3 ½ Stars 

Reviewed by: Darren Paul (Edmonton Correspondent - Canada)

Full of visual spectacle and superb athleticism, Mozart's Requiem dazzles but doesn't deliver the whole package. The evening of entertainment is composed of three distinct performances. First, Angela Welch sings Mozart's Exultate Jubilate, followed by Alberta Ballet's dance to Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, Opus 102. Following the intermission is the big show, Mozart's Requiem.  

Exultate Jubilate fell flat as a performance. Alone in a spotlight on a bare stage Welch sang beautifully but failed to engage the audience as a storyteller. Shostakovich's Piano Concerto, also performed on a bare stage was much more effective. The Alberta Ballet ensemble in black and red took to the stage in solos, duos, and groups, and danced with a sensual heat. The complexity of the music seemingly pushed the dancers into the air and had them throwing their bodies at each other desperate for connection. For its ability to invoke an emotional response, this was the highlight of the entire evening. Jonathan Ollivier and Galien Johnston's duo stood out especially.

At the rising of the curtain for Requiem the avatar of Mozart himself appears on a pedestal in front of a two-story building containing the Richard Eaton Singers, The Edmonton Opera Chorus, and the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus. Around Mozart the Alberta Ballet ensemble lives a grotesque dance in nude bodysuits. The stage picture suddenly has over one hundred bodies, and Mozart's Requiem begins in earnest.   

Through the show, videos of doves and explosion are cast across a scrim in front of the chorus, tree branches rise and fall, a bright white curtain drops in for a stunning silhouette dance and the four soloists from Edmonton Opera give their pristine voices to the space. The story of the show is a series of vignettes where three death characters take their toll on soldiers, mothers, and lovers. All the while Yukichi Hattori as Mozart looks on, his feet stuck in the pedestal allowing him to thrash about conducting and composing as if buffeted by the wind. Scenes featuring Muslim women clad in burqas, modern soldiers, and even a video of a building collapsing into rubble place the Requiem Mass distinctly in the present day.

Still, at the closing of a piece of music renowned for its emotional punch I wondered why I as an audience member felt disconnected. Alberta Ballet's artistic director, Jean Grand-Maître mentions in his notes a reluctance to choreograph a ballet to a piece of music already so transcendent, but that the idea of a dance-concert as opposed to a pure ballet appealed to him. The music in this production did take a back seat to the visual aspect though. With the orchestra hidden away in the pit, and the chorus behind a scrim, the sounds of Mozart's Requiem did not resonate out into the space and served as a score for dancing rather than the main attraction status it deserves.

Visually the show is a stunning accomplishment, but the vignette style of story telling doesn't leave enough time to grow attached to any one character and leaves the audience as casual observers. For a show of skill and athleticism, Requiem soars, but at cutting under the audience's skin, this collaborative production tends towards dull. 

Alberta Ballet: www.albertaballet.com
Edmonton Opera: www.edmontonopera.com