Kirtag is an autumn celebration in Austrian villages which usually lasts a weekend in the first couple of weeks of September. At this year’s Kirtag, the music was really great. Happily the weather was good if not exceptional all weekend.

Here’s a few photos.

Obligatory fries and leberkase sandwiches. Fortunately for the gourmets, Bisto Hannah was there with excellent goulash.
Kahr/Post Office is turned into an open-air bar, lit by the shop windows.
Delicious 2018 Red Cuvée in elegant glasses poured by off-duty music verein leader Claudia Domschitz.
Constantin collecting an ice cream cone. The goulash is in the silver pot.
These guys were very good, the lead singer had a rich and acccurate baritone, and his players hit all the notes. This is the best band I’ve heard play Kittsee.
She’s in the Bistro Hannah car, enjoying delicious goulash and the music.

Continue reading An evening at Kittsee Kirtag at uncoy.

In German language, there are many wonderful folk songs and little lyrics. I’ve never been very impressed with the dreary English-language birthday song (apparently under copyright too) “Happy Birthday to you”. There’s not much wit or spirit or flair for language in that tired ditty. It’s made its way around the world, in dire local versions.

Fortunately in German, there’s a much better song than “Happy Birthday”. It’s called “How Wonderful that You were Born” (“Wie schön dass du geboren bist”) by Rolf Zuckowski. We’ve just done a video for our sons’ aunt’s 60th birthday. For that video, I made an English translation as I couldn’t find a good one online. Here is my translation:

Wie schön dass du geboren bist
Heute kann es regnen,
stürmen oder schneien,
denn du strahlst ja selber
wie der Sonnenschein.
Heut ist dein Geburtstag,
darum feiern wir,
alle deine Freunde
freuen sich mit dir

Wie schön dass du geboren bist,
wir hätten dich sonst sehr vermisst.

Continue reading Happy Birthday Song in German | Wie schön dass du gebornen ist at uncoy.

There are few companies in the world who can pull off the first scene of Red Giselle. Boris Eifman puts eight princes on stage in glittering classic princely raimant and eight princesses in exquisite white tutus.

It’s a hallucinigenic and disorienting spectacle to face that many principal dancers at the same time, each dancing his or her grand role. Staatsoper is a particularly beautiful ballet company with the men for the most part fine featured and long limbed. The Staatsoper corps-de-ballet women are slim, soft curved and graceful. Thanks to their pretty faces and fine dancing skills the illusion of eight princes and eight Giselles convinces.

Staatsoper is a better match than Eifman’s own company for Red Giselle as the Staatsoper dancers perform the classics every week and are prettier. Eifman’s own group are a bit shorter and more muscular – primarily modern dancers.

Continue reading Wiener Volksoper: Eifman’s Red Giselle a Triumph at uncoy.

As the final show of this summer’s ImPulstantz, Vienna was privileged to welcome the premiere of a new work by underrecognised but brilliant Elio Gervasi. One of the first choreographers to bring modern movement to Vienna, his improvisational influence spread wide. Gervasi, like many creative geniuses, is often a bit gruff. Strong movement is his native idiom not redundant words and empty promises. After blooming at the end of the nineties and start of the noughts, Gervasi’s company was one of the first dance companies to fall victim to the city of Vienna’s heavy arts cuts starting in about 2004. For several years, Gervasi worked in miniature with either principle muse Leonie Wahl or at most a quartet of dancers. Most of the others, including Homunculus are no longer here at all.

Dark introspective chamber performances are not the right medium of expression for Gervasi’s orchestral invention.

Continue reading Elio Gervasi’s Solo with Guests (Part Two) in Vienna’s Odeon Theatre at uncoy.

Galas are often long affairs. And this one was no exception. Manuel Legris was fortunate to be mentored in his early dance career by Rudolf Nureyev during his reign at the Paris Opera. There is a Nureyev gala in Paris and now there is one in Vienna. I still question whether it makes sense to so honour someone who recklessly infected others with HIV but I do understand Legris’s attachment to the teacher who gave him so much.

