Winterreise (U.S. premiere)

Transcription

11-11 Winterreise_GP 11/3/14 11:15 AM Page 1
Tuesday Evening, November 11, 2014, at 7:30
Pre-concert lecture by Christopher H. Gibbs at 6:15 in the Stanley H. Kaplan
Penthouse
Winterreise
(U.S. premiere)
William Kentridge, Concept and Video
Matthias Goerne, Baritone
Markus Hinterhäuser, Piano
Sabine Theunissen, Set Design
Greta Goiris, Costume Design
Herman Sorgeloos, Lighting Design
Snezana Marovic, Video Editor
This program is approximately 75 minutes long and will be performed without
intermission.
Please join us in the Alice Tully Hall lobby for a White Light Lounge immediately
following the performance.
Co-commissioned and co-produced by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts,
Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Wiener Festwochen, Holland Festival, KunstFestSpiele
Herrenhausen/Niedersächsische Musiktage, Hanover, Grand Théâtre de
Luxembourg, and Opéra de Lille.
(Program continued)
The White Light Festival is sponsored by Time Warner Inc.
Generous support for the White Light Festival presentation of Winterreise is provided by The Fan Fox
and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.
This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Steinway Piano
Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater
Adrienne Arsht Stage
WhiteLightFestival.org
Please make certain all your electronic devices
are switched off.
Endowment support is provided by the American
Express Cultural Preservation Fund.
Matthias Goerne will be available to sign CDs in the
lobby after the performance.
MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center.
Join the conversation: #LCWhiteLight
Movado is an Official Sponsor of Lincoln Center.
United Airlines is the Official Airline of Lincoln
Center.
WABC-TV is the Official Broadcast Partner of
Lincoln Center.
William Hill Estate Winery is the Official Wine of
Lincoln Center.
Artist Catering is provided by Zabar’s and
zabars.com.
We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the
performers and your fellow audience members.
In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave
before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of photographs
and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building.
Winterreise
(U.S. premiere)
William Kentridge, Concept and Video
Matthias Goerne, Baritone
Markus Hinterhäuser, Piano
Sabine Theunissen, Set Design
Greta Goiris, Costume Design
Herman Sorgeloos, Lighting Design
Snezana Marovic, Video Editor
SCHUBERT
Winterreise (1827)
Gute Nacht
Die Wetterfahne
Gefrorne Tränen
Erstarrung
Der Lindenbaum
Wasserflut
Auf dem Flusse
Rückblick
Irrlicht
Rast
Frühlingstraum
Einsamkeit
Die Post
Der greise Kopf
Die Krähe
Letzte Hoffnung
Im Dorfe
Der stürmische Morgen
Täuschung
Der Wegweiser
Das Wirtshaus
Mut
Die Nebensonnen
Der Leiermann
Synopsis of the Song Texts
by Christopher H. Gibbs
Winterreise charts the grim “winter journey” of a solitary protagonist over 24 songs. At
the start we learn that in spring he arrived as a stranger in a town where he fell in love
with a young girl and there was talk of marriage. It is now winter as he departs, a stranger
once again (“Gute Nacht”/“Good Night”). He looks back at her house and realizes he
never was to find love from the wealthy and cold family there (“Die Wetterfahne”/“The
Weathervane”). He sets out on his journey amidst a snow-covered landscape in which his
tears freeze (“Gefrorne Tränen”/“Frozen Tears”), and he imagines his beloved’s footsteps
beneath the snow (“Erstarrung”/“Numbness”). At the town gates he sees the linden tree
under which he used to dream of her in happier times (“Der Lindenbaum”/“The Linden
Tree”) and where his tears will join melting snow in a brook (“Wasserflut”/“Flood”) and
flow through the town (“Auf dem Flusse”/“On the Stream”). He recalls his arrival in
spring (“Rückblick”/“Backward Glance”) and the illusions of the will-o’-the-wisp
(“Irrlicht”/“Will-o’-the-Wisp”).
He seeks some brief respite on the inhospitable road when he finds a small cottage
(“Rast”/“Rest”) and dreams of springtime love (“Frühlingstraum”/“Dream of Spring”).
He sets off again, ignored by everyone (“Einsamkeit”/“Loneliness”), and vainly hopes
that the postman might bring him a letter from his beloved (“Die Post”/“The Post”).
Frost in his hair makes it appear gray, but unfortunately he is still young (“Der greise
Kopf”/“The Gray Head”). A crow is the only one following him, flying above waiting for
its prey (“Die Krähe”/“The Crow”). A single leaf hanging from a tree suggests some
hope (“Letzte Hoffnung”/“Last Hope”). He enters a village where everyone is asleep
(“Im Dorfe”/“In the Village”) and presses on into a storm (“Der stürmische
Morgen”/“The Stormy Morning”). A light dancing lures him forward, although it is only
an illusion (“Täuschung”/“Illusion”). He sees a signpost, but always seeks out other
routes (“Der Wegweiser”/“The Signpost”). He comes to an inn, which is full and thus
can offer no comfort (“Das Wirtshaus”/“The Inn”), and so continues his journey, the
snow in his face (“Mut”/“Courage”), seeing three suns in the distant sky (“Die
Nebensonnen”/“The Mock Suns”). Finally, beyond the village, he comes upon an old
organ-grinder, poor and ignored by everyone: “Strange old man, shall I go with you? Will
you grind your hurdy-gurdy to my songs?” (“Der Leiermann”/“The Organ-Grinder”).
—Copyright © 2014 by Christopher H. Gibbs
From the Director
In these excerpts from a February lecture at Humboldt University in Berlin, William
Kentridge speaks about the origins of his Winterreise project and its connection to childhood memories of Sunday afternoons spent listening to recordings of lieder with his
father and, occasionally, his mother.
I have been working on a project made around a performance of the song cycle
Winterreise by Schubert. Why Winterreise? It started as a thought of making a cycle of
films, like a cycle of songs. To test ideas, I started to look at pieces of film I had already
made, whilst listening to different pieces of music. One of the pieces of music I tested
was Winterreise, vestigially familiar from childhood. The affinity between my films and
those songs was strong enough to continue the exploration.
Winter Journey
The project began with two days of listening to the songs and watching many different
films of mine made over the past 25 years, and discovering the affinities between the
music and the films. These affinities had to do with rhythm, the tone of image, and associations released by the music and the films.
There are connections in form between that of a song and the animated films that I have
made. There is a hint towards meaning, but not a clearly delineated route, both in the
music and in the films. The films and the songs shift between the personal and a wider
scope, between the domestic and the outdoors. I found in re-looking at the films many
of the thematic elements of the songs: a man walking, an interest in landscape, a reflection on the fragility of emotional connection.
These affinities made the project seem possible. The corpus of films I had made, as
films, as fragments, as background projections for theater projects, as demonstrations
for lectures, as unused footage that never found its way into films—all of this was there
to be used, a landscape of fragments, amongst which we would construct our journey.
Who Needs the Words?
Working on the Winterreise project, making or finding images for the music—the closest
I would come to being a musician—is also about reclaiming those Sunday afternoons, the
smell of the cherrywood cabinet, with its neatly labeled drawers for records. But it is also
an after-the-fact justification of defense of the “half-understood.”
I have the text of all the Winterreise songs, in German, in English. I do know the meaning of each of them. The poetry is not dense, the sense not complex. But still, while
working on each song, I find myself back in the old way of listening to lieder—a title, a
direction, and then the specifics of each line retreating in a mist of incomprehension. I
can and do deliberately lift this mist; but always, as I let it drop, I feel closer to the music,
closer to each song. I am aware this is precarious terrain: a celebration of incomprehension. I cannot disguise ignorance, in my case ignorance of the German language, which
is a lack. But I want to redeem that with the imaginative gain this lack produces.
I am aware this is a Johannesburg perspective. A projection onto the given of the work.
The record is like a letter from another world. But there is always distancing. Caspar
David Friedrich’s landscapes are depictions of what he saw, but also constructions made
from notes made in his notebooks—“ice on a leaf,” the particular form of the angle of
separation of branches.
Even in the Vienna of Schubert there is a distancing. Müller, the poet, was very affected
by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and his ongoing theme of the traveler walking to his
death in the frozen landscape owes much to the image of Frankenstein’s monster on the
ice floes at the end of the novel.
