In Strasbourg, Schubert is part of modernity

This is a rare but very interesting initiative. Bruno Bouché, the director of the Rhin ballet, invited his dancers to try their hand at choreography. The result ? A superb succession of small works on the music of Schubert, a dozen in all, presented to the public throughout an evening in two 55-minute parts. The success of the project is primarily due to the extraordinary coherence of the whole. Rather than a patchwork of sketches disconnected from each other, here, the transitions are so well thought out that the viewer has the impression of following a single adventure.

Schubert's music, immediately recognizable, plays a big role in this feeling of unity as it is imbued with this same nostalgic and romantic universe. They are mostly played and sung in the pit or on set, and if some are recorded, this does not interfere in any way. They are played on the piano by Maxime Georges and Hugo Mathieu with the help on several occasions of two singers from the Studio opera, Mezzo Bernadette Johns and baritone Bruno Khouri. the scenography is by Silvère Jarrosson.

From the first movements, we know that we are going to have the right to beautiful and great dancing. This is because the technical level of the company is the best there is. Moreover, at certain moments in the first part, we almost have the impression of being in a Balanchinian universe as the choreography is generous with pointes and arabesques. A must see.

Opera du Rhin in Strasbourg until October 8, in Mulhouse on November 9.