The Ballet Mecanique Page

Your host is Paul D. Lehrman
Last update:
March 15, 2013
OUR 14th YEAR
ON THE WEB!

Next performance:

April 7, 2013 • Nashville, TN • VORTEX
live performance with the Leger/Murphy film!

Telly Bronze award

Film Fest New Haven

First prize

Int'l Festival
of Films on Science,
Budapest

the award-winning documentary film by Paul Lehrman & Ron Frank
Featured on now on DVD!
•••Read the 3-1/2-star review from the Boston •••

"A TERRIFIC FILM, perhaps the most original and interesting
independent documentary I have screened this year."—WETA-TV

"A must-have for any music lover into off-the-beaten-track music."—Audiophile Audition

"A compelling look at a fascinating man—ESSENTIAL VIEWING for lovers of 20th-century music and a great introduction for those of us whose tastes are less noisily inclined." —NEFilm.com

"OUTSTANDING. Absolutely fascinating."—The Boston Phoenix

"Stimulating, informative, TOTALLY ENTERTAINING. A well-made documentary which everyone interested in music must see."—The Audio Engineering Society

"DON'T MISS IT!"—The Independent Film Monthly

VIEW THE TRAILER AND SLIDE SHOW

Don't know what the Ballet mécanique is? Click here…
or follow the hand for a tour of the history of this
INCREDIBLE piece of musical multimedia…

UNSEEN CINEMA, featuring the Ballet mécanique, on DVD
"One of the major monuments of the DVD medium!"-
"The must-have release of the year!"- FILM COMMENT
Winner, LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS Special Citation

Hedy's Folly

by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes, tells the story of the amazing invention, by composer George Antheil and Hollywood legend Hedy Lamarr, of "spread-spectrum" technology—the basis of all wireless technology today!

!!! Warning !!!
This book contains one major factual error (Antheil was not able to synchronize four pianolas at his 1927 Carnegie Hall concert!), but the author has promised to fix it for the paperback edition…

RECENT PERFORMANCES:

Ictus Ensemble • Brussels, Belgium
March 13, 2013 • Kaaitheater Ars Music Festival "Synchronicity"• live performance with the Leger/Murphy film
December 7, 2012 • Ictus Ensemble • Opéra de Lille • with music by Varèse, Chessa, Schwitters, and Luigi Russolo's "Intonarumori"

in Germany…

July 19 & 20, 2011 • Oldenburg

Live performance
with the Léger/Murphy film

November 13, 2009 • JORDAN HALL, Boston

Gil Rose, conductor
"It was something to behold…
a glorious din"—
"A fully satisfying hoot
of a piece"—Boston Musical Intelligencer
"A dazzling success!"—ArtsFuse

in England…

November 22, 2009

Antheil's rarely-heard 1925 Ballet mécanique—the single-pianola version—was performed by Anglia Sinfonia at Anglia Ruskin University's West Road Concert Hall, in Cambridge. The pianola soloist was the estimable Rex Lawson, and the conductor was Paul Jackson.

in Buenos Aires…
November 18, 2009
The South American premiere of
Ballet mécanique
(the 1953 version) at the
Sala Casacuberta del Teatro San Martin

in Chicago…
March 3, 2009
first performance of Ballet mécanique:

Dada Machinations, at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance
"Termites running the asylum!…a spectacle hard to forget…giving the performance a primal intensity…Clutched the audience and didn't let go!"—Chicago Sun-Times

THE BALLET MECANIQUE AUTOMATED ORCHESTRA!
with robots by the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots

"A HAPPY RIOT" in WASHINGTON, DC…

In 2006, in conjunction with a huge exhibit on Dadaist art, the National Gallery of Art hosted the premiere of the Ballet mécanique Automated Orchestra, performing what the critics called "The best 10 minutes of free fun in Washington!"

WATCH THE VIDEO! plus PICTURES from the National Gallery

…Mécanique in MIAMI

The Ballet mécanique Automated Orchestra was again in residence in December 2007 at the Museum of Florida International University and was the smash hit of the world-famous ArtBasel Festival!

said: "This outrageous work is best experienced in unsafe mode, where its mechanistic ferocity and riotous noise can make full, deafening impact…"

• Read the great press coverage
• Watch videos from Miami's PBS Channel 2

…and New York: Frequency Hopping, a play by Elyse Singer about Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil
featuring The Ballet mécanique Automated Orchestra, playing an original score by Joshua Fried along with selections from the Ballet mécanique,
May-June 2008 at 3-Legged Dog Art & Technology Center in downtown Manhattan.

"Vivid…Inventive…Keenly intelligent!"
Ballet mécanique was "a musical and visual treat. The combined craziness elicited an ecstatic ovation from the audience who packed the place, eager for this rare opportunity!"

"Stunning…gorgeous…one of the most technologically sophisticated theatre experiences one could imagine…snappy, spirited performances!"

MORE from …