Music Theater

The tendency seems to be towards a new form that will efface the cruder contrasts between the concert hall and the theater. The articulation, the differentiation, the variation of density – all these correspond to the interweaving of the various art forms – Karl Woëner

About Originale

In May of 1990, we presented the first West Coast performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s seminal Happening Originale at Theater Artaud in San Francisco. It was the first time it had been performed since Charlotte Moorman produced it as part of the 1964 Avant-Garde festival in New York City. For our West Coast premiere, we draw from recent technological advancements to introduce digital techniques of sound manipulation and live video to disrupt the linear flow of the work and to enhance its qualities of fragmentation and deconstruction of everyday events.

I took on this project as part of my research into avant-garde music theater from the 1960s. Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Originale is one of the seminal multimedia performance works of the 20th century. First performed in Cologne in 1961, Originale combines the rigorous, tightly controlled compositional form of Stockhausen’s serial music, with the loosely structured improvisational framework of the early Happenings. The score to Originale is groundbreaking for its incorporation of performance events and other assorted “actions” into a musical organization with precise “timepoints” or temporal markings, typical of Stockhausen’s musical scores. Within the 94′ duration of Originale is a performance of Stockhausen’s Kontakte for piano, percussion and electronics, which is woven throughout the work, providing a central unifying element to this often disjointed work. An unusual assortment of “characters” are introduced in Originale, including an action painter, (famously performed by Nam June Paik), action musician, street singer, coat checker, fashion model, child playing with blocks, and a collection of actors reading a collage of unrelated texts.

The cast for Originale included the following: Don Baker (percussion), Ed Herrmann (electronics), Hitomi Ikuma (action painter), Barney Jones (actor), Paula Levine (videographer), Sigi Torinus (videographer), Chris Maher (action musician), Jan Martin-Risk (wardrobe), Milena (child), Michael Orland (piano), Randall Packer (director), Michael Peppe (action musician), Jim Quinn (lighting designer), Henri Steele (director), Pamela Z (street musician), Richard Zvonar (electronic musician) and Lisa Apfelburg, Elena Rivera, Diane Robinson, Tracy Robinson as actors.

Photos

• Entrance to Theater Artaud on opening night of Originale.
• Audience entering the lobby of Theater Artaud on opening night.
• Rehearsal of Originale with Randall Packer directing Diane Robinson in a Nazi uniform.
• The stage where Michael Orland, piano (left) and Don Baker, percussion (right) are performing a section of Kontakte, while Henri Steele, director looks on.
• Performers, including Pamela Z in the foreground, take photographs of the audience during the performance.
• Chris Maher as an action musician performs with video of Barney Jones in the background.
• A moment when a train passed outside the theater and its light illuminated the rear stage windows.
• Traci Robinson performing.
• Michael Peppe performing as an action musician with this video broadcasted image in the background.
• Michael Peppe performing as an action musician.
• A staged photograph of the cast of Originale suspended from a cherry picker at Theater Artaud.
• Traci Robinson close-up performing as one of the actors with her doll.
• Pamela Z performing as the street musician.
• Michael Orland, piano, performing a section of Kontakte.
• Michael Orland, piano, performing a section of Kontakte.
• Hitomi Ikuma performing as the action painter.
• Henri Steel as the director taking Polaroid photographs of the audience.
• Henri Steele as the director taking Polaroid photographs of the audience.
• Don Baker, percussionist.
• Diane Robinson performing as one of the actors with live video displayed behind her.
• Randall Packer as the conductor on the balcony behind the audience.
• Randall Packer as the conductor giving signals to the performers.
• Randall Packer as the conductor giving signals to the performers.
• Randall Packer as the conductor giving signals to the performers.

Video

Excerpt from Originale by Karlheinz Stockhausen is directed by Randall Packer at Theater Artaud in San Francisco, May 3-5, 1990. Video editing and production by Sigi Torinus.