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.
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.
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POSTED at
11:13 AM
28 Comments:
wow....worse than his lohengrin
I just don't know why this man has a career....
Robert has exactly 5 ideas, all of which he stole from Asian theater. He has been using these 5 ideas for the last, oh, what is it now - 25 years? It's astounding that he still gets so much work, and that people/critics/opera admins. treat it like it's new and relevatory. And Christpher Knowles rantings, AGAIN? When is the emperor's nakedness going to get noticed by anyone other than opera queens?
What is Brad holding in his hand??? Or is he just pleased to see Angelina?
I'll never forget Wilson's production of 'The White Raven.' Pills, therapy..I've tried everything...
"the only man in the world who could make Brad Pitt in wet underpants look boring."
That really should go on his tombstone.
The next time he gets a gig directing opera, a claque needs to be organized, not to boo, but to laugh - raucously and on cue with each stupid stylized movement. It might be painful for the singers, but they'd get over it and it might actually kill his career - boos just make him stronger.
I don't understand directors who chose to, in any work, alienate the audience from the characters. Drama (and Opera, and Film), is viseral by nature, but Wilson choses to remove the characters from our world. I'm not a fan
While waiting for "The Queen" to being playing a couple of weeks ago at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas there was this bizarre trailer for a new documentary ... and it starts with some severely developmentally retarded children carrying on and then an odd man in glasses appears and says, and I paraphrase, "I could relate because I was a gay man." It goes on for while and then you realize this is a full length documentary about Robert Wilson. I thought to myself, oh, c'mon, this isn't serious, is it?
I'm not going to defend Wilson (sometimes it works, sometimes it's just ridiculous), but several remarks made here are interesting in their own right for what they assume about the nature/purpose of drama. Baritenor writes, "Drama (and Opera, and Film), is viseral [sic] by nature, but Wilson choses to remove the characters from our world." Does this imply that visceral drama cannot be achieved by the alienation of the audience? Consider Greek drama, arguably the most visceral AND the most cerebral theatre ever conceived. In terms of its formal stylization, Wilson's dramatic art has more in common with Aeschylus than with more mainstream modern directorial visions.
What a load of CRAP!!! It reminds of SNL's old spot-on parody of the Obsession ads. If this wasn't so dead serious, it would be HILARIOUS!!
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.
Well, but don't tar all non-traditional productions with the same brush, maybe, baritenor. there's stupid, juvenile, provocative crap and then there's unsettling, non-stagnant, provocative non-crap. Isn't there? Can't there be middle ground between rigid, idea-less adherence to tradition (my classic example is always the Schenk Ring) and dressing everyone as penguins? For me the productions in this middle ground are the ones most worth going to.
I just can't say anything right, can I? Look, I'm not a traditionalist by any means. One of my all-time favorite productions is the Ian Judge FIGARO monted for Los Angeles and, I think, San Diego, which is set in the 1930s. I fell in love with John Cox's minimalist VANESSA and Friedkin's Ariadne, set in Hollywood. Hell, I enjoyed the highly-publicized MANON starring Netrebko and Villazon that so recently made the rounds in LA: It went over the top at times, but it had some really good things it in. Hell, I even enjoyed the Robert Wilson Butterfly (though in no small part thanks to Patricia Racette). But Wilson's Parsifal, Friedkin's Salome, That guy who put fisting into Die Entfuhrung, They make me sick to my stomach.
baritenor: didn't mean to jump down your throat. Apologies if it sounded that way. (I'm guessing so if your comment began "I just can't say anything right...") I'd love to see pictures of a minimalist Vanessa. That sounds kind of swell.
