MISERO PROSPERO Project

ORPHEUS Stomped in Dirt

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ORPHEUS Stomped in Dirt

Created by Daniela H. Faith & Carlos Rodero

Based on the opera of Claudio Monteverdi and Alessandro Striggio
Music by Balázs Elemér Trio

“One task of today's humanity is to stomp myths to dirt.”

Unknown, unemployed philosopher from the end of the 20th century

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Our performance Orpheus Stomped in Dirt endeavors to combine elements of dance and
theatrical arts with other techniques, including the style clown or pantomime. Experimental in
nature, it balances within the confines of a performance that exhibits a fusion of these diverse
contemporary dance and theatrical approaches, resulting in an exciting, importunate and
provocative impact.
Taking Claudio Monteverdi’s music, the first opera of his lifetime, we explore the Freudian
language while discussing the frustration of love in order to create thematic connections about
the essential phenomena of our lives: desolation, death, the imprisonment and threatening
prospect of self-representation (narcissism).
We treat the theme with ironic humor and strive to interpret it as a cruel joke that evokes
astonishment from the audience.
We operate with the most minimal set design. We try to exploit the possibilities an empty
stage (space and set alike) can offer. The number of interpreters on stage is also limited.
Through a rigid dramaturgy, we would like to use our assets consciously and creatively while
paying particular attention to the importance of lights. In addition, we would like to emphasize
the regenerating process of music.
The performance is, in effect, a production of Physical Theater.
Due to the originality of the music, our performance operates on two levels in two versions:
one is the full-fledged stage performance and the other is a concert version with inserts of
choreography. Detailed description is available in a separate document.

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“Love means giving something you don't have to someone who doesn't want it.”
Jacques Lacan

“Nobody is like somebody else. Neither better, nor worse. And, if they both agree on this, that’s
just a misunderstanding.”
Jean Paul Sartre

“I don’t think I love you,

I only love the plausible impossibility of loving you.”
Julio Cortázar

“For each man kills the thing he loves”

Oscar Wilde

BASIC GUIDELINES OF OUR INTERPRETATION

Orpheus, the genius enchanting artist, projects his self-love onto Eurydice, a beautiful but
essentially plain woman, who is practicably the opposite of what Orpheus represents.
He needs an idealized refuge in order to escape himself; therefore, he creates and experiences
an alternative reality. This hinterland functions more like a mirror of his self-love as someone
of Orpheus’s eminence and power cannot really love anybody else but himself.
The object he loves, therefore, is stripped from all essentiality and Orpheus, while identifying
with it, in destined to be confused over his sexual identity. Inherent in this identification, he
gains an enormous narcissistic gratification that boosts his creative energies.
When Eurydice dies, Orpheus recoils and feels deep resentment that is, possibly, also
accompanied with a sense of relief. He feels inclined to exchange the object of his affection
with another in order to reinstate the balance lost. In his contemptuous wrath, he believes
that he can get Eurydice back and embarks on a journey to find her. His journey, however, is
marked with the realization of his death-enticing power replacing any emotions that may have
had towards Eurydice.
He realizes that it is impossible to conceive of death in its depths from the other side of life.
Instead, he finds some kind of an anteroom, a shocking baroque hallway, a scene that makes
him realize that all things of crucial importance lay in disappearance. When the opportunity to
reclaim Eurydice dissipates, he becomes aware of his cowardice and desperately confronts
himself within the boundaries of self-destruction.

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THE MUSIC: Balázs Elemér Trio

Elemér is one of the best drummers around right now, in my opinion. He plays with such musicality
and finesse and has the ability to listen inside each musical moment with the kind of spontaneous
decision making that allows everyone that plays with him to sound their best. He also has a
wonderful touch on the instrument - l always enjoy the chance to play with him and to hear him.
Pat Metheny
The Balázs Elemér Group, one of the most popular jazz bands in Hungary, was founded in 2000 by
Elemér Balázs, a jazz drummer of international reputation. The band, consisting of highly qualified
jazz musicians, has achieved great results at home (e.g. Fonogram Prize in 2005), and has built
upon its success through impressive performances at prestigious European jazz festivals (e.g.
Vienna, London, Berlin, The Hague, Prague, Bratislava, Skopje).The Group has created a strikingly
unique melodious sound underscored by interesting rhythmic patterns, and given a fascinating
texture by the tonal contrast of the male and female lead-vocals. Their music is extremely versatile
owing to their spirited blending of jazz and the folk-music of the region. It's ethno-jazz at its best,
inspired by highly divergent musical cultures. This variety characterizes the four albums released
by the Group so far. Each of these albums creates a completely unique atmosphere, a musical
world of its own.

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Memories Early Music Hungarian Folk Songs

Refracting Sounds Our Worlds Beyond Around the World

COSTUMES: Tabbouch Linda

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THE SPANISH-HUNGARAN CREATIVE TEAM

PERFORMERS:

Daniela H. Faith

Tania Garrido

Takács Dorisz

Carlos Rodero

Balázs Elemér
Balázs József
Lakatos Krisztián

Scenery Carlos Rodero

Costume Design Tabbouch Linda

Light Design Vajda Máte

Training Máthe Gabi

Interpreting Fahn Sarolta

Translation Karsai Gábor

Production Assistants Boronyák Vivien

Monojlovits Eszter

Assistant Director Boronyák Vivien

Choreography Daniela H. Faith

Dramaturgy and Stage Direction Carlos Rodero

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CRITICS HAVE SAID

Let’s play that we don’t have the slightest idea how to interpret Orpheus’s tragedy. Let’s
play that what we have to tell did not exactly happen like that or not exactly then. Let’s
play in a way, so that the audience can empathize with the tragedy of Orpheus, or that of
Eurydice. Let’s see whether we can, instead of showing, invoke and recall the pain.
Viscerally.
Radnóti Judit – Kikötő Online

A noteworthy experiment. A bold direction that takes a more difficult approach when it
completely gives up on the conventional and familiar safety of linear story-telling and
emotional projection. Performance is as challenging for the interpreters on stage as
reception is for the audience.
Szabolcs Szekeres, a collaborator from Z’Artkör

The fluttering movements and the arched bouyance of [Daniela’s] hands grab the
attention already at the first moment, rendering an elemental experience in the ecstatic
moments of death. Elemér Balázs, the unequalled jazz drummer, accompanies her dance -
if his solo could be called accompaniment at all. The music is nothing but a thunder of
percussion is totally breathing together with the dancer, musically depicting the dancer’s
emotions, counterpointing her movements, advancing phases of the choreography, while
providing an awe-inspiringly acoustic frame for the fantastic series of movements.
FehérElephant

The continuity of the [three dancers’] movement repeatedly breaks. Besides some barren
moments, this peculiar fragmentation, with the adjoining opera transformed into gloomy
music by the Trio, generate discomfort, furthermore, in its perfectly composed moments,
mortal fear in the more sensitive audience member. (Pethő Tibor, Magyar Nemzet)

Equally effective the desperation interpreted through dance in a bucket to Elemér Balázs’s
drum solo towards the end of the play. Daniela H. Faith and Elemér Balázs are in a dialog
with each other: the dancer moves to the music, while the drummer plays music to the
dance; their improvisation adds a fresh and uplifting drive to the whole performance.
(Radnóti Judit - Kikötő Önline)

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