Alessandra Ferri with Hamburg Ballet in Duse

Opera House, Hamburg
February 3, 2017

Maggie Foyer

In Duse, two great artists, Eleanora Duse and Alessandra Ferri, have been brought together on the Hamburg Opera House stage to create inspirational theatre. John Neumeier structures the ballet into a long tempestuous first act that encapsulates the Italian actress’s life and work and a shorter second act that brings the evening to a transcendental close as Duse in her afterlife communes with her former lovers to the strains of Arvo Pärt’s Fratres and Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten.

The role is a gift for Ferri, who at 53 brings a lifetime of experience to fruition, her maturity of expression coupled with technical ability. This is no character role for the older dancer past her prime. Ferri’s legs and feet still have all the muscle tone needed for the many and varied pas de deux augmented by expressive arms and body. Her artistry is evident from the opening moments where our attention is drawn to her articulate hands silhouetted against the screen.

Love is the essence of this extraordinary woman and Neumeier expresses her emotional needs in her three lovers: Arrigo Boito, who excites her intellect, Gabriele D’Annunzio, who draws out her sensuality and Luciano Nicastro, her soulmate and deep enduring love. The young soldier, Luciano, is played with great sensitivity by Alexandr Trusch who combines the lover, artist and soldier in persuasive dance. She identifies him as her Romeo and also her Armand, weaving between the roles as art duplicates life.

Duse’s most famous interpretations, Shakespeare’s Juliet and Dumas’ Marguerite, surface throughout the ballet. Neumeier uses these dramatic performances to create ensemble scenes, balancing the pas de deux with opportunities for the company dancers. His theatricality comes to the fore as the conflict in Romeo and Juliet become entwined with the reality of World War 1 and Duse’s visit to the front. The vision of war, set to the Lacrymosa from Benjamin Britten’s Simfonia da Requiem, builds to a powerful scene, effectively choreographed and performed with commitment. The set and lighting also by Neumeier, a combination of onstage proscenium arch, plinths and curtains, are cleverly designed to shape the drama and lit to sharpen the focus.

Her lover/mentor, Boito who translated Anthony and Cleopatra for her, is not an easy character to interpret through dance but Carsten gives a vivid reading of this complex man. Karen Azatyan as D’Annunzio is her most extrovert lover, an emotional, instinctive man who throwing himself at her feet, bearing flowers and offering his all. He later displays his physical attributes to the eager photographers and also to her rival Sarah Bernhard while Duse shows her contempt by tossing one of his red roses after the departing couple.

The pas de deux of Duse and D’Annunzio are the most physical, rivalling Kenneth MacMillan in their sweeping passionate embraces and lifts. Ferri remains master of her art in a performance of unrestrained sensuality taken to poetic heights in the eloquence of her arms.

Neumeier has woven Duse’s tumultuous life into movement with his customary skill. Duse, who believed acting was something lived rather than a theatrical technique, lends herself to dance expression. It was in her portrayal of Juliet that she discovers her true acting talent and her gift for shaping the text into emotional truth. Duse found in Isadora Duncan, (a fine performance from Anna Laudere), an artistic soulmate. In a brief scene full of vivid imagery, the women meet and Duse is on hand to offer comfort when Duncan’s children are tragically drowned.

The other great actress of the age was Sarah Bernhardt and their rivalry divided audiences. Silvia Azzoni tackles the glamorous role with obvious glee, giving an Oscar winning performance in extravagant acting. A mention too for Leslie Heylmann in an unobtrusive, but indispensable role, as Duse’s companion.

The second act takes the main characters into the afterlife: an austere minimal world, Ferri in a flesh coloured leotard and the four men – her three lovers and Marc Jubete, representing her audience – in white trousers. The choreography is more abstract as the four work in harmony supporting and carrying her, often passive, body. Slowly shades of emotion filter through but the ending is ambiguous; a life in art fulfilled and eternity stretching beyond.

This ballet draws on John Neumeier’s unique skillset, a combination of intellectual rigour, dramatic flair, choreographic skill and love of the art. For Alessandra Ferri, it is a personal triumph for one of the greatest dance artists of our age.

A postscript: at the box office in Hamburg a stack of leaflets announced, ‘Refugees welcome!’ It was an invitation to attend a ballet, opera or concert free of charge and gave a contact number. Thank you, Hamburg, for leading the way – a lesson to us all.