Ever Been to The Morgan? It's a Treasure

   The Morgan Library and Museum is that rare institution that is both majestic and intimate.  Now that the three period buildings — Morgan’s original Charles McKim library, his son’s classical addition and the family’s brownstone — are brought together by Renzo Piano’s serene steel-and-glass pavilions and his soaring, light-filled central court, the complex is modern yet old and warm.  (Don’t miss the samba wood model of the entire complex on the first floor of the Piano building.)

   Most New Yorkers I know have seldom if ever visited The Morgan.  What they have missed is the startling experience of coming face to face with manuscripts and books and works of art that are famous and in some cases transformative.

    To stand over a Gutenberg Bible, simply displayed in a modest glass case in Morgan’s Study is to anticipate all the books to come in Western civilization. Then there is Dickens’ manuscript of “A Christmas Carol,†which brought back countless family yules to me.  And there is an original “The Story of Babar,†Brunhoff’s magical tale that was my favorite children’s book.  (And still is.)

   The Morgan is presenting a wonderful exhibition of drawings and etchings by William Blake, that peculiar and brilliant 18th-century English religious artist and poet.  (He wrote every English person’s favorite hymn, “Jerusalem.â€) Two groups of illustrations, both commissioned by Blake’s patron, Thomas Butts, stand out.

   The Bible’s Book of Job is, of course, the story of a man tested by God through many horrible trials.  Blake depicted the story in a series of near-classical works that calmly show the horror of what befell the poor man.  They are lovely, yet the power of God over man is clear and emphatic.

   Blake was devoted to John Milton’s poetry.  His drawings based on “L’Allegro†and “Il Penseroso,†the happy man contrasted with the melancholic, bring the poetry to life brilliantly yet with the artistic detachment common to his period.  The Morgan presents the works with bits of Milton’s poetry beside each rendering.

   In the Thaw Gallery, opera and other music lovers can almost hear Giacomo Puccini’s glorious music in a small exhibition of manuscripts, letters, posters and photographs honoring the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth.  And for those who will see and hear Puccini’s “Turandot†at the Mahaiwe Theater next Saturday, Nov. 7, there is an original announcment of the opera’s  premier at Milan’s La Scala on April 25, 1926.  (Puccini had been dead two years by then, and Arturo Toscanini famously stopped the performance midway through the third act where the composer stopped writing and refused to conduct the ending written by Franco Alfano.)

     The Morgan Library and Museum is at 225 Madison Ave. at 36th St. in New York City.  For information, 212-685-0008 or go to www.themorgan.org.