This is obvious with painting or writing. What is less obvious is the way this artifice is the
model of how we all go through and apprehend the world.
There is the domestic comfort of the Schubertiade, a place of sanctuary in Metternich’s
Vienna, a safe space out of the censorship that controlled and confined public space. The
rural life in the songs was even then a view of a life idealized and abandoned.
And then there is the gap between the music and the words—the specific words being
necessary but inessential. The precise inarticulateness of the music, the instability being
its truth. This is not to claim that music is the unconscious of the song, the truth behind
the ostensible meaning of the words, but to make a space for other words and thoughts
that the music invokes. To listen to the songs is not to invent lyrics for them, but to enter
into a space of specific openness—a precision of meaning one knows is there—the singer
had to know the words.
As a listener, one floats between the precision of the piano and words into an area of
openness. Not having to visualize a trout in a river, but rather to sense in the music the
ripples up and down our own thorax.
In the films I have made over the years, there has always been a movement between
drawing and listening. Showing early stages of the films to the composer, and then both
of us adjusting our work successively, as the music is written and new image emerge.
With Winterreise the process was not so much one of making new drawings, though
there are those too, but finding connections—rhythmic, textual, iconic—that seemed a
good meeting between the songs, written in Vienna in the 1820s and images made in
South Africa 180 years later. Not finding (nor looking for) illustrations of the songs—drawing a gate when the word gate is heard, or a mountain, or a river—or even directly translating them—a mine dump for a mountain, a storm water drain for a river. Then what?
Finding broader corollaries. Films of walking. The bleached Highveld landscape for the
snow filled white landscape of the songs.
The shock has been to find a Winterreise that was sitting somewhere in me all these
years, as if I had been drawing the project for 20 years. Discovering in working on the
songs part of what the films had been all along.
—Copyright © 2014 by William Kentridge. Reprinted with permission.
Please see page 60 for more from William Kentridge on the relationship between sound
and image.
Note on the Music
by Christopher H. Gibbs
Winterreise, Op. 89, D.911 (1827)
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Born January 31, 1797, in Vienna
Died November 19, 1828, in Vienna
“I like these songs better than all the others,
and you will come to like them too.” Such
was Schubert’s response when some friends
criticized the grim character of Winterreise
(Winter Journey), according to Josef von
Spaun, who had been a close friend since
their days together in school. He recounts
that Schubert’s mood had become more
melancholy and agitated in early 1827, the
year the composer turned 30. After inquiring
as to the cause, Schubert responded, “Well,
you will soon hear it and understand.” Not
long afterward he told Spaun, “Come to
[Franz von] Schober’s house today, I will sing
you a cycle of awe-inspiring songs. I am anxious to know what you think about them.
They have affected me more than has been
the case with any other songs.”
Schubert sang Winterreise in his light tenor
voice for his friends who, Spaun reports,
were “quite dumbfounded by the gloomy
mood, and Schober said that he liked only
one of them, ‘Der Lindenbaum.’” It was
then that Schubert declared their worth and
predicted that his friends would eventually
agree. Spaun concludes: “He was quite
right. Soon we were enthusiastic over the
effect of these melancholy songs…. More
beautiful German ones probably do not
exist and they were his real swan song.”
(The publisher Tobias Haslinger gave the
title Schwanengesang [Swan Song] to
Schubert’s last 14 songs when he released
them posthumously.)
While Schubert may have convinced friends
about the power of Winterreise, audiences
generally took longer to win over and yet
his prediction concerning the future of
these remarkable songs has certainly been
realized in our time. During the 19th century,
and indeed for much of the 20th, his first
song cycle, Die schöne Müllerin (The
Beautiful Maid of the Mill), attracted the
greater public attention and affection. That
work, which like Winterreise uses texts by
the north German poet Wilhelm Müller
(1794–1827), more easily corresponded to
the popular image of Schubert as a man and
composer. Carefree songs mix with ones
telling of frustrated love and, ultimately, of
early death in a relatively straightforward
narrative of a young man’s quest for the
miller’s beautiful daughter.
Winterreise speaks more directly to modern
times, to the human condition after the
Holocaust, gulags, and other 20th-century
horrors. As audiences gradually came to
appreciate and value the music of a “darker”
Schubert, his image changed as well; he is
no longer the bittersweet “Prince of Song”
that was so sentimentalized a century ago.
The greater philosophical sophistication and
existential inquiry in Schubert’s stark portrait
of a “winter journey” mirrors shifts in his
own life. Poet Johann Mayrhofer remarked
on the changes in musical style he perceived
in his friend’s cycles:
[Die schöne Müllerin] opens with a joyous
song of roaming, the mill songs depict
love in its awakening, its deceptions and
hopes, its delights and sorrows…Not so
with Winterreise, the very choice of
which shows how much more serious
the composer had become. He had been
long and seriously ill, had gone through
shattering experiences, and life for him
had shed its rosy color; winter had come
for him.
Schubert wrote parts of Die schöne
Müllerin in 1823 while in the Vienna General
Hospital suffering from the early stages of
syphilis, and the cycle of 20 songs was published the following year. In February 1827
he encountered 12 more Müller poems
about wandering (Wanderlieder), printed in
a Leipzig almanac, which became what we
now know as the first half of Winterreise.
As Schubert initially did not envision a second part, he wrote Fine after the last song,
“Einsamkeit” (Loneliness). Only later that
year did he learn of 12 further poems making up Müller’s complete Die Winterreise.
(Schubert’s title, unlike the poet’s, omits the
definite article.) He composed the remaining songs, although this entailed a quite different ordering than Müller’s. Winterreise
was published in two parts in 1828 and
Schubert was allegedly correcting the
proofs of the second set on his deathbed
in November, at age 31. Müller had died
the previous year at 32.
The poems in Winterreise trace the stark
psychological journey of a solitary protagonist, isolated and alienated from society.
The archetypical Romantic figure of the
wanderer, we are told in the opening song,
“Gute Nacht” (Good Night), arrived in town
a stranger and now departs one as
well. The inexorable progression over the
cycle, ending with the devastating “Der
Leiermann” (The Organ-Grinder), reflects
far more than the upset musings of a jilted
lover. Susan Youens, the author of three
books on the two Müller cycles, observes
that the unnamed protagonist “loses more
than the love of a single person—he loses
the hope that human bonds are possible
for him. With the sweetheart’s loss, he
becomes so conscious of his alienation
from everyone, not just her, that he fears
being forced away from the town like a
pariah and meets that fear with defiance.
Recognizing that he is also a stranger to
himself, that he is compelled to act in ways
he does not understand, he resolves to
journey into the wintry geography of his
inmost self in search of knowledge.”
Müller’s metaphors of the journey, dead
nature, and loneliness may have been standard Romantic fare, but they nonetheless
provided Schubert with rich musical possibilities. The walking rhythms established in the
first song reappear throughout. The lifeless
landscape offers no consolation, even if
memories of past happiness provide some
retrospective relief. “Der Lindenbaum,” the
only song his friend Schober apparently
responded to immediately, is one example
of such an idyllic interlude, and it has
achieved something of the status of a folk
song in German-speaking countries. But
most songs in Winterreise, two-thirds of
which are in minor keys, provide no such
hope or solace. Natural elements freeze the
wanderer’s tears and storms encumber his
travel amid a vista of desolation, graveyards, and threatening animals.
Youens characterizes the writing of
Winterreise as “heroic,” because Schubert
fearlessly confronted Müller’s tormented
poems at a time when his own health was
ruined and when his future prospects were
so uncertain. Upon hearing of Schubert’s
death, the artist Moritz von Schwind wrote
that his friend was now “done with his sorrows. The more I realize now what he was
like, the more I see what he has suffered.”
Heroism and suffering in the face of physical
adversity are more often associated with
Beethoven (who died while the cycle was
being composed), but allusions to Schubert’s
trials during his final years recur in his
friends’ letters and reminiscences. Spaun
commented on “how deeply his creations
affected him [and how] they were conceived
in suffering…. There is no doubt in my mind
that the state of excitement in which he
composed his most beautiful songs, and
especially his Winterreise, contributed to his
early death.” These responses, written by
anguished friends soon after Schubert’s
death, run the risk of sentimentalizing the
composer once again, yet perhaps they
should not entirely be discounted. The devastating songs of Winterreise were not
intended to comfort, please, or entertain;
they register life at the limits.
