Ronald Chase
Encyclopedia
Ronald Chase is an American artist, photographer, educator, independent film
maker and opera
designer. His work with projection and film has been called "one of the most exciting developments in the history of opera stage presentation."
. He studied dance, design and directing at Bard College
, where he joined the Jean Erdman
Dance Group. He toured with the José Limón
Dance Company on their first European tour in the fall of 1956. After the tour he remained in Europe (Italy and Spain) to study painting. He then established a studio in the Gaspe Peninsula (Perce) in Canada. His first exhibits were at the Galerie Libre in Montreal (1962) and the Byron Gallery
in New York City (1963). His work then entered the collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
In the spring of 1964 he moved to San Francisco and continued his painting.
copiers. His work with figures and abstract imagery was given a show at the George Eastman House
in 1984. His photographic work then entered the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
, the George Eastman House, and the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York among others.
and filmed in the Hudson Valley. In 1964, he began experimenting with using film projections in theater and dance performances. These experiments produced The Covenant, a dance film made with Elizabeth Harris and the composer Pauline Oliveros
, followed by dramatic shorts including Chameleon and Clown, which was featured at the 1969 Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Parade, a short documentary of the first Gay & Lesbian Pride Parade in San Francisco.
Chase produced and directed two features in the 1970s. Bruges-La-Morte, starring Richard Easton
(and the film debuts of Nickolas Grace
and Anthony Daniels
), premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival 1978 and was awarded the Critics Prize at the International Film Festival Ghent in 1980. LULU, starring Paul Shenar
and Elisa Leonelli and adapted from the play by Frank Wedekind
, was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival
, Filmex, and Rotterdam Film Festival, among others. It was chosen as one of the 3 best films of 1978 by Pariscope
, but could not be released because of a copyright conflict with the estate of Alban Berg
.
at the Seattle Opera in 1971. Around this time Chase met director Frank Corsaro
and their mutual interest in film led to their 40 year collaboration in opera, film and projection in a series of innovative productions including Berg's Lulu at the Houston Opera in 1975, Korngold's Die Tote Stadt
at the New York City Opera in 1975, Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias
at the Opera Theater of St. Louis in 1983 and Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten
at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
in 1984. Due to injuries Corsaro suffered during a car crash, Gerald Freedman
replaced him in collaborating with Chase on a production of Ginastera's Beatrix Cenci
that opened the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
on September 10, 1971. The film Chase produced for Beatrix Cenci received the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's first SECA award in film in 1972. Chase produced his first animated films for theater in collaboration with Maurice Sendak
for Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges
at Glyndebourne
in 1987. In 1992 Chase and Corsaro reunited to produce Busoni's Doktor Faust at the New York City Opera.
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
maker and opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
designer. His work with projection and film has been called "one of the most exciting developments in the history of opera stage presentation."
Life and work
Chase was born in Seminole, OklahomaSeminole, Oklahoma
Seminole is a city in Seminole County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 6,899 at the 2000 census. Seminole experienced a large population growth in the 1920s due to an oil boom...
. He studied dance, design and directing at Bard College
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
, where he joined the Jean Erdman
Jean Erdman
Jean Erdman is a dancer and choreographer of modern dance as well as an avant-garde theater director.-Early years:Erdman was born on February 20, 1916 in Honolulu, Hawaii...
Dance Group. He toured with the José Limón
José Limón
José Arcadio Limón was a pioneer in the field of modern dance and choreography. In 1928, at age 20, he moved to New York City where he studied under Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. In 1946, Limón founded the José Limón Dance Company...
Dance Company on their first European tour in the fall of 1956. After the tour he remained in Europe (Italy and Spain) to study painting. He then established a studio in the Gaspe Peninsula (Perce) in Canada. His first exhibits were at the Galerie Libre in Montreal (1962) and the Byron Gallery
Byron Gallery
The Byron Gallery was founded in 1961 by Charles Byron and was located on Madison Avenue, New York, New York in the United States. Byron Gallery exhibited primarily Surrealist masters, emerging contemporary painters and sculptors, and the occasional Old Masters and ancient art exhibit...
in New York City (1963). His work then entered the collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
In the spring of 1964 he moved to San Francisco and continued his painting.
Photography
In the early 1980s Chase began experimenting with photography. He manipulated photographs using large format XeroxXerox
Xerox Corporation is an American multinational document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies...
copiers. His work with figures and abstract imagery was given a show at the George Eastman House
George Eastman House
The George Eastman House is the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in Rochester, New York, USA. World-renowned for its photograph and motion picture archives, the museum is also a leader in film preservation and...
in 1984. His photographic work then entered the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, the George Eastman House, and the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York among others.
Film
In 1963, Chase began making short experimental films with Fragments, written by Mary Lee SettleMary Lee Settle
Mary Lee Settle was an American writer and winner of the National Book Award for her 1978 novel Blood Tie...
and filmed in the Hudson Valley. In 1964, he began experimenting with using film projections in theater and dance performances. These experiments produced The Covenant, a dance film made with Elizabeth Harris and the composer Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros is an American accordionist and composer who is a central figure in the development of post-war electronic art music....
