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Alexandre Tharaud
Benjamin Millepied
Unstill Life
from When he founded the L.to. Dance Project, Benjamin Millepied - among the most talented dancers and choreographers on the contemporary scene - has devoted himself primarily to artistic creation. to make his presence at Festival dei Due Mondi exclusive is his return to the stage as a dancer, after more than a decade, for the new project with pianist Alexandre Tharaud - a unique figure in the world of classical music and a leading exponent of the French school.
Director of the Opéra National de Paris from 2014 to 2016 and consecrated on the big screen by the film The Black Swan with actress Natalie Portman, who later became his wife, Millepied shares the stage with Tharaud at the Teatro Romano in Unstill Life, an exceptional evening that takes the relationship between dance and music to new heights.
"from child I wanted to be a dancer," says Alexandre Tharaud, irresistibly attracted toOpera in Paris, while Benjamin dreamed of being a pianist, before becoming the great dancer and choreographer we know. For lack of talent, I did not pursue ballet. But the piano welcomed me to open arms. Benjamin and I met a few years ago at Place des Vosges to Paris. That day the idea of a residency atOpera was sparked, during which I would give concerts and participate in some ballets inspired by the piano repertoire. Time has passed and today our paths cross again in a more intimate project, that of a face to face meeting between our arts. If all of Benjamin'sopera is deeply connected to music, I think I can say that my playing would not be what it is without my years of dancing from as a child, my discipline of the body and my passion for dance, which is constantly renewed."
directed, choreographed and performed from Benjamin Millepied
piano Alexandre Tharaud
co-produced from L.to. Dance Project, Nuits de Fourvière
artistic collaborator Olivier Simola
playwright Loïc Barrère
Camille Assaf costumes
MUSIC PROGRAM
Jean-Philippe Rameau
from Suite in A minor RCT 5
Gavotte
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ErikSatie
Gnossienne No. 5
Pièces Froides: Danses de Travers, I
Gnossienne No. 3, Lent
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Partita in C minor BWV 826
(registered)
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Franz Schubert
Four Improvisations for Piano, Op. 90, D. 899 No. 3
In G-flat major Andante mosso No. 2
in E flat major Allegro
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Ludwigvan Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
Text by Maria Luisa Buzzi
Two trajectories of art and life in the mirror Unstill Life. That of a renowned pianist, Alexandre Tharaud, initiated into classical ballet by his mother with a dream in his drawer of becoming a dancer, and that of a star dancer, Benjamin Millepied, so deeply connected to music from think from child a future as a pianist.
Yet, in the specificity of their art, in their being both French and almost contemporaries, now citizens of the world because of the craft by which they have reached the highest peaks, they have decided to cross their missed dreams in an artistic project that is an intriguing play of synesthesia and resonance, of words, gestures and music. Light as air, profound, ironic and unpredictable as life.
Principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, Benjamin Millepied grew up artistically in the temple of George Balanchine and under the wing of Jerome Robbins in the Big Apple. Unexpectedly in 2011, at the height of his career, he announced that he was leaving the scenes attracted to choreography and from new experiences. Film, first and foremost, whose planetary success in Darren Aronovksy's Hollywood hit Black Swan, a film about the darker sides of ballet for which he signed the choreographies, has thrust him into the center of headlines and magazines halfway around the world. His love of choreography then propelled him into founding the polymorphous L.to. Dance Project with which from ten years he produces shows and spreads the culture of Tersicore including through movement education programs in disadvantaged neighborhoods. He switched in 2022 to directing himself with a new film version of Carmen, from Bizet'sopera , to surprise reappeared on the scene as a dancer to forty-six years old and after a long hiatus that lasted thirteen years.
"I return to dance"-he confesses-"aware of my body and its change, not out of challenge but out of necessity." So convinced from he enthusiastically phoned his friend Alexandre Tharaud, a distinguished exponent of the French piano school, to bring to life to a joint project in which the dialogue between music and dance was the protagonist. "To feel again ("if not now when?" he tells interviewed) that unrepeatable thrill of the close relationship with the audience." A further turn to to which the title Unstill Life recalls.
