THENEWYORKER,M AY4, 2020 5
ILLUSTRATION BY ELENA XAUSA
The California-based producers Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, who work
together as the Kitchen Sisters, have been producing immersive, beautifully
observed, historically relevant stories for public radio since 1979. Their
style is both distinctive and invisible: rich in audio delights but minimally
hosted, narrated largely by interviewees. “The Kitchen Sisters Present,” from
Radiotopia, is a treasure trove of the duo’s recent and earlier work. “Waiting
for Joe DiMaggio,” from 1993, about the retired ballplayer’s attempt to visit
the Sicilian village of his family’s origin, tells a quiet story that amazes, as
does “Tupperware,” an influential early piece, from 1980, that takes us to—
and far beyond—a Tupperware party. Other classic episodes feature Studs
Terkel’s “Working” interviews; Charles Aznavour reminiscing about nights
with Edith Piaf; and, in “Shirley,” a Vietnamese-American nail salon and
the legacy of Shirley Temple. For quarantined listeners wistful for another
New York, the 2001-02 “Sonic Memorial” series, about the World Trade
Center area, and a recent foray into the New York Public Library’s Lou
Reed Archive are particularly striking, warm, and powerful.—Sarah Larson
PODCASTDEPT.
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PODCASTS
Field Recordings
A key part of the art of radio, as any narra-
tive-audio producer will attest, is making field
recordings: pure diegetic sound, recorded on lo-
cation, that conveys the aural texture of a place.
In this new podcast from Eleanor McDowall,
the series producer of BBC Radio 4’s “Short
Cuts,” field recordings become the art itself.
There’s the rumbling “Backyard Storm, Darwin,
Australia,” with sounds of a rapt, whispering
five-year-old and a tropical storm rolling in; the
barking dogs and twittering birds of “Hough
End Clough, Manchester, U.K.,” with the rough
urban charm of wild land “between a main road
and a police-dog kennel”; workaday construction
and traffic in the Gaza Strip, in 2017; teeny, noisy
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DANCE
“The Bright Stream”
In 2005, the Bolshoi Ballet came to New York
under the direction of a young, little-known
choreographer—Alexei Ratmansky. Amid a
parade of blockbuster ballets, the company per-
formed one of his works, “The Bright Stream.”
This spoof of Soviet-era propaganda—a happy
farce set on a collective farm—turned out to
be a total delight. The score, by Shostakovich,
was infectious (who knew his music could be
so jolly?), and the plot was worthy of Beau-
marchais. It put Ratmansky, now one of the
world’s leading ballet choreographers, on the
map. Besides the wit of the choreography and
the appealing clarity of the storytelling, “The
Bright Stream” perfectly captures the exuberant
dancing style of the Bolshoi. On May 3, the
company will broadcast a 2012 performance
of the piece on its YouTube channel.—Marina
Harss (youtube.com/user/bolshoi)
Fisher Center “Upstreaming”
In recent years, the Fisher Center at Bard Col-
lege has grown into a major player in dance, with
an impressive track record of aesthetic successes.
Rather than replacing its new online offerings
each week, as many institutions are doing, the
Fisher Center has been adding to the pile. So
far, its archive includes a terrific 2015 program
by Pam Tanowitz Dance, accompanied by the
Flux Quartet; a 2016 rethinking of Beth Gill’s
surreal and cinematic “Catacomb”; and a 2017
performance of Tere O’Connor’s formally intri-
cate, agitated, and ambiguous “Long Run.” The
latest addition: “Chambre,” Jack Ferver’s campy
2014 take on Genet’s “The Maids.”—Brian Seibert
(fishercenter.bard.edu/upstreaming)
SF Ballet @ Home
For audiences stuck at home, San Francisco
Ballet, a world-class troupe with sophisticated
dancers and a commitment to expanding its rep-
ertory, has been sharing pieces from its ultra-am-
bitious 2018 Unbound festival, which unveiled
a dozen new works by leading choreographers.
This week’s selection, Edwaard Liang’s “The
Infinite Ocean,” isn’t the most exciting or origi-
nal, but it’s a handsome, death-haunted vision of
letting go, and it shows off the dancers. If rights
agreements can be reached, Unbound works of
greater distinction—by Alonzo King, Justin
Peck, and Trey McIntyre—may be scheduled
soon.—B.S. (sfballet.org/sf-ballet-home)
“The Winter’s Tale”
In this ballet, the choreographer Christopher
Wheeldon—the man who brought “An Amer-
ican in Paris” to Broadway—manages to turn
one of Shakespeare’s most difficult plays into a
taut piece of dance theatre. Jealousy, brutality,
exile, false identity, death, and a return to life
are depicted through stylized choreography
that captures, with bracing clarity, the mental
state of each character. Even Shakespeare’s
language—for example, his description of the
spiderlike poison of jealousy—finds its way
into the fabric of the dancing. This darkness
is leavened by a second act full of ecstatic faux-
folk dances, set to music performed onstage by
a Balkan-influenced band. Starting on May 1,
London’s Royal Ballet will broadcast a 2014
production of the work, starring Edward Wat-
son—the company’s resident antihero—and
Lauren Cuthbertson, on its YouTube chan-
nel.—M.H. (youtube.com/royaloperahouse)
frogs in Hilo, Hawaii; people in Rome singing
“Volare” during self-quarantine. McDowall con-
ceived of the series two years ago, at a time when
she was feeling burned out and “just wanted to
stand still and listen to the birds”; its timeliness
is unintentional and welcome as it transports
listeners with the quotidian joys of wandering
around somewhere new.—Sarah Larson
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A RT
“Judd”
Donald Judd was the last great revolutionary
of modern art. The gorgeous boxy objects—
he refused to call them sculptures—that the
American artist constructed between the early
nineteen-sixties and his death, from cancer,
in 1994, irreversibly altered the character of
Western aesthetic experience. They displaced
traditional contemplation with newfangled
confrontation. That’s the key trope of Min-
imalism, a term that Judd despised but one
that will tag him until the end of time. His
