For the Jung in Heart

It was, said Rudolf Nureyev, like "graduating from finishing school," a chance "to show what I learned about the West, and what I can do with it choreographically." Last week at the Vienna State Opera, Nureyev presented Tancredi, his first try at choreographing a modern ballet. No pretty picture princes, no fluttering ballerinas in cupid wings this time. He turned the old love-triangle theme into an exploration of neurosis from womb to tomb, into a balletic adventure that was, as one critic put it, "for the Jung in heart."

The role of Tancredi, danced by Nureyev, was conceived as the only flesh-and-blood character on stage; the rest of the roles were grim and ghostly reflections of his troubled personality. To achieve a fittingly "queasy-uneasy" setting for the journey into the subconscious, Australian Set Designer Barry Kay studied various plants under a microscope, then conjured a shadowy, organic world streaked with veins like a bloodshot eyeball. Into this membranous setting, Tancredi is symbolically born, wobbling to life to face his first crisis. It comes in the form of two female images representing sacred and profane love. Torn between the two, he suffers a series of hallucinations and his second personality emerges. This leads to a violent, schizophrenic pas de quatre, and ultimately Tancredi No. 1 and Tancredi No. 2 are reduced to zero--death.

Future Step. The choreography for the 34-minute ballet was also slightly schizophrenic, a mixture rather than a melding of styles in which classical techniques alternated with the swivel and sway of modern dance. The action was fluent and quick moving. It spilled out in a stream of consciousness that followed no clearly defined course but swirled into moments of great beauty. What Nureyev's flights of fancy lacked was strong musical accompaniment. Hans Werner Henze's complex score was dense without being deep, an anemic, meandering work that undercut rather than underscored the choreography. Nureyev was forced to keep one foot in the classical past while trying to step into the future with the other. It was enough to make a schizo of a choreographer, let alone a Tancredi.

The critics, while baffled about the meaning of it all, generally agreed that in Tancredi, Nureyev displayed a new and fascinating side of his talent that is as up to date as tomorrow.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.