Interrelation of Literature and Choreography in the Works of John Neumeier

Popova Kseniia ORCID: 0000-0001-5633-9546 Postgraduate Student, Russian Institut of Theatre Arts - GITIS 125009, Russia, Moscow, lane. Maly Kislovsky, 6 kseniiapopova@inbox.ru

In the art of choreography as one of the forms of theatrical art, the concept of synthesis of arts plays a significant role. A ballet performance is a special form of scenic expression of the choreographer's idea, where, along with the main expressive means - choreography, music, painting, literature play a significant role. Since the second half of the twentieth century, the ballet theater has also begun to trace the influence of borrowing key techniques from dramatic art and cinema, to further enhance the visual interpretation of the author's concept. The process of synthesis of the arts continues at the present time, leading to new discoveries of the artistic possibilities of the ballet theater.

The issues of the influence of various types of arts on choreography were raised by researchers as important issues of modernity, which is set out in the works of V.M. Krasovskaya ("Articles on Ballet" ^[1], "Ballet through Literature" ^[2]), P.M. Karp ("Ballet and Drama" ^[3]), Yu.B. Abdokov ("Musical poetics of choreography. The Composer's View" ^[4]), D.E. Khokhlova ("Russian poetry in Western European choreography" ^[5]) and a number of works by other authors. This diversity and variability of consideration of the topic of synthesis of arts opens up a wide field for a more detailed and in-depth consideration of the features of the relationship of individual types of art with choreography. 

The most urgent problem for studying today is the relationship between literature and choreography, since the trend of interpreting literary works on the ballet stage is increasing in its scale. Modern choreographers (J. Neumeier, B.Ya. Eifman, K. Shpuk, E. Klug, etc.) turn to literary primary sources that would seem impossible for choreographic reading (for example, works by A. Dumas, L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, A.P. Chekhov, M.A. Bulgakov, T. Williams, etc.), and they embody on stage performances that are amazing in their artistic integrity, forcing us to look at the possibilities of the synthesis of literature and choreography in a new perspective.

John Neumeier is one of the brightest representatives of choreographic art, who is able to embody the high meanings of literature on the ballet stage. Neumeier's work is inextricably linked with the Hamburg Ballet Company, which he has directed since 1973. During the period of his activity in the troupe, according to the repertoire archive on the official website of the Hamburg Ballet ^[6], the choreographer staged 121 productions. Among the performances created by Neumeier, a special place is occupied by ballets, which are based on literary works. Their number and variety of genres suggests that the creation of large-form story ballets is one of the leading directions of the choreographer's creativity. 

The largest number of productions are inspired by the works of W. Shakespeare. And Neumeier returned to the tragedy "Hamlet" several times, rethinking, and each time interpreting this timeless text in a new way. 44 years have passed between the first and the last production. It is worth noting that Neumeier received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Theater, so his knowledge in the field of literature allows him to work with texts as a professional philologist. Perhaps it is this detail of the biography that distinguishes the literary ballets created by Neumeier from others, and makes us pay more attention to his productions, because the choreographer reveals such deep layers and internal currents from literary works, interprets the literary text and subtext in the language of choreography in such a way that every smallest detail is important in his performances.

Within the framework of this article, it is impossible to analyze all literary works interpreted by Neumeier. Therefore, we will focus on the key performances in his creative biography, many of which were staged not only at the Hamburg Ballet, but also transferred to the repertoire of the world's leading ballet theaters.

