Quilt to perform at Last Sundays

Swedish soprano Nina Stemme stars in Wagner’s ‘Tristan und Isolde’. Male Singer of the Year at the 2014 International Opera Awards. In 2015 he made a major role debut, singing Tristan in Tristan und Isolde with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under David Robertson. In 2010, he was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera for his performances as Peter Grimes with the English National Opera.

Ekaterina Gubanova was born in Moscow and began her musical studies as a pianist.

In 2005, she sang as Brangane in Tristan und Isolde at the Opera National de Paris.

She has since reprised the role in Baden-Baden, Rotterdam, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, St Petersburg and Munich, collaborating with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Semyon Bychkov and Kent Nagano.

Rene Pape as been a member of the Berlin State Opera since 1988, but considers New York’s Metropolitan Opera his operatic “home away from home.” Since his house debut in 1995, he has appeared every season at the Met, in 18 roles and more than 160 performances. Pape’s first CD of solo arias, Gods, Kings & Demons, was released in 2008 on Deutsche Grammophon with his hometown orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Sebastian Weigle. The disc won an ECHO Award, the German equivalent of a Grammy. THE NATIONAL Gallery of Jamaica’s Last Sundays programme, set for September 25, will feature a performance by the award-winning Quilt Performing Arts Company, as well as guided tours of the Kingston - Part 1: The City and Art exhibition.

Kingston - Part 1: The City and Art examines how Jamaica’s turbulent capital city has generated many of the circumstances and opportunities that have propelled the development of Jamaican art. This covers from the natural resources to the economic activities and institutions and the events, big and small, that have marked the city’s history.

The exhibition features works of art that date from the late 17th century to the present day and portrays life in the city in all its diversity, seen through the eyes of artists such as Isaac Mendez Belisario, Sidney McLaren, David Pottinger, Osmond Watson, Carl Abrahams, Andy Jefferson, Edna Manley, Cecil Baugh, Kapo, Michael Lester and Roy Reid.

The exhibition also features the iconic Jamaican feature film The Harder They Come (1972, dir. Perry Henzell), which is in many ways also a portrait of Kingston and, particularly, a time capsule of life in the city in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibition was curated by National Gallery assistant curator Monique BarnettDavidson and continues until October 30, 2016.

Using Caribbean rhythms, merging poetry, dance and music, the Quilt performers have developed their unique performance style and an evolving devised theatre technique. The performance at Last Sundays on September 25 will consist of Revolution (2016) and a new work that is yet to be titled. Revolution looks at hegemony and the ‘zambification’ of the human race. It travels through stage vignettes from the slave ships to the sound boxes of Kingston.

The National Gallery’s doors will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the Quilt performance will start at 1:30 pm. Admission and guided tours will be free, but contributions to the National Gallery’s donations box will be gratefully accepted.