Sacre

L’aprés-midi d'un faune / Scéne d'amour / Le sacre du printemps

Music by Claude Debussy, Hector Berlioz, Igor Strawinsky
with Sasha Waltz & Guests

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A three-part ballet evening with music by three composers who counted among the avant-garde artists of their day: Hector Berlioz, Claude Debussy und Igor Stravinsky. From Roméo et Juliette, the unexpectedly successful "Symphonie dramatique" that Berlioz completed in 1839, Sasha Waltz has choreographed the major love scene between the protagonists, which features delicate sound and multifarious orchestration. Debussy is represented with his Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, about which Pierre Boulez said, "the flute of the faun brought new breath to the art of music".

Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps, however, was far more spectacular than this artful but rather fragile composition: its Paris debut in May 1913, realised by the legendary ensemble of the Ballets Russes, created a veritable theatre scandal. The unleashed power of the rhythmic, both in music and in dance, bothered quite a few people, as did the intensity of the sounds generated by the gigantic orchestral apparatus. Nonetheless, the audience became witnesses to the birth of a truly "New Music", which has since repeatedly shown its vitality. First performed exactly a century after the world premiere, Sasha Waltz’s choreography of Stravinsky’s exceptional piece has an impressive elementary impact and elementary expressiveness of dance.

Friday, 6 June 2025
8.00 PM

Staatsoper Unter den Linden

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Duration: approx. 1:30 hrs including one interval after Scène d’Amour

Please note that the choreography L'Après-midi d'un faune is danced completely naked.

Cast

Musical Director:

Giedrė Šlekytė
Director, Choeography:

Sasha Waltz
Set Design:
- Pia Maier Schriever,
- Sasha Waltz
Costumes:

Bernd Skodzig
Light:
- David Finn,
- Olaf Danilsen,
- Thilo Reuther
Video „L’après-midi d’un faune“:

Tapio Snellman
Repetition:
Dancer, Choreography:

Sasha Waltz & Guests
- Tänzer:innen der Compagnie Sasha Waltz & Guests,
- Staatskapelle Berlin

Claude Debussy

L’aprés-midi d'un faune (1894)

Hector Berlioz

Scéne d'amour from Roméo et Juliette (1839)

Igor Strawinsky

Le sacre du printemps (1913)

Media

"The German premiere of the Sasha Waltz choreography turns into a roaring triumph."
Berliner Morgenpost

"Never before has Debussy’s piece seemed so entertaining to me as in this stimulating interpretation. In front of an abstract mosaic glowing in various colors, dancers appear in geometrically styled costumes—color particles in a kinetic image that at times tells of animalistic forces and claws, at other times of spirits and dreams—and sometimes of erotic desires."
taz

"Wonderful how the Staatskapelle lets the tone colors of Debussy’s music shine. And Sasha Waltz succeeds from the very beginning in building erotic tension."
Tagesspiegel

"In Sacre du Printemps, elemental energies are then unleashed—with a vehemence that takes your breath away."
Tagesspiegel

»Scène d'amour« is an excerpt from »Roméo et Juliette«, a production of the Opéra national de Paris.
»L’après-midi d’un faune« is a production of Sasha Waltz & Guests in coproduction with the Staatsoper im Schiller Theater. Made in Radialsystem®.
»Sacre« is a production by Sasha Waltz & Guests in co-production with the Mariinsky Theater St. Petersburg and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie Brussels. Made in Radialsystem ®.
Sasha Waltz & Guests is funded by the Senate Department of Culture.

Sacre

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