Hockney paints the stage (art theatre paintings ebook)

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Paints the Stage


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Hockney Paints the Stage

by Martin Friedman

with contributions by

John Cox, John Dexter, David Hockney and Stephen Spender

Wall<er Art Center Abbeville Press

Minneapolis

Publishers

New York


Major funding for che exhibition Hockney Points the Stage was provided by Honeywell the National

Inc.

Endowment

came from

Additional support

for the Arts.

in Minneapolis was supported Dayton Hudson The McKnight Foundation and the Minnesota

Presentation of the exhibition in

part by the General Mills Foundation, the

Foundation,

State Arts Board.

Library of Congress Cauloging

Friedman, Martin

Hockney

in

Publication Data

L.

Paints the Stage.

Catalog of an exhibition organized by the Walker Art

Center

in

Minneapolis.

Bibliography: p 2 2 1

Includes index. I

,

Hockney, David

setting and scenery II.

Spender, Stephen,

Exhibitions.

Exhibitions.

1

909-

III.

I.

2.

Theaters

— Stage-

Hockney, David.

Walker Art Center.

IV. Title.

PN2096.HS7F75 1983

792' 025 0924

83-5865

ISBN 0-89659-396-7 ISBN 0-89659-397-5

All rights

(pbk.)

reserved under International and Pan-American

copyright conventions. Unless otherwise noted

in

the

Reproduction Credits, p 223, illustrations David Hockney. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any '

form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing

from the

publisher. Inquiries should be addressed to Abbeville Press, Inc.,

505 Park Avenue,

bound

in

New York NY

Japan.

Dimensions are

in

precedes width

inches: height

precedes depth.

(cover) Punchtnetlo wilh Applouie (detail)

gouache on paper X 17

M

Courtesy Andre Emmerich Gallery

(frontispiece)

Lei Oil

10022. Printed and

Momelln dt Tiresm

1

980

on canvas

Courtesy Galerie Alice

Pauli

I


6

111

Contents

Painting into Theater

Martin Friedman

6

Text to Image

Stephen Spender

77

Hockney

John

9

The Rake's Progress

as told

99

Designing The Rake's Progress

Martin Friedman and David Hockney

7

1

07 I

I

1

3

23

at

Glyndebourne

Cox

and Martin Friedman

by David Hockney

The Magic Flute

as told

Designing The Magic Flute

Martin Friedman and David Hockney

Hockney

John Dexter and Martin Fried man

at the

The French

Met

Triple

by David Hockney

Bill

43

Parade

47

Les

1

5

L'Enfant et les Sortileges

as told

1

57

Designing Parade

Martin Friedman and David Hockney

1

1

Mamelles de

The 1

1

1

1

as told Tiresias

Stravinsky Triple

by David Hockney

as told by

David Hockney

by David Hockney

Bill

79

Le Sacre du Printemps

as told by

David Hockney

83

Le Rossignol

as told by

David Hockney

89

Oedipus Rex

as told

93

Designing Strownsky

Martin Friedman and David Hockney

208 210 212

Curtain Call

2

Opera Chart Acknowledgments

1

220

Hockney Biography Selected Bibliography

222

Lenders to the Exhibition

223 224

Credits Index

by David Hockney


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Painting into Theater Martin Friedman

England

in

the mid- 960s was experiencing unprecedented euphoria as British 1

reserve gave

way to Dionysian

revel.

addition to such

In

earthshaking

contributions to popular culture as the Beatles and Carnaby Street fashion,

London was the scene of a high-voltage, in

the visual

arts.

gleefully anti-establishment revolution

From such once-venerable strongholds

Royal College of Art, the Slade School and

of academicism as the

an army of shaggy young painters and sculptors suddenly emerged to become instant celebrities of the art world and lively new galleries vied to present their exuberant St. Martin's,

creations to an international audience.

Of

this talented

crop, certainly the

most media-genic was the young

Yorkshireman, David Hockney, barely graduated from the Royal College. engaging enfant terrible, he brilliant

made

job of self-presentation.

his

An

entry into the bubbling art scene with a

Though he had begun

art school as a rather

conventionally-attired student, by the time he graduated, his dark hair had

metamorphosed

into a blond

gold lame jacket. qualities the

The

young

corona and

his

flamboyant wardrobe included a

theatrics of the 60s encouraged style and invention,

artist

from the

industrial

town

of Bradford had

in

large

supply.

His paintings of this period, bold

melange of

in scale,

color and theme,

figurative and abstract forms, ranging

from

were

a felicitous

surreal landscapes and

interiors to factual ink and brush portraits. His fantasy

world was inhabited

by magicians, hypnotists, actors, nudes, elephants, snakes and monster-like personages.

Anonymous

this early phase,

interiors,

in

seemingly

in

in

feature and stance,

were characters

in

many Hockney

enigmatic

little

figures,

even

in

dramas. The box-like

which such scenes were played by male and female nudes, a state of catatonia,

were quotations from the sardonic imagery whose work Hockney still admires.

of his fellow Englishman, Francis Bacon, The Carden

drawing for L'Enfant

Abstract expressionist and Pop sensibilities collided head-on et /es Sortileges

gouache on foam core and paper

1

in

Hockney 's

980

early canvases and, materializing through a

network of heavy de Kooningesque

brushstrokes, blobs, daubs and spatters of spontaneously applied color

became



schematized clouds, doorways, rainbows, furniture, numerals and lettering.

No

effort

was made to be

dissolved into landscapes.

specific: interiors became panoramas, figures The common denominator of those paintings was

their border-line reality. Such images developed intuitively; they

seem to have floated onto the canvas from a dream. Indeed, the grimacing phantoms in Hockney's paintings and drawings of the

be regarded

conventionally-brought-up English

center of

1950s and early 1960s might

late

an ongoing series of demonic self-portraits

as

menacing paradoxical

slightly

Many

morality play here.

and

paintings, prints

delighted

lad

There

situations.

which a

in

placing himself at the

in

is

touch of the

a

of the bizarre characters inhabiting Hockney's

and poems throughout the

illustrations for folktales

1960s were at once sardonic and ingenuous objectifications of such foibles as

pomposity and

malice, greed,

A

decade

licentiousness.

primitivistic

this

later,

imagery would give way to an

refined expression of crystalline contours.

new

this

direction,

Hockney

in

Then

ultra-

after assiduously pursuing

the late 1970s would again reverse himself,

shattering his laboriously-achieved perfection to return with abandon to

more

intuitive painting.

Such

between

vacillation

poles has always characterized Hockney's

stylistic

new areas beyond work moved tentatively into

Equally typical has been his eagerness to explore

art.

drawing and printmaking.

painting,

In

1966, his

the world of three dimensions

when he designed

Ubu

Court Theatre

Alfred Jarry's

Roi at the Royal

costumes for

sets and

in

London. But

it

was

his

vivid

conceptions for the Glyndebourne Festival and the Metropolitan Opera

that

made stage design so integral to his artistic vision. While grew out of earlier painting themes, it eventually became

design

new

motifs and

stylistic

painting has taken energetic

in

theater projects, Hockney's

directions.

once so prominently

himself not only

new

new

did Hockney's involvement with theater begin, and how, particularly,

did an artist

his

theater

source of

approaches that found their way back to the studio.

Indeed, as a consequence of his immersion

How

his

a

in

identified with Pop-related

the midst of an alien art form

vantage, exerting strong influence on

its

imagery find

— grand opera—

but,

from

presentation? His devotion

to the stage was no sudden conversion, but reflected a long-time interest

music and theater that had begun during

As he

his

Bradford

Grammar

in

School days.

points out, no English schoolboy can escape an early introduction to

the theater Every term you study a Shakespeare play thoroughly, which means you study fifteen plays in the years I

can't

boy,

Man oil

in

a Museun) {or You're

in the

Wrong Movie)

1

962

remember

which

I

you are

Collection

the classical allusions listed studying, so

The

British Council

That was a

I

know a number

quite well, though

were a wicked

little

was, the punishment given out by the teachers was to write out in

on canvas

69 X 60

in school.

vast chunks by heart. At school, if you

I

know a lot

lot

of them

all

the back of the Shakespeare book you were

/'//

tell

worse than writing out

you

becc7use

lines saying, "I

/

had

to

do that

often.

must not break any


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windows today," of doing that

On

fifty

times, because any inventive schoolboy will think of ways

easily, like

academic

using five pens at once.

were always

life.

He

had no formal musical training and claims no special expertise. Rather,

his

a less

level,

theater and music

part of his

exposure was limited to whatever orchestras or musical productions might have

come through town. During

three theaters

in

were were another six

youth, he wistfully recalls, there

his

Bradford and, eight miles away

Leeds,

in

or seven. As a

child,

went

I

it

was simply a

took it.

I

me

The

variety show.

it

was a marvelous

know, to a ten-year-old boy

opera

I

Opera Company doing La Boheme.

spectacle. I'm sure

better than you'd normally hear in the theater

the regular orchestra they

anywhere

when

I

the late

else. In

the theater,

and

moved

it

was

I

1

full

it

there,

It

was

didn't

940s, every

sounded better than

certainly

week

there

was something

different at

see first-class productions.

I

age of twenty, during the concert season

to the

school and art school

in

Bradford,

I

went

have a Gramophone at home. You could in

you

which would have been called a quintet

went two or three times a week, usually

there were seven of us

loved

and the music was

lavish,

the house

and

all

my

to every concert

listen to the

in

hear the Halle

to

Orchestra or the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra. During

grammar

/

tacky, really, but

every night. That was pre-television, of course. Only

London did

to

From the age of ten Bradford,

had

every

Most of the time, ever saw was when my father

looked unbelievably

it

me

father took

see whatever was on.

to

first

there to see the Carl Rosa

thought

My

the theater a great deal.

to

Saturday to the Bradford Alhambra

BBC

I

years at could.

We

at times, but

wasn't easy to get to listen to music

it

there.

Though Hockney had made the College to London's art world,

distinctive artistic sensibility that critics.

He

could draw superbly,

transition effortlessly

his flair for

from the Royal

self-promotion was equalled by a

was quickly recognized by fellow his vision

was

artists

fresh and provocative, he

an avid experimenter, and his output was prodigious as he explored

themes and media. His subjects ranged widely, from nursery

and

was

many

tales to intimate

explorations of sexuality. In

1

966 Hockney was

invited by Ian

Cuthbertson of London's Royal Court

Theatre to design sets and costumes for Alfred

Jarry's

Ubu

Roi.

Given

his

penchant for depicting down-and-out denizens of marginal worlds, he was an inspired choice for this icon of dislocated reality. Jarry's absurdist play, with its

mock

histrionics

and potshots at institutions and mores, was well served

by Hockney 's quasi-cartoon Ro/'s "blissed-out" Seated

Woman

to another Reflecting on

Drmking Tea,

Being Served by a Standing Companion

1

963

Family Collection

his

The

result

designs for

from studio to stage posed no /

Abrams

style.

was

a series of

drawings of Ubu

dramatis personae bumbling from one demented situation

Ubu

Roi,

Hockney

says the transition

difRculties.

had played with those ideas before and thought of all my pictures as drama. was painting at that time was a kind of theatrical exaggeration.

Even the way

I

II


With

its

rudimentary sets and costumes that turned the actors into walking

assemblage sculptures, Hockney's Ubu Roi was a droll variation on the then current orte povera

His drawings

style.

were

translated by the Royal Court's

scene painters into painted backdrops, each approximately 8 by 21 to

his

amazement, every nuance

enlarged.

Working on Ubu

Roi

— even

was novel and challenging

new props and

production took shape, he added

he decided that

Jarry's stage directions,

define each scene

— Ubu's

composer's name

spelling each

and

— was

Hockney As the

for

set elements. Following

drawn

large, crudely

lettering

would

Banquet Room, Ubu's Closet, The Polish Army.

would appear years

Similar lettering

feet,

erasures and corrections

in

later in the

form of giant alphabet blocks

the Metropolitan Opera's production of

Parade.

Though Hockney's designs

for

Ubu

Roi attracted favorable critical response,

mainly from the visual arts establishment, to the needs of to take on

his

approach did not adapt readily

most theater companies. There were no immediate

invitations

new commissions and not for eight years did he have another chance

to function

in

1974, the

this tantalizing sphere. In

Glyndebourne

Festival

Opera, outside London, commissioned him to design sets and costumes Stravinsky's

for

contemporary

The

Rake's

Progress.

Hogarth. Enthusiastic public and led to a

The

critical

reaction to his

second Glyndebourne commission:

The Magic

Flute,

Mozart's

In

about the stage.

He

in Paris,

had

just

of William

operatic venture

1978, he turned his talents to

in

Both operas

had spotted the theatrical

start,

new work

Constant, required south of France. recalls,

a set for

the Ballet de Marseilles.

The

ballet,

with libretto by Yves Novarre and music by Marius

painted backdrop depicting a

a

"I

Hockney had another opportunity to think

completed The Rake's Progress designs when

Roland Petit asked him to design

Hockney

style

Hockney's idiosyncratic imagery.

1974, while living

Septentnon, a

first

highly

brilliant,

a

fanciful re-creation of ancient Egypt.

were directed by John Cox who, from the possibilities in

was

result

on the crosshatched engraving

variation

was not thinking

nor was he involved

in

in

swimming pool

when

space

I

in

the

did the drawing,"

any production decisions. His design,

an enlargement of a crayon sketch, contained four major areas: a house, a

courtyard with topiary,

a

swimming pool and

against which appears a Leger-like sculpture

in

a

blue Mediterranean sky

the form of a polychrome

sunburst.

Not

until

1979 did Hockney again undertake another large-scale theatrical

commission. The transplanted Englishman John Dexter, production supervisor painter to join him theater, that

would

ballet. Parade,

in

at the

Metropolitan Opera

in

who

New

in

1974 became

York, invited the

creating an evening of 20th-century French musical

consist of three

works spawned during World War

I:

the

by Erik Satie, Les A1ome//es de Tiresias by Francis Poulenc, and

Maurice Ravel's L'Enfant

known, was widely

et les Sortileges. Parade, as

the evening soon

praised, with reaction exceeding anything the

became Met had


Cave drawing for Ubu Roi crayon, pencil

6

-

1

966

on paper

8'/4

Royal Palace

drawing for Ubu Roi

1966

crayon, pencil, metallic crayon, gouache on folded.

cut-out cardboard

Ur Cunain

drawing for Ubu Roi

1

966

crayon, pencil on paper

15-20 CoHecticn The Museum of Modern Art, Gift of John

Kasmin

New York


Ordinary Picture acrylic

1

964

on canvas

Collection

Hinhhorn Mu

1

and Sculpture Garden

Smithsonian Institution

Detail of drawing for t/w Design for Roland Petit's Ballet, Septentrion

I97S

crayon on paper 14

'

17

Collection Jean Lcger


anticipated. This factor, plus the inspiration of

working together, prompted

the Dexter/Hockney team to take on another triple

bill

a year later

devoted

to works by a single composer, Igor Stravinsky Again, a ballet led the

program

—

Stravinsky's celebrated evocation of a fertility rite, Le Sacre du

was followed by the

Printemps. This

Le Rossignol, based on Hans

lyrical

Christian Andersen's tale, The Nightingale, and the concluding piece

was the

opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex, with a libretto by Jean Cocteau.

The constant compromise required in designing for the theater has many artists from taking on such demanding projects over which

dissuaded

they ultimately have has

little

been unable to

control.

Though conscious of these

demonstrating a willingness to adapt to The theater

you work from

all,

\ts

an area where you're forced

is

pitfalls,

Hockney

the seductive, glittering realm of the stage,

resist

literary sources,

and

in

demands.

special

be and do certain things.

to

First

of

opera you have to be true to the

music. The theater world tends to think that a strong artist won't cooperate

enough

own

—

that he's not used to such an approach

way, and other people simply have to

fit

in

and tends

with

this. It's

to

do things

true

when

his

you're

painting a picture you don't really have to defer to anybody, whereas in the theater, you do.

someone

against what

Hockney

If

On

the other hand, although

else's ideas in the theater, I

understand the need to

listen to

think should be there.

occasionally begrudges the time the theater takes

once caught up

painting,

I

I'm not going to do something that goes

in

a production he

is

from

his

virtually addicted to

its

realization and involves himself in every detail, with suggestions for staging as well as design.

requirements,

While responsive to an opera's

when

It

comes to

readily relinquish authority.

He

is

directorial and musical

actual execution of his design, he

does not

obsessed with details and carrying an Idea

through to completion. For example, though a costume sketch might consist of a few rudimentary lines and color washes, he knows how the finished

costume should If

I

look.

want some special

work.

I

made

this or that

detail,

I

find the best person technically

wouldn't turn the job over to just anyone

True to

his

way

word,

who

Everything could be destroyed

at

who can do

the

says the costume could be if

I

did that!

Glyndebourne he oversaw the fabrication of

a

mythological menagerie, featuring the fire-spitting dragon that greets the noble Prince Tamino in The Magic Flute's opening forest scene. Though these

wondrous creatures were fabricated by the theater's technical shops, and some sewing on them was done by the local ladies, Hockney reserved for himself the enjoyable tasks of painting and otherwise embellishing the surfaces

of these beasts.

A more

recent instance of attention to a costume's

the resolution of the cat situation

decided the amorous pair of

felines,

in

finish

was

Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortileges.

He

one white, the other

black,

had to be

absolutely correct in all details of features and fur, and to insure this, he sought out one Rostislav Doboujinsky, a Parisian wizard of such marvels.


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—

Thanks to

this wise,

if

Such concern with

all

with fellow creative

much

A

lights.

facets of a production and a capacity for collaborating

spirits

have been crucial to Hockney's success as a

designer. Equally important has

imagery,

and fur of the purring, yowling

costly, decision, the eyes

beasts glisten convincingly under the Net's

of which

first

been an

appeared

to draw upon

ability

recognizable vocabulary of symbols characterizes

Hockney

These

his art.

assume various meanings

leitmotifs, chimerically

his rich

distinctive

as their

change. Both borrowed and invented forms, they derive from

from art

and from

history,

Some

his

store of

paintings during the early 1960s.

in his

contexts

his travels,

immediate surroundings.

made between the

distinction should be

favors and specific design motifs that are

matter covers many categories;

it

subject matter

components of

Hockney

these. His subject

includes figures, objects and landscapes, as

well as intricate combinations thereof. His motifs are the building blocks of his art.

For example, he has a specific way of representing rippling water

few wavy

lines;

he represents

rain in a

few

in

a

diagonals; his puffy clouds and

bulky tree shapes are instantly identifiable.

These motifs have many sources. Some echo solid architectural forms such pyramids and stairways, others are based on ephemera such as sunlight on water or the arc of a rainbow. They are his personal hieroglyphs. This visual as

syntax accumulated as basic forms underwent permutations easily traceable

from one work to another. Themes that made resonate through

Hockney

in

some

in

the 1960s

did not deliberately set out to create an iconography.

forms

distinctive

their debuts

production.

his

in his

work have

their origins

mystical search for inner meanings.

an illustrator, not a symbol-maker.

He

whatever distortions they may undergo

in

in

He

Many

casual sketches and not

regards himself mainly as

deals with recognizable forms

the painting process. His perception

of his work, however, does not preclude the possibility that his use of factual

description can on occasion have symbolic portent.

When Hockney first were vehicles for his subjective feelings about

started making illustrations, they literary

and poetic

ideas. Accordingly, subject matter, filtered

experience, was drastically transformed.

cared

less

about describing

of the subject.

to

his

work

generation In the

as illustration

mid-SOs,

and

de in

from

{{) California

Tiresias. (4)

Hollywood

An Colleaor,

Hills

their entirety elsewhere.)

—

in

recalls,

if you

his

version

Pop Art

had nothing whatsoever it

for his

to

do with

was meant as a "put-down." illustrative.

deliberately

Yet

I

Rembrandt's Bible

example. Hogarth was, of course, a great I

own

it.

great things are

about Bruegel, Goya and Daumier? (2) Iowa, (3) Les

art

used the word

many

his

or story he

the notion of a young artist referring

despite the growing attraction of

many people thought often

through

poem

every detail than about producing

opprobrium about

a certain

perfectly well that

illustrations, for

Details

it

the 1960s, he

— had

illustration,

knew

In

In illustrating a

illustrator

What

annoyed many people by

Mamelles

House. (These works are reproduced

insisting that

"To

me

a

lot

art subject

of great art is

the

human

is

illustration.

clay, I

There are those

And landscape

lines

of Auden.

but a background to a


torso,

/

them.

Cezanne's apples

All

Doum/er."

When

came

thought the this

Fry.

for

Hockney

in

I

For one small

Goya

Letter to Lord Byron,

/

or a liked

apples are wonderful, but Auden was really taking

whom

illustrative side

spirit,

would give away

I

across those lines

Of course, Cezanne's

a dig at Roger

In

I

form" was everything, and who

"significant

of art was nothing at applied

his

all.

descriptive

fine

to etchings,

line

lithographs and aquatints while continuing to turn out large, splashy, figurative paintings.

In

contrast to the strong color and bravura technique of the

paintings, his graphic v^orks

were more introspective

of closely-observed as well as invented shapes.

full

numerous motifs that would appear

banks, proliferating with fashion

in his

theme and approach,

In

They were Hockney 's image in

more dramatic

paintings and theater sets.

Hockney's determination to make art out of

work somewhere between Pop

Art,

whose

places

illustration

subject matter

everyday world, and the long-established descriptive tradition painting.

At the Royal College he had experienced the

Pop, subscribing to

its

rejection of pure abstraction

from the immediate world. Another

in

his

comes from the British

in

exhilarating effects of

drawn

favor of subjects

was the

early formative influence

spiky,

aggressive figuration of Jean Dubuffet. the great French maitre of anti-culture. In fact,

the leading character

during the early

1

Hockney's

in

dramas on paper and canvas

little

960s was a large-headed, totemistic being, decidedly

reminiscent of Dubuffet 's irascible art-brut dwarf

who gleefully spat

in

the eye

of convention.

The

juxtaposition of unrelated forms has always fascinated Hockney.

respect, his

work

is

Lichtenstein and Dine, through

world assume

new

startling

ambiguous realm where

whose

distinctive styles objects

identities.

reality

is

Like them,

it is

a

In this

world of the mind,

of constantly shifting meanings. Each artist has charted

through personal symbols. Anthropomorphism

is

from the

real

Hockney envisaged an

constantly subverted.

and irrationality are indistinguishable:

In this

American "popsters," Oldenburg,

close to that of the

its

world, logic

a surreal place

mysterious terrain

the core of Oldenburg's

elaborate iconography, replete with provocative variations on electric plugs,

typewriter erasers and clothespins which, the

human body. Dine

surrogates for

his

in

his view,

are metaphors for

describes his well-known hearts, robes and gates as

emotions; these are undergoing convulsive variations

in his

increasingly expressionistic paintings, drawings and prints. Less humanistic is

Lichtenstein's iconography, a stylized

paintings a

wide variety of subjects

compendium

of style

In

itself.

arrangements — — are reduced to posteresque a

still-life

la

comic-strip characters, classical friezes

of "commercial art" color bordered by black Gnat Pymrud oti

at

Caa

on canvas

Pnvate collection

18

wjth

Bnktn Hcod from Thebes

1

963

How does Hockney's symbolism

areas

lines.

relate to the object-oriented

Americans? While he shares their interest

his

Picasso,

in

work

using everyday forms

paintings, these are rarely p>ortrayed as single images but as

of the in

elements

his in



A Crand Painitd

84

•

Procession ofDtgnnanci

tn

i/w Semt-EgypDon Styif

144

Collecuon Edwin

20

|ai

1961


complex

interiors and landscapes. Thus, psychologically and aesthetically, his

symbology

more

is

diffuse than the Americans'.

Though Hockney's search for subject matter seems endless, certain favorite themes undergo frequent recycling, turning up afresh in paintings, prints

and

Among these reliables: human figures, sometimes rendered with anatomical accuracy, other times appearing as robot-like beings; animals, including lizards, leopards and fantastic beasts reminiscent of medieval stage set designs.

heraldry; landscape forms, including

many

kinds of trees,

bulky oaks, as well as clouds and rainbows;

from wispy palms to

and water; domestic objects,

fire

including flower-patterned upholstered chairs, coffee tables, lamps, drapes, vases of flowers, doors and windows, and "fine art objects" such as paintings and sculptures. A typical Hockney subject, water, will undergo many variations.

He is interested known swimming

in

its

transparent and reflective properties.

pool paintings,

objects seen through

it

allow water to remain

still in

from showerheads, his

it

light reflects

on

them

it

well-

surface and people and

its

are magnified and distorted. his paintings. In

his

In

Nor

is

he content to

appears as

rain,

it

sprays

spurts from sprinklers on green California lawns, and

theater design for The Magic

Flute, manifests itself

on

a

grand scale

in

as a

waterfall.

A

cursory review of Hockney's painting up to the mid-1970s reveals at have affected his stage design. The first and

least four general subjects that

most prophetic, the theater theme, complete with actor and appeared infusion

in his

drawings and paintings of the early

drawn

profile.

in

reference to "modern art" styles, freely paintings. Finally, the color, light

measurably affected

his painting,

pageants

one another in paint,

in

Hockney's

the large

Dignitaries Painted

1

96

1

this picture,

interested a

in

he

says,

paintings.

few sketchy

lines.

representation of

its

figures,

Egyptian

tomb

carnival-like /

swimming

as

a

For example, one of

way

of

his early

At the top

is

melange of

just

becoming

a rudimentary curtain indicated

in profile,

The middle

a

in

when he was

style" refers to the

rendered

painting technique.

combines theater and Egyptian

sumptuously attired

at a time

The "semi-Egyptian

ancient Egyptian wall painting.

of California have

themes

phantasmagoria called A Grand Procession of

was made

theatrical effects.

lifestyle

These subject areas have

the Semi-Egyptian Style,

in

Fauve and cubist techniques

and sybaritic

motifs. Featuring three standing figures,

modes,

curtain, first

Another important

Hockney makes frequent

Third,

utilizing

particularly in such

pools, house interiors and landscapes.

invading

960s.

Egyptian-inspired subject matter, such as pyramids, great stone

is

sculptures and figures

in his

1

figure's

Hockney

a

flat,

in

diagrammatic

manner reminiscent of

head

is

a direct takeoff

on

discusses the genesis of this

work.

bought a large canvas, before

couldn't afford to paint on it

the Royal College of Art.

I

t

went

Then

thought,

I

to

America, from an art student who

grabbed the largest space

my

God,

this

canvas

is

so big,

I

I

could find at

must paint a


WTfW-

^

Sti/f L/fr

oti

wtth Figure

and Curwm

on canvas

78 X 84

Pmote

collection

Two Men oil

in

Shower

on canvas

60

'

60

Pnvate collection

22

1963

1

963

.^

^ÂŤ. ^e.

^ -^

m

*j'j^ \m J^

>


big scene. The idea for

came from

it

called Waiting for the Barbarians.

the

1904 poem by Constantine Cavafy

one of his greatest poems. There are

It's

those ironic lines about people dressing up to impress others.

I

painted the

cutouts— inside each huge costume you can see the of a small person trying to look bigger and more important. figures to look like

Such reduction of characters to simple Brechtian stereotypes general, the bishop, the businessman

period.

The cartooned performers

who

pate the cheerful eccentrics

Hockney 's theater

In

in

in

A Grand

inhabit the

1

here, the

many Hockney works of this

Procession of Dignitaries antici-

966 Ubu Roi drawings.

what action there

paintings,

Though he used

enclosure.

like

— occurs

outline

is takes place in a boxor one-point perspective to define

frontal,

the walls that contain these

little

ambiguous. They take place

in

events, their settings, nevertheless, are

some no-man's-land between

reality

and

theatrical illusion. In using the stage metaphor, fact and fantasy dissolve into

one another, and ordinary events take on mythic connotations. In the 960s theater paintings, perspective is constantly modified, 1

if

not

altogether disregarded. Though the stage's back wall parallels the picture surface,

what goes on

shallow volume has

in its

are perceived. Frequently, objects float

do not converge, but the 1963

In

in

fruit.

The

with Figure

and

Curtain, a faceless

curtain and

still

life

are

more

its

/

in

had no desire thing.

to paint

feet a

androgyne stands

still

life

of flowers

abstract than any de Chirico says,

was precisely what he

a personality because the curtain was the most

wanted a pattern on

I

painted the figure with personality, thought,

I'll

reduce

those days, you

to

it

still

So important was that set,

things

mind.

important

In

how

"real" than the figure which,

composed of a few cylindrical forms, is far more dummy. But such impersonal quality, Hockney had

to do with

diverge, as they recede.

Still Life

before an elaborate fleur-de-lis tapestry— at

and

little

space and, perversely, parallel lines

it

and

stenciled on the design. If I'd

would have become the

a simple form, an old-fashioned

had them

in

it

in

focus.

skittle or

So,

bowling

I

pin.

pubs.

fleur-de-lis curtain to

he virtually reproduced

reincarnation,

it

all

its

Hockney

detail.

In

that

in

front of

the its

1

980 Parade

monumental

top-hatted impresario introduced the program for the

a

evening.

Hockney 's

many In

of

his

was not

curtain

domestic

those interiors,

it

limited to theatrical subjects but also appears in

which he regards as another form of theater. assumes many variations, from window drapery overrun interiors,

with tropical foliage to shower curtains. The fleur-de-lis, in simplified form, adorns the drape behind the nudes in the 1963 Seoted Woman Drinking Tea, Being Served by a Standing Companion. The plastic bathroom curtain in Two in a Shower, also from that year, is enlivened with birds and starfish

Men

silhouettes.

room

in

We

Two

if we are looking at a stage set or a living and Two Curtains. 1963. Behind the patterned drapes in

are not certain

Friends

23


24


loom two

this painting

stone heads, one

large,

Surely one of Hockney's

most

The Hypnotist, also from 1963, described

full-face,

cryptic curtain-bordered stage paintings

in

which

profile, stands in front of his

in

the other

in profile,

one another.

that fuse into

own

one by Hockney's standards,

quite an active

is

a menacing, dark-suited character,

is

white shadow. This composition, also the subject of an etching and

in which the exchange of energy between hypnotist and subject is even more pronounced. From the point where their hands converge, leaps a

aquatint,

white zig-zag of "electricity," striking an armless robotic type at the other end of the stage. Neatly lettered on the dark border at the bottom of the painting

A

is

The Hypnotist

particularly ambitious

treatment of the curtain that even more clearly

anticipates the artist's interest starring Ploy,

in

theater design occurs

Hockney's London dealer, John Kasmin.

One

in

two

paintings

of these. Play within a

1963, has Kasmin pressing his hands and nose against a sheet of clear

man pushing

plastic, like a

narrow

against a shop

window to look

background

strip of flooring, the

is

inside.

a tasseled curtain

Except for

a

adorned with

a peculiar pastoral featuring several vaguely Egyptian figures, a tree and

rainbow. This enigmatic work, Hockney explains, had This

is

how

Play within a Play

was done,

i

went

origin

its

a

in

museum.

National Gallery one

to the

day and found they'd just put up several paintings by Donnenichino containing depictions of curtains. In those days,

a week, getting

was

know

to

I

the pictures,

quite excited. Although

I

used to go to the National at least twice

and when

saw

I

brand new room,

this

were great

didn't think these

pictures, they

I

had a

was an illusion. I suddenly was aware of many levels one of the paintings the corner of a curtain was pulled away, and

quality of tapestry, which

of illusion.

In

standing there was a dwarf, peeling

it

it

was

a curtain that would look

like

a tapestry. Then

pressed against the glass door of sheet of plastic and put

it

in front

and

taking a layer of the painting

like

back, and there would be another and another I

.

.

of the picture.

decided to paint

took photographs of Kasmin

from these

his gallery;

I

.

He

I

looks as

painted him on a

were trapped

if he

within the shallow space of the picture.

Another example of Hockney's preoccupation with theater Closing Scene, is

in

which

a

white curtain, outlined

in

is

the

1

963

black on a primed canvas,

parted slightly by a costumed performer to reveal an opulent landscape.

Discussing this picture,

Hockney

reflects

on the

visual

and psychological

relationship of the theater curtain to the artist's canvas. If

you take the painting off its stretcher,

curtain on canvas, the illusion curtain pulled back,

A

tapestry

^2

"

'8

that

it's

it is

like

a curtain.

1963

miniature

in

in

When

an inch deep at most.

If

you paint a you paint a

reveals a picture, as a stage curtain does in the theater.

curtain in a painting always does that, even if

event you see Play withm a Play

it

is

the vertical strip r in Closing a

the Victoria

and Albert Museum which

The Royal College of Art painting school

is

in

on a window. The

it's

little

Scene was based on a Persian

the

I

got to

same

know

building.

I

quite well.

was always

25


26


(opposite)

The Actor acrylic

65'/^

1

964

on canvas

X 65 'A

Collection Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Rosenberg

Oosmg oil

47

Scene

1963

on canvas .

47

Private collection

27


'iV'

r.'iJ^'.j'M

4:\

'«i&, 28


^

cofeteno for

got to

how

tea. That's

curtain .otlf

The

,

-"-^!^

^2Z^Z^u6 drawings

-:;;,:: Ttt

^^^^_

-P^^

The interior undefined settings. -.e or a could be either a scuip reminiscent of Egyptian

J.tl:i, ,|ure, whose

v^-- f ^

in

features are

actor dais with the space. Sharing a

^ape

and an amorphous

plw

^^^^_

--^;

-^

-^ '^ ^

.^^^'^

not

v^as

theatrical

metaphors

Like his

space.

-h

w>^^'^.;e.nn.ng

surprised no on Theatre, should have limited to subiect in his

Y

J^^,,,,,

;^;,,,,

,

eventual involvement

...pended

^^f^,,,,,

I

;

h

s

w^^^^^

become Though not

^^^^

Hockneys

syndrome llnstays

Is

expand and contract p

^

°---"Vt'"thetr"

an ^^^'y

^'^''^^^^^Z^^^Zes. as directly as the ^^^^^^^

^^^

g.rmand

categories other important

,,3,g,. The Egyptian

subiect matter hav -«;*;; example, including a^

a fine

In his

work.

He

had

'-P^^

and learned about that ancient land visits

to the British

..awings of

^—

--^-f

Its

'

^^

^,,,,

^\';;;,^^^^ thro^^^^^

^^ ^^^^

'^f^^^ronly

the monumental

j;i:\-;ir,tie:::dvll,:ges.Buta,ways,his

,

^y oblique commentary. not past, he could

-^Thtaonic

^--owded

.^^ ,

^"^^f

-""-P^^/^^^^"^"

,

"^

"^^o 1

ornate hotel

was indeed, so intrigued in

acrylic

1964

on canvas

Cotct," HTShhorn Museum

and Sculpture Garden.

the tlme-dislocatlng,

,

Lra-toting

streets,

tourists,

and

or the pyramids,

return In 1978. That he would Hockney with Eg p^that ^^^^^^^ ^^^.^^^

le e^ coexist on the --e and present-day Egypt -^^ern t the sp imposed harshly deprecations of he recalls, had great artistic styles,

detectable.

visiting

books and frequent

villagers in Shell station signs, as the sphinx rooms were as f-^'-^'^g^^;'"

Tree Cub.st Boy w.th Colourful

,hat are

^^„ before

; art statdy

.^"^'"^

noble Though captivated by the In

l^^J^

^j;^"

but o1 present a y vestiges of antiquity, fabled ruins i..pressions of Egypt's

help seeing Egypt

^^ ^^.^^

rules of and interiors the

^^

of

^^^^^^

J^^

^

^

er to -^^^'^-l^XwZ\o paintings he fe t

^

„ some

at^^^^

h

t

in

.,en Hoc.ney

hrrrt^^rth-;;;:^^.-; color,

of the

other times

^^^eater,

references J with clear 1960s and 70s, sometimes

---^^-^Vil

o^cLsness. Despite the ^^^,^^^

^^ ^^.„ ^^^^^^^.^^

Its

Smithsonian Institution

29


/

became

interested in the Egyptian style, because

Those rules had

strict rules

wasn't

worked

anonymous

loved the idea of the slightly

I

form with

rigid art

so that the individual

mark

you never know who did what. This might not be the case

left. In fact,

exactly, but

was a

it

much

be obeyed, so

to

everybody

style that

in.

The atmosphere incorporated

of

that

permeated

country

ancient forms

its

his

But though

art.

he never

his painting,

in

he

victim to the

fell

blandishments of historicism, preferring to take only what he needed from such

awesome

sources.

Especially interesting

figures

is

the Egyptian flavor of

own

theater pictures, they have their

his

painted

1963, an unlikely couple

in

and business

suit

— and

a

the numeral

On

2.

upper

— —

sit

A

glasses.

about volume and

the content of

I:

a couch.

To the

this

left

to the right of the bride's head,

Here, Hockney used a "shaped canvas"

The "exterior"

pair of patterned

The Second Marriage, a is

on

side by side

man in dark glasses gown who vaguely

— he has

and lower right edges of the painting to create the

left

flowered wallpaper; the front wall and in.

white

in a

on

The Second Marriage,

the spindly low table before this grim pair are a bottle of

of a three-dimensional cube.

can look

In

a sinister-looking

painted the numeral

is

champagne and two its

960s paintings of seated

1

quality.

cone-breasted lady

resembles an ancient Egyptian deity of the man's head

cut

his

box-like interiors. While compositionally these are variations

in

odd

ceiling

exercise

Above

all,

Hockney

vignette,

are

in spatial it

is

room

is

illusion

covered with

have been "removed" so

window drapes

brilliant

flatness.

wall of the

we

the background.

in

and

stylistic

contradiction,

about theatrics. Asked about

discusses

its

occupants

in

formal

terms and does not speculate on any emotional relationship that might exist

between them. Indeed, not an illustration of situation,

and

its

for

the painting's elaborate detail, he says,

all

a particular event. Instead,

interpretation

These are very stylized

up to

is

figures.

it

is

inventions of mine

is

us.

The woman's head

is

painted from a black and

white photograph of the head of an Egyptian sculpture. different people

it

a cryptic, unresolved

— and

they

seem

be

to

They're just two

made

of different

materials.

Such incongruity

is

the rule, not the exception,

in his

realized The First Marriage. 1962, reveals his delight

completely unrelated The

subtitle

to

of both paintings

Momoge

(A

Mornogt of Stylet

on canvas

Collection Tate Gallery

30

I)

1

96 J

could add

the felicitous union of

A

is

Marriage of Styles.

new meaning

to

be Egyptian. The composition

it.

I

One of the

used

for

It

was

like

/

liked the idea of

working with collage

styles in these pictures

happens

both works was based on something

museum Down a corridor, a friend of mine was standing next to an figure. He was not looking at it but at something else yet, for a moment, they looked connected, as though a man and wife had sat down together was amused by the idea and back at tbe hotel made a drawing from I

The f im oil

I

work. The exuberantly

styles.

jumbling several styles within a single picture.

and

in

saw

in

a

Egyptian

wood

I



memory, using the idea of a seated Egyptian female

man drawn

looking

combine two very

and a contemporary-

figure

a different style next to her In a way,

in

different personalities.

When

I

was

trying to

got back to London

I

did the

I

paintings.

Not

only

Hockney

is

insouciant about combining disparate styles, but

he feels the same way about including completely unrelated objects

same

rectangle.

Marriage

in a

In

work

of entirely different character California Art Collector

serene conceit that takes place

cube

in

indeterminate space.

the bright blue roof of a pavilion

is

the

In

framework of The Second

964. he utilized the isometric

1

whose

Now

is

a

the top of the

two

sides are defined by

Perched on a ponderous upholstered chair covered with a

thin, blue poles.

is a stylized Hockney lady whose head merges with a monumental sculptured head suspended behind her To complete the room are a few more anomalies; a second sculpture resembling a female figure and

zany flower pattern

Cohfomto acrylic

An

Collector

rainbow

a spectacular

1964

that, for

some

reason,

"indoors" rather than over

is

the pool.

on canvas

During the

late

1960s.

Hockney 's

painting surface

became

increasingly

Prrvaie collection

refined as he lavished attention on rendering figures and objects

of this

detail. Typical

new approach was

portraits of close friends, standing and seated

these grand, neoclassic paintings In

were

it

is

the

double

sparse interiors. For Hockney.

if

introspective,

a new.

form of theater

their thoughts: they look

in

Among

were, totally unconscious of their audience.

impressive of these paintings

greater

in

their austere settings, his characters are lost

inward, as

in

a succession of symmetrical

the most

969 double portrait of Henry Geldzahler

1

and Christopher Scott. Geldzahler. then curator of contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum, sofa

in

form

is

ensconced,

is

on

like a pasha,

the middle of the canvas. To

stands

his right

symmetrically balanced at the

left

by a

a massive velour

deco

whose torchere lamp. The

his friend Scott,

tall,

window behind Geldzahler is echoed by the square glass front of the couch. Commenting on this painting's relationship

rectangle of the coffee table

to a stage It's

in

set.

Hockney

says:

interesting from the theatrical point of view because

point perspective. In fact, the vanishing point

head.

I

fastened strings to the painting to

the lines converged over his out, so

I

photographed

look angelic.

he recovered

Henry

Gel<teohler

and Chnsiopher

Scott

1

969

made

in

week

to

it,

head

because

but

I

"recovered"

London, although the room

make

drawings, took a

rearrange the room.

I

uses absolutely one-

the perspective work

bit like

that sofa

it

is

lot

first

in

in

New

and

it

it.

It

all

made Henry

was rather shabby

the painting

York

and

a halo with rays coming

was rather amused by

I

He had just purchased it,

make

looked a

It

it

actually ]ust above Henry's

is

I'd

gone

of photographs, and

Later,

The painting was to

New

finally

York for a

decided to

rearranged things to give emphasis to the composition.

It

acrylK on canvas

B4

120

Abrams Family Collection

32

was painted the year

after the double portrait of Christopher Isherwood

Don Bachardy, which

also has a straightforward look. In that picture,

and

a large


33


34


table in front of them

comes up

to the viewer.

I

don't

comes

the one of Henry, because there the ground

Mnk

right

it's

up

as theatrical as

to you.

