Brooklyn_ 30 Lafayette A~n ue Academy Brooklyn NY 11217 -1 486 of Telephone: 718.636.4129

Music Fax: 718.857 .2021

Press Department

For Further Press Information: William Murray at 718.636.4129

The Brooklyn Academy of Music's (BAM) 1997 Next Wave Festival's 15th Anniversary Season - (1982-1997)

The American Premiere of Time Rocker from , Robert WIison, and Darryl Pinckey the Thalia Theater of Hamburg BAM Opera House Ten performances: Nov. 12 at 7:00pm, Nov. 14 & 15, 18 - 22 at 7:30pm; Nov. 16 & 23 at 3:00pm Performed in German and English with English surtitles

Music & lyrics - Lou Reed Direction & design - Robert Wilson Text - Darryl Pinckney

Completing the fantastical triptych begun with the critically-acclaimed The Black Rider and Alice, Lou Reed and Robert Wilson's rock opera, Time Rocker, makes its anticipated American premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), as part of the BAM's 15th Anniversary Next Wave Festival, sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc. Time Rocker is a new work based on H.G. Wells's Time Machine, with lyrics and music by Reed, directed and designed by Wilson and libretto by Darryl Pinckney. Time Rocker will be performed in the BAM Opera House, 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, November 12 at 7:00pm, November 14 and 15, 18 - 22 at 7:30pm; November 16 & 23 and 3:00pm.

This compelling collaboration with rock pioneer Lou Reed displays Wilson's trademark stage designs , breathtaking lighting and stylized direction. With sixteen new son gs by Reed , Time Rocker begins with the disappearance of a Dr. Procopius from 19th century London. The two central characters , Nick and Priscilla, are domestics falsely accused of their master 's mu rder. They escape into time on a giant fish, setting into motion a remarkable adventure that takes them from ancient Egypt to a 17th century opium den to modern-day Kansas and beyond. Time Rocker is performed by an ensemble cast from the Thalia Theater of Hamburg, Germany, where the production premiered in June 1996.

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BAM Next Wave Festival and Spring Season are sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc. ..

Lou Reed is a musician who lives in New York and has recorded a bunch of , his last one being "Set The Twilight Reeling." He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a founding member of . He has received the Chevalier Commander of Arts and Letters by the French government. He has an exhibition of photos at the Photographic Resource Center in Boston. He has appeared in movies such as Paul Auster's "Blue In The Face." He has a collection of his lyrics and interviews in his book "Between Thought and Expression." In 1989, Reed teamed with and Jerome Sirlin for Songs for Orella - a Fiction during that year's Next Wave Festival at BAM.

Robert Wilson's relationship with BAM extends back over two and a half decades and includes BAM productions of such masterpieces as the Glass/Wilson epic Einstein on the Beach, and CIVIL wars. His most recent work at BAM, Alice, was presented during the 1995 Next Wave Festival. These works and many others have firmly established his reputation as one of theater's most visionary and influential creators.

The text of Time Rocker is by Pinckney, with dramaturgy and translation by Wolfgang Wiens, costumes by Frida Parmeggiani, and lighting by Heinrich Brunke and Robert Wilson. The opera w ill be performed in German and English with projected English surtitles. Time Rocker is produced by the Thalia Theater with support from the Theatre National de l'Odeon, Paris, and Theater im Pfalzbau, Ludwigshafen. Special support is provided by Goethe-Institute New York/German Cultural Center.

Time Rocker, direction and design by Robert Wilson, music and lyrics by Lou Reed, text by Darryl Pinckney, performed by the Thalia Theater, BAM Opera House, 11/12 at 7:00pm, 11/14 & 15, 18 - 22 at 7:30pm, 11/16 & 23 at 3:00pm, $75/$50/$25. Single tickets for the 1997 Next Wave Festival may be purchased after September 7 by calling Ticketmaster at (212) 307-4100. For information concerning BAM Subscriptions, which are now on sale, the 1997 Next Wave Festival or reservations on the BAMBus, call (718) 636-4100.

BAM 1997 Next Wave Festival is sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc.

