"Give us peace, diese Hoffnung eint uns"

John Neumeier's ballet "Dona nobis pacem" ("Give us peace") begins with a silent sequence, a thematic, haunting prelude before the music of the evening begins, Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor. In the background of the wide, open stage is a trench surrounded by barbed wire in a large concrete gate. From a door on the right in the proscenium, a fleeing soldier falls onto the ramp next to the orchestra and choir, hides, presses against the wall. On stage, people on a wall of the concrete gate are looking at photographs as if they were looking for pictures of relatives. A press photographer (Lennard Giesenberg), who accompanies what is happening on stage as a character and who will speak two important texts in the course of the evening, enters the stage from the left.

The central figure of the evening's dance episodes created by Neumeier, however, is a man with a suitcase, the epitome of a person on the run, in search of home, in search of peace. In the play he bears the role name "ER" and on a second level also symbolizes Jesus Christ, who sacrifices himself for the people, who brings hope, for very concrete and eternal peace. ER is danced by Aleix Martinez in an overwhelming two-hour act of strength and artistry, whose agility goes beyond any dance framework. Martinez shrinks to a point, twists and turns, contorts and tenses, seizes the space and fills it - he is the linchpin of this evening's large images of war and peace and the haunting miniatures of human destinies, feelings and states of mind.

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz traveled to his hometown of Hamburg for the world premiere of "Dona nobis pacem" and then paid tribute to the work at a reception hosted by the Opera Foundation. Neumeier designed his ballet and the title before February 24, 2022, i.e. before the Russian attack on Ukraine. Nevertheless, it is clear from the first picture where the action can only be thought of at the moment: in the current war in Europe. "What a great, haunting, touching evening that you gave us today," said Scholz. Although Neumeier advised the audience before the performance not to look for a continuous plot, but, according to Scholz, "there is a common thread, that is the leitmotif of peace, peace that is threatened, that we lack and which we long for all the more urgently.”

The Federal Chancellor emphasized: "Russia's appalling war of aggression against Ukraine has given your work additional meaning, with additional impressiveness and topicality." of the piece, but a very specific danger that we are confronted with this year." In the discussion about the real danger of using nuclear weapons, some tried to differentiate between "large and small, between strategic and tactical nuclear weapons". "All I can say is: there is no such difference." However, there is widespread agreement worldwide, even with very powerful autocrats, that there will be no nuclear war and that this limit should not be exceeded. In Neumeier's choreography, the "tension that we all feel now, at this time, is palpable."

Scholz invoked solidarity with the invaded Ukraine and said "'Dona nobis pacem', this longing unites us." The Chancellor thanked Neumeier for his support of Ukrainian dancers since the beginning of the war and praised the admission of Ukrainian students to the ballet school and finally paid tribute to the 50-year management of the Hamburg Ballet by the artistic director, which has contributed to Hamburg's international reputation.

In the run-up to the premiere, Neumeier had described the new work as the "greatest challenge of my life", which he could and only wanted to master with his ensemble. The evening showed how that was meant: In addition to Martinez, the choreographer also wrote fantastic scenes for the other great ballet soloists – and in the process expanded his extensive dance vocabulary once again. Ida Praetorius dances the female counterpart to Martinez in the role of "SIE". Anna Laudere strides through the scenes as a frightening "widow", Jacopo Bellussi, Christopher Evans and Alexandr Trusch, Xue Lin and Madoka Sugai enliven the episodes as "clerics". Edvin Revazov appears as an "officer", Allesandro Frola haunts the ghostly world of the obliterated Japanese city behind a semi-transparent wall as the "shadow" of an anonymous, vaporized victim of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. There are also "angels", "a community" and, as irritating factors, joggers who keep crossing the stage, as symbols for the expiry of life.X

In the big Hiroshima sequence of the world premiere, Giesenberg, as a press photographer, recites Günter Kunert's poem "Der Schatten" (The Shadow), which ends with the lines "That not like him we perish like this. His mute shadow speaks to us of danger: We are the flesh. He is the open wound.” Elsewhere he speaks lines from John Lennon's “Imagine” and casts a look up – into the aforementioned sky. The daring integration of the texts into the choreography is also successful.

Despite the images of war, despite all the warning elements and distress shown in dance, Neumeier's "Dona nobis pacem" is nothing less than a celebration of life, which also includes death, which can be overcome - in the spirit of Bach's composition, which is here dated Ensemble Resonanz and the vocal ensemble Rastatt is impressively intoned. The composer himself did not live to see the performance of his late work, which is considered one of the greatest works in music history. On this basis, Neumeier interweaves ensemble dances and solos into a great roller coaster ride of feelings that are dampened by the opposite pole. The Hamburg audience celebrated the premiere with standing ovations.