Performance and Ethics: Questions for the 21st Century

Abstract

One of the most prolific and multifaceted contemporary artists, Peter Sellars in recent years has directed a wide range of works in theatre, opera, television, film, and video, in Europe and the U.S. He is well-known for his highly original earlier stagings of Mozart’s operas Cosi Fan Tutte, The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, as well as premieres of John Adams’s Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, and El Nino. He has been Director of the American National Theatre in Washington, Artistic Director of the 1990 and 1993 Los Angeles Festivals, and is currently a Professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA. Sellars has collaborated with The Wooster Group, created radio episodes for The Museum of Contemporary Art’s “The Territory of Art” series, and directed the feature film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. His productions have been commissioned by the major opera houses and theatres in Europe, appearing also in many festivals abroad. Among the recent works he has staged are Olivier Messaien’s St. Francoise d’Assise, Stravinsky’s The Story of a Soldier, Paul Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler, Tan Dun’s Peony Pavilion. He also worked with Bill Viola on the 25th year survey of the video artist’s work. Sellars’s latest theatre piece, Children of Herakles, is one of the many classics he has staged throughout his career, a project created with the participation of refugees, government officials, writers, and immigrants in several European cities and in the U.S., in Boston. Sellars is a recipient of the MacArthur Prize Fellowship and was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contributions to European culture. This interview was taped during the run of Children of Herakles at Teatre Lliure as part of Forum Barcelona 2004, on June 16, 2004.