Orpheus und Eurydike

Christoph Gluck Orpheus und Eurydike dance-opera. Choreographer Pina Bausch directs this unusual production, with singers and dancers simultaneously on stage for each character, at the Palais Garnier in February 2008. Orpheus is danced by Yann Bridard and sung by mezzo soprano Maria Riccarda Wesseling; Eurydike is danced by Marie-Agès Gillot and sung by soprano Julia Kleiter; Amor is danced by Miteki Kudo and sung by soprano Sunhae Im. Also stars Yong Geol Kim, Nicolas Paul, Vincent Cordier, Emilie Cozette, Eleonora Abbagnato, Eve Grinsztajn, Muriel Zusperreguy, Caroline Bance, Christelle Garnier, Alice Renavand, Amélie Lamoureux, Charlotte Ranson, Séverine Westermann, Natacha Gilles, Marie-Isabelle Peracchi, Bruno Bouché, Vincent Chaillet, Sébastien Bertaud, Alexis Renaud, and Erwan Le Roux. Thomas Hengelbrock directs the Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble and Choir. Set, costume, and lighting designs by Rolf Borzik. Costumes made by Marion Cito; lighting made by Johan Delaere; lighting engineers were Michel Susini and Madjid Hakimi. Released  2009, this disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A+

In memoriam. December 16, 2009. I had never heard of Pina Bausch when I fist viewed her Orpheus und Eurydike dance-opera yesterday. The starting point is a German language version of the opera, which Gluck wrote in 1762 (in Italian). The three main characters, Orpheus, Eurydike, and Amor, are sung on stage by opera singers and are also danced by leading members of the Paris Opera Ballet. The rest of the on-stage cast are ballet dancers. This unusual array of forces works well---it's a ballet show, but ballet and opera make roughly equal contributions to the overall effect. The music is original-instrument quaint. The dance style is "Tanztheater" modern, which, with it's relatively simple forms and use of repetition, meshes well with old music. Although the dancing is incisive, it is also elegant, smooth, tasteful, and profound. I watched the curtain calls. Orpheus (Yann Bridard), 90% naked in his dancer's briefs for every minute of the ballet, went off stage and returned with a woman in hand. I was touched by the sad tenderness and respect he showed to his companion---this is Bausch I thought. And when the camera then gave a close-up of Bausch, I thought,"Dear God! This poor woman is ill." I hit the Internet. This production of Orpheus und Eurydike was filmed in February 2009, and Bausch died in June. She was 69.

Actually, Bausch choreographed and first produced Orpheus und Eurydike 35 years ago when she was 35. Her husband, Rolf Borzik, designed the set, costumes, and lighting. Borzik died 5 years later. Bausch dropped Orpheus und Eurydike from her repertoire. She went on to do many hard-edged controversial and iconoclastic productions which made her famous in the tiny world of modern dance. In a sense, the revival of Orpheus und Eurydike is a memorial of Borzik, whose work, but for this recording, might have been forgotten.

The newspapers reported that Bausch died 5 days after being diagnosed with cancer. I don't believe that. On re-watching the ballet-opera, I have no doubt that Bausch was writing her epithet with this revival. I also understand where the dancers got the intensity and reverence with which they handle their roles in this work: they were dancing their memorial to Borzik and Bausch. Alas, the Internet doesn't tell most of us where we will go after we die. But if you would like see the fate of Philippina Bausch, here's how you can. Get the HDVD and watch the Third Movement of Orpheus und Eurydike, called "Frieden" ("Peace" or "Paix"), and you will see her dancing there.