The death of Gerard Mortier was reported in Monday’s New York Times. In 1990 I came to Brussels to see a production of The Damnation of Faust. It turned out not to be in Brussels but to be a concert performance in Antwerp (I have no idea how I received the wrong information). At that time M. Mortier was the Intendant at the Monnaie, the major opera company in Brussels. He invited me to ride in his car to Antwerp. The trip turned out to be my only contact with him.
At the time he was very much in preparation to become Director of the Salzburg Festival, and the whole way to Antwerp he talked almost without stopping about his plans. He spoke about his dislike of the conservatism of the festival and how he was going to revolutionize it. When I could get in a word, I asked him what about the audience, which has always had many members of the former European nobility and many wealthy people who came to the Festival as a place to be seen. They were traditioinally very conservative in their tastes and seemed to me more interested in the social aspects of the festival than its music.
He said that he intended to change the whole tenor of Salzburg. Those who came would learn that it was going to be different, and if they didn’t like it and didn’t come back, so what? He assumed that the Austrian government funding would remain constant whatever he did, and he seemed to relish taking on the audience and making opera a radical, theatrical experience. Only seven years into my own directorship in Seattle I was kind of astonished at his eagerness to provoke controversy.
At that time I had provoked a lot of controversy unwillingly at Seattle Opera when we gave the premiere of the Francois Rochaix-Robert Israel Ring in 1986. I believed in the production and had been shocked when it drew so much negative reaction and some 150 really violent negative letters. Though there had been just as many positive ones, I still wanted everyone to like it. That Mr. Mortier didn’t care what the public thought surprised me; I have since experienced many times this point of view from different continental impressarios.
This pleasure in what the French call “to epater le bourgeoisie” or to produce art defiantly so as to provoke the audience has never appealed to me. I have done it almost always unintentionally. If I have annoyed a large portion of the audience, I have carefully answered their protests and hoped that I could convince them that there was a reason for what we did. A polite letter responding to a vindictive or at least violent one usually has calmed rage.
I will always remember M. Mortier who not only challenged his audiences for his whole professional career but enjoyed doing it. His career was impressive, culminating in his most recent Brokeback Mountain in Madrid. He was a man to be respected even if I disagree with his point of view.
I respect any art that is presented due to a passion or belief in it , but dislikes when someone is intentionally trying to offend, or rattle our cages. Though certainly it is good that art is not a static thing, and sometimes we may choose to bypass concerns regarding the conservative response, I find that shock for shock’s sake, has nothing to do with what I personally want from art. And again, as with my last commentary on your last post, has the effect of pulling us back into our analytical self, which to me is counter productive in art.
That it shocks is not wrong, it is about the intention of the artist. Take Goya or Picasso, they certainly painted many shocking things, but it was first about expressing their terror or other shadow aspect of ourselves, not like a child trying to get attention.
As to unhappy audiences, well, there will always be those who don’t like something. People generally feel safe to complain when something is not the status quo, where many who may not want to see yet another performance done exactly the same way as they have seen it ten times, may not be as vocal when it is done in a traditional manner.
Gerard Mortier believed passionately in what he was doing as do you Speight. When that kind of power (Love?) is behind a creative endeavor, it is no longer important that a few may be upset because of the steering away from the status quo. Let them have a chance at getting out of a cage!
For those who knew Gerard Mortier; I believe mourning is another form of Love, allow it to go it’s course. It is up to us to carry on what we personally loved about those that leave our life.