National Theatre of Pécs

It opens on November 25 at the Pécs National Theatre. We meet Balázs Vincze, director of Ballet Pécs and the production itself.

‘The perfect relationship dies while the imperfect one lives on’

It is 1885. Giuseppe Verdi has just finished ‘Otello’, his opera based on the Shakespeare play. While the original drama provides a wider space for the plot to unfold, Verdi’s opera concentrates on every emotion, jealousy and devastating fury, making the work more intense.
 This was how Balázs Vincze, director of the Ballet Pécs and choreographer-director of this new production, saw as his starting point. Vincze conceived of turning an opera of four acts into a ballet performance of two.
 As he explains: ‘The story is tremendously complicated and multi-threaded. It is extremely hard to tell even in the language of prose or opera, not to mention the language of dance. We present the plot through five characters, Othello, Desdemona, Iago, Emilia and Cassio. The performance also has a significant visual aspect. But, of course, beyond this, we also have to tell the story and not leave the audience in limbo’.
 Vincze sought a balance between spectacle and plot: ‘Dance is a rapidly evolving art form without the possibility to explain a piece by using pantomime techniques. To be honest, as a choreographer, I would not undertake such a pantomime, either. That would just be awful!’

 Various visual elements such as projections help his interpretation, showing the thoughts of the five main characters during the performance. At the beginning, the audience gets to know how the different characters see their particular role in the story, and how they are related. What does Emilia, Jago’s mistreated wife, think of her husband, as well as of the other characters?
 Vincze thinks a ballet is comprised of three main elements: visuals and light; music and libretto; and the plot itself. The harmony of these elements is the key for a successful performance. And the beauty of Verdi’s music is already a given. ‘Well, we do have problems with that as well. I have just learned about the existence of a so-called Verdi committee, who oversee when the music of the composer is being used and then claim excessive amounts of royalty.’
 During the Pécs performance, the audience can enjoy both the original music as well as musical settings composed by Richárd Riederauer.
 The director chose ‘Otello’ because the piece has all those typical elements that characterise our lives: treason, love, jealousy, revenge, with a very strong impact on the human experience. Vincze’s cast place these strong feelings into a special setting. ‘We would like to create an impressive visual experience and build up a complex of wharfs. However, even in this modern approach, we will use typical motifs of the Renaissance. For example, when Othello arrives by sea in triumph, the ship, the mast and the sea are such strong symbols that you cannot leave them out – they are important even today. The elements of the wharf complex are moved by the dancers, who use them as Lego building blocks. The setting is an organic part of the dance, changing rapidly and in a spectacular way.
 Vincze ponders the underlying message of ‘Otello’: ‘Othello and Desdemona are deeply in love, doing everything for each other, but Othello loses trust in Desdemona because of Iago, and this perfect relationship dies with Desdemona. While the relationship between Iago and Emilia is dreadful because Iago beats Emilia and treats her as an unequal partner, the woman stands by him despite it all. The perfect relationship dies while the imperfect one lives on’. The director thinks that these are very important topics. ‘To me it is important not just to tell but to emphasise such elements that raise questions in the audience. I want to make a piece work longer in the viewer and make sure it does not end when the curtain falls’.

 The Ballet Pécs has been one of the cultural symbols of town for more than 50 years. Its driving force is the constant change, revival and the application of ever new forms. In recent times, the ensemble managed to elaborate its own specific dance language. ‘Our task is to experiment and innovate,’ explains Vincze. ‘That is our duty. During the last couple of years more significant financial resources were invested in the arts. The European Capital of Culture project enabled us to work with foreign choreographers’.
 The Ballet Pécs company has broken through onto the international dance scene, a development clearly visible during their performances. ‘Hungarians love to suffer, our dance is slower, more melancholic, without much humour,’ Vincze concludes. ‘In Europe, the tempo is much faster. While we do three movements per beat, they do at least six. This dynamic grabs your attention, as well as being tremendously spectacular. We follow the lead shown by international choreographers and it makes our performance all the more impressive’.