May 15th, 2011 §
In his latest dance confection for Vienna, Staatsoper ballet director has brought us three hiterto never danced in Vienna pieces from master showman Jerome Robbins (née Rabinowitz). Robbins has the most eclectic collection of awards of any of the great choreographers, from an Oscar for film direction (West Side Story) to Tonys for Broadway musicals (Fancy Free, The King & I, West Side Story, The Pajame Game) through a French Legion of Honour.
Robbins likely does not deserve the last one, as the most active namer of names in his testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1953, leading to the blacklisting of dozens of colleagues and acquaintances (effective professional death).
Fundamentally a showman, first as a performer and then as a creator, Robbins felt that there should not be a divide between commercial artists and high art, i.e. a successful Broadway choreographer should be allowed to set ballet. The three works chosen by Legris showcase Robbins' work as an avant-garde choreographer, a Romantic ballet master and a Broadway showman in turn.
Glass Pieces
Who has one time heard the trombone of Glass Pieces from Philip Glass will never hear the trombone the same again. Each puff resonates through twenty beautiful figures moving at speed, changing the world with a precise gesture.
Homage to Jerome Robbins at Vienna Staatsoper. Glass Pieces.
Glass Pieces drives the viewer into a profoundly meditative state. Colours, some light, sound, we are children again staring into a xylescope.
The piece opens casually enough with an army of colourfully dressed pedestrians crossing back and forth across the stage. Periodicaly the crowd are interrupted by pairs, pink, emerald, blue. Each pair tunes its affection in a different way.
Natalie Kush and Shane A. Wuerthner were particularly touching in pink. She so small and fragile and optimistic, Wuerthner taller and cool. The last times I've seen him dance he's been paired with dancers like Olga Esina who overwhelm him. His own talents shine brighter with a more petite dancer.
Kiyoka Hashimoto and Masayu Kimoto dance well together, in what has been a season of revelation for Kimoto.
Olga Esina makes her own appearance late in the lead role opposite Roman Lazik. Glass Pieces is written just for her kind of awesome ballerina. Esina's endless limbs, noble carriage and schooled movements bring grace to the piece and she glildes across its surface as if on wings. Glass Pieces demands of a dancer to be one with the music and this Esina masters. She is the perfect muse, here no emotional demands to distract her from herself.
In darkest shiniest bordeaux Roman Lazik partners Olga Esina. Once again, Lazik shows himself a perfect partner attentive to her every step but one wishes that one day he himself would dance his own steps for himself.
Glass Pieces: Olga Esina and Roman Lazik
In the corps-de-ballet, Andrey Teterin is easily the most impressive of the men when in the middle or the back of the pack. He is let down only by his uncertainty when front and center, a strange lingering stage inhibition. If he ever overcomes it, Teterin will be a force with which to reckoned, with his strong lines and forceful jump.
In The Night
In the Night is guided by a piano solo, a rather limpid Chopin Nocturne. This is art of the simpering kind. Across a starlit stage, Robbins reveals three couples, in purple, in brown and in pink. Each dances a tender pas, with the occasional ethereal lift. The piece never really took off, as none of the pairs grabbed any hearts.
Andrej Teterin returns to adequately partner Natalie Kush who is radiant at her second leading role of the evening. Teterin is again let down by the uncertainty of his steps at the most important moments.
Olga Esina and Roman Lazik take the stage second. Again, Lazik is attentive. Again he fails to participate in the piece himself, a cipher for his ballerina. Esina struggled with the trite emotions, ending up as in the first piece, like glass. The long flowing gown from In The Night hides her natural attributes and Esina is a dancer like another.
The final couple Irina Tsymbal and Vladimir Shishov match one another perfectly, Tsymbal's gentle curves fold into Shisov's powerful arms. Shishov lifts Tsymbal like a feather. Always a passionate performer, Tsymbal shines with a strong emotion to communicate.
It appears Vienna Staastoper still does not have the right partner for Esina, one who would push her to the next level. The closest physical match would appear to be ex-husband Shishov but both are dancing better since separated. Perhaps Eno Peci could do Esina justice.
The Concert, or the Perils of Everybody
In the final piece, The Concert or the Perils of Everybody we see a lot of Peci.
