Robert Wilson, Lucinda Childs and Philip Glass talk about Einstein on the Beach (Toronto. 2012)

Robert Wilson, Lucinda Childs and Philip Glass talk about Einstein on the Beach. AGO. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Last Wednesday June 6th, 2012, at AGO (Toronto), the three gods of American Performing Arts talked about their creation of Einstein on the Beach, premiered in 1976. It was an amazing two hours discussion, not only because they talked about this mythic masterpiece of the performing arts but because they were there, alive, in front of us, 35 years later of the creation of it.

I got some interesting quotations (could not be entirely accurate, I wrote them while listening to them):

- Philip Glass: "Einstein of the Beach is unique because there was no, and there is no, other creation like this. There is no references, simple."

- Philip Glass and Robert Wilson: "We didn't know what kind of piece this was, but when it was performed in France, French critics called it "a contemporary Opera", and we thought it was right. It was an opera in the sense of opus, a work."

- Bob Wilson: "Form is boring, what's important is how you feel inside that form."

- Bob Wilson: "You don't have to get anything, just experimenting the piece."


- Bob Wilson: "Einstein on the Beach has a classic structure, but each of us created their own piece inside that structure."


- Bob Wilson: "All the actors, singers and dancers are dressed with the style of clothes Einstein used to wear. All of them are one part of Einstein."


- Bob Wilson: "I worked the stage direction and illumination designed with the three ways of seeing in painting: the hand (close up), the body and the landscape."

Robert Wilson, Lucinda Childs and Philip Glass talk about Einstein on the Beach. AGO. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Robert Wilson talks Einstein on the Beach. AGO. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Philip Glass talks about Einstein on the Beach. AGO. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Lucinda Childs talks about Einstein on the Beach. AGO. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Robert Wilson, Lucinda Childs and Philip Glass talk about Einstein on the Beach. AGO. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

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