“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!
Callirhoe is based on an eponymous ancient Greek novel by Chariton of Aphrodisias. Its date of origin is contested, but the novel was most likely written in the mid-first century AD. It’s about Callirhoe and Chaireas, a young, lovestruck couple, whose romance is put to the test around 400 BC. Fate has absurd twists and a torrent of calamities in store for them, which librettist Guillaume Gallienne condensed into two acts of breathtaking intensity.
The moment their eyes met for the first time, Callirhoe (Madison Young) and Chaireas (Victor Caixeta) fell in love, as if they were made for one another. Less than one-and-a-half minutes later, a kiss sealed their symbiosis. Shortly thereafter, their initially hostile fathers (Eno Peci and Lukas Gaudernak) made peace and blessed the wedding. An embodiment of beauty (or the worldly counterpart of Aphrodite), Callirhoe was the most coveted woman. Three especially jealous admirers successfully conspired to convince Chaireas of his wife’s unfaithfulness.
His rage caused her to fall into a coma. Believed dead, Callirhoe was buried (luckily not below ground but in a gorgeous tomb at sea level) only to be kidnapped by pirates (led by Géraud Wielick) upon awakening. Upon finding the tomb empty, Chaireas realized that Callirhoe was alive. Together with his loyal friend, Polycharmos (Rinaldo Venuti), he set off to find her.
They tracked her to the opposite seashore, where, just as they arrived, she was marrying the aristocrat Dionysius (Alessandro Frola). Both were arrested. A tender and sensitive husband, Dionysius won Callirhoe’s devotion and believed the son she gave birth to was his own. But other men craved to possess her as well. The greater their social power, the more recklessly they pursued her. Mithridates (Timoor Afshar), who happened to have Chaireas and Polycharmos taken captive, tore Callirhoe out of her husband’s arms, his gaze gleaming with lust. The king of Babylon (Marcelo Gomes), who actually should have settled Dionysius’s and Mithridates’s dispute over Callirhoe, grabbed her himself despite his wife’s (Ioanna Avraam’s) vain attempts to get his attention.
The sudden outbreak of a war between Egypt and Babylon shifted the story to the battlefield. There, Chaireas and Dionysius clashed into one another. Chaireas prevailed and found Callirhoe amidst the ruins, and they reunited. Just as Dionysius handed over the son (Julius Urga) to his mother and rightful father, the ending seemed to get mawkish. But thanks to Frola’s superb acting, it pierced one’s heart.
The choreography was rich and complex, revealing a multitude of facets of some protagonists (and the shallowness of others). Each step felt intense and imbued with meaning. By cleverly condensing parts of the story, Ratmansky freed time for extended pas de deux (Mithridates mistreated Callirhoe for quite a while) and meaningful solos from supportive characters, such as Callirhoe’s buoyant maid (Margarita Fernandes) and Dionysius’s clever servant (Rosa Pierro). Particularly in Act I, the corps acted as a mediator or commentator like the choir of a Greek tragedy, creating moments of contemplation.
The plasticity of group arrangements, scenes danced in mirror image like moving sculptures, and a movement style reminiscent of ancient Greece reflected the sophistication of that period culture.
The court at Babylon, by comparison, hopped around overexcitedly as if satirizing their royal status. Gomes’s king moved with heavy steps, his gaze vacant and hair unkempt. His crude assault on Callirhoe in front of all eyes proved that he was mentally unfit for a position of power.
Humor often lightened the lovers’ tragedy. Pushed by the lovers’ friends, their fathers stumbled clownishly toward reconciliation. Later, on the battlefield, the catchy tunes of Aram Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance (from the ballet Gayane) made Chaireas’s and Dionysius’s combat cartoonishly urgent. Most of the music was compiled from Gayane. Other music by Khachaturian completed the score (of which Paul Connelly and the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera performed a masterful rendition).
Jean-Marc Puissant’s tasteful, uncluttered decor resonated with ancient Greece and Babylonia. In the first act, a statue of Aphrodite overlooked the goings-on as if to assure everyone that whatever happened was destined. The blue and golden backdrop at Babylon’s court resembled the Ishtar Gate. All order was reduced to ashes at the end. The principle of love was unharmed though. It rose from the rubble like a phoenix.
| Links: | Website of the Vienna State Ballet | |
| “Callirhoe” – Trailer | ||
| “Callirhoe” – Introduction | ||
| “Callirhoe”- Rehearsal | ||
| Photos: | 1. | Madison Young (Callirhoe) and ensemble, “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 |
| 2. | Victor Caixeta (Chaireas) and ensemble, “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 |
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| 3. | Madison Young (Callirhoe), “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 4. | Madison Young (Callirhoe), Victor Caixeta (Chaireas), and ensemble; “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 5. | Margarita Fernandes (Callirhoe’s maid), Giovanni Cusi, and Lars Philipp Gramlich (Chaireas’s friends); “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 6. | Victor Caixeta (Chaireas), Madison Young (Callirhoe), and ensemble: “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 7. | Madison Young (Callirhoe), Rinaldo Venuti (Polycharmos), Victor Caixeta (Chaireas), and ensemble; “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 8. | Rosa Pierro (Dionysius’s servant), “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 |
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| 9. | Madison Young (Callirhoe) and Alessandro Frola (Dionysius), “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 |
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| 10. | Rinaldo Venuti (Polycharmos), “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 |
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| 11. | Timoor Afshar (Mithridates), “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 12. | Victor Caixeta (Chaireas) and ensemble, “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 13. | Madison Young (Callirhoe), “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 14. | Marcelo Gomes (King of Babylon), Madison Young (Callirhoe), and ensemble; “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 15. | Ioanna Avraam (Queen of Babylon), Gaia Fredianelli, Natalya Butchko, and ensemble; “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 16. | Alessandro Frola (Dionysius) and ensemble,“Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 |
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| 17. | Victor Caixeta (Chaireas) and ensemble, “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 18. | Alessandro Frola (Dionysius) and Madison Young (Callirhoe), “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 19. | Madison Young (Callirhoe) and Victor Caixeta (Chaireas), “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 20. | Madison Young (Callirhoe) and Victor Caixeta (Chaireas), “Callirhoe” by Alexei Ratmansky, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| all photos © Vienna State Ballet/Ashley Taylor | ||
| Editing: | Kayla Kauffman |