He delights the audience as the murderous and adulterous husband. Behind a false nose, Peci is unrecognisable. He wears the role of an unhappy husband like his own dressing gown.
The Concert: Franziska Wallner-Hollinek and Eno Peci
He is well-paired with Irina Tsymbal as the ballerina, object of love. Franziska Wallner-Hollinek incarnates his grande dame wife perfectly, her native Vienna upbringing and aristocratic profile serving her well.
Denys Cherevychko plays against character for once as the shy young man. Ludmila Trayan inspires no end of laughter as the energetic young woman, whether sitting next to the pianist or pushing people off their chairs
Igor Milos, Gabor Oberegger, the lovely Maria Alati and Marta Drastiková round off an excellent comic ensemble performance.
The Concert: Marta Drastiková, Dumitru Taran, Irina Tsymbal, Gabor Oberegger
The Concert is a very strange piece oscillating from straight parody to Prufrock-like dark reflections on existence. The funny moments seem rather silly at first until the unhappy husband kicks his would-be lover the ballerina, shortly after pantomiming the murder of his wife. The women are moved around like inanimate furniture.
There seems to be some curious underlying mysogeny in the piece bubbling just under the surface. Women are beautiful but annoying. Probably true. But then men are annoying too and don't even have beauty to redeem them.
Parody of dance fills The Concert: whether in the Hungarian dance of the men or the extended ballet episode where the energetic girl can't hold her place in the corps-de-ballet.
Dancers get so tired of Swan Lake, Giselle and Sylphides that there is nothing they love more than a good bout of dance parody, whether in Don Quixote or Robbins's The Concert. They were all delighted to perform here and in the end, Robbins does have a point.
It's damn hard to live and wherever you look, whether at a concert or a ballet or even in your own home, everything and everybody is annoying. Even your own mistress.
Hopefully we can see another side of life but in this dance version of the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock there is much to enjoy. Tart like the fizz on champagne but like champagne best consumed in moderation.
All Photos Copyright: Wiener Staatsballett/Dimo Dimov
Staatsoper will be performing Jerome Robbins's work throughout September 2011 and March 2012. For specific performances, see The Staastoper website
October 25th, 2010 §
When Manuel Legris retired as an étoile at Paris Opera last year, he immediately took up residence in Vienna as the artistic director of the Vienna State Opera ballet. While the Staatsoper Ballet outside the Renato Zanella years has always been a very classical company, the Paris Opera has always danced both modern works and classical works with equal aplomb – and many would argue, the finest mixed repertoire company in the world.
With his first rate credentials there as a dancer, hopes are high that Legris will be as fine a director in Vienna. Until last year, the preceding artistic director Gyula Harangozo had been building a very good classical company with a strong Russian accent in Vienna.
Curiously Legris has kept most of the Harangozo dancers while shuffling around the designations with a new étoile designation to which only two ballerinas have been elevated, Olga Esina and Maria Yakovleva and two dancers, Vladmir Shishov and Roman Lazik. The dance world is dying to know what he has made of them in his first premiere Jewels of the New World.
Quite sensibly, Legris has brought the repertoire of the Paris Opera with him. In Jewels of the New World, we saw Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, William Forsythe and more Balanchine. All of these choreographers and all of these works have been staples of the Paris Opera repertoire since at least the eighties. No brave experimentation here, but it is high time these modern classic names returned to Vienna's main stage.
The theme of the evening was New World as Twyla Tharp and William Forsythe are both American born, while George Balanchine after stints at the Marinsky Theater and Serghei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes founded the finest and most influential dance company in the United States, New York City Ballet.
With the magic of Legris can the Vienna State Opera compete with the Paris Opera on the same repertoire? The short answer is no. The longer answer is not yet. Despite some exceptional highlights to the evening from Elisabeth Golibina and Kirill Kourlaev, Nina Polakává and Maria Yakovleva, the Vienna company does not yet have the same depth or consistency of schooling as Paris. Comparative inconsistency is not unexpected as Paris has its own school supplying most of the Opera dancers while Vienna's ballet school has offered just a half dozen dancers good enough to last at the state opera in the last ten years.
