Latest news with #EinsteinOnTheBeach
Washington Post
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Robert Wilson has left the stage – and taken the avant-garde with him
Over the past two weeks, the worlds of visual art, theater and opera have been collectively mourning the loss of multifaceted artist and director Robert Wilson, who died of an unspecified acute illness at 83. Perhaps best known for conceiving and directing 'Einstein on the Beach,' his monumental experimental opera created with composer Philip Glass in 1976, the prolific Wilson worked in drawing, painting, sculpture, film, video, lighting and set design. But this seemingly limitless artistic practice was focused on the creation of singular works of theater that challenged every available theatrical convention. Many of his stage productions began as simple drawings that grew into large-scale productions. Rather than the usual composer/librettist/director trio, Wilson's works grew from collaborations across disciplines with artists, poets, composers, dancers and more.
New York Times
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Robert Wilson Expanded Our Sense of Theatrical Possibility
Robert Wilson's productions floated into theaters and opera houses like visitors from another planet. Most audiences, particularly in the United States, were — and still are — used to realistic theater, with clear settings, plots and characters. For 60 years, Wilson, who died on Thursday at 83, infuriated some and inspired many others by abandoning conventional narrative and conceiving, directing and designing works that were closer to long, enigmatic poems. Wilson's style was glacial in its pace. Very little would happen very slowly. His scenery was minimal, yet the backdrops glowed with blue light; the effect was spare yet lush. The performers' faces were often whitened with makeup, like Japanese Noh actors, clowns or mimes. Their posture was rigid; their movements, formal, deliberate, almost ritualistic. Stiff gestures would be frozen for agonizing stretches. A Wilson show was a paradox: an austere spectacle. Stylish and mysterious, his work was precisely calibrated, yet open-ended in its possible meanings. You tended not to be able to forget the experience, the look, the slowness. He expanded our sense of what could happen on a stage by starkly limiting the action. In a climactic scene from 'Einstein on the Beach,' his profoundly influential, nearly five-hour collaboration with the composer Philip Glass from 1976, a 30-foot bar of light gradually rotated from horizontal to vertical, then rose into the flies. That was it. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Star
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
US theatre and opera legend Robert Wilson dead at 83
Celebrated US director Robert Wilson, who revolutionised stage and opera, died on Thursday at the age of 83, his management said. "Robert Wilson died peacefully today in Water Mill, New York, at the age of 83, after a brief but acute illness," said a statement issued on his website. It said he worked right up until the end. Wilson's productions of original works as well as traditional repertoire pieces were hugely popular wherever they were shown. But it was in France where he was best known. It was the French who gave him a "home," Wilson told AFP in 2021. It was in 1976 that Wilson was propelled onto the international stage with Einstein On The Beach, a nearly five-hour opera staged several times since its creation, with music by Philip Glass. Einstein On The Beach broke all the conventions of classical opera - there is no linear narrative but rather it draws on themes related to Einstein's life. It does not aim to explain the theory of relativity but to convey the upheaval introduced by the notion of space-time, notably through dance. Wilson's trademarks included minimalist aesthetics, body language influenced by Asian theatrical forms, and lighting effects evoking dreamlike worlds. Avant garde admiration His love affair with France began with Deafman Glance (Le Regard du Sourd) - his first success - a "silent" seven-hour show presented at the Nancy Festival in 1971, and later in Paris. The show was born out of a real-world incident when in 1967, Wilson saw a 13-year-old Black teenager, Raymond Andrews, being beaten in the street by a police officer. He realized the child was deaf and mute and eventually adopted him. Wilson, also a visual artist, had a string of collaborations including with choreographer Andy de Groat, Tom Waits, Isabelle Huppert for Orlando by Virginia Woolf, Lady Gaga for video portraits of her at the Louvre, and ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov. "While facing his diagnosis with clear eyes and determination, he still felt compelled to keep working and creating right up until the very end," the website piece announcing his death said. "His works for the stage, on paper, sculptures and video portraits, as well as The Watermill Center, will endure as Robert Wilson's artistic legacy." Memorials will be held for Wilson at time and locations yet to be announced. Born to a lawyer in October 4, 1941, in Waco, Texas, Wilson was performing his own plays in the family garage by the age of 12, but recalls being bottom of the class at school. He was cured of a severe stutter thanks to a psychotherapist who worked with dance. In his 20s, he landed in New York but hated what he saw in theatres and instinctively gravitated toward the American avant garde: Andy Warhol, John Cage, choreographers George Balanchine, and especially Martha Graham. He relished nurturing emerging talent, and in 1992, created the Watermill Center near New York. - AFP
