BAM presents the US premiere of protean South African artist ’s Refuse the Hour, an intimate multimedia chamber opera composed by Philip Miller, Oct 22—25

“It is hard to remember when a visual artist has cut such a wide swath in [New York’s] cultural life, or spanned so many disciplines with such aplomb.” –Calvin Tomkins, The New Yorker

Bloomberg Philanthropies is the Season Sponsor

Refuse the Hour William Kentridge Philip Miller Dada Masilo, Catherine Meyburgh, Peter Galison

Conception and libretto by William Kentridge Music composed by Philip Miller Choreography by Dada Masilo Video design by Catherine Meyburgh and William Kentridge Dramaturgy by Peter Galison Scenic design by Sabine Theunissen Movement by Luc de Wit Costume design by Greta Goiris Machine design by Christoff Wolmarans, Louis Olivier, and Jonas Lundquist Lighting design by Felice Ross Sound design by Gavan Eckhart Video orchestration by Kim Gunning

Music direction by Adam Howard Music arranged and orchestrated by Philip Miller and Adam Howard

BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St) Oct 22—24 at 7:30pm; Oct 25 at 3pm Tickets start at $30

Talk: William Kentridge and Peter Galison Moderated by Dennis Overbye Oct 24 at 5pm BAM Rose Cinemas (30 Lafayette Ave) Tickets: $15 ($7.50 for Friends of BAM)

“Can we hold our breath against time?” —from Refuse the Hour

Brooklyn, NY/Sep 16, 2015—In front of giant on-stage metronomes, boundlessly creative South African artist William Kentridge delivers an elliptical lecture-performance examining the nature of temporality in this multimedia chamber opera composed by longtime collaborator Philip Miller. An intimate and personal exploration of abstract and universal themes, the production is a companion to Kentridge’s 2013 five-channel video installation The Refusal of Time (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Documenta 13). Refuse the Hour features a cast of 12 dancers, musicians, performers, and vocalists. Amid these stage companions, Kentridge muses on topics as disparate yet connected as productive procrastination, myth, entropy, empire, and black holes. The production features

choreography by South African dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo, video design by Catherine Meyburgh, and dramaturgy by science historian and physicist Peter Galison.

William Kentridge was born in , South Africa in 1955. He attended the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (1973–76), Johannesburg Art Foundation (1976–78), and studied mime and theater at L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, Paris (1981–82). Having witnessed first-hand one of the 20th century’s most contentious struggles—the dissolution of apartheid—Kentridge brings the ambiguity and subtlety of personal experience to public subjects that are most often framed in narrowly defined terms. Using film, drawing, sculpture, animation, and performance, he transmutes sobering political events into powerful poetic allegories. His production of Dmitri Shostakovich’s opera The Nose premiered in 2010 at the Metropolitan Opera in conjunction with a retrospective organized by San Francisco and the Museum of Modern Art; his production of Lulu will premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in November. Kentridge was last at BAM with The Magic Flute (2007 Winter/Spring); he lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Philip Miller is a composer and sound artist living and working in South Africa. His work has been exhibited and performed at Carnegie Hall, the Venice Biennale, Spier Contemporary in South Africa, and Lithuania’s Kaunas Biennial. His award-winning cantata Rewind—based on testimonies from South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission—has been performed at the Royal Festival Hall (London) and Celebrate Brooklyn! (New York). Miller has scored numerous soundtracks to film and television shows, including Emmy Award-nominated scores for HBO’s The Girl and BET’s The Book of Negroes. His two decade-long collaboration with artist William Kentridge includes I am not me, the horse is not mine at the Tate Modern (2012) and The Refusal of Time (2013), a multimedia installation commissioned for documenta (Kassel) and exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo’s “technical prowess is only surpassed by her artistic daring and conceptual flair” (The Star, South Africa). She is best known for creating and performing original works which reimagine Western classics through a contemporary African eye, including Romeo and Juliet, Carmen, and Swan Lake. Masilo studied at the Dance Factory, the National School of the Arts, ’s Jazzart Dance Theatre, and the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios in Brussels. She received the 2008 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance, one of South Africa’s leading arts prizes, and has performed in Tanzania, Mali, Madagascar, Mozambique, the Netherlands, Russia, the UK, the US, Mexico, Germany, Israel, and France.