Theme and Variations opened the evening on the Tschaikovsky's Orchentral Suite 3 in G Major and with costumes from Christian Lacroix. The look was ornamental and bombastic, Parisian frippery at its best. To carry off as flamboyant a piece, the corps-de-ballet has to be perfect and the soloists should be spectacular. Alas night they were not. The corps-de-ballet was constantly out of sync, while Vladimir Shishov and Olga Esina sometimes seemed uncertain and on several occasions made flagrant mistakes. With a little bit more rehearsal, both they and the corps should be able to make amends. Apparently Esina and Shishov indeed had little time to rehearse as until another dancer's illness Shishov was to partner Nina Polakova in the second cast.
Balanchine Thema und Variationen Olga Esina Vladimir Shishov
The two do suit Theme and Variations as danseurs nobles. Esina is a classic Marinsky ballerina with long arms and legs and neck. Shishov has grown into manhood in his time in Vienna and appears to be working harder at either the gym or the rehearsal room. Although the women looked quite good, the men of the corps-de-ballet looked more like boys than the jaded rakes of the Paris Opera, to the detriment of Balanchine's work.
Twyla Tharp's choreography of Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn
Variations on a Theme by Haydn
Vladimir Shishov Elisabeth Golibina
was an excellent choice to follow Balanchine. The further development of Balanchine's art in Tharp's work is crystal clear in apposition. Brahms' music is exceptionally moving and a welcome relief from the rather strident Tchaikovsky suite. The dark sand simple costumes and lyric variations of Tharp's piece allowed the dance to shine through.
The cast was very strong including many of the very best dancers of the State Opera ballet. Long limbed Georgian Ketevan Papava acquitted herself well while Nina Polakova is quietly on her way to becoming an étoile in the firm hands of Kirill Kourlaev. These two were certainly the best pair of the night. Polakova’s movements were fragile and graceful, each infused with that strange tragic intensity that is hers alone. Kourlaev was both strong and suitably discreet, not overwhelming either his partner or the piece. Hopefully we will continue to see them together.
Shishov returned immediately to the stage to partner Elisabeth Golibina who was absolutely brilliant. With all her skills in classic ballet, Golibina showed an astounding flexibility and energy in Tharp's more modern steps. She looked like she stepped out of the original creation or the Paris Opera. Stunning. Shishov continued to show better form than past years as a manly and certain partner, strong enough to handle Golibina's tall form.
The normally radiant Maria Yakovleva was uncharacteristically dull in the reliable if prosaic hands of Roman Lazik. He seems both too tall and too diffident to suit Yakovleva as a partner. Happily enough, it turned out Yakoleva was saving herself for later that evening.
Alas, after the intermission the premiere here of Forsythe's exciting piece The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude was not as successful. The Paris Opera performances are many levels above what happened in Vienna. What went wrong?
William Forsythe The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude Ludmila Konovalova Masuyu Kimoto Kiyoka Hashimoto
The angular geometric costumes fit Ludmila Konovalova's attractive figure badly, while the ballerina had neither the speed nor the sharp angles to carry the role. Konovalova spared no effort to try to entrap Forsythe's steps but here she was miscast for her major debut on the Staatsoper stage: I anticipate excellent performances from her in other roles. We will see Elisabeth Golibina dance this role next week and wish her more success.
The other two women Franziska Wallner-Hollinek and Kiyoka Hashimoto were unremarkable but adequate. After a slow start Masayu Kimoto and Denys Chervychko caught fire in the men's solos. Chervychko has an unpleasant tendency to try to draw the audience's attention to himself and not to the piece or his partner. One day one might hope that he learns that the artist is subservient to the art and not art to the artist.
Legris chose well to save Balanchine's Rubies for the finale. Karinska's original costumes from 1967 were magnificent: light gleaming in all directions from the jewels. After seeing Karinska's spectacular raiment, I don't understand why so often new costumes are created for Balanchine's Jewels.
Ketevan Papava was at her best as the first ruby, her long limber legs and arms nearly endless. Despite her Circassian origins in Georgia, Papava is unusually cold on stage. Despite almost perfect steps, she leaves herself too far out of the equation. She is an ice princess: one hopes one day she will warm. With Plissetskaian passion, Papava would be a dancer to reckoned with internationally.