Christopher H. Gibbs is James H. Ottaway Jr.
Professor of Music at Bard College.
—Copyright © 2014 by Christopher H. Gibbs
Winterreise
Text: Wilhelm Müller
Winter Journey
Trans.: Richard Wigmore
Gute Nacht
Fremd bin ich eingezogen,
Fremd zieh’ ich wieder aus.
Der Mai war mir gewogen
Mit manchem Blumenstrauß.
Das Mädchen sprach von Liebe,
Die Mutter gar von Eh’,—
Nun ist die Welt so trübe,
Der Weg gehüllt in Schnee.
Good Night
I arrived a stranger,
a stranger I depart.
May blessed me
with many a bouquet of flowers.
The girl spoke of love,
her mother even of marriage—
now the world is so desolate,
the path concealed beneath snow.
Ich kann zu meiner Reisen
Nicht wählen mit der Zeit,
Muß selbst den Weg mir weisen
In dieser Dunkelheit.
Es zieht ein Mondenschatten
Als mein Gefährte mit,
Und auf den weißen Matten
Such’ ich des Wildes Tritt.
I cannot choose the time
for my journey;
I must find my own way
in this darkness.
A shadow thrown by the moon:
is my companion,
and on the white meadows
I seek the tracks of deer.
Was soll ich länger weilen,
Daß man mich trieb hinaus?
Laß irre Hunde heulen
Vor ihres Herren Haus;
Die Liebe liebt das Wandern—
Gott hat sie so gemacht—
Von einem zu dem andern,
Fein Liebchen, gute Nacht!
Why should I tarry longer
and be driven out?
Let stray dogs howl
before their master’s house.
Love delights in wandering—
God made it so—
from one to another,
beloved, good night!
Will dich im Traum nicht stören,
Wär Schad’ um deine Ruh’,
Sollst meinen Tritt nicht hören—
Sacht, sacht die Türe zu!
Schreib’ im Vorübergehen
Ans Tor dir: Gute Nacht,
Damit du mögest sehen,
An dich hab’ ich gedacht.
I will not disturb you as you dream,
it would be a shame to spoil your rest,
you shall not hear my footsteps;
softly, softly the door is closed.
As I pass, I write
“Good night” on your gate,
so that you might see
that I thought of you.
Die Wetterfahne
Der Wind spielt mit der Wetterfahne
Auf meines schönen Liebchens Haus.
Da dacht ich schon in meinem Wahne,
Sie pfiff den armen Flüchtling aus.
The Weathervane
The wind is playing with the weathervane
on my fair sweetheart’s house.
In my delusion I thought
it was whistling to mock the poor fugitive.
Er hätt’ es eher bemerken sollen,
Des Hauses aufgestecktes Schild,
So hätt’ er nimmer suchen wollen
Im Hause ein treues Frauenbild.
He should have noticed it sooner,
this sign fixed upon the house;
then he would never have sought
a faithful woman within that house.
Der Wind spielt drinnen mit den Herzen,
Wie auf dem Dach, nur nicht so laut.
Was fragen sie nach meinen Schmerzen?
Ihr Kind ist eine reiche Braut.
Inside the wind is playing with hearts,
as on the roof, only less loudly.
Why should they care about my grief?
Their child is a rich bride.
Gefrorne Tränen
Gefrorne Tropfen fallen
Von meinen Wangen ab:
Ob es mir denn entgangen,
Daß ich geweinet hab’?
Frozen Tears
Frozen drops fall
from my cheeks;
have I, then, not noticed
that I have been weeping?
Ei Tränen, meine Tränen,
Und seid ihr gar so lau,
Daß ihr erstarrt zu Eise,
Wie kühler Morgentau?
Ah tears, my tears,
are you so tepid
that you turn to ice,
like the cold morning dew?
Und dringt doch aus der Quelle
Der Brust so glühend heiß,
Als wolltet ihr zerschmelzen
Des ganzen Winters Eis.
And yet you well up, so scaldingly hot,
from your source within my heart,
as if you would melt
all the ice of winter.
Erstarrung
Ich such’ im Schnee vergebens
Nach ihrer Tritte Spur,
Wo sie an meinem Arme
Durchstrich die grüne Flur.
Numbness
In vain I seek
her footprints in the snow,
where she walked on my arm
through the green meadows.
Ich will den Boden küssen,
Durchdringen Eis und Schnee
Mit meinen heißen Tränen,
Bis ich die Erde seh’.
I want to kiss the ground,
and pierce ice and snow
with my burning tears,
until I see the earth.
Wo find’ ich eine Blüte,
Wo find’ ich grünes Gras?
Die Blumen sind erstorben,
Der Rasen sieht so blaß.
Where shall I find a flower,
where shall I find green grass?
The flowers have died,
the grass looks so pale.
Soll denn kein Angedenken
Ich nehmen mit von hier?
Wenn meine Schmerzen schweigen,
Wer sagt mir dann von ihr?
Shall I, then, take
no memento from here?
When my sorrows are stilled,
who will speak to me of her?
Mein Herz ist wie erstorben,
Kalt starrt ihr Bild darin;
Schmilzt je das Herz mir wieder,
Fließt auch ihr Bild dahin.
My heart is as if dead,
her image coldly rigid within it;
if my heart ever melts again
her image too will flow away.
Der Lindenbaum
Am Brunnen vor dem Tore
Da steht ein Lindenbaum;
Ich träumt’ in seinem Schatten
So manchen süßen Traum.
The Linden Tree
By the fountain at the gate
stands a linden tree,
in whose shade I dreamt
so many a sweet dream.
Ich schnitt in seine Rinde
So manches liebe Wort;
Es zog in Freud’ und Leide
Zu ihm mich immer fort.
In whose bark I carved
so many a word of love;
in joy and sorrow I was drawn
to it again and again.
Ich mußt’ auch heute wandern
Vorbei in tiefer Nacht,
Da hab’ ich noch im Dunkeln
Die Augen zugemacht.
Today, too, I had to pass it,
at dead of night,
and though it was dark
I closed my eyes.
Und seine Zweige rauschten,
Als riefen sie mir zu:
Komm her zu mir, Geselle,
Hier find’st du deine Ruh’!
And its boughs rustled,
as if calling:
“Come, friend, here to me,
here you shall find peace.”
Die kalten Winde bliesen
Mir grad ins Angesicht;
Der Hut flog mir vom Kopfe,
Ich wendete mich nicht.
Chill blasts blew
full into my face,
my hat flew from my head,
I did not turn.
Nun bin ich manche Stunde
Entfernt von jenem Ort,
Und immer hör’ ich’s rauschen:
Du fändest Ruhe dort!
Now, many an hour
from that place,
still I hear it rustling:
“There would you find peace!”
Wasserflut
Manche Trän’ aus meinen Augen
Ist gefallen in den Schnee;
Seine kalten Flocken saugen
Durstig ein das heiße Weh.
Flood
Many a tear has fallen
from my eyes into the snow;
its cold flakes eagerly suck in
my burning grief.
Wenn die Gräser sprossen wollen,
Weht daher ein lauer Wind,
Und das Eis zerspringt in Schollen
Und der weiche Schnee zerrinnt.
When the grass is about to shoot forth,
a mild breeze blows;
the ice breaks up into pieces
and the soft snow melts away.
Schnee, du weißt von meinem Sehnen;
Sag’, wohin doch geht dein Lauf?
Folge nach nur meinen Tränen,
Nimmt dich bald das Bächlein auf.
Snow, you know of my longing;
tell me, where does your path lead?
If you but follow my tears
the brook will soon absorb you.
Wirst mit ihm die Stadt durchziehen,
Munt’re Straßen ein und aus;
Fühlst du meine Tränen glühen,
Da ist meiner Liebsten Haus.
With it you will flow through the town,
in and out of bustling streets;
when you feel my tears glow,
there will be my sweetheart’s house.
Auf dem Flusse
Der du so lustig rauschtest,
Du heller, wilder Fluß,
Wie still bist du geworden,
Gibst keinen Scheidegruß.
