1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,086 🎵 Music 🎵 2 00:00:11,036 --> 00:00:13,020 Philip: Bob was the first of us to go to Broadway. 3 00:00:13,020 --> 00:00:14,971 It was a short run, but it was Broadway. 4 00:00:16,731 --> 00:00:21,271 And it was very quickly after that that we began talking 5 00:00:21,271 --> 00:00:23,269 about a piece, we didn't know what the piece would be. 6 00:00:24,919 --> 00:00:28,255 We came up with the title Einstein On The Beach. 7 00:00:28,255 --> 00:00:29,387 🎵 Violin Music 🎵 8 00:00:35,487 --> 00:00:39,154 I thought of Einstein as a God of our time. 9 00:00:41,387 --> 00:00:44,346 We know stories about him and we come to the theatre 10 00:00:44,346 --> 00:00:45,586 sharing something together. 11 00:00:45,586 --> 00:00:49,172 And in a sense there was no need to tell a story because we already 12 00:00:49,172 --> 00:00:51,071 knew a story. 13 00:00:53,636 --> 00:00:57,807 How this man who, was a pacifist also, 14 00:00:59,547 --> 00:01:02,637 contributed to the splitting of the atom. 15 00:01:02,637 --> 00:01:03,741 🎵 Loud Fast Music 🎵 16 00:01:54,121 --> 00:01:59,887 Speaker: Einstein was a milestone in that it brought an even wider acclaim 17 00:01:59,887 --> 00:02:03,708 and gave him a whole new audience and gave opera a whole new audience. 18 00:02:03,708 --> 00:02:04,735 🎵 Fast Violin Music 🎵 19 00:02:07,815 --> 00:02:14,528 I think it's the first time in the history of opera in which the opera music 20 00:02:14,528 --> 00:02:17,061 was composed around the stage sets. 21 00:02:17,061 --> 00:02:17,976 🎵 Fast Violin Music 🎵 22 00:02:32,796 --> 00:02:37,028 Woman: I think I've seen Einstein 40 times or something like that. 23 00:02:37,028 --> 00:02:39,562 It's one of the great theatre works of the 20th century. 24 00:02:39,562 --> 00:02:43,080 If Bob had done nothing but that, and he's done so much more. 25 00:02:51,740 --> 00:02:55,546 Robert: When we first made Einstein, I went to the Metropolitan Opera 26 00:02:55,546 --> 00:02:58,032 and asked them if they would do it. 27 00:02:58,032 --> 00:03:00,580 I went to the National Endowment for the Arts and asked them if they would 28 00:03:00,580 --> 00:03:02,331 support an opera and they said, 29 00:03:02,331 --> 00:03:03,331 'That sort of thing should not be in the conventional theatre, 30 00:03:03,331 --> 00:03:06,564 you should do that in a loft downtown.' 31 00:03:06,564 --> 00:03:09,613 So I though, well, let's see. 32 00:03:09,613 --> 00:03:14,547 I think it should be right in our major opera houses, and everyone was afraid 33 00:03:14,547 --> 00:03:15,896 that we wouldn't get an audience. 34 00:03:15,896 --> 00:03:18,463 There wouldn't be a public that would come for something like that. 35 00:03:18,463 --> 00:03:21,798 At the Met it wouldn't be for 'their audience.' 36 00:03:22,365 --> 00:03:26,148 I tried everywhere to raise this money. 37 00:03:26,148 --> 00:03:27,996 I went to Paris, France. 38 00:03:27,996 --> 00:03:30,593 Einstein On The Beach, it was a commission by Michel Guy, 39 00:03:30,593 --> 00:03:33,176 who was the Minister of Culture at the time. 40 00:03:35,446 --> 00:03:39,067 Philip: The word had gone out that there's something unusual had taken place. 41 00:03:39,067 --> 00:03:44,213 Jane Hermon was in charge of special events at the Met. 42 00:03:44,213 --> 00:03:48,163 So Jane Hermon came over to see the piece. 43 00:03:48,163 --> 00:03:53,996 She said 'Well, maybe as a special event we could bring it to the Met.' 44 00:03:55,396 --> 00:04:00,566 Robert: But they wanted me, Robert Wilson, Byrd Hoffman Foundation 45 00:04:00,566 --> 00:04:02,894 to produce it on their day off. 46 00:04:02,894 --> 00:04:11,613 They would allow me to rent the house on a Sunday with triple time wages. 