Balanchine Rubies Ketevan Papava
On the other hand Maria Yakovleva hit the stage like a shining hurricane. None of the earlier languour or indifference of her performance in Variations to be seen. She leapt, she smiled, she piroutted as if she were born to be a jewel. At the end of the piece, her appearance brought the most vigorous applause of the night. Her partner Mihail Sosnovichi was a fine pairing but Sosnovichi was simply unable to keep up with Yakovleva. She showed up the entire stage and brought the house down with roaring applause at the end.
Balanchine Rubies Maria Yakovleva Mihail Sosnovschi
All in all, a debut of which Monsieur Legris may be very proud. Many fine performances, a nice shift in the repertoire. Legris carefully chose some of the best teachers of these ballets to bring to Vienna. When William Forsythe couldn't make it, Legris sent an expedition of the first cast to Frankfurt for a week. Clearly Legris will spare no expense or energy to put first-rate dance on our stage. The talk among the dancers is of a positive and encouraging atmosphere. The rest of the season continues to offer good new works to the Vienna State Opera with an original premiere based on Marie Antoinette's life choreographed by Patrick de Bana in November. Premieres of works from Béjart, Jerome Robbins, Elo, Kylian still to come in the New Year.
October 4th, 2010 §
Normally our beat around here is high culture and dance. While figuring out how to get get some of our own videos out to you, I ran across a heavy metal music video which really works. In its way, this bit of guitar porn is a dance video itself.
In the middle 030 drags a bit, it even seems like director Jeppe Kolstrup is going to back off the logical conclusion of his own idea. But no, he takes it to the end. Leaving a clear view of the face of the model to the end is a nice touch.
Full length UNCUT version of '030' by The Good The Bad
Sex sells. Especially good sex.
April 7th, 2010 §
The premiere of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Vienna Staatsoper was a remarkable occasion for two reasons:
- Jorma Elo showed his first evening length ballet in despite ten years as a a choreographer including seven years as resident for the Boston ballet. One certainly has to wait a long time for one's chance in the modern ballet world.
- Gyula Harangozó saw the last premiere of his five year tenure as director of Dasballett of the Vienna Staatsoper and Volksoper
How was the ballet?
In the first act, Elo found himself too wound up in the plot intrigues of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. Oberon, Titania, Theseus, Hippoylyta, Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, Helena: there's almost too many love intrigues to keep track of even in dramatic theatre, let alone ballet. That's before bringing in the company of players to whom Elo gave the stage, not just Bottom. Not to mention Puck.
The consequence of so many bodies on stage and so many stories to unravel was excessive pantomime. A leading figure of Vienna ballet aptly applied the word old-fashioned to describe the effect.
In the 19th century, it made sense to have so much nodding and poking and face pulling to try to tell the story. In this century, first Les Ballets Russes of Diaghilev and later Roland Petit and Juri Grigorovich managed to shake off the shackles of pantomime for direct expression of the story in dance. George Balanchine and Jiří Kylián took it a step further and removed linear story as a requirement for evening length dance. It is a strange feeling to go back to the wagging heads and clutched bosoms and gesticulating hands in a new ballet.
The costumes added to this baroque feel. So much gold and detail and filaments. If the goal was to create a gilded Shakespeare of the 18th century, San Francisco designer Sandra Woodall was very successful. But together with the pantomime, the look was very dated, like something out of the 1950's. While the ballet was created for Vienna, but there is no reason to add more gilded chocolate boxes than we already have.
The music is one of the principal delights of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The score is taken from the works of Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, principally a score of 1843. In the middle of the splendid string works, a woman's choir of about a dozen is called to crowd into the left of the orchestra pit. Simina Ivan and Lydia Rathkolb made excellent lyric work of their songs. One could attend A Midsummer Night's Dream with eyes closed for the music alone. Fortunately that is not necessary in this presentation.
