CIVIL WARS, THE: A TREE IS BEST MEASURED WHEN IT IS DOWN | COLOGNE (1984) Theatre poster

Robert Wilson (director), Philip Glass, David Byrne, Gavin Bryars (composers) Schauspielhaus Köln, 19 Jan 1984. Cologne (Köln), Germany: Schauspielhaus, 1984. Vintage original 33.5 x 23″ (85 x 59 cm.) poster, unfolded. Just about fine, with just the slightest hint of creasing at two extremities.

Original poster for the 1984 opera directed by Robert Wilson with music by Hans Peter Kuhn, Philip Glass, David Byrne and others, as performed at the Schauspielhaus in Cologne, Germany, on January 19, 1984. Later performed again in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it was to this production that the Pulitzer Prize jury unanimously awarded the prize for drama for 1986, only to be overruled by the supervisory board.

The CIVIL warS was originally conceived as six movements, created in six different countries, that once premiered in their countries of origin would then be joined together into a daylong opera for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. However, after adequate funding never surfaced for the project, the piece remained incomplete and is now known only for its five completed sections. It has never been performed in its entirety.

This poster is for the “Cologne” movement, with music composed predominantly by Hans Peter Kuhn. Frederick the Great is the central character in this section, in which Japanese gagaku musical influences mingle with texts from Racine and Shakespeare.