Rediscover Martha Graham's Genius in Carlos Surinach's 'Embattled Garden'

Rediscover Martha Graham's Genius in Carlos Surinach's 'Embattled Garden'
© from the score
Choreographer Martha Graham's wry meditation on love's strife inspired by the story of Adam and Eve — with music by world-renowned composer Carlos Surinach, sets by Isamu Noguchi, and costumes by Graham — can be rediscovered during two performances in New York City this week with David Hayes conducting the Mannes College Orchestra.

Surinach was born on 4 March 1915 in Barcelona and was among his century's premier composers for the dance. His works combined the fiery imagery of his native Spain with the technical sophistication of his German musical education. Graham's approach is forceful and rife with symbolism, and characteristically straightforward in its handling of female sexual desire. This work presages the sexual revolution of the 1960s and Edward Albee's 1962 play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Graham's dance resembles Albee's play, in which an older couple destroys a younger one.

Embattled Garden was premiered 3 April 1958 at the Adelphi Theater in New York City.

Tickets:
Martha Graham Company
Mannes Orchestra
City Center, New York
11 April 2018
13 April 2013
City Center

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