Eine Winterreise

Dance

A dance piece by Albert Galindo and Luis Tena Torres set to music by Ezio Bosso, David Lang, and Arvo Pärt
with little or no speech

Following the successful production “Sanssouci” (2019), this year’s orchestral premiere once again celebrates the dialogue between dance and song. Arvo Pärt’s sacred choral works form the foundation for an exploration of the relationship between the individual and the community. Inspired by Wilhelm Müller’s poem “Die Winterreise” (The Winter Journey)—best known in Schubert’s setting, which centers on the psychological decline of a lonely wanderer following a failed romantic relationship—the dance piece “Eine Winterreise” addresses the creeping loss of empathy caused by social division and the resulting alienation of the individual from his fellow human beings. Amid Christmas symbolism—between the glow of lights and swirling snow, between the sheltered space of a church and the merciless vastness of a winter landscape—a search for meaning unfolds in an increasingly “colder” world. A longing for connection hardens into bitterness and resignation. This “Requiem for Humanity” is primarily accompanied by the works of Arvo Pärt as its musical counterpart—the works of a composer who strives to reduce everything to the essential and is capable of breaking down the boundaries between classical, popular, and sacred genres.