2025 – Landgraf on Dance

27. December 202527. December 2025

Flimsy

“Marie Antoinette”
Vienna State Ballet & Volksoper Wien
Volksoper Wien
Vienna, Austria
December 20, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Thierry Malandain’s Marie Antoinette was the Vienna State Ballet’s second premiere under Alessandra Ferri’s directorship. The one-act piece, created for the Malandain Ballet Biarritz, received its premiere in 2019 at the Palace of Versailles’s Opéra Royal. Its stage was inaugurated in 1770 during Marie Antoinette’s lavish wedding to Louis Auguste, heir to the throne.
Marie Antoinette follows the life of the then only fourteen-year-old Dauphine of France until her execution by guillotine in 1793. That’s twenty-three years of life (nineteen of which Marie Antoinette was Queen consort) to narrate. But Malandain tells little, and the ninety minutes of Marie Antoinette dragged on.

Malandain’s choreography was bland, repetitive, and cliché. Compared to the company’s latest premiere, Ratmansky’s Callirhoe, Malandain’s failure to characterize people through movement or comprehensibly convey a story was glaring. For example, who could understand what message the Austrian diplomat, Comte de Mercy-Argenteau (Gabriele Aime), delivered to Marie Antoinette (Elena Bottero) when they faced one another motionless? Why did the Comte and the Queen mother, Empress Maria Theresa (Rebecca Horner), kneel when Marie Antoinette lay on her back, circling the lower part of her stretched-up leg? Is that a cipher language only Malandain understands?

On other occasions, he was overly explicit. King Louis XV’s (the grandfather and predecessor of King Louis XVI, who became Marie Antoinette’s husband) affair with Comtesse du Barry was a series of stereotypes. Her bright red dress and craving demeanor unmistakably identified her as a mistress. Malandain omitted the fact that she proved a troublesome foe for Marie Antoinette. Instead, he created an extended pas de deux during which King Louis XV (László Benedek) crawled under the Comtesse’s (Mila Schmidt) skirt two times, at which point she crouched above his back, and both moved sideways. The pas de deux ended when both were caught in the act of intercourse on the floor. Shockingly vulgar was the moment when King Louis XVI (Andrés Garcia Torres) consummated his marriage by laying Marie Antoinette on the floor, lifting her skirt, kneeling between her legs, and thrusting his hips toward her.

Only painfully prolonged scenes filled the void of narrative creativity. For quite some time, the court society carried a huge rectangular frame (similar in size to those set designer, Jorge Gallardo, used to represent Versailles’s wall panels), over which they bowed and nodded like dutiful yes-men. The frame represented the confinement of royal etiquette, defined the borders of the aisle leading to the imaginary wedding altar, and marked the children’s playground on which the newlywed frolicked. It later turned into the frame of their marital bed and, later, once leaned against the backdrop, into the proscenium arch of the Opéra Royal, where a lengthy excerpt of Persée (Perseus, a 1682 tragédie lyrique that premiered at the Académie royale de musique, today’s Opéra de Paris, and was revived at Versailles in the same year) was performed. Malandain’s Perseus included the hero, Perseus (Adrien Fougères), Medusa (Olivia Poropat), and three nymphs (Kristina Ermolenok, Una Zubović, and Tessa Magda) and culminated in the beheading of Medusa. According to the synopsis (which contained more information than the actual ballet), the sight of the cut-off head might have raised thoughts (or even apprehensions?) for Marie Antoinette, but I couldn’t spot her attending the performance.
The scene that tried the audience’s patience most showed Empress Maria Theresa playing extensively with her first granddaughter (i.e., a wooden puppet). The parents, decoratively sitting on the floor as bystanders, then took the puppet, carried it around tenderly, and played “One, two, three, whee!” with it.

At that point, I wondered if Malandain intended to mock the audience or if Marie Antoinette actually represented his idea of theatrical art. It’s a shame that the company’s time and talent were wasted on such a piece.