Among the dancers there was little to criticize. Vladimir Shishov shook off his rehearsal doldrums and gave himself quite enthusiastically to his work, his elven locks and pointy features doing him no small good as the Fairie King. Mihail Sosnovschi is in incredible form, muscular from head to toe. With his fierce dancing in the role, he is a Puck more to fear than to amuse. Wolfgang Grascher was a regal Duke of Athens. Every ballet theater should have such a movie matinee patrician. Probably a bit dull for Grascher himself after the dance exploits of his long career but excellent for the production.
Midsummernight's Dream, 2010
Mihail Sosnovschi (Puck) & Elevinnen
Copyright: Das Ballett der Wiener Staatsoper und Volksoper/Axel Zeininger
Roman Lazik was an obliging Lysander. He is far better as a comic lover than a prince: his moderate athletic skills and smaller presence go unremarked. As Lysander, he is a delight to behold, light of step and countenance. András Lukács took the opportunity as Demetrius to show off his considerable caricature and grotesque talents. Levity followed his every appearance.
The theatre company was a splendid group of character dancers, led by Gabor Oberegger as Bottom. Thomas Mayerhofer, Dan Datcu, Christoph Wenzel, Richard Szabó and the striking gaunt Alexis Forabosco made the most of their opportunity for group standup comedy. I'm not sure if it added much to the ballet but in itself they were a lot of fun. At one point, Oberegger valiantly sings a love song to Titania in bed. Spoken word and song are unusual demands on a ballet dancer and Oberegger came across as a musical veteran.
Among the women, Nina Poláková shone most brightly, in her role as Helena, curiously outdoing both the Russians, Olga Esina and Karina Sarkissova. Poláková was smooth and swift, with fluid grand battements. Her performance as the rejected lover revealed a touching vulnerability. Karina Sarkissova was also quick and determined, if a little cold for my taste in her role as Hermia. She had ample opportunity to show off her considerable technical skills to which she availed herself. There was little to criticize in her brash work but little to love. One day I hope to see Karina Sarkissova dance a little more softly and with more feeling.
Midsummernight's Dream, 2010
Mihail Sosnovschi (Puck), Roman Lazik (Lysander), Karina Sarkissova (Hermia),
Nina Poláková (Helena), András Lukács (Demetrius)
Copyright: Das Ballett der Wiener Staatsoper und Volksoper/Axel Zeininger
Olga Esina as Titania is a special problem. She is a magnificent ballerina, perhaps the most physically gifted and most beautiful dancer ever to grace the Staatsoper stage. But with great gifts come great responsibilities and it seemed to me that Esina never moved at more than seventy per cent capability through the evening. She still could do little harm but with a little more effort she could do so much more. Watching Esina dance is an exercise in frustration. She is the best in the company but could be so much more. This abstraction from her work gave Poláková the chance to steal the the spotlight as Helena. In Elo's A Midsummer Night's Dream should belong unequivocally to Titania.
Midsummernight's Dream, 2010
Olga Esina (Titania), Gabor Oberegger (Zettel)
Copyright: Das Ballett der Wiener Staatsoper und Volksoper/Axel Zeininger
What is the remedy? In my opinion, direct one on one coaching for Esina with a strict Russian coach. It wouldn't cost all that much to bring one of the best in from St Petersburg (they don't earn much in the Vaganova Academy) for three years to see if she can make Esina into the international prima which she should be, rather than a splendidly gifted provincial.
Gyula Harangozó might do this as Esina is his personal gift to Vienna, but I'm not at all sure the new director, Manuel Legris will grasp the issue soon enough to bring quick remedy. Perhaps I'm not optimistic enough. Legris has brought Paris's Etoile system to Vienna and of the female soloists he has promoted just Maria Yakovleva and Olga Esina to Etoile so he does understand Esina's importance to Staatsoper ballet. While improving her steps, her director might order her some special dramatic lessons as well. It's not that Esina doesn't have strage presence, it's that it's neither harnessed nor controlled. Ideally, the right Russian ballerina coach could teach her both.
On a lighter note, whoever did Esina's hair and makeup for Titania deserves to be sent back to finishing school. Esina looked so much better in rehearsal when she put up her own splendid blonde hair herself with casual cascading locks. The hairdresser managed to strap her head under a jewelled helmet that made her look more like an evil sorceress than a good fairy.
