WIEN: „Pathétique“, première, Vienna State Ballet (Wiener Staatsballett), April 9th, 2025.
A long-awaited moment for the ballet public in Vienna – Mr Schläfer’s last première at the Vienna State Opera. Pathétique.
A very (let us be kind!) “eclectic” programme with three choreographies that, having nothing in common, do not, in any way, augment each other. This, apart from the fact that (now I am talking as if I were in a Las Vegas show) the concept of the evening used George Balanchine and Merce Cunningham as „opening-acts“, the same way Liberace used Barbra Streisand (who even as a rising Star was much better that he was) to open the evening.Egocentrism and overestimation.
It was decades since I had last seen Mr B’s „Divertimento # 15“, a beautiful high standard choreographical exercise in musicality and delicacy using Mozart’s music. Perhaps Balanchine’s work with the most effective and inventive „exits“ from the stage.
Ricardo Leitner
Vienna, April 10th, 2025