Since 1969  (through Jan. 26, 2014)

ICP 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street / 212-857-0000
Lewis Hine
The Future of America: Lewis Hine’s New Deal Photographs
JFK November 22, 1963: A Bystander’s View of History
Zoe Strauss: 10 Years
All these exhibitions run from Oct 4, 2013–Jan 19, 2014

American Museum Natural History 
79th St. And Central Park West / (212) 313-7278
Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging Technologies (through May 31, 2014)

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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar: “NYCity Events: Manhattan’s WestSide” dated 11/17 and 11/15.