Volume 30 Issue 5 | April & May 2025

ON OPERAOpera-goers

ON OPERAOpera-goers heading out of the current COCproduction of Wozzeck wondering what makes theshow’s director/designer William Kentridge tickshould make their way to the online Kentridge Studio– a website that is yet another layer to his art. If you do,check out the 1988 essay by Carolyn Christov-Bakargievin the Reading Room titled William Kentridge’sUbu ProjectsUbu Roi Retitled Ubu Rex,Jarry’s play arrived in 1975South Africa as the first showin the new Nunnery Theatreat the University of theWitwatersrand. Kentridge wasin the cast, one of a cluster ofindividuals who would go onto form the original core ofthe Junction Avenue TheatreCompany, with Malcolm Purkeyas its artistic director. “He wasin his first year at Wits” Purkeyrecalls, “with a wispy mustacheand trademark bowler hat.”William Kentridge The Purkey/Kentridge/Junction Avenue connectionwould last a decade and a half during which the company collectivelywrote and staged play after play that one way or anotherused farce and absurdity to unmask the state’s tyranny. Theirtitles tell a story: from The Fantastical History of a Useless Man(1976) to Sophiatown (1986) and Tooth and Nail (1988). By thenJunction Avenue was running out of steam, but one of the thingsKentridge took away from it was a newly minted relationship withHandspring Puppet Company founders Adrian Kohler and BasilJones. Through the 1990s, Kentridge’s defining collaborations withHandspring would range froom Woyzeck on the Highveld (1991) toUbu and the Truth Commission (1997).ADINE SAGALYNFROM UBU TO WOZZECKAND BEYONDWilliam Kentridge’sgenerative journeyDAVID PERLMANKentridge’s Wozzeck set under construction at the COCUbu’s re-entry into Kentridge’s art came two decades after UbuRex at the Nunnery. It was sparked in 1996 when he participated ina group show celebrating the centenary of the first Ubu performance.He contributed a series of eight prints in which he layeredchalk representations of Jarry’s original Ubu cartoon with his owndrawings of a naked man, based on photos of himself in the studio.The resulting blackboard-style prints, titled Ubu Tells the Truth,later evolved into the complex animations for Ubu and the TruthCommission.Kentridge has often talked about how switching to drawing incharcoal changed his approach to art because it enabled a processof layering. With Handspring, layering is extended into powerfulnew digital realms.From Woyzeck to Wozzeck The 1991 Handspring/KentridgeWoyzeck on the Highveld, as did Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, drewon Georg Büchner’s 1837 stage play Woyzeck. Kentridge’s director’snotes for Woyzeck on the Highveld are also in the StudioReading Room.In the notes for the original production he writes about seeingthe Büchner play in the 1970s and how characters and imagesfrom the play have floated on the edges of his consciousness sincethen, and that it seems to him “that the anguish and desperationof Büchner’s text does not need to be locked into the context ofGermany in the 19th century.”In the notes for a European revival of the play (2009-2013) hecomments wryly on “the strange, convoluted world of oppressionand enlightenment that constituted Prussia in the 19th century,[where] there was a law which stated that anyone condemned todeath, had first to be examined by a psychiatrist before he could beexecuted.”It was one such psychiatric report – about a private in the armywho murdered his wife – that formed the basis of Büchner’s play,which remained an unfinished series of fragments at the time ofthe author’s death at the age of 23.Since then its mixture of fragmentation, rationality andirrationality, have made it a central text in 20th century theatre –a mix that drew both Kentridge and Berg to Büchner, and has nowin turn drawn Kentridge to Berg at this moment in Kentridge’slayered generative journey.SCOTT KITCHER12 | April & May 2025 thewholenote.com

Roman Borys,Artistic & Executive Director2024/ 25 SEASONKENTRIDGE STUDIOLeft: “Véritable portrait de Monsieur Ubu” by Alfred Jarry’s, inthe 1886 edition of Ubu Roi. Right: “Ubu Tells the Truth, Act II,Scene 5” one of Kentridge’s eight original prints (1996-97).KENTRIDGE’S WOZZECK SETQ & A with Mike Ledermueller: Technical Director, Canadian Opera CompanyWN: Looking at images from the Salzburg production, this doesn’tlook like a set that clips together right out of the containers!ML: It definitely brings with it a unique set of challenges thatmake its installation and shipping more complicated than a traditionalopera set because it was born out of a very organic creationprocess. The “Island” of the set – the risers and scenery that make upthe central stage, is made of stock scenery plus found elements fromthe Salzburg Fest spiel and surrounding area. These pieces were thenstacked, and sculpted to give us what we have today, but with variousalterations throughout its life on the road. Traditionally, an opera setwill have a clear system of assembly and an intuitive method to gotogether, and with crating and carting engineered for efficient loading,unloading, assembly and storage. This is a literal pile of old bits.So how do you go about it?Thankfully over its lifetime, our colleagues around the world havetaken documentation photos and labelled the scenery to know whichpieces attach to what. We likened the build process to assembling alarge jigsaw puzzle with no edge pieces. This means a lot more timesorting through everything to find the part you need next. Where a setof this scale would normally take us about 4-8 hours to assemble thefirst time, this took us about three days.With all the different media involved, is it a demanding show to run?Actually, after assembly the show is quite straightforward, withvideo being the most complicated part. The original video for thispiece was more like a character in the show, with the designer andoperator adapting to the varying tempi and cast’s gestures, rather thana rigid cued playlist. Again, with the evolution of the work, we’ll bestriving to keep the process manageable by our crew here at the FSC– maintaining original intentions of each moment, but within theconfines of our playback system.This looks like a tough set for the cast to negotiate.It is. Particularly tough. Given the shape of this set with all of itsrakes(slanted floors), levels, duckboard and steps, it’s imperative the casthave the time on the set to safely learn how to navigate the “Island” – withextra precautions in place at first, before we take the training wheels off.Kentridge talks about about how charcoal changed his way ofworking – the capacity for endless erasures: draw, capture, erase,add, repeat. Does he make opera the way he uses charcoal?Yes. I think that plays out clearly in the projections. Separate fromthe “Island” is what is sometimes called the “Landscape”, the largerear screen. This gives him the ability to flash through several of hisdrawings throughout the show to match with each scene. The structureof Wozzeck in particular lends itself to that idea as it’s a series ofseparate scenes, not a flowing journey, almost like pages in a sketchbook. Not to mention, slightly transposing the time to WW1; the grit,dust and smudging of charcoal clearly lends itself to imagery we see ofthat time. Such a blunt, dark medium, strongly evoking the destructionof a Passchendaele or Sommes battlescape.WHAT MAKES IT GREAT? ®WITH ROB KAPILOWAND GRYPHON TRIOBeethoven’s Archduke TrioSUN. APRIL 13 | 3:00 PMGeorge Weston Recital Hall, Meridian Arts CentreCo-presented with TO LiveCOSE SERIESSAT. APRIL 5, 4:00 PMMADELINE HALL guitarTHALEA STRING QUARTETSAT. MAY 3, 4:00 PMVC2 + AMY HILLIS violinDUO MYCELIA —ISABELLA PERRONWITH SIMON GIDORASAT. JUNE 7, 4:00 PMJACQUES FORESTIER violinWITH JEANIE CHUNG pianoSOLIDARIDAD TANGOENSEMBLEAperture Room, 340 Yonge St, north of DundasFOR TICKETS VISITMusic-Toronto.com416-214-1660Phil and Eli TaylorIsabel Rosethewholenote.com April & May 2025 | 13