All the Criticism: William Kentridge’s The Nose at the Met

by DKP on Mar 31st, 2010

The Nose

William Kentridge’s production of Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Nose premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York last Friday. While it hasn’t managed to bowl over staunch New York Times critic Roberta Smith, others have been very impressed. What is clear is that for many the challenge is in coming up with the best pun on “nose”. We’ve ignored bad puns to bring you the best of the criticisms thus far:

Daniel J. Wakin:

Tony already pronounced on “The Nose” as opera in his review; I wonder what Roberta thinks.

Roberta Smith:

For the most part I enjoyed “The Nose,” both visually and musically. I was amazed at how modern Shostakovich sounded, maybe not in a totally good way. At times it almost seemed like very daring musical comedy. The score seemed full of wit and at times more than a little bathos, as when Kovalyov moped around after his nose. From the visual side I found it thrilling that Kentridge activated the entire proscenium space, top to bottom, and that it remained active through the entire opera.

Complete conversation in The New York Times

The New York Times has hailed South African artist William Kentridge’s New York production of Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Nose which opened at the Metropolitan Opera last Friday.

“Mr Kentridge was clearly the darling of the evening,” wrote critic Anthony Tommasini.

“It has become commonplace at the Metropolitan Opera for directors and designers of new productions, especially modernist high-concept ones, to be lustily booed by a sizable contingent of the audience during opening-night ovations.

Complete article in the Sunday Times

The 54-year-old South African artist William Kentridge was born into a family of lawyers: a grandfather who was elected to Parliament, a grandmother who was the first female barrister in the country’s history, and liberal Jewish parents who were powerful anti-apartheid figures in Johannesburg’s legal community. And so when Kentridge—who had dabbled in performance, theater, and even mime—decided at age 30 that he would commit fulltime to his drawing, he was, in effect, turning his back on the family business. But the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. In the body of work Kentridge has created over the past quarter-century—much of which is on view now at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in a retrospective titled William Kentridge: Five Themes—the artist has essentially put his homeland on trial, as he’s explored the richly complex, morally complicated landscape that emerged from apartheid and its wake.

Complete article in Tablet

It is a strangely appropriate counterpoint to the sprawling Kentridge retrospective that has had good reviews in the city papers. I spend some time re-watching the early films and am, as always, deeply moved by their stark simplicity. It’s ironic perhaps, but they seem more political than ever, despite our having moved on in so many ways. Felix Teitlebaum and Soho Eckstein have become larger than life and outgrown their South African context to assume more universal proportions. Then there are the big drawings, many from The Magic Flute and The Nose, the latter accompanied by the — in this context — diminutive but exquisite Nose etchings.

And that’s another reason for the buzz in New York. It is hard to turn anywhere without seeing the name Kentridge or the familiar face — from posters on subway platforms to the pages of the New York Times — and there’s a Kentridge event every second night, it seems. Roberta Smith, the indomitable, long-time critic for The Times is still luke-warm in her response to Kentridge, though this time there is more than a hint of approval for the Museum of Modern Art show, particularly in her appraisal of the films. She can’t but be grudgingly respectful of the range and depth of his work, even if she still can’t bring herself to like his draughtsmanship.