The

Great

Yes,

The

Great

No,

reviewed

by

Alain

Berland

Two in one, that’s what the Aix-en-Provence Festival is offering this year. Twice the pleasure; 'The Great Yes, The Great No' is a lot, but it’s good. Relocated to LUMA Arles, the chamber opera created by William Kentridge takes advantage of the artist’s skills as a visual artist to offer not only a lyrical performance, but also a vast exhibition, all in two of the venues of the Parc des Ateliers in Arles. The exhibition, entitled Je n attends plus (I don’t wait any longer), features several variations on a powerful theme: the failure of twentieth-century utopias and the roles played by artists in this context. As always with the South African artist, the work brings together other mediums, including sculpture, engraving, collage, animated film, video, fresco and music, around black-and-white drawing, his main activity. A plethora of plastic activities which, over the last forty years, have been informed by history and the tragic experience of man’s domination by man. These are the same ingredients found in 'The Great Yes, The Great No'. The opera, commissioned by the LUMA Foundation, has its world premiere at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. With a modest orchestra of four musicians on stage right, a splendid chorus of seven women performing all the songs, and several narrators, we’re in for an hour and a half of entertainment. It’s about crossing the Atlantic on the mythical cargo ship that left the port of Marseille to flee Nazism in March 1941.