The year 2020 marked the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth, and the Franco-German television channel ARTE set out to perform and record the composer’s nine symphonies in nine different European cities. One of these cities was Delphi, where the channel invited choreographer Sasha Waltz and her company to create a choreography based on the music of Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op 92. Beethoven composed the symphony in 1811, when he was starting to go deaf. It was a time of wars of liberation, between the French Revolution and the Restoration. In this context, through music that sought the spiritual transformation of the audience, Beethoven asked himself whether or not people were truly free. These questions led to music that expresses the ideal of artistic freedom.
This dream translated into sound, this vision of a freer world that the music hints at is the foundation of Sasha Waltz’s choreographic creation, which draws on the ideas of revolution and a new world and amplifies them, while highlighting the relationship between music and the sounds of today's world. To stage the piece, Sasha Waltz turned to Diego Noguera, a Chilean composer living in Berlin and working on experimental electronic pieces. Here, he will use his music to enter into dialogue with Beethoven’s creation. The result will be performed by the Gran Teatre del Liceu Symphony Orchestra, which was founded in 1847 and is in fact the oldest orchestra in the Spanish State.
The dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests is led by Sasha Waltz, a German choreographer trained in Amsterdam and the United States who founded her own company in Berlin in 1993. Nearly thirty years later, she has travelled all over the world and co-directed Berlin’s Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz (2000-2004) and the Staatsballett Berlin (2019). At the Barcelona Grec Festival, Sasha Waltz & Guests has presented Travelogue III-All Ways Six Steps and Allee der Kosmonauten (1997), a fascinating version of the opera Dido & Aeneas (2008) and Continu (2011).
A production by Sasha Waltz & Guests. Made in Radialsystem Berlin.
Sasha Waltz & Guests is funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe (Berlin).
Concept and choreography: Sasha Waltz. Music: Ludwig van Beethoven, Diego Noguera. Musical director: Lucas Macías Navarro. Music performed by: Gran Teatre del Liceu Symphony Orchestra. Costume: Federico Polucci, Bernd Skodzig. Light: Martin Hauk, , Jörg Bittner. Dramaturgy: Christopher Drum, Jochen Sandig. Repetition: Yael Schnell. Dance: Clémentine Deluy, Edivaldo Ernesto, Yuya Fujinami, Tian Gao, Eva Georgitsopoulou, Hwanhee Hwang, Annapaola Leso, Jaan Männima, Sean Nederlof, Virgis Puodziunas, Sasa Queliz, Lorena Justribó Manion, Orlando Rodriguez. Photography: Sebastian Bolesch.
Assistance direction and production: Steffen Döring. Tour management: Karsten Liske. Technical direction: Reinhard Wizisla. Assistance technical direction: Moritz Hauptvogel. Stage Tech: Salvatore Giuseppe Judica. Sound: Giorgio De Santis. Costume direction: Sandra Tiersch. Assistance costume direction: Nadja Herklotz. Hair / Make-Up: Kati Heimann.
Chief Financial Officer: Stephan E. Schmidt. General Management / Direction: Sasha Waltz, Jochen Sandig, Bärbel Kern.