On the Stream
You who rushed along so merrily,
you clear, wild stream,
how quiet you have become,
you offer no parting words.
Mit harter, starrer Rinde
Hast du dich überdeckt,
Liegst kalt und unbeweglich
Im Sande ausgestreckt.
With a hard, solid crust
you have clothed yourself.
You lie cold and motionless
stretched out in the sand.
In deine Decke grab’ ich
Mit einem spitzen Stein
Den Namen meiner Liebsten
Und Stund’ und Tag hinein:
On your surface I carve
with a sharp stone
the name of my beloved
and the hour and the day:
Den Tag des ersten Grußes,
Den Tag, an dem ich ging;
Um Nam’ und Zahlen windet
Sich ein zerbroch’ner Ring.
the day of our first meeting,
the day I went away,
name and numbers entwined
by a broken ring.
Mein Herz, in diesem Bache
Erkennst du nun dein Bild?
Ob’s unter seiner Rinde
Wohl auch so reißend schwillt?
My heart, in this brook
do you recognize your own image?
Is there, under your surface, too,
a surging torrent?
Rückblick
Es brennt mir unter beiden Sohlen,
Tret’ ich auch schon auf Eis und Schnee,
Ich möcht’ nicht wieder Atem holen,
Bis ich nicht mehr die Türme seh’.
Backward Glance
The soles of my feet are burning,
though I walk on ice and snow;
I do not wish to draw breath again
until I can no longer see the towers.
Hab’ mich an jeden Stein gestoßen,
So eilt’ ich zu der Stadt hinaus;
Die Krähen warfen Bäll’ und Schloßen
Auf meinen Hut von jedem Haus.
I tripped on every stone,
such was my hurry to leave the town;
the crows threw snowballs and hailstones
onto my hat from every house.
Wie anders hast du mich empfangen,
Du Stadt der Unbeständigkeit!
An deinen blanken Fenstern sangen
Die Lerch’ und Nachtigall im Streit.
How differently you received me,
town of inconstancy!
At your shining windows
lark and nightingale sang in rivalry.
Die runden Lindenbäume blühten,
Die klaren Rinnen rauschten hell,
Und ach, zwei Mädchenaugen glühten!—
Da war’s gescheh’n um dich, Gesell!
The round linden trees blossomed,
the clear fountains splashed brightly,
and ah, a maiden’s eyes glowed!—
Then, friend, your fate was sealed!
Kommt mir der Tag in die Gedanken,
Möcht’ ich noch einmal rückwärts seh’n,
Möcht’ ich zurücke wieder wanken,
Vor ihrem Hause stille steh’n.
When that day comes to my mind
I should like to look back once more,
and stumble back
to stand before her house.
Irrlicht
In die tiefsten Felsengründe
Lockte mich ein Irrlicht hin:
Wie ich einen Ausgang finde
Liegt nicht schwer mir in dem Sinn.
Will-o’-the-Wisp
A will-o’-the-wisp enticed me
into the deepest rocky chasms;
how I shall find a way out
does not trouble my mind.
Bin gewohnt das Irregehen,
’S führt ja jeder Weg zum Ziel:
Uns’re Freuden, uns’re Wehen,
Alles eines Irrlichts Spiel!
I am used to straying,
every path leads to one goal:
our joys, our sorrows
all are a will-o’-the-wisp’s game.
Durch des Bergstroms trock’ne Rinnen
Wind’ ich ruhig mich hinab—
Jeder Strom wird’s Meer gewinnen,
Jedes Leiden auch sein Grab.
Down the dry gullies of the mountain stream
I calmly wend my way;
every river will reach the sea,
every sorrow, too, will reach its grave.
Rast
Nun merk’ ich erst, wie müd’ ich bin,
Da ich zur Ruh’ mich lege;
Das Wandern hielt mich munter hin
Auf unwirtbarem Wege.
Rest
Only now, as I lie down to rest,
do I notice how tired I am;
walking kept me cheerful
on the inhospitable road.
Die Füße frugen nicht nach Rast,
Es war zu kalt zum Stehen;
Der Rücken fühlte keine Last,
Der Sturm half fort mich wehen.
My feet did not seek rest,
it was too cold to stand still;
my back felt no burden,
the storm helped to blow me onwards.
In eines Köhlers engem Haus
Hab’ Obdach ich gefunden;
Doch meine Glieder ruh’n nicht aus:
So brennen ihre Wunden.
In a charcoal-burner’s cramped cottage
I found shelter;
but my limbs cannot rest,
their wounds burn so.
Auch du, mein Herz, in Kampf und Sturm
So wild und so verwegen,
Fühlst in der Still’ erst deinen Wurm
You too, my heart, so wild and daring
in battle and tempest;
in this calm you now feel the stirring
of your serpent,
with its fierce sting!
Mit heißem Stich sich regen!
Frühlingstraum
Ich träumte von bunten Blumen,
So wie sie wohl blühen im Mai;
Ich träumte von grünen Wiesen,
Von lustigem Vogelgeschrei.
Dream of Spring
I dreamt of bright flowers
that blossomed in May;
I dreamt of green meadows
and merry bird-calls.
Und als die Hähne krähten
Da ward mein Auge wach;
Da war es kalt und finster,
Es schrien die Raben vom Dach.
And when the cock crowed
I opened my eyes;
it was cold and dark,
ravens cawed from the roof.
Doch an den Fensterscheiben
Wer malte die Blätter da?
Ihr lacht wohl über den Träumer,
Der Blumen im Winter sah?
But there, on the window panes,
who had painted the leaves?
Are you laughing at the dreamer
who saw flowers in winter?
Ich träumte von Lieb’ um Liebe,
Von einer schönen Maid,
Von Herzen und von Küssen,
Von Wonne und Seligkeit.
I dreamt of mutual love,
of a lovely maiden,
of embracing and kissing,
of joy and rapture.
Und als die Hähne krähten,
Da ward mein Herze wach;
Nun sitz ich hier alleine
Und denke dem Traume nach.
And when the cock crowed
my heart awoke;
now I sit here alone
and reflect upon my dream.
Die Augen schließ’ ich wieder,
Noch schlägt das Herz so warm.
Wann grünt ihr Blätter am
Fenster?
Wann halt’ ich mein Liebchen im Arm?
I close my eyes again,
my heart still beats so warmly.
Leaves on my window, when will you
turn green?
When shall I hold my love in my arms?
Einsamkeit
Wie eine trübe Wolke
Durch heit’re Lüfte geht,
Wenn in der Tanne Wipfel
Ein mattes Lüftchen weht:
Loneliness
As a dark cloud
drifts through clear skies,
when a faint breeze blows
in the fir-tops:
So zieh ich meine Straße
Dahin mit trägem Fuß,
Durch helles, frohes Leben,
Einsam und ohne Gruß.
Thus I go on my way,
with weary steps, through
bright, joyful life,
alone, greeted by no one.
Ach, daß die Luft so ruhig!
Ach, daß die Welt so licht!
Als noch die Stürme tobten,
War ich so elend nicht.
Alas, that the air is so calm!
Alas, that the world is so bright!
When the storms were still raging,
I was not so wretched.
Die Post
Von der Straße her ein Posthorn klingt.
Was hat es, daß es so hoch aufspringt,
Mein Herz?
The Post
A posthorn sounds from the road.
Why is it that you leap so high,
my heart?
Die Post bringt keinen Brief für dich.
Was drängst du denn so wunderlich,
Mein Herz?
The post brings no letter for you.
Why, then, do you surge so strangely,
my heart?
Nun ja, die Post kommt aus der Stadt,
Wo ich ein liebes Liebchen hatt’,
Mein Herz!
But yes, the post comes from town
where I once had a beloved sweetheart,
my heart!
Willst wohl einmal hinüberseh’n,
Und fragen, wie es dort mag geh’n,
Mein Herz?
Do you want to peep out
and ask how things are there,
my heart?
Der greise Kopf
Der Reif hatt’ einen weißen Schein
Mir übers Haar gestreuet.
Da glaubt’ ich schon ein Greis zu sein,
Und hab’ mich sehr gefreuet.
The Gray Head
The frost has sprinkled a white sheen
upon my hair.
