Lincoln Center Festival 2008 Critical Acclaim

2009 | 2008

Reviews

Die Soldaten
“A miraculous realization of an opera once deemed unperformable"
— The New York Times
Click here to read the full article.

“The technical wizardry of the Lincoln Center Festival production of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's "Die Soldaten" is spectacular. … It was quite an experience, and Zimmermann would probably have been thrilled.”
— The Wall Street Journal
Click here to read the full article.

“Die Soldaten has found its aesthetic niche. It is good. Very, very good.”
— Financial Times (London)
Click here to read the full article.

“The opening note of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's "Die Soldaten" has to be the most moving in opera when heard in David Pountney's production.”
— The Associated Press
Click here to read the full article.

“Any festival in a big city needs to offer something radically different from normal fare, or it doesn't deserve to be called a festival. This hurdle is surmounted triumphantly by the Lincoln Center Festival with its production of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's "Die Soldaten." — The New York Sun
Click here to read the full article.

“An amazing, alarming spectacle … Subtle, no; awesome, yes.”
— Alex Ross in The New Yorker
Click here to read the full article.

The Bacchae
“Playfully irreverent … a full-blooded theatricality, a desire to harness all the elements of theater — dance, music, comedy and drama — to cast a potent spell.” — The New York Times
Click here to read the full article.

“The Bacchae launches this summer's Lincoln Center Festival spectacularly. … Euripides, the great subversive dramatist, would likely be pleased.”
— The Philadelphia Inquirer
Click here to read the full article.

“At once cunning, seductive and gleefully cruel, the performance is a genuine tour de force.” — Variety on Alan Cumming as Dionysus
Click here to read the full article.

“They say if you can make it here you can make it anywhere: if so the National Theatre of Scotland now has the world at its feet. … (Alan) Cumming had (the audience) eating out of his hand.”
— The Herald (Scotland)
Click here to read the full article.

Damon Albarn & The Honest Jon's Review
“The concert taught without being pedantic and unspooled different kinds of grooves … You saw musicians wading into one another’s musical languages … the stage had some street energy.” — The New York Times
Click here to read the full article.

Gate|Beckett: Eh Joe
"(Liam Neeson’s) nearly motionless, wordless performance, mainly emanating from his anguished eyes, is as eloquent as the cruel harangue to which he's subjected. It's a tremendous performance." — New York Post
Click here to read the full article.

“A brief but harrowing introduction to the mind of Beckett.” — Variety
Click here to read the full article.

"One of the most wholly satisfying nights I’ve spent at the theater this year. … Mr. Neeson draws a transfixing portrait of a man on the edge of emotional collapse without speaking a single word. … (His) concentrated intensity, from start to finish, is a breathtaking feat."
— The New York Times
Click here to read the full article.

Gate|Beckett: I'll Go On
"Certainly language turns plenty of somersaults in the skilled interpretations by Mr. McGovern … But this is no rote, reverent recitation of Beckett’s pungent but lyrical prose. Mr. McGovern embodies these variously abject, embittered and infuriated story spinners with an intensity that both tickles and stings.” — The New York Times
Click here to read the full article.

Gate|Beckett: First Love
"Captivatingly performed." — The New York Times
Click here to read the full article.

"In his virtuoso solo performance, Fiennes meticulously explores every level of his spiraling descent into despair, finding an expression, a tone of voice, even a special laugh for every phase of his disintegration. Prepare to be mesmerized." — Variety
Click here to read the full article.

"Whether it impressed the tsar one cannot tell, but it certainly impressed me." — The Financial Times
Click here to read the full article.

Impressing the Czar
"'Czar' is an eyeful and a stageful, and it provides a fecund compendium of Mr. Forsythe's trademark tropes and philosophical concerns. The Flanders company pulls it off with panache.” — The New York Sun
Click here to read the full article.

Laurie Anderson: Homeland
"The work of a consummate artist at the highest level of her craft."
— The New York Sun
Click here to read the full article.

"I like to think of Anderson with a flashlight and a miner's hat, venturing into any given heart of darkness, but with less fear than most people, and lots of extra batteries." — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Click here to read the full article.

Previews

The Bacchae
“The gold lamé kilt — fabulous. The Afro-Scottish backup singers — sorry, Greek chorus — perfection. The drunken orgies, the violent dismemberment, a bonny Alan Cumming as a really angry Dionysus? Scary. … This is not your Scottish granny’s ‘Peter Pan.’”
— The New York Times
Click here to view the full article.