Golda's Balcony

Wednesday, February 10, 2010
8 PM

Golda's Balcony opens with Golda Meir as Prime Minister of Israel, although she admits she is ready to step aside. It is 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, so-called because of the attack on Israel by Arab neighbors on the Jewish High Holy days. It is the day of atonement and Golda, for real, is forced to atone for her own sins: sins of omission, commission and permission.

As she lives out her memories of youth, marriage, migration and social involvement, the various stages of her life unfold. Born in pogrom-filled Russia, raised in Milwaukee, and living on the International circuit, Golda is charged with the responsibility of shepherding her adopted nation, one she helped to create, through a national disaster, the seeming betrayal of faith toward her country by the Nixon administration and a global disinterest in becoming involved with Israel’s oppression. How Golda handles it, alone in her office, sitting at cabinet meetings with an unseen contingent of military and militant men, offending her family through her seeming disaffection, is the substance of the play.

Critic J. Peter Bergman wrote, “Annette Miller transforms herself without much help from makeup or wig or artifice into the dowdy woman in a hairnet whose face is emblazoned in our memory. Here is the woman who charmed fifty million dollars out of Jewish-Americans in the late 1940s, a time when money was scarce, the past was too recent to even haunt people and Israel still a vision of the future. Here is the statesman who did television interviews and appeals for support. Here is the woman we don’t expect, the chicken-soup cooker who weeps over the children who died in Cyprus even as she pleads with adults who have waited in internment camps for their release to give up their rightful places so that children can emigrate. Miller gives such a sense of immediacy and reality to all of this that it is almost as though we live within her; we feel her pain and we experience her joy; we know her thoughts and we are gripped by her emotions.

She has been guided through William Gibson’s script, which she helped to develop, by director Daniel Gidron, a man who lived in Israel through the war during which this play is set. Perhaps he has brought something special into play, sharing his own experiences with the actress, giving her a deeper insight than any script could do. Perhaps he has just used his knowledge of the events to impart something sure and simple to her. It is impossible to know. Still, the combination of movement and internal direction has purchased a resultant performance that will, itself, haunt even the most casual observer.”

The Cypress String Quartet

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
8 PM

The Cypress String Quartet represents the voice of the new generation of American culture, as comfortable playing Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven in recital halls as it is being the foundation of multi-media collaborations. The Quartet’s artistic excellence brings enjoyment, passion, and inspiration to every audience.

Formed in 1996, the members of the quartet, Cecily Ward, Tom Stone, Ethan Filner and Jennifer Kloetzel, have shown an unfailing dedication to exploring the masterworks of the time-honored, classic chamber music repertoire with their unique and refreshingly open sound.

Their busy schedule of more than 90 concerts each year has included in recent years the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Stanford Lively Arts, Krannert Center and Ravinia Festival, they play on exceptional instruments, including violins by Antonio Stradivarius (1681) and Carlos Bergonzi (1733), a viola by Vittorio Bellarosa (1947), and a cello by Hieronymus Amati II (1701).

To commemorate Felix Mendelssohn’s 200th birthday in 2009, the Cypress String Quartet with the Lied Center of Kansas, the Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center, and the Library of Congress have co-commissioned a new quartet from accomplished composer Kevin Puts. Paired on a program with Mendelssohn and Beethoven quartets, the new work was premiered as part of “Mendelssohn on the Mall” project with the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.

The Cypress String Quartet has commissioned and premiered more than 25 new works, four of which are now included on Chamber Music America’s list of “101 Great American Ensemble Works.”

Program to Include:

HAYDN - Quartet in C major, Op. 33, No. 3, “The Birds” (Hob. III:39)

BARBER - Quartet, Op. 11

SCHUBERT - Quartet in D minor, “Death and the Maiden” (D. 810)