Not 9 but 18

Well, my week-long culture binge hit some bumps along the way, but ended in heaven. One bump you already know about, the "Vita Nova" which the Times reviewer described as a rare combination of banal and pretentious. On Sunday I sat stonily through some old repertory piees by Paul Taylor and wondered if anyone would bother coming if the dancers were fully attired. And last night I saw the premiere of the Met's new "Sonnambula," beautifully sung but in a post-modern production by Mary Zimmerman which the audience heartily booed.

But then there was tonight's "New Music, New City, New Hall," a performance by three generations of New York new music ensembles as part of the opening festival of the new Alice Tully. Inspiredly performing in reverse chronological order, we heard Alarm Will Sound, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and then Steve Reich & Musicians (for his iconic 1974 "Music for 18 Musicians"). By the luck of the draw, my friend D and I were in the first row, which, while rendering Alice Tully's gorgeous new accoustics moot, meant that we were practically in the musicians' laps. "Music for 18" is already mesmerizing in recordings, but live it was a vision of heaven: twenty musicians (the marimbists needed a periodic change of the guard) totally in tune with each other for nearly an hour, passing phrases and pulses back and forth and helping each other out - sometimes lost in concentration, often with expressions of joy or even rapture. I imagine I was looking pretty blissed out myself.