Patrice Chéreau: ‘It’s OK to be hated’

From outraging Wagner purists to snubbing Hollywood, Patrice Chéreau is forever going against the grain. Now the great French director has turned his sights on British theatre. Patrice Chéreau , the great French theatre, opera and film director, is in London to rehearse the first play he has ever directed in the UK. It’s a coup for the Young Vic, and its artistic director, David Lan , tells me people are hanging about near the rehearsal rooms just to feel the presence, touch the hem. I am not ashamed to admit I am one of those hem-touchers, fascinated to meet the man who changed the face of modern opera with his centenary Ring cycle at Bayreuth in 1976, when he infuriated traditionalists by replacing Wagnerian horns and bearskins with the trappings of 19th-century plutocracy. That Ring made the then 31-year-old Chéreau’s career. It remains the achievement with which he is most often linked, except perhaps by movie buffs who admire the films that have

Posted by on April 25, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.