Geldzahler, with his distinguished fin-de-siecle appearance,

Hockney model,

benign but authoritative appearance. Later,

his

on a Screen. Hockney would again use him as painting. In that elegantly conceived

in

the

his

977 Looking

1

at Piaures

subject at the center of a

work, an older, even more distinguishedreproductions of masterpieces from

Geldzahler calmly studies

looking

a frequent

is

well-trimnned beard and scholar's glasses contributing to

his

London's National Gallery. After

this

cool

composition

in

the

1

new academicism and the isometric box 977 Seif-Portrait with Blue Guitar. Now, the box, instead his

of defining the picture's outside contours,

now on

which the

a massive table, at

it is

we

compositions,

of hieratically posed figured

series

how Hockney combined

see

room,

a drawing. In this endless

against the outline of a

becomes

a central

element

portrays himself seated, at

artist

a Picasso-like sculpture of a

window. The juxtaposition

in

this

in

it:

work

head levitates

work

of the lush

blue curtain at the painting's right edge and the few diagonal lines that might

or might not refer to walls and

Hockney In

floors,

seems perfectly

Though

logical.

has a bewildering habit of combining massive and ephemeral forms

a single painting, the results are less jarring than lyrically surreal. Situations

to Hockney.

which

in

and

real

He admires

the

forms exchange identity appeal

illusionistic

brilliant

use of this principle

in

Jasper Johns's

sculptures of everyday objects, such as light bulbs and Savarin coffee cans,

which were cast original selves. artifice.

The

metal, then painted illusionistically to resemble their

in

As

his painting reveals,

large canvas.

he was working on self-portrait has

Hockney often

Model with Unfinished

been placed

in

the background.

In

rendered sleeping figure of Hockney's

wearing

a

Hockney,

robe.

in

this

was done while

second picture the

Self-Portrait with Blue Guitar. In the

carefully

blue

favors the use of such

Self-Portrait.

the foreground friend,

My

Hockney

it's

studio.

Gregory posed on a bed life.

That gave

it

in front

of

it

back and there

I

to

It

looks as

seems as

if

draw a guitar

with the range of 20th-century art

numerous examples of

It

Gregory with a curtain. The curtain has been pulled

am, about

familiarity

and a great

a kind of power

a painting of two completely different kinds of space.

there's a stage behind

Hockney's

is

more

which was not finished at the time, was leaning against the

my London

deal of his figure was painted from

though

is

explains the genesis of this static drama.

self-portrait,

wall of

the

composition,

multi-leveled

psychologically as well as physically distant, while the sleeping Evans "real."

is

Gregory Evans,

his

work

that incorporate

its

is

attested to

in

celebrated themes and

techniques. Looking at Pictures on a Screen oil

74

1

977

on canvas

An

inveterate museum-goer, he frequently photographs

periods as he walks through galleries.

Some

Collection Mr. and Mrs. Miles Q.

Fi

works of art of

of these gleanings,

74

transmuted fashion, have been absorbed into

his painting

in

all

considerably

and theater imagery. 35


36


In

Hockney

designing an opera production, the paramount task,

to interpret the composer's ideas

Often he

for the music.

— to

find an equivalent in

modern

use historical or

will

asserts,

styles as points of

departure. Hogarth's 18th-century engravings for A Rake's Progress

Hockney 's

inspiration for

in

Mog;c

his

during the Stravinsky evening have their origins

he

is

20th-century

modernism his

In

the entire history of

in

major focus has been on early

art, his

The mannerisms of modernism

art.

The masks used

Flute.

Eskimo and Northwest

in

Chinese painting and the Greek theater of Sophocles. While

art,

interested

were the

version. Fourteenth-century Italian panel painting

and Old Kingdom Egypt are recalled

Coast Indian

is

form and color

are echoed throughout

French

particularly

recent painting and theater projects.

his

Metropolitan Opera's production of Parade, the

designs for the

immediate source was the voluptuous color and form of early 20th-century School of Paris painting.

To

his

has occasionally found himself caught up

Hockney

discomfort,

irresolvable

argument of

of the accomplishments of the great nonobjective masters

Mondrian and more recently Rothko

who probed

reserved for Picasso

He

is

all

particularly

wholehearted admiration

his

new

forms. Picasso's ability to turn

constantly impressed by his virtuosity as painter, draftsman, sculptor

stylistic

Classicism

— there can be no doubt

Hockney 's

he observes, however contradictory

as

may seem

explorations

Picasso's

utilization of art history has

Cubism versus

for example.

that a single voice

is

made him

speaking.

into something of a

grand eclectic, a characterization he would not necessarily dispute. But points out, even his hero, Picasso,

would prove

many

took from so

Nain, he copied a

What do

artists.

With

sources.

lot

as to Picasso's to

working

do

is

he worked

in,

in

work

Collection

Werner Boeninger

1

977

When,

in

1

it,

it

it's

very obvious because he

too.

Rut

to

He

art.

it's

copied Le

like that

like?

with

all

They certainly

be copies of Millet. You have

of styles.

number of Picasso's is

distinctive.

the marks.

everything he did

fits

No

different periods to realize

We're so used

to the

way

his

hand

matter how many different directions

together and, because he produced such a

this consistency.

980, the Walker Art Center presented an exhibition of works

destined for the

study

happen

number

a

volume of work, you can sense on canvas

he

if

and take what you want.

lot

look at a

moved and how he made

oil

as

two

an idea or

used African and classical

paintings that just

work your way through a

you have

Picasso, though,

He

of sooty academic painters,

that whatever he did, his

Model with Unfinished Self-Pomait

lifting

you think Van Gogh's copies of Millet look

Gogh

look like Van

All

was not above

useful.

All artists are canrtibals.

And

is

subjects with humanistic content enthralls him.

and creator of theater sets and,

to

the

the limits of realism and abstraction, then

utilized these polarities to create dazzling

space inside out and invest

in

versus abstract art. While respectful

figurative

new Musee

explaining he

Picasso

in Paris,

Hockney came to Minneapolis to

was about to embark on

a

major design project for the 37


the sets and costumes for Parade. Later that year, Metropolitan Opera when The Museum of Modern Art held its monumental Picasso retrospective. Hockney was a frequent visitor On view were reconstructions of several

costumes designed by Picasso for the

were

first

fabricated for the Joffrey Ballet's

decided that

1

production of Parade

973

version for the Metropolitan

his

1917.

in

Opera would make

These

Hockney

revival of Parade. Wisely.

respectful

reference to that original conception and, indeed, he quoted several Picasso motifs

in his

costume

designs, including the cubistic "stage

manager" and the

Chinese conjuror.

Hockney

s

admiration for Picasso's achievements, however, was evident

Met commission.

well before his

His drawings and paintings of the

contained frequent cubistic allusions; Colourful Tree, other

landscape, Iowa.

1

works echoed Cubism's various

964. the tree. barn,

geometric shapes. The seated

man behind

addition to the

in

a

1

965

960s

phases.

the elemental

In

and clouds are reduced to bulky,

silo

Surrounded by

Portrait

1

964 Cubist Boy with

1

pyramid of abstract cylinders,

Artistic Devices,

more

a

is

with

its

sophisticated

use of that style. Such standard cubist principles as simplified and flattened

forms, tipped-up table and floor surfaces and shallow picture boxes, are

standard devices

Hockney 's

in

painting. Yet he

more than

is

of styles, because he applies their formal principles particularly interested in

both for

space-altering properties and for

its

obsession with cubist space. fashion Philip jerry as 1

The Manager

in

Evening Dress

in

the Jeffrey Ballet's

973 production of Satie's Parade. The costumes were reproductions

of those designed by Pablo Picasso for the

—each

I've

(opposite)

l6'/i

I

I

It

tells

you about

my new

feet on into

deep

way

1964

paintings he has pursued his

of

numerous

prints laid out mosaic

prismatic realism.

how much con you

The

results, at

once

it.

s(>ace.

An

my

eyes are

and what

The space between you and what you see

My

deal with

I

theory

ordinary photograph

traditional painting.

thought

really see

is it

eye moves about focusing? As your eye moves

is,

always conscious of the ground under

on canvas 60 60 CollectKXi Hirshhom Museum

abstract syntax.

its

in his

see. For years, I've

I

photographs

980

'A

in his

kept thinking

I

really take in as your

forward.

(P«) hnn

is

composite impressions vary from intimate

subject recorded

often thought about the

important. In 1

He

and highly inventive, indicate the way he perceives form.

space. Porode Stof e Monof er gouache on cardboard

more than Composed

surfaces, these

funny or something.

you

ways.

to swimming pool pictures, to panoramas of the Grand Canyon and

interiors,

Yosemite

1917 Ballets Russes

factual

premiere of the Satie ballec

on white

new

now

borrower

Cubism, the esoteric creation of Picasso and Braque,

recent photographs

In his

in

a facile

is

all

us.

in

very

the ground from under

my

We

are

you must be aware of that

like

is

Otherwise, no one would put a step looking through a

window

It's

like

The window implies a wall between you and what you

acrylic

see. In painting, the

-

Snuthsonon

photography

Institution

Port/on Surrounded by Artistic Devices acrylic

1

965

on canvas 72

Collection Arts Council of Great Britain

38

Yet.

when you

eighty years

me

ago by Cubism.

as saying there

turn the page, there's

an

article

is

In

no cubist

on American

cubist photographers

(P^l)

60

window was smashed

a recent issue of Aperture, they quote

and Sculpture Garden.

Mind

you,

call cubist

if that's

cubist photography, I'm Leonardo da

Vmci What they

photography has only the most superficial aspects of Cubism. Those

photographers didn't

really

come

to grips with

Cubism's ideas about space.


39


40


i/iiiyiiK.iirt

41


'J.'kt

I

t

^

t

t

)


Cubism

IS

all

about space. Space

something you see Since the late

n

his interest ,n

French art

plumbing.

apparent

A

A in

in

is

The not limited to that protean force. figures, still-life ob,ects and instantly recall

Hockney's painting

Cubism,

"mechanical"

,k»

,

compose the

that tubular forms, for example,

landscape figures

,tself-^n idea-not just

directions reflect the 1970s, Hockney's major stylistic fascinated French painting. While endlessly

influences of early 20th-century

by Picasso,

m

a thing

,s

into.

that

everything

reduces

Miroesque ingenuousness

flickers

Legers pragmatic polychrome

elegant,

to

his art

through

and

is

especial^

the Ravel oper^. of the animals and insects in his characterizations Matisse an Dufy preva south-of-France flavor, evocative of

distinctive

even

in his

^P°"^^";°;;^'V''''' „'"! this French quality to that sunny tradition. Indeed, the nearby in California; it seems

California paintings. His fluent

and lush washes relate

it

line,

he settled has actually intensified since Pacific brings

apogee

in

his

out the Mediterranean

him. Such

in

sets for the

brilliantly-hued

Mefs

full

chroma reached an There w. no

Porode.

blue, red and ambience. The large, free-form question about Porode's French as of as evocative of Mat.se are scene garden green shapes in L'Enfanfs allowed himse^ to Hockney painters, Fauve Childhood perceptions. Like the garden scene ,s eyes. The final image of the regard the world with innocent s apes trunk and branches are abstract red thick whose tree an enormous "sees music coloristica^^y. blue foliage. Because he

that vibrate against dense

design. It ,s as if the tonalities in color in his opera he sought to match Ravel's the garden. child-hero of LEnfont had envisaged undergoes the stylistic changes his work But how does Hockney feel about ed another' The precise, detai to production opera one as he moves from with Parades slapdash sharply contrasts example, decor of The Rake, for seem to reflect opposing On the surface, both productions would

forms.

expression of

his

is a valid philosophies-but no, he says, each have led of successive opera pro,ects themes and music the Though attitudes. about form, space and color ideas basic his solutions, him to new formal

artistic

remain constant. with any particular style for long.

My

work always jumps obout.

It's

always moving

there's never believe that for twenty years

There's always something to push into

Httle

.

.

of restlessness and Nevertheless, he admits to a degree

areas

left

I've

In

many

inability

to stick

directions

been a moment .hen

,t

few dues. over from another pa,nt,ng-a

not explored;

I

also tend to drop

and

wasn I

something

I

t.

tend ve

repeating hate the ,dea of completely and pursue ,t can find a small area artists some how understond myself things. become subtle explorers of small extensively, and the best of them things and a Johns does it with many Morandi did this with still life and Jasper does my mmd Im not that kind of person, nor varied art comes out of it. But

used for a long time and

move

on.

/

I

Rovel's

Garden with N.ghl Glow

1

980

on canvas 60 X 72

oil

Collection

Mr and

work Mrs,

Morns

S.

that way.

Pynoos

43


Troop of Actors and Acrobats

drawing for Parade gouache,

ink. pencil

1980

on paper

Chincic Cor}}uror

drawing for Parade

1

980

gouache, pencil on paper

44


Hockney's

ability

to take what he needs from respected sources

was staying at a house on

/

admirably

is

account of copying a Matisse painting.

illustrated in his

Fire Island

and a Motisse poster was on the

wall.

I

had some wax crayons and thought would make a copy of it while sitting at the I

When

table.

A^otfsse well,

pinned

I

—but

it still

my

copy

contained

to the wall,

my marks.

from a distance

At

first,

because the Matisse imagery dominated everything. Everybody's hand moves

like Matisse's.

in

looked

it

like the

you couldn't see them very I

can't

make marks

a different way.

While working on Parade, the relationship between Hockney's painting and stage design became extremely close and at times, these aspects of

were

creativity

strongly affected his

Rake had been earlier As a consequence,

as

marked by

directions,

brush stroke

his

The sketches and gouaches made for Parade painting. That project was a liberating experience,

inseparable.

itself.

large,

his painting

moved

freer

in

expansive shapes, whose origins were

in

the

Thanks to Parade, an energetic dialogue began between

studio and theater projects; one nourished the other.

his

To

distinguish the exuberantly

executed paintings that were by-products

of Parade from Hockney's production designs can be daunting, because they

many

share so scale

qualities of

An example

paintings.

Hockney submitted

style. Parade's sets

is

the

his

evolved from painted

designs are fully-realized

study for L'Enfant's garden scene, which

final

as a collage-painting

the massive arboreal shape

this,

In

theme and

models he made for each scene. Many of

is

to the Met's technical department.

over the

a cutout, centrally placed

verdant background.

To

assist

the costume shop

in

fabricating his Parade designs,

a series of small

gouaches to describe the action

each character's

attire.

astonishing effect

is

another.

amount of

Though loose and

improvisational, these convey an

information. Arranged

cinematic and the characters

in

chronological sequence, their

seem to move from one frame to

The gouaches accurately foreshadowed what would occur on

By the time Hockney painted these, he knew every as well as

instantly

Hockney made

each scene and define

in

its

decor. So certain

stage.

detail of Parade's action

was he about each scene, he could evoke

it

on paper.

After completing designs for Parade, Hockney burned off

some excess

energy by painting some variations on a few modernist sources he had relied on. During the his oils

summer of

1

980,

in his

London

studio, he decided to reactivate

dialogue with recent art history. There, he rapidly produced a

on music and dance themes. Some of these alluded to

number of The

Picasso's Parade.

(p46) Parade oil

48

Curtair.lofte, Picasso

on canvas V

most recognizable was with

its

his interpretation of

the ballet's celebrated curtain,

bareback rider on a winged horse, matador and

circle of

seated

60

harlequins. In his translation, (p-t?)

Punchinello on andtjffStoge

curtain design. visible only

Hockney enlarged the

The winged horse

from the waist down

remains, but

— the upper

left side

now

of the original

the bareback rider

half of

her body

by the top of the proscenium. Only two seated figures are

is

is

blocked

left:

a guitar

45


46


47


Strumming matador and a harlequin

in

a diamond-patterned leotard. Happily,

been retained. Hockney has used a

Picasso's tri-colored, striped ladder has

"wet into wet" painting technique that enabled him to manipulate forms and develop complex, textured areas.

and related paintings, he was

In this

concerned with defining edges than creating

would emerge Another orchestra

drawing

in

pit

is

organically.

the Picasso-inspired series

in

composition

less

from which forms

rich surfaces

which

is

dwarf punchinello

a

Punchinello on and off Stoge, a

in long,

blond curls stands

and faces the audience while a scene

is

the

in

played on stage.

The

deliberately chunky, with the innocence and forcefulness of a

child's vision.

we

such works,

In

determination to

himself,

rid

have further identification of Hockney's

moment,

for the

least

at

of the

refined

descriptive line that for so long had been a hallmark of his work.

Of Now, of

summer 1980 paintings, the most fully-realized is Harlequin. commedia dell'arte character appears in an environment elemental forms, as much Hockney's as Picasso's: a patterned theater these

the enduring

curtain that echoes the harlequin's costume, a pink pyramid and the French tri-color ladder This composition

To accommodate

of Parade.

its

became the Met's poster

Hockney provided the harlequin with his

for the

a shelf of

books on which to perform

handstand.

Even more generalized than the "modern art" outcroppings is

premiere

design to the opera house's vertical kiosks,

the southern California syndrome that

reactions to

its

varied landscape

tropical planting Hills,

in his painting,

now permeates his art.

we encounter smog-free

idealized

In his

aeries graced with

around azure swimming pools. Below the purple Hollywood

the endless grid of Los Angeles extends into

infinity.

His California subject matter ranges from the seedy to the opulent.

deserted

city

squares fringed with spindly palms and

Its

street theater

its lively

have been frequent Hockney themes. The elegant patios and manicured

lawns of Beverly

Hills

have

become

leitmotifs.

However,

adopted home nothing equals the swimming pool. light

reflects off the water; solitary figures gaze into

youths are glimpsed beneath Horttqum oti

(p50)

72

1

72

evident

in

sequence of

a long

becomes

a luxurious

its

form of

Hockney

surface. This style, in

turns and creates syncopated, interlocking shapes,

water

in

1966

the nude sunbather

fill

is

the

is

which

a

in

of Nick Wilder.

Now the

water

is

reminiscent

as a flat pattern of tautly

bottom three quarters

modeled

is

Hourloupe paintings. The portrayal of

drawn

of the canvas; at the top.

Hockney's cool,

classical

theme reaches something of an apotheosis

figure-in-pool

Museum Ludwig. Cologne

in his

Sunbother. 1966, by contrast,

on canvas 72

Collection

48

line twists,

spirals of confetti that

Sunbather

depths; athletic

the 1964 Picture of a Hollywood Swimming Pool,

of Dubuffet's inspired scribbling

(p5l)

72

In

his

966

on canvas

Private coltection

acrylK

is

uses skeins of broad blue lines to describe

Ponroa ofNidc Wilder acrylic

theme

paintings. In these languid vignettes, the pool

open-air theater

its

symbol of

interpretations,

shimmering surface.

its

His fascination with the pool

1980

on canvas

as the

In his lyrical

in

realism.

The

the 1966 Portrait

an opulent mosaic of blue-green, cobalt and


Harlequin.

49


50


51


52


sky blue areas. Wilder, then an art dealer

near-photographic manner, lined pool.

his

functions as a painted backdrop

elements of a Mondrian-like

at Tyler Graphics in

whose windows, doors and

were

much

as

Magic

finished the

Bedford

Village,

him was a new technique, he arrived origins

New

of the Flute. Though Ken Tyler's

who

master printer

Flute sets, he spent several

monumental abstract images whose

at

own swimming

in

the geometry

pool was the immediate

of

works

using

is

apparent.

to capture the interest of artists

blandishments as superb equipment

irresistible

came up with the notion

skilled technicians,

number

how

understands

by presenting them with such and

of having

handmade paper, another specialty

Hockney do

a

of the studio. In this

paper pulp, a semi-liquid material permeated with color,

technique,

a

tile-

long balcony are

subject for this cohesive group of images, their California ancestry Tyler, a

in

York, where, using what for

the California pool paintings as

in

depicted

is

grid.

Hockney had

1978, after

In

weeks

Los Angeles,

one-point perspective composition, the house

this serene,

In

in

head and shoulders emerging from the

is

pressed into compartments defined by thin metal bands that follow the outline of the

Once

Under the metal forms

artist's design.

is

placed a sheet of

wet

paper.

the pulp has begun to harden and the major areas of the composition

have been established, the

artist

can further

increments of dyed paper pulp, using a

The

instrument.

work

ladle, a

the surface by adding small

kitchen baster or

some other

open shapes of the swimming pool theme were

large,

ideally

new

suited to this process. Capitalizing on the possibilities of this malleable

medium, Hockney was able to capture the shimmering successive variations.

to affect their

his

own

The

quality of

water

heavily textured surfaces of the Paper Pools

in

were

approach to painting. Large color masses were allowed to establish

perimeters.

With the Paper California and

Pools,

Egypt.

Hockney was

on two experiences:

able to build

His unquenchable attraction to the representation

of water and admiration for the architecture are evident

primal

in this series.

geometry of ancient Egyptian

Midnight Pool (Paper Pool

10),

1978,

is

a large, six-panel image of a diving board cantilevered over an illuminated

water

surface.

architecture

The

pool's

in

The massive shapes are strongly reminiscent of temple The

Flute;

edges,

in

the diving board suggests a perspective,

recall

monumental doorway.

Glyndebourne's

distinctive

proscenium.

Though Hockney

colored and pressed paper pulp B\'A X 92'A Collection Walker Art Center Gift of Lindsay

and Ken Tyler

1978

in

London, Paris and

A

idealized

view of what might await him

about Midnight Poo/ (Paper Pool 10)

has lived

Angeles.

New

York, he prefers Los

hard-core devotee of the cinema since childhood, he had an

social conventions,

where

in

Hollywood. This was

eccentricity

and "laid-back." After the tensions and distractions of a brief York, he found California Edenesque.

seemed the ultimate

retreat. For

took to house ownership with

The

a place blase

was barely noticed;

life

was easy

stint in

privacy of a house, high

in

New

the

hills,

one used to semi-nomadic existence, he

zeal

—

but, given his

way

of doing things.

53


54


matters did not simply end there. Ineviubly, a character In his visual dramas.

his

house,

like his friends,

had to

become

So taken was Hockney with the verdant jumble of the Hollywood Hills In 980 he did several paintings that reflect its vivid character. Among

that

1

these free-wheeling evocations of the landscape are two large, rawly painted works, Nichols Canyon and Mulholland Drive. These

memory

are

impressions of driving rapidly up,

down and around

with their twisting roads, clumps of vegetation, oil

derrick.

The

tile

paintings,

the California hillsides

rooftops and an occasional

encountered while negotiating these roads vary from Intimate views Into stilt house Interiors to spectacular vistas of downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley There is little effort sights

to accurately describe the complex terrain except as rhythmic monumental shapes reduced to flat patterns of violent color In the gigantic Mulholland Drive. Hockney uses a whip line to define the contours of the local geography Separate but interlocking areas,

compartments of color

orange tonalities— make up

this

— mainly

blue-green, violet and

dramatic painting. Each area

is

treated

a

in

manner; some are heavy with Impasto, others are masses of polntillist

different

color Nichols Canyon, a vertical composition,

roadway

that symmetrically splits the painting.

is

At

divided by a dark, curving close range the

panorama

Is

a constellation of buoyant, even strident color masses that have an abstract existence quite apart from the forms they describe In the landscape.

Hockney

has taken

some great

risks in

these works. They have none of the

refinement associated with the

lyrical

swimming pool

violently expresslonistic, revealing

more concern with

and feeling than describing underlay so

scene

much of the

details.

They

paintings,

objectifying

but are

movement

reveal the intuitive approach that

design for Parade, particularly the

awesome garden

L'Enfant

in

Off one of the many roads that form an erratic network above Sunset Hockney 's house is virtually Invisible from the street. Nestled into

Boulevard,

a hillside, the multl-storled wood and glass structure angles around an amoebashaped swimming pool whose sky-blue bottom is overlaid with a vibrant

pattern of dark blue lines painted by Hockney to look

like the ripples and pool pictures. Against the dense palm and giant ferns are brightlycolored canvas chairs.

waves

In his

The house began of bland project.

1

its

950s design.

existence as a middle-class Los Angeles hilltop dwelling

recent transformation has been an all-consuming

Its

"What do need with I

way" Thus, has become

the erstwhile a flexible

work

a living

living

room?" Hockney

asks.

"I

room, with the addition of

a

Around the acrylic

1

980

on canvas

Collection Mr. and Mrs. Richard C, Hedri

fireplace are a

few

live

that

skylights,

space, complete with drafting tables, large, metal

print storage cabinets and stereo speakers obstructing traffic Nichols Canyon

don't

few battered velour armchairs and

a

in

the center

clunky

wooden

coffee table. Casually pinned to the white walls might be a few posters of recent Hockney exhibitions, some sketches and prints, or quantities of

Polaroids

made during

a recent foray to the desert

or during a

visit

to a

55


At the moment, he

friend's house. in

adding a spacious, high-ceilinged studio

is

order to work on large-scale projects, paintings and set designs.

Beyond the has

more

utilitarian area,

become

colorful things are happening to the

a "work-in-progress."

house.

It

muted

pink; the balcony,

The exterior stucco

extending the length of the house, and

is

painted a

the

stairs to

pool are a strong ultramarine. The idea for investing the house with such

came

personality

Hockney while he was

to

London

in

for Christmas

in

1

980.

Depressed by the grim English winter, to cheer himself up he decided to

make

house from memory. The color of Parade

a painting of the California

was very much on

his

mind. The result was Hollywood

House, a large-

Hills

he allowed interior and

scale triptych. In this highly subjective recollection,

exterior areas to flow into each other and the house appears as though

dream.

the outside

is

represented as a profusion of

Matisse papier It

shows everything

it's

it is

the house itself At that time it.

Bakon)r. pool and steps, the artist's house

Hollywood

so either

and had

I

had

move

to

lived there

two

Then, immediately,

1982

the Ravel opera. t/iot's

We

what we did

— he

London

was natural redwood.

today. There's a big

palm

In

I

Making

that painting gave

was only renting

out or buy

years, so

I

it

I

it

was a

and

bit

decided to buy

had the outside

I

delivers milk in

I

was a

Edwards Square

bricks on the windwall around the pool.

of

and

the idea to paint

wanted

to sell

fed up with moving around it.

bit

I

in

mad.

— come

Then

In

the

The colors were chosen from

painted.

People thought

me

the owners

used the bright green of the grass

first.

the

tree in the middle

the right you can see the curved brick wall around the pool

yellow rays of sunshine.

it,

On

wall.

garden and Les Mamelles de Tiresias.

the balcony, which then

is

the left fxinel you see the

and some things on the

fireplace

for Ravel's

red, not blue as

On

On

thought about the house.

models

the middle panel

the picture.

I

room with the

floor are the set

painting

abstract shapes laid out like a

flat,

colle.

interior of the

over

in a

contrast to his reasonably accurate portrayal of the living room,

In

the garden scene

My

to visit

milkman from

and painted the

painted the swimming pool.

Every two or three months

we would make a few

of what we were doing,

began making more paintings of the outside of the

I

color changes. Then, because

house.

Recently colors.

I

we

started having the inside of the house painted, using brighter

started by carrying the pink from the outside into the house

you could bring the outside at color all the time.

that inspired

strong color

me

It

was

in

partly seeing the

to paint the inside.

I

De

oti.

Hilli

House

charcoal, collage

Collection Walker Gift of

56

Mr

and

1

980

the red, blue, gray, yellow.

on canvas

An

Center

Mrv David

M Wmton

suddenly realized

that, in

a sense.

I

StijI

Then

remembered

I

also

I

remembered going

I

Walker

that

lots

of

Monet

there

was doing the same thing He made

house and garden an environment that he used as subject matter years.

realized

exhibition at the

looked through the catalogue

painted the inside of his Giverny house yellow Hollywood

I

because now you were looking through windows

for

and his

many

can understand a painter doing that

The Hollywood

Hills

House picture and the subsequent transformation of the


57


house

itself

made

clear that the old process

was reversed; now, Hockney's

theater design was influencing the course and content of Today, the hilltop house projects

photographs and theater models

paintings,

The phone

who

scattered about.

is

rings constantly with requests for loans of paintings for exhibitions,

and to dinner,

invitations to lecture far

his painting.

chronic mild chaos. The evidence of various

in

is

want to

just

as well as calls

collectors, relatives and friends of relatives

way through

the housekeeper picks her

housepainter makes

fellow artists,

On

any given day,

visitors

from Bradford.

piles of clothing,

books and papers; the

impossible to negotiate the narrow hallway.

it

Above the smog

from friends from near and

There are numerous

chat.

the house was meant to be Hockney's bastion

line,

against the pressures and blandishments of the outside world. This, however,

has never in

been the

studio or visiting his family

and photographs

in

New

Tyler's studio, a conference

new

penchant for taking on

case, given his

England several times a year working on projects

at his

He

projects.

is

Pembroke Gardens

Bradford. Frequent exhibitions of his paintings

in

at Ken museums

York and abroad, printmaking projects

on handmade paper

in

Japan, lectures at

and universities, keep him on the move.

He works

constantly, sketching objects and people around

conversations or pointing

remarkable

ability

him during

He

Pentax camera around the room.

his

has

to focus on a point, no matter what the distractions,

recalling in precise detail the circumstances of

making

a particular painting.

Soft-spoken and unfailingly polite, he expresses himself eloquently on a variety of art and non-art issues.

He

has the Yorkshireman's ability to characterize a

situation with incisive wit and

terms with himself as an he

figure,

is

is

a

superb raconteur

individual and an artist.

set apart by his attire. His

He

come

has clearly

to

Though now an establishment

approach to clothing continues to be

haphazard and inventive. His costume can vary from ployglot color and pattern

one day to almost conventional apparel on another.

At

his

best,

Hockney

is

a

walking

cap, paint-spattered, high-waisted,

1

While working

collage.

Metropolitan Opera he would occasionally turn up

in

a red

at

the

and white baseball

940s-style pin-stripe trousers held up

with red suspenders, a rumpled white shirt with a neon blue and yellow striped

tie,

and a pair of arresting multi-colored, wing-tipped oxfords.

Recently he gave up

more for

another

In

come up with

black-rimmed round glasses

light

of his daily dress,

it's

in

favor of a

no wonder he has been able to

such inventive costume ideas for

would be completely

So

his familiar

elegant pair consisting of a metal circle for one eye and a tortoise one

home

at

in

his

Parade's opening

operas.

crowd

On a good

day he

scene.

closely related are Hockney's views about theater design and painting

that his sustained involvement with

Glyndebourne and the Metropolitan can

hardly be regarded as peripheral activities. Opera's improbable themes have

provided him with that, as a

new

young

subject matter, rich

artist,

^^Y

Hollywood

Opera's sumptuous repertory.

58

1982

in

formal possibilities.

he had turned to literary sources, he

Interior. th« jrtists house,

In

the same

now

mines


f

c4

t

&j^

^^



Text to Image Stephen Spender

hearing

,n

the 1970s that Hockney

^

^

j^„,

^^

,he familiar

mui.c. Here completely .biorbmg the ,chl..ed .he mir.d. of

™i^:^ir.rre.o„,o.*ee«™....„e„o^^^^^^^^^^^

--v"''"?:Lc:b::rr:i";»r:.T.:,:iLp™»io„ An m,ense and dose observer, palming.

_^.^^

^

r:rr'":r:"n.L„ree.or,n.p^^^^^^^^^^^^ be completely cu.

of,

from

all

.be o.ber P'^"

^ppl„e»andenioymen.^lm,own^^^^^

^^.Tm _,"em.rk which

-^^^^^^^

he once was "::ZlTrP::Z:T... ™eUe, ^S,... » Drop Curtain ink

for

The Rokes Progress

on paper and cardboard

l3'/8

-rC^rrC?:

Sharp

»„. commen^o.,

I..

,n

f.c.

.n

" lOVt

61


many ways

a representative

member

of a generation for

whom

Elvis

and the Beatles were heroes. With so much about him of shared is

Important to emphasize that despite

Presley taste,

it

receptiveness to the pleasures

his

and fashions surrounding him, he inhabits a world of things seen and heard

which

uniquely his own.

is

The meeting of

musical with his pictorial

his

preoccupations brings out the originality he makes of settings

The Magic In

especially

in

the effects of color and

he becomes a visionary

Flute,

light

His vision

artist.

The Magic Flute the three tiers of characters

Papageno and Papagena, Sarastro and Priests

his eclecticism. In

— with

the

second act of

as in the

the music.

is

— Tamino

and Pamina,

their separate but related

stories scarcely ever converging, have musical Idioms suited to each, developing

throughout the opera.

parallel

the music into The great It

wall of fire

Glyndeboume

from Act

Festival

II

of The

Opera. 1978

MagK Flute,

as

his visual

performed

each of these levels Hockney translates

monuments

of Egyptian sculpture and painting: the bird

On

symbolism, drawn from the almost surrealist engravings of PiranesI and from Italian primitive

forms of Papageno and Papagena; the

trials

through

water of the music; the architectonic splendor of the mystical

fire

and

religious music;

the progression of the opera from the stylized opening scene

the temple

in

gardens, through the architecture of the temple, to the near abstract effects of pure color and light of the later mystical religious scenes.

Hockney knows

a lot

about painting, a

lot

about music, and quite a

One example how much

though he has the appearance of the self-educated.

how much

surprised at

and can

recite.

the way,

he knows, for

For he does not strike one

say, that Eliot

Is.

in fact,

lot else

always a

bit

poetry he has read

as being a learned artist

and Auden were learned and looked

it.

Under

in

his

considerable sophistication, he remains fundamentally naive, childlike even a fact of which he

is

aware

In

a

way

that

shows

loyalty to childhood.

So what

surprised critics of his designs for operas was the extent to which he had

work and showed

acquired background information about each

The Metropolitan

sense.

triple

bill

historic

of Parade. Les Mamelles de Tiresias and

L'Enfant et les Sortileges brought the aesthetic excitement associated with the

legendary names of Picasso, Apollinaire,

New

York of the 1980s. The

Hogarth,

in

whose famous

inspiration. "Everything in

To the surprise of many

Satie, Ravel

and Poulenc into the

sets for The Rake's Progress are faithful to

series of paintings and engravings Stravinsky found It

comes from Hogarth," Hockney

critics

Hockney,

in his

told me.

designs for The Magic Flute.

paid great attention to the stage directions and records of the original Vienna

production at the Theater auf der Wieden

in

1791, a source despised,

disdained and passed over by most producers of the opera,

Schikaneder, the original impresario, director, of Papageno and friend of Mozart, as

little

made the

plot almost incomprehensible

Viennese

public.

The

lively

in

librettist,

regard

better than a mountebank,

attempting to

tailor

and irreverent Hockney, always conscious of

origins In Bradford, Yorkshire, reading about The

62

who

player of the role

Magic

his

it

who

to suit the

working

Flute must,

I

class

think.


have felt sympathy for Schikaneder who worked his way up from poverty to become director of the Theater auf der Wieden, where he put on performances of Singspiele (popular musical comedies). Hockney is certainly Mozartian in the idea that the basis or base of the pyramid

liking

are symbolic forms

apex sublime, and like

in

He

striking the stars.

Shakespeare's The Winter's

Papageno and Papagena

reached

is

Mozart

in

in

popularity

— to the

Hockney 's approach to stage the music, then

past productions.

He

in

told

is

High

designing

who

romantic lovers until

way

Shakespeare,

in

have to

the apex of the pyramid sacred

is

in all

Priest.

a process of saturation. Saturation

is

the libretto, then

me

— the

ascend by

— Autolycus

the music of the Masonic cult (reaching to what

mystical religion) of which Sarastro

first in

its

Tale. Fairy story, fable, parable,

and tests which sanctify their union,

trials

those pyramids which

sees The Magic Flute as a fairy story,

of yokels, country bumpkins and coarse lovers

endure

(like

the Masonic cult) of art should be

the history of the

in

work and

its

that he loved the libretto of The Rake's Progress

before he came to love the music which was not entirely sympathetic to him.

was only

It

to love

after he had listened to The

Love

it.

is

Rake

many times

a great

came Auden and

that he

the operative word. Love for the language of

Kallman leading to love for the music, and love for the paintings and engravings of Hogarth's A Rake's Progress are the preconditions of

Richard

drama

Wagner put forward

singing, acting

and scenic design

oceanic combination of voice and orchestra leitmotifs

which achieve

cave for singers, and

onto

—by

but,

The Ring,

in

it

is

stage properties

anvils,

swords

really achieved

Diaghilev's Ballets Russes

in

—were

poem

by Mallarme.

In

a kind of

labels stuck

—though mostly without

which the solo dancers become

symbols of the surrounding music, scenery and developing story musculature of their bodies

only the

unending melody and recurrent

in

Wagner's scenery remained

a fusion. In fact,

Music-drama was

his leitmotifs.

voices

his

his designs.

the idea of a fusion of the arts of music, and

as submissive to this as the poetic

line,

the

symbols within a

the Diaghilev ballet the dancer becomes the object of

the music and the action.

Hockney, whose

first

stage designs

were

Roi of Alfred Jarry, surely began by absorbing his ideas of a fusion of the

arts

on the stage from the

Ballets Russes

Satie and Poulenc, Apollinaire and Ravel,

Hoganh

them. This was true Left Bank

Hudibras Beats Sidmphd. Plate

VIII

from Samuel Sutler's Hudibras

1725-26

9"/ii

X I3i^

In

Rake's Progress. Plate VIII

1

735

engraving I2i4 -

period was

in

The Art

in

Institute of

Chicago

interrelationships of

just of theories

of the arts.

thought up by

The

part what appealed to Hockney, at the

each work, to suggest the

idea of going

when

in

his

Met, he wreathed barbed wire link

with wartime

Paris,

1917.

the Metropolitan production he designed scenery and sets with witty

references throughout to Picasso, Braque, Dufy and other French stage pictures transformed into unique Hockney.

15'/.

Collection

this

round the stage

William Hogarth

A

back to

Paris, a village

production of the three one-act works

engraving

and Picasso. The music drama of

grew out of the

group of poets, painters and composers, not

a William

for the 1896 surrealistic satire

Ubu

more

clearly than

Hockney

in his

work

No

artists,

one demonstrates

for the stage, that an artist can

owe 63


and acknowledge that he owes

a

great deal to the past and yet be completely

original.

At Glyndebourne Hockney was doubtless influenced by the

was designing

sets and

costumes for an

ideal small

fact that

opera house, situated

he in

the opulent, green Sussex countryside, the realized dream of an eccentric millionaire

(now dead), John

Christie.

There

an atmosphere at Glyndebourne

is

of aristocratic grandeur and noblesse. Christie wished that, during the evenings of high

summer

of the Glyndebourne festival,

Some booked

should wear evening dress.

were served

during the main interval

all

members

of the audience

their places at the restaurant, and

excellent food and chateau-bottled

vintage wine. Others strolled through exemplary gardens or picnicked on

spacious lawns. David Hockney and Ceiia Birtwell prcnic Progress.

Glyndcbourne

Festival

at the

Opera, 1975

opening of The Rake's

and

if

If

the standards of performance had not been supremely high,

music lovers had not been prepared to pay

Glyndebourne evenings, But there

all

this

On

the

first

wife and

their

anachronistic.

something authoritatively nostalgic about Glyndebourne

is

though the past has established

my

sums for

sacrificial

would have been ludicrously

I

evening of the

a just claim to criticize

first

as

the present.

performance of The Magic

Flute to

which

went, there was an outdoor party on the lawns after the

performance, with food and drink served from long

There was

tables.

something greenly, sumptuously, exceptionally English about seeing guests, performers, David Hockney and the director, John Cox, enjoying their

triumph on that occasion, a fete champetre

at

which one might have found

Mozart and Stravinsky toasting one another and the Such Englishness can be unforgettable and

seems something snobbish about which

Is

to be

a

setting for

it.

Glyndebourne creates

I

its

David Hockney

In

s

if

there

atmosphere

productions which are jewels and

awareness of the splendid occasion shows

Magic

and performers.

artist

need scarcely apologize

I

I

think

designs for The

Flute.

asked Hockney

how he approached the problem of doing He replied that after listening a great deal to

designs and costumes.

and studying Schikaneder's directions, what struck him above

all

these set the music

else in the

opera was the combination of the comically human (which must on no account be

lost sight of )

with the awesomely religious

clear" music. Schikaneder tried to

with other Viennese did not suit the

Singspiel.

in

what he called the "unbelievably

make his libretto and production competitive

Obviously the idea of Egypt

in

Vienna

in

1791

Glyndebourne audience of 1978. So Hockney, who had

recently gone as a tourist to Egypt, asked himself what kind of Egypt would

work

today.

Only an Egypt which incorporated

ancient Palestine would appeal to the

He

considered

first

of

all

modern

a past Biblical vision of

audience.

a kind of stylized realism rather in

Piranesi's engravings, but rejected this. Yet

I

the

manner of

think that something of Piranesi

does get into some of the stage-pictures. For example,

in

the scenes of the

Temple, there are three pillared temples surmounted by pediments. Inscribed

above the portal of one

64

is

VERNUNFT

(reason),

on the second WEISHEIT


NATUR (nature). These have the character not of

(wisdom), and on the third

Piranesi's topical engravings, but of his studies of architecture,

which Hockney must have often seen

at the

examples of

London apartment of

his friends

Nikos Stangos and David Plante.

