Along with direction by cinema great Maximilian Schell, this original go at Richard Strauss’ opera of the young rose-bearer was designed by Viennese visual virtuoso Gottfried Helnwein. The team has created a surrealist environment undefined by any specific time or place. Visually, characters range from over the top froo-froo to contemporary, with nightmarish interpretations of Venetian masqueraders and creeping minions of the lecherous Lerchenau in between. Each act is bathed in its own primary color suited to the general feeling as if you’re watching through a giant mood ring. ...

The LAO's compelling new production of Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier" bears the intriguing vision of Hollywood legend, actor/director Maximilian Schell, and the marvellous designs of Austrian-born, Los Angeles-based visual artist Gottfried Helnwein.
Helnwein's brilliant costumes are also character driven. Sophie's duenna Marianne (soprano Susan Foster) is garbed like a Shakespearean nurse, Sophie is an idealized Helen of Troy, while the schemers Valzacchi and Annina (tenor Anthony Laciura and mezzo-soprano Margaret Thompson) could be straight out of Mozart's "Don Giovanni'. In short a production that clearly needs to be visited again and again to fully reveal its symbolic and metaphoric riches.
Perhaps the greatest glory of this "Der Rosenkavalier" is its visual unpredictability. ...

The von Faninal Palace set for Act II was an absolutely astounding use of space. Almost all of the characters entered from the sides of the stage, at least two stories high. They descended to ground level by use of a two huge curved staircases which come together at the top. All around on the second floor is a chest high balustrade and the entire structure is supported by a series of columns which go through the second floor and continue upwards from there. The structure was in white, but lighting designer Alan Burrett bathed the entire scene in a “daylight” type gel. Because of the elaborateness of the set for Act II (and the time required to “build” it and then break it down again), the sets for Acts I and III were the same, merely a big box, dressed differently. It is a brilliant concept. ...

Born in Vienna in 1948, Gottfried Helnwein has developed a very powerful and idiosyncratic visual vocabulary reflected in his masterful use of multiple media (painting, drawing, photography, performance, and stage design). Helnwein addresses a broad range of social and political issues, resulting in challenging and provocative artworks. Although at times very disturbing, these works are consistently moving, and seek spiritual beauty often approaching the transcendental. ...

Visuals that can overpower the delicate text and even occasionally seem at odds with the glittery, enrapturing music but that nonetheless are strikingly provocative in a museum-installation kind of way. Call the look postmodern Baroque, a kind of cool Fellini-esque phantasmagoria, done as artsy chic and maximized by Alan Burrett’s ingenious lighting. The outer acts have a single-hue, ghostly wash, with one or several of the central characters in blazing color from head to toe as stark contrast. The second act is a peachy gold, no spectral downside.
Yes, it will offend the traditionalists – those who look for straightforward 18th-century effects. ...

Eine der beliebtesten Opern-Romanzen hat an der L.A Opera Premiere gefeiert: "Der Rosenkavalier" von Richard Strauss. Die Produktion in L.A. ist quasi in österreichischer Hand: Maximilian Schell führt Regie und Gottfried Helnwein ist für Bühnenbild und erstmals auch für Kostüm verantwortlich. Nicht selten hat Helnwein in der Vergangenheit der Gesellschaft einen Spiegel vorgehalten und mit seinen Arbeiten zu Themen wie Kindesmissbrauch deutlich Stellung genommen. Fakt ist: Seine Kunst polarisiert. So auch in L.A. ...

Artistas clave en el arte austríaco de la segunda mitad del siglo XX llegan al Museo de Arte Moderno a través de una colección privada.
Por último, "Aspectos de la figura" abarcará el siglo XXI con la figura humana como protagonista en las piezas de María Lassnig, Alex Katz, Elke Krystufek y Gottfried Helnwein, entre otros. ...

- The Los Angeles Opera's much-anticipated new production of Strauss's "Rosenkavalier" opened on Sunday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and you can bet that the high-concept and boldly stylized sets and costumes by the designer and visual artist Gottfried Helnwein are going to provoke the strongest reactions.
Restraint was not a hallmark of the outlandishly captivating production. In a detailed program note, Helnwein writes that the era of Maria Theresa was a time when everything was theater, at least for the upper class, and that over-the-top fashion styles often included masks and white-face. His designs combine spartan sets with wildly extravagant costumes ranging in style from the surreal to the ridiculous. Act I is bathed in shades of blue. In their stiffly modern blue suits and blue-faced makeup, the Marschallin's notaries look like the members of Blue Man Group. In Act II, the mansion of Herr von Faninal, a wealthy commoner with aristocratic pretensions, glows with garish golden yellows. Faninal's servants could be creatures from "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," no doubt an intentional evocation: the production begins with projected scenes from Robert Wiene's 1926 silent film adaptation of "Der Rosenkavalier," and Wiene also directed "Caligari."
In any event, the cast seemed empowered by the production. ...

The thing you should know about this "Rosenkavalier" is that it is terrific. Richard Strauss' opera sounds great and looks sensational. It is excellently sung, sumptuously conducted by Kent Nagano and, thanks to Gottfried Helnwein, wondrously strange.
Helnwein — the Austrian artist (painter, photographer, performance artist, filmmaker) who has a studio in downtown L.A. — is known for everything from Marilyn Manson videos to Holocaust installations. He is responsible for the sets, costumes and that ad (which, by the way, looks like an image from a recent staging of a Schumann oratorio that Helnwein designed in Düsseldorf).
Helnwein's vision of "Rosenkavalier" is monochromatic and a riot of color. It is oddly traditional yet seriously odd. It is updated but couldn't be more 18th century. And none of those opposites contradicts. ...

Nun findet sich die Antwort auf die Frage nach dem Verbleib Gottfried Helnweins in massiven Schlagzeilen der “New York Times” und der “Los Angeles Times”. “Ein Aufstand der Farben, exzentrisch, anachronistisch, wundersam”, jubeln die Kalifornier. Die Kollegen von der Ostküste schreiben von “ausserirdischer Faszination und wilder Extravaganz”. Gottfried Helnwein hat an der von Placido Domingo geleiteten Oper von Los Angeles den “Rosenkavalier” von Richard Strauss ausgestattet. Maximilian Schell inszenierte, Kent Nagano dirigierte, und die Premiere zu Wochenbeginn geriet dem alten Fuchs Domingo zum Clou der amerikanischen Opernsaison. Schon in den Überschriften aber wird klargestellt, wer hier der Chef war: Gottfried Helnwein nämlich, geboren in Wien als Sohn eines Postbeamten, Konzeptkünstler, Fotograf, Filmer, unvergleichlich resistent gegen Katalogisierungen. ...