RICARDO FRAYHA
producer

Vindication and malicious intents have never been more rapturous than in director Robert Wilson's  Quartett. Written by German playwright Heiner Müller (as a highly condensed adaptation of the 18th-century French novel  Les Liaisons dangereuses), this work is an extraordinary expression of innocence lost. The incomparable French actress Isabelle Huppert is the toxic Marquise de Merteuil, seething with fury opposite her perverse partner in crime Valmont, played with marvelous physicality by Ariel Garcia Valdès. As Wilson unfurls his stylized choreography and tableaux motifs with stark sounds and saturated colors, he transforms every calculated movement into gorgeous and provocative studies of character.

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ROBERT WILSON

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Born in Waco, Texas, Wilson is among the world’s foremost theater and visual artists. His works for the stage unconventionally integrate a wide variety of artistic media, including dance, movement, lighting, sculpture, music and text. His images are aesthetically striking and emotionally charged, and his productions have earned the acclaim of audiences and critics worldwide. After being educated at the University of Texas and Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, Wilson founded the New York-based performance collective “The Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds” in the mid-1960s, and developed his first signature works, including Deafman Glance (1970) and A Letter for Queen Victoria (1974-1975). With Philip Glass he wrote the seminal opera Einstein on the Beach (1976). Wilson’s artistic collaborators include many writers and musicians such as Heiner Müller, Tom Waits, Susan Sontag, Laurie Anderson, William Burroughs, Lou Reed, Jessye Norman and Anna Calvi. He has also left his imprint on masterworks such as Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, Brecht/Weill’s Threepenny Opera, Debussy’s Pelléas et Melisande, Goethe’s Faust, Homer’s Odyssey, Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Verdi’s La Traviata and Sophocles’ Oedipus. Wilson's drawings, paintings and sculptures have been presented around the world in hundreds of solo and group showings, and his works are held in private collections and museums throughout the world. Wilson has been honored with numerous awards for excellence, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination, two Premio Ubu awards, the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale, and an Olivier Award. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the German Academy of the Arts, and holds 8 Honorary Doctorate degrees. France pronounced him Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (2003) and Officer of the Legion of Honor (2014); Germany awarded him the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit (2014). Wilson is the founder and Artistic Director of The Watermill Center, a laboratory for the Arts in Water Mill, New York.

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QUARTETT

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by Heiner Müller | Translation by Jean Jourdheuil and Béatrice Perregaux | Direction, set and light design: Robert Wilson | Original soundtrack: Michael Galasso

with Isabelle Huppert, Ariel Garcia Valdès, Rachel Eberhart, Michel Beaujard and Benoît Maréchal
 
Costumes: Frida Parmeggiani | Associated director: Ann-Christin Rommen | Associated set designer: Stephanie Engeln | Lights: AJ Weissbard | Make-ip and hair: Luc Verschueren | Musicians: Cyril Atef, Jeffrey Boudreaux, Michael Galasso, Vincent Ségal and David Taïeb | Sound: Jean-Louis Imbert and Thierry Jousse | Make-up assistant: Sylvie Cailler | Hairdresser: Jocelyne Milazzo | Technical crew from the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe

A production by Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe, La Comédie de Genève, Théâtre du Gymnase/ Marseille | Coproduction: Festival d’Automne à Paris
 

Production in Brazil: prod.art.br | Production directors: Matthias Pees and Ricardo Muniz Fernandes | Executive producer: Ricardo Frayha | Technical coordination: Julio Cesarini | Translators: Paulo Chamon, Luiz Chamon and Isabele Ribot | Graphic designer: Érico Peretta

Realisation: Sesc São Paulo, Festival Internacional de Artes Cênicas Porto Alegre em Cena, and CulturesFrance in the frame of the France year in Brazil 2009

Teatro Paulo Autran - Sesc Pinheiros

São Paulo, SP,  Brazil

12 and 16/09/2009

Festival POA em Cena

Teatro do Sesi

Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

23 and 24/09/2009