Mit Aussicht

Have you ever encountered something so alien that your mind refused to acknowledge its' right of existence at first? Something that leaves you bewildered and astonished at how someone could possibly come up with it? Now, I had that feeling - and maybe you'll have it, too. Meet the Russian Futurists!

We all know that the beginning of the 20th century was a time, where things changed dramatically. The old monarchial structures began to crumble and World War I loomed at the horizon. At this crucial moment of change a new cultural avantgarde became famous. It all started in Italy with the Futurist Manifest by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, in which he tried nothing less but to found a "new culture". The Futurists loved everything new and rejected the old aesthetics. And they were very successful with it  - in 1912 Futurism spread into Russia and hit home. 

I do not want to bore you with all the details of Russian Futurist aesthetics. It's not very entertaining and I gave up on understanding it a while ago and instead decided to enjoy its outcomes.

To gain the attention of the public the Futurists needed to be seen in the mass of artists. Mayakovsky did this by combining a yellow west to his black tuxedo - not unlike the very distinctive dress of Goethe's "Werther", who combined a blue jacket with a yellow west, too. But he went further. To irritate his audience when reading his poetry he also donned a kitchen utensil. Sitting on the stage in a tuxedo, reading his texts - with a wooden spoon on his chest. No wonder he was laughed at. 

One of the more funny inventions of Futurism is a new language. Because the "old words" had been used too much it was time to find new ones. Naturally no one understood, what the Futurists wanted to say, it was all a big mess.

Combining visual art, music and poetry, the Futurist opera "Victory over the sun" feels like watching a David Lynch movie on acid. Most of the time you will have no idea what is going on, but it's colourful and dissonant and loud and just ... strange. But the longer you keep watching the better it gets. After a while the uneasiness fades and in the best of cases you start enjoying this opera, which makes Alice's trip through the rabbit hole look like a Sunday lunch with your very uptight grandmother.
Malevich created the costumes and his very famous "Black Square" can be seen in the background. The libretto can be found here. My favourite sentence is: "The factory camels are already threatening fried lard and I haven’t even traversed a single side yet." Yeah, those camels are bad animals.

Look at those costumes!

I bet this opera really impressed you - well, in one way or another. Tell me about it in the comments!