The opening scene of Hockney 's Magic Renaissance

Flute has the character of early

painting of rocky deserts and of chiseled, sculptured,

Italian

grooved and hollowed out mountains seen beyond a tawny-colored foreground of sand. a bit

A few scattered trees are painted in leafy detail with loving observation,

comic looking and with something of trees pure but not a terrifying solitude. For

ascetic,

trecento painters, totally

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

in

Los Angeles. This desert the deserts of

like

is

Italian

artist, the warmth of his some miraculous way, although no way pastiche, but entirely Hockney,

the control of the

hand pressing everywhere.

loving, creative

in

it is,

so candidly indebted to the past,

it is in

In

Ancient Baths (FI26)

from Opere vane

di

architettura

etching

with touches of feeling

5 'A X 7V*

— the

his

humor

clarity of

This confrontation of

music made

the entry of the dragon

pantomime with supreme

in

visible

ascetic religious

— becomes

explicit with

The contradictions of comic hymn and with human love (reaching with

pursuit of Tamino.

religious

Pamina to poignant heights

humor with

to the eye

— coarse and

jovial

with Papageno and Papagena

designs. This results

seem projected from Mozart's music into Hockney 's firstly from Hockney 's complete absorption in the music,

and after that, from

his

rapacious with the Moor)

and plot, and

does

his ability

cheerful acceptance of

Hockney sees The Magic and

the inconsistencies of action in his

is

Flute as a journey

a progression, central to

the search for each other and the coming together, after frustration

trials,

of the

two

of religious seeking

lovers,

in

Tamino and Pamina. There

the work, realized

in

is

a parallel progression

the sacred music. So long as these

progressions are maintained, the notorious contradictions

Queen

designs as Mozart

the music.

in

which

all

to reconcile these differences

— the

star-flaming

of the Night becoming a dark villainess, Sarastro, the tyrant, becoming

a high priest of righteousness

and Papagena

falls

— do not

greatly matter

The

love of

Papageno

into place, paralleling and partly parodying that of

Tamino

and Pamina like the coarse working-class lovers in a Dickens novel, underscoring (p66)

the repressed and sublimated loves of the upper-class characters. Hockney

A Rocky Landscape model

for The

Magic

Flute

1

977

photographs on cardboard, paint on

molded cardboard, 16

21

tissue,

brings out

in his

In for The

Magic

F/ule

1

977

photographs on cardboard, wire, tissue

16% X

21

'/4

X 12

the second act Hockney used

from darkness

All for The

Magic

Flute

1

977

photographs on cardboard, wire, tissue •

many scene changes

— to emphasize the theme

when

into light,

the sun

all

of a journey.

of the action taking place

comes

out.

A

difficulty,

thirteen

in all,

I

The whole opera moves in

darkness except at

Hockney explained to me, was

to paint darkness. The only way of doing so was to use rich earth colors.

(p67)

16

think he said

the end,

fire

model

theme of

profane.

12%

Woter model

interpretation of The Magic Flute the Renaissance

sacred and profane love: Tamino and Pamina sacred, Papageno and Papagena

wire

21%

'

12

the indoor action of The Magic Flute takes place

mountain

in

in

a temple, the

in

a

garden on the temple grounds. These include a

which there

is

the scene of the

outdoor scenes being

trials

by

fire

and water through

65


-W^f^

"

lli'

lFflP'y


idJA'


which Tamino and Pamina

Hockney renders

pass.

with the visionary,

this

terrifying intensity of an early English romantic painter, Blake or Palmer.

The

down over

waters curl

fleece-like

stalagmites to

meet clouds

steps, the flames rise

on them

that descend

upwards

in

like stalactites.

As the music and action proceed to the interior of the temple, the sets become more geometrical (like Piranesi's illustrations of architectural forms) and even abstract. The music becomes increasingly pure and sacred and the stage pictures correspondingly so. This

rendered by

purged of

art

all

pantomime

Papageno, but

action

we

art,

it

is

pure music

from the music. Hockney remarked

that against this exaltation of the religious

the

not abstract

is

distraction

theme there runs across the stage

Papageno and Papagena. "We're laughing

of

have to believe

Papagena provides the comedy of our

lives.

The Magic Flute stage pictures achieve marvelous unity out of The Rake's Progress has the unity of a

at

him," he said. Against eternal skies

in

diversity.

single, consistent, deliberately artificial

style.

Hockney 's approach to Stravinsky approach to Mozart, the difference is

a very

in

is

arising

from

different as possible

as

from the

fact that

important sense romantic, whereas The Rake's Progress,

interpretation of Hogarth's sequence of pictures of the decline and

18th-century rake by the in

Stravinsky's music,

Flute in

I

mean

is

members

that the

Mozart's music and

lies in

in

W.

librettists

the

of an

in

The Magic

of the audience can identify with the lovers

Hockney's

Hockney

in

fall

Auden and Chester Kallman, and

H.

modernism. By romanticism

sets.

The

classicism of The Rake's Progress

the ironic detachment of composer and librettists

the visual plane by

fall,

librettists,

neoclassical

his

The Magic Flute

—from the characters and

seem to stand outside the tragedy of

Tom

—

carried out onto

story

composer and

Rakewell's decline and

while the audience regards the events that take place on the stage as pure

spectacle which scarcely involves

and for that matter the scenery

them emotionally, though the music

—may move them by

its

itself

beauty, occasional

The audience does not identify with the loves of Anne Trulove and Tom Rakewell. It is a kind of mechanism like a Swiss cuckoo feeling and depths of truth.

clock.

The music

of

Anne

has pathos without the character herself feeling

pathetic.

The Rake

is

of course a parable of

but one seems to regard

it

from

human

folly,

wickedness and suffering

a great distance, the

18th century seen

through the wrong end of a 20th-century telescope. The music, while

modern

idiom,

is

also a pastiche of an old one. and the

Hockney's sets which, while of Hogarth.

we

We

as

modern

as

Hockney

is

hear and see on the stage

Stravinsky and

in

the

1

is

based on

a

in

a

true of

himself, are also pastiches

are never allowed to forget, listening and looking, that

moral story enacted

what

sequence of pictures depicting

a

8th century.

Hockney have

it

in

common

that they can both

completely modern work most recognizably their

68

same thing

own

make

a

out of the elements


of

the

shared by

work which arouses their admiration, a characteristic whose language here is based on librettists. Auden and Kallman,

some

past

Hockney

libretto

He

reads the text, conscious of

its

18th-

deliberately multiplies those

century pastorals and vers de objectifying that are present effects of distancing and societe.

in

complexities.

the music and

He

invents the

corresponding to the considerable intellectual image of the Bread Machine preoccupation with the octe gratuite Kallman's and complexity of Auden decision, made at the suggestion demonstrated in Tom RakewelKs arbitrary

freedom of will by of Shadow, to exercise his the choice of

him Shadow

marrying-not according to

is repulsive to but against it-Baba the Turk, who twin tyrants of Rakewell to act freely, to ignore those

his senses,

Tom

tells

appetite and conscience.

He

wife. counsels him to take Baba the Turk to and stage series scenery, costumes

Hockney takes from Hogarth's

the scene in the In the background of properties, innumerable details. detail drawn like graf^t, on the Hogarthian of explosion an there is

madhouse

He might

imprisoning walls.

Hogarth s so easily have simply transposed something much subtler than

he has paintings into stage pictures but

done

hint stagey realism, he has taken a order to distance the action from stage pictures series of paintings and made Hogarth the of engravers from the and and crosshatching both scenery with the engravers- line, hatching pictures J^hat making engravings, as visualized costumes. The entire opera is introduced to emphasizing their artifice. Color is look two-dimensional, thus effect of distancing, in watercolors. The over painted prints of effect give the look like making the stage sets and costumes

that

in

objectifying,

is

underlined by

Hogarth's already ironical satire. characters are trapped, the like boxes In which an engraving in the backcloth painted to look like a being exception only househd on forth from the T-love setting Rakewell Tom opening scene of look proliferate into docks which boxes scene, madhouse his journey. In the esigning d^^^ Perhaps, madwoman. or is a madman ,-,J prison cells; in each The Waste Land lines from T, S, Eliot's

ironical pastiches of

On

scene,

the stage,

rooms look

We

Hockney remembered

a of the key, each confirms his prison / Thinking think of the key, each in regression-from the house progression-^r the conveys pi on The actfon to whom Tom Trulove and his daughter Anne, of the respectable bourgeois <^째--^rothel and the scenes in Mother Rakewell s betrothed, through delirium. The and churchyard, death and Tom's London house, to Bedlam before the declaimed by the character epilogue moralistic opera ends with a Don ^^o^^"^^^":^ Mozart's to Epilogue the of '

Tal

-n

the

manner

are Auden, Kallman and Hockney

all

extremely sophisticated

T^^:^^:^:^ckney visualizes emotions of love, sensual living of Baba the Turk sketch for The Rokc's Progress collage, ink

H

A

on paper

1975

ordinary human

their

relig^an. the

--P

beings which has to ^e '^^ Hogarth as seen 18th-century morality of

the Rake's Progress he visualizes modern eyes and yet fixed

Irough

in

in

the distance of

its

past. In

J

both works.

II

69


inodModunt sketch for The Rake's Progrta •nk

70

on paper

1975


Leavt all

Study for Bedlam

sketch for The Rake's Progress ink

10

on paper 10

1

975

Itue

ÂťkJ

Itoft.

(ek,^j.


and Le Rossignol,

as in his designs for L'Enfant. Parade

deepest insights

his

come from his being inspired by the music. It would be wrong to say that some of the sets for L'Enfant, The Magic Flute and The Rake's Progress excel his paintings. What is true is that he has invented here something different from the

Tamino

paintings,

supreme of

he has submitted

flute,

Like the animals

its l<ind.

Orpheus who tames wild

an

is

his

in

the scene

which

in

beasts with the sounds of the magic

genius to the music, transforming the characteristics

of a visual artist into musical color, line and symbolism. The Magic Flute

medley, a great many things

woven

finally

farce of animal humanity (Pagageno); the tests of

Pamina); sacred love (Sarastro)

—and

the words and you have something

and scherzo

human

go on

all

a

good

like a

at different levels.

more

deal

symphony It

is

is

a

commedia dell'arte: the human love (Tamino and

into a

in

Take away

variety.

which

allegro,

andante

a parable of the multiplicity of

life.

Sorostro

Considered purely

drawing for The Alogic Ftuxe crayon

as plot

and characterization, the libretto

The transformation

self-contradictory.

of the

Queen

notoriously

is

of the Night

first

appearing as her daughter Pamina's semi-divine protectress and guardian of

her love for Tamino

into a malevolent witch and hatcher of

confusing as action and plot, but not, perhaps,

the music.

in

contradictory on that level of the imagination, where beautiful

queen might well be transformed into

witch.

does not

It

really

to be the holy priest of a

and

of the Night

is

in

public with

a

more

of the sacred at In

a

is

a tyrant) turns

it

who

is

all

If

the poetry of

in

The Magic Flute were

in

all

retains

of

W.

The

libretto of

picks up and

its

a

modern

— each with — diverge and

its

musical

also intertwine.

hold over us because this confluence of separate views

— permeated with mysterious forces "the music — true to the complexity — words which Mozart The Magic like

influencing our fates

Flute has

makes wonderful: the

of the three boys; Tamino's is

Yeats

times.

(be firm, patient and taciturn)

picture

B.

than the mystery of music that expresses the sense

them true

of the spheres"

Queen

accord with

The Magic Flute the three strands of action

The opera

also wise

the fact that

Mozart's freemasonry really present

Idiom, comical, romantic and classically sacred

life

in

might seem to be church music and present

difficulties

in

out

wicked alienator of her daughter's

modern audience which accepts

esoteric occult religious symbolism.

Mozart's Catholicism,

72

story a

the mind of Sarastro (male chauvinist pig supreme) the

woman diabolic. Nor does

any obstacle to

of

monster,

wicked witch, inhuman tyrant

the mind of the mother, Sarastro

affections,

his

a fairy

wicked stepmother and

a

To the modern audience such contradictions

cult.

also

is

(a

is

perhaps

— are merely psychological complexities resolved anyway

priest in

who

in

plots,

it

is

matter that Sarastro, cast for the role of tyrant

Tamino's recitative, em Unmensch. em Tyrann

guardian mother

wicked

Nor

its

little

drum

Dies Bildnis

bewitchingly beautiful) with

its

life.

felicities

sei standhaft,

— with aria.

of

is

duldsam und verschwiegen

taps pointing up each ist

word

bezaubernd schon (This

wonderful stretching out of the


I

'

diffe

en

words Simply become the the words, or. to put phrases which he can

it

Cransfju7e

^

beyond words.

own

"^"'"

"

them

'^^^'<''i

rmt^r:::: t^r "-^^ ""^"° ^- -

t^at

which seem clearer in e words Tn, them, such as the Bread Mlcht Stravinsky asked to be fed with respect. Quite rightly,

Hockne

oCe

we V'

subject of r.e

Ko^e^

"w.'''

"""

o

t

".

^'''^

'"''''

^.'^l^^^^^^^^ "'^ "' Auden

to the music which eventually h. With r.e M.„c f/^he

The

"^' '"""

'"

'''

^'h o^ '" ' """ ^^^'"^ ^° '^-^ / Mo "" "'" '° "'' °" ^°''' -^ 1 ^e '''" "^"^'^^ of

n

a language

-

^

^^

it.

^^^-8^

^^^''^''--n of

' "'^^'"'

^"^^

^<1--'-t.

'' '''

'^''^

^tTlTb'""^"° ^"'^ ^f^^" 'turned

r;r

""^'

"

^

^

"

^^.^

y,^^^^^^^^^^

tale

'^^

^^^ --<^^-

'^^'^

" '^''^"^''^^•

°'''^'^ ^ "^^-^''^^ about the downfall of the reckless e! ^°"' '^'^^^^"' ^^o falls into evil hands and thTf T''^""' '°'' ''" °'^""^ is a tale in ^-'°-- '^ whose ext vta" sta '' ^^'"'"^ ^^^^"-^^ '^^^-t^^- 't nothing of

''x'

Willingly

Z

the Salvation

Hockney

T

has

^"' ^'^'^^"^^^"-^

uu^e ^irHtT' " propert/i: :^t -^r

also

every stage

""' "

,

^trav.nsky and

^rf^^^^^^^l

of ironic pas iche

b^ed o

Mozart. There salsranot

T ' ?""'' ''f

^'^

^^^

"""" '"'"'"'' ''^"^"" '"^^'"^^^'^

'"

---•

^ased on

- ^^^ ;:f;r:or;:r: ^-"^'t" " "'°'''^"^' ^'^^^"^ed existentialist

Hogarth,anmor:i,tT:fr: in

the libretto,

is

.nH

A

.

"'"^'" " " '"' °' ''""^"" '"^° rI "^'^ Tom not ^° ^'^^ L y earchTlL °^L''"^^^'^ " "'^^'^ """'°"^ '''' utmost sense of big ThettcTudeV '"""''^

which the central ch rac e utmost. give the

make

infidelity

marriage blunts bore),

want,

death

''

,s

ean like

to any marria.. In

extremrsTff

Coc

is

really

L, poe J o

rec

more

like

in

M«^i

T

o

They

loving.

'"^^'"'"^'

''—

""""' ^^^^'^^^ TT' ^'" "°'^^" ^'^^ y*^

*^

^1:1

'''

^

'^

""''^"'^'^^^' '"^''"^-

""""'"• '^^^ A^trRrlTr^T '"" ^h°— John Berr^man

than like Hogarth's hero though /h

libretto score anH

'''!""' ""' ^""'

oTcel ^'^e A °

ea

Tom Rakewe

(as several

Rakewell

'^

''"pa.nng and

""in. witn •

''°"e).

.'

(ood. This

happens

in

73


74


imprisoning separation of each within

his

box-like

stall

of the

mad scene and

ending with the churchyard.

Every opera goer would agree, and character

Magic

in his

I

suppose, that despite confusion of plot

music, Mozart has

woven the

Flute into a unity of style unique to

it:

strands of action of The

entirely different

from

his

other

operas and from any other opera by any other composer Hockney has discovered

in his

characters and,

sets visual counterparts for the separate strands of plot and

like

Mozart, woven them into what might be called a

musical unity. His designs for The Magic Flute are as unique to that

Mozart's music. that they will be

If

is

no more

like this

than are

his

designs for Parade. Le Rossignol.

wittily and beautifully related to the fact that Stravinsky's

based on the art of Hogarth. Hockney

mixed

it

indeed rooted

in

designer of operas

his is

that he it

Tom

Trulove;

is

though itself

is

were, gone back to Hogarth,

yet very closely related to

is

all

of theirs,

His uniqueness as a

able to absorb himself so completely

into visual images

and yet which contain qualities of

Anne

it

loving experiencing of them.

music that he can translate

Father Trulove:

has, as

style,

opera

with Stravinsky, and with Auden and Kallman, and then produced

something entirely Hockney, which

Garden Scene from The Rake's as performed at Glyndebourne

as

he goes on to do other stage sets one can be quite certain

or L'Enfant. For The Rake's Progress he has also created a unique it

visual-

work

in

the

which are themselves musical,

his idiosyncratic

and recognizable

vision.

Progress Festival

Opera. 1975

Don Garrard Gomez

Jill

Rakewell: Leo

Goeke

Nick Shadow: Donald

Gramm

Auction Scene from The Rake's Progress as

performed

at

Glyndebourne

Festival

Opera. 1975

Sellem, an auctioneer: John Fryatt

Baba the Turk: Rosalind and

members

Elias

of the Glyndebourne Festival

Opera Chorus

75



Hockney at Glyndebourne John

Cox and

Martin Friedman

suppose, if you're asking me, you're wanting something a bit out of the ordinary!" (David Hockney to John Cox on being Invited

"I

to design The Rake's Progress for the Glyndebourne

When

the Glyndebourne Festival

Progress. John sets. Earlier,

Cox

Opera decided to produce The

some

job, but

with the devil would lead to

his ruin. In his

with the Glyndebourne Festival "on and

He was 1

its

Cox demurred.

For him,

deemed

a love of humanity, a quality the director

essential in telling the story of the once-innocent

became

off,

own

Tom

Rakewell vi/hose pact

words, John

man and

Cox

has been

boy, since 1959" and

the

came

in

director of production.

looking for an unconventional approach that would allude to the

8th-century Hogarthian origins of the Rake theme, yet emphatically

in

Rake's

discussion about having the Sundoy Times

Gerald Scarfe, do the

Hockney 's v^ork projected

1971

Opera.)

favored David Hockney as the ideal artist to design the

there had been

political cartoonist,

Festival

spirit of its

composer, Igor Stravinsky As Hockney

at a particularly difficult time,

when

his

recalls,

modem

the invitation

drawing and painting had

reached their most intense academicism and he was casting about for an escape from sheer technique. The Rake theme, which he had pursued in his barely post-art-student days, was especially enticing;

made

a series of etchings

reimmerse himself

in

it.

on that subject and

This

new experience

it

was

study for The Roke's Progress

colored 19'/.

X

inks, cue

1

libretto, resulted in

975

and pasted paper on paper

25%

Collection Gift of R.

The Museum of

L

B.

Tobin

Modem

Art,

New York

Glyndebourne's

one of the most

stage.

So

well

1961-63 he had

a simple

matter to

of working on an opera and

responding to Stravinsky's exhilarating music and the An Assembly

in

brilliant

Auden/Kallman

inventive manifestations to occur

received

was the

first

on

Cox/Hockney

collaboration that a year later they teamed up again for The Magic Flute. With this second successful joint venture, it was apparent that Hockney 's

77


talents

were not

limited to the design of 20th-century opera and that he

on the

could, with originality and style, take

As soon

as they

Hockney was no conventional suggestions for

all

classics.

began working together,

was evident to Cox that

it

was cheerfully free with

he

designer;

aspects of the production, not only for

For The Rake's Progress and The Magic

Flute he

character

visual

its

prepared himself thoroughly,

nuances of the music and libretto, and explored,

familiarizing himself with

through numerous sketches and cardboard models, ways of interpreting these.

From

the start, he thought of himself as a

partner

full

these

in

enterprises, with definite views about the character of the evenings and as

Cox

the collaborative process was challenging and unpredictable.

recalls,

The working arrangement between David Hockney and

director, at least insofar as

With David,

come

drama and opera

was a case of

it

inviting

and use the operas as

in

take off as

an

are concerned,

mere

is

My

hope was that I

demands of the

theater, scene by scene.

he was proposing was going

submerged

and done, but when you

as

it

role as

had

making

him of the

to insure that

what

work and that the operas would not be

to

know you

is

supreme

surrender

will

arbiter of all questions about

someone

invite

like

David Hockney

much of your autonomy. A

to

what

is

seen

team up with

small price to pay.

turned out.

Once Hockney was persuaded no handicap he and

also

right to

the designs.

in

Normally the director

you, you

I

a

interpreter

own

certain that these two operas would, in fact, inspire him, advising practical

like

genius would

his

saw my

from

different

artist established in his

inspiration.

he were at work on canvas or stone.

if

me was

between director and designer. A stage designer,

that normally operating

Cox

it

was

that his lack of theatrical experience

inventiveness that

his

initially

was

attracted Glyndebourne

about determining the look of The Rake. The 18th-century

set

engraving technique of William Hogarth, with

Cox

offered endless ideas and

says he

was

its

wealth of descriptive

enthusiastic about

detail,

Hockney 's

first

proposal which was predicated on these images.

When

come bock

he

and thus making

it

with the crosshatching idea, using the restricted palette

very

technique,

inspiration. In

a way,

an acid-etched

style

ink

(or The flake's Projreu

oncardboinj

16 » 21 ' 12

78

From the 1

975

descriptively.

the devil

in

A

it

was even more

I

was delighted because the idea was 1

for detail,

start.

it

8th-century

own musical

exact, for Stravinsky's harmonies have

opera came from Hogarth's

Rake's Progress, not the engravings. Once

action, content

them, detail Truhre'i Garden

model

own,

quality, yet the first idea for the

took a microsecond!

it

David the

his

coincided exactly with the sources of Stravinsky's

it

paintings of

much

Being a 20th-century utilization of an

so musically correct.

I

had accepted

was thereafter a matter of describing

and mood of each scene, and asking him

to

oil

this

to

match

from the whole corpus of Hogarth's work.

Cox wanted

the sets to function symbolically as well as

The benighted hero, Tom Rakewell. having made

his

pact with

the person of Nick Shadow, would be raised to dizzying heights of


^

MVf::,

^^, -»n

-"^^-Mk


80


Brothel Scene from The Rake's Progress as

performed

Tom

at

Glyndebourne

Festival

wealth and Opera. 1975

Goeke

Rakewell; Leo

Gramm

which takes place

Cox wanted

Bedlam Scene from The Rake's Progress as

performed

Tom

at

Glyndebourne

Rakewell: Leo

social status,

and experience

Cox

his inevitable decline.

measure the joys of the

in full

Festival

Opera.

1

975

Goeke

Anne Trulove: Jill Gomez and members of the Glyndebourne

Opera Chorus

make

to

Tom

garden where

In

the opening scene,

Rakewell and Nick Shadow meet,

certain the audience got the message that

Tom's

fate

was already determined.

My Festival

a

in

flesh

and Hockney were agreed that each scene

should reflect another step of Tom's steady descent.

Mother Goose: Thetis Blacker Nick Shadow: Donald

before

request to David was that

first

door.

an

Ir)

open the

way

artless

it

it

should be a walled garden with a solid

should be a prison for Tom.

He

should be unable to

because he lacks willpower (Only Nick and Anne Trulove*

door,

Tom's betrothed, representing opposite poles of evil and good, are ever seen to

open

Otherwise, the only idea

it.}

accompaniment there in

is

innocence

Anne's

in the

I

contributed was the swing. The musical

words sounds a

first

image. David very

bit like

wittily

saw

and wanted a couple of whores on swings

too,

it

to

scene, but there were practical problems lack of swinging space

Cox felt

in

a crowded

—

vivid sexual initiation

the subsequent brothel

not the lack of underwear, but the

fly -gallery!

there should be strong and cohesive

opera's most spectacular scenes, one

in

in

visual

elements

the brothel where

from Mother Goose

herself, the

other

two of the

in

Tom

receives his

Bedlam which

in

occurs at the close of the opera where he has been robbed of

reason by

his

Nick Shadow. So overpowering are the dramatic action and music scenes, that

Cox wanted

For the brothel scene

to contain

wanted

I

them

in

Mother Goose.

I

to assure

a strong visual focus. I

also felt very strongly that there

is

no eroticism

own, with catechism and folk song verging on nursery rhyme.

(p82) Tom's Room fRoom

model Ink

Tom

model ink

first

•

975

1

with Baba's Hanging Objects 1

975

model for The Rake's Progress 16

moral paradox

in

which innocence and "experience" coexisted.

One

of

its

These were

virtually toy

cupboards where,

Cox

"the

says,

couples retired, so to speak, to play with their toys." Hockney 's cellular design of people

in

boxes was repeated,

in

distorted perspective,

in

the

The three scenes of Tom's London townhouse morning room were entirely idea. In each set the room assumes a different identity. The first

Hockney 's 1

975

reveals the

room

in all its

elegance, indicating that

Tom

Rakewell

is

well

on

on cardboard 12

:

* Anne's family

Earl of

model

1976), and

for The Rake

on cardboard

Progress

1975

Opera.

name

has been spelled

in

one of two ways

in

previous publications; Trulove

in

the

Harewood's The New Kobbe's Complete Opera Book (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. in the Glyr^debourne Festival Programme Book I97S (Lewes: Glyndebourne Festival

Redlam

ink

it.

culminating Bedlam scene.

12

(P83) Tom's Room, Auction Scene

ink

in

prominent features was the series of small rooms to which the prostitutes

for The Rake's Progress

21

the second, he regains

the brothel scene. Hockney came up with an ingenious solution to the

on cardboard

16

and

the

In

12

Room

loses his innocence

also

counterpart to Bedlam, because

in

led their clients. Tom's

somehow be a

all its

was

I

/)

for The Rake's Progress

on cardboard

16 X 21

a scene

It's

suggested a large double bed as

the music, just a perverted innocence which has a delicious naivete

anxious that the scene should

both

In

within a strong, centralized design.

which, like Redlam, can go out of control, so a "throne" for

and

a creaky swing,

the potential corruption

1

975); and Truelove

Chester Kallman

(New

in

the opera libretto for The Rake's Progress by

York: Boosey

& Hawkes.

W.

H.

Auden and

I9SI).

81


1

m

f

!


m-


his

way

to the fame and fortune promised him by Shadow.

that Tom's sudden rise to affluence and social status

by making him a compulsive art collector.

the second

In

Hockney decided

would best be exemplified set,

the

room

exotic junk and takes on surreal character;

among her

bizarre trophies

innumerable admirers are stuffed animals,

birds, snuff

boxes,

busts.

is

transformed to a repository for Baba the Turk's collection of

drastically

Cox

fossils,

from

Roman

marvels at Hockney 's capacity to invest the same interior with

varying moods.

room scene,

The

third

and

certainly elicited from

alt in

block and white,

me

the

the

is

most bravura

and

as Tom's misfortunes increase, so color departs, In

Tom's year and

Graveyard

model for The Roke's ink

the graveyard scene.

Progress

1

975

a day of

Shadow

all

in

Cox

black; in fact, as

model Hockney made

technique to Indicate details of the design

complete "negative." prize.

The

hero

is

that the graveyard scene

black and he used a scraping

white.

In

It

was.

Cox

says,

a

and Shadow play at cards, with Tom's soul the

inspiration for this

Hogarth of two

must

Tom

splendid sense.

wages, the heavy price of

observes, the cardboard walls of the

were painted

for this set

made

this

visually

David said here that

profligacy, and the miserable

Hockney decided

on cardboard

should be

at last claims his

freedom and

given his choice of ways to die.

most bravura of all

direction.

ominous

Again, as with the bed

in

Cox

tableau.

figures playing cards on a

tomb

says,

— ond

was

re-creating this

was a

the brothel, a large object, the tomb, gave

sharp focus to a scene, and gave the character. Nick Shadow, a chance to play at theater a bit

Though Tom, by

tender feelings he once had for Anne Trulove,

recalling the

manages to win the card game and thus save render him insane. The poignancy of final

Bedlam scene where Tom, robbed of

be Adonis, pines for

his lost love,

Anne,

from whose rectangular compartments

we

life.

Shadow's revenge given

Is

he

Is

is

to

rein in the

calls

Venus. For this vividly

a large, crate-like structure

masked chorus

a

learn,

full

reason and thinking himself to

his

whom

dramatic scene the dominant stage element

sorrowfully. This design idea,

his

this situation

rises

and holds forth

developed from a more modest

scheme.

As an boxes.

early idea for this scene, I

David showed

happiest collaborative coup of all, for their

kinds

me

three or four characters in

suggested we should put the entire chorus

own

thing

(e.g.,

in

I

that awful Actors Studio

Marat-Sade and

in

boxes. This

We Come

way of representing madness of all

to the River). This way,

the chorus as figments of Tom's diseased imagination. Again,

of controlling the focus, and here

it

was the

hated the prospect of the singers doing

always had

to

be on Tom.

it

we could

use

was a question

We

had already

included his bed as a direct reminder of the Brothel (catechism on the latter to

Mother Goose; this

final confession

here to Anne). The "boxed" chorus completed

reference to that scene and was, incidentally, the only other scene that got

off floor level.

With The Rake, both Hockney and Cox were working from 84

similar 18th-


century

visual

conventions and the production style was

The Magic

start.

precedents and to a great extent each man went matters,

Hockney was working

New

in

The collaboration was more

difficult

satisfactory result theatrically

—

and,

much

was unable

I

were going

be working

to

my

guidance, describing

to

Australia.

One of the problems was that we were creative process much less than in The

—

do a theatrical monitoring job. Knowing that we

absentia,

in

way. To complicate

of the fact that Hockney created

this in spite

together during the

Rake, so that

in

fast visual

the end, perhaps led to a less

in

several stage pictures of great beauty.

not very

own

his

York and Cox

the

easily set at

on the other hand, offered no such hard and

Flute,

wrote a long scenic analysis for David's

I

ideas as they were at the outset, but this

was

only of

limited value to htm, because no real dialogue could take place. By the time

saw William Hogarth The

Industry

engraving

and

New York

it

was too

late

reconsider anything very radically, so

idle 'Prentice at Play in the

Church

During Divine Service

from

the designs in

tdteness

1

Yard,

because of deadlines,

realized then that

I

to

would have

I

I

ask him to to

people "his" Flute rather than direct "ours."

The designs

747

saw

I

model were

the

in

strong, striking

especially after the austerity of

color,

and

vivid explosions

The Rake. There was a

of

farrago of

10

and

influences, borrowings

but

sly

cross references to so

view, the only available unity for

David's style

found in

own work seemed

on

this

The

not worry me.

this in itself did

was the

it

to single

much

work, and so

Flute

is

many

parts of art history,

equally multifarious,

unity of diversity.

him out as just the

Many

right artist to

the popular theater of the English provinces, his

namely, Christmas pantomimes

in

my

impose

his

of the Hockney iconography can indeed be

these designs. Resides, both of our theatrical roots are firmly

in

and

aspects of

in

in

Bradford, mine

embedded

in Bristol

—

which short scenes of comparable diversity

are strung together on a loose, narrative thread, with no regard for tight organic

development or consistency of principle, I

am

and

it

clearly

was

sure, justified. (Indeed,

manned pantomime adherence

to

its

style.

That

is

we even

variety

to say,

also David's. This reference

back

to

is

the guiding

pantomime was,

incorporated the principle of the double-

horse into the scene of the enchanted animals.) Our

freedoms ensured a highly entertaining Flute, but perhaps

rather at the expense of the sublime.

Having designed a

series of static tableaux for Rake,

David was anxious

to

use the instrument of the theater with more resource, albeit traditionally,

making

sure,

meanwhile, that there would be no waiting between scenes. Far

from being jaded

contemptuous

or

by,

of,

such a simple business as flying

painted cloths up and down, he revelled miraculous, which

it

is.

can have sheer magic qualities and

away

Uccello's landscape melted

appearance.

Once

in

Similarly, the dissolving

seen,

to

however,

completely as required, and

this

this

it

and considered

was exploited

become a

starry

first

fly-gallery

it

was not

Act

I,

Scene

for the

I,

as

Queen's vanish

indication of the tiresome troubles

which dogged the technical realization of the design,

crowded

in

empyrean

the stars stubbornly refused to

was the

effect

its

of a scene through a scrim

for in

Glyndebourne's

possible to separate the two flown cloths

85


\><'-

^

(T^

\t^-

^ ^^

f'*-f'^j ^^o

:'"

^


And

suficiently.

Cox

as

unable to

ironically,

other scenes,

in

work

light the

modern

the

lighting

well—that

really

is

equipment was,

to say, as pictures.

mixed emotions about the outcome of the collaboration on The Magic Flute. While he was fascinated by the freshness and originality has

still

of

Hockney's

problem was to make these radiant enclosures support the was frequently necessary to improvise solutions to

sets, his

opera's action.

It

allow characters to go about their business. For example, he says the apartment in Sarastro's palace in which the heroine, Pamina, is imprisoned .

.

.

my

suffered most from

model

lack of contact with David during designing In the

looked well enough, but had no provision

it

and

for entry

exit

and

no sense of her captivity— benign or otherwise. The scene was saved quite fortuitously by the use of a trap in the Glyndebourne stage which enabled Papageno to do a relatively convincing excavated break-in, and to dispatch

Monostatos by the same

Cox

route.

realized that Glyndebourne's small stage prevented

fully realizing

about The Magic

his fantasies

achieved through

Flute.

Deep

Hockney from

space had to be

foreshortening and other perspectival devices of which Hockney was a master. His conception of the environs of Sarastro's kingdom, Cox says, was of "a superb vista, kibbutz-like on the edge of the desert. One saw at once the Utopian quality of Sarastro's realm." illusion,

Sadly, in order to

expose this to view, the city walls which should confront be dispensed with, leaving three small doors instead of temple portals, and no majesty or authority of architecture. I was anxious to show

Tamino had

to

what a desirable place later

— and gave David

Sarastro's realm

the

doomed

The several scenes of Act precincts,

They were

full

of bold,

— one has no

chance

real

most of which occur within the temples

II,

gardens and mysterious

its

must be

task of reconciling impossibles.

rich color,

were altogether more successful.

vaults,

strong geometry and brilliant tricks of

perspective.

Improvisation

seemed to have been the

rule during

many

aspects of The

Flute production, often with fortuitous results.

The scenes changed

remember

rapidly, if

the garden wall

not always by the most orthodox means.

Papageno's suicide scene being held up by

in

(I

six

unflinching stage crew crouching out of sight.) The lighting was more effective, being atmospheric and nocturnal, and spatially the acting area waxed and

waned

with a satisfying rhythm.

All things considered, the

action

and

the front,

most

effective scenes

were those

in

which the

the painted cloths were confined far downstage, carefully

and

the whole aspired

most nearly

frame. David's conquest of space was

still

to

to the nature

lit

of a picture

from in

a

come.

The most unsatisfactory aspect of our Magic Flute was the costumes,

TjuZr ink

The

on paper

"'*'''

MagK

Flute

1

978

'^''^'^ ^'""''' ^^^^^^'^'^"^ f^" ^^°rt

for

him

to

know where

^ook for the priests

to turn.

— David

We

of perfection because

had from the

derided the

Mormon

it

became

difficult

start rejected the Druidical

Tabernacle Choir look, and

I

87


wonted the sense of people working with Utopia rather than simply praying

and

world, western eyes looking east,

wearable Assyrian

look.

Some of the

muted impact and were perhaps

finished up with a hybrid

wrong

unhappy about them and often regretted go before designing them. wonders,

say,

if

had had

in

to build

and not very

David was very

model

to let the set

a void, and one

in

copy the Schinkel design

to

a

an exotic

had a curiously

fabrics, besides.

that he

designing the costumes

he would have chosen

Queen of the Night and their

He was

we were

principals' costumes, too,

the

in

hands and brains

their

into existence. Yet

it

for the

Papageno hod he hod

the traditional feathered suit for

environments before him as he worked.

Though Cox and Hockney seemed to diverge at various points in their conceptions of The Magic Flute, they were agreed on treating the opera as a wondrous, Utopian world where virtue triumphs over The Flute /

result

through the eyes of Papageno. creature like

Ren Luxon, had

present

to

the

its

want him

end

Pan, but in the all

emphasizing

his

right

I

let

qualities

them

there.

What

after

is,

who has

to

do

all

this

really get to

Hockney made frequent

whose Anne,

man had

positive

He

is

a

the great could

work

in

order to get in

the end.

know.

Magic

allusions to the spirit of the

heroes, Rakewell and Tamino. is

of maturity and

generalized princely virtue he symbolizes? Papageno,

their productions of The Rake's Progress and The

The Rake

go because the

it

whom

the dirty, dangerous

much

be a feathered

are never quite sure what Tamino really stands for

all,

we can

however, In

We

world very

enforced lack of fulfillment, slavery almost.

type of Everyman: the humble, worthy fellow without

never be great, but

who saw

it.

to

masculinity! The absurdity of such a costume on such a benefits,

Cox,

evil.

approach to

of Magic Flute at the expense

didn't really

I

some overgrown Peter

Papageno.

his

human content of my wanting

think the emphasis on the

of the sublime was the

first

ponders

as an earthy morality play,

make

their

initial

Flute,

Cox

and

18th century. Both

appearances as innocents.

ultimately a pessimistic tale of lost innocence and corruption

protagonist,

in his

eagerness to achieve wealth and fame, abandons

true love, and makes a pact with the devil. Rakewell follows his

his

destiny through crosshatched Hogarthian vignettes of gardens, streets and, finally,

to the madhouse. His "progress," however,

of degradation and only

in his final

innocence. The Magic Flute, despite is

is

uncomprehending

about the attainment of higher

its

a

descent through layers

state,

does he regain

his

pairings of appropriately suited lovers,

goals.

Tamino, wandering

in

dream-like

landscapes reminiscent of ancient Egypt, pursues wisdom, nature and reason.

He ennobles characters D.ÂŤ,d Hockney seated

m

front of an

rocky landscape set from Act

88

I.

oiomem

1978

of The

Mope

fiuie's

^'^^s of

in

life,

emphasized.

himself spiritually and finds true love

in

the bargain. The leading

the Stravinsky and Mozart operas symbolize

two opposing

which the direction and design of both productions strongly


Ik-

m

Till ^iik


U-L i)

A

K

\

h


The Rake's Progress as told

by David Hockney

Production series from The Rake's Progress, as performed

(/)

Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 1975. (See Opera Chart p 2 6) Anne: Jill Gomez, Tom Rakewell; Leo Goeke, Father Trulove: Don Garrard. Nick Shadow: Donald Gramm, Mother Goose: Thetis Blacker, Baba the

They

at

1

Tom Rakewell live in

their house,

though

Ellas.

in

Trulove, the daughter of Father Trulove.

the country. You have no idea of the size of it

very innocent, placid

Tom obout

Trulove decides to speak to Turk: Rosalind

Anne

to

the stage directions

in

Tom seems

garden.

engaged

is

domestic tranquility

seems

Sellem:John Fryatt.

advice

opera

(2)

is

Her

needed

the kitchen.

in

'Tes, father,"

father

tells

Anne

Tom he has arranged

prospect and declares (and I

stand,

my

I

IS

in

first

in

the

comer of a

impression. Father to

Anne

that her

as she does throughout the

a clerical ^ot

the garden.

think the libretto

Tom

borrowed

,'ur

is

this

'!,•'

in

the city of

not thrilled at that

from Martin Luther),

constitution sound," which suggests he hos other ombitions. At

the end of his speech he says:

gate

replies

be located

your

ond suggests

and departs

London and then he leaves Tom alone

"Here

to

thot's

his future

"I

wish

a myslenous-looking character

I

had money'" And standing in black,

at the

none other than the

garden

Devil,

Nick

Shadow.

91


(3) left

Shadow

says he

is

looking for

ore a rich

(7)

Tom Rakewell

England many years before, has died and

parents never mentioned one

man

When

"

"

Just like that! So Tom's wish

Tom who has been away

know what

do She decides

92

I

him

thot on uncle,

him a legacy Tom

believe, sir,"

seems

to

who had

says,

to

to find

for quite

him

in

"My

Nick replies "You

(4; f other Trulove affairs

order

in

and

fortune,

is

and encourages Tom to go (o London to put his Tom Rakewell and Nick Shadow, to receive the

quite pleased

Off they go.

at the

end of the scene Shadow

says,

"The progress of a rake begins"

have been granted.

scene three begins, we return to the Truloves' garden Anne

worried about

at night.

lo tell left

"They quarreled,

is

very

a while now, and she doesn't

London and leaves

surreptitiously

(8}

Act

II

begins

things, he's

but

Tom

IS

in

the morning

been spending

getting a

little

tots

room of Tom's fine London house From the took of money There's been a gome of cards going on,

of

bored these days

—

there's

something lacking

in his life


(5)

The next scene

is

Mother Goose's Brothel

roaring boys surrounding

Shadow, as we

see.

is

in

London,

Mother Goose, who wishes

introducing

Tom

with whores and

filled

to initiate

to the finer things

of

Tom

life,

herself Nick

the delights of

London.

(6) In the brothel,

He IS

Nick Shadow appears and asks him

the Turk.

Tom

says he has not.

mere glimpse of her desire her?"

Tom

"

". .

.

if he's

been

to St. Giles Fair to

brave warriors

.

see Baba

have swooned after a

Nick then shows Tom a picture of Baba and asks, "Do you

replies. "Like the

gout or the falling sickness."

I

"The

Whom

lips,

Tom idol

flirts

asked what love

my

(9)

replies.

name;

is,

is

of

osked wonderful questions; "What ail

dreams, the same

imagine as a hat he

strikes terror to

replies,

my

I

I

"Thot precious word

is

Pleasure, then?"

be a cat"

a

fiery coal

like

wear or

it

to

When I

It

he

burns

soul" But he does not really answer the question.

(10) Here, the story gets into a philosophical point. exercise his free will

is

V^hatever shape

Old maids believe

and do something he knows he

Shadow persuades Tom shouldn't

He

tells

him

to

to

Ignore those "twin tyrants of appetite and conscience" and to marry Baba the

Turk

So, taking

brings her

up the challenge. Tom not only marries the bearded

and her great

lady,

but

collection of exotic objects to his house

93


f

I

1

1

tn

(12) Meanwhiie.

a rawer grono scene, baDa ar

from the street coming

to look at

London finally, IS

says.

in

III.

which takes place

in

Tom's house,

Bobo's collection are being auctioned off While the auction

Trulove arrives

her

all

and asks where Tom

is

all

the objects

going on. Anne

The chorus of Respectable Citizens

tells

kinds of things He's gone off to Americo. "Spontoneous combustion coughf

him hurrying" He's dead

94

is

for the country.

The

leaves,

says.

