Buffman glance
A video of Brad Pitt in wet underpants. Now, you would think that there is no way that such a video would be less than fascinating, right? Well, you’d be wrong, because the video is directed by the only man in the world who could make Brad Pitt in wet underpants look boring.
Robert Wilson, of course. Via Vanity Fair.
UPDATE: Oh, and did I mention that Pitt is furious at what his legal representative calls an “unauthorized” use of a still from the Wilson video “portrait” that Vanity Fair used as the cover of their “Art Issue?” The cover identifies Wilson as an “avant-garde impresario,” which of course is zero for two.
Jakobson would argue that art is alienation. Sort of. But he’s dead, so he probably won’t post anything about it. Anyway the Lohengrin seems to alienate people to the tune of sold out houses.
I’ll defend Wilson. He’s the only director I’ve known who can actually make Butterfly tolerable. His Parsifal is brilliant and his recent US stagings or The Black Rider were nothing short of a revelation. Sure not everything he does works 100% (and the Brad Pitt video is good evidence of that) but his work overall is certainly interesting. Yes, it’s repetitive and he does tend to focus on the same ideas and techniques, but that is hardly uncommon even in great artists. It appears to be true that one person’s lack of innovation is another’s adherence to tradition.
Plus anyone who pisses so many people off so fast (e.g. so many comments so quickly) must be doing something right.
Anyone who pisses off so many people so fast must be doing something wrong.
Brian-
While I’ll agree that Wilson’s Butterfly has some beautiful imagry, did we see the same Parsifal? It was one of the if not the most boring nights I’ve ever spent at the Opera. Even Domingo couldn’t save that evening.
There were many things I liked about the Wilson LA Parsifal — especially Act 2. But Act 1 was DOA. Having the chorus offstage? Bad idea. You had 20 minutes of music while the chorus sang and should be re-enacting communion while Amfortas, Gurnemanz and Parsifal just stood there staring into space. Really stupid. As arresting as his work can sometimes be it often feels — after you’ve seen 3 or 4 of his productions — to be the same idea recycled over and over and over again.
RW only has one trick under his sleeves… and it is a very tiring one… how can someone got SOOOO stucked artistically is beyond me….
balanov is right. If you have ever seen Sankai Juku or other asian post modern performance groups you’ll see all of Wilson’s schtick done better. Unfortunately Wilson is well funded by Deutsche Bank and others so we are going to be stuck with this bullshit for a long time to come.
For people who hated the LA Parsifal, you would have really hated the Met Lohengrin.
[raises hand] Hated the LAO Parsifal. The woman sitting next to me remarked after I finished booing the production team “So, I take it you didn’t like the Kabuki production”. I said “It’s so boring to look at! People make fun of the Mets production because of flowers that wiggle, but at least there’s some variety in what you’re looking at”.
his work overall is certainly interesting
Says you. He’s a half-trick pony and I wish he’d be taken to the glue factory already.
Here’s a bit of encouraging news, from a NYT profile of the Bavarian State Opera. Kent Nagano has taken over from Zubin Mehta and since Peter Jonas left, the General Director’s post has been vacant. Mr. Nagano is quoted:
More daringly, he also expects stage directors to conform to his philosophy that, as he puts it, “opera is musical theater and not the other way round.” And he added, “It begins with a score written by a composer.”
Those are fighting words in Germany, where the score is just a general guideline to what the director wants to do. I’ve seen/heard scores mangled beyond words: scenes shifted around, characters deleted and their lines given to other characters, etc.
The death of regie-theatre can’t come fast enough for me.
I think the only thing I liked about Robert Wilson WAS Brad Pitt in this video….otherwise I couldn’t BEAR a 4 hour Wagner opera in one of his productions….I think this guy is on some serious meds.
Look, I’m all for interesting, insightful operatic productions. But some directors really piss me off. The recent Idomeneo scandal is a perfect example. It’s about the music, folks, not your ideas. That’s why we come.