Seemingly more linear is the career of Alexandre Tharaud, a concert pianist from an early age with no setbacks. A career enriched with unprecedented collaborations "so as not to remain prisoners of one's craft and become a caricature of oneself over the years." On stage he has joined equestrian rider Bartabas, the voice of African pop five-time Grammy Award winner Angélique Kidjo and actress Juliette Binoche in the play Barbara. Missing the appointment with dance, his great love, among forays outside his concert activity, crowned from more than forty piano recordings, interspersed with the writing of the autobiographical book Montrez-moi vos mains in which he speaks with his trademark modesty about his craft: from the most intimate rituals before he faces the public, to his relationship with suitcases, numerology, the keyboard, his hands and that imposing black creature of more than five hundred pounds from times immemorial to him in front.
"Although collaborations with other artists relate to a homeopathic dimension of my career, I always make sure they happen because for me they are essential," Tharaud explains "interludes to my craft, which I adore. A guardian of works of art, the performer only then reinvents himself each time as the world evolves."
Not at all surprised by the phone call he received from Millepied - the two were supposed to collaborate in the days of the dancer's Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris directorship, but it did not go through - Tharaud enthusiastically accepted the proposal: "He told me that he wished to return to the stage and he wanted to do it with a classical pianist, with me. I found it beautiful to unite on stage a pianist who wanted to become a dancer and a dancer who wanted to become a pianist."
from here moves Unstill Life, a duet of poetic refinement on scores by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Eric Satie, Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, and Ludwig van Beethoven, chosen by mutual agreement by the protagonists: piano pieces that inspired the choreographer among the hits in the pianist's repertoire, to departing from that Rameau whose recording, dating to more than twenty years ago, was galeotta for their mutual acquaintance. On the Gavotte et ses doubles from the Baroque composer's Suite in A minor, Millepied and Tharaud, after a fleeting glance at center stage, begin their play between past and present, childhood and maturity. As engulfed in the Sun King's court, hands to recall Baroque postures, feet graceful in lively leaps, Benjamin's body visualizes the music with magnetic presence. The flow of memories narratively devolved to the video medium in a montage edited by Millepied himself, is a sequence of black-and-white images: aspirations and confessions, desires and reflections intertwine in a tight narrative where the voices of both alternate. "Dance has forged my body, but it is the piano alone to that makes me feel free," Alexandre exclaims, while Benjamin retorts, "music brought me to dance very early on."
On the magnetic Gnossienne No. 5, hands run across the keyboard, suspending, stretching as the video brings the two protagonists back on childish jaunts. Until the moment when Tharaud unexpectedly abandons his stool, places an LP on the turntable and proceeds to center stage. As the croaky record, Toronto genius Glenn Gould's legendary recording of Bach's Partita 2, plays out, the two begin to dancing together manifesting a common breath in arm crossings, spins and even lifts. The veracity of the scene once again exalts the performer, undisputed creator of self, who transforms everything. Intrinsic power also of the new technologies, of the camera-eye of wonders that in live shot frames, zooms in, defines details of unstoppable hands on the keyboard. But also shots with duplication and slow motion effects of the dancer's body in space.
It is hard to describe what makes a performer like Millepied so radiant and bewitching in the impeccable academic steps and the details of his hands and face. Nothing seems off limits to him even as he jokes with his friend about his lack of breath after a challenging variation. Age, a condemnation for the dancer's profession, in Unstill life happily bypassed by the rediscovery of a childhood of Pascolian memory in the bodies and minds of both. And of which the dancer's improvisational jubilation on Beethoven's concluding Sonata No. 32, the German giant's last piano composition, already shrouded in the isolation of deafness, becomes a happy visualization of the magniloquence, combined with virtuoso simplicity, of Tharaud's art. So much from stemperate with the Arietta and its variations the profuse Beethovenian feeling of anguish into a desire for rebirth.
