Einstein on the Beach January 22, 2012

Full details at http://www.ums.org/s_current_season/artist.asp?pageid=673

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.” — Albert Einstein

Widely credited as one of the greatest artistic achievements of the 20th century, this rarely performed and revolutionary work launched director Robert Wilson and composer Philip Glass to international success when it was first produced in Avignon, France in 1976 with subsequent performances in Europe and at the Metropolitan Opera. It is still recognized as one of their greatest masterpieces. Now, nearly four decades after it was first performed and 20 years since its last production, Einstein on the Beach will be reconstructed for a major international tour including the first North American presentations ever held outside of New York City.

Einstein on the Beach breaks all of the rules of conventional opera. Instead of a traditional orchestral arrangement, Glass composed for the synthesizers, woodwinds, and voices of the Philip Glass Ensemble. Non-narrative in form, the work uses a series of powerful recurrent images as its main dramatic device, shown in juxtaposition with abstract dance sequences created by American choreographer Lucinda Childs. There are no traditional intermissions; audiences are free to wander in and out at liberty during the five-hour performance. The New York Times critic John Rockwell said, “Einstein was like nothing I had ever encountered…Its very elusiveness radiated richly, like some dark star whose effects we can only feel…Einstein on the Beach, perhaps like Einstein himself, transcended time. It’s not (just) an artifact of its era, it’s timeless…an experience to cherish for a lifetime.”

Prior to the production’s final technical rehearsals and world première in Montpelier, France, UMS will host the production’s creators, musicians, performers, and crew for three weeks as they reconstruct and rehearse the work for what is likely to be the final world tour designed and led by its original creators. A rare chance to see a work of this scale in progress, these preview performances will be the only opportunity to see Einstein on the Beach in the Midwest.