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29
SUNDAY
In Colors of Music: David Hockney and the Opera, the bespectacled, pale-faced British artist is in motion. He of the soigné male nudes and brilliantly sunny swimming pools is altogether different from what I imagined, dolled up in a Willy Loman suit and hat, chewing gum open-mouthed, swaggering and gesticulating and looking like Phil Donahue. Gripping the arms of his chair mid-interview, body raised as if to launch, Hockney projects as much vigor as his paintings, if not as much fruity-luscious color. But there’s plenty of that elsewhere in Seth Schneidman and Maryte Kavaliauskas’ 2002 documentary about Hockney’s opera designs. And amid the mustards, lipstick reds, and ultramarines, you might notice a dull gray device in the artist’s left ear: The man whose ebullient visions of Erik Satie’s Parade make a joyful noise to the eye is now deaf. “When I go to the opera,” he explains, “I want to have something to look at.” Colors screens at 4:30 p.m. (see Showtimes for other dates) at the National Gallery of Art’s East Building Auditorium, 4th Street and Constitution Ave. NW. Free. (202) 842-6799. (Pamela Murray Winters)