Vienna State Ballet – Landgraf on Dance

2. December 20252. December 2025

Adventurous

“Peter Pan”
Vienna State Ballet & Volksoper Wien
Volksoper Wien
Vienna, Austria
November 22, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Vienna’s Volksoper buzzed with excitement shortly before the performance of Vesna Orlić’s dance adaptation of Peter Pan. The great many children in the auditorium fell into eager silence when a rousing fanfare opened the ballet.

Orlić, leading ballet master of the Volksoper ensemble, began choreographing in 2006. For her 2019 Peter Pan, she was justifiably awarded Austria’s music theater prize. The production, which is based on James Matthew Barrie’s 1911 novel Peter and Wendy (known as Peter Pan), is witty, gripping, and great entertainment for the young and the old. I don’t know why the company’s former artistic director, Martin Schläpfer, shelved it. His successor, Alessandra Ferri, instantly decided on a revival.

Orlić’s version emulates the atmosphere of Walt Disney’s 1953 animated cartoon film Peter Pan. The gold font of the “Peter Pan” title in the opening credits was easily recognizable as classical Disney style. In typical Disney film manner, the closing credits rolled during the curtain calls. Some scenes in the ballet included film (showing Peter and the Darlings’ children’s flight “second to the right, and straight on till morning” toward Neverland, including a detour to Big Ben and a fog-shrouded landing on the island), but their settings didn’t copy Disney’s. Orlić decided on film music but against the existing one. Instead, she compiled a tailor-made score with Gerald C. Stocker. Both assembled film music from the 1930s to the early 1960s by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Steiner (both Austria-born composers who emigrated to America and rose to Hollywood fame) as well as Franz Waxmann, Miklós Rózsa, Bernhard Herrmann, and Leroy Anderson. It was played by the Vienna State Opera orchestra under Mikhail Agrest’s baton. Live music on stage intensified the acoustic vigor. The lost boys (portrayed by the Volksoper children’s choir) sang a polka by Guido Mancusi, the redskins of the Piccaninny tribe were accompanied by two percussionists (drumming a composition by Sebastian Brugner-Luiz), and guitarist Andrea Wild played flamenco tunes for the leader of the pirates, Captain Hook, to which he pirouetted on his wooden leg. Portentous tick-tack heralded—or faked—the approach of the crocodile (a life-sized, remote-controlled specimen). Thunderous cannon shots made the auditorium’s seats tremble.

Like a living photo album, black-and-white photos and miniature scenes summarized the Darlings’ family history at the beginning. Instead of the Newfoundland dog, Nana, a human nurse (Una Zubović) took care of the children, Wendy (Mila Schmidt), John (Gabriela Aime), and little Michael (Nicolò Antonioli). As a substitute, she sometimes made up and play-acted like a dog, adding to the overall chaos at the Darlings’ home. A life-sized cardboard cutout of Peter Pan represented the fairies the children loved.

Once the flustered parents (Kristina Ermolenok and Calogero Failla) left for a party, Peter Pan (Keisuke Nejime) and the fairy, Tinker Bell (Julia Köhler), flew through the invitingly huge window to search for Peter’s shadow (Robert Weithas). Peter, immediately acting like an athletic daredevil (a transparent shirt revealed his ripped torso), found it, but it refused to reunite (the shadow continued to live a life of his own at times). After Wendy stitched them together with her sewing skills, Peter coaxed the siblings to join him, and off they flew.

Neverland greeted them with a cannonball fired by the pirates. Maybe due to his white, frilled shirt and gray queue of hair (which, as we soon found out, was a wig), Captain Hook (László Benedek) reminded me of a crooked version of Mozart (costumes by Alexandra Burgstaller). Berrie characterized him as a great pirate, who “Like all great pirates, has a touch of the feminine in his dark nature,” which ran free when Hook felt unobserved, like when he powdered himself, put on a tiara, and poetically mimicked the dying swan. His chubby boatswain, Mr. Smee (Roman Chistyakov), exposed other flaws of his boss (a set of teeth, among others) while attending to Captain Hook’s bodily care. Although always subservient, he also committed treason when he handed Hook a hand grenade in the foam bath. It had an electrifying effect. Hook poked the air with his sword as if it were a needle, which undermined his image of a great fighter, and he took to his heels when the crocodile approached. Since Peter had fed it Hook’s hand, the brute was out to gobble the rest. Its approach spurred the pirates to paddle like hell, using all available equipment (even soup ladles).

