screen Lean, mean empathy machine Please, see ‘Moonlight’ by Ryan Syrek
S
JANUARY Movie at the Symphony: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone™ In Concert
SPECIAL
FEB 3-4
JAN 6-8 FRI -SAT 7:30 Q SUN 1:00
Colorado Symphony Chorus, Mary Louise Burke, associate director Concert performance includes full screening of the live action feature film! HARRY POTTER, characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and ©Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © JKR. (s16)
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute JAN 10
FREE COMMUNITY CONCERT
TUE 7:30
Admission is free, but tickets are required. Tickets available in person, at the Box Office beginning two weeks prior to the event.
Gregory Alan Isakov with the Colorado Symphony: Reunion
SPECIAL
Christopher Dragon, conductor POPS
SAT 7:30
Christopher Dragon, conductor
Symphonic Firsts Conducted by Mark Wigglesworth
MASTERWORKS
Mark Wigglesworth, conductor MOZART Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, K. 16 SCHUBERT Symphony No. 1 in D major, D. 82 BRAHMS Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68
POPS
SAT 7:30
Peter and the Wolf FEB 12
FAMILY
SUN 1:00
Christopher Dragon, conductor Denver Young Artists Orchestra MASTERWORKS
Andre deRidder, conductor Nadia Sirota, viola MOZART Symphony No. 34 in C major, K 338 NICO MUHLY Viola Concerto STRAVINSKY Pétrouchka
FEB 25
INSIDE THE SCORE
SUN 1:00
Christopher Dragon, conductor
JAN 27-28 FRI-SAT 7:30
FEB 11
Stewart Copeland with the Colorado Symphony
JAN 20-21 FRI-SAT 7:30
Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Byron Stripling What a Wonderful World: A Tribute to Louis Armstrong
FEB 17-18 FRI-SAT 7:30
A Night of Pops: Tribute to Leroy Anderson
JAN 22
Andrew Litton, conductor Olga Kern, piano RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1 SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60, “Leningrad”
Mozart and Stravinsky Conducted by deRidder
JAN 12 THU 7:30 JAN 13 FRI 7:30
Inside Symphonic Beginnings
MASTERWORKS
FRI-SAT 7:30
Andres Lopera, conductor Byron Stripling, trumpet/vocals
Andres Lopera, conductor
JAN 14
FEBRUARY Rachmaninoff Performed by Olga Kern
SPECIAL
Brett Mitchell, conductor Colorado Symphony Chorus, Duain Wolfe, director BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21 BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, “Choral”
MASTERWORKS
SAT 7:30
Brett Mitchell, conductor Stewart Copeland, trapset STRAVINSKY Suite from Pulcinella JOHN ADAMS The Chairman Dances STEWART COPELAND Tyrant’s Crush RAVEL La Valse
TICKETS
coloradosymphony.org T 303.623.7876
box office 1000 14th St., No. 15, Denver, CO 80202 Boettcher Concert Hall at the Denver Performing Arts Complex
Half Notes Please join us for family-friendly pre-concert activities in Gallery 2.
presenting sponsor
38 January 5, 2017
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marter, better people than me have written about Moonlight, writer/director Barry Jenkins’ megaton bomb of artistic triumph. Honestly, I almost didn’t write this at all, seeing no need to add yet another voice of praise to what is already a fairly deafening chorus. Then I remembered what Roger Ebert, the patron saint of modern pop criticism, said in Life Itself: “For me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It helps us identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us.” Redundant or not, I have to tell you why Moonlight matters. A large group of people who voted for Donald Trump legitimately didn’t understand the palpable and substantive depression and fear that set in for millions after the election. A bigot who taunted the disabled and those of different races, picked a running mate who openly hates LGBTQ individuals and laughingly joked about sexually assaulting women is about to be the symbolic and literal face of our nation. “How we got here” is only worth asking now in the course of answering “how do we fix this?” Moonlight. Moonlight is how we start to fix this. Beyond shouting down, disempowering and casting out the truly unconscionable who nakedly embrace homophobia, racism and misogyny, the social correction that needs to occur is a booster shot of empathy. And Roger was right: We have a great tool already. Moonlight follows Chiron, a beautiful soul trapped in an ugly life. His mother, Paula (Naomie Harris), is addicted to crack and is an emotional torturer. The film is a triptych, splitting Chiron’s life into his time as a young boy, called “Little” (Alex R. Hibbert); a teenEverything you’ve heard and then some, Moonlight is the three-part ager, Chiron (Ashton Sanders); and an adult, story of a young boy growing to nicknamed “Black” (Trevante Rhodes). The adulthood while discovering his homosexuality in a drug-laden first third is consumed by the omnipresence environment. of drugs, from the brutal addiction of Little’s mom to the occupation of his reluctant savior, a dealer named Juan (Mahershala Ali). The second part focuses on the claustrophobia Chiron experiences while discovering his homosexuality as a pubescent in an environment that violently punishes the different. The final act follows the tenderhearted Black, who wears faux swagger and hardness as a protective shield until he rediscovers the man (André Holland) who can see through his every charade. No one has lied to you: Moonlight is everything you’ve heard; it is a gorgeous, lyrical, spiritual, moving symphony of visual poetry that uses silence as a paintbrush to color the most vibrant muted emotional complexities. Jenkins coaxes consistent, complex performances from three actors playing one character and gives space for every supporting player to add their own nuance and depth. It’s a masterpiece, a triumph of the art form. And then some. I will never personally experience how it feels to grow up as a person of color confronting nascent homosexuality in that environment. But for just under two hours, I got as close as I ever will. The empathy machine performed its magic, making it impossible for me to ever again confuse statistics or abstract data for human beings like Chiron. Please, don’t let colorful, noisy tripe like La La Land steal the spotlight from the very type of art we need to fix this mess we’re in. Please see Moonlight. And take someone who needs to see it with you. This review previously appeared in The Reader of Omaha, Nebraska.
Boulder Weekly