Word: avant
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Warren Sonbert is considered to be one of the most prominent avant-grade film directors in the United States. and will present a series of his recent works this afternoon at the Carpenter Center. Sonbert, whose works have recently been shwn at the New York Film Festival and at the Anthology Film Archive, will discuss his works after the showing...
...Opera was born. But in fact the whole place nearly died during the 1950s. Its revival in recent years has depended heavily on presentations of theater and dance, along with stagings of operas by contemporary composers like Philip Glass and John Adams, in its annual Next Wave Festival of avant-garde work. But BAM is now convinced (perhaps by the conventionality of many productions at the Met and even at the New York City Opera) that there are further new ways to be tried...
...When you started this show, you were sort of TV's avant-garde, and now you're almost the king of the mountain. You're the guy people are trying to knock off, or copy. Does that make you uncomfortable...
...Well, I think your assessment, while flattering, is largely inaccurate. I wouldn't say we're the king of the mountain. And I'm not sure we were ever avant-garde. I think it's true that in the early days we felt like we had to establish ourselves as being different, so maybe it was easier for us to do odd things and take more chances. I think the grind of doing a show every night makes you more inclined to say "Well, we did that once before, we can do it again." A certain kind of inertia takes...
...this was much more shocking 50 years ago than it is today: Dali was regularly denounced by Fascists and Stalinists alike as a decadent threat to youth. When he could no longer annoy either the bourgeoisie or the self- appointed guardians of the proletariat, he mortally offended the avant- garde by embracing Franco and the Pope, and was duly drummed out of the surrealist group...