Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Picnic on the Grass (2007) is a choreographic adaptation of Claude Monet’s  Luncheon on the Grass (1865). The music is from Francis Poulenc’s Sinfonietta (1947).       Featured Image: Lynne Taylor-Corbett. Picnic on the Grass (2007). Carolina Ballet, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; read more

Rorem’s bitchy recollection of a “collapsed romance” inspired Picnic on the Marne: Seven Waltzes. When his romance with Claude Benedick was hot in the 1950sRorem was lovey-dovy. But in 1967, all that was left was rancor. Rorem’s The New York Diary (1967) spews his anger. “Sweet memories will always be soiled by your action,” he […] read more

Bowles and Schuyler’s performance piece A Picnic Cantata: for Four Women’s Voices, Two Pianos, and Percussion (1954) is delightfully silly. It’s about a happy picnic that is intentionally nonsensical. The music by Bowles’ and the libretto by Schuyler capture the superficiality and simplicity of picnics without deep meaning. If there is a plot, it concerns […] read more

Williams’s Popular Song Hampstead Is the Place to Ruralise Hampstead Is the Place to Ruralise, All on a Summer Day (1861) is a comic hymn dedicated to the pleasures of Hampstead Heath. The euphemism “ruralizing,” like gypsying, had been in use since the the1820s but faded by the end of the Nineteenth Century. Williams’ song was […] read more