Midsummernight's Dream, 2010
Olga Esina (Titania) & Ensemble
Copyright: Das Ballett der Wiener Staatsoper und Volksoper/Axel Zeininger
For all of these caveats about the confusion and pantomime of the first act of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the second act was genuinely splendid. Elo finally puts the story behind him and allows his choreographic imagination to take flight. The second act quickly becomes a marriage celebration with pairs followed by corps movements, by two pairs, by long pas de deux, with more group movements.
The different pieces cascade by without respite in a regale of dancing. The closest comparison I can find in George Balanchine's Jewels. A Midsummer Night's Dream offers the same varied but coherent variations. So the evening ends on a high note.
Both Iliana Chivarova and Oxana Kiyanenko lead the corps-de-ballet most valiantly in Elo's grand dances against Bartholody's famous Wedding March.
The second cast promises to be very capable as well, with Kirill Kourlaev as Oberon, Irina Tsymbal (sadly in her last season in Staatsoper, with every year comes more emotional nuance in her dancing) at Titania and with Maria Yakovleva as Hermia.
Despite the rather old-fashioned and too elaborate first act, A Midsummer Night's Dream is a splendid concotion of music and movement and light. Gyula Harangozó can be very proud of the company he is leaving at Staatsoper and of the final piece he has added to their repertoire. With the ice broken Jorma Elo will get more chances at full length ballet. It will be interesting to see whether he ever gets lost in pantomime again as in the first act or manages to communicate his meaning in dance as in the second act henceforth.
April 6th, 2010 §
Just digging into Ioan Holender's Closeup: 118 Premieren Wiener Staatsoper, the men's gift (Herrenspend) from the 2010 Opernball, this year. I wanted to have a look at the premiers of Gyoala Harangozo as Ballet Director.
Ioan Holender Opernball with Desirée Treichl-Stürgkh
To my astonishment, there was not a single image of ballet in the book. Ballet premiers are relegated to a two page list in the back.
I had heard of Holender's contempt for ballet but to just cut ballet out entirely from his commemorative goodbye album is a step too far.
While opera can be a magnificent art, most often it is tedious, filled with bombastic emotions of oversized egos.
Ballet on the other hand is the springtime, it is mortality in flight, it is delicate flutters of the soul made flesh.
The weak point in ballet is the music, which too often was primitively written for dance. Later that changed with Profkofiev and Stravinsky's ballet scores like Romeo and Juliet, Firebird and Rites of Spring.
Holender's Close Up was not even written by the author. He assented to five interviews about his time at Staatsoper where he answered the interviewer's questions about his work. The lazy man's way to writing a book.
In this case it works. Holender manages to come across as his irascible, irritable and bombastic self. The interviewer has edited the answers down to the essential so if you want to learn more about Holdender's methods, it's all there. He covers talent scouting, relationships with conductors when developing new talent.
I remember telling Muti about Angelika Kirschlager the first time. Muti didn't know her and therefore didn't want here. They all want the singers they already know. So you also have to fight with conductors and stage directors to convince them. And that is not an easy thing to do, believe me. (p. 455)
Axel Zeninger's photos as whole are excellent. As a stage photographer it's interesting to observe the changes in technology. In 1999, the early digital pictures have noisy shadows and are a little bit blurry due to long exposure times for instance in Don Giovanni, pp. 202-203). In 2009, the pictures are all sharp, as Nikon's high ISO actually works and one can shoot at 1/400 second and not at 1/30 second. But you can see what a blessing high ISO digital photography is by wandering through the photos from 1993 and 1994, such as Umberto Giordano's Fedora on pp. 84-85 or Richard Wagner's Ring on pp. 48-49.
In addition to the photographs and Holdender's insights, the program for each opera premier is included and reproduced at life size. Much nicer than a stack of programs in the corner of a shelf (as I have).
Closeup: 118 Premieren Wiener Staatsoper is recommended for Staatsoper, Holender and opera fans. It's an excellent idea to have a bound and visual summary of the Holender years, especially as it's well printed by Edition Lammerhuber. Alas there's nothing to recommend it to amateurs of ballet. Given Mr. Holender's contempt for ballet, I can't say I'm sad to see him go.
