2011 Matsumoto, Japon

Scenography - The Miraculous Mandarin - Saito Kinen Festival

The Miraculous Mandarin is a ballet composed by Béla Bartók between 1918–1924, based on the story by Melchior Lengyel, which premièred in 1926 in the city of Cologne. The plot, which created a scandal upon its premiere, and saw the ballet immediately banned.

The story is underpinned by dramatic currents, and the concepts of Eros and Thanatos, it is a story of darkness. In order to translate the essence of this story into the scenography, the question was asked of how to manifest this darkness physically. To address this, only the boundary of the beginning and end of the space was evident: the whole stage was covered by a thick black carpet which absorbed all light. The main characters on stage become darkness and shadow, alongside sixty black mannequins, moved by fifteen black dancers. Carpet also served for the ceiling design, with 600m2 rolled into cones and suspended from 680 different points.

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The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture skf_tmm_diagram copy
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_02
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_07
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_05
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_08
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_09
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_06
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_10

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Project information

Status
Completed
Location
Matsumoto, Japon
Date
2011
Area
500 m²
Commission type
Private
Client
Festival de Saito Kinen
Program
Ballet scenography

Project team

Architect
Dorell.Ghotmeh.Tane Architects, Paris
Conductor
Ryusuke Numajiri, Tokyo
Choregraphy
Jo Kanamori, Niigata
Lighting
Masakazu Ito (Ryu, Kyoto) / Jo Kanamori
Costume design
Yuichi Nakashima (artbrut), Osaka
Dancers
Noism 1, Noism 2
Orchestra
Saito Kinen Orchestra
Scenography
DGT, Paris
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture skf_tmm_diagram copy
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_02
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_07
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_05
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_08
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_09
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_06
The Miraculous Mandarin - Dance Set Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture JP05_10