Ce que l’amour me dit
Choreography and stage direction: Maurice Béjart
Music : Gustav Mahler (3rd Symphony: 4th, 5th & 6th movements)
Costumes : Judit Gombar
Created at : Monte Carlo Opera House, Monaco, 24 December 1974
It is around 1895 that Mahler composed his brilliant Third Symphony. At the time, he was much inspired by Nietzsche’s ideas and works, and this was very clear in his music.
Although never a fan of “labeled” music, Mahler fancied literary titles to his works. He first named this Symphony The Gay Science, after Nietzsche’s book, before renaming it A Midsummer’s Day Dream.
The same is true for each movement of the symphony, with names that he frequently changed before reaching a definitive version. This ballet uses the three last movements: the 4th, What Man tells me, is sung on a poem of Zarathustra. The 5th, What the Angels tell me, is from a children song cycle, the Knaben Wunderhorn. And the last movement, the great Adagio that tops the symphony was named by the composer: What love tells me.
Strange as it may seem, at the same time Richard Strauss was composing his symphonic poem
Also sprach Zarathustra.
Maurice Béjart, 1974