I thought I was already an old man,
and I rejoiced.
Doch bald ist er hinweggetaut,
Hab’ wieder schwarze Haare,
Daß mir’s vor meiner Jugend graut—
Wie weit noch bis zur Bahre!
But soon it melted away;
once again I have black hair,
so that I shudder at my youth—
how far it still is to the grave!
Vom Abendrot zum Morgenlicht
Ward mancher Kopf zum Greise.
Wer glaubt’s? Und meiner ward es nicht
Auf dieser ganze Reise!
Between sunset and the light of morning
many a head has turned gray.
Who will believe it? Mine has not done so
throughout this whole journey.
Die Krähe
Eine Krähe war mit mir
Aus der Stadt gezogen,
Ist bis heute für und für
Um mein Haupt geflogen.
The Crow
A crow has come with me
from the town,
and to this day
has been flying ceaselessly about my head.
Krähe, wunderliches Tier,
Willst mich nicht verlassen?
Meinst wohl bald als Beute hier
Meinen Leib zu fassen?
Crow, you strange creature,
will you not leave me?
Do you intend soon
to seize my body as prey?
Nun, es wird nicht weit mehr geh’n
An dem Wanderstabe.
Krähe, laß mich endlich seh’n
Treue bis zum Grabe!
Well, I do not have much further to walk
with my staff.
Crow, let me at last see
faithfulness unto the grave!
Letzte Hoffnung
Hier und da ist an den Bäumen
Manches bunte Blatt zu seh’n.
Und ich bleibe vor den Bäumen
Oftmals in Gedanken steh’n.
Last Hope
Here and there on the trees
many a colored leaf can still be seen.
I often stand, lost in thought,
before those trees.
Schaue nach dem einen Blatte,
Hänge meine Hoffnung dran;
Spielt der Wind mit meinem Blatte,
Zitt’r’ ich, was ich zittern kann.
I look at one such leaf
and hang my hopes upon it;
if the wind plays with my leaf
I tremble to the depths of my being.
Ach, und fällt das Blatt zu Boden,
Fällt mit ihm die Hoffnung ab;
Fall’ ich selber mit zu Boden,
Wein’ auf meiner Hoffnung Grab.
Ah, and if the leaf falls to the ground
my hopes fall with it;
I, too, fall to the ground
and weep on the grave of my hopes.
Im Dorfe
Es bellen die Hunde, es rasseln die Ketten.
Es schlafen die Menschen in ihren Betten,
Träumen sich manches, was sie
nicht haben,
Tun sich im Guten und Argen
erlaben;
In the Village
Dogs bark, chains rattle;
people sleep in their beds,
dreaming of many a thing they do
not possess,
consoling themselves with the good and
the bad;
Und morgen früh ist alles zerflossen.
Je nun, sie haben ihr Teil genossen,
Und hoffen, was sie noch übrig ließen,
Doch wieder zu finden auf ihren Kissen.
and tomorrow morning all will have vanished.
Well, they have enjoyed their portion
and hope to find on their pillows
what they still have left to savor.
Bellt mich nur fort, ihr wachen Hunde,
Drive me away with your barking,
watchful dogs,
allow me no rest in this hour of sleep!
Laßt mich nicht ruh’n in der
Schlummerstunde!
Ich bin zu Ende mit allen Träumen—
Was will ich unter den Schläfern säumen?
I am finished with all dreams—
why should I linger among slumberers?
Der stürmische Morgen
Wie hat der Sturm zerrissen
Des Himmels graues Kleid!
Die Wolkenfetzen flattern
Umher in mattem Streit.
The Stormy Morning
How the storm has torn apart
the gray mantle of the sky!
Tattered clouds fly about
in weary conflict.
Und rote Feuerflammen
Zieh’n zwischen ihnen hin.
Das nenn’ ich einen Morgen
So recht nach meinem Sinn!
And red flames
dart between them.
This is what I call
a morning after my own heart!
Mein Herz sieht an dem Himmel
Gemalt sein eig’nes Bild—
Es ist nichts als der Winter,
Der Winter, kalt und wild.
My heart sees its own image
painted in the sky—
it is nothing but winter,
winter, cold and savage.
Täuschung
Ein Licht tanzt freundlich vor mir her;
Ich folg’ ihm nach die Kreuz und Quer;
Ich folg’ ihm gern und seh’s ihm an,
Daß es verlockt den Wandersmann.
Ach, wer wie ich so elend ist,
Gibt gern sich hin der bunten List,
Die hinter Eis und Nacht und Graus
Ihm weist ein helles, warmes Haus,
Und eine liebe Seele drin—
Nur Täuschung ist für mich Gewinn!
Illusion
A light dances cheerfully before me,
I follow it this way and that;
I follow it gladly, knowing
that it lures the wanderer.
Ah, a man as wretched as I
gladly yields to the beguiling gleam
that reveals to him, beyond ice,
night and terror,
a bright, warm house,
and a beloved soul within—
even mere illusion is a boon to me!
Der Wegweiser
Was vermeid’ ich denn die Wege,
Wo die ander’n Wand’rer gehn,
Suche mir versteckte Stege
Durch verschneite Felsenhöh’n?
The Signpost
Why do I avoid the ways
that other wanderers tread,
and seek out hidden paths
over snowy, rocky heights?
Habe ja doch nichts begangen,
Daß ich Menschen sollte scheu’n,—
Welch ein törichtes Verlangen
Treibt mich in die Wüstenei’n?
For I have done no wrong
that I should shun men—
what foolish craving
drives me into desolate places?
Weiser stehen auf den Straßen,
Weisen auf die Städte zu,
Und ich wand’re sonder Maßen
Ohne Ruh’ und suche Ruh’.
On roads stand signposts
pointing to towns,
and I wander on and on
restlessly in search of rest.
Einen Weiser seh’ ich stehen
Unverrückt vor meinem Blick;
Eine Straße muß ich gehen,
Die noch keiner ging zurück.
One signpost I see standing,
immovable, before my gaze;
one road I must tread, by which
no one has yet returned.
Das Wirtshaus
Auf einen Totenacker
Hat mich mein Weg gebracht.
Allhier will ich einkehren:
Hab’ ich bei mir gedacht.
The Inn
My journey has brought me
to a graveyard.
Here, I thought to myself:
I will rest for the night.
Ihr grünen Totenkränze
Könnt wohl die Zeichen sein,
Die müde Wand’rer laden
Ins kühle Wirtshaus ein.
Green funeral wreaths,
you must be the signs
inviting tired travelers
into the cool inn.
Sind denn in diesem Hause
Die Kammern all’ besetzt?
Bin matt zum Niedersinken
Bin tödlich schwer verletzt.
Are all the rooms
in this house taken, then?
I am weary to the point of collapse,
I am fatally wounded.
O unbarmherz’ge Schenke,
Doch weisest du mich ab?
Nun weiter denn, nur weiter,
Mein treuer Wanderstab!
Pitiless tavern,
do you nonetheless turn me away?
On, then, press onwards,
my trusty staff!
Mut
Fliegt der Schnee mir ins Gesicht,
Schüttl’ ich ihn herunter.
Wenn mein Herz im Busen spricht,
Sing’ ich hell und munter.
Courage
When the snow flies in my face,
I shake it off.
When my heart speaks in my breast,
I sing loudly and merrily.
Höre nicht, was es mir sagt,
Habe keine Ohren,
Fühle nicht, was es mir klagt,
Klagen ist für Toren.
I do not hear what it tells me,
I have no ears;
I do not feel what it laments,
lamenting is for fools.
Lustig in die Welt hinein
Gegen Wind und Wetter!
Will kein Gott auf Erden sein,
Sind wir selber Götter!
Cheerfully out into the world,
against wind and storm!
If there is no God on Earth,
then we ourselves are gods!
Die Nebensonnen
Drei Sonnen sah ich am Himmel steh’n,
Hab’ lang und fest sie angeseh’n;
Und sie auch standen da so stier,
Als wollten sie nicht weg von mir.
Ach, meine Sonnen seid ihr nicht!
Schaut ander’n doch ins Angesicht!
Ja, neulich hatt’ ich auch wohl drei,
Nun sind hinab die besten zwei.