The first ballet that needs to be mentioned is the ballet in three acts "The Lady with Camellias" based on the novel of the same name by A. Dumas, staged by Neumeier to the music of F. Chopin in 1978 for the Stuttgart Ballet (premiered at the Hamburg Ballet in 1981). This ballet became a milestone in the choreographer's creative biography. On the one hand, he continues the traditions of large narrative ballets created by J. Cranko and K. Macmillan, taking the line of development from the Soviet drum-ballets. On the other hand, this ballet already shows the author's peculiarity of Neumeier in his work with literary text, in creating his own musical composition. As N.N. Zozulina, a domestic researcher of Neumeier's creativity, notes: "The performance is similar to a drum ballet, but it is a trick of vision. There is no mysticism and metaphysics in drambalets, they do not go beyond the real plot of events, the duality of action and other ballet oddities that are present in Neumeier's "Lady"" ^{[7, p.337]}. The libretto composed by Neumeier shows the depth of his work with the literary source. Firstly, the choreographer makes the prologue of the play the starting point of the plot development, which, in fact, shows the finale - the auction of the things of the deceased Marguerite Gautier, and then the events unfold as a look at the past. Secondly, an important feature of Neumeier's interpretation is that he introduces another famous literary work with a parallel narrative line – the novel by Abbot Prevost "The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut" – this book is mentioned by A. Dumas when Armand gives a book about Manon to his beloved. The choreographer presented the whole scene "ballet in ballet": Margarita and Armand are watching a play in the theater on the plot of Prevost, such an author's move by Neumeier sharpened the line of experience of the main characters.

As noted by ballet researcher D.E. Khokhlova: "The culmination of each of the three acts of "Ladies with Camellias" Neumeier makes a detailed duet of the main characters. Margarita and Armand's adagio are not only semantic, but also choreographic centers" ^{[8, p.85]}. Indeed, it is around these important duets that all mass ballet scenes are compositionally concentrated, representing ballet at the Variety Theater, a masquerade ball at the heroine's house, a picnic at the heroine's country house, a walk in Paris on the Champs-Elysees. It should be noted that the choreography of the play is staged in Neumeier's original neoclassical style, which has a special development in the duets of the main characters. It can be seen that the emotional expressiveness of the artists was extremely important for the choreographer, conveying the psychological implication of each acting character identified by the director.

It is worth mentioning separately about Neumeier 's choice of music by F. Chopin, who strengthened the semantic emotionality of the literary work, became a harmonious reflection of the storyline, helped in the interpretation of literature in the language of choreography. The director carefully approached the selection of the musical score, including such works of the composer as the Second Piano Concerto, "Big Fantasy on Polish themes", Sonata No. 3, ballad No. 2, mazurkas, fantasies, preludes, waltzes and other compositions. It is important that the musical works do not go in continuous sound, but according to the dramaturgy of the director, they appear as if after reflection, a pause that necessarily follows from the meaning. Neumeier created a unique musical composition, therefore, according to ballet researcher D.Z. Khazieva: "The music in the ballet merges so much with the choreographic text that it seems as if all this was written by the composer specifically for this ballet" ^{[9, p.178]}.

The scenic design of "Ladies with Camellias" belongs to the artist Jurgen Rosa, who adhered to the style of the era of the original source. The artistic direction of the play is interesting, expressed in a special color scheme: the basic colors "white" and "black" express the psychological nakedness in front of each other and the contrast of the main characters, and the "blue", "red" and "gold" colors reflect the life of society and the roles that Margarita plays in this society. All this coincides with Neumeier's plan.

The ballet "The Lady with Camellias" has become the most popular performance staged by Neumeier, and for more than forty years it has not left the posters around the world. Many leading theaters have expanded their repertoire with this ballet: the American Ballet Theater, the National Paris Opera, the Bavarian State Ballet, the Bolshoi Theater, the La Scala Theater, the Dresden Ballet, the German National Ballet, the Danish Royal Ballet, the Polish National Ballet.

         Staged in 1989, the three-act ballet Peer Gynt based on the play of the same name by G. Ibsen is a special page in Neumeier's creative life, since work on this material was carried out jointly with the composer Alfred Schnittke, who wrote the music for the ballet. Starting the idea of a joint ballet, Neumeier offered the composer a choice of two literary works: the play "Three Sisters" by A.P. Chekhov and the play "Peer Gynt" by G. Ibsen. Schnittke chose the latter. It should be noted that this piece by Ibsen is ranked among the world's faustians, and this is one of the themes of the composer's creative search. As the philosopher N.A. Berdyaev wrote about this work: "The world theme is clothed in the form of Norwegian folk fabulousness. "Peer Gynt" should be compared in value with Goethe's "Faust". This is the world tragedy of individuality and personal destiny" ^{[10, p.85]}. Schnittke noted that in the image of Peer Gynt, he is attracted by the inexhaustibility of this image: "There are plots that have, as it were, one realization, and, once realized, they are already exhausted. And there are plots where the number of implementations is infinite, and none of them exhausts the plot to the end" ^{[11, p.171]}. The play was also connected with Neumeier's creative quest, since the timeless problem of self-determination and human realization inherent in it is close to the themes of philosophical concepts that can be traced in many of his productions.

