Win tickets to 'spectacular' Mozart ballet
ASPECTACULAR 3D mapped set, flamboyant costumes and combining three stories in one production – jealousy, romance and the examination of a composer’s genius; these are some of the highlights you can expect to see on the Artscape Opera stage when Mozart
and Salieri opens next month. Choreographer Marc Goldberg is no stranger to transferring brilliant scripts into dance – his previous triumph was the acclaimed Vortex, which combined a classical story with a 21st century digital design bringing a cinematic experience to modern ballet.
A member of Cape Town City Ballet, Goldberg says the project of adapting Alexander Pushkin’s Mozart
and Salieri has been three years in the making. Pushkin’s short play, one of the Little Tragedies written in 1830, is a story of envy and the questioning of the dual capacity of brilliance and villainy. Many will be familiar with the film version Amadeus, made in 1984 by Czech director Milos Forman, which focuses on the rivalry of the two composers: Mozart’s extraordinary creativity versus court composer, Salieri, whose curse was to have the talent of a third-rate composer but the ear of a first-rate music lover.
Says Goldberg: “I am enjoying being able to adapt both original elements to dance – it gives you quite a wide scope and also a different form of subject.
“Giving the story my own take, the possibility exists of what a creative process might have been like and the ability to explore the narrative in a different way.”
He adds: “The original story by Pushkin is quite short but, given the inspiration of Peter Schaeffer’s play,
Amadeus, it leads to more quirky and stylised choreography as can be seen, for example, in the pas de deux between Mozart and Constanze, his lover. We’re delivering the contrasts of the characters – of Mozart who is more entertaining, more flamboyant than the pious and harder Salieri.”
Talking about the innovative set he says, “Taking a centuries-old stylised production and putting it into the 21st century we feel that, at the end of the day, there is a responsibility towards the audience to make it more contemporary. The 3D mapped backdrop is screened on to projection curtains, which surround the stage. It thus offers a new spin and something completely different.”
Digitalising his sets, yet retaining the silhouettes of the 17th century, also promises to make the production a lot more than just “beautiful dancing”, he says. “Audiences can witness those dark undercurrents of jealousy and sabotage from Salieri, whose stolid demeanour is challenged greatly on meeting Mozart.”
But the ballet is not just a story of this political intrigue and envy. Goldberg says he also focuses intensively on the love story of Mozart and Constanze, their meeting, marriage and subsequent children, lavishly depicted within the palace gardens.
Taking three years to complete, the production has obviously gone through many changes, he says.
“Vortex was initially actually the replacement for this so, yes, it has been a long time coming and one of the changes has also been that it was originally intended for Theatre on the Bay and now gets put on a larger stage at the Artscape Opera.”
Goldberg’s interpretation also explores what it might have been like for Mozart to create such a prolific body of work by the age of 35, adding a layer to the story not previously explored.
The stunningly crafted costumes, he says, have been created by three separate designers and the projected stylisation of the Schonbrunn palace, and other beautiful locations, frame the ballet company in this two-act ballet, performed to many compositions of Mozart’s extensive repertoire.