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ARlWORK FOR NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL POSTER BY ROSEMARIE TROCKEL

199 3 N EXT WAVE FESTIVAL BAMBILL

BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC Han'ey Lichtellsteill, Presidellt 6' ExeCl/til'e Producer

"rescnts in the BAAl Ope,." Holtse l\lUl'. :!.O. !49J 7/ml Ntlt,. 22-2-+, 21,. 27.W (>- Dec. I 81'111 NOI'. 21, 28311111 The Black Rider The Casting of the Magic Bullets

by Robert Wilson / Tom Waits / William Burroughs

Thalia Theater I-hllll/mrg, G1'I'1I101l)'

The BA.\1 presentation of TIJ(' H/ock Rider has been made possible by: the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany; Goethe House New Yorkl (,uman Cultural Center; Robert W, Wilson; The Bohen Found'ltion; Ticket\\aster; One World Arts Foundation, Inc.; The Chase Manhattan Bank; The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.; and \·leet The Composer.

Produced in association \\'ith ART BUREAU - Thomas Petz. International tr'lnsportation supported by 8 Lufthansa German Airlines 1993 NEXT WAVE Gab Benefit is sponsored by Hacbette Filipacchi ,\lagazines and Philip \lorris Companies Inc.

A production of the Thalia Theater, co-produced with the Wiener Festwochen with support of Stern, the Stiftllllg zur Fiirderung des Thalia Theaters and Take 12.

CHA:-\U. cosmetics were used for the actor's make-up.

Robert Wilson would like to thank those World Sponsors who support his work through their generous contributions to the Byrd Hoffman Foundation: Anonymous, Lily Auchinc!oss, Michael Caddell, Tracy Conwell, Etbel de Croisset, James Elkins, Betty Freeman, Meredith and Cornelia Long, Claude and Sidney Picasso, Mark Rudkin, Louisa Sarofim, Stanley Stairs, and Robert W. Wilson. _THE BLACK RIDER_

CAST KUNO, OLD FORESTER Heinz Vossbrink OLD UNCLE, DUKE Jorg Holm PEGLEG Dominique Horwitz BIRD, MESSENGER, BERTRAM, FORESTER Gerd Kunath SPOONWOMAN Sona Cervena ANNE, HIS WIFE Angelika Thomas WITNESS, BIRD, SHRINK, WILHELM'S DOUBLE, KATHCHEN. his daughter Annette Paulmann SKELETON Monika Tahal WILHELM, CLERK Stefan Kurt YOUNG KUNO, BIRD, SHRINK, SKELETON Jan Moritz Steffen ROBERT, HUNTING BOY MAN ON STAG BRIDESMAID, GEORG SCHMID Klaus Schreiber PEGLEG'S DOUBLE Sabrina Ascasibar

MUSICIANS musical supervisor, pump organ, trombone, tuba, banjo, piano, keyboards.....Hans-J6rn Brandenburg slide guitar Dieter Fischer clarinet, bass clarinet Volker Hemken percussion, marimba Jo Bauer bassoon, contrabassoon, viola ...Henning Stoll percussion, guitars, singing saw Frank Wulff French horn Christoph Moinian double bass, percussion Stefan Schafer STAFF direction and stage design Robert Wilson lighting Hans Fahrun music and lyrics Tom Waits stage supervisor Oliver Canis texts William Burroughs sound department Peter Scholler musical director Greg Cohen make-up direction Werner Merz musical arrangement Greg CohenITom Waits props Ralf Ecker costume design Frida Parmeggiani costume department Martina Steiner . Rainer pfannkuche light design Heinrich BrunkeIRobert Wilson costume painting Klaudia Noltensmeyer sound design Gerd Bessler fabric craftwork Jakob Althaus translation Udo Breger technical conception Peter Holtz dramaturg and translation Wolfgang Wiens technical supervisor Jorg Christopher assistant director Matthias freuse Nicolai Sykosch personal assistant to Robert Wilson Matthias Harbeck assistant stage design Hans Richter, Jurgen Hoth direction intern .Jngo Mix assistant costume design Antje Handrich stage intern Klaus Grunberg assistant light design Annette Ter Meulen costume intern..Andrea BakoslKatrin Kohler iJoice training Ursula Gompf music intern Nina Hartwig stage manager Renate Finnigan!Andre Saunier video Claudia Krebs prompter Vera Trommer production management Peter Scholler

supertitles prepared and performed by Michael Panayos assisted by Christoph Moser Intermission after scene eight. Intermission is approximately 1/2 hour long. Running time is approximately 3 hours, including intermission. Premiere March 31, 1990. Performance rights are with the authors, represented by the Thalia Theater. Elevator by Adirondack• Scenic, Inc. SYNOPSIS