"My

Tom who

city

is

am

"

impatiently asks.

and Tom

and

(IS) At the beginning of Act

Anne has found her way

procession Suddenly, she sees

her

"

wife

t

a to

Anne

to

Tom's house and watches the grand

greets her gently and also

bad place Baba remain

in

the Turk

here forever^"

says. "I see. then

it

I

tells

her to flee

and waits and

Anne asks who she who was unworxhy," that girl?" Tom

When Bobo the Turk asks, "Who was " To whom was in debt pet

brokenhearted

"Only a milkmaid,

is

sits

I

I

(16) As the auction proceeds. Se//em, the ouctioneer, points to something hidden

under the tablecloth her

)

"And now

excitedly.

(It's

Bobo.

stiK

covered with the cloth

for the truly adventurous."

Tom

angrily threw over

he says, and everyone starts bidding


(13) Next,

Bobo

Baba

he

is

the Turk

and Tom are shut

just does not stop talking.

the gifts her

bored ogam.

and

starts

her,

then

in

the morning

He knows something He

smashing Tom's crockery.

falls

asleep

—

room

together,

and

She sings that marvelous chatterbox ana about

many admirers have bestowed upon is

her.

Tom

missing from his

is

not amused.

life

Bobo

is

In fact,

annoyed

throws a tablecloth over Bobo to silence

there's nothing left for

him

to

(14)

Now, Nick Shadow wheels a strange contraption

wakes

sees that

the

lifts

the cloth

crowd she recognizes Anne

that theirs

is

and baba, indignant,

whom

a "true love" She

somewhere, wretched

tells

she realizes

Anne

tells

him

is still in

to find

the sale

it's

obviously

is

over

love with Tom.

In

and

Tom, that he's out there

see of

Tom

(18) The next scene

and a day services.

When Tom

money has been used to roise

money

in

up.

the

When

city, it's

for a while.

is in

after they

It's

room.

that can turn stone mto Shodow shows him what he hos brought The audience a fake, but Tom is gudib/e enough to fall for it, Tom is

excited by the bread machine, especially since his

we

into the

had a dream about a machine

he's

he and Nick Shadow go off with the breod mochine

do but sleep

the lost

(17) Suddenly, he

he says

up,

breod, whereupon Nick

a graveyard where Nick Shadow hos token

met You

realize that the Devil

Tom's soul that Shadow wants. Tom,

who

wants is

to

Tom a

year

be poid for

terrified, cries.

his

"Have

mercy on me, Heaven!" And Nick Shadow, being a gambler, says, "Very well A game of chance to decide your fate Have you a pack of cards?" then .

.

95


119) They play, and wiih each card

Anne

And

Tom miroculouily

he correctly guesses that the

Trulove.

When

a spade, leaning against a grave,

seeing what

to cheat

and

Poor Tom,

slips

stiti

fell,

the

first

Thinking of

receives a clue

card

falls over,

is

Tom

the

Queen of Hearts

cries out,

"The deuce!"

he says "the two of spades" Then Nick Shadow

tries

Queen of Heorts bock

cord

into the

pock as the

unable to think of anything else but Anne, says,

third

(20) Shadow, furious, admits defeat but says to Tom, "Henceforth be you insane'"

and disappears

into the grave

Anne has been

told

by the

The

last

jailer that

goes along with the idea that she

is

scene

Tom

is

in

Bedlam, the insane asylum

believes himself to be Adonis, so she

Venus They sing together very tenderly.

"0 Queen of

Hearts, again," and he wrestles the card from Nick Shadow's hand, thus winning the

game

(21) Finally, father Trulove comes to find Anne, to

ended and she must go home Once again Anne leaving

Tom

in

the

madhouse

tell

her that the story has

says, "Yes, Father,"

and they

exit.

(22) just as the opera

audience starts

moment

I

makes work

I

is

about

main characters come out and as the

to end, the

applaud, they raise their hands and

Though our

what you saw

96

to

story

now

Since the curtain

for idle hartds

And

is

ended

first

I

soy.

"Good people,

There's the moral to

ascended" The moral

that's the

end of the opera

is

draw

jUSt a I

From

that the Devil


'

K^tiV.r&Sit^.c**;.-

/7 -'Sk

u

J'"^^'

"J 4

;j'\

'ia»-

f'^ ^

J

III!



Designing

The Rake's Progress Martin Friedman and David Hockney

If

it

did

the

in

summer

of 1974,

Hockney 's subsequent development At

painter might have been different, indeed. a

come

Glyndebourne's invitation to design The Rake's Progress had not

when

drawing

style,

equal parts idealization and observation.

spontaneity of the 1960s official

his

work had by then assumed

character. For Hockney, the

1

970s was

a

and of

was

It

Clark and their

Sleep.

975.

1

No

double

1970-7! (Ossie and Celia Birtwell

accidental effects

those hermetic compositions, with figures posed their sparse surroundings. For

in all

1

974, and

were admitted

In

studied relationship to their subtle

modeling

in

and shadow, these people were strangely weightless beings. Hockney

only hints at volume exist

in

Mark Lancaster

also a period of such stately large-scale

Gregory Masurovsky and Shirley Coldfarb.

cat),

George Laws and Wayne

one another and to

place of the

Henry Geldzahler,

as

Evans, Celia Birtwell, Peter Schlesinger, Nick Wilder,

his parents.

portraits as Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy.

light

In

measured, quasi-

time of elegant portraits

colored pencil, crayon and ink of close friends such

Gregory

a

as a

was perfecting

that time, he

in

a flat

Hockney visiting

him

in

these

static, Ingres-like

continuum of mirage-like

recalls the in Paris,

tableaux

whose

characters

exasperation of

surfaces. his

London

urged that he abandon

his

dealer. John Kasmin,

who,

unrelenting academicism and

return to a free approach. But so determined was the artist to master descriptive drawing that, by his

own

admission, he had trapped himself

in

the

pursuit of technique.

At that time myself

to

I

had not been doing much painting because

draw

scrutinizing

it

better.

carefully.

I

I

I

was

trying to teach

would spend two or three days working on a thought

this

would improve

my

figure,

drawing because

my

eyes would see more. Kerby (After HoganI}) Useful Knowledge

Even before Glyndebourne wrote to him, Hockney had been casting about

1975

for alternatives to his compulsive drawing style. Collection The

Museum

Gift of the artist, John

of

Modern

Art.

New

York

Kasmtn and Advisory Committee Fu

As matters turned

Rake's Progress would be the vehicle for his release.

Though

out, The

at first reluctant

to consider the project seriously because he had no experience

in

opera

99


production, he agreed to talk things over with the Glyndebourne /

had only a general idea of what an opera production might

more

those at Covent Garden were usually productions. The only thing

conceived,

simply

Glyndebourne people

me

convinced I

I

I

had done

I

because

suited

it

in

the

didn't really think

I

Ubu

the theater,

knew enough

to

On

started

I

me

make

simply to

the

job, they

eight or nine drawings of the

make them

making a few drawings.

the advice of a friend,

Mo

MacDermott, Hockney decided to make

Though

designs as detailed as possible, leaving nothing to chance.

Court Theatre with

earlier he had provided the Royal

Ubu

told

I

do the

scenes and hand them over They would then interpret these and

So

was very

Roi,

Even though

did.

realized they expected

into sets.

knew

I

than ordinary theater

costly

work.

staff.

involve.

a set of

his

eight years

drawings for

Glyndebourne's requirements, he decided, posed more complicated

Roi.

problems.

Mo, who worked

He

London.

me

for

me

told

not look exactly as

wanted

I

stylized as opera, you

production

then a

Hockney had long been

1

975

on paper

7x11

to.

it

I

costumes

each

in

worked

for

a stage designer

decided

I

to

la

in

looks.

You must design the

scale models of the sets.

on the Rake

Mode. Intrigued with the precision of the these prints, he decided to apply

in

exaggerated scale to

in

make

fascinated by Hogarth's engravings

for Marriage a

similar patterning

also

realized that working with something as

crosshatching technique so prominent

front and Bock of Painting of a Pike

ink

had

must control how everything

three dimensions.

in

theme and those sketches for The Roke's Progress

bit,

not just to do drawings because the result on stage might

architectural elements and

all

the production. That style was particularly expressive, he

felt,

of

the jagged, linear character of Stravinsky's music. Using the hallmark of 18th-

century engraving was consistent with the composer's

own concept

of the

production. Stravinsky's music, Hockney says, "was a pastiche of Mozart's,

and

my

design was a pastiche of Hogarth's."

The misadventures ancestry; It

we know

was never a

it

written story.

and Kallman based of their own.

when

the

In

Hockney reminds

It is

a

their libretto

tale that

you deduce from

runs out. Instead of on ugly lady,

bearded

lady,

Raba the

had a very human

a soft spot for them, but boba. Ked Pantakwns

sketch (or The Roke's ink

on piper

low Progna

1

975

For

his

eye.

many

twists

ugly old

maid

Auden and Kallman decided

He

in

the early

is

a great

artist. It

understood mankind's

work also shows a certain delight

1

960s even

always seemed follies

in

and had

condemning

life.

his Roke's Progress series,

Hockney made sixteen two-color

using a technique combining etching and aquatint.

100

images. Auden

on the Rake theme.

To any English art student, William Hogarth that he

his

Turk.

did a suite of prints loosely predicated

me

have no literary

Tom marries an

Hockney was no stranger to Hogarth's work, and

to

us,

on Hogarth's scenario but added

Hogarth's version, for instance,

money

to bring in a

of the Rake,

through Hogarth's eyes.

The

idea for these

prints,

came


,

^

V

^


from

to

his first visit

and squalor, the himself

in

What

New

me

about

you didn't see

those

in

96

1

1

With

.

its

startling

was

I

But

/

the

he loses

the

in

Rake

thought the derelicts

in

and have

You see

little

I

made

seen

made

is.

he

prints,

For the last scene,

a stamp of

They

all

that

it

people

wear

I

a

is

Rake

I

his

modern

engravings

version of

this.

vivid personality, but little

Redlam,

/n

did a drawing of a

I

impressed on the etching plate

the madhouse, but you can't

in

T-shirts that say,

tell

WABC"

swing with

"I

radios plugged into their ears. Before that time I'd never seen

radios like those, they didn't exist in Europe. At

hearing aids;

York were just like

sixteen.

my

in

five faceless

which one the Rake

New

looked at

I

do eight etchings using the same sequences that

this quality.

faceless figure, then five times.

end

is first

Bowery

the street. Frankly, in the English welfare

in

thought, well, you could do a

/

just going to

but

did,

When little

York was the experience of walking on the

about

t/iot.

Rake's Progress

Hogarth

In his

extremes of wealth

setting for a morality tale, with

Hogarth's London When, a year or so later

Originally

by

New

lying

state,

A

in

the role of benighted hero.

struck

and seeing drunks

for

York

seemed the perfect

city

first,

thought they were

I

thought some disease had struck the young of

prints,

Hockney used

New

York.

a naive, near-cartoon style that lends itself

admirably to their themes of degradation and dehumanization. Even though

some

episodes, according to their

Kafkaesque

In

is little

frightful

mishaps and

in

Harlem, Madison Square

sense of time or place

the young

visions. In successive scenes,

succumbs to

occur

titles,

Garden and Washington, D.C., there

man

soon reduced to non-person

is

these

in

yields to temptations, status.

contrast to this extremely subjective conception of the Rake theme,

Hockney 's designs

for

Glyndebourne were hard-edged,

calculated to enhance every aspect of the story.

and

finely detailed

He knew

job was to

his

provide a coherent visual context for the action and, to that end, analyzed

He

the Auden/Kallman text, scene by scene. into

models which he conceived of

showing these for the

first

Everyone who was going

quickly incorporated his ideas

as three-dimensional drawings.

time to the Glyndebourne

staff in

they

saw

almost every

What

set.

I

didn't

them thought my ideas wouldn't work. hatching the entire set was too didn't say anything. to DtoOt

go

to

at the time

they thought

it

in different sizes,

test

my

idea

We

made

was a

and hung them up on the

the theater with binoculars, deciding

lots

some of

that

some thought

later learned that

the

had made a

I

was

was concerned about the crosshatching,

Glyndebourne and

hatchings

m Horlem

I

much

I

know

amazed when

the designs. They were expecting to see drawings, but

for

recalls

be involved with the production was there

to

producers, the prop people, the lighting man. They were totally

model

He

London.

mad

too. so

cross-

idea, but I

decided

of samples of cross-

stage.

I

what the scale should

sat at the be. If

it

back of

was done

Bedlam

too small. from A Soke's Progress etching tnd aquatint 12

102

16 each

1

It

would look

96 -43 1

on paper

checkerboard

came up

— and

like

that

a solid color

would be

with the exact size.

If

it

ridiculous.

was too So

/

big,

it

would look

mode some

like

calculations

a

and


r^f/iP

Tk

m I-. LJ

^gaitt9tn«tk/CL

t: k.^mULSl

VJ

^tAtntrndcri^

\

A.PVLLt.V !


/V)

W

**7

â‚Źr

'T? C

•?''

y

'f^^,^-

^ Baba'% Hanging Objects

sketch for The Rake's Progress ink

He presented

the Glyndebourne people with a

1975

executed

on paper

In

colored

each

Inks,

symmetrically

number

of set designs,

composed

one-point

in

perspective. /

think

t

arrived at the color for the sets this way. Crosshatching

done with a

single color But then,

technique that normally

is

don't want to do

black and white.

so

I

it

all in

We

have

to

use

some colored

simply chose what would have been standard printing colors

century.

I

bought good German

other colors

in

the design.

I

in

The Rake mainly

Though Hogarth's engravings were the most pervasive

In

museum

the 18th

as decorative

tints.

Hockney's Rake designs, more subliminal forces were interest

in

we

lines;

green and black. There are no

inks; red, blue,

used colors

elements. They are essentially

a graphic

is

thought,

/

collections of

all

sorts

Is

at

Influence

on

work. His consuming

reflected ironically

the bizarre

in

group of objects he has provided Baba the Turk. Though Tom's wildly transformed house scene,

Hockney

is

strongly reminiscent of Hogarth's treatment of that

has approached

its

design with glee and Ingenuity.

Crowding

the shelves, covering the walls and hanging from the ceiling of poor Rakewell's

morning room are such wonders fossils

as a sphinx, a giant snail shell, assorted

and the mummified crocodile. There

is

a

conspicuous analogy to Pop

Art: Hockney's enlarged crosshatching throughout The Rake generates an optical vibrato similar to that of the

(P 103)

Mother Goose's Brothtl

model ink

16

for The Woke's

on cardboard '

104

21

12

benday dot patterns

in

Roy

Lichtenstein's

paintings.

Progn

Indeed, the overwhelming impression of The Rake on stage line.

Sometimes Hockney's

fluent line

models

is

oscillating

a chair leg, a cabinet of knlck-


'^ 3

""'Ml •'>*."'"'

/

ni^,idel00^J^

and encouraged acdemcism's hold on Hockne,

,ncongru,«s. fe,i«,l ol.pa,ial

"~^7

seems Lke .he Hogarth draw.ng, o, a .andscap.

a. r,rs.

-P;- -h ™

;rpo;::2

aiogicall/

'

^""'^

J„

to be a more

-

to *"''

h,n,

,,„ „<,™,, dep.Oion

,,„ „„,„,, ,„

-.. .

:r„ " :, r^ o, .l t*s ,, . ».. ™»g.

a occupy the same space:

foreground rests behind Kerb, represenu an

a

row

s,gn

^,

^^^^

-J«

-J^^J

^

suspendeu

of trees Car aw.,.

-P»™-

^J';"J

''r„ '„,

L

pied ton.l.t,

::r:hr7.hro:r.;'r:nsana,og,.^^^^^^^^^

volumes, shown

in

arbitrary perspective,

-7''';^^^;^'';

^J^

:r:r^ro:r.r:::r!:;^^^^^^^^^^^^ large painting.

-^.

Hockney's Kerby

is

,ee growing from

it

a prophetic

work

would have

their

.n

sculptured

'^^"^7^;;.;;;;'^;

"-"«'°

hill

p„,e

and

sets:

"J^ ^J^;/;,,, endless

:s::;t:aX.rd:r\:rnp:^^x:«.»'"-.-^^^^ all

Cover for the program of The Glyndebourne Festival Opera paper offset lithography on I2'A ^

9'/i

Rflke's Progress.

1975

perspective in the process. rules of illusionistic

«

speinng of the

I

Sth-century art.sfs

(a..,ly na,.e.

105



The Magic Flute as told by David

Hockney

Production series from The Magic

Glyndebourne

Festival

Flute, as

performed

at

Opera. 1978. (See Opera Chart,

p 2 6) Tamino: Leo Goeke. Papageno: Ben|amin Luxon. 1

Queen

(1) There's a Prince, Tamino.

who

is

wandering around Egypt dressed

costume. A monster, a dragon, comes to attack him

monster and

is

rescued by Three Ladies who

kill

He

m

a hunting

faints in fear

of the

the beast.

May Sandoz, Pamina: Isobel Thomas Thomaschke, Papagena;

of the Night;

Buchanan. Sarastro: Elizabeth Couquet-

(2)

When

jovial,

he wakes up, Papageno. Mr. Everyman, has

easy-going character

birds for the

Queen of the

who

Night.

is

He

dressed

in

arrived.

Papageno, a rather

brightly-colored feathers, catches

claims he killed the monster with both hands.

107


(3)

At

this point,

Prince that

tell

lies"

was they who

it

with him. They

come back and say. "Papageno. that is naughty And they put a lock on his mouth They tell the

the Three Ladies

of you You shouldn't

tell

him he

is

monster and

killed the in the

all

three of

them

fall in

love

kjngdom of the Queen of the Night. The Three

(4)

The Queen appears and

tells

Prince Tamino that her daughter, Pamina, has

been kidnapped by a wicked man. Sarastro, and asks her The Three Ladies give him a magic

flute to help

if

he would go ond rescue

him

in

case he comes into

danger

Ladies give Prince Tamino a picture of the Queen's daughter, and he immediately falls in

love with the girl in the picture.

beautiful she

(7)

The

Prince,

who has found

Reason ond Nature, with what the

man

In fact,

ond nothing

He

sings a wonderful

ana about how

is.

is

iarastro's

suspicious, because

Queen of the Night it

does look as

if

told

there

kingdom and

is

its

temples of Wisdom.

what he discovers doesn't quite

him about

Sorostro's being such a

some sense of order

in Sarastro's

at all that looks evil At one point, the Prince plays the

tie in

wicked place

magic

flute,

made peaceable by the music, to surround this scene much as the animals con upstage

(8)

Papageno gets a chance

recaptured by Monostatos

and making them dance

are captured and finally meet

the evil one.

him

priests and, if he wishes,

their singing)

108

do not

like

bells

magic

bells

when he and Pamina are

have the effect of tranquilizing

his

m

Sarastro's

kingdom Sarastro

tells

Then Prince Tamino

of passage and

coptors

the Princess he

has rescued her from her mother, the Queen of the Night, who he soys

which brings wild beasts, charmed and (Tenors. I'm told,

to use his

The

off the stage. After a lot of confusion, the three travelers

is

he can join

purification.

told he this

is

now among an important

is

really

order of

brotherhood by undergoing certain

rites


They suggest that Papageno go with him, but Papageno

(5)

ofSarastro. his

own

He

lucky

agrees

charm

to

—a

occompony Tamino set of

magic

as he's afraid

resists,

only after the Three Ladies give

him

(6) In the next scene, the Princess

for help,

bells.

leaving

(9)

Act

II

begins with Sorostro and his followers singing beautiful music. That's the

George Bernard Shaw said was

came

Cod's voice.

to

journey and

Papageno

trials

(still

to

to allow

and

willing to

Cod ever sang

it

.

.

probably the nearest music ever

would be

that the two couples.

like this."

Act

II is

about the long

Tamino and Pamina and Papageno and

appear) must endure The high priest Sarastro and

Tamino

agree is

If

".

to join their

undergo any ordeal

brotherhood to

Tammo

win Pamina.

tells

them

his followers

he's a Prince

the prisoner of the slave, Monostatos; but

Papageno and Pamina

Tamino's love for her and she

bit that

is

Papageno rescues her when Monostatos, frightened by Papageno, runs

(

1

0)

Papageno

is

is

eager

go Papageno

dragged along. They begin the journey

immediately wants

to

break

it.

tells

off to ask

Pamina of

meet him.

to

outside the temple. They have taken a

a bird-catcher

free to

vow of

in

a very dark place, just

silence, but

of course Papageno

He's perfectly willing to go back to his quiet

for the town, but

life

as

he con't escope and agrees to go when he

is

promised a wife as a reward The Queen of the Night sends the Three Ladies who earlier rescued Tamino from the dragon to find out why the two men have broken faith with her. (She's obviously

don't get

an answer and the

been wotching everything

trials

that's

going on.) They

continue

109


(/ 1) There's

a scene

in

the

Queen of the Night

where Pamina

the garden

Monostatos, accosts her and

tries to

slips in

and

is

resitng

get her to marry him

gives

Pamina a dagger,

and the chief

He

is

her to murder

Sorastro The evil Monostatos overhears this and threatens her, but Sarastio, IS

just

bit,

behind him, saves

her,

explaining his philosophy of love

It's

slave.

a techer Then

telling

who

o rather funny

because immediately Monostatos says he's innocent, even after he's caught

(12) In the next scene Papageno breaks his

who

says she's his promised love

and

tells

vow of silence and

him he must swear

suffer serious penalties

When

young, beautiful

Papageno, but she's not quite ready

girl

It's

he swears

to

be

faithful,

has not completed the journey, so she magically disappears lost

her that he decides

to

talks to

to

an old hag

be true to

her, or

she reveals herself as o for him,

He

is

because he

so sad that he's

hang himself

red-handed.

(13) The Three Ladies reappear and say,

you?" As he plays the magic

bells,

"Remember

the

magic

Papageno comes out and there

duet when they sing each other's names and speculate about

Papagenos and Papagenas they're going

Queen of

helps her he can have

down as

to

the Night to toke o^er the temple

Pamina

m

have

bells

we gave

a marvelous

is

all

the

little

There's a last effort by the

She promises that

if

Monostatos

marriage, but the sublime light strikes them

they try to get into the temple

(14) Tamino and tests life,

toward

light

have now gone through the darkness and through the

made when

the journey

flute,

reaching a higher level of

interpret that as going towords the sun

I

Pamina are joined

in

a grand wedding

and they are taken

Everybody

is

Finally,

Tamino and

overjoyed that they have

into Sarastfo's priestly order

At the end

the sun's rays strike out the darkness, all the players are brought together

and everybody

finds

a universal theme

110

Pamma

of fire and water, with the help of the mogic

a partner In that sense,

it is

about the union of oil creatures,


'.^^.

^^ -l^ ^^^^^^ 1짜t'

lillLilil


't^^.


Designing

The Magic Flute Martin Friedman and David Hockney

The Magic Flute has undergone seemingly endless Interpretations since its 79 premiere in Vienna. It has been played as a romantic comedy about the 1

1

travails,

separation and reunion of

two

as a moralistic saga

whose

ambiguity

hands

its

comedic or

more Queen of

who

principals

on the way to

plot to allow for

in its

Far

too human

all

physical and spiritual trials

many

its

it

has been presented

must overcome innumerable

There

self-realization.

have at one time or another prevailed.

youthful quartet are the characters of the

the Night and the high priest Sarastro, the enigmatic personages

activate

the physical and psychological terrain the foursome must

Hockney

traverse. Yet as

points out, their roles are never precisely defined

and The Flute remains an open-ended drama with constantly

The Queen and her Three

Ladies,

who

things as difficult as possible for the wandering innocents.

her opposite

—

sorcerer.

the benevolent Sarastro

is

It is

he,

in fact,

Flute,

in

Hockney reminds its

in

^

us,

written

possible about

its

initial

as

popular

its

practice

the rituals over which Sarastro presides. Such in

late

18th-century Vienna

incurring considerable hostility

Before starting to design The ,

at least

music on commission. Since both were

references must have been relatively daring

P™^""

—or

of Freemason lodges, small coincidence that allusions to

the opera, especially

where Freemasonry was

drawing for The Mogic flute

rival

whom she falsely characterizes as an

flourish.

the Theater auf der Wieden, was,

members

determined to make

Her

with text by Emanuel Schikaneder, the director of

entertainment, and Mozart wrote

exist

meanings.

who presides over the harmonious domain where

Wisdom, Reason and Nature The Magic

shifting

rescue the hapless Tamino from the

giant reptile, eventually turn out to be agents of darkness,

evil

sufficient

is

readings, and under various directorial

spiritual qualities

interesting than

Tamino

sets of lovers, the aristocratic

and Pamina and the earthy duo, Papageno and Papagena;

Flute,

production

Hockney decided to at

from the crown. learn as

much

as

the Theater auf der Wieden. His

1978

crayon on paper

research convinced him that Schikaneder's primary interest was to put

'^

something

"'

'^

lively

and amusing on stage that would please

a large audience.


A

has been written about Schikaneder's exploiting Mozart's talent

lot

everybody runs him down. I'm just suggesting that he couldn't have been bad, because for him.

mean he played Papageno had asked Stravinsky done

It,

all

had been, Mozart wouldn't have written such sublime music

if he

suspect he was probably a

I

—

whereas a

of a ham, wanting to hog the stage.

bit

himself, didn't he?

something

to write

lesser artist wouldn't

for

.

It

.

.

was as

if

I

David Merrick

Broadway. Stravinsky might have

hove dared, because he wouldn't have

the confidence that his art could rise above any vulgar ideas the plot might contain.

money.

Mozart must have taken such commissions

often,

and not just

don't believe he did anything for base reasons. There

I

no sign of that

was treated

the work. Everything he did

in

for the

certainly

is

even

seriously,

the comedies.

Whatever Schikaneder's motives plot has increased,

interpretation

is

in

writing The Magic Flute,

anything, over the past

if

being

still

debated.

In

its

ambiguity of

two-hundred years and as

fact,

Hockney

its

admits,

Glyndebourne's production, too. occasionally lacked clear focus, because he and the opera's director. John Cox. had somewhat divergent views cases about

what should take place on

design problems

were

far

stage.

As

a result,

in

a

few

both agree,

its

greater than The Rake's. Given the vague setting of

the story. Hockney reflects, no single historical period could provide a

comfortable format. Although the really

have

library

found

I

it

libretto suggests

to look like

it.

takes place

it

When

I

decided to look into the quite inventive.

I

Old Kingdom Egypt,

1

in

the British

doesn't

it

Museum

8th-century European's view of Egypt and

found marvelous looking things, especially those that

were completely wrong. For instance, many they thought ancient Egypt looked descriptions of travelers.

in

began doing research

My

like,

designs for

artists

had made drawings of what

and these were mostly based on

The Magic

Flute used that naive

approach. They also reflect a Renaissance view of Egypt that you see

in early

Italian painting. In

how

considering

he would design The

fusion of exotic forms

beast that

assails

from

all

St.

century Florentine masterpiece,

London's National Gallery during

circa

for a lyrical

a his

George's spear painting

in

Hockney came to know

student days. The

if

Paolo Uccello's 15th-

more benign

in

beasts of

the forest, those improbable creatures charmed by the music of The Flute. came from medieval drawings of fantastic animals discovered while Hockney was browsing the British Museum's rare book room. The early Italian

Uccello

St George and the Orogon oil

Hockney opted

Tamino was inspired by none other than the ornate,

unfortunate, dragon impaled on

PÂťlo

Flute,

periods of history. The not-so-fierce scaly

1460

on canvas

22/.

'

influences he discusses are the ingenuously painted landscapes found

29/.

abounds

in

the near simplistic rendering of rocks,

Giono flight into Egypt.

fresco

Scrovegni CKapel. Padua

in

the

panel paintings of Giotto and his trecento contemporaries; such influence

Collection The National Gallery. London

1

4th century

opening scene.

A

highpoint

in

hills

and trees

in

The

Flute's

Glyndebourne's production occurs when

the huge Giottoesque boulder at center stage revolves and

splits

open to


Queen

reveal the

conceptions of

of the Night

Hockney's research into earlier

voice.

in full

opera led him to the romantic visualizations of Karl

this

German

Friedrich Schinkel, the eminent 19th-century designer. sky,

Schinkel's version, the

In

Queen

architect and scenic

appears against a magnificent starry

and Hockney thought enough of that dazzling notion to design a

variation

on

it.

Museum

His research also took him to the Metropolitan

number

Egyptian collection, where he found a

The dominant

into his unusual scheme.

room where Pamina the Metropolitan

Museum, was

its

Monostatos,

evil slave

one another But

seated, jackal-headed deities facing

enormous

feature, for example, of the elaborate

imprisoned by the

is

of Art's

of motifs that he integrated

monumental

his

staircase,

a pair of

is

major discovery at

which

in

transmuted

version dominated The Flute's great temple scene.

many ways you can

There are so

Cox and to

had discussed many

I

see things

my own

in

The Magic once

I

Flute.

saw

I

it

more

My

straight lines. Here's one example.

My

geometrically.

was a place of order and proportion and

It

Even though John

got into the music,

way. John had thought about Sarastro's

ideal place, a Utopia, but

abstract.

interpret

possibilities,

I

tended

I

kingdom as an

concept was more

expressed those ideas

Act

set for the beginning of

II

is

a symmetrical view of a palace garden that extends into deep space. The

converging feeling.

I

lines

of palm trees and the pyramid

suppose

if

had directed

I

been placed formally within that framework But John actually wanted them seated

in

if

the distance give you that

to

emphasize the

a circle on the

of Sarastro's kingdom was a kind of democracy. the text, they take a vote to decide

in

Sorastro and his followers would have

it,

Mind

floor,

set's perspective.

because

his vision

had a

point, in

you, he

they will allow Prince Tamino to enter the

brotherhood. The horns sound, the drums beat, they raise their hands and say

agree

yes, they'll

workers. So rulers

when

to

it.

they

When

and aprons.

are wearing blue robes.

see both sides of them

the visual

I

like builders

appear, they are carrying instruments: T-squares,

would have used. You see them

things people building a city

shirtsleeves

Once

John also wanted the priests to look first

in their

they're in the circle at the start of Act

II,

they

thought they should have two costumes, so you would

as worker-priests.

style,

however

hybridized,

Hockney, the next step was to use

it

Glyndebourne's small stage did not lend

had been established by

Because

to advance the action. itself

either to grand spectacle

or complicated scene changes, he cast about for other means to provide Karl Friedrich Schinkel

The Hall ofStars of the Queen Flute,

Act

I

.

Scene 6

)f

the Night stage design for The

l8'/i

dramatic

changes

illusionistically

1816

gouache on paper •

Magic

of

environment.

His

solution

was to use

many

as

painted backdrops as possible to designate different locales.

As

with The Rake, he decided to work with models. The process began with a

24 '/2

group of gouache paintings whose forms would be enlarged

Collection Staatliche Museen

drops. Integral to The Metropolitan Museum of Art's grand inspiration for

Hockney's Great

1932 photograph

Hall in

Interior staircase

The Magic

his

scheme were the

\

Glyndebourne proscenium.

In fact,

as

background

distinctive cut-off corners of the

he made a virtue of that architectural

flulc-

detail, using

it

as a point of

departure

in his

designs.

The

coffered,

beaded

lis



and otherwise ornamental

ceilings in the opera's interior scenes

proscenium's strong shape.

In

several pairs of smaller set elements

columns

— which,

would serve

made

— mainly

rocks, obelisks and classical

placed at either side of the stage

wings and heighten the

as

large color photographs of each

model of the Glyndebourne

echo the

Hockney designed

addition to the large drops,

front of the backdrops,

in

spatial quality of

stage, and used these to

He

each episode.

drop and wing element for the

work out

scale

the sequence

of set changes.

Because Hockney thought the central theme of The Magic Flute was the progression from chaos to order, this idea governed

Queen

beginning of the opera, the

untamed realm of unscalable mountains and desolate Sarastro's harmonious

on The Magic tapes and

he

done by eliminating Hockney). The The

artist's

977 photograph of Peter Schlesinger with the

1

statue of King

Egypt, circa

1

Rameses

300

B.

II

at f^it

colossal

had to be echoed

felt,

all

result:

terrain.

contrast,

In

pure geometry. While working

in

play in his

music on records and

its

be

designs. This could best

chiaroscuro ("No haze, not too many shadows," says

images that are strong, unitary shapes

almost

In flat,

poster-like style.

Rahineh {Memphis), near Cairo.

C

expressed

is

Hockney continued to

Flute,

purity,

its

domain

Thus, at the

his design.

of the Night's kingdom appears as an

covers a

that

mountainous landscape in

The Magic Flute

Hockney's conception.

In

production

in

relatively

a

is

amount of geography. Act

fair

In

Act

temple garden, the temple great wall of

must sun

pass.

whose

I've

hall,

something we wanted

Flutes. If

clearly

let's

make

spectacular phenomena: a

is

an epiphany

it

is

I

performed

in

it

—

a bright yellow

stage.

a fixed set you never get II.

It

can even seem

tried to stay close to the text.

decided,

I

make

it

so important in Act

is

to avoid.

a big room,

libretto requires

a garden,

two

a vault, and

extend the length and breadth of the

many Magic

seen

domain marked by

see a palm grove, the temple porch, the

The opera's concluding moment

the sense of journey which

clearly

we

II

a

room

and a gigantic waterfall through which Tamino and Pamina

fire

rays

fast-paced includes

the Queen's celestial realm, a polychromed

Sarastro's palace, and the entrance to the high priest's

three small temples.

I

let's

a garden;

make

if

it

static,

When

a great big room;

the

it

says

says the vault of a temple,

let's

look like one. By working in this

it

if

way and emphasizing

definite

scene changes, you would understand that Tamino and Pamina were on a greot symbolic journey. The idea was to show them always moving to some higher plane.

Because of the physical and

Magic

Pyramid and Obelisks

mode! for The

Mflg/c f/ule

photographs on cardboard, l6'/4

X

21'/.

X

1977 tissue.

12%

Flule

photographs on cardboard,

X

21

'/4

combinations of Glyndebourne's blinds,

transitions

model for The Magic

X 12%

1

977

spiritual

progression that characterizes The

he was forced to think about the production as a series of

constantly changing situations, rather than as fixed tableaux.

window

A Greot Hall

l6'/4

Flute,

full

and

partial drops,

intricate

like a

row

of

he could generate a rich profusion of imagery and make

from one scene to another seem

of having so

With

operated

many

set changes

effortless.

One

of the problems

was the time needed to accomplish

these.

tissue.

If

you are go/ng

to

do a

lot

of scenes for

The Magic

Flute, you cannot have


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even a two-minute interval between them. That's too long

the theater. If you

in

have ten changes, that would be adding twenty minutes to the performance which

is

much. You cannot do

certainly too

—

that.

Although, from a technical point of view he carried

his

theater design far

beyond that of The Rake, there were some disappointments. For example, by

worked out the

the time he had

he discovered there were no

drop combinations for each scene

intricate

the

lines left in

to Sarastro's kingdom. The chariot, to

gallery

fly

whose

the chariot carrying the Three Genies,

from which to lower

job was to conduct Tamino

had to be rolled

his irritation,

from

in

the wings.

However

The Magic Flute designs are

diverse their stylistic ancestry,

remarkable for their compositional consistency. back and forth with astonishing ease from one

from ingenious description to Sarastro's

kingdom and the

at

Glyndebourne

Festival

Opera,

1

978.

of realism to another, small temples of

from which the Queen of the Night by contrast the

simplicity;

and waterfall

fire

and the temple staircase are astonishing trompe

scenes Painting the set for the interior of Sarastro's palai

Hockney moves

these,

The three

startling illusionism.

giant rock

emerges are the essence of

In

level

Symmetry

is

common demoninator

the

events.

I'oeil

each scene. The pyramid, staircase

in

and temple door are at the center of each stage picture. Whereas the sets for The Rake's Progress are distinguished by their overwhelming linear quality. The Flute's sets consist of large

Hockney, for

compartmentalized color masses.

the inventiveness of

all

his design,

He

when

it

wings

to, say, an artfully angled interior

comes to

setting the stage.

the conventional stage

He

flat.

box

To

made

delights

ancient stage device, placing one painted

that end he has

the obvious

in flat

infinite space.

cutting openings

While making The

in

the great staircase scene,

openings over the balustrade reveal a sky the sky backdrop

is

fresh use of

of this

artificiality

He found another way

to

models he discovered that by

Flute

the drops, he could achieve such an

in

superbly accomplished

set with side

behind another to suggest vast

distance within Glyndebourne's small viewing box.

suggest

essentially a traditionalist

is

prefers the simple

in

illusion.

We

with rolling clouds.

filled

see this

which large rectangular In reality,

only a few feet behind the staircase drop, but the effect

is

of limitless distance.

Thanks to The Magic

Flute,

Hockney had to concern himself with the

relationship of stage lighting to color

ideas

on the models, he was

far

Though he had tested various

lighting

from certain about how these would work on

stage. A Room

in

model for The Magic

Flute

photographs on cardboard, 16 X

During the lighting of The Rake's Progress,

Sarastfo's Palace

21%

'

1

977

tissue.

for The Magic Flute

photographs on cardboard, 16

2l'/4

little

about the process and the lighting

That set was

relatively simple to light,

/

had kept

man

because

12

1

977

Things were more complicated with

The Magic

people who were going to work on

it

questions were asked.

"How would

came

you do

to

quiet,

was done

it

Flute.

When

knew

I

in

What

a graphic

style.

the Glyndebourne

see the model

this?

because

Robert Bryan was so good.

12'/.

Grove with Three Temples

model

so

in

London,

many

material would you use

tissue.

for that?"

And

so on.

We

had a long

session.

/

remember Robert

Bryan's

119


i^^^

-^

i^

WM


He

reaction.

"these

said,

flat sets

be very

will

for a long

Now, light to

model

can do

is

agreed

it

put even light on

it

and change

create an effect

light to

—

and danced

anything. Then he turned the

turned

to

to

do

with

it

work

me and said,

what had happened. have

color or intensity.

its

problem together Some scenes were

to solve the

I

had put

light.

wall of fire that Tamino

"It's

at

you can angle the

painted set All you

flat,

no good

It's

won't have an effect. Robert and

it

with the three-dimensional mountain. But

He

easy, in a sense

is

with shadow. You can't do this with a

scene, the lights flickered

set.

He was

much painted scenery

time and most of what he had worked on was three-dimensional.

lighting a three-dimensional set

moving a

to light."

difficult

especially concerned because the theater hadn't used

when he worked on

first.

lights

easy, like the first

I

sat in the theater

I

one

the waterfall

and

didn't say

back on and sat there looking at the

better this way,

isn't it?"

the flickering effect

in

I

agreed.

with paint

The same thing happened when we

I

realized

and we

didn't

tried to light the

and Pamina walk behind. Those painted flames needed

only a soft red glow, because the scene lasts only two minutes, you can believe

the

fire. If you

were

to

watch

it

for

much

longer,

two minutes you go along with the magic and appears and you believe that

for

you wouldn't believe it's

it,

but for

over Then a big waterfall

another two minutes.

Once Hockney and Robert Bryan had

resolved the problem of evenly

illuminating the flat sets, the tonality of each scene could be controlled.

would now be possible

result

it

colors

in all

As

a

for the audience to experience The Flute's

their clarity.

Everyone said the production was very way. because

it

was mostly the

colorful,

though

colors of the earth,

red ochre, yellow ochres. Even the blues were

did not think of it that

I

mud and

soft;

sand

in

Egypt: red,

they were Antwerp blues,

not vivid cobalts or ultramarines.

The Magic

Flute,

which encouraged Hockney to think

space, also led him to regard his

new work

as a

sculpture. But his painter's sensibility prevailed and the far

more

challenging to him than

mere

verisimilitude.

in

terms of time

It

game

of illusion

II.

Scene

Festival

I

from The Magic

Opera.

1

Sarastro's priests

Flute as

performed

at

was

was more interesting

to suggest endless space with fragile painted planes than to displace heavy volumes.

Act

arid

form of environmental

it

with

Glyndebourne

978. with the palm grove, distant pyramid and in

the foreground.

121



Hockney at the Met John Dexter and Martin Friedman

When John Dexter

proposed the French

Metropolitan, he regarded

do

it

triple

bill

company's director of production. His

as the

management of the work he had set out to

to the

as the culmination of the

initial

proposal contained

everything he thought the

Before Hockney 's talents

Met

the

about

it

as

—

Met should do to attract and dazzle its audience. were enlisted, Dexter had visions of that evening at

almost confrontational theater

— with more than

a whiff of

Dada

which the public would actually watch the production take

in

form. In "if

a 5 July

treated

exercise

in

1

978

memo

manner

the

to the management, he suggested that this program, indicated

in

the synopsis, becomes not only a small

the philosophy of theatrical mechanics, but an evening for us to really deploy all of our resources. In addition, it gives us an opportunity to turn

the

in

Met and the

plaza into a gigantic musical

to take every ride or play every

The

les Sortileges.

house, wrote Dexter, they .

.

amusement

— the choice

arcade.

No

will

one has

up to them."

is

order of presentation suggested was Les Mamelles de

original

Parade and L'Enfant et

.

game

Before the audience arrives

in

Tiresias,

the opera

be

waylaid by Darius Milhaud on an improvised stage

Studio group will be performing at about 7:30

in

the plaza.

pm-7:45 pm

An Opera

the

first of Milhaud's Operas-Minutes (eight minutes each opera, to be precise), time

to end with sufficient interval for the audience to take their places in the auditorium where everything else seems to be normal. The comfortable gold

curtain

is

down and

the orchestra

is

in

place

in

the

away, the conductor comes out and we continue with

pit.

all

The chandeliers go

the normal

flummery

of an opera performance.

He goes whose

on, describing his vision of the set for Les

stylistic

ancestor, he says, might be

Hat. During the Porode

gouache, pencil, crayon on paper 22'A

;

first

1980

Rene

Mamelles de

Clair's film.

The

Tiresias

Italian

Straw

intermission he suggests the audience could either leave

^^^ theater or watch the scene change. If the set

change

is

not amusing enough.

