PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Admission to all events is free, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Support for these programs has been provided by a grant from the National Endowment
for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed
in these programs do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment
for the Humanities.
Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd
Street
Film Screenings
South Court Visitors’ Theater
Tuesday, 11 a.m.–3:30 p.m., 4:30–6 p.m. (beginning January 10: 11 a.m.–6
p.m.);
Wednesday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Thursday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Making Manuscripts (6 minutes)
Produced by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
A World Inscribed: The Illuminated Manuscript (24 minutes)
Produced and directed by Kathleen McDonough. © Films for the Humanities
and Sciences
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Donnell Library Center, 20 West 53rd Street
Film Series
For additional information, call 212.691.0609.
Luminous Tapestries: Representations of Medieval Life in World Cinema
Wednesdays at 2:30 p.m.; Thursdays at 2:30 p.m.; Saturday at noon
The films in this series, presented by the Donnell Media Center, have contributed
in a variety of ways to the public understanding of the Middle Ages. They include
works by master filmmakers from around the world.
November 2005
November 2 –The Lion in Winter (Anthony Harvey, 1968, color, 134 min.)
Starring Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn.
November 9 – Destiny, or al-Massir (Youssef Chahine, 1997, color, 135
min.)
The life of the Islamic philosopher Averroës.
November 16 – Cantico (James Herbert, 1982, color, 40 min.)
The Flowers of Saint Francis (Roberto Rossellini,
1950, b&w, 75 min.)
November 23 – Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1969, b&w and color,
183 min.)
November 30 – Braveheart (Mel Gibson, 1995, color, 177 min.)
December 2005
December 1 – El Cid (Anthony Mann, 1961, color, 182 min.)
Starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren.
December 7 – Siegfried's Death, Part One of Nibelungen (Fritz
Lang, 1924, b&w, silent with music track, 140 min.)
December 8 – Kriemhild's Revenge, Part Two of Nibelungen (Fritz
Lang, 1924, b&w, silent with music track, 147 min.)
December 14 – The Legend of Suran Fortress (Sergei Parajanov, 1984, color,
88 min.)
December 15 – Lancelot of the Lake (Robert Bresson, 1974, color, 85 min.)
December 21 – The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, 1938, color,
102 min.)
Starring Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland.
December 22 – A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Tay Garnett,
1949, color, 106 min.)
Starring Bing Crosby and Rhonda Fleming.
December 28 – Robin and Marian (Richard Lester, 1976, color, 106 min.)
Starring Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn.
December 29 – Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam, 1975,
color, 91 min.)
January 2006
January 4 – Gate of Hell (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1953, color, 86 min.)
January 11 – The Name of the Rose (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986, color, 130
min.)
January 18 – When the Raven Flies (Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, 1984, color, 109
min.)
January 21 –Sorceress (Suzanne Schiffman, 1987, color, 97 min.)
January 25 – Kristin Lavransdatter (Liv Ullmann, 1995, color, 180 min.)
On Saturday, January 21, at 2:30 p.m., Pamela Berger, a professor of Medieval
Art at Boston College, as well as the writer and producer (with Suzanne Schiffman)
of the acclaimed film Sorceress, will present a lecture about the challenges
of producing a film set in the Middle Ages, and, specifically, about how images
from manuscripts informed the art direction of her film. The screening of Sorceress,
at noon, will precede her lecture.
Images Médiévales: Documentaries and Short Films Depicting
Medieval Life and Culture
Thursdays at 2:30 p.m.
November 3 – Medieval Life in Art and Architecture
Images Médiévales (William Novik, 1952, color, 18 min.)
The Norman Conquest of England, as Seen Through the Bayeux Tapestries (Roger Leenhardt
and Jean Pierre Vivet, 1961, color, 20 min.)
Bruges, the Story of a Medieval City (William Eddy, 1979,
color, 59 min.)
Castle (Jack Stokes and Peter Newington, 1982, color, 58 min.)
