When Sergey Akhunov’s Prayer for Peace sounds at the end, it feels as if a sigh of relief goes through the room. We hold on to that glimmer of hope that we all have. Although the oppressive feeling that Song of the Dark Forest evokes sometimes makes us believe otherwise.
It was just after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in the spring of 2022, that Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Opera2day and the DoelenEnsemble started the process of creating a timeless requiem about war. A danced and sung requiem in which no fewer than five makers – Maria Chiara de Nobili and Alexander Miller (Miller de Nobili), Diego Sinniger de Salas and Zani and Emma Roberto Doveri (YoY Performing Arts) – had a say under the supervision of director Serge van Veggel .
A challenge for the artistic director of Opera2day, because just try to get so many voices right without compromising everyone’s own uniqueness. “Coming from different language areas and disciplines, we sometimes needed a lot of words and creation sessions to understand each other. But it always turned out that we were looking for the same thing, because we felt connected about the soul of the performance,” says director Van Veggel.
The soul of the performance has certainly taken shape clearly Song of the dark forest that opens with an image we all know from television: an endless stream of people on the run. That hits you hard and the music certainly contributes to that.
It is mainly music by Russian composers – played with enthusiasm by the DoelenEnsemble – that carries the performance, in which the Ukrainian bass-baritone Andrii Ganchuk cannot avoid expressing his own emotions. The intensity with which he included the song The Antjar tree by Rimsky-Korsakov indicates an even deeper layer Song of the dark forest .
Reality
This is not a performance that you watch from a distance, because both Ganchuk and the dancers of Scapino Ballet, extras and musicians ensure that you become part of a reality that you cannot close your eyes to. The reality that we all loudly say no to, but which we are confronted with again and again: war.
You follow that reality Song of the dark forest the story of a soldier, like any human being, who somewhere between life and death longs for his home that is no longer there. The singing, the dance, in which the different styles of the choreographers naturally come together, and the stage image evoke an oppressive and indefinable feeling. The death of the soldier is ultimately like a dark veil that takes away the light.
Voice of another Russia
And yet there is also a glimmer of hope that, as it were, shimmers softly on a distant horizon. “But the greatest heroic deed is found in patience, in love and prayer,” Ganchuk sings toward the end. Lines from the song Act of valor by Tchaikovsky, after which an excerpt is played from Prayer for peace . Sergey Akhunov wrote this adagio in March 2022 as a silent protest against the war and asked Maarten van Veen, artistic director of the DoelenEnsemble, to play it.
Van Veen added the music of Akhunov, who was born in Ukraine but lives in Russia and wants to be the voice of another Russia, to the music choice for Song of the dark forest by Van Veggel. The adagio shows exactly what everyone feels deep inside and which also forms the soul of this performance: hope. This becomes even more palpable when the stream of refugees passes by again at the end, but they then return home with their heads held high. Song of the dark forest is a danced requiem that touches the heart and that will hopefully one day no longer be timeless.
Performances
Song of the dark forest – 16/11 Drachten, De Lawei; 22/11 Assen, DNK; 1/2 Zwolle, De Spiegel; 2/2 Groningen, Stadsschouwburg; 15/2 Leeuwarden, De Harmonie; 18/2 Emmen, Atlas Theater.
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