Phaedra / The Tempest at Baltic Opera

Phaedra
It is a story of a tragic love of a stepmother to her young stepson. This masterpiece of French literature is transformed by Izadora Weiss with use of dance into a heart breaking story of impossible love, of guilt and of helplessness when faced with passions born within out of incomprehensible sources. It is about lies and a death that seems to be the only escape from this cursed trap. It is also a sophisticated show about relentless hierarchy in art and life which causes injustice and yet gives an incredible power to overcome weaknesses and fears.


The Tempest


After the truly daring project Netherlands Izadora Weiss returns to Shakespeare and proposes her own adaptation of The Tempest told with music and choreography of phenomenal artists from the BTT nowadays including new talents from all over the world. As usually in her case, Weiss holds on faithfully to her priorities in this production too. The relationship between music and dancing seems to be the most crucial for her, being the very condition of the theatre existence and a choreography foundation. She still observes a rule that there is nothing more essential in the art than telling a story of a man, his emotions, tragedies and heroic moral choices. All formal games with the pop culture seem to be unworthy of such high territory in the world of art as is a theatre stage. Human truth and emotions will never lose its rank in her eyes regardless of contempt shared by seekers of creativity based on destruction and panic avoiding of storytelling. The Tempest shall be therefore a rather casual interpretation of the Shakespeare’s drama when it comes to a place and time of the action but faithful to basic idea of this play in which overcoming of selfishness for the love of one’s daughter and feeling of justice gained by the one who has a great power over people, were given such beautiful theatrical scenery. The first symphony by Mahler accompanying this production turns it into a true gem.