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Einstein on the Beach: Opera beyond Drama
- Author: Novak, Jelena
- Author: Richardson, John
Einstein on the Beach: Opera beyond Drama
- Author: Novak, Jelena
- Author: Richardson, John
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About
Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s most celebrated collaboration, the landmark opera Einstein on the Beach, had its premiere at the Avignon Festival in 1976. During its initial European tour, Metropolitan Opera premiere, and revivals in 1984 and 1992, Einstein provoked opposed reactions from both audiences and critics. Today, Einstein is well on the way itself to becoming a canonized avant-garde work, and it is widely acknowledged as a profoundly significant moment in the history of opera or musical theater. Einstein created waves that for many years crashed against the shores of traditional thinking concerning the nature and creative potential of audiovisual expression. Reaching beyond opera, its influence was felt in audiovisual culture in general: in contemporary avant-garde music, performance art, avant-garde cinema, popular film, popular music, advertising, dance, theater, and many other expressive, commercial, and cultural spheres. Inspired by the 2012–2015 series of performances that re-contextualized this unique work as part of the present-day nexus of theoretical, political, and social concerns, the editors and contributors of this book take these new performances as a pretext for far-reaching interdisciplinary reflection and dialogue. Essays range from those that focus on the human scale and agencies involved in productions to the mechanical and post-human character of the opera’s expressive substance. A further valuable dimension is the inclusion of material taken from several recent interviews with creative collaborators Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, and Lucinda Childs, each of these sections comprising knee plays, or short intermezzo sections resembling those found in the opera Einstein on the Beach itself. The book additionally features a foreword written by the influential musicologist and cultural theorist Susan McClary and an interview with film and theater luminary Peter Greenaway, as well as a short chapter of reminiscences written by the singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega.
Contents
- Contents
- List of figures viii
- List of music examples x
- Series editor preface xi
- Foreword: music and culture in the wake of Einstein xiii
- Contributors xvii
- Acknowledgements xxiii
- Introduction xxv
- JOHN RICHARDSON AND JELENA NOVAK
- Knee chapter 1
- Paying attention to Einstein: Philip Glass interviewed by John Richardson 1
- PART 1 Einstein on the shores of culture 13
- 1 Einstein on the radio 15
- ROBERT FINK
- 2 Sous les paves, la plage 49
- JOHANNES BIRRINGER
- 3 Einstein on the Beach in Belgrade: a critical testimony 66
- MISKO SUVAKOVIC
- Knee chapter 2
- Einstein on the Beach is not radical, it is classic: Robert Wilson interviewed by Bojan Djordjev 79
- PART 2 From repetition to representation 87
- 4 Intuition and algorithm in Einstein on the Beach 89
- KYLE GANN
- 5 "Only pictures to hear": reading Einstein on the Beach through experimental theater 106
- PWYLL AP SION
- 6 Creating beauty in chaos: Robert Wilson's visual authorship in Einstein on the Beach 125
- AVRA SIDIROPOULOU
- Knee chapter 3
- Stay out of the way of Bob Wilson when he dances: Lucinda Childs interviewed by Jelena Novak 141
- PART 3 Beyond drama: surfaces and agencies of performance 149
- 7 Heavenly bodies: the integral role of dance in Einstein on the Beach 151
- LEAH G. WEINBERG
- 8 Anonymous voice, sound, indifference 174
- ZEYNEP BULUT
- Knee chapter 4
- Artists recall and respond 195
- Suzanne Vega, Under the influence - Philip Glass 195
- Two Finnish composers reminisce: Juhani Nuorvala, Petri Kuljuntausta 198
- Tom Johnson, Rehearsing Einstein on the Beach 203
- Two steps forwards but three steps back, and then one step forwards again - Peter Greenaway interviewed by John Richardson 206
- PART 4 Operatic machines and their ghosts 211
- 9 Leaving and re-entering: punctuating Einstein on the Beach 213
- SANDER VAN MAAS
- 10 Historia Einsteinalium: from the beach to the church, via theater and "state bank" 231
- JELENA NOVAK
- Knee chapter 5
- Critical excavations 253
- Pieter T'Jonck, How democratic baroque came about in dance and Einstein on the Beach 253
- Frits van der Waa, Einstein in the press 261
- Appendix 1: Robert Wilson, Einstein on the Beach,storyboard drawings 271
- Appendix 2: Einstein on the Beach, spoken texts 276
- Bibliography 287
- Index 301