As I know more and more people from the opera again (in Moscow I spent a lot of time with opera singers and a fair amount of time at the Russian operas, but not the Italians) and I live in Vienna, I might very well read it myself to see what it is I'm missing out on.
February 11th, 2010 §
Cranko's Romeo and Juliet fills a peculiar place between the historic pomp of Leonid Lavrovsky's original and the very dancy minimalism of Grigorovich's later classic. The brown and black costumes seem a little dusty and remind me of the seventies. But the seventies unbelievably enough are back in fashion so perhaps the retro brown look is already trendy again.
How does Staatsoper handle this middle of the road Romeo from 1962? With relative aplomb. The orchestra did seem a little undermanned or thin for Prokofiev's magnificent score in comparison to performances I've heard in Moscow and St Petersburg.
On the dance front after two years of Harangozo's whip hand, the corps de ballet handles their part without a false step. Standardising on the Russian norm has left a very svelte and elegant corps.
Rafaella Sant'Anna, Ketevan Papava and Liudmila Trayan are all fun as the Montague good time girls. Thomas Mayerhofer and Alexandra Kontrus were fine as the Capulet parents but not extraordinarily stately. Still when Alexandra Kontrus is carried away with her son Tybald one's heart breaks for the bereaved mother.
Vienna State Opera Ballet: John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet Continues »
February 11th, 2010 §
Elio Gervasi is the great master of movement among the Vienna choreographers. His work is usually musical, the light design exquisite and artistic direction provoking. Gervasi has a talent to take simple daily objects and make them special.
Tanz Company Gervasi Geckos Kenia Bernai Gonzales Leoni Wahl
And so it is with Geckos.
Here we meet in the rehearsal hall on Laxenburgerstrasse. The ceilings are a bit lower than in a full theatre, the seating more limited. But no matter, Markus Schwarz's light makes the space bigger, pouring light through blinds set up between a side room and the main rehearsal space.
Leoni Wahl Salvatore la Ferla
The décor is a single red armchair which serves as a place for lovers to sit together, for one lover to miss the absent one and for another as a cliff from which she considers self-destruction.
Tanz Company Gervasi Geckos Leoni Wahl psychological tightrope
Gervasi is working with three dancers here, all excellent. The long and handsome Italian Salvatore la Ferla, the compact Kenia Bernai Gonzales and longtime muse Leoni Wahl.
Elio Gervasi - Geckos: The Extraordinary Ordinary Continues »
November 12th, 2009 §
The first thing you see these days when you walk out on the main alleé in Bratislava, is a huge advertisement across the front of the opera house for an ultra modern show. The image is of a woman looking up, surrounded by what appear to be mystical creatures. The name of the show: Everest.
I was certain that the very sexy poster - all over Bratislava - was for a visiting performance, an updated Lord of the Dance. But I was very wrong. Everest is home grown.
After two years in Bratislava, Slovak National Ballet Director Mário Radačovský has staged his second full length evening work. His first Warhol was a strangely mainstream look at an artist who was a determinedly avant garde. I'm not sure if others ever made more sense of it than I was able. Warhol was one of the first productions to grace the new stage of the Slovak National Opera (SND) and did properly fill the grandiose new space with its three story decorations.
Soloists and Choir During Everest Ballet of SND in Bratislava:
multimedia plays a huge role: notice the large projection
photos: Ctibor Bachratý for SND
With Everest, Radačovský has set his sights far higher. Everest seeks to communicate four stages of existence: life, death, after-life and resurrection. But the theology is definitely more pagan than Christian. Everest begins with the crawling and fluttering of Lemurans, the half-animal half-man inhabitants who antedate Atlantis.
SND Premiere: Everest from Mario Radačovský Continues »
October 26th, 2009 §
Agata Maszkiewicz torn by fellow dancers in Komposition:
Anne Juren's simple and poetic co-creation was the highlight of the evening
If nothing else, the season opener at Tanzquartier was extremely ambitious. Ten different performance venues in the TQW Studios, Halle G, Jungl, museumquartier21, the courtyard of MQ.