None of the islanders allied with the pirates. The sirens (Ariel Daley, Kristina Ermolenok, and Tessa Magda) supported Peter and his boys. Although the redskins first kidnapped Peter’s boys, John and Michael (the latter always clutching his teddy), they made friends when they learned that Peter saved their leader, Tiger Lily (Tainá Ferreira Luiz), from the pirates. Tiger Lily and her brother (Felipe Vieira) spearheaded an Indian camp as amicable as a uniting festival. Multicolored outfits and hairstyles made them look like modern hippies. Feeling safe, no one noticed that the pirates snatched Tinker Bell from their midst. She had a petulant and snooty nature and couldn’t stand the friendship between Peter and Wendy, so she plotted against them from day one. Now revenge was hers. She revealed Peter’s hideout to the pirates, which enabled them to launch a poisoning attack. Thanks to a sudden change of mind, Tinker Bell prevented Peter’s death at the very last second by gulping the poison herself. “Fairies,” Barrie explained in the novel, “Have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time. Tink was not all bad: or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the other hand, sometimes she was all good.”

By repeatedly affirming his belief in fairies, Peter miraculously revived Tinker Bell, and upon her arousal, they kissed (the scene reminded me of the awakening of Princess Aurora).

In the meantime, Hook and his men celebrated the capture of the Darlings’ children and the lost boys. Plenty of booze had given their steps a boisterous spring but also turned their stomachs. After a fierce final battle, Peter and his comrades threw the pirates overboard. Although they paddled away in a cockleshell as quickly as possible, a distant burp hinted that the crocodile had a good meal. On board the pirates’ battered “Jolly Roger,” Wendy and her brothers sailed home, smoothed their parents’ marital quarrel, and fell asleep. Soon after, Peter flew in again, grabbed a sweater he had left behind, checked in on his friends, and disappeared into the night.

Links:		Website of the Volksoper Wien
		Website of the Vienna State Ballet
		“Peter Pan”—Trailer
		“Peter Pan”—Rehearsals (2019)
Photos:	1.	Ensemble, “Peter Pan” by Vesna Orlić, Vienna State Ballet/Volksoper Wien 2025
	2.	Julia Köhler (Tinker Bell), “Peter Pan” by Vesna Orlić, Vienna State Ballet/Volksoper Wien 2025
	3.	Keisuke Nejime (Peter Pan), “Peter Pan” by Vesna Orlić, Vienna State Ballet/Volksoper Wien 2025
	4.	László Benedek (Captain Hook) and ensemble, “Peter Pan” by Vesna Orlić, Vienna State Ballet/Volksoper Wien 2025
	5.	László Benedek (Captain Hook), Felipe Vieira, and Olivia Poropat (Pirates); “Peter Pan” by Vesna Orlić, Vienna State Ballet/Volksoper Wien 2025
	6.	László Benedek (Captain Hook), Roman Chistyakov (Mr. Smee), and ensemble; “Peter Pan” by Vesna Orlić, Vienna State Ballet/Volksoper Wien 2025
	7.	Tainá Ferreira Luiz (Tiger Lily) and ensemble, “Peter Pan” by Vesna Orlić, Vienna State Ballet/Volksoper Wien 2025
	8.	Ensemble, “Peter Pan” by Vesna Orlić, Vienna State Ballet/Volksoper Wien 2025
	9.	Mila Schmidt (Wendy) and the children`s choir of the Volksoper Wien (Lost Boys), “Peter Pan” by Vesna Orlić, Vienna State Ballet/Volksoper Wien 2025
	10.	László Benedek (Captain Hook) and ensemble, “Peter Pan” by Vesna Orlić, Vienna State Ballet/Volksoper Wien 2025
	11.	Keisuke Nejime (Peter Pan), Roman Chistyakov (Mr. Smee), and ensemble; “Peter Pan” by Vesna Orlić, Vienna State Ballet/Volksoper Wien 2025
	12.	Calogero Failla (Mr. Darling) and Kristina Ermolenok (Mrs. Darling), “Peter Pan” by Vesna Orlić, Vienna State Ballet/Volksoper Wien 2025
	13.	Gabriele Aime (John), “Peter Pan” by Vesna Orlić, Vienna State Ballet/Volksoper Wien 2025
		all photos © Ashley Taylor
Editing:		Kayla Kauffman

26. November 20252. December 2025

Mockery

“Die Fledermaus” (“The Bat”)
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
November 21, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

