67 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
67 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
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A Few Words About The Black Rider
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The Black Rider tale probably originates with a work of German romantic
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literature known as "Gespensterbuch," published in 1811. It is, however, a
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universal story - one of a vast body of sagas of men who make questionable
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arrangements with Satan. Most famously told in Carl Maria Von Weber's
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opera, Der Freischutz - which featured an altered (happy) ending - The
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Black Riders latest telling is a dark, symbolic and comedic affair.
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The original story concerns a clerk, Wilhelm, who is in love with Katchen,
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daughter of the old forester, Kuno. Kuno wishes his daughter to marry a
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hunter. Katchen insists that a marksmanship contest be held to determine
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the finest hunter, hoping that Wilhelm might thus have a chance to win.
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Wilhelm, however cannot hit the broad side of a barn - until he is
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approached by a "dark horseman" called Pegleg. Pegleg arranges to give
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Wilhelm some "magic bullets," mysteriously guaranteed to hit anything
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Wilhelm aims at -except for one bullet, which Pegleg earmarks for his own
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purposes. Wilhelm wins the initial contest, and his bride's hand, but
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another shooting match is scheduled for their wedding day. Wilhelm asks
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Pegleg, who bears a suspicious resemblance to a leading citizen of the
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netherworld, for that last, unused bullet. Firing at a wooden dove, Wilhelm
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instead thanks to the cursed bullet - slays his bride.
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In Freischutz, divine intervention prevents Wilhelm from killing his bride,
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and he gets off the hook with a stern warning about dealing with the devil.
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In the Robert Wilson-directed rendition of the story, Wilhelm ends up
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raving mad, another strait-jacketed lunatic in Hell's traveling carnival.
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The final scene is of Pegleg, sleek in a tuxedo singing a mock-sentimental
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song written by Waits, "The Last Rose of Summer" which beings, "I love the
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way/The tattered cloud/Go wind across the sky..."
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Wilson's direction and, more obviously, Burroughs' libretto imbued The
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Black Rider with modern implications and allusions. At one point, the old
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forester, Kuno declares: "Some way he got into the magic bullets, and that
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leads straight to the devil's work, just like marijuana leads to heroin."
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Later, as Waits explained, "one of the actors comes out on stage, stands
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alone in a spotlight, talks about an argument between Hemingway and his
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agent - about selling out in Hollywood. Burroughs found some of the
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branches of the story, and let them grow into more metaphorical things in
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all of our lives every day that, in fact, are deals with the devil that
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we've made. What is cunning about those deals is that we're not aware we've
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made them. And when they come to fruitation, we are shocked and amazed."
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Originally staged at a cost of $1.75 million in Hamburg, The Black Rider
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was, by all accounts, a remarkable spectacle. John Rockwell referred to it
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in the New York Times as a kind of cross of Cabaret, The Threepenny Opera,
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and The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Douglas Sutton wrote in the
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International Herald Tribune: "Wilson makes objects and actors appear,
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disappear, and reappear in pursing the story with tight choreographic
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precision." Jackie Wullschlager enthused in the Financial Times of London:
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"For three hours of graceful, cold artifice, they (the actors) look, act,
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and sound like figures from silent movies...Wilson turns children's
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drawings into three-dimensional monstrosities. Crooked chairs, two meters
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high, dangle at odd angles...pine trees are scissor cut-outs which collapse
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and grow again like cartoons...Waits, sarcastic ballads, full of folk and
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blues and rock, call back the scarred idealism and mock simplicity of Kurt
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Weill, while Burroughs' monosyllabic banality has here found the setting
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which makes it seem perfect."
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Aside from Hamburg, The Black Rider was performed in Vienna, Paris,
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Barcelona, Genoa, Amsterdam and Berlin. The original production and cast
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will make their U.S. debut Nov. 20 at The Brooklyn Academy of Music in
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Brooklyn, New York, for a run of ten performances.
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