Over a 25-year career, Alexandre Tharaud has become a unique figure in the world of classical music and a leading exponent of French pianism. His extraordinary discography of more than 25 albums from solo, most of which have received major awards from the music press, presents a repertoire ranging from Couperin, Bach and Scarlatti, through Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms and Rachmaninov to the major French composers of the 20th century. The breadth of his artistic endeavors is also reflected in his collaborations with thespians, dancers, choreographers, writers and directors, as well as with songwriters and musicians outside of classical music. Tharaud is a sought-after soloist, playing with many of the world's leading orchestras: next engagements include concerts with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France, the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest, the Orchestra ofAccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Symphony. Recent concert engagements include the Royal Concertgebouworkest, the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, the London Philharmonic, and the Frankfurt hr-Sinfonieorchester. As a recitalist, Alexandre Tharaud is a regular guest at the world's most prestigious halls. In recent years he has performed recitals at the Philharmonie de Paris, Wigmore Hall, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, Sala Sao Paulo and participated to numerous tours in Japan, China and Korea. Tharaud is an exclusive artist of Erato Records. In 2019, he released his album Versailles, which pays tribute to composers associated with the courts of French kings Louis XIV, XV and XVI. Previously, in 2018, he released an album featuring Beethoven's three last sonatas. His discography reflects an eclectic affinity for many musical styles, with recent recordings including a tribute to singer-songwriter Barbara, a Brahms duo album with Jean-Guihen Queyras (a regular partner in from chamber music from 20 years), and Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2. Throughout his career he has made critically acclaimed recordings of Rameau, Scarlatti, Bach's Goldberg Variations and Italian Concerto, Chopin's 24 Preludes, and Ravel's complete piano works. In 2017 Tharaud published Montrez-moi vos mains, an introspective and engaging account of a pianist's daily life. Previously, he co-authored Piano Intime, with journalist Nicolas Southon. He is the subject of a film directed by Swiss director Raphaëlle Aellig-Regnier: Alexandre Tharaud, Le Temps Dérobé, and appeared as the pianist "Alexandre" in Michael Hanneke's celebrated 2012 film Amour.
Benjamin Millepied is a choreographer, director, and former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. Born to Bordeaux, France, he grew up in Senegal until the age of 5, where he was introduced to dance. to eleven years old he began to dancing with Vladimir Skouratoff at the Grand Theatre de Bordeaux. From 1990 to 1993 he attended the Conservatoire National Superieur de Lyon, where he studied with Marie-France Dieulevin and Michel Rahn. In 1993 he moved to New York to attend the School of American Ballet, where he studied with Stanley Williams and Adam Luders. In 1994, Millepied takes part to a new ballet by Jerome Robbins entitled 2 and 3 part inventions. In 1995 he joined to the New York City ballet and became its principal dancer in 2001. During his tenure at NYCB he performed a wide repertoire of works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. At New York City Ballet he performs roles in ballets by Jerome Robbins, Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, Mauro Bigonzetti, Angelin Preljoçaj and Peter Martins.Millepied began to choreographing in 2001. In 2002, while working at the New York City Ballet, he founded the company Danses Concertantes. In 2006 he is choreographer-in-residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. That year he created the solo Years Later for Mikhail Baryshnikov. Since 2005, Millepied has choreographed for many dance companies, including New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Berlin Staatsoper, Mariinsky, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet. Over the years, Millepied collaborates with artists such as Mark Bradford, Christopher Wool, Barbara Kruger, Liam Gillick, Rodarte, Nico Muhly, and U.V.to. In 2010 he starred in and choreographed Darren Aronofsky's award-winning film Black Swan. In 2012 he moved to Los Angeles and co-founded the L.to. Dance Project. Since its inception, the company has given hundreds of performances in prestigious venues around the world and site-specific performances in non-traditional venues. In 2018, Millepied opened 2245, a new rehearsal and performance venue for LADP to Los Angeles. In January 2013, theOpera Paris Ballet appoints him as its new director. During his directorship, Millepied creates a Dance Medicine Program at the Paris Opéra, launches a digital stage, commissions new works to William Forsythe, Jerome Bel, Wayne McGregor, Justin Peck, Crystal Pite, Tino Seghal, revives works by Anna T. Keersmaeker and Maguy Marin and invites Batscheva to the Opéra for the first time. He resigned in 2016 to devote himself to his career as a choreographer and director. A documentary about Millepied's time atOpera in Paris, titled Reset, can be viewed on Amazon. Over the years, Millepied has also directed dance films. He recently made of his first feature from director, Carmen for Sony Pictures Classics. Millepied has previously received the French government's prestigious "Bourse Lavoisier" scholarship, won the Prix de Lausanne, received the SAB Mae. L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise and United States Artists Wynn Fellow in Dance. In 2010 he was awarded the title of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.
Marie Chouinard
Blanca Li
Marco Goecke
