Wednesday, December 19, 2018

The Pärt/Wilson “Passion Play” About Adam

An image from Adam’s Passion (from the Accentus Music Web page for this video recording)

In 2015 Accentus Music released a video document of the world premiere performance of Adam’s Passion, which took place on May 12 of that year. This involved a theatrical interpretation by Robert Wilson of four compositions by Arvo Pärt, three of which had not been composed for dramatic purposes. The “core selection” was “Adam’s Lament,” a setting of texts by Starestz Silouan, a monk at the monastery on Mount Athos in Greece, about 25 minutes in duration. It was preceded by a brief (four and one-half minutes) “overture” entitled “Sequentia,” which was the only music composed especially for Wilson’s production. “Adam’s Lament” was followed by “Tabula rasa,” a double concerto for two violins, prepared piano, and chamber orchestra, which was one of Pärt’s earliest tintinnabuli compositions. It then concluded with “Miserere,” scored for ten vocal soloists, choir, orchestral ensemble, and organ.

The release of Adam’s Passion was accompanied by the release of The Lost Paradise, a documentary about both Pärt and Wilson. To some extent this could be viewed as a “making of” video; and it probably makes for better viewing after one has seen Adam’s Passion. However, there is a rich amount of background material about Pärt and his approaches to making music. Wilson is not examined quite as extensively; but, like Merce Cunningham, Wilson is an artist who prefers to be appreciated for what he has done, rather than the thoughts behind his actions.

At the end of last month, Accentus reissued both of these videos in a single package. To the extent that Wilson’s theatrical interpretation is as strong as ever, I felt that it was worth calling attention to this new combined release. Wilson tends to be known for his ability to invent extremely striking images in which change tends to unfold over an extended duration of time. He is probably best known for Einstein on the Beach, whose staging is positively lively when compared with Adam’s Passion. In many ways my own viewing of the latter resonated less with Einstein and more with the two Wilson works I know that preceded it, The King of Spain and Deafman Glance. For those unused to Wilson’s style, The Lost Paradise provides a bit of preparation; but one may still have to adjust to Adam’s Passion in portions before taking on the entirety.

What may be most important about Wilson’s contribution was his selection of space. The performance took place in the Noblessner Foundry in Tallinn in Estonia. This was one of those areas in which length vastly exceeded breadth, meaning that different members of the audience experienced Wilson’s images from significantly different distances. As might be guessed, this was not always well captured by the camera work; but there were several ingenious placements that seem to have been designed deliberately to distort the sizes of different actors. (For example, a child near the camera appears as a disturbing giant next to an old man far in the background.) All of the musical resources were conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste from a balcony area at the very rear of the space, meaning that, during the performance, all music was experienced as coming from behind the listeners. (This effect is not reproduced on the video.)

As far as I could tell, there was no effort to provide the audience in that foundry building with projections of the text (in any language). Therefore, the video offers the advantage that the viewer can follow the texts for both “Adam’s Lament” and “Miserere.” This does not necessarily contribute to Wilson’s images, but it definitely provides grounds for reflection while experiencing those images. For example, Adam has two causes for lamentation, one for the expulsion from Eden and the second for the murder of Abel.

Having seen the original video back in 2015, I can report that, on a personal level, Wilson’s “response” to the “call” of Pärt’s music has just as much impact now as it did then; and, perhaps because the “anxiety of the age” has increased noticeably over the last three years, the impact is even greater.

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