Ging nur die dritt’ erst hinterdrein!
Im Dunkeln wird mir wohler sein.
The Mock Suns
I saw three suns in the sky;
I gazed at them long and intently;
and they, too, stood there so fixedly,
as if unwilling to leave me.
Alas, you are not my suns!
Gaze into other people’s faces!
Yes, not long ago I, too, had three suns;
now the two best have set.
If only the third would follow,
I should feel happier in the dark.
Der Leiermann
Drüben hinterm Dorfe
Steht ein Leiermann,
Und mit starren Fingern
Dreht er, was er kann.
The Organ-Grinder
There, beyond the village,
stands an organ-grinder;
with numb fingers
he plays the best he can.
Barfuß auf dem Eise
Wankt er hin und her;
Und sein kleiner Teller
Bleibt ihm immer leer.
Barefoot on the ice
he totters to and fro,
and his little plate
remains forever empty.
Keiner mag ihn hören,
Keiner sieht ihn an,
Und die Hunde knurren
Um den alten Mann.
No one wants to listen,
no one looks at him,
and the dogs growl
around the old man.
Und er läßt es gehen
Alles wie es will,
Dreht, und seine Leier
Steht ihm nimmer still.
And he lets everything go on
as it will,
he plays, and his hurdy-gurdy
never stops.
Wunderlicher Alter,
Soll ich mit dir gehn?
Willst zu meinen Liedern
Deine Leier drehn?
Strange old man,
shall I go with you?
Will you grind your hurdy-gurdy
to my songs?
About the Films
A schematic list of visual materials used in the 24 films for Winterreise.
1. Gute Nacht / Good Night
New materials but based in part on images from Black Box / Chambre Noire (2005). Black Box is a
theatrical automaton that looks at the political underbelly of the Enlightenment in reworking some of
the material of Mozart’s Magic Flute. So the same city as Schubert, but 30 years earlier.
Black Box / Chambre Noire, 2005
Miniature theater with projections and mechanical puppets
Editing: Catherine Meyburgh
Music: Philip Miller
Singers: Alfred Makgalemele, Vevangua Muuondjo
Mechanical Design: Jonas Lundquist
Programming for Mechanical Objects: Ronald Halgren
2. Die Wetterfahne / The Weathervane
The central images in the film are based on Rebus, a series of cardboard and later bronze sculptures
of transformation. These sculptures in turn were based on ink drawings of contradictory or complementary objects, the sculpture performing the transformation from one image into the other.
Rebus, 2013
A series of nine sculptures in bronze. Each sculpture forms two different images, when
turned through 90 degrees to viewer (creating 16 different images). A 17th image is created
when the stamp and telephone are combined to form the reclining nude figure.
Cast at Workhorse Bronze Foundry, Johannesburg
Edition of 12
3. Gefrorne Tränen / Frozen Tears
An image of a pianola roll, or a hurdy-gurdy roll, which had been used earlier in The Refusal of Time.
An emblematic transformation of the immaterial of time and music into the material of the cardboard
roll of the film of the pianola roll.
The Refusal of Time, 2012, 30 minutes
A collaboration with Philip Miller (music), Catherine Meyburgh (video editing), and Peter Galison
(dramaturge)
5-channel video installation with sound, aluminum megaphones, and a breathing machine
4. Erstarrung / Numbness
Drawings made with flakes of black paper, confetti animation which I had first used in Breathe, a film
of a singer singing and failing to master a song.
Breathe, Dissolve, Return, 2008, 6 minutes
(three films titled individually Breathe, Dissolve, Return)
Installation of three video projections
DVcam and HDV
Singing: Nokrismesi Skota
Construction Collaborator: Gerhard Marx
5. Der Lindenbaum / The Linden Tree
The film material came from Sleeping on Glass. In the original film, a madrigal of Monteverdi structured the film.
Sleeping on Glass, 1999, 8 minutes 11 seconds
Animated film using three-dimensional objects, a live actor, and charcoal drawing
Music: Monteverdi Madrigali Erotici
Sound Design: Wilbert Schübel
6. Wasserflut / Flood
Animation from Felix in Exile, the fourth film in a series of ten charcoal animation films titled Drawings
for Projection, made between 1989 and 2011.
Felix in Exile, 1994, 8 minutes 43 seconds
35mm film transferred to video
Editing: Angus Gibson
Music: Philip Miller, String Trio for Felix in Exile
Musicians: Peta-Ann Holdcroft, Marjan Vonk-Stirling, Jan Pustejovsky
Go Tlapsha Didiba by Motsumi Makhene
Sung by Sibongile Khumalo
Sound: Wilbert Schübel
7. Auf dem Flusse / On the Stream
Animation from Felix in Exile, the fourth film in a series of ten charcoal animation films titled Drawings
for Projection, made between 1989 and 2011.
8. Rückblick / Backward Glance
Part of the tango from The Refusal of Time, pages from the flipbook film Anatomy of Melancholy.
A collaboration with Philip Miller (music), Catherine Meyburgh (video editing), and Peter
Galison (dramaturge)
NO, IT IS, 2012
Triptych of three flipbook films: Workshop Receipts (3 minutes 17 seconds), The Anatomy of
Melancholy (2 minutes 21 seconds), Practical Enquiries (2 minutes 19 seconds)
HD video
Editing: Melissa Parry
9. Irrlicht / Will-o’-the-Wisp
Images of signals. Here the sending and receiving of signals of light, of sound, of electromagnetic
waves, from The Refusal of Time.
A collaboration with Philip Miller (music), Catherine Meyburgh (video editing), and Peter Galison
(dramaturge)
10. Rast / Rest
Material taken from Weighing & Wanting, a film made with charcoal animation from 1998, from the
series Drawings for Projection.
Weighing & Wanting, 1998, 6 minutes 20 seconds
Editing: Angus Gibson, Catherine Meyburgh
Musicians: Peta-Ann Holdcroft, Marjan Vonk-Stirling, Ivo Ivanov
11. Frühlingstraum / Dream of Spring
The song was mapped onto the film Automatic Writing, the geography of the film stretched and
trimmed to fit the contours of the song.
Automatic Writing, 2003, 6 minutes
35mm animated film transferred to video
12. Einsamkeit / Loneliness
Material from Medicine Chest, a film made to be projected in a bathroom medicine cabinet, from
2001. A solitary walker on a turning world.
Medicine Chest, 2001, 5 minutes 50 seconds
35mm film transferred to video, projected within a medicine cabinet
Music: Philip Miller and Paul Hindemith
13. Die Post / The Post
The postman on his bicycle on the turning world from Sleeping on Glass.
Sleeping on Glass, 1999, 8 minutes 11 seconds
Animated film using three-dimensional objects, a live actor, and charcoal drawing
Music: Monteverdi’s Madrigali Erotici
14 and 15. Der greise Kopf, Die Krähe / The Gray Head, The Crow
Material from Other Faces, 2011. The bird is a hadeda (ibis) rather than a crow. There are images in
the original film of West Park Cemetery in Johannesburg.
Other Faces, 2011, 9 minutes 45 seconds
Music and Sound Design: Philip Miller
Voice: Ann Masina, Bham Ntabeni
Sound Mix: Wilbert Schübel, Gavan Eckhart
16. Letzte Hoffnung / Last Hope
The bird comes from Medicine Chest (2001).
Medicine Chest, 2001, 5 minutes 50 seconds
35mm film transferred to video, projected within a medicine cabinet
Music: Philip Miller, Paul Hindemith
17. Im Dorfe / In the Village
The film Memo was made with fellow Johannesburg artists Deborah Bell and Robert Hodgins in
1993–94. The music was originally written by Philip Miller. The transposition of the petit bourgeois
world of Memo to the perceived smallness of the lives in Schubert’s song.
Memo, 1993–94, 3 minutes
William Kentridge, Robert Hodgins, Deborah Bell
35mm animated film using charcoal animation, and a live actor, transferred to video
18. Der stürmische Morgen / The Stormy Morning
The flipbook pages were first used in the film Sonnets, using colors as notes, as words, as frames.
24 frames a second, 24 colors and pages a second. The colored pages were later incorporated into
the film Second-hand Reading, the film we plundered for Der stürmische Morgen.
