Ballett

Hans van Manen, William Forsythe, George Balanchine

Shifting Symmetries

Thursday 16. January 2025 19:00 – 21:30 2 Intermissions Main Stage
Werkeinführung
30 Minuten vor der Vorstellung
im Gustav Mahler-Saal
Area 1 165 €
Area 1

165 €

Area 2 125 €
Area 2

125 €

Area 3 105 €
Area 3

105 €

Area 4 77 €
Area 4

77 €

Area 5 60 €
Area 5

60 €

Area 6 39 €
Area 6

39 €

Area 7 25 €
Area 7

25 €

Area 8 12 €
Area 8

12 €

Area 9 12 €
Area 9

12 €

Standing room
Standing room

Ö1 U27
Subscription 19

Ticket information

Season 2024/2025

Choose a day of the week and your favorite seats and enjoy five performances in one season.

The following performances are included in this subscription:

07. November 2024: BILLY BUDD
19. December 2024: LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN
16. January 2025: BALLET: SHIFTING SYMMETRIES
13. March 2025: DON CARLO
10. April 2025: SALOME


Cast at
16. January 2025

Concertante

Concertante

Musikalische Leitung

Musik

Frank Martin

Choreographie

Bühne & Kostüme

Concertante

Einstudierung

In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated

Musik

Thom Willems in Zusammenarbeit mit Leslie Stuck

Choreographie, Bühne, Kostüme & Licht

Technische Umsetzung Bühne & Licht

Einstudierung

Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet

Musikalische Leitung

Musik

Johannes Brahms in der Bearbeitung für Orchester von Arnold Schönberg

Choreographie

Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet

Einstudierung


4 more dates

Shifting Symmetries

Cast at Saturday 11. January 2025

Concertante

Musikalische Leitung

Musik

Frank Martin

Choreographie

Bühne & Kostüme

Einstudierung

In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated

Musik

Thom Willems in Zusammenarbeit mit Leslie Stuck

Choreographie, Bühne, Kostüme & Licht

Technische Umsetzung Bühne & Licht

Einstudierung

Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet

Musikalische Leitung

Musik

Johannes Brahms in der Bearbeitung für Orchester von Arnold Schönberg

Choreographie

Einstudierung

Area 1 165 €
Area 1

165 €

Area 2 125 €
Area 2

125 €

Area 3 105 €
Area 3

105 €

Area 4 77 €
Area 4

77 €

Area 5 60 €
Area 5

60 €

Area 6 39 €
Area 6

39 €

Area 7 25 €
Area 7

25 €

Area 8 12 €
Area 8

12 €

Area 9 12 €
Area 9

12 €

Standing room
Standing room

Ö1 U27   Included in: Ballet Cycle »Modern Classics«
Ballet Cycle »Modern Classics«

Season 2024/2025

Whether in multi-part or narrative ballets - contemporary explorations of dance as an art form offer extraordinary visual experiences. 
Immerse yourself in the wonderful diversity of ballet!

9. December 2024: DORNRÖSCHEN
11. January 2025: SHIFTING SYMMETRIES
4. April 2025: THE MOON WEARS A WHITE SHIRT
5. June 2025: PATHÉTIQUE

Shifting Symmetries

Cast at Tuesday 14. January 2025

Concertante

Musikalische Leitung

Musik

Frank Martin

Choreographie

Bühne & Kostüme

Einstudierung

In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated

Musik

Thom Willems in Zusammenarbeit mit Leslie Stuck

Choreographie, Bühne, Kostüme & Licht

Technische Umsetzung Bühne & Licht

Einstudierung

Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet

Musikalische Leitung

Musik

Johannes Brahms in der Bearbeitung für Orchester von Arnold Schönberg

Choreographie

Einstudierung

Area 1 165 €
Area 1

165 €

Area 2 125 €
Area 2

125 €

Area 3 105 €
Area 3

105 €

Area 4 77 €
Area 4

77 €

Area 5 60 €
Area 5

60 €

Area 6 39 €
Area 6

39 €

Area 7 25 €
Area 7

25 €

Area 8 12 €
Area 8

12 €

Area 9 12 €
Area 9

12 €

Standing room
Standing room

BT-Card Ö1 U27   Included in: Subscription 3
Subscription 3

Season 2024/2025

Choose a day of the week and your favorite seats and enjoy five performances in one season.

The following performances are included in this subscription:

22. October 2024: FIN DE PARTIE
14. January 2025: BALLET: SHIFTING SYMMETRIES
11. Febuary 2025: IL TROVATORE
22. April 2025: ARABELLA
03. June 2025: CARMEN

Shifting Symmetries

Cast at Saturday 18. January 2025

Concertante

Musikalische Leitung

Musik

Frank Martin

Choreographie

Bühne & Kostüme

Einstudierung

In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated

Musik

Thom Willems in Zusammenarbeit mit Leslie Stuck

Choreographie, Bühne, Kostüme & Licht

Technische Umsetzung Bühne & Licht

Einstudierung

Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet

Musikalische Leitung

Musik

Johannes Brahms in der Bearbeitung für Orchester von Arnold Schönberg

Choreographie

Einstudierung

Area 1 165 €
Area 1

165 €

Area 2 125 €
Area 2

125 €

Area 3 105 €
Area 3

105 €

Area 4 77 €
Area 4

77 €

Area 5 60 €
Area 5

60 €

Area 6 39 €
Area 6

39 €

Area 7 25 €
Area 7

25 €

Area 8 12 €
Area 8

12 €

Area 9 12 €
Area 9

12 €

Standing room
Standing room

Ö1 U27  
Shifting Symmetries

Cast at Thursday 23. January 2025

Concertante

Musikalische Leitung

Musik

Frank Martin

Choreographie

Bühne & Kostüme

Einstudierung

In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated

Musik

Thom Willems in Zusammenarbeit mit Leslie Stuck

Choreographie, Bühne, Kostüme & Licht

Technische Umsetzung Bühne & Licht

Einstudierung

Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet

Musikalische Leitung

Musik

Johannes Brahms in der Bearbeitung für Orchester von Arnold Schönberg

Choreographie

Einstudierung

Area 1 165 €
Area 1

165 €

Area 2 125 €
Area 2

125 €

Area 3 105 €
Area 3

105 €

Area 4 77 €
Area 4

77 €

Area 5 60 €
Area 5

60 €

Area 6 39 €
Area 6

39 €

Area 7 25 €
Area 7

25 €

Area 8 12 €
Area 8

12 €

Area 9 12 €
Area 9

12 €

Standing room
Standing room

Ö1 U27   Included in: Subscription 20
Subscription 20

Season 2024/2025

Choose a day of the week and your favorite seats and enjoy five performances in one season.

The following performances are included in this subscription:

03. October 2024: DON CARLO
28. November 2024: IL RITORNO D’ULISSE IN PATRIA
23. January 2025: BALLET: SHIFTING SYMMETRIES
17. April 2025: PARSIFAL
12. June 2025: DER ROSENKAVALIER

About the production

Three masters, three captivating ballets! 

In Concertante Hans van Manen shows snapshots, sometimes cheerful, sometimes full of sizzling eroticism, sometimes full of aggression, always full of surprises and yet following an inner logic. With In The Middle, Somewhat Elevated William Forsythe brings classical ballet into the present with eccentric coolness and breathtaking virtuosity. George Balanchine’s dazzlingly festive ensemble work Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet is a highly musical, fascinatingly neo-classical ballet in the spirit of Marius Petipa. 

Concertante 22 MIN.
Intermission 25 MIN.
In the middle, somewhat elevated 27 MIN.
Intermission 25 MIN.
Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet 45 MIN.

Hans van Manen created Concertante in 1994 for Nederlands Dans Theater 2 to Frank Martin’s Petite Symphonie Concertante – music whose wealth of expression, dynamic rhythms and forceful character inspired him to choreograph a ballet in which eight dancers become momentarily attached to and detached from each other again like the pieces of a puzzle; at times joyfully, at times bristling with eroticism, at times filled with aggression, always full of surprises and yet following their own inner logic. Like a crime drama, complex structures within the space and strictly defined sightlines build an unresolved tension, through which the dance broadens out into an encounter between people of whom Hans van Manen said: “However close to each other you may become, ultimately you never know exactly what someone else is thinking.”

“Originally created for the Paris Opera Ballet, In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated is a theme and variations in the strictest sense”, writes William Forsythe about his work, commissioned by Rudolf Nureyev in 1987 and set to the powerful, stomping electronic sounds of his long-term artistic partner Thom Willems. “Making use of academic virtuosity, it extends and accelerates these traditional figures of classical ballet. By shifting the alignment of positions and the emphasis of transitions, the enchainments begin to tilt obliquely and receive an unexpected drive that makes them appear at odds with their own origins”, says the choreographer. With In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, a work by William Forsythe that fundamentally revolutionised ballet, joins the Viennese repertoire for the first time.

George Balanchine adopted a suggestion from Igor Stravinsky’s assistant Robert Craft to take on the Piano Quartet in G minor op. 25 in the sumptuous orchestral version that Arnold Schönberg arranged from Johannes Brahms’ composition in 1937 and proudly claimed as his “Fifth Symphony” when he was looking for a large-scale work for his new venue – the New York State Theater – in 1964. The Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet eventually received its world premiere in 1966 – not only to celebrate the magnificent proportions of the Lincoln Center stage, but also as a homage to an incomparable company that appeared in a 55-strong ensemble whose different qualities were displayed in four miniature ballets to match the movements of the composition: full of elegance in the Allegro, full of romanticism and lyricism in the two central movements, and exhibiting an intoxicating virtuosity in the »alla Zingarese« finale with its elements of folk dance. Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet is not one of Balanchine’s experimental works: it is a thrilling celebration of dance and the orchestra, suffused with echoes of a grand Austro-Hungarian musical tradition that is heard through Brahms and Schönberg as well as reminders of the marvelous divertissements of Marius Petipa, where the roots of Balanchine’s neoclassicism originated.

“Choreography is a language. It is like an alphabet, and you do not need to spell words that you already know. The meaning of a language is determined by the context in which it appears. The most important is how you speak this language, and not what you say.” What William Forsythe says here about choreography articulates a view of dance that applies not only to his own works, but is equally valid for artists such as Hans van Manen and George Balanchine. The American presents himself along with them in the premiere of the Vienna State Ballet’s Shifting Symmetries – a triple bill of three master works linked by the common factor that their creators have each confronted ballet as an art from in a way that is both rigorous and thrilling.

Impressions of the Choreographies

© Wiener Staatsballett/Ashley Taylor
© Wiener Staatsballett/Ashley Taylor, Balanchine Trust
© Wiener Staatsballett/Ashley Taylor
© Wiener Staatsballett/Ashley Taylor, Balanchine Trust
© Wiener Staatsballett/Ashley Taylor, Balanchine Trust
© Wiener Staatsballett/Ashley Taylor
© Wiener Staatsballett/Ashley Taylor, Balanchine Trust

FAQ

Tickets for our standing room can be purchased online or at the Bundestheater box office from 10 am on the day of the performance. BundestheaterCard holders can book standing room tickets online the day before the performance.

In addition, a fixed contingent of standing room tickets is available for regular evening performances from 80 minutes before the start of the performance at our standing room box office (Operngasse entrance).

Our operas are sung in the original languages - these vary depending on the work.

At each seat, subtitles in different languages can be switched on or off via a separate subtitle screen. In addition to the original language of the opera, you can choose from up to eight languages: German, English, Italian, French, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin).

In the event of a change of performance, you can of course return or exchange your tickets.

As changes to the cast cannot be ruled out due to illnesses or other hindrances of artists, there is no entitlement to a refund of the ticket price or exchange in this case.

Tickets cannot be returned or exchanged if you are not admitted to the auditorium due to being late (even after the interval).

About Your Visit

Cloakroom

The cloakrooms are located next the the entrances at the Operngasse. You can find additional cloakrooms on the left and right side of the balcony and the gallery and in the boxes. All cloakrooms are free of charge.

Be on Time

We kindly ask you to arrive on time for the performances. Latecomers can only be admitted during the intermission. After the intermission, re-entry will not be possible.

Food and Drink

Our gastronomy opens at the same time entry is permitted. You can enjoy some snacks and drinks before the performance starts or you can book a table for the break.

Practical Information

You can find more practical information regarding your visit (e.g. Dresscode, barrier-free-access, …) here.

 

Discounts, Subscriptions, Cycles

Discounts

The Vienna State Opera offers the following discounts:

  • Under 27
  • Children- & Youth-Tickets
  • BundestheaterCard
  • Ballett-Bonus
  • Ö1-Club
  • Culture Pass »Hunger auf Kunst und Kultur«
  • Disability ID
More info

Subscriptions

Choose a week-day and your favorite seat and enjoy five performances.

  • 4x Opera, 1x Ballet
  • spread out over the whole season
  • up to 30 % discount compared to the regular ticket price
More info

Cycles

Buy multiple performances as a package!

  • big selection of different cycles
  • bundled together by composers, artists or topics
  • spread out over the whole season
  • up to 10 % discount compared to the regular ticket price
More info