PROLOGUE Pegleg presents the Company. all his shots. After giving him one last bul­ Wilhelm's uncle warns the audience: don't let, Pegleg disappears. make deals with the devil. Song: The Black Rider KNEE 7 Song: Flash Pan Hunter

KNEE 1 The black box appears. SCENE 7 A maid of honor helps Kathchen put on her wedding dress. The unhappy SCENE 1 Bertram, the forester, wants his Wilhelm carries home a goose that turns daughter Kathchen to marry a huntsman. into a vulture. A messenger of the Duke Kathchen loves Wilhelm, the bailiff's clerk. orders Wilhelm to procure venison for the The portrait of Bertram's ancestor Kuno ducal table. Kathchen's wedding crown is says: "Do what you will." Anne, Bertram's mistakenly replaced by a funeral garland. wife, pleads for Wilhelm. Bertram prefers Song: In the Morning the hunting boy Robert. Song: But He's Not William KNEE 8 As a warning, Bertram tells the story of Georg Schmid, who turned insane KNEE 2 Bertram invokes the laws and dan­ after having forged magic bullets at the gers of the forest. crossroads at midnight.

SCENE 2 Flashback: Once upon a time, SCENE 8 Song: Georg Schmid the Duke ordered Kuno to shoot a stag with a man tied to its back, but without wound­ Intermission ing the man. Kuno succeeded, and the Duke rewarded him with the farm of the forest for himself and his heirs. To discourage the SCENE 9 Wilhelm steals away to get to the rumor that Kuno had used magic bullets, all crossroads at midnight. One after the other, the descendants must undergo a trial in Bertram, his uncle, Anne and Kathchen marksmanship. stand in his way. Kathchen stays behind. Song: November Kuno's portrait falls down and injures her. Song: I'll Shoot the Moon KNEE 3 Young Kuno and old Kuno. KNEE 10 Pantomime: Wilhelm follows SCENE 3 Wilhelm and Kathchen bewail Pegleg through the woods. their unhappy love. Wilhelm decides to become a huntsman. SCENE 10 At the crossroads, appantlons Song: The Briar and the Rose try to chase Wilhelm outside the magic cir­ cle. Pegleg presents him with a new bullet. KNEE 4 The rifle appears above the trees. Song: Gospel Train

SCENE 4 Wilhelm stands no chance with­ KNEE 11 Wilhelm's uncle tells the story of out Pegleg's magic bullets. how Ernest Hemingway sold the exclusive Song: The Right Bullets rights of The Snows of Kilimanjaro t9 a Hollywood producer: a devil's bargain? KNEE 5 Kathchen's nightmare. SCENE 11 On his wedding day, Wilhelm SCENE 5 Kathchen wakes up. The house is must shoot a white dove to prove his marks­ full of dead meat. Her father engages her to manship. He shoots. Kathchen collapses Wilhelm who goes back to hunting. with a fatal wound. Song: Chase the Clouds Away KNEE 12 Wilhelm turns insane. KNEE 6 Wilhelm's uncle and Rudolf make Song: Some Lucky Day a sinister forecast. SCENE 12 Madhouse. Pegleg thanks and SCENE 6 Having used up all his magic bul­ greets the audience. lets, Wilhelm, haunted by visions, misfires Song: The Last Rose of Summer I WHO'S WHO