France 24
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- France 24
US theatre and opera director Bob Wilson dies aged 83
Celebrated US director Robert Wilson, who revolutionized stage and opera, died Thursday at the age of 83, his management said. 'Robert Wilson died peacefully today in Water Mill, New York, at the age of 83, after a brief but acute illness,' said a statement issued on his website. It said he worked right up until the end. Wilson's productions of original works as well as traditional repertoire pieces were hugely popular wherever they were shown. But it was in France where he was best known. It was the French who gave him a 'home', Wilson told AFP in 2021. It was in 1976 that Wilson was propelled onto the international stage with 'Einstein on The Beach', a nearly five-hour opera staged several times since its creation, with music by Philip Glass. 'Einstein on the Beach' broke all the conventions of classical opera—there is no linear narrative but rather it draws on themes related to Einstein's life. It does not aim to explain the theory of relativity but to convey the upheaval introduced by the notion of space-time, notably through dance. Wilson's trademarks included minimalist aesthetics, body language influenced by Asian theatrical forms, and lighting effects evoking dreamlike worlds. Avant-garde admiration His love affair with France began with 'Deafman Glance' ('Le Regard du Sourd') — his first success—a 'silent' seven-hour show presented at the Nancy Festival in 1971, and later in Paris. The show was born out of a real-world incident when in 1967, Wilson saw a 13-year-old Black teenager, Raymond Andrews, being beaten in the street by a police officer. He realised the child was deaf and mute and eventually adopted him. Wilson, also a visual artist, had a string of collaborations including with choreographer Andy de Groat, Tom Waits, Isabelle Huppert for 'Orlando' by Virginia Woolf, Lady Gaga for video portraits of her at the Louvre, and ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov. 'While facing his diagnosis with clear eyes and determination, he still felt compelled to keep working and creating right up until the very end,' the website piece announcing his death said. 'His works for the stage, on paper, sculptures and video portraits, as well as The Watermill Center, will endure as Robert Wilson's artistic legacy.' Memorials will be held for Wilson at time and locations yet to be announced. Born to a lawyer in October 4, 1941, in Waco, Texas, Wilson was performing his own plays in the family garage by the age of 12, but recalls being bottom of the class at school. He was cured of a severe stutter thanks to a psychotherapist who worked with dance. In his twenties, he landed in New York but hated what he saw in theatres and instinctively gravitated toward the American avant-garde: Andy Warhol, John Cage, choreographers George Balanchine, and especially Martha Graham. He relished nurturing emerging talent, and in 1992, created the Watermill Center near New York.
France 24
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- France 24
US theater and opera auteur Bob Wilson dead at 83
"Robert Wilson died peacefully today in Water Mill, New York, at the age of 83, after a brief but acute illness," said a statement issued on his website. "While facing his diagnosis with clear eyes and determination, he still felt compelled to keep working and creating right up until the very end. "His works for the stage, on paper, sculptures and video portraits, as well as The Watermill Center, will endure as Robert Wilson's artistic legacy." Memorials will be held for Wilson at time and locations yet to be announced. Wilson's productions of original works as well as traditional repertoire pieces were hugely popular wherever they were shown. But it was in France that the artist was best known. It was the French who gave him a "home," Wilson told AFP in 2021. He had directed the inaugural show of the Opera Bastille in 1989 but it was in 1976 that Wilson was propelled onto the international stage with "Einstein on The Beach," a nearly five-hour opera staged several times since its creation, with music by Philip Glass. "Einstein on the Beach" broke all the conventions of classical opera -- there is no linear narrative but rather it draws on themes related to Einstein's life. It does not aim to explain the theory of relativity but to convey the upheaval introduced by the notion of "space-time," notably through dance.
