MOLVAER, N.P.: Ghosts [Ballet] (after H. Ibsen) (Norwegian National Ballet, 2017)
Ghosts
Composer: Molvaer, Nils Petter
Ballet Company: Norwegian National Ballet
Choreographer: Espejord, Cina
Carpenter Engstrand / Regine's Stepfather: Inao, Yoshifumi
Mrs Alving / Oswald's Mother: Spidsoe, Camilla
Oswald / Captain Alving / Oswald's Father: Heise, Andreas
Oswald / Captain Oswald as a Child: Haglund, Kristoffer Ask
Pastor Manders: Falkhaugen, Ole Willy
Regine / A Maid: Borud Nybakken, Grete Sofie
Regine as a Child: Ostraat, Erle
Young Mrs Alving: Vinograd, Sonia
Young Pastor Manders: Currell, Philip
Lighting Designer: Bredal, Kristin
Set Designer: Borsum, Even
Costumer Designer: Nylander, Ingrid
Date of Production: 02-2017
Venue: Oslo Opera House
Playing Time: 01:14:38
Catalogue Number: BAC166
UPC: 3760115301665
Are we ever honest enough to be unaffected by lies? This is the question asked by Henrik Ibsen's drama Ghosts (Gengangere). Oswald Alving returns from a bohemian existence in Paris to small-town Norway. Encountering people who do not communicate, Oswald responds by becoming ironic and distant. He gradually learns more of the secrets that weigh on his family, as well as those inside himself. His mother, Mrs. Alving, welcomes her much-missed son home - and slowly understands what, or whom, he has brought home with him.
Ghosts is a psychological thriller in which the characters learn more and more about their own stories, says director Marit Moum Aune. It's about how the unsaid can grow to become insuperable. Immense courage is required to make peace with one's illusions.
Together with the young, critically acclaimed choreographer Cina Espejord, she retells Ibsen's play as a ballet. The pair feel the story is suited to dance because both its inner and outer brutality can be pitted against the power of dance.
Ibsen's Ghosts is an evocative production in a modern dance style. Nils Petter Molvaer has composed new music, which he performs on-stage together with Jan Bang.