I

would suggest that they are able

to

123


turn to the second

Mtlhaud opera which can be viewed either from the terrace

m

or the plaza (if wet,

the garage area. Fire

Department permitting). Should

the open air not attract them, there will be on a level a pianist

works of Ravel,

Poulenc,

Satie,

capable of being listened

opening gala

podium on the Grand

(backed by one of the Dufy cloths from

to

this role will

level) playing

the foyer levels. (Dare

all

Tier

piano

His position must be central and be

etc.

from

C

hope that

I

be played by Maestro james^) After

for the

promenade

this

they are then able to return to the theater for Parade.

Though Hockney's name was prominent continued Parade.

his free-association

should, he said, consist

It

of:

one front cloth and one back cloth

The whole

Picasso.

place

in front

taken their

ballet

—

either Picasso or

In this

of one of these cloths. At the end of Parade when the ballet have

last

bows without use of the gold

curtain, they divide at the middle,

away

to reveal the

make the second intermission features. Hockney agreed with Dexter about doing

stage crew

who

to

case,

painted

Hockney pastiching

would be choreographed by Twyla Tharp and take

turn to the Picasso backdrop which flies

proceed

Dexter's proposal, the director

in

process as to the appearance of the set for

curtain,

with

its

a variation

winged horse and acrobats.

on

Picasso's

For the second

intermission feature preceding L'Enfant. Dexter suggests that the pianist

in

the

foyer play one of Milhaud's Operos-Minutes to gain the audience's attention.

Those remaining pit

in

the auditorium could watch the elevation of the orchestra

and the soloists and children's chorus taking their places. L'Enfant. he

says,

should

mimed and

be sung,

played out front and ought

to

represent a climax

in

the

evening of a clear statement of a theatrical philosophy that true magic can only exist in theater

when you show

quite clearly you have nothing

up your

sleeve.

Dexter's sing.

The

first

concept for L'Enfant was to have the

part of the wicked

He proposed

that various

representing

animals

in

little

boy would be mimed

members the

of the chorus carry

garden:

dragonflies.

in

soloists rise

and

ordinary clothes.

emblems or masks

bats,

frogs

and

other

characters.

While carrying the emblem or mask,

their bodies

element or animal would move and so the raised orchestra pit

in

must move as they think the

visual picture will

be standing on the

everyday clothes, acting out with masks. At the end of

the evening, order will be restored by the lowering of the comfortable gold curtain,

and the audience, as they

combo (American)

leave,

may stop to be entertained by a 1900-30 in the plaza, so that

playing jazz of the period

the absent composers

may pay

American contribution

to the evening.

a debt and the audience be reminded of the

Once Dexter began working with Hockney. his initial

idea: evidently, the

124

the street theater aspects of

scheme disappeared. There was another reason

management

for modifying his

did not share his enthusiasm for the ancillary


performances he wanted to occur outside the Met itself. Thus, the carnivallike events in the plaza did not take place, nor did a pianist offer Milhaud and

between the

jazz

it

if

the evening turned out to be less free-form than

took on other

His interaction with

episodes

But

acts.

he had anticipated,

qualities: intense lyricism

Hockney provided

and

rich fantasy.

seemingly endless sequence of which music, costumes and set elements were vividly interrelated.

in

a

There was no shortage of invention on the Dexter's

the Metropolitan

arrival at

followed a successful career

in

stage.

1974 as director of production

in

He was

England.

an actor

in

the

Derby

Repertory Company, along with such notable contemporaries as Alan Bates and John Osborne. During the run of Osborne's Look Bock in Anger at the

Court Theatre, Dexter assumed the

Royal

duties of assistant director

In

1963 he was invited by Laurence Olivier to the National Theatre, where he directed Saint Joan. Othello. The Misanthrope. Equus. The Life of Galileo. The Shoemaker's Holiday and many other productions. Having established himself as a director, he took on additional assignments in London's West End and on New York's Broadway.

Dexter's

first

experience with opera was the

1

966 Convent Garden

revival

of Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini and, through a chance meeting with Rolf Liebermann at the Hamburg State Opera, he was invited to direct a number of productions there, including

Budd and From

was

/

Vespn

Since

the

Siciliani in

came

Un

to the

Maschera. Boris Godounov.

Ballo in

House of the Dead. His

first

Billy

project for the Metropolitan

974.

1

Met.

have been very conscious that someone had to do something about making 20th-century works acceptable to the Metropolitan audience. Both James Levine and were agreed that we needed to present I

I

I

works by Berg. Stravinsky and other important composers. The question was how to go about it. came up with an economic solution: sell it to them I

through Dialogues des Carmelites, a 20th-century piece that was not too costly to produce. It did work— it did 95-98 percent business.

While doing Carmelites, to

be death

in

/ had the idea for a triple bill, which is supposed an opera house. To me, these three 20th-century French works

had always seemed Tiresias

and

related:

Parade,

Poulenc's

Les Mamelles de

Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortileges.

One of the

relationships, apart

Satie's

from the purely nationalistic one, was they were

World War when the Germans were about sprang out of French culture at a time when

all

conceived during the

thirty miles it

First

from Pans. They

all

was under the greatest possible

The three composers and Apollinaire, mode deeply aware by the First World War of the mentality of war, the waste of it. the mindlessness of it, attacked it with irony and tenderness. threat.

Apollinaire arrived in

19

17. so for

wounded from

our production

it

the front to attend the premiere of Parade

seemed

there

was a poetic point

using barbed wire on the stage to suggest that war forget the

theme he presents

in

is

to

be

mode

by

always imminent. Don't

the scenario of Les Mamelles;

"We need more 125


mis ml

!l

r/S^n

r

I

f/1.


make more

babies,

babies."

are French and for people

It

doesn't

who are

come through

not, the

in

performance unless you

barbed wire serves

to remind them of when, how and why the French government was ordering people to have larger families. The possibility of war surrounds us all the time and

particularly

threatens the lives of our children. By using a child and a harlequin at the o/" Parade and at the end of" L'Enfant, / hoped to moke the point

beginning

that

the only sanity for our children

is

only thing that any civilization

is

think, consider that

After bill

I

at the

briefly,

arts— music,

the

remembered by is when we come to educating our

had gone through the

Met

in

accepted.

painting, literature.

its

and we'd

art

The

better,

I

children.

battle of getting the idea for the French triple

asked David Hockney

I

at the Royal Court

to design it. I'd met him once, when he was doing Ubu Roi and had seen all his

work from the very beginning, because

I

used

to putter

around the

galleries.

I

had seen The Rake, which was very good, and Flute, which was very good, but Ubu Roi had some of the madness was looking for—so many parts it I

had so much,

especially the Polish

movement and

color

army

of

scene. His

England and everyone used

to take

long,

triple bill

chances with

fairly

know why

wanted

I

When went I

to say

we had a

design. in

it

I

thought about

to Los

my

in

common. I

wasn't

in

a

mood

very carefully, but not for

it

from the beginning without

detailed letter outlining

his

knowing

it.

I

idea for the evening, letting him

work with him and that

it

Angeles to talk to him about

it,

to

had the sense of of each other

thirty miles

lot in

was such a delicate operation that

its

because David was

wrote him a

also

thought could translate directly to theater But we'd

I

never really met although we come from within

The French

work

would not be

all

that easy.

he grabbed at the idea and

started working immediately on a

number of approaches to the three events. Dexter's letter to Hockney (25 September 978) detailed a strong scheme to create a total theatrical evening from three heretofore unrelated works. He also stated his intention to have the Metropolitan Opera present important 1

contemporary works and develop new audiences

would be the

for these.

The

triple

bill

step of Dexter's three-year plan. His letter expressed the hope that Parade, as the entire evening came to be called, would initiate and first

'.

celebrate this jump into another area of the opera house with a parade the things which have never normally been permitted in that august establishment." .

of

.

all

Dexter had already spoken with Rudolf Nureyev about doing the chorin recruiting Hockney believed he was assembling a strong artistic unit whose members would interact creatively. It soon became eography for Parade and

clear,

one 1

18'/-

led to courtesy

Andrew Crispo

a ballet

about the meeting of

Diaghilev, the creators of the original Parade.

24 I.

however, that Nureyev had an extremely different view of Parade. odds with Dexter's conception of its role in the triple bill. Nureyev

wanted to do

Curtom wit/l Square Stage and floorboards drawing for Les Mamelles de Tiresias 9i crayon on paper

Private coll

at

Gallery

Satie,

Picasso,

However,

Cocteau and

artistic differences

Nureyev's withdrawal from the project, to be replaced by Gray

Veredon.

127


Dexter's convictions about what constitutes theatrical experience have taken him Into areas other than "directing his arrival, his interest In

Met audiences and

When

David came

be done

stage." Shortly after

became apparent to

starkly elegant productions of Diologues des Carmelites

to look over the

to relate the vast

how

feelings about

When

really using three quarters of their

were always chopping it

was

actually

saw

off

it

I

we agreed

no way related

first

arrived there,

something hod

always had strong

and

visual

found they were only

I

in

the house you went, the

a letterbox opening. The proscenium size you to the

volume of the house

them

and used the proscenium's

the very back of the family circle

and

You couldn't

itself

off from the vital action

Carmelites and carrying on through

So, beginning with

that

I've

proscenium height. Those great gold drapes

the audience feel you were shutting

the gold valance

space,

and the further back

like looking into in

Met

stage to the audience.

the space could be used to intensify the dramatic

qualities of our productions.

more

on the

Budd.

8i;/y

to

in his

traffic

the visual aspects of theater

feel

full

Billy

Budd,

Now

height

let

on the stage. /

removed

you could

at

sit

you were seeing the whole space of

the stage.

David and

I

possible angles.

automatically.

have to discuss the issue of opening the stage.

didn't

away what

right

wonted. His approach was

I

Indeed, most designers working

They

look at the stage from

will

positions, not just the far

away

ones,

and make

know, one of the biggest problems you're going house

Itself

We

to study the

to

in

all

new house do that the awkward viewing

a

all

notes.

have

He knew

house from

is

said to David, "You

I

the actual look of the

have to find ways of breaking into that." Once David had

mastered the geography of the Met. we began collaborating on the production designs in earnest. Originally, the idea

after about six

months

was it

to

have Parade

seemed

me

to

in

the middle, not as a prelude. But

that the best thing

would be

exactly as the French would have, not as Cocteau's ballet with little

its

to treat

episodes, but as a simple parade before a performance introducing

elements that were going

to

appear throughout the evening

—

it

complicated all

the

not only the

characters of the child and harlequin, but also the visual elements that would help

tie

ball.

Our idea was

the production together

—

the alphabet blocks, the ladder

and

circus

that this motley group of acrobats, magicians, dancers

and

other circus types would perform in front of a painted curtain behind which the

audience would be led to believe the mojor theatrical event would occur. In

Mctroffoliwn Opero House.

ViewofSwge from Bock of Balcony cnyon on paper

18%

devising his

scheme

composer Henri Sauguet.

1980

estate.

" 24

for

Parade.

a friend of

Dexter acknowledges the help of

the original Les

From these sources he had

information on Satie's Ideas for Parade. Gary

Chrjrst as the Chinese

Parade by The Joffrey Ballet.

Con|uror

in

New York

the

1

973 production of

Costumes

128

1917 Diaghilev presentation

and of the Cocteau

He

also

photographs and

referred to Cocteau's

rehearsal drawings and diaries describing the preparation of the original

for this

production were reproductions of those designed by Pablo Picasso for the original

Six,

access to letters,

production

In

1917.

Though Parade was the

last

of the three

Met works

to

be designed, we


decided to open the evening with

and

interpreted time original

again.

It's

it.

a germinal piece of music that can be

realize that people get sentimental about the

I

Massine /Picasso collaboration, but when Massine was reviving

the joffrey

in

1973, he told the dancer Gary Chryst that the

was not a pure

reconstruction. In fact, he told Chryst

it

bore

to the original,

because he could scarcely remember

it.

So,

new

for

it

production

resemblance

little

people were really

being nostalgic about something they saw at the joffrey a few years ago, not that night in

1917 when

was

it

performed at the Theatre du Chatelet.

first

As Dexter's conception of the Parade evening evolved, he was

in

touch

with the venerable French conductor, Manuel Rosenthal, celebrated for interpretations of the music of Ravel, his one-time mentor. Rosenthal's

his

ideas about early 20th-century French music, his friendship with

made him

creators,

29 April

1

980

Dexter expressed

letter to Rosenthal,

bringing together this trio of French modernist works.

the critic Richard Buckle

who

the 20th-century theater.

its

Parisian

conduct the three French works.

a natural choice to

his

In it

feelings

In a

about

he agrees with

referred to Satie's Parade as the

doorway to

the letter. Dexter also invokes the spirit of

In

Guillaume Apollinaire, the visionary

who

called for the creation of such

program for the French

theater. In fact, the Metropolitan's

Apollinaire 's statement, which had appeared Les Mamelles de Tiresias and which,

in

Dexter

triple

bill

the preface to

his

says,

new

contained 1

903

play

continues to guide

his

thinking:

One

tries

A joy,

To replace

Which The

here to infuse a

new

is

play

this

pessimism,

more

in

than a century old.

was written for an ancient stage

round theatre with two

One

to the theatre,

quite ancient for such a boring thing.

Because one wouldn't have

A

spirit

a delight, a virtue.

new

built a

theatre for

us,

stages.

the center, the other one

like a ring

Round the audience and which would permit the expression of

The

big display of

our modern

art.

Putting together often without any visible

The sounds, the The

music, the dance, the acrobaticism, the poetry, the painting.

The chorus, the /

actions, and the multiple decors.

wanted the evening

humanity through Dancers from Nijinsky's 1913 Socre du Prinlemps with costumes by Nicholas Roerich. (This In

It,

the figures

is

the only

known image

of these costumes.

link, as in life,

gestures, the colors, the cries, the noises,

art,

to

make

several points, not only about the salvation of

but also about a

new kind of theater

Apollinaire

was important

to the conception

of the French

triple bill

were cut out and superimposed on the Roerich to the Stravinsky evening. Indeed,

backdrop.)

it

remains important to

by bringing together opera, ballet, drama and painting, Costumes

that could

for the

1

920 Sacre du Pnntemps. choreographed by

Leonide Massine. These and Roerich's 1913 version were closely related models for the

Hockney/Dexter production.

change

the re/otiofish/p of the audience to the actor Consequently, that statement by

strong,

unified statement.

I

all

hoped

Opera audiences no longer go

and,

later,

my work because to

to

produce a

ballet: ballet

audiences no longer go to opera; a few of each go to the theater. They need

to

129


be reunited rather forcefully and

that's really

what

wanted

I

to initiate at the

Metropolitan Opera over the next few years.

David and

I

met again

another couple of months

in

about the structure of the

triple bill

and

was

also

when he came up

blocks as a visual

theme

that the scenery,

in

dynamic of movement about to the blocks

he

Maurice Ravel, then decided spelling Satie's

decided on

to carry the

we

why

I

responded to spell

motif through the whole evening, also

and Poulenc's names. Thus the blocks became a device

got to L'Enfant.

/

then suggested

make up

other sides of the blocks to

and other objects

room

the

in

way we work

it

it

that

find acceptable by the

still

might be interesting to use the

the furniture

— and he

working out. So we sat and worked the

agreed

must have a

intensity,

how many we would need

would begin the evening and that people would time

for the

We

French operas.

and

feel

otherwise, you're lost That's

it;

We

around.

left

color,

its

He had produced

with the idea of using huge alphabet

to help relate the three

addition to

Los Angeles to talk

Normandy house and garden

half a dozen different versions of the Ravel. That

in

to discuss specifics.

well,

said,

the armchair, fireplace

would take a

it

out. Serendipity,

of

bit

that the word? That's

is

together.

For Les Mamelles de Tiresias David cubistJc set for the mythical

first

proposed a rather elaborate, nearly

town of Zanzibar

in

southern France. That was one

of the earliest versions. Not disagreeing with him,

said.

I

"Well, look,

wanted a very simple pastiche of an Edwardian musical comedy

I

three sets

made of cut cloth surrounded by the darker space of war" Hockney began designing Les Mamelles and L'Enfant in Los Angeles and in

1980, while

Dexter was

National Theatre, he

We

designs

Life

of Galileo at the

London

in his

studio.

arrived at a working method. Realizing the difficulties of developing a

design from sketches, quarter-inch model. /

London directing The

in

worked on these

had a

big one

made.

must work from a model. You can have a

said you

I

He

said, "I can't

was

It

work

at a quarter inch,

really the only

way

deal with specifics. Sometimes he can be exasperating.

Laurence Olivier for fifteen or twenty years;

for

it's

too small" So

could think of to get him to

I

I've

worked with

two weeks during rehearsals of

Othello, Larry disappeared from the world; you couldn't contact him at

was work/ng out

know

that

eventually

his

own problems, which he had

was happening,

come back and

it

was very

to give

difficult.

with the

same

drawing for Parade evening

gouache on paper

for a

1980

ago.

let

learned on Olivier is

I

absolutely

him go on

yes"

until he's

I

also just sort of say

talked himself out.

I

wait

moment until I'm sure, and say yes, that's what we agreed on two days Now we can get back to work. He would show me a model of a set and

I'd say,

130

and

I

an area which

one hundred ninety-ninth time and goes on

point, you just say, "Yes, David,

Othello! Othello! Othello! Punchinellos Changing Blocks

into

He

learned that he would

him time, and what

used on Hockney! Whenever he goes off irrelevant or repeats himself for the

I

all.

But when you didn't

to do.

can you cut a

bit off that or

take a

bit off this?

He

allowed

me

to

do


:.i±'«V':iiji.

m

m

W^,^^

5r mi2

«^^'

'0-^'


^^1


that. If

he hadn't,

and we

do,

As the

and

I

don't

know

if

we

could have worked together. Rut he did,

that's that.

action shifted to the Metropolitan stage,

himself with the great range of

Hockney

familiarized

scene shops, wardrobe, and the

facilities:

other incomparable resources that make up the Net's technical departments.

Though

his painted designs were faithfully enlarged, constant modifications were required to achieve the desired visual and dramatic effects. This meant that considerable improvisation was necessary. For example, the giant alphabet blocks that were to spell the composers' names had to be designed

for easy manipulation by the children.

Dealing with

Met and

human

Punchinellos, to

little

scale has been the problem from the beginning at the

that question

was basic

move

the larger in the child's dream.

them have some musical show-biz

most

We

kids.

difficult

We

to L'Enfant.

used children, dressed as

the exaggerated furniture about, I

instinct

making

it

look

all

used the children's chorus because most of and are used to being on stage without being

had a couple of those and got

problem David had

rid

of them. The

first

and

decide on was the right height for an

to

alphabet block that a child could carry. A row of blocks had to read as Maurice Ravel and a pile of them had to look like a piece of furniture from the back of the auditorium.

The rehearsal blocks were made of lightweight composition board and had the prop shop with vague markings on them. What the prop

come down from

shop hadn't understood was that the children would be able

from the back, so the back of each block had the front as to the element

considerable confusion lot

it

to

represented. This wasn't done

in rehearsal.

David come

them

see

only

be marked as clearly as

to

to the

and there was

rescue and

we spent a

of time that afternoon with the kids splashing paint on the blocks

to

make

clear their specific meanings.

Moving the blocks about had been worked out on the model, but working

it

out with kids of twelve, thirteen and fourteen was a different matter You've

got the questions of size and weight; are their arms long enough to

Have you miscalculated anything? You have it.

You explain

technically

it

to

to let

them

find their

lift

them, you explain they are Punchinellos and are

Their costumes will

make them

invisible.

them?

way around invisible,

David's being there

certainly helped.

Though positive

critical

— and

and popular response to the French

the box office reflected

this,

too

triple

bill

— Dexter,

was decidedly

after the

initial

performance, wanted to make a number of changes in staging that would strengthen his idea that the three works were strongly related and shared common themes. Through a child's eyes we can experience the wondrous effects of Child with Large Chair

drawing (or

and Fireplace

L 'Enfant et les Sortileges

gouache on paper

all

the arts and, on a darker

so long as war 1

980

is

a constant threat.

So

level,

the child's

individualistic

life is in

mortal danger

and self-contained were

these works that even with the theatrical device of the child and his harlequin guide moving from one production to the other. Dexter felt his message was

133


134


1

not as clear as a

number In

Parade

silly

should be. To ensure a greater sense of totality, he proposed

it

of changes for the 1982 revival of the French triple

bill.

plan to trim the ballet and keep things simple. There would be no people rushing about and going into the circus tent to see the show. /

I

would make no attempt

to

the subplots of acrobats,

There was too war. the child tigers,

much

and

go near the complicated Cocteau scenario with

managers and magicians doing separate

concentration on the relationships

the harlequin.

I

want a simple parade

clowns and Punchinellos appear

among in

all

things.

the figure of

which

all

the lions,

thus announcing the sort of

briefly,

evening it's going to be. That's what a parade is. Cocteau wanted one kind of parade: we. with Apollinaire. saw another kind emerging from these three musical events.

Our

original idea for L'Enfant

was

that at the

animals would begin to fight viciously

garden would disappear. You would be the revival.

I

still

hope

to get the final

wire so the child's cry for

a warning Indeed,

though

it

left

with blackness

image

Maman when

end of the garden scene the

among themselves and

I

all this

slowly,

and barbed

the

wire. In

wanted: a return to the barbed

happens

in

the garden

is

more

to the audience.

in the 1982 revival. Dexter made most of these changes, and meant that some of Hockney's costumes for the ballet were

eliminated, the evening gained

During a

final

technical

in clarity.

rehearsal for

Parade.

Hockney to collaborate with him on another

Dexter decided to ask

triple

bill, three Stravinsky works: Le Sacre du Printemps. Le Rossignol and Oedipus Rex. He had originally begun working on it with Jocelyn Herbert who soon left the project as she was unable to leave England at that time. As a result, the usual lead time

was

not available to Hockney and the production had to be realized within eighteen months. The sessions began at Dexter's house in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, where the pair rapidly decided on such fundamentals as circles'

and masks as unifying motifs. Shortly afterward, Hockney sent the director sketches for the Chinese emperor's palace in Rossignol and for the Oedipus set. Both drawings stressed the tiers curving around the Met auditorium and indeed these were incorporated

Hockney's note asking

in

the design. Scrawled on the drawing

Dexter thought the Dexter and Hockney were determined if

circular

was schemes might work.

that the Stravinsky triple bill should offer a strong contrast to the French evening which, for all its anti-war sentiment, was perceived by the audience as a warm and lyrical event. Aside from the fact that the works in the triple bill were by the same

composer, commonalities had to be stressed through direction and production design.' This would be an evening of

Stravmsky

Triple

Bill.

Study for Curtain

crayon and gouache on paper

1

98

ritual. The primitivism of Sacre. the artificial refinement of Rossignol's Chinese court, the preordained fate of Sophocless doomed king lent themselves to this concept.

The Stravinsky evening had an occasion for our saying

to

be more contained than the French one.

to ourselves

over and over again, "less.

It

was

less, less."

135



11

1

We

were making our homage

and

a story around a

telling It

was

theater began

all,

works related

one another The

to

and the

circle

right to

of masks

the

its unity.

You sensed these

was one Stravinsky evening and the

it

emotional and musical strength

intellectual, first

was the natural basic form.

thing

we

tried to express visually

Listening to his music, you're

aware and you're aware of his perpetual the audience. He once said to Manuel Rosenthal, "We have the

of the danger, you're aware of the challenge to

l<.inds

with somebody

circle

fire.

coming from Stravinsky was

feel

a

in

Stravinsky's music that gave the evening

weren't three Stravinsky stage works,

you

and the masl(.—all

to the circle

kinds of circles. After

all

risk

do everything except bore audiences. " Absolutely perfect! I love listening because of the tension, because of the challenge, because of the

to Stravinsky

demands

excitement, because of the

it

makes on me.

forces you to change your perceptions of

what

It

listening

forces your attention,

is.

Once last.

again, Dexter and Hockney had to leave the design of a ballet Though the circle motif had been decided upon, there was another

question

Sacre to be settled.

in

Where does

and Oedipus which suggest specific locales

it

until

basic

take place? Unlike Rossignol

— an emperor's

the ballet has usually been perceived as occurring

palace and

the

Thebes

murky realm

of generalized primitivism. Socre, of course, has long been a favorite of ballet in

companies,

largely because its sacrifice-of-the-virgin theme and violent percussive rhythms could justify the wildest gymnastics, performed under conditions of near nudity. In the publication, Stravinsky in Pictures and

Documents, by Vera Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Socre du Printemps described as a musical-choreographic is

unified by a single idea: the

locating

it

in

There have been

we

also

version coincides with Stravinsky's idea of

a cold, stark setting.

summer; so many

Stratas

many Sacres which you beautiful

naked bodies

think are taking place in high

fluttering all over the stage. Originally,

went much too "hot" with it; had a book on face painting that Teresa had given me, called The People of Kau, by Leni Riefenstahl. The faces I

were black-and-white and brown-ond-white and 1

Socre du Printemps. Socre Disc

/

98

1

began with that

gouache on cardboarci

Socre du Pnntemps, Socre Disc

idea, then drifted

//

1

98

Though David made a great number of sketches

gouache on cardboard

at the

I6%d

first

rehearsal they

seemed

Bonnefous sat with us and 3

Socre du Printemps, Socre Disc

VII

98

1

gouache on cardboard

I2d 4

really heavily textured.

away because David thought

it

was too

We hot,

though oddly enough, we ended up with very severe, painted faces, not unlike those photographed by Riefenstahl.

l6'/,d

2

is

that "represents pagan Russia and

mystery and great surge of the creative power

The Dexter/Hockney

of spring."

work

1

They had

to

he,

become heavier

classical line with coarse,

We

for the

costumes, on stage

too elegant. The choreographer Jean-Pierre

David and felt

I

we had

agreed they had to

to

be changed.

break into that rather beautiful

heavy material. The costumes didn't look primitive

gouache on cardboard

enough. Too sophisticated. David and Jean-Pierre went up to wardrobe, chose some other material, and made three or four new costumes much heavier

I2d

looking.

Socre du Printemps, Socre Disc

XV

1

98

We

liked

them and

said, "Right,

go ahead and do the whole

lot!" (This

137


we were

put somet/iing o\ a strain on the budget, but

end of the whole worth

we

thing, so

a

lost

Remember, we wanted our production

It.)

to

Freezing cold. Between every bar of music, the ice

When

the curtain

on

work other

to the next circle

fell

composed

to stress the

Sacre. there

still

under budget at the

of what we'd saved

little

was no

— but

it

was

be a bleak, Russian spring. is

breaking

effort to provide a transition

than through the front curtain painted with a huge

of green, blue and red segments. Although the intention was

ritualistic

among these works,

relationship

between each were abrupt and the change

mood from

of

Socre to the coolness of Rossignol could not have been

devoid of threat or violence, Rossignol materialized

in

the transitions

the feverishness of

more

drastic. Utterly

a delicate haze of color

and sound.

The

design for Rossignol varied

final

While he

says the inspiration

he had encountered

Dexter has

proposals.

first

the Chinese section of the Victoria and Albert

Museum,

a slightly different account.

David came up House.

in

from Hockney's

little

was 18th-century blue-and-white porcelain that

wandered

to visit

me

Derbyshire.

in

was

I

a hotel near to Chatsworth

in

Chatsworth had an enormous amount of porcelain, so we

Well,

around

under

eye

the

God knows how many

of

curators

photographing stuff there. The emperor's palace was there and so was the special opalescent quality of the porcelain glaze. In fact, the

wos already blue and white to

photograph that Rossignol

telling

IS

a

for

me

theme of Rossignol

even before David went off to the V and A

collection.

fairy story.

It's

neither a

dream nor a

fantasy.

a moral tale to children. The fisherman and the servant

two who recognize the absolute voice of beauty when they hear not. In the

dance

it

taken by the of

artist

ho research

m

London's Victoria and Albea

Museum as a

one of the

In fact,

for the design of Stravinsky's Lt Roisignol I

know

The

rest

do

who would be danced by Natalia

earliest notes

sent our choreographer, Frederick

I

Ashton, was that the fisherman was available for partnering

part

it.

a way of

ore the only

was our intention that the fisherman, danced by Anthony

Dowell, be the partner of the nightingale

Makarova.

These deuil photographs of Chinese blue-and white porcelain were

It is

girl

Sir Fred's delight in

complicated

impression of a bird moving through the

Once Oedipus had been

lifts.

you

air,

Also, if

— mainly because

you want to give an

lift.

Dexter began studying the Cocteau

selected.

text, carefully. Stravinsky required the soloists and chorus to sing in Latin, but

he

felt

that the narrator should speak

in

the language of the country

in

which

the opera-oratorio would be performed. /

got crosser and crasser with the

part, so

was

I

had

brilliant,

which

IS

but

it

got

my

22/1

138

30

Danccn Pushing Handi

1

98

then tried

it

cummings

speak

in

the I

I

way

think

it

translation of the narrator's

realized that cummings's version that lost

a

Cocteau speaks bit

until

I

got his

in

French,

of the purpose, so

schoolboy French to work and re-translated

Cocteau recording Socrt du Pnntcmpl.

didn't

harsh, distant, non-musical.

down and

gouache on paper

e.e.

to re-translate all the French.

rhy^ms and vowel sounds

lines.

into

I

I

sat

played the

my head and

again.

Oedipus Rex was

in

strong contrast to the silken Rossignol that preceded

it.


*^^

IXXXKX


OcdifxA

Ru. Smd^

for

Moslu

/I

1981

gouache on paper 23

-

29

Oc<tipu% Re*. Principcl Singen

and Chorum

gouache and tempera on paper 23 ' 29

140

1981


Again, the great scrim on which

green

was

circle

was emblazoned a monumental

raised to reveal a stage that

red, blue

and

seemed enormous, even by Met

standards. Unlike the turbulence of Socre or the fragile lyricism of Rossignol,

the quality of Oedipus was at once ominous and riveting.

were frozen Oedipus,

his

beings, with only a

mother

few

Its

protagonists

made by the Creon and the

hieratic gestures

Jocasta, her brother-in-law

principals:

blind seer,

Tiresias.

Attired in tuxedos, the chorus of eighty-two singers, seated in a line across the stage, close to the audience, formed a strong black and white unit

On

with the similarly-clad orchestra below.

were the protagonists

a red dais

of Sophocles's drama. Seated on a throne-like chair at the orchestra level

who

the English dancer Anthony Dowell

On

the

dais,

spoke the

was

fateful lines.

four attendants held huge white helmet-like masks over the

seated soloists and as each performer rose to sing a mask covered

his

or her

face.

Oedipus was

difficult to

teach the singers; to give them the confidence to do

nothing except one gesture, but achieve.

It

arrived that

The working

relationship

where each

point

first

felt

/

in

portraits,

to

how

it

was the

it

in his initial

letter to

is

t/ie

because the only way you're going

Dexter more

Hockney: they did

gamble was more than

him, "David, this

to you, so you'd better

easiest to

stayed.

between Dexter and Hockney evolved to the

a "creative collision." His

once muttered

that's

challenged, indeed pushed, by the other.

than realized the goal he posited

engage

intelleaual terms,

in

weekend and

justified.

perfect chance for one of your

to get

me

is

if you

have

me

talking

put a mirror on the wall and paint yourself into the

conversation."

When

he invited

find the time.

went around

We

me

to sit for him,

did find a date:

to his studio for

said

it

would be a pleasure, and

let's

a couple of hours and he started working, but

left

soon afterward to watch the

but

it

will

I

was Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

it

fun.

I

think

we

will

get around to

it

again

I

we

soort.

probably take another collaboration, or another Macy's parade.

141



Parade as told by

David Hockney

Production series from Parade, as performed Metropolitan Opera House. p 2 7) Harlequin: 1

at

the

98 (See Opera Chart, Gary Chryst. Columbine: Jane Muir 1

1

,

(I) Satie's

Parade does not have much of a

to introduce the characters

who appear

story, so

as the triple

we used bill

the ballet as a

way

progresses

Chinese Conjuror Dave Roeger

(2)

The evening opens with a group of soldiers moving across a

wire, searchlights

and a French

the soldiers removes his gas

flag

make up

this rather

mask and uniform

to reveal

battlefield.

Barbed

grim scene &ut one of himself as a harlequin.

143


(3)

He

IS

ihe guardian spirit of a

little

boy

safety At one point he drives off a soldier

gun. Instead of the

gun

whom

he leads from the fury of war to

who

attempting to hand

is

the harlequin offers puppets of himself

this child

a

and Columbine.

(4)

When

the harlequin

and

the

child leave

down a red

harlequin looks up and pulls

curtain

the

circle

Some of the

costumes bring alphabet blocks onto the stage and

line

of barbed wire, the characters

them up

in soldier

to spell

"Enk

Save"

(5)

The harlequin then seats the

will

observe everything Then the harlequin returns to the center of the stage and

litOe

boy on the prompter's box from where he

with various gestures introduces the evening's cast of characters

appear only

m

the

Save

ballet,

Some

will

such as Columbine, the Chinese Con)uior and the

Stage Manager Then costumes are direa quotes from Picasso's 1917 designs

144

(6)

Other characters who ore

include Therese, from Les

in

the Poulenc

Mamelles ond

and Ravel works come on stage They

Ihe cots from L'Enfant et les Sortileges

As the bo/let ends, the blocks are arranged

in front

of a blue fleur-de-lis curtain

This time they spell the words "Francis Poulenc," to prepare the audience for Les

Mamelles. the opera

to follow


1\'i

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i

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Les Mamelles de Tiresias as told

by David Hockney

Production series from Les Mamelles de

Tiresias. as

at the Metropolitan Opera House. 98 (See Opera Chart, p 21 7) Therese: Catherine Malfitano. Gendarme: John Darrenkamp, Husband Davtd

performed

1

1

(/)

It's

town

in

a

mad

plot,

a plotless

little

Holloway. drudgery, too

(2)

him

She wishes

to

much housework,

be something

they're going to

exchange

is

Zanzibar, an tmagmary

and Monte

fed up with being a

too

else,

roles

many

and

mam

woman

Carlo.

The

set

characters are

— she ^inks

it's

babies.

so she ties

up her poor husband and

and he can take care of having

happens: her breasts (red and blue balloons) beard. She

m

Mediterranean port town. The

Therese and the husband. Therese all

that takes place

play,

France, somewhere, perhaps, between Nice

looks like a typical

fly

tells

children.

It

away and suddenly she hos o

and her husband change sexes and she becomes

Tiresias.

a man. and

leaves home.

147


Two

(3)

drunks. Lacouf and Presto, appear

other says, no. we're

in

Pans. They argue

One

and

says, we're in

finally

have a

Zanzibar and the

duet.

They

pull their

guns at the same time and shoot each other dead. A chorus sings about the death of Lacouf and Presto

and he

falls in love

tries to

moke

—

they think

it's all

who

with the husband love to him. the

Presto enter again, they have

is

shame A gendarme makes an entrance now dressed in Therese's dress, but when

a

husbond puts him off and he departs Lacouf and

come back

to fife, rolling in

on scooters Everybody

sings

iS)

(4j

Then

The husband then decides he can make more children by using the cubist idea

He

behold, he

makes a journalist' Rut

rips

up a newspaper, puts

attempts lo blackmail him. And,

it

in

the child

a pram, puts is

in

some glue and

a disappointment

like the first reporter,

he

is

la

and

to his dad. for

gently sent

owoy

he

II.

the

husband has already given

whom

nursing.

he's

husband, thinking that the father of so

One It

many

children

little

birth to

Some

perambulators at the front of the stoge, A reporter comes

in

are

dance by

more thon

in

a row of

to interview the

must be a very

rich

man

of the children has already written a best-selling novel, and the husband gives

to the reporter to read. After

asks him for a loan and

some unfavorable comments about is

politely

/t

the journalist

thrown out

(6) Finally, Tiresias (Theresej enters disguised as a fortune-teller After a bit of

soothsoying. she reveals herself as a to the fact that they'd both

woman

to her

babies, not

war

husband and they come around

be better off as they were, a proper

The sex changes are reversed. They are again

make

148

intermezzo between the acts a govotte. o

open up on Act

thousand children, some of

forty

finally

of collage

there's a small

the time you

man and

wife

man and woman and the point

is,



>^,

>^

J.


L'Enfant et les Sortileges as told by

David Hockney

Production series from CEnfant

performed

at

the Metropolitan

Opera Chart, p

et les Sorijieges. as

Opera House. 1981. (Se Hams. Mama: Isola

2 7) Child Hilda 1

Jones. Princess: Gail

Robman, Mr. Arithmetic Joseph

(I) L'Enfant

ts

about a

little

Normandy. Colette wrote the opera occurs.

I've

been

to

boy who has no name, the setting story

around 1917

—

that's the

ts

a farmhouse

period

in

in

which the

Normandy and know those farmhouses. She describes beams and a large fireplace. I

the house as having a very low ceiling with

Frank. Fire Ruth Welting. Grandfather Clock David

Holloway. Squirrel: Florence Quivar, Dragonfly: Ariel Bybee.

(2)

As the music begins, you imagine the

room, and these are mysterious room. You don't

actijolly

fire

to the child.

making dancing shadows

Anyway, the mother comes

see her, you see her huge shadow on

in

the

into the

t/ie wall.

IS!


(3) She tells the child that until he's

done

alt his

homework and been

may have only dry bread and tea without sugar She leaves a Wedgewood teapot and a china cup on it and soys, "Now, baby"

he

baby — "be a good — want being good

boy'"

"/

(7)

Then the

fire

to

When

she leaves, the

little

a good boy

tray with a black

— she

calls

him a

boy says he's fed up with

be free and wicked, wicked, wicked'"

leaps out of the fireplace and says,

Tou know,

fires

con

worm

'

the ashes put out the

fire.

The

fire

chases him around the room

until, in the

end.

He

he tears the wallpaper off the

wall, a strip with

rips

he pokes the

fire,

shepherds on

he pulls the pendulum off the grandfather clock, and he

up the

it

comes down,

fairy-tale

book

been reading.

(8) Little

shepherds and shepherdesses come dancing off the wallpaper singing a

very tender, sad song about little

how

they were torn apart from each other

when

the

boy tore the wallpaper They do a beautiful dance, the shepherds go off one

way and little

152

rushes over and smashes the teapot, he breaks the cup, he ;obs the

squirrel with his pen. he pulls the tail of the cat sitting by the

he's

people but they can burn very wicked boys Burn' Burn' You are wretched and you shouldn't behave like this"

(4)

fire,

boy

the shepherdesses another with their pink sheep IS

sod

and blue

trees,

and the


(5)

boy,

Then he

sits in

like this

the boy

little

Louis

XV chair,

sing,

you wretched

complaining about

Then, suddenly, out of the book rises the go/den-hoired princess

happily ever after

really

I

I

in

feel sorry for

the music.

who

my book and now nobody knows whether you" She

is

feel sorry for you. She sings a beautiful

tenderness are

(6)

When

they have finished, the grandfather clock runs around the

"You wretched boy Even else? You are

I

don't

know

the time now, so

wicked and you shouldn't behave

how can

I

tell

room it

to

singing,

anybody

like this."

is.

"You wretched boy! You have torn live

move about and

We'll be glad to see the back of you- The

and does a dance with the

how wretched

(9)

the armchair that begins to

you shouldn't behave

fauteuil sings

Then she disappears

says. I

will

saying, you are wretched, but

ana and

all

into the book.

her anger and

And

the

little

boy

(10) Out of a lesson book jumps a noisy, crooked

Mr. Arithmetic, the book

jump a

who lot

of numbers. To the

little

36. 6 limes 2

94.

schoolmaster character.

boy's delight, the

and so

shouting S times 4

is

with

he runs around shouting

this, naturally,

little

starts rapidly reciting arithmetical problems,

is

all

on.

the

The

and

also out of

numbers run around

little

boy

wrong sums as

is

so thrilled

well.

says he's fed up with books as well.

153


(/ /)

Eventually

all

the

the block cat. which in the

is

little

sums disappear and

now

giganvc. Through the

garden The white cot

the boy

is

window

alone

it

starts singing to the black cot

unlike the love duet of Tristan

and

in

the

room with

sees a huge white cat

and

their

duet

is

not

(12) Then the black cat leads the boy into the garden and this marvelous music

goes

mad

The claustrophobic room disappears

garden "Oh, how marvelous

it

awful things that happened

Isolde

toward the huge tree

in

is

to

The sap

is still

m

him

the

in

to reveal

a beautiful, moon/it

the garden," the boy says All the

room have disappeared He walks

the center of the garden, but the tree says, "Oh, you

wretched boy! You stuck a penknife that

be back

to

coming

out.

in

my

side yesterday, you shouldn't

You shouldn't behave

have done

like that, you're absolutely

wicked.

(13) Then o dragonfly

What you them on

did to

the door

my

comes up

sister'

to

him and

— an awful

thing to

do" And

up and complain about how wretched the boy he

IS

"Oh, what a wretched boy sister

and pinned

then the squirrels and frogs is,

They complain so much and are so angry

they're all running

154

says,

You took the beautiful wings of my

around and one treads on the

how naughty he

is,

ot the frightened squirrel

come

how wicked

little

boy that

(

1

4}

He and

When

the boy sees the injured squirrel, a

takes o/f his neckerchief and say, well,

and, singing. the curtain

l/es

up the

"He

is

good, he

comes down, he

is

little

squirrel's

perhaps he's not too bod after

all

wise," they lead

calls for his

mother

compassion overcomes him.

paw

All the

They decide he

him

animals wotch is

redeemable

to the great tree where, as


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,


Designing Parade Martin Friedman and David Hockney

As Hockney and John Dexter began working on the French triple bill they realized that strong measures would be required to unify the evening in the eyes of the audience. While it was important that the ballet and two operas retain their identities, they sought to relate

them dramatically and visually In Dexter's mind the three works were redolent of the atmosphere of World

War

I.

