As Robert Mapplethorpe selected by Robert Wilson opens at Galerie Thomas Schulte, the avant-garde theatre director and designer remembers his close friend and collaborator.
Los Angeles Review of Books: Hilton Als on His Playwrighting Debut: Robert Wilson, Race, and the Avant Garde
Critic, photographer and artist, Hilton Als joins Kate and Medaya to discuss his debut play, Lives of the Performers, which tells the story of actress Sheryl Sutton, one of the lead actors in Robert Wilson’s ground-shattering troupe in the 1970s. Als, the former theater critic at the New Yorker, also discusses his fascination with twins, writing a play, and the role race has played in the history of the avant-garde.
The show also includes a spirited debate among the hosts about this year’s soporific Golden Globes: are woke actors enough to keep you awake?
Also, legendary film critic J Hoberman returns to explain why his favorite film of 2019, Mary Harron’s Charlie Says, was a superior take on the Manson Family saga than Quintin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Listen to the full interview here.
“Jessye Norman was one of my dearest and closest friends. She could sing also quietly, and hum so beautifully. The color of her voice was unlike any other singer. She was a brilliant spokeswoman who cared about humanity and social justice. She was a teacher who led the way. She will be forever missed. I raise my hands for her in praise for I am fortunate to have known her.”
In memoriam Jessye Norman
Robert Wilson wrote this letter to Jessye Norman on September 29, 2019, after his opening of Turandot at the Canadian Opera Co. in Toronto.
Robert Wilson and Jessye Norman
OTELLO – The Drama about Jealousy directed by Robert Wilson in Baden-Baden at the Osterfestspiele. Opening on April 13
Verdi’s Otello is both drama and ritual at once. Magician of the theater Robert Wilson stages the work as the latter, while Zubin Mehta conducts it as the former – in collaboration with the Berliner Philharmoniker, who continue their explorations of opera with the Indian master conductor.
More information: https://www.festspielhaus.de/en/events/verdi-otello
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I LA GALIGO to be revived in Bali on October 9
More than 14 years after its celebrated world première in Singapore, which was followed by an international tour, I La Galigo can now be seen again on the Peninsula Island of Nusa Dua, Bali. The work is based on Sureq Galigo, an epic poem from South Sulawesi about the creation of man, and features a cast of more than 50 performers and live musicians. Music by Rahayu Supanggah.
JOE: A Celebration of Joseph V. Melillo at BAM
Last night, we celebrated Joe Melillo and his achievements during his 35 years as BAM’s Executive Producer. I was proud to direct a short performance entitled For Joe A Man Who, with an amazing ensemble of Lucinda Childs, Isabelle Huppert, Nonhlanhla Kheswa, Isabella Rossellini, Jeremy Irons, Chukwudi Iwuji, Carl Hancock Rux and John Turturro. Among the many other artists that composed, wrote and performed for this memorable night at the Harvey Theater were Laurie Anderson, David Lang, Mitchell Rose, Daniel Bernard Roumain and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
“THIS IS HIS THIS IS IS HIS THAT IS IS IS HIS and OURS
THIS IS HIS HIS IS THIS that IS HIS IS OURS
THIS that AND that is that is HIS THAT WILL always BE
THIS ours that will always BE OURS for NOW + FOREVER
THIS IS HIS IS MINE and YOURS OURS FOREVER
THIS IS and THAT is THAT is HIS IS OURS
THIS IS THIS THAT IS IS his IS ALL of US.”
Photographs © Richard Termine
Robert Wilson at the Max Ernst Museum, with a photo of Louis Aragon by Man Ray (c.1925) - Photograph © Lucie Jansch
"The Hat Makes The Man" Opens Tonight at the Max Ernst Museum Brühl
“Some nearly fifty years after he first created his surrealist sensation ‘Deafman Glance,’ Robert Wilson tips his hat to his mentor Max Ernst. Wilson’s staged theatrical performances, in the words of surrealist writer Louis Aragon, are ‘what we others, who fathered surrealism, what we dreamed it might become after us, beyond us.’ No mere retrospective or remembrance, this exhibition is more of a collaboration between two of the world’s quintessential dreamers.
The theme of Wilson’s exhibition reflects his wish to infuse the museum with the spirit of Ernst and that of the Watermill Center, the artists’ community where Wilson shares his personal collection of art and artifacts with the public, and nurtures the creativity of young and emerging artists. The exhibition clearly conveys Wilsons creative processes, featuring a selection of objects that serve as the raw material from which the artist draws his inspiration in many of the same ways Max Ernst drew inspiration from his own diverse collection.
Reminiscent of great cabinets of curiosities—especially the collected artifacts of André Breton and Max Ernst—this exhibition tells us less about the objects themselves than about the great artists whose dreams were initiated by them.”
Exhibition Concept and Design: Robert Wilson - Design Collaboration: Marie de Testa - Curator: Noah Khoshbin - Lighting Design: Scott Bolman - Sound Design: Dario Felli - Registrar and Collection Consultant: Christian Clement - Max Ernst Museum Brühl: Achim Sommer, Friederike Voßkamp, Jürgen Pech