fig.: Stage scene of the multimedia opera 'Refuse The Hour' by William Kentridge (concept, libretto), Philip Miller (music), Dada Masilo (choreography), Catherine Meyburgh (video dramatury - direction, cut). The traveling multimedia opera 'Refuse The Hour' will be on show from 23 until 27 July during Festival Quartier d'Ete in Paris and on 1, 3, and 4 August 2013 during Impulstanz Dance Festival in Vienna. Photo: (C) John Hodgkiss.

Video, music and dance for the visualization of time, science and transitions of society

In summer 2013, William Kentridge's multimedia opera 'Refuse The Hour' will be shown for the first time in Paris (July, Festival Quartier d'Ete) and premieres in Austria during the Impulstanz Dance Festival in Vienna (August).

The opera explores the transitions of society in front of the history of science. William Kentridge (born and living in Johannesburg, South Africa) expresses these transitions with the metaphorical means of art by using video, music and dance in a live opera performance on stage.

The opera was developed from the video installation 'The Refusal of Time' (2012) and incorporates the videos into the stage setting. The history of science is one of the central aspects of William Kentridge's installation 'The Refusal of Time'. A documentary introduces into the work and the collaboration with Harvard professor (physics, history of science) Peter Galison (min 1:49); artist William Kentridge says about the metaphorical references to science (min 6:38): "The more you think about the metaphor the closer you get to the deep science."

The story of the opera 'Refuse The Hour' follows the idea of time, space and history, such as the linearity or relativity of time which evoke ideas of prospects on future by looking back in time for insights into the development of our world. William Kentridge appears as himself - as author and artist - on stage which turns the opera into an unique art-performance-music-dance event. In an interview (video below) about the opera 'Refuse The Hour', William Kentridge compares dance with film - both visualize a story as work in progress. He says: "Dance does it even more clearly - it demonstrates the world as process - the whole point of dance is the move of the body from one state into another."

The traveling multimedia opera 'Refuse The Hour' will be on show from 23 until 27 July during Festival Quartier d'Ete in Paris and on 1, 3, and 4 August 2013 during Impulstanz Dance Festival in Vienna.

Video on occasion of the Italian premiere of 'Refuse The Hour' in mid-November 2012 at Teatro Argentina in Rome.

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