Akris Creative Director Albert Kriemler has crafted stunning dresses and suits for the dancers of John Neumeier’s Epilogue, which premiered on June 30, 2024, at the Hamburg State Opera by the Hamburg Ballet.
Epilogue marks a significant milestone as John Neumeier bids farewell to the Hamburg Ballet after 51 years as its director and chief choreographer. This intimate piece is inspired by chamber music, featuring compositions by Richard Strauss, Franz Schubert, and Simon & Garfunkel. Neumeier, along with his ensemble, developed a ballet characterized by subtle tones and movements, which Kriemler masterfully translated into costumes.
Kriemler’s designs encapsulate the essence of the musical compositions. For Richard Strauss’s “Frühling” from Die Vier letzten Lieder, Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian dons an asymmetrical red techno-mesh dress, embodying the joy of life. Dancers in flowing, lemon and butter-yellow crêpe georgette pants reflect the exhilaration of light. For “September,” Kriemler designed a shirt and silk georgette skirt in a soft stone-blue, capturing the simultaneous abundance of summer and onset of darkness.
The costumes for Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” reflect the loneliness of modern society, with greige men’s suits inspired by 1940s Film Noir. The poetry of Franz Schubert’s piano sonatas is represented through a light, structured net dress in chai for the first soloist Ida Praetorius.
Kriemler also drew inspiration from the stage set, referencing Italian Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca. His sensitivity to color and sublime pastels are evident in tourmaline-green-blue organza dresses for the dancers. A dusky beige-grey painting by della Francesca inspired a rust-red cotton stretch top and charcoal jeans ensemble, featuring beige-grey base threads.
John Neumeier praises Kriemler’s work, saying, “In all our projects, Albert didn’t really create ‘costumes’, but rather clothes for dancers. This humanization of the theatrical wardrobe represents my desire not to see dancers on stage but first and foremost people who dance.”
This production is the final collaboration between Neumeier and Kriemler for the Hamburg Ballet, marking nearly 20 years of creative partnership. Their previous works include Beethoven Project II (2021), Turangalîla (2016), Josephs Legende/Verklungene Feste in Hamburg (2008) and Vienna (2015), and the Vienna State Opera Ballet for the New Year’s Concert (2006). Kriemler also designed costumes for Anna Laudere as Anna Karenina, co-produced with the Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow, and the National Ballet of Canada, Toronto (2017).
Albert Kriemler reflects on their collaboration: “With John, every get-together is a move forward, an evolution of things. For me it remains fascinating to design modern clothes for dancers with the utmost functionality to move. To see them in real clothes – not costumes. My passion is that “Epilogue” gets the sleek timelessness of here and now that I live in all my designs.”
Adore Akris, this is simply gorgeous!
Albert Kriemler is insanely underrated! I am a long time follower of Akris, the quality is beyond. And love when i see them investing in art in this way!