Performances Resurrect Two Musical Mavericks
Born in separate eras, Ethel Smyth and Harry Partch pushed social and sonic boundaries in very different ways.
"Mr. Goebbels’s staging involved a running stream and inflatable hills positioned among the instruments, as well as goats made of garbage bags and sticks, all echoing the Partch devotion to found objects. A giant cutout of Colonel Sanders settled the dispute between the goat-woman and the hobo. Klaus Grünberg designed the set and lighting; Florence von Gerkan, the costumes. The members of Musikfabrik were remarkably game, both as players and actors (Christine Chapman was particularly vociferous as the Old Goat Woman). It didn’t make a lot of sense, but like “The Wreckers” it was an intriguing snapshot of a committed maverick from another era."
Heidi Walson
Wallstreet Journal (US), 27 July 2015