
Review: Seven Deadly Sins
Clive Paget's review of the Dybbuk dance in the opening concert of 'Out of the Shadows' festival in Sydney, 2017
Date | 6th August 2017 |
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URL | http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/live-reviews/review-seven-deadly-sins-sydney-conservatorium-music |
Format | Website |
View File | Download |
"The best was saved for last, however. Simon Parmet was born in Helsinki and studied in St Petersburg with Glazunov. A regular visitor to Germany, he would later go into exile in the US before finally returning to Finland. His music for Ansky’s play The Dybbuk – the same play that inspired Bernstein’s later ballet – was composed in 1934 and included a Dance of the Poor. Re-orchestrated from the piano score by Ian Whitney this is a very pretty piece indeed, full of ear-tickling Sephardic harmonics.
Taking his cue from the classic 1937 Polish film (a cinematic masterpiece available in full on YouTube), dancer-choreographer Benjamin Hancock appeared in bridal white complete with plaits and performed an aching solo that caught perfectly the incipient danger of the bride who invites her deceased bridegroom to return for their wedding only to find herself the subject of demonic possession. Wheeling and lurching, in control and out of it, Hancock’s otherworldly presence compelled attention before expiring on the final downbeat."