Vienna Opera Ball: Ballet Interlude, Vienna State Ballet (Wiener Staatsballett), February 27th, 2025
As you know, the Vienna Opera Ball is an established event that is very dear to the heart of the Viennese Society, and there is not much need to explain that. It is only a reminder of what people want to experience on this exact date: they want to celebrate, have good laughs, and enjoy some casualness (even frivolity) for a few hours of fun. Perhaps escape reality. Or relax and have a good time. This is not a „happening“ that requires a „deeper“ message to think of, and, God forbid, gloominess.
Unfortunately, this year, one can only speak of a cultural misunderstanding of what a ballet interlude during a ball represents in Austria. In a Ball in which people want to amuse themselves.
There is not much to say about Mr Schläpfer’s choreography (or movement vocabulary), except that it, apparently, reflects the same kind of „mode“ used, for example, in his „Mahler“ more than four years ago (which had its première during the first Lockdown and to which we, critics, were invited to sit in separate boxes): I believe that all pieces are made separately, and „glued“ together in a row. Not much of a complex concept. Last Night’s choreography showed nearly no “whole ensemble” segments and a very (for the Opera Ball Interlude) unusual “coming and going” from the dance floor area… think of it.
Copyright: Ashley Taylor
attitude/Dance platform (Ricardo Leitner)