Requiem!!
- The Scenario
Requiem!! is danced in three parts
without an intermission.
Two characters are present throughout
the work, M and Death. M represents Man in each section.
Part One shows the different ways man relates to death and
its ultimate hold over us.
Part Two is lighter and more playful, in this section M is
based on the character of Mozart and shows him with his domineering
father and the two women in his life, Aloysia and Constanze
Weber.
Part Three shows M as a modern man of today, different from
and therefore isolated from the rest of society. In this part
a suitcase is prominent, demonstrating that this M is a traveller.
The suitcase provides a link between M as a modern man and
Mozart, who also spent much of his life travelling around
Europe to perform in concerts.
The work is full of signs and symbols
for the audience to interpret in their own way - the black
umbrellas carried by the dancers, for example, recall Mozart’s
own funeral on a rainy day in 1791, but could also symbolise
protection, shelter or reassurance.
Birgit Scherzer has re-arranged the
music for Requiem!!, both for dramatic impact and to create
a new and original work, which is not just another interpretation
of Mozart’s music but stands on its own merits. Mozart
had only composed the first eight bars of the Lacrimosa before
he died and so it is this fragment of music which starts parts
one and two of the production, with the piece being performed
in its entirety at the end of part three. |