, followed by dramatic shorts including Chameleon and Clown, which was featured at the 1969 Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Parade, a short documentary of the first Gay & Lesbian Pride Parade in San Francisco.
Chase produced and directed two features in the 1970s. Bruges-La-Morte, starring Richard Easton
Richard Easton
Richard Easton is a Canadian actor. He is best known in for his portrayal of Brian Hammond in the 1970s BBC serial The Brothers.-Biography:...
(and the film debuts of Nickolas Grace
Nickolas Grace
Nickolas Grace is a British actor known for his roles on television, including Anthony Blanche in the acclaimed ITV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited and the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1980s series Robin of Sherwood...
and Anthony Daniels
Anthony Daniels
Anthony Daniels is an English actor. He is best known for his role as the droid C-3PO in the Star Wars series of films made between 1977 and 2005.-Early life:...
), premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival 1978 and was awarded the Critics Prize at the International Film Festival Ghent in 1980. LULU, starring Paul Shenar
Paul Shenar
Paul Shenar was an American actor.-Career:Shenar became involved in theater at an early age, partaking in the local Milwaukee playhouse productions. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the United States Air Force. Following his military career he began acting again...
and Elisa Leonelli and adapted from the play by Frank Wedekind
Frank Wedekind
Benjamin Franklin Wedekind , usually known as Frank Wedekind, was a German playwright...
, was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
, Filmex, and Rotterdam Film Festival, among others. It was chosen as one of the 3 best films of 1978 by Pariscope
Pariscope
Pariscope is a popular weekly magazine available at Parisian newsstands and is published by Hachette Filipacchi Médias.The Pariscope printed magazine covers the current and forthcoming entertainment events in Paris over the coming week, including theatre, music and films.Pariscope was established...
, but could not be released because of a copyright conflict with the estate of Alban Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
.
Film and projection in opera
Chase's first combined film and opera with director Richard Pearlman, then head of the Washington Opera, in a production of Britten's The Turn of the Screw (with Benita Velinti in her first dramatic role). Chase produced film and projections with Pearlman for the world premiere of The Who's TommyThe Who's Tommy
The Who's Tommy is a rock musical by Pete Townshend and Des McAnuff based on The Who's 1969 double album rock opera Tommy, also by Pete Townshend, with additional material by John Entwistle, Keith Moon and Sonny Boy Williamson.-Productions:...
at the Seattle Opera in 1971. Around this time Chase met director Frank Corsaro
Frank Corsaro
Frank Corsaro is one of America's foremost stage directors of opera and theatre. His Broadway productions include The Night of the Iguana ....
and their mutual interest in film led to their 40 year collaboration in opera, film and projection in a series of innovative productions including Berg's Lulu at the Houston Opera in 1975, Korngold's Die Tote Stadt
Die tote Stadt
Die tote Stadt is an opera in three acts by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The libretto is by the composer and Paul Schott , and is based on Bruges-la-Morte, a short novel by Georges Rodenbach.-Performance history:When Die tote Stadt had its premiere on December 4, 1920, Korngold was just 23...
at the New York City Opera in 1975, Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias
Les mamelles de Tirésias
Les mamelles de Tirésias is a surrealist two-act opéra bouffe by Francis Poulenc, based on the play of the same title by Guillaume Apollinaire, which was written in 1903 but first performed in 1917...
at the Opera Theater of St. Louis in 1983 and Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten
Die Frau ohne Schatten
Die Frau ohne Schatten is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was written between 1911 and either 1915 or 1917...
at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
in 1984. Due to injuries Corsaro suffered during a car crash, Gerald Freedman
Gerald Freedman
Gerald Freedman is an American theatre director, librettist, and lyricist, and a college dean.Born in Lorain, Ohio, Freedman was educated at Northwestern University, where he received both BA and MA degrees. He began his career as assistant director of such projects as Bells Are Ringing, West Side...
replaced him in collaborating with Chase on a production of Ginastera's Beatrix Cenci
Beatrix Cenci
Beatrix Cenci is an opera in two acts by Alberto Ginastera to a Spanish libretto by the composer and William Shand, based on the historical family of Beatrice Cenci, the Chroniques italiennes by Stendhal, and The Cenci by Percy Shelley. The first performance was on 10 September 1971 by the Opera...
that opened the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C...
on September 10, 1971. The film Chase produced for Beatrix Cenci received the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's first SECA award in film in 1972. Chase produced his first animated films for theater in collaboration with Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.-Early life:...
for Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges
L'enfant et les sortilèges
L'enfant et les sortilèges: Fantaisie lyrique en deux parties is an opera in one act, with music by Maurice Ravel to a libretto by Colette. It is Ravel's second opera, his first being L'heure espagnole...
at Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne is a country house, thought to be about six hundred years old, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England. It is also the site of an opera house which, with the exception of its closing during the Second World War, for a few immediate post-war years, and in 1993 during the...
in 1987. In 1992 Chase and Corsaro reunited to produce Busoni's Doktor Faust at the New York City Opera.