In his 45th year as artistic director of Hamburg Ballet, John Numeier directs a modern adaptation of Tolstoy's masterpie | dG1fa2ptVGNDT1F2eU0
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00:00 "All happy families resemble one another.
00:05 Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
00:09 The beginning of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is regarded as one of the most famous sentences
00:14 of world literature.
00:16 The novel was adapted many times for the stage and movies.
00:19 Concluding the Russian season, John Neumayer presents his version of Anna Karenina onto
00:25 the stage of the Hamburg Ballet.
00:31 The premiere of this international co-production also opens the 43rd Hamburg Ballet Days.
00:39 A place in St. Petersburg, the renowned politician Alexej Karenin holds a rally for his re-election.
00:49 By his side, his wife Anna Karenina, together with her son Sir Joshua, she supports her
00:55 husband.
00:56 The well-off couple that is in the focus of public interest appears to be happy, but the
01:00 pretty picture is only pretty on the surface.
01:18 Anna feels unloved by Alexej, as he only sees her as a pretty object at his side.
01:23 Anna falls head over heels in love with the good-looking Earl Wronski and begins a passionate
01:28 love affair with him.
01:55 But neither her husband nor society forgive her this violation of conventions.
02:01 Anna is torn apart by both men and in the end commits suicide.
02:07 John Neumayer picks up the basic ideas of the novel and transfers them to modern day
02:12 times.
02:13 The director of ballet and chief choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet creates his own, sometimes
02:18 very modern language of movement for these figures.
02:42 The conflict between responsibility and passion, which is dealt with in Anna Karenina, is as
02:47 modern today as it was at the time when the novel was written.
02:51 John Neumayer was deeply fascinated by the book, which Thomas Mann called "the most
02:55 important social novel of world literature".
02:59 Leo Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina in five years and created a magnitude of figures and plotlines.
03:05 In his ballet, John Neumayer combines the various layers of the novel and focuses on
03:11 the core of the complex family and love relationships, the link between man and woman.
03:27 The relationships to each other become visible, but also their feelings, thoughts and the
03:32 subconscious.
03:33 A reoccurring motif is the dream.
03:36 It fascinates me, says John Neumayer, because it speaks to a level that is beyond the rationality.
04:01 Leo Tolstoy created people of today in his opus that strive for love, adoration and personal
04:07 fulfillment, but who also have to deal with infidelity and guilt.
04:12 John Neumayer emphasizes this with his characters and makes their contradictory inner selves
04:17 visible between unreserved love and deep despair.
04:40 you