Performance Art in the 1990s and the Generation Gap

In the 1990s, the question of the legacy of historical performance was posed with a particular sense of urgency. In the context of most pioneers of the art form having retired from live performance, reenactments not only reproduced past works but positioned artists within the genealogy of performance. The sense of the passage of a generation and the transmission of the memory of past performances were made explicit by Marina Abramović in The Biography (1992), a theatre piece in which she stages the very process of accounting for her past, as well as by Takashi Murakami and Oleg Kulik, who emerged on the art scene in the 1990s and mimicked live works from the past.

In search of truth in service of beauty: the comparison of the autograph of Sonata in a minor by Franz Schubert with available editions

Musicians attach increasing importance to the selection of edition they use for playing. There is a growing awareness of the influence of score material selection on interpretation. Historical performance raises the bar as well by encouraging the use of autographs, manuscripts and first editions. Thanks to referring to historical materials, we can quickly appreciate the effort of contemporary editors who – once publishing scores today – make them much more accessible. It would seem that basing one’s interpretation on an urtext edition should be a perfect solution combining today’s clarity with historical truth. The analysis shows, however, that even these trustworthy urtext editions differ from one another, thus differ from the autograph. Using Sonata in A Minor D 385 by Franz Schubert as an example, the article shows different approaches to music text edition. There are distinct ways in which editors interpret articulation, dynamics, and even sound pitch. The biggest number of differences can be found in terms of articulation, which it largely connected with the necessity to read handwritten material. Unambiguous deciphering (and exact placement) of numerous music markings can sometimes be downright impossible. That is why editors often use the method which consists in searching for analogies between fragments and parts, yet this method does not always seem right. As performance practice shows, treating each part individually, playing a similar fragment in a dissimilar way, often brings interesting results interpretation-wise. The article encourages own experiments, using doubts as material for interpretation, and using the benefits of contemporary editions cautiously.

Vaca Muerta: An Emerging Shale Petroleum Reservoir

Argentina is ranked second globally in terms of technically recoverable shale gas, and fourth in shale oil (EIA 2015). The most prolific shale is the Vaca Muerta formation. The objective of this paper is to present geological and reservoir characterization, drilling and production strategies, as well as historical performance and economics of Vaca Muerta. The word petroleum as used in this paper includes oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. This paper describes natural fractures and their impact on hydrocarbon productivity. The successful commercial production from this unconventional resource has been driven by many factors, including regional geology, availability of advanced technology such as horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing, as well as domestic and regional hydrocarbon demand (Sierra 2016). Vaca Muerta itself is very unique with multiple hydrocarbon windows from east to west, ranging from dry gas to wet gas, to light oil and black oil. The productivity of Vaca Muerta is benchmarked to some of the best US shale plays such as the Eagle Ford and the Marcellus. Vaca Muerta contains 1202 Tcf of risked gas in-place and 270 billion barrels of risked oil in-place. It is estimated that 308 Tcf and 16 billion barrels of these resources are technically recoverable (EIA 2015). To date, the total number of horizontal wells exceeds 600, mostly drilled in the black oil window (Secretaria de Energia de Argentina 2020; Wood Mackenzie 2020b). Dubbed the ‘golden goose’ of Argentina, the last decade has seen rapid exploration and development activities. The Argentina state oil company (YPF) leads the development in this region together with its partners. In 2019, production from Vaca Muerta reached 90,000 bbl/d of oil and 1180 MMcf/d of gas, contributing 21% of Argentina's total production (Secretaria de Energia de Argentina 2020; Wood Mackenzie 2020b). YPF predicted these rates would increase by 150% in 2022 (Rassenfoss 2018). Part of this increase will be contributed by La Amarga Chica block, where YPF and its partner, PETRONAS approved their 30-year master development plan in late 2018 to deliver 54,000 boe/d by 2022 (Zborowski 2019). This production increase has obviously been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The novelty of this paper is integration of geological and reservoir characterization, drilling and production strategies, as well as historical performance and economics of Vaca Muerta. It is concluded that oil and gas potential in the Vaca Muerta shale is significant and rivals the potential of some of the shales widely developed in the Unites States and Canada.

Historical materiality of performance: On the costumes of The Rite of Spring (1913)

By focusing on surviving costumes of the 1913 production of The Rite of Spring, this article asks how a close examination of costumes and their role in historical performance practice can change our understanding of a canonical work of art. It argues for methodological pluralism in examining material remains together with manuscript annotations, images and reviews of the production rarely considered in previous research and, consequentially, for a critical examination of all previous claims, including the so-called reconstruction (1987) of The Rite of Spring. Compared with designs and costumes of other productions by the Ballets Russes company, those of the 1913 production explain much of the contradictory ways in which the work figured in discourses relating to art and modernism in France and Russia at the time. Most importantly, the costumes exemplify a particular tradition of making theatre that has been obscured by the prevailing Orientalist view of the Ballets Russes company that is hegemonic in what is claimed to be ‘known’ about The Rite of Spring and its reception.

Renewable Early Music

In the past few decades there have been major changes to historically informed performance practice. Early music departments have appeared in conservatories worldwide, where one can study early music on period instruments according to extant performance sources. Despite historically informed performance practice being well-known and well-acknowledged, no course has been offered thus far by Hungarian conservatories, resulting in the phenomena of young professionals with bachelor and/or master degrees but with only scarce awareness of this practice. This essay provides readers with the basic notions of early music performance, emphasizing the particular mentality shaping its theoretical foundation. Keywords: early music, historical performance, early music department