Dean stages the second act with the backdrop of a hand-printed photograph of a jacaranda tree a tree that signifies rebirth, while Lucy Carter soaks the stage in luminous light. Yiddish incantations reminiscent of the sounds of Ades’ synagogue in Jerusalem can be heard alongside drifting songs of the psalms chants weaving through and rising above the orchestra. A suffusing sense of serenity shapes composition, design and lighting. ‘Purgatorio’, in contrast, is bare and brightly lit. These sounds invoke an eerie sense of being on a knife-edge between the reassuringly familiar and the distantly unknown. Adès often evokes the spirit of Tchaikovsky (at times the score is even reminiscent of the ‘Land of Sweets’ sequence in The Nutcracker) and, in his own words, ‘abducts Liszt’. It is here that Adès’ composition is the most unsettling. The more they dance, the more they are covered chalk, like sin, sticking to them on every turn.
The chalk billows around the stage, spraying and mottling the dancer’s black costumes. It is made of the simplest means, with chalk on a blackboard. It is a shadowed, icy-cold world, with a set dominated by Dean’s drawing of inverted mountains running the whole length of the stage. Nothing is truly as it seems: there are no all-engulfing flames, no pointy-horned red devil. In Soothsayers, Joseph Sissens and Paul Kay make for a riotous double act, virtuosically cartwheeling and hand-standing with posturing bravado Calvin Richardson is captivating as Glutton Marcelino Sambé is all liquid movement and curves as the Ferryman on course to hell and the Forest of Suicides sees dancers spikily scuffling and tussling, their toes pounding the floor, while at no point relinquishing their precise pointe work and detailed steps. The real fun comes when we are introduced to a variety of miscreants in thirteen fragmented episodes, each one depicting a moral crime. Retiring principal dancer, Edward Watson, in the role of Dante, is fluid and refined, as is his poet-guide Virgil, played by Gary Avis. Here he presents his boldest and most inventive choreography. Adès’ score soars with a devilish playfulness and McGregor is more than willing to go along for the ride. It is in the first act, ‘Inferno’, where the synergy between music and dance is at its most exciting. The breadth of Adès’ new score is masterful and expansive while the scale of Tacita Dean’s stage designs are monumental. All have fiercely embraced, even relished the challenge of bringing Dante’s vision to life. Alongside McGregor are composer-conductor Thomas Adès’ and designer Tacita Dean.
In each act we see Dante on a various leg of his tour beginning in the ice-cold depths of hell continuing up the Mount of Purgatory, before ending in the dizzying heights of paradise. A retelling of The Divine Comedy, Dante’s journey through the three realms of the dead are a perfect fit for the triptych approach that has become McGregor’s forté. The Dante Project, currently in its world premiere opening run at the Royal Opera House, is fortified by an ensemble cast of outstanding talent and bolstered by being in co-production with the Paris Opera Ballet. He now finds himself face-to-face with the most celebrated Italian poet: Dante Alighieri.
His fearlessly abstract approach ruffled traditionalist feathers, yet won him multiple awards and garnered him international recognition as a trailblazer. In 2015, the no-holds-barred resident choreographer of the Royal Ballet, premiered Woolf Works, a three-act ballet based on the works of Virginia Woolf ( Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves). Wayne McGregor has never been shy in taking on literary greats. The Dante Project, The Royal Opera House, 14-30 October 2021
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