ThoughtGallery.org > “Till Eulenspiegel:” An Illustrated Lecture by Millicent Hodson

“Till Eulenspiegel:” An Illustrated Lecture by Millicent Hodson

Deutsches Haus at NYU presents an illustrated lecture about “Till Eulenspiegel” by choreographer/dance historian Millicent Hodson. Her talk will feature stills from the original 1916 Ballets Russes production as well as stills and video from the reconstruction of “Till Eulenspiegel” that Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer created at the Paris Opera in the mid-1990s and again at the Rome Opera in 2001.

Among the Ballets Russes reconstructions Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer have staged, “Till Eulenspiegel” is the only one that was originally created in the U.S. The ballet was based on “Till Eulenspiegel,” the tone poem from 1895 which Richard Strauss agreed for Vaslav Nijinsky to choreograph. Nijinsky had been under house arrest in Budapest since the beginning of World War I, but Otto Kahn of the Metropolitan Opera and others worked to free Nijinsky to lead a U.S. tour of the Ballets Russes. Before leaving Europe, Nijinsky met with Strauss who offered to write more music for “Till Eulenspiegel” as a ballet, but Nijinsky said he had imagined the work exactly as it stood. “Till Eulenspiegel” opened in October 1916 at the Manhattan Opera House on West 34th Street, the Metropolitan Opera’s ballet stage in those years. Nijinsky commissioned the designs from a young off-Broadway artist he had discovered, the now famous dean of American stage design, Robert Edmond Jones. It was a big production based on an episodic solo by Nijinsky as the doomed prankster surrounded by fifty characters in eccentric and vivid medieval costumes. The tragicomic “Till” was Nijinsky’s reflection on the Great War, just before its end. The ballet had 15 curtain calls in Manhattan and toured in triumph to some twenty cities in the U.S. However, Sergei Diaghilev and his coterie in Paris declared it a failure as Nijinsky was out of favor in the Ballets Russes. Only recent writing on the subject contradicts the fabricated verdict against Nijinsky’s “Till Eulenspiegel,” despite massive evidence to the contrary, some of which Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer have published.

Events at Deutsches Haus are free and open to the public. If you would like to attend this event, please send an email to [email protected]. As space at Deutsches Haus is limited, please arrive ten minutes prior to the event to ensure you get a good seat. Thank you!











When: Mon., Apr. 30, 2018 at 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Where: Deutsches Haus at NYU
42 Washington Mews
212-998-8660
Price: Free
Buy tickets/get more info now
See other events in these categories:

Deutsches Haus at NYU presents an illustrated lecture about “Till Eulenspiegel” by choreographer/dance historian Millicent Hodson. Her talk will feature stills from the original 1916 Ballets Russes production as well as stills and video from the reconstruction of “Till Eulenspiegel” that Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer created at the Paris Opera in the mid-1990s and again at the Rome Opera in 2001.

Among the Ballets Russes reconstructions Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer have staged, “Till Eulenspiegel” is the only one that was originally created in the U.S. The ballet was based on “Till Eulenspiegel,” the tone poem from 1895 which Richard Strauss agreed for Vaslav Nijinsky to choreograph. Nijinsky had been under house arrest in Budapest since the beginning of World War I, but Otto Kahn of the Metropolitan Opera and others worked to free Nijinsky to lead a U.S. tour of the Ballets Russes. Before leaving Europe, Nijinsky met with Strauss who offered to write more music for “Till Eulenspiegel” as a ballet, but Nijinsky said he had imagined the work exactly as it stood. “Till Eulenspiegel” opened in October 1916 at the Manhattan Opera House on West 34th Street, the Metropolitan Opera’s ballet stage in those years. Nijinsky commissioned the designs from a young off-Broadway artist he had discovered, the now famous dean of American stage design, Robert Edmond Jones. It was a big production based on an episodic solo by Nijinsky as the doomed prankster surrounded by fifty characters in eccentric and vivid medieval costumes. The tragicomic “Till” was Nijinsky’s reflection on the Great War, just before its end. The ballet had 15 curtain calls in Manhattan and toured in triumph to some twenty cities in the U.S. However, Sergei Diaghilev and his coterie in Paris declared it a failure as Nijinsky was out of favor in the Ballets Russes. Only recent writing on the subject contradicts the fabricated verdict against Nijinsky’s “Till Eulenspiegel,” despite massive evidence to the contrary, some of which Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer have published.

Events at Deutsches Haus are free and open to the public. If you would like to attend this event, please send an email to [email protected]. As space at Deutsches Haus is limited, please arrive ten minutes prior to the event to ensure you get a good seat. Thank you!

Buy tickets/get more info now