There were over twenty different performances in these venues starting at six. The performances offered a cross section of almost everything we've seen in TQW in the last five years. The evening was meant to be more inclusive than exclusive, a chance for the new director to work with all the resident choreographers and performance hangers on of TQW.
I managed to see about seven different shows. Here are my impressions.
Erste Tanznacht Wien: Lots of skits, a little dance Continues »
October 2nd, 2009 §
"Trisha Brown brings three dance works to Vienna's ImPulsTanz."
This sounds like something from the nineteen-nineties. In the nineties, Trisha Brown did bring eleven works to Vienna, including the three we saw tonight .
ImPulsTanz and Tanzquartier managed to collaborate on bringing this reconstruction to open the modern dance season this year. Over the last few years, dance has so lost its way in Vienna, that there are no steps anymore just words. For music at most one gets modern pop songs blasted too loud, at least just silence.
In the lobby of MuseumsQuartier's main stage Halle E, the excitement was palpable with a keen dance and cultural audience eager to step onto the time machine Karl Regensberger created for us this evening.
Curiously the best piece of the evening was the earliest creation shown, Set and Reset from 1983. The music is vintage Laurie Anderson. The constant bell rings alarm and and tension throughout the theatre. Overhead onto a triangular construction old films and advertisments are projected with the soundtrack behind the bells, the cacophony of modern urban and televised existence transmuted into art. Images of engine rooms and troubled nurses, as if in the bowels of a great ship.
The dancers fling their arms and move urgently across the stage, never staying more than a minute or two before another wave replaces them. The choreography is a celebration of movement.
Laurie Anderson's music reminded one of Liquid Sky, the cult film about aliens in search of heroin addicts in New York counterculture. We are transported to another time where solutions seemed more plausible and decadence still a veneer.
One doesn't notice it as much in Set and Reset, but the current Trisha Brown dancers are not nearly hard and lean or desperate enough. These are the academic movers of reconstruction and not the artists on the cutting edge of the avant garde who created the original work with Trisha Brown.
Set and Reset gets away with reconstruction as the elements of projection, sound and music are so dominant and can be accurately reconstructed.
In the other two works Foray Forêt (1990) and You can see us (1995), the reconstruction is less successful as they are both far more dependent on the individual performances. You can see us was originally a duet for Bill T. Jones and Trisha Brown, created relatively spontaneously to fill a program.
<blockquote>I didn't have the time to make a new piece, but honoured by the request, suggested he learn my solo If you couldn't see me and we perform it as a duet....front/back, man/woman, gay/straight, young/not so youn, black/white, etc..</blockquote>
With all the good will in the world Leah Morrison and Dai Jian can't fill those boots. Consequently, You can see us comes off as somewhat pointless. Shakespeare wrote his plays thinking of specific actors. So it is with the choreography of You can see us. A foggy mirror.
Foray Forêt fares somewhat better as it is a group effort. The accident of a marching band outside the rehearsal becomes the memory of a marching band inside the performance. National anthems take over the bodies and movements of the performers and we drift with them against the pink and golden skies projected on the back of the theatre wall.
The dancers wear garb which is a cross between the Arabian Nights and golden space suits: the whole effect is rather surreal, as if one has landed in another universe, somewhat like our own but different. The dance, a strange world of miscommunication.
The music is performed live all over the world, as one cannot count on the audio system of the theatre can't be counted on to reproduce space. So different real marching bands from Portugal to France to Austria have filled. The measured unpredictability of the score forces the performers to really pay attention, to be alive.
By way of comparison, I've seen Trisha Brown's o Composite performed by the Paris Opera, another Laurie Andersen collaboration. Here each slight emotional intonation becomes a precise movement. Foray Forêt was informative but could be performed better. But neither Foray Forêt could touch the frenetic energy of Set and Reset which left the audience and this reviewer on a high.
Set and Reset remains a vibrant and timeless work. Not reconstruction but living art. To see it live, made the whole evening worthwhile.
By bringing back works from Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker and Trish Brown, Karl Regensburger is giving a new generation of artists a chance to see what the excitement about dance is. That it movement and not just long faces and pretentious posing.
Perhaps they will be able to return to the high road and the world of performance installation can go back to where it belongs, the museums of modern art.