ROBERT WILSON (direction & stage Queen's Logic~ The Fisher King and At Play design)~ according to Opera News (1990), in the Fields of the Lord, and was recently "represents not only a vital American sensi­ seen as Renfield in Bram Stoker's Dracula bility but one of the supreme theatrical imag­ and in Robert Altman's Short Cuts. As a inations of our time." For twenty years stage actor, Waits won the Dramalogue Wilson has been at the forefront of innova­ Award for his role in Demon Wine at the tion in international theater, opera and Los Angeles Theatre Centre and also design. His works have included Deafman appeared in the Chicago Steppenwolf Glance~ the seven-day play KA MOUNTain Theater's stage production of Frank~s Wild and GUARDenia Terrace, The Life and Years~ which Waits co-wrote with Kathleen Times of Joseph Stalin and, in 1976, his Brennan. Described by Waits as "a parable landmark opera with composer Philip Glass, . of one accordion player's redemption and Einstein on the Beach. His most ambitious baptism," Frank's Wild Years was also work to date is the CIVIL warS: a tree is released as an album in 1987. The Black best measured when it is down; intended for Rider was Waits' first collaboration with the 1984 Olympics, it has never been per­ Robert Wilson; their second project, Alice~ formed in its entirety. He has staged and was premiered by the Thalia Theater in designed many classical operas, including 6 December 1992. Waits' recording of The operas in the repertory of the Opera Bastille, Black Rider has just been released. and has adapted Duras' Malady of Death and Gertrude Stein's Doctor Faustus Lights WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS (texts)~ dubbed the Lights. Recent projects include White "the great godfather of punk" by Trouser Raven~ an opera with Philip Glass; and Alice, Press, is best known as the author of more a musical collaboration' with Tom Waits. In than twenty books, including Junky (1953), Europe this year he premiered Alice in Bed Naked Lunch (1959) and The Cat Inside by Susan Sontag and a one-woman Orlando (1992). His work has been translated into fif­ with Isabelle Huppert, to enormous critical teen languages, and his ideas have been influ­ acclaim. A recipient of two Rockefeller and ential for many contemporary writers, two Guggenheim fellowships, Wilson has painters, composers, musicians and filmmak­ received countless awards for excellence. His ers. He is a member of the American Academy drawings, paintings and sculpture have been and Institute of Arts and Letters and a seen around the world, and this summer he Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des received the first prize for sculpture at the Lettres of France. An early mentor to Beat Venice Biennale. writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, Burroughs has recently become more visible TOM WAITS (music & lyrics) has been for endeavors which have grown out of his recording songs for 20 years. His first writing. His painting, film-acting and musical album, Closing Time~ was released in 1973. collaborations have not only brought him Since then he has produced a· number of crit- greater notoriety but have also shed light ically acclaimed albums,; including upon the widespread influence he has had on Swordfishtrombones~Raindogs and the 1992 various art forms. Burroughs has been seen in Grammy Award-winning Bpne Machine. In the films Drugstore Cowboy~ Twister and 1982, Waits received an Academy Award Heavy Petting, and director David nomination for Best Original Score for Cronenberg recently shot a film version of Francis Ford Coppola's One From the Heart. Naked Lunch. Burroughs' career in painting He also composed the soundtrack for the Jim has flourished internationally, and recent col- Jarmusch film Night On Earth. Waits'songs laborations with Robert Rauschenberg, Phillip have been recorded by such performers as Taaffe and the late Keith Haring have Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Marianne involved the use of Burroughs' texts. Faithfull, Bette Midler, Bob Seger and many Burroughs has influenced and collaborated others. Waits' acting career began with a with a number of musicians and composers, small part in Sylvester Stallone's Paradise including Patti Smith, Philip Glass, Frank Alley in 1978. He has since acted in numer- Zappa, Laurie Anderson, Debbie Harry and ous films, including Coppola's The Chris Stein. He has also recorded 2 albums Outsiders~ Rumblefish~ The Cotton Club, of his own, Dead City Radio and Spare Ass jarmusch's Down By Law, IronweedlAnnie & Other Tales. In the arts the stakes are less rather shook up the crucial rela­ mortal but the issues the same. For tionships of music to text to per­ the action, look to the in-between formance to staging, and inspired spaces, the places where genres artists to recombine these elements meet. The outcome of such meet­ in fresh and unexpected ways. ings is unpredictable: genres col­ Most music-theater pieces con­ lide, then retract (the boring sist of a layering of all or most of answer). They interact, cross-polli­ the following components-sung nate. Perhaps they merge. The and instrumental music, the spo­ result might be disastrous; it might ken word, movement, dance, stag­ be sublime. It's almost always ing, scenography, and, increasing­ interesting. ly, film, projections, and video­ The Brooklyn Academy of resulting in works characterized Music's NEXT WAVE Festival by a complexity of structure and has for 11 years been our coun­ denseness of texture. try's headquarters for aesthetic Structurally, music theater hybridization, the primary show­ hovers somewhere between case for works too unclassifiable­ musical theater and opera, but too dangerous-for mainstream unlike musical theater, music­ temples of culture. Other new gen­ theater works don't necessarily res have been nurtured and show­ follow conventional plots, have cased at the NEXT WAVE-dance recognizable characters, or for­ theater, performance art, new ward morals. The music in music-but the topic at hand is them is often too experimental the large-scale, high-risk encoun­ to find an obvious place in the ters between artists that we group musical theater or opera canon. under the heading "music theater." And unlike opera, music and The 1993 EXT WAVE Festival text are often not the primary spotlights this evolving genre with communicative means of music­ no less than six major music-theater theater works, which tend to works, none as hotly awaited as the rely heavily on the visual. American premiere of The Black What much music theater Rider, a collaboration between aspires to is not the dominance of three celebrated and idiosyncratic one element over the other but a artists: Robert Wilson, Tom symbiosis of elements to create a N 1990'S AMERICA, purists had best run for cover. Cultural Waits and William S. Burroughs. total, transcendent, impact-the majority is quickly disappearing. Hard-and-fast defini­ Music theater was spawned at gesamtkunstwerk quality which an historic collision of forms: Wagner worked for in his operas. tions of identity are on the wane. Who can legitimately when the experimental theater of Indeed many music-theater the 1960's and 70's broadsided artists-Robert Wilson in particu­ claim a hyphenless lineage? Soon, if not already, we opera and musical theater, knock­ lar-eall their creations "operas," ing them off their parallel routes referring to the word's literal sense will all be hybrids. This knowledge, however simple, is onto intersecting paths. This meet­ as the plural of "opus," meaning hard-won; the borders between cultures have become ing didn't derail musical theater "works"-reinforcing the idea of and opera permanently-each their composition as many ele­ battle zones, strewn with the wreckage of its denial. continued on its own path-but ments working together.