         It is worth noting that Neumeier had already worked with Schnittke's music when he staged the ballets Tram Desire (1983) and Othello (1985), using fragments from his works. The high appreciation of Schnittke's musical talent and the desire to work together prompted the choreographer to turn to him with a proposal. Work on the ballet began in 1985, but due to the composer's illness, it was completed only in 1989. The complexity and duration of the storyline were the main problem of the choreographer when writing the libretto and creating the composition of the performance. Therefore, as Neumeier recalls, when he gave the performance plan to the composer, the first part was spelled out clearly and clearly, the second part only outlined the idea that the thirst for success leads to madness and the destruction of personality, and this part should be an open structure, like a collage in a movie, and for the third part he wrote one comment is "Infinite Adagio" ^{[12, p.11]}. However, despite the difficulties in describing the structure of the future ballet, the idea was realized, and the music raised the work to a new artistic level. Schnittke created a unique musical score based on the principle of symphonism with an extensive system of leitmotives, which covers a wide range of figurative musical characteristics, reflects reality and takes it into the spheres of timeless space, which corresponds to the deep philosophical concept of the literary source.

         According to Neumeier's plan, the action of the play is transferred to the conditionally modern world. The three–act ballet begins with a prologue, an allegorical birth of the Pen and seven aspects of his personality - the hero's doubles accompanying him through life (soul, childhood, flight, eroticism, courage, aggression, doubt). Further, the composition of the play focuses on the three worlds of reality through which Per passes: the world of childhood and encounters with the first problems; an attractive but cruel world – theatrical life, show business, and then a madhouse; the third world - the house the hero has rediscovered. The epilogue of the ballet is a new level of existence of the Pen, a new world outside of space and time. Neumeier interpreted Ibsen's play multilayered and multidimensional, adding new historical and philosophical symbols to the literary source. It can be said that it was the creative union of Neumeier and Schnittke that determined the possibility of deep immersion in the artistic and philosophical world of a literary work, resulting in the creation of an integral musical and choreographic canvas.

         The artist of the play, Jurgen Rose, created scenery reminiscent of paintings by Edvard Munch: gloomy landscapes on the backdrop and functional metal structures that create the image of Norwegian mountains and a lonely house on a hilltop. The costumes of the first and last acts are simple and concise, and in the second act they are diverse and pretentious, which dictates the transition of scenes from a brilliant music hall to a luxurious cinema.

         In 2015, the choreographer again drew attention to this ballet when he listened to Schnittke's music, and decided to make a resumption of the performance with a new choreography.  Thus, the ballet Peer Gynt remains in the repertoire of the Hamburg Ballet as a unique performance that conveys on stage all the complexity and multidimensionality of Ibsen's work.

         Neumeier did not leave aside the works of Russian classical literature. In 2002, the premiere of the ballet "The Seagull" based on the play of the same name by A.P. Chekhov was released. In an interview, the choreographer admitted: "I know his plays very well, and I am fascinated by the way Chekhov presents characters, the way he orchestrates everything. And the reality of the characters, which can be understood without words. It's the same with Shakespeare, who wrote amazing plays, but his characters can be expressed without words. There is something very subtle about Chekhov in the sense of an emotional climate. It is important that he does not have unambiguously bad or good, evil or positive characters. It has always been important for me to convey this whole spectrum and all the nuances in dance" ^[13].

