Wanderer
Immerse in the Romanticism of Caspar David Friedrich
This page contains the video, audio files, and program of the event from Greifswald (December 20-21, 2024, STRAZE). The project is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Office for Education, Culture and Sport of the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald as part of the Caspar David Friedrich anniversary celebrations.
The dance piece, featuring piano music and projections of paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, is part of the events commemorating the 250th anniversary of the painter's birth in Greifswald. It is also intended as a tribute to two Romantic figures whose anniversaries will be celebrated in 2024: the English poet Lord George Byron, who also died 200 years ago during the Greek War of Independence. (continue to the foreword...)
Contributors
Richard Coldman
Concept and Dramaturgy
Choreography and dance (Lord Byron)
Choreography and dance (Ideal of Freedom & Aurora)
Piano and performer (Franz Liszt)
Piano and performer (Maria Szymanowska)
Video projections
Photo-Gallerie
The pictures
ERSTES BILD
Felsenriff am Meeresstrand (1824)
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Scherzo Nr. 1 in b-moll Op. 20 (1831)
REVOLT
It is 1820, the "Springtime of Nations." Whether in Poland, Italy, Greece, or Germany: revolutions are brewing everywhere. In these times lived the Romantics, with their innocence, passion, and yearning for freedom. The musician expressed his longing on the piano. The poet lived his life amidst moments of love and drama.
ZWEITES BILD
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
"Feuilles mortes" Prelude Nr.2 (1912)
THE POET
This life does not fulfill him. Lost and without hope, the poet experiences his melancholy in solitude. His somber mood is represented by the gray fog over the winter sea.
DRITTES BILD
Tetschener Altar (Das Kreuz im Gebirge) (1807)
improvisation zu einem Thema von Olivier Messiaen (1944)
THE CROSS
Voices from bygone eras, such as that of the mystic Jakob Böhme, resonate during the journey through time and space. The artist prays fervently for the appearance of an angel to lead him out of the darkness. The cross, nature, and the life of Christ slowly illuminate the young artist's vision.
VIERTES BILD
Morgen im Riesengebirge (1810)
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
"Sposalizio" aus "Années de pèlerinage" S.161, Nr. 1 (das zweite Jahr: Italien) (1837)
THE IDEAL
The ideal appears on stage as an archaic female figure, as if she has answered the poet's prayer. It is the ideal of FREEDOM. A musician accompanies her dance with soulful music. Freedom reveals itself in its beauty, inspires the artists to new creativity, and shows a way out of suffering and emptiness. It leads them to a summit, from whose view the world appears more beautiful, truer, and clearer.
FÜNFTES BILD
Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer (1818)
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
“Vallee d´Obermann” aus "Années de pèlerinage" (das erste Jahr: Schweiz) S.160, Nr.6 (1848)
ART
The musician (Franz Liszt) returns to his instrument with renewed inspiration, ready to recount his journey and his ideas. This is how Franz Liszt's cycle "Pilgrimage Years" came into being. But the poet Lord Byron also created a poetic masterpiece with "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," which would bring him great success. Caspar David Friedrich created his most famous painting, "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog": a triple success story.
SECHSTES BILD
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
"Une barque sur l´océan" aus "Miroirs" M.43, Nr. 3 (1905)
THE FRIENDS
The poet and the musician experience peaceful and fulfilling moments of friendship. Their conversations about the world and the political situation awaken in them the desire to use not only their art but also their energy to create a better world. Lord Byron decides to participate in the revolution and sets off for Mesolonghi to join the Greek resistance fighters.
SIEBTES BILD
Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)
"Vers la flamme”, Poème Op. 72 (1914)
REVOLUTION
Unlike the poet, the musician remains behind. He prefers to depict the human drama through his music. For the poet, this was not enough. The sunny seascape gradually transforms into a dark night. Even the moon hides behind clouds, and the poet departs for war. In the musical poem "To the Flame," Alexander Scriabin speaks of the allure of fire, where the revolutionary poet will consume his entire being in war and revolution. The poet's friend, whom we met in the first scene, reads his poetry while he fights in distant lands. This could be Lord Byron's friend and sister, Augusta Leigh. She will never see her brother again.
