IVO VAN HOVE... THE LAST MAN WHO EVER WORKED WITH BOWIE... TALKS ABOUT IT..!! Director of Lazarus worked close with Bowie
Last two years and knew all plans and about Bowie's situation. He tells interesting things!!
Today on Dutch TV we saw a live studio interview with Ivo van Hove, the Belgian Director/Regisseur of the Lazarus musical in New York.
He told a lot of interesting things about working with Bowie in the last two years. Van Hove is Director of Lazarus and worked very close with Bowie and explained Bowie already told him 14 months ago he was gravily ill, that was already in november 2014.
Bowie said "I'm going to work with you in the coming year, so you'll have to know that" Van Hove says.
Van Hove says he always admired Bowie and that he was a great and very kind person to work with. "In the beginning we came together and Bowie played in front of my eyes how he wanted the actors to act. He also asked my ideas about the songs, how to involve them in the musical."
BOWIE: IM HAVING A BAD DAY...
Van Hove said that sometimes Bowie did not feel well enough to come to the rehearsals, but that he never complaint. "When I asked him if he would come, he sometimes said "I have a bad day", then I knew he felt really very bad. Van Hove tells Bowie tried to built up his energy, but when he came to the theatre he always was very relaxed and hanged out there for hours, because he enjoyed it. "And he always looked very well, and smelled good, like a real gentleman"
"But sometimes I saw his eyes were very sad.. He suffered. He had to fight a hard struggle with his illness. Bowie didn't want to die.."
The interviewer asked Van Hove if he always knew the meaning of the musical Lazarus and the CD. "Yes", Van Hove says. "This was his way of saying goodbye to the people"
BOWIE IS THOMAS JEROME NEWTON
"One time Bowie made a mistake in talking", Ivo van Hove remembers. "We were talking about something in the script and I told him a girl in the play would disappear in the sky... "But where do I stay" Bowie replied - talking about Thomas Jerome Newton. "I didn't tell him, but it made me very clear that it was all about Bowie himself, Impersonalised as TJN"
NOT SURE BOWIE COULD ATTEND LAZARUS
It was not sure at all if it would be possible that Bowie could attend the premiere of the Lazarus musical. "He said to me, I don't know if I can be there", Van Hove recalls and explains: "He meant he didn't know if he would still be alive...but he really tried and I was very happy when he showed up and was there. He didn't want to tell the people he was so ill and dying. He wanted to leave in style.
Most people didn't notice he was so frail, but I know it was very hard for him and immediately after the show Bowie collapsed backstage. He couldn't do anything, but didn't panic. He sat down quietly and waited until he had the power to stand up again."
TALKING ABOUT THE ALBUM BLACKSTAR
Van Hove tells that from the beginning it was clear the album Blackstar would also be part of Bowie's 'Grande Finale'... "When I heard the first demo of the song Lazarus that directly became clear to me. In the musical we use a different version, but I got the original demo still on my computer"
The people in the studio talk about all the symbolic things in the Blackstar video. The meaning of the Lazarus video is very clear and now we understand exactly this is Bowie's clear way to tell he is leaving...
But the Blackstar video is not so clear. "It's full of symbols" Van Hove says. "And there's of course the thing with the Greek myth"
Ivo van Hove wants to state very clear that it's certainly not only sadness and dark things in the videos an lyrics of the songs of Blackstar. "Don't forget the Bluebird" Van Hove says. "There's sadness and a lot of darkness, but on the other hand there is hope for the future, hope to go on. Bowie doesn't only want to leave darkness to us or to his children, but also hope and future" Van Hove says,
When did Van Hove last contact Bowie? "I wanted to be the first to congratulate him with his Birthday" he says. "But then he did not reply - and he always did - so then I knew something was really wrong... But still it was a shock for me to hear that Bowie died this Sunday.."
ANOTHER THIRD VIDEO?!
The Greek myth is new for me. I had not heard about any Greek myth. But it's very clear Bowie did an impossible job for all his fans around the world. There are rumours about an eventually NEXT video in which Bowie would give us another message. And there are rumours about more songs recorded in the sessions that are not on the album, possibly because they don't fit in the 'goodbye' album Bowie made for us?
Harry van Heerden.
