The great myths of creation are a timeless source of inspiration for creative minds. The Greek myth of Prometheus gifting fire to mankind is the subject of Beethoven’s only full-length ballet. Written in 1801 it resonated with the seismic changes brought about by the Enlightenment movement. The current age is also experiencing dramatic changes and Krzysztof Pastor, director of the Polish National Ballet, now tackles the subject in a contemporary manner.
Pastor uses the wide stage of Teatr Wielki in Warsaw to good advantage. He engages a huge cast of dancers, the Orchestra of the Polish National Opera and, for the second act, the addition of impressive solo singers and chorus in the pit to accommodate the music of Phillip Glass and Mozart. It is an epic work to suit an epic theme. The mix of composers is unusual but under the sensitive baton of musical director Patrick Fournillier, it works.
The first and second movements of Glass’s Symphony 11 with his piano solo Mad Rush inserted between accompany the first act where the Greek myth dominates. The insistent repetition of piano notes in Mad Rush, played by Kuba Matuszczyk seeming so right to accompany the battle for fire between Zeus and the Titans. The second act, set to Mozart’s Requiem in D minor moves to a wider philosophical arena. As fire is both destroyer and giver of light, so Mozart contrasts the wrath of God with eternal rest and perpetual light.
The designs, by longtime collaborator, Tatyana van Walsum, furnish a two-tier stage with a staircase to connect and a screen behind where Bartek Macias’s video projections are displayed. Linking heaven and earth while offering a backdrop of nature in colours and images, all helped to give a seamless flow to the telling of this complex story but it was dance that took centre stage.
With a wealth of large scale works behind him Pastor offers powerful roles to the lead characters while giving the large corps de ballet meaningful groupings with challenging duets interspersed. Theatrical devices are well employed. The corps of terracotta people creep on stage under the expansive cloaks of Gaia and Uranus. The fire that blazes in the heavens and later encircles the stage is frighteningly real and potent. The Eagle, an athletic performance from Kristóf Szabó, is identified by gold crutch-like appendages that double as wings and talons.
The main protagonists, Prometheus (Patryk Walczak), his brother Epimetheus (Paweł Koncewoj), Zeus (Vladimir Yaroshenko) and Pandora (Chinara Alizade) get the lion’s share of dance. Between the brothers there is filial affection but also rivalry both over the theft of fire and Pandora’s box. This is well expressed in powerful male duets with Walczak leading from the front in a remarkably expressive performance as he deals with the issues of life and death. Zeus, in the manner of all tyrants, does not welcome the enlightenment of the proletariat and Yaroshenko gave a performance of fury and fire, full of grand gestures and leaps that would have deterred a less courageous hero.
However, Walczak escapes and descends bringing light to humanity, still lumpy figures of clay. As each receives their gift of fire, their movements become sophisticated and fluid and they assume human dress and into this world of beautiful dance Pandora brings her fateful box. Pastor has designed a cliffhanger moment as Alizade cradles the box, hesitating to open it and unwittingly release the ills of the world, as the curtain closes on the first act.
Into the second act, the box is opened to discharge its ills. The mood changes with a combination of Mozart’s classicism and the power of the liturgy bringing us to a different space. The dancers assume a timeless function dressing the stage in sombre black and enhancing the emotion, their movements given a deeper dimension by the words of the chorus. In the Kyrie the cry for mercy is expressed in duets of anguished despair. Couples emerge from the crowd to express, in challenging choreography, humanity coming to terms with disasters while struggling to retain hope.
In a world of predominantly male characters, Alizade, as Pandora takes the female lead. A dancer of both dramatic integrity and technical brilliance, Pastor gives her a role to cherish. Dressed in a stylised leotard first red but changing to black in the second act, it revealed the beauty of her movements. While Pandora and her box continue to hold our attention, the myths intertwine as against a rugged rockface, Szabó is seen stabbing his talons into the unfortunate Walczak in the presence of an unrelenting Yaroshenko. While the resilience of the hero in the face of adversity is acknowledged, the daily consumption of Prometheus’ liver is symbolic rather than realised in blood.
The mood lightens as black garments are stripped off to reveal flesh-coloured unitards and dancers celebrate their humanity, running and leaping. Pandora carries her box to heaven to join the Eagle and Zeus. Prometheus walks through enlightened humanity as Gaia, Joanna Drabik, spread her cloak over the earth bringing a positive conclusion to a powerful new ballet for the Polish company.
Maggie's press trip was funded by the Polish National Ballet