Jorge Gallardo’s costumes included hybrids between juste-au-corps and frock coats as well as corsage dresses decorated with voluptuous ruffles on the backs of the skirts. Except for the Queen Mother’s, all dresses were low-cut or, in the case of Comtesse du Barry, exposed one breast like an Amazon.

In the first scenes, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI wore the same white garb as their court, making them often indistinguishable from the group. Huge golden fans and a golden dress testified to Marie Antoinette’s passion for grandeur; her ladies-in-waiting wore candy-colored dresses of the same cut. Their matching headdresses looked like tussocks with a tied top. For the pastimes at Hameau de la Reine, Marie Antoinette’s rustic retreat at the park of Versailles, decorative sheep were lined up at the front stage.

Marie Antoinette features music by Haydn and Gluck, which was staid and dignified according to courtly custom. Conductor Christoph Altstaedt and the Volksoper Wien’s orchestra played with their usual aplomb.

Links:		Website of the Vienna State Ballet
		Website of the Volksoper Wien
		Marie Antoinette—Trailer
		Marie Antoinette—Teaser
		Marie Antoinette—Rehearsal
Photos:	1.	Elena Bottero (Marie Antoinette) and Andrés Garcia Torres (Ludwig XVI), “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
	2.	Rebecca Horner (Queen Mother), “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
	3.	Elena Bottero (Marie Antoinette) and Andrés Garcia Torres (Ludwig XVI), “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
	4.	Mila Schmidt (Comtesse du Barry), “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
	5.	Adrien Fougères (Perseus) and Olivia Poropat (Medusa), “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
	6.	Aleksandar Orlić (Axel von Fersen), “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
	7.	Elena Bottero (Marie Antoinette) and Andrés Garcia Torres (Ludwig XVI), “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
	8.	Ensemble, “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
	9.	Elena Bottero (Marie Antoinette) and ensemble, “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
	10.	Elena Bottero (Marie Antoinette) and ensemble, “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
	11.	Andrés Garcia Torres (Ludwig XVI), Elena Bottero (Marie Antoinette), and Aleksandar Orlić (Axel von Fersen); “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
	12.	Gabriele Aime (Comte de Mercy-Argenteau) and Rebecca Horner (Queen Mother), “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
	13.	Andrés Garcia Torres (Ludwig XVI), “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
	14.	Ensemble, “Marie Antoinette” by Thierry Malandain, Vienna State Ballet 2025
		all photos © Vienna State Ballet/Ashley Taylor
Editing:		Kayla Kauffman

25. December 202527. December 2025

Doing the Company Proud

“Gala pour les 50 ans de l’Académie Princess Grace”
L’Académie Princesse Grace
Salle Prince Pierre, Grimaldi Forum
Monte Carlo, Monaco
December 19, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo has much to celebrate this season: the company’s fortieth anniversary and the associated Academy Princess Grace’s fiftieth anniversary. The company will host a gala in July 2026, and the Academy’s gala took place last Friday. It combined a “best of” selection of works performed by the Academy during the past sixteen years. Princess Caroline of Hanover, president of Les Ballet de Monte-Carlo, attended the gala.

The legs of seven girls flew high to George Gershwin’s I’ve got Rhythm, and the joy and confidence in their faces, as well as the freedom, dash, and buoyancy of their movements, left no doubt that this would be a pleasant evening. Michel Rahn’s 2011 neoclassical choreography of almost the same title, We’ve Got Rhythm!, looked Balanchine-esque and employed a large group of male and female students. Continue reading “Doing the Company Proud”

22. December 202525. December 2025

“A Splendor for the Eyes”

“The Sleeping Beauty”
The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House/Joan Sutherland Theatre
Sydney, Australia
December 16, 2025 (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

According to the Australian Ballet’s artistic director, David Hallberg, The Sleeping Beauty is “a splendor for the eyes.” The production, which originated ten years ago under the directorship of Hallberg’s predecessor, David McAllister (who also contributed choreography based on Petipa’s original), is more; it is food for the soul.