Though

Apollinaire had written Les Mamelles de Tiresias as a play

1903, he rewrote

in

it

1917

as a

Francis Poulenc was in the audience for its premiere at a small theater Montmartre, though the opera score was not composed until 1945. Also

the year 1917, Colette wrote the script for what would 1

924 operatic gem, L'Enfant

The problem was how to

in

strong anti-war statement and the young

become

in in

Ravel's

et les Sortileges.

stress their spiritual and stylistic relationships

in

Hockney speculated about ways of using visual themes would carry over from one work to another Before addressing the issue

the Net's production. that

seriously, itself

however, he had to master the cavernous space of the opera house

and understand

its limitations as well as its possibilities. He began by making numerous drawings of the stage from every conceivable area of the auditorium from the side aisles as well as the high tiers. Some were

minimal, consisting of a few scrawls and notations, others

were

detailed

renderings that took careful note of the curving balconies. After Glyndebourne,

he found the Metropolitan auditorium to be somewhat intimidating; he

wanted to know

it

what to put behind

thoroughly from the audience's view before deciding its

great curtain.

Obviously, the major difference

between Glyndebourne and the Met

Glyndebourne everyone sees the stage front.

At the Met, the stage

many people The Set oil

for

Parade

on canvas

*° '

^

1

980

look

floor

down from

'''°^^ '" '^^ "^''^- ^^^''

^°^

in

the

same way

is

that at

essentially as a flat

has to be taken into consideration because so

the balconies. In fact, the best seats,

I

think, are

°" ^^^ i°^- ' ^°^ '°'<^ ''/ ^°"^^ P^Op/e that One shouldn't do the Ravel or the Poulenc in the Met space, because both '

^°'^^"

operas are far too intimate for

it

I

disagreed.

I

felt

you could do anything you

157


Glyndebourne

Bird

$

Festival

Opera House

eye views of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera House

and the Metropolitan Opera House drawn at the same scale demonstrate the radical shift required of Hockney when he nx>vcd from the picture-book simplicity of the English country theater into

158

New

York's

nrx>st

elaborate space (or musical drama.


Metropolitan Opera House

159


wanted I

in

that theater

if

you didn't think about

must admit, though, every time

whenever

thought about

I

Gathering up

conventional ways.

in

Met

stage.

space. Imnnediately, he constructed a cardboard

"Otherwise," he

says,

speculated about motifs to

from the

stacking the blocks, a

T

Punchmcllo Carried by ink

cpo

at

his friends

1

8th century

children's chorus

on paper

Collection

Museum

of Art,

Rhode

Bequest of George P Metcalf

Island

School of Design

off the stage

spotted a newspaper photograph of

a

suggest "this might be our solution."

whelmed by what he encountered

Hockney took the

at the Frick.

you looked at every single drawing

In that exhibition

show of Sth-century

Italian

I

some and

drawings can be a

Picasso could

His technique was

line

has

now

in

a

They're

so fresh.

is

When

facility.

the

In

in

sepia,

which

18th-century Venetian

Met production, an

stylistically, particularly

idea that

made

since the Parade ballet takes

sideshow atmosphere. Also, there was the precedent of Picasso's dell'arte figures in the

1917 production. For these reasons In

Hockney 's conception

of

bill.

gove the Met wardrobe people the Tiepolo catalogue, pointing out that each

punchinello was different uniform. They

all

have the

ones and

little

with

potbellies"

little

He wanted would the 160

drawn

world, the punchinellos were Everyman. Hockney decided to

the punchinellos assumed increased importance

/

life.

disappeared.

with their breathtaking

commedia

the triple

drawing. Not even

you see those drawings you realize that

use these as characters throughout the

use of

fine

taken with the wit and social content of the Tiepolo

as

sense dramatically and place

A

— you

with a wash to suggest volume, but the formula never

that bit softer

skill

Hockney was

scrutinized them.

boring sometimes

that Those Tiepolos have unbelievable, fantastic

like

bothers you because everything

that particular

and was over-

skip two or three, then you look at something else. But this

draw

makes them just

California to

in

hint

— you

bit

one was stunning. People have forgotten about such

as

A

by the

Tiepolo drawing

then on view at the Frick Collection and phoned Hockney

images

an instant

in

the Ravel opera.

in

bottle-green punchinello attire, complete with ruffled

in

who

by John Dexter,

artist's lusty

cue

a

and masks. Hockney says the punchinello theme was suggested

collars, tall hats

look at

small

Next, he

the beginning of each piece. By rotating and

few simple props could be created

second unifying idea was to have the blocks carried on and

_

scale."

he came up with the idea of alphabet blocks

notably the chairs, fireplace and giant stack of books Giovanni Domcnico

its

together the three productions. Taking

tie

name

nrionumental

its

model equipped with

"you could never sense

child's toys in L'Enfant.

to spell the composer's

grew bigger

Hockney returned to

Los Angeles to think about designing the three events for

figures.

it

it.

of sketches of the

his stacks

space

its

was away from the Met,

I

ones, fat

I

said,

tall hat.

and

"If

thin ones, chic

punchinellos on stage

soloists

you look

closely,

it's

not a complete

every one wore a mask, but there are

in

and dowdy ones, babies

every possible variation.

and the chorus of L'Enfant

et les Sortileges

tall

— some

Not

only

be dressed

In


this

mode, but so would the Nets

Of the

three productions, the ballet

-ndsabout,ts,nterpretat,on

u

.r

7

'"^''

. !

^° '° ^'^h gusto

would be no

Ther?wLi:^^

. e'etl

g

e«us^eventheP,casso-des,gnedprorct::-^

^om the proto-surrealist -«en. Once Picasso

^

narrative about

w, h ^'^h

r"'°"'

"^^

that suited him.

It

h,s

ban

^

o

^ '"adical

departure

''''

^^^

^'''^

i'^^^SX:::^^^^^^^^^^ °'--^e

^^^

^ '

^°-- ^^^ IZ"' T'' ^°-^^-y approval :• : '^^r ^ ""^- -^--^ '"'^ ^ got

.o//e, everyone

..d

Consequently,

^/^^ .e

took whatever

co./.do

liberties

...e^r .e fe,

/oJX :riT °^^ 1

given Parade's erratir ;«'e obligation to follow the

^"''^^"""'^"^'e.

""^"^

^^^-y fe,t --/ o

^"^

CocrL"">'' - eshow characters-the ringma "' ''^'"^'"^^ ste ^CoT" Chinese ''' ""'^ ^'^^'"''^an gentleman-and opted

f

for a fre

5w,*5

T

S-l and a

'

fir"-— -^^^^^^^^ :rr --est

^"^- - ^^:^ -^h^ '

of the program.

'"""^

'

"^"

'hat

^°^^'--its

-^

—1,

action introduce the

;^pr::::—:;-_e^ Punchinello's

Masks

^' ""''

"^ -'" t'T -.s,c suggested

drawing for Parade on paper

^°//et

22'^ X 30

Sortilege^.

ink

"^

^or

. sce.e

yilloin

drawing for Parade

P-cassrwlTootg ''7^e had to be '0 /'o.

;^ ''^"""^

/

ov^his

desalt

felt

cyes^ga

r

1

''^-

'

r^"^"'' ''°'

C . T'^'"'' ^'""te typ,.g ,/,e ,,„,^

T T'

'''''

deeded

to

--

''"'

./, sorts

'"

o'

tJ

^^^'Enfant et les

°"''"^' "-ions, the

w;h:t:/;r^^''r^ «-

about takin, /

.L?;; vv,

spirit

of

Performa^::

^"'^^ P-"oZZtlTV':""'"'^^ '""^^ ° ^-^d co.. ,^07,2;' '/o'e., t/,e.rorgeto6o.t,t.H,scmc,n/b;

161


162


Parade was a charming,

traditional painting of a circus with harlequins, clowns,

winged horse

the audience

was supposed

when

everything;

to

it

was

I'd

the theater; every work has to be brought to

cubistic city

which

never thought of reconstructing

the original Parade. As far as I'm concerned, there

bill

was a

raised, there

be shocked by.

life

is

no fixed work of art

by the people doing

in

it.

Well before Hockney came into the picture, John Dexter wanted the triple introduced by an ominous battlefield scene, evocative of World War I.

Hockney duly provided the coils of barbed wire, adding bright searchlights aimed into the audience. From the crowd of soldiers, one emerges and removes his gas mask and uniform to reveal the costume of the harlequin, the protector The set undergoes rapid transformation to the carnival scene whose major element is an old-fashioned French music hall proscenium with a child's

heavy red curtain. Because

Satie's

music," says Hockney, this

seemed the

a real curtain. Though

It's

Parade begins with the famous "red-curtain logical

hod drawn

I

it

flat,

way to

start things

we made

it

off.

up elaborately with

bends, loops and

folds. It could be pulled back for entrances. Above and behind was the suggestion of the big tree that would appear in the Ravel garden scene and some of the sky from the Poulenc opera. The idea was to have some of the characters in the ballet be those the audience would see later

the curtain

we were

that evening. That way,

getting back to the original idea

a parade

before the curtain.

Thinking about the

ballet,

Hockney made innumerable drawings and

gouaches based on the Picasso curtain, but favor of the red curtain, a ubiquitous 1

960s. His fantasy

knew no bounds when

to the vivid attire of the

little

for the other performers. gigantic female breasts,

one

red,

whirling ballerina

one in

a

blue,

it

decided to drop the idea

in his

came to the costumes.

In

addition

costumes

the memorable characters on stage

man

— with

in

paintings since the early

punchinellos, he invented outlandish

Among

played by a

finally

theme

were

a

an arresting set of polychrome

who was wheeled

French tricolor tutu;

about

in

a baby carriage; a

a pair of giant cats;

the carnival

barker; a scurrying waiter bearing a teapot and cup on a tray.

Hockney offered the audience a few tantalizing clues about what would The top-hatted impresario, huge-bosomed lady and baby buggies

follow.

foreshadowed Les Mamelles: the cats and the tea service would reappear in L'Enfant. However, because the ballet's action and decor were so kaleidoscopic,

were not readily apparent to the audience and, in retrospect, Hockney and Dexter felt they had overloaded it a bit with people and events.

such connections

/

think a problem arose because too

not need that

many

After

all,

there

simply an introduction to

all

that

few people realized Two Dancers oil

on canvas

of the evening, once they linked

To Collection Sir John Sainsbury

this at first.

rectify this, a

December

1

982

number

many

was no

characters were included.

We

story being told in the ballet.

It

did

was

would happen on the stage. Probably, very

Perhaps some were aware of that by the end it

all

together

in their

of sideshow characters

revival of Parade.

Once

memories.

were dropped

in

the

the stage action was simplified, the

163


between the

association

and the rest of the evening's events were

ballet

Hockney

considerably clearer. But even with those changes,

was not wholly

ballet

felt

the brief

what took place on stage

successful, because

did not

truly reflect the introspective quality of Satie's music.

Cocteau wrote about a rather pathetic

good enough There

a sadness

is

pale and,

an audience

to attract in

the music,

the end, you

in

for

and we

who were

troupe of actors

little

what was going on behind the

The music was

couldn't deal with that

were probably looking

much on

at far too

not

curtain.

stage

in

relation to it

According to Joseph Clark, the Metropolitan Opera's technical director, even after Hockney delivered

his

models and gouaches to the

problems to be solved. "The

technical

how

opera to the next,

drawing for Lei Momettes dc

Tiresios

980

the evening would

be settled as the production took form. With Clark and

Hockney and Dexter worked on the problems on

crayon on paper \8V'

1

how

24

were

there

staff,

how you would get from one work

the surround of barbed wire would

context of the whole evening, and Curtain with Curved Stage

specifics of

together" had to

his

crew of wizards.

and error

a trial

within the

fit

basis.

It

would do.

various set elements, hoping these

As John and David put the show together, we found out what was

Sometimes

required.

beginning strain

—

this

director

from what we'd

different

all

up

can also allow them

it

minute.

to the last

It's

to

be a

lot

really

assumed from

system of working, though challenging, can put a

on people. But

creative, right

was

it

was

which the technicians would fabricate

a gradual process. Clark recalls, during

more

bit

flexible

the

of a

and

not locked into something that the

and designer might have decided two years

before, without actually

having had the benefit of a rehearsal. Fortunately,

David was around

all

we

the time, so

could try half a dozen

ways of doing something and asking, "Which one do you one works, what do you think?" Usually he agreed.

was

the challenge

what we

liked

there,

He

think this

no Because

everyone had fun working on the production and he

Les Mamelles, says Clark,

fluidly into

We

did.

was

a perfect

example of such collaborative

problem-solving by the designer, director and technical

The issue was

like?

rarely said

to retain the simplicity

staff.

of David's design, to move the elements

place and to light these effectively.

What you

see looks like very

simple scenery on stage. You have an empty, dark stage, a show curtain, two portals

and backdrop. But appearances are misleading, not

special pipes

hung with

backdrop and an

window

lights

drawing for Lcs Mome//es de gouache, crayon on paper l8'/i

164

X 35 y.

Les

All

it

iron staircase that allows

comes

hypothetical

Now,

all

Therese

to get to the

that scenery

town of

were emphasized

in

liresias

are two

is

flown

in

second the

air,

level

and

you can't see the staircase and you can't see the

you really see are three pieces of scenery

Mamelles de

Tircs/os

into view,

visible

equipment that illuminate the portals and the

to address the audience.

by the time

Zarxzibar

lighting

It's

tricky.

(The Breasts of Tiresias) takes place

somewhere

in

the

Cote d'Azur. Its ironies the Dexter/Hockney production. The great gender

Zanzibar,

along the



166


zealous to serve the Republic, in which the heretofore obedient wife, while her hapless husband is takes on the attributes of a man, beard and all, comic facade of relegated to the breeding and care of endless children, is the

switch,

mordant

this

As

tale.

a narrative,

make

its

an absurdist

It's

full

It's

of

Apollinaire play.

points out, Les Mamelles

makes

blithely turns reality upside

down.

Hockney

anti-war point,

The

play.

mad

it

plot

doesnt

events that together

really follow

make up

sense.

little

To

or\e thing to another.

from

a kind of collage. Probably,

was self-conscious about making what he thought was a cubist do not know. The it. What that means,

Poulenc said he "de-cubified"

I

music certainly took a great deal from the French music hall. of ceremonies standing Les Mamelles opens with a top-hatted master translated this design before an enormous fleur-de-lis curtain. Clark's crew pink crayon from a small Hockney sketch executed in blue crayon over a

background. By

was

created.

incising a design into the blue overlay, the pink

kind of look, but trying to

was

again a trick.

fairly

with that look on a large piece of scenery quality," he says, "we used a piece

To match the drawing's

of dyed blue velour, then

with

come up

flower pattern

a little impasto, a certain

The drawing, Clark remembers, "had

in

heavy paint that

a sort of reverse process, the pink

built

up the same kind of thickness.

was put on

We

got the

effect that David had achieved."

same

goodbye

Once the master of ceremonies makes his departure, waving hole downstage, the with an elegantly gloved hand as he disappears into a fleur-de-lis curtain

design

is

Mediterranean

Dufy

vistas of early

in particular.

Hockney

forms that make up and "tabac" is

raised to reveal beautiful

is

once confectionary and

at

sign.

downtown

Zanzibar.

sunny style

biting. Its

Hockney 's

recalls the lyrical

20th-century French painting, those of Raoul

has added a dash of

a plausible village square,

Cubism

in

a

complete with

few architectural a striped

awning

His ability to absorb and selectively employ diverse influences approximates the in the Mamelles sets. While he

especially apparent

on Dufy vista, the large stage picture is also a wry commentary well-worn cliches. Thus, the mindless tradition of "village square" art, with its generations Hockney 's set is an affectionate bow to those innocents who for

feeling of a

Under his fluent have painted nothing else but picturesque little vignettes. amazing new vitality. brush these all-but-exhausted forms suddenly assume In

Les Mamelles.

backdrops, one

in

Hockney

has painted his village scenes

front of the other, using the

on

a series of

same portal-within-portal

sets. design that characterizes the Glyndebourne Magic Flute /

made two complete models

for this,

one much more cubist than the other.

Then. John Dexter said he wanted to do in front

Cubistic Bar

drawing for Les Mamelles de crayon on paper isy. X 24

Tir

it

of very simple drops. That's why

with footlights.

like

we

an Edwardian review, basically

did

The characters' entrances and

audience before they actually enter the

it

as three very simple drops exits

can be seen by the

set.

167


/

thought the cubist model was better at

one was much better

The most triple

successful and stylistically consistetit

were those

bill

but John said, no, the other

first,

for his purposes.

the script, with

its

for Les Mamelles.

Of course,

costumes for the French the freewheeling nature of

amorous gendarme,

liberated wife, victimized husband,

newspaper vendor, newspaper reporter and fashionably provided

a

wealth of opportunities. For the town

attired populace,

Hockney

ladies,

alluded to

the sculptural silhouettes of the early 20th-century French couturier, Paul Poiret and, as with the punchinello costumes, he provided the Met's wardrobe staff

some

with an illustration of

patterned material of

The costumes

his

for Les

own

authentic examples to be executed

Mamelles abound

in

references to earlier Hockney

work. The dashing gendarme, for example, was anticipated crayon drawing. Colonial Governor, and Punchtnello with Bobiei

drawing for Les Momellei de

Polish Tirezias

gouache, collage on paper

army

officers

Ubu

in

He may

Roi.

a witty

in

1962

the pompously gotten-up

recalls

be one of the few designers to have

had the distinction of costuming two bearded

Turk

in

design.

ladies,

the beguiling Baba the

The Rake's Progress and Les Mamelles's defiant Therese/Tiresias. As

in

with the pulsatingly optical Rake's Progress designs, the costumes and set

elements

in

Les Mamelles are stylistically of a piece.

the vibrating

In fact,

patterns of the Poulenc opera costumes are virtually units of the set

now merging

motion,

now

with,

in

contrasting with, the boldly patterned

background. In

preparing for the triple

bill,

command

the Metropolitan Opera's high

had wisely invited Manuel Rosenthal, the great interpreter of Ravel's music, to be the conductor As a favorite student of composition of the eminent

how

composer, Rosenthal knew

Ravel

wanted

his

work

to be presented on

stage. /

begon studying the work with Maurice Ravel at the precise moment L'Enfant Sortileges was

et

les

in

1926

first

at the Theatre de

bitter recriminations

done at Monte Carlo and I'Opera-Comique

when

later,

in Paris.

And

I

it

was revived

remember

Ravel's

concerning the visual presentation of the work that was

so dear to him. His unhappiness was so acute that he said over and over again

he wished Walt Disney had

and producers of the

Of the

illustrated his music, so badly

had the designers

theater served him!

lyric

three works, the Ravel opera, L'Enfont et

Sony Walkman, he From what

I

know of

though he were

and

childlike.

Shadow of Mother

drawing for

its I

composer

told

me

in all

little

stereo and child hero.

its

man

It's

as

he was both sophisticated

you, artists are often like that

world constantly interesting. Colette's

with

would have loved the

Manuel Rosenthal

the copocity to delight

as

his

The child

kinds of things

in

and

Picasso

is

to find the

story brought out the child in Ravel,

L'Ejifont ef fcs Sorlifeges

gouache on paper

which wasn't too difficult

168

—

much with

Ravel, I'm positive

still alive.

Mind

obviously there Child wii/i

identified as

was musically

les Sortileges,

the most compelling for Hockney. Listening to the music on

either

difficult,

and

his

music brought

it

out

in

me, which wasn't



!

i^ 1

M


When

they do

L' Enfant

deeply affected by

heard

on the piano at rehearsals, you just don't get

you don't get the color that comes from the

nice, but

When

it.

took

first

I

it

on,

t

know

didn't

once before, but didn't realize how good

it

childlike.

It's

makes

Ravel's music that

it

was

I

the music well,

had

i

not childish,

It's

is.

It's

it.

orchestra.

full

L'Enfant great, not Colette's

it's

little

words, although they're beautiful. If his music had not been so good, the story

would be forgotten. The from fox-trots

how

to bits

wise the child

Ravel.

It

variety

of jazz. it's

is,

in

the story,

used forms of American music

when

the last scene,

a Monteverdi chant.

like

has perfection about

only believe

He

stunning.

is

In

it

—

Hockney's realization of L'Enfant

The

evening's nnost dramatic event.

a collage, yet

et les Sortileges little

tells

is

suit;

not

was the French

triple

bill

boy, to that point a passive witness in

replaced on stage by a young soprano. Like him, she

blue and white sailor

I

it.

to the ballet and Les Mamelles, becomes the central figure child

it's all

not one note too many, not one too few.

believe in the music that

I

the animals sing about like

It's

is

The

L'Enfant.

dressed

her close-cropped hair completes the

in

a

illusion.

Working on the opera, Hockney tried to express the troubled vision of a child who, after a spate of unrepentant behavior is confronted by the creatures and objects he has so wickedly abused. From the outset Hockney wanted designs to reflect the

little

The

boy's troubled fantasy

interior of the

his

Norman

farmhouse and the ominous garden outside would be seen from this vantage. For its interior Hockney used exaggerated, hallucinatory perspective. Painted on a huge drop was a great

beamed

ceiling that

seemed to span

the entire stage. The alphabet-block furniture was also large-scale, child

might perceive such objects.

we

has finished his lessons, his

room. After

that

is

little

demon

enacted on stage has

its

falls

as

vengeance

other

asleep.

punchinello and other

in

mimed on in

stage.

room

the

misdeeds. At this point, Hockney's ingenuity

his

he

deployed on randomly stacked

the child has fallen asleep, the objects

him with

if

musical counterpart at the sides.

dell'arte costumes. Picturesquely

alphabet blocks, each rises to sing a role

Once

as a small

asks the boy

a frenzy of destroying books, ripping wallpaper and

Flanking the proscenium are the soloists, dressed

commedia

Mama

the stern

see her enormous shadow on the slanted wall of

misdemeanors, the exhausted All

When

angrily confront is

given

full

rein

nursery begins. The procession of shepherds and shepherdesses descends from the torn wallpaper, the fairy-tale princess tells

her sad

tale

in

and out of the fireplace leaps a yellow-clad figure

pursued by a gray

yowl

at

window

the

ash.

one another is

A

wonderful pair of

first in

anger, then

in

cats,

one

passion.

black, the

—

a

Through the bedroom

seen a group of punchinellos seated under a great tree

garden. They are the chorus, the voices of the animals and insects. The Room

backdrop of the room

rises,

/ing for L'Enfant el les Sortileges

gouache on paper

luminous color At

22'^

most awesome image.

its

center

is

flame

other white,

the marvelous garden

is

revealed

in

in

the

As the all

its

an enormous, red-trunked tree, the evening's

171


The sources of the monumental shape came from

Hockney

tree,

photograph he made

a

in

were many.

says,

978 of two

1

Its

friends,

basic

Peter

Schlesinger and Joe MacDonald, standing beneath a gigantic tree along the Nile.

He

says that

to color and In fact,

I

designing the opera, he tried to translate Ravel's music

in

line.

drew the forms of the

tree while listening to the

the cats finish their duet, the music goes

great sweep of beautiful music

model with a brush while

fills

the space

listening to it

much smaller At

garden, the trees were

an intimate garden, but

suddenly

it

garden music.

When

mad, the room disappears and a

drew

i

When first

I

directly

first

I

on the cardboard

began working on the

was thinking about a

dawned on me

child in

that in the child's view,

everything should be gigantic.

Under the

carefully controlled lighting that he and Gil Wechsler. the Met's

lighting designer, devised, the color in

was dense and colored /

it

Onthe banks of Ok

Nile, Luxor,

Lgypl

The garden

m

Part 2 o( L'Eitfont el

as perfornrted at the Metropolitan

172

I

said

1

980

eye.

it

LEnfant took on palpable presence.

It

the garden virtually pulsated under the

showed my model

we should use

interest, yet

the music.

les Sortileges

Opera House.

first

I

directly with white light."

little

in

light illumination.

remember when

When

1977

black and white photograph

The forms

effulgent.

He

I

felt

used

to

that

But

I

said,

to John Dexter,

"No.

I've

blue and red lights on

was how we were going

it

to

I

said,

"We'll light

must admit he showed get visual equivalents of

joke about "your colored lights" and

expresses the music."

he

worked out more than that"

I

said, "Well, to

my


When

you see that

tree foliage,

color, with the blue light

the music. You can do this in theater in a

because the cinema

is

way you

not quite about color,

physical color, pigment, physical

on the huge blue mass of the

think you physically take the color into your body as you take in

I

it's

a different matter,

it's

can't do

about

it

light. B.ut

isn't it^

in

the cinema,

where

A physical

there's

color

a

is

thrill.

Hockney worked out

production ideas for the French triple

his

by

bill

using a complex,

working model of the Metropolitan Opera stage. During process he began giving impromptu performances of the opera for

this

friends

London

in his

The model,

studio.

an intricate

one complete with

fly

gallery and miniature lighting system, had

been sent to him by John Dexter. With this wonderful new toy Hockney began giving visitors to his studio a unique preview of what would happen in a few months on the Met's grand stage.

Never one to

shrink before an audience, he took friendly drop-ins through

the story animatedly.

Once

the lush Ravel tape was running, he was both

commentator and performer,

giving voice to the various roles in his unique along with the chorus and danced about while raising and lowering the painted flats. In his presentation oiL'Enfant he was the

He hummed

Sprechstimme.

incorrigible

little boy, soon destined to see the error of his ways. For the lucky Hockney's one-man opera performances were superb show business. For Hockney, they were rapturous self-hypnosis. Word soon got out about

visitors,

these spontaneous events and a

BBC crew found

thereafter a televised version of

Hockney

in

its

way to

his studio.

Shortly

action brightened the evening

in

thousands of English parlors and pubs. In

addition to using the elaborate stage model,

Hockney made numerous

gouache studies that fixed each scene of the three works in his memory and enabled him to think about transitions from one to the next. Indeed, much of the effectiveness of L'Enfant

room

as the child's

Hockney

transformation, He's

he's safe in the nice big

says, thrills

garden—but of course

angry That's the moment performance, you could too, felt the

Mr Anthmeljc drawing for L'Enfonl

el les Sonileges

gouache on paper 14

•

In

of the in

the

Garden

drawing for L'Enfanl

gouache on paper 14

17

to still

him and thinks

bad

I

and the animals he had hurt

the music that

is

mean, the earlier get

absolutely fantastic. At the

Nobody moved

first

They,

the child did You shared the experience of the character on it

—

that's

what made

it

work.

dreamlike domain, the animals and Insects are child-size. pads are the dragonflies, moths and bats who mournfully sing

this bizarre,

Perched on (pl75)

in

things are

feel the silence in the audience.

the stage, you really got into

17

Three Bats

way

of the set

the child.

tree he carved initials into gets angry

(p 174)

movement

room where everything had been nasty

this

left

attributable to the fluid

is

dissolves Into a vast, mysterious garden. This marvelous

lily

harm the

child has Inflicted

familiar creatures

et les Sonileges

each with

Hockney

its

own

who

on them and

their brethren.

Among

accost him are a squirrel, a nightingale and a

complaint.

From the time he began working on

visualized this climactic episode as a great

little

the owl,

L'Enfant

panorama that would

fill

173


1

In

Mm M a

K ^^S'aV^fl

iAB^^Bbi



the entire proscenium of the Metropolitan stage.

However,

of revelation.

would be

It

moment

a

at an early rehearsal, the children portraying the

were running about the garden.

animals

SNhen

I

saw

need

don't

that

that

I

was

horrified.

I

said to John Dexter,

movement. The color and the music

decided the scene should be

static

and

will

"Keep them carry

it

still;

you

together."

We

that everyone should just stand

still in

the garden. I

at

it

always so

Once

knew

many

that

times on

moment would be my model.

the child redeems himself

in

magic.

I

had looked

the eyes of the garden creatures by

wounded paw, there

tending the squirrel's

knew, because

I

is

a

sudden

mood

change signaled

by a musical surge and the great tree changes from ominous deep blue to vivid red.

This

lyrical,

highly original interpretation of Ravel's score

was

as stirring

conductor, Manuel Rosenthal, as to the audience that experienced

its

to

this

remarkable fusion of color and music. /

regret with

unable

to

all

my

heart and

all

my

attachment

see for himself the moving and

and David Hockney mystery of

his sets

is

the color

eclat,

Ravel's music.

that he

and

in

was

ofJohn Dexter sharpness and

Hockney missed

an idea that marvelously

the fantastic quality Ravel wanted to achieve

numerous dreams. And

my mentor

The

at the Metropolitan Opera.

and costumes underscore

nothing: using the color red for the trees

child's

to

brilliant collaboration

illustrates

a garden populated by the

style

of the shepherds' bucolic

costumes beautifully conveys the simple way a child imagines a shepherd. Most designers previously charged with representing this work clad them, alas, Louis

XV costumes,

Finally, fifty-six

like

those one finds on

years after the opera's

and Dexter created

1

first

in

8th-century porcelain figurines.

unfortunate realization, Hockney

a fairy-tale-like climate that

would have enchanted the

pure and passionate child that was such an important part of Maurice Ravel's life.

wnb Books. Cup and Teapot dnwing for L'EMfant el lesSorulegei Child

gouache on paper

176

1980


J)

C>

.c^


m

f


Le Sacre du Printemps as told

by David Hockney

Production series from Le Socre du Pnntemps, as

performed

at

the Metropolitan

Opera Chart, p

2 8) 1

Opera House. 98

Chosen One: Linda

1

(I) 1

(Se

Gelinas. Sage:

Christopher Stocker. and the Metropolitan Opera

Stravinsky's

1913 masterpiece had a notorious premiere. His

rhythmic, dissonant music

controversy and

and

Nijinsky's wild

violently

choreography created vehement

performance was one of the high water marks of early 20th-century modernism (The performance shown here is the Metropolitan its first

Ballet.

Opera's 1981 production, with sets and costumes by David Hockney)

(2) Stravinsky's

Elysees

is

own

description of that evening at the Theatre des

entertaining:

the

conductor,

Pierre

Monteux,

apparently impervious and as nerveless as a crocodile

shouted numbers

to the dancers,

". .

.

Nijinsky,

Champs-

stood

on a

there, chair,

which had nothing to do with the music."

179


(3)

Only the set

for

Le Sacre seems

to

hove escaped condemnation. Designed

by the Russian painter Nicholas Roefich,

it

was recalled by Stravinsky as a

"background of steppes and sky." apparently more descriptive than symbolic.

(S) In the current re-creation of Stravinsky's

young

girl is sacrificed to

setting should be bleak

the original production

more

"solemn pagan

the god of spring, John Dexter and

and

northern. In that decision

— an

rite." I

we went back

is

enfolded by a group of swirling dancers

in

180

who watch

in

girl

of

favor of a

chosen

a circle

facts are painted half dark and half light to suggest day and night storKi the tribal elders

which a

to the idea

idea that other people had thrown out

for

Their

To the side

the odo/escents in their feverish dance

In

a

1920 Pans production, the in

Russes revived the work with

6o//ets

which the Chosen One was danced by Lydia

Sokolova.

decided that the

overt sexual treatment that featured near nudity The young

the ritual sacrifice

in

(4)

choreography by Leonide Massine,

(6)

The

virgin

disappears within the circle and emerges

white cloth on which a large red spiral

is

in

the center of a great

painted to suggest blood The colors on

the huge disc behind the dancers, which looks like a stark northern landscape, go

through a number of changes, blue at In

this

wild process the dancers

first

and

bright red at the time of sacrifice.

become a huge orgonism

that

renews

through the ritual murder. These are basically primitive people, peasants

of the power of nature. the sacrifice

In this ballet,

winter

will

change suddenly

in

itself

owe

to spring ofter



Ok

'5^-?

^3

V

1^ yitt!

^•"J

M

m

S^^y*!^

r^j^ uttim jiy/MI i

) .i^^^^B^I •^^Ki

J^

1/' ^ra

H

^

r


Le Rossignol as told

by David Hockney

Production series from Le Rossigno/, as performed at Metropolitan Opera House.

1

98

1

(See

tl

Opera Chart,

p 218) Fisherman: Anthony Dowel! (sung by Philip

(I

I

The opera takes place

in

ancient China and begins with a fisherman singing

about the beauty of the nightingale's song. Only he and a

works

m

the palace kitchen

know about

this

wonderful

little

servant

who

girl

bird.

Creech). Nightingale: Natalia Makarova (sung by

Gwendolyn

Bradley). Emperor:

Morley Meredith.

(2) IS

The emperor of China

beautiful.

The flowers

are hung on them, just

kingdom

write about

lives in

in

in

how

most beautiful thing of all

a porcelain palace. Everything about the palace

the garden have such a subtle

perfume

cose you don't notice. All the travelers beautiful the palace is

is.

And the

poets

that

little

who come

bells

to the

who come say

the

the nightingale that sings by the seashore

183


(3) So the emperor,

palace

kingdom

calls is

the

who

only reads books

m

the palace

chamberlam and asks why

the

— he

doesn't go out of the

most wonderful thing

something he does not know about The emperor's court

out about the nightingale

who washes

but the only one

who knows about

it is

m

his

tries to find

the hale girl

{4}

They ask everybody

nightingale

— we

don't

will

the palace, but the response

take them to the nightingale

High Dishwasher and

dishes in the kitchen.

in

know about

it.

yes. the nightingale that sings by the

'W M

to give

"

singing brings

tears

to

his

emperor who

nightingale says. "To a singer, the tears jewels."

is

very, very

pleased

In fact,

eyes and he offers /ewe/s to the songbird. in

your eyes are jewels

I

the

The

do not need the

As o reward, they promise to

P I.

{8) just ot this

moment

a present

mechanical nightingale

"'

delighted

wound up

It

184

It

sings

who

they ask

moke

the

says oh, if

she

her Lady

^r

three ombossodors from the emperor ofjapan arrive with It

isn't

a Sony or a Panasonic,

fashioned clockwork They open the box and wind

away Everyone

and hideous compared

And

her the privilege of watching the emperor eat

K

—o

we never heard

tittle girl

so beautiful

is

..^MaittK..'-^?' (7) So the nightingo/e sings for the

is

Finally they find the

seashore

to the real

thinks

it's

like

it's

old-

up and everybody's quite

quite lovely, but

one But they

always sings the same way

it

n

it's

actually garish

and of course when

it's


(5)

So she takes them to the seashore and on the way they suddenly hear noises

and

say, ah. that's the nightingale

And she

says, no. no. that

/s

a cow mooing. The

nightingale doesn't sound like that Then they hear another noise and say, ah, the nightingale,

how

beautiful

it is.'

And

she says, no. no, those are frogs croaking.

(6) Finally they get to the seashore

discover

IS

The Chinese courtiers

like

what they hear and they think

probably less trouble than the

When

the

emperor

song.

It

it's

bird.

wound up and

it

new

this

new

So the real nightingale

realizes that the real one has

the palace because they have a

every day

little

left,

he banishes

it

nightingale flies

away

forever from

nightingale. So he puts his toy on a post

sings.

But of course one day.

in

just a rather plain

little

speak to the nightingale and ask.

And

me

(9)

it's

the bird replies, "Well. to

come,

I

to visit the old

it's

nightingale, but

a

bit

"Would you come and

when they

disappointing. But they sing for the

do sing better by the seashore, but

if

emperor?"

you really want

will."

(10) They can't repair

his

I

and do hear the

bird in a tree,

it

So

now

there's

no nightingale

to sing

and Deoth comes

emperor's bed and begins to lake away the dying man's things:

first

crown, then his sword of state, then his cloak

and

the middle of a

winds down.

185


(II) Just at that

moment

the real nightingale

begins to sing about the gardens says. "Oh. please

flies in

And even Deotb

do not stop" But the nightingale

sing if you give bock the

crown and sword

to the

is

through the window and

charmed by

says, "I'm

the music

going to slop

I

(12) So Death gives

them back and

pleads. "Please do not stop." but the nightingale says. "Give bock the cloak to the

will

emperor" And

emperor"

they've

you to

Death and

slowly.

token

nightingo/e

and

(13) All the courtiers, expecting to say farewell to their emperor

up

a

in his

arrxaed.

186

when they come back

bed and he greets them

cheerfully.

into his

in

a room of

room The emperor

The room

fills

is

sitting

with light and everyone

all

the ghosts from the post give bock the things

from the emperor says.

stoy," but the

The grateful emperor then turns

"You can be the Lord High Singer little

bird says. "No.

night from the seoshore to sing,

darkness, are startled

Death

the nightingale sings more, then stops

and

it's

better

ond teW you obout

if

I

in

my

the beauties

the

to

court again

go away

I

want

come every of your kingdom" I

will

(14) At the end of the opera, the fisherman sings ogam, telling everyone to listen to the

course,

song of heoven it's

in

shortened a

the voice of the nightingale In the Stravinsky opera, of

bit.

but this

is

Hans Andersen's

version of the story




Oedipus Rex as told by

David Hockney

Production series from Oedipus Rex. as performed at the Metropolitan

Opera House.

1981

(See

Opera

Chart, p 218) Narrator; Anthony Dowell. Oedipus:

Richard Cassilly. Creon: Franz Mazura, Tiresias: John

(I)

When

the lights go on, you see a narrator seated on a chair

orchestra and the stage. Latin

and

that he will

a huge red

circle

tell

He

between the

says this version of Oedipus the King will be sung in

the story in English as

it

goes along. As the music begins,

emerges around which the protagonists are seated They are

Macurdy. Jocasta: Tatiana Troyanos.

Oedipus, his wife (and mother) jocasta. his brother-in-law (and uncle), Creon, Tiresias the seer, a

(2)

messenger and a shepherd.

A plague has descended on

their king, to help get rid of it his birth

the city of Thebes

But the narrator

tells

and the people beg Oedipus, us that from the

moment

of

a snare has been laid for Oedipus: a hint of the tragedy to come.

189


Creon returns from Delphi

(3)

after consulting the oracle

the murderer of the former King of Thebes. Laius, lives

and

that his presence

is

who has in

the

him that

told

city,

the cause of the plague. Oedipus assures

unpunished,

them

that with

(5)

The men's raised voices offend Jocasta, and she says they should not argue

laxe

city

'Oracles deceive,' she says

husband Laius would be

killed

by

his

own

Why, on oracle predicted son.

and

yet he

thieves at the crossroads This revelation horrifies Oedipus

that years

ogo on

three roods

meet

his

way from Corinth

to

Thebes he had

who

whom

Oedipus

Creon and

his ikill in solving riddles he, the king, will find the murderer.

plague striken

The chorus invokes the gods and welcomes

(4)

in

the

that her

was murdered by

explains to Jocasta

killed

on old

rrtan

where

consults.

murderer of the king

(6)

After

his real

some

to tell

Tiresias, the blind soothsayer, with

questioning,

a king. Oedipus

Tiresias of treachery.

A messenger arrives

was not

is

is

Tiresias

reveals

furious at these words

Then the process of self-revelation

Oedipus that King Polybus has died and that Oedipus

verifies the

which has disturbed and frightened jocasta Oedipus thinks she

ashamed of his low the fact that he

narrator relates

the

son but was adopted after he, the messenger, found him abandoned

on a mountainside and brought him to a shepherd. Then the shepherd tale

that

and accuses begins.

birth,

had

but the messenger and the shepherd

killed his

own

how jocasta hanged

father

and married

his

is

merely

make him aware of mother

Finally the

herself and Oedipus gouges out his eyes with

jrKosta's golden brooch The chorus sadly bids farewell to the hapless king, bringing

the t/agedy to an end.

190


/


11

|<Ui bi,

d^ ,»

V'Mj^

..•


Designing Stravinsky Martin Friedman and David Hockney

John

Dexter's

Progress

in

invitation

Hockney

to

irresistible 1

to

work on the

Stravinsky triple

975 had confirmed

his

proved

bill

His Glyndebourne experience with

The Rake's

devotion to the great modernist's music

and, like Dexter, he considered Stravinsky's

works

for the stage to be rich

in

visual possibilities.

They were

writter] as theater rDusic.

are as concert pieces! Stravinsky Early

in

no matter

meant them

how wonderful people to

be presented

the planning stages, the Metropolitan

in

say they

the theater

Opera had decided to

produce the three Stravinsky works, Le Sacre du Printemps. Le Rossignol and Oedipus Rex. but then Dexter and James Levine, its music director and principal conductor, wondered whether the opera's corps de ballet should take on so heroic a challenge as Socre. Though he and Dexter agreed on its great importance .

.

is it.

in

Stravinsky's oeuvre, Levine explains,

was always given as a piece de resistance instead of as a prelude, which really what it is. Therefore, the weight of a big ballet was always resting on .

it

When

but

you hear

it

in

when you see

it

as a ballet you realize the music

thought, this?" slot,

"We

concert you wish there were

aren't a full-scale ballet

Then we shopped around

some way

— how

company

trying to

make

is

are

to visualize

much

we going

to tackle

other Suavinsky pieces

but for various practical and aesthetic reasons, nothing

seemed

it,

We

bigger

fit in

the

right

Hockney concurred, noting that the corps of dancers "does not have the primary mission of being a great company. Normally, they simply dance the slaves in Aida or the gypsies in Carmen. That's their job."

At one point Dexter suggested they substitute a work by Arnold 924 monodrama, Erwartung. as part of the evening, because

Schoenberg, the he thought Raised Stage with Masks.

1

would

offer an interesting contrast of

20th-century music. But even while

Narrator and Auditorium

drawing for Oedipus Rex

this

1981

gouache and tempera on paper 29 - 40

this soul-searching

works by two

giants of

was going

Hockney

and Dexter had begun working on what David assumed would,

on,

in

the end, be

it

didn't

an all-Stravinsky evening. /

didn't

know

the Schoenberg work they

had

in

mind, but doing

make 193


sense to me. At one stage the idea

even canr^e up.

an awful

lot

groaned.

I

I

of Punchinellos

Punchinellos^

I

another Stravinsky

of"

in

Parade. To begin the next

we go

thought God, here

again! Surely

Pulcinella,

ballet,

we had used

couldn't get interested in that because

could

more

with

triple bill

we

come up

with

something better

During

working session with Dexter

his first

New Jersey,

they decided that the theme of

house

in

through

all

at the director's

would

ritual

prevail

three Stravinsky pieces and Hockney considered various ways of symbolizing this notion. /

begon drawing

them.

