Mahler, live – Vienna State Ballet, Première, Dec. 4Th, 2020 (or „Impressions of a TV Shooting of a première which could not take place in front of an audience")

Dec 6

Dec 6 Mahler, live – Vienna State Ballet, Première, Dec. 4Th, 2020 (or „Impressions of a TV Shooting of a première which could not take place in front of an audience")

Coincidentally, Hans van Manen's piece „Live" was included in this evening's programme that, because of the present Covid-19 situation, was incidentally programmed to be screened „live" on Arte Concert. I was among the few who got an invitation to watch the shooting at the Opera. At least I was there and not in front of a TV: A gloomy evening in a nearly empty gloomy Opera – a real reflection of the gloomy times we are passing through.

While „Live", with only two dancers and a cameraman on stage, is a perfect piece for these times, the „opulent" staging of „4" with its 102 dancers from both the State Opera and the Volksopera (just 89 on stage yesterday because of Corona infections in the company) is quite questionable. Many companies, in a logical reaction, are more into a „reducing process" instead of „increasing". Chamber pieces are more in demand. Yes, one has to go along with the times. But the situation for this Opening is a slightly more complex one: this „première" had very much at stake. It was also the first première of ballet director/ Chief Choreographer Martin Schläpfer in The Vienna State Opera, an institution with great historical international recognition. I somehow understand his desire to present something more, I would say, „apotheotic" to help him create an international reputation of his own. It is very comprehensible.

„Live"

Like so many other pieces from van Manen’s vast „body of work", it has definitely aged. And how.

The whole work revolves around a camera and its effects on the big screen centre stage. There is no need to describe it more. We all know it. Something very new, unusual and (nearly) unheard of back in 1979. Nowadays it is so dated that it became questionable. One can notice how van Manen took much more care of camera angles and effects than of the choreography itself.

Modern... For me, Hans van Manen, apart from his „innovations", is and remains a neo-classical choreographer. I am not so sure if „Live" was the first choreography to „use a live camera". Now I just remembered companies that played a role during the 70s and some of their works with cameras. Lanterna Magika, in the „former" Czechoslovakia and Antoním Mášas's „Night Rehearsal", among many other works with videos and film. Pilobolus, a company I do admire not only artistically but also politically due to its ethical conduct and conducts, against the systemic racism in the U.S.A. and their video work. Yes, the 70s: times in which being „modern" had not yet turned into a boring cliché. It was (still) quite a spontaneous, natural „state of mind". Not artificial at all.

But as I have mentioned before, this creation has aged. It is interestingly dated. Funny and nearly peculiar, how such pieces that once were "innovative", admired and applauded for their contemporary appeal became somehow old-fashioned with the passing of the years (but so have so many other works).

Copyright: Ashley Taylor / Vienna State Ballet

Olga Esina brilliantly succeeds, dominates the audience with her radiance and triumphs in a part which is not easy. Its difficulty lies in the fact that the dancer is „naked" on stage. With nothing to hide. I am talking metaphorically about the display of emotions which are held in close-up by the camera. The comfortable distance to the audience is inexistent. The fourth wall gone.

Marcos Menha is a wonderfully emotional, strong partner: Reliable. Expressive. Careful. Present. Yes, presentness is the real sine qua non quality!

There is no point in discussing technique and none of this sort of achievements in a piece which does not make much use of them. It is very peculiar that this experimental work has gained such a reputation and that it, until yesterday, had only been performed since its première by HET. Or there are other reasons which make Hans van Manen discredit this work and keep it in „the drawer"?

I have always considered it much more a play made into film than a „dance": A danced play/film with a leading actress (The woman/ Olga Esina), a supporting character (The man/ Marcos Menha) and the photography (The camera/ Henk van Dijk) making a record not only of Miss Esina's acting, full of a real, touching expressiveness but also of her photogenic and classical beauty, which reminds me of Léon François Comerre's work. This is just thought that came quite naturally just by watching her in close-ups on the „big screen".

The piano was majestically played by Shino Takizawa in her interpretation of Liszt's always „technically tricky" music. Bravo.

„4"

I had the great „luck" of being introduced to Mahler as „Ballet music" (for those who do not know: I use the word „Ballet" to every form of dance on stage) by Maurice Béjart – yes, those three weeks tournée of the Ballet du XXè Siécle in Rio de Janeiro changed my life and my conception & perception of Ballet in the 70s. So many horizons seemed all of a sudden nearer. More natural. Not strangely, that „encounter" wakened my interest for Mahler and since then I have lived in a constant „love-affair" with his music (and I must thank my father for leading me into Mahler's music world). Funnily, the 4th Symphony never interested me much – based on a single song; "Das himmlische Leben" ("The Heavenly Life") from „Des Knaben Wunderhorn" (The Boy's Magic Horn), its artificial simplicity, musically speaking, never came anywhere near my soul. It never touched it.

