Appearance
Dance opera Appearance is based on Kindertotenlieder (G. Mahler) and an ode to the power of intuition and vulnerability. Through an interactive transluscent stage projection the wolf as metaphor is brought to light from it’s shyness in the dark.
wolf as symbol of our hidden intuition
Appearance is a multidisciplinary performance by a choir, consisting of 12 children, supported by dancers of Ballet National de Marseille and ICK Amsterdam. The children perform songs by Mahler, Eisler and Janáček and remind us of lost innocence and the fragility of life. The visuals by filmmaker Ruben Van Leer take us to a poetic world of dreams, the dusk. Here, wolf and man, intuition and strength, come together.
Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children), poems written by Friedrich Rückert (in an outpouring of grief following the death of two of his children), were set to music as a song cycle by Gustav Mahler. Appearance addresses the issues of youth, youthful naivety, the brevity and transience of childhood, conducting its exploration with great originality – combining a professional dance ensemble, video images and live music accompaniment with a children’s choir. The young singers – their pure voices underlining the fragility of childhood – share the stage with pianist Franck Krawczyk, who has recomposed Mahler’s original score, whilst the evanescence of youth and initiation into the harsh and unforgiving world of adulthood are embodied in the Marseille corps de ballet’s superb vocabulary of movement.
“An ode to the power of intuition and vulnerability; qualities that - in today’s society - are gradually fading into dusk, like wolves that shy away from the light of day.”
credits
| concept / choreo: | Emio Greco I Pieter C. Scholten |
| piano: | Franck Krawczyk |
| music: | Gustav Mahler, Hanns Eisler, Leoš Janáček |
| video staging: | Ruben Van Leer |
| dancers: | dancers from Ballet National de Marseille & ICK |
| children's choir: | La Maîtrise des Bouches-du-Rhône led by Samuel Coquard |
| dramaturgy: | Jesse VanHoek |
| light design: | Henk Danner |
| costumes: | Clifford Portier |
| 3D design: | Julius Horsthuis |
| post fascilities: | Hectic Electric |
| produced by: | Ballet National de Marseille & ICK |
filmmaker & media-artist
