Hermann Nitsch | Bayreuth Walküre # 2021

Hermann Nitsch was invited by the Bayreuth Festival to provide scenic accompaniment to a concert version of Richard Wagner's “Walküre” in the summer of 2021.

At the centre of Nitsch's Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) is the Orgies Mysteries Theatre, into which all the artist's endeavours culminate. Everything Nitsch creates, thinks, writes, paints, draws, stages or composes serves to further develop this basic idea. It is about presence, immediacy, intensity, abreaction and catharsis. For the Orgies Mysteries Theatre, Nitsch has expanded the common concept of theatre. The separation between stage and auditorium is abolished, making everyone present a participant in the play who can experience the events directly and with all five senses. With the concept of the Orgies Mysteries Theatre and the actions that many saw as radical, Hermann Nitsch revolutionised the concept of theatre in the 20^th century.

“Wagner has fascinated me all my life. because of this wonderful, indulgent, sensual music, which makes the sound blossom beyond the melody. even in its earliest forms of performance, art was connected with cult, religion and the gesamtkunstwerk. and wagner is the uncoverer of the gesamtkunstwerk. he made it shine.” (Hermann Nitsch)

All three acts of the “Walküre” are accompanied by a self-contained painting action, in which the score is transformed scene by scene into luminous colours with the help of ten painting assistants. In the process, up to 1,000 litres of paint are spilled per performance. In this production in Bayreuth, two giants of the Gesamtkunstwerk merge. 

“it's not that i'm setting up a staging that corresponds to the walküre, but i'm performing a painting action that probably has something to do indirectly with richard wagner's colourful, broadly expansive music. my love of wagner's music has always intoxicated me. the painting processes are meant to be like music. sounds become colours and wagner's score lures me into choosing my colours.”

The resulting floor and wall splatter paintings form the basis for a cross-disciplinary overall installation that will be on display in the exhibition hall in Mistelbach starting in October 2021. In addition, the exhibition will showcase the entire original recording of the dress rehearsal from Bayreuth, the rights to which are held in Austria by Hermann Nitsch. The cross-room installation in the nitsch museum is a harbinger of the 6-day play in Prinzendorf, which will take place in July 2022.