Odyssee

In the organizer's words:

One of the most important pieces of poetry is the epic "Odyssey" by the Greek lyricist Homer. To deal with this comprehensive work about the hero Odysseus and his adventurous journey, John Neumeier decided in 1995 at the invitation of the Athens opera and concert house Megaron. His dance stage version was to get as close as possible to the roots of the epic and at the same time translate the literary original onto a level of movement. A prerequisite for this was the commissioning of a work by the Greek composer George Couroupos and the collaboration with the Greek stage and costume designer Yannis Kokkos. On the occasion of John Neumeier's 85th birthday, this monumental work about war, the search for home, being on the road and the encounter with the foreign returns to the repertoire.

ten years of wandering
ten years of return
ten years of healing
after ten years of war.

The "Odyssey" is inconceivable without war. For me, the point is that a person has to find his way back to himself after a ten-year war, that he has to find his way back to his wholeness from this macho world of battle and war, defined in a negative sense as male, and rediscover his feminine part. His name is Penelope.

John Neumeier


Music: George Couroupos - Commissioned by the Hamburg State Opera
Choreography and staging: John Neumeier
Set and costumes: Yannis Kokkos

2 hours 45 minutes | 1 intermission

WORLD PREMIERE:
Hamburg Ballet, Megaron The Athens Concert Hall, Athens, November 20, 1995
PREMIERE IN HAMBURG:
Hamburg Ballet, December 17, 1995

ORIGINAL CAST:
Odysseus: Ivan Liska
Penelope: Anna Polikarpova
Telemachus: Ivan Urban
Pallas Athena: Anna Grabka
He: Nicolas Musin
Calypso: Heather Jurgensen
Nausikaa: Bettina Beckmann
Kirke: Chantal Lefèvre
The sea: Laura Cazzaniga
The war: Jirí Bubenícek, Otto Bubenícek
Eurykleia: Karen Niles

GUEST PLAYS:
1995 Athens 1996 Ludwigshafen, Montpellier, Genoa Nervi 1997 Sagami Ono, Osaka, Tokyo

IN THE REPERTOIRE:
Royal Danish Ballet