This chamber opera from Dusapin (his 6th) is quite remarkable, in that it attempts a complete synthesis of contemporary (and often erotic) choreography with contemporary music as absolutely equal partners in telling the opera's story.
Whether you'll find Dusapin's “back to Monteverdi” musical idiom hypnotic or merely monotonous will depend on your non-negotiable expectations of complexity in contemporary music. In this opera, Dusapin's music presents no appreciable rhythmic or harmonic challenges – which is rather surprising for a composer who studied with Xenakis.
For the second time since »Medea« (2007) a contemporary composition by Frenchman Pascal Dusapin serves as the fundament for a choreographic opera by Sasha Waltz. His »Passion« is a musical engagement with the Orpheus myth with Claudio Monteverdi's operatic setting at the centre. For the most part Dusapin relates the myth through Eurydice's eyes. The myth also provides the dramaturgical framework for Sasha Waltz with the stage and light design indicating the boundaries between the two worlds. In course of the performance the players on stage pass through various membranes separating the world of the living (»Reality«) from the hidden world (the »underworld«). The nucleus of Sasha Waltz's choreography are the soloists Barbara Hannigan and Georg Nigl, complemented figuratively by a small group of dancers. The Vocalconsort Berlin, long standing partner of the company, could be won as choir. »Passion« is also the second collaboration with the renowned Ensemble Modern.
A Production of Théâtre des Champs- Élysées and Sasha Waltz & Guests in Coproduction with Opéra de Lille.
Opera by Pascal Dusapin
Libretto by Pascal Dusapin / Rita de Letteriis
Choreography by Sasha Waltz