When we

circles

— simple

got back to

New

little

sketches, but always with circles in

York, the Metropolitan

there would be an all-Stravinsky program, so

with

my

designs for

Hockney 's

it

or not? You

tell

I

still

hadn't decided if

asked, "Well, do

I

go ahead

me"

definite views helped persuade

their original idea of including Sacre. and

Dexter and Levine to return to

once that was

settled, there

were

animated discussions among the stage director, music director and designer

about the shape and tone of the evening. During those trialogues, according to Levine, a strong argument was advanced for beginning the program with the

ballet.

"We

we

thought

might have

prelude to the evening, because eclat of the piece.

a kind of

With the fairy tale

chance with Socre

a

Rossignol

Oedipus Rex at the end, the evening

if

it

were

a

shock effect would result from the

now

in

the middle and the monolithic

really

seemed representative of

Stravinsky's theatrical variety." In

these early planning sessions, suggestions and strong opinions

were

tossed around with exhilarating abandon by the three men, and as Levine recalls:

I'm not sure

if

any of us could

tell

you exactly how an idea got started.

Some of

our original meetings were fast-going layers of responses to the music, to things

we

liked

and

didn't like in stage presentation,

and

the house could do particularly well. There were even

work on the Stravinsky musical terms,

I

triple bill

in

design terms.

we thought during our

when David would express something

would express something

express something

to things

moments

It

was

in directorial

like three

in

terms, John would

people fusing into a single

creative unit, which almost never happens in such collaborations. Normally, one's functions

and

identity

remain very separate.

Though the composer had left a number of ideas on the staging of his works, Hockney nevertheless wanted his designs to reflect the unique spirit of each.

The three works were kinetic, with

distinctive,

one from the other Sacre was extremely

dancers rushing around. Rossignol was more

like

opera, with people moving about on stage. In contrast to both,

SÂŤ

wit/i

Dancers

II

drawing for Le iacre du Prmicmps

gouache on paper 21

Âť 29'/i

194

conventional

Oedipus was a

static narrative with music. 1

98

But the company's problems with Socre were the French triple

bill,

far

from over, because,

as in

the ballet proved to be the sticking point. Socre, like


r' If'

^ \


196


was

Satle's Parade, in

new

modernist icon and the question was

a

And because

terms.

delayed for so long, a

piece. This delay left

how

ballet.

the

late in

was

disciple,

game when

to present

it

Jean-Pierre Bonnefous,

to choreograph

selected

finally

the

opportunity for Hockney to collaborate with him

little

and he found himself operating

effectively

sure

was

it

George Balanchine

how

the decision to program the ballet had been

something of

in

a

vacuum, never

would work with Bonnefous's conception of the Consequently, the design process was a prolonged one. his

design ideas

me

Parade and Sacre took After

longer to design than the operas, which

crazy.

is

a ballet set doesn't even take up the stage; you leave most of it bare

all,

for dancing.

Some

Hockney 's

of

toward

frustration while designing Socre reflects his attitudes

design

ballet

general

in

Unlike

today.

the

20th-century

early

productions of Serge Diaghilev, designed by such painters as Picasso, Matisse

and Braque, those of such esteemed modernists

as Balanchine are virtually

without decor, the entire focus being on the dance

much about

Balanchine never cared that great

New

number of the

sets,

'York City Ballet's

productions,

me

curtains or black curtains. Lincoln Kirstein told bluntly said he did not stage. That's Eskimo

from

(Inuit)

St,

Mask

Michael.

circa

1880

that the

what he

New

itself.

because he didn't have

that

was

want abstract expressionists putting

said,

and

was

I

is

For a

his doing.

He

work on the

their

quite shocked, actually. There

'York City Ballet's tradition

to.

always been gray

it's

is

an empty stage. Frankly,

no doubt that's all

Norton Sound, right for a while, but personally

wood

I

like

theater a bit richer

Various recordings of Socre offered Hockney inspiration. Collection Lowie

Museum

of Anthropology,

Somehow

I

remembered

the music as being

University of California, Berkeley

A

more pulsating than

actually

it

is.

great deal of it seems to be an impressionistic description of a cold landscape.

At times,

it's

almost

Debussy, and Stravinsky's

like

own

interpretation

is

among

the most impressionistic.

Before Hockney and Dexter had decided that Socre should be bleak and northern, David had explored other approaches. At one point,

theme suggested the use

rite

soon abandoned that notion because such Stravinsky's ideas about the music.

des Champs-Elysees

in

Its

In

As Hockney

our decision,

was inconsistent with

its

The

in

of the original production

favor of a

ballet

more

Mosks

That can only happen

not about a quiet, dear

little

in

— on

idea

overt sexual treatment

was about the dramatic change of

seasons from desolate, bleak and empty-looking winter

Primitive

Theatre

designer, the Russian painter Nicholas

to the idea

had thrown out

that featured near nudity.

spring.

at the

says,

we went back

that other people

a setting

premiere performance

1913 was given against a background of northern

steppes, an atmosphere created by

Roerich.

its fertility

of African masks and other tribal forms, but he

to

the fullness of

northern countries. No, Stravinsky's music was

springtime.

drawing for Le Socre du Pnnremps

gouache and crayon on paper 22/1 X 30

I

did about twenty-five models for the Sacre set

to see the effect of color

on

it,

and

I

would

while playing the music again

light

and

each one

again.

When 197



,

thought

had

I

fin-shed,

I

off to a

went

l,ttle

spo

,n

Germany, supposedly

to

Wallonon. As l.stened to ,t on wy Sony took the tape along and re/ox but only stayed wasn't qu.te right. In the end, des,gn my realized kept play,ng -t, went back to London rela. really couldn't away four days because found I

I

I

I

I

I

I

ond worked on

eye and

my

satisfactory to

eventually gettmg

some more,

,t

somethmg

that

was more

ear.

Te Metropolitan's opening night audience for the

Stravinsky tnple

curtain on which Stravinsky's greeted by an expansive drop

name and

vÂŤs

b.

b.rthdate

segments: green consisting of three color

tere emblazoned in a large circle Socre set v.as and red (for Oed,pus). The ^or Sacre). blue for (Ross.gnol), floor^wh ch suspended, and the other on the one discs, giant two omposed of ndhn thecurtain, which gradually materialized through fose.

Hockney intended these monumental

became transparent

circles

to function symbolically,

the cosmos. Miapestine images of the earth and

^The

;ofo:s on the hang.ng d,sc

were

v,r,d,an green,

altermg a few and ultran.ar,ne. By s,mply

whole mood. Under

;:ted

sl,ghtly blue l.ght the

l,ghts,

"^clt b.e^purp e

we were

o^^^^

able to change the

suspended crcle w,th the landscape

treesweredeeppurple, they turnedawarm on ,twentcold. Because the was e rth,tse projected on the d,sc. The stage

brown when red

l-ght

was

,ce or a lake.

Under yellow

the floor could represent tonld and the blue orcle on suggested vegetation. ,u„ light it turned green and ^ the suggested pagan Russia orcled of roughfabric that •

,

Dancer incostumes painted faces of thed.^^^^^^^^^^^^^ .a^Twh: was about to be sacnficed. The frenetic exotic attire and their

movements were reminiscent

of Sacre s

^tt;rH:i:'::::s---ifuiKoss.gnoiaren..^ related to the French triple

evening Although

it

bill

than to

its

companion pieces

in

^he St

character of ancient reflects the ceremonial

a-n ky

China

,t is

o.-gr-ois a

Instead in Sacre and Oed,pus. devoid of the wf ighty symbolism nature message is the superiority of fairy tale whose

s

creations

elaborate

of truth over artifice. over man-made imitations, and elegance shimmering music embodies the Hockney's view, Stravinsky's transpare emperor's court. The music s Chinese the of re^nement an to emulate glazes, a quality he sought quality brings to '"

^tr

mind delicate porcelain

Strownsky began the piece

abandoned

,t

and

in

didn't start writing

1909. before

on

it

again

- ;- Fireb^^then until

1913

after Sacre.

sounds a bit disconnect gap, the Rossignol score Be a of tbis vast a simple seen from gone you've ,s way Another r ason it sounds that by Anthony Dowell) lashore, with the fisherman (danced

Study for Costumes on the Stoge

drawing for

U Socre du Pnntemps

gouache on paper ll'A X 30

1981

.

ah

stylistic

telling

you

abou^^^^^^^

Chinese court v.th its b za e elaborate setting ofthe nightingale's song, to the undulating music suddenly goes from soft^ the happens, that antics When music, so the gagged lines ofthe capture to wanted to Harsh angles. the palace. represent to how quite a while to figure out

rhytL it

I

took

199


His research

chlnolserle

In

inevitably

led

to the Victoria and Albert

Museum. remembered those

/

actually visited

my

collections from

them

some

for

and though

art school days

fifteen years.

I

went

they were installed and took about one hundred and

fifty

photographs

started scrutinizing those pieces, something I'd never done before

Chinese porcelain comes

in all

seem

19th-century pieces

hadn't

I

where

stroight to the gallery I

really

Of course,

kinds of colors from different periods. The late

excessive, like Victorian England, whereas earlier

ones were more beautiful.

I

eventually settled on the early

1

8th-century blue-

and-white pieces, because they were covered with wonderful representations of

and

the sea, mountains

Hockney painted to capture the

The

buildings.

directly and freely

onto

his

cardboard set models, trying

of Chinese brushwork on the blue-and-white porcelain.

spirit

resulting design featured a large, elaborately decorated platter shape,

which was the floor of the emperor's

palace. In the

Met production,

this disc

rested on a sharply raked stage painted black. Intersecting this circle was a rectangular

tali,

of palace walls.

on which appeared

flat In

a

highly stylized representation

the scene outside the palace, distant mountains

suggested by cutout silhouettes placed behind one another on the

were

tilted stage.

Hockney s recent trip to China with Stephen Spender and Gregory Evans may have provided the source of these fantastic shapes. They had visited the Kui Lin Mountains, where Hockney made numerous sketches and photographs.

Consistent with the tonality of the overall design, the emperor and

his

wore sumptuous blue-and-white robes and Hockney, possibly by the elaborate makeup of the classical Chinese opera, adorned the

courtiers inspired

faces of these lofty personages with abstract designs. Their attendants, the

chorus, carried indicated by a

flat,

painted masks on long poles.

few quickly brushed, curving

lines;

The masks' features were both sides of the lollipop

shapes were painted, one with white brush strokes on a blue

with blue marks on

a

field,

the other

white background. Despite the profusion of forms and

textures on stage, Hockney kept

his

design monochromatic.

The only other colors you see are the red and gold costumes of the Japanese Models for the

silk

drop (top) and the Chinese cooa

for the Metropolitan

in

ambassadors who bring

in

costumes were intended

to

the gaudy mechanical nightingale.

Their flashy

Le Ro$$Âťgno(.

Open. 98 1

considered them and

all

Hockney

hand

also had a

make them

look like the barbarians the Chinese

other foreigners to be. in

programming the movement on

stage.

One

challenge he and John Dexter faced was to devise an elaborate procession that

Down

with Orchestra

dnwng for le Rossignol

would culminate

producing the opera to 1

be

M

Chinese court, and

200

fill

this

march, he

left it

up to those

the time on stage as best they could. This would

98

crayon on paper < 17

the arrival of the emperor. Though Stravinsky had

in

provided some four minutes of music for

(opposite)

a fine

opportunity,

Hockney thought, to emphasize the opulence of the

how

better than with a parade featuring the fantastic


201


n\

\\


were

animals that

He

part of the emperor's collection.

Chinese history and

consulted books on

painting.

an in which people were carrying all sorts of decided that our procession should include porcelain animals, porcelain

found examples of Chinese

/

things.

I

and two porcelain

flowers

fact,

among

giraffes,

Chinese animals but, after

all,

realize giraffes aren't

I

In

even found a picture of giraffes that had been sent to China. Also,

I

elephants were sent to the emperor as

them and they

look after

we decided

China,

died.

know how

to

Because dragons have special meaning

in

have a blue one

to

that the Chinese emperor's court

was easy

why

to see

the people

but his people didn't

gifts,

our procession. All the animals were

in

We

carried around in a circle by attendants.

show

other things.

emperor could have anything he wanted.

the

decided to use

this

was a very ceremonial

who

occasion to

place,

lived there preferred the

and so

it

mechanical

nightingale to the real one. The book Chinese Opera and Painted Face was the source for the mask patterns

in

Hockney's ie Rossignol

represents a specific

In

During the Chinese

trip

Hockney made drawings of stone animals

Chinese opera each mask

mood of one of the

major character types.

camels and dragon-headed creatures

tombs.

In

— along

Way

the Spirit

lions,

of the Ming

transmuted form, some of these images found their way into

Rossignol's procession. In

contrast to the richly attired mandarins, the true nightingale, danced by

the elegant ballerina Natalia Makarova, was a subdued-looking creature

in

a

gray-toned leotard. The costume Hockney provided was too bland for the

dancer /

who

asked him to embellish

painted a few marks on

more because she was

it

it

a

the suggestion will be is

In

its

Of

/

It

but the choreography told me, no,

through the dancer's movements

when she was

Rossignol.

Nevertheless, the

was.

it

was

light years

a

Chinese

strongly attracted to

artist,

had a recording

of"

Oedipus

has an amazing feeling of in

in

London which

solidity

it's

the theater, only in a concert fit

this

I

its

hadn't played for a long time.

like granite.

hall.

My

actionless,

its

raised slightly

seated on a

plot

is

I

had never seen

problem was

to

it

make one

spoken drama.

opportunities for Hockney to exercise his

and Masks

— and

out of the tree,

which had the elusive quality of

Based on the Sophocles tragedy, Oedipus Rex at

Courtiers

lifted

like wings.

sensibilities.

strong image

gouache on paper

much

story and powerful music, rose to the challenge.

performed

drawing for ie Rossignot

she didn't need

had sketched costumes

the three Stravinsky pieces, Oedipus was the most foreign to

Hockney's fateful

I

relentless gravity, the opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex

from the evanescent scroll.

made

unbelievably beautiful, and

her arms fluttered

glad to oblige.

so convincing on stage. Earlier,

for the nightingale that included wings,

Makarova

He was

bit.

to suggest bird feathers, but

intoned by a seated narrator

above the orchestra.

dais, rise in

On

first

lyrical

seemed to

offer

few

inventiveness. Virtually

whose

throne-like chair

stage, the protagonists,

who

is

are

turn to sing Cocteau's portentous words.

1981

Consistent with the intent of Stravinsky and Cocteau, Hockney decided to

emphasize Oedipus's monolithic quality and to present

it

as a heroic tableau.

203


To heighten

aspect, he

its ritualistic

expanded

it

beyond the confines of the

Met's great stage, attempting to dissolve the boundaries between performers

and audience.

he determined to transform the Met house into

In fact,

Greek theater and to make the In his

and auditorium, Hockney thought

efforts to unite the stage

of a giant circle that would continue the sweep of the tiers

backdrop. His

initial

at rear stage

and

row

in

show two columns rather than

designs also

a

a vast

entire auditorium part of the setting.

of masks

on the curving

walls.

In

terms

in

the curved

one

a single

the premiere

production the curved background was retained, but the masks painted on

were too

faintly

work

these the next time the

One

presented.

is

of the biggest problems

Among

large chorus.

designing Oedipus was

in

a giant, crate-like structure

in

the protagonists. This was abandoned

In

where to

In

favor of seating

Its

members

For

quality, as

design.

all

of

Hockney 's theater

much the

result of

The music began

in

designs.

It

was not

had

final

level,

a collection of

a definite

even lighting

stark,

its

set

the

heavy

two-dimensional

as its simple, frontal

darkness, with a single spotlight focused on the

Anthony Dowell. Suddenly, the whole

narrator,

front

step, then the chorus and finally the principals.

monumental form, the Oedipus

all Its

masses. Like

level of in

the

In effect,

design formed a monumental staircase: the orchestra on the ground first

its

which the chorus would

downstage and below the

of the high dais from which the leads sang their roles.

narrator on the

place

was one reminiscent of Hockney 's

solutions considered

design for the Bedlam scene of The Rake's Progress

be "housed"

it

defined for Hockney 's taste, and he plans to strengthen

stage

was

Illuminated.

In

contrast to the dramatic coloration of Socre and the hazy blue tonality of

was intense and unvarying, the only addition

Rossignol. the lighting of Oedipus

being the circles of

light

projected on the ponderous white masks held over

the singers' heads by Immobile attendants. /

was constantly thinking about

actors

and audiences shared

large that

masks with

in

the

Greek drama and the great space that

those old stone amphitheaters. They were so

various facial expressions were

needed so everyone

knew where you were

could see the actors from a distance. You always

— on

stone steps looking at performers, because the Metropolitan Opera House

made up of

certain elements

shape of the auditorium

—

on

its

sides so they

was the

—

the proscenium

made them

thought of the simple device of projecting lines of

would look in

like

port of the design. Because

was engulfed Roman

architectural decorations at

Herculaneum and Pompeii,

drawn by Giovanni Battisu Casanova,

204

circa

1

760.

In as

in

block

tie.

wanted

Greek columns. The shapes and

color of the carpet: the chorus in black tie

in

I

colors

the auditorium; the large red circle on the

black and white pattern of the orchestra below

audience was also

is

and curving

I

on stage echoed what you saw dais

couldn't alter

/

to destroy the proscenium, light

I

it.

so everything blended

becomes part of the

On opening

night,

the

and the whole theater

the work

addition to Joseph Clark,

who helped Hockney give large-scale form to his

conceptions, the artist had the enthusiastic counsel of Gil Wechsler, the


Studies for Mechanical Nightingale

drawing for Le Rossignol

1981

gouache and tempera on paper

Study of Masks

for

Chorus

drawing for Oedipus Rex

gouache on paper

205


Chorus with Masks abort their Heods

drawing for Oedipus Rei

1981

gouache ind tempera on paper W'fy *

Blind

JO

Mask

for

Oedipus

drawing (or Oedipus Rex

gouache on paper

206

1

98


company's resident

lighting designer.

was predicated on

a fusion of color

beginning to have realized.

The

which the

artist

some had

Because so much of Hockney's design and light, it was necessary from the

clear ideas about

come

illumination

a long

of

painted

his

how

these objectives would be

way from the Glyndebourne experience was handled almost

sets

afterthought. Thanks to the elaborate model of the miniature lighting system, which was sent to his

as

Met stage, coupled with

in

an its

London studio byjohn Dexter,

Hockney could

build color changes into his designs. Because his

work was depending more on painted illusion than actual volume dynamism was achieved through the interaction of light and color.

essentially posteresque,

much

of

its

This was certainly true of the epic garden scene

which the great red tree

metamorphoses was

as

in

UEnfant

et les Sortileges in

at center stage

underwent extraordinary color the opera's mood changed from menace to warmth; and it

certainly the case with Socre

in

which

startling seasonal

changes were

effected by colors projected

alchemy was light,

Gil

on the huge landscape disc. The wizard of this Wechsler who, sympathetic to Hockney's desire to paint with

came up with ingenious

solutions that fully utilized the

technology of the Met's lighting system. For the Stravinsky production, Wechsler fiddled with the intricate

model of the Met

recalls,

complex

Hockney constantly

stage, listening to the music and

trying out lighting ideas. Hockney's approach to opera design was equal parts enthusiasm and innocence, and, as Wechsler puts it, he saw things on stage with a painter's eye.

David designed sets to be seen from edge to edge, like a painting, and created atmosphere with color rather than with other theatrical techniques, such as texture, light or shadow. David doesn't talk in theatrical terms— he doesn't use the jargon of the theater but always talks about the way he sees. He has a certain naivete that never changes. That means he can always .

.

look at things with a fresh eye and doesn't lose sight of what he's set out to do.

The images created by Hockney on the Met's clearly affected

stage, says Wechsler, have

opera audiences.

They're not used to looking at things on stage that

way The techniques that David has used are very old—paint on canvas and, aside from the props, flat scenery But the way he's used color has been re-thought completely It's as if David had said, "Okay, I don't want to think about the last 300 years. I'm doing this particular

opera,

how

will

I

make

it

live

on stage?"

207


Curtain Call

Hockney's work design

Is

In

painting, drawing, printmaking,

photography and theater

of a piece, but his periods of concentration

In

one area are

When

occasions for developing Ideas that carry over into others. a project

It

total

Its

shift

his

work on

of his career. While

seem

filling

Not

The of his In

In his

In

the studio.

monumental

an isolated aspect

In his

same

case the

own

and

public arena of the opera, but the in his

opera designs periodically

from Glyndebourne and the Metropolitan resulted

was ready

creative work. In both instances he

each case

Is

proscenium with changing Images would

reverse. Images that evolve

in

However

commonality of form, color

paintings.

Invitations

most

a giant

The same

only do his two-dimensional Ideas hold their

translate admirably to the

process works

a

bill.

of Hockney's work.

other extreme from painting

at the

sensibility prevails.

surface

all

little else.

where theater design

well past the point

Is

on

the Stravinsky triple

from one medium to another,

and attitude about space underlies

Hockney

the design of Parade began he was so

resolution that he could focus

Immersion describes

abrupt the

Once

can be all-consuming.

preoccupied with

usually

he takes on

It

meant

leaving the sanctuary of the studio

control and subordinating narrative with music.

It

for

new

in

some

challenges.

where he had

total

impulses to the requirements of a

his creative

meant an interaction with other strong egos,

knowledgeable about music and theater

meant frequent compromise and the

as he

was about

realization that

painting.

some

designs

It

as

also

work

better on paper than on the stage. While he accepted these conditions readily,

he by no means confined

his

contributions at Glyndebourne and the

Metropolitan to costume and scenic design. While open to the suggestions of others for the look of a particular set element, he regarded himself as an equal partner

in

determining the overall

spirit

Parade was especially important, because

of a production. it

offered him an opportunity

to apply a spontaneous, painterly approach to theater design. fantasy

208

was expressed on stage

in

The music's

large areas of high-intensity hues. Similar


qualities characterize the vibrant California landscape paintings that followed Parade. The Stravinsky triple bill generated an entirely different fallout. This

time, instead of continuing those images

in paintings, Hockney took another with making large, photomosaic compositions consisting of figures in interiors and panoramic landscapes. Though these do not have direct associations with his theater sets, some relationship does exist. These faceted images, composed of dozens of overlapping Kodak prints, like his theater sets, are centralized and symmetrical. As in his theater

tack.

He became obsessed

designs,

we

are conscious of layers of

indeterminate space. There

in

is

flat

systematic photo analysis of a subject and 1970s. Just painting

is

how

far

the hyper-realism of

from

photographs might

clear.

It

his

exist

between Hockney 's

compulsive academicism of the

current photography

his

could even have a reverse

satisfy his craving for

move toward Hockney 's set designs

could well

planes that, cubist fashion

also a relationship

complex

effect.

will affect his

Because making

description, his painting

a greater informality.

are gigantic paintings with movable parts. His forms

are a subtle fusion of innocence and wisdom; his line

is fluent and effortless, but arriving at this appearance of insouciance can be a rocky process. He makes

endless sketches and cardboard models, waxing enthusiastic about an idea it out the next. He thinks on paper, and in the middle of a conversation is quite apt to begin drawing, sometimes oblivious of the fact

one day and tossing that

someone

across

the table is waiting for an answer He always travels with a heavy portmanteau stuffed with sketch pads, Japanese brushes, colored pencils and tubes of gouache, not to mention endless rolls of film. When he is tired of drawing, Hockney begins clicking away with his

armed, he

is

Except for

a simple set, designed for Sir Frederick Ashton's ballet Varii

Capnca which had

its

New

York debut

at the

spring of 1983, and sets and costumes for

which opened

in

New

W.

possibility that

he

will

Metropolitan Opera

in

the

H. Auden's Paid on Both Sides.

York on 12 May 1983, Hockney has for the present'

taken a leave from theater design but, given

on the

Pentax. Thus, well

ready for any eventuality.

his

passion for

desert the studio again for

a

it,

there

is

every

few exhilarating months

stage.

209


Hockney Biography

1937-57

Bom

in

Bradford

in

Taught

Yorkshire. England on 9 July 1937

American

at various

between 1964 and 1967:

universities

the University of Iowa. Iowa City; the University of Colorado.

Studied at the Bradford School of Art from 1953-57.

Boulder; the University of California, Los Angeles and Berkeley.

1957-59

As

a conscientious ob|ector did hospital

two

service for

work

instead of national

Extensive travel

One-man 1959-62

Studied at the Royal College of Art where the American

Art

Ron Kita| and other founding members of the Pop Art movement were classmates

In

painter

A

large exhibition of

work by

draftsmanship and the scope of

a

in

New

to

York City

a series of etchings.

of his experiences

in

in

RBA

1961

New

Upon

Progress, a

exhibition of prints at

in

brilliant

Galleries.

the early

1

In

return, began

meuphonc

work

account

in

1961

Awarded in

1

1966. five

one-man exhibitions at the Stedeli|k

the Gold

increasingly

paintings at

Museum. Amsterdam. Also in Court Theatre to design

Ubu

Roi

1

in artifice

One-man

exhibitions of prints at Kasmin Gallery and paintings at Gallery.

New

living

there

a Polaroid

in

Tales

Gallery, Manchester, illustrating Six Foiry

his etchings.

January 1964.

camera and working

with acrylic paints; paint surfaces become thinner and smoother Fascination with southern California landscape reflected

dating from the mid- 960s.

York One-man paintings and

Whitworth Art

Surted work on set of etchings from the Brothers Grimm.

England.

Seven one-man exhibitions to Los Angeles; began

his

paintings

Kasmin Gallery. London,

1963 London's Alecto Gallery showed

Began making photographs with

in

in

1970, including a ma|or

retrospective David Hockney Pointings, Prints at^d Drawings

1960-70

at the

Whitechapel Art Gallery. London, and an

exhibition of paintings at Galerie Springer, Berlin

work Continued work on double-portraits, commuted between California and England Jack Hazan began work on A Bigger Splosh, a film

210

Europe, including an

in 968 With a good 35mm camera, made photographic studies as references for

Andre Emmerich

1

in

1966. commissioned by London's Royal

the production of Alfred Jarry's

ond Don Sachardy

962

960s characterized by interest

one-man exhibition of

First trip

Modern

Co/lectors (Fred

in

Traveled to Egypt at the invitation of London's Sundoy Times

late in

of

Began painting large double-portraits, including Americon ond Morcio Weismon) and Chnslopher Isherwood

Etching at The Graven Image

London; also awarded prize

theatricality.

First

Museum

1965. one-man exhibition of paintings organized by the Kasmin Gallery; among group exhibitions. Hockney represented in London; The New Scene organized by Walker Art Center.

prints exhibition at

1963-68

York's

exhibition of paintings at the Palais des Beaux-Arts. Brussels,

Medal upon graduation from the Royal College

and

New

York.

John Moore's Liverpool exhibition

Work from

and Europe

tremendous

his inventions.

A Rokes

Won the Guinness Award for exhibition at

US

1964.

and of drawings First visit

the

British

Picasso at the Tate Gallery

London during the summer of I960 made

impression on Hockney. particularly Picasso's

on

in

years.

about Hockney

s life

and

work


One-man exhibitions at Kasmin Gallery and Emmerich Gallery. Moved to Paris In September 1973 where he remained until November 975. A major one-man exhibition of paintings and

Commissioned by John Dexter of the Metropolitan Opera in New York to design sets and costumes for Parade, a triple bill

drawings. David Hackney. Tableaux et Dessins. organized by the

Metropolitan's production of a Stravinsky triple

Musee des Arts Decoratifs. Palais du Louvre. 974, presented seminal Hockney works made between 1961 and 1974.

following season.

with music by

1

1

One-man

Worked

with Aldo Crommelynck, Picasso's master printer, on

series of etchings in

memory

who

of Picasso,

died

in

a

Gallery.

1974. invited by John

Opera

Cox

the

Emmerich

York, and Knoedler Gallery, London,

in

1980.

1973.

of the Glyndebourne Festival

England to design costumes and sets for Stravinsky's

in

bill

exhibition of Hockney's Paper Pools at

New

May and June 98 traveled to China with Stephen Spender and Gregory Evans. Also in 1981, drawings and paintings made for Parade shown at Emmerich Gallery. In

In

Poulenc and Ravel. Designed the

Satie.

1

1

,

The Soke's Progress. Several exhibitions of photographs held

Produced

a

backdrop for the

Ballet

Petit ballet. Septentrion. staged

in

1

de Marseilles's new Roland

975

before the premiere

just

at the

in

1

982. including Dovid

Centre Georges Pompidou which

made up

of

many

of The Rake's Progress. Invited to collaborate again with

separate Polaroid photographs of a subject from multiple

Glyndebourne on

viewpoints and reflecting

1978 production of Mozart's The Magic

a

Nine one-man exhibitions of Hockney's in

his

long-time fascination with Cubism

and Picasso.

Flute.

1975-78

Hockney Pholographe

featured Hockney's large composite works,

drawings held

prints and

Hockney continues to

paint,

make

prints and photographs, and

to collaborate on theatrical productions.

1975. including print retrospectives at the Gallery d'eendt.

Amsterdam. Galerie Bleue. Stockholm, the Aalborg Museum,

exhibition Hockr^ey Paints the Stage

Denmark and

examination of the

exhibitions of prints and drawings at the Galerie

artist's

work

is

the

Walker Art Center's first

comprehensive

for the theater

Claude Bernard. Pans, and the Dorothy Rosenthal Gallery, Chicago.

In

1976,

made

a series of large-scale lithographs

which were portraits of with photography. Also

in

Los Angeles

in

Began more extensive work

friends.

1976.

numerous one-man shows

in

Europe, Australia and the U.S. including a print retrospective at

Museum. Copenhagen, an exhibition of drawings

Louisiana

at

Nicholas Wilder Gallery. Los Angeles, an exhibition of prints at the Australian National Gallery. Melbourne, and an exhibition of

drawings and prints

at

both Kasmin and Waddington

galleries,

London.

Between 1976 and Stevens's 1

poem

1977.

The

Man

made

In

1978.

two ma|or one-man

drawings circulated Prints

in

and

dating

Ink,

U.S.:

Dovid Hockney:

DC:

involvement

and Dovid Hockney. Travels with

organized by the Tate Gallery, London.

from the mid- 970s reflected a renewed 1

absorption with invention and

A

of

exhibitions of Hockney's prints and

Europe and the

Foundation, Washington,

1979-83

much

flute.

and Drawings organized by the International Exhibitions

Pen, Pencil

Work

etchings inspired by Wallace

with the 8/ue Guitar. Spent

977 on designs for The Magic

in

artifice, in

part resulting from

stage design.

retrospective of Hockney's complete print oeuvre. from 1954

to 1977, organized by the Midland

Group Gallery

association with the Scottish Arts Council

in

in

England

in

1979.

211


Selected Bibliography

BeeKs

72 Drawings by David Hockney. Chosen by tbe Artist

The Blue Guitar: etchings by David Hockney

New

who was who was

Reproduces

inspired by Wallace Stevens

The Viking

York:

ink

Press. 1971

and crayon drawings dating from

1

963 to

1

97

1

,

No

text-

inspired by Pablo Picasso

London: Petersburg Press.

1

978

from the Brothers

Six Fairy Tales

Etchings by David Hockney. with text by Wallace Stevens. The

Blue Guitar. 20 etchings reproduced

in

Man

\

color

London: Petersburg Press

Grimm

association

in

i

Kasmin Gallery.

ith

1

970.

With etchings by Hockney

Dovid Hockney by Dovid Hockney

Spender. Stephen and Hockney. David

London: Thames and Hudson. 1976;

China Diary.

New York: Harry N Abrams. Inc.. 1979. A revealing and enterummg autobiography,

New iilh

434

illustrations

and

lengthy text by the artist

N

York: Harry

Abrams.

Spender and Hockney in

the spring of

1

98

1

.

s

Inc..

account of

1982. a

three-week

trip to

China taken

with photographs, watercolors and crayon sketches

by Hockney.

David Hockney. photographs

London and

New

Published

conjunction with a 1982 exhibition at Centre Georges

in

York: Petersburg Press. 1982

Stangos. Nikos, ed.

Paper Pools

Pompidou.

New

York: Harry N. Abrams.

Inc..

1980.

how Hockney came upon

Text describes

the idea of the Paper Pool series.

David Hockney. 23 Lithographs 1978-80.

New

York: Tyler Graphics Ltd.. 1980

Stangos. Nikos. ed.

Excellent reproduction quality.

Pictures by

David Hockney

London: Thames and Hudson. 18 Portraits by David

Hockney

Los Angeles: Gemini

GEL.

Details of

Hockney

s large

1

976 and

1

979,

Based largely on Dovid Hockney by David Hockney.

1977.

lithographs of

1

976 are reproduced

No

text

Catalogues Bare. Gene.

Livingstone. Marco.

David Hockney:

David Hockney

Washington. D.

New

York; Holt. Rinehart and Winston.

Stylistic

developments

in

Hockney

literature, music, the theater

s

1

Prints

and Drawings

C The :

International Exhibitions Foundation. 1978.

98

art are

viewed

in

relation to sexuality.

and the history of painting

Brighton.

Andrew,

Dovid Hockney

prints

1954-77

Nottingham. England: Midland Group Gallery

A

Rake's Progress

London: Lion and Unicom Press. Etchings by Hockney.

1

967.

association with the

Hockney up to the Hockney s graphic work

Full-page illustrations of the 2 1 8 prints published by

beginning of

to that date

212

in

Scottish Arts Council and Petersburg Press. 1979

1

977 This

is

the catalogue raisonne of


.

.

David Hockney Drawings,

Geldzahler. Henry.

Minneapolis: Dayton's Gallery

1974.

12.

"Hockney Abroad: Art

David Hockney: Travels with Pen, Penal and

London; Petersburg Press. 1978.

A

A

Slide

Show."

America, February 1981. pp 126-41.

Gosling. Nigel.

produced to accompany an American touring

substantial catalogue

in

Ink.

exhibition of Hockney's prints and drawings. Introduction by

Edmund

"Things Exactly as They Are." Horizon,

November

1

977. pp 46-5

1

Pillsbury.

*Heyworth. Peter Glazebrook. Mark.

"Hockney's dazzling

David Hockney: Paintings, prints and drawings 1960-70.

Flute."

The Observer (London). 4 July 1978.

London: Whitechapel Gallery. 1970. Includes an interview with the artist.

*Hunt. Christopher

From A to The."

"Progress.

Image

in Process.

San Francisco Opera Magazine,

Summer

1982. pp 28-33.

London: Grabowski Gallery, 1962.

group exhibition

Early

which Hockney was represented.

in

*Levin. Bernard.

"Hockney and The Magic Bowness. Alan and Friedman. Martin

New

London: The Minneapolis:

Group

The Times (London).

1

he next be called into The Ring?'

Flute: will

4 July 1978.

Scene.

Walker Art Center. 1965. Pop artists in which Hockney

exhibition of British

'Mann. William. participated.

"Hockney's

Festival Flute in Full Flair"

The Times (London). 29 May 1978.

Uwe

Schneede.

Pop Art

in

M.

England: beginning of a

New Figuration

1947-63.

*McEwen. John.

Hamburg: Kunstverein Hamburg. 1976. Hockney's early work

is

set

in

"David Hockney Sets the Stage."

context.

Portfolio,

Spender. Stephen and Restany. Pierre.

David Hockney, Tableaux

Musee des Arts

Pans:

Text

in

Russell, John.

et Dessins.

"David Hockney

Decoratifs. Palais du Louvre. 1974.

French and English, including an interview with the

Thompson. David.

New

The

March-April 1981. pp 68-70.

The

"The

Generation

New

—A

Storyteller

Without Words."

York Times, Gallery View. 26 February

1

978.

artist.

The

Spirit of 1917."

New

York Review of Books, 30 April

1

98

1

.

pp 40-43.

London: Whitechapel Gallery. 1964 Early

group show

in

which Hockney was represented.

Shapiro. David.

"David Hockney paints a Portrait."

Articles Bailey.

*

Relates to Hockney's stage designs

New

The

Art News,

May

1969. pp

28-31. 64-66.

Anthony.

"Profiles: Special Effect."

*Smith. Philip.

pp 35-69.

Yorker, 30 July 1979.

"Sets and

Costumes by David Hockney." pp 86-91.

Arts Mogozine. April 1981.

Baro. Gene.

"The

British Scene:

Arts Magazine,

Hockney and

Kitaj."

Stadler.

May-June 1964, pp 94-101.

Peter

"Elements of pop

in

Rake's Progress."

The Daily Telegraph (London). 23 July 1975. Bowling. Frank.

"A

Shift in Perspective."

Arts Magazine,

Summer

*Swan. Annalyn. 1969. pp 24-27.

"The Rite of

Stravinsky."

Newsweek, 14 December 1981, p "David Hockney The

New

in

129.

conversation with R.B. Kitai"

Review. January-February 1977. pp 75-77.

Von Bonin. Wibke. "Hockney's Graphic Art."

Davis, Peter G. "Masks, Magic and Myths

New

York. 2

1

December

1

98

1

,

p 7

at

The Met."

Arts

Magazine.

Summer

1969. pp 52-53.

1

213


Selected Opera Bibliography

W

Beaumont. Cyril

L'Opera au Palais Gamier (1875-1962) Pans: L'Entracte

Wolff. Stephane

New

and Present London and

6o//ei Design. Past

(the annals of the Paris Opera), 1962.

York:

Studio. 1946

White. Eric Walter. Strovinsky The Composer ond His Works Berkeley and Buckle. Richard Diaghilev,

.

Nijinsky.

New

New

York Atheneum Pubs

York: Simon

&

Schuster.

1979

.

Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1966.

Zenger. Maximillen and Deutsch. Otto Erich. Mozort und seine Welt

1971.

Inc..

in

zeitgenossischen Bildern (Series X: Supplement vol. of the complete edition Chailly. Jacques.

New

The Magic

Flute,

York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Masonic Opera. (Trans Herbert Weinstock)

Inc..

of Mozart's works). Cassel: Barenreiter. 1961,

1971

Selected Discography Cooper. Douglas Picasso Theatre.

New

York: Harry

N

Abrams.

Inc..

Mozart. Wolfgang Amadeus

1968.

Die Zouber/Iote (The Magic Flute).

Cooper. Martin. French Music From

London and

New

York:

the death of&erlioz to the death ofFaure.

Oxford University

Lemnitz. Berger. Roswaenge. Husch. Strienz. Tessmer. et

Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, cond.

Press. Inc.. 1961.

LC-6129.

New

Craft. Robert. Strovinsky Chronicle of a Friendship.

Knopf.

of style. Unfortunately,

Editonale.

(

I

I

vols.)

Rome: Le Maschere- Unione

1

1954-68

al.

Berlin

Thomas Beecham (Seraphim

it

in

1937.

it

remains a model

does not contain the dialogue. For more modern

The Seraphim 983 re-release, and has been excellently mastered and the surfaces are

recordings Enciclopedia dello spettacolo

Sir

mono.)

The one and only version! Although made

York: Alfred A.

1972.

Inc..

3 discs,

in

quiet (which

glittering sound, consult current catalogues

was often not the case with

is

a

earlier reissues of this classic

recording).

Gold. Arthur and Fizdale. Robert. Misia. Inc..

New

York: Alfred A. Knopf.

1980.

Poulenc. Francis. Les

Lederman. Minna

New

(ed,). Stravinsky in the Theatre.

York: Pellegrini

&

Mamelles de

Tiresias.

Duval. Giraudeau. et

The only recording Seroff. Victor

al.

Orchestra and Chorus of the Theatre National de

rOpera-Comique. cond, Andre Cluytens (Angel 35090,

Cudahy. 1949.

1.

Ravel.

New

York:

Henry

Holt. 1953

years ago.

it is

Brown & Co

Little.

.

1970

work ever made. Although

I

disc,

mono.)

issued nearly thirty

performance replete with Gallic wit. The original handsome booklet with photographs of the first production, a short essay on Poulenc by Claude Rostand, a statement

a definitive

issue contains a

Stecgmuiler. Francis. Cocteou. Boston:

of the

drawings by Erte.

by the composer and a bilingual libretto with an English prose translation by Stravinsky.

New

Vera and Craft. Robert. Strovinsky

York: Simon

&

Schuster.

in

Pictures

and Documents.

Sherry Mangan.

1978.

Inc..

Ravel. Maurice.

Stravinsky, Igor (ed. and with

Utters. Vol.

I.

New

commentaries by Robert

York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Inc..

Craft). Selected

i'Enfant et les Sortileges.

Wyner. Auger. Berbie. Langndge. Bastm, et

1982

al.

London Symphony

Orchestra and the Ambrosian Singers, cond. Andre Previn (Angel Stravinsky, Igor and Craft, Robert. Conversotions with Igor Stravinsky.

NY.: Doubleday & Co.,

City.

Inc.,

Garden

DS 37869

I

disc, stereo/digital.)

Superb sound and

I9S9

a delightful

Lorin Maazel on Deutsche .

Inc..

Memories ond Commentaries. Garden

City.

NY:

Doubleday &

Co

compare to the one

.

performance.

Grammophon

is

A

1961 recording conducted by

also

still

available,

but

it

cannot

listed here,

I960. Satie. Erik. .

Expositions and Developments.

Garden

City.

NY:

Doubleday &

Co

.

Parade.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Philippe Entremont, (Columbia

M Oiologues and a Diary. Garden City.

Themes ond Episodes

New

NY:

York: Alfred

Doubleday &

A

Knopf. Inc

.

Co

1

Thompson. Kenneth. A Oictionory of Twentieth-Century Composers (191 -197 1). New York: St. Martins Press, Inc.. 1973 1

214

966

30294.

I

disc, stereo.)


Philharmonia Orchestra, cond. Igor Markevitch. album, Angel 3518 C. 3

The Angel album was however,

document

a

Homage

(In

Le Sacre du Prmtemps.

to Diaghilew

The Columbia Symphony Orchestra, cond. the composer. (Columbia

mono.)

discs,

issued

1954 and

in

is

unfortunately out of print.

