Greetings from La Traviata rehearsals in Linz

Rehearsals for my new production of Verdi's La Traviata have started in Linz, Austria. It is my first time working at the Linz State Theater's new Musiktheater am Volksgarten, built by Terry Pawson. It opened in 2013 with a new opera by my friend Philip Glass (Footprints of the Lost, see the New York Times article) and is currently one of the most advanced operatic stages in Europe.

La Traviata opens here on September 19 with a beautiful local cast from the Linz ensemble. In June of 2016, it will open with an international cast at the Perm Opera House and then travel to  other opera houses internationally from there. However, it will remain in repertoire at the Linz State Theater. Be sure to always check my Calendar or the La Traviata production page for dates.

Attached are a few photos from the rehearsals in Linz:

Photos by Stephanie Engeln

Workshop Sessions at Watermill 2015

I really enjoyed having over 1,000 guests from the community on the grounds of The Watermill Center last weekend for our Discover Watermill Day. It was a great day and the works shown by our 2015 summer participants were once again superb. 

Over the past three weeks, we held workshops for several new productions of mine, among others The Sandman, based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's romantic ghost story; Edda , the collection of Nordic myths and sagas from Iceland; Turandot by Puccini; Amahl and the Night Visitors by Menotti; a project with the Berlin Radio Choir; and a new opera with Paola Prestini for an unusual venue in Australia. I am enclosing a few images. Very excited to work further on all of these upcoming projects.

LETTER TO A MAN just opened at the Festival dei 2Mondi, Spoleto, Italy - Mikhail Baryshnikov and Robert Wilson

Once again Robert Wilson and legendary performer Mikhail Baryshnikov have joined artistic forces. Their third collaboration, Letter to a Man (after a “Saint Sebastian” Video Portrait in 2004 and The Old Woman in 2013), is based on autobiographical texts by Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950), one of the most celebrated dancers and choreographers of his time who danced in Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and created seminal choreographies himself. His diaries, written in less than six weeks in 1919, document the young man’s descent into madness.

In Henry Miller’s words: “It is a communication so naked, so desperate, that it breaks the mold. We are face to face with reality, and it is almost unbearable…had he not gone to the asylum we would have had in Nijinsky a writer equal to the dancer.”

London today

After visiting the wonderful Antony Gormley's London studio today with a group of esteemed friends, I am now performing Krapp's Last Tape at the Barbican Theatre. More performances tomorrow and Sunday (see calendar).

Pushkin and CocoRosie

Tonight, our new production of Pushkin's Fairy Tales will open at Moscow's Theater of Nations. Working with CocoRosie again has been a lot of fun - Bianca and Sierra are simply the Best! Looking forward to seeing the Russian cast, led by Evgenyi Mironov, sing CocoRosie's music and move through the world of Pushkin's Fairy Tales... Thank you to everyone, and: Break a Leg!

mironov-pushkin

Evgenyi Mironov as Pushkin (Photograph by Lucie Jansch)