And it still doesn't.

Axel Kober is a professional I much respect but his conducting led us through quite unusual „tempi" during the first and second parts.

Inexplicably this symphony is scored for a fairly small orchestra by Mahler's standards, noticeably absent of trombones and tuba, both so present in his music giving it that special „magic" that is absent in the „4th". At the time of its completion, having before not composed for a long period, Mahler seems a bit „out of practice" and extremely controversial: too many „high" and „low" musical styles, allusions to folk music and Schubert (which can be easily misinterpreted) along with sensual beauty, dissonant passages, quiet intimacy and sophistication at the same time... This very sophistication is what causes the childlike naïveté sound insincere. Contradictions, no question.

One interesting fact connected with the „4th": Goethe is supposed to have said that „Every household should have two books: „The boy's magic horn" and the Bible". Mahler had them. Obviously.

But keep this on the back of your mind: as the whole work is based on his own „The heavenly life" the 4th Symphony is not a gloomy piece, for sure. Not at all.

We were presented with one last night. A reflection of the gloomy times that we are passing through? Just as Olga Esina's lonely exit walk on the street in „Live", disappearing in a dark city, looked gloomy and sad?

Peter Bogdanovich – the „ex" child-prodigy of the American film industry of the 70s once said, „All the good films have already been made". A thought I simply refuse to accept. They just became rare. And I extend this statement not only to dance but to all art forms. That is the very reason why I am always so excited about the premières of new works. Will I witness again the birth of a new dance language? A new vocabulary for dance and not the repetitious clichés of „being modern" but discoveries, eye-openers, new forms of narration? Will something happen that I have never seen before? These questions have been occupying me for a long time – time in which I have seen many repetitious attempts of this „theme and its variations". Is it true that there seems to be nothing new? Nothing new to add to the continuous repetitive insistence of crawling and falling on the floor, flexed feet, going into the crouches and running (when the „vocabulary and ideas" fail... „just run")?

This has been made over and over again since Merce Cunningham, José Limon, Mary Wigman to name just a few. When will something new happen again? The modern and contemporary choreographers who criticize the classic language should be more aware that the vocabulary they have been using is beginning to look and feel quite dusty and mouldy...

As the scene opened, the first dancer we saw on stage was going into the crouches. I thought this might be a coincidence. But sadly, it wasn't.

There was not a sign of what I had been eagerly expecting, hoping for. Just a succession of endless, repetitive figures which were very much alike and movements that could be better described as „being contemporary for the sake of being contemporary". Musically, on the third and fourth parts, there were few connections (musically speaking) between rhythm/counting and what was going on.

A very conventional work. Like so many others before.

Sometimes it felt like I was witnessing a kind of „Divertissement" to which “everybody” in the company (with few exceptions, mostly of the Volksopera dancers) came on stage to do a „bit", something unique and as Americans would say; some „specialty" (A soloist did again his „salti" - which we have seen quite a few times in quite a few pieces by now).

All this made me think more and more of an annual ballet performance from some ballet school: this way all children of the „good families" have a solo. And everybody (including the paying parents) is happy.

New, at least for the Ensemble of the Vienna State Opera, was to witness Soloists and Principals mixed with half-soloists and Corps de Ballet, all in a sort of „group work". Definitely „4" is a piece without „Principals" - the choreography is the Star. That is why no names are mentioned here. To that, I must add that I have the feeling that Mr Schläpfer will flatten out the hierarchy of the company – I have nothing against that but this can be very difficult in a „Repertoire House" which uses so many classics. This is just a thought and I may be probably wrong; otherwise, why would he have created another category to add to this hierarchy, “Senior Artists”?

The lights by Thomas Diek contributed exceedingly to the gloomy atmosphere of the evening. Very dark. Even knowing most of the company, it was very difficult to recognize the dancers.

Beautiful, nicely cut, very effective costumes – although some are too dark for the background and gloomy lights - which reminded me somehow of a mixture of Neumeier's „Joseph's Legend" and Kylían's „La petit mort" by Catherine Voeffray. A very clean, neutral, harmonious but very dark stage design by Florian Etti should be mentioned.

Slávka Zámečniková, whom I have heard for the first time, does not make an emotional impression on the audience with her interpretation. Somebody once said, „Don't forget the eye smile!" It keeps the palate high!" - I am starting to believe that... and it makes such a difference in the projection of the voice!

I haven’t read the programme till now. I never search for explanations to my questions before I write them down.

One last question remains: wasn’t this about Mahler’s „The heavenly Life"? If it was, it did not “come through” to me…

Ricardo Leitner

Dec. 6th, 2020