A documentary director (Alan Paton’s Beloved Country, Madiba : A Hero for All Seasons) and film editor (Portrait of a Young Man Drowning) as well as a video and projection designer, Catherine Meyburgh has worked extensively in film, theater, and opera for over 20 years, and with William Kentridge since 1998. Meyburgh has also collaborated with artists Willem Boshoff , Leora Farber, and Georgia Papageorge, and her work has been exhibited at MoMA, the Louvre, and Tokyo’s Museum of Modern Art. Meyburgh’s work in theater and opera includes Rewind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape & Testimony by Philip Miller and Gerhard Marx, and Kentridge’s productions of Lulu, The Nose, and The Magic Flute.

Peter Galison is the Joseph Pellegrino University Professor of the History of Science and of Physics at Harvard University. His work explores the complex interaction between the three principal subcultures of physics—experimentation, instrumentation, and theory—and their cultural and political surroundings. Books include: How Experiments End (1987), Image and Logic (1997), Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré’s Maps (2003) and, with L. Daston, Objectivity (2007). Among other volumes, he co-edited Architecture of Science; Picturing Science, Producing Art; Scientific Authorship; and Einstein for the 21st Century. He co-directed two documentary films: Ultimate Weapon: The H-Bomb Dilemma (2000) and Secrecy, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008. Other recent projects include the book Building Crashing Thinking (on technologies that re-form the self) and Containment, a feature documentary film about the burial of nuclear waste.

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For press information contact Adriana Leshko at [email protected] or 718.724.8021

Credits Bloomberg Philanthropies is the Season Sponsor.

Leadership support for opera at BAM provided by Aashish & Dinyar Devitre.

Endowment funding has been provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fund for Opera and Music- Theater.

Major support for opera at BAM provided by The Francena T. Harrison Foundation Trust.

Major support for Refuse the Hour is provided by the Marian Goodman Gallery.

Programming in the BAM Harvey Theater is endowed by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

BAM 2015 Next Wave Festival supporters: brigitte nyc; Frances Bermanzohn & Alan Roseman; Booth Ferris Foundation; William I. Campbell & Christine Wächter-Campbell; Charina Endowment Fund; Jeanne Donovan Fisher; Judith R. & Alan H. Fishman; The Francena T. Harrison Foundation Trust; Stephanie & Timothy Ingrassia; Suzie & Bruce Kovner; Diane & Adam E. Max; McKinsey & Company, Inc.; Barbara & Richard Moore; Donald R. Mullen Jr.; The SHS Foundation; The Shubert Foundation, Inc.; David & Jane Walentas; The Winston Foundation, Inc.

Delta is the Official Airline of BAM. Pepsi is the official beverage of BAM. Santander is the BAM Marquee sponsor. Yamaha is the official piano for BAM. New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge is the official hotel for BAM.

Your tax dollars make BAM programs possible through funding from the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts. The BAM facilities are owned by the City of New York and benefit from public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with support from Mayor Bill de Blasio; Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl; the New York City Council including Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Finance Committee Chair Julissa Ferreras, Cultural Affairs Committee Chair Jimmy Van Bramer, the Brooklyn Delegation of the Council, and Council Member Laurie Cumbo; and Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams. BAM would like to thank the Brooklyn Delegations of the New York State Assembly, Joseph R. Lentol, Delegation Leader; and New York Senate, Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Delegation Leader.

Executive Producer: Tomorrowland (Paris), Producer: THE OFFICE performing arts + film (New York). Co- commissioned by Holland Festival (Amsterdam), Festival d'Avignon, RomaEuropa Festival/Teatro di Roma (Roma), and Onassis Cultural Center (Athens), with additional support provided by Marian Goodman Gallery (New York - Paris - London), Lia Rumma Gallery (Naples - Milano), and The Goodman Gallery (Johannesburg - Cape Town).

General Information BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn’s only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, offers a dinner menu prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. BAMcafé also features an eclectic mix of live music for BAMcafé Live on Friday and Saturday nights with a bar menu available starting at 6pm.

Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue – Barclays Center (2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St for Harvey Theater) D, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue Train: Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Terminal – Barclays Center Bus: B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM Car: Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM

For ticket information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.

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