It

is,

of the Ballets Russes and contains a sumptuously

designed brochure printed by Mercure of Pans. The cover of

reproduces Picasso's drop curtain for the

original

this

production of Parade,

Masterworks

MS

6319,

I

disc, stereo.)

many with made even more

Although there are nearly a dozen

recordings available,

spectacular digital sound, this

to obtain.

valuable by an introductory talk by the

It is

is

the version

composer. Apropos of'Le Sacre." which deals with the history of

and there are scores of black-and-white photographs, color plates and

this musical

landmark.

Kochno (Diaghilev's secretary) and balletomane par excellence, Cyril W. Beaumont. The conductor, the late Igor Markevitch, was Diaghilev's last protege. The more recent Entremont album contains essays by Boris

several other Satie scores, including Relache.

Stravinsky, Igor

Oedipus Rex-

Gramm, Reardon. Watson,

Verett, Driscoll, Shirley,

Colicos. Orchestra and

Chorus of the Opera Society of Washington. D.C., cond. the composer (In Stravinsky. The Recorded Legacy album, Columbia Masterworks LXS 36940. 31

discs, stereo.)

McCowen. London Georg Solti.

Pears, Meyer, Mclntyre, Dean, Ryland Davies, Luxon.

Philharmonic Orchestra and John Alldis Choir, cond.

(London

I

168/5.

The composer's own interpretation blooded, which suits the work. that gathers together

to

commemorate

all

of his

the

in

It is

is

authoritative and curiously cold-

currently only available

works recorded under

the Stravinsky centenary

The

for dedicated Stravinskians.

outstanding

Sir

disc, stereo.)

I

Solti disc

in

is

I

982,

in

a brilliant one;

Pears

and Alec McCowen's narration

title role,

album

a lavish

his supervision. Issued

this collection

is

is

a

must

is

excellent.

Le Rossignol. Grist, Driscoll,

Gramm,

et

al.

Orchestra of the Opera Society of

Washington, D.C., cond. the composer album, Columbia Masterworks

The only recording

available,

collection described above.

(In Stravinsky.

LXS 36940.

and

(at

The Recorded Legacy

31 discs, stereo.)

the present time of writing) only

The performance

is

sung

in

in

the

the original Russian

and may be considered authoritative.

The Rake's Progress. Raskin, Sarfaty, Young. Garrard. Manning. Miller. Reardon. Tracy. Royal

Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sadler's Wells Opera Chorus, cond. the

composer (Columbia Masterworks M3S-7I0. This

is

3 discs, stereo.)

the second recording of the opera; the Hrst

was made

at the

time of

American premiere

at the Metropolitan in 1953 and utilized the Met The present recording was made some twelve years or so later, and is far superior to the earlier set. The soloists are uniformly excellent, with Alexander Young outstanding in the title role. Judith Raskin a sweet Its

forces.

Anne, and Rosina Sarfaty outrageously good

as

Baba. Unfortunately. John

memory of Mack Harrell's performance The composer's conducting is lyrical. This

Reardon's Shadow cannot erase the in

the 1953 recording.

performance

is

also available in the 3

1

-disc

album discussed above.

215


Opera Chart

The Rakc*s Progress

Composi

Igor Stravinsky

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

W.

Emanuel Schtkaneder/Carl Ludwtg Gieseke

I

I

H. Auden/Chester Kallman

September 1951

Teatro

Produced by

The Magic Flute

la

30 September 1791 Theater auf der Wieden. Vienna

Fenice, Venice

Venice Biennale. XIV International Festival of

Contemporary

Emanue! Schikaneder

Music,

v^ith La Scala. Milan

Conductor

Igor Stravinsky

VVolfgang

Stage Director

Amadeus Mozart

Emanuel Schikaneder

Choreographer

Sets and

First

Costumes

Performance with

28 May 1978

21 June 1975

Costumes by David Hockney

Glyndebourne

Conductor

Bernard Haitink

Stage Director

John

Sets and

Festival

Opera

Glyndebourne

Lewes. East Sussex

Cox

Andrevkf Davis

John

Cox

Choreographer

Lighting

216

Robert Bryan

Robert Bryan

Festival

Opera


Les Mamelles de Tiresias

Composer

Francis Poulenc

Jean Cocteau

l8May 1917

Produced by

L'Enfant et les Sortileges

Guillaume Apollinaire

3

21

June 1947

Theatre du Chatelet, Paris

Salle Favart,

Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes

Theatre National

Par

March 1925

Theatre du Casino. Monte Carlo

Opera de Monte Carlo

de rOpera-Comique

Conductor

Ernest Ansermet

Victor de Sabata

Stage Director

Leonide Massine

Raoul Gunsbourg

George Balanchine

Choreographer

Sets and

First

Performance with

Sets and

Luchino Visconti

Costumes

Costumes

20 February 1981

20 February 1981

20 February 1981

Metropolitan Opera House

Metropolitan Opera House

Metropolitan Opera House

by David Hockney

New

Conductor

Manuel Rosenthal

Manuel Rosenthal

Manuel Rosenthal

Stage Director

John Dexter

John Dexter

John Dexter

Choreographer

Gray Veredon

Stuart Sebastian

Stuart Sebastian

Lighting

Gil

York

Wechsler

217


Daw) Hocknty M WaJker

Composer

Art Center. Jinuary

1

983

Le Sacrc du Printemps

Le Rossignol

Oedipus Rex

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky/Nicholas Roerich

Stepan Mitussov

Jean Cocteau

29Mayl9l3

26Mayl9l4

30Mayl927

Theatre des Champs-Elysees. Paris

Theatre National de I'Opera, Paris

Theatre Sarah Bernhardt, Pans

Produced by

Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes

Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes

Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes

Conductor

Pierre

Stage Director

Vaslav Ni|insky

Alexander Sanine

Choreographer

Vaslav Nijinsky

Boris

Nicholas Roerich

Alexandre Benois

Sets and

First

Costumes

Performance with

3

Monteux

December

1981

Pierre

3

Monteux

Romanov

December 98 1

Igor Stravinsky

(concert performance)

(concert performance)

(concert performance)

3

December

1981

Metropolitan Opera House

Metropolitan Opera House

Metropolitan Opera House

Conductor

James Levme

James Levme

James Levine

Stage Director

John Dexter

John Dexter

John Dexter

Choreographer

Jean-Pierre Bonnefous

Frederick Ashton

Lighting

Gil

Sets and

Costumes

by David Hockney

218

Wechsler


-J

i)^:

\


Acknowledgments

In

1965 Walker Art Center presented an overview of recent English painting

New

and sculpture called London: The

who came

work on

to see their

graduation

Among

the young luminaries

was David Hockney who,

since his

1962 from the Royal College of Art, had become something

in

of a minor legend

the English art world.

in

for the theater undertaken for the

Metropolitan Opera, It

Scene.

exhibition

visit

Festival

new

found vivid

his creativity has

was another Hockney

Recently, with his designs

Glyndebourne

Opera and the

expression.

to Minneapolis that provided the idea for

the exhibition, Hockney Paints the Stage.

1980, the

In

Walker Art Center

presented works from the newly formed collection of the Musee Picasso, and it

was David Hockney 's great enthusiasm

to town.

It

was during

his visit

project, the design for the French triple

Opera Company. Once Hockney began was to discuss the design.

It

was

I

learned about

were

a direct

his artistic evolution.

would focus on

outgrowth of

Once

the

exhibition's

and participating and as

New

artist's creative

York.

Its

In

scope

his

theater

his paintings

and

The proposed exhibition would

not only bring together an extraordinary group of works

enthusiastically In

new

describing his ideas for the Met's stage, the next step

clear that the sets

but also document the

his

Parade, for the Metropolitan

bill.

possibility of an exhibition that

therefore intrinsic to

him

for Picasso's art that brought

to Minneapolis that

In

various media

Hockney

collaborated

process.

was

defined,

development, patiently enduring numerous Interviews frequent planning sessions

He approached

in

Minneapolis, Los Angeles

the design of the exhibition as imaginatively

he would a project for the stage. Not only did he lend an important group

of drawings, paintings and models from

his

own

collection, but he

several large-scale paintings as part of the reconstructions of scenes

made from

various opera productions.

As

this exhibition

knowledge of Los Angeles

a

took form,

number

we

it

was necessary to

call

upon the

of individuals familiar with David

talents and

Hockney

had the perceptive counsel of Gregory Evans

s

in

work.

In

locating

important drawings and paintings related to the theater designs. David Graves,

who

had assisted the

artist

with technical aspects of several of

his

theater set designs, helped us develop the exhibition's floor plan.

The

New

York and London

offices of

Petersburg Press were important

sources of information on the locations of Hockney's works.

Its

director, Paul

Cornwall-Jones, endorsed our project from the beginning and provided crucial

220


Hockney abroad,

has

whose

works Of

art,

assistance,

been represented h directors

"""'

resided'

Photographs

o Knoe

iri^r^'^' "

,er/Kasr.in Ltd., London, gallery that initially

HodT

encountered Bot Andre Emr^erich and Nathan

Ko'h'

'

J^e

«o,e

s

pages. Also

commenting

New

in

Hockneys

ab.lity'o

^lyndebourne ^°''

,^-^-/

productions

*" ''^

"P^city as

- try his'hand a" fh»

in

f ^°'-'^

to myth and music

ra^dX-^

" ''""°'- ^P°^^

for or b K both productions.

The Met's musical director

'°"'^ '^^^'lDexter

r^7

with me a^^ the Met. Another revealing

'''"'' '"''

concepts

l.r.,

Th^

.

'ZZ'"'''

X

L Cn::^'^-

Clark and Gil Wechsler, the

Hockneys

-nslated to the Met's g':

°' ^°^^ °' '''

'^''^^^h

^^-'

^--ent French

-^ triple

Hi.

bill

DeZe

vis[

stTe

°'

' ^^^ ^^-sa, °P-a projects at

-^l,:^ '""^'^P^^^^le people as ^ Joseph ^^'^^^ ''"' L'Sht^ng

Nets Terl

lyrical

"^' "°"^

imrress'^'T c!nd ^V'^' '"' '^"

Manuel Rosenthal to Hockney's visuaMn/ ;^-nating. Without reactions

1979

in

"''^^' ^• e^Tan^r '' ' """"" "^^^ e'oquenrof ho! r'°" ^°w °^ they evolved ^ ^ their

talk

-'aestro.

respectively.

^ond Street '^^ -'^-1960

'"'" "'°" P^^^P^-

^^^

-S-,nsky e^eninto::::

-^edule to

'"

" ""adoration appear

bra

Opera persuaded Hockney to take nn ^

-I

::.'^^^

,ve vtll ^ York creative partner.h ^

e Metropolitan

"°^ '^^^

Bo7^""

^ «^— ^

"^^

^

questions about "'"'"^'^ working Ji^h the 'X to artist connments. For ' ' '"'"'^^^ ^° '-'"<^^ their assistance ,n provid ! ,n o operas and for ''''''' '° ''^ providing the -^ous c^scoTr ph Son,no^ Philip ^^"^^'^"^ ^-teful Brunelle also to Michael kindly'ev , ^^^'^wed some of the text ^ °P'^'^^^^^ta'ls. dealing with

"h ,

r""°"

^

•"^Portant contributions. I

""

' P'^^"-"^ to

acknowledge their

particularly

want to thank rh« «-erously responded to our

elu"'

Martin Friedman, Director

o

-w

'" '^'^

^

gh.

-

^^'^"^-

'^°'"'^^"^ary n^aterial.

r. "'^ ;?«!

P

Glyndebou n

Progress and h,s ,ns

essay deals with

The

at

,

"

T" '""'"''

'

Photographs and inforniation related

were provided by Helen O'Nei

'°

gol^T^rr?'' "^ ^°'''

(

D-rector of Production

'""^"'^'^<^ S^"-'«. here and °"^ ^^^^^ ^^

and museums 'J^'^*'^-'^

who

so


Lenders to the Exhibition

Abrams

Family Collection

Katherine Komaroff

The Art

Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Jean Leger

Arts Council of Great

Britain,

London, England

Sydney and Frances Lewis Foundation

Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester,

Werner Boeninger

Rochester,

The

British Council,

Goodman

New

York

London, England

Museum Boymans-van John

Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Cox

Andrew Crispo

New York, New

Gallery,

Equinox Gallery, Vancouver,

British

Ludwig, Cologne,

Museum

of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Museum

of Art,

Columbia

Rhode

Island

Mr. and Mrs. Miles Q. Fiterman

Providence, Rhode Island

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hedreen

The Museum

Hirshhorn

Museum and

West Germany

Museum York

Sculpture Garden.

of

Modern

Art,

School of Design,

New

York.

New

York

Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri

Smithsonian Institution,

Washington, D. C.

Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne, Switzerland

David Hockney

Mr. and Mrs. Morris

Mrs. K.

Hockney

Indiana University

Sir

Art Museum,

S.

Pynoos

John Sainsbury

Walker Art Center. Minneapolis. Minnesota

Bloomington, Indiana

Washington University School of Medicine Edwin Janss

J.

Kasmin

Miriam and Erwin Kelen

222

Rare Books Division,

St.

Five Private Collections

Louis, Missouri

Library.


1

1

Reproduction Credits

All

Walker Art Center Staff for the Exhibition

photographs not otherwise credited are courtesy David Hockney.

Courtesy

Alinari-Scala: p 114

Donald C. Borrman

Registration and Shipping

Carolyn Clark DeCato

Publication Supervision and Editing

Mildred Friedman

(bottom)

Courtesy Arts Council of Great Courtesy The Art

Administration

Britain: p

Institute of Chicago: p

4

63 (bottom)

Courtesy Avery Architecture and Fine Arts Library. Columbia University:

Publication Design

Robert Jensen

Exhibition Assistance

Elizabeth

p6S Courtesy The

British Council: p

8

Courtesy Chang Pe-Chin: p 203 Courtesy Dance Collection, New York Public Library

Armstrong

Marie Cieri* at Lincoln

Trent Myers*

Center:

p 129

Courtesy Andre Emmerich Gallery: cover, frontispiece, pp 6. 39. 42. 44, 46. 47.49.54, 122. 126. l28(top), 131. 132. 156. 161. 162. 164-166. 168-170. 174. 175. 177

Guy

Gravett: pp 62. 74. 80. 90-97. 106-1 I. 120 Glenn Halvorson. courtesy Walker Art Center: dust jacket portrait of

Editorial Assistance

Susan Higgins

Publication Index

William Horrigan

Tape Transcription

Susan

I

Bloom

David Hockney

Courtesy Henry E Huntington Library: pp 63 (top). 85 Courtesy Knoedler Gallery. London: p 22 (top)

Public Relations

Courtesy Lowie Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley:

Slide

Tape Production

p 197

Photography

1

Courtesy Museum of Art, Rhode

School of Design: p

Island

Courtesy Museum Ludwig, Cologne: p 51 Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York: pp Courtesy National Gallery. London: p 14 (top)

I

1

60

76.

3.

1

.

57. 60. 69.

70-72. 86. 101. 104,

192, 195. 196. 198. 200, 202. 205.

Courtesy Staatliche Museen.

98

Set Reconstructions

12,

I

22 (bottom), 24, 26. 33. 134, 136, 139, 140, 142-155, 178-

I

Bakkom**

MaryCutshall

5 (top)

Joejanson

Rodney Todd-White & Son. courtesy Waddington Ltd.:

R.

Steve Ecklund I

Lee Stalsworth, courtesy Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian

Walker Art Center: pp

Elliott

Hughjacobson

20,

pp 14 (top), 40 Courtesy Tate Gallery, London: p 3 John Tennant. Courtesy Hirshhorn Museum. Smithsonian

Courtesy Tyler Graphics,

Ron

James

206

Berlin: p

Glenn Halvorson

Donald Neal

I

Courtesy Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo: p 50 Courtesy Petersburg Press: pp 10, 14, (bottom), 4

Helm

Jana Freiband

Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art: p 115 (bottom) Herbert Migdoll, courtesy The Joffrey Ballet: pp 38, 28 (bottom)

36.

Mary Abbe Martin Charles

Mark Kramer

Institution:

David Lee

Cody Institution: p

Galleries,

London: p 27

p 52

6, 34, 56, 57, 66. 67. 79.

Director of the Exhibition

82-84,

1

Riddle

Peter Schwob

28

00. 103.

1

05.

I

1

Martin Friedman

6.

118.219 'former

staff

members

'consultant

223


Index

Chryst. Gary

tions.

bold-face type indicate

illustra-

Hockneys works are listed alphabetically name Hockneys works for the opera are

after his

cross-referenced under the

of each opera and

title

The

Clark. Joseph

The Nighvngate

15,186

Colette

Apollinaire. Guillaume

62. 63.

25.

1

1

29.

I

35.

38.

Von/ Copricc/( 983) 1

W.

Auden.

H.

209

Cox. John

209

115

17. 63. 68. 69. 73. 75. 77. 100.

102

Paid on Both Sides

7.

1

(

209

983)

1

Ballet

7

de Marseilles

Berlioz.

Bi»y Budd Birtwell.

1

1

25.

80,81

Dine. Jim

137. 197

38.63.197

Bruegel. Pieter (the Elder)

1

17

I

2(M

Drawings of Roman architectural decorations 1760)

204

Consuntine

Waning

Chirico. Giorgio de Christie. John

224

b^

Equus

103 23

1

25.

1

1

bill

(

1

25

I

135

960s

1

I

25

art

on The

Marriage and The Second

First

I

25

on Egyptian Marriage

9.

5

I

1

within a Play

Closing Scene

on 27-

30

30

32

Scott

with Unfinished Self-Portrait

35

38

30.

1

33.

I

in style 43 Hollywood house

his

64

98

on The Poke's

1

I

56, 59

opening of The Poke's Progress (1975)

at the

on The Magic

1

115.

64. 65.

Flute

06- 111,114.

1

168

17. 167.

I

with the set of The Magic Flute triple

bill

(

1

1

)

63.127.128.161 1

25,

1

28

135.

I

37.

(

1

88

978)

90—97,

Progress

I

38.

1

4

1

.

1

99.

100. 102.

204

119. 121. 172.

142-145,

173,204

161, 163, 164

Les Mamelles de Tiresias

1

L'Enfant et les Sorvleges

I

4^» 49, 50— 55, 1

I

67

1

1

68-

173, 176

Opera 157-160 on Tiepoli 60 on Le Socre du Printemps

48

1

74, 75

1

79- 181,

1

97-

199

on Le Possigno/

69

on Oedipus Pex

35. 99,

197 200

on Chinese 1

25

art

Biography

182-187 88- 9 1

1

triple

bill

1

94,

1

99, 200,

203

210,211

Hockney, David (works by)

18

74, 75 74, 75

Geldzahler, Henry

on the Stravinsky 203

160

House of the Dead

Don

100. 105

lighting the stage

on Glyndebourne and the Metropolitan

18.48

25

John

on Hogarth

on on on

1

43.63.167

Roger

Garrard,

art of the

onPorode

Gregory

the

on

197.200.207 23- 25. 27-

980)

69

S

1

Fryatt,

I

on childhood experiences of theater

on

25

1

1

Eskimo mask (ca 1880)

From

I

Opera

State

on changes

triple

Frick Collection

23

74,75,80,81

on photography

I

The VVoste Lond

Fry,

1

Chinese opera mask

T

5.

I

I

978)

on Model

18

Dufy. Raoul

Evans.

23

Barbarians

for rhe

Cezanne. Paul

8

1

Domenichino 25 Dowell. Anthony

Ehot. I

14.

I

104

Ehas. Rosalind

29

Opera Company

Casanova. Giovanni Battista

(ca.

78.

975).

1

(

1

I

Hourloupe series

119. 121

Buckle. Richard

100. 102.

on Henry Celdzahler and Christopher

Ian

Dubuffet. Jean

29. 114

Bryan. Robert

4.

38

I

Doboujinsky. Rostislav

25

1

Museum

1

and Documents (with Vera

Dialogues des Carmelites

68

Codounov

I

37

I

e.

Diaghilev. Serge

64,99

Braque. Georges

Cavafy.

84. 85. 87. 88.

138. 141

28

1

Hamburg

37

on the Stravinsky

25

1

Halle Orchestra

130. 133. 135 1

(

Gomez, Jill

1

135. 137. 138. 141. 157. 161. 163. 164. 167.

25

Bonnefous. Jean-Pierre

Carl Rosa

I

1

73

Ceha

6

on Play

Derby Repertory Company 23Dexter. John 2. 5.

61

Cellim

Blake. William

British

.

172. 173. 176. 180. 193. 194.

Blacker. Thetis

Boris

1

on the Porode

Hector

Remenuto

1

Hockney. David

25

Berryman. John

38.

Herbert. Jocelyn

125

1

Berg. Alban

I

12

Pictures

in

1

I

9, 12, 15, 53, 58.

158,207,208

17. 119. 157.

25

Daumier. Honore

see also Porode (1920)

Bates. Alan

35.

/es Sortileges

64. 77. 78. 8

Robert

Cuthbertson.

1

38.63.180

&orber of Seville, The

I

88

Stravinsky)

see also Septentrion Ballets Russes

28.

The/V1ogicF;ute(l978)

cummings. e

197

Opera

on designing for the stage

Stravinsky

George

Balanchine,

1

on collaborating with David Hockney

Craft.

32

Bacon. Francis

27.

see also The Rake's Progress

1

see also The Rake's Progress

Don

I

2.

I

4th century)

Goeke. Leo 74,75.80,81 Gramm. Donald 74, 75. 80, 8

Manus

84. 85. 87.

tetter to lord Byron

Bachardy.

1

151. 157. 161. 168. 171

Covent Garden

I

I

Flute

73.

5.

see also L'Enfant et

Constant.

1

see also The Poke's Progress (1975), The Magic

I

157

Ashton. Frederick

bill

99

see aJso tes Mamelles de Tiresias

(

Festival

61.64.77.78.85.87.99.

triple

164

164.203

38

Aperture

167.204

164.

Egypt

Glyndebourne

see also Parade

5

I

23

1

on producing the Parade (1980)

14

I

Flight into

Straw Hot

Cocteau. Jean

Andersen. Hans Christian

Giotto

1

123

lialian

Clark. Ossie

are listed sequentially.

28, 29

I

Rene

Clair.

m

Page numbers

32, 35,

Actor,

The

(1

964)

26,29

Assembly. An. study (or The Poke's Progress

99

(1975)

76


7

Georges Laws and Wayne Sleep

Baba, Red Pantaloons, sketch for The Rake's

101

Progress (1975)

Bobo

the Turk, sketch for The Rake's Progress

69

(1975)

102

63)

84

Mosk

B/(nd (

98

1

Thebes

83

(1975)

for

Oedipus, drawing for Oedipus Rex

206

1)

Collector

(

16,32

964)

1

Cave, drawing for (Jbu Roi

(

966)

1

and

Cb(7d with Large Chair

177 132

L'Enfontet/esSort//eges(l980)

L'Enfant et les Sonjieges

(

1

980)

1

(

1

Man

980)

(

98

1

206

1

(

1

962)

1

and Masks, drawing for

202

l.e

Rossignol

105

Progress (1975)

(

1

28,

964)

29.

38

Tiresias

(

1

drawing for Les Mamelles de

980)

1

66

Tiresias

(

1

980)

1

64

drawing for Les Mamelles de

Tiresias

(

1

980)

126 1

98

with Orchest/a, drawing for Le Rossignol

20

) 1

Death

in

102 (

1

978)

112 Design for Roland

79)

for

Petit's Ballet,

14

Septentrion (1975)

Drop Curtain

102

1

0)

(

1

98

1

(

1

977)

35.

200

) 1

Mother Goose's

Brothel,

97 S)

103

(\

1

980)

1

Mulholland Drive

model

for The Rake's

(

970-7

(

(

980)

1

55

(

1

975-

60

Fire,

model for The Magic

First

Morrioge. The

(

1

Flute

962)

30.

(

1

977)

3

67

I

for The Rake's Progress

(

1

96

1

)

1

00

(

1

966)

I

3

Hands

Socre du Printemps. Socre Disc

I,

II.

XV

VII,

136

(1981)

drawing for The Magic Flute

(

1

978)

72 Woman

Drinking Tea. Being Served by a

Standing Companion

963)

1

(

(

1

Self-Portrait with Blue Guitar

(1

II.

I

963)

O, 23 30,

32 35

977)

1

(

drawing for Le Sacre du

195

98 1)

Stravinsky Triple

and Curtain

(

1

22,

963)

Study for Curtain

Bill.

(

1

98

Masks

// (

1

98

1

1

)

(

1

40

978)

Studies for Mechanical Nightingale,

1

Le Rossignol

(1

drawing for

205

98 1)

Study for Costumes on the Stoge. drawing for Le

Ordinary Picture

(

1

14

964)

Socre du Printemps (

1

978)

86 1

980)

I

53

and Albert

Museum

98

(

1

(

980)

1

980)

(

I

1

98

1

) 1

98

48.51

966)

in

drawing for L'Enfant

the Garden,

46

et les Sortileges

Victoria

Progress

1

Progress

39

1

205

1)

Three Bats

(

1

980)

1

75

Tom's Room, Auction Scene, model for The Rake's

in

38

Photograph of Peter Schlesinger Picture of a

(1

Sunbother

22

(

Study of Masks for Chorus, drawing for Oedipus

Rex

(

Parade Stoge Monoger

48

Roi

23

Photographs of Chinese porcelain

front and Back of a Painting of a Pike, sketches

Ubu

139

134 for

Parade Curtain After Picasso

The Rake's Progress

Flute

et les Sortileges

Socre du Printemps, Dancers Pushing

Svll Life with Figure

the Banks of the Nile, Luxor. Egypt

Parade

42

980)

1

170

(1980)

Printemps

54, 55

(

118

Set with Dancers

les

74

980)

1

99

) 1

140

(1981)

1

A model for The Magic

Sarastro's Palace,

Second Marriage. The 1

Oedipus Rex. Principal Singers and Chorus

On

in

Seoted

Mr. Arithmetic, drawing for L'Enfant et (

98

model for The Magic

A.

Room, The, drawing for L'Enfant

(1981)

52, 53

978)

drop and the Chinese court

silk (

Paper Pool series for the

(

the

in

Papageno. sketch for The Magic Flute

Drogon. drawing for The Magic Flute

Drawing

Room

34, 35 Wrong Movie)

977)

172

1

Harlem, etching from A Roke's Progress

(1961-63)

1

Sorostro.

Le Rossignol

1

(

66

Flute {\977)

Oedipus Rex. Study

Down

Garden with Night Glow

Royal Palace, drawing for

Nichols Canyon

Curtain with Squore Stage and Floorboards,

116

(1977)

with Unfinished Self-Portrait

Progress

drawing for Parade

Pyramid and Obelisks, model for The Magic Flute

Ravel's

8

Sortileges

Curtain with Curved Stage, drawing for Les

Mamelles de

57

56.

36 in

131

Rocky Landscape,

Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy

Cubistic Bar.

6,

Hogarth) Useful Knowledge

Models for the

Glyndebourne program of The Rake's

Cubist Boy with Colourful Tree

1

Meeting the Good People (Washington), etching

Model

(198!)

for

980)

25

/Midnight Pool (Paper Pool

68

Courtiers

Cover

1

40

from A Roke's Progress (1961-63)

25.27

C/osmgScene(l963) Colonial Governor

Heads, drawing

their

)

(

38.

a yVluseum (or You're

(1962)

Chorus with Alosks above for Oedipus Rex

168

Auditorium, drawing for Oedipus Rex

98.105

in

47

980)

1

Raised Stage with Masks, Narrator and

Looking ot Pictures on a Screen

44

(

(After

6,

1

(

192

House

Hills

964)

1

(1975)

69

Chinese Conjuror, drawing for Parade

(

Kerby

Shadow of Mother, drawing for

Child with

Hollywood

fowo

53

161

(1977)

49

48.

Hypnotist, The (1963)

drawing for

Fireplace,

118 980)

50,

48.

Punchine//o Changing Blocks, drawing for Parade

Punchinello's Masks,

32.33

(1969)

Child with Books. Cups and Teapot, drawing for

fEnfantet/esSorti/eges (1980)

1

966)

{\980)

Tiresias

evening (1980)

Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott

3

I

(

1

96

1

1

(1980)

F/ute(l977) Harlequin

An

California

Head from

19

Grove with Three Temples, model for The Magic

70

)

(

Punchinello with Babies, drawing for Les

Flute

99

(1974)

98

Mamelles de

963)

(1

1

24,25

963)

(1

drawing for Oedipus Rex

Punchinello on and offStoge

model for The Magic

Gregory Masurovsky and Shirley Goldfarb

Bread Machine, sketch for The Rake's Progress (1975)

A,

116

(1977)

Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken

Bedlam, model for The Rake's Progress

Ploy

(

(1975)

1

P/oy within

Portrait of Nick Wilder

Graveyard, model for The Rake's Progress

Great Hall,

1

99

975)

Primitive Masks,

104 975) ( 6ed/om. etching from A Rake's Progress( 96 1

1

Grand Procession of Dignitaries Painted in the Style, A(I96I) 20,21. 23

Semi-Egyptian

Bobo's Hanging Objects, sketch for The Rake's Progress

(

))

(1

975)

83

Tom's Room (Room I

Hollywood Swimming Pool

(

1

964)

(

1

975)

/),

model

for The Rake's

82

Tom's Room with Babo's Hanging Objects, model for The Rake's Progress

(

1

975)

82

225


Drawings

Hockney. David (works by continued)

Down

Troop of Acton and Acrobats, drawing for Parade

44

(1980)

(

see also Stravinsky triple

1

1

(

1

{

1920 1981

1

78,84, 100, 102, 104, 105 (1

During Divine Service

1

(

Mode

la

Vespri Sicidoni

I

1

747)

00

Study

Jeffrey Ballet

(

1

98

38.

28.

1

1

1

56.

2.

1

L'Enfant 1

25.99

1980

43

Lichtenstein,

Life

15,43,45,55.61.72.75, 123-125.

127. 130. 133. 135. 168. 171-173.

150-155,

160. 161. 163.

for: (

1

980)

Shadow of Mother

The Room

(1

(

1

980)

1

69

170 174 (1 980)

in

the

Child with Books.

Garden

(

1

bill (

1

(

1

980)

77

I

(

1

30,

1

46- 49, 1

980)

1

26

199,203.204

(

1

98

1

)

200

25

1

Mondrian. Piet

37

Monet, Claude

56 179

43

Morandi, Giorgio

Mozart. Wolfgang

Amadeus

(1

bill

168

980) (

1

Musee

triple

bill

(

1

98

) 1

193,

104

1

94

25. 35, 114

National Theatre (London)

125,130

New

125, 130

Ni|insky. Vaslav

York City

I

I

129. 179 1

127. 161

Oedipus Rex

191,

3

194.203.204

193.

Drawings

I

14. 115, 117,

127. 167

fire (1

977)

for

Masks

II

Oedipus Rex. Principal Singers and (1

140

98 1)

Raised Stoge with Masks. Narrator and

66

66 67

AGreotHoÂť(l977) A Room in SorosUo's

116

for:

140

(1981)

Chorus

for;

977)

188-

15.61. 135. 137. 141.

Oedipus Rex. Study

I,

197

Ballet

Nureyev. Rudolf

72

The

Art.

12,15,21,37.53,61-63,65,

(1

-

National Gallery (London)

1981

I

1

37

Picasso

Museum of Modern (New York) 38

980)

100 1

106-1

6

2.

see also The Mogic Flute

115

19, 120,

1

69

Don Giovanni

25

Auditorium

(

1

98

Study of Mosks

1

)

for

1

92

Chorus

(

1

98

1

205

Pyromid and Obelisks

for:

123.124

1978

Models

980).

1

(

43

Novarre. Yves

Mo

62-64,

1

Water

Silkdrop and Chinese court

226

27,

A Rocky Londscope (1977)

980)

15.135.137.138.141,182-187,

193. 194,

79

Milhaud. Darius

1816

I 1

Le Rossignol

Models

1

88

MacDermott,

105,

17$

980)

Cup ond Teopot

see also Porode triple

1981

98

Operos-Minutes

68, 69, 72, 73, 75, 77. 78, 85. 87. 88.

980)

Arithmetic

Luxon, Ben

1

132 Child with

Three Bats

1

) 1

bill

(1981)

1

165 166

18, I

of Galileo. The

MacDonald, Joe Magic Flute. The

176.207

Child with Large Chair and Fireplace

Mr

Roy

Liebermann, Rolf

68

Drawings

98

125. 193

Levine, James

on the Stravinsky

12,

1

bill

65.69,72.73.75.88. 113. 114

see also Porode triple

97

1

1

1

25,

1

Punchine//o with Babies

105

et les Sortileges

926

(

98

126

CubisticBor(l980)

Boheme

1

Monteux, Pierre

Zonzibor(l980)

Leger. Fernand

bill (

for:

102

Kirstein. Lincoln

5

123-125

Misonthrope, The 23.

see also The Rake's Progress

Kirby.John

I I

209

Stravinsky triple

Curtain with Square Stage and Floorboards

(1980)

32, 38, 58,

2,

I

160, 164, 172, 173, 176,204,

Miro, Joan

Curtoin with Curved Stage

63. 68. 69, 73, 75, 77, 100.

9,

see also Parade triple

96

Costumes on the Stage

Drawings

29

43

Kasmin.John

1

)

1

195

163. 164. 167. 168, 171

Kallman. Chester

1.0

980

1

see also Parode( 1973) Johns, Jasper

159,

129.157

1903

of Art

123-125, 127, 128, 133, 135, 157,

see also Stravinsky triple

fioi

63 129. 180

Museum

Metropolitan Opera

XV

VII,

//,

203

43,45,56, 197

Mallarme. Stephane

207, 208,

Masks

for

86 38,

I

Massine. Leonide

Les Mome//es de Tiresias

32

for:

Metropolitan

Primitive

63

9.

178-

199,204,207

85

38

Jerry. Philip

Sketch

for:

SetwithDoncers;/(l98l)

25

isherwocxi, Cfiristopher

112

Matisse, Henri

/,

977)

1

139

(1981)

72

Dragon (1978)

Makarova. Natalia

Church Yard.

Idle 'Prenvce at Play in the

98

Sorostro( 978) 1

1

136

(1981)

63

1

see also Ubu

98

Socre du Printemps. Dancers Pushing Hands

37.63,78

735)

Hudibros6eotjSidrophe/( 725-26)

1

Socre du Printemps, Socre Disc

12,17, 37, 62, 68, 69, 73. 75.

y^Roke's Progress

bill (

1

for:

Popageno(l978)

193. 194. 197.

Drawings

Hogarth. William

Jarry, Alfred

1

15. 129. 135. 137. 138. 141.

181,

65

Marriage a

(

129,179.197 129,180

1913

Zanzibar, drawing for Les Momelles de Tiresias

/

)

1

(

118 Drawings

Le Socre du Printemps

1

(

The

20 1 202

)

1

205

Two Dancers 980) 62 Two Friends and Two Curtains 963) 23, 25 Men mo Shower 22,23 Two (1 963) I 3 Ur Curtain, drawing for Ubu Roi 966) 161 Villain, drawing for Parade 980) (1980)

98

1

(

98

Studies for Mechanical Nightjngale

79

1

1

(

Couruers and Masks

model for The Rake's Progress

Trulove'i Garden,

(1975)

Grove with Three Temples

for:

with Orchestro

(

1

116

977)

116 Poloce

Chorus with Masks obove (1981)

(

1

977)

their

206

Mosk

(1

98 1)

see also Stravinsky triple

bill (

Blind

Heads

for

Oedipus

206 1

98

1


1

Oldenburg. Claes Olivier.

I

Look Bock

25.

Mother Goose's

Anger

in

25

I

Sketches

Boba

Paid on Roth Sides

209

1983

Parade

the Turk

(

975)

128, 129 bill)

55. 56. 58. 62,

1

25,

1

27-1 30.

(

1

Drawing

980)

(

1

(

Rembrandt van

ballet)

I

(

1

2.

Drawings

for:

Chinese Conjuror

(

(

1

(

1

3

I

1

23.

25.

I

I

27-

160. 161. 163. 197

44 (

I

Picasso. Pablo

980)

44

980)

6

1

Ancient Bot/is Plante, David

(

1

65

750)

1

1

68,

1

62, 63,

2,

24,

1

I

30,

57,

1

6

1

1

1

1

I

1

,

24,

74,

61-63, 68, 69, 73,

85, 88,

90-97, 99,

114. IIS, 119, 127, 168.

00.

1

75, 1

05.

193.204

2,

1

27-

1

00,

1

30,

{

1

975-

60

Garden

(

1

1

63,

1

64,

76

975)

35.

I

Study for Curtain

Bill,

Ken

I

37.

(

1

98

1

62-64, 73,

I

1

3,

1

14

25,

62, 63,

1

1

(

1

8th

3

53

9,

12,23,61,63

I,

I

for:

13 966)

(

Ur Curtain

966)

(

1

1

99,

172

17,

I

115

I

3

3

I

85, 114

Maschera

1983

1

27,

1

6

Museum

I

38,

200

63

1

37.

72. 204.

56

207

on Hockney's designs Wilder, Nick 48, 53, 99

63

25,

63

Walker Art Center Wechsler. Gil

63

14

209

Victoria and Albert

The Ring

193

32

I

25

1

Capncci

Wagner, Richard

Yeats, William Butler

30

I

Ballo in

Veredon. Gray

IIS

193

1

160

58

53,

Royo; Palace

Varii

207

72

109

125

Shoemaker's Holiday, The

1

25

Work

12 for:

Design

for the

Sokolova, Lydia

79

82

Stratas.

Teresa

Stravinsky. Igor

Roland

Petit's Ballet,

180

200

Spender, Stephen

Tom 's Room (Room 0(1975) 82 Tom's Room with Baba's Hanging Objects

for

14

Septentrion (1975)

Tom's f^oom. Auction Scene

29.

St Ceorge and the Dragon (ca. 1460)

77

Saint Joan

Drawing

AnAssemb/y(l975) Models for:

1

Septentrion

Studies for:

The Rake's Progress

5,

Domenico

Cove (1966)

25

1

Un

Shakespeare, William

1974 for

1

Roi

Drawings

28

I

Shaw, George Bernard

Rake's Progress, The

80, 84,

Ubu

Uccello, Paolo

Othe//o

see also Les Mamelles de Tiresias

12, 43, 45,

Tyler,

Roi

2, 62. 63,

1

76

168,176

9,

Ubu

The Winter's Tale

Drop Curtoin

37.

I

1966

Scott. Christopher 1

)

1

73

Tyler Graphics

Royal Court Theatre

Erwortung

163, 167

(1975)

29,

Schoenberg, Arnold

68

98

60

1

Thomas, Dylan

37

I

I

Schlesinger, Peter

68

62. 64. 65,

1

Printemps

29,

129, 180, 197

Schinkel, Karl Friedrich

65

Poulenc, Francis

s

1

Tiepolo. Giovanni

Design for The Magic Flute (1816)

Giovanni Battista

Trulove

24,

century)

Schikaneder, Emanuel

24,

(

199.207.209

Theater auf der Wieden

7,11,18, 25

Scarfe, Gerald

see also Parade

79)

1

197

1

and Documents (with

134

see also Parade

37. 38. 43. 45. 48. 62, 63,

bill

Stravinsky Triple

975)

37

Sauguet, Henri

2

Oedipus

37

Punchinello Carried by His Friends

Royal College of Art

Satie, Erik

127-129. 160. 161. 163. 197

77, 78,

(1

43. 56. 62, 63,

et /es Sorti/eges

Rothko, Mark

see also 1

135.163

Roland

1975

04

1

1

Rosenthal, Manuel

980), Les

161

V//;oin(l980)

Poiret, Paul

975)

1

37

I

Roerich, Nicholas

I

on L'Enfant

72, 75,

980)

1

Mosks

Punch/ne//o's

980)

1

980)

ond Acrobats

of" Actors

{

les Sortileges

Tiresias

142-145,

Piranesi.

(

les Sortileges

Rijn

Riefenstahl, Leni

129. 135.

1982

5.

1

People ofKau. The

see also L'Enfont et

Petit.

46

980)

1

for:

Mamelles de

Troop

2.

1

see also L'Enfant et

22

1

): 1

see also Oedipus Rex. Le Rossignol, Le Sacre du

Ravel. Maurice

39

980)

Punchme;/os Changing Blocks

980 (the

(

105

60,

1

1

138. 193. 194.

Glyndebourne program

for

98

1

Work for:

101

975)

1

130, 157, 161, 168, 171-173, 176

Porode Curtain After Picasso

1

57.

I

194.208.209

for:

Parade Stage Manager

Parode

35.

I

161. 163. 164, 168. 171. 173.

Works

Cover

Stravinsky triple

101

Baba's Hanging Objects 23. 37. 38. 43. 45. 48.

2.

I

bill (

37

I

Pictures

in

Robert Craft)

and Back of a Painting of a Pike

(1975)

Vera

Stravinsky

Front

Baba, Red Pantaloons

38.

Stravinsky,

71

1

180

(triple

see also Stravinsky triple

69 70

975)

1

(1

Bed/om( 975)

for

38. 45. 128. 129. 144. 160. 161

980

103

975)

1

Study

1920

1

(

Rex, Le Rossignol, Le Sacre du Printemps

1917

1973

199

Firebird

Brotiie/

for:

Bread Machine

68

Palmer. Samuel

194

Pulcinella

84

Graveyord(l97S)

30

I

25

I

)

1

83

6ed)om(l975)

18

Laurence

Osborne. John

7

,

37

I

2.

1

I

5.

37,

6

1

,

68, 69, 73. 75, 77,

78.88. 100. 125. 129, 137, 138, 179. 180. 186, (

1

975)

83

193, 194, 197,

199,200,203

227


Travel Schedule

Walker Art Center Minneapolis, Minnesota

20 November

1

983 to 22 January

1

984

Museo Tamayo Mexico.

D

F.

19 February to 15 April 1984

Art Gallery of Onuno Toronto. Canada 9 June to

Museum Chicago. 1

1

2 August

of

1

984

Contemporary Art

Illinois

6 September to

I

I

November 984 1

The Fort Worth Art Museum Fort Worth. Texas 6 December 984 to 7 February 985 1

San Francisco

1

Museum

1

of Art

San Francisco. California

24 March to 26 May 1985

1


i



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