November 10 – In the Realm of the Sacred
The Haggadah of Sarajevo (Slobodan Jovicic, 1967, color, 16
min.)
Chartres Cathedral (John Barnes, 1963, color, 30 min.)
Cathedral (Tim King and Tony White, 1985, color, 60 min.)
November 17 – The Way of the Pilgrim
Chaucer's England (John Barnes, 1957, black-and-white, 30
min.)
The Lost Pilgrim (Guy Jorre, 1965, black-and-white, 45 min.)
Road to Santiago: France (Mary Kirby, 1967, color, 30 min.)
Road to Santiago: Spain (Mary Kirby, 1968, color, 21 min.)
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Adult Programs: The Branch Libraries
For additional information, call 212.340.0912.
“
A Long Time Ago: Love Songs That Lasted 500 Years,” with Duo Alta Voce
(Sofia Dimitrova, soprano, lute, recorders, percussion; and Elissa Weiss, soprano,
harp, recorders, percussion)
Medieval and Renaissance music and song from England, France, and Spain for folk
harp and voice, including both old favorites and less-commonly-heard pieces.
Songs of love and life, songs that tell stories about kings and queens, knights
and ladies, and heroes like Robin Hood.
Saturday, November 19 at 2:30 p.m. – Richmondtown Branch Library
Saturday, November 26 2:30 p.m. – Baychester Branch Library
Saturday, December 3 at 2:30 p.m. – 96th Street Branch Library
Saturday. January 14 at 2:30 p.m. – Parkchester Branch Library
Duo Alta Voce
Born in Varna, Bulgaria, Sofia Dimitrova came to New York in 1999. She
has appeared as a soloist in the Vivaldi Gloria. She performed the roles of Sospecha
and the muse Calliope in the staged production of La Purpúra de la Rosa under
the direction of Andrew Lawrence-King at the 2003 Amherst Early Music Festival,
Dido in Dido & Æneas with Prismatic Productions, Inc., and Damon in Acis & Galatea.
Elissa Weiss has sung at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the
Boston Early Music Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Town
Hall. She is a founding member of The Salomone Trio, an acclaimed
vocal ensemble, whose CD, Sacred and Profane, was called by Renaissance
Magazine “a beautifully performed album—one of the most conceptually
original CDs in years.”
“Medieval Diaries: Songs of Medieval Troubadours,
Monks, and Kings,” with Galileo’s Daughters
(Sarah Pillow, soprano; Mary Anne Ballard, early bowed strings)
Galileo’s Daughters is the creation of musicians whose multifaceted experiences
in the worlds of early music, opera, jazz, drama, and musical scholarship combine
to bring freshness and intimacy to their performances. Since their debut in September
of 2001, Galileo’s Daughters has performed at the College of Charleston,
the Mobile Chamber Music Society, and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival.
Saturday, December 10 at 2:30 p.m. – Baychester Branch Library
Saturday, January 21 at 2:30 p.m. – Richmondtown Branch Library
'Galileo's Daughters: Songs of Troubadours, Monks and Kings'
performed by Sarah Pillow, soprano and percussion, Mary Anne
Ballard, rebec and vielle and Lucy Cross, lute and viol
Sarah Pillow enjoys an eclectic career exploring a myriad of vocal styles.
Her work in early-Baroque repertoire is extensive, including performances for
BBC Radio 3 in England, as well as concerts in Ireland, England, France, and
the United States. Mary Anne Ballard, viola da gamba and other early
bowed strings, currently tours and records with the Baltimore Consort, and
is a member
of the Oberlin Consort of Viols and of Brio, a medieval/Renaissance quartet
based in Charleston, S.C., and southern France.Lucy Cross, lute and viol
is a well-known interpreter of Elizabethan lute music and song and a world-renowned
authority on medieval music theory and performance. With a Masters degree
in lute from Yale and a Ph.D. in Historical Musicology from Columbia University,
she has taught and directed collegia at Columbia, Princeton, Manhattan School
of Music, UC Riverside, and many other institutions of higher learning, and
is a frequent faculty member at Amherst Early Music workshops. She founded
and directed the prizewinning ensemble, the Elizabethan Enterprise, and was
formerly a member of the New York Pro Musica Antiqua. A wide variety of clients
have made use of her talents as a program and CD liner note-writer, and C.F.
