Global Courant
Philip Glass, the author of Einstein on the Beach, discovered very early that the unifying force in theater or cinema, which accompanies the viewer from beginning to end, comes neither from images nor from words, but from music. .
The composer offered a very concrete example: if you play records with different music while you watch television, the images will turn out differently. Yes, on the contrary, you keep the same music and you change the channel, all the energy remains in the music and the change of image does not alter this fact.
That principle runs through Einstein on the Beach, the minimalist work with which Glass and theater director Robert Wilson challenged the definition of opera.
Since Wilson allowed the creation of other stagings of the original in 2018, only two were made. The third version is the one that the Colón Contemporáneo cycle has just presented as a Latin American premiere, with stage creation by Martín Bauer, choreography by Carlos Casella, stage concept by Mariana Tirantte and Matías Sendon, and real-time cinematographic device by Alejo Moguillansky.
“Einstein on the Beach”, the minimalist opera by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson. Press Photos Teatro ColónMaximo Parpagnoli/Arnaldo Colombaroli
a real marathon
The work takes its particular aesthetic to an enormous scale, turning it into a true tour de force: it takes place in almost four hours without interruption. The choir and the musicians of the ensemble carried it out with impressive intensity and precision, under the direction of Léo Warynski.
As the audience entered the room, two narrators were on stage. Behind them was a pastel sky blue screen and a continuous, faint sound in the background.
“Would there be some wind for the sailboat?” is the opening phrase of Christopher Knowles’ text that Maricel Álvarez impeccably recited in each of its repetitions, along with Analía Couceyro enunciating numbers at random. The work of both was exceptional throughout the entire work.
When the lights in the room went out, the unmistakable “one, two, three” began to sound, sung by the choir accompanied by the ensemble. Train, the opening and pulsating movement of the first act, is one of the precious moments of the score.
Glass unveiled the work in Avignon in 1976 and called it “Portrait Opera”, also his other two first large format operas, Satyagraha (1979) and Akhnaten (1984), both form a kind of trilogy with Einstein on the Beach. , each with their own distinctive world of sound.
Scene from “Einstein on the Beach”, a stripped down setting. Press Photos Teatro ColónMaximo Parpagnoli/Arnaldo Colombaroli
In this case, an amplified ensemble (electric keyboard, bass clarinet, sax, flute, violin) and a small choir that sings a text made up of numbers (the bars of the music) and solfege of notes. There are also electronic sounds, designed by Sebastián Rivas.
In the same period when experimental theater was expanding, and John Cage and Merce Cunningham were trying other ways to connect – or rather disconnect – music and dance, Glass immersed himself in the writing of opera between 1975- 76. Lucinda Childs, a Cunningham alumnus, designed the choreography.
In Marina Giancaspro’s participation as a solo dancer, there is a nod to that tradition because she introduced Cunningham to Argentina and deepened his ideas. Giancaspro and Gustavo Lesgart excelled in each of their participations and drew spontaneous applause from the public.
Hypnotic effect, no plot
Between a show and a meditation, the work creates a unique and immersive experience, with the hypnotic effect of its repetitive music of minimal elements and small changes.
Another of the singularities of the work is that it did not start from a text. Christopher Knowles’ cryptic poems are heard recited throughout the play with a few exceptions: Johnson’s text, translated into Spanish, which the Judge says at the end of the trial scene and includes a reference to feminism; “Prematurely air conditioned supermarket” by Lucinda Childs. And the curious love story that concludes the opera, also translated into Spanish.
“Einstein on the Beach” does not have a plot. Press Photos Teatro ColónMaximo Parpagnoli/Arnaldo Colombaroli
There is no plot, it is a conceptual work, and although Einstein appears in the title, it is a metaphorical look. Without his theories that overturned certainties and changed the way of perceiving reality and the world forever, it would be difficult for a work like Glass’s to exist.
Without main characters or arias, everything moves soft and slow, without linear advancement and with overlapping temporalities.
The four acts -connected by interludes, narrations and dances- follow one another without interruption: Train-Trial-Spaceship are the central elements of the work.
The narrators interact with dancers and a live film crew performing stage action in real time. The civil war train of the original version was replaced by a film device in dialogue with the projection of a selection of images and fragments of films (from the Marx brothers to a western) with trains as protagonists.
Although the display of different temporal perspectives offered by the film device is more than ingenious, the displacements and movements, the films projected with their own speeds and temporalities, saturated the scene at times and collided with the minimalist proposal.
But, instead, the ingenious device in charge of Moguillansky, worked wonders in the hypnotic “Jucio”. Everything had a virtuous interaction, very well supported by an extraordinary set design by Tirantte and Sendon.
The saturated sound with furious rhythms in each dance intervention had at times an excessive volume in the amplification, perhaps the hypnotic power of the choreographic sequence was not fully trusted with the exceptional participation of the dance troupe.
Another moment from “Einstein on the beach”, the opera by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson. Press Photos Teatro ColónMaximo Parpagnoli/Arnaldo Colombaroli
lyrical moments
The work had more lyrical moments, such as the sweet and soft solfeggio of the Night Train duo and the curious aria (vocalization without text) for solo electric organ and soprano (Bed) that Carla Filipcic-Holm interpreted, with just a few initial misalignments, wonderfully .
The climax of the play comes in Trial/Prison, after the crazed “supermarket” speech. After the apocalyptic Spaceship movement, the final interlude integrates everything and the opera ends as it began.
The final speech on love is curious (the recitation of Iván García in general sounded emphatic). Like the endings in eighteenth-century operas, Wilson offered a kind of lieto fine: after the atomic bomb, a happy ending prevailed.
Dancers in “Einstein on the Beach.” Press Photos Teatro ColónMaximo Parpagnoli/Arnaldo Colombaroli
Among the public that filled the room, only a minority deserted to the great challenge posed by the programming of the Colón.
Token
Einstein on the Beach
Léo Warynski, the musical director of “Einstein on the Beach.” Press Photos Teatro ColónMaximo Parpagnoli/Arnaldo Colombaroli
Rating: Very good
Authors: Philip Glass and Robert Wilson Director: Léo Warynski Scene director: Martín Bauer Scenic concept: Mariana Tirantte and Matías Sendón Film direction: Alejo Moguillansky Choreography: Carlos Casella Costume design: Luciana Gutman Electronics: Sebastián Rivas Preparer and assistant musical director: Juan miceli
Performers: Narrator 1, Maricel Álvarez; Narrator 2, Analía Couceyro; Narrator 3, Iván García; Soprano Soloist, Carla Filipcic-Holm; Solo Dancer, Marina Giancaspro; Solo Dancer, Gustavo Lesgart Violin, Daniel Robuschi; Flute, Patricia Garcia; Flutes and Saxophones, Fabio Goy and María Noel Luzardo; Bass Clarinet, Lautaro Abrego; Órganos, Lucas Urdampilleta and Malena Levin Room: Teatro Colón, Tuesday 13, Colón Contemporáneo. Repeat Wednesday 14
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