Sweet Dreams

An apple is the traditional symbol of temptation and guilt, 
degrading the act of love to a sinful event. How dare 
anyone put such a deadly token into the cradle of a new 
born child. And yet it has become a cornerstone in the 
preaching of our nearly 2000 years of Christianity. And it 
is left to us to identify or to distance ourselves from this 
pre-conceived burden.

“Sweet Dreams” takes an ironic look at the complex world 
of human sub consciousness. This world of secret dreams, 
aggressions and desires is realized in a work, which may be 
described as a choreographic collage of absurd aphoristic 
scenes. Yet these scenes are interconnected by their own 
inner logic, giving us the feeling that we stand beyond the 
point of our ability to influence them. They have a life and 
rules of their own. Six pieces for orchestra by Webern, 
which fall into the time span of great depression of the 
composer, caused by the death of his mother, is a work of 
overwhelming integrity and seriousness. And yet it is this 
time of the deepest tragedy, which sparks a flash of bizarre 
humor. These are the black clouds which create the wonder 
of lightning and make us realize how thin the wall between 
despair and laughter is. Under extreme conditions, these 
opposing worlds even seemidentical and make us wonder 
where the scale of sanity begins or ends.

	
	
This work with its music of contradicting statements, 
strange choreographic scenes, emotional grimace and 
visual distortion is inspired by the work of Franz Kafka 
whose world of mystery and ambiguity, his deadly 
humor and his constant questioning of our moral codes, 
has had a decisive influence on my spirituality and my
(mis)understanding of the world.

                    Jiří Kylián