His sense of drama never left him, and his sensitivity to the emotions expressed in this retelling of Christ’s last days was always evident.” Neumeier has functioned as a first-rate theatrical director here. by principal dancer Marc Jubete), then- New York Times dance critic Anna Kisselgoff wrote, “ Mr. When the work, which premiered in 1983 in New York and featured Neumeier as “Christ” (performed in L.A. Michael’s Church in 1980, before bringing it to the stage of the Hamburg State Opera the following year. Neumeier, who staged Orpheus and Eurydice for LAO in his 2018 debut, is no stranger to the Passion, having first mounted it with his company in Hamburg’s St.

(It runs through March 27 Hamburg Ballet is also performing the last of its three concerts, “Bernstein Dances,” to live music on March 19.) Matthew’s Gospel from the Lutheran bible, the work spoke to Neumeier, who has succeeded in this enormous undertaking, not only with panache, but also with intense fervor and an eye for beauty, albeit a tortured splendor.Īn unlikely but potent collaboration with Los Angeles Opera, this nearly four-hour sacred oratorio recounting Christ’s final days is, indeed, operatic, and as told through the bodies of 42 dancers, six singers, two choruses, and two mighty-in-sound chamber orchestras (led by LAO’s music director, the magnificent James Conlon), the work was often staggering, if occasionally wearying, when it opened on Saturday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Written in 1727 to present the Passion story in music at Good Friday vesper services by setting the 26th and 27th chapters of St. How does one choreograph, stage, and design the set and costumes for an opera that is not, well, an opera? If you are Wisconsin-born, German-based John Neumeier, it’s not exactly a cakewalk, but if you’ve been at the helm of Hamburg Ballet, one of the world’s preeminent dance troupes, since 1973, you take on J.S. Principal dancer Marc Jubete in LA Opera’s St.

St. matthew passion la opera