The evening opened with a fine excerpt from La Sylphide with full decorations, with Maria Yakovleva in the eponymous title role and Masayu Kimoto as her partner. While La Sylphide is always easier to watch in its entirety both were very good and the corps-de-ballet looked good too. An auspicious start.

In John Neumeier’s Vaslaw, Denys Cherevychko carried the lead role.

Continue reading Staatsoper Nureyev Gala: Kourlaev and Tsymbal Shine in Mayerling at uncoy.

As some of you might know, I recently wrote a long front page article about the struggle to be prima among the ballerinas at Vienna’s Staatsoper, started by Ludmila Konavlov (print edition for now, will appear under my profile Alec Kinnear). In that article I wrote about Maria Yakovleva and it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen Yakovleva in a leading role in a classical ballet since her first years in Vienna. I’d recommended her as an ideal Sylphide and decided to test my recommendation.

Yakovleva is now in her prime as a ballerina at 27 years of age. It’s always a joy to see a dancer with all the strength and beauty of youth, but with solid experience. The non-ballet public often makes the mistake of going to see celebrated dancers when they are past their prime.

Continue reading Review: Maria Yakovleva as La Sylphide at uncoy.

A new production of Rudolf Nureyev’s staging of Tchaikovsky’s classic at the Staatsoper with a fin-de-siècle set, a child army, and fake moustaches; plus: a guide to opera etiquette for kids.

The Nutcracker. Author: Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Staatsoper

At the Vienna State Opera, Liudmila Konavlova as Clara holds the
nutcracker, surrounded by the giant heads of the grown-ups

Photo: Wiener Staatsoper

Every child should see The Nutcracker at least once. But if you want her to remember and him to treasure the occasion, best to be very careful which Nutcracker you choose.

Thus the new Nutcracker at Vienna State Opera is not a bad choice. It’s a Russian version, from Rudolf Nureyev, one of his first grand evening ballets in the West.

Continue reading Vienna’s New Nutcracker at uncoy.

Girl Sleeping Night Train

The colours of the bottle, the shoes and the skirt fascinated me here. The ordinary becomes extraordinary: normally these trains are banal commuter ferries.

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Technical notes

This is shot on Canon 40mm 2.8 lens at aperture 5 on full frame. 40mm seems an almost perfect every day focal length. The 40mm 2.8 STM is also sharp, edge to edge in a way that no other lens I own is (apart perhaps a Leica Elmarit 90mm). The rich colours (hardly enhanced, just a bit of vignetting to kill off unneeded corner detail and focus the eyes on the subject. There is no real sharpening either. An incredible lens.

Continue reading Girl Sleeping, Night Train at uncoy.

Franz West died July 25. West was a conceptual artist who collaborated often with the dance creators at ImPulsTanz. Karl Regensburger moved quickly to put together a tribute by many of the dance makers who had worked with West or were influenced by his work last night.

Franz West by Ludwig Koeln

Moderator and hands on organiser Jennifer Lacey did her best to keep the program on track but at two hours without a formal break and some real trouble moving the performers on and off, momentum was uneven. Had Lacey known how many pauses there would be, she could have passed on the introduction and done that in forced breaks. She told one joke which made me laugh while waiting what seemed like half an hour for Philip Gehmacher to get out of the back and onto the stage.

Continue reading Impulstanz 2012: Franz West Tribute at uncoy.

ImpulstTanz lounge Saturday night

The Burgtheater Vestibule is a great place for a nightly outdoor party.  When the weather is good, a large part of the party can be outside.

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ImpulstTanz lounge summer in the city

It’s a great place to run into choreographers and dancers whose work you might be curious about. Generally the big stars are not there all that often (big stars are often older and have families and just don’t go out that much anymore: being a star is hard work, everyone always wants a lot from you and expectations are high).

ImPulstTanz lounge young and beautiful

Inside there’s usually some very good music spinning. On this particular night, it was mainly dance club hits from the mid-eighties, often in remixes.

Continue reading ImPulsTanz Lounge 2012 Photos: A Saturday night at uncoy.