DEATH & THE MAIDEN / SECOND СAST

Death and the Maiden, Franz Schubert’s 1824 masterpiece, is widely considered as one of the pillars of the chamber music repertoire. The work was written as the composer was dying and was inspired by a lied of the same name in which he wrote (after Matthias Claudius) in 1817.

 The Maiden:

“Away! Ah, Away! thou cruel man of bone!

I am still young. Go, instead.

And do not touch me!”

Death:

“Give me thy hand, you fair and tender creature,

I’m a friend, and do not come to punish.

Be of good courage; I am not cruel

You shall sleep gently in my arms.”

Ihsan Rustem about the work:

«Schubert’s intricate and varied work offers a multitude of possibilities and textures to create to. There is an essence of death, of an ending, which runs throughout the work. Yet, I have the impression that the composer chose to take this moment of hardship and create sheer beauty from it. Just as the Schubert wrote this score knowing it would be his last, I have pushed the dancers in this work to dance as if this would be their final time. To confront their own concepts of borders and push their limits. The goal I set myself with this ballet was to respect the composer’s brilliant score and replicate this complexity and extreme musicality in the physical form, challenging the speed, sensitivity and vastness of limitless potential within the score».