         I wonder how Neumeier reacted to the choice of the characters of the play. He left almost all 13 characters declared by Chekhov: there are 10 main characters in the ballet, 2 episodic ones, and Arkadina's fans are additionally introduced. Neumeier wrote the key to understanding the super-task of the play in the booklet for the play, putting four questions in front of himself and the audience, in which lies the explanation: "What does it mean to be in love? What does it mean to be an artist? What does it mean to be an artist who is in love? What does it mean to be a person who loves to be an artist?" ^{[14, p.2]}. Thus, the story mainly focused on two themes – the artist and love. And when translating the play into choreographic language, Chekhov's word artists at Neumeier became dance artists: the main characters Arkadina and Nina appeared as ballerinas, and Treplev and Trigorin – choreographers. It is important to note that the younger generation goes in search of new forms in art, while the older ones follow the traditions of classical ballet, which is clearly reflected in the choreography of the ballet.

         An important meaning in the play is carried by two separate plays by Treplev and Trigorin, which Neumeier has their own symbolic names – "The Soul of a Seagull" and "The Death of a Seagull". The first "play" is created by Treplev, it is a kind of plastic statement of the hero about new forms in art. Staging an avant–garde "ballet in ballet" is a well-found technique for expressing one of the main ideas of both the play and the performance. Nina's famous monologue "People, lions, eagles and partridges..." seems to be pronounced on the stage. The angular movements of this production by Treplev resemble the artistic trends of the avant-garde of the 20s of the twentieth century and contrast in their style with the choreographic reflection of Arkadina and Trigorin. Trigorin's "Death of a Seagull" is an academic–style "ballet within a ballet." It is worth noting that in this case, the name can be considered a parody, since nothing is displayed from the tragic theme included in the title. Arkadina appears on stage in a Russian kokoshnik, and her dance in fragments resembles the famous production of The Dying Swan by M. Fokin. After some time, Trigorin appears in the role of Actaeon and the characters are periodically lost in the mass of the female corps de ballet. Thus, Neumeier, through the use of different choreographic styles, clearly demonstrated the inherent meaning, misunderstanding of generations, their difference, read in the polar artistic nature.

In this production, the choreographer himself is a set designer and costume designer. The stage action, as in the original source, takes place in Russia at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries. The performance is filled with artistic details and symbols (paper seagull, cards, comb, fishing rod, etc.). The costumes are carefully thought out by the author, and are part of the overall concept, even in color. For example, as the action progresses, the image of Treplev gradually darkens from light and turns black by the end, this reflects the defeat of his innovative ideas, passing away.

         The musical score of the ballet was composed by Neumeier from the works of D.D. Shostakovich, P.I. Tchaikovsky, A.N. Scriabin, modern percussionist and composer Evelyn Glennie. Perhaps it is the music, the sequence thought out by the director, that reflects the Chekhov subtext, is an important link in the stage interpretation of literature in the language of choreography.

         The ballet "The Seagull" was transferred to the repertoire of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Musical Theater (2007) and the National Ballet of Canada (2008).

         In 2003, Neumeier released a new ballet – the first choreographic reading of T. Mann's novella "Death in Venice". When working with the original source, the choreographer, as well as when staging Chekhov's play, made a transfer of the creative sphere of the main character: in the ballet Gustav von Aschenbach is not a writer, but a choreographer. Accordingly, this affected the changes in the actions of the plot. Also, from a small mention of Aschenbach's mother, Neumeier created many more scenes with a technique characteristic of his interpretations (she appears as a memory), which complemented the semantic picture. The key characters-the characters of Mann's novella (the wanderer, the old man – a fake young man, the gondolier, the barber), are doubly represented in the ballet, thereby Neumeier emphasized the visualization of symbolic harbingers of the changing world of the hero.