They can be found here:
http://www.losangelesopera.com/home/photo.asp?productionid=181
As you can see, Minimalist is a bit of an overstatement, but it wasn't the opulent mansion you usually see. And there was an extreamly effective moment at the end. Throughout the evening, the back of the stage was visable through a huge plexiglass wall. When the house was closed up again in the last bars of music, a huge black cutain was drawn behind the wall, cutting out all light but for spots on Erika and the Baroness. Chilling. (This, by the way, was the last performances of a compleate opera Kiri te Kanawa sang)
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I just recently bought the Hasmik Papian/Norma DVD....and of course it was performed somewhere in the Netherlands.....Vocally, you can't get any better than Papian...why that girl hasn't been invited to be the penultimate Norma at the MET for these generation is BEYOND me....but that's beside the point.....the production was confusing, it was a cross between Norma Desmond and All About Eve....It looked like it was set in Hollywood during the 40's, and it took place behind a set for whatever movie they were filming. Norma (Papian) was the movie star, full of attitude and fan worship, Adalgisa was the Eve, but manipulative straight on, god KNOWS what Pollione was, because neither his voice or deportment were at ALL attractive....kinda BIG and LUMPY...Pavarotti without the godsent voice. The setting had a BIG stump in the middle of the stage which never left, and dressing tables were like the thrones that the protagonists kept to. HATED it at first, because the setting was NOT defined, and when Oroveso was addressing the Druidi, being that this was nothing but modern dress, it didn't even seem cohesive. But, the longer you viewed it, the more it intrigued you, because the acting of Papian and whoever the Adalgisa was is incredible. And besides to Pollione, it came across as lush singing, in which the staging, albeit modern, didn't detract from the music. I'd PREFER minimalist, nothing but green forest, maybe a naked hunky nymph running to and fro, but if I HAVE to view my favorite singer do the role, and I HAVE to have it modern set, then it made sense, therefore OK.....I mirror Baritenors stance....it HAS to make sense.
I just recently bought the Hasmik Papian/Norma DVD....and of course it was performed somewhere in the Netherlands.....Vocally, you can't get any better than Papian...why that girl hasn't been invited to be the penultimate Norma at the MET for these generation is BEYOND me....but that's beside the point.....the production was confusing, it was a cross between Norma Desmond and All About Eve....It looked like it was set in Hollywood during the 40's, and it took place behind a set for whatever movie they were filming. Norma (Papian) was the movie star, full of attitude and fan worship, Adalgisa was the Eve, but manipulative straight on, god KNOWS what Pollione was, because neither his voice or deportment were at ALL attractive....kinda BIG and LUMPY...Pavarotti without the godsent voice. The setting had a BIG stump in the middle of the stage which never left, and dressing tables were like the thrones that the protagonists kept to. HATED it at first, because the setting was NOT defined, and when Oroveso was addressing the Druidi, being that this was nothing but modern dress, it didn't even seem cohesive. But, the longer you viewed it, the more it intrigued you, because the acting of Papian and whoever the Adalgisa was is incredible. And besides to Pollione, it came across as lush singing, in which the staging, albeit modern, didn't detract from the music. I'd PREFER minimalist, nothing but green forest, maybe a naked hunky nymph running to and fro, but if I HAVE to view my favorite singer do the role, and I HAVE to have it modern set, then it made sense, therefore OK.....I mirror Baritenors stance....it HAS to make sense.
I just recently bought the Hasmik Papian/Norma DVD....and of course it was performed somewhere in the Netherlands.....Vocally, you can't get any better than Papian...why that girl hasn't been invited to be the penultimate Norma at the MET for these generation is BEYOND me....but that's beside the point.....the production was confusing, it was a cross between Norma Desmond and All About Eve....It looked like it was set in Hollywood during the 40's, and it took place behind a set for whatever movie they were filming. Norma (Papian) was the movie star, full of attitude and fan worship, Adalgisa was the Eve, but manipulative straight on, god KNOWS what Pollione was, because neither his voice or deportment were at ALL attractive....kinda BIG and LUMPY...Pavarotti without the godsent voice. The setting had a BIG stump in the middle of the stage which never left, and dressing tables were like the thrones that the protagonists kept to. HATED it at first, because the setting was NOT defined, and when Oroveso was addressing the Druidi, being that this was nothing but modern dress, it didn't even seem cohesive. But, the longer you viewed it, the more it intrigued you, because the acting of Papian and whoever the Adalgisa was is incredible. And besides to Pollione, it came across as lush singing, in which the staging, albeit modern, didn't detract from the music. I'd PREFER minimalist, nothing but green forest, maybe a naked hunky nymph running to and fro, but if I HAVE to view my favorite singer do the role, and I HAVE to have it modern set, then it made sense, therefore OK.....I mirror Baritenors stance....it HAS to make sense.
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