About the work
Epilog is a ballet by John Neumeier, premiered on 30 June 2024 by the Hamburg Ballett at the Staatsoper Hamburg. It is the final creation with which Neumeier concluded his 51-year tenure as director and chief choreographer of the Hamburg Ballett — his 173rd work. To music by Franz Schubert, Richard Strauss and Simon & Garfunkel, he created an intimate, chamber-scaled piece with piano and singing on stage.
Plot
Epilog is a rather abstract ballet of quiet tones and subtle movements that leaves much room for one's own associations. It begins with a young dancer emerging from the depths of a tower-like scaffold — an image suggesting a birth canal and the emergence of a new generation. The second part, choreographed to Richard Strauss's "Four Last Songs" (sung by a soprano), seems ethereal, dreamlike and removed. As a résumé of his work, Neumeier looks back and forward at once — toward those dancers who will continue his path.
Cultural significance
With Epilog, the world's longest-serving ballet director concluded an era: for 51 years John Neumeier shaped the Hamburg Ballett and international dance theatre like few others. The work, carried by distinguished guest artists and the original cast of his ensemble, was celebrated as a moving, personal farewell — a quiet, dignified full stop beneath a life's work.