Angelin Preljocaj's Winterreise at La Scala: A Grounded Journey

Angelin Preljocaj choreographed Franz Schubert's Winterreise for thirteen dancers of La Scala Ballet in Milan, premiering in 2019. The work is deliberately literal, avoiding metaphor and instead illustrating Wilhelm Müller's texts and Schubert's music. Preljocaj strips Schubert from romantic clichés, emphasizing earthly, physical experience. The choreography is intense but never abstract, with illustrations like a postcard in Die Post and red neon signs in Der Wegweiser. Preljocaj connects Schubert's homosexuality and death from syphilis to contemporary AIDS stigma, advocating against metaphor. The performance featured pianist James Vaughan and bass-baritone Thomas Tatzl in his La Scala debut. Ensemble pieces succeed, with soloists Christian Fagetti and Alessandra Vassallo standing out. The final gesture—a handful of earth burying corpses—reinforces the absence of transcendence. Critic Stefano Tomassini notes the choreography is effective but not original, and the staging is sometimes distracting.