WEBVTT

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[People chanting numbers]

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Philip: Bob was the first of us
to go to Broadway.

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It was a short run,
but it was Broadway.

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And, uh, it was very quickly after that
that we began talking about

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a piece, we didn't know
what the piece would be.

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We came up with the title
'Einstein On The Beach.'

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[Violin playing over operettic singing]

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I thought of Einstein as a God of our time.

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We know stories about him and we come
to the theatre sharing something together.

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And in a sense, uh, there was no need
to tell a story because we already

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knew a story.

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How this man who, was a pacifist also,
contributed to the splitting of the atom.

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[Loud fast music]

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Einstein was a milestone in that it
brought an even wider acclaim and

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gave him a whole new audience and
gave opera a whole new audience.

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[Fast violin over operettic singing]

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I think it's the first time in the history
of opera in which the opera

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music was composed around
the stage sets.

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[Fast violin over operettic singing]

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Woman: I think I've seen Einstein
40 times or something like that.

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It's one of the great theatre works
of the 20th century.

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If Bob had done nothing but that,
and he's done so much more.

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Robert: When we first made Einstein,
I went to the Metropolitan Opera

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and asked them if they would do it.

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I went to the National Endowment for
the Arts and asked them if they would

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support an opera and they said,
'that sort of thing should not be

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in the conventional theatre,
you should do that in a loft downtown.'

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So I though, well, let's see.

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I think it should be right in our major
opera houses, and everyone was afraid that

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we wouldn't get an audience.

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There wouldn't be a public that would
come for something like that.

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At the Met it wouldn't be for
'their audience.'

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I tried everywhere to raise this money.

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I went to Paris, France.

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'Einstein On The Beach,' it was
a commission by Michel Guy,

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who was the Minister of Culture
at the time.

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Philip: The word had gone out that there's
something unusual had taken place.

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Jane Hermon was in charge of
special events at the Met.

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So Jane Hermon came over to see the piece.

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She said, 'well, maybe as a special event
we could bring it to the Met.'

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Robert: But they wanted me, Robert Wilson,
Byrd Hoffman Foundation, to produce it

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on their day off!

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They would allow me to rent the house
on a Sunday, with triple time wages!

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I was bankrupt, I had no money,
I said, 'let's go for it.'

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[Opera singing]

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Benedicte: Phil, Bob, they were both
absolutely dying to see the work seen by a

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American public.

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It's fine for them to have the European
public, but for an American it's

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not enough!

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They want the American, they want them
to recognize their work.

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Robert: I sold tickets from $2 to $2,000.

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We sold out in two days.

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And I put the $2 tickets
next to the $2,000 tickets.

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[From stage] This court of common pleas
is now in session!

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Woman: We all went as a family and we 
were all quite impressed and, uh, I had

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never been to the Met before and we were
sitting in like the directors box.

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And we all felt very special
and important.

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[Loud fast music]

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My father was a heavy smoker,
and Einstein was very long without

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an intermission.

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And my father sat there throughout the
whole thing without getting up and taking

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a break, which was amazing.

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And then, at the end of it when people
were standing and clapping and cheering,

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I just looked at him and there was tears
and such pride in his face

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that it was quite amazing.

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[Audience cheering and clapping]

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David: The fact that it was at the Met
was a, really was downtown

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going very uptown.

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What was, uh, I think shocking for
many people was to see the ideas

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and the aesthetic, and, uh, the-
these - I guess you could call them

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downtown elements that Bob was
embodied in many ways, done with a

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professionalism that equal to anything
else on Broadway or at the Met Opera.

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That was- it was a way of saying
'we are equal.'

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Robert: My father said,
'why, this is very impressive!'

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He said,
'you must be making a lot of money!'

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And I said
'no dad, I'm not.'

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I said, 'I produce this work,
it cost a million dollars to produce it.

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I raised $850,000,
I'm $150,000 in debt.'

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'$150,000 in debt?'

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And I said, 'yes sir I am.'

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And he said, 'son, I didn't know you
were smart enough to be able

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to lose $150,000.'

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That's probably the nicest thing
he ever said to me.

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And I said, 'dad, it wasn't easy,
it was a lot of work.'

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It was really hard, you know.'

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Philip: We always think of fame
and fortune as of they go together,

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but they don't really.

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The fame may come first and
the fortune may come and may not come.

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Eventually it can come, perhaps,
but it doesn't always come.

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But, uh, Bob did something smarter than--
he stayed in Europe.

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The big success of Einstein was in Europe,
there was no one in America

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that really wanted to work with Bob or me.

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[People clammoring]