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Article: Tanzstunden.(Rococo Theater, Schwetzingen, Germany)
- Article from:
- Dance Magazine
- Article date:
- September 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Dance Magazine, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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At seventy-one, Hans Werner Henze is the elder statesman of German composers. Long interested in ballet, he wrote Ondine in 1958 for Frederick Ashton and Orpheus in 1979 for William Forsythe.
As Henze approached his seventieth birthday, the Schwetzingen Festival, near Heidelberg, commissioned three ballet scores from him. Delayed for a year, they premiered under the collective title Tanzstunden ("Dance Lessons") on May 25 in performances by the German State Opera Ballet. Sebastian Weigle conducted the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.
The new scores -- Le Disperazioni del Signor Pulcinella, Le Fils de l'Air, and Labyrinth -- emerged as very much a ...