Second-hand Reading, 2013, approx. 7 minutes
Flipbook film from drawings on single pages of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
HD video
Music and Voice: Neo Muyanga
Editing: Snezana Marovic
19. Täuschung / Illusion
The coffee pot animation (self-portrait as a coffee pot) came from Anti-Mercator, of 2011, the first
stages of thinking about the materialization of time in working on the larger project The Refusal of
Time.
Anti-Mercator, 2011, 9 minutes 45 seconds
HD video
Music and Soundscape: Philip Miller
Voice: Bham Ntabeni
Dancers: Dada Masilo, Thato Motlhaolwa
Sound Editing: Gavan Eckhart
20. Der Wegweiser / The Signpost
At the start of the Winterreise project, I had thought much of the material would relate to the First
World War, and the disillusion and end of Europe with that war. In the end, only one part of one song
referred to it. The pieces of film were first used in the chamber opera Zeno at 4am in 2001, an opera
based on Italo Svevo’s novel Confessions of Zeno, and later also in the film Zeno Writing (2002).
Zeno Writing, 2002
35mm animated film transferred to video, with charcoal and pastel drawing, footage from
theater performance, archival material from the First World War
Music: Kevin Volans
21. Das Wirtshaus / The Inn
A death list as hotel register. This list comes from Black Box, the mining landscapes and trees from
more recent work.
Black Box / Chambre Noire, 2005
Miniature theater with projections and mechanical puppets
Singers: Alfred Makgalemele, Vevangua Muuondjo
Mechanical Design: Jonas Lundquist
Programming for Mechanical Objects: Ronald Halgren
22. Mut / Courage
The bodies turning into the landscape (an image at right angles to the text of the song) come from
Felix in Exile, made in 1994.
23. Die Nebensonnen / The Mock Suns
A reprise of the pianola roll used in the third song of the cycle.
24. Die Leiermann / The Organ-Grinder
A silhouette procession using new silhouettes, silhouettes from The Refusal of Time (2012), and
earlier images from Shadow Procession in 1999. The song of a death march.
Shadow Procession, 1999, 7 minutes
Animated film using torn black paper figures, three-dimensional objects, shadows, and fragments
from the film Ubu Tells the Truth
35mm film transferred to video and DVD
Music: Alfred Makgalemele
© 2008 MARC SHOUL
Meet the Artists
the American Philosophical Society and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He was also awarded the Dan David Prize
by Tel Aviv University and named Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the
French Ministry of Culture and Communication. In 2013 Mr. Kentridge was
awarded an honorary doctorate in fine arts
by Yale University.
William Kentridge’s work has been seen in
museums and galleries around the world
since the 1990s, including the Museum of
Modern Art, dOCUMENTA in Kassel (Germany), the Albertina Museum in Vienna,
and Jeu de Paume and the Musée du
Louvre in Paris, where he presented
Carnets d’Egypte, a project conceived for
the Egyptian Room. Mr. Kentridge’s production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute was presented at La Monnaie in Brussels, Festival
d’Aix-en-Provence, and Teatro alla Scala in
Milan. His production of Shostakovich’s
The Nose was seen at the Metropolitan Opera in 2010 and again in 2013, traveling to Festival d’Aix and to Lyon in 2011.
The five-channel video and sound installation The Refusal of Time was made for
dOCUMENTA (13) in 2012; since then it has
been seen at MAXXI in Rome, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and other
cities. A substantial survey exhibition of Mr.
Kentridge’s work opened in Rio de Janeiro
in 2012, and traveled to Porto Alegre, São
Paolo, Bogotá, Medellín, and Mexico City.
In 2014 his production of Winterreise
opened at the Vienna Festival, Festival
d’Aix, and Holland Festival before its New
York premiere at Lincoln Center.
In 2010 Mr. Kentridge received the prestigious Kyoto Prize for his contributions in the
category of arts and philosophy. In 2011 he
was elected as an Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Letters and
received the degree of Doctor of Literature
honoris causa from the University of
London. In 2012, Mr. Kentridge presented
the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard
University and was elected a member of
© 2008 MARCO BORGGREVE
William Kentridge
Matthias Goerne
Matthias Goerne is one of the most soughtafter vocalists internationally and a frequent
guest at renowned festivals and concert
halls. A native of Weimar, Germany, Mr.
Goerne studied with Hans-Joachim Beyer
in Leipzig, and later with Elisabeth
Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
He has appeared on the world’s principal
opera stages, including the Royal Opera
House–Covent Garden, Teatro Real in
Madrid, Paris National and Vienna State
Operas, and the Metropolitan Opera. His
carefully chosen roles range from Wolfram
(Tannhäuser), Amfortas (Parsifal), Kurwenal
(Tristan und Isolde), and Orest (Elektra), to
the title roles in Berg’s Wozzeck, Bartók’s
Bluebeard’s Castle, and Hindemith’s Mathis
der Maler.
Mr. Goerne’s artistry has been documented on numerous recordings, many of
which have received prestigious awards,
including four Grammy nominations and an
International Classical Music Award. He is
currently recording a series of selected
Schubert songs for Harmonia Mundi, The
Goerne/Schubert Edition, on 11 CDs. From
2001 to 2005 Mr. Goerne taught as an honorary professor of song interpretation at
the Robert Schumann Academy of Music
in Düsseldorf. In 2001 he was appointed an
honorary member of the Royal Academy of
Music in London.
LUIGI CAPUTO
Highlights this season include song recitals
with Piotr Anderszewski in London, Vienna,
and Berlin; concerts with London’s
Philharmonia Orchestra (Britten’s War
Requiem), Czech Philharmonic, Chicago
Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic
(Wotan in the concert version of Das
Rheingold); and a tour with the Vienna
Philharmonic (Mahler’s Das Lied von der
Erde). Other recent highlights include song
recitals with Christoph Eschenbach and Leif
Ove Andsnes in Salzburg, Vienna, Paris,
London (Wigmore Hall), and New York
(Carnegie Hall), as well as concerts with the
Orchestre de Paris, Berliner Philharmoniker,
and San Francisco Symphony, and many
appearances at the Vienna State Opera.
Markus Hinterhäuser
Born in La Spezia, Italy, Markus Hinterhäuser studied piano at the University of
Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and
at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.
He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in the world’s major concert
halls and at internationally renowned festivals, including Carnegie Hall, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Wiener Konzerthaus,
and Teatro alla Scala in Milan. He has
appeared at the Salzburg and Lucerne
Festivals, Wien Modern, the Festival
d’Automne, the Holland Festival, and the
Berliner Festspiele. In the field of lieder
interpretation, his long-standing collaboration with Brigitte Fassbaender is particularly noteworthy.
In recent years Mr. Hinterhäuser has
focused on the interpretation of contemporary music, particularly works by Luigi Nono,
Karlheinz Stockhausen, Morton Feldman,
and György Ligeti. Alongside numerous
recordings for radio and television, he has
also recorded the complete œuvre for piano
by Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and
Anton von Webern, as well as compositions
by Feldman, Nono, Giacinto Scelsi, Galina
Ustvolskaya, and John Cage. He has participated in music drama productions staged
by Christoph Marthaler, Johan Simons, and
Klaus Michael Grüber, including the Wiener
Festwochen productions of Christoph
Marthaler’s Schutz vor der Zukunft (2005
and 2006) and Klaus Michael Grüber’s production of Janáček’s Diary of One Who
Disappeared (2005).
Mr. Hinterhäuser has won international
acclaim as co-founder and artistic director
(together with Tomas Zierhofer-Kin) of the
Zeitfluss event series presented from
1993 to 2001 at the Salzburg Festival. At
Wiener Festwochen, Mr. Hinterhäuser and
Zierhofer-Kin co-founded and co-directed
the Zeit-Zone series. From 2006 to 2010
he was responsible for the Salzburg
Festival’s concert program, and was
tenured as its artistic director for the 2011
season. From 2014 to 2016 he will serve
as artistic director of Wiener Festwochen,
and will return to his directorial post at the
Salzburg Festival in 2017.