As if zooming in on the painting of a distant palace projected on the curtain, the first scene showed the royal writing cabinet, where the whimsical Catalabutte (Jarryd Madden) omitted Carabosse from the list of invitees to Princess Aurora’s christening party. The curve of the painting’s frame recurred in the shape of the banisters that led down to the royal hall. Jon Buswell’s lighting increased the impression of paintings in motion. Continue reading ““A Splendor for the Eyes””

12. December 202522. December 2025

Lasting Icons

“Two Annas”
MuzArts
Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre
St. Petersburg, Russia
December 2025 (video)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

The production company MuzArts, founded in 2014 to showcase the Bolshoi Ballet’s prima ballerina, Svetlana Zakharova, has grown into a vital force of Russia’s ballet scene. Their recent production, Two Annas, was supported by the Diaghilev P.S. International Festival of Arts, a prominent, intercultural, cross-genre event that has been held in St. Petersburg since 2009. Two Annas premiered at St. Petersburg’s Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre this February and received its Moscow premiere at the Maly Theatre. Thanks to the MuzArts’s director, Yuri Baranov, I was able to watch a video of the production. Continue reading “Lasting Icons”

2. December 202512. December 2025

Adventurous

“Peter Pan”
Vienna State Ballet & Volksoper Wien
Volksoper Wien
Vienna, Austria
November 22, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Vienna’s Volksoper buzzed with excitement shortly before the performance of Vesna Orlić’s dance adaptation of Peter Pan. The great many children in the auditorium fell into eager silence when a rousing fanfare opened the ballet.

Orlić, leading ballet master of the Volksoper ensemble, began choreographing in 2006. For her 2019 Peter Pan, she was justifiably awarded Austria’s music theater prize. The production, which is based on James Matthew Barrie’s 1911 novel Peter and Wendy (known as Peter Pan), is witty, gripping, and great entertainment for the young and the old. I don’t know why the company’s former artistic director, Martin Schläpfer, shelved it. His successor, Alessandra Ferri, instantly decided on a revival. Continue reading “Adventurous”

26. November 20252. December 2025

Mockery

“Die Fledermaus” (“The Bat”)
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
November 21, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

For Johann Strauss II’s bicentennial, the Vienna State Ballet revived Roland Petit’s 1979 ballet adaptation of Strauss’s famous operetta, Die Fledermaus (The Bat). It’s accompanied by a “best of” selection of compositions by Johann Strauss II, his father, Johann Strauss I, and his brother, Josef. The score’s oomph and gaiety are infectious. Strauss’ music, particularly the Viennese waltzes (of which Die Fledermaus has plenty), is part of the DNA of the Vienna State Opera’s orchestra, and under Luciano Di Martino’s baton, it fizzed like champagne. Melodies rose boisterously to a tipping point, balanced provocatively on the edge, and rippled down with relish as if on a rollercoaster ride. Continue reading “Mockery”

14. November 202526. November 2025

Applied Faith

“Romeo and Juliet”
Hungarian National Ballet
Hungarian State Opera
Budapest, Hungary
November 8-9, 2025 (evening performance and matinee)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Most ballet companies have a version of Romeo and Juliet. The Hungarian National Ballet’s version, by László Seregi (1929-2012), has been on the program regularly since its premiere in 1985. A crowd puller, the opera house was sold out at both performances I watched.

Seregi’s name is well known to Hungarian ballet lovers. Initially trained as a folk dancer, he joined the opera’s corps de ballet when it was short on artists during the 1956 revolution. In 1977, he became the company’s director but, feeling burdened by his duties, suffered from an enduring artistic crisis. Continue reading “Applied Faith”

27. October 202514. November 2025

Reborn

“Callirhoe”
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
October 19, 2025 (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

The title of Martin Schläpfer’s farewell choreography, Pathétique, summarized the condition of the Vienna State Ballet he left behind after five years as its artistic director. His successor, Alessandra Ferri, restructured the company. Some dancers left, and others joined, some of whom were returnees. Last weekend, she presented the first premiere under her reign, Alexei Ratmansky’s Callirhoe (which he choreographed for ABT in 2020 under the title Of Love and Rage). It felt like the rebirth of the company. I cannot remember when I last saw the Vienna State Ballet perform with such force. Congratulations! Continue reading “Reborn”