Endowed funds supporting the Next Wave Festival:

NEXT WAVE Forward Fund Philip Morris/Founding Sponsor -- "Supporting the Spirit of Innovation" The Bohen Foundation

The Peter Jay Sharp Fund for Opera and Theater Michael Bancroft Goth Endowed Annual Performance Fund The Charles and Valerie Diker Dance Endowment Fund The Marlon Petschek Smith Fund for Choreographers

---. Next Wave Festival Supporters: Lufthansa German Airlines The New Yorker Magazine The Brooklyn Delegation of the New York The Dime Savings Bank of New York, FSB City Council and Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden Bowne of New York New York City Department of Cultural New York Magazine Affairs The House of Seagram National Endowment for the Arts British Airways New York State Council on the Arts The New England Foundation for the Arts The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Greater Montreal Convention and Tourism Foundation , Inc. Bureau The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Mory Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Trust Burke Foundation The Robert W. Wilson Foundation Inc. The Aaron Copland Fund For Music, Inc. The Harkness Foundation for Dance Quebec Government House in New York The Rockefeller Foundation James E. Robison Foundation The Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Inc. The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Capezio-Ballet Makers Dance Foundation The Howard Gilman Foundation Inc. Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New The Village Voice York BAM Chairman's Circle The Shubert Foundation , Inc. BAM Producers Council AT&T BAM Associates Goethe-lnstitut New York/ German Cultural Friends of BAM Center

Metropolitan Life Foundation is the exclusive sponsor of BAMradio.

Next Wave Festival Gala sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc.

BAM would like to acknowledge the support and assistance from international representatives including the British Council, Canadian Consulate General. and the German Consulate General in New York.

The BAM facility is owned by the City of New York and its operation is made possible. in part, with public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with support from the Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council and Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden.

Special Funding for Time Rocker/Robert Wilson-Lou Reed Special support provided by The Robert W. Wilson Foundation, Inc ., Goethe lnstitut New York/ German Cultural Center and The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.

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Press Department

Robert Wilson Biographical Information

Robert Wilson represents "one of the supreme theatrical imaginations of our time," wrote Opera News. His works integrate a wide variety of artistic media, combining movement, dance, painting, lighting, furniture design, sculpture, music and text into a unified whole. His visual images are both aesthetically striking and emotionally charged, and his productions have earned the acclaim of audiences and critics throughout the world. His numerous awards and honors include the Golden Lion for sculpture from the Venice Biennale (1993); the German Theater Critics award for Best Production of the Year (1990); an Obie award for direction ( 1986); the third Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for lifetime achievement (1996): the Premio Europa award from Taormina Arte (1997): and the BZ-Kulturpreis, awarded in Berlin (1997). In 1986 his internationa l epic the CIVIL wars was the sole nominee for the Pulitzer Prize in drama that year.

A native of Waco, Texas, Mr. Wilson was educated at the University of Texas and New York City's Pratt Institute. By the late 1960s he was acknowledged as one of the leading figures in Manhattan's avant-garde theater world. Working with his Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds he developed widely acclaimed pieces such as Deaf man Glance ( 1970) and The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin ( 1973). His 1976 opera Einstein on the Beach, written with compose r Philip Glass, achieved world-wide success and altered conventional perceptions of opera as an art form.

In Europe Mr. Wilson has staged both original works -- such as Death , Destruction and Detroit at Berlin's Schaubuhne Theater in 1979 - and productions from the traditional repertoire. In 1987 his version of Strauss's Salome appeared at La Scala in Milan. He staged three operas in 1991: Parsifal (Hamburg), Lohengr in (Zurich), and The Magic Flute (Paris), and in 1993 he presented Madame Butterfly at the Opera Bastille.

Mr. Wilson's art works have been shown in museums and galleries throughout the world. Extensive retrospectives have been presented at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Institute Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valencia. He has mounted installations in numerous locations, including the Venice Biennale, Museum Boymans-van

BAM Next Wave Festival and Spring Season are sponsored by Philip Morris CompaniesInc. Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Galerie der Stadt in Stuttgart, and London's Clink Street Vaults. In 1996 he created the centennial installation for the Galeries Lafayette in Paris.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) has long been a favored venue for Mr. Wilson's works. Beginning in 1969 with The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud, BAM has presented Deafmtm Glance (1970), The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin (1973), The$ Value of Man (1975), Einstein on the Beach (1984 and 1992), the CIVIL warS-Rome Section (1986), The Golden Windows (1988), The Black Rider (1993), and Alice (1995).

Robert Wilson's most recent works include a solo version of Shakespeare's Hamlet; the operas Bluebeard's Castle (Bartok) and Prometeo (Luigi Nono); a dance piece titled Snow on the Mesa commissioned by the Martha Graham Company: "H.G." - a multi-med ia installation in Londo n's Clink Street Vaults: the opera Four Saints in Three Acts by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein, performed at New York's Lincoln Center and the Edinburgh Festival: and a new staging of Debussy 's Pe/leas et Melisande , presented in Paris and Salzburg in 1997. Opening in November 1997 will be a production of Ge rtrude Stein's Saints and at the Hebbel Theater in Berlin, and a major installation in the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich . In 1998 the Berliner Ensemble wil l present Mr. Wilson's production of Berthold Brecht 's Oceanflight. A new staging of Wagner's Lohengrin , in March of 1998, wi ll mark Mr. Wilson's debut with the Metropolitan Opera.

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