Video artist Bill Viola, creator of famed ‘Tristan und Isolde,’ dies at 73

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Renowned video artist Bill Viola, known for his transformative work in opera, particularly through his collaboration with director Peter Sellars on “The Tristan Project,” has passed away at 73. His family announced his death on Friday, attributing it to complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

“The Tristan Project,” a groundbreaking production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde,” first appeared in concert form at Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2004. It then premiered on stage at the Paris Opéra in 2005 and was later presented in concert at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in 2007.

Viola’s unique staging gained widespread acclaim and was revived several times in Paris, most recently in 2023. The production also traveled globally, with versions showcased in cities such as Helsinki, Kobe, London, Madrid, Rotterdam, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Tokyo, and Toronto. Additionally, Viola’s videos from “The Tristan Project” were exhibited at New York’s James Cohan gallery in 2007.

“I hope that the audience will leave the theater having a deeper understanding of the nature of our short time here on Earth and the importance and power of love and any kind of relationship we’re in really with the things and people in the world,” Viola shared during a 2013 interview with the Canadian Opera Company.

His innovative techniques used in the project included filming in Vermont woods with just a camcorder, building a waterfall on a soundstage, and manipulating footage for surreal effects. For example, Viola shot an actor being lowered on a wire and then reversed the video to make the actor appear to rise. Other ambitious undertakings included a 90-foot pool of water and a 25-foot-high wall of flame with a crew of 70 working in an airplane hangar.

Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed described a 2022 revival at Disney Hall as “a defining moment in nearly 140 years of continual staging of an opera that transformed (and continues to influence) music more than any other single work.”

In the climax of the opera, the Liebestod or love-death, Viola’s artistry shone through as Tristan’s body bubbled and dissolved like Alka-Seltzer while he ascended.

“This was the time I realized where I can put into play these experiences and these images that I’ve been working with about, let’s say, take fire and water, and actually make them work inside a larger whole,” Viola said in his interview with the COC.

Viola married Kira Perov in 1980. Perov, who was then the director of cultural events at Melbourne’s La Trobe University, had invited him to exhibit his videos, leading to their collaboration and eventual marriage. Together, they spent a year in Japan on a cultural exchange program before relocating to California.

Viola admitted that “The Tristan Project” was challenging both professionally and personally, straining his marriage. “We put in a lot of our own personal money to finish it,” he revealed in his 2013 interview. “Once we realized we were two-thirds of the way and the money was running out, we looked at each other and we said: ‘This must be done.'”

Born in New York, Viola graduated from Syracuse University in 1973, where he was mentored by Jack Nelson. He began honing his video art during this time. Early in his career, he worked at a video arts studio in Florence, Italy, and held his first major European exhibition there in 1975.

Viola moved to New York, working from 1976-80 as an artist-in-residence at WNET Thirteen’s Television Laboratory. In 1976, he created “He Weeps for You,” a live camera project, which garnered attention and was showcased at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

By the mid-1980s, his work appeared at prominent venues such as the Whitney Museum and the Museum of the Moving Image. In 1987, he became the first video artist to have a retrospective at MoMA.

He was a recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1978, 1983, and 1989, and was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 1989. His work was also featured in several Whitney Museum of Art Biennials.

Viola is survived by his wife Kira Perov, sons Blake and Andrei Viola, and daughter-in-law Aileen Milliman.

Source: Associated Press