Premiere: April 9, 2025

Vienna State Ballet
Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera

Divertimento Nr. 15
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Conductor: Christoph Altstaedt
Choreography: George Balanchine
Costume design: Karinska

Summerspace
Music: Morton Feldman
Choreography: Merce Cunningham
Stage, costume, lighting design: Robert Rauschenberg

Pathétique
Music: Piotr I. Tschaikowskij, Georg Friedrich Händel
Conductor: Christoph Altstaedt
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer
Costume design: Catherine Voeffray

Two icons of the New York avant-garde of the 1950s meet a world premiere by Martin Schläpfer: with Divertimento No. 15, George Balanchine choreographed a fragrant neoclassical Mozart ballet and Merce Cunningham too has not lost touch with the skies in his bouncy dance piece Summerspace. In contrast, Martin Schläpfer will create a new work for the dancers of the Vienna State Ballet based on a highly dramatic symphony: Tchaikovsky’s "Pathétique", characterised by emotional highs and deep abysses.