Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci 2024

»Dance« | 7-23 June

From the dance of the Renaissance to folk, tango and techno

Music and movement - the two have been inseparable since the dawn of humanity. Dance structures and accompanies all areas of human life: it makes cultic festivals and rites comprehensible, organizes social interaction and reflects social hierarchies. However, the most important role of dance is and remains the experience of community and, of course, the spontaneous expression of joie de vivre.

The Potsdam Sanssouci Music Festival 2024 is dedicated to these different facets of dance, from the Renaissance court ball or the Strasbourg dancing mania of 1518 to Igor Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps", 20th century tango and flamenco and a techno choreography from Berlin. At the same time, we follow the trail of different dance rhythms through history, swapping the Old World for South America, traveling from the Golden Age of Spain to the Paris of 1913.

The festival begins with a visit to the brief heyday of the Berlin court ballet from 1742-47. Carl Heinrich Graun's opera "Adriano in Siria" (1746) dates from this period and can now be experienced anew with the Ensemble 1700, led by Dorothee Oberlinger, a rediscovery of the music festival in a modern premiere. Embedded in this opera was also the most famous solo scene of the dancer Barberina, which is reinterpreted in this production.

This is accompanied by a congenial creation by Molière and Jean Baptiste Lully: the comédie-ballet "Le Mariage forcé", an exuberant mixture of drama, dance and music from 1664, in which Louis XIV himself once danced. With this production, the music festival bids farewell to the palace theater at the New Palace for several years, where the craftsmen will once again temporarily take the reins.

When it comes to the theme of dancing, ensembles of early music embrace the opportunity to appear. Among this summer's guests, the Cappella Mediterranea, led by Leonardo García Alarcón stands out - as Ensemble in Residence, it presents itself in three very different concert ideas and formats. Also taking part are the Barokksolistene and Bjarte Eike, Ensemble Zefiro and Alfredo Bernardini, Doulce Mémoire and Denis Raisin Dadre, Holland Baroque with Judith and Tineke Steenbrink, to name but a few. On the opera stage, Valer Sabadus, Bruno de Sá and Roberta Mameli, among others, shine at least as brightly as Barberina's star once did. Andreas Staier on the harpsichord, Chouchane Siranossian and Théotime Langlois de Swarte on the violin and Enrique Solinís on the baroque guitar, among others, show that it is also possible to dance instrumentally. Not to mention the Two4Piano piano duo, which masters ballet scores in pairs. And Reinhard Goebel remembers the recordings of the film music for Gérard Corbiau's classic "The King Dances" for us.

And of course, dear festival guests, you are invited to dance along with us several times this year on the historic grounds of the palaces and gardens of Potsdam Sanssouci - as a spontaneous expression of joie de vivre!