John Calvin Errickson II asks about "The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin."

This is the most famous of the early works (1973) of Robert Wilson, thus
predating "Einstein on the Beach" by some three years.  Unlike "Einstein,"
it had virtually no music at all and was a silent "opera" (Wilson called
his pieces "operas" in the original sense of the word, merely "work").
"Stalin" was a 12-hour spectacle, a plotless series of moving stage
pictures that has become one of those legends of the theater.  The critic
John Rockwell wrote of it:

   "This was a still-unequaled experience in my own life in the theater.
   The religious intensity of those stage pictures will remain in my
   mind forever, as in the scene in which shadowy apes emerged through
   a forest of trees carrying apples, then watched in awe as the apples
   mysteriously ascended into the flies (on wires, of course, but even
   the visible explanation of the miracle seemed miraculous), just as
   an elegant human couple in 18th century formal dress emerged from
   the wings, the woman carrying a white parasol that was on fire."

Rockwell continues:

   "This was just one short moment in an evening full of thousands just
   as potent.  And this description can't begin to convey the lyrical
   flow of the twelve hours, the mystical clarity with which most of
   the audience stayed awake and perceived the stage-wonders, and the
   sweet sadness whenone realized that one was seeing something that
   could never be experienced again, by anybody."

"The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin" (which had virtually nothing to
do with Stalin or communism, or any other political motive) played briefly
in Copenhagen and then at the Opera House in the Brooklyn Academy of Music
(several years before it became known as BAM).

In those days, the New York arts scene was firmly defined by an "uptown"
and a "downtown." Below 14th Street, all was a fever of wild imagination.
As one went uptown, conservatism reigned, and as one neared that vast
mausoleum called Lincoln Center, creativity virtually vanished.

It has proved dangerous to mention Robert Wilson on this ultra-conservative
List: his name invariably prompts mile-high flames from the uptown types
inhabiting the Met and other opera houses.  Those interested in pursuing
the matter should search a New Yorker profile of Wilson, dating from about
1970.

Eric Willstaedt <[log in to unmask]>

 [This "ultra-conservative" moderator (my friends would get a kick out
 of that ludicrous characterization) would love to see some discussion
 on how this so-called "opera" has anything to do with classical music.
 -Dave]