Peter Sellars: 'The Gospel is told by men. We changed that.'
Sellars discusses the prescience of "The Gospel According to the Other Mary" under his direction
For his latest opera production, which recently premiered in Germany, Distinguished Professor Peter Sellars sat down with DW to discuss the show's process.
"Sometimes a librettist collaborates closely with a composer, such as in 2012, when Peter Sellars compiled Biblical and contemporary texts to form the basis of an opera/oratorio by the American composer John Adams. It's unusual, however, for that same librettist to personally direct the stage production, as was done in a collaboration between the English National Opera in London and the Bonn Opera.An instructor in the subjects "Art as Social Action" and "Art as Moral Action" at the University of California in Los Angeles, Sellars is known for his many highly creative dramatic interpretations of operas and plays over the past four decades. For "The Gospel According to the Other Mary," he compiled texts from the Bible and from historic and contemporary sources ranging from Hildegard of Bingen to Dorothy Day. After weeks of rehearsals and in the run-up to the premiere in Bonn, Peter Sellars sat down with DW to share his insights into a work that he has worked on, from the initial idea to most recent presentation, over a period of five years.
DW: It's unusual to have a stage director who also compiled the texts. Give me a sense, please, of your collaboration with John Adams.
Peter Sellars: We've known each other for 30 years now, and this is our seventh piece, I think. John doesn't write a note of music until he has the complete libretto in front of him. But in this case, the idea actually came from him. He said, 'I want to write a passion.'"— Rick Fulker, Apr. 13, 2017
Read the full article at the DW website.