Õhtused majad. T. Härmi ballett G. Mahleri muusikale

Ballet by Tiit Härm to the music of Gustav Mahler after Eduard von Keyserling’s eponymous novel 

World premiere in the Estonian National Opera on March 18, 2022 

 

 

Choreographer and Stage Director: Tiit Härm

Set and Costumes Designer: Maarja Meeru

Lighting Designer: Margus Vaigur

Video Designer: Taavi Varm

 

Tiit Härm’s creative credo has always been inspired by his faith in the comforting power of beauty, and for him, ballet is one of the most sincere forms of that beauty. The wish to reach beyond the real, everyday, sometimes even banal world, aspire to intense feelings and supreme beauty, has characterised Härm as both a dancer and a stage director.

“Twilight Houses” speaks of the elegiac beauty of Baltic German manors at the turn of the previous century. The ballet talks about emotions, their beauty and pain, and of soulful, sensual love. It is a story of two young people with a passion for life, who, yearning for each other, wish to overcome the stuffy inertia of the way of thinking and living of the Baltic German nobility and to live proudly and freely.

Young Baroness Fastrade of the Paduren manor arrives home after a long period of time spent away. Home is exactly what it used to be, abiding by established traditions and an old way of life. Young Baron Dietz of the neighbouring manor entertains himself with parties, hunting, card games, and an affair with Lydia, wife of Baron Dachhausen, finding no lasting satisfaction from anything. He organises entertaining events for the young people in the surrounding manors to shake up their life of dull vegetation. Fastrade unexpectedly shows up at one of those events. Both find themselves hoping that if they stay together, a significant change might occur in their lives. Dietz makes a spontaneous decision to align his life around Fastrade. Their relationship brings together self-sacrificing love and an unbridled energy ...

The works of Mahler and Keyserling are connected through their shared years of life and activity as well as their deep dedication to expressing their perception of the world perfectly in their art. The dramatic passion of Mahler’s music brings deep emotions, passion, and love to the ballet stage.