“Der Liebhaber” is the first full-length world premiere by Marco Goecke in Hanover and his fifth full-length work. The most successful book by the French author Marguerite Duras (1914-1996), in which she tells - at least partially autobiographically - of an amour fou at the age of fifteen with a man twelve years older, has fascinated the choreographer for many years.

Marco Goecke's completely unique dance moves appear minimalistic in the overall picture, despite its wealth of countless frenetic, fluttering and fast movements, but at the core it exposes all human feelings. Goecke's choreographic signature forms an emotional synthesis with the visually powerful language of Marguerite Duras ’novel. Although the template does not follow a continuous storyline, its minimalist conciseness always hits the innermost part of human existence. “The idea of making a ballet out of this great work calmed me down and made me happy,” says Goecke, who has read the book again and again since his youth and is a great admirer of Marguerite Duras.

The ballet is set to Claude Debussy’s “La Mer” and the piano concerto in G major by Maurice Ravel. Marco Goecke sought a non-European contrast to this elegant French music. He found what he was looking for in several traditional Vietnamese chants. They stand for the strange world into which the narrator immerses. The recordings were made in the early 1930s and are therefore a living testimony to the time in which the novel is set. An apparent contrast to the chants, but also to the classical-looking works, is the Étude No. 1 for piano by Unsuk Chin. Shortly before the end of the novel, a waltz by Chopin triggers violent feelings in the narrator. For this passage Marco Goecke chose the waltz in B flat minor, which closes the evening.

Niedersächsisches Staatsorchester Hannover
Valtteri Rauhalammi / Maxim Böckelmann, musical directors

Niedersächsisches Staatsballett
Marco Goecke, artistic director & chief choreographer
Michaela Springer / Marvin Ott, stage & costume designers
Udo Haberland, light designer

Dancers:
Sandra Bourdais, Chiara Pareo, Giada Zanotti, Maurus Gauthier, Özkan Ayik, Robert Robinson, Ana Paula Camargo, ,Alessandra La Bella, Rosario Guerra, Javier Ubell, Nikita Zdravkovic, Giovanni Visone, Tommy Rous, Francisco Baños Diaz, Verónica Segovia Torres, Michelangelo Chelucci, Michèle Stéphanie Seydoux, Laura Nicole Vigano, Marta Cerioli, Lilit Hakobyan, Adam Russell-Jones, Robert Robinson, Nikita Zdravkovic, Verónica Segovia Torres, Jisoo Park, Heidi Lauterbach