21. October 202527. October 2025

Watered Down

“Le Corsaire”
Korean National Ballet
Forum Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg, Germany
October 18, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Last weekend, the Korean National Ballet presented Le Corsaire at the Forum Ludwigsburg. The tour stopped at Suejin Kang’s, the company’s artistic director, former home in the Stuttgart region, where she is a cherished former principal of Stuttgart Ballet. The senior guard of Stuttgart’s ballet circle therefore flocked to the performance as if it were a family gathering.

The Koreans’ Le Corsaire premiered in 2020 and is by Jungbin Song, a soloist of the company who began choreographing in 2016. He kept some of Petipa’s signature choreography (such as the tender pas de deux of Medora and Conrad in Act II; the pas de trois of Medora, Conrad, and Ali; and the Grand Pas de Trois des Odalisques) but rewrote the plot significantly. Continue reading “Watered Down”

5. August 202525. August 2025

The Art of Embarrassing Oneself

“Stravinsky in Paris” (“Farewell in Paris”/“Le Sacre du Printemps”)
State Ballet of the Gärtnerplatztheater, Munich
Forum Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg, Germany
July 30, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Since 1932, the city of Ludwigsburg in Baden-Württemberg has hosted an annual summer festival featuring various cultural genres. Many events are held at the Ludwigsburg Palace, a vast complex that served as the Duke of Württemberg’s residence after its completion in 1733. Munich’s State Ballet of the Gärtnerplatztheater, whose Stravinsky in Paris marked the festival’s final dance event, performed at the Ludwigsburg Forum near the palace. Last October, the Gärtnerplatztheater showed Troja (“Troy”) by the Greek-born Andonis Foniadakis on its tour to Ludwigsburg. Its display of sexist abuse was annoying. As the press praised Stravinsky in Paris as a “confetti rocket,” I was curious about its “sophisticated dance and music.”
Stravinsky in Paris, a co-production of the Gärtenerplatztheater and the Ludwigsburg Festival, recently premiered in Munich. The double bill combines Jeroen Verbruggen’s Farewell in Paris and Marco Goecke’s Le Sacre du Printemps.
The nonchalant steps of the straw-hatted men who opened Farewell to Paris seemed inspired by a blend of Broadway style and Parisian savoir vivre. In their pale pink of their blazers and pants, they seemed to belong in a little girl’s dream (costumes by Emmanuel Maria). Continue reading “The Art of Embarrassing Oneself”

27. July 20255. August 2025

Something Is Going On

“Twilight”/“Bronia”
Les Ballets de Monte Carlo
Salle Garnier Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Monte Carlo, Monaco
July 18, 2025

Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo closed the season with two new creations: Twilight by Lukáš Timulak and Bronia by Mattia Russo and Antonio de Rosa. So far, all productions I’ve seen in Monaco have been performed at the Grimaldi Forum, a modern glass and steel complex whose Salle des Princes lies below sea level. The new double bill was, however, presented at the Salle Garnier at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, which is next door to the famous casino. A miniature replica of the Paris Opera, the Salle Garnier is a red and gold Italian theater built in the Second Empire style. It was here that Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes took up residence in 1911. Until the First World War, Diaghilev’s company rehearsed, prepared new productions, and stored sets and props in Monte-Carlo. On April 9, 1911, the Ballets Russes gave its first performance, which featured Scheherazade and Giselle. On April 19th, Nijinsky and Karsavina gave their debut in Fokine’s Le Spectre de la Rose. This history was significant in the context of the recent premiere. Continue reading “Something Is Going On”

22. July 202527. July 2025

“We Need Him”

“Diaghilev”
Dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre (New Stage)
Moscow, Russia
June 24, 2025 (video)

The man in need whom Sergei Lifar wrote about in 1939 was Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929), impresario of the Ballets Russes and a revolutionist of ballet. Diaghilev’s burning passion to discover and promote creative beauty is unequaled. He shaped the perception of Russian culture in the West and, like a virus, changed the DNA of twentieth-century art. Without him, Vaslav Nijinsky, Tamara Karsavina, Ida Rubinstein, Feodor Chaliapin, and Igor Stravinsky wouldn’t have become known to the world, and the careers of choreographers, such as Michel Fokine, Bronislava Nijinska, Léonide Massine, and George Balanchine, might have taken another path. Ten years after Diaghilev’s death, no one had filled the void he had left behind.

