Director Robert Wilson dead at 83

The celebrated American director Robert Wilson, who revolutionized the stage and opera, died on Thursday at the age of 83, his administration said.

“Robert Wilson died peacefully today in Water Mill, New York, at the age of 83, after a brief but acute illness,” a statement issued on his website said. He said he worked to the end.

The productions of Wilson’s original works as well as traditional repertoire pieces were extremely popular wherever they were proven. But he was in France where he was best known.

They were the French who gave him a “house,” Wilson told AFP in 2021.

It was in 1976 that Wilson was promoted on the international stage with Einstein on the beach, an opera for almost five hours he organized several times since his creation, with his music by Philip Glass.

Einstein on the beach broke all the conventions of the classical opera – there is no linear narrative, but rather draws issues related to Einstein’s life.

It is not intended to explain the theory of relativity, but to convey the turmoil introduced by the concept of space -time, mainly through dance.

Wilson’s brands included minimalist aesthetics, body language affected by Asian theatrical forms and lighting effects that cause dream worlds.

His love with France began with Deafman Glance (Le Review du Sourd)-his first success-a “silent” seven-day show presented at the Nancy Festival in 1971 and later in Paris.

The show was born from an incident when in 1967, Wilson saw a 13 -year -old black teenager, Raymond Andrews, who was hit by a police officer. He realized that the child was deaf and silent and eventually adopted him.

Wilson, also an artist, had a series of collaborations, including the choreographer Andy de Groat, Tom Waits, Isabelle Huppert for Orlando by Virginia Woolf, Lady Gaga for her Louvre portraits and the myth of Ballet Mikhail Baryhnikov.

“While facing his diagnosis with clear eyes and determination, he still felt obliged to continue working and creating to the end,” said the part of the website that announced his death.

“His works for the scene, on paper, sculptures and video portraits, as well as the Watermill Center, will endure Robert Wilson’s artistic heritage.”

The monuments will take place for Wilson at the time and the sites that will be announced.

Born to a lawyer on October 4, 1941, in Waco, Texas, Wilson was performing his own works in the family garage until the age of 12, but remembers being the bottom of the classroom at school.