Robert Wilson - Faust and The Black Rider
World Premiere at Polish National Opera and a November Theatre Hit
Oct 27, 2008
Robert Wilson’s Faust is likely to be one of the most exciting ever conceived for the world stage, from its timeless libretto to each minute choreographic and vocal detail. Faust, based on Michel Carre’s Faust and Marguerite and Goethe’s Faust Part I, had its world premiere on March 19, 1859, at Théâtre-Lyrique, Paris. It premiered in Poland March 6, 1865, at Teatr Wielki, Warsaw. This production will be presented in five acts in the original French and features the Teatr Wielki debut of conductor Gabriel Chmura.
One of the most popular operas of all time, Faust is the cautionary tale of an aging scholar who about to kill himself, is distracted by a chorus of youthful voices outside his study window. Faust desperate to recapture his own youth, calls out to Méphistophélès, who does Faust’s biding in exchange for his soul leading to love and tragedy.
Robert Wilson seems to have a penchant for the Faustian. The mind boggles when it comes to this New York based theatre rebel. Wilson is notorious for ultra-strict attention to detail, be it a mere stage prop or one single choreographed movement. He’s also known for his collaborations with musicians Philip Glass (Einstein on the Beach) and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne (The CIVIL WarS). It takes one Renaissance Man to know one.
Robert Wilson likes to merge sound, image, text and movement to create an entirely exciting new, often stark, Brechtian dimension in live performance – something Byrne, Glass, and other creative partners in crime like William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Tom Waits would be very attracted to.
These latter three artists collaborated on Faust's complement, Robert Wilson’s 1990 operatic expressionistic gothic circus spectacle The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets, which continues to shock, awe and delight audiences right across North America. It is based on a German folktale, Der Freischultz (The Freeshot), which was also made into a three-act opera by Carl Maria von Weber; it premiered in German at Hamburg’s Thalia Theatre in 1990.
Vancouver's November Theatre (with Tom Waits' approval) produced its world English-language premiere in 1998 for the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, and the American English-language premiere followed at New York's International Fringe Festival.
The Black Rider is about young Wilhelm, a lousy shot, who forfeits his soul when he is given magic bullets by Peg Leg (the Devil) to become a hunting expert for Kathchen, the woman he loves. But one bullet has a mind of its own. Burroughs fans will notice the William-Tell-personal-hell apsect in this ebony folkyarn.
It makes sense that today’s more adventurous audience looking for the ultimate live performance challenge, would also be seduced by Wilson's work from Poland to Canada. Faust opens Oct 26, 2008 at Teatr Wielki and runs to Oct 30 2008. November Theatre’s touring production of The Black Rider is currently at The Tarragon Theatre to November 16.
Robert Wilson’s next project is Sonnets – based on Shakespeare’s Sonnets with music by Rufus Wainwright for The Berliner Ensemble – April 2009. Der Freischultz will also be presented at Festspeilhaus Baden Baden in May of 2009.
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