Sketches

Sunday 13 January 2013

Einstein on the beach



Yesterday evening I visited the Opera "Einstein on the beach", music by Philp Glass, direction Robert Wilson.

It's an opera taking 4 1/2 hours without breaks, performed in the Muziektheater in Amsterdam.

It's all about slow moving scenes, ballet, texts, visuals and patterns of the "actors" and stage, with repetitive somewhat minimal music in the hypnotizing Philip Glass style.
Sometimes you would sit through 20 minutes of looking at a simple light beam moving from one side to the other.

Back in 1979 I lived in Amsterdam, the piece was on the radio one evening, and I was thunderstruck. It was my first encounter with modern "classic" music, and it has been my favourite music piece of all times since.
But that was the music, the theater performance I only knew by reputation.

I have waited 35 years for this, and it even surpassed my expectations.
Even my son, not really into that kind of music, could not keep his eyes from the scene, and sat though the opera without even taking a break.

I am still enthralled.

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