Balanchine / Cunningham / Schläpfer
The Vienna State Opera hosts a trio of ballets at a performance that features the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Morton Feldman and Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky with choreography devised by George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham and Martin Schläpfer respectively. The three ballets - Divertimento No. 15, Summerspace and Pathétique - are presented individually but, as a whole, they will undoubtedly form creative connections in the minds of audience goers. Dancers from the Vienna State Ballet take to the stage at the Wiener Staatsoper, one of the leading opera houses and ballet venues in the world.
The programme opens with Divertimento No. 15, Mozart's work for two horns and strings in B-flat major first performed on 13 June 1777. George Balanchine took the music for his choreography after having initially planned to revive another ballet, Caracole, that had used it. The ensuing ballet went on to have its premiere at the American Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, Connecticut on 31 May 1956. Balanchine's interpretation of the music calls for just five female soloists and three male soloists with a restricted corps de ballet of eight female dancers.
After an intermission, the performance continues with Summerspace, which was first staged at Connecticut College's American Dance Festival on 17 August 1958. The music - Morton Feldman's Ixion - and the choreography of this ballet together represent the feelings of a balmy summer's day with suggestions of imminent rainfall and even distant thunder. Born in 1919, Merce Cunningham chose to use six dancers for the entirety of Summerspace, an economic approach that is matched by Feldman's score for Ixion which consists of just two pianos throughout.
The final ballet is Pathétique, a new production which is being premiered at the Vienna State Opera. Set to Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor Op. 74, this ballet features the choreography of Martin Schläpfer who studied at the Marianne Fuchs in St. Gallen, Switzerland as well as the Royal Ballet School in London. According to the choreographer, the symphony is like a novel that remains enigmatic despite everything that has been written about it. “For me, [this enigma]... forms the starting point and the basis of my new ballet.”
With three spell-binding ballets and music that is not only enthralling but diverse in nature, lovers of dance as well as memorable refrains and melodies will no doubt find Balanchine / Cunningham / Schläpfer at the Vienna State Opera to make for a delightful evening of entertainment.