Chasing William Kentridge

Just a few words* in connection to my earlier post from New York. If you are in the city or nearby, I can only urge you to try and catch one of the last few performances of The Nose by Shostakovich at the Metropolitan, another company premiere. Safe House of the Dead (perhaps I cannot be entirely objective here…), it may very well be the greatest production to come to life on this august stage in the last five or six years (nothing less!). Not unlike the Janáček chef-d’oeuvre, it addresses the issue of self-alienation in a totally (almost frighteningly so) absurd modern world. The composer lived, worked and survived under the Stalinian regime – his Gogol-inspired libretto verges on the satirical but remains, one could suspect, heavily charged with political allusions. From a more pratical point of view, it is heartwarming, to say the least, that among its greatest box office successes of recent times, the venerable Met counts definitive productions of fundamental 20th-century repertoire like The Nose, From the House of the Dead – chronicled below – and Philip Glass’ Satyagraha. Artistic audacity always pays off!

The questions of oppression, self-definition, individual vs. collective identity run through The Nose. It is perhaps not surprising that the actual hit production is directed by the South African multitasking artist William Kentridge. Up to recently, I was only vaguely familiar with his work; my recent visit to the MoMA, where an extensive exhibition is currently showing, was the best-spent couple of hours in a very busy weekend (let it be said again, admission to the Museum is free after 4 pm on Fridays!!).

You can follow the NYT discussion on The Nose through its Artsbeat blog.

Kentridge himself talks about his production here.

*I still need a bit of practice to calibrate everything. I promise to try my best to keep up with the demands of regular blogging.