Music Theater alld THE BLACK RIDER ~ by Karen Fricker Hard-and-fast definitions of identity are on the wane.

What sets music theater off most and others; The Forest (NEXT WAVE distinctly from musical theater and 1988), again with Byrne; Alice, with opera is its lineage in the 60's and Tom Waits and Paul Schmidt; and 70's experimental theater. Many now The Black Rider: The Casting of leading music-theater artists started the Magic Bullets. out 'downtown': Robert Wilson, The genesis of the piece lay in Tom Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Ping Waits' and Wilson's desire to work Chong, Laurie Anderson, Lee Breuer, together and Wilson's subsequent dis­ Bob Telson, Elizabeth Swados, Andre covery of a provocati ve source: a Serban, Richard Foreman. 17th-century ghost story, which also In the radically inquiring spirit of served as the source for Weber's opera their time, these attists dismantled Der Freischutz, that tells the story of a theater into its individual elements; young clerk who makes a deal with the overall effect of a music the devil to win the hand of theater work came-if it his love. Director Wilson came-through the working and composer/lyricist Waits together of collaborators and invited William S. Burroughs of the work's different parts. into the process to write the Director Robert Wilson libretto; the result is a witty, and composer Philip Glass styl ized black tragicomedy took these principles to their played out with lusty logical extreme in Einstein aplomb by company mem­ on the Beach-the uber­ bers of the Thalia Theater in music-theater work, which Hamburg, Germany, where BAM has presented twice, in the work premiered in 1990. 1984 and 1992, since its The Black Rider's acces­ American debut at the sibility-a Robert Wilson Metropolitan Opera House piece that leaves you hum­ in 1976. These revivals of ming?-might surprise those the marathon masterwork who know Wilson only are both signpost events for music­ from Einstein, but if there's anything theater enthusiasts and boot camp for that's remained constant throughout new audiences. Vast, sprawling, hyp­ Wilson's work it is his ability to sur­ notic, inhabiting the farthest reaches prise-and his unique facility with of fathomability-Einstein less collaborators. The Black Rider's tunes requests than issues a mandate for the bear Waits' unmistakable earthy, lan­ viewer's interaction. guid stamp; the text, with its bizarre Since the crystallizing moment of imagery and wacked-out rhymes, is Einstein, Wilson has increasingly vintage Burroughs; and its expression­ turned his methodology and vision to istic stage pictures and grand, mythic existing texts: plays, by Muller, feel are pure Wilson. Chekov, Ibsen, Shakespeare, Buchner, Woolf, Stein, and Duras, and operas KAREN FRICKER is the New York theater by Wagner, Mozart, and Gluck. At correspondent for the Financial Times the same time he's created new music­ (London) and an assistant editor at theater works with living collabora­ Stagebill. Het wtiting about theater and tors-the vast and still-unrealized the performance has appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, and CIVIL warS with Glass, David Byrne, The Los Angeles Times.

Who can legitimately claim a hyphenless lineage?