Lera Auerbach’s The Little Mermaid is Staged at Houston Ballet
The Little Mermaid—featuring music by Lera Auerbach and choreography by John Neumeier—receives its Houston Ballet debut in September.
Lera Auerbach’s ballet score The Little Mermaid is given its company debut at the Houston Ballet on September 6-15. With choreography, libretto, sets, and costumes conceived by renowned choreographer John Neumeier, The Little Mermaid follows the harrowing journey of the beloved mermaid heroine, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s classic 1837 fairytale.
Following the 2023 production by the Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Sun-Times writes: “This ballet could not exist without the rich, deeply expressive score by Lera Auerbach, a Soviet-born Austrian American composer who shows herself to be every bit a successor in this realm to Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev.”
“We first met through music,” says Auerbach on meeting Neumeier in 2002. “John heard my violin preludes, performed by Vadim Gluzman and that was the time when he decided to choreograph a ballet based on my 24 violin preludes.”
Shortly after, Neumeier approached Auerbach to write The Little Mermaid for the Royal Danish Ballet in 2005, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen. This was followed by a revised version for the Hamburg Ballet in 2007, where Neumeier was Director and Chief Choreographer.
The composer describes the collaboration: “When John sent me his libretto he added in the letter, which accompanied it, that I should use this libretto very freely—as source for inspiration and as a suggestion for the structure—so that in return the music can inspire the choreography and vice-versa.”
> Watch an excerpt of The Little Mermaid with the Hamburg Ballet
The score prominently features the theremin—an electronic instrument played without physical contact—which depicts the mermaid’s underwater persona, juxtaposed with a solo violin that represents the heroine as a human.
> Watch Auerbach discuss her use of the theremin in The Little Mermaid
“The composer uses other techniques to depict the sea,” says Music Director Scott Speck in an interview with the Joffrey Ballet. “For example, unsynchronized musical lines, where two instruments play the same melody, but they are rhythmically slightly askew, creating a blurry effect. And she makes use of glissandos, sliding between notes.”
This season sees three orchestral premieres for Auerbach across the globe, including Labyrinth with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and Joana Mallwitz (Feb 14); Adam’s Lament with the Bremer Philharmoniker and Valentin Uryupin (May 11-12); and a new work for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck (June 13-15), co-commissioned by the Wiener Symphoniker, who give the European premiere at the Musikverein (June 21-22).
Performance Information
Friday, September 6 at 7pm CDT
Saturday, September 7 at 7:30pm CDT
Sunday, September 8 at 2:00pm CDT
Friday, September 13 at 7:30pm CDT
Saturday, September 14 at 1:30pm & 7:30pm CDT
Sunday, September 15 at 2:00pm CDT
Wortham Theater | Houston, TX
More info
LERA AUERBACH The Little Mermaid
> Further information on Work: The Little Mermaid (Hamburg version)
Photo: Raniero Tazzi