In a spectacular apotheosis Jupiter, Father of the Gods, transports the half-brothers Castor und Pollux into the night sky, where, discharged from all earthly strife and dissension, they find their permanent place in immortality. In the face of this heavenly ceremony the whole world holds its breath, the entire cosmos with its stars, planets, moons and suns begins to whirl in giddy rejoicing. Even the most ingenious of baroque stage machinery could never have represented this scenario – so one resorted to ballet.

For many centuries the combination of singing, instrumental playing, drama and dance on the theatrical stage has comprised one of the greatest artistic challenges, and at the same time has led to perpetually new, imaginatively conceived forms. History witnessed one of the culminations of this on the French baroque stage with works of Jean-Philippe Rameau. To close the Rameau cycle at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, ballet director Martin Schläpfer will take over the staging and choreography, in collaboration with the Stuttgart artist rosalie and Generalmusikdirektor Axel Kober, to bring the Tragédie mise en musique “Castor et Pollux” of 1737 to new life – and in his own special way he will plumb the fascinating mutual effects of the various artistic components of this masterpiece of musical theatre by Rameau. It is a danced opera about the shattering and moving antique myth of a selfless and unconditional brotherly love, it is also a tense drama of the desperation of unrequited love, and not least also an imaginative journey through all imaginable regions between heaven and earth and the pale realm of shadows, at the end of which we recognize: “Amor vincit omnia” – “Love conquers all”.

 
***
Jean-Philippe Rameau

CASTOR ET POLLUX
Tragédie mise en musique in five acts and a prologue
Libretto by Pierre-Joseph Bernard, aka Gentil-Bernard
Version of 1737

 
In French with German surtitles
 

Musikalische Leitung Axel Kober
Inszenierung und Choreographie Martin Schläpfer
Raum, Lichtobjekte und Kostüme  rosalie
Licht Volker Weinhart
Chorleitung Gerhard Michalski
Dramaturgie Anne do Paço
 
Vénus Iryna Vakula
Mars Christophe Gay
Minerve Katarzyna Kuncio
L'Amour Ovidiu Purcel
Jupiter Sami Luttinen
Castor Jussi Myllys
Pollux Günes Gürle
Télaïre Alma Sadé
Phébé Claudia Braun
Le Grand Prètre de Jupiter Dmitry Lavrov
Athlète Tansel Akzeybek, Attila Fodre
Suivante d'Hébé Maria Kataeva
Une Ombre heureuse Romana Noack
Une Planète Claudia Braun
Hébé Feline van Dijken
Mercure Jackson Carroll
Ballett am Rhein Sachika Abe, Marlúcia do Amaral, Wun Sze Chan, Mariana Dias, Yuko Kato, So-Yeon Kim, Anne Marchand, Nicole Morel, Louisa Rachedi, Claudine Schoch, Virginia Segarra Vidal, Julie Thirault, Helge Freiberg, Antoine Jully, Sonny Locsin, Marcos Menha, Bruno Narnhammer, Bogdan Nicula, Sascha Pieper, Boris Randzio, Alexandre Simões, Remus Sucheana, Maksat Sydykov, Jörg Weinöhl
Chor Chor der Deutschen Oper am Rhein
Orchester Neue Düsseldorfer Hofmusik