Ninety-six years later, a new Diaghilev has yet to be found, but—as Russia and the West separated again—the need for a bridge-building spirit and culture that unites people across borders is more pressing than ever. That’s why Russia launched the cultural search festival We Need Diaghilev last year, which features various expositions, lectures, and performances at Russian and foreign venues. Continue reading ““We Need Him””

15. July 202522. July 2025

A Recap

“Malditos Benditos”
Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg
State Theater
Nuremberg, Germany
July 10, 2025

Malditos Benditos (“Damned Blessed Ones”) is Goyo Montero’s farewell piece to Nuremberg. After seventeen years as artistic director of the State Theater’s ballet company, the Spaniard will leave for the State Ballet Hanover this autumn to take up the reins Marco Goecke was forced to give up in 2023. Richard Siegal, director of the Cologne-based Ballet of Difference, will succeed Montero in Nuremberg and bring his dancers along. They will merge with their Nuremberg colleagues into the State Theater Nuremberg Ballet of Difference.
Malditos Benditos is the counterpart to Benditos Malditos, Montero’s first creation in Nuremberg in 2008. Many of the intervening twenty-five productions are reflected in Malditos Benditos. Applause blended into the medley of musical snippets and electronic noise as the black curtain rose. The black-suited dancers (costumes by Goyo Montero and Margaux Manns) bowed to the applause of an imaginary audience at the rear stage, framed by a bright red curtain. Continue reading “A Recap”

29. June 202515. July 2025

Too Bad

“Scheherazade”
Czech National Ballet
National Theatre
Prague, Czech Republic
June 21, 2025 (matinee)

To be upfront, Mauro Bigonzetti’s new Scheherazade for the Czech National Ballet is no asset to its repertory. Its choreography is meager and the plot thin; the characters lack depth, and the digital set design is unconvincing.
Bigonzetti takes up the narrative thread where Fokine’s 1910 Scheherazade for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes ends. Zobeida, the favorite but unfaithful wife of Shahryar, the king of Persia, had died. Enraged about womanhood in general, Shahryar took revenge by killing every woman he slept with the morning after their first night together. Scheherazade, the clever daughter of his vizier, put a stop to the slaughter. The tales she narrated to the king each night (collected in the Middle Eastern folk tale, One Thousand and One Nights) softened him.
Bigonzetti portrayed the women in line for Shahryar, among them Scheherazade (Nana Nakagawa), who was ready to sacrifice herself. Continue reading “Too Bad”

26. June 202529. June 2025

Eerie

“Valerie and Her Week of Wonders”
Laterna magika
The New Stage
Prague, Czech Republic
June 20, 2025

The Czech avant-garde author Vítězlav Nezval’s gothic novel, Valery and Her Week of Wonders, written in 1935 and published in 1945, has experienced a revival at home. It was first adapted for the stage in 1967, and a new production was shown in Prague only forty years later in 2008. In 2023, two Czech companies simultaneously presented stage versions of Valeria and Her Week of Wonders; the West Bohemian Theatre in Cheb (located between Karlovy Vary and the Czech/German border) and Laterna magika in Prague. I saw Laterna magika’s production.

The wonders that Nezval’s teenage heroine, Valerie, experiences during the span of one week are far from wonderful and are rather a sexually laden horror trip that torpedoes her into womanhood. Events unfold with a dream Valerie has on the night of her first menstruation. Only late in the novel does this dream verge into the realm of reality, which it soon forsakes for a Garden of Eden-like happy ending. Continue reading “Eerie”