ACHTES BILD
Kügelgens Grab (1821)
Franz Liszt
“Ave verum corpus” von W.A.Mozart - Transkription
Fryderyk Chopin
Nocturne Cis-minor Op. 27. Nr.1 (1836)
AT THE CEMETERY
The poet is now dead. The three who remain mourn the loss of the artist who sacrificed his life to the ideals of revolution. His friend, the musician, plays chorales and melancholic melodies on the piano. Aurora and her friend dance mournfully for the deceased. Their thoughts awaken the spirit of the poet, who never truly died, for he lives on in the memories of his friends and admirers.
NEUNTES BILD
Gartenterrasse (1812)
Frau in der Morgensonne (1818)
Franz Liszt
“Sonetto 123 del Petrarca” aus “Années de pèlegrinage” (das zweite Jahr: Italien) (1839)
AURORA
Aurora, the poet's beloved friend, cherishes the legacy and memory of the great artist in her soul and longs to fulfill all his desires with the rising of a new sun. A more beautiful, peaceful world is possible! She is accompanied by her friend, the spirit of the artist himself, and the musician. In Sonnet 123, Petrarch sings of an angelic woman whose lament for the world resonates so beautifully that heaven and earth are filled with harmony.
Foreword
The dance piece, featuring piano music and projections of Caspar David Friedrich's paintings, is part of the events commemorating the 250th anniversary of the painter's birth in Greifswald. It is conceived as a tribute to two Romantic figures whose anniversaries were also celebrated in 2024: the English poet Lord George Byron, who died 200 years ago during the Greek War of Independence. But what does Caspar David Friedrich have to do with the War of Independence? In the "Springtime of Nations," peoples yearned for freedom from empires, and many artists joined this movement. On his way into exile from Russian-ruled Poland, the Polish poet Juliusz Słowacki also stopped in Dresden. At that time, the Saxon capital was not only a major cultural metropolis but also a center for European patriots. Słowacki then continued his journey via Paris and Geneva to Italy and finally arrived in Palestine; it was, in effect, a pilgrimage.
In my opinion, the dancers best suited the painter's works. For the dance, I devised a dramaturgy inspired by Byron's life. Byron is the "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" as he climbs the Alps, or "The Monk by the Sea" as he contemplates the fate of the world on the Venetian lagoon. Using digital technology, the figures were cut out of the paintings and then brought to life, dancing to music against the backdrop of the images.
Byron's role was played by the Armenian-Greek dancer Edgar Ioannis Avetikyan. Edgar came to Greece with his Armenian family as a child, where he dreamed of becoming a dancer. Life wasn't easy for him; his dream finally came true in Saxony: as a dancer in the ensemble of the Gerhart Hauptmann Theater.
The second "Wanderer" in this piece, the young Lithuanian pianist Simonas Poška, won his first prizes as a child prodigy performing Romantic music by Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt. Today he studies at the University of Hanover and, like Liszt, travels through Europe, giving concerts in Paris, Budapest, Italy, and Poland… Now his path also leads him to Greifswald.
But the women also play a special role in this dance piece: they were wanderers, artists, and muses.
The Romantic era was a time of strong, freedom-loving female artists. I combined the ideal of freedom and the poet's friend into one person and called her "Aurora"—the dawn. I was inspired by a work by Jakob Böhme. The Görlitz mystic, who inspired many Romantics, also celebrates an anniversary in 2024: 400 years have passed since his death in Görlitz. The role of Aurora is danced by the Italian dancer Sara Nicastro from the Gerhart Hauptmann Theater. The four "wanderers" also include the Greek musician Christina Maria Koti. She plays a Romantic pianist, similar to Clara Schumann or Maria Szymanowska. Christina also traveled through Europe; From the Greek island of Rhodes, she brought music to London and Paris.
Now we meet here in Greifswald as modern-day "wanderers" and present our art to the public. In a slightly modified form, the ballet was already successfully performed in August 2024 in Bautzen, Saxony, as part of the "Coming and Going" Six Cities Festival, with the support of the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony.
With a few new pieces, it celebrates its premiere on the stage of the STRAZE in Greifswald.
The project is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Office for Education,
Culture and Sport of the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald as part of the Caspar David Friedrich anniversary celebrations.
Eleni Ioannidou
December 2024
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