Peters has recently published her edition of Guillaume de Machaut's Mass.
She has played lute, archlute, and theorbo with the NY Philharmonic and in
the opera pit at the Metropolitan, Florida Grand, and NY City Opera, and
appeared with Renee Fleming on Good Morning America and David Letterman.
“Tis Nature’s Voice,” with Duo Marchand
(Marcia Young, voice, harp; Andy Rutherford, lute)
Duo Marchand sings the praises of Nature and her charms in 17th-century songs
and pastoral dances arranged for lute, voice, and renaissance harp. Birds and
bees, nymphs and shepherds, sunlight and shadow, and the fierce and gentle gods
of the natural world play leading roles in the elegant lyrics of Elizabethan
poets like Campion and Shakespeare. Music by Dowland, Danyell, Lawes, Merula,
Purcell, Lanier, and others.
Saturday, January 21 at 2:30 p.m. – Richmondtown Branch Library
Saturday, January 28 at 2:30 p.m. – Parkchester Branch Library
Tuesday, February 7 at 2:30 p.m. – Bloomingdale Branch Library
Saturday, February 11 at 2:30 p.m. – Richmondtown Branch Library
Soprano and historical harper Marcia Young is a regular member of My Lord
Chamberlain's Consort as well as the medieval trio Trefoil, which has
toured widely since its founding in 2000. Both groups released first recordings
in 2003. Last season she was heard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Trefoil
and again with the viol consort Parthenia; earlier in 2003 she was in Washington,
D.C. with Trefoil and the Folger Consort.
Andy Rutherford, a native of upstate New York, began studying
the lute in connection with his interest in 17th-century art, especially
the paintings of Caravaggio and Vermeer, which often feature the
instrument. A regular member of My Lord Chamberlain's Consort, Mr.
Rutherford has also appeared at Tanglewood and Lincoln Center with
the Mark Morris Dance Group.
Singing from Manuscript Sources: Music from Medieval
France,” with
Machicoti, a Medieval Ensemble (Amy Bartram, Grace Check, and
Beth Cullinane, vocals)
Machicoti will perform intricate and exuberant Latin song,
ca. 1200, sung from original 13th-century notation. The group
takes its name
from the word for the skilled soloists among the clerics at Notre
Dame Cathedral in Paris, who created virtuosic improvisations
on the liturgy and beyond—a tradition later preserved in manuscripts.
Tuesday, November 8 at 6 p.m. – Bloomingdale Branch Library
Saturday, January 21 at 2 p.m. – 96th Street Branch Library
Machicoti (Amy Bartram, Artistic Director) is a newly formed ensemble
dedicated to creating exhilarating interpretations of medieval music. Individually,
the members have sung with such groups as Trinity Choir (Wall Street), City of
Ladies, Ensemble for Early Music, New York Collegium, and Vox Vocal Ensemble.
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Children’s Programs: The Branch Libraries
For additional information, call 212.340.0906.
"The Art of Bookmaking,” with
Stephanie Krause
It's fun to write and illustrate your own stories. Now you can bind your
literary creations. Using paper, scissors, and a needle and thread, children
will learn
how to fashion and bind paper into a book format, in which they can then
write and illustrate their own creations, much as medieval and Renaissance
illuminators
and scribes did.
Wednesday, November 2 at 4 p.m. – Soundview Branch Library
Tuesday, November 8 at 4 p.m. – 96th Street Branch Library
Monday, December 12 at 4 p.m. – Parkchester Branch Library
Wednesday, December 14 at 4:30 p.m. – Seward Park Branch Library
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