John Neumeier:
“Death in Venice”
Hamburg Ballet
Royal Theatre Old Stage
September 9, 2014
Five days before The Royal Danish Ballet’s glorious production of John Neumeier’s “Lady of The Camellias” reenter the Copenhagen stage, Neumeier’s “Death in Venice”, based on Thomas Mann’s novella, is performed by his Hamburg Ballet ensemble. Where “Lady of The Camellias” is from the first haft of Neumeier’s career, “Death in Venice” is clearly from the later period, where Neumeier has made significant changes in the way, he constructs his ballets.
Copenhagen’s strong ties with Neumeier are mainly tied to the first generations of his works, “Romeo & Juliet”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and now “Lady of the Camellia”. Neumeier has choreographed two ballets on the RDB (and two miniatures). But neither “Amled”, a Hamlet ballet, nor the H.C. Andersen ballet “The Little Mermaid”, has managed to be as successful as the first group, and neither are part of the Copenhagen standard repertoire. Although his Mahler combo “Mahler’s Fifth Symphony/ Die Knaben Wurderhorn” was well received it had not stayed in repertoire. Likewise “Ulysses” did not stick in Copenhagen.
The reason may well be that John Neumeier’s development as choreographer led him to another way of telling stories and another aesthetic. Compared to the earlier works, his works from the last fifteen years are more abstract, the movements is based more on modern dance, the decors and costumes has left the historically correctness. Music-wise he has left the one composer/one score principle and has joined the dj approach of mixing.
“Death in Venice” combines traits of the older and newer Neumeier. There are strong and delicate acting primarily from Lloyd Riggins, American Hamburg star with Danish credentials, but the scenes with the corps are coarser and done in much the same non-realistic style as in “The Little Mermaid”.
Somewhere within “Death in Venice” there is a smashing chamber ballet about the protagonist Aschenbach and his discovery of his homosexuality and his yearning for the young boy Tadzio who hardly recognizes him. But Neumeier is also a Ballet Master who needs to keep his corps busy. Hence the ballet in the ballet about Frederik the Great and various other gatherings. Most of these bring little to the story and some of them, primarily the sexy dream sequence are really out of tone and style. When Venice is struck by cholera we get a spectacle, that could be straight of Flemming Flindt’s “Triumph of Death” and we also get contemporary music here and the strange duo of two men, danced by Otto Bubenicek and Carsten Jung dons Kiss masks and simulate rock guitarists.
The duo of the two men takes on several forms during the ballet. They are the hikers inspiring Aschenbach to go travel. They are the gondoliers taking him over the Laguna to the Lido; they are the standard queens trying to involve Aschenbach in their ballroom routine. Later they are the barbers handling his quest for a younger look, the seducers in the dream scene and the rock star death bringers in the finale. It does not seem to have a clear meaning attached. Are they his subconscious sexuality or they the destiny leading him too his death? This jury is still out.
At its best “Death in Venice” is extremely good. The pas de deux between Aschenbach and Tadzio, where one of them do not even know there is a pas de deux taken place is a highlight, and Lloyd Riggins in the last act is totally outstanding as the man who cannot understand where he is heading to. His vulnerably when trying to reinvent his younger self is heart breaking. It is these qualities that make the ballet function. Not the big ensembles numbers.
I did an interview with Lloyd Riggins in May about his career in Royal Danish Ballet and Hamburg. Here is the link to the interview.
http://danceviewtimes.typepad.com/eva_kistrup/2014/09/crossing-the-right-borders.html
Photo credit: Holger Badekow for Hamburg Ballett
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