47 00:04:14,253 --> 00:04:16,370 I was bankrupt, I had no money, 48 00:04:16,370 --> 00:04:17,370 I said, 'Let's go for it.' 49 00:04:17,370 --> 00:04:18,610 🎵 Opera Singing 🎵 50 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:34,164 Benedict: Phil, Bob, they were both absolutely dying to see the work 51 00:04:34,164 --> 00:04:36,075 seen by American public. 52 00:04:37,005 --> 00:04:40,968 It's fine for them to have the European public, but for an American it's not enough. 53 00:04:41,475 --> 00:04:45,391 They want the American, they want them to recognize their work. 54 00:04:46,521 --> 00:04:49,774 Robert: I sold tickets from $2 to $2,000. 55 00:04:50,774 --> 00:04:52,587 We sold out in two days. 56 00:04:53,817 --> 00:04:57,620 And I put the $2 tickets next to the $2,000 tickets. 57 00:04:57,620 --> 00:05:04,678 [From Stage] This court of common pleas is now in session! 58 00:05:08,138 --> 00:05:13,555 Woman: We all went as a family and we were all quite impressed 59 00:05:13,555 --> 00:05:18,204 and I had never been to the Met before and we were sitting in like the directors box. 60 00:05:18,204 --> 00:05:22,781 And we all felt very special and important. 61 00:05:22,781 --> 00:05:23,901 🎵 Loud Fast Music 🎵 62 00:05:41,081 --> 00:05:45,497 Woman: My father was a heavy smoker, and Einstein was very long without an intermission. 63 00:05:47,021 --> 00:05:50,721 And my father sat there throughout the whole thing without getting up 64 00:05:50,721 --> 00:05:53,138 and taking a break, which was amazing. 65 00:05:53,138 --> 00:05:58,453 And then at the end of it when people were standing and clapping and cheering, 66 00:05:58,453 --> 00:06:02,537 I just looked at him and there was tears 67 00:06:02,537 --> 00:06:06,722 and such pride in his face that it was quite amazing. 68 00:06:06,722 --> 00:06:08,148 [Audience Cheering and Clapping] 69 00:06:23,438 --> 00:06:30,400 David: The fact that it was at the Met was a--really was a downtown going very uptown. 70 00:06:33,790 --> 00:06:40,320 What was I think shocking for many people was to see the ideas 71 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:45,868 and the aesthetic and the--these I guess you could call them 72 00:06:45,868 --> 00:06:50,135 downtown elements that Bob was embodied in many ways, 73 00:06:50,135 --> 00:06:58,918 done with a professionalism that equal to anything else on Broadway or at the Met Opera. 74 00:06:58,918 --> 00:07:05,418 That was--it was a way of saying 'We are equal.' 75 00:07:05,418 --> 00:07:10,249 Robert: My father said, 'Why, this is very impressive!' 76 00:07:10,249 --> 00:07:12,298 He said, 'You must be making a lot of money!' 77 00:07:12,298 --> 00:07:14,348 And I said 'No dad, I'm not.' 78 00:07:14,348 --> 00:07:18,282 I said 'I produce this work, it cost a million dollars to produce it. 79 00:07:18,282 --> 00:07:24,449 I raised $850,000, I'm $150,000 in debt.' 80 00:07:24,449 --> 00:07:26,866 '$150,000 in debt?' 81 00:07:26,866 --> 00:07:28,547 And I said, 'Yes sir I am.' 82 00:07:28,547 --> 00:07:32,414 And he said, 'Son, I didn't know you were smart enough to be able 83 00:07:32,414 --> 00:07:35,865 to lose $150,000.' 84 00:07:35,865 --> 00:07:38,698 That's probably the nicest thing he ever said to me. 85 00:07:38,698 --> 00:07:40,732 And I said, 'Dad, it wasn't easy, it was a lot of work.' 86 00:07:40,732 --> 00:07:43,614 'It was really hard, you know.' 87 00:07:44,354 --> 00:07:47,060 Philip: We always think of fame and fortune as of they go together, 88 00:07:47,060 --> 00:07:48,260 but they don't really. 89 00:07:48,260 --> 00:07:50,260 The fame may come first and the fortune may come 90 00:07:50,260 --> 00:07:51,260 and may not come. 91 00:07:51,260 --> 00:07:54,278 Eventually it can come, perhaps, but it doesn't always come. 92 00:07:54,278 --> 00:07:59,346 But, uh, Bob did something smarter than-- he stayed in Europe. 93 00:08:03,696 --> 00:08:06,512 The big success of Einstein was in Europe, there was no one in America 94 00:08:06,512 --> 00:08:08,277 that really wanted to work with Bob or me.