The Théâtre du Chatelet welcomes dancers from the Tanztheater Wuppertal in performances of Bluebeard choreographed by Pina Bausch.

Recordings as a soundtrack

In conflict with the Wuppertal orchestra, Pina Bausch decided in the mid-1970s to use recordings as a soundtrack for her shows. For Bluebeard (Barbe Bleur in French), music is a scenic element, manipulated by the dancers : the tape recorder that broadcasts Bartók’s opera is constantly stopped, rewound, replayed. Repetition becomes a structural process of his choreographic language. In a setting by Rolf Borzik, a large room in the castle on the ground covered with dead leaves that crunch under the footsteps of the dancers, Barbe-Bleue and his new wife Judith love each other and confront each other in violence and cries.

A real modern tragedy

This reading of Perrault’s tale shows a monstrous and aggressive Bluebeard, locked in his despair. Pina Bausch choreographs him as a tyrant and a man who suffers from the control he exercises over others and himself. Thus, in Bluebeard, very freely inspired by Béla Bartók’s opera (Bluebeard’s Castle), Pina Bausch constructs a real modern tragedy, in a unique setting that symbolizes a place of confinement and pain. . It expresses the difficulty, the impossibility of being together, through a continuous stream of dramatic situations which follow one another and push the characters against the wall of their solitude.

Music Bela Bartok

Sets and costumes Rolf Borzik

Collaboration Rolf Borzik, Marion Cito, Hans Pop

With the dancers of the Tanztheater Wuppertal

Bluebeard (Barbe Bleue) at the Chatelet Theater

1 Place du Chatelet

75001 Paris

https://www.chatelet.com/programmation/saison-2021-2022/pina-bausch-tantztheater-wuppertal/