Sabine Theunissen
The architect and set designer Sabine
Theunissen (set design) studied architecture at the Institut Supérieur d’Architecture
at La Cambre in Brussels, from which she
graduated in 1992, before joining the technical department of La Scala in Milan. In
1995 she joined the Théâtre Royal de la
Monnaie in Brussels to run its design
office. For 17 years she developed numerous set projects there with the likes of Bob
Wilson, Trisha Brown, Karl-Ernst Hermann,
Anna Wiebrock, Pierre Audi, La Fura dels
Baus, Robert Carsen, John MacFarlane,
Anna-Teresa de Keersmaeker, Herbert
Wernicke, and Andrea Breth. In 2003 she met
William Kentridge, marking the beginning of
a collaboration that would make its debut
two years later with The Enchanted Flute
(La Monnaie), a production that would be
reprised no fewer than 15 times around the
world. They also worked together on
Shostakovich’s The Nose (Metropolitan
Opera, 2010), The Refusal of Time
(Documenta, Kassel) and Refuse the Hour
(Holland Festival and Festival d’Avignon),
along with Berg’s Lulu (Metropolitan Opera,
Dutch National Opera, English National
Opera), a project planned for 2015. Since
2012, Ms. Theunissen has worked on
Dukas’s Ariane and Bluebeard for the Dijon
Opera (directed by Lilo Baur) and on
Michèle Noiret’s dance work Hors Champ,
presented in 2013 at the National Theatre
of Belgium, the Théâtre National de
Chaillot, and the Grand Théâtre de
Luxembourg. That same year she developed the scenic design for the exhibition
The Body in Indian Art at the Europalia festival, and was invited to speak at Monaco’s
Pavillon Bosio art school, leading a workshop on scenic art.
Greta Goiris
After studying costume design at the Royal
Academy of Fine Arts at Anvers and set
design at Barcelona’s Institute del Teatre,
Greta Goiris (costume design) worked with
director Jacques Delcuvellerie—first at the
Festival d’Avignon (Rwanda 1994 and
Anathema) and then, from 1993 to 2005, at
the National Theatre of Brussels and the
Théâtre de la Place in Liège (Große
Schmährede an der Stadtmauer, La Mère,
Andromaque, The Barber of Seville, and The
Seagull ). She developed a close collaboration with Johan Simons at both the Zuidelijk
Toneel Hollandia company and NTGent, the
municipal theater of the city of Ghent.
She has created costumes at theaters such
as the Toneelhuis in Anvers (Martin
McDonagh’s The Leenane Trilogy ), for the
Ruhrtriennale (Sentimenti, Life is a Dream,
Forgotten Street), the KunstenFestivalDesArts (The Bacchae), the Staatstheatre
Stuttgart (Hannibal ), and the Parktheater
Eindhoven (Richard III, Vrijdag ). She has also
worked with Pierre Audi (To Damascus ),
Karin Beier (King Lear ), Ivo van Hove
(Ludwig II), Julie van den Berghe (Agatha ),
and Josse de Pauw (De Gehangenen ). At
the opera, she has designed costumes for
Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle (Salzburg
Festival), Fidelio (Paris National Opera),
Macbeth (Holland Festival), Dukas’s Ariane
and Bluebeard (Dijon Opera) and, in collaboration with William Kentridge, The Enchanted Flute (La Monnaie, Brussels),
Shostakovich’s The Nose (Metropolitan
Opera), and the shows The Refusal of
Time (Documenta, Kassel) and Refuse the
Hour (Holland Festival and Festival
d’Avignon). In 2013 Ms. Goiris also participated in the creation of Hors Champ, by
choreographer Michèle Noiret.
Herman Sorgeloos
Born in 1952, Herman Sorgeloos (lighting
design) studied cinematography at the
Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels. In 1981 he
made his debut as a theater photographer
at the Kaaitheater Festival. His meeting
with Jan Decorte, which took place while
Decorte was preparing Mary Magdalene,
was critical. While continuing to work as a
photographer, Mr. Sorgeloos did his first
stage designs in 1983.
His collaboration with Anna Teresa de
Keersmaeker and her Rosas company
began in 1984. Mr. Sorgeloos created
designs for the shows Verkommenes Ufer
Medeamaterial Landschaft mit Argonauten
(1987), Mikrokosmos (1987), Ottone,
Ottone (1988), Stella (1989), Achertland
(1990), Erts (1992), Mozart/Concert Arias,
un moto di giola (1992), Toccata (1993),
Kinok (1994), Amor Constante más allá de
la muerte (1994), Three Solos for Vincent
Dunoyer (1997), and For (1999). He also
collaborated with Jan Ristema (Wittgenstein Incorporated, Philoketes Variates,
Hamle’t, Pipelines, Blindspo’, Know H20)
and worked with Alize Zandwijk at the Ro
Theater in Rotterdam, Josse de Pauw (SS,
Die Siel van die Mier, Kreutzersonates, Volk
et Ruhe), and Tom Jansen (Morgen
Misschien). Recently he also conceived the
scenic design for Nine Finger, a show by
Fumiyo Ikeda, Benjamin Verdonck, Alain
Platel, and Anne-Katherine Kunz.
Mr. Sorgeloos has spent 20 years as the official photographer of Rosas, a position he
also holds at the Muziektheater Transparant.
Snezana Marovic
Born in Sarajevo in 1973, Snezana Marovic
(video editor) started out studying medicine and pharmacology before emigrating
to Johannesburg, where she specialized in
biochemistry and microbiology. While at
the University of South Africa, she began
to explore film editing in the cinema and
television industries, ultimately changing
her professional orientation. Upon returning to Sarajevo in 2001, she worked for a
local television production company and
participated in productions ranging from
game shows to documentaries and feature
films. She also took private drawing
classes and completed a course in photography at the Photographic Association of
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
When Ms. Marovic returned to South Africa,
she met Dereck and Beverly Joubert,
wildlife documentarians and resident explorers of the National Geographic Society. She
collaborated with them on numerous projects, including The Last Lion as well as
many award-winning documentaries. She
subsequently worked with the artist William
Kentridge, first as an assistant editor to
Catherine Meyburgh (Refuse the Hour, The
Refusal of Time, and Norton Lectures), then
as an editor for the video installation Secondhand Reading, shown in 2013 at the Marian
Goodman Gallery in New York. This collaboration will continue into 2015–16 with Alban
Berg’s opera Lulu, which is slated to be
presented in numerous locations throughout
the world. Ms. Marovic is a member of the
South African Guild of Editors.
White Light Festival
I could compare my music to white light,
which contains all colors. Only a prism can
divide the colors and make them appear;
this prism could be the spirit of the listener.
—Arvo Pärt. Celebrating its fifth anniversary, the White Light Festival is Lincoln
Center’s annual exploration of music
and art’s power to reveal the many dimensions of our interior lives. International in
scope, the multidisciplinary festival offers
a broad spectrum of the world’s leading
instrumentalists, vocalists, ensembles,
choreographers, dance companies, and
directors complemented by conversations
with artists and scholars and post-performance White Light Lounges.
Lincoln Center for the Performing
Arts, Inc.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
(LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader
in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center
campus. A presenter of more than 3,000
free and ticketed events, performances,
tours, and educational activities annually,
LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and festivals, including American Songbook, Great
Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln
Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night
Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the
White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy
Award–winning Live From Lincoln Center,
which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of
the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides
support and services for the Lincoln Center
complex and the 11 resident organizations.
In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion campus
renovation, completed in October 2012.
Lincoln Center Programming Department
Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director
Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming
Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming
Jill Sternheimer, Acting Director, Public Programming
Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager
Charles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary Programming
Kate Monaghan, Associate Director, Programming
Claudia Norman, Producer, Public Programming
Mauricio Lomelin, Associate Producer, Contemporary Programming
Julia Lin, Associate Producer
Nicole Cotton, Production Coordinator
Regina Grande, Assistant to the Artistic Director
Luna Shyr, Programming Publications Editor
Nasrene Haj, House Seat Coordinator
Utsuki Otsuka, Production Assistant
Reshena Liao, House Program Intern
For the White Light Festival
Andrew Hill, Production Electrician
Jessica Barrios, Wardrobe

Winterreise (U.S. premiere)

Transcription

Similar documents

texts and translations

your Winterreise Programme here

Winterreise / Winter Journey

Untitled

winterreise - Phoibosmusic