Orphée et Eurydice: Pina Bausch Opéra Garnier - Paris

2012-01-24

Dates: February 11 to 16, 2012
Place: Opéra Garnier - Paris (75002)
Price : from 10 € to 180 €
About the event 'Orphée et Eurydice: Pina Bausch'
Philippina "Pina" Bausch (27 July 1940 – 30 June 2009) was a German performer of modern dance, choreographer, dance teacher and ballet director. With her unique style, a blend of movements, sounds and prominent stage sets, and with her elaborate cooperation with performers during the composition of a piece (a style now known as Tanztheater), she became a leading influence since the 1970s in the world of modern dance.
Among the honours awarded to Bausch are the UK's Laurence Olivier Award and Japan's Kyoto Prize, while in 2008 the city of Frankfurt am Main awarded her its prestigious Goethe Prize. She was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.
In 2009, Bausch started to collaborate with film director Wim Wenders on a 3D documentary, Pina. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011.
Works by Bausch will be staged in June and July 2012 as a highlight of the Cultural Olympiad preceding the Olympic Games 2012 in London. The works were created when Bausch was invited to visit and stay in 10 global locations – in India, Brazil, Palermo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Budapest, Istanbul, Santiago, Rome and Japan – between 1986 and 2009. Seven of the works have not been seen in the UK.
"Orphée et Eurydice" is one of Pina Bausch’s major works. The choreographer brings flesh and blood to Gluck’s score – here conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock—while opting to distance herself from the work’s happy ending.
Having descended into the Underworld to look for his loved-one, Orpheus fails to bring Eurydice back from the realm of the dead and watches her disappear forever. Beyond the mythological tale itself, the ballet evokes despair, grief and the fragility of the human condition. In this opera-dansé, first performed in Wuppertal in 1975 and added to the repertoire of the Paris Opera Ballet in 2005, each of the main roles is split in two, creating a permanent dialogue between song and dance.
In this uncluttered staging, slender swanlike silhouettes trace images of disturbing beauty and plunge into painful introspection.
Christoph Willibald Gluck,    Music
Pina Bausch,    Choreography and staging
Rolf Borzik,    Sets, costumes and lighting
Etoiles, Premiers Danseurs and Corps de Ballet
Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble & Chor
Thomas Hengelbrock     (6, 15, 16 feb.) Conductor
Manlio Benzi    (4, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14 feb.) Conductor

Maria Riccarda Wesseling, Orphée
Yun Jung Choi, Eurydice
Zoe Nicolaidou, L’Amour