Messa da Requiem by Staatsballett Berlin
“Messa da Requiem” at Deutsche Oper Berlin with Staatsballett Berlin manages to cohesively bundle singers and dancers, groups and soloists, together into a uniform body where all participants seem to engage at eye level with little discernible hierarchy.
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🎭 Messa da Requiem
🎶 Giuseppe Verdi
🏛️ Deutsche Oper Berlin
🗓️ 25.06.2024
Christian Spuck's choreography and staging of what has ironically been referred to as “Verdi’s best opera” is impressive in several regards. Unlike few other ballet performances that I’ve seen, “Messa da Requiem” at Deutsche Oper Berlin with Staatsballett Berlin manages to cohesively bundle singers and dancers, groups and soloists, together into a uniform body where all participants seem to engage at eye level with little discernible hierarchy. The result is an immensely moving dynamic on stage, with intimate moments between dancers and singers, as well as frame-filling group action.
All takes place on a stage that plays with light and darkness, regality and dirt, extreme minimalism and yet grand scenery. I was happy to see moments which I saw as non-heteronormative (perchance even queer, happy Pride) representation—which seemed effortlessly and naturally juxtaposed with the music, considering the origin of the Requiem in Catholic liturgy.
This performance had me on the edge of my seat and was able to tug at all the right heart strings. Nothing could prepare me for the dramatic stage twist at the end—the tension in the auditorium could be cut with a knife. Verdi would have loved to know that with his Dies Irae, he composed a banger that would go viral on TikTok 150 years later. Work!
