©MatthiasZölle

L’espace de Ravel / L’Enfant et les Sortilèges

A Ravel-evening

“L’espace de Ravel” is an uninterrupted sequence of three melancholic and frequently dissonant sets of waltzes that continually intensify towards a rapturous orchestral climax. The ensemble initially dances in decidedly classical style. But it is then fascinating to see barbs being inserted here and there – typical Goldin movement patterns, such as quaking bodies or serial rolling of the hips – with the close interpretation of the music still being maintained."

Markus Termeer, taz-NRW, 3 May 2006


“Just as Maurice Ravel, in his music, darkens the waltz and gives it an electrical psychological charge, so does Goldin in his dance. Here, there are no couples moving in harmony, but rather loneliness in the crowd. This is very much a production of today. Like leaves in the wind. The men are no proud gallants; instead, they shake as if in a fever. In one of the most powerful scenes, the men lie motionless on the floor, while the “widowed” ladies are left with nothing but the jackets of their lovers to dance with – a picture of enormous poetic sadness. And even when, in the finale, they are all whirling over the stage in breathtaking synchronicity, they nevertheless remain isolated, arms crossed in front of bodies, and ultimately fly away like leaves in the wind. (...)Live pleasures are something one could soon get used to. Also in the second part, Goldin enters new territory by putting an opera on the stage: Maurice Ravel’s “L’Enfant et les Sortilèges”, a short work about a naughty child (...) that wrecks the house and garden in the course of its playing. (...)
After the provocative waltz sequence, Goldin shows himself here from an unaccustomedly light-hearted side. He illustrates the appearances of the objects colourfully and sumptuously. (...) Many of the scenes are sparkling with humour. (...)
A delicious cake for Daniel Goldin’s tenth anniversary in Münster. The audience could not get enough, and expressed its appreciation with a storm of bravos and standing ovations.”

Manuel Jennen, Münstersche Zeitung, 2 May 2006


“On the main stage of Münster City Theatre, Daniel Goldin, who has now been director of the Dance Theatre for 10 years, served up a grand Ravel evening for his audience. The “Ravel space“ he has created builds from a solo piece with piano accompaniment to ensemble dance accompanied by large orchestra, and finally to a short opera. The dance achieves a wonderful reconciliation with reality, as is also longed for in Ravel’s music. Goldin opens his “L’espace de Ravel“ in cautious biographical progression with the “Pavane pour une infante défunte” in the piano version of 1899 (played by Rainer Mühlbach). To the almost classically stately music of the Spanish pavane, a single dancer (Tsutomu Ozeki) dances around a female glove puppet in a festive white dress. (...) The shimmering blue space then opens out to the music of “Valses nobles et sentimentales” in the orchestral version of 1912 and the choreographic poem “La Valse” of 1920. Eight male and eight female dancers fill the stage, which is sparingly characterised by a disjointed chandelier as a ballroom (stage design: Matthias Dietrich). The women are barefoot and wear long, blue dresses, while the men are shod and dressed in dark suites (costumes: Gaby Sogl). The dancers take up the hard, incisive dissonances of Ravel, who really manages to bring irreconcilable sounds together, and the broken momentum of the Viennese waltzes. Hardly any couples can be seen dancing together; instead, we see isolated figures with their arms round themselves, while the men suddenly collapse to the floor. But the dance does not double the music; rather, it seems to be the dance that is able to heal the fracture in the harmony of the waltzing world by dragging the music into the reality of movement. So no longer naive, but at one remove, as it were, waltzing bliss is restored after all. Ravel’s “L’Enfant et les Sortilèges”, the fairytale opera of the naughty “child and the magic spells” to a text by Colette, also tells of reconciliation with the world. (...)
The evening ends on a fairytale note when, even for the naughty child (Judith Gennrich) in its fantastic dream world, everything comes out right. In the medium of dance, a triumphal force of successful life arises in the face of adverse reality, whereby Goldin’s production succeeds in avoiding kitsch and becomes an event that spreads an all-round sense of well-being. Only rigorous closing of the curtain was able to stop the premiere audience from continuing in its enthusiastic ovations for everyone involved, above all Daniel Goldin and Rainer Mühlbach.”

Hans Butterhof, Recklinghäuser Zeitung

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