The Ballet

Maria is a one-act ballet by Goyo Montero to music by Lera Auerbach. It was created as the first part of the two-part ballet evening Narrenschiff, whose two independent works are linked by the themes of exodus, displacement, and the search for a better world.

The German press material describes Montero’s interest in the figure of Mary Magdalene: a powerful biblical woman who asserted herself as Jesus’s equal companion within a male world, chose her own path beyond social norms, and was later displaced from received tradition. This figure became the basis for a role created for Diana Vishneva.

The music is Auerbach’s Dialogues on Stabat Mater, a contemporary instrumental dialogue with Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. In Maria, the musical language of lament, prayer, commentary, and transformation becomes the ground for Montero’s choreographic treatment of Mary Magdalene as a figure of witness, autonomy, and spiritual force.

Production Context

The German press material notes that the two works of the evening, Maria and Narrenschiff, address conflicts arising from different understandings of the causes of flight, gender roles, national belonging, religion, responsibility for the ecosystem, and related questions. The stage concept used the texture and gold-and-silver color of emergency and rescue blankets, associating the visual world with the protection of arriving refugees.

In the first part of the evening, the costumes are described as gender-neutral and reduced, directing attention toward the sensual presence of the dancers’ bodies.

Underlying Musical Work

Dialogues on Stabat Mater was composed in 2005 for violin, viola, vibraphone and string orchestra after Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. The work is published by Sikorski and available through Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski as rental material.

* In the catalogue, the asterisk indicates choreography to preexisting concert music by Lera Auerbach.

Online Materials

Materials, Preview and References