For Johann Strauss II’s bicentennial, the Vienna State Ballet revived Roland Petit’s 1979 ballet adaptation of Strauss’s famous operetta, Die Fledermaus (The Bat). It’s accompanied by a “best of” selection of compositions by Johann Strauss II, his father, Johann Strauss I, and his brother, Josef. The score’s oomph and gaiety are infectious. Strauss’ music, particularly the Viennese waltzes (of which Die Fledermaus has plenty), is part of the DNA of the Vienna State Opera’s orchestra, and under Luciano Di Martino’s baton, it fizzed like champagne. Melodies rose boisterously to a tipping point, balanced provocatively on the edge, and rippled down with relish as if on a rollercoaster ride. Continue reading “Mockery”

27. October 202514. November 2025

Reborn

“Callirhoe”
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
October 19, 2025 (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

The title of Martin Schläpfer’s farewell choreography, Pathétique, summarized the condition of the Vienna State Ballet he left behind after five years as its artistic director. His successor, Alessandra Ferri, restructured the company. Some dancers left, and others joined, some of whom were returnees. Last weekend, she presented the first premiere under her reign, Alexei Ratmansky’s Callirhoe (which he choreographed for ABT in 2020 under the title Of Love and Rage). It felt like the rebirth of the company. I cannot remember when I last saw the Vienna State Ballet perform with such force. Congratulations! Continue reading “Reborn”

14. April 202525. April 2025

A Farewell Triplet

“Pathétique” (“Divertimento No. 15”/“Summerspace”/“Pathétique”)
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
April 09, 2025 (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Triple bills have become a trademark of the Vienna State Ballet since Martin Schläpfer took over as artistic director in 2020. The latest, Pathétique, is titled after Schläpfer’s newest and last creation. As on previous occasions, the program’s safe and well-tested base was a Balanchine followed by Cunningham’s Summerspace. Continue reading “A Farewell Triplet”

1. February 202513. February 2025

As It Should Be

“Peter and the Wolf”
Jugendkompanie of the Ballet Academy of the Vienna State Opera
NEST (Künstlerhaus Vienna)
Vienna, Austria
January 26, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Last December, the Vienna State Opera opened a new venue for its young audience in a side wing of the Künstlerhaus, around 550 yards from the Vienna State Opera. The venue was previously a home for the city’s independent companies but was rebuilt thanks to private funding and a grant from Austria’s Ministry of Education, Science, and Research. The theater’s steep auditorium ensures visibility of the stage for even the shortest audience members. Although I was told that its name, NEST, is an abbreviation of “New State Opera,” it reminded me of a bird’s nest.

Despite sunny early spring weather, last Sunday’s matinee was well attended by both children and grown-ups to see the premiere of Peter and the Wolf, Continue reading “As It Should Be”

30. January 20251. February 2025

Striking Similarities

“kaiserRequiem”
Vienna State Ballet & Volksoper Wien
Volksoper Wien
Vienna, Austria
January 25, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

kaiserRequiem, the Volksoper Wien’s latest premiere, is a joint production of the State Ballet Vienna and the singers, choir, and orchestra of the Volksoper. The piece intertwines the sixty-minute chamber opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis (The Emperor of Atlantis), composed by Viktor Ullmann in 1943/44, with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem in D minor (K. 626). Both pieces feature death, which overtook both composers while working on them. Mozart died in December 1791 before finishing Requiem. Requiem had been commissioned, and when Mozart died, his wife, Constanze, assigned its completion to Franz Xaver Süßmayr, her husband’s former pupil. Being of Jewish parentage, Ullmann and his wife were deported to the Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt (in today’s Czech Republic) in September 1942. It was a showpiece ghetto to promote the allegedly successful resettlement of Jews, so Theresienstadt had a department for so-called “leisure activities,” such as sports, theater, lectures, and reading. Ullmann worked there as a composer, music critic, and musical event organizer. The premiere of his opera The Emperor of Atlantis was scheduled for Theresienstadt’s stage but was canceled after the general rehearsal. Perhaps the piece’s highly political sarcasm, though subtle, did not slip the notice of the ruling powers, but that’s only speculation. Continue reading “Striking Similarities”

29. March 202424. April 2024

Incomprehensible

“The Lady of the Camellias”
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
March 24, 2024, (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2024 by Ilona Landgraf

Shouts of “Bravi!” mingled with enthusiastic applause after the curtain closed on John Neumeier’s The Lady of the Camellias last Sunday at the Vienna State Opera. I, who was following the performance on screen, was less happy. Being familiar with this piece as it was performed by other companies, I felt that this premiere left a lot to be desired.

