‘BREATHTAKING’
CHOREOGRAPHER Marc Goldberg conceived and conceptualised this two act ballet, Mozart and Salieri, inspired by Mozart’s work and life.
After a rapturous response at the première in February at Artscape, it returns to the Artscape Opera House from August 24 to September 1. As with season one, the production features over 40 dancers from Cape Town City Ballet. For this season, Goldberg has brought French dancer Maxine Quiroga on board as Mozart. He shares the role with Martin Milner. Daniel Szybkowski and Ivan Boonzaier alternate as Salieri. Laura Bosenberg and Mariette Opperman alternate as Constanze.
Godberg tracks three narratives in his ballet: the alleged rivalry and subsequent murder of Mozart. (This was depicted in the poetic drama by Alexander Pushkin in 1830, and made famous for twentieth century audiences in Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play Amadeus and then made into the 1984 film of the same name by Miloš Forman.) In Goldberg’s ballet, he foregrounds Mozart and Constanze’s turbulent relationship. They are physically pulling and pushing. A vivid aspect of this ballet is Goldberg’s imagining of Mozart’s creative process and his prolific output as a composer.
Core to setting up the conflicts between Mozart and the House of Mozart – if one could call it that – is Goldberg’s innovative staging. Goldberg has placed his dancers against a curtain made from projection thread onto which a film of images is screened. The images include locations in Europe where Mozart hung out and drawings – scribbles, doodles – which symbolically evoke his inner turmoil in terms of dealing with his so-called adversary, Salieri; his creative process and his relationships. At times, the dancers are concealed and sometimes become tangled up in the curtain of thread. The landscape constantly shifts and the dancers slice through the jagged film which is projected onto this dangling curtain.
The projection thread – Tripoli Thread – (which essentially means that film can be screened on the custom-made surface) was sourced by Goldberg in Italy and made up into a curtain. It is not a fixed surface and that heightens the tension between the multiple narratives.
Mozart was a man whose world was pitched precariously on instability. The choreography is intricate and exquisitely conceived. I loved the dramatic tensions between the characters: the pulling, pushing, and throttling – physically urgent – going against the measured moves one might expect in classical bal- le t with its harmonies and lifts, jetes and whatnot. In tandem with the visuals (the dance, the images), Goldberg has created an evocative soundscape – a mash up of piano concertos operas and choral works. There is a sense of watching a silent film – with a soundtrack. One is being pulled through this jagged curtain into the world of the great composer. My only quibble when I saw the ballet in season one, was that at times I felt that dancers sometimes got “lost” by the grandeur of the moving images and animated scapes – visually overwhelmed by the film scape on the projection curtain. The costumes are beautiful and intricate but muted and almost seem to be extensions the I
of imagery. would have liked the dancers to be lit with sharper silhouettes. In response, Goldberg said: “There were aspects of the lighting that I wasn’t happy with last time and I now have the opportunity to fine tune aspects that I didn’t intend. I love atmosphere on a stage lighting design and I see very detailed pictures around every aspect of production involved in the creative process. I’ll keep my basic lighting plot but develop certain scenes that bothered me the first time round.”
Goldberg has also made some casting changes to keep the cast on its toes. For instance, in last season, Daniel Szybkowski played both Mozart and Salieri – in different performance slots. For season two, Goldberg decided to let him focus on being Salieri – a taxing role. To shake up the cast, Gold- berg has brought French dancer Maxine Quiroga on board as Mozart. He shares the role of Mozart with Martin Milner. Many artists are
using technology and 3D mapping (what Goldberg uses is a very sophisticated version of that) but few have pulled off a heightened and seamless fusion of movement and sound. It is breathtaking ballet theatre. As yet there are no plans to stage this in other cities. It is worth flying in from Joburg, London, or wherever to see this extraordinary ballet which takes contemporary ballet to new heights.