Quotes and Thoughts
by Gerard Mortier
selected by Albrecht Thiemann.
The Ethics of Theater
The question we must ask ourselves is: “Why and how do we do theater?”
Every time opera is content with offering vocal virtuosity, simple pleasure, technical skill, pathos, or pompous spectacle, it pains me as a betrayal of the original idea. For me, the great moments in the history of opera are those that bring Claudio Monteverdi’s vision to the fore ...
The great art institutions must be set up in such a way that the audience comprehends the works in their historical, social, and aesthetic contexts.
A dramaturgy worthy of consideration must demand and enable a new way of hearing and seeing.
(aus: Gerard Mortier, Dramaturgie einer Leidenschaft – Für ein Theater als Religion des Menschlichen. Kassel, Bärenreiter/Metzler, 2014)
The Political Relevance of Theater
What I find most intriguing about ancient Greek tragedy is that the Athenians, for the first time in human history, created a political theater with this invention. This type of theater not only explores individual passions but also delves into complex issues like power, minority rights, violence, and the myriad problems that arise within a polis. No less important to note is that these theater festivals in honor of Dionysos were organized as a competition between poets. ... The tragedies, which incorporated music and dance in addition to poetry, were performed in spaces that today serve as models for the architecture of parliaments.
Theater should be in a state of perpetual motion, reflecting and giving voice to the world it portrays.
(from: Gerard Mortier, Das Theater, das uns verändert – Essays über Oper, Kunst und Politik. Kassel, Bärenreiter/Metzler, 2018)
In a world where political and economic decisions are made without any long-term vision, more than ever we need theater as a moral institution that assumes the task to both warn and sketch visionary options.
At the outset of the 21st century, we must be prepared to take more risks than before, abandon traditional habits, insist unwaveringly on professionalism, and defend the political character of theater, which means defending its place in society. This duty to take a stand, which does not necessarily have to be ideological, should be pursued with determination and commitment by everyone, even if, more often than not, one may feel like a voice crying in the wilderness, especially in view of a media landscape where values are replaced by fads.
Bringing theater to life means breaking with the routines of everyday life, questioning if economic, political, and military power be accepted as normal, sensitizing communities to issues of human existence that cannot be regulated by laws, and affirming that the world can become a better place than it is. ... Theater is a religion of humanitarianism.
(aus: Gerard Mortier, Dramaturgie einer Leidenschaft – Für ein Theater als Religion des Menschlichen. Kassel, Bärenreiter/Metzler, 2014)
The Spaces of Theater
The original architecture of operatic venues was inspired by the ancient Greek theaters. Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza … features a fixed stage decoration depicting the Renaissance city. Seated in a semicircle next to their fellow citizens, the audience recognizes the image of their city on stage …, as if in a mirror. … It is no coincidence that Richard Wagner was inspired by Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico and the ancient Dionysos Theater in Athens for the design of his Festspielhaus (Festival Theater) in Bayreuth. ... [The building] is located ... on a hill, comparable to the Acropolis, where one approaches as if entering a temple. The auditorium forms a semicircle, the seats for the audience are distributed as in the amphitheaters of ancient Greece. Everyone ... is treated equally here, sharing both the fascination of the action on stage and the discomfort of the wooden chairs. Wagner’s intention was to create an ideal relationship between stage and auditorium, everything was to be focused on the stage ...
The search for new stage-space designs remains ... extremely important. Since Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Soldaten, composers have been striving to spatialize music, what Wagner had already attempted to do, for example in the final chorus of the first act of Parsifal.
(aus: Gerard Mortier, Dramaturgie einer Leidenschaft – Für ein Theater als Religion des Menschlichen. Kassel, Bärenreiter/Metzler, 2014)
A stage set should never imitate reality, but rather unmask it and reveal the truth that lies behind it.
(aus: Gerard Mortier, Das Theater, das uns verändert – Essays über Oper, Kunst und Politik. Kassel, Bärenreiter/Metzler, 2018)
The Repertoire of Theater
It’s astonishing that most opera houses dedicate only 15 percent of their repertoire to 20th-century works, considering the century’s remarkable contribution to opera, producing many more intriguing and interesting operas than the 19th century. World premieres [of operas] ... must be prepared with the utmost care, both in the selection of the new works and their musical and scenic realization. ... And what’s more, the aesthetic scope of the commissions should be as broad as possible, ... I am strongly opposed to the dogmatism of conceptual art and ideés fixes.
(aus: Gerard Mortier, Dramaturgie einer Leidenschaft – Für ein Theater als Religion des Menschlichen. Kassel, Bärenreiter/Metzler, 2014)