To begin with, the choreography—almost forty-five years after its creation—suffers from the same mannerisms present in large parts of Neumeier’s oeuvre. The tools that he uses to express his protagonists’ inner life are repetitive. For example, books, confectionery, and bunches of flowers slipped from the dancers’ grip to signal astonishment or absent-mindedness. The number of people who stumbled, fell, barged into one another, and ran around precipitously was remarkable. As in other Neumeier-ballets, the buffoon (in this case, Count N., whom Géraud Wielick turned into an especially silly specimen of jealous lover) wore glasses. That Neumeier intertwined Marguerite and Armand’s fate with that of Manon Lescaut—a connection that is inherent in Alexandre Dumas’s novel—would be ingenious if the relevant scenes were less mawkish and didactic. Continue reading “Incomprehensible”

4. January 20245. January 2024

Rekindled

“Shifting Symmetries” (“Concertante”/”Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet”)
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
December 23, 2023, (online: December 27, 2023)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2024 by Ilona Landgraf

The Vienna State Ballet’s newest triple bill combines pieces by Hans van Manen, William Forsythe, and George Balanchine. As Forsythe doesn’t allow video streaming of his works, his In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated wasn’t part of the online broadcast on December 27^th (which showed a recording of the premiere on December 23^rd).
I’ve often been unhappy about the Viennese performances, but what’s to expect when the choreographies given to them are mediocre? This time though, a meaty dance-diet was on the menu, and the company rose splendidly to the occasion.

Concertante (1994) has the punchy elegance that van Manen is known for. It’s sophisticated (but without frills) and so densely energetic that my eyes stayed glued on the dancers. Van Manen doesn’t choreograph pretty steps. His dancers prance cooly and strongly, throw challenging glances, and are forcefully present on stage. Continue reading “Rekindled”

1. May 202311. May 2023

A Gain

“Goldberg-Variationen” (“Tabula Rasa” / “Goldberg-Variationen”)
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
April 27, 2023 (livestream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2023 by Ilona Landgraf

Since Martin Schläpfer took over the reins of the Vienna State Ballet in 2020, his pre-existing and new choreographies entered the company’s repertoire. Most of them I wouldn’t call assets. However, the most recent double bill is a gain. It combines Ohad Naharin’s “Tabula Rasa” (1986) and Heinz Spoerli’s “Goldberg-Variationen” (1993). Sadly, the livestream of the premiere began only after the break, omitting “Tabula Rasa”. Hence, I can only comment on “Goldberg-Variationen”.

I should have known better, but I was not prepared to read the name of Horst Koegler (1927 – 2012) in the piece description on the Vienna State Ballet’s website. It quotes Koegler who labeled “the Goldberg-Variationen as one of the works from Spoerli’s Bach ballet cathedral which describes people and life in a series of poetic, choreographed images and scenes (…)”. Koegler, one of Germany’s renowned ballet critics and the author of a book about Spoerli, was very well versed with the latter’s oeuvre. He loved “Goldberg-Variationen” – both Bach’s music and its interpretation through dance. Would he have liked Vienna’s one? Continue reading “A Gain”

31. October 20227. November 2022

Unpalatable

“The Sleeping Beauty”
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
October 24, 2022 (livestream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2022 by Ilona Landgraf

A few months before the premiere of his “Sleeping Beauty” with the Vienna State Ballet, artistic director Martin Schläpfer stated that he did not intend to alter Petipa’s original – that he was not creating something “a bit Schläpfer and a bit Petipa”. There are already enough of these blended works in the canon; instead of adding another, he preferred to stick with the original. Back then, though, he did not have a detailed vision for his production. So – how did his version finally turn out?

I’ll make one thing immediately clear: Schläpfer did not deliver a radically new take on the fairy tale. The three-acter still unfolds at court, includes the key characters, and follows the well-known storyline. Florian Etti’s modern and unsophisticated set includes an open yard looking out on a king-sized garden of red roses. Nestled among the twigs is the crib of the newborn Aurora, her birth an airy dream. Continue reading “Unpalatable”

7. May 202213. May 2022

Haydn Makes it Possible

“Die Jahreszeiten” (“The Seasons”)
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
April 30, 2022 (livestream)

The third premiere of the Vienna State Ballet in this season – “Die Jahreszeiten” (“The Seasons”) – is entirely by Schläpfer. Past experience with his oeuvre made me skeptical of this new work, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The piece is set to Joseph Haydn’s 1801 oratorio “The Seasons” (which coincidentally also premiered in Vienna), for which Gottfried van Swieten penned lyrics based on extracts from a poem by James Thomson. Thomson’s verses describe the ordinary daily and seasonal life on the countryside: spring thaw and early field work, the lush countryside, harvest time, and a sudden thunderstorm, which cools down the sweltering summer heat. An autumnal hunt is followed by cheers for the new wine. Amidst winter gloom and the coziness of a warm cottage a fleeting romance blossoms. Continue reading “Haydn Makes it Possible”

20. January 20228. March 2022

Absurd

“Liebeslieder” (“Other Dances” / “Concerto” / “Liebeslieder Walzer”)
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
January 14, 2022 (livestream)

The Vienna State Ballet’s new triple bill is an all-American one, combining works from staple choreographers (Robbins and Balanchine) with a short piece by Lucinda Childs, whose name is less familiar in Europe.

