TRIPTYCH (EYES OF ONE ON ANOTHER) Theatrical Work Inspired By The Photography Of Robert Mapplethorpe Comes to BAM

The work of legendary photographer Robert Mapplethorpe has inspired the creation of Triptych (Eyes of One on Another), a theatrical oratorio that integrates and questions his often provocative and always compelling images. Triptych spans Mapplethorpe's entire body of work from the unique generational perspective of a diverse corps of visionary artists, working together for the first time.

Composer Bryce Dessner (The National, El Chan with the Lebèques), librettist Korde Arrington Tuttle (Netflix's Mixtape), director Kaneza Schaal (JACK &, 2018 Next Wave), and vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth create a hybrid experience from a deftly curated survey of rarely seen photographs, celebrating the duality inherent in Mapplethorpe's work-its beauty and obscenity, dark and holy substance, inherent racism and poetic promiscuity. Mapplethorpe's boundary-breaking perspective on classical archetypes continues to evolve our ability to see and understand each other in elegant yet elusive ways.

Librettist Korde Arrington Tuttle has structured the piece in three parts based on Mapplethorpe's notorious XYZ Portfolios. The first section speaks to the connection Dessner makes between Mapplethorpe's work and Italian Mannerism. It features a re-interpreted Monteverdi madrigal set to Patti Smith's poem for Mapplethorpe, "The Boy Who Loved Michelangelo."

Triptych then considers Dessner's early exposure to the artist's work, during the 1990 Mapplethorpe obscenity trial in Cincinnati, Ohio-"when art was put on trial," says the composer. The work's final section examines anew the controversial ways in which Mapplethorpe photographed and depicted black male bodies. The libretto features text by performance artist, poet, and activist Essex Hemphill (1957-1995) who, prior to his untimely death from complications from AIDS, articulated his aversion to Mapplethorpe's photographs of black men (and of the art world's embrace of the images) in his writings, questioning the artist's intentions and exposing contradictions in the work.

With 10 singers on stage (eight members of Roomful of Teeth, soprano Alicia Hall Moran, and tenor Isaiah Robinson), Triptych is scored for string trio, double percussion, piano, harmonium, clarinet, and horn, and features monumental projections of Mapplethorpe's photographs, exhibited to the standards of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.