         The dramaturgy of the two–act ballet is based on paintings: in the first act there are four of them ("Glory and Creativity", "On the verge of exhaustion", "The Feeling of swimming - A Trip to Venice", "Silent meeting – Hotel des Bains"), in the second – six ("In Elysium - On the Lido Beach", "Dionysian dream", "Metamorphoses", "Dance of Death – Cholera in Venice", "Pure piano sound: decision and farewell", "Libestod"). Eventfully, Neumeier follows the original source, tracing the hero's path from life stability and discipline to the hidden world of desires and chaos, gradually leading him to death. The beginning of the performance is the work of choreographer Aschenbach on a ballet on a historical theme about the king of Prussia, passes to the feeling of his loss of creative forces, after which the hero goes on a journey. Tadzio meets Aschenbach only at the end of the first act. In the second act, Aschenbach's feelings reach a climax, and then everything comes to a finale. As Neumeier said about his vision of this work: "What I admire in my interpretation of Thomas Mann's novella is the image of absolute love. Tadzio forces Aschenbach to confront the hidden part of himself. Before meeting Tadzio, dignity, fame and his work, which brought him an aristocratic title, meant everything to Aschenbach. At first, he struggles with his emotions, justifying his fascination with the young man with purely aesthetic reasoning. In the end, he surrenders to love, turning to life and causing his "Death in Venice"" ^[15].

         When staging this performance, as in many other performances, the choreographer himself built the musical dramaturgy of the performance, choosing the works of J.S. Bach and R. Wagner. Neumeier's concept was that the rational and cold side of Aschenbach's life is accompanied by Bach's music, and moments filled with emotions and feelings are revealed through Wagner's music. Interestingly, the music sounds in different versions, both in an orchestral recording or a piano recording, and in a live performance on the piano during the action. Some of Wagner's works written for orchestra are arranged in the ballet score on the piano.

         The set design of the play, created by the artist Peter Schmidt, visually emphasizes the concept of Neumeier and depicts two sides of the hero's life, as it was reflected in the music. The first act consists mainly of black graphic drawings contrasting with a white background – a reflection of the cold world of Aschenbach's discipline; the second act – changing backdrops of pastel and muted multicolored tones – the world of feelings and beauty into which the hero has fallen. The costumes for the performance were designed by Neumeier and Schmidt in collaboration.

         The ballet "Death in Venice" is currently in the repertoire of the Hamburg Ballet. One of the reviews emphasizes: "John Neumeier's work is surprisingly "authentic", consonant with the text of Thomas Mann's novella, in which the measured rhythm of the narrative is embodied in plastic. The dance story is also unhurried, the lexical turns of its characters are just as intricate and seem to be an exact reflection of the Mann syllable" ^{[16, p.15]}. Thus, this interpretation of the literary source on the ballet stage has organically entered into a number of author's readings of world literature.

         Embodying L.N. Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina" on stage, John Neumeier emphasized the wording "ballet based on motives" in the poster, which gave great freedom to the director in his author's reading of the original source in the language of choreography. The premiere of the two-act ballet "Anna Karenina" was presented by the Hamburg Ballet in 2017. Neumeier created this ballet as the author of the libretto, choreographer, set designer, costume designer and author of the concept of lighting design. The only exception was the creation of costumes for the image of Anna, which was carried out by designer Albert Kreimler.

         Neumeier admitted that Tolstoy's voluminous novel amazed him, he was "fascinated not only by the main characters and the structure of the narrative, but also by the amazing variety of intertwined thematic lines" ^{[17, p.58]}. This is how the ballet develops three main lines of relationships – Karenin, Anna and Vronsky; Dolly and Stiva; Kitty and Levin. An important symbolic figure that permeates the entire narrative, Neumeier makes the image of a Peasant (a station worker), who at the beginning of the novel dies under a train. As in the original source, it symbolizes the harbinger of death that haunts the heroine in dreams, it was important for Neumeier to highlight and consolidate this image throughout the performance.

         According to Neumeier's plan, in order to emphasize the timelessness of the conflicts and inner experiences of the characters described in Tolstoy, their actions, thoughts and feelings, he transferred the plot to modernity. However, the connection with the era of the literary primary source can be traced in the music of P.I. Tchaikovsky, whose works the director used when creating the score of the play. In general, the music of the ballet is composed of the works of P.I. Tchaikovsky, A. Schnittke and the contemporary composer K. Stevens/Yu. Islam. Such a difference in choice was necessary for Neumeier to designate three musical layers: Tchaikovsky's music reflects the external, reminds of the world and society of historical time; Schnittke's music reflects emotional tension and conflicts in the life of the characters, irrationality and the subconscious; Stevens' music/Islam reflects Levin's world (his image is important in ballet and is shown in development), the search for the true meaning of life.

