Last night a selection of my video portraits was projected on a giant, impressive 400-meter long wall of a former salina in Bad Rothenfelde, Germany. This is part of the lichtsicht biennial, curated by the one and only Peter Weibel. One of my fellow artists in the selection there was William Kentridge, and we had a fun conversation over dinner. The projection biennial, which includes many more wonderful artists is up until February next year.
NPR on the upcoming documentation Paradise Lost about Arvo Pärt and our production Adam's Passion : http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2015/09/11/439247120/get-to-know-one-of-the-most-performed-living-composers
German newspaper DIE WELT on Arvo's birthday : http://www.welt.de/kultur/buehne-konzert/article146300150/Seid-beruhigt-Millionen.html
A gallery of photos from Adam's Passion :
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
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.
Photographs by Lovis Dengler Ostenrik and Kristian Kruuser
Thank You: Unlimited Performing Arts, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Det Norske Teatret Oslo, Teatro Real Madrid, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Montclair State University, Vision Into Art, illy, Change Performing Arts, Anonymous.
Thank you to everyone for this year's Watermill Benefit Gala, "The Circus of Stillness" - what an extraordinary night!
Photographs by Kristian Kruuser, Julian Mommert and Lovis Ostenrik
This week, I arrived at The Watermill Center for the annual Summer Program and met all of this year's exquisite participating artists who have started preparing the grounds. Here are some first impressions.
I am excited to welcome you here for our Benefit Gala, "Circus of Stillness - The Power Over Wild Beasts," and our Open House, the "Discover Watermill Day" (see below). You can also join us for the Scaler Lecture Series, featuring Jessye Norman, Philip Glass, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, Fern Mallis, Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman and Tom Hennes. See you soon!
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.”
