About the work
"Der Liebhaber" ("The Lover") is a ballet by Marco Goecke, freely based on the autobiographically grounded novel "L'Amant" ("The Lover", 1984) by Marguerite Duras. It premiered on 5 June 2021 at the Staatsballett Hannover (initially online due to the pandemic); in 2027 the Staatsballett Berlin presents the work. Goecke translates Duras's story into his unmistakable movement language of rapid, fluttering gestures and minimalist aesthetics. The music combines works by Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Frédéric Chopin and others.
Plot
Duras's novel recounts, in fragmentary, semi-autobiographical images, the encounter of a fifteen-year-old French girl with a much older Chinese lover in colonial Indochina (present-day Vietnam). Goecke's ballet condenses this remembered narrative into a web of desire, shame and longing. Instead of a linear plot, shimmering, highly emotional dance images emerge, telling of forbidden love, colonial power asymmetry and family conflict – carried by the nervous, tender energy that distinguishes Goecke's choreography.
Cultural significance
Marco Goecke is among the most idiosyncratic and instantly recognisable choreographers of the present; his movement language, built from rapid arm and hand gestures, holds a firm place in the international ballet repertoire. "Der Liebhaber" combines this signature with a literary subject of world rank and makes Duras's exploration of memory, eros and colonial experience tangible through dance. Its entry into the repertoire of the Staatsballett Berlin underlines the work's standing.