Robert Wilson, Philip Glass, Lucinda Childs, Christopher Knowles, Andy De Groat.

Einstein on the Beach was a revolutionary opera by Phillip Glass and Robert Wilson and is recognised as one of the greatest artistic achievements of the 20th Century. Einstein on the Beach is an opera in four acts framed and connected by five “knee plays” or intermezzos. The opera eschews traditional narrative in favour of a formalist approach based on structured spaces, minimalist sets, an exuberantly complex score, and distinctive choreography by Lucinda Childs.

The work portrays the icon purely as a historical figure; in the absence of a storyline however, incorporate symbols from Einstein’s life within the opera’s scenery, characters, and music, representing poetic notions of spectacle, time and space.

Nearly four decades after its first staging, Backlit reimagined the unique visual, dramatic and musical languages of Einstein on the Beach through an exhibition of props, manuscripts, stage designs and music from the original performance in 1976. The project was in partnership with Paula Cooper Gallery, and the Watermill Center, New York. Dance also delivered talks and events in response to the exhibition.