Scirocco
Death in Venice –
Bridge of Sighs

WINNDance, in collaboration with BOSS as costume designer, presents the dance evening Scirocco, which brings together two chapters in dialogue: Death in Venice and Bridge of Sighs.

The German Nobel Prize laureate Thomas Mann sets his novella Death in Venice in the city that is home to one of its most iconic landmarks: the Bridge of Sighs. In summer, the oppressive heat of the Scirocco, a wind rising from the Sahara, moves through Venice’s narrow streets. It carries the taste of dust and salt, laying a warm veil over skin and thought. One senses it in the pulse of the blood, in a subtle irritability, in a longing without a name. As an inner landscape and source of creative impulse, the Scirocco shapes the emotional atmosphere of the evening.

The chapter Death in Venice draws on the central themes and motifs of Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella. At its core stands the ageing writer Gustav von Aschenbach, who spends a summer in Venice and finds himself confronted with an existential crisis. The dance work stages an imagined inner dialogue between Thomas Mann and his protagonist. Together, they revisit that fateful stay, during which an unrelenting internal tension unfolds – a feverish obsession that gradually dissolves Aschenbach’s carefully ordered self. The films by Javier De Frutos provide the narrative framework, while the choreographers Imre and Marne van Opstal, Omar Román De Jesús, and Rainer Behr translate the inner conflict of identity – as a condensed expression of Thomas Mann’s emotional ambivalence – into a physically tangible movement language.

John Neumeier’s choreography Bridge of Sighs draws inspiration from several sources: the history of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, a striking quotation about love by the philosopher Augustine of Hippo, and the dark mystery of Dmitri Shostakovich’s music. The Bridge of Sighs – a bridge that leads only one way – evokes countless images: the final glimpse of a beloved city, the farewell of a lover, the aching longing for an irretrievable past, and absence felt as intense presence. The dancers echo these images through choreography that creates an emotional landscape at the crossroads of past and present.

The costume design by BOSS becomes an essential part of the evening’s artistic language. With its distinctive design language and aesthetic tradition, the costumes move through the chapters as a continuous visual thread, giving each work its own presence while shaping the atmosphere of the evening.

Cast / Creative Team

Overall Concept: Slava Tutukin, Marijn Rademaker, Ira Goldbecher

Choreography Death in Venice: Imre & Marne van Opstal, Omar Román De Jesús, Rainer Behr

Concept and Choreography Bridge of Sighs: John Neumeier

Costume Design and Production: BOSS

Light Design: Konstantin Binkin, John Neumeier

Films:
Director and Choreographer: Javier De Frutos
Director of Photography: Dan Löwenstein
Narrator and other characters: Paul Chantry
Voice Actor: Charles Hagerty
Original Screenplay: Javier De Frutos (after Thomas Mann)
Sound Editor: Rae Piper

Dramaturgy: Ira Goldbecher

Choreographic Assistants: Ivan Urban, Rachel Secrest, Mikaela Kelly

Music Assistant: Desheng Chen

Music Death in Venice: Ricardo Villalobos / Max Loderbauer / Mohammad Reza Mortazavi / Boxhead Ensemble, Jesse Scheinin / Floex and Tom Hodge / Hildur Guðnadóttir

Music Bridge of Sighs: String Quartet No. 13 in B flat minor, Op. 138 by Dmitri Shostakovich (Arr. By A.Tchaikovsky for Viola and Orchestra), Falling in Love Again by Friedrich Hollaender September Song by Kurt Weill, sung by Bryan Ferry

Dancers: Silvia Azzoni, Kayoko Everhart, Mara Galeazzi, Silas Henriksen, Alexander Jones, Igone de Jongh, Nora Kimball, Marijn Rademaker, Oleksandr Ryabko, Gil Roman, Polina Semionova, Giulia Tonelli, Ivan Urban, Diana Vishneva
(The performance cast consists of 9 dancers)

Co-producers: La Biennale di Venezia, Monaco Dance Forum, Theater Bonn, Amare, BOSS, The John Cranko Estate, Hamburg Ballett

Sponsors and Patrons: Bayer AG, Reid Anderson-Graefe, John Neumeier, Matthijs Bongertman, Siegersbusch Film, Marc Pos Art