Robbins’s “Other Dances”, a pas de deux set to one waltz and four mazurkas by Chopin, was tailor-made for Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1976. In Vienna, Hyo-Jung Kang and Davide Dato brought folksy playfulness to their roles as the carefree, happy-go-lucky couple. Their encounter is as lighthearted and upbeat as the light blue backdrop and the sheer blue fabric of Kang’s dress suggest (costumes by Santo Loquasto). After swaggering about with macho energy in a solo, Dato attends to Kang’s every step with buttery care. Continue reading “Absurd”

19. November 202110. December 2021

In Seventh Heaven?

“Im Siebten Himmel” (“In Seventh Heaven”): “Marsch, Walzer, Polka” / “Fly Paper Bird” / “Symphony in C”)
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
November 14, 2021 (live stream)

“Im Siebten Himmel” (“In Seventh Heaven”), the Vienna State Ballet’s second new triple bill this season, follows the formula of the previous one: one piece by Balanchine + one by Martin Schläpfer (the company’s artistic director) + one by a contemporary choreographer. Last time, this third choreographer was Ratmansky; this time, it’s Marco Goecke.

For the music, Schläpfer’s “Marsch, Walzer, Polka” – created for the Ballett Mainz in 2006 – was a fitting choice. What could be more engaging for the Viennese audience than popular melodies by Johann Strauss I and his two sons, Josef and Johann? Schläpfer uses “The Blue Danube”, “Annen- Polka”, “Sphärenklänge”, and “Radetzky March” – and, to expand the existing choreography, draws in the “New Pizzicato-Polka” as well. Continue reading “In Seventh Heaven?”

25. September 202130. September 2021

Comparisons

“Tänze Bilder Sinfonien” (“Symphony in Three Movements” / “Pictures at an Exhibition” / “Sinfonie Nr. 15”)
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
September 21, 2021 (live stream)

The Vienna State Ballet opened their season with a revival of “Tänze Bilder Sinfonien”, a triple bill that premiered in June. It is comprised of two ballets originally created for the New York City Ballet: Balanchine’s “Symphony in Three Movements” from 1972 and Ratmansky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” from 2014. The third choreography – “Sinfonie Nr. 15” – was a new piece by Martin Schläpfer (formerly the artistic director and choreographer of the Ballet am Rhein; currently in the same positions at the State Ballet Vienna). I viewed the live-stream of the performance on September 21, 2021.

“Symphony in Three Movements”, set to Stravinsky’s eponymous composition, is Balanchine’s tribute to the composer following the latter’s death in 1971. Continue reading “Comparisons”

18. May 201721. April 2020

Real Life and Ideals – Nureyev’s “Swan Lake”

“Swan Lake”
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
May 14, 2017

“French and Russian style differ, so everything is a bit new at the moment,” Semyon Chudin told me in an interview a few weeks before his premiere in Rudolf Nureyev’s “Swan Lake” in Vienna. He and Olga Smirnova, both figureheads of the Bolshoi, guested in the leading roles with Manuel Legris’s company. I saw the first of two performances. How did they do?

Nureyev’s version differs in style, choreography and the weight given to several characters in comparison to other traditional interpretations of “Swan Lake”. The role of Benno, Prince Siegfried’s friend, is gone and, unlike in Russian productions, there is no fool either. Instead the focus shifts towards Siegfried, whom Nureyev danced more than fifty times himself; his last performance was in 1988 a few days after his 50th birthday. Nureyev’s Siegfried has more to dance – a formal Pas de cinq at his birthday party followed by a melancholy solo, for example – and allows deeper insight into his psyche. At the end he falls victim to Von Rothbart’s revenge and drowns in the floods of the lake, whereas Odette, still alive, stands at the lakeside like the idealized female. However desperately Siegfried stretches his arms towards her she is unattainable. He is doomed to die. Continue reading “Real Life and Ideals – Nureyev’s “Swan Lake””