I had a pleasure to watch Scapino Ballet Rotterdam’s Cathedral, an evening with Arvo Pärt on Friday, 29th November 2024, the second show of the programme, at Theater Rotterdam. I try not to give you a spoiler because, in my opinion, it is nice to be surprised.
Cathedral was created by Spanish artist Marcos Morau for Scapino Ballet in 2019 and it is the first revival since then. Choreography credits are given to him and Lorena Nogal.
The header image of the company’s web page shows dancers dressed in inorganic black costumes holding a baby. As you can guess, the theme of Cathedral is religion. And I am not religious. Still, this is the most interesting, stylish and otherworldly (literally) beautiful take on religion I have ever seen.
Some scenes are surreal. Some look familiar and alien simultaneously…. is that a recreation of The Nativity? Some are provocative and thought provoking. Some are the pure showcases of dancers’ and musicians’ techniques and chemistry between them.
Cathedral is not a Christmas party for families but I enjoyed it immensely. It is genius of Scapino Ballet of performing Cathedral when other classical ballet companies are performing the The Nutcracker, which is fine, too.
Cathedral is on a national tour until February 2025. It tours to Germany in January and to Spain in June.
Some facts
Cathedral is the first run of Scapino under direction of Nanine Linning, who replaced Ed Wubbe in October. She stepped onto stage to introduce herself to the audience before the performance commenced.
For the lucky locals like myself, the shows in Rotterdam were accompanied by the live music of Sinfonia Rotterdam and soprano Channa Malkin (in collaboration with IVC). Elsewhere, recorded music is used. Personally, I tend to buy cheap seats because I go to theatre often and usually solo. But the advantage of these cheap seats is I can see the orchestra pits.
There was/is a recital of a piece of poetry in Dutch. I do not speak Dutch, so I contacted the company in the following day to ask for the transcript. They kindly sent me the English text of the poem.
Personally, it was the first time for me to watch Morau’s work. If I am not mistaken, he is one of the most celebrated artists in Continental Europe but his works are not performed in London, where I used to live.
I realised not a day goes without hearing the fragments of Pärt’s music somewhere but it was for the first time for me to listen to his music for full one evening and live. Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain uses his music but Tabula Rasa and Spiegel im Spiegel only, which are also used for Cathedral.
Due to my ignorance, I had no knowledge about this contemporary ballet company until I moved here about two years ago. But now I do not want to miss anything they do.
The header image is taken by me with my iPhone.
Official trailer