In TRIPTYCH (EYES OF ONE ON ANOTHER), composer and guitarist Bryce Dessner of The National has collaborated with playwright Korde Arrington Tuttle, the LA Phil New Music Group, Roomful of Teeth, videographer Simon Harding, lighting designer Yuki Nakase, and the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation for an musical-visual investigation into the ways the photographer’s works “compel an audience’s complicity and characterizes them in the act of attention.”*

Tuttle’s libretto integrates the poetry of Mapplethorpe detractor Essex Hemphill and advocate Patti Smith, and the featured vocalists for this world premiere are Isaiah Robinson and Alicia Hall Moran, the latter of whom will perform later this week in Carrie Mae Weems’ Past Tense at the Theatre at Ace Hotel.

TRIPTYCH is directed by Kaneza Schaal and conducted by Sara Jobin. Music direction is provided by Brad Wells.

BRYCE DESSNER

TRIPTYCH (EYES OF ONE ON ANOTHER)*

Tuesday, March 5, at 8 pm.

Walt Disney Concert Hall

111 South Grand Avenue, downtown Los Angeles.

From top: Bryce Dessner, photograph by Shervin Lainez; Robert Mapplethorpe, Dorothy Dean, © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation; Korde Arrington Tuttle, courtesy of the artist; Robert Mapplethorpe, Alistair Butler, 1980, © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Images courtesy LA Phil and the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.