The Metropolitan Opera in New York City will revive its December 1999 production of Institute Professor John Harbison's opera, "The Great Gatsby" in performances from April 26 through May 11. The Boston Globe's Richard Dyer called the work, which is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1924 novel, "one of the best operas composed by an American to date." Tickets, including group rates, are available for all performances.
Choreographer and performer Thomas DeFrantz, assistant professor of theater arts, will perform "Monk's Mood: A Performance Mediation on the Life and Music of Thelonious Monk" at Stanford University's Pigott Theater, April 26 and 27. Set to a recorded score of Monk compositions, this experimental theater work utilizes tap dance and puppetry to detail episodes in the life of the African American composer. DeFrantz, a visiting associate professor at Stanford's Drama Department while on leave from MIT, is performing the work as part of a symposium titled "Negotiating the New Racial Landscape in California" presented by Stanford's Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. The poster for the Stanford production of "Monk's Mood" was designed by MIT alumnus Eto Otitigbe (S.B. 1999 in mechanical engineering).
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on April 24, 2002.
