Bovary, Staatsballett Berlin

[Estreiiita]

Last Monday I happened to be in Berlin and watch "Bovary" in Deutsche Oper.

  Christian Spuck had become the revelation for me during the covid pandemia when we had a chance to watch his "Winterrejse" from Zurich. When it was announced that he would lead Staatsballett Berlin, I personally looked forward to that and reserved the ticket to "Bovary" as soon as it was possible. In our cast the main role was performed by Polina Semionova and she was fantastic:  beautiful, touching, passionate, despaired and determined. Matthew Knight was Charles Bovary, Cohen Aitchison-Dugas danced Leon (he and Polina had a beautiful duo in the 2nd act!), Martin ten Kortenaar was Rodolphe and Dominik White Slavkovsky created an excellent portrait of monsieur Lheureux.

    As I see it,  Christian Spuck and his team make not just the ballet, but the whole experience. The scenography, the costumes, the videofilms on the back screen, the music (sometimes quite tense but creating the necessary atmosphere), and also the excerpts from the novel read by Elisabeth Edl (and luckily the subtitles in English were provided) - gave a perfect combination helping to get dissolved in the hopes, feelings and deeds of the characters on the scene. And of course the corps de ballet here was superb - the people of Yonville and Rouen, the ball visitors, the soldiers, the girls and  the poison. Spuck knows how to guide his dancers to draw public's attention!

  This evening was sold out and there were a lot of ovations and "Bravo!" exclamations in the end. I personally liked the performance a lot and will look forward to the next creations of Christian Spuck.

[Jan McNulty]

Thanks for your report @Estreiiita.

 

It's always good to hear news from other companies and this sounds like a good start for Christian Spuck.

[Sabine0308]

@Estreiiita aww I was there as well with a friend, would have loved to say hello. I did say hello to Victor Caixeta though, who sat behind me😀.

I agree that Polina,was marvellous, her "Emma" different from Weronika Frodyma's (premiere cast). I loved the PDDs with Polina and Martin, just beautiful dancing.

The whole company did an impressive job!

[Estreiiita]

Let's hope there'll be another chance to say "hello", I'll surely try to visit Berlin as often as possible! I'd love to say hello to Victor Caixeta as well, especially to tell him how much I liked his debut as Albrecht! I saw later on Instagram that John Neumeier was in Berlin as well - evidently, "Bovary" is quite popular!