Mathis der Maler in Gelsenkirchen
The six monochromes by the exceptional artist Yves Klein, the largest in the world, are being exhibited at the Music Theatre in the Revier Gelsenkirchen. Like Otto Dix, Joseph Beuys, Francis Bacon and many others, Yves Klein was concerned with finding responsible possibilities of being a creative artist in society. The composer Paul Hindemith also grappled with this question in his opera Mathis der Maler. In a kaleidoscope of images and existential motifs, Hindemith poses questions concerning man‘s place in society in a parable focussing on the magnificent painter of the Isenheim Altar, Matthias Grünewald. The director Michael Schulz offers the following commentary:
“Mathis der Maler is a piece that causes many strings to resonate within me. The story is exciting and full of variety. As for the music, it is utterly individual, dramatic, unusual and very dynamic. Moreover, the opera deals with subjects that continue to interest me: the responsibility of the individual, microstructures of society, religion, the visual arts, history, love and death. The way in which Paul Hindemith ties together the biography of Matthias Grünewald with the events of the Reformation, the Peasants’ Wars and the completely private conflicts of the characters – narrating a kind of world theatre – is simply superb. Hindemith creates an intensive, visually stunning operatic theatre of breath-taking relevance for the today‘s world; in it, visual art becomes audible, music becomes visible and life becomes art. This opera unites and harmonises sensuality and objectivity, and the relationship of tension resulting between the two makes this work one of the best German-language operas since Wagner.”
https://musiktheater-im-revier.de/#!/de/performance/2017-18/mathis-der-maler/