         It is worth noting that the set design of the performance was thought out by the director so as not to distract from the main means of expression – choreography. Several white blocks construct the space of all the ballet scenes, supplemented only by important details, which allows you to quickly change the scene.

         The ballet "Anna Karenina" staged by Neumeier is unique in the scope of the semantic lines of the work, in the number of declared characters, and in how modern and relevant the themes stated in the novel are read. This performance in 2018 also entered the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theater and the National Ballet of Canada.

         Another significant performance in Neumeier's literary line is the ballet "The Glass Menagerie", staged in 2019 based on the play of the same name by T. Williams. This play is considered partly autobiographical, therefore, in his interpretation, the choreographer combined the narrative line of the work with the facts of the writer's biography. Moreover, he brought out the image of Tennessee Williams as a separate actor of the play. It is through this image that memories of the past arise, which are embedded in the plot of the play. Neumeier also increased the number of characters: to the Amanda, Laura, Tom and Jim indicated in the original source, he added a Unicorn, Malvolio, and a multi-faceted corps de ballet depicting shop workers, typists, passers-by, spectators, etc.

         The choreographic text created by Neumeier metaphorically reflects the locked world described in the play. Clearly constructed movements, especially in scenes of mechanically existing society, emphasize the idea of the lack of freedom and creativity of the protagonist in those living conditions. The important meanings of the play are conveyed through the emotional reaction of Tennessee observing his memories. And only one fictional character is endowed with real freedom of expression in the play – the animated figure of a Unicorn, which symbolizes the flight of dreams of the hero's sister Laura. As the choreographer noted, "these hopes, desires and dreams, expressed but sometimes written "between the lines" in the brilliant dramatic poetry of Tennessee Williams, are a (wordless) source of inspiration for my choreography" ^[18].

         In this performance, Neumeier again performed as a choreographer, set designer, author of the light score and costume designer. The concept of ballet connects the past and the present, which exist simultaneously and interact with each other. To visually convey this idea, there are several main decorative installations on the stage: a room whose walls are quickly rebuilt into new arrangements, and a transparent plastic wall separating the worlds.

         Neumeier composed the music for the ballet from the works of three American composers: Charles Ives, Philip Glass and Ned Rorem. The performance is accompanied by the live sound of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, which organizes the general breathing of the musical composition.

         "The Glass Menagerie" in Neumeier's choreographic reading turned the subtle poetry laid down by Williams into a meaningful movement, visualized the drama in a new artistic solution and took its special place among narrative ballets. This stage interpretation very accurately conveys the writer's remark: "Since the action on stage is a memory, it is not realistic. Memory demands poetic license. She omits some details; on the contrary, she exaggerates others in accordance with the emotional value of the subject, because memory mainly comes from the heart. Therefore, the interior is lit dimly and poetically" ^[19].

         Thus, the key ballets of Neumeier considered in this article, which are based on literary works, allow us to identify the features of the relationship between literature and choreography in his work. Born within the framework of the traditional multi-act form, these ballets are innovative, as Neumeier takes the choreographer's work with the text to a completely new level. Each performance is a full–fledged stage translation of the literary source into the form of a multi-act ballet. Most often, Neumeier transfers the action to the modern world, but this does not go against the authors' intention, but on the contrary, enhances the relevance of the themes inherent in the works, declares the timeless existence of many conflicts, actions, feelings and thoughts of the characters. An important feature of such ballets is a clearly structured dramaturgy of all components: action, music, choreography, decoration. For Neumeier, the interpretation of a literary work is not just a fact of illustrating the plot plot of the original source, but an attempt to penetrate into the depth of the idea, to discern and emphasize the most important details, the psychology of the characters, to catch the subtext and express in the language of choreography all the subtleties of the author's style. The line of literary ballets in Neumeier's work is one of the main lines of his work, therefore, the study of these ballets opens up new perspectives on the consideration of the multifaceted talent of one of the brightest choreographers of our time.