Pierrot Lunaire

Photo: Cees van Gelderen
On this photo: Michael Tipton

Choreographer: Glen Tetley

The story of the battle between the white clown of innocence and his counterpart, the dark clown, originated in the antiquity of the Roman theatre. Pierrot and Brighella are their lineal descendants and the Columbine their eternal female pawn. In the Commedia dell’arte, Pierrot was called the poet of acrobats. In the 20th century, with the music of Arnold Schönberg, Pierrot became the inner man. As opposed to Igor Stravinsky’s Petrushka, who is objective, muscular and extrovert, Pierrot Lunaire is a dreamer and a poet, a wistful and human clown, prey to the moods that swing swiftly from ecstasy to hysteria, ever victim of the conflict between the real and the ideal.