The genius of Chekhov is to make comedy out of his characters, stranded in Russia’s provincial backwaters, cut off from the Moscow society they crave; seeking happiness in work, frustrated love affairs, nostalgising over their past, idealising the future. It…
Hans van Manen, who was born in Nieuwer-Amstel in the Netherlands in 1932, has a unique aesthetic which makes him one of those style-defining ballet creators of the modern era that we find continually astonishing. His ballet “Live”, set to…
Iolanta is a blind princess. A famous doctor can cure her, but only after she is being told about her blindness. Her father doesn’t want to break that horrible news to her. Lotte de Beer: “In her blindness Iolanta lives…
In 1742, Johann Sebastian Bach gave his Goldberg Variations the simple title Piano exercise consisting of one aria with various variations – and it is a fascinating compendium of variations, canons and fugues. In 1993, the Swiss choreographer Heinz Spoerli…
