About the Performance
We are alive and dead at the same time.
Admeto's classical Greek world is re-imagined as the world of the Japanese samurai, very formal, with a strict hierarchy and many rules.
If you go to hell you probably don't come back the same person. As Alceste returns from Hades to the world of the living, by her side is her spirit-ghost, played by the famous Butoh dancer Tadashi Endo. He interprets her conflicting emotions of love, jealousy and rage until the very end when Alceste is reunited with Admeto and they leave to live happily ever after. The spirit-ghost reminds us in a last dance that we are always accompanied by our shadow from Hades.
Butoh is the Japanese dance of shadows, the dance of the dead dreaming of the living.
Award winning film maker, producer and author Doris Dörrie creates a new production for the International Handel Festival in Göttingen, Germany. The production comes direct to the Edinburgh International Festival for its first performances after the June premiere.
Conductor Nicholas McGegan is Artistic Director of the Göttingen International Handel Festival which is dedicated to rediscovering and reviving works by Handel.
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Supported by Edinburgh